The electricity erupting in every direction from the point of contact, thunder splitting the air as the bear left the ground.
Not sideways or backwards, exactly straight upwards like a rocket.
The bear went vertical straight towards the sky, its furious roar dopplering upward as it cleared the canopy and disappeared into the sky above the trees, sparks still trailing from its body as it went.
The clearing went quiet.
The portal sat behind where the bear had been, undisturbed, its slow blue rotation completely uninterrupted, not a single inch displaced.
Sylvia landed on one knee, the last of the electricity fading from her body, and breathed once.
"okay.. its Safe now," she said quietly.
The silence that followed had the quality of four people whose brains were still loading.
Celia blinked. "She just..."
"Launched it," Gideon said. "Ninety degree no doubt."
