#2
The radio blazed to life in Jeffery's hand. "Hello, yes it's Austin. There's seems to have been a little mishap with the portal. We've sort of...lost you?"
Jeffery rubbed his left temple before bringing the comm to his dry lips. "L-Lost me? What do you mean by that?"
"Eh," the voice on the other end wavered, "well, you went through the gate and I sort of bumped the green button instead of the blue one. You uh, sling-shotted across the planet a couple times before landing where you are. How do you feel?"
Jeffery squeezed his eyes shut to concentrate. He wasn't missing any limbs, thankfully. "Uh, woozy. Head kind of hurts. Do you think workman's comp covers this?" Jefferey asked, sounding hopeful. He thought he heard a laugh.
"You kidding? I almost had my arm torn clean off and they still called me the better part of my recovery, asking if my pain was real. Bothered the doctors too. They are such a pain in the neck."
"Austin, our calls are on the record," Jeffery warned.
"But enough about me," Austin said, changing the subject, "let's talk about you! Can you describe where you are? Any landmarks, or signs, or anything?"
"Uh, there's not really a lot here," Jeffery commented as he slowly walked around. "Got a stream, some mountains, grass."
"What color is the grass? "
"G-Green," Jeffery frowned. "What does that have to do with anything? There's other colors?"
"Athrenos III grass is different than the grass you know. It changes color based on temperature and general weather patterns. Green is good, green is mild, green is not thundersnow."
"Thundersnow?!" Jeffery snapped. He paused off the comm to collect himself then, "How would I see the grass if there was thundersnow?"
"There's a reason it's not called snowthunder," Austin replied factually. "The thunder comes first, then the snow. A lot of it."
"You have an uncanny way of making me feel safe, Austin," Jeffery mentioned, not bothering to hide his sarcasm.
"Good," Austin replied, unfazed, "because you are not going to be safe until we find you. The native peoples of Athrenos III are not very friendly to outsiders. You might want to look for the high ground before they do. They are skilled at ambushing."
Jeffery eased his fingers off the buttons of the radio. It may have been paranoia, but he suddenly experienced the tingling sensation of being watched. "Good for them," he commented to himself. He pressed the comm again. "I'm going to climb one of these hills and try to find something more helpful."
"Roger that."
Jeffery hooked the radio to his belt and hopped over the shallow stream. He leaned into the incline of a hill to better climb it, feeling the small prickles of grass against his palms as he hoisted himself up. The climb was a little more work than he first anticipated but it wasn't long before he reached it's top. Green plains unfolded before him, crowned with thick columns of rock. The sky was painted with gray clouds that Jeffery prayed only meant rain. The land was truly beautiful in how untouched it was.
That was when he noticed a dot falling out of the sky. As it drew closer, he thought the dot looked kind of like a bird. The bird separated into two, steadily growing bigger until it was obvious they weren't birds. A flash of scales made Jeffery fumble for the radio. "Austin! Austin! Get me out of here! There's dragons, Austin! There. Are. DRAGONS!"