Page 38 - HEF Pen and Ink 2021

Pen and Ink 2021
back home since the old king, uh, died.”
“Home? King? Magic? You’re confusing the heck out of me,” I finally manage, feeling a small headache starting to spread throughout my skull. It’s one of those headaches I sometimes get, especially after I wake up from a dream or nightmare I can’t remember.
He sighs comically. “Maybe it would be easier to show you all.” Closing his eyes, he presses his pale hands together, and a random gust of wind starts to kick up, blowing my long hair around wildly. I force myself to keep watching him despite the alarms going off in my head telling me to run away or fight, or do anything but stand here.
The light from his hands grows until I feel as if I’ll go blind from looking any longer. I shield my eyes until the wind dies down, and my body calms. My head- ache is only growing worse, so I grunt and crouch down, taking deep breaths to calm my anxiet- ies about the situation.
I hear movement, and the man speaks again. “Ah, here we are. Home at last!” I can hear his excitement, but I’m not feeling the same at all. What does this crazy man mean by home? Hes- itantly, I lift my head, and I can feel all the expression from my face drop. It’s dark out, other than the light emanating from the moon that hangs in the sky. We’re sitting atop a rocky out- crop on a mountain, overlooking a small forest. I’m dangerously
close to the edge, so I scram- ble backwards, panic filling my chest once more.
“Where are we?” Someone whispers. “This can’t be for real.”
“Home! Or as we call it, Ilbryn,” the magician says, and I squint my eyes, staring at his silhou- ette, the moon behind his head. It reminds me of the stained glass art in churches. For some reason, his ears look... longer?
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