"Your guess is a good as mine," Aran answered idly. She rubbed her thumb and fingers together. The pins and needles tingling of the portal effect was only just passing. "Perhaps we are all here by accident. Or perhaps some greater power is at work."

If this was some kind of divine intervention, that greater power had a lot of explaining to do.

She remembered the face of the Pandaren merchant who had sold her those faulty portal shards. Had that actually been a look of entrepreneurial smugness... or was it a knowing expression? She struggled to remember the conversation they'd had in the inn. She vaguely recalled saying something to the effect of how weary she was of fighting an endless enemy, and may have suggested she'd prefer to go anywhere but back to another pointless battlefield.

She hadn't been in the best frame of mind at the time. They had just lost Ysera, tragically. She'd felt the blow of the great drakes passing as if she herself had been the one who cast the deathblow. In fact, it was quite possible she had- they'd been fighting for their lives against the corruption they had made of her. When Ysera finally fell, Aran had felt a devastation the like of which had been rivaled only by the loss of her family.

Maybe that merchant knew exactly what he had been selling her after all.

“So you guys are, like, from another world? That’s, uh… wild.”

Logically, this wasn’t much of a stretch. He met magic users constantly; he just turned into a possum a few minutes ago! Alternate universes shouldn’t have surprised him, but here he was, completely flummoxed.

“Well, if it helps at all, my name’s Skye and I’m a familiar. I can, uh, turn into animals and eventually I’m going to work for a magic user and make their spells more powerful.”

He didn’t know if his identity would be of any use to them, but at least it was something.

Venson smiles. "What use are spells to a shapeshifter? Are you a shapeshifter too? Why do you need someone else to use your powers?" His eyes slide into slits, glowing a burning blue. He grins, bearing a mouth of razor fangs. He grows claws, and rakes them down a tree, leaving deep gorges.

“Well, I can’t really cast spells myself. It’s just what a familiar does, really; I don’t exactly question it,” Skye shrugged.

It looked like Scythe-guy could shapeshift as well; though much more freely. Skye flinched a little as the man scratched down a tree trunk, showing off his power.

“Yeah, I can’t do anything like that…”

To demonstrate, he poofed into the shape of a crow. He fluttered down to the ground, then turned back to human.

“That’s basically the extent of it. Also, I can talk to animals, which is nice. Crows are really cool.”

There was a pause in conversation, and it may or not have just been John, but it seemed a little longer than it probably actually was.

"Different dimensions?" He half spoke, half thought to himself. Where he was from, countless people and factions spent a great deal of time and resources digging up the past. This included not only history but also different methods of education, medicine, and science. The only time he had heard or read the word dimension was when he tried to learn mathematics, but he preferred to learn about combat and gaining physical strength instead.

He turned to the rest of the group "So are any of you from around here? Where is the nearest town?"

"i think most of us are from around here. the nearest town is a mile away or less" she made the light in her hand dissapear. "i think you might want to keep a distance seeing as you'll obviously be seen as a wierdo"

She was vaguely amused by the displays of shape-shifting being done. It was not an unknown thing in her world. Many people were capable of changing their forms, but the most famous for it were the druids, and the Kirin Tor mages. Or at least, Khadgar had a penchant for turning into a raven when he had to travel long distances. Even she could metamorphose into a demon in battle, although she wasn't about to demonstrate that here unless she was forced to. She didn't know anyone who was a true polymorph though. The boy seemed to be such, and she was intrigued.

"It's hard to say where or what this place is," Aran said when the general inquiry about their origins was posed. She glanced about at the trees. Even the magic here felt... different. "But I know it's not home. I arrived here more through mishap than intention. So... no. I'm not from around here. You could say I was a very long way from home."

At least she knew there was civilization nearby, or whatever this world's approximation of it was anyway.

"My name is Arancathria," she said then. "But most find it's easier to say Aran."

"How common is shapeshifting here?" He smiles, bearing needlepoint fangs.