I remember a friend of mine attempting to cure a headache with minor magic. He was pretty good at it too. The fact that it worked only drove me to keep looking for the 'other side'. I remember distinctly how the focused energy felt. It was a faint, pleasant, buzzing sensation, as if my entire body fell asleep.

But this was entirely different. As soon as the amulet had settled, I felt like I got freakin' electrocuted.

I flinched violently from the sudden bolt of sensation shooting up my spine, and having lost proper muscle control, flopped back over onto the blanket. My limbs locked, and I couldn't move. I wanted to say something along the lines of 'OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!', but it came out more like: "Nnnghrgh!"

Adonathiel looked slightly concerned. "Hm. I think I might have done that wrong." She mumbled, leaning in closer to squint at the amulet.

I looked at her like she had just sprouted a pair of horns. Was I really going to trust this woman?

'Wait, are those...?'

Had I been capable, I'm sure my eyes would have fallen out of their sockets. Actual horns were twisting out of her skull.

'Please let this just be another dream.' I mentally prayed, watching everything around me bend in on itself.

She straightened up and smiled, which soon warped into a maddened, demonic looking grin. Her eyes bled completely red. She spoke something, but her smooth, low tones were distorted into a deep, foreboding groan. She lifted her hand towards me, tipped with wicked looking, serrated talons. Wide eyed, I could only watch as she sunk her fingers into my throat.

As soon as her claws left my bleeding flesh, the world snapped back to it's original state.

Adonathiel's hand retreated from my throat, ripping the amulet away from me, rather than my windpipe.

I sat up, still startled and disoriented from the sudden change in scenery, and scrambled backwards into the tree behind me. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" I bellowed, whipping my head around like a startled ferret.

Adonathiel was completely absorbed in closely examining the amulet for faults. "What's wrong with you?" She idly asked me, squinting at the demonic face. "You look like you just saw-...oh. That's what happened." She finished quietly, scratching off several symbols.

"What in gods name did you do?!" I screeched from my corner, still expecting a demon or something to drop on me ninja style and start gnawing on me.

"Shush!" She hissed, packing away the re-worked amulet into her bag. "You do realize there could be Sarafan patrolling these woods? The last thing we want is for them to find us! Now as to what you saw. I had originally used that amulet as a stabilizer for my magic, particularly concerning energy from different planes. I had stolen it from a planar, you see. I had also used it for healing magic. But, I may have forgotten about it's dual nature, and what you saw was a completely different dimension. My apologies." She explained.

'Wait, Sarafan?!'

"Why in the hell would you mix magic like that?!"

"At the very least it worked." She pointed out.

I looked down at myself and realized for the first time that I was completely healed. I was too busy panicking over demons to notice. Even the deep cuts that the...whatever-the-heck-it-was had dug down my sides were gone. "Wow..."

"A simple 'thank you' will suffice." She sighed, gathering up the remains of the camp.

I always felt awkward saying my pleases and thanks. Not because I didn't like saying it. But because I said them a lot. I always had the strange feeling that saying those same phrases more than 10 times a day were annoying to people. So I usually attempted to mix it up every once in a while.

"You have my undying gratitude." I smiled sincerely.

Adonathiel raised an eyebrow, before bending into an extravagant bow. She even managed to do the little hand flourish. "I am much obliged." She played along and giggled.

It was peaceably quiet, the companionable silence adding to the din of nothingness around us, save for the occasional chattering of the foliage whenever the gentle breeze floated by. It was that silent, peaceful part of the early morning, where everything was stained a misty blue and vibrant gold from the light of the emerging sun.

I was a nature person by heart, and was still overwhelmed by the sheer size of the forest. Living in a city for most of my life, and then moving to the country (where forests were beginning to disappear amidst housing developments and malls) I'd never experienced a forest that was this 'complete'. I felt like the trees had swallowed me whole. We'd been walking for hours, and still no sign of a break in the treeline.

A question that had been bugging me since I woke up was especially nagging when it was this quiet. I was reluctant to break the silence though, mostly because it was always hard to fix it afterward.

'Just ask the damned question. It's been several hours, and you have a right to know.'

"Hey," I started hesitantly.

"Hm? What's that?" she absently replied.

"Um...where are we?" I wondered, fully realizing that I had absolutely no idea where I was.

She glanced over her shoulder, this look in her eye."You'll see."

I wasn't too fond of half-answers, or being left in the dark. Sure, I had the patience to 'wait and see', but I hated being completely ignorant.

"Well, can I at least know where we're going?" I insisted, bent on getting some kind of information.

"You'll see." I could hear the mild amusement in her voice.

'I hope to god she's not messing with you. You might as well have a mental breakdown now if even the incredibly smart lady doesn't know what she's doing.'

I paused and frowned. "Is that all you can say?" I pleaded, a little bit of a whine creeping into my voice. I was starting to worry.

Adonathiel grinned from over her shoulder. "You'll see." She chuckled, and continued walking.

'I don't know if I should be laughing, or if I should start worrying.'

I settled for a nervous giggle, uncontrollably smiling from the tension.

Sure enough, after about one more hour of walking (or in my case, panicking), we finally emerged from the forest into a large field.

Relieved that I could finally see the sky, I took a deep breath and stretched. It felt like forever since I smelt something other than black earth and rich plant life. As nice as it was, there was such a thing as too much.

"There." Adonathiel sighed, staring off into the distance.

"Huh?"

"The answer to your question." She smiled and nodded towards the horizon, prompting me to look.

The feeling that rose in my chest at the sight nearly made me drop to my knees and weep. At the moment, I couldn't find any words for what I was seeing.

I took in a shuddering breath, and asked: "...is it really...?"

Adonathiel was still smiling. "The Pillars."

My eyes wide with wonderment, my breath held in my throat, I allowed a little overwhelmed whine to escape me. Far further down a gentle slope, the pillars stood, cracked and askew as if Nosgoth herself rolled out of bed and didn't bother to fix her bedhead. The only pillar that still stood erect was the still darkened pillar of balance, almost like a very familiar and extremely rude hand gesture. It might as well have been one, considering the circumstances surrounding the monument.

Corrupted or not, the sight confirmed both my wildest dreams and deepest of fears: I was in Nosgoth, for realsies.

The excitement slowly built, and by that point, I could no longer hold my breath.

"WHOOOOOOO!" I abruptly hollered, and in my excitement, immediately broke into a happy dance. If I knew gymnastics, it would have been even better.

Satisfied and finally out of breath, I plopped onto my tuff for a well deserved break.

'This is definitely a moment I won't forget once this whole thing is over.'

Once this is over. I shrugged off that creeping thought that I might never get home at all. I'd save that for another time.

I had this weird smile that I had whenever I was really excited about something. I was still kind of giddy, and stowed away that little 'reality check' for later. For now, I'd try to enjoy myself.

I looked to Adonathiel, who was watching me from a distance.

'Wait, did she just step back?'

She was actually cautious of me. She had this surprised, kind of lost look on her face. She truly wasn't expecting me to go all hyper like that.

"What?" I threw over my shoulder, still smirking a little. I refused to be embarrassed by my display of excitement. I was completely entitled to it, after all.

She furrowed her brows. "If I'm ridiculous...what does that make you?" she mused, smirking.

I shrugged.

She walked over to join me on the grass, amused by my antics and failing to hide her smile. Adonathiel pulled some lunch from her bag, and we snacked on some corn, the hunched figures of the guardian Pillars overlooking the land.