Chapter 7

When Blair, Brandon, Hal, and Giantray (who had insisted that she must come to wish them farewell) arrived at the gentotree in the forest, they were surprised by the size of the portal. It was already about  20cm larger in radius. Last time they were here, it didn’t even have space for Brandon’s shoulders to fit through. Now, Brandon would easily fit if he went in headfirst.

Giantray gasped. “It’s gotten so big! (The last time she had seen it was quite a while ago) Will it always expand this fast? What if it gets bigger than the tree?”

“It’s hard to tell,” Blair said with a slightly frustrated look on his face. “Within the first hour that we found it, it had grown from a tiny speck to the size of a soccer ball. It’s growing less rapidly now. I suspect that it will be growing at a steady, but slow pace within a day of its existence.”

“How do you know all this?” Giantray said, impressed. Blair’s eyes became wide a shiny as if he was extremely proud all of a sudden. “Oh, I’ve got stacks of books on portals… and usually a lot of time on my hands.” Giantray gave him a nod and he got back to business.

“Okay, we better make this quick shouldn’t we?” Blair mused.

“W-what do you mean?” Brandon stuttered, feeling the spot that the tooth-like thing and scraped him last time he was in the portal. It felt cold.

“Well, we want you in, and then on the other side as fast as possible. We don’t want it to happen like it did last time,” Blair said with a bit of a shiver. “The faster the better. So, could you just…”

Blair guided them a little farther away from the portal. “Okay so… got your stuff?” The two spies nodded. “Wait!” Giantray held up a little leather bag. “Before you go, take these.”

Inside, there was a rusty spoon, a can of green beans, and what looked like the claw of a big cat. “What are these?” Hal asked excitedly. “Magic items?”

“No!” Giantray replied rather loudly. “I would never give magic gifts. They are simple objects that could come of help during your… adventure.” Hal’s face dropped. “Um, sure. I’ll definitely use an ancient spoon for eating my expired green beans. I might even use the rotten fingernail as a back scratcher!”

Giantray gave him a dull stare. He looked back at her and quickly stuffed the gift package into his backpack. “Okay, I’m ready to hurdle myself into the mysterious portal.”

“Headfirst,” Brandon added.

“Make sure to get a running start,” Blair advised.

Hal backed up a bit more and put himself into a half-three point stance. Then, he ran.