Mundane to Magic - On Hiatus

Chapter 11

One arm wraps around Val's shaking shoulders as she stares at the gate in horror. She quickly wipes her eyes and relaxes against me. Defeat. That's the look in her eyes right now. She thinks that Grant is gone...dead. But I know better. Grant is a crafty escape artist, if there's anyone that can hide themselves from the hollows it is him.

Two royal guards round the corner and I silence Val with a finger to my lips and pull us both behind two aluminum trash cans. Val's eyes widen and she folds into herself. She is invisible to all unless they get as close to her as I am now. Most of the guards that roam out here have seen me out late before, they'll walk on by me even if it's past curfew. If they see Princess Val...we're both in trouble. One of the guards gives a deep belly filled laugh slapping his partner on the back of his shoulders. They round the corner and we rush down a narrow round towards the safe house.

Luckily the safe house is only a couple blocks away from the gate, pretty much in the poorest section of the kingdom. Those who have the ability to pay a handsome rent to the King are able to live closer to the castle which is supposedly safer. They can waste their money, there's only one way a hollow is getting through that gate and Dad wouldn't tell us.

A small gray stone house sits just behind a large abandoned apartment building. It had fallen into disrepair many years ago and I was glad. It had been bustling with families who all knew us, they kept asking why we were rarely seen coming in and out of our house. We couldn't go around telling everyone we moved out of the kingdom. Even at eight years old I knew how to keep a secret. Grant...well he had a much harder time.

I pull out a silver key and unlock the front door ushering Val in. This street has one more family living on it but they sit on the opposite side of the apartment building masking our comings and goings.

"What would you do with it?" Val looks me right in the eyes as I set down a cup of tea in front of her. She blows on the tea before taking a sip, her eyes never leave mine. "What would you do with magic?"

"I uh, it depends. I mean, what would it let me do?" I blurt; she studies me before settling into the cushions. "There are a lot of things wrong with our world, I'd like to fix as much of it as magic would let me."

"I'm not so sure that magic is the solution. Do you believe that everyone deserves magic?" She grips her cup of tea with both hands before taking a sip before glancing up at me expectantly.

A few moments of silence pass, "Your father is the perfect example that not everyone deserves magic, but I do believe that everyone deserves a chance."

Val traces her fingers along the grimoires spine thoughtfully. Magic might not be the answer to all of the Kingdom's problems, but the only weapon to use against magic is magic. With the Witch and the rebellion out there, we are not the only ones to realize that.

Val thrusts the book towards me. "Here, take it. You should have it."

"But..." I want the book, but why doesn't she keep it for herself? I would.

"Please. I wanted to give it to someone to trust." She pushes the book into my hands before adding, "I have enough dirt on you that I'm pretty sure you can't turn me in without screwing yourself."

We both laugh as I wrap my hands around the book, she lets go and there's a sucking sound before a pop. I push myself off the floor and my back slams into large iron bars several feet tall.

"A human." A gruff voice behind me announces. Just a few feet from me large sharp yellow eyes blink at me, the face and chest are covered with feathers that change into the golden brown fur of a lion. It's a monster, terrifyingly impossible but right there.

"My name is Gareth." The beasts chest swells. "I am a griffin."

Gareth has huge brown wings folded across his back, there's something about them that doesn't look right. The iron bars behind me connect with three other walls; it's a cage. And the cage is neither tall or wide enough for him to stretch his wings.

"Where are we? And how did you get locked in here?" I ask, one minute Val was handing me a book and next minute I'm in a cage. Could we be locked in the book?

"A man named Edric cast a spell to lock me in here in order to harvest my magical power. He captured quite a few of us when the God's decided man was not worthy of the gift." He tail flicks in and out of the cage. His only taste of freedom.

"That's... it's horrible." What does he mean when the God's took away the gift? Did we all have magic at some point...and if we did what happened to it?"

Gareth grunts, lifting his bird face into the air and shaking it roughly. "I have never received sympathy from a human before." He locks his large vertical pupils on me. "But you are not like other humans; you can remove your soul from body. A rare ability."

Does he mean my projection? How does he know? And then it hits me, I'm projecting right now. Into Gareth's cage, in the grimoire. This is crazy. I always wondered where the King got magic from and he got it from magical creatures.

A thought dawns on me, "Where are you from exactly?"

"There are many names for my home. Heaven, Land of the Gods, but the most common name we use is Paradise." He lies down slightly on his right side, front talons reflecting the iron bars brownish tint. "An alternate plain that every man, beast and many other creatures can inhabit if they can find their way there."

The place sounds almost too good to be true, how did Edric manage to get there? The Royal Knights are quite a large army; how did he manage to capture that many magical creatures?

"Is there a way to free you?"

Gareth studies me for a minute before shaking his massive head. "I'm not sure there's a way."

His answer doesn't sit well with me; no one should be trapped this way. Keeping something to harvest its power...treating it like dirt. It's disgusting. There has to be a way to release the magical creature. Everything has a back door and I'm going to find it.

"I will serve you faithfully Luka, the human."

There's a bright light and another loud popping noise and Gareth is gone. I am now back in the safe house with Val holding a cold rag to my feverish forehead. Her expression is not worried though, instead it's almost as if she knew this was going to happen.

"Did you...know that was going to happen?"

"I thought it might." Val whispers as she twists the rag removing all the excess water before laying it gently on my head. It hits me that Val must know a lot more about this magic stuff than she ever let on. And now I want answers.

Somehow I managed to push through. This chapter isn't perfect, but will be edited again once the book is finished. I hope you enjoy it enough to keep pushing on with us.

-Charlee