Never go back
Chapter 1: The raven
Finally, the now full grown witch saw his face. Despite the accident, it had remained beautiful. She sighed in relief as she-
No way. That would make the heroine seem superficial. This would never do. Why was writing things so difficult? I slapped myself in my face. I shouldn't be so negative. I had a few more pages to go and after that my story would be finished.
She sighed as she walked towards him. Her prince smiled.
No, the prince I had created never smiled. Ugh, this way it would take another year to write the story. Maybe I just needed a break. Like, a long one. With chocolate.
When I rose from my chair, I yelped. Some loud music -I believe it was The Sex Pistols- was pounding from the apartment above mine, making the whole complex slightly vibrate. I damned my neighbour, as I had done many times in the few months I had lived here. In my mind I preferred to call him the goblin, because I had always thought he slightly looked like one. Then again, I associated almost everything with fantasy. I had been an extreme fanatic one year ago. I had read a lot of books –Lord of the Rings, A song of Ice and Fire, almost everything by Bernhard Hennen- and sometimes I had… hallucinations. However, after I graduated as a nerd, I decided to give in to the demands of reality.
Still, my infatuation with fantasy had been what had gotten me into reality. My dream was to become an author, and to write good stories, even fantasy stories, you needed experience in life.
I had started travelling and socialising. I was currently in my second year of literary studies. Every night, after working myself to death at the local family restaurant, I went home to work on the second draft of my story like a maniac. My family honestly didn't know if they had to be proud or afraid of my sudden change.
However, it could have been all for nothing.
When I got used to the trembling of the apartment I stretched my arm in order slap my laptop shut, but I pulled it back as soon as I heard the glass of my window shatter.
It all happened extremely fast.
I jerked my head to the left, where the sound came from. Two forms where flying… or falling across my apartment. One of them was a huge black raven, the other creature had somewhat animalistic features. The raven's green eyes glinted before the animal flew straight through the door. The other thing –I wasn't quite sure what it was- growled before jumping after the raven. Its leg somehow got entangled in the wire of my laptop and dragged the device along with him.
I stood there speechless, my mouth agape –making me look extremely intelligent- before realizing one thing. My laptop. My story. My life-goal. It was gone.
Oh hell no.
Without thinking I chased the creatures that had just invaded –and partially destroyed- my apartment. I could barely see them at the end of the hall. My laptop was still being dragged with them. Anger boiled up from inside of me. I barely thought of the fact that the beings I was chasing didn't look normal at all. I just wanted to get my years of work back.
They sure were fast, but with desperation flowing through my body, I wasn't slow either. Outside, I almost cried out in pain because of my naked feet touching the cold snow. The raven had mysteriously disappeared and now the creature that had abducted my laptop was getting chased by someone with bright red hear.
The three of us ran towards the park. The redhead and the creature were still trying to kill each other, while jumping over branches and dodging trees.
"Wait, for God's sake!" The redhead turned around and smirked, before throwing something shiny at me. I fell flat on my stomach in my effort to dodge the thing. It flew right at the place my head had been seconds ago.
When I got up –while being slightly out of breath- I noticed the park was nearly deserted. No wonder, a lot of people had gone somewhere else to celebrate the holidays.
When we all reached the willow in the heart of the park - the place where I always went for inspiration- a light emerged from it. It caused the tree to vibrate, making the snow and ice fall off the long branches. The animalistic creature jumped into the light quickly. The redhead wanted to follow, but I quickly pushed him aside and jumped in first. Something inside me feared the portal, or whatever it was, would close if neither of the creatures were around.
When I opened my eyes, I temporarily experienced a state of mind which some call 'braindead'. The place I had gotten myself into couldn't possibly be the park anymore. There were still trees all around me, but they had a .. majestic air. Plants that I had never seen in my life were glowing, moving softly because of a small breeze.
Oh, and most importantly, it wasn't winter.
"Are your eyes always that huge, or are you just that infatuated with my handsomeness?" a mocking voice said. I spun around on my heels. The redhead was smirking again. That was probably how he rolled. Barging into people's lives, pretending they were crazy, although everything was partially his fault.
I blinked, not knowing what question – or snappy remark- I had to throw at him first.
"Can you talk? Or do you communicate with your eyes?" the annoying redhead said, while making some weird movements with his green eyes.
"Where the hell are we?" I managed to say. Only then I began to take him in. His clothes consisted out of cotton and leather, mostly with greens and browns. He reminded me of Peter Pan, although something about him was different. Maybe the fact that he was behaving like a dickhead.
"Well, we surely aren't in hell. This place is called the Nevernever." Even the name of the place reminded me of Peter Pan.
Then, I saw it. His ears. Countless nights of watching Lord of the Rings had taught me that this surely wasn't a human trait. Oh god, I wasn't seeing things again, right?
While reminiscing about my favourite movie, the adrenaline I had felt earlier slowly left my system, making room for some more questions. As I had mentioned before, hallucinations were not unfamiliar to me, and I was now considering –read: freaking out about- the possibility that this could be one of them.
"And what is the Nevernever?"
The redhead made a wide gesture with his arms.
"This," he said jokingly. After he saw my murderous look, he only chuckled.
"The Nevernever basically contains Arcadia, also known as the Seelie Court. Tir na nog, the Unseelie Court and the Iron Kingdom. Oh, and there is also some realm in between the human world and the Nevernever, but that's not really important right now." He shrugged, which he did a lot. I got a feeling that this guy got some sort of pleasure out of acting like he didn't give a shit about anything, yet showing how much he knew, anyway. If he was telling the truth.
His anecdote sounded completely ridiculous. Although the name Arcadia certainly reminded me of one of my all-nighters behind the screen of my laptop, researching stuff. Sadly, I couldn't remember everything I had researched in all those years.
"I am probably just seeing things again. This is just a hallucination." I was speaking to myself mostly, but the douchebag I was talking to found it necessary to answer anyway.
"You wound me deeply," he said, looking genuinely amused, "your fragile human brain just can't handle how awesome I am." I snorted.
"I am sure I have, wounded you deeply, that is. Get off your pedestal already. Just who do you think you are?" His torso trembled with laughter. "I know for a fact that I am Robin Goodfellow, also known as Puck."
Nerdy as I was, I had even read A Midsummernight's Dream entirely for my own amusement. This had to be my own illusion. I looked behind me to find the portal-thingy. Only to find it had disappeared. Was I trapped in my imagination now?
I slowly walked towards Puck. I knew for a fact that you couldn't touch hallucinations, so I poked Puck softly. And I definitely felt soft cotton.
"You getting fond of me already? I guess I shouldn't be surprised."
"You're real," I observed.
"Yes, although I can imagine it is a shocker for you to realise that such an ideal existence as myself is not a figment of your imagin-"
"And you claim to be... a fairy? An elf? And a very famous one too," I interrupted him sceptically. Puck rolled his eyes.
"Why thank you." He bowed playfully.
"We prefer to call ourselves Faeries. You don't believe in us then? Because I certainly am getting a boost of glamour thanks to you." He winked. Oh, that was right… people who… believed in them, or had a lot of imagination gave mythical creatures power. Well, shit, I hoped this one wasn't going to harm me. I knew for a fact that Puck wasn't that evil. But other creatures I had read about sure weren't friendly.
"I… I, whatever. If you're Puck... you could help me get my laptop back, right?" I suddenly scanned the area around me. The other creature was gone.
"Sure, I need to catch the Phouka anyway. And something like a laptop could cause damage in Arcadia." Oh great, the first dangerous creature had already appeared. I sure hoped I was with the real Puck then, because I knew Puck was powerful.
I followed Puck when he began walking further into the woods.
"So what's your name?" Puck asked. Was it just me, or did he always have a shadow of a smirk on his face? His eyes had a mischievous glint as well.
"You won't do anything funny with it, will you?" He imitated an astonished face.
"If you're Puck you could fool basically anyone... And if I remember correctly, elves, Faeries, or whatever, can cause humans a lot of misery, only by knowing a name." Puck nodded.
"Someone did her homework," he joked.
"Also, promises are also binding, right? Oh, and you probably can't lie."
"You do believe in Faeries," he said triumphantly.
"Hell, I should, starting from now. And, since promises are binding, will you promise not to do anything weird with my name?" Since he had complained about my huge eyes, I decided not to go for a puppy-dog face. Instead I tried to look intimidating. It only made him grin.
"Alright. I promise. If you don't look at me again as if I am going to eat you. I mean, it's fine if you're afraid of me, but you always look terrified." I frowned.
"I don't do that on purpose. It's because my eyes are too big." And maybe -definitely- I was scared. I mean, if all those fictional things were true, there could be a lot of potential danger out here.
"My name is Emilia."
"Emilia who?"
"Stevenson."
"Well, Emilia Stevenson, let's kick some Phouka butt!"