Practically moments after Jarek stepped through the portal, he cursed his stupidity. He had just watched an old man and young woman become enveloped in some unknown portal, possibly disintegrated right before his eyes, and what was his first thought?
"Oh, I'll just go in after them." Not a care in the world, he jumped through. It wasn't like his life was lacking in problems without random events like this coming up. He had his survival to worry about. How to find work, make money enough to rent inns and but food, where to hunt, tracking down his master's - Tracking down
that man, and now
this?As he began to grow more aware of his surroundings, Jarek noticed that he thankfully was still alive. Well, sort of. All around him was a greenish color. It enveloped him, clinging to his skin like fog. He couldn't breath, be it because there was no air around him, or maybe because he didn't even have a body at this point. He couldn't tell. All he knew is that he was going somewhere, and fast. Was it the afterlife? Some sort of heaven? Possibly someplace worse?
For several minutes, maybe even longer, he was left in suspense, wondering where he was and what had happened to him. He wanted to scream, to lash out, do anything to break the monotony of the tunnel around him. And then, it ended.
He found himself face first on the cold stone floor of a hall. At first he was dazed, confused. Who wouldn't be? He stood, rubbing his bruised nose and cursing his luck. He tilted his head, looking down the hall. Candles burned around him on either side. Had someone been here recently? None of the candles were out, each burning brightly. He also noted that the girl and the old man were no where to be seen, but- yes, there it was again. Talking. Down the hall just a little ways, he could hear two people talking. One of them obviously sounded quite excited, or surprised. It was the voice of a woman. Perhaps she wasn't in danger after all. Maybe Jarek had just stumbled across something he shouldn't have. He turned, hoping to find the portal still there, only noticing now that there were multiple portals scattered across the hall.
Slowly, he turned back to face the voices. He wanted to get out of, well, wherever he was now, but he didn't want to risk teleporting someplace worse, like off the side of a cliff. Slowly, he inched forward, trying to get a good look at the two people speaking while remaining unseen by them. Holding his breath, he edged around the corner of the hall and leaned in to listen to the two speak.