Jenny’s voice, soft and excited, echoing through the kitchen one evening:
“There’s a legend, you know. About a creature called the Loch Ness Monster. Some say it’s real. That it’s the last of its kind. Lost. Alone. Trapped.”
Orion had laughed at the time, thinking about humans who couldn’t figure out if a giant creature was in their water or not. What must it be like to be so blind?
And then Dolph—eyes bright with defiance—had asked the question that had spiraled into an argument:
“But what if it’s from here? From our world? And it just… got left behind?”
“Then we should help it,” Juno had said, serious as only a little brother could be. “We’re protectors, aren’t we? Isn’t that what you always tell us?”
Orion’s gut twisted.
The vision faded from the water, but the truth was already clear.
They hadn’t just found the map.
They had used it.
He could feel it in his bones. The same feeling he’d had the first time Dolph swam too far into the tide caves. The same chill he had felt the day Juno vanished from the docks, chasing after a sea monkey.
But this time…
They’d gone to Earth.
Through an unregulated portal.
To find a creature that wasn’t even confirmed real.
And they had brought an alien with them.
“Stars above,” he groaned. “They’ve actually done it.”
A slow, icy dread wrapped around his chest, pulling tight.
Because he knew something the boys didn’t.
Ancient portals to Earth were unstable.
Interference between the two realms could create distortion—trap energy. Close access.
And if that happened…
They’d be stranded.
He pressed his hand to the frame again, as if willing the portal map to reappear and tell him this was all a mistake. A false lead. A prank.
But he knew better.
He knew his sons.
And they were reckless enough to try to save a mythical creature.
Be heroes.
Just like their parents.
But who would save them?
