<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="color: #BF80FF"><br/>Her heart beat hard and fast in her chest, threatening to break free from the bonds her body imposed. In her trembling hand, she held a scroll, tightly rolled up, just as it had been given her by the ragged, maloderous woman who'd sold it to her. A high price she'd paid, too, for a gateway to something she really had little taste for. Zaryana had been warned that the scroll's portal would be unpredictable, insomuch as there was no guarantee what realm she'd wind up in, once she stepped through the damnable thing. That fear of the unknown is what had her shaking with fear.<br/><br/>She could scarcely believe she was about to do this. Having grown up with parents who were addicted to the chase of a new realm, and a new untold treasure, she had once sworn to her grandmother, she'd never follow in their footsteps. But things were different now. On her death bed, Grandmother had implored Zarya to find her parents - the old woman hadn't wanted her granddaughter to be alone, and without family. Or without purpose.<br/><br/>And so it was, that a young half-elf, innocent of the general ways of the worlds, stood now, in a darkened forest clearing, close to the home she'd lived in all her life, with a scroll that would open a portal to another world, in an attempt to garner word of her parents' whereabouts, despite the significant disdain she had for such a thing.<br/><br/>Zarya took a few deep breaths, in an attempt to ready herself for what she once thought unthinkable. She silently cursed the vow her grandmother'd extracted as the life waned from her. She truly didn't want to do this; the thought of it sickened her. There was nothing else to do, but to just unroll the scroll, and speak the words inscribed upon the yellowed parchment. The young woman cursed silently under her breath, and carefully loosed the ribbon holding the scroll in its tight coil.<br/><br/>There was just enough light from the moon high overhead, to read by. And her tongue stumbled over the unfamiliar words scrawled on the unfurled page she held before her. As she uttered the last syllable, a portal shimmered into the airspace a few feet in front of her. She stared at it for long minutes. Without looking down at her hands - eyes transfixed on the portal to what she was fairly certain could be death - she rolled the scroll back up, and stuck it into the top flap of her travel bag.<br/><br/>More minutes passed. How many, she couldn't have said. Her breath hitched in her chest, and she broke out in a cold, nervous sweat. "Damn you, Grandmother." she said under her breath, in a tone full of affection rather than the venom one might expect to hear with such a curse. And she stepped into the one thing she'd swore she never would.<br/><br/>                                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br/><br/>The world was dark around her, and her clothing was wet all the way through from sweat. Disoriented, her stomach heaved violently, forcing her to double over and empty its contents in a most unladylike fashion, onto the ground. She shivered as a cool breeze caressed her sweat-soaked body, and sank to her knees beside the puddle of vomit. She trembled from head to toe, fighting a losing battle with wave after wave of vile nausea that struck her unrelentingly.<br/></span></span>