Leonard Armstrong, or as everyone called him, Leo, woke up. He found himself in a strange place, different than the world he was used to.
He was sitting in some kind of grass plain, not far from a forest full of strange trees. Those trees, maybe because of the breeze, seemed to dance, as if they were enjoying a good moment.
With a buzzing sound, a large insect was flying around, and sounded upset when it had to dodge Leo. The insect stopped in a large and colourful flower, and started doing his work.
Not far, there was a river. He could hear the sound of the water flowing through the rocks. He thought of cleaning himself up from the sleepiness, so he got up and started to walk towards the sound of the river.
While walking, he thought of what that girl told him, that he might not want to go back to his world after being there, and he thought if everything was going to be like that, it could even turn out to be true.
He noticed how he still hadn't seen anyone. And wondered, more than anything, if that girl would still blue and translucent. With that question still in his head, he reached the river.
At the river, he started to clean his hands and face, and while he was at it, he noticed a shadow approaching from behind. He hadn’t heard anything, so he turned around somewhat scared. He saw a big animal, somewhat similar to a dog, but as big as a cow. Surprised to see such a big animal, and given he hadn’t heard any sound, Leo fell back into the river.
The water was a bit cold: Fresh enough to be good to drink, but also cold enough to reduce the size of your lower parts to that of a mere pea. That feeling reached Leo's head fast, and from his mouth came out a silent scream, while his head was deciding if it should react to the cold water around him, or the surprise of seeing that big, but apparently friendly, animal.
While his head was still undecided, he heard a laugh from behind that big animal. Suddenly, all those things became less important, and his unanswered question was again his main thought: Would that be the girl that brought him there? The girl then walked out from behind the animal, immediately answering the question and removing his doubts. While for while the thought of a blue girl was still interesting, what he actually saw was a lot better.
The girl was the same Liien he saw the day before, but instead of blue, she seemed golden. She had blonde hair which, with the sunlight reflecting on it, gave a golden shine. Her eyes were big and green, and added to her small nose and red lips, made what Leo thought of the cutest face he had ever seen. While not so apparent, given she was wearing simple clothes, he could not help but notice the rest of her body wasn't any less. At that moment, he didn’t mind being in cold water anymore.
When his brain was able to think again, he could not help but get really ashamed of the way things were: he was still sitting in the river, that big animal was looking at him with what an expression he could only describe as enjoyment, and the girl was look at him with a smiling face.
He got up from the river, and with a sigh, remembered he didn't take any clean clothes with him.
- Sorry, she scared you, but she seems to like you.
- She?
Ly pointed to the big animal with her hand.
- Yes, she... this is a female rhuun. We call her Kirh.
Then she looked at Leo's clothes, and sighed.
- You are all wet now... and those clothes really don't match this world anyway. We will have to go get something for you at my house. Follow me.
Leo followed Ly, partly wondering if all that was right, but accepting it as he couldn't do anything else. They didn't walk too much, but Leo felt really tired, and hungry.
The house was small, but comfortable. In the lower floor, there was a single room with a fire at the center. At the opposite side of the door, there were the stairs to go to the upper floor. They walked through the room, and up the stairs.
The upper floor was divided in four rooms, three bigger ones with beds, and a smaller one with the bathroom. Leo was surprised to find all the doors open, and left it was a lot different from how it was in his place, where everyone kept their rooms like if they had a secret no one else could see.
While they walked Liien was telling Leo about the house.
- This one is my parent's room, and the one in there is mine. This one used to be my brother’s, but no one uses it anymore.
- Your brother? Where is he now?
Right after saying that, leo regretted saying it... he hoped her brother wasn't dead or something like that.
- He married a few years ago. We never had any use for his room, so it's still the way he left it.
- Oh... - said Leo, while thinking "thank god".
Leo felt relieved, but still he couldn't avoid thinking some people would think that could be worse than death.
Ly walked into his brother's room.
- Come in. I'll find something for you to wear. My brother's clothes should fit you fine.
- Okay...
Leo followed Ly into the room, and he saw a really tidy room, a room that hadn't been used in a while.
Ly walked to the closet, and opened the drawers inside it, one by one, searching for something.
- Where is it now? Ah! There you are! - said Ly while taking something out from the drawer - Hold this. I'll also have to find you some pants.
Leo unfolded the clothing and saw it was like a long shirt. It was made from some kind of brown fabric which, while it didn't look too comfortable, it was actually really soft.
- I know it's not the type of robe you are used to, but this is what normal boys wear round here, and it's the best thing I could find so, until we go to the town, this will have to do... ah, these pants will do too - Ly handed Leo the pants -. I'll go get a towel from the bathroom.
Ly walked out of the room and returned with a white towel, handed it to Leo and walked out again, closing the door on her way. Leo undressed, dried his body, and put the clothes Ly gave him. He grabbed his wet clothes and went out of the room.
- I'm done. Do you have any mirror?
- Yes. In the bathroom, there. Give me those clothes; I'll put them to dry.
Leo walked into the bathroom and found it surprisingly similar to the bathrooms he was used to. The mirror was, as he expected, on top of the sink. Leo thought that was just the practical way.
He looked at himself into the mirror, and he thought he didn't look so bad, given the kind of clothes he was wearing, and the clothes were also comfortable, so he decided he could get used to them.
- You look good.
Ly was looking at him from the door. Leo was surprised she was already back, but didn't give any other thought to that.
- Thanks... for the clothes too.
- Let's go eat something. You must be hungry right now. From what I heard, sending your body to a different world seems to use a lot of energy.
- You... heard?
- I never traveled between worlds with my whole body. As you might have noticed I only sent my spirit to your world.
- Why?
- Because it's really hard to travel back without a point of reference. The soul, the link between your spirit and your body, is the strongest link known, so it becomes a really good path to follow when going back.
- I'm kind of lost there...
- Don't worry, my father is a teacher, you will learn a lot when he comes back tomorrow. For now, let's go eat.
Liien and Leo walked down the stairs to the lower floor.
- Now that I think of it... you have never seen magic yet, right? I mean, other than the teleportation.
- Nope.
- Look - Ly pointed to the fireplace in the center of the living room -. Daar.
With that single word, the fireplace burst into flames.
- Wow.
Liien smiled at Leo.
- It means 'burn' in the ancient language. When my father comes back, I will ask him to teach you a bit.
- Ok.
Liien walked to a closet in the side of the room, and when she opened it Leo could feel a cold air coming out of it. Then he saw a small icy ball inside.
- You see this? This world doesn't have too much technology, probably because we can do most things with magic instead. This is what they call a 'cold closet' (the inventor wasn’t known for his naming skills). It has the same function as a fridge in your world.
Ly started to cook, while Leo watched her, absorted in the thoughts of what he just learned.
When she was done cooking, she prepared the table, and invited Leo to sit in front of her.
Leo happily accepted, and they started to eat.
- Do you like it?
- Yeah, you cook well.
- Thanks!
Liien was good at cooking, she had learned from practice, as she had been many times alone in that house when her parents were out for work ("or whatever they do out there", he thought).
Even if Leo was actually hungry, he still ate less than Ly, and that made him wonder how she could fit so much in her small body.
- Ah... I'm full - said Ly with a hand on her belly-.
- Me too.
It was already getting dark outside. Leo first thought maybe days passed faster there, but then he remembered he didn't know what time was there when he woke up.
- I wonder... are days here longer, or shorter, than the ones in my world?
- Good question. I don't know. I have never been in your world for long so I don't know how long days are there. Also, we usually don’t have any need to measure time, and the ones who do use different units so, it's hard to tell. You will have time to check it tomorrow.
- Oh... okay, I suppose.
- Sorry you are probably used to watch TV or something like that after dinner... we don't have those in here. We could talk for a while before going to sleep, if you aren't too tired. I would like to know more about you.
- That would be nice. I also want to know about you... and your world.
Leo told Ly about his life, what he used to do in the other world, his friends and family. For a while, Leo could forget his shyness. When he couldn't think of anything else, he asked Ly to change places, so he could learn about the world he would be living in.
- As you have noticed, in this world we have magic. This magic is not something mystic or unknown in here. We know how it works, and we can control it... most times.
» There's energy in this world, that's similar to the substance spirits are made from. It's not physically here, in the sense it can't be measured or detected by technological means, but we can tell our spirits to use it, give it shape, and make it react with the physical things.
» In that sense, the spirit is also part of this magic, with the exception of our souls. The soul is something that binds our spirit with our body, it makes us one, and it makes us alive.
» Our magic is of many colors, like a rainbow. Actually, the spirit energy doesn't have colors, but our mind needs colors to understand images so, when looking through what we call the 'spiritual eye', our brain interprets it with colors.
» The color of the spirit says a lot about the kind of energies the person can control, and the intensity of this color tells you how powerful that person is.
» Red spirits are better at handling fire, electricity and other similar energies. Green spirits are better at changing the substances things are made of.. I think you call that alchemy, in your world. And last, Blue spirits, are better at playing with the space and time, like summoning and teleportation.
» Just like colors, spirits aren't always of a pure color, most people have spirits of mixed color. There's also some special combinations that, for some unknown reason, give special effects, like Silver spirits are extremely good at healing wounds and diseases.
» You will have noticed my spirit is mostly blue. That's the reason I could send my spirit to your world, and guide you here. I don't know what color your spirit is, because in your world there's no magic energy, so the spirits don't have anything to get the color from.
» You have your eye closed now, because you still can't control it, but even if you could, it's hard to see someone's spirit when it's inside its body, because the spirit blends with it. But when the person uses his spirit to do magic, the energy flowing through the spirit will produce an 'aura' around the body, and that aura can indeed be seen.
» When my father comes back and teaches you more, you will learn how the first sign of someone using magic will be a flash in your spirit eye, and he will teach you to have that eye open, even when you are asleep.
» For now, let's go upstairs, and sleep. I have some things to do tomorrow and your help will be handy.
» Oh and, you'll sleep in my brother's room.
Having said that, Ly smiled at Leo and they walked upstairs, each one to his room.