Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #14 May 2015 | Page 26

The walk was very slow. It took them nearly two
hours to reach the next portal. No one spoke. They
trudged forward step after heavy step as if they were
in a trance. Jhamed kept them away from the water’s
edge, which was just as well. No one else seemed to
notice the dark shape in the sea that tracked their slow
journey. It all seemed very surreal to Simon. He struggled to breathe and began to feel very tired. It was
soon an effort to keep his eyes open. It’s like I imagine
dying in the snow, falling asleep and gently passing
away. It took a kick up the backside from Jhamed to
refocus himself. It was too much effort to complain
about it. After they stepped through the next portal,
which was a cave entrance in the crumbling cliffs, he
regretted his previous analogy. The wind chill hit him
like a knife. The snow glare almost blinded him. He
remembered a similar dimension from his earlier journey. He hadn’t liked it then and he didn’t like it now.

portal and emerged onto the bank of a beautiful river
on a warm summer’s day. There was no one around, so
they removed their coats and made themselves comfortable on the neatly mown grass.
“We can rest here for a while and have something to
eat,” Jhamed told them. “We are making good progress.”
“I am already lost,” Dawit said. “If we were to misplace Jhamed for any reason, we would be lost in the
multiverse forever.”

They all took many deep breaths of the cold, fresh
air. Taran was the first to speak, shouting against the
whistling wind. “I have never felt so depressed in my
entire life. There was a heaviness in that realm that
weighed me down so much that I wanted to die. It was
a world without trees. I could not live without trees.”
“It was a terrible place,” Dawit agreed. “I fear that
it reminded me of the fate of the dwarves. There are
echoes of that place in First Delve these days.”
“Are we going to stay here and chat until we freeze to
death?” Jhamed shouted. “Come on, there’s a portal
not far from here. It should take us to a dimension
where we can rest and eat.”
Despite the wind against them and the blowing snow
that almost reached blizzard proportions, they moved
much more easily here. Simon drew his cloak around
him and surged forward, following Jhamed’s lead.
The chill air quickly blew away the lethargy, to be
replaced by a dull aching in his bones. They made
good progress and quickly came to the next portal,
which made its presence known only by its strange
impact on the blowing snow. The snow seemed to
take a deviation around the portal, so that there was a
small area of clear, shimmering air in the midst of the
blizzard. Thankfully, the four companions entered the

“That concerns me too,” Taran agreed. “What concerns me more is that we were followed in the snow
dimension. I was too befuddled to know whether we
were followed in the dead world, but I’m sure that
there was a large white shape following us in the
snow. Did anyone else see it?”
“It was probably a snow bear.” Jhamed’s statement
was firmly put and clearly meant to end the discussion.
“Well, nothing has followed us through the portal,” Simon said. “Let’s sunbathe and eat. What is this dimension, Jhamed? How long before we get to Dishley?”
Jhamed looked a bit sheepish. “I haven’t been here
for a while. It should be safe enough; it’s a dimension
where Law holds sway. Let’s eat.”
They unpacked some of their provisions and set up a
very pleasant picnic on the manicured lawn. Behind
them swans and ducks floated on the easy-flowing
river. Simon lay back in the sun and daydreamed. I
remember a picnic by the Yarra when I was a child.
Mum bought hot chicken and fresh baked bread. We
played cricket afterwards. He was raised from his reverie by the sound of jackboots. Before the four friends
could do anything, a group of soldiers, two abreast,
marched into view along the concrete path adjacent to
the lawn. They were smartly dressed in identical black
uniforms and carried weapons that looked to Simon
like old-fashioned muskets, such as he had seen in museums. Their leader barked a command in a language
that Simon didn’t understand and the soldiers stopped,
wheeled, and faced the picnicking quartet. There were
ten soldiers in two rows of five. The fron