Enchantyon: Welcome Home
Chapter One: The Shortcut

Keridwen of Khar Vell

The Greater Wilderness

By the next afternoon, Lalauri and Keridwen had arrived at the town that Lalauri had spoken of. A place called Schneebrücke.

Lalauri had told her it was actually a fairly small town, but Keridwen still marvelled at it. She had never seen so many people before. And crazier still was that Lalauri told her that their destination of Aureate was an entire city—an even bigger place with even more people! This gave her a weird mix of emotions. On one hand, the idea of coming across so many people seemed absolutely daunting. And yet…could a place that large actually exist? I wonder what they eat for breakfast. Do their moms and dads have enough food for that many people? Where do they all sleep? I hope they all have enough blankets for when they go to bed. Maybe Lalauri will let me share the one she gave me with some of them…

Lalauri helped Keridwen dismount from the horse and, after parking it in one of the town’s stables, the two of them headed towards a building that Lalauri referred to as a “blimp station.” The large “blimps”—as Lalauri called them—were these giant cabs made of brass metal with a large white balloon on top of them. Each one was secured to the ground by a long metal cable, and in the station, there was a large board that had a list of all the different destinations that the blimps were going to.

Once Lalauri had bought them two tickets to Aureate, they left the station and began making their way to the local inn, as their flight wasn’t until the next day.

“What are we going to do for the whole day, then?” Keridwen asked Lalauri.

The elf looked down at her, clearly straining to put on her best smile, and said, “Well, we can walk around the town for a bit and see what there is to enjoy. The man at the ticket booth said that there was a nice garden square not too far from here—”

“But that sounds boring.” Keridwen groaned.

Lalauri looked down at her questioningly. “And here I thought you’d had enough excitement for a lifetime. Very well then. We could instead go to…”

Keridwen listened to Lalauri as she listed off some ideas of how they could spend their day, and as she did, her mind wondered off. What she focused on instead was a small group of children that were playing amongst themselves just across the road from them.

What made the children all stand out from everyone else for Keridwen wasn’t the fact that some of them had dog body parts mixed in with their human features, while others had bird beaks and feathers on their arms. What stood out to Keridwen was their magic.

They were using their magic to play some sort of game with the ball they had; magical, glowing portals of colour would appear and disappear all around them, and the children would try their best to kick the ball into them before they disappeared. Every time a ball went into one of the tiny portals, a flurry of colourful confetti burst from the portal and the children would jump and cheer. A nearby chalkboard had a scoreboard on it that had tally marks near each of the children’s name.

Keridwen wondered why their magic didn’t hurt them like hers did. They were all laughing and playing. They were simply enjoying themselves, and gave no sign of being weakened, winded, or burned whatsoever. Why couldn’t she be like them? Why was the cost of their magic different?

Then Keridwen thought that maybe if she just thought about it really hard, then she could control it better. Maybe that was the key? All of those children playing did look a little older than her. Perhaps focus and practice were the key then. An idea suddenly occurred to her that made her nearly bump right into someone walking the opposite way.

Practice. If she could do something big with her magic—something so perfect that even Lalauri had to marvel in it—then maybe she could impress Lalauri enough to convince her to allow her to learn it for real!

“Why wait?” said a little voice in the back of her head. “Do something now! I know! Get to Aureate using magic! Just think and go!”

“Lalauri?” said Keridwen. “Can you tell me again what Aureate looks like?”

“Hmm?” Lalauri had been preoccupied with looking around, trying to replace directions to the inn. “Well, it’s a beautiful city. It has buildings with gargoyles, ornate designs of brass…there’s a giant clock tower in the centre of the city that was made by the Dwarfs…oh, and I think you’ll love the nulliwumps at the Hall…”

That was all Keridwen needed. She wasn’t even sure how she knew it, but Keridwen knew somehow that the power was within her to get the two of them to Aureate all on her own if she wanted to. She focused on the imagery that Lalauri’s description of Aureate conjured to mind. Within minutes, her mind’s eye seemed to race up above where she was and it zoomed across the forests and epic landscapes of the Greater Wilderness. Her mind finally rested on a land that matched what Lalauri described, and it was a marvellous sight; The grandeur of the architecture overwhelmed Keridwen. The buildings were a fusion of intricate designs with elements of sleek lines, sharp angles, shimmering glass, and gleaming brass.

“Keridwen?” Lalauri’s voice came from somewhere nearby Keridwen, but she couldn’t tell from where exactly. “What are you doing?!”

Keridwen pulled the image toward her, and the image of the city obliged. It was as if space itself was bending to her very will.

“Keridwen! Wait, stop! Where are you going—where are you taking us?!”

The image of the city in Keridwen’s mind evaporated, and she opened her eyes up to what was happening in the world around her once more; the eyes of all the townspeople nearby were on both Keridwen and Lalauri as they were hovering in the air thanks to a magical aurora that was originating from Keridwen herself.

“Stop this at once, Keridwen!” Lalauri shouted.

“I…I can’t!” said Keridwen, now frightened by the scene she had caused. “I don’t know how!”

Then, suddenly, the two blinked away from the town of Schneebrücke. In its place was a kaleidoscope of colour and a whirlwind of the landscapes that Keridwen and Lalauri were hurled across. As the light of the magical aurora that carried them grew into a blinding light, Keridwen’s heart raced as a nervous half-smile crawled itself onto her wind-blasted face.