Chapter One
"If I'm honest, heights were oddly never my thing. Funny, coming from a girl who grew up practically on the back of an Enderdragon – but heights were never my forte. I suppose it's fitting that my first experience in this world would be falling from a portal and crashing into the ground with nothing to my name except for Saphia and something I would come to wish I had never found." – Entry One
She groans as she comes to, head throbbing. Her limbs feel like they're just waking from a long, icy wave of numbness that stirs in its wake so horrible agony that splits through her left leg, leaving her wanting to howl in pain, even though her voice can't seem to discover her voice box well enough anymore to make but a quiet, breathy cry of anguish. Below her, though, she can feel the hard ground – grass wet with morning dew, tall and tickling against her face as she tries to squirm, only invoking more pain in what must be a damaged limb.
Where is she?
If not for the pain, she would presume herself dead – but as it seems, fortune is not quite so kind.
She forces her eyes open, glaring briefly at the rising sun. It's just high enough that it peeks between the trees, 'greeting' her with its light, but not its warmth. Just beyond her clear sight looks to be a forest, which seems to be starkly different from the meadow it seems she has found her body lain upon (though the terrain around proves that it is no kind slumber that has caused her to wake to the sight).
Before she can shut her eyes to block out the sun, she spots a figure lying next to her, looking to be in equally poor shape, if not mildly worse. Her heart flutters, recognizing the figure immediately.
Saphia, her mind screams, panic flooding her body. Adrenaline fueled now, she picks herself up and crawls over to her friend. Her body is numb now to the pain that should clearly be surging through her leg. The only thing that matters is the brunette lying on the ground, only just beginning to stir with a moan of discomfort.
"Sync…? W-What happened…?" Saphia questions. She attempts to draw herself up, but lies back down, grimacing and shutting her eyes as a pained expression crosses her face.
Sync searches her memory for the occurrence that has clearly thrown them elsewhere, but her own mind is foggy. With a frown, she shakes her head and slowly pulls Saphia up to her feet, allowing the short-haired young woman to throw an arm over her shoulder as they both try to support one another, walking toward the forest in a vain hope to find some form of civilization in this strange place.
"I… I don't know," Sync admits, "We… We were in Herobrine's relic room, and… I don't know."
"Sync—"
Saphia's voice suddenly goes quiet, and Sync's heart knots. From somewhere within the forest – jungle, she now realizes – there are voices. Voices that are gradually becoming louder, and steps that she's beginning to be able to pick up with less effort than strain. Two voices. Male. One louder than the other and more excited, while the other is calmer, yet curious.
"Up here!"
"It's two girls!"
Suddenly, from the jungle appear two men. The taller of the two has dark hair with red highlights, and the shorter has a hat of sorts with gray hair. Sync finds herself staring at the second man, who is only just slightly shorter than his companion. Something about him strikes her as odd, but she brushes the feeling aside when she feels Saphia tense against her body and realizes in horror that the men have come closer – too close.
Sync makes to step back a pace, but with her adrenaline waning, pain causes her to stumble back. Saphia isn't strong enough on her own, especially with her own injuries, to support both of their weight on top of the sudden pull backwards, and so the two once again wind up sprawled on the ground. This time, Sync's voice rings out loud and clear as she hollers in pain, slamming her eyes shut to block out tears as she reaches forward to defend her leg against whatever may come to cause further injury to her.
"Who are you two?" She hears Saphia ask over the footsteps that move hurriedly closer to them both.
"I'm Assh," one of the men say. "This is Etris."
The other man speaks up, voice calm and oddly soothing, "We were exploring the nearby jungle temple when we spotted you both falling. It is not every day we see people falling from the sky."
Saphia offers a breathy laugh. "Well, no," she agrees. "I don't think that would be normal. Where… Where are we…?"
Sync opens her eyes when she feels careful hands moving to nudge hers away from her injured leg. Reluctantly, she obliges, meeting the gray-haired man's odd eyes only briefly before he returns to inspecting her leg. One of his eyes is purple, and the other is gray with golden flecks in various places along the outside of his iris. Once again, she finds herself staring, trying to determine where she might have seen him before, and only finds herself begrudging her mind for its sudden lack of knowledge.
The dark haired man chuckles. "How about we get you two to safety and then we tell you where you are?" He suggests. "I mean, unless you want to risk a creeper popping up, or a skeleton sniping you from within the confines of the jungle. Never know where they may be hiding, and with that leg and that knock to the head, I don't think either of you would be great against either of 'em. But, I mean… be my guest if you wanna try."
Saphia shakes her head quickly, wincing and grasping her skull as soon as she stops. "No, thank you. We'll come."
Frustration fills Sync's mind as she feels a familiar, thrumming warmth begin to flood through her chest. Magic, she knows, that should be far stronger than it is now. Magic she has used so much of her life. She can easily get Saphia and herself somewhere safe. Just have to think of a safe place. A warm house. Somewhere. These men are going to be too slow. It would be so much faster if I were to just…
Sync tears her eyes away from the odd-eyed man and notices that the darker-haired steps toward her, turning his back in a gesture she recognizes to be one of an offered piggy-back ride. The other man steps forward to help her, and Sync reluctantly allows herself to settle against the man's back, resting her head against his shoulder. She's vaguely aware, as Saphia is helped back to her feet, that the world turns a soft shade of purple she knows so well before it quickly turns black, and her consciousness drifts away from her body for the second time, magic having fulfilled its purpose, even as her mind drowsily finishes her thought:
—teleport us…