Alfheim
Seoul
By Chris Coleman
© 2017 Chris Coleman
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First Printing: 2018
ISBN: 978-1546778493
Dedication
To my lovely wife, who encouraged me to keep writing.
CHAPTER 1
“Mark! Stephanie!” I called into the dim light filtering through the trees. Wow, they disappeared fast. They were after a Blue Spirit, which I didn’t need, so of course, that left me alone… at night. In the woods. Okay, so it was just Kinnear park set against the evening gloom of the pacific northwest, but still, lots of creepy trees.
“Alecia!” came Stephanie’s voice, it echoed so I couldn’t tell from which direction it originated.
“Stephanie!” I called again, and chuckling to myself, added, “Mark-o!”
“Polo!” came the reply. My best friend since kindergarten emerged from the trees with Mark trailing not far behind. My phone beeped, indicating another digital creature in Spells and Legends was nearby.
The augmented reality game was popular at our high school. I held up my phone and moved it side to side, hoping to see the elusive Krupir in my display. Everybody we knew was trying one. Forest creatures required parks, and downtown Seattle had several of them if you knew where to look. Kinnear Park, with its densely tree-covered walkways, was my favorite. Sometimes I’d come here to chill after school.
A scent interrupted my thoughts. The air smelled acrid as if someone had lit a match. I looked around to see what might be on fire and noticed a large circle of white mushrooms. Perhaps it was a trick of light with the setting sun, but the mushrooms appeared to be glowing. I’d never seen a real mushroom ring up close before. I snapped a pic for my Instagram.
A high-pitched whine and a small puff of smoke escaped from the speaker of my cell phone. The screen went dark.
Oh crap! I’d promised Mom I’d take care of this phone! She’d given it to me when I started high school last year.
“My cell phone just died,” I said as Mark and Stephanie came over.
“Stick it in a bag of rice,” Mark said as he zipped up his dark blue Adidas jacket.
“That only works if it gets wet.” I flipped my phone over and started taking the case off.
“Your mom is going to be so upset,” Stephanie said.
“Yeah, she totally is. But, I found something weird.” I pointed behind me.
“Mushrooms?” Mark questioned, eyebrows raised.
“It’s a faerie ring!” Stephanie said, stepping closer to the mushrooms.
“Careful, that’s how my phone broke.”
“You really think the mushrooms broke your phone? ” asked Mark.
“Go ahead and try it yourself,” I challenged, stepping out of the way so he could get past me.
He took half a step forward and then stopped. “This is a brand-new phone.”
“That’s what I thought.” I couldn’t help but smirk. Mark rolled his eyes.
“What if there are faeries?” Stephanie asked.
“Faeries...really? You believe in faeries?” Mark asked, turning to her.
“Of course I do. Or at least I want to. I would love having magical powers.” Stephanie’s face was alight with enthusiasm. Her short blonde hair bounced as she jumped up and down.
“You must be thinking about Disney faeries. From what I read in Grimm’s version, those things are messed up,” said Mark.
“Well, I believe in faeries too,” I said. “When I was younger, Grandpa Dan used to tell me the most amazing stories about them.”
“But what if they are real?” asked Stephanie. “What if we actually found one? Would you freak out?” Stephanie zipped up her hoodie too. The sky was growing darker, and it was starting to get cold. It was hoodie weather nine months out of the year here in Seattle.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I know people freak out when they see aliens or meet monsters in almost every movie, but I don’t think I would. I’ve read nearly every fantasy book out there.”
“That would be stupid,” said Mark.
“What do you mean?”
“If you remember in the books and movies, as soon as they stop freaking out, they go along with whatever crazy idea the faerie comes up with and go on a grand adventure. I don’t think it would be anything like that.”
“But Grimm isn’t the only source of faerie tales. They aren’t all bad,” Stephanie said. She seemed determined to prove they were good.
“Even if you find a benevolent faerie, you still need to be careful of loopholes. Say you find one and ask it to take you to see the faerie realm, they could agree, but if you didn’t think to arrange a way back, you’re stuck there forever.”
“Oh, that would suck,” I said.
“I’d do it anyway,” Stephanie said.
“Really? You’d still go?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” she said. “I wouldn’t care if I got stuck over there, I’d go anyway.”
“Yeah, I guess I would too, but only because I want to see one of the dragons my Grandpa Dan is always telling me about.”
“Girls,” Mark said, rolling his eyes again. His phone beeped. “It’s my mom.”
“We should probably get back,” I said. “It’s getting dark.”
“Yeah, my parents will flip if I don’t get my chemistry homework done,” Stephanie said.
The park was several blocks from my house, but still within walking distance. After two blocks, Mark and Stephanie turned left, and I kept walking straight.
“See you Monday,” I said and waved to them as they disappeared around the corner together.
I was a bit envious because I liked Mark, but he hadn’t seemed to notice that fact. It wasn’t going to be easy to ask him to prom.
A deafening roar reverberated through the air, disturbing my thoughts. It was an unusual sound, something like a T-rex or maybe Tarzan stepping on Legos. The noise changed to be more like a dog in distress. A really big dog.
I ran toward the sound. I had no patience for animal cruelty. I reached for my phone in case I needed to call the police, only to remember it had died.
“RELEASE ME!” a voice bellowed. I looked around, there was another person some distance down the street, but they weren’t talking.
A pungent odor assaulted my nose. It was the same acrid smell from the faerie ring, only stronger. I followed the noise past the corner shop and into a small alleyway with a row of garbage cans lining each wall.
A person crouched against one of the walls. He had the stature of a man, yet two jet-black horns protruded from the curve of his bald head. He was taller than me, way taller, and burly. Roughly textured draconic scales covered his pale green skin.
He yelled and thrashed about, struggling against a heavy looking chain fastened around his neck. The other end of the chain was bolted to the ground at his feet. The chain glowed an eerie yellow.
I stopped short. This was crazy. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t human. I blinked a few times and looked again. If those were body mods, they were the most eerily realistic ones I’d ever seen. No one is going to believe this. I knew it was stupid to go any closer, yet, whatever he was, he might need help. I remembered the comment I’d just made to Mark as I felt myself start to freak out. I took a few breaths to calm down and tried to look at the situation rationally. He was chained up, so I didn’t think I was in too much danger. I had to know if he was all right. I stepped closer to the creature. My hear
t fluttered, and my hands shook as I made my way past the trash cans.
“Hey, are you OK?” I said when I thought he could hear me. There is probably etiquette for introducing yourself to an alien, but I didn’t know what it was.
“I WILL RIP YOUR LIMBS FROM YOUR BODY!” he roared. The alien lunged at me, grasping wildly with his huge, taloned, hands. I jumped back, scrambling to stay out of his reach. The chain around his neck jerked taut, abruptly halting his advance.
“Whoa, dude!” I said, “Calm down. I’m here to help.” I was surprised how composed my voice sounded. Ha! Mark, I’m not freaking out, I thought. Too bad he wasn’t here to see this.
“Liar! Eira sent you to witness my demise and report back to her. You will not see me grovel for my life. I will not let her have the satisfaction.”
“First off, who is Eira?” I asked.
“What kind of a fool do you take me for?” he said. “There are none in Alfheim who do not know Eira.”
I got excited. Alfheim was the Norse name for faerie land. He must be Fae and not alien. Stephanie would be so jealous when I told her.
“I hate to break it to you—you aren’t in Alfheim anymore, Toto.”
He gave me a blank, uncomprehensive stare.
“You’re in Seattle. Washington. The United States? Earth?”
He still didn’t seem to get it. I tried to think of some other names he might recognize. “Um, Midgard? Middle-earth? Not-faerieland?”
“Liar! This is an illusion. We are in Alfheim. I can feel it. I… ” his voice broke off, his expression dubious. Suddenly his eyes widened. “Wait! No! This is not my body. It is a construct designed to deceive me.” He bellowed again. I covered my ears with my hands.
“What? What did I say?” It was my turn to be confused.
“Eira has banished me here to die. I cannot survive the sun rising.”
“The sun will kill you? Does it burn your skin or something? Are you a vampire?” I clutched my neck reflexively.
He shook his head. “The rising of the sun is significant. It disrupts certain magic.” His tone was sullen and gruff. “If I am truly not in Alfheim as you claim, then only magic is keeping me alive. When it is dispelled, I will cease to exist.”
“What?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”
“How can you be so ignorant?” he shouted. “I am from Alfheim. My kind cannot travel easily outside of it.”
“That might explain why I’ve never seen anything like you.” I felt sorry for him. I didn’t understand exactly what was happening, but that wasn’t an excuse to shout at me.
“My species has no physical form in your realm. When we visit other realms, we require a construct, a shell to house our ethereal form.”
“If this is a shell, what do you normally look like then?.”
“Eira went to great lengths to mimic my true form. Even I cannot tell the difference. But, when the sun rises, the magic in this body will be disrupted, my true form will be exposed to your realm, and I will perish. Instead of killing me herself, Eira has left me here to die. She will still be avenged in the eyes of her people, all without getting her hands dirty.” He strained against the chain one more time, pulling at it till I could see the veins in his neck bulge.
“If it weren’t for this chain, I could find a portal ring to Alfheim and escape,” he roared.
“Wouldn’t they just find you again and kill you? This seems like a pretty elaborate setup to just let you go if you escape.”
“Aye, verily. I would be hunted to the ends of existence and killed in the most gruesome manner imaginable.” I could hear the despair in his voice. His words rang true, yet everything about them seemed impossible. The smart thing to do would be to leave now and pretend I hadn’t seen anything. I really shouldn’t be talking to strange guys in allies, Fae, or not. If this were a movie, everyone would be shouting at the screen, telling me to run, but I had to know what happened next.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I challenged Eira in front of the queen,” he said, teeth clenched and rage in his eyes.
“What for?” I asked.
He let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
“Eira is very powerful,” he began, his voice deep and gravelly. “Every year her influence and abilities grow, encroaching upon the queen’s dominion. To keep the balance, the queen takes something from Eira, but Eira gets to choose what it is.”
“That kind of seems fair.”
“No, it is utterly barbaric. This year Eira chose her servant Eliana.”
“Eliana, that’s a very pretty name. What happened to her? Does she serve the queen now?” He shut his eyes and looked away from me.
“The queen requires public execution as payment. There was little I could do to save her. I challenged Eira to single combat and lost. I expected them to kill me on the spot, but I awoke here, chained and still alive. I’ve been waiting for my executioner. Instead, you show up and tell me I am no longer in Alfheim.”
“Well isn’t that good news then? I mean if no one is coming to kill you.”
“I now realize the sun is my assassin, bringing my death with its rays.”
“Why would you challenge Eira if you knew she was so powerful?”
“Eliana is my wife. I would have challenged the queen herself to save my beloved.”
“Oh!” The word came out as a gasp. I couldn’t imagine what he must be going through. “What happened to her?”
“She yet lives. The queen accepted my life for hers. If I return, it will void her reprieve, and we will both die.” There was a cold finality in his voice.
“There has to be something we can do?” I couldn’t imagine losing someone I cared about like that.
“Do you have wizard powers sufficient to break these chains?”
“Can’t I just cut the chain with bolt cutters?”
“Do you have those?”
“Well, no.” I felt stupid.
“Then there is nothing to be done. Magic forged these chains, and only magic can break them. Leave me, pitiful mortal. Let me die in peace.”
I stood there for a moment, contemplating what I could do. I had no tools, no unique talents, no magic.
“Is there really nothing that can be done to save you?”
“Oh many things could be done, but not by you. The risks are great even for a powerful wizard, which you are not. Should Eira discover your interference, she would have you killed, or worse.”
I shuddered. I shouldn’t be mixed up in this. I should go home; I should do my homework. I needed to pretend reality was still, well, real.
“You know, I might know where hacksaw is,” I said, looking for an excuse to get out of there. Dad had lots of stuff in the garage, but I didn’t think I’d find anything, nothing that could cut magic chains anyway. What I really needed was some space to think. It was dark, and I was alone in a narrow alley with a scary looking creature that shouldn’t exist.
“Do not toy with me!” His voice was gruff, and he strained against the chains. “Just go now!” he roared.
I walked backward out of the alley, not taking my eyes off him. When I rounded the corner, I ran.
Why had I gone in there? Did I have a death wish or was I just stupid? These thoughts swirled through my head, pushing me to run faster. I was in pretty good shape from taekwondo practice, but I wasn’t feeling it as I rushed through my front door and slammed it shut.
I was safe. That’s how it works, right? You slam the door shut and monsters can’t get in. I took several long breaths, trying to calm down so Mom wouldn’t worry when she saw me.
CHAPTER 2
“Om-ma,” I called, using the Korean word for mom. “I’m home.” I walked into the small room passing for a kitchen in our tiny apartment. I was still breathing a little heavily, but I hoped it wasn’t too obvious. We lived in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, close to Dad’s work and Grandpa Dan’s shop. It wasn’t very big, but Mom kept it clean and well organized
.
“Alecia! Are you OK? I tried to call you,” Mom said in Korean. She turned from washing dishes to look me over. She always did the dishes by hand, even though we had a dishwasher. She said the dishwasher didn’t get them clean enough.
“I’m sorry Mom,” I answered back in English. “My phone broke. I don’t know how it happened.”
“You broke it? You just got that one.” Somehow the accusations sounded worse in Korean.
“It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t even drop it, it just quit.”
“I’m not buying you a new one, and neither is your father. It’s time you got a job and bought it yourself.” I could usually talk Dad into buying me whatever I needed, but this time I didn’t think it was going to work.
“But Mom, I really need a phone. I have a life.” I pulled a cup from the cupboard and poured myself a glass of boricha, a Korean barley tea.
“When are you going to find a job?”
“I’m still in high school, Mom. I don’t need a job yet, I need to focus on my studies.”
“Then you don’t need a life yet, either,” she said.
I scowled at her.
She dried her hands on her favorite apron, a simple blue patterned smock with Korean letters down the side. The kitchen door creaked as Grandpa Dan entered the room. His soft house-shoes barely made any sound on the gray-tiled floor.
“Make Alecia get a job,” Mom said to Grandpa Dan as soon as he walked in. The look on her face didn’t leave any room for arguing.
“Ah, you have argument. I see,” Grandpa Dan said in English, with his thick Korean accent. Mom glared at him. I tried my best to look innocent. He wasn’t actually my grandpa, but I loved him like one all the same. To be honest, I didn’t really know how we were related, but since Mom was his only living relative, Korean culture dictated he live with us.
Grandpa Dan straightened out the white sleeves and dark blue vest of his hanbok. His wispy white beard accentuated the traditional Korean clothing.
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