Quickly the fins and rolling curves were all about us.

They centered upon the portal, streamed through--a horde of the metal things, leading us, guarding us, playing about us.
And weird, unutterably weird was that spectacle--the vast and silent vale with its still, smooth vapors like a coverlet of cloud; the regal head of Norhala sweeping over them; the dull glint and gleam of the metal paradoxes flowing, in ordered motion, all about us; the titanic gateway, glowing before us.
We were at its threshold; over it..