Into The Wild: Chapter 1 - Carcharias

Nyghtingale's Note: This chapter takes place after the events of "Amara's Day Off", also written by Carcharias. It is not considered canon.

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Tessa woke abruptly. Something was wrong. She got up quietly and padded around the house. Her housemates were sleeping, everything was quiet and dark and undisturbed, but something was still wrong. There was an itch inside her mind and she didn’t know where it was coming from. It needed to be investigated.

She dressed quickly, spurning her usual heavy eye makeup in favor of haste, and grabbed her favorite runed switchblade on the way out the door. The itch in her mind was insistent, so she relaxed her usual control over her powers to let it tell her where she needed to go. She wandered randomly around campus, trying to figure out which direction felt the strongest, before setting off towards the cafeteria. ‘This better not be about pancakes.’

The itch led her away from the dining room and she followed a disused staircase down into the basement. As soon as she walked into the large open storage area, the itch directed her straight to where she was hoping it wouldn’t go. She walked over to the illusory wall that she had set up to block off one of the portals under the campus and laid her hand on it. ‘Something touched this. Tried to get through it. Fuck.’

Working quickly, Tessa unraveled the illusion, opening up the hallway deeper into the basement. As she looked down the hallway towards the room with the portal, she thought she saw something whip away and disappear into the room. She took off running, her tattoos lighting up, her switchblade pulling itself from her pocket and circling her head. As she rounded the corner towards the portal, she saw a long, heavy, green-scaled tail disappear down the center. She felt the portal’s energies dissipate; the glowing runes fading as it closed.

‘The Wilds.’

“Shit.”

**********

Tessa stood wearily. She stretched, her back cracking several times in protest of the hunched-over position she’d knelt in for the past several hours. She looked at the portal in disgust, but she’d done everything she could. It was time to call for reinforcements.

She made her way across campus to Amara’s apartment. She needed to get Amara and Vee together, maybe also Nick, and let them know what she had found before she fucked with the portal any more than she already had.

To Tessa’s surprise, Vee answered her knock at Amara’s door. “Hey Tessa. Are you okay?” she asked. “What… yeah,” Tessa replied. “I just needed to talk to Amara. And you. Is she in?” “Yeah, c’mon in.” Vee backed into the living room, holding the door for Tessa. She called out, “Hey babe! Tessa’s here!”

Tessa smirked to herself. Now there was a match that no one had seen coming. Amara and Vee had started dating after they got back from their vacation, and it was obvious to everyone that they were deeply in love and bonded to one another. Apparently, Vee had stayed the night, or maybe moved in, Tessa wasn’t sure. Either way, more power to them. She was happy to see her friends find that kind of connection in their lives.

Amara rounded the corner from the kitchen, and Tessa snorted. She was wearing an apron, like it was a 1950’s sitcom or something. “Hey Tess… are you okay?” Amara asked.

“Alright, that’s twice now. Why did you both ask that?”

“Um, this is the first time I’ve ever seen you without eyeliner. Like, we’ve known each other for almost two years, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen you without makeup. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Tessa had to admit that Amara had a good point. “Actually, no. I’m not, and I need to talk to you about it. Can you call Nick and have him come over too? Also, what’s with the housewife getup? Shouldn’t you be wearing heels and pearls to go with your apron there, June Cleaver?”

Amara smirked. “You’re just lucky that I used to watch old tv shows with my mom, or I wouldn’t get that reference. For your information, Madame Inquisitor, I thought I’d try my hand at baking. It’s surprisingly messy if you don’t have a lot of experience. But yeah, we can give Nick a call. My bread will be done in 40 minutes; we can make it a lunch date.”

“Sounds good to me; I missed breakfast. And coffee. Fuck. I missed coffee. Okay, now we have an emergency on our hands. Hey, can I borrow some makeup while we wait for Nick? I feel naked right now, and not the ‘wink wink nudge nudge’ kind of naked.”

Vee laughed. “You can borrow mine. It’s in the bathroom on the left side of the counter. Right side’s Amara’s. I’ll make some coffee to stave off your impending collapse.”

‘Holy shit! She actually DID move in!’ Tessa thought. “Thanks; I’ll be back in a minute.”

**********

            Forty-five minutes later, Tessa was being shaken awake by Nick. She sat up on Amara’s couch and looked around blearily before looking up at Nick. “Why’d you wake me up? You know I carry a knife, right?”

            Nick laughed. “You wouldn’t stab someone who’s bringing you coffee, would you?” he asked as he held up a steaming mug.

            “Depends on how bad the coffee is.” She took the mug and cradled it in her hands, taking a cautious sip of the hot beverage. “Okay, you’re off the hook this time.”

            “Oh thanks so much. I’ll let Vee know she did a good job. Come on, lunch is ready.”

            Tessa got up and made her way to the table where place settings had been laid out. ‘This is all very domestic. Vee must be a good influence on Amara.’

            At least Amara had ditched the apron. “Today for your dining pleasure, we have chicken parmesan sandwiches on freshly made ciabatta, hand-seared and flame broiled by yours truly, as well as a side salad prepared by my lovely assistant.” Vee smiled as Amara took a bow. “Tessa, do you want to talk business during or after lunch?”

            “During is fine. So, you know those portals we were looking into a while back?” Everyone’s smiles dropped off their faces as Tessa took a bite of her sandwich. “Fuck, this is good! You remember the one under the cafeteria with all the vines, and I told you it belonged to a jungle plane with pretty much every sort of cryptid you could imagine?”

            “The Wilds, yes,” Amara replied. She’d been holding her own sandwich halfway to her mouth, forgotten.

            “Yeah. Well, something came through.”

            “Some THING came through?” Vee asked sharply.

            “Yep. I had the hallway blocked off, so it didn’t get out, but still. I caught a glimpse of it as it went back through the portal. If I had to guess, I’d say it was the tail of a dragon, if such things exist. A big one. That’s not the problem though.”

            “A dragon came through a magic portal into our cafeteria,” Nick mused, “but that’s not the problem. If that isn’t the problem, please tell us what the problem is, because a dragon in the cafeteria seems like a pretty big problem to me.”

            Tessa rolled her eyes at him. “The problem, smartass, is that my wards around the portal were undisturbed. The problem is that the portal wasn’t opened from our side. Portals this complicated don’t open accidentally, which means that something from the other side made a conscious effort to open it. And that isn’t something you can prevent from happening without going through the portal to stop them.”