Storybook Island

+ How to Use a Portal

*Abigail*

We stumbled out of the portal and collapsed onto the ground. I groaned and sat up. There was a pool of water beside us that rippled and glowed like the portal we had passed through. Is that where we came out of?

"Meghan?"

She rolled over and pushed herself up, groaning. She had a cut on her knee from where she hit the ground. "What the heck just happened?"

"I believe we just were transported into the book I put in the slot."

"And what book would that be?"

"A history textbook."

She raised an eyebrow, glaring at me. "So we could be anywhere in time?"

"Well, technically I think it was only on the 19th century so we're just somewhere around that time." I tried, hoping she'd see the glass half full. 

She didn't. "Oh. So we only are somewhere within a century. Right."

"My guess is we're at the start of the century. The portal probably took us to the very start of the book. That makes sense, right? So it's probably 1800." I looked around at my surroundings. We were in a forest, tall trees towering over us like giants. "Glad to see the portal works."

"Was it United States history?" Meghan asked, standing. 

I copied her, standing and brushing the dirt off my leggings. "I think it was World History."

"So we could be anywhere on the entire planet?"

I shrugged. "Probably. I don't know where the first chapter took place. But I don't think we're in Asia. Too cold to be Asia."

"Unless we're in northern Asia," she reminded, looking around, "We could be somewhere up there."

"We might not be in Africa, South America, or Australia."

"Oh good only three possible CONTINENTS we could be on. That narrows it down. Let's just look around, see if we can figure it out, okay?" She started walking off but I grabbed her arm.

She turned back around, sighing. "What?"

"It doesn't matter where we are. Let's head back and put in a different book. Somewhere we actually want to go to. We know how the portal works now."

She looked off through the trees but nodded. "Ok. How do we get back."

I pointed to the puddle where it shimmered like the space between the trees. "You want to go first?"

"No. You put the book in. You go in the sketchy puddle first."

I rolled my eyes, but she had a fair point. Carefully, I moved back to the puddle and dipped a toe in, expecting it to hit the ground beneath the water, but my foot just kept sinking. I drew back my leg and took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing!"

And jumped into it. 

I rolled out onto the ground in the cave. The portal glittered behind me, the book still in the slot. A few seconds later, Meghan tumbled through and grabbed her elbow, which she had bruised falling through. She just couldn't catch a break. 

I made my way over to the book and pulled it out of the slot. The portal flickered and went dark. "I guess as long as the book is in it, it stays open." I flipped to the first chapter. Germany, 1800. "We were in Germany. 1800. So it does start at the beginning of the book."

I glanced at my phone, eyes wide. "No time passed. I swear we were there for at least five minutes, minimum." 

"Me too. Maybe the portal ejects you right after you go through." 

I looked down at the cut on her knee, humming to myself. "If we get hurt, looks like we retain that injury when we come back to real life." 

She sighed. "Let me guess- if we die over in the fictional world, we die for real?" 

"Probably." 

Meghan frowned. "That's just great. What if our presence changes the story?" 

I opened up the book and scanned the first few pages and gasped. "It mentions us now!" 

"But does it in other copies of the book? Cause these are special." 

"I doubt it. But that is so cool. It's like having a story written about us." 

"It's like living fanfiction." 

I went over to the chest, putting the book back in, smiling and turning back to Meghan with mischevious eyes. "So? Where to next?"

"What do you mean, 'next'? We should get out of here. This is not normal... we need to tell Uncle Charlie!"

"What?" I shouted, "No! What if he doesn't let us come back?"

"That's probably a good idea. What if we went somewhere and we got hurt? Would we get hurt in real life?"

I shrugged. "Probably."

"And you don't see a problem with that?"

"We'll be careful. Come on, you owe me one," I begged.

She furrowed her brow. "From what?"

I was quiet. "I don't know but you probably do owe me for something. Just... please? This can be our thing! We can go awesome places all the time and explore... we live such boring lives. But this, this is something special."

She regarded me carefully, studying the hope in my eyes and the eagerness in my face. Loudly, she sighed. "Fine."

"You won't regret this!"

"I doubt that."