Chapter 451-460

Chapter 451
It was hard to move at first, then impossible not to. He was going home. To his new home. To the arms of his mate. And he had to make certain she was safe.

Mind fixed on her in the safe place, her surrounded by other Chimera and waiting for him, in this land that none of them knew, but where the humans could never reach them, Lhars stumbled forward, then as the Gateway blazed with blue-white light to guide him, he sprinted through.

He wasn’t sure how long he ran, but he knew when the Gateway urged him around a turn and into a side-tunnel towards a gateway.

Heart pounding with excitement and fear in equal measure, he sprinted down the short tunnel and launched himself through the gateway—straight some of the freshest air he’d ever smelled as he tumbled out of the gateway—which had opened about ten feet into the air—and dropped to the leaf-strewn dirt.

He’d had to catch himself, so he stayed crouched for a moment as the Gateway closed above his head and he took in his new surroundings.

He was in a forest. A lush forest, thick with greenery and damp with recent rain, though there was no water in the air now. To his right, a massive tree loomed far overhead, to wide to see around without moving. Ahead and to his left, many more trees—trees, and vines, underbrush.

He’d made an awkward grunt when he landed and the forest was quiet nearby. But he could hear the leaves in the canopy overhead rustling in a fresh breeze.