Hark: Thanks for the point about portals, Chalmira. Hopefully that is explained here. And Giovanna, there will be some more Finnish traditions, beliefs, etc. that all non-Finns can admire/ponder/hate. At least I'm making fun of Nokia (not really a tradition, more like a... company) here... And (an imaginary, but still delicious) gingerbread woman/man/pig/heart (you choose the shape) to anyone who can tell me the name of the movie in which there is a cute Anglo-Indian guy called Tony (read the chapter to understand why I ask this).
Chapter Two: Signalling to space and calling to New York
Mikkeli, Finland
Marko got up, shaking his head. The blow had flown him across the room and he has, luckily enough, landed on his bed, which had creaked quite suspiciously, but hadn't broken, yet. He stared at the machine in the middle of the room, which had stopped whirring and was clicking slowly. As he stared, the clicking stopped and a very strange poinnng-sound told him that something bad was going to happen. The machine exploded, although it wasn't a real explosion, like those in the movies. It just sort of... bursted open, little bits spreading around it on a small circle. Then there was a small pillar of flame, so small that the word "pillar" seemed unnecessary, and then it was silent, except for the sound of Linkin Park played very loudly by his neighbour.
Ok, that hadn't gone as well as it should, but it had went better than the previous tests. Something had happened, maybe he had been able to send some kind of signal. Maybe someone had heard it and was coming. That strange force, he grinned at the word, hadn't been in his imagination, it had been real. Something had happened and now maybe someone was coming.
Marko had seen his first Star Trek episode at the age of eight. He had become an instant fan, collecting all the episodes he could, and starting to watch other science fiction series and movies as well. But unlike most Star Trek, Star Wars, etc, fans, who just memorize the star dates and interesting Jedi mind tricks, he had taken an interest to the universe as a whole, and especially to the universe as a home to many other people besides those inhabiting the planet Earth. He had studied all about the space, carrying huge books home from the library when he was twelve, when most other boys of his age rather just played with sticks, claiming them to be light sabres and making whoosh-sounds, or claiming them to be guns and making bang-sounds, or making their parents buy them toy light sabres and guns. He had begged for his parents to subscribe him a scientific magazine.
And then, as he had grown older and his thirst for knowledge had also grown, he'd found the Internet. And in the Internet, thousands of thoughts, theories and also some pictures of religious buildings and some religious writings. It was amazing how old temples and churches were constructed, like they had been planned to be used as bases for sending signals to the space. And then, two months ago, he'd collected all the important theories, some charts and schemes, and finally combined them with some ideas of his own. Collecting the necessary equipment had been quite easy, and since he'd worked in a hardware store for two years, people there knew his interest to science and building things, and so they hadn't asked him much about the things he was buying, getting an employer discount, of course.
It had taken him a month to build it, and then he'd spent a couple of weeks trying to get the machine to work, testing it again and again, never actually achieving any goals he'd set for himself. The machine would spin, sending the signal, but nothing had happened. Until now. He'd been heard, he was sure of it. The machine had responded to something, made a connection with something. Now all he'd have to do was to finish the smaller version of the machine and turn it on and wait. They would come, he was sure of it now. He'd had a connection with aliens, strangers, whatever you wished to call them, from the space, from another world. They would come, he was sure of it. The big machine had drawn their attention, the little one, sending a lot weaker, but still sufficient signal, would lead them here.
Still in Mikkeli
Anna stopped next to the closer figure, who had managed to sit up. It was male, or so she assumed, with very strange clothes. He looked like he was coming from a costume party. His skin was dark, not the kind of black she usually associated with people said to have black skin, but black as night, black as... really, really black. And he turned to look at her and his eyes were glowing red...
Anna didn't think, this wasn't the time for that, but turned around and rushed towards the door. She'd left it open, but once she was inside she could pull it close and it would lock itself automatically and they wouldn't get in and... A hand snatched hold of her waist, pulling her back. Then it moved to hold her head and she felt a knife on her throat.
"Don't even think about moving," a voice whispered into her ear. "Now, what did you do to us?"
"What, I didn't, I..." Anna tried to stop herself from screaming aloud, which would probably cause the knife to cut her throat, not just press against it. She wasn't crying, which was strange, she'd thought that if there was a goog time to cry, this kind of moment would be it.
"A strange place," another voice said, and the black-skinned man walked to her and looked at her thoughtfully. He didn't attack me, Anna thought. It was the other one, who had been further away and still lying down. The man stared at her with his red eyes and then past her shoulder to the person holding her. "I don't think she did this. She's very young, and scared to death right now."
"If it wasn't you, then who was it?" the man holding her asked, letting go of her. There's no point of threatening me with a knife, Anna thought. I wouldn't get away even if I had a head start. Still she took a few steps so that the both men were in her view. The man who'd been holding the knife on her throat had a light brown skin, which reminded Anna of this Anglo-Indian guy called Tony she had dated two years ago in the summer when she had been working in London as a waitress. And he also had red eyes, like the other man. Infrared, she thought, some part of her brain still operating quite well. They can see in the dark. He had a small goatee, and he was holding a knife (a dagger, really, added the side of her that read fantasy novels) and he was dressed as strangely as the other man. He was lightly built, as was the other man, but they both seemed like they could take down someone bigger with no problem. Warriors, she thought, feeling like she'd slipped into some strange, alternate fantasy world. The black-skinned man was wearing a large, plumed hat, which she'd found amusing in any other situation and... And his ears were pointy. Anna was surprised how many disturbing details she could pick up in such a short time, although the dagger was still the most disturbing one.
"I just saw this flash and I looked out and I saw you and I thought you were hurt and needed help," she said, without much breathing in the middle. And you are hurt, she added in her mind, looking at a scratch on the dagger-holders forehead and the torn sleeve of the other man's coat. She could see that blood was soaking through the fabric. The men glanced at each other.
"What is this place?" the black-skinned (and pointy eared, Anna reminded herself) man asked. "Neverwinter? Luskan?"
"I... This is Mikkeli," Anna said. The men glanced at each other again. Anna wondered whether she should say something, when there was a loud noise. A truck was coming down the street slowly, she could see it from where she was standing. The men turned to look at it, and Anna thought she could almost see the real-life equivalent of jaw dropping open. They're not from around here, she told herself. Then where were they from? Where was a place where some people had pointy ears? Other than the near-by movie theatre, where the last part of The Lord of the Rings would premiere on the 17th? Fantasy world. Oh, gods!
Both of the men spun around to look at her. "I think you'd better tell us where we are, with a bit more detail," the black-skinned man said. "Is there a place we could go?"
Anna stared at them, her eyes kept turning to look at the dagger, and realized there was really nothing for her to do. "Come inside. I live on the third floor. And please, put that dagger away," she added to the other man. "If someone sees it, they'll call the police and you'll be in real trouble." The man looked at her and then put the dagger away. She felt a bit better, although she was still painfully aware of the existence of the dagger and more of the existence of the possibility that it could be on her throat again.
New York, USA
"Why us?" a woman shouted into what could've been a cell phone if Nokia or Ericsson had a bit more imagination, a better grasp of what was actually stylish, and of course technology that was very highly developed and worked partly with magic.
"Because you're there," Andy's voice came through clearly although the distance was... nearly immeasurable. "It's holiday season, we're understaffed and... Please! Pretty please?"
"That's pretty pathetic," the woman said, grinning.
"Well, I'm comfortable with myself and my masculinity, and therefor I'm willing to beg when I need to, thank you very much," Andy said. "Or would you feel better if I threatened you? I really don't want to, and I can't think of a good threat right now."
"I'll have to ask Sonya, but... Do we have to go right away? You said there were only two, so... Can two people really cause that much trouble? They were people, weren't they? Not some strange monsters?"
"People, yes. It was easier to get the information from... Faerun, because it's a magical place, so... You know how it works, don't you? But the world they ended up in, as you probably know since you're there, has no magic, or at least..."
"I know. It has certain amount of background magic, but it's not used. They don't know how to use it."
"Well, someone partly does. Or then they were just lucky. That's probably caused the portal to open there, someone tried to do something."
"Is this scientific speech?" the woman asked. "It would be much more believable without those breaks and somethings, you know."
"The problem is that I don't know yet. The data show some kind of technological signal that attracted the portal to open there. I mean, it might have opened there anyway, but the signal made that possibility very possible. Sorry, I'm doing it again."
"A limited vocabulary is not something to be ashamed of," the woman said. "So some idiot did something and that attracted the portal. When will you have more information?"
"Umm... Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. This has turned out to be a bit complicated. Usually these portal accidents happen between two magical worlds, the last one happening between a magical and non-magical was over two thousand years ago."
"So it'll take some time before you can tell us where to go?" the woman said happily. "And until that we can continue our holiday?"
"Err, well, yes," Andy said. "Of course. But you'll do it?"
"Send us the information when you have it, we'll see that those two get home and nothing bad happens. But now I have to go. You know, we have tickets for The Producers for tonight!"
"Umm, great," said Andy, whose grasp on musicals on Earth wasn't that good. "That's good for you. Enjoy," he added bitterly. "I'll work here without rest and send you more information when I have it."
"Excellent plan," the woman said. "Bye!" she added and pressed the end button. Then she stared at the wall for a moment, trying to think of a best way to tell Sonya. She wouldn't like this at all.
Mikkeli, Finland
Anna was feeling herself very British at the moment, making tea during a difficult situation. But she had been standing outside without proper winter clothing and she didn't want to catch a cold. The two men, Jarlaxle and Entreri, were sitting on her sofa, staring at the television, where an action movie had got to the point where the hero was killing everyone in sight.
"That is shown so that even children can see it?" Jarlaxle asked. Anna almost dropped the bag of tea. She hadn't heard him coming into the kitchen. She turned around and looked at him.
"Sorry if I scared you," he said, smiling. "I know how difficult this situation must be for you."
"Well, I have to admit that not everyday I meet people who first threaten me and then tell me they've been blown here from another world."
"But you believe us anyway?" Jarlaxle asked. Anna nodded. "Well, people with pointy ears are not very common here. Or people with infrared vision," she added. Jarlaxle grinned. He was, Anna hated herself admitting this in this kind of situation, kind of attractive, especially since he was wearing only what she's describe as T-shirt, after cleaning and bandaging the small wound on his arm with a couple of large plasters Anna had in her medicine/miscellaneous cabinet. She knew she was staring, and when she looked at his face she knew that he knew.
"And there really is no magic in this world?" he added, and it sounded more like an amazed comment than an actual question. "At least not the kind we use." That certainly was true. Anna had spent very amusing two minutes watching the two men try out their magical equipment and failing. Her favourite was the portable hole that seemed like an Acme-hole used in Roadrunner cartoons. When Jarlaxle had dropped it on the floor, it had just been there like a black carpet. They hadn't been able to drop downstairs to give a good scare to Mrs. Virtanen and her five cats, which Anna was actually happy about. She liked the old lady, who had advised her of the quickest ways around the town a couple of days after she had moved there. Mrs. Virtanen had lived in Mikkeli almost all her life, she had moved to Tampere because of her husbands job, but after the death of her husband she had returned to her one and only hometown and settled into exactly the same kind of two room apartment that Anna had.
"Yes, it would've been nice if the hole had worked," Jarlaxle said, as if reading her thoughts. "Then again, it might have caused us some trouble when we were thrown here, since it's not a good thing to have two different dimensional portals collide. It could've been pretty nasty."
"Nasty as in splash and red stuff all around?" Anna asked. "You want tea? And your friend?"
"Thank you, tea for both of us," Jarlaxle said. "He's not from a cold climate, so..."
"But used to it by now," Entreri said. He, too, had appeared into the small kitchen without a sound. He had also cleaned the wound on his forehead and chosen, not surprisingly, a normal plaster, not one of the colourful ones with Disney characters that Anna also had found. "But we are grateful for your assistance," he added, glaring at Jarlaxle, who was grinning. Anna felt she was missing some kind of joke, but that wouldn't be the first time in her life.
"So tea for both of you," she said. "Anything to eat? And if you want to sleep, we should open the sofa."
"Open?" Jarlaxle asked.
"Yes, it opens into a bed. I think you'll both fit there," Anna said, but since she was a nice person deep down, she added: "I also have an extra mattress. Then tomorrow we can... You can... We should try to find out what the hell actually happened. I think I should call a couple of people who might be able to help us." Or at least I'd have someone to share this ridiculous situation with me, she added to herself. This kind of thing shouldn't happen, she kept telling herself, was still telling herself when she went to bed. In the morning she woke up, walked into the living room wearing her old Snoopy nighty and big woolly socks, and saw Jarlaxle and Entreri sitting on the sofa, which they had manage to fold back into sofa shape, and watching the morning news from the television. Damn. It's real. I really have to deal with this.
