Chapter 2
Arrival
A bright flash of light illuminated an area unknown to the Mutopians and friends, but they could not see that, for as suddenly as the light had appeared in the area, it faded, leaving them all in complete darkness.
"Well, this is just swell! More darkness! Can't very well look at things from the bright side now, can we?"
"Shut up, Rattletrap!" basically everyone yelled at the same time, and shortly after, a slap could be heard as well.
"Ouch! Okay, whose the wiseguy, huh?!" the rat complained. "You better not mess with the rat, or you'll be sorry!"
"Rattletrap, please, that's enough." Tyroth said calmly.
"But-"
"Shut up."
"Okay, boss…" the rat sighed in defeat.
"Thank you. Now, everyone just stay calm, and I'll try to shed some light on this."
Tyroth raised his fist into the air and channelled his mana into it, aiming to make it glow so that they could all see again, but nothing happened. Confused, he tried again, but with the same result, not even when he tried to light it on fire did anything happen, so the darkness remained.
"While we're still young, Big T." Raphael groaned.
"Something's not right here." the dragon explained. "My magic isn't working for some reason."
"Then allow me." said Devina, who focused her own magical powers into one of her light spells, but just as for Tyroth, nothing happened, despite several tries. "Um… scratch that. My magic ain't working either."
"Anyone got a torch then?" Casey asked.
"I don't see what the problem is, I can see just fine." said Freya the Geckoling.
"Yeah, me too." said her younger twin brother, Loki.
"That's because, just like me, the two of you have dark vision." their father explained. "We can see through even complete darkness, but the others aren't as lucky. So how about you two help me with a head count while I check our surroundings a bit more."
"Sure thing, dad!" the twins said enthusiastically.
While his children were doing their task, Tyroth began examining the dark room they were all in.
It was a square room, just over two and a half metre in height and barely large enough to fit the group of mutants and humans, the floor, walls, and ceiling all being made of the same square granite tiles. There were also several torch sconces on the walls, but they were all empty. Where Tyroth stood when they arrived, at the end of the room, was a small square pillar, again of granite, on which this reality's Talisman of Misplacement rested, while at the opposite end of the room was a stone door.
After carefully making his way through his friends, he pushed the heavy door open and found a corridor that went on for quite some distance, as the dragon couldn't even see the end of it from the door, but he none the less decided to see where it lead.
Taking his first steps down the corridor, he remembered the traps he and the others had, from the spray of poisoned needles to the swirling blades. While some of those were not much of an issue for the powerful dragon, some were far more dangerous, and none of them were good news for the others.
Deciding to take the risk, Tyroth stepped on every tile on the floor, putting a good amount of weight on them to check for traps, as well as pressing all of the tiles on the walls and the ceiling as well. It would take a while, but he'd rather be safe than sorry.
After almost thirty minutes, Tyroth finally reached the end of the corridor, where there was another door, and he hadn't found any traps so far, so that was one worry less.
However, the architecture of the room and corridor, as minimalistic as it was, wasn't anything he recognised from the ruins of Skyrim he had seen, but it could simply be another kind of ruins that they never saw. It could even be fairly new place, maybe even made by the wise old dragon Paarthurnax, who said that he would hide the talisman in a safe place once they all left the first time.
Opening the door, Tyroth felt a draft from the other side, and looking through the opening, he saw what appeared to be a natural cave, and from around a corner, light could be seen. Knowing that they had a way out, Tyroth turned back to get the others.
But as he was walking, he couldn't quite figure out why his and Devina's magic didn't work. Maybe it was similar to how their electronic devices lost their power during the transportation, only that their magic naturally recovered after a time, but he couldn't be sure, since they didn't need to use any magic after any of the two transportations before.
But that wasn't neither here nor there at that moment, he had people that he needed to get to safety.
As soon as he returned, he was met by his children, both of which eagerly reported their findings.
"Everyone's here, dad." Freya said.
"Yeah, and I'm sure glad no one got left behind." said Loki.
"So, did you have any luck?" Freya asked.
"I think so. There seems to be a way out of here, so let's lead everyone out and we'll get our bearings."
It took a little while, but the trio managed to lead everyone out of the ruin and out into the daylight, the exit being little more than a hole in a hillside.
"Sweet daylight! How I've missed you!" Michelangelo exclaimed as he stretched his arms towards the sun high above them.
"So this is Skyrim, huh? It's a lot less cold and snowy that you made it seem." James the Chimpanzee said as he looked around.
And he was right, something that those that had been to Skyrim noticed. They could see mountains towering in the distance and massive areas of forests and meadows in front of them, but the temperature and overall climate seemed slightly warmer, and no matter how hard they looked, they just couldn't see anything they recognised.
"Does anything of this seem familiar to you, Devina?" Sephie asked. "I mean, you were travelling all over your world for a very long time and all."
"Sorry, can't say that I do." the hybrid responded. "It could be a place that I just don't remember or never actually visited, or even a place that don't have any landmarks that stand out."
"Whatever the case, it sure beats hanging around back where we were." said Percy.
"No doubt about that." said Sharky. "So what's our next move?"
"To survive out in the wilderness, I would recommend that we find a source of freshwater." said Donatello. "And if that source is a river or similar, we can follow it and have high odds of finding a settlement, and hopefully they can point us in the right direction."
"Sounds like a plan to me." said Tyroth as he walked ahead of the others to get a better view of the immediate area.
But after a few metres, he fell to one knee with his hands on his head, grimacing in pain and discomfort.
"Tyroth!? What's wrong?!" Sephie asked worried as she hurried to his side, followed closely by their children. But all three of them stopped when they reached his side, all holding there heads, but only Sephie remaining standing, who also seemed to recover faster.
"What's happening to you guys?!" Monalisa asked and was about to hurry to her friends' sides, but was blocked by James.
"Everyone stay back. I'll have a look at them." the Chimpanzee said, and being the resident doctor, everyone listened to him.
When he reached the group, they all seemed to have recovered, but James also felt what had afflicted them. A sudden migraine seemed to strike in that area, with no explanation to why, but just like Sephie, James himself wasn't as affected as Tyroth and the Geckolings.
"Okay, as a doctor, I can safely say that this is weird. Are all of you okay?"
"I think we'll be fine, doc." said Tyroth as he stood back up.
"But what was it, dad? My head hurt so much I thought it was going to explode." said Loki.
"I'm not sure, but I have a thought, and it worries me." the dragon said, turning back to the others.
Holding out his hand, he once again channelled his mana into it, and this time it erupted in flames, just as it was supposed to. But as he moved it forward, the flames vanished from his fingertips, and then more of of his hand as he kept moving it forward, and when he pulled back, the flames returned.
"You're not doing that on your own, are you, Tyroth?" Leonardo asked.
"No. It's some form of barrier here that apparently cancels out magic. An anti-magical field, if you will."
"That would explain why we couldn't use our magic in the ruin." said Devina. "And I'm willing to bet that when you guys exited this field, all the magic rushed back into your bodies, overwhelming you for a bit, and the same will probably happen to me as well."
"But both Sephie and I were also affected." said James. "And while she has had temporary magical powers, neither of us have any under normal circumstances. Even if we were transformed by the well."
"Not entirely true." said Tyroth. "Every creature of our world has a small amount of magic in their souls, but only a few have enough to use it as a force. So while inside this field, you all have that inner source nullified, and will all get the same weaker effect once you exit it."
"So a slight migraine's to be expected? Gotcha. But how come the talisman worked then?" asked Cam.
"Yeah, it's within the field too, isn't it?" said Sarah.
"One thing at a time, right now let's just make sure that every leaves the field without any worse issues."
It didn't take any long time for the large group to leave the field, and just as Tyroth and Devina had suspected, everyone suffered a minor migraine upon leaving it, and Devina had a far larger one, just like the other magic users. During most of that time however, Tyroth stood silent, seemingly deep in thought.
"What are you thinking about, hun?" Sephie asked her mate.
"We're not in Skyrim, or that world for that matter."
"We're not? But then where are we, and how can you be so sure?" his mother, Erica asked.
"This world, its magical energies feel different, from both Skyrim and Earth. As to where we are… Sephie, Leo, Donnie and Mikey, gather around me."
Confused, the mutants did as asked.
"What's going on, dude? You're starting to freak me out." said Michelangelo.
"Just relax, this shouldn't take long." Tyroth said calmly. "Relax and open your minds, feel the world around you, the energies the courses through everything. Can you feel it?"
"I can, and it's… oh God…" Donatello said, his eyes widening as the realisation hit him, and the others reacted the same way.
"It can't be!"
"I'm afraid it's true, Leo." Tyroth said, turning to the rest of their large group.
"What's going on?" April asked.
"Everyone, we did not reach Skyrim as intended, instead we've arrived on a completely different world, and that world belongs to the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game."
And on that bombshell, we'll end this chapter. Needless to say, our heroes seems to have taken a wrong turn somewhere.
Also, there are several references to one of my previous stories, Mutants Misplaced. Give that a read if your curious.