Chapter 7: Dorthy got ink.

Pov

James

When James and Jin went through the portal, they felt every atom of their body being ripped apart, and it felt as if their very essence was screaming out in agony.

James opened his eyes and what he saw was utterly foreign to him. He immediately noticed a few things. He was lying down; the sky was green, the sun was blue, and twelve visible moons varied in size in the sky.

"This is not Oklahoma, that's for sure," said James aloud, with absolute wonder enveloping every word.

"You can say that again, James," replied Jin. who was lying next to him with his hand still gripping his arm.

"Hey man can you let go of my arm," urged James as he turned his head to look him in the eyes.

"Of course, I'm sorry I don't even know why I grabbed you," Jin said with an awkward chuckle. "Hey, by the way, where is everyone else?" He said while setting up and looking around.

Both rise and look around, looking for their companions, but as far as they can see, it is just rolling hills and shin-high purple grass for miles in all directions. Their companions were nowhere to be seen.

An ice-cold shiver went down James's spine, panic rising inside his mind. 'No, no, they can't be gone,' He thought feverishly.

"Jin, we have to find them. There might be more of the damn goblins around."

James, now on guard, starts to scan the area much more closely. He gestures to jin to follow him with a wave of his hand. They then set off toward the direction of the sun.

Four hours later, after searching for miles in all directions, they could not see a single sign of their classmates, not the ones who were taking them or the ones that came with them.

Jin breathlessly says to James, "we have been searching for hours. The sun is about to set. We need to set up camp; we do not know if it will be cold tonight. We lack information on where we are, let alone our classmates. I promise we can pick it back up tomorrow.

Jin, who had been gathering firewood while they were looking for their classmates, had started collecting the tiny bits of wood he had gathered from the bushes and wild fauna to build a campfire.

Setting down next to Jin, the mask James always wore to hide his emotions finally shattered. Despair had finally set in. "Why did we stick together? Why are they not with us? It doesn't make sense. The only difference was… You were grabbing my arm before we entered."

James moves his hand to his arm where Jin had grabbed him. Lifting his sleeve, he saw a white skeletal hand tattoo on his bicep that wasn't there before.

James looked up at Jin "what the hell is this" he probed in an accusatory tone. Jin rushes over his eyes to glow a ghostly green like when he casts magic.

"That shouldn't be; you have mana now, not much, but you do. By the looks of it, I now have a small bit of aura." Jin remarked, his head cocked to the side in deep contemplation.

"This is just a theory, but when we go through the portal, it mixed us up a bit, and you got some of my mana, and I got some of your aura; at least, that's what I could gather using my skill menu."

James's lips pursed while he scratched his face. "So, using your skill, you can see that I have your mana, and you have my aura. Seems to be a useful skill, but that doesn't exactly explain my tattoo."

Jin threw his hands up in defeat, palms facing outward.

Causing a particular symbol to become visible and catch James' eye. "You have a yin-yang tattoo on the palm of your hand, the same one you grabbed me with, and it looks like we are both marked."

"This was not what I had in my mind for my first tattoo," Jin quipped with a bemused grin, his right eyebrow raising.

James started to laugh at Jin's unfunny joke. His laugh had a crazed sound to it. "Everything that has happened today and your first bit of dissatisfaction came from an unwanted tattoo. You have got to be shitting me. While I've been losing my mind at my inability to save anyone, you seem to be just taking it all in stride like it's just a regular fucking Tuesday. My teammates died right before my eyes. People I've seen every godamn day just gone." his voice rose in flection until it was a thunderous roar.

He slammed his fists into the ground, causing a three-meter-deep crater. James finally met Jin's eyes. What he saw made him come back to his senses. Jin, his best friend, looked terrified of him.

"It's my fault all of them are dead, and I didn't do anything. I've trained for years, and when someone needed me, I let them down with deadly consequences." James seemingly agonized over every word.

"James, how can you possibly blame yourself literally? No one could have done anything to save them. It happened too fast. If you failed them, then we all did. I literally got magic right before it happened. I've read stories where something like this happened, and I knew it might happen, and yet I could never have prepared for the onslaught that came for them." Jin protested.

"If you're to blame because you train every day, what do you call reading about things like that happening before and it actually happening, then fail to act anyway. I feel absolutely awful for what happened, but we need to continue for the ones left," Jin replied thoughtfully.

James listened intently to what Jin was saying while it didn't make him feel much better, at least now he knew that he wasn't the only one feeling the gravity of the situation.

"I'm sorry I blew up on you. It's just a lot. Maybe you get some sleep. Since we don't have any food, we will need to conserve our energy for tomorrow's search. I'll take the first watch, then wake you up in 4 hours.

Days pass with not finding a single bit of evidence of their classmate. On the Tenth day, they finally found a road. The road was poorly managed and just a small dirt pathway, but It was their first sign of civilization since they arrived. Far to the west, along the road, they saw smoke.

Having not eaten since they arrived, they had very little energy left, but this small sign of hope allowed them to shuffle the last couple of miles to what turned out to be a small farm village.

They both collapsed at the entrance to the village a small female child wearing a brown dress caught sight of them as they tumbled and ran to find her parent shouting the whole way. "Mom, come here; strange men fell on the road."

A few sets of footsteps approached them with great speed. They caught snippets of sound, a swish of a dress, heavy breathing, and the pitter-patter of small feat.

The last thing they heard before losing consciousness was a female voice saying. "Humes out here. How? Why? Bring them inside; hurry, they look half dead."