The queen who wanted her kingdom back

Jordan was peacefully reading a book on her kindle when she heard a sound come from upstairs. She looked around, her mom was sitting on the couch on the other side of the room, watching something on her phone. Her dad and sister were at the store, picking up the food that they ordered.

“Did you hear that?” She asked her mom. 

“Hear what?” Her mom said. 

“Nothing,” Jordan said, maybe she was just imagining it. 

She resumed reading, ignoring the weird feeling she had.

There it was again, that noise. It sounded like something fell over. Maybe she should go check it out.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom.” She told her mom. Who hummed in response.

Jordan stood up and went upstairs, following where she heard the noise. She paused at the top of the stairs, waiting to hear the noise again. There. Jordan followed where the noise came from and stopped in front of the guest room, this is where the noise came from? Jordan thought as she opened the door. 

What she saw made her close the door immediately. She was expecting something to have fallen over, or a window to be open and the wind blowing really strong. She was not expecting something that looked like a portal to be in her house. A portal! 

After having calmed down, Jordan took a deep breath and opened the door again, she was curious. She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, keeping her eyes on the swirly thing on the far side of the room. How had she not known about this? How long had it been here? 

These were questions she asked herself as she took tentative steps toward the portal. She knelt down next to it, studying the weird thing in front of her. 

It was a bit bigger than her, white sparks, or at least, that’s what she thought they were, flying out of the white swirling oval shaped… thing. 

Jordan raised a hand to touch it, but quickly flinched away after a second. It didn’t really feel like anything, just like her hand was in midair, not touching anything. 

A gust of air came out of the portal and of course it tried to pull her in, Jordan, who, frankly had no idea what was happening, somehow kept a level head and calmly tried to resist. But almost as if she was in a movie or a book, she was pushed into the portal, the swirling mass closing behind her and leaving the room undisturbed, as if it had never been there.

Jordan opened her eyes and looked around, squinting from the bright light. Where am I? She thought. That’s when she remembered, she fell through a portal! Jordan looked around, she was laying on grass, surrounded by trees and fallen logs. Jordan looked up, the sun was about halfway up, even though back in the room, it was almost night.

Jordan rubbed her head, feeling a headache coming, she probably hit it when she fell through. 

“You’ve been asleep for a while.” A voice said somewhere to her left. 

Jordan jumped and scrambled to get up, looking around to see who had spoken. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” The voice said again as a figure hopped off of the pile of logs Jordan was facing.

The figure was… a raccoon? A talking raccoon? 

“You’re a…” Jordan started

“Raccoon yes. And I talk.” The raccoon said “Whenever someone falls through a portal, they have a hard time processing that. Are there not talking raccoons where you’re from?” 

“There aren't any animals that talk.” Jordan responded. She looked around. “Where am I?” 

“You’re in the Enchanted Forest, the portal brought you here. He has a weird sense of humor. Apparently he thought it would be fun to bring someone else from your world.” The raccoon stated.

“Someone else?” Jordan started. “Wait, the portal has a brain?” 

“Yes and no, he can decide what he does and doesn’t do, but he doesn’t have a brain or a body. He kind of just, is, you know?” 

Not really Jordan thought.

“And you’re not the first person from your world to come here either. The portal finds it funny to bring people here and show them around, and then send them back. I suspect it’s just because he wants to show people his castle, but don’t tell him I said that.” The raccoon added whispering. 

Jordan nodded, still trying to process everything. 

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Raymond. I was doing my daily patrol when I found you.” Raymond stuck out his hand, - Paw? Claw? - Jordan shook it. 

“My name’s Jordan.” 

“Nice to meet you Jordan. And if you don’t want to die, I’d suggest you come with me.” Raymond said as he turned around and started walking. 

“Don’t want to die?” Jordan asked, rushing to follow the raccoon.

“Yes, the evil queen’s knights usually patrol this area at this time of day.” Raymond stated matter-of-factly. 

Jordan nodded, trying not to trip over roots on the ground. “Where are we going exactly?” 

“To the queen's castle. Not the evil one, this one is nice and welcoming to everyone.” He added upon seeing the panicked face Jordan made, “She’s been trying to take back her kingdom, the evil queen stole it from her when she was a child.” The raccoon paused and looked around, probably making sure they weren’t being followed. “A lot of her people and her friends are fighting by her side to take it back.” Raymond paused again, “Maybe Portal thought that you could help us.”

“Me? Help you?” Jordan asked, bewildered. 

Raymond nodded as if this was completely normal. 

“How could I help? I don’t have any special powers or anything. I’m just… me.” Jordan said.

“That remains to be seen.” Raymond responded. “We’re almost there.”

Jordan nodded as they were no longer surrounded by trees and there was a camp, where all sorts of people and creatures sat and talked. A few of them had swords and were standing at the edges of the camp, probably guarding it Jordan thought. There were other animals that were walking around and people that looked poor and sad that were sitting around campfires.

Raymond led her into the camp and introduced her to a few people when he started to lead her to a tent. 

“Who do you want me to meet so bad?” Jordan asked, confused by the raccoon’s persistence to introduce her to someone. 

“You’ll see.” 

After a bit, they arrived at a tent that looked just the same as the other’s. 

“My queen, I brought someone I’d like to introduce you to.” Raymond said.

My queen!? Jordan thought, not expecting that. 

“Come in.” A fair and calming voice said. 

Raymond held aside one side of the opening and gestured for Jordan to walk through. Jordan couldn’t believe what was happening, she was about to meet a queen. Even though she was filled with nerves and she was still very confused, she stepped inside the tent to meet the queen who was trying to get her kingdom back.