Merlin heard loud, high pitched noises in the distance, as if someone were screeching. The stench of where he was almost unbearable, for he was surrounded by metal cans as big as himself filled to the brim with all sorts of things, from banana peels to small metal cylinders with letters on them like ‘AA’ or ‘C’.
Merlin looked around him to find he was in some sort of a dead-end hall with an open roof. At one end there was nothing but an impossible-to-scale wall. At the other end was a sight to behold.
There was a small white walking path, with many lines in it, forming squares. People walked in both directions along this path. Further beyond this was a black walking path, with odd lines drawn on it. Sometimes it was one line, sometimes it was two. Sometimes it was a solid line, sometimes it was dashed. Sometimes it was white, sometimes it was yellow.
And on this black walking path there were not people, but rather giant metal cages that moved incredibly fast and on their own as it appeared on four wheels. And inside these cages were people, many people. But in every cage, one person held a wheel of some sort.
Intrigued by this unique and fascinating sight, Merlin walked toward it slowly, as if in a dream. But the world Merlin saw from inside the strange hall was not the world he was walking toward. No, it was very much different, as Merlin soon found.
“Hey, watch it!”
“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”
“Get outta my way you vermin!”
All of these and more was yelled at Merlin. For such a beautiful world, these people apparently did not like him. But Merlin didn’t care. If things went the way they had been for the last several hours, he wasn’t going to be here for long, so why worry?
Merlin walked down the white walking path for a ways, not caring of the dirty looks he received. He was intrigued by this world. Was it some realm Blaise hadn’t told him about? If it was, why hadn’t Blaise told him? Or had Blaise told him about this realm without Merlin realizing it?
Either way, Merlin intended to look around while he could, for this was the first time the voice wasn’t speaking and Merlin was free to go where he’d like. And Merlin intended to take full advantage of that opportunity.
Merlin passed several glass windows, something only the rich could afford. But then again, most of the people on the walking path were elegantly dressed, though from what Merlin had heard, these clothes he saw were ‘casual’. Where Merlin was from, these clothes were so fine, not even royalty could afford them.
Inside the glass windows, Merlin saw many odd devices. Being the curious boy he was, Merlin went inside many of the doors next to the glass windows to look at the marvels inside the rooms. The room seemed to be an indoor merchant’s stand. Merlin could tell because people were handed others coins and paper, which looked oddly familiar. Not only that, there was much yelling, presumably bargaining. The merchants here were very stubborn on their prices it seemed.
Some of the things Merlin saw were so marvelous he had to ask others about them. There was one thing, a strange box, almost like the color box back in the Utopian realm, that when you pressed a button, music played.
“Sire, could you tell me what this is?” asked Merlin of a man walking past him dressed elegantly in black leggings, a black overcoat, a white shirt, and a red drape hanging down over his chest. The man was also holding a small rectangular metal object to his ear and talking to it.
The man looked curiously at Merlin as if he had come from a completely other world. As it happened, Merlin did come from a different world. “This is a radio,” the man told Merlin, then asked questions of his own, putting away the small rectangular object in his pocket.
“My, isn’t this a fancy outfit. Is your dad a businessman?”
“What’s a businessman?” asked Merlin.
The man gave a small chuckle. “You must be from a small part of Britain then.”
Merlin was about to ask how the man knew he came from Britannia, but Merlin realized it must be his accent and instead replied to the man’s question. “Yes, I do.”
“Well then. Are you an actor for a play? You look like you’re dressed for a Shakespeare play,” the man said.
“Um, no I’m not an actor,” said Merlin, speaking slowly, his reply laced with confusion, “And if I may ask, who are you?
“Lebaiy Norclans, small business owner and astronaut for NASA. A pleasure to meet you…?” asked the man, extending out his hand to Merlin to shake.
Merlin gripped the man’s hand firmly and shook it, stating his name as he did so.
“Named after the famous wizard, eh? Well anyhow, I have some business to attend to, so if you will excuse me, I’ll be gone. But first, Merlin, I would like to get in touch later, so here’s my card, be sure to call when you have time. Comprendai?”
“Um, yeah, ok,” replied Merlin, not sure how Mr. Norclans would be able to hear him when he was all the way in the Utopian realm.
Merlin continued looking at the indoor merchant’s stand after Mr. Norclans left. Some of the things Merlin saw were just wondrous, strange, and familiar all at the same time. A few of the things that caught Merlin’s interest after the radio was the color box, which he learned was a television, something called a ‘computer’, which when you pushed buttons did amazing things like connecting to the world wide web. Another thing that caught Merlin’s interest was a book. Merlin had seen many books, but these books, there were many, many copies of this book. Not only that, these books were the best bound books Merlin had ever seen.
Merlin read the words on the cover. The letters were oddly shaped, so Merlin had a hard time reading it. It looked like the book was called ‘Lofd oj the Fings’. Underneath that, it said ‘J. R. R. Tolkien’. Then Merlin looked at it closer and he saw the book was actually called ‘Lord of the Rings’.
Curious, Merlin opened the book and began reading. It started with a story called ‘The Hobbit’. Merlin read the first few pages, and couldn’t put it down. He would’ve been there all day had the merchant not asked him if he’d like to purchase the book.
Merlin looked up, an expression of slight surprise on his face. “Um, yes, I would actually.”
“Then come on,” said the merchant in a deep voice and led Merlin to what he had heard people refer to as a ‘cash register’.
The merchant held out his hand for Merlin to shake, so Merlin did.
“No, give me the book!” yelled the merchant. Apparently he hadn’t wanted to shake Merlin’s hand. Merlin handed him the book.
The merchant looked at the tag on the book and punched in a few numbers on his cash register. Then he told Merlin a number.
“Twenty-two fifty.”
Merlin was puzzled by this number. The man looked a Merlin with an expression of impatience, rolled his eyes, and told Merlin it meant how much money he owed. Twenty-two dollars and fifty cents.
“But I don’t have any money,” said Merlin. Again, the man did not look pleased with the world.
“Look in your pockets,” said the merchant, “Maybe, just maybe, there’ll be some money there! Just maybe, and you can pay for this book and get out of my shop!”
Merlin did as the man advised and pulled out a large wad of green paper. In the corners of the paper were numbers. Merlin looked for a twenty-two, but all he saw were hundreds. He counted them as he went along for future reference, but lost count on thirty-seven.
Meanwhile, the merchant looked on with awe, a small trail of drool escaping his mouth. Merlin pretended not to notice and handed the man one of his slips of paper.
“Will this cover it?” he asked.
The merchant eagerly took the slip of paper and said yes so fast it sounded like a dog barking.
“Wait,” Merlin said, a hint of suspicion in his voice, “That’s a hundred. You told me I owed twenty-two fifty. You need to give me back the money you owe me.”
The merchant’s childish grin flew off his face at those words. He reached into the register and started pulling out slips of paper angrily, muttering to himself as he did so. It sounded like “Out of all the things this boy doesn’t know, he has to know money! Why? It’s just not fair! But of course, it has to be this way!”
Turning in Merlin’s direction, the merchant put on a clearly fake smile and gave Merlin one slip of paper with a fifty, one with a twenty, one with a five, two with a one, and one coin with a fifty on it. Merlin assumed the man was being honest, said thank you, and left the indoor merchant’s stand.
Merlin walked on the white path for a while until he found a small area of grass and trees, with smaller walking paths more like the ones at home. He heard this area referred to as ‘the park’.
Merlin found a shady tree and sat down by it. Then he opened his book and began to read.
For hours Merlin read, completely oblivious to what was around him. He read of small people called hobbits, and dwarves, and wizards, and dragons, and Middle-Earth, and treasure. He read about a strange creature carrying an invisible ring, of elves, of exciting adventure.
Merlin read and read, and saw similarities that could not be. The author’s representation of many of the creatures to be found in the book were much like those in real life, such as elves. Happy most of the time, but serious when need be. And then dwarves, always thinking of gold and jewels and fighting with axes.
Merlin kept on reading. For hard-to-read letters, Merlin sure got along fine. By the end of the day he was almost done with the first segment of the book. He would’ve finished, had he been able to resist the call of coming slumber.
For all that Merlin saw in his dreams that night, he may as well have been awake.
The first thing that Merlin saw was an old lady walking with a carrying bag. She sat down to talk to someone, and put the carrying bag on the edge of the chair. She was so engrossed in conversation that she didn’t notice a man walk up near her chair and take the carrying bag. A thief. Back in Britannia, that would cost the man his left hand.
A flash of light and Merlin was witnessing a robbery. A violent robbery. The robber was holding in one hand a canvas bag filled with the green slips Merlin had used to pay for his book. In the other hand was a smaller version of the exploding pipe Merlin had seen. And the exploding end was being held to the head of a terrified man.
The people Merlin was hearing referred to as ‘police’ also held exploding pipes, which the people were calling ‘guns’. Merlin heard the police speak in a calm, but firm voice to the robber, telling him to lay down his arms and no one would get hurt. But the robber wasn’t about to let his prize go. No. His answer to the police was shooting the man he was holding the gun to. The man fell instantly to the floor, while the robber made a dash for it.
A light flashed again and Merlin saw a war. Despite his limited knowledge of this place, a war was a war; nothing could change that.
Another flash and another and another, each time showing Merlin horrifying scenes of brutality and evil. What had happened to the peaceful world Merlin had seen?
Then it came; a big explosion. The sky turned so red it looked as if it were on fire. Perhaps it was. Merlin didn’t know, for he wasn’t looking at the sky, but the innocent people dying so quickly they couldn’t possibly know they were dying. One by one they fell, still smiling from enjoying the weather the world had been offering only to take it away.
From the explosion, a mushroom cloud emerged, exactly like the one Merlin saw on the bronze wall. For a few moments, all was quiet, and then Merlin heard the boom. It was deafening. There was a final flash of white light, and Merlin was in his red dragon form high above the earth. And flying towards him was a giant black dragon that was missing its front feet. Riding on this dragon was a hooded wizard dressed completely in black, save for his or her pale skin.
The black dragon engaged Merlin with its back claws, gripping Merlin’s abdomen. Caught, Merlin tried his hardest to escape the black dragon’s grasp, causing both to lose altitude in a terrifying free fall.
The black dragon didn’t loosen his grip on Merlin. If anything, he tightened it. Merlin, unable to contain himself, roared in agony, serving another purpose; warning the people below of Merlin’s coming.
The people fled just seconds before Merlin impacted the ground. Only then did the black dragon loosen his grip and fly off Merlin. In a normal fight, Merlin would’ve taken this moment to fly away. But this was no normal fight.
The black dragon’s rider dismounted and walked over to Merlin. Merlin heard the slither of a sword being unsheathed. Moments later, he felt the iron pierce his soft underbelly, straight into his heart.
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