Illusion and Reality

Enchanted

I winced slightly as the sharp rays of the sun hit my face. I moved my hands slightly around, and instead of feeling the warmth of sheets, I felt the hard ground underneath. 

Everything came back rushing to me, I opened my eyes quickly and scanned the area around me.

I was lying on the ground, surrounded by trees. A bubble of anxiety started growing when I remembered everything, and to make everything worse I was alone.

“LILY?”

There was no reply.

I frantically started searching for Lily, but there was no sign of her.

“Sam.”

A wave of relief washed over my growing anxiety as I heard her voice.

Following the sound, I saw Lily standing with a thick stick in her hand. Ignoring that, I hugged her tightly, “Where are we?”

“I don’t know, I just remembered I forgot my phone in my room.”

I checked my empty pockets as well, “I think I forgot my phone as well.”

We were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no phone to call someone for help. There were so many things that could go wrong. But the question was, how did we end up in the forest?

“Where is the pendant?” asked Lily.

I showed her the dangling pendant on my arm, “I have it. Why do you have that stick?”

“In case someone tried to attack me,” she replied, looking at something, “I think that’s the way out of the forest.”

“Let’s just hope we find someone and ask for help.”

We continued walking for a few minutes and indeed we reached out of the forest. There was an empty path ahead of us, “What now?”

And my question was answered when a plump woman with lavender highlights, wearing a long maxi dress came towards us. 

“Excuse me, can you please help us? We are lost here.”

The woman looked in our direction after hearing my question and gave a disgusted look. She had a look on her face, that made it seem like there is an awful odor near her.

“That was rude,” Lily commented, not bothering to keep her voice low.

“Let’s just follow here, maybe we can find more people.”

The woman entered a gigantic golden gate, with something written all over it in foreign writing. Giving a brief look at each other, we took a step forward to imitate her action but collided with an invisible wall.

“Deja vu,” mumbled Lily, rubbing her head.

“I have a feeling we are not even remotely close to our home.”

“Who are you?” a deep masculine voice asked from behind, at that point, I was not sure if that was a good thing.

I slowly turned around to see a tall, muscular man with a defined jawline, slightly crooked nose, eyeing us carefully with a strange look in his piercing green eyes. His jaw tensed as he caught the sight of the pendant resting on my wrist.

“I am Lily and this is my friend Samara. We are lost, can you tell us where we are, and also can I use your phone?”

He stayed quiet for a few seconds like he was having an internal battle with his thoughts. Lily and I shared a look, we were almost sure he was not going to help us either but then he broke the deafening silence, “This is the Slouteron Dynasty, one can not step foot inside the gate unless invited .”

At that point, I was sure either he was an incredibly handsome mad man or I was hallucinating.

We heard some footsteps marching towards us, the mysterious stranger cursed under his breath, “Hurry up, you have to follow me.”

“We are not going anywhere with you,” Lily folded her arms and stood at her place.

The footsteps kept getting closer, I tried to look at the people but could not see them clearly. 

“These men work for the King, if you don’t follow me then they will capture you and put you in prison,” it was clear from the stern look on his face that he was not joking.

I gave a curt nod to Lily. 

The stranger passed the gate and looked at us with a slightly raised eyebrow, “Are you expecting a grand welcome?”

“We can’t enter, remember genius?” Lily rolled her eyes.

“You could not enter earlier as you were not with someone who resides here.”

Nothing was making any sense but we had to make a decision fast because the footsteps were approaching us fast.

Together we took a step and no invisible wall was stopping us this time. No one said anything as we followed him, silently observing the large buildings with different designs and large front yard. One thing was common between those, all the homes had some intricate writings on their entrance. It was clear to me we were not at home and it was not one of my nightmares, for the first time I was hoping for a nightmare.

After walking for another few minutes, we were standing in front of a huge two-storey vintage-designed house, with the same intricate writings on their gate. The house was isolated from the neighbors by walls, covered in colorful vines which I didn’t know existed. 

I couldn’t keep myself from asking this time, “what are those?” I asked pointing towards the writings.

He stopped and looked at me before answering, “these are the enchanted writings to prevent unwanted guests from entering.”

Lily was staring at him and the writings with wide eyes. 

I had another thought, who exactly were they trying to keep away from their houses?

“I can’t believe this,” Lily mumbled.

“You saw the example already,” replied the stranger with a smirk.

Different flowers and trees welcomed us as we stepped inside the gate. 

The inside of the house was filled with expensive shining items, sitting proudly in a well-organized manner. Vases with exotic flowers were placed in different places, filling the house with a sweet aroma.

“Astrid,” the mysterious man called.

A tall woman came towards us striding elegantly, long fiery red hair flowing till her waist, her bronze skin was radiating with every step. Without looking at us she went straight to the mysterious man. The long white dress covered in flowers hugged her figure perfectly.

“I found them outside the gate,” the man started, after listening to him it was the first time she glanced in our direction.

Her one amber and another blue eye looked at us, “looks like we have opened our doors for homeless now,” her silky voice couldn’t hide the repulsive look.

Lily opened her mouth to argue with her but I held her arm, she pulled her arm away clearly annoyed but didn’t say anything.

“Look closely Astrid,” the man instructed.

The cool expression evaporated from her face, “Where did you get it?”

“An old woman sold it to me,” replied Lily casually.

“This can’t be... how is this possible? You need magic to use the stone, this is the lock to open the door of our kingdom,” Astrid said to no one in particular.

It was evident the pendant was not ordinary at all, but magic?

“How can we use the magic?” I replied.

“It needs magic.”

This caught Lily’s attention, she was already annoyed because of everything, “listen here, I don’t know how it worked and I don’t want to know the voodoo behind this. You want the pendant, keep it. Just tell me you can send us back.”

The man didn’t pay any attention, he turned to look at Astrid who was staring at the pendant as if it would disappear any minute, “Can you do it?”

“Yes, but I need some time Lucius,” replied the woman in a confident yet smooth tone.

“May I?”

I removed the root of our problems from my wrist and gladly gave it to Astrid, who went to the same room where she came from without saying anything else.

“You both can stay with us until she finds a way to send you back, I’ll show you the rooms.”

Sharing a brief look Lily and I followed our mysterious savior.

We took the stairs and turned towards the left, “this is your room,” Lucius said to Lily.

Saying a thank you, she went directly to her room.

We walked towards the room next to her, he opened the door for me.

“Thank you so much for everything you are doing for us,” I said softly.

With the same stern expression on his face, he stared into my eyes but I felt his intense stare looking directly into my soul, “you don’t have to thank me for helping you.”