OtherWorldly Page 5

Marc blinked and staggered backwards. When the blue haze of light cleared from his eyes, he was not standing in a dimmed room, he was standing by a small house made from dark coloured wood on a rocky terrain under a bright blue sky of an early summer’s day. ‘Wh- What happened?’ he almost shouted, as his mind found the solution: Tia had teleported him, along with her, to Souca. He glanced across at her, and she was once more kneeling on the ground with her head in her hands. ‘I’m so sorry’ she pleaded. ‘I said the spell wrong and now you’re here. I should have practiced first’ he opened his mouth to try and explain that he wasn’t angry or upset, but she spoke again. ‘Don’t worry; I’ll get you back as soon as I can. I’ll break my arm if it’ll he-’ he took her by the shoulders and stood her up. ‘Don’t do anything like that, I’m not mad at you, I was actually curious what Souca looked like, don’t worry, I won’t miss anything for a while.’ Her panic seemed to ease. ‘Won’t anyone miss you?’ she asked, still in fear of accidentally taking him away from home and not being able to bring him back. ‘No’ he released his grip on her shoulders. ‘I don’t have any family, or close friends; I doubt I’m even on the national records.’ He smiled encouragingly. ‘So where are we?’ ever since he had learned of this world, he had been so curious about it, and now he couldn’t hold back all of his curiosity. She reached under the scarf again and bought out the map of Souca she had shown him at the beginning. She unfolded the crinkled paper and pointed to the western island. ‘Here’ she stated, pointing to the mountains, ‘is the Ridges, and here,’ her finger trailed along an imaginary path as if she knew it by heart, ‘Is where we are now.’

‘This, well, used to be my family’s holiday home.’ She sighed and shook her head quickly, as if shaking away a bad thought. ‘We lived on the western side of the country; West Souca is divided by a river, which makes it good for trading.’ Marc saw the river on the map and questioned what she was pointing at. She smiled. ‘These are two ports on each side of the river, my house is near the western port, and it’s probably derelict now.’ She said with a sigh. She hadn’t talked of her family much, and it sounded like she hadn’t any at all, using words like they were and used to be. ‘So where is your family now?’ Marc asked, wanting to get to the reason why she looked so sad and guilty when she looked at the small wooden cabin, and why she quickly shook her head whenever she looked at it. ‘My parents died when I was 6, here, on the way to the Ridges. I took their map and found my way there on my own; it’s not far from here actually.’

He decided not to press her for information and asked in a brighter tone ‘Are we going to the Ridges now?’ She half-smiled. ‘Yeah, I should see what has been happening there for the month or so that I’ve been away, come on!’ she took a hesitant look at the map and started walking behind the house. Once they were on the shaded side of the little cabin, Marc noticed a small stable block and wondered if they were riding there. When they entered the small stable, he saw that there was a door on the opposite side of the room. Tia headed for the door and, when she came to the rusty lock, her hand glowed blue and formed the shape of a key in the blue energy. Tia’s face set in concentration and the blue energy key-shape cooled into a key made of new brass. She breathed a sigh of relief when the blue energy disappeared. She took the new key and fitted it into the lock, which looked much sturdier close up. It opened with a click and the door swung open, revealing a small clearing in the tall trees and a cave cut into the mountainside. She beckoned him to follow her into the cave. Once he entered, he realised that it wasn’t a cave or a tunnel, but a long archway. All this designed to hide this new path, no doubt he thought. Once they were back in the sunlight, Tia took the left hand route of a small crossroads and they carried on up the mountain.