Amory

03/06/2020

I don’t know when the gateway finally closed, but we were going like it was still open with guards coming through. I have never been in the human realm, but I don’t have time to take my surroundings in too much. We came out close to a cemetery surrounded by fences. People were walking around everywhere, watching us run through the town. By the time we made it down to the riverfront, we slowed to a brisk walk, checking behind us occasionally. It didn’t seem like anyone was following us, but we couldn’t be completely sure.

“Have either of you been to the human realm before?” Haven and my uncle looked at me in confusion.

“You’ve never been here before? Even with an escort?” Aylward asked me.

“No, my father didn’t want me to be corrupted by outside influences. He thought if I came here, I might not want to come back. He wasn’t wrong, but I would have lived in the woods if he ever let me go that far alone,” I wasn’t looking at them while I was talking. I was looking at the city all around me. We moved up from the waterfront and back toward the center of the city. The trees were old and huge. The leaves a bright spring green, and some of them had flower blooms on them. This city is older, with a lot of history tied to it. I could feel it in my soul. Too much history.

“When we are a certain age, everyone in our kingdom comes over to this realm. The Elders hope that it will strengthen our bond with the humans,” Haven explained to me. “I haven’t been as far down as this place, but I’ve heard of it.”

“Where are we? I was never even allowed to study geography of the human world. Father said it wouldn’t matter once he took over. It feels so sad here, but its so beautiful.”

“We are in Savannah, Georgia. There is a lot of history tied to this city, some of it incredibly sad, some of it beautiful,” Aylward told me. “We need to get a car so we can start the drive to the next gateway. Luckily, it is in the celestial Kingdom so it will take your father several weeks of travel, unless he breaks his own rules and travels there from this side of the gateway.”

“Let’s go then,” I said and waited for him to start walking. I followed behind him with Haven. Its so strange to be out of the mage realm and out among the humans. Everything has changed so much in the past few weeks and it doesn’t look like its going to stop. Once we are in the car, it’s a two-hour drive to the next gateway, then I start preparing to face off against my father.

I’m terrified and I don’t have anyone that I trust enough to tell all my fears to. I’ve only known Aylward and Haven a couple of weeks and we didn’t start off on the best of terms. I’m just ready for my life to have some semblance of normal again, but I really doubt that is going to happen.