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CHAPTER 6
The world turned black. Marcy suddenly felt sick, and then like she was being stretched, then squeezed, then compressed. The noise of a thousand waterfalls roared in her ears, deafening her. She shut her eyes and screamed, clapping her hands over her ears to shut out the noise. Spots danced in her vision, Marcy knew that she was dying, she screamed with all her might, she felt sucked into a hole in space and then--
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She tumbled out of the air into a pile of leaves. The first thing she thought was How did these leaves get in the library?
Her second thought was I’M NOT IN THE LIBRARY
Marcy suppressed a squeal and scooted up against a tree, looking around fearfully. She squealed when she touched the bark, and swiveled to look at it. It was tall and thick, and its bark was rough. Slimy moss and fungus grew in patches on it. “Why is there a tree here?” she almost screamed. “Where am I?!” She clambered over one of the roots and almost lost her footing, slipping on a patch of wet loam.
Her inner sensible spoke up. Now, the first thing to do when you are in a strange place is to keep calm. I just need to be calm.
A large black beetle scrambled over a stick in front of her, making crunching noises as it went. Marcy barely kept from screaming again and jumped to her feet. She slowly backed away, keeping her eyes on the beetle. It scuttled along, not noticing her. Turning, she ran blindly into the woods. Woods? a voice in the back of her mind whispered. You need to stop and check things out.
Not until I’m far away from that beetle, her inner girl said sternly. Marcy ran until she couldn’t run anymore. Panting and in need of water, she finally collapsed against another tree. It was smooth and the ground looked bug-free around it, so she sat down and put her head in her hands. Tears began to run down her cheeks. “Where am I?” she sobbed, not caring that her makeup ran. “How did I get here? Why am I here?”
Marcy cried until she had no tears left, wiped her face, and then began to think. She realized that she remembered her dream now, and that it was the dream which had prompted her to find the book and come to the woods. But why? she lamented. Why me? Sniffling and realizing she had nothing else to do, Marcy examined her surroundings.
The forest around her was beautiful. The trees were tall and had no low branches. Their bark varied from rough and dark brown to smooth and dirty white. Vines hung from a few trees and ivy or moss grew on others. The sunlight filtered through the trees, shafts of light falling in spots on the short, green undergrowth. But there was one thing that was wrong. Marcy sniffed the air. It smelled rotten, like meat that had sat outside for too long. She gagged. Nasty. Pulling her shirt up to cover her nose, she stood up and scrutinized the woods. What is making that awful smell? I don’t see any--she shivered--dead animals around here.
Suddenly she heard footsteps. She whirled around. Nothing was behind her. Still examining the woods to her back, she turned to face forward again and screamed. A boy stood just a few feet in front of her, checking her out with a calm expression. He was taller than her but looked her age, and had curly strawberry-blond hair and intelligent blue eyes. He was wearing a strange green shirt in a style Marcy had only seen in history books, and brown pants with tall boots. There was a leather satchel slung over his shoulder, and on his belt hung several pouches and bottles of various sizes. Marcy noticed he was wearing a sword on his hip, as well as a dagger.
All of this she registered in her first blink.
Marcy turned to run again and tripped over a tree root. She struggled to her feet, and continued running but only got a few more steps before tripping again. As she fell to her knees, she checked to see if the boy was still there. He was standing in the same place, watching her with a bemused expression. That made Marcy angry. She got up, determined to at least prove to the stupid boy that she could run, but a vine reached off of the ground and grabbed her ankle, pulling her down. She let out a small scream and tried to wrestle the vine off of her foot, but it was no use--the rebel vine had a strong grip. The boy walked over to her and watched her flounder, not saying a word. Marcy was fed up. “Um, hello?” she yelled. “Can you help me here? There’s a vine that grabbed my ankle and vines aren’t supposed to do that so can you help?!”
The boy looked at her, still not speaking.
“ARE YOU DEAF?” she yelled louder.
The boy winced and rubbed a finger in his ear. “No,” he said. He sounded like he didn’t care about anything. Marcy briefly wondered if he ever sounded differently.
“Then help me, stupid!” she said, glaring at him and pointing to the vine.
“But what if I was the one who put it there?” the boy asked idly, his mouth twitching upward. Marcy was infuriated. Idiot! Who does he think he is? And…how did he get this vine here?
“How? How did you get the vine to grab my leg?” she questioned, scared that he could do such a thing and annoyed that he still wasn’t helping her.
“By magic, of course.”
Marcy started to laugh. The boy just watched her. When she started to feel awkward, she wiped her eyes and said, “You’re funny. Did you seriously think I would believe you?”
He tilted his head lazily. “I saw you fall out of that portal. Where are you from, Starmel? Izna?”
What the… “Excuse me? Starnel and Inza, what are those places? Are they in another universe or something?”
Now the boy sat down, a look of interest on his face. “Who are you?” he asked, looking intently at her.
“Um, my name’s Marcy. What’s your name?”
“I’m Alex. What space are you from?” He crossed his legs and took off his satchel.
“Huh?”
“What space are you from?” he asked impatiently. “What world?”
“Uh, Earth, duh,” Marcy said. “Are their any other wor--oh no…where am I?” she demanded, a panicked feeling rising in her stomach.
“You’re in the Meila Forest, on Zogomath,” Alex answered. “How did you come here?”
“Well, I was at my aunt’s house for the summer and I had this dream and it said to find this book and I found it and pulled it off the shelf and kind of ended up here.” Watching Alex’s face for signs of disbelief, she was surprised to see none arise.
Instead, he sat back against the tree, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Hm….Your aunt’s house, you said? What’s her name?”
“Jenny--Jenny Stell.” Marcy shot him a suspicious look. “Why does it matter?”
“Just wondering.”
“Okay. Hey, do you by any chance know how I can get home?” she inquired. “The portal disappeared when I came out of it.”
“I’m afraid I don’t,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “But I think I know someone who can. Do you want to come with me? He might know how to get you back to Earth.”
Marcy shrugged. “Sure. You sure he knows a way back?”
“Positive. He came to your world, a long time ago, but that’s another story,” Alex said. Marcy thought she saw his eyes darken for a moment. The moment passed and his smile returned, and she thought she must have imagined it. “Shall we proceed?” Alex asked quickly in a mockingly formal tone as he stood up, bowed, and held out a hand to her.
Marcy decided he was trying to flirt. She had been around flirty guys, so Alex wasn’t a problem, although his formal style was a bit confusing. She decided the proper path was to roll with it. “Of course, dear sir,” she replied in an equally stuffy voice, taking his hand and allowing him to hoist her upward in a most un-romantic manner.
She told Alex the whole story about her summer ruined, the riddle, and eventually the portal in detail as they walked. The boy listened and made sympathetic noises at all the right times, even asking questions when she left out parts of her story. She began to like him. Obsessed with his kindness, she didn’t notice how friendly he became after she told him her aunt’s name.
Not once did it cross Marcy’s mind that he could not be trusted.
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After telling her whole story to Alex, Marcy lost her wind and they walked in silence for a while. “So, tell me about where I am. What is this place anyway?” she asked him.
“Well, to explain it to you clearly, I’ll have to back up a bit. Good thing we’re still awhile away from…my friend’s house.” He glanced at her. “This is going to sound like a history book, sorry about that.” Marcy shook her head to show that she didn’t care and Alex continued. “Not many people know this story anyway. They just have their own versions. So, a long time ago, when Earth was still young, the first people had a superior intellect given to them by the Giver--who created everything, even Earth. The Giver supplied these men and women with The Books. The Books are a sort of ‘instructions’ for the world. They told the first people what to name the animals, how do use the earth to grow food, how to make tools and how to bake, and most importantly, how to use magic. The men and women--called wizards and witches, names bestowed on them by the Giver--made portals to the other worlds the Giver had created.” Alex hopped down a small incline and helped Marcy down after him. “Am I making any sense?”
“Yeah, I can understand,” she answered, smiling at him. Her expression changed when she stepped in a puddle, and she delicately hopped around it. “So this Giver is like God?”
“If God means a supreme deity and creator, then yes.” Alex nodded. “So, like I was saying, the wizards and witches traveled to these other worlds and learned how to use magic to an even greater advantage. Oh, and the Giver named the worlds spaces. The wizards and witches populated most of the spaces, too. By then, only a few of the original people remained. The rest had forgotten magic and were simple beings, learning how to use the land on Earth and other spaces. Some spaces weren’t inhabitable, so they were forgotten or rarely visited. A few of them contained people with magical knowledge. Even now, the common person living in a major space like Earth knows at least the bare minimum about magic, like how to heal a small wound and how to start a fire. But the descendants and apprentices of the original wizards and witches knew powerful magic, how to move mountains and create valleys, how to set an entire hill on fire and how to bend the elements to their will, how to create life--and how to destroy it. Most of these became doers of good for the people. Some of them stayed on Earth and became what you call ‘scientists,’ researching the secrets of the universe under the ruse of human reasons. After all, I think that if a person in your world believes in magic, you put them in a special place, right?”
Marcy laughed. “Yeah, it’s called a mental asylum.”
“That’s right. Anyway, so that’s where you are. You’re in the Zogomath space. Isn’t it beautiful?” Alex looked at the lovely forest around them, a dreamy look on his face.
“Sure is,” she replied. “Only a few forests on Earth look like this, and they’re national preserves.” Marcy faintly noticed the rotting meat smell getting stronger. What is it with this place and that gross smell? “Hey Alex,” she said out loud, “have you noticed a really strong smell recently? It smells kind of like meat that’s been rotting for a long time.”
Alex looked at her blankly. “I don’t smell anything except for the honeysuckle.” He pointed at a curtain of honeysuckle hanging over a cave entrance. “Funny you asked, though. We’re here.”
Marcy looked at the cave. It was set in a small hill. Her vision wavered. She blinked. The cave seemed to change from the beautiful nook in the hill to a strange dark splotch. “Does that cave look weird to you?” she asked Alex.
With a concerned look, he put a hand on her forehead. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re acting strangely. Do you really want to follow through with this?”
“I feel fine,” Marcy said. Alex took his hand down. She slightly wished he had left it there. “Maybe it’s just a side effect of the portal travel? I don’t know. But anyway, I’m positive I want to get back home.” She looked at him hopefully.
“Okay,” he said. He brushed aside some of the honeysuckle drapes and ducked into the cave. “Follow me.”
Marcy only had to incline her head a little bit to enter the cave. It was darker than she expected. She looked back. The honeysuckle flickered like the cave had. She shook her head. Man, I’m acting weird. Wonder what’s making me do this stuff? “Come on.” Alex’s voice echoed in the darkness. A ball of light flared between them, floating in midair. It writhed like an otherworldly mist and let off an orange glow, casting an eerie light on them both.
“This way,” Alex said in a solemn tone. He began to walk toward the back of the cave. Marcy caught up to him. “Why so serious?” she asked in a playful voice.
There was silence for a while. She glanced at him. “You may want to be more quiet and less bubbly around my friend,” he announced, seeing her look. “He is…different than most.”
They walked in silence once again. Finally, not able to bear the silence, Marcy whispered, “This cave is longer than I thought it would be, and it seems like we’re going downward.”
“It’s reinforced by magic,” he replied. “Looks can be deceiving. Here’s my friend’s room. Remember what I told you.” Alex pulled aside a curtain bordered by light and held it open for her.
Marcy stepped into the room and gasped in surprise. GASP
Cliffy XD
I am so evil. :) I surprise even myself sometimes.
Can you guess who it is?
~~Zoë Wingfeather
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