The Magic Lands

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN • VALERIE

We soon were back in the little dark room were we had first descovered the portal. I looked down and I saw my dress was gone and so were Carter's and Katie's clothes that they got from the village. We were all back to normal, like Elicta had never happened at all.

But we knew it did.

"Come on let's see what is going on upstairs." Carter said and we raced up the long stairs an out into the open space of the museum. It surprisingly looked the same, and there were people that went to our school still running around.

"I guess it put us out when we went in. Even though time went by in Elicta, time didn't go by here." Katie said as she looked around. One of the boys in our homeroom walked by and Katie tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey how much time do we have left at the museum." She asked him.

He looked at a clock on the wall nearby. "Well about 20 minutes since it ends at one. Hey make sure you take some cool pictures." He said pointing to Katie's camera. She smiled and looked down at it. She pressed some button while he walked away and gasped.

"Guys, look." She said and Carter and I peered of each of her shoulders. She scrolled through her pictures and they were all of our time in Elicta. A picture of the village, the forest, Harlina's house, even some pictures of me as a pegasus. One showed me pinning my ears at Bax and the other showed me with the little kids. Carter saw himself in a picture trying to fiddle with a bow and arrow on some horse. And Katie was being lifted of the ground and swung onto my back by Carter.

"But who took the pictures?" I asked and Katie shrugged.

"I guess Elicta wanted us to have these." Carter said and we all laughed exchanged smiles. "Come on we still have plenty of time to enjoy the museum." He said and we walked on to the next exibit. "But one thing I think we have to agree on, that chicken was terrible!" He said to Katie and I let out a laugh.

"I would rather have chicken then hay!" I said and they laughed along with me. I was glad to be back and I think they were too. I honestly enjoyed being around them more that all of my popular friends put together. But I couldn't help but wonder, would we ever have to go back to Elicta? That didn't matter now anyway, all that mattered was being back on Earth and not trapped in a fantasy world. And not being alone in the stable.