He kept walking and walking and walking. Did this place never end? He had
never been anywhere like this before, nothing was what it seemed at all. He
sorely remembered earlier on in the day; he had just finished collecting a
meagre amount of food from the spindly berry bushes along his way and sat
for a break when some horrid little goblin sprang from nowhere and made off
with his findings. So on he strode on an empty stomach.
He needed to get away from these dark eerie trees, but he still could not see
an ending to their infinite numbers.
He let his mind drift, back to the recent events that had changed his life
forever. His thoughts predictably rested on Meggie.
His heart ached for her, yet at the same time he despised her for what she did
to him. She promised. She promised him she would never read again. Not
after the last time.
He realised he had been walking in circles for some time as his thoughts had
drifted, and suddenly a blue-grey landscape opened up before him. It was
night here in the ink world. He fell to his knees in relief and closed his eyes
against the ground, just to be lugged upwards with a mighty heave.
'What's this? Caught off your guard Farid?' spluttering, he was thrown back to
the ground,
'Who are you?' he asked mystified.
'What? You don't recognise your old friend?' said the great slender figure 'It's
me, Dustfinger.' Pushing his hood back from his face he revealed his thin
burnt face, he offered a calloused hand to assist Farid to his feet.
'How is this possible? How are you here?' asked Farid
'Long story my friend, but we best move, we've made more than enough
noise here tonight' he replied.
The fire light flickered against the cavernous roof high above them, throwing
dancing streaks of light across the rough surface. Dustfinger's rough voice
echoed through the gloom to Farid's secluded corner
'Farid, come and eat then tell me of how you ended up in my world'
'My story is most likely the same as what yours is. Meggie read aloud trying to
get her parents back again, I have no idea what it is that went into her world
but myself and you were translated back into the pages of this god-forsaken
book' replied Farid without moving from his corner.
The wind filled the following silence with an eerie creaking as it raced through
the limbs of the trees surrounding their small clearing.
'By my reckoning, we are several years earlier than when I left this place I
think I would have been roughly 15 years of age or so, won't that be strange,
Meeting my younger self!' Dustfinger's voice broke through the silence with a
forced cheery tone
"You could end up completely changing your whole future if you do that, I
don't think that that is entirely wise" Farid replied glumly, not taking the least
bit of notice of Dustfinger's tone.
"Why so serious Farid? You used to be so quiet but had at least a sense of
humour!"
"I've grown up since I last knew you Dustfinger" Farid said sombrely.
The dawn broke with a beautiful trilling from the creatures amongst the
branches above their heads, filling the ears of the sleeping men with bubbling
chatter, the smaller of the two men stirred and rolled onto his back, staring up
into the crystal blue sky.
How had this happened to him? He had been so close to being perfectly
happy; he had found his soul mate, or so he had thought, he had had a home
and was so incredibly happy, but all of it had been ripped away from him
because of that stupid, selfish girl. No, he couldn't think that of her. It hadn't
been her fault; he would have done the same in her place, but why did it have
been him that had to disappear from her world?
Grudgingly he dragged himself off the blankets spread across the hard stony
ground, giving Dustfinger a sharp nudge with the toe of the boot on his foot,
startling him awake with a stream of profanities.
"Morning" Dustfinger sat up, "Did you have to do that? Could you not of just
shook me like any other person would?"
Farid shrugged in response.
"I need to get to a city. I need to find someone to transport me back" Farid
stated in short sharp sentences.
"That's a big ask there. There's only one person in the whole of Inkheart that
can do that, and he disappeared within about two seconds of being here. If
you listen to the market-place gossip the Queen of the Land has him now so
as to let her accumulate the kind of wealth and beauty never before seen in
this entire world" Farid cut him off.
"I don't care how long it takes. I need to find him, I need to get back to
Meggie." Again his words were clipped with irritation.
"Oh, it shan't take long, it's the seeing the Queen part you're going to have
trouble with, she doesn't take too kindly to people making demands of her,"
chuckled Dustfinger "You'd become her bestest friend and then you'd have to
make it seem as if it were a favour she had thought of all by herself or you'll
have no chance at all!" Chortling to himself he picked himself up and began
gathering his belongings that were scattered around the clearing, uttering a
beautiful whistling to rival the early morning creatures song as Farid scowled
at him from his position next to the decimated fire of the previous evening.