Chapter 2
A/N
Okay—so after some quickie viewings of SGA, I have decided to place this after or around the episode "Suspicion". In this episode, Teyla is accused of being a spy. The episode opens with Sheppard's team running away from Wraith fire. We begin there.
This hasn't been excessively edited… probably are some mistakes. I will check it tomorrow. Sorry.
Silence and warmth. Willow awoke with the clarity borne of having experienced a catastrophic event before. Quite a few, she amended in her head. Her first thought was to open her eyes slowly. She surreptitiously peeked out from beneath her eyelids, not wanting to tip off any possible kidnapper-demon-witch-portal-maker-people. Whatever. From what she could observe, from her not so enviable vantage point on the ground in the tall grasses, she didn't see a person. It didn't appear that she was being held hostage. She tried to work it out in her brain… "So, the portal just picked me up… because?"
"Okay."
Willow wasn't by nature a big risk taker but she had the feeling, all bets were off…. She had been sucked through a shiny vortex and deposited in some nice tall green grass—somewhere. She might as well get up and own up to her surroundings. Get her bearings and figure out how to get back to bright old Sunnydale.
"Get up. Get rise up. Stand up. Yep. Gotta move."
She curved her upper body towards her feet, trying to get her torso to cooperate with her mental and vocal decision. Her head hurt! She had this dull pain in the front of her skull, as if she had done too many spells in a quick succession. So where the heck was she? She finally got her body in some sort of standing position. Her legs were especially shaky and it was obvious her brain wasn't at full capacity. She had attempted to use a bunch of the tall grasses as a leaning post! It just didn't work and she had found herself almost on the ground again. Who cared if the second time was a charm, anyway? Her goal was to, "Get up and move!" She finally got body moving. She could really only shuffle a little forward. She saw her messenger bag lying on the ground.
She had to mentally pause to thank the heavens for keeping her connected to her bag. She knew, in the bag, she had a few snacks and a thermos of coffee. She also had some casting herbs, her laptop and a book Giles had gotten sent over from some witchy friends in England. She was in business. "Darn. Well fine." She could be in business if she were lucky enough to have been transported to… a prairie in Wyoming or a prairie in…
"My head" she mumbled. "What if I am in the no shrimp world… or some weird evil grass world?" What if I never see Xander, or Giles, or Buffy, or Tara, or Oz, or my parents, or Faith, or Cordelia, or Wesley, or oh goodness. I am talking to myself. I am talking to myself. What would Giles do in a situation like this? What would Buffy do?"
Willow just didn't know what to do. She was probably, possibly, maybe stranded—or NOT. Her mood lifted again. She'd had her moment of panic. Check. Willow knew she had the heart of a scientist. So, she knew that the first thing she needed to do was get her bearings. After she had identified her location, she could make plans to get back to Sunnydale. Heck! She might even be IN Sunnydale! She could be in some weird Botanical Garden place… that she had never heard of… and she was a lifelong resident of Sunnydale… Or! She thought and her mood brightened again, in L.A. or Washington D.C. or Paris, France or Paris, Texas! Anything was possible!
Willow slung the bag across her back and started walking, just in case she was actually in some evil dimension courtesy of unknown and unseen kidnapper-demon-witch-portal-maker-people. She wanted to find some tree or building where she could pause and have a few chips. After the moment of panic, she realized she was quite hungry.
As she walked, she considered her plight. She had started off yesterday evening, on the way to Giles' place. She was supposed to meet Buffy & Xander for a quick dinner of pizza and then head out patrolling, en masse. Buffy had some late afternoon coffee date with that safe and blah T.A. If only she hadn't decided to swing by the cemetery on her own!
She had been working on this rapid fire fireball spell. The spell was a little different from her usual ones because it didn't take so much energy from the caster—the witch could tap into the natural to fuel the spell. Her idea behind it was as she cast she would visualize the power of the natural world. If she ever got the spell perfect she would be able to channel the energy from her surroundings into the spell. She could tap into the eternal or almost eternal life force of the earth.
Her hesitation was that she wasn't so sure if the Earth minded. So she was working on figuring out how to ask. After all wasn't she protecting the Earth? The other issue was that she might be tapping into the Hellmouth, right? What would happen if she tapped the Hellmouth? Could she tap into a random tree or shrubbery—and if she did that would the stuff die? Could she tap into a person? How would it affect them?
Buffy and co. didn't really like her practicing spells because of the kablooey factor. Now that Willow really thought about it… had she made her own big kablooey? "Fiddle? Faddle? Freak! F--- Five Fast Fireballs and Freak!"
Willow stopped right where she was. Here she was probably in another reality! It hadn't been worth it. She'd gotten a half stuck in the coffin fledgling with his pre-death broken arm still tied back in a sling. She could have staked him in the back while he was struggling. She closed her eyes against the pain of the memory of her own foolish action. She decided to count to 10. She really didn't think when she opened her eyes, she'd be in another place, "it couldn't hurt to try", she murmured. In truth she just wanted to give herself 10 seconds to live in the past or rather mentally whine. She knew if she wanted to get out of wherever 'there' or 'here' was she would have to "bring her A game", "come out shooting", or whatever Xander euphemism would best fit the situation.
"10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1" she spoke each number aloud.
"Deep breath. Okay."
Willow opened her eyes to find in her misery, she had wandered up to a well worn path. The road looked definitely manmade and definitely per-industrial age.
So either she was in some other country with tall grasses or she was in another reality or dimension. "Hmmm…" She could see up the path for a good quarter of a mile. At the end was a large stone ring and platform. "Hmmm..." She decided walking the path was as good of a choice as any other choice. It was obvious that folks liked this path. She could walk up to the platform… have some food… try out her laptop and maybe just maybe some people might just walk up. Maybe there would be some map or arrow pointing in the direction of town, at the platform. Yep.
