Chapter 2

Lea’s mother was keeping their current home in Summer city. She thinks they might need a ‘human space’ if anything ever happened. Lea didn’t argue over it, there wasn’t any need to, she thought so because they were leaving anyway. That’s why she stood now at the front of the house she’s lived in for the past 6 years and reminisced about the day they’d moved in; She was 13 at the time and wasn’t a fan of changing schools, her mother had got a new job at a bakery and she was excited to move into a better place. However, Lea hated moving then not just because she would miss her human and non-human friends but her ghost friends as well. She could always see ghosts since she was 6; in fact, one was coming up to her doorstep.

It was Mister Hat, yes, Lea realized the name was not that creative but it’s because Mister Hat was a man who died in the 19th century from a car accident from a wealthy man and is still to this day amazed by the fact that a lot of people own cars.

“Hello Miss Maleberry, a fine weather to leave today”, he smiles warmly at her and his gaze then moves toward the van her mother was moving their luggage into. Luggage that Lea realized she should be helping pack as well. Mister Hat followed her as she put her 2 suitcases at the back of the van.

“Car’s are quite fascinating, this one is huge, too bad I can’t test drive one”, he says with such a sad face Lea couldn’t help but think if she could be of help as always with him but quickly focused on the job at hand.

“Unfortunately, I can’t help you, Mister Hat, packing stuff here.”

“Ah, excuse me for my rudeness, you know how cars make me behave”, he says this while he moves around staring at the van.

“Uhuh”, Lea smiled, she found the man charming and sweet.

“That should be everything”, Lea’s mother said as she closed the van’s back door.

“But the others aren’t even here yet”, Mister Hat said with a bemused face. “My gosh, I have to call them, I have- Oh I have no phone, you see this is a problem with being dead.”

“I’m aware Mister Hat, but you could get yourself a Scry Android?” Lea said to him.

“Oh, you know I don’t know how to handle new technology and all this magic stuff being added to it makes it worse.”

“Mister Hat is here?” Lea’s mother asked her.

“Yup, he’s just checking out the car and seeing me off”

“Oh really? thank him for being good friends of yours for me. What about the others?”

Lea quickly tells Mister Hat what her mother requested, and he replied with a tip of his hat to her.

“He tips in thanks, mama and the others aren’t here yet.”

Lea’s mother replied with an ‘I see’ as she moved on to the driver’s seat while Lea jumped into the passenger seat at the front with her. She looked out the window at Mister Hat.

“Oh well, I suppose you have to carry on then, don’t let me stop you,” Mister Hat says, his sadness apparent. He would sometimes come to the house on the weekends and sit at the front step just to see if we could have a chat. He likes to talk about what goes on around him a lot.

“Tell the others I’ll be having a Scry Android phone soon and then we can chat and have calls, you’d have to be around them to be able to see me again.”

Mister Hat smiled and Lea’s mother started the engine. By the time they were out of their neighbourhood, Lea sighed. She made herself try not to think too much about the ghost and non-human friends she would miss. She had human friends, but she never kept them too close to herself. Ever since she was 6 and was able to sense and see the supernatural even more, above the glamour including ghosts, she found it easier to make non-human friends.

Her mother didn’t talk much and let the radio, currently playing some popular song list fill the silence. About an hour later, they were out of Summer city and her mother was heading the van into the woods.

“Uh, mama?”

But her mother kept driving and the van went through the dense trees like nothing was there.

A force field.

Lea had only ever seen one in one on one of her old vampire friends house because his father wanted to keep their fire lion from leaving their premises. But this, Lea thought, was different. This force field protected the Fae realm from the rest of the human and other worlds. But what she didn’t expect was the toll gate. The land was barren, nothing but sand, like a desert and the single toll gate and the line of cars ahead of them were the only things separating her from her dream.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing honey, just legal business.”

Legal business? Did entering the Fae realm require legal documents? Lea thought. But if that were the case, she became shocked as she realized, she had no such documents. Before she could question her mother again, they were at the gate.

A tall beautiful man with bright orange eyes, long ears and looking like he’s never smiled in his life looked into their car as they reached the gate.

“Id?”

Lea’s mother passed two documents that looked like passports to the man and after he was done checking it, he opened the gate. As they passed through, Lea couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“When did I have a passport, mama? Because I remember you saying specifically that I was born in the Summer city.”

The answer to her question was quite surprising. It turns out, her mother had been speaking with her father for over a year now and he was the one to convince her to finally come back.

So that time earlier this year when they had taken passport photos in the mall when they were out shopping wasn’t some random mother paranoia, Lea thought. However, she didn’t know if she should be mad at her mother or not. In fact, Lea thought to herself that she found it hard to be ever really mad at her mother for most things. Still…

“I’m kind of upset you guys planned this all without me but I’m happy you’re both getting together again and we’re finally moving home, so I won’t make this an issue.”

Lea’s mother sighed inwardly, “Thank you, my love.”

Now she was just driving through the desert and Lea wondered if the Fae realm was anywhere out here and she didn’t have to wait long as the van moved into the realm as soon as she thought that. It was like moving through butter she thought as well, and it was interesting to her just seeing the van step into a whole new world that way.

And now Lea heard the sounds of car horns and other loud noises.

“This is Temras town, it’s the town closest to the border, and we live at Xylas, the capital of the realm.” Her mother said in a neutral tone.

‘We live’, Lea smiled at the way her mother phrased that sentence. She couldn’t help herself as she took in the surroundings as her mother drove. The majority of the people around were Horned and Un-horned, Elves and Fairies but she could see vampires, werewolves, and a lot of ghosts. Things didn’t look too different from the human world, but the major difference was that the ‘technology’ was powered and made from magical resources and equipment. This was something Lea was aware of. Her mother told her that the Un-horned Fae had the most interest in the human realm and were the ones to usher in a magical technological era. She felt a sense of pride being one herself and that was when she remembered something very important.

Lea bent down the front mirror of the car and she saw them, her one horn at the left side of her face, as well as her long ears. She looked prettier than she thought she was, her almond eyes being bright brown now than the dull human brown. She looked at her hair, and while it was dark blue, it was longer now, to her waist to be exact and the deep blue hue seemed to shine in some way.

“Oh, I can’t wait to gloss,” she said with excitement.

Her mother chuckled, “Humans call it dying their hair, my love.”

Lea turned to her mother. Her blond hair and blue eyes remained the same and in her normal pixie cut. Her long ears were out but she had no horns like her. Lea’s one horn is thanks to her Horned father, who Lea couldn’t wait to meet soon to see with his two horns over his smiling face.

“Yes mama, but it’s different,” she said as she looked out the window feeling like she’d never known true joy her whole life, “Everything here is so different and yet a bit so similar.” She turned to her mother again.

“Can I say I’m super excited now because I’m super excited!”

Her mother only laughed.