"Flat cap or long black?" Marcy asked over her shoulder, as Phoebe shuffled her feet nearby. They were running late for work, but coffee was usually understandable as a reason. Usually.

"Macchiato." Phoebe named her favourite.

Marcy rolled her eyes and said teasingly, "I'll convince you to have a real coffee one day."

Phoebe grinned in return, "One day I'll make you admit you want one, too."

As they waited for their drinks, Phoebe couldn't help but feel lucky to have a friend like Marcy who always knew how to make even the most stressful of mornings more bearable.

This particular morning was a little different than most. Not because of work. Phoebe needed to give a presentation to a company that was considering buying the one she worked for. That was stressful, but had happened before. They'd been bought twice, merging with someone bigger each time.

Stressful, but not out of the ballpark for what she knew she could do. Her stress came from something else. It came from the fact that today was the anniversary of when she'd first had a macchiato. Of the day that she'd smiled at the man behind the counter, and told him to surprise her.

He'd slid that coffee across the counter to her. Their hands had softly touched. She'd smiled at him, feeling his heart race through his wrist.

It had been raining, that day.

The wind had torn down a powerline, without breaking the current. The live tower had hit a tree and burst it into flames. There was a short moment, and then the entire tree had exploded as the sap inside ignited.

The entire front of the cafe had been ripped to shreds. She hadn't even known his name. Not yet. The two of them had just been flirting, beginning to know each other.

"Oh crud." Marcy whispered as she held both coffees in her hands, "That day, huh?"

Phoebe took her drink and smiled brightly, "You know, I can fake it like the best of them. Should have been a porn star."

"Don't joke. Not about this." Marcy said quietly, sympathetically.

She shook her head as they headed out of the store, and started walking across the road, "If I don't joke about it, I'm going to cry. Can't ruin my makeup before the big conference. I ain't a joker's bride."

Marcy went to say something else, but the ground beneath Phoebe vanished.

She screamed as she was suddenly plummeting through a swirling vortex of purple. She lost all orientation, caught in a tempest of light and shadow. Phoebe tumbling, flailing, as gravity seemed to pull in every direction at once.

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The air rushed past her, becoming a cacophony of wind - but also a whisper. A voice in her ears that she couldn't grasp, couldn't make out the words that were so urgently being uttered.

In the swirl of purple mist, she saw what looked like worlds colliding. One landscape crashing into another. Her braid came undone, hair whipping into her face. A forest of crystalline trees, leaves shimmering like diamonds, buried beneath a desert that rolled over itself before becoming a mountain range, only to be buried beneath an ocean of liquid silver.

Phoebe couldn't tell if she was falling or flying. The boundary between the two seemed as blurred and confusing as the things she could see in all the chaos.

Time had no meaning. She couldn't tell if she was falling for a second, or for eternity. There was no thought of solidity, no concept of where she actually was. All of it was a dream, and a nightmare of her own death.

Was this just her life flashing before here eyes? Is this what people saw before they died?

Phoebe's stomach jerked, and she was suddenly grateful she never managed to so much as sip her coffee. She had nothing to throw up, as she felt like she was caught in an updraft.

Dirt and grass hit her face, and Phoebe stared in shock, as she found herself on the ground, again.

Unable to exactly stand up after all the tumbling, and still feeling nauseous, Phoebe rolled over and stared up at the sky. Blinking at birds chirping in the trees overhead, and a gentle breeze caressing her flushed face.

She had to look out of place. Black high-heeled shoes, a tight suit with a white shirt. She didn't have a tie, though. Phoebe's rebellion against the office life had come in the form of a black collar with steel studs in it.

Not exactly an outfit for the countryside.

The grass was soft, but there was something different about it. Phoebe rolled to her side, pressing her hand down on it tentatively. It was softer than the grass at home, but more than that, it was of a brighter green than she'd ever seen.

It almost seemed like each blade was luminescent. She'd never heard of grass practically glowing before. Then again... She'd never heard of someone falling through the damn ground.

A gentle breeze played with her hair, carrying the sound of birds chirping lightly. Not birds that she'd ever really heard before. Not that Phoebe needed much confirmation she was in a place that she didn't know.

She sat up slowly, still feeling shaken from her tumble and fall, but there was the question of where the hell she was, to answer. The landscape was entirely foreign to her, rolling hills dotted with sparkling wildflowers, melting into a forest.

The horizon was decorated with mountains, their peaks hidden in the cloudscape. The valley below featured a meandering river, but it wasn't blue or green, but completely clear in a way she'd never actually seen before.

Phoebe shielded her eyes to look up at the sun. The warmth she could feel wasn't like her home star. This was not Sol. The rays seemed to infuse her with strength and purpose. Telling her that she wasn't a lost tourist, she was an explorer.

She sniggered to herself, and looked around, "I'm in a friggin' RPG."

Phoebe stood there in silence, frowning and looking at the entire landscape. Thinking about how confused Marcy would be. Even if she hadn't seen the portal to another freaking world, Phoebe had completely disappeared on her.

Marcy would file a missing person's report. They were close enough, that way. They might just be work friends, but the two had spent years together. Camped out together a few times. Knew each other's likes and dislikes.

She nodded to herself, and whispered quietly to the air. It felt empty, and a little silly, but Phoebe did it all the same. "I promise you, Marcy. I promise that I'll find a way back."