After rinsing off Ihaka's bowl and putting it away, Kyra stood and took in her surroundings again. This time with a purpose. She found what she was looking for on the other side of the portal from where she was standing.

It was a cobblestone road, wide enough for a car to pass through, made out of a green jade stone that could be found commonly here.

Word was, that when the first portal had been opened in England, they had tried to lay concrete down. Needless to say, the local flora had hated it. And with the plants having much more active existences here than on Earth, they had made their objections felt by tearing up the freshly laid road, breaking it into bits, and scattering the remains. All within the short span of a few days. Sometimes you could apparently still find little lumps of concrete several kilometres from where the road had been.

The idea for the cobblestone had come when someone had realised that if you moved a rock, none of the plants would care about it. So they had given it a go, and now stone roads had become the standard for human advancement into the Spirit Realm.

This particular road was the one that led between the New Zealand portal, and the base that had been set up nearby. Of course, nearby was a relative statement. It was a six-hour hike away.

Six hours. Assuming that you were a fit adult travelling with other fit adults, and didn't have to care about a fussy soon-to-be toddler as you went along.

Kyra tightened her grip on the straps criss-crossing her shoulders as she determinedly set off. This was going to be a long day.

It would have been easier if Kyra hadn't just gone with everyone else in the first wave of migrants when the portal was opened up to the public.

The fact was though, that she was a latecomer.

Although you technically didn't have to go through the survival course in order to walk through the portal, not doing so was considered a nearly suicidal act. Moreover, there was no reason not to take the course, as government subsidies were available for those like Kyra who couldn't afford it themselves. Since Kyra hadn't been planning to go right up until the moment her mother had died, she had completely missed over a quarter of the first lessons for the first batch of students. Given Kyra's reason for wanting to go to the Spirit Realm in order to get away from an abusive situation, they had made an exception and had allowed her to join halfway through. However, cram as she had to get done in 9 months what was meant to take a year and a half, it had still taken her another month after that before her instructors had said that they were happy with her results. It had helped that she had already had some fighting ability, which meant that she didn't have to work so hard on those lessons.

So if they were willing to make so many exceptions for her as a student of the program, why didn't they make one last exception and get someone to escort her to the base? Again the answer was simple. For all the help that the governments were willing to give to their citizens before they went through the portal, that was as far as it went. If you wanted to receive any kind of substantial support once you were through the portal, besides being allowed to live within the relative safety of the base, you had to be willing to join the Army.

Giving up her freedom to make decisions about her own actions was not something that Kyra was willing to do. Hence, she was now making her way to the base on her own.

New Zealand was considered to be one of the better places, as you were still allowed to live in the base and have access to the military’s medical facilities without having to join.

If Kyra had said that walking beneath the canopy of trees which were capable of literally reaching down and pulling her up into its branches, didn't give her the heebeegeebees, then she would definitely be lying. However, she trusted what her instructors had said about most of them being benign as long as you didn't try to hurt them first.

It's was just the "most" part of that statement that had her feeling like an army of ants were crawling up her spine.

The first couple of hours into their journey were fairly uneventful. Ihaka took a good thirty minutes to finish his bottle as he was distracted and looking around. After which, Kyra kept them both entertained by pointing out and describing all the plants that she recognised from her lessons.

Of course Ihaka didn't understand most of what she was saying, however, he enjoyed listening to her talk as he looked around at all the new things. It was at least enough to keep him happy and giggling for a while, and when he got bored of that, she took out his little Kiwi plushy that she had gotten for him, and let him play with that. It meant extra exercise for Kyra who had to squat down to pick it back up whenever he dropped it, but it was a worthwhile trade when she thought of the possibility of him kicking and screaming along the way. Or at least it was until he discovered the amazing hilarity in her actions, and decided to play a game of fetch with her. Immediately throwing the Kiwi down as she handed it back to him.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Exasperated, she stuffed the toy back into her pack, and before he could get really upset, she did an abrupt forward bend. Flipping him upside down and singing "Weeee!" as she did so. The first time she did it he seemed determined not to be distracted from the abrupt robbery of his toy, grumbling from his upside-down position. But she eventually won him over with her antics, and before he realised that he had forgotten something important, she had swung her pack back over her shoulders, and they were on their merry way.

It was at what Kyra thought was approximately the halfway point that their surroundings began to change. The constant rustling of the leaves, that Kyra hadn't even realised that she was taking for granted, began to slow and then stop completely. It was only as she registered the absence of the sound, that she realised that since the moment that she had stepped through the portal, she had never felt any wind. The whole place became deathly silent. It was the kind of silence that Kyra had never heard before on Earth, and it made her wonder if even the small bugs had stopped moving.

She stopped walking as one arm tightened around Ihaka. The other reaching for her knife. If she had been on Earth she would have long since started climbing a tree. However, she wasn't certain that doing that here wouldn't be walking right into the maw of the predator. Frantically she searched around for some kind of high ground, but the trees and other small bushes pushed up against the side of the road, forming a veritable wall that suddenly looked a lot more threatening than it had even a few moments ago. Ihaka was able to sense her sudden tension, and he searched her face as he mumbled inquiringly.

Then, a hundred metres ahead of them, a large wolf like creature stepped out onto the road.

Kyra's blood chilled. That was no puny little Shadow-Cat. That was no puny little anything. That. Was. A fully grown terra-wolf.

Its black fur looked like it was made from Obsidian, its eyes looked like emerald gems encasing its black pupils. These beasts were said to be difficult for even a pair of Soldiers working together to bring down. Thankfully they weren't seen very often, but when Kyra saw it slowly licking its chops as it sniffed in the direction of Ihaka, Kyra knew that she couldn't put this encounter down to bad luck. Which meant that hoping it would lose interest and go on its way would be pointless.

Heart hammering in her throat Kyra decisively put her pack down in the centre of the road, and then propped Ihaka up against it. Deciding to bank on what her instructors had said about most plant life being benign unless you provoked them, Kyra stepped a few metres in front of Ihaka as she quickly pulled on her face guard and cloth gauntlets that had been hanging off the side of her pack. Then she faced the Terra-Wolf as she lowered herself into her battle stance and held her knife at the ready.

The terra-wolf cocked its head to the side as it observed her for a moment, then, after seemingly deciding that she wasn't going to be much trouble, it huffed out an exasperated breath, and moved.

The wolf was like thunder in motion as it bouldered down towards her. No doubt, if she took the charge head on, a few broken ribs would be the least of her worries. At the last second, Kyra shifted her weight over just enough that its nose was aiming just past her right shoulder.

Before it could adjust itself, she stabbed the knife in her right hand directly at its eye, forcing it to flinch further to the right. The blade of her knife made a scraping sound against its fur, and she aimed a vicious kick right for the joint in its front leg as it went past her. Forcing it to turn away from her, and away from Ihaka.

The terra-wolf was angry now. It snarled as it turned back around to face her.

Kyra was distracted however, as out of the corner of her eye, she saw vines reaching out from the forest to pick Ihaka up and disappear again with him.

Kyra screamed. She couldn't afford to take her attention away from the threat in front of her, but if she took any more time with the Wolf, Ihaka could be long gone before she got to him.

Something in her snapped. And her leg snapped out with it. Landing an uppercut to the jaw of the wolf, she knocked it off balance, then kicked out again, knocking its left paw out from under it.

As it stumbled, she grabbed its right paw and pulled it out and up. Effectively flipping the terra-wolf over.

Then she jumped onto the wolf, kicked the joint of one of its hind legs to hinder its movement as she grabbed it's upper jaw and ground its nose to the ground.

The terra-wolf squirmed as it desperately breathed through its mouth. The angle made it impossible for it to bite down on her hand effectively, and the way that she was holding herself close to the Wolf's body meant that its front paws could only ineffectively scrape against the tough material of her clothes.

Her blade made a sharp ringing sound as she brought it down onto the roof of the Wolf's upper jaw, once, twice, and again. The terra-wolf became frantic in its attempts to throw her off, and she nearly lost her precarious hold before it finally gave. Not stopping there, Kyra twisted her knife deeper. Going for its brain.

As soon as the Terra-Wolf had gone still, she tore her knife free and had sprinted off in the direction of the vines. Hoping that it wasn't about to jump up from behind her.

She plunged through the flora. Frantically looking around through the canopy above her. It didn't take her long, and she was only a few feet in when her eyes landed on a small cradle made of vines. In it was Ihaka. Safe and sound as he sucked happily on a.. "Milk Fruit?"