The crowd was too loud.
Penelope couldn’t think with all the noise, so she ducked down the alley, hurrying towards the other end of the building. For an alley only wide enough for three people to walk side by side, there was very little that could be considered trash on the ground. A few blue, diamond-shaped leaves the size of her palm, a green rose with a red stem, and a couple of white-barked sticks as thick as two of her fingers. Dirt and dust were absent, as if the alley had been swept earlier that morning.
Sirens erupted over the entire city as the native residents reacted to the dome that cut them off from the rest of the world. Even with everything that had happened, Penelope hadn’t grasped just how foreign of a place she had been brought to until she made it to the end of the alley.
The parking lot was wider than the square she had just left, devoid of anything except a line of trees that separated the spaces. Every one of them had the blue diamond-shaped leaves in the alley. They looked like tall mushrooms with how they were rounded on top and the branches all curved up from a bare trunk for most of the length of the tree.
The spaces themselves weren’t very noticeable. It wasn’t marked with white paint that marked the parking spots like back home, but a dull gold that didn’t stand out well against the gray cement.
A wall surrounded the parking lot, walling off what she could see of the compound. The only opening to whatever lay beyond was an arch with script that Penelope couldn’t read. The more she looked at the letters, the more they shifted, causing her eyes to lose focus. Penelope blinked and rubbed her eyes, and when she looked again, she could read the writing.
University
Dimar Satellite
The person in the hoodie was nowhere to be seen. The campus was deserted, showing no trace of the natives the Elf had referenced. Behind her, the sound of the other people who’d been taken with her built into a wave. It kept growing louder until it crashed over Penelope like a violent storm at sea.
She put her hands over her ears and ran into the parking lot. Her first target was the closest line of trees. There was a peace that came from being nestled safe in the high branches, far from the noises of the world below. But these trees were all only ten feet tall, and while she could reach the lower branches if she jumped, it wasn’t the promise of security that she was looking for.
The noise of the square ebbed the further she ran. The outer wall on the other side of the parking lot had three-foot-tall bushes spaced just far enough away from it for a person to nestle between them. Penelope dashed through the empty space, into the bushes, and rested her back against the wall and her knees against her chest. Her chest heaved as she peered at the parking lot through the branches.
Her breathing began to calm as the sound of her heart stopped thumping in her ears. The minty smell she had noticed earlier was even stronger now. She reached forward and plucked one of the leaves off the bush in front of her and brought it to her face.
The strong mint scent filled her nose.
“I’ve never heard of a mint bush.” Penelope flicked the crushed leaf away from her. She closed her eyes and took in the world around her.
The stone wall at her back was firm and smooth, like it had been carved out of a single rock. Which would have taken an enormous amount of manpower to move, considering it ran for hundreds of feet in either direction. The grass under her was like sitting on air, while the air that filled her lungs was refreshing, like she was breathing in life itself. The morning sun was in her face, but it comforted her freckled skin, which was a new sensation to her pale complexion.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
The noise of the square had faded to nothing more than a dull buzz, something that she could ignore without much of a thought. Penelope allowed herself to take in the natural senses until she was interrupted by a male voice.
“The universe is falling apart, and you’re sleeping?”
“Gah!” Penelope’s eyes flashed open, and her head swished back and forth as she searched for the owner of the voice.
She was alone next to the fence. No one had even followed her down the alley.
“Some chosen you are.” The voice was somewhat familiar as it complained.
“Who are you?”
“Master Jeru Bannem.” The blue Elf that had been towering over the entrance to the Dungeon walked through the bushes.
All six inches of him.
An Elf in a purple robe with gold trim shook his head as he floated up in front of her face. “You’re supposed to be fighting Demons in that incursion, and you’re out hiding in the bushes.” He floated right up to her nose and booped it.
Penelope tried to grab him, but her hand passed right through him.
The Elf laughed. “The one constant on every one of these trips.” He wiped his eyes. “Dear, you can’t touch me any more than I can eat a roc wing.” Jeru licked his lips. “They aren’t extinct anymore, and I can’t eat anything. Bah!”
“What are you?” She blew a stray red hair out of her face as she swiped her hand through him.
“Think of me as your guide.” The Elf flew up to her neck and touched her collarbone. The card that had been put there flared to life and enlarged as it opened to a three-foot square in front of her.
The translucent screen had two words in the middle.
Plot Armor
The little Elf let out a belly laugh and pointed at her. “You get it?”
“What. Is. That?” Penelope tried to touch it, but her hand went through that too.
“It’s your plot armor, girlie.” Jeru grinned. “Because you can’t die.”
“But I died.” The confused woman rubbed her pale neck where she had been stabbed.
“Yes, yes. But you’re still alive, so did you really die?” He bounced his eyebrows.
Penelope glared at him while she remembered the pain, the cold, then nothing. “YES! You little—”
Jeru grew to ten feet tall and looked down at her.
Penelope tried to back up, but her back was already pressed against the smooth rock. She turned to her left and tucked her feet under her as she prepared to sprint.
Massive hands slapped the ground in front of her. Despite her not being able to touch him, she felt the air rush past her on either side.
“Not so cocky when you’re the smaller one?” Jeru shrank down to just over six feet tall. He walked over to the wall to her left and leaned on it.
“Camadt got your tongue?” He grinned, then gestured at the screen. The two words were still there, staring back at both of them.
“What—?”
“I already told you what happened, what I am, and what this is.” He rolled his eyes. “How many ‘what’s’ are you going to ask?”
Penelope took a deep breath and started to say something but stopped. The moment her green eyes looked into his black ones, it was like her soul was getting sucked out. She turned back to the screen as she sat down.
“Am I the only one who…” She touched her chest.
“Only one looper at a time.” Jeru grumbled out the answer like he’d given it a hundred times already. “Two would’ve made this so much easier.”
“Why didn’t you do it?”
“Girlie, you have no idea how much magic it took for me…” The Elf stopped when he saw the confused look on her face. “You meant why didn’t I loop.”
Penelope nodded.
The blue man grimaced. “Desperation?” He nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good word for it.” Jeru coughed into his hand. “Talking about the past won’t help you move forward, so how about we go over what you can do so you can get to kicking some Demon butt?”