One step was on temple stone. The next was soft grass. No transition, no warning. The world had compressed into a blur of color and sound, then snapped open again like a book mid-page.

  Lillyth stumbled slightly, her breath catching in her throat. She had never seen a portal in person. She’d never felt the way it unmade reality around her before.

  “Whoa, your cat got heavy..” the strange elf muttered, glancing down. But there was no cat in her arms now.

  Instead, a small elven girl with tan skin and wild red hair lay curled against her chest. A scar slashing down her right eye as she blinked sleepily.

  “Oh my gods!” Aeyona yelped. Her face flushed scarlet.

  “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to change your cat! How did.. what did.. I can fix it, I swear.” She fumbled out in panic.

  “Marvel, are you ok?” Lillyth helped the girl lay marvel on the grass. She looked sick and dizzy from the trip.

  “Does your cat do this often? And her name is Marvel?” asked the woman, still flustered and confused.

  “Short for Marvelous” Marvel said matter of factly, even through a cough and low whispers. Lillyth broke out in a grin of relief.

  She had known Marvel for almost a decade, most of that time was spent with little Marvel as a cat, or other occasional animals. The time Lillyth walked into a bear in her room was a less than favorite memory of hers.

  “She will be okay. Speaking of names, who are you? where are we?” Lillyth asked the woman as she began looking around. There was light snow even though it was warm.

  “Aeyona, you? And we’re not far…” The girl's voice trailed off as she looked behind Lillyth.

  It was then she really noticed where they were. She saw a statue on top of a hill a couple hundred yards from her.

  She recognized the statue immediately. It was a monument to Valoria, the goddess of death. Worshipped by the temples of Vinea to the north. Lillyth had heard a few times at the temple how similar the statues looked to herself.

  This particular monument was right outside of Varidias walls. She began looking at the buildings in the distance and realized they were not small farm homes. But instead, broken rubble from destroyed houses. She spun around to see what Aeyona was staring at.

  Behind her, the world was wrong.

  The grass ended in rubble. Walls that once stood tall around her city now lay in the river. Shattered stone drowning in muddy water. Fire smoldered in the distance. She could see the sharp black remains of once-bustling streets.

  Lillyth’s breath caught in her throat.

  Varidia was gone.

  Not damaged. Not broken.

  A Crater.

  Her knees hit the ground before she realized she’d collapsed. The warmth under her hands wasn't snow. It was ash. Her city, scattered on the wind. As well as everyone she had ever known. All the people she had spent her years healing and taking care of, gone.

  Dust.

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  “What happened?!” Lillyth exclaimed.

  “What did.. this? How long have we been gone?” Lillyth’s mind was reeling with questions, but this was all she could get out.

  “I found you moments ago at the most..” She looked around to get her bearings. Then they heard the sounds of groans and rubble moving.

  Aeyona saw the undead body shambling towards them first. On instinct, she summoned flames from her hands and hurled them. The bolt of fire blasted the zombie in what remained of the face. That sent it rolling backwards and tumbled into the river beside him.

  As it splashed and washed away another body stood up, and then another. More and more zombies began to discover the girls, and started to shamble towards them, faster and faster.

  "What the hell?" Lillyth asked nobody in general. Sheer dread chilled her to the core.

  She got back up with a little help from marvel and started backing away towards the temple behind them. Aeyona hurled another ball of fire at an oncoming corpse. As it hit with a small roar it burned away what was left.

  From the eruption of fire, as it impacted, spawned a spark of lightning that blasted towards two more. Tearing a hole through them as they too fell.

  "Huh..” Aeyona said, witnessing her work, "that's new."

  She turned towards Lillyth. Her disheveled blonde hair falling to her shoulders.

  "We probably need to leave again. Can you hold them off for a moment?" She asked.

  "How?" Lillyth replied nervously, she had never tried to harm anyone. Not even a petty fight with marvel.

  "Shit.. I don't know, a weapon, anything?" Aeyona replied. Trying not to let her rising panic and exhaustion show, but Lillyth could always tell with people.

  Suddenly marvel spoke up.

  "Can you get us away?" she asked, Then before hearing a reply, "Lilyth, help her." She then began walking slowly towards the ever increasing number of shambling corpses that had begun to notice them outside the city ruins.

  As the childlike elf made her way towards the nearest threat, the air started to spark with static. The sky immediately above her darkened with clouds that followed her. Suddenly the nearest undead remnant of her homeland came charging towards her.

  It did not make it far before it was met with a rapid series of lightning strikes from the clouds above. In a matter of seconds the dead remained still. Moments later another corpse was struck from above.

  As effective as this was, it took its toll on the small girl. Ever slightly more exhausted with each blast, and the spectacle only brought more unwanted attention. As a few more came rushing towards them they knew time was running out before they were outrun.

  Marvel looked back to see Aeyona trying and struggling to create an escape for them. With Lilyth standing there seeming to do nothing, but Marvel knew better.

  Marvel had very few choices left to buy time. So she pushed everything in her to accomplish at least that goal. To her luck, her body responded to her will.

  One step. Then another. Her skin shimmered. Bones shifted beneath tan flesh, melting, reforming.

  Claws burst through fingers. Red hair darkened and thickened into a pelt of gray fur. Her spine arched. Her jaw cracked open into a feline snarl.

  In seconds, the girl was gone. In her place was now a panther, sleek and silent.

  She didn’t wait. She leapt, colliding with the first corpse like a cannonball. Charred flesh tore, cold bones snapped, and dark blood sprayed across the grass.

  Another zombie fell beneath her fangs. But pain followed. Rotten hands clawed at her flanks. Then a hammer struck her ribs. Marvel snarled in pain.

  She didn’t stop. Couldn’t. Not while Lillyth stood unarmed. Not while the portal remained unfinished.

  As she stepped back she saw a small boy. He was missing half of his face, with large gashes across his chest. Neither of which slowed him down, his cold eyes paid no mind.

  He was holding a small hammer in his cold hands. He swung again at the large feline. Slow as death, he missed her. She backed up and then pounced on him to let him rest.

  She looked back and saw she had missed a corpse. Rushing towards them was a larger half orc. Burned and ripped half apart, but still striding towards the girls. They were too focused on trying to create a portal to notice.

  It seemed more and more like it would not happen in time, if at all. Marvel took off as fast as she could. Every ounce of panther muscle burning, trying to beat the large zombie to them.

  She did not make it in time.

  Aeyona could barely stand after the first two trips. Making a third trip felt impossible. Her legs trembled beneath her. Her magic was barely a flicker right now. Sparks danced on her fingertips but refused to form. The portal refused to obey.

  “Not now.” Aeyona pleaded under her breath.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, teeth gritted. Behind her, she heard the sickening thud of dead hands colliding with living flesh. The growls of the small cat girl, now ferocious.

  She hadn’t saved them just to let them die here.

  She refused.

  Aeyona scolded herself silently for not thinking this far. She knew her abilities were sporadic at best. As she tried to create her familiar blue portal to anywhere else, nothing besides a few sparks of energy appeared.

  She heard awful noises behind her, followed by loud heavy foot falls nearing closer and closer. She closed her eyes and focused on escape.

  A gasp escaped Lillyth’s lips. Aeyona opened her eyes, and there it was.

  Not her portal. Something else.

  Where there had been only air, shadows now swirled into a black oval, rimmed with flickering silver static. The magic didn’t feel like hers. It felt older. Sharper. Stolen.

  Three figures stepped through. Strangers.

  A dark-skinned elf with sharp eyes locked gazes with her. Confusion met confusion, but only for a heartbeat. His eyes shifted past her and widened.

  Then, without a word, he dove to the side.

  Then she felt the impact.