So far from home
By HyperBlastBrony
A soft pitter-patter of rain could be heard inside the library. Matthew looked at the time on his watch, which read 6:05. The library will close in an hour. Hopefully the rain would let up by then. He turned through the pages of an old book. Perhaps I should leave. I don’t want mom to worry. And with that thought he picked up the old book, checked out, and walked outside. The rain had let up and now fell gently on his face. He smiled and then quickly ran home. After about 15 minutes he reached the front door. Taking out his key he unlocked the door and went in.
As he entered, his beagle named Martin greeted Matthew. “Hey boy, how you doing?” The dog licked his face with joy. He walked over to check the calendar. May 14th. Only two more days until his birthday. He would be 13 soon. But he wasn’t very sure what he wanted. Nothing really seemed to please him anymore. Well at least most “normal” gifts. He preferred practical things like food, books and cool T- shirts.
He didn’t fit in well with the other kids at school. All they were interested in was first-person shooters, girls, and card games. Why did puberty make every one so strange? He had always been kind of the loner. He didn’t have a best friend, much less a group like the other students.
Heck, he didn’t even know if his dad was even going to be home for his birthday. He was super busy with work. Ever since the war in Iraq got bad, he was up to his neck with intel. Even his mom was busy, but at least she’d be home by 5:00.
He set his book down and took a look in the fridge. “Hrmm, not much to eat.” He grabbed a can of chili and got the rice ready. Rice. Everyone in his family said he was strange for eating rice but it went better with chili. Rice went better with a lot of other foods too. He started the rice cooker and sat down in front of the TV.
CSI Miami was on so he watched that until the bell rang on the rice cooker. He poured out the contents of the can in a bowl, then microwaved it for a minute and added the fresh, steaming rice.
He sat at the dining table with his dinner and book, reading as he ate. He was careful not to get food on its yellowed pages. This book particularly interested him. It was all about spells and casting them. He knew his parents would think it was stupid. Most of the things he read about, his parents didn’t really care for.
He finished dinner just as his mom’s car pulled in to the driveway. “Hey Matthew, I’m home.” “Hi mom,” Matthew responded. “What did you do today while I was gone?” she asked. “Spent most of the day at the docks and the library,” Matthew said, not looking up from his book. “Did you make dinner?” his mom asked. “Yeah, it’s on the stove.”
He went up to his room and threw himself on the bed. He sighed. His parents never really took much care of him. They were always too busy with one thing or another. The only good thing about their indifference was that it taught him to be very independent. He opened up his book and continued reading.
He had gotten to the chapter that explained how to use teleportation spells. It was amazing. The instructions were so detailed and intricate. You could travel anywhere you wanted or even to other worlds. These couldn’t possibly be for real, could they? “No. It’s a fiction book,” Matthew told himself. Magic didn’t exist. Or did it?
After he could stand it no longer, Matthew grabbed a piece of paper from his desk. He copied a circular image from the book and laid the drawing on the floor. He pulled out his drawer and found his pocketknife. Wincing in pain, he cut his index finger and wrote his name on the symbol with his own blood like the book instructed. “Here goes nothing,” he said out loud. Take me some place where I will be truly happy and people actually care about me for once. Then he spoke the words from the book: “Per transmaritanus de cruor capissivi meus procul!” He waited. For the next few minutes nothing happened. Well, it was worth a shot. Matthew stared glumly at the circle and then went to pick it up.
As soon as his fingers made contact with the paper, the page started to burn. Ow! He cried out and withdrew his fingers. The flames burned around the mark as it lit up and enlarged to about ten feet wide in diameter. “Oh my God!” were the only words that he could get out of his mouth as the sphere of light enveloped him. The world began to spin around him and he blacked out.
He didn’t know how long he had been out, but the next thing he knew was that he was lying on his back in some grass. His eyes shot open and he instantly sat up right. His vision cleared and he stopped hyperventilating as he slowly took in his surroundings. He was in a grassy area underneath. Wait. Was that an apple tree? He realized trees, all carrying fresh apples, surrounded him.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he saw someone staring at him. More accurately, something. He came to realize it was a small horse. It was about two feet tall and had a yellowish coat with a red mane. “Um, hello?” Matthew said with a weak smile. “Aghhhhh!” the small horse cried out in shock and quickly ran off without a trace. Wait, did that horse just talk !? He did a 360 of his surroundings once more and finally the words tumbled out of his mouth: “Where am I?!”