Jacob emerged from the rainbow tunnel, stumbled, but kept his feet. He was expecting that black crystal area, or maybe the valley of blue crystal structures, but Sheriff Hueller's portal had dropped them somewhere completely different. Rolling hills spread out from them like swells on the open ocean. They were covered in flowers of every single imaginable colour in rainbow waves and scattered mosaic patterns. Here and there the flowers piled together, in some places like mounds of raked leaves, in other places growths that sprouted up several stories into the air like multicoloured trees. There was a pattern to it all, something in the symmetrically rolling hills, the repetitions of colour, the periodic growths and mounds, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Overhead, the sky was still the same indiscriminate mass of roiling clouds. It unsettled him and he didn't know why.
Something scuttled over his foot. He yelped and leapt back. A rainbow coloured centipede the size of his forearm skittered away through the flowers. Jacob shuddered. He loved animals, but bugs were gross. He looked down at his feet to make sure there weren't any more where he was standing.
Jimmy shook his shoulder. "Hey, you think you can keep that magical muscle active? Keep the resilience on deck?"
"Sure." Jacob said.
Jimmy turned to Camilla. "Hueller won't ask you, and normally I wouldn't, but we're stretched thin: Can you keep an eye on him? Use whatever magic you have."
Jacob expected Camilla to say something snarky about Jimmy's earlier doubting of her power, but she just nodded grimly.
"I will."
For the first time in his life, Jacob bristled at the thought that he wouldn't be able to protect himself, but he said nothing. He wasn't a fool. At least, he didn't think he was.
Millicent, Xavier, and Ola came through the portal, with Sheriff Hueller bringing up the rear. The Deputies fanned out in an arc, magic at the ready.
"Sensing something." Millicent stated.
Jacob peered around them. The landscape shone with the same surreal inner light. It was only then he realized some of the patterns of flowers and some of the growths were familiar. Like rough renditions of sections of VanDusen Botanical Garden.
A cone of blue magic the size of a small car rifled out from the rolling hills in front of them.
Xavier screamed something and a moment later a translucent ward sprung up in front of the group. The cone shattered into it. Xavier's ward held, but the force of the impact drove the deputy to one knee. A moment later Millicent and Ola had overlapping wards up in front of the group. They jabbered back and forth. Jimmy hauled Xavier to his feet and asked if he was alright.
Jacob had hardly had time to blink it had happened so fast. He looked from the deputies to the swell of rolling hills where the blast had come from. Just flowers there.
Magic whispered out from Sheriff Hueller, a colour Jacob had never felt before: sky blue. He stepped right up to the underside of the wards and trailed his hand absently in the air.
"There's something there." He said. "Something big."
Sheriff Hueller's sky blue magic strengthened. The air around the hills where the blast had come from shimmered. Suddenly a nightmarish creature like a massive chameleon stared back at them. Its sinuous body swelled and curled around the rolling hills. Ridges and low horn-like protrusions covered its sickly yellow scales. But what terrified Jacob were its eyes. They were predatory yellow slits embedded into the top of its head. They rolled towards Sheriff Hueller, full of reptilian hatred.
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"What the fuck is that?" Jimmy cried.
The creature hissed, its forked tongue shooting out of its crocodilian muzzle. Then it reared up and spat. Another cone of magic lanced out from its mouth. It smashed into the combined ward, staggering Ola and Millicent. Everything was happening too fast for Jacob to sense the spells being cast. It was just a blur of colour.
The creature took off towards them, its stubby legs skittering back and forth, its body slithering towards them quick as a viper.
"Physical wards, ready!" Sheriff Hueller roared.
Ola and Millicent braced themselves. Their wards turned a lighter shade of silver-blue as the creature slithered towards them. Its body must have been the length of a bus, and its heavy tail twice again as long. It veered off at the last second and spat another cone of magic at them again.
All hell broke loose.
The cone of magic shattered the wards. Millicent and Ola staggered back. Camilla grabbed Jacob's arm and dragged him back over the crest of the hill they were on. Jimmy blurred out to one side. Sheriff Hueller leapt forward, his cloak flaring out behind him, and raised his hands up into the air. The section of hill beneath the creature struck up as if the ground had decided to punch the creature. It sent the thing through the air, writhing and hissing, along with a metric ton of flowers and a couple little rainbow centipedes. The chameleon landed on its back, exposing a pale underbelly, cracks where the surging ground had struck. Its stubby legs flailed, then it curled up into a ball like an armadillo and flipped up and out, back onto its feet. It hissed.
Jimmy was on it a moment later, a whirlwind of fists and kicks. The creature dodged back, too deftly for a thing its size. Its tail whickered around and smacked into Jimmy. The deputy blocked, but was sent flying back. He smashed into one of the hills, spraying flowers into the air.
Jacob tensed, but before he could even move Jimmy flew back at the creature and struck it across its crocodilian nose. It howled and staggered. Millicent regained her feet and punched a similar cone of magical force at the creature. The cone smashed its back, chipping away the ridge there. Jimmy lanced forward and punted the creature in the jaw.
A flash of blue and silver caught Jacob's peripheral vision. He whirled, heart pounding, and scanned the hills around them. He'd imagined it, right? No way that Dream Tiger was actually still following him.
A stream of silver sparks flitted out from behind a tree-like growth of flowers. A moment later the Dream Tiger poked its big, shaggy head out from behind the growth. If it was trying to be stealthy, it wasn't doing a very good job.
"Christ!" Jacob hissed. "Camilla! It's back!"
"What?" Camilla asked. She turned and swore.
"Why the hell is it still following me?"
"I don't know!"
The Dream Tiger didn't make any move to attack them. It just watched, and if a big feline could look curious, Jacob was pretty sure it looked curious.
"Deputy Yang, back, now!" Sheriff Hueller called.
Jacob glanced back at the battle.
Jimmy leapt away from the nightmare chameleon, back up towards where they crouched on the hill. He traded a grim look with Sheriff Hueller, clearly wanting to speak his mind, but said nothing. Millicent, Ola, and the recovered Xavier pinned the creature in with successive blasts of magic.
A flicker of white caught Jacob's eye. At the same time, a new flash of green Consumption flickered across his sensation. He turned, and froze.
The rogue mage streaked towards them from one of the adjacent hills.
Jimmy was moving before Jacob could even process what he was seeing. The deputy threw himself at Sheriff Hueller.
Sheriff Hueller tensed. "Jimmy, wha-"
The rogue mage flew at Sheriff Hueller, his fist cocked back. Jimmy tackled Sheriff Hueller just as the rogue mage punched, his body torquing midair. The air shuddered with the force. The rogue mage's fist narrowly missed Sheriff Hueller's face.
Jimmy and the Sheriff crashed to the ground and quickly sprang up. The rogue mage followed through, somersaulted mid air, and skidded to a halt on the ground. He straightened and turned to them. He still wore the loose white t-shirt and jeans, but they'd been cleansed of mud. His hair was mussed, hanging down over his glasses, but his eyes burned bright.
Jimmy was between the rogue mage and Jacob in an instant. The deputy flicked a glance back at Jacob, his eyes wide, full of fear and adrenaline and worry. "Get back. Stay behind me." He said, reaching an arm out protectively.
The rogue mage tsked, then pushed his glasses up.