IMPORTANT! Read Part One first. It's FREE. Part Two introduces the enigmatic 'Others' and follows John and Layla in their headlong flight across the frozen landscape, only to end up.... Well, you're just going to have to read it to find out, now aren't you?
This is the second part of the first John Smith, World Jumper book, entitled "Portal to Adventure." It is being published in serial format to allow easier reading on portable reading devices.
The John Smith series is conceived as a fast read adventure series, with romantic elements, in homage to such early "science fiction" authors as Edgar Rice Burroughs, but updated to incorporate certain more modern understandings of science while allowing the stories to still be fun and adventurous.
From the description of part one:
"Awakening from a severe head injury and amnesia in an allied hospital during World War I, "John Smith" quickly realizes he is not like other men. John can travel to parallel worlds, seemingly through the power of his own mind."
Check out the story so far, it's Free.
Excerpt
It must have been awkward for me to root around underneath the bouncing furs of my travois with mostly numb fingers but frankly, I did not notice. My eyes were locked in awe on the strange shapes of the approaching creatures and their method of conveyance. It was several full seconds before my brain processed enough of what I saw to allow me to even comprehend it.
They were multi-limbed, although at this distance I could not tell how many limbs, with a slightly oblong central body. I hesitate to compare them to spiders or octopi, because neither description does them justice, but the two animals serve as a point of reference.
Unlike arachnids, these creatures seemed at least as tall as a man, and perhaps half again more. The limbs extended downward from the body, spreading wide as they went. As far as I could tell the legs were flexible but without obvious joints.
Each set of limbs moved in a pattern I could not discern. The limbs alternated between being sinuous like a worm or snake when not bearing weight, to possessing a stilt-like rigidity when against the ground. To add to the strangeness of the locomotion the tips of the limbs also seemed to stretch toward the ground when preparing to step, and then retract away from it when lifting.
Of the details contained on the central body I could not recognize much at this distance. But one thing I could see was that, regardless of the terrain features the legs lifted them over, the bodies remained unnaturally stable. The only thing I can compare it to is the stability evidenced by a bird of prey in holding its head still when watching something from a great distance aloft while its wings and neck compensate for the buffeting of the wind.
Despite the fact that they were moving in our general direction, I got the distinct feeling that they were not as of yet aware of either Layla, the mammoths, or I. There were between ten and fifteen of the creatures, but not all of them were moving in the same direction. Periodically, one would stop and lower its body to the ground briefly before rising up and moving along a slightly different path.
I surmised that they were either grazing or searching for something, although initially I tended, out of optimism, toward the grazing hypothesis. Whatever they had been doing however, their behavior changed suddenly and dramatically when one of them came across the tracks of the mammoths.
Perhaps their initial slow pace had lulled me into the more relaxed state I had assumed while watching the creatures and observing their behavior. In any case, when their movement changed, it brought me out of my entrancement. At first one of them began moving rapidly up and down. If not for the legs, it would have reminded me of a ball bouncing.
The others stopped briefly and mimicked the first one’s behavior. I actually grinned, so comical it looked seeing the group bob up and down in unison. The grin was short lived however for, as a unit, they began moving towards us at a much higher rate of speed. Obviously, they were now quite aware of our presence. In short order, they would overtake us, and I could see no good coming from it.
“They’re coming!” I shouted in warning. Layla must have heard me because she...
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