Chapter 10

I was given another private room so that I don’t have to sleep with the guys.

A servant led me to my new room and I lay down on my bed and opened the book to where I was before.

“Lily.”

I jumped up in fright.

“Who is that?”

‘Is it that cloaked man from before?’

“Lily.”

I look around the room and see no one there.

‘Why does that voice sound familiar?’

A light shined from the pendant that my grandfather gave me and a green mist-like figure emerged from it and appeared in front of me. Its hazy figure gradually became more detailed.

“Grandpa!” I shouted out as I reached out to hug him.

“Oomf!” My figure passed right through him and I hit the ground.

“Haha, it’s good to see you too Lily. Wow. You sure grew a lot since the last time I saw you.”

“Huh? What do you mean? I saw you several months ago, before you died. Wait, you died. How are you here?”

“So, I died. Lily, I’m a just a projection of memories that I created just in case I lost my memories. Happened more than once.

Very unpleasant experience, trust me. I created the pendant in case of emergency situations where I might have lost my memories and needed them back and I gave it to you as a good luck charm.

The last time I updated my memories was when you were only 5 years old. So I don’t know what happened during that time period before I passed away.

Anyway… this is awkward… and we’re clearly not on earth. So, why are you here? How did you get here?”

“So we were on a field trip-”

I went over all the things that happened thus far and when I finished grandpa looked at me.

“So you just need to find a way back home? That’s easy, all you need to do is gather enough magic or soul energy as a conductor and say the magic words and poof, you’ll be right back home.”

“But what about our families and friends? What about the police? Won’t they have been searching for us? How do we explain that we fell in a hole and traveled to a different world?”

“Oh, that’s not a problem. When you return from this world, back to earth, time won’t have changed. You will be in the exact same time that you left.”

“How does that happen?”

“I don’t know, it just does. I never questioned it. It was just a convenience for me.

Sigh… who would have thought that my own granddaughter would have the same fate as me? How ironic.”

*Knock knock*

A servant suddenly entered the room.

“Excuse me miss. The mayor has sent me to give these clothes to you.”

She laid down the clothes on my bed and left the room.

“Why didn’t she seem to notice you?”

“Only you can see me Lily, because you’re the one with the pendant. I created the pendant in case of emergency situations where I might have lost my memories and needed them back.”

“Ok, I need to go and find the others and tell them that I know how to get home.”

“I’ll be in the pendant. Just call me when you need me. Oh, and don’t tell anyone about me.” Grandpa said as his figure faded and disappeared into my pendant.

Lily didn’t really know how she felt about the situation. Yes, she found a way back home, and her grandfather’s back, so you was in a good mood maybe? She quickly changed her clothes and it was very uncomfortable. The material was rough on her skin and it was difficult to put on.

She asked a servant where the others were and she found them outside of the mayor’s mansion in the courtyard where Mayor Ferbias and Dylan were sparring for the second time that day and Lucas and Jacob were watching the show.

“Hey guys! I found out how to get home!” I shouted out to them.

“Really!”

Jacob and Lucas ran over to me but Dylan and Ferbias ignored me and kept on with their spar. Dylan was using a pair of knives, his knees and feet to barrage Ferbias in ways that I couldn’t believe was possible for a human body. He was so flexible it kind of made me jealous.

We waited for them to finish before I began. At first it seemed like Dylan was overpowering Ferbias with his speed. But suddenly the tables turned and the mayor’s aura increased significantly and his speed and power also increased and Dylan was defeated in seconds.

“Hahaha, you’ve gotten better at controlling your aura. You’re a lot stronger than I was when I was your age. Come, let us head

up to your girl friend, she seems to have found a way to get you home.”

“She’s not my girl friend.”

I told everyone that I found out in grandpa’s diary of the method on how to get home.

“Well, this is going to be a problem you see, soul stones are extremely rare. A single one costs over 10,000 trals and you can’t always find one on the market.” Ferbias said.

“What are trals?” Jacob asked.

“They are the form of currency that we use. One hundred trals is enough to feed a small family for roughly a month.”

“How are we going to get 10,000 trals?” Lucas questioned.

“Oh, I have enough trals to lend you. It’s just the question of where to obtain them. They are hardly on the market nowadays. And whenever they are they are sold out extremely quick by the rich aristocrats.”

“Are you sure about lending us that many trals? Isn’t that a lot of money?” I asked.

“Haha, don’t worry little miss, I have more than enough money from my days in the army. Plus, I’m the mayor, I get a certain percentage of the taxes that I collect for the King.”

“Then the problem is how to get a soul stone. Do you know where to get them?”

“Hmm… let’s see, the only place that I can think of is Bear Mountain which is a month’s journey from here. That mountain is the area where there are most reports of people finding soul stones.”

“Then shouldn’t we head there?”

“Haha, calm down, rest for the night and we can get all the things ready for your travels tomorrow.”

The sun was setting and was almost completely gone. We said our goodnights and went to our respective rooms.

“Grandpa, what do you think about Mayor Ferbias? Is he trustworthy? And you said getting home was easy. Why is it so hard to find a soul stone?”

The green light shone from my pendant again and my grandpa came out.

“I can hear everything that you guys were saying so don’t worry about filling me in.

Hmm… well, you see Lily, there are two possibilities of what happened that I can think of.

First, we are on a completely different continent than where I was in my travels and this place has a low quantity of soul stones. Second many years have passed, possibly hundreds or thousands since I last came to this world and many things have changed.”

“Wait, I thought you said that time is in the same place when we go back.”

“Yes, it is the same from where you left back home. Not here. Time moves differently in this world. After you leave this world and

when you return, you can come back days or years later from when you were in. When you come to this world, you are never returned to the same place.

It gave me hell of a time when I landed in a volcano where a lava elemental was sleeping. But you can read that in my diary.

And that Ferbias man, he seems like a decent person, just don’t trust him too much.”

I lay in bed and sleep quickly overtakes me.

When I woke up in the morning I find that everyone is already up and eating breakfast. Ferbias tells us that he will have everything ready to go by noon, which is when we’ll leave for Bear Mountain.

Mayor Ferbias got us three wagons that is being pulled by two horses each. One wagon is for us, another for the food and supplies and the other is for the guards that are going to protect us throughout the journey.

When we first began our adventure to Bear Mountain, I was having a great time. Lucas and I flirted. Kyaaa! Lucas and I were getting pretty cute and romantic in my opinion. We teased and played jokes on each other. God, it was such a great time.

Other than my time with Lucas, it was really boring it was either just eat, flirt with Lucas, or just look around in silence in the wagon. I swear I’m getting fat from not getting any exercise.

Suddenly an idea hit me.

‘Grandpa! Are you there?’

‘Yes, Lily, why, do you need something?’

‘Well, I was feeling kinda bored and needed something to do. And since you’re here, I was wondering if you could tell me what

happened in your diary?’

‘Sigh… good old times. Of course, I would love to. So, tell me where you left off.’

‘I was at the part where some tribe attacked the scorpion tribe while you were in the ceremony/ritual thingy.’

‘Oh. Those weren’t good times… well… um…. Lily, I think that you should get to know your classmates better. I saw that you have only been talking to Lucas and I personally don’t really like him. That Dylan or Jacob fellow seems like a much better person, in my opinion.’

‘Gasp* Grandpa! How dare you talk that way about Lucas! Hmph. Don’t talk to me for the rest of the day.’

‘Sigh… Females…’

I shut off my connection with grandpa and thought over his words. I thought it was just him saying that because he’s my grandpa and he doesn’t want me to be in a relationship yet. But I know that I’m mature enough to make my own decisions, because I’m a grown up and independent woman.

But I realized that I really should get to know the others. I have only been talking to Lucas so far. So I decided to open up to the others.

Jacob seemed glad to find someone to talk to other than Ferbias, because I was flirting with Lucas and Dylan was doing this weird meditation thingy and the other soldiers kept to themselves.

It turned out that Jacob was a pretty funny guy, albeit he had horrible puns like: Why do seagull fly over the sea instead of the bay? Because then they would be called Baygulls! (Bagels)

A friend of mine tried to annoy me with bird puns but toucan play at that game.

But I have to admit that I laughed at some of them because they were so cheesy. It turned out that grandpa was right about how I should get to know my classmates better. Mayor Ferbias didn’t understand any of the puns at all because they couldn’t really be applicable to the inhabitants of this world.

By sunset we set up camp and we had dinner. It was some sort of stew with rabbit meat that a soldier caught earlier with some potatoes. It wasn’t that bad.

I lay down in my tent and called to my grandpa.

‘Grandpa, can you tell me what happened now?’

‘Are you comfortable Lily? It’s time for you bedtime stories. You love these.’

‘Oh my god, grandpa, I’m not a five year old kid anymore.’

‘Hahaha, I know, I know.’

Grandpa’s Memories

“We’re being attacked by the Brown Hawk Tribe!”