The World Walkers: Taithmarin: Astrid: Arriving in Little Hill (part 3)

At first all Astrid could do was stare around the room she had found herself in, unable to believe what she was seeing. When she had walked out of the cave she shared with her pack she had never expected to step onto another world and end up… She turned to look at Nerys.

“It’s yours,” Nerys said, wagging her tail. “You do have to pay rent, but here you will always have a comfortable home.”

Astrid’s happiness faded for a moment. “How do I pay rent?”

“Until you are used to Taithmarin and feel capable of working you will be given money each month, as a sort of welcome gift. Once you start working you will earn your own money and have more choice as to where you live.”

“Working?” Astrid shook her head. “This place is so different and I haven’t even had a chance to look around.”

“I know. I felt exactly the same way when I first got here.”

“Okay, tell me what I need to know, Nerys.”

“That’s going to take a while. As your guide I will be here for two weeks to help you get used to Taithmarin, the races that live here, and how our magic has changed.”

Astrid sat down. “I really have stepped onto a different world, haven’t I?”

“Yes, you have.” Nerys stepped forward and touched her nose to Astrid’s. “It’s going to be fine, but getting to know this place is going to get time. That’s why I’m here.”

“How long have you been here?” Astrid asked as their eyes met.

“Just over three years.”

“I last saw you seven months ago.”

“No one really knows how the door works, so I couldn’t know how long it had been for you, but time is very different here.”

“So if anyone else from our pack finds a door then it could be years after I arrived here, even though it won’t be anywhere near as much time for them?”

Nerys nodded. “Are you thinking about your mum?”

Breathing deeply at the reminder, Astrid shook her head. “We believe she was caught by hunters during her patrol, but we don’t know for sure. She just disappeared, so we held a memorial service for her, and…” She sighed. “Of course now there’s the possibility she might be alive here, but I doubt it.”

“I’ll ask around. There have been a lot of new arrivals recently. I was the last guide without an arrival to help, so we’re hoping that there isn’t another one for at least two weeks.”

“Is that normal?”

“Occasionally it happens. We don’t know why, but we do our best to help every new Nox Gadael arrival. If there is another new arrival then you may find them staying here.” Nerys shook her head. “That doesn’t mean your mum is here, but I hope she is.”

Astrid shrugged. “I don’t know if I want her to be or not. I haven’t had time to mourn her, but to me she was gone for good.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The World Walkers: Taithmarin: Zoe: Meeting the Nox Gadael (part 3)

“When one of the Nox Gadael disappears everyone else simply assumes that they’ve been caught by the hunters, because that’s normal for us,” Monique said, her voice sad, “and there are too few of us for the memory wiping thing to work.” She tilted her head to one side, looking thoughtful. “Although it does seem as though there are more Nox Gadael than we believe there is, because there are packs here we never knew existed.”

Zoe bit her lip, trying not to compare her easy life to that of the Nox Gadael. “It seems impossible, with the number of humans on Earth, that anyone I knew might end up here.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if I’d want them to.”

“That is understandable, considering what humans are forced to give up when they are brought here by the door. We see it as a positive change in our lives, because we would otherwise still be hunted, but for you…” Monique shook her head. “I wish we could affect the door in some way, to only bring those who need sanctuary to Taithmarin, but no one understands the magic that was used to create it.”

“I don’t regret what happened, but it took me some time to get to understand that. I had no real aim in life if I stop and really think about what I was doing, although I was happy being aimless. Now I’m here I realise that there was so much more I could be doing with my time and I plan on making the most of being here.” Zoe smiled, even though she still felt a little sad about who she had left behind. “Making friends was always something I was good at, so the only thing I need to work on is getting used to the calendar here, and then I can get a job.”

“Do you have any magic?” Isen asked.

“That’s something I still need to find out. Joel, my guide, told me that many of the humans who end up on Taithmarin have the ability to use the magic of the world, but it’s not something I’ve experimented with yet.”

Monique wagged her tail. “We know Joel. He often visits us.”

“I liked Joel.” Zoe hadn’t wanted to like him, but it had been impossible not to. “He wants to meet up once he’s done with his latest new arrival so he can see how I’m getting on.”

“If it wasn’t for his work as a guide he would have several puppies by now.”

“How does that work?”

“We don’t tell everyone this, but often young Gadeal puppies connect with one of the other races and they choose to live with that person. It’s a pack thing, we think, although it’s not something we have a lot of understanding of.”

Zoe nodded. “It’s hardly something that would have happened on your old world.”

“Exactly. It doesn’t happen as much with the older Gadael, who have travelled here from our old world, but a few have chosen to live with other races.” Monique gave Zoe that look that made her think the Gadael was smiling. “There are even some Nox Gadael living with the Alati Felis.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The World Walkers: Athare: Riordan: Making Worlds (part 2)

Riordan couldn’t help, at the same time as feeling totally torn by the whole idea of creating worlds, thinking about the worlds he would like to work on. He knew that his family would be working with the Yellows, which wasn’t unusual, and there had been conversations, when they hadn’t believed it would be possible, between him and one of his Yellow friends. They had been friends ever since they were young, Riordan’s father mentoring Bronwen because she had the ability to create both animate and inanimate things. Riordan had, in the beginning, been jealous, but that had faded when he realised how hard it was for her. The fae, in general, didn’t like those who were different.

It hadn’t taken Riordan long to realise that Bronwen had no friends within her family and then… he had felt sorry for her, but that wasn’t why he’d ended up becoming friends with her. He smiled, remembering. They’d bonded over a book, one of his favourites, about the creation of the Dragons. Everyone knew that the Dragons had been created by the Yellow family, during a time when the rules binding the use of their power had been loosened thanks to a Yellow Queen, but none of the fae could remember it. Of course the Dragons could, being immortal, but they didn’t like to talk about their beginnings.

A conversation had bloomed on what they would do if the rules were loosened again, for either the Blue or Yellow family magic, and now that those rules didn’t exist Riordan knew he would end up working with Bronwen on at least one world. It was inevitable. Yet he still worried that they would be making a huge mistake. The town had worked well enough, as had the people who lived there, but the mechanics of making an entire world was entirely different.

An entire world… Riordan shook his head. There would be more than one, but he didn’t know how many there would be, or how many would be chosen to work on them. He knew several people he would ask if he had been in control of making the decisions, not just for the creation of the worlds themselves because there would be more than that to do. Towns and cities would be important, so they didn’t just dump newly created people, he shuddered at the thought, onto a planet with nowhere to live.

Yellows would have to work on the races, the plants, and the animals, making sure that there was enough to eat, at least to begin with. Riordan picked up a quill. There was so much to think about, more than anyone could remember without help, so he started working on a list. It was, to begin with at least, for him and Bronwen, because he knew that they could, with the help of a couple of other friends, create a world. He wasn’t sure he wanted to, but he could. Sighing, he scribbled down two words at the top of the sheet of paper.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.