Disclaimer:
I DO NOT OWN XANTH. I merely kidnap the characters every once in a while and force them to do my bidding by means of electric shock collars. PIERS ANTHONY OWNS XANTH. I'm not certain how he forces the characters to do his bidding.
Chapter Two
Kassie
The red 'DON'T WALK' of the crosswalk signal flashed as Kassie ran across the street. She noticed these things only stayed on the green 'WALK' long enough for one to step into the street. The cars all roared and sputtered as if complaining about having to wait. Her vehicle had been totaled last week, and the public transportation system here stank like three week old succotash. The insurance company had decided the vehicle was not worth repairing, so instead of lending her another car they had given her the one-hundred-seventy-five dollars her vehicle was worth (according to them). So she had to walk until she could buy a new one. At least she was losing weight.
Her foot finally hit the sidewalk on the other side. Safe!
Here she bought a taco and a churro, from cart which was always at this corner this time of days, and ate them as she walked to the next light. From there she could see the corner of her building. Once she crossed the street she would be able to see the front, then a few yards later, her own window. She was almost home.
She pressed the button on the crossing signal pole and waited. A huge puddle, mixed with leaves and mud, had accumulated in front of her. She was beginning to wonder if she should step back from it, when a SUV turned the corner there - splashing the contents of the puddle all over her. She really missed her car.
"What happened to your clothes!" demanded the landlady when Kassie finally stumbled into the apartment building.
"I got splashed by an SUV," explained Kassie as she climbed the stairs up to her apartment.
"Don't you get any mud on my good carpeting!"
"I won't!"
"You shouldn't go around covered in mud like that. It make you look like a -"
Kassie didn't wait to find out what she looked like, her apartment door clicked shut behind her and she sighed in relief as she slumped into a heap on the floor. Two hours and one bath later she settled into the chair in front of her computer to check her e-mail; one of the few parts of her daily routine she actually enjoyed.
She read and replied to the messages from her friends back home, sharing with each of them the story of the puddle. When she finished there was one more message from a comehere(at)xanth.io.xz. That was strange, this looked like a spam and she was positive she had her spam blockers turned on. Just to be certain, she checked her settings. Sure enough her spam filter was at the highest setting. This one seems to have found a way to slip through. She went to delete the message but accidentally opened it instead.
'Dear Mundane' it began.
'Mundane?' she thought, her name wasn't Mundane. Maybe the e-mail wasn't spam but had merely been misdirected. She read on to see if the body of the letter would give a clue about were it was supposed to go.
'Escape your dreary life! Click HERE for information on how you can come to the magical land of Xanth!
Xanth Office of Immigration'
Definitely spam then. Mundane, whoever they were, probably didn't want this message forwarded to them. She clicked on the delete message button.
'Delete message?' read the computer screen 'press ENTER for 'yes'; ESC for 'no'.
He finger hovered above the Enter key. She almost pressed it, but at the last moment changed her mind and hit the Esc key instead. She ran her mouse over the 'HERE' and clicked on it. Why she did that, she had no idea. She was normally not the kind of person to be taken in by scams.
When the page the link led to came up, she had to compliment them on their graphics. The little image of their spokesperson, a beautiful woman with impossibly long hair, looked like she could step out of the screen and right onto Kassie's desk.
"Hi," the image said "I'm Rapunzel."
'Wow!' thought Kassie 'their sound's pretty good too.'
"What's your name?" continued Rapunzel.
"Kassie," said Kassie without thinking.
"I'm sorry," said Rapunzel "I can see your mouth moving, but I can't hear you. If you have a microphone please make sure it is turned on and speak into it. Otherwise please type your response here." she pointed at the text box she was sitting on.
The graphic could see her? Impossible, she had no camera set up. She almost closed the page, but something (probably the same thing that made her click on the link in the first place) stopped her. Maybe they were just playing with her, but for some reason or other she wanted to play along. She didn't have a microphone, so she typed 'Kassie'.
Rapunzel hopped off the text box and walked in front of it, as if to read it.
"Sorry," she explained "my magical talent is having long hair, not reading writing without looking at it." She concentrated on the writing "Kassie" she said reading it, and then she turned around again "Hello, Kassie," she smiled "I'm so glad you've chosen to come to Xanth. Do you have any questions about Xanth, before we continue?"
'What is Xanth?' she typed.
"Xanth, as explained in the message you were sent," said Rapunzel after reading the question "is a magical land, and to explain any further could take hours. I think it's best you come find out for yourself."
Probably an amusement park.
"How much is admission?"
"Admission?" now Rapunzel looked confused.
Maybe 'admission' wasn't one of the words she was programmed to recognize. Kassie decided tried again.
"How much does it cost to get in?" she typed instead.
"Oh," Rapunzel laughed "I forgot you Mundanes like little pieces of green paper. You don't have to give us anything like that, but you do have to be at the entrance at exactly noon tomorrow."
Kassie interpreted that as 'free entry tomorrow at noon'', they would probably find another way to stiff her.
"Okay," she typed "I'm game. How do I get there?"
"You're Game?" said Rapunzel "Just a moment ago you said your name was Kassie."
"It's an expression." typed Kassie, wondering why she was explaining herself to a computer image.
"If you say so." said Rapunzel still looking confused "My husband Grundy is right; you Mundanes are weird."
Kassie considered typing 'I'm not a mundane', but thought it might lose her the special offer. Instead she typed "May I have directions, please."
"Of course," Rapunzel slapped her hand to her forehead "You already asked that. How rude of me. Do you have a printer?"
"Yes," typed Kassie.
"Great," said Rapunzel "Print out these directions." A series of directions appeared on the screen along with a CLICK HERE TO PRINT button.
Kassie didn't even consider the fact that she had not given a starting address. She did remember one important fact though.
"I don't have a car," she typed.
"Car, car," Rapunzel mused over the word "oh I remember now! The speed demons drive those. Don't worry it's not that far, you can walk from your apartment."
'The Speed demons' must be their company's racing team.
She flipped on her printer and clicked the CLICK HERE TO PRINT button.
"Bbbbbrrrrppppt, bbbbbrrrrppppt, bbbbbrrrrppppt," said the printer as it printed out the directions.
"You'll also need to present this pass to the centaur at the point of entry," said Rapunzel.
Did she say 'centaur?' No, she must have said 'center', Kassie had just heard her wrong. She printed out the certificate, which had appeared on the screen.
"When you get there, you will be given a magical talent, a minor one of course."
That last statement confused Kassie, but she decided not to comment.
Rapunzel yawned and stretched "It looks like you've got everything you need to get in then," she said "Whatever you do, don't forget that pass; you can't get in without it." She yawned again. "I'm going to bed." Then she walked off the screen.
Authors Notes:
1.Thank you to my sister, who is much better at spelling than I am, for helping me.
2.Okay, Sis, I made those changes you requested.
3.#$&& Spelling and Grammar checker
4.I've noticed people seem to like short chapters, I managed to reduce this one to 4 pages (not including author's notes). I will look at the other chapters to see what I can do with them.
5.This really is my first attempt at fan fiction. If anyone sees any problem with my story please tell me so I can correct it. (But don't flame me please)