The portal closed behind Jess as she walked through it, closing her completely into a swirling, shimmering waterfall, a glistening vortex which corkscrewed far into the distance, ending at a singular point at the end of the vortex.
Jess, taking several cautious steps forward, began making her way to the end of the portal. Reaching out one arm, she ran her fingers across the surface of the portal wall, and realized that it was made of water, her fingertips breaking the surface, dipping into the cool liquid and dragging them through the water as she continued forward.
Jess had known many portals in her life; through books, manga, anime, or games, but none of them were quite what this portal was. Most were trippy or jarring, made up of many moving parts, disturbing imagery, or even just a bad design due to lazy writers. But there wasn't an ounce of laziness or flaw with this portal. It was beautiful and entrancing, a sense of majesty instilled in her more and more as she walked through it.
When Jess broke through the other side of the portal, she saw nothing but a bright flash of white, closing her eyes, and opening them again to find herself standing atop a hill in a new land.
The first thing Jess noticed was the sudden sensation of weight on her shoulders, as if something had appeared onto her body. Looking down at herself, Jess found that she was again wearing the same dark jeans and red anime t-shirt that she had been wearing when she and Dani went out to the grocery store, her black high top sneakers fitted as snuggly on her feet as she had always remembered them as being. Being back inside her old clothes brought a sense of sadness to her heart, a small part of her self reaching out to her old, comfortable life. Then, remembering why she was here in the first place, Jess let that thought go and looked ahead of and around herself, taking in her surroundings.
Grass fields stretched out all around her,hills and valleys climbing up and dipping down like waves in an ocean, creating a half-ring around a vast expanse of flatlands which ran for miles, tapering off into a wide beach in the distance, breaking off into an ocean that stretched around this island, stretching out as far as the eye could see.
Jess stood atop her small hill, her mouth fallen open in pure awe of this beautiful island. She couldn't believe the absolute beauty of this place, only wishing there was more color and life to be seen as well. Suddenly, all around her, popping up on every hill bordering the flatlands in the center, clusters of colorful flowers bloomed brightly, their colorful petals vibrant and bright in the early morning light. Flowers colored in purples, blues, and whites. Of reds, and yellows, and oranges, greens. All these beautiful dotting the hills all around her. Then, trees began to appear around these flowers, tall pine and oak trees, spruce and birch and dogwood. As well as elm trees, magnolia trees, apple trees, peach trees, and cherry trees; their trunks growing from the ground and expanding upwards, branches stretching outwards, leaves growing bright and fresh from their ends.
Jess, still unable to say a word, began to make her way down the hill she stood upon, looking out across the land at this sudden birth of vegetation. To her emense surprise, a stone path appeared below her sneaker-clad foot, the stone hard and unblemished, more and more pebbles popping up on the road surface as Jess continued walking forward. She climbed down into valleys and up hills, making her way past clusters of flowers and beneath the shaded branches of tree branches towards the center flatlands, her stone path loyally following underfoot the entire way. As she walked, she spotted a hopping blot of white between the trees next to her and realized to her utter delight that they were rabbits hopping around. Healthy, pure white rabbits hopping around merrily as if they didn't know or didn't care much that they had been manifested into existence only mere moments ago. Then, off in the distance, she saw a pair of deer walking carelessly and freely through one of the fields of flowers, stopping from time to time to lower their graceful necks to sniff at the flowers before continuing onward. She still hadn't fully processed the sheer magic of it all, unable, despite herself, to fully believe that it was truly happening, despite the sudden sound of bird song within the trees. Fat birds perched in the tree's limbs, others flying around in the air, circling the island contently.
Descending the last hill, Jess stepped into the flatlands, watching as her stone path began expanding out in front of her, growing out more and more until it had covered the entire epicenter of the island, turning the flatlands into a proper stone foundation. Jess remembered something then that Lastine had told her when explaining this place to her.
'After I send you away from this place, you will find yourself in a sort of Hub World, built from the ground up by your own imagination.'
That's what Lastine had said to her when explaining this Hub World. The flowers, the trees, the animals, and the stone path... was this what Lastine meant when she said 'built from the ground up by your own imagination'? Meaning... she could literally craft and mold this place within the limits of her own mind? Jess was dumbfounded, realizing the sheer potential in a place like this.