24
The portal is colder than the other portals I’ve been through, the ones that take you from place to place on earth. It feels like I’m wading through a pool of ice water. When I step into the air it takes me a moment to realize I’ve arrived; this place is just as cold as the portal space.
Before me is tundra, like something you’d see on National Geographic about the Mongolian Steppes. There aren’t any trees and the plants are just scrub brush. A wind rips through me that chills me to the bone.
Far in the distance is a herd of horses, racing toward me. They’re a wild bunch, but each has a coat of blinding white hair. I blink. No. Not horses. It can’t be. Each has a horn on its head. “There are not unicorns here,” I say aloud.
“There absolutely are,” a voice says behind me, and I whirl
