Four elephants, a turtle, an Alex, and a Cal

[between_worlds]

Alex hits the ground with a thump and groans.
He is somewhere, he has no idea where.
A thin, wide-eyed man wearing a tall, pointy hat is leaning over him.
The man says, "Umm, Archchancellor, I think we got the wrong one."
A deep voice off somewhere to Alex's left says, "Well, get on with it then Stibbons. Do it again."
Alex blinks several times and realizes the thin man is tugging on his arm, "Sorry, sorry, you need to get out of the circle."
Alex stumbles to feet and to the side of the circle, still dazed.
"What-" he starts to ask, but the man wearing the very strange hat is already chanting.
There is a flash of bright, almost-purple, almost-green light and the taste of smoke fills Alex's mouth.

Comments

[hearing_shadows]

Cal tugs at his handcuffs to no avail. The shadows are back in full force now, giving him a rather nasty headache. They titter at his plight and fill his mind with whispers, thick and noisy.

"Shut up," he mutters. This is ridiculous. It took Rick the better half of a year to catch him, and these harebrained policemen have done it in a matter of minutes.

[erinflight]

They are paraded in front of a jaded, tired looking man sitting behind a cluttered wooden desk.
"I am Commander Vimes and I want to know what you did."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal shrugs. He looks at Alex expectantly.

[between_worlds]

"It was an accident!"

[hearing_shadows]

Cal says nothing. The "accident" is Alex's doing, after all.

Besides, the man behind the desk is in charge, and that makes him Cal's enemy.

[between_worlds]

The man sighs and massages his forehead, "You accidentally knocked over a wall?"

[hearing_shadows]

Alex still isn't saying anything. What does he want Cal to say? Oh, we were going to hop over to a different universe using this magic necklace, but it took out an alleyway instead?

No thanks. Besides, he doesn't even know what happened, either.

Instead, Cal elbows Alex hard in the stomach.

[between_worlds]

Alex glares at him and then, hands still cuffed behind his back, awkwardly grabs onto Cal.
They vanish and reappear a block from the station and 15 feet in the air.

[hearing_shadows]

Shit, not this again. Cal bends his knees, bracing for impact, and manages to land in a roll.

The handcuffs around his wrists cut into his skin. He winces. At least nothing's broken.

[between_worlds]

Alex kicks of his shoe and turns around, managing to lean back and grab it with one hand.
"There's a knife in the sole, can you reach inside and get it?"

[hearing_shadows]

Cal grabs the knife, twisting around awkwardly as he does.

"A knife's not going to help with these," Cal says. They're bound by metal handcuffs, not rope.

Then again, Alex has a magic pendant. This could be a magic knife.

[between_worlds]

"Twist the handle to get the sheath off, hurry."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal does so.

[between_worlds]

The blade is a metallic, almost translucent white. It cuts through the metal cuffs as easily as a normal knife cuts through cloth.

[hearing_shadows]

After freeing the two of them from the cuffs, Cal hands the knife back to Alex somewhat reluctantly. He misses his own knife, but Alex's knife is too... light. He rubs at his chafed wrists. "Now what?"

[between_worlds]

"We run."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal can hear the patter of footsteps and policemen shouting.

Running. Running works for him.

So, they run.

[between_worlds]

This time, they have enough of a head start to slip away from the police. They duck into the empty, hollowed out shell of an abandoned building.

[hearing_shadows]

"What happened back there?" Cal asks. He scans the building for anything he can use as a weapon.

[between_worlds]

"We got arrested."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal presses his lips together, irritated. "The pendant, in the alley," he says.

[between_worlds]

"I don't know exactly. I think it's the local magic, or possibly the wizard's ritual."

[hearing_shadows]

"We're stuck here, then?"

[between_worlds]

"No. We'll just need to figure out what's wrong with my teleporter or find another way out."

[hearing_shadows]

"Another way out?"