Terra Greets A New Arrival

[Below is an archived version of one thread response to a LiveJournal post here, because LiveJournal became hard to impossible for me to access. Icons and threading not preserved, nor are other peoples' replies.]

[Lielac, Savior of Gielinor (notanerrandlady@livejournal.com)]
A partially open metal door appears in the Nexus by the sign, and a woman in a brownish platebody and chainskirt jumps backwards through it an instant later. She's got a spiked whip in one hand and in her other a large rectangular shield, painted orange and dented with three long diagonal claw-scratches, that she crouches behind like she expects a blow. Fire billows through the doorway and washes over the shield; most of it goes around her and dissipates without fuel, and what little goes over or under licks harmlessly at her winged and silvery helmet or armored red boots.

As soon as the flames vanish into the air the woman ducks behind the door, slams it shut with a full-body shove, and locks it with a key from a pouch on her belt. The door vanishes like it was never there the moment she takes her weight off it, and she looks around in surprise as she realizes she's not where she thought the door lead. "Oh goddammit," she mutters. "Again with the random kidnappings, I see."

She notices the sign, winces, and reads it, then loosely rolls up her whip and hooks it on her belt. "All right," she sighs, directing her words at nowhere in particular, "here's your question. What do you want me to do for you?"

It's asked in a tone of annoyed resignation, as by now she's used to being taken strange places by stranger people so her help can be demandedpolitely asked for, but she doesn't take her hand off the handle of her whip.