The Magician's Bridge
Quentin awoke with a start. He and Alice had been traveling for three days on the back of Cozy Horse in an attempt to cross the bridge they had made to Fillory. He and Alice had been told by Cozy Horse that he would put them to sleep and when they had arrived in Fillory they would awaken. Alice sat up next to him, groggily rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Where the fuck are we?" she asked. "I-I don't know," said Quentin. He then realized that they were in the Fillory he had created when he was a god. Yet he could remember none of it. They were now left to wander the new Fillory on their own. After a few minutes of aimless wandering Alice said to Quentin, "Why did we come here? What was the point? There is no intelligent life on the planet yet so what could we possibly do here?" Quentin responded by saying, "Alice, why do you think we're here? Why Fillory and not the Teletubbies world? I think it's because Fillory still needs us, no matter how many of its problems are solved we're still needed here." Alice contemplated this while they wandered about for a while longer. She finally said, "What could possibly need to be done here? There is no danger to anyone because no one is here!" "Maybe," Quentin said, "we need to save the world now so it can go on to produce intelligent life," "Or maybe we did just make the Fillory bridge on accident and we are simply here because we can be," "I don't know," He and Alice turned around, back to the bridge. As they were walking across the bridge back to Earth, Quentin noticed that the vibrant colours and lush plants surrounding them became duller and plainer. In one spot he saw a clock-tree surrounded by dozens of weeds. Alice and Quentin walked back through the door into their bleary lives. They had become roommates because neither of them had a job. The only thing that kept food on the table was the money left over from Quentin's job at Brakebills. He and Alice sat down to eat their dinner of Fruity Pebbles which Quentin would swear up and down was the best damn dinner you could possibly have. He and Alice made small talk, mostly about their favorite cereals. Alice's was Coco Pebbles and so, for the rest of the meal and until it was time to go to sleep, they argued over whether Coco of Fruity Pebbles were better.