Pale beams of sunlight shot through the stems of the pine-trees, slicing through the thin mist that obscured the floor of the woods. The air was calm and crisp, far more peaceful than the fierce winds they had endured upon climbing the mountain weeks ago.
Alex looked up and witnessed a pair of four-winged birds, swooping from branch to branch, singing tranquilly overhead. She had never experienced anything so beautiful. Only a few times in her life had she been awake to witness the sunrise, and that morning was one of them.
After a restless night’s sleep and a light breakfast, she and her brother were heading back to Oakstone. With his knife, Link had marked various trees on the way to the gully in case they wound up getting themselves lost. Now they were tediously trying to locate those marks to find their way back.
Alex yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, just managing to open them in time to avoid tripping over a fallen branch. No matter how breathtaking a sunrise may be, sleep was far too important to her. And she didn’t get a wink of it the night before, no thanks to her brother.
Last night he had completely lost the plot. Swore there was someone called Xavier watching them, wearing a fedora hat and an overcoat of all things. But when they both crept out into the darkness, weapons drawn, there was no one.
It wasn’t just that night either. Ever since that day Link tumbled down the mountain he had been acting weird. Asking her how they got all the way up there when clearly they’d been walking up the mountain all morning. Mumbling to her “I’m awake,” and then hugging and kissing her like she had just been resurrected from the dead. And then there were days where he was so distant, almost as if he were on another planet altogether. Those days she could barely get a word out of him.
Alex knew there was something he wasn’t telling her; she just needed to figure out what. Trying to get an answer out of him, though, was like attempting to plug a bullet hole with a Band-Aid.
Soon the wall of pine trees dwindled, and the mist slowly disappeared. By the time they made it to Oakstone, the sun had poked its head out from hiding completely, spreading its golden glow over Nocera.
Alex figured as they walked it was a better time than any. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to focus on unlocking her Gate to the pesky Source for the thousandth time. Link told her she had to be patient, to concentrate, and search deep within herself.
But just what in the world did he mean by that? she thought. How is one supposed to “Search deep within themselves?”
If you asked Alex, she’d say her brother had been watching too many Tai Chi videos. After several unsuccessful minutes, she concluded her Gate to the Eternal Source must have been padlocked.
Typical Link, making everything look so easy, she thought glumly. Bet it took him two minutes to unlock his.
They continued to trek along the dirt road as it twisted and turned through jagged cliffs and dewy grasslands, glistening in the morning sunlight. The two climbed a steady slope and found themselves surrounded by unfamiliar flora. As they pressed forwards, pale branches twisted and curled abnormally, leaves were so vibrant they seemed fluorescent; stems spiralled like the jam in Swiss rolls, and flower petals seemed to flutter and dance.
Alex was infatuated by the exotic foliage surrounding her, so much so that Link had to keep doubling back to keep her moving. When he wasn’t looking, she stepped towards an enormous plant with iridescent blossoms. As she approached, the flowers’ colours changed from indigo to a deep magenta, and then again to maroon. She didn’t know whether it was the way the sunlight was hitting them, or whether they were naturally like this, but the blossoms seemed almost luminous. Alex took off her glove and extended an arm towards one of the flowers. The blossom recoiled at her touch. She didn’t even see the vine coming.
In an instant, a green tendril had wrapped around her forearm, jerking her towards the plant with startling strength. She widened her stance and leaned backward, trying to counteract the momentum she had going forward. Another vine lashed out as quickly as a whip and coiled around her ankle, joining in the tug-of-war battle. She hopped helplessly forwards. A third vine wrapped around her throat. Alex tried to call for her brother, but her airway was so restricted the only noise that came out was a feeble wheeze of air.
As she neared the plant, its centre opened vertically, revealing an oval of jagged, shark-like teeth. Alex let out a hoarse shriek, turning away from the mouth in disgust.
I’m going to die, she told herself. Eaten alive by a Venus flytrap on steroids. Of all things.
That’s when Link’s sword came to the rescue. His blade slashed and hacked through the vines like a string trimmer through grass. The carnivorous plant hissed as each of its limbs was severed, shuffling backward with its teeth still bared.
Before the beast could cast any more of its vines, Link thrust his arms forward and cast a fireball. The glowing ball of flames hit its mark. The creature caught alight, engulfed in bright orange, screeching like a starved cat. Link helped his sister to her feet.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” he told her, “please.”
A brush with death was what it took for it to truly sink in: It wasn’t the plant that was the odd one out in this world; it was Alex and her brother.
****
The pair marched on, climbing steadily up Oakstone as it wrapped around hills and curved around a blockade of high cliffs. Alex was exasperated and weary by the time they reached the thick woodland, and every muscle in her legs was painful to touch. Her prayers were answered after traveling a few miles, though, because the road descended, and the woods gradually thinned out until some thatched roof cottages with smoke wafting from their chimneys could be seen.
Alex and her brother waltzed deeper into the village. Dirt-stained children emerged, chasing chickens around with sticks. Good-wives could be seen from their windows shaking sheets or hanging up the laundry over their windowsills. A sounder of swine rolled in their muddy pens. Merchants sat cross-legged, displaying their goods on top of pelts, shouting out their best deals as the two passed. Alex felt as if she had just wandered onto the set of a movie.
The sun was beginning its descent as they followed the dirt-packed road that cut through the village, their eyes darting every which way in bewilderment. If Alex’s hunger pangs weren’t bad enough, as she passed more cottages, the smell of what she presumed to be pork or venison sizzling over hearths flooded her nostrils.
The dirt-packed road led them through picketed farms and stables filled with horses, cows, and expanses of yellow-brown grass with patches of bare earth. Soon enough, the small cottages diminished, replacing them were stout two-story ones made of logs with peaked roofs.
It didn’t take them long to find the inn where their characters had stayed overnight in the book. The Sleeping Willow was the biggest building in Vardis. A towering five-story inn of varnished oak with an enormous green willow painted all the way up the building. Underneath the wide-boughed tree were painted many detailed creatures sound asleep: gorlacs, oxen, vipers, eagles, and griffins. All the emblems represented each of the five cities in the Kingdom of Mist.
There was barely a seat empty as the two parted the inn’s double doors and entered the common room. The Sleeping Willow bustled with conversation between men and women seated at candlelit tables, card games and arm wrestling games underway, and ladies locked at the elbows, giggling and dancing merrily with one another.
Alex and her brother ignored the odd lingering stare or two at their fur-lined cloaks as they approached the innkeeper behind the bar. She smiled with crooked teeth as she took their gold and escorted them to a cramped room just outside the staircase on the third floor. The innkeeper informed them she would ring the bell when supper was ready.
The pair unclasped their cloaks, laid down their weapons, and then changed into some dry clothes. The thing Alex was most looking forward to, other than the tantalizing stew she could smell from downstairs, was a nice hot bath to wipe away the dirt and grime of travel. But just as she was about to ask Link whether the innkeeper had mentioned anything about a bathhouse, the bell for supper clamoured from downstairs.
The siblings followed the crowd of travellers down the staircase as they made their way to the common room. They slid into some seats at the back.
“Out of sight, out of mind,” Link had told her when she had questioned his choice of seating.
He tried to wave down a serving boy carrying bowls of stew and thick slices of bread, but the boy couldn’t see her brother past the tall stack of wooden kegs.
“Out of sight, out of mind,” Alex reminded him coyly.
His daggers silenced her.
At that moment, the most beautiful voice Alex had ever heard filled the room, giving her goose bumps from head to toe. Whoever this singer was, he sounded like Christmas in a bottle. She tried to rise out of her chair and catch a glimpse of him, but the stacked kegs and a group of dancing women were blocking her view.
The serving boy passed again, this time with a replenished tray of food, but once again he walked straight past her and Link.
“That’s it,” her brother said, slamming his hands down on the table. “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.” He sprung out of his seat and stalked towards the serving boy on the other side of the common room.
The crowd erupted in applause as the singer finished his second song. Alex felt obliged to join in even though she was barely listening. She thought the gist of it was the telling of a massive battle between two legendary Mages, although she could’ve been wrong.
Alex couldn’t live without matching a face with this angel's tear-jerking voice, so she twisted out of her seat again. The dancing ladies had stopped, but the chair the singer was supposed to be in was empty. Link sat down across the table, but despite her tummy’s protests, Alex didn’t care if he had brought food; she was too preoccupied trying to catch sight of the singer.
“I wonder what song the thief plays this time,” a playful voice that wasn’t Link’s spoke across the table.
Alex turned to find a boy that looked to be her age sitting in Link’s chair. He had a mass of sandy blond hair falling to his shoulders, wore an oversized forest green tunic with golden trimmings, and had a pair of hypnotic, turquoise-coloured eyes.
Alex gawked, mesmerized by his chiselled facial features for so long she hadn’t even thought of how to respond. Heck, even his eyebrows are perfect. She turned helplessly in her chair, looking for Link, but he was across the common room in a heated discussion with the serving boy that had been eluding them.
“I-I’m sorry,” Alex stuttered. “Do you have me confused with someone else?”
The boy put both elbows on the table and rested his head on his hands, those drop-dead eyes never leaving hers. Alex found it hard to keep eye contact with him.
“I need your opinion on something,” the boy said coolly.
“The opinion of a complete stranger?” she asked.
The boy hadn’t heard her. He was gazing intently across the room, his angular eyebrows furrowed. “Tell me: what do you think of this singer's voice?”
Alex twisted in her chair to find that the dancing girls had stopped for a rest, and she could finally catch a glimpse of the singer. He was a middle-aged man with pitch black eyes and a receding hairline. His ears stuck out like the handles on coffee mugs. Alex knew it was shallow of her, but she felt a little disappointed.
“I love his voice,” she said, still gazing at the singer as he begun to pluck his bronze harp.
“Really?” The boy asked, a puzzled expression covering his face.
“Yes,” Alex said. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
“It’s not. You just have . . . ” The boy paused and smiled, and as he did, a gorgeous dimple emerged on his left cheek. Alex’s heart almost exploded right then and there. “ . . . a peculiar taste.”
“And you must be tone deaf,” she replied with a chuckle.
The boy’s smile was replaced with a cute but serious frown. “What’s your name?”
The man with the big ears began singing. What came out of his mouth almost made Alex cringe as if she’d just smelt Dad’s toxic armpit odour. That’s when she realized this wasn’t the same singer she had heard before. Alex rounded on the cute boy sitting across from her.
“Who played before this singer?” she asked a little too eagerly.
“You mean, who played before the thief that steals other singers’ songs and butchers their tone, structure and entire melody?” the boy said, his finger tracing the outline of a knot in the wooden table.
Alex nodded hesitantly, sensing a bit of pent up resentment from him.
“That depends. If I answer, will you give me your name?”
“And how do you know I won’t make one up?” Alex replied devilishly. She hoped he didn’t think she was flirting. Because she was certain she didn’t even know how.
The boy’s turquoise eyes lifted from the table and found Alex’s, making her wonder what shade of pink her face would be from blushing.
“Call it faith in a stranger.”
“Very well,” he said when she hadn’t responded. He wet his lips with his tongue. “I’ll begin. My name is Lioden Thyme, anonymous lady, and I just so happen to be the singer. Now,” he cocked his head and smiled at her enchantingly, “might I have your name?”
Before Alex could respond, Link sat down beside her, nearly shoving her out of her own chair. Her brother put down two bowls of overflowing stew and then wrapped a protective arm around her neck. He proceeded to glare at Lioden. Alex was finding it hard to breathe with all the sudden tension in the room.
Lioden stood up and bowed his head respectfully. “My apologies, I did not know she was spoken for.” And then with one last glance at Alex, he walked away, leaving the aroma of sage and rose petals in his trail.
Alex elbowed Link in the ribs. “Did you have to? Ew, he thinks we’re together. Get off my seat.”
“What did he want?” Link asked, taking back his seat from across the table.
“None of your business,” she replied hastily.
“Need I remind you that we are in a fantasy world you and I created?” He asked in an even tone.
“No, you needn’t,” Alex answered, taking her bowl of stew and dunking a slice of bread. “I’m well aware. He was just asking for my opinion on something.”
“Good,” Link said, lifting his head from his stew and sweeping out a hand at the common room. “Because everyone you see here, they are just characters. They don’t exist outside of this world like we do.”