A Whole New World

This was a strange new world. The colors were so vibrant, yet the town’s folk he’d talk to said the opposite. Everything was so drab and boring. Back home there was no color, unless you counted shades of gray color.

This place was happier, and brighter and the people were more energetic. The monsters hid in the darkest shadows, but those were few and far between. Alushtas felt the despair of home fluttering about his skin, but he felt so alive, so at peace with this world. It was no wonder his father never wanted to leave.

Maybe after he found the boy, he’d stay — do the Queen’s bidding like his father. But that was for later. Today he would reach Ashbourne. His trail had led him here and now it would be difficult to find the strange boy he sought.

The trip out of the Leech had been eye opening. The first thing Alushtas saw had been the towering windmill whose wooden slats spun like a soft flower. The wind was warm and smelled of the salted sea, but they were still too many miles away to see the river or the Great Sea he’d heard so much about.

They spun tales of the material plane throughout his childhood, a fiction made up by those who knew not what they spoke. He’d traveled a week and thought those tales were just as he’d thought — false. Until he’d stepped out of the Forgotten Pass into the foothills of the Lost Mountains. The entire world shed a new light. Trees and flowers of full color. A house in the distance with a little red roof and green doors caught Alushtas’ attention. 

It was a splendorous sight.

And when the city of Ashbourne drew into view, the excitement of the city drew him in. There were so many things to see. So much to take in. The people looked at him as though he were the foreigner he was. They steered clear of him, but Alushtas didn’t even notice as he wandered through the city.

A raven above caught his eye, and the awe and excitement fled his system. He had a job to do. But there was so much to see. How would he even find this boy? Where would he even start?