Roland waited, realizing his opportunity to talk with Edmar was gone, perhaps forever. What could he do, now?
Not much, he reluctantly admitted. There was no way down, no way back home unless he followed the giants through whatever portal the Void opened to bring them to his world.
He frowned. The only thing he could do now was warn his home, and prepare them.
The door to the Darkness was closed, but it had given Roland an idea. He had been focused on waiting for Jimmy's portal-makers to work, and had never entertained the possibility of getting back another way, except perhaps by Leviathan.
However… he knew he could get home from the Darkness using his necklace. And if the halfling's portal into the Darkness had worked, it was likely that his could, too. One portal into the Darkness, and then, one home. He never would have used it, for fear of encountering the Void.
But right now, the Void wasn't in that world. It was in this one. And though it had been distracted before, dealing with the giants, the chances of him remaining unnoticed if he followed it through a portal of its making were practically nothing.
"Judah, want to come?" He whispered. He had no idea where he would be in the real world. He had hiked an eternally long day and eternally long night from the shore, and then gone many miles on his cat friend.
He didn't even know where the corresponding shore he hiked from would be in his own world. An extremely fast mount would be an unspeakable help in making it home… provided he could figure out where he was.
The large creature emerged from the shadows to chirp at Roland.
"I hope that's a yes." He recalled how horses refused to enter the Darkness, causing the Rhone to own very few of the animals. He hoped Judah was braver. Surely a predator like him had nothing to fear.
He backed further away from the giants, who were still enthralled with looking down into the hole.
With one hand, he grabbed his mother's necklace. With the other he snapped as he concentrated. A portal of Darkness appeared in front of him.
Hesitantly, he put his hand into it, to make sure he wasn't about to walk directly into a tree on the other side. There was nothing, and Roland sighed lightly.
A chirp sounded beside him as Judah nudged his face under Roland's arm.
"I'd better hold onto you so I don't lose you in the dark." The man whispered. He wished he had a torch, but he didn't want to wait or take the chance on drawing the giants' attention. He also didn't want to delay long enough for the Void to return.
He gripped Judah's fur at the base of the neck, and together, the two stepped into the Darkness.
It was just as terrible as Roland remembered. No sound, no light, save his slightly glowing necklace.
He felt a rumble in Judah's chest, but heard nothing. He hoped there was nothing out there for the cat to react to.
The portal behind them closed. Snapping again, he opened a second door, out of the Darkness. It was shockingly, blindingly bright. Roland hadn't realized until this moment how the Pink Sky world was subtly dimmer than his own. And of course, any light seemed all the brighter after the Darkness.
Judah surged forward, eager to be out of the strange place, and Roland moved with him.
They stepped into his world, and he breathed deeply of the air of his home.
Icy, frigid air.
Blinking, he waited several moments for his eyes to adjust. Light was glinting off of the bright snow he stood on.
Judah was emanating a sound between a hiss and a growl. It was startling and terrible.
The cat lunged forward, and Roland lost his grip on the animal, slipping and falling into the powdery surface of the ground.
"Wha–" He had no chance to finish his question, as he watched the cat dash madly after something dipping behind a rock and fleeing the predator.
Looking up, he could hardly tell the sun's position behind the clouds. Was it morning here? Afternoon? It was hard to know North from South without some view of the sky. He was on his hands and knees on a hill. Ahead of him, towering mountains.
Behind, a frozen tundra, as far as he could see. He quickly pulled his extra clothes out of his pack and layered them over what he had on. It was freezing. The temperature in Pink Sky World had been a humid, sweltering affair, with some relief in the night.
The shock to his system was extreme. And now, he was utterly alone.
"Judah?" He called. Without the creature's help, Roland would surely freeze to death before nightfall… whenever that was.
There was no way he could hike through the mountains, and no shelter visible across the tundra. There were no trees in sight to even make a fire for warmth. He could melt snow for water to drink, but he had only a little food in his pack.
Apparently Judah was going to hunt his own.
Roland frowned. The cats he'd known were silent predators, sneaking up on their prey before pouncing. Judah's loud hiss was more characteristic of facing a threat than hunting something to eat.
He shuddered. What threats lived in these mountains that could provoke such a reaction from Judah? It was an unnerving thought indeed.
The extra clothes helped ward off the cold, but only the tiniest amount.
Roland sighed, his icy breath winding like smoke before him. He supposed he should at least look for a cave for shelter, to get out of the wind. With a look around, he might even find some trees to burn.
He took a drink from his water skin before what was inside it could turn cold.
His boots, thankfully, were sturdy and waterproof.
Step by step, he made his way towards the nearest outcropping of rock, down the hill and towards the mountain range. The way before him seemed impassable, but Mayra and Finn had climbed mountains before. Perhaps he could too.
He realized after a time that it must be early in the morning; the day around him was getting brighter.
"At least I have time before it gets too dark to find my way," He muttered to himself.
There was no obvious shelter to be found. The cliffs were sheer, the makeshift path up them narrow. At least he had a way forward. One foot in front of the other, he trudged upward.
At the crest of a tall hill, he paused for breath and fished out a dry cracker from his pack for food. The water skin he had kept inside his clothes to keep it from freezing, and drank some of it too.
A stream of curses caught his attention, and he wondered if he were imagining voices on the wind.
"You odious creature! Let me go! I'll kill you!"
Roland passed his hand over his eyes. In the snow, it was hard to figure out which direction the sound was coming from, if indeed it was real.
A growl behind him made him spin, and a strange sight met his eyes.
An enormous pale grey cat, with a face striped white, covered in white spots. From its mouth dangled an angry halfling… the same one that had been with Edmar and the giants.
"How dare you! You will be punished for this!" The little man railed.
Roland took a step back. The cat dropped the halfling, who was bleeding from being trapped within the beast's three rows of gleaming teeth. It set one of its forepaws on the screaming little man to keep him in place despite his protests and chirped happily at Roland.
Roland blinked several times. "Judah?"
No animal in his world had six powerful legs, a spike for a tail, and chirped at him. But…
"How did you change color?"
Judah sniffed as if the answer should be obvious, and Roland shook his head. It seemed his large friend still had surprises.
"What did you find?"
"What do I look like??" the halfling raged, struggling against the large paw that held him down.
"I'm not sure. I knew a cat that would bring me beheaded mice occasionally as gifts." Roland couldn't resist making the comparison.
Judah obligingly lowered his jaws around the halfling's head to rip it off without ceremony, but the man rushed forward to stop him.
"It was a joke, I don't actually want you to rip his head off… just yet." Roland grimaced. Killing the halfling might yet become necessary.
"I know you," The halfling spat. "The traitorous grandson."
"That was not my grandmother. Are you a slave, still bound to it, or do you serve willingly?" He asked the most important question, at least to him, first.
"I am no slave. I serve willingly. The Void is powerful and will crush you all. There is no point in resisting." The halfling said.