Chapter 1

The Doorway

A young woman with her legs propped up was sitting on a chair. She said something into the phone when her mother walked into the room and then put her hand over the receiver.

“It Luke,” the young woman said to her mother’s questioning look, “He wants to know if I want to go camping with him and some friends up in Oregon. One of his friends has an uncle that owns land up there and they run a camp site on some of their property. They are going next week.”

“How are you going to get there and what about school for them?” the young woman’s mother asked as she plopped down into another chair.

“Luke’s father will be passing through here in a couple of days heading home back from a business trip and offered to stop by and pick me up. So by the time I get there they will be out of school. This is their last week,” answered the daughter, her long dark hair gracefully draped about her shoulders. Two blonde streaks fell across her right shoulder slightly covering her pleading brown eyes.

“I don’t see why not.”

“Yes, thank you!” the young women through her arms around her mother.

“Karina, before you go any where, how long are you going for?”

“About a week.”

“O.K. Do I know Luke’s friends?”

“Some. I don’t even know them all,” Karina shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the phone, “I can go Luke…Yes…okay see you in a couple of days.”

o0o0o

A young woman suddenly jumped up and whipped out her silver and blue flip phone from her back right pocket which had abruptly vibrated. She took a look at the front window before flipping it open.

“Hey Luke,” she answered as she brushed her brunet bangs out of her hazel eyes as she sat down on her bed.

“Guess what Nicole?! I finally found someone to fill that empty spot on out trip,” a loud voice talked through the cell phone.

“Who did you drag in this time?” she asked with a sly voice.

“Why, my cousin of course. No one else will ever go with me anywhere but her.”

“That’s nice. Does she have a name?”

“Duh. Her name is Karina. You’ll like her. I have to go now.”

“So soon.”

“Ya, I just wanted to call and let you know about Karina.”

“Well then. Bye.”

“Talk to ya later. Just make sure you get that paper done for school tomorrow. We wouldn’t want you to have to go to summer school.”

Nicole stuck her tongue out then closed the phone and set it down by her. She leaned over the edge of her bed and picked up her humongous textbook with a white paper sticking out and a pencil. She settled back on her bed and opened the textbook.

o0o0o

It was the dawning of a new day on the green shores of Oregon. The waves crashed into the rocky shore. A young woman and her friend leisurely walked along the cliff getting misted by the water. They watched with a great peace of mind as the golden sun rose over the leafy trees that they loved.

“So Bridget, what are we going to do this summer?” one of the girls asked as the sun shone off of the highlights in her brown hair.

The other girl, Bridget, pushed back a few stray strands of light brown hair before she replied, “I have a great idea, Anette. How about we go camping? Plus I’ve heard that there have been some tunnels found out in the McCabe camping site.”

“I knew there was a catch. I don’t want to get in trouble again. You always have to go looking for an adventure.”

“You only get in trouble if you get caught, but you are right. Maybe I shouldn’t take you since you are the one that is always getting us caught so that we do get in trouble.”

“No I’m not, and just to prove it to you I’ll go and we won’t get in trouble because of me.”

“Are you sure?”

“I said I was going so we are going and that is it.”

“Okay you said it, but just to let you know. We will be trespassing.”

“But that’s illegal. We’ll get in so much trouble if we get caught.”

“Anette, don’t be such a worry wart. Yep we will get into trouble if we’re caught, but what’s the fun of having an adventure if there is no risk of getting caught? Plus you said we were going and that was it.”

“You have a point there. So let’s start packing.”

The two girls ran from the Oceanside, collecting their belongings on the way, and ran to Anette’s cottage.

o0o0o

Anette opened the door to her parent’s cottage that was facing the Ireland shore.

“Is anyone here? I’m home!” Anette yelled as she entered her small four bedroom house followed by Bridget. No one answered. “Huh, that’s kind of weird I could have sworn my parents were here when I left this morning.”

“Your right Anette, but when as I was walking to the shore to meet you, I saw your parents leaving.”

“Oh yah thanks for reminding me Bridget, I totally forgot that my parents said they were going to town to get food and cleaning supplies for the house. So I’ll just leave them a note on the fridge.”

Dear Mom & Dad,

I’m going camping with Bridget for a week or so. So don’t worry about

me. I’ll bring my cell and call you if there are any problems. See ya soon.

Love Your Daughter,

Anette

Anette stuck the bright yellow note under the fruit magnet on the fridge and hurried to her bedroom to pack. Mean while, back in the kitchen, Bridget decided to start packing some food for their adventure. She grabbed water bottles, trail mix, dehydrated fruit, can beans and other food, a pan, a small pot, a map, a can opener, a lighter and matches. She was glad that they weren’t talking any food from the fridge for there wasn’t any. After Bridget finished packing she decided to chill on the couch and watch the TV. Thirty minutes later, Anette finally came out of her room with a bulging bag. Bridget could see clothes and blankets peeking out of holes in the bag.

“Took you long enough! I’m glad were not in a hurry!” said Bridget.

“Well, Bridget I couldn’t decide what to bring.”

“Well, it looks like you’re taking your whole closet!” Bridget started shaking uncontrollably with laughter. Offended a little bit by Bridget’s laughing Anette went into the pantry and placed some jerky and tuna into her bag, unaware that Bridget had already packed food.

“Anette,” Bridget said still watching TV. “I’ve all ready packed food. We just have to swing by my house to pick up a few things.”

“Ok, we can take my car and put the stuff in the back, walking to your house with all this stuff would take too long.”

Fifteen minutes later the girls arrived at Bridget’s abode. There was a cement path running up to the cream two story house. She ran in side grabbed a bag and was out the door in five minutes

“Wow, Bridget that was fast! It’s almost like you had this planned.”

“As a matter of fact I have been planning this little adventure for weeks. Ever since I heard that the McCabe Brothers had found the network of tunnels on their land and camp site.”

“So Bridget, point me in the right direction so we can start our adventure.”

The girls drove for quite some time away from the town. They came upon a turn off with many pot holes in the road, that hadn’t been fixed yet from last week’s storm, leading into the McCabe camp site. The girls took the turn off and drove down the bumpy road for about a mile until they came to the parking lot since they would be going in with out their car. The midday sun was falling as the girls unloaded the car and sat down to have a lunch of chesses and crackers. Once done they threw their bags on their backs and started hiking into the hilly forest. They stepped along unaware that they were not the only ones in the forest.

o0o0o

“Ok! Everyone listen up!” yelled a short boy with blonde hair that blew in the light breeze, “Now that we got camp mostly set up, we need to get firewood and get dinner started.”

“And who put you in charge, Ryan?” asked Luke.

“Well, me. I’m going to stay here with Mandy and Laura to get dinner started, since we are the only ones who can cook. No offense to you other people, but I’d rather have something edible.” Ryan joked. He started pointing in different directions, “Luke and Robert will go that way to collect firewood, Mae and Bea will go that way, and Nicole and Karina will go that way. And if you want to eat at all today be back before it gets dark. They rest of you can stay here and put the finishing touches on the camp.”

The crowd of teenagers all started off in their different directions with needed supplies in bags on their backs incase they became lost.

“Thanks for letting me come.” Karina said as she straitened from picking up a small pick of wood from the moss covered forest floor.

“You’re Welcome.” Nicole replied as she found her own small twig to start filling her arms with the needed firewood, “so Luke is your cousin, right?”

“Ya, he's my cousin.”

“Do you mind me asking how?”

“No, not at all. Our moms are sisters.”

“Well I hope I can get to know you better, because it sounds like I’ll be seeing you a lot.”

“Ya, Luke and I do a lot together even though we don’t live close to each other,” Karina smiled as she seemed to be reminiscing about past events.

“Yeah and I’m sure there is never a dull moment,” Nicole smiled back at Karina thinking to herself of all the trouble she had gotten into when she hung out with Luke.

o0o0o

Six hours later and a couple of wrong turns brought Anette and Bridget into what they thought was the heart of the forest. They are resting on a big boulder with their feet dangling in a small stream, trying to figure out where they were.

“Bridget! I thought you said you knew where this place was. But, instead of admitting you took a wrong turn somewhere, you made us keep going. Now it’s starting to get dark and we have no idea were we are!”

“I made you! I made you! Anette I didn’t make you do anything I told you to take out the map but no you said you trusted my judgment, so don’t go blaming me because were lost. And anyway we’re not lost I know exactly where we are.”

“Where?” she asked mockingly.

“In this emerald green forest of course!”

“Oh, I give up. Lets starts a fire and sleep here tonight and we can find the tunnels in the morning. Ok Bridget?”

“Okay.”

Bridget and Anette found a lot of good size branches around their camping sight and after using a couple of matches had a good blazing fire going. Little did they know that their fire would attract something much unexpected?

Not very far away from Anette and Bridget, Karina and Nicole were wandering in the forest looking everywhere for wood and all that they could find was a couple of small twigs, which their hands were already full of.

“Hey Nicole, I think we should go back to camp, because it is getting dark and it will be tough to find our way back.”

“You heard what Ryan said; we have to bring back wood or else we don’t get to eat and right now it looks like we won’t get any food.”

Just then the girls caught a whiff of what smelt like beans cooking. The girls, thinking that they had made it back to their camp, started to follow the smell and soon could see a dull fire flickering in the distance. As they made their way to the edge of the clearing, both girls realized that it was not their camp because they could see only two people moving about instead of the nine other people they came with. They decided to go check out the camp and see if the people looked friendly. If so, they would ask if they could stay until the morning when they could find their own camp.

Karina and Nicole approached the fire lit camp slowly until they caught sight of two girls cooking beans over a well lit fire. One of the girls was leaning over the pot with stray light brown hairs falling across her face into her hazel green eyes from her halfway pulled through ponytail as she stirred the beans. The other girl was sitting on a near by log. Her brunette ponytail swaged back and forth as she shock her head to something the first girl had said.

Nicole, trying to get a better look at the two girls only using the fire light, stepped in closer to get a better look. Her hands brushed against a nearby tree and she softly stepped nearer to the busy blaze. Karina reached out her hand to stop her and gently tugged her back out of the open. Suddenly a small crack rang in their ears. Nicole panically looked down at the broken twig under her foot. Startled she and Karina crouched under a bush to hide.

Meanwhile, Bridget and Anette were cooking their food by the fire when they suddenly had the feeling they were being watched. Anette looked around the small clearing they were in, but saw nothing. There. Anette thought she heard something coming from the bushes behind them. No. Now the noise came from the right of them. Crack! Bridget sat straight up as Anette jumped off the log and proceeded to run around their camp site.

“Aaah! We’re going to die. There’s an ax murder in the woods here to kill us! There are frightening creatures in the woods that can eat us alive in one bit and you said the fire would scare them away!” Anette yelled at the top of her lungs. At that moment Anette stumble over the log she was sitting on into a bush. She landed right on top of somebody. No not somebody but somebodies. Two girls stared back at Anette.

They looked a little younger than Anette and Bridget. One of the girls starred at Anette through her long dark brown hair with eyes as almost as dark. The other girl brushed back her short shiny brunette hair that had fallen into her face.

“What are you doing here spying on us? You almost gave me a heart attack,” Anette was very close to yelling as she stood up.

“We weren’t spying. Honestly; we got lost and just mistook your fire for our own camp fire,” the girl with the long hair rose, “I’m Karina.”

“Well…you seem honest enough. You better camp with us tonight and try to find your friends in the morning and I’m Bridget.” Bridget held out her hand to Karina.

“Yes! That would be awesome. Do you have anything we could eat? I’m starving!” the short brunette bounced up at the thought of food.

o0o0o

“Nicole, come on,” Karina yelled struggling to be heard over the pouring rain and the howling wind. The four had awakened to the top of their tent being blown away. They had grabbed their bags and started off into who knows what direction in search of shelter. The only problem was it was so dark they could barely see anything surrounding them and each other for that matter.

“I lost my CD player,” Nicole shouted back.

“Forget about it. We have more important stuff to worry about." Karina started pulling Nicole towards the faint light that was hopefully Bridget’s flashlight.

“Come on you guys. This way,” Anette grabbed Nicole’s other hand and dragged her to a distraught Bridget.

“We need to stay together. We can’t afford to lose each other in this storm. Let’s all link arms,” Bridget said as she took charge over the group to make sure that they stayed together.

“We’ve been walking around forever and two days,” Nicole complained, “I’m cold and it feels like a bunch of rocks are hitting my head. Stupid rain. Plus, this howling wind is making it worse. We need to find shelter right now or we’re all going to get sick and die." Karina could feel Nicole shivering violently next to her.

“I’m trying okaaaay,” Bridget retorted as the ground gave away beneath her. She fell down the hole dragging her screaming companies with her.

They collapsed on the floor, from the fall, one on top of another. Anette bounced as she hit the bottom and twisted away before Bridget landed on top of her from rolling off of Karina. Karina had Nicole land on her next, after Bridget rolled off, before she could move

“Nicole, will you please get off of me,” Karina’s muffled voice asked. Nicole shifted off of Karina and then helped her up.

“Ow. Is everyone all right?” came Bridget’s voice from somewhere to the right of Nicole and Karina.

“I’m okay, but I’m going to have a headache for a while.” Anette replied.

“I’m just fine and I’m finally out of the rain. Nice job Bridget,” Nicole said sarcastically.

“Easy for you to say, you didn’t have someone land on you. I think I’m officially covered in bruises from head to toe,” Karina mimicked Nicole’s sarcastic voice.

“Great the flashlight isn’t working,” Bridget said as she tried to get the flashlight to work.

“Is that light I see up ahead?” Anette asked.

“Ya, I see it too,” Nicole peered down the tunnel towards the light.

“Let’s go see what it is,” Anette started to walk towards the light with Nicole following right behind her.

“I don’t know. We have no idea where we are or what’s up there,” Bridget commented back.

“That’s exactly why we should go, but cautiously,” Karina followed after Nicole, “It doesn’t look to be that far ahead, but it is defiantly dim.”

“Alright. We’ll go check it out,” Bridget agreed seeing that she really didn’t have a choice anyways. It only took the girls about ten minutes to walk down the moist dimly lit tunnel to the light.

“What is it?” Nicole intoned.

“Looks like a door way with glowing fancy foreign writing around it,” Anette answered.

“Brilliant, Anette. Why don’t you add that it’s in an arc and there is no door,” Bridget’s voice was loaded heavily with sarcasm, “I want to know what it says.”

“It’s written in Honish,” Karina stated. “The doorway of Laurel. Friends enter. Enemies beware. Only the Quartet can enter freely to save Faih.”

As soon as Karina finished reading, the doorway began to glow with an eerier light. Everyone was momentarily blind by the dazzling white light that emanated from the doorway. Slowly the group walked forward into the newly opened entrance. Once everyone had walked through it, the ground started to shake and then everything went dark.

“O.K., what was that!?” Nicole asked shakily.

“I have no idea and I’m not sure I want to know,” Bridget replied.

“I’ve got the feeling we’re not in Oregon anymore,” Karina said, “Does anyone happen to have a pair of sparkling red high heeled shoes?”

“Ask Anette. She’s the one with the big bag. She probably packed a pair.” Bridget nodded towards Anette.

“I don’t have…Oh my,” Anette gasped. “We’re in a forest.”

“Where have you been, Anette?” Nicole looked at Anette with an "are you for real expression" on her face.

A dense forest surrounded the girls as they stood on a dirt path. Sunlight was just starting to peak though the trees. It seemed to be early morning. The road went out in front of them as far as they could see, but when they turned around it bended to the right, around a very large protruding bush. That is where the guy walked around right on them. He reminded the girls of the Renaissance Age they learned about in school with his white shirt and blue over shirt and pants.

“Hello,” Anette said friendly.

“Good morning,” the man said warily. “Who are you and what is it that you are … wearing!” The man’s mouth dropped open as he took in their outfits. All of them had on blue jeans with a colored shirt and jacket. Bridget wore a black shirt and a grey jacket. Anette had on her favorite yellow shirt and blue jacket. Nicole was wearing all pink and Karina had on a long sleeved green shirt and purple jacket.

“I’m Anette and they’re called jeans.”

“It can’t be. I never thought it would happen during my time,” the man stared rambling.

“What are you talking about?” Bridget inquired.

“Come with me quickly. Hurry, hurry. We must get you inside and changed into different clothes before someone sees,” the man beckoned as he started back down the path.

“Why should we go?” Bridget asked the man, “And what is your name?

“I am John and did you not come through the archway of Laurel or maybe you know it as the doorway,” John talked to them as though they should already know everything he was telling them. He talked fast like he was in a great hurry to get them out of the open and he shake a little bit from nervousness.

“Yes we did, but how do you know!?” Nicole exclaimed as her mouth dropped open.

“Come with me and I’ll explain everything to you,” John beckoned again waving his hand as if to hurry them up.

o0o0o

Comments: This is our first story and we wanted to get your feedback on what we have so far. If things don't make since please tell us.

This chapter was redone July 2006. For all first time readers if things don't make sense inbetween the chapter it is because we are fixing them, but please tell us so we know what to fix. Thanks.