A Smidge of Magic

Chapter 9

The endless stream of questions from Valethalassa did not help with Ian's sense of displacement. She barraged him about his home, his gun, his clothes, and his family, for what felt like hours. He knew she was trying to poke holes in his story. He'd done much the same in his many hours in the interrogation room, but Ian's story never wavered or changed. As is often the case with honesty, and truth.

Now that Ian wasn't delirious with pain, and dehydration he paid more attention to the forest. There wasn't much to see, and that was due to their shadow wolf chaperone. The presence of a predator had that effect on wildlife. What he did see was mostly birds. Strange, alien, and interesting birds. One had four wings arranged in the same pattern as a butterfly's. Another had trailing tail feathers that left smoke in their wake. It all made him feel extraordinarily out-of-place. And made the reality of his situation even more glaring.

Valethalassa began pointing out the fauna to him when she'd noticed his unease, hoping it might knock loose some memories. She was operating on the assumption that he was under a curse, which Ian had refuted.

He did cheer up a bit when he saw a cardinal, though. The familiar bright red bird gave him a sense of normalcy. He gravitated towards the creature to admire it, snapping a twig as he approached. The bird let out a high-pitched chirp and promptly vanished. No puff of smoke, or flash of light, the bird was there one instant and gone the next. And with it his sense of normalcy.

His thoughts turned back to his situation. Okay, so we are clearly not on Earth. And if we are not on Earth then this is an alien planet. Which means that elves, whacko birds, shadow wolves, and everything else are real. That line of thought opened a whole host of questions that he was not ready to contemplate. He shook his head and diverted his attention back to Valethalassa, who was still prattling on about all the flora and fauna they were passing.

"...and that was a Rek'par Edhellein," She gestured at the spot the bird had vanished from.

"Wreck par, gotcha," Ian replied.

"No, Rek'par... You know you seem to be having trouble with elven pronunciations. We will speak in origin. You seem to at least have a firm grasp on that language," She said, glancing back to check if that was acceptable. Ian's look of non-comprehension caused her to sigh in exasperation. "Someone truly does not like you, do they? Curses can be awful things," She continued before Ian could correct her, "Almost everyone speaks origin, at least to some degree. The interesting part lies in how it is heard. When someone speaks origin, one of two things can happen. If the listener understands origin, they will hear the statement in origin. If the listener does not understand origin, however, they will hear the statement in their native language. It is automagically translated. If you, for example, wanted to speak with a dwarf who only spoke dwarven, you could speak to him in origin and it would translate to be heard as dwarven by him."

"Automagically?" Ian asked.

"Automatic magic. Things that happen magically with no real active need to cast a spell. I do not fully understand it myself and when The Seer tried to explain it to me, I got a headache." Valethalassa replied.

"So that's how you can understand english and how I'm hearing english?" Ian asked shaking his head with an amazed expression.

"English?" She stopped short, avoiding Ian's stumbled, and gave him a very quizzical expression, "I am not familiar with that dialect. But to me, you are speaking origin."

So either I speak a language that I was never taught, or somehow english and origin are the same. Makes perfect sense, Ian mused. He was quickly learning that he would have to accept some things if he was going to survive this insanity. He tabled that thought and instead started to wonder how much longer it would be until they reached Landorei. Rather than butchering her name he slipped into the habit of all Americans: he shortened the meaningful foreign name to something short and manageable.