The Real Phantom Portal

''The Phantoms have found the demolished husk of a once legendary portal, and they plan to repair it and use it to conquer Jamaa's people once more. Ivy, an ordinary citizen of Neo-Jamaa Township, will soon discover the truth...''

Chapter 1 - Ivy
Jamaa Township has changed a lot in the last 985 years. It's full of skyscrapers, malls, and parks, powered all by wind and solar energy. It seems like a nice place, but life here is tough if you aren't a millionaire with a nice share of diamonds. Most people here have access to the Internet, but they rarely have access to proper nutrition. Ivy is just lucky to have a home.

She just finished with work today, and after paying her bills and taxes for the month, she barely has any money left to spend on anything else. She's tired of having to save every last gem just to get by, and today she's going to do something different: Something irresponsible, but fun nevertheless.

Ivy takes a different route today, and visits the high-speed railway station. Ivy waits patiently in line, and now finally it's her turn. There is no receptionist, only a simple machine.

The machine identifies Ivy, and displays a map of the various other train stations that Ivy can ride to. She selects the Lost Jungle of Zios, confirms her selection, and then the automatic transaction is complete: 700 gems is taken from Ivy's account. Then the machine spits out a train ticket, and Ivy carefully takes it. Now, all she has to do is wait.

There's a lot of other people waiting for the next train. Ivy doesn't have much to do, so she digs through her backpack. She finds a small mirror, and looks at herself through it.

She hasn't looked at herself in a while, actually, and it surprises her to see how much she has changed. Her light tan fur has gotten a bit darker, and there's a bit of hair sticking out of her ears. Her raccoon hat is also much more tattered than she expected it would be, but thankfully her wristband seems to be intact.

Ivy barely realizes it, but the train has already arrived. Another wolf calls out to her, telling her that it's time to go, and she quickly puts on her backpack and dashes for the boarding area. A Moderator tells her to wait before getting on the train, however, because they need to scan her luggage for anything that could possibly harmful.

Thankfully, her bag passes the scanners with no problem, and they let her board on the train last minute. Unfortunately, she has to sit all the way in the back since she missed her chance.

It's a high speed rail, and the bullet train takes off and then gets going at speeds over 200 miles an hour. It's Ivy's first time on a train like this, and even though looking out the window makes her dizzy, she can't help but watch the city fly by.

After a few minutes, the train has left the center of the city, and now all Ivy can see is suburbs and apartments. Eventually, these fade into empty fields, full of wind turbines and solar panels. After an hour or so, all Ivy can see is an expansive deciduous forest, full of hills and various species of oaks. Ivy eventually falls asleep.

Chapter 2 - A Concrete Jungle
Ivy wakes up a few hours later. Outside the window is a huge rainforest, with colorful birds darting between trees, mountains in the distance, and layers of fog and mist through the entire canopy. A few waterfalls can be seen cascading from the mountains, refracting the sun's light into many colorful arcs.

Soon, however, the jungle gives way to hotels, pools, clothing stores, and more buildings. This new resort is so big, Ivy can no longer see the jungle from her seat.

The train approaches another train station, and slows to a screeching halt. The doors fly open, and everyone rushes out into the new station. Ivy cautiously follows behind the crowd, and walks out into the hub of the resort. There's people, cars, billboards, and palm trees everywhere, but no jungle to be seen. She asks for directions, and a shopper points out the visitor center for her.

Inside the visitor center is a large map of the jungle. It covers almost three million square miles, with the resort right in the center. There are a few fun facts at the bottom of the map.

''Did you know? Jamaa's first civilized people were thought to live in this jungle! Some of their temples have been found, but surely there are more waiting to be discovered!''

Ivy could barely finish reading that fact when a young tiger pushed her out of the way...

At the receptionist's desk, Ivy saw a pamphlet for the various activities available at the resort. She turned it on, and it displayed a few holograms of cabins, swimming pools, ziplines, and river tube rides. According to the page's text, some of these activities cost several diamonds each, and renting a cabin costs half a dozen diamonds a day.

Ivy quickly put the pamphlet back, and mumbled to herself, "Jeez, I could barely afford to come here..."