Chapter 3

Lucas jumped at the voice. He thought he was alone in the garden.

He turned around to find a young girl standing behind him.

“Where’d you come from?” Lucas blurted out. He didn’t even notice that she was there.

“I’ve been here the entire time, you just didn’t notice me. Hey, do you like this place too?” She said.

Lucas took a better look at the girl. She looked a few years younger than him, with scarlet hair and green eyes. She was a pretty little girl, who was wearing brown pants, and a blue shirt.

He looked at the garden around him.

“I think I like it. It’s a pretty place.” He said.

She stared at him.

“No, I meant this alcove. You are the first person besides me who has been here. No one knows it exists.” She said, slightly irritated at Lucas’s misunderstanding.

“Uhhh what?” Lucas said dumbfounded.

The girl sighed, fed up with Lucas’s dimwittedness.

“You don’t know what this place is, do you?” She said.

Lucas shook his head.

The girl closed her eyes.

“This is my secret place. Well, it ain’t so secret now, thanks to a little someone.” She glared at him.

“Ummm, sorry?” Lucas said, still trying to keep up with her personality.

She held her chin for a second and scrunched up her face as if she was making a hard decision. She then moved over to where Lucas was about to sit, and sat on the bench.

Her face cleared up after a moment, and she shifted her attention back to him.

“Alright, Ill permit you to make this your secret place too, if you make sure no one else knows about it.” She said.

Lucas blinked. She continued on talking, completely ignoring whether or not he agreed.

“Anyway, my name is Reyna. I live in the capital, but my pa works in the castle. You know, he’s a really important person. What about you?” She asked, getting more and more excited.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Uh, um, I’m Lucas.” Lucas replied, caught up in her pace.

“Lucas, what a weird name. It sounds more like a foreign name. Were you born outside the country?” She said, with twinkling eyes as the excitement reached her face.

He nodded.

A wide grin split her face.

“What’s it like outside the country? Is it exciting? Is there delicious food and stuff there? How do you deal with the monsters? How did you get here?” She said, nearly shouting, and putting her face closer and closer to Lucas’s.

Lucas put his hands out, trying to calm her down.

“Hey, chill!”

She cocked her head, a look of confusion on her face.

“Chill? What does that mean?” She asked, interrupting him.

Lucas sighed and shook his head. “Forget it.”

“I’m from a place called Earth.” He said.  “We don’t have monsters on Earth. And it’s pretty boring being there. The food is good depending on where you get it.” Said Lucas. A pang of loneliness tightened his chest, remembering his dad’s delicious cooking at home. He kept his summoning a secret, he didn’t know who this person was, and didn’t want to accidentally offend them.

Wonder replaced her excitement.

“You don’t have any monsters? How?” She asked.

Lucas began to explain about his home on planet earth, how humans were the only species, and how magic didn’t exist.

Reyna was very interested in technology, and how humans on earth lived without magic and monsters. Her face lit up every time he mentioned something about technology, and different inventions.

“I want to visit Earth once.” She said longingly when he finished.

Lucas didn’t say anything. Her words gave him a stark reminder that he didn’t know how to get back.

He firmed himself. He would quickly help defeat the horde of monsters and find his way home.

The low bell tolled 9 times, indicating that it was 9 at night.

Reyna suddenly jumped up.

“Ahhh! It’s already that late! I hafta get home, or I’ll get my head eaten by mother again.” She nearly yelled. She turned to him. “Bye Lucas, I gotta go. It was nice meeting you!” She said.

“Oh, I almost forgot. To get back to the castle, just follow the stone path back to the castle. Anytime you want to get back here, just remember this place and walk into the forest with the full intention of getting here. It will show itself to you. It already acknowledges you anyway.” She said.

Lucas opened his mouth to speak, but Reyna already turned around and ran into the forest.

He frowned, and glanced at the path. He needed to get back to his room too. He didn’t expect to wander for around two hours when he entered the garden for a walk.

Somewhat apprehensive of getting lost again, Lucas carefully began to walk down the path to the castle. He breathed a sigh of relief on seeing the now familiar castle garden.

Lucas made his way back to his room, feeling much better than he left it.

He sat down on his desk, and glanced at the quill and the bottle of ink on his desk.

However, Lucas never wrote with a quill and ink before. He had seen it done in other movies before, and knew that he had to dip the tip of the quill into the ink before writing.

Lucas was surprised to find that the majority of the people in the country could read and write, which was a stark contrast to Medieval times on earth. The literacy rate on earth during those times was below 10%.

Lucas then found out that most magic required a basic mastery of language in order to use, and that most people could use a very basic level of magic. Darius explained his all to him during his lecture.

Lucas began to experiment with the quill and ink, and after several attempts, he managed to write his name on the front page.

What a great start Lucas though, as he began to shakily write everything that he learned from Darius.

It took him an hour to finish.

His arm hurt from writing so much, and his hands were stained with ink.

Lucas laid down on his bed, and closed his eyes.

It was a long day, and he had a feeling that tomorrow would be too.