Perception Ch. 6

Chapter 6: The Eagle And The Stallion


We now rejoin Jason, who has been very busy since we saw him last.

'Ahhhhhhhhhh!' Even if there had been anyone to hear Jason up here eight-and-a-half-thousand feet above the ground, they would have had a very hard time doing so over the cries of the roc in whose talons he hung, as well as the flock of similar creatures only a short distance away that they were beginning to glide towards. Wings the size of building storeys caused great downdrafts of air that would have blown Jason away had he not been grasped tightly in the great bird's talons, one set of claws being enough to hold his entire body with ease with just head and legs sticking out at either side. He heard the call of the other birds coming closer like a funeral bell and desperately tried to remember anything he knew about the roc from fantasy. Do these birds eat people? Do they even obey conventional fantasy rules in practice? He didn't know. He'd always found Chemistry much more interesting.  

Closer again. This was it. He was going to die. There was no magical 'It'll be alright' button, that most prevalent feature of all fantasy. He was actually going to die. And he wasn't dreaming.

Anything would do to fill his mind, so long as it took him away from the view before him. His vantage point was unparalleled. The whole world opened up like a map before him. The fields below shimmered. The hills rolled away to great stony peaks, dark smudges of towns and the bright gleam of a distant body of water. The multicoloured city of Tarrowin shone like a gem collection in his peripheral vision. The trees looked like pin pricks. It would have been beautiful had the only thing between him and it not been 30,000 metres of air and nothing else.

The roc cawed again with a sound that shook the world and Jason shuddered in its grasp. Other birds were starting to fly past, under and around, closer than before as the flock gathered together at the sight of their new plaything. Jason just about had enough time to wonder deliriously how many there were exactly before suddenly the roc in whose talons he hung swung back a foot big enough to kneel on top of and then threw forwards, opening its claws in a great pitch as Jason flew out into the air without an instant's warning. There was a second of falling that lasted forever, where there was nothing but the pull of the Earth and the ground far below and the wind rushing through his ears, and then just as Jason closed his eyes so as not to have to see it happen he slammed into something in the air and the roc into whose talons he'd been thrown gave a victorious cry as it soared upwards, now clutching the distressed human in its foot. There was a curve so banked that for a moment the ground disappeared off the side of the display and all Jason could see was blue and then suddenly he was falling again, thrown from one bird's claws into another's with just a heart-stopping instant between. The world had lost all sense of direction now. Jason's thoughts kept being ejected from his mind with every plummet, to the extent that all sense of orientation and where anything was had been lost in a jumble of feathers and claws - except, of course, for a very, very distinct sense of down.

The giant bird who held him currently flew in a tight circle around three of its friends and the human in its claws felt himself slam sideways into the walls of its inner foot, smashing all sense out of his head. He couldn't think straight. He still wasn't over the shock of being abducted by birds - he wasn't over the shock of his hometown disappearing -, and now he was being beaten and bashed about so much that any half-formed thoughts were shaken out almost immediately. Maybe that's the idea, a tiny, still-functioning part of his brain said somewhere far away. Maybe the G-Forces were to soften him up, and then he'd go down like a treat...

Or maybe they were just playing with the new thing that they'd found.

He could still see the ground from here. He really wished he couldn't.

He was about to be thrown again, he could feel it. The birds were calling loudly, insisting that they get a play with the new gimmick. There was no way to prepare yourself, really - it didn't get easier with time. All you could do was tense yoursel-

And once again, he was flying. He saw another roc coming up at him from below, a flurry of brown feathers in the midst of the buffeting wind and this time his body gave up on waiting for his brain to give it an order. As if it was happening a long distance away he felt himself twist and throw himself out in mid-air...

The roc's aim had been off. He was not being thrown into a waiting talon net this time, and only his impromptu mid-air manoeuvre saved his life. All he knew was that suddenly he wasn't in the net of the bird's foot, he was clinging to its leg and all at once his brain was on full alert and working very quickly indeed again as he sat atop the bird's foot clinging to the leg of the creature itself as suddenly the wind came back with a vengeance. The roc squawked in indignation and bore sharply on a loop-the-loop, but it had a leg like a pillar box covered in scaley ridges that formed excellent grip holds and kneeling on the surface of its foot Jason gripped onto the leg before him like it was the last source of his salvation. His arms screamed at him in their unjust punishment but he forced himself to ignore, making sure at all times that he was capable of breathing in, and then out again. In, and then out. In out in out in out inoutinoutinoutinout...

The world came the right way up again and Jason's fingers unconsciously relaxed, only to grab hold like a trembling limpet again as the roc attempted a great kick to shake him off. The noise was unbearable. The wind tore at him and the squawking and calling of the flock filled the entire world. If he didn't move, Jason knew, he was going to lose strength in his fingers and then he would be dead. But where could be possibly go? The only way you could go from here was down.

The world shook again and the feathers above him trembled and Jason decided in that moment that his last vestige wasn't safe anymore. Somehow, down was good enough. Braving himself, he looked out over the edge of the bird's foot at the ground below. The fields were like a patchwork quilt dotted with match-head trees. He instinctively snapped his head back, drew several shallow breaths followed eventually by one deep one, counted to five, then another five, and then stuck his head out again. It was still very long way down, but it wasn't as far away as before. Rocs were circling below him, calling to one another on many different heights and planes. Brown and black and rich umber plumage filled the air. The birds circled below him, each with the wingspan the size of a swimming pool, their backs to the sky as they started to wonder whether their old toy had ever even existed at all now it was out of their sight.

From his perch above them, Jason swallowed. He was only going to get one shot at this.


---


'No!' Lucian stumbled across the grass in frustration as the roc that carried Jason away between its talons soared higher and higher with every moment, the calls of the boy he had just determined to try and get somewhere safe becoming faint within a matter of seconds. He stumbled to a halt and shaded his eyes as he watched them go, flying towards the Sun and the rest of the flock until they became impossible to tell from any of the other flying, milling shapes.

Ugh, no... Lucian kicked a clod of earth up and cursed under his breath. He'd just told himself he was going to try and get that guy somewhere safe. He'd just told himself. He was going to get him off this dangerous hillside and to a nice safe(r) city or something. And now this had happened. Some great job he was doing at this protection business. No wonder he always travelled alone.

The rocs were milling about high above him, flying in loops and banks and indistinguishable patterns. Somewhere up there, Lucian thought to himself, was that Jason kid. Who hasn't a chance in the world, because he's not even from it. He's going to get himself killed. And, well... That was a shame. Lucian didn't wish death on anyone, and to lose a fellow being was never really good no matter what you thought of them. A fellow being who'd been open and confused and... had genuinely trusted him back there...

Well, that was just all the worse.

Lucian didn't like turning around, but he did it anyway. The kid had been caught by rocs. Oh dear. It was a loss. But at this point it was a loss that Lucian couldn't do the slightest thing to try and stop, being about eight thousand feet too low and not blessed with the gift of natural flight. What was he supposed to do from down here, exactly? Giant monster birds have to eat too, y'know. Lucian turned all the way round, and the hills rolled on before him like nothing had happened at all.

He squinted, and frowned. Had anything happened at all? It was such a surreal scenario... A person from another planet and then a weird time-scrambled messenger appearing from thin air. Did he just make the whole thing up?

Never, ever turned your back on an actively hostile entity that can kill you faster than you can kill it. This is one of the lessons that becomes engraved into trekkers and wanderers everywhere, whether through careful planning or unfortunate experience, and it was unlike Lucian to forget it. If there had been anything other than a sudden need to vacate his lunch going through his mind as a second bird, figuring that there was apparently enough to go around, dropped out of the sky and snatched him up in talons the size of doorposts, it would probably have been either cursing the irony of the situation or slapping himself for letting it happen in the first place.

As it happened, though, it was more like 'What the- A^{aaaaaaaaaahh...}'


---


This was crazy. Jason wouldn't even have done this in a dream where he knew he was safe - he'd had enough now to establish that this probably wasn't a dream, unless his subconscious had a weird and cruel sense of humour. There were a million and one factors that could go wrong. Any one of them could lead to a horrible, painful death. Where he was, though, Jason looked up at the bird that he effectively clung to the underside of and knew that there were only a handful of factors that needed to go wrong in his current position, and the chance of them doing so was already high and increasing by the instant. The roc one whose foot he balanced gave a loud cry and Jason took that as a sign of having delayed enough. Don't think. Just...

He ran and jumped.

There is nothing quite the same as the sensation of falling. The air sucking at him, the wind whipping up past his body and through his hair, the almost tangible pull of the Earth itself as the ground below started to grow and grow and grow. His body tipped up in the jetstream and he saw the birds circling, cawing out in confusion, trying to understand what was going on as they milled out blindly. Passing over and around and under him...

His body twisted, he turned himself sideways, he flew past a deep black bird in a collision that could have actually happened if the wind had simply decided that it was going to crush him that day, he saw a target, tried to angle his body, plummeted...

Impact.

All the air flew out of his lungs and he could have sworn he'd damaged something deep within his sternum. Probably several somethings. But all Jason knew, as he lay there on his front on what felt like a big brown duvet, was that he was still alive, and he wasn't falling.

The bird underneath him screeched harshly and Jason lifted his head and almost laughed out loud. He was on its back. He had actually landed. He was riding on the back of a roc at seven-and-a-half thousand feet.

This morning he'd been worried about getting his homework finished.

The temptation to stand up and dramatically throw his arms out hit Jason for a second and then was flung off just as fast as he would have been if he'd followed through with it. The wind up here was biting and strong. It ripped at him and tried to tear his grip away. The back of the roc was several feet wide and almost twice as long as he was, and with the feathery coating he had landed on it was like a very surreal feather mattress. If he'd been somewhere safer where the wind wasn't pulling at his body every second and the roc wasn't twisting and squawking underneath him he would have loved to just fall asleep on it. He hadn't realised how much the cradle of the other birds' talons had actually sheltered him from the elements for the most part (sheer shock had probably accounted for not noticing most of the rest). Suddenly he gripped tight as the roc tried to tip itself round, not quite having the momentum for a full barrel roll but still trying to shake its unwanted passenger off. Jason held on with all his might and closed his eyes in feverish prayer until feeling of the void below returned to the angle he was used to by now rather than off at a kink. He had to take control of the situation, now. He needed to get back down to the ground. But how? He couldn't get off the roc, no way, so how could he possibly?...

He disregarded the idea the first time, only to realise it wouldn't go away. Could he... really?...

'Sorry about this,' he muttered to the bird that couldn't hear him in a language it probably didn't understand, before tensing every muscle in his body and throwing himself forward as far as he dared on its back. The roc cried out harshly as the weight suddenly launched itself up towards its neck, the sudden change throwing it off balance in its intended level flight path. And when the weight suddenly launched itself even further forward, putting uncomfortable pressure on its shoulders and coming out of its centre of gravity, it didn't have the wherewithal to stop simple laws of physics causing it to bank forwards into a nosedive.

Later, Jason tried to explain the experience of clinging broad-back to a nosediving bird the size of a tree plummeting towards the Earth as the fields grew larger and larger at a terrifying rate. To this day he had never been able to. You can't put it into words. Sounds, perhaps. Hand gestures sometimes help. Maybe you should just scream into their faces until they get the picture. The best that he ever managed was: You know on a rollercoaster, when you get to the very top and you can see the whole park and everything for miles around and then you go over the edge and you just FALL? You know that bit?

Well, that's not even close. For just a start, those have safety belts.

There was a sudden jolt as the roc's head came back up, the bird amassing enough control of its body to come back up out of its fall into a level path, as it tried unsuccessfully to look over its shoulder and peck furiously at its assailant. Jason's head whipped up in response and he automatically shuffled backwards, not particularly minding the change in motion. His eyes were still peeling back round the right way in his skull. He wasn't all that close to the ground yet, but he was noticeably closer. And most importantly, he didn't ever have to do that again. He'd take any compromise in height to have that. The bird, however, was still squawking and writhing as he tried to cling onto it, and he was going to have to do something again. Not a plummet - no, never again -, but maybe if he could get it to circle around so it descended a bit each time...

He didn't have a better plan. This time he drew his weight back from the top of the roc's giant back and instead pressed it into what might be called the top-right hand corner, trying to push it forwards rather than down in a weird pressure application he'd never have been able to calculate in a Physics class. A small voice in the back of his mind pointed out to him that he was really just being abusive to majestic fantasy creatures as soon as he had discovered them, but he buried that away for the moment. He could worry about animal ethics once his life wasn't currently in danger. The roc did tip forward slightly with a cry but still must have been somewhat thrown off, as it did indeed start to veer wonkily to the right, the sound of desperate wings flapping behind him telling Jason that it wasn't for want of trying. He'd never thought of himself as that heavy before, but if someone was pressing into sensitive areas of his back he could imagine it would send him off track. And, sure enough, his crazy plan was becoming a crazy reality - the rocs path was beginning to circle, the forwards tilt driving them closer to the ground below. There. The fields still looked a long way away, but before they looked like patchwork quilt whereas now one glimmering field filled the whole of his vision. So they really were magic... He'd believe that at this point. He'd believe downright anything.

^'Jason!'

Jason looked up. Ok, maybe he wasn't sure if he believed this.

'What the- Lucian?!'

^{'Don't mind me!'} Lucian shouted down at Jason's mortified face as he hung in the talons of a roc some distance above, hanging from his shoulders in the closed foot with his arms out free in front of him. As Jason watched the other boy reached up and pulled down hard on the bird's other leg, causing an outraged squawk and the roc to veer sharply towards Jason's position. ^{'I just happen to really enjoy hanging above death-defying heights over the weekend!'} Lucian shouted. ^{'You still alive down there?!'}

'H-How did you get up there?!'

^{'Same way you did, I imagine! Probably getting down the same way!'} There was another tug to stop the roc drifting away from Jason's position. ^{'Helps that I have no problems being a dick to "majestic fantasy creatures"! Keep an eye on your bird!'}

'What?!'

^{'I said-'}

Jason found out what he said. For all the wrong reasons, and in the entirely wrong way. His concentration had slipped, and so simultaneously had his grip. The roc he was riding decided that it had had enough of its passenger and that this was the best chance to get rid of it, and so it did. One straight tip forward, and it was off. Done. Thank goodness.

Jason fell, again.  

He tried to twist and angle himself into another bird below him in desperate hope. He missed one and bashed straight into the side of the other, knocking him over in the air and causing all sense of direction to disappear. There were no more birds below - he had made his circle too low for that. Now he was falling.

And falling.

And falling.

The field below took up all his vision, growing larger with every passing second. The wind threw everything backwards in its draft, tearing at his face and almost blinding him. The sheer falling sensation overcame him again, and this time it was tinged with a little morbid fascination. This time, he had no plan. There was nothing to make a plan with. In a few seconds' time he was going to smack into the ground and that would be it. Game over. No continue. That was his lot.

You could make out the figures in the field below, running over the shimmering grass. They looked like horses, albeit horses the size of rice grains. It was hard to spot because of the way your life flashed before your eyes. How charming, Jason though. This crazy fantasy world has horses too. That's something I recognise...

He didn't know whether he was air-starved or if it was just the giddly lucid thoughts of the nearly-expired. He was about to die. Look, the ground was really coming up now. Oh, bugger. He could have done so much more with it all-

There was another sensation from the air. At first it was weak, but as it grew Jason became aware of it on his way. The air wasn't just ripping past him, it was almost pushing back at him now... Like an actual force against his fall, getting steadily stronger... Was it him, or was the ground coming up much slower now?

It was. Jason could only watch in his helpless falling state as the air began to push almost tangibly against him and the ground starting to slow down its relentless approach. As he fell he fell slower and slower, buoyed up on a cushion of the air itself, decelerating continually as his proximity to the field and speed of approach to it each decreased proportionally until, as he leisurely passed the tops of trees and the final few feet until impact approached, he slowed down to a direct halt, coming back up to an awkward crouching posture as he ground to a halt and hung in mid-air, his feet about six inches off the ground and his body the right way up again like he had been gently set down on an invisible surface. He could move his body, but he daren't. He daren't ever move again after what he had just experienced.

It would have quite poetic and dreamlike, if it wasn't for the voice shouting 'Woah, woah! Hold on just one pixie-catching second! I have had enough sentient beings falling out of the sky for one day, are we clear?'

Jason stared at the floor for several seconds, watching it swim in and out of focus dreamily. He wasn't dead. He actually wasn't dead. He looked up. There was a tall, brown-haired boy, slightly older than he was, standing a few feet away pointing at him with frustration. Jason blinked. The boy had a horse for a body. Jason blinked several more times and his vision finally focused. The centaur before him flicked his tail angrily and his eyebrows knotted as he stared across at the floating Jason, his arm still pointed at him.

'What's the big idea, pal?' the centaur said with raised eyebrow in Jason's direction. 'Catching people out of the sky isn't an easy magical feat, so why were you up there in the first place? Is it to do with those birds? They've gotta eat too, you know. Last bird that came over here ended up with a pretty nasty fate and I know because I burnt it myself.'

Jason was still not dead. This fact was taking some time for him to grasp in all its implications. 'Um... what?'

There was a sigh. 'Look, one thing fell out of the sky, we went to have a look at it. Some poor ex-bird who's now a smouldering pile of bedding construction. Then we see something else starting to fall down among the rocs, so we have to sort this one out too don't we? Only this one we have time to catch before it splats into the ground and makes a terrible mess everywhere. Which part of that is so hard?' There was a slight impression in Jason's mind that this explanation was being done this way to deliberately confuse, but this was where he had the secret advantage. Everything confused him here.

'Well?'

'Oh, right. Um, I, I just...' Jason stared at the mythical being before him. He was finally getting to terms with his continued not-deadness, but that only left room to be aware of the fact that he was hovering in mid-air on a carpet of pure magic before a being that normally only existed in books and fantasy films. '...Y-You're a centaur.' He would have slapped himself for that one if he could've moved enough.

The centaur sighed and lowered his arm, only to suddenly snap the other one up as Jason began to sink to the ground in accordance so that he stayed dangling above the shining grass. 'Yeah, yeah, you haven't seen many centaurs before. I get it a lot. You're lucky we found you, instead of some rogue tribe or a grumpy fire elemental or something. I'm just going to give you a second to get your bearings again, ok? Then we can talk.'

There was a prolonged silence. Then, 'Better?'

Jason swallowed. He was talking to a mythical being. He was surrounded by magic. He was starting to get used to those things. He was still alive. He was definitely used to that, just not to his current ability to access it. But he was starting to feel better. 'Um... Can you help me?'

'Mm...' The centaur tilted his head at Jason, looking him up and down as if weighing his value. 'Maybe, depends on what it is... You can't just use magic for any old thing, I'm sure...'

'Well, the thing is that I just got caught by a giant bird and nearly fell to my death when it pitched me off its back. I swear, I didn't intend to enter the, uh, magic counties myself - that's just where I got thrown off.' Wow, he was using the terms correctly and everything. He couldn't help but be a little proud of himself. 'I fell a very long way and would have been killed instantly if you hadn't been there to slow me down in mid-air.'

'And your point is?...'

'My point is, can you do the same thing when my friend comes down too?'

The centaur's frown twisted in surprise. 'Your friend?'

'That's right, my...' Jason paused here for a second. Was he really referring to Lucian like this already? Was he... Well, who else did he have in the world right now? 'My friend, yes. He got caught by them too. I promise we never meant to trespass on your land. It was just what happened to us by sheer bad luck. Um... please don't turn me into a newt.'

There was a long, cool silence, which ended in the centaur bursting out laughing. 'Ha! Ha! Ahahahahaha! Wow, I haven't heard that one before!' His arm dropped to his side and Jason fell to the ground, falling about a foot into a gentle impact on the grass. There he lay, at first recovering, but then just hugging the soil with the passion of a dearly-reunited lover. When he got back home, he was never ever going abseiling or rock climbing or across any tall bridges ever again, and when he got a house when he was older it was going to be on the flattest piece of ground he could find and it wasn't even going to have an upstairs...

'Ahem.'

'Oh. Sorry.' Jason pulled himself to his feet awkwardly and dusted himself down, trying to smile politely at the same time at this person he barely even knew who just grinned like a cat back at him without saying a word. Now that Jason had got around such previous complications as levitation and being surprised at his own survival, he could now see his gracious host a little more clearly. From the waist up he was a late teenage boy, maybe young adult - a little on the in-shape side of normal, with large fluffy brown hair above a face from which cheeky but fiercely intelligent blue eyes gleamed like gemstones. At his waist, though, human skin met short brown coat in a perfect circle that marked a neat dividing line, below which stood the body of a white-bellied brown horse with a thick, brushy tail at the far end that flicked distractedly as he watched. Overall the centaur stood almost half a foot above Jason, the human-horse dividing line just about above Jason's own waistline around his belly. The grass around his feet - around both their feet, and all across the field and all the fields surrounding them - seemed to shimmer with a white edge, not itself different in colour but still the effect hanging over it inseparably. Magic. He was standing on actual, pure magic. Incredible.

'So, uh,' the centaur asked, 'your friend?'

'What? Oh, er, oh yes.' Forcing himself to concentrate omce again, Jason tore his eyes away from the fantastical scene around him and fixed them instead on the fantastical scene above him. The rocs were still milling and circling and flying aimlessly, disrupted and confused and trying to work out what was going on around them and if anyone else was going to end up with unwanted human baggage too. And below them, one roc that appeared to be spiralling lower down, flapping its wings like mad trying to stay aloft with its extremely long and heavy legs. No, wait... not legs...

The centaur whistled as Jason stared in awe. 'Wow. Friends like you, who needs aggressive local wildlife? Oh that reminds me, names?'

'Um, Jason... He's Lucian.'

'Nice to meet you. For the sake of your puny human tongue, call me Callum. Don't worry, by the way, the magic here can't hurt you directly, and any temporary change it causes can be turned back pretty quick. We used to do it all the time when those funny explorers kept trying to map out the counties for some reason. They could've just asked.'

Jason blinked. 'Did you just say Callum?'

At that point, though, the situation changed dramatically, and the main way in which that happened was that Lucian's grip far above them failed him all of a sudden and with a considerable distance left to go, he began to plummet to the ground.

'Lucian!' Jason screamed, his hands to his mouth as if he could do something to stop the other boy's headlong freefall. Lucian had managed to get significantly closer to the ground than Jason had before his drop, but now he was falling and was already not far from the trees below him. And there was nothing Jason could do to help him, and he could see him all the way down.

A hand grabbed Jason's arm. 'Now hold on for a sec,' he heard Callum say behind him, 'teleporting's never easy on your first go.' Jason just about managed to open his mouth when the surroundings vanished.

And were immediately replaced. The field had changed around them and they were stood before a small thicket of trees behind a dry stone wall. The hill that had once been a few fields away was now further back and the fence layout was all different. Jason's head throbbed and he bent forwards, clutching his temples in the hope that his stomach didn't follow suit and make him throw up on the magic soil. What a way to enter a world like this that would be. The pulsing on his brain was beginning to fade away again quickly when there was a terrible crash above him in the sound of splintering timber that reverberated inside his skull.

'Ah,' he heard Callum say a more measured tone. 'I'm don't think I managed to catch him very well that time.'

Jason's head came up again. 'Lucian?!'

There was a terrible silence for a few seconds, then- ^'...Jason?'

Even though he barely knew the boy, something inside Jason melted in relief to hear him alive again. To his right he heard a voice say 'Phew... I'd hate to have that one on my conscience,' and as he turned his head Callum walked past him, wiping his forehead with relief and stepping up to a gap in the stone wall. Clopping into over the fence into the trees the centaur raised a hand and shouted 'Hey, Lucian! Your friend's here! You still alive up there?'

There was another pause, then ^{'Oh, good. Prancey-boys.'} came down from the trees above. Lucian's voice was strained, but still carried that rough tone of getting straight down to business and not having time for needless pleasantries. Some people really do never change regardless of situation.

Callum let it wash over him. 'Yeah, nice to meet you too. You need a hand up there?'

^{'Give me a minute for my bones to stop aching, and I'll... be fine. Where's Jason?'}

'Lucian!' Jason shouted, jumping the low wall and rushing up to the trees. 'I'm here, I'm fine,' he called loudly, trying to angle up towards where he thought Lucian'svoice was coming from. 'I got caught safely by magic from this centaur here. I'm fine, honest. What about you?'

^{'Um... Could have gone better,'} Lucian's voice drifted down in the voice of mitigating a claim before speaking it aloud. ^{'I'm ok, more or less. I wasn't massively far from the ground, and these trees broke my fall a bit.'}

'You looked pretty high up to me,' Callum noted astutely.

^{'You weren't there. Give me a second, I'm coming down now.'} It took several long seconds and a false start or two when a branch would break underfoot from his weight, but soon enough Lucian was climbing down onto the last branch of the tree at ground level, swinging his legs off and dropping to the ground with a slight wince. Even thought the last time he had seen him had been in the midst of a flock of monsters six thousand feet above the ground, something didn't seem to ever change about people like Lucian - the same look, the same expression, always no matter what. He brushed his sleeve down and frowned, and for a second it was like he was annoyed to have been held up this much, no matter how incredible the thing holding him up may have been. Jason instinctively ran over to check on him and try to help but Lucian raised a hand and cut him off, stopping him until the boy had straightened himself up and unclenched his teeth. 'Oww...' Lucian muttered, rubbing his side tenderly as he looked up. His eyes met Jason's and for a second there was silence, and then Lucian looked away with a 'Thank goodness you're alright' that sounded like it had more escaped his lips than been spoken.

'Well, this has been very emotional for us all,' the centaur Callum broke the silence with a smile as the pair of them turned to face him as he spoke. 'Certainly entertaining. But now, ah, you probably need to get off our land. It's not really safe. Besides, we were here first.'

Jason opened his mouth but Lucian spoke first. 'Oh no you don't,' he opened, in a display of classic Lucian-ness that felt he was already becoming familiar with. 'We didn't want to be here, but now we've made it anyway we're going to find that Callum person we were told about if it's the last thing we do. I for one feel like actually accomplishing something with the day, although I know that's not mutual, and now that we can't avoid being around here in the first place we're definitely going to make the most of it.'

The centaur's eyebrow rose like a precipice. 'Oh really? And what would you need this Callum person for?'

'Um, Lucian-'

'None of your business,' Lucian cut in shamelessly with a flat arm gesture to wave Jason off. 'I'm not getting every last pony from here to Beluvia involved in our problem, ok? Just help us find the guy and we'll get out of your hair.'

'Um, Lucian?'

'What?'

'Apparently... this is Callum.'

To Lucian's credit, he didn't back down on anything he'd just said. 'Finally! Alright then, how can you help us?'

'I'm sorry?' Callum said with innocence that could charm a gargoyle. 'I thought only relevant people were being told about your problem. Besides, if you won't tell me what's wrong, how can I put it right again? Do you really just not think before opening your mouths?'

'Don't look at me, we were told you'd be the answer to our problems,' Lucian shot back as Jason could only watch on at a conversation that he suspected was technically meant to be about him and his problem. 'You can get Jason home, apparently. Go on, then. Wave your hands and magic him into thin air and get me out of here.'

'Home?' The centaur turned his head to look at Jason. 'And where is home, exactly?'

Jason swallowed. Suddenly all eyes were on him, and he didn't like it. 'Um... I think I'm from another world. Another planet unlike this one. One with no magic and no mystical creatures. And the landscapes totally different and none of these cities are there and my family...'  

The words choked in his mouth, and in his silence Callum whistled slowly. 'Wow. I know some people find the magic counties mess with them a bit, but I've never heard of someone actually going loony because of it. Actually, no, never mind, but we've definitely never had this kind of loony...'

'You're enjoying this, aren't you?' Lucian shot darkly under his breath, but Jason didn't care about that. 'N-No! Seriously! I did! I am!' he blurted out, the pressure of not being believed beginning to creep up on his awareness like a waking nightmare once again. 'I'm not from this world, I swear it! We don't have giant birds and magic soil and centaur people or anything like that! Please, apparently you're the answer Callum! You can get me home! That's what I'm told! Please, help me!' Unabased by sheer terror, Jason threw himself down in front of the centaur's feet. 'Please, please, help me!'

Callum stared at him for a long second, his face portraying his struggle in balancing understandable shock with trying to work out if this weird human throwing himself at his hooves was even sane in the first place or not. 'Uhhh... Wait, who told you this?'

'We don't know!' Jason's mood was not improving. 'He just appeared and told us that we needed your help without even telling us his name! And then he vanished into thin air! Please, he didn't make any sense but he's the only lead we've got, which means you're the only lead we've got! You've got to help us!'

Callum looked down at Jason, then up at Lucian with a confused frown seeking resolution. Lucian just cocked an eyebrow above his folded arms. 'Don't look at me, horsey. It's his situation, why don't you take his testimony?' There was a pause, followed by a roll of the eyes. 'Ok, fine, I saw this weird guy too. And he doesn't act insane. Just like, well... Like he's from another world entirely. Like he has no idea what's going on.'

Callum looked back down at Jason again. 'Alright then kid, if that's the case then who's Presider over The Distaff at the moment?'

Jason blinked. 'The what?'

'The Distaff.'

'...The what?'

Callum's eyebrows rose. 'Seriously?...'

'Jason,' Lucian's voice said from behind in a treacherously-sweet tone, 'how do you pronounce tripleyous?'

Jason's head came round. 'Wha... I don't know!'

The centaur sighed. 'Ok, really?'

'Apparently his world doesn't have that in the alphabet,' Lucian said with a shrug as he kept his eyes on Callum.

Callum looked like he couldn't choose between incredulity and plain confusion. His tail flicked sporadically. 'If this is an act, it's a pretty impressive one...'

'Th- This is not an act!'

'Yeah, well.' A flick of the wrist found Jason suddenly upright again a foot or so away from Callum rather than clinging to him in supplication. 'Even if it isn't, which I'm still not convinced on, what do you want me to do? Poof him back to a different planet in a different dimension that we know nothing about or how to locate, and hope the laws of conservation of matter and so on don't notice while we're at it? Do you really think I'm that powerful?'

'Yes.'

'Flattering, Lucy-boy, but I think you overestimate us centaurs. Just because we have a bit of magic doesn't mean the laws of reality are our personal playthings. That's not how that works, ok? And I'm only a young centaur, but even so I'm pretty sure even Toris couldn't warp a living being across a dimensional barrier or however you want to phrase this ridiculous questio-'

There was a sudden shift in the air pressure and another centaur appeared out of nothing next to Callum, already scratching his head and sighing as he arrived. Never has such a range of reactions been displayed: Jason leapt back and almost yelled in shock, Lucian's eyebrows rose sharply and he blinked a few times in surprise, whereas Callum simply rolled his eyes and folded his arms. 'Oh goodie, Anthon. So glad you made it. Come to keep an eye on me, eh?'

The taller, older-looking centaur gestured at Lucian and Jason. 'What are they doing here?'

'See, this is what I told you about,' Jason heard Lucian mutter to him under his breath. 'I warned you that they do this.'

'They're the ones that crash-landed from the rocs,' Callum said. 'They only ended up here by accident. They're only still here because I've been keeping an eye on them before we send them off.'

'Why haven't you just sent them off already?'

Jason's breath caught in his throat. He'd had two people too many be incredulous of his claims for one day - if this centaur refused to believe him, he might just give up and cry. On the other hand, if they found out that he wasn't just from outside the county, but outside their world, he could be in for a world of difficulty.

But to his surprise Callum just shrugged and said 'Well, it's only fair to let them explain themselves first. I was pretty much wrapping up here anyway.'

'Hm. Well, fine. I just came to tell you that I'd also found this falling from the sky.' The older, taller centaur reached into a pouch that hung at his waist and drew out a small, soft-shaded red rock that made the breath stop in Jason's lungs. 'Since you seem to be collecting most of our falling intrusions today, I brought this one here too.'

'That's mine,' Jason said before he had time to consider if it was a good idea.

All heads turned to him and suddenly he was very conspicuous and very, very self-aware. 'Is it now?' it was Callum who asked in the end, eyebrow raised.

Don't back down. 'Yes. That's mine. I need it. Give it here! ...Please,' he added, remembering that he was in the presence of two mythological beings of natural magical prowess. He knew it was, though. That was the rock that the weird boy who brought him the message had thrust into his hand yesterday shortly after telling him that Callum was going to be his way to get home again, so it was entirely likely that that rock had something to do with his safe return as well. Which meant that he needed to have it with him, right now. He needed everything he could possibly get.

Callum turned his head to the centaur called Anthon. 'People really need to look after their stuff better when they go skydiving. Is there any reason why he can't have it?'

'There doesn't seem to be. It's just a rock.'

'It's very, um, important to me,' Jason blurted out desperately. 'I was given it by someone and told to look after it very carefully. They said it was importan-'

Jason blinked mid-sentence as the rock landed in his hands with a thump. 'Then take better care of it,' Anthon said dishonourably, 'you nearly lost it forever just then. Not a great display of responsibility. Now, I think you should leave.' Jason sighed at the sight of Callum nodding - this wasn't an argument he was capable of winning.

A hand dropped on his shoulder. 'Indeed,' he heard Lucian say to his side, 'the day's getting on. You need to find yourself somewhere to stay, Jason. Just give us directions and we'll make our way-'

'I will escort you from the counties,' Anthon said as less of an offer and more of a command. 'That way you will be safer. What you do then is your own business.' Jason felt he was starting to get good at reading his new environment - all the centaur needed was a farmer's shotgun and a suitable comedy accent and the 'Get off moi back yard!' jokes would be only too obvious. Centaurs, apparently, at least make it clear to you when you've outstayed your welcome.

'Um, actually...' Callum's voice piped up somewhat subduedly behind Anthon, prompting a turning of heads, 'we could warp the two of you to Tarrowin if you wanted... It's not far, and like you say the day's getting on-'

'We can walk.' Where Anthon spoke with frost, Lucian was a glacial peak. 'We don't need your warping. We'll be perfectly fine without your assistance, thanks for asking.'

'Um, Lucian...'

'Jason, whatever you're about to say, don't bother. The sooner we're out of here the better, ok? Let's just take the rock and get out.'

'My thoughts precisely.' In one neat movement Anthon stepped between them and laid a hand on each boy's shoulder. 'If we move quickly, we can be out of here within the hour. Then I wish you the best of luck.'

Jason turned his head, craning his neck to see past Anthon's hand, and his gaze met Callum's for a moment. There was a second where the centaur's response was seemingly uncertain and thoughtful at sight of this strange boy being lead away into the wilderness, bit then he remembered who he was and his expression shifted into a comfortable And what do you want me to do about it? shrug. Jason turned back again. Maybe the fated meeting was another one in the future. Maybe it had been intended as a crash course - literally - in meeting his new world. Maybe that strange messenger had just been wrong. But... he'd been promised so much. He'd been promised help. And he hadn't found any.

'Come on, then. Let's get you two moving.'

Or at least, Jason considered as he and Lucian were gently but firmly steered forwards and away towards the hill in the distance, any help that he appreciated much.

As soon as Jason broke eye contact Callum breathed a deep sigh of relief, returning to his previous expression. Truth be told, he didn't feel great about throwing the kid out on his ear. He'd seemed genuinely confused - whether it was one type of confusion or another, he seemed like someone with a genuine problem. That meant he hadn't a chance out there. Well... at least he had that other guy with him. But it still seemed like more than just a funny act... There was something about that boy's desperation that seemed so real...

Anthon?, he struck up over telepathic conversation. He had never had a reason to not be grateful for this highly useful and extremely private form of contact between magic beings.

Hm? What is it?

You know the great lore of magical knowledge that the leaders have been building up over millenia? Have they ever had anything on parallel dimensions?

What? Why?  

Well, have they?  

Well, as it happens Callum, they have. A few hundred years ago the then-leader went probing the nature of the universe through use of magic, trying to see if he could locate another reality or universe outside our own.  

And was there one, out of question?

No. No such thing. He used every form and source of power he and the rest of the herd had at their disposal, strong enough to warp the fabric of reality itself, and they found nothing. No separate physical universe outside our own. No alternate physical existences. Just one of our world, just one of our universe, only one of everything. Nothing on the outside resembling anything on the inside.  

...How sure are they?


---


'Well that wasn't much of a welcoming committee.'

Jason could only nod bleakly. His mood hadn't improved as they'd trod their way across the gleaming magic fields (you stopped noticing the tingling after a while), and now it was just the two of them again back on the normal grass it was sinking to an all-time low. He had know idea where he was or what was going on. His only lead on returning home had vanished into thin air. His only source of guidance had potentially proved wrong after all. It was just him, and Lucian. A boy he had known for a single-digit number of hours. And as if that wasn't enough, he wasn't familiar with the surrounding terrain here. Wherever the centaur Anthon had lead them to, it wasn't where they had been abducted from. He literally had nothing to go on anymore.

Naturally, Lucian took charge. 'Right. So your situation has screwed up and don't get me wrong, that's tragic. But we're not going to be able to do anything about it without food and somewhere to stay. The only place we...' He looked briefly into the sky to test his theory and sighed at the answer that he didn't like. 'The only place we can make it to by nightfall is Tarrowin, which is at least somewhere I know a bit about how to get around. I'm running low of funds, though - may end up being stodgy goblin digs for the evening.'

A thought sprung across Jason's mind and he felt his back, safely-zipped pocket. 'I might be able to help...' he volunteered uncertainly.

'Great.' Jason was genuinely amazed - it was as if Lucian never had time to be unsure about anything. 'Then all we have to do is get to the path and we're sorted. To be honest, I don't normally go off the trail this close to the magic counties, so... may be a little bit of rough hiking for a bit as we try and find it...'

'Oh...' Jason's face fell, and he looked around hopefully. 'Well, how about we ask those guys for help?'

'Which guys?'

'Those ones. The ones on top of the hill.' He pointed at the figures he had spotted just before and sure enough, there they still were - a bunch of non-descript silhouettes on top of a nearby hillock setting up what looked like some sort of tripod-mounted telescope device. Lucian opened his mouth to deliver some cutting reply that would prove his expertise in the wild, stopped, then shrugged and said 'Well, they must have come from somewhere to get up here. Alright, fine.'

'First one to reach the hill wins?'

The look Lucian gave him could have nailed paintings to the wall.

Jason was the first one there, in the end. He struggled to the top of the deceptively-steep hill and paused to catch his breath for a second, trying not to let his attention be captured too much by the still-close shimmering boundary of the magic counties to his left. Their run to this point had mostly followed the line of the boundary along the edge, and in a way it felt like they weren't making much progress. But at least they weren't just sitting on their hands, as Jason's father always said. With that he stood up straight and tried to make himself presentable to the people before him as he heard Lucian pull his way up the hillside beside him with considerably less drama. It took Jason a second to realise that they were in fact being ignored - the men before them barely even seemed to register their presence as they busied themselves with the devices they were assembling in front of them. The installment he had seen did indeed turn out to be a tripod, although the tube looked a little too small to be a telescope. 'Er, hello?'

Ignored. The men in black kept up their business.

Jason did the decent thing and assumed the communication issue was on his end. He coughed noticeably and spoke louder. 'Er, excuse me? We got lost, do you know how we can get from here to Tarrowi-'

One of the men's arms snapped up and Jason nearly jumped back in shock as a green-scaled finger ending in a wickedly curved claw pointed out beyond them to the west from the end of the man's sleeve.

'Er, thank you.' What do you say, exactly?

The man lowered his arm again and continued setting up the equipment he and his associates were handling. Jason frowned at it, recognising various long and thin or thick and oblong shapes and a small computer screen, before realising that he should get going before they decided that they didn't want him seeing this. 'Come on, Lucian,' he said quickly as he drew back, 'let's get out of here. I'm getting hungry.'

'Hm?'

'I said we need to get moving!' Jason reiterated, tugging on Lucian's arm to pull him round. 'Stop staring at their stuff so we can get out of here!'

'Fine.' Lucian capitulated, and soon the hilltop was behind them. Not a moment too soon, Jason thought. You longer you spent near those men, the more you didn't want to.

They found the main track path soon enough and before long Tarrowin was rising up from behind the next ridge, mercifully closer than Jason feared it might have been. As their shadows reached before them down the path he looked across at Lucian's continual thoughtful expression. 'What's the matter?'

'Hm? Oh, er... nothing.' There was a pause. 'As in, you wouldn't get it. Not being native and all.'

'Yeah, don't remind me. There's probably going to be a lot of those things. Is it to do with those men?'

A silence, then 'Yes.'

'What do you think all that equipment was for?'

'I don't know, Jason, but I suspect it wasn't bird-watching. Frankly, I don't think I want to be there to find out.' Especially, he thought, given the logo he recognised on each and every piece of equipment. That little white emblem with the animal's head pointing through the triangle. The White Fox Agency logo was something you couldn't get this far in life without being able to recognise from thirty feet away, and in their quest to supply everything from A-Z and rags to riches it was hardly surprising that the average collection of items would contain several objects with that same logo proudly emblazoned upon them. It was mildly more surprising, though, to see that each and every single piece of equipment the men were carrying was marked with that logo without fail. All of them. Without fail. So maybe they had a promotional deal or business link. So what?

'M-hm,' he said non-committedly at the sound of Jason speaking off to his side. He didn't hear what he said, of course, but that didn't matter.

The only thing was that this seemed to be very out of practice for the WFA. The outspoken CEO Branden Creed was one of those people who just naturally accumulated media coverage, and you could tell he loved it. Whenever there was an Agency event or Expo or anything of that kind, there would be flyers and posters covering every square inch within a half-mile radius. Even when their business partners had news to declare, good old Creed never liked to resist pointing out who had helped those partners of his so much in getting there. So to see something like this where there was a clear Agency link but nothing to officially state so to all and sundry was... off-model.

So maybe they used a lot of Agency equipment, but didn't have a connection to them at all... now why would that be?...

Lucian blinked. 'Huh? What?'

'I said,' Jason repeated irksomely, 'do you know which road we follow from here?' Lucian blinked again. Sure enough, they had come off the hiking paths and had been walking along the side of the main road for an indeterminate time now, and were now stood at a crossroads between the fields. A few fields into the distance the outskirts of Tarrowin began, a modest cream-coloured district before the multi-toned explosion that was the city centre further away.

'Well, the city's right there. It's not like we're going to lose it now, is it?'

'Yeah, but which of these roads gets us there fastest? I don't want to pick a road that takes us all around the houses before we get to anywhere we can find accommodation.'

Fair point. Time to be the expert. 'In that case, straight on. The right-hand road kind of winds through the suburbs a bit. I usually leave town by this road,' Lucian said with confidence as he crossed the empty intersection and started heading down the side of the path, his hands in his pockets. He was on familiar turf from here, no problem.

Jason caught up. 'Um... You leave this town often?'

'What can I say? I travel a lot. By the way, if you found a centaur a mind-blowing concept then you might want to brace yourself for the city. They've got everything.' And they've got it all at once, too. You're going to need someone to keep your head on straight.

'Wow. Do they, er, still have magic out here?'

Lucian scratched the side of his head. 'Eh...' How to describe it... 'Technically. The background magic field isn't anywhere near as strong here as it is in the counties, so you can't do as big stuff or as frequently as you could in there. There's still something, though, still some field that can be tapped into. Of course, centaurs and other magic species have an innate ability with magic so they can do really big things effortlessly anyway. Most species just don't have the same proficiency.'

There was a pause as the two teens walked down the side of the road, the ground rolling past in silence as they walked, until Jason volunteered 'Are there any, sort of... "negative side effects" from magic use? Sorry, it's just so-'

'No, I understand. But I'm pretty sure the potential of being turned into a canary or immolated counts as a negative consequence, yes.'

'I mean inherently, just in the act of using it.'

'Oh.' Another walking silence as Lucian considered his answer. 'Not for everyone. If you can control it, you're fine. If you can't, it may flare as you try and use it and catch you in the crossfire. The magic species are used to this, of course, so they can do just about anything within reason without any problems. In the magic counties it's in the air all the time, which they've just got used to. Ordinary people have to cautious - use more than you can handle and you're basically sticking your neck on the block.'

'Have ordinary humans ever tried living in the magic counties?'

'Where do you think the invisible humans came from?' Lucian held Jason's expression for a while, before internally cursing himself. 'Oh. Yeah. Well, they exist too, since you didn't know.'

There was a small, plaintive sigh from Jason at the side of the road. 'There's going to be a lot I have to learn here, isn't there...'

'...Yes. Yes there is.' And good luck to the person who has to teach you it. Lucian wasn't letting anyone get killed when he could have helped them out, but he also wasn't going to keep carrying someone on his back when his 'debt' to them was paid. That's how life works. You get on your feet, you walk yourself. It's a big world out there that stops for no-one.

Lucian looked at Jason out of the corner of his eye. But... the kid wasn't ready yet. Give him a little time first. Before anything else he needed somewhere to sleep, and at least Lucian could help with that.

And so in this state, of lapsing silence between vague threads of conversation, they came onto the main streets of Tarrowin. Countryside and hills became towers and terraces, green of the grass became a thousand bright displays and the sharp, predominant shade of each district. The quiet emptiness of the country metamorphosed into more species than Jason knew existed, milling around him with each at his own business in that manner that bled into the fabric of cities all over the universe. So many things that Jason had never seen before, and so many that he had only seen in books and movies that here just walked down the street without anyone batting an eye that it almost overwhelmed him just to witness it. Giant monsters and scurrying creatures. Animals like people and people like nothing on earth. Colour and shape and shine and the impossible all together at once, at a rate and a intensity that made one boy simultaneously amazed and alone in a world that very definitely wasn't his.

'Lucian,' he asked prospectively, 'will they notice if I stare?'

'Yes. This is a city, after all.'

That much was true. Jason resolved that the best time to try and take all of this in wasn't as the Sun was going down, tried to close his eyes and ears temporarily to the wonder and magic and sheer distress around him until he was ready to deal with it and let the other teen lead him away to somewhere where they could find shelter. Tomorrow he had another chance to try and learn what was going on - whether it was a better chance, he could only wait and see.

High on a rooftop above them, watching them go, Suzie kicked back her heels as she lay on her elbows and smiled. She'd seen one of those lads coming out of a goblin place this morning - he'd looked so boring that she'd barely remembered him an hour later. Now, though? Two boys coming into town late at night, so fresh out of the magic counties that you could practically feel it on them? She flicked her invisible hair and gave a smile shrouded in an air of mischief. She had a little magic blood in her, by her nature, and even if most people wouldn't notice that kind of thing about them she could definitely feel a fresh residue of magic on the passers-by like the stink that follows you out of the sewers. Since she'd seen them last this morning, they had been getting up to something interesting. Something risky. Something you didn't get much of - and then they'd come back into her city, right when she was just wondering what to do with herself next.

This should be good.