Fantasy Land: Kingdom of Laram

You slowly open your eyes to find things blurry and fuzzy. Reaching up, you take off your classes and everything becomes clear to you. You take a look around and find yourself in the middle of a wooded clearing. You’re surrounded by trees and thin ribbons of sunlight illuminate the area. You raise yourself to your knees and look around you in hopes that you can see the library in the distance. Maybe it was all a dream and you somehow sleepwalked all the way to the campus park. But by the heaving breasts in front of you, you knew that that wasn’t true.

A shadow moves at the edge of the clearing and begins to take form as it walks closer. But as it moves it doesn’t seem to walk, instead it floats towards you while remaining inches off the ground. The darkness around the figure fades and you see a face. One you recognize that is clothed in a dark red robe.

“Terry?”, you shout out in your new melodious voice that quivers now in fear. “Terry Adams?” you say again, now more in a whisper. The face of the apparition is Mrs. Adams, the executor of the estate where you found the book. She had invited you out earlier when you were picking up your check, but you were in too much of a hurry to go through the book to accept her invitation. Apparently she really needed to talk to you.

“I see you opened the book Sophia”, the ghostlike apparition said. She moved closer and you realized that you could still see the trees behind her translucent form.

“I didn’t mean to…It was an accident,” you say as you desperately try to defend yourself.

“I know Sophia,” Mrs. Adams said with a knowing smile. “The book chooses its owners. It is a trickster, filled with foul things. And it acts on the simplest thing of which I can not interfere with: freewill.” The apparition stopped its eerie floating and landed with translucent feet onto the ground.

“I tried to warn you, to keep you away, but once it picks you I’m powerless to pull it away.” She continued with a saddened look on her face. “I’ve been hiding that book for two thousand years now. But it seems it was just looking for the right innocent girl to set it free.”

“What do you mean two thousand years? What’s going on Mrs. Adams? What happened to me?” you shout out uncontrollably, feeling just like Alice in Wonderland.

“I will explain quickly, but appearing before you taxes my powers.” She said and you could see the tired look on her face. “The book was used by my people to trap evil spirits and magics. But it soon took on a power of its own. It became a thing of evil. I was chosen to watch over it so that the evil within it was never again released, but as all things I am bound by laws much older than man. For two thousand years I have lived one life or another, each a new form. The woman who passed away in the house was me, and I was reformed as you see me.” She pushed back the hood, displaying the beautiful face she now had. One that she had probably worn many times through her years of living.

“When you took the book, I was bound by those laws of freewill to see whether you would open it or not. When you did, you released powerful magics. That is when I created the mirror, which you touched. When you did, I put in you all the magics that I have been learning through the years. That warmth you feel within you is unimaginable power. It is stronger than incantations, potions, and rituals. It is called “flesh magic”.” She said, her image slowly fading away.

“With it, you changed and now possess all the power I once had. To protect you from the evils I had to transport you to a different time, a different dimension. The world is called Laram…” slowly Mrs. Adams began to cut in and out of existence. “…journey through the land….find your way home….” Then, Mrs. Adams was gone and you found yourself alone, in a strange new land. Suddenly, your boyfriend problems seemed very insignificant.