Excerpt: Shifting Lands

Although he was bursting with enthusiasm, the only thought that seemed to be processing in Lionel’s mind was, Well, I guess this means I was right.
He was sleeping again, and like be had believed days before, he had dreamt himself into the world.
Thinking back on it now, Lionel was astounded by the sudden shift in attitude towards this phenomenon. Earlier he had doubted it, and was even a little scared by the idea. But now he felt special. He had a place he could escape to. And with the latest trouble in his family, it was the perfect time to switch from trying to take his mind off the dream to focusing on it.
Determined to find some answers, Lionel began to head deeper into the forest. He had appeared under some sparkling, silver and gold trees. They were very beautiful, and he wanted to stay to look at them more closely, but it didn’t hold his attention. Stronger than his curiosity was need for information, for some facts.
Lionel picked a silver and gold leaf each as a memento and hurried on into the trees. He tried to remember where that clearing he had been in before was. He wanted to talk to that girl, but he wasn’t positive that he would be able to find her again. Right now he had to focus on getting some answers, and if she appeared, well that would help greatly. But if she didn’t he would have to make it work on his own.
After some time he began to wonder if the forest didn’t just grow over clearings and part to make new ones in different places. With all the peculiar things about this world, he wouldn’t be surprised. He had passed a giant clover that had towered over the trees, and after changing it to a regular elm with his mind he was a bit suspicious about the forest.
As soon as he decided he’d never find it, Lionel happened to stumble into the very clearing he had been looking for. Pleased yet slightly unnerved, he began to search for some clue that would set him off on the right direction.
He heard the sound of bubbling water and immediately headed towards it. A stream, in this world? He was curious of what it would look like.
Lionel was about to reach the source of the sound when he was suddenly thrown off balance by a heavy body slamming into his side. He was more alarmed that he was actually ran into than the fact that he was about to fall over. He struggled for balance, waving his arms helplessly, but in the end he ended up falling over onto a cushion of moss and feathers. Lionel decided that he must have sub-consciously willed it there as he fell, or at least wished for something soft to break his fall. Why else would there be a giant pile of feathers just lying there?
The girl, on the other hand, had prevented herself from falling by making a giant spider web of ropes, which caught her like a net. She lent a hand to him. He accepted it gratefully.
“What’s your name?” they immediately asked each other, and then laughed. “I’m Evey,” the girl told him.
“I’m Lionel,” he said. They grinned awkwardly at each other.
Evey looked at Lionel, wondering who he was. His skin was lit with broken shards of light pouring down from between the leaves, but even with the light he seemed hazy. If she looked at him directly she could only make out his features, his black hair falling into bright blue eyes, his thin nose and small mouth, the stripes down his pyjamas. If she turned her head to the side and peered at him from the corner of her eyes his silhouette was clear and sharp, but there was just a blur where the details should be.
Evey wanted to ask who and what he was, but all that came out was, “Is your hair always so jet black?”
Lionel put a hand on his head absentmindedly. “It’s not that black… I always thought it was just really dark brown, at the most.”
“Well, you better take a better look at yourself, cos it doesn’t look brown t’me.” Evey said.
Lionel was reminded of the stream he had heard a minute ago, and ran towards the sound. Evey darted after him. “Wait! Where’re you going?” she called out to him.
He didn’t turn back, and instead found himself behind a brook. The water boiled red like lava and then shifted to a lavender-tinted liquid with steam rising from it before finally settling as normal water. Lionel stepped towards it wearily.
“What is it?” Evie asked as she burst out from the trees. She halted at the sight of the stream. “What’re you doing?”
Lionel had knelt beside the water. He was staring down into it, and slowly it swirled into a mirror-like surface. He touched his face.
“Do I really look like that?” he asked himself.
“What d’you mean?” Evey asked, becoming exasperated as her questions were ignored. She lowed herself to stare into the water, and saw a different person gazing back at her. It took a moment for her to recognise herself. She drew in a breath.
Her hair was red, as if the brown in her hair was being replaced with more red, and her hair was an autumn leaf turning colours. Her eyes, normally hazel like her mother’s, were now spring-leaf green. The colours that composed her body were rich and saturated. Evey was unnerved. It was strange enough being inside her dream, but having her appearance change on top of it all made her feel off-balance. It made her question who she really was in this dream.
Evey turned away from her reflection. “C’mon, let’s head downstream,” she said to Lionel. He took one last glance at himself, then stood and followed her. They wandered along the twisting river for in silence.
“Who are you?” Lionel finally asked. “Where’re you from?”
“Evey Llwyd,” she told him. “I’m from Brython, in the west part. Ordwyg, t’be more exact. It’s kind of in the north-west coast, with the sea on one side and the middle of Brython on the other, and then the areas in the south.”
“Hm,” murmured Lionel. “I think I know what you’re talking about, but they don’t call it that where I’m from. Are you next to England?”
“Where?” asked Evey, looking puzzled.
He shook his head. “Nevermind. I though you might’ve been from Waeland.”
They continued to walk on. Lionel was thinking to himself about what Evey had told him, and mused, “Brython sounds a bit like Britain, y’know.”
“What’s that?” she asked, feeling even more confused. It felt as if Lionel was trying to fit her in somewhere in his map of the world.
“Well… I guess you wouldn’t know. It might’ve got the name from your word for your country, but Britain is larger than Brython, if I’m guessing correctly. And Brython would be a part of Britain. But anyway, I think maybe I do know where you live. We must live in different dimensions or something, though, because our place names are really different.”
“Different dimensions?” Evey said, half-incredulously.
“We’re here, aren’t we? If we can be here when we’re dreaming, then there’s probably some scientific explanation for other worlds…”
He trailed off as Evey stopped in front of a small cliff, which rose a few meters above them. The stream was flowing through a large, gaping hole in the side of the rock. It trickled downwards into the darkness, where it was soon lost in the shadows within. Evey turned around.
“Should we go in?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said hesitantly. The cave looked intimidating, but he sensed it was important. What other clue did they have? They might as well explore a bit.
They carefully made their way into the tunnel. There was barely any light, so they moved with one hand brushing against the cold and rocky wall. The stone beneath them was wet and slippery from the water, but their bare feet managed to grip the floor well enough. The going was slow. Suddenly Evey gasped, halting, and Lionel had to stop abruptly in order not to run into her.
“Of course! Why didn’t I think of it before?” she muttered under her breath, and suddenly radiant orbs of light like tiny suns appeared floating beside them. Lionel winced and closed his eyes as he was blinded by the sudden brightness. Slowly he blinked them open, and he began to see the tunnel more clearly as he got used to the glow.
Evey smiled at him. “That’s better. Now, for the floor…” She looked down, and soon enough grass began to grow up out of the rock. It created a rug-like surface that allowed the two to walk more easily.
She continued down the tunnel, the bright globes hovering beside her head. The stream was still flowing beside them. The water was dark but glittered dimly in the shine of the lights. She still couldn’t see very far ahead, but it was much better than stumbling around blindly as they were doing before.
Eventually Evey came to another stop, this time in front of a fork. “Which way?” Lionel whispered from behind her.
She thought for a moment, then pointed to the right, the one further from them. The water had swerved down this path and disappeared. “We’ll follow the stream for now. Then we won’t get lost if we need to turn back.”
“Makes sense,” said Lionel.
They switched over to the right side and set off again. After a while they came across a few more forks in the road, and sometimes there were three or more different directions to choose, but each time they tried to follow the stream as best they could. Eventually it began to get boring. Evey was slowing down and felt like the tunnels would never end. Lionel was beginning to feel claustrophobic. He was about to ask her if they could turn back when the small tunnel opened up into a dark cavern. They stood at the end of the path, peering into the inky darkness.
A breeze drifted past them, and Lionel whispered, “A draft means there’s an exit somewhere nearby.” But once he thought about it, he was unsure whether the rules in the real world would exist here.
They stepped forward cautiously. The spheres of light dimmed, and as they did Evey could make out a beam of natural light shining from above. There was a large hole in the ceiling, which wasn’t as high up as she had expected but was still far above them. She let the glowing orbs dwindle and die out. The large shaft of light lit the center of the cavern, and more rays were shining down from other areas of the stone ceiling. Their eyes slowly adjusted to the lighting, but as they did, the cave seemed even brighter than when Evey had lit it.
They tentatively stepped into the cavern, moving towards the center. In the brightest area in the center the two could see a glimmer where the stream had flowed into a small underground lake. The shimmering water drew them deeper into the heart of the cavern, and eventually they were standing next to it, staring up at the gaping hole above them.
“Wow,” Lionel said in awe.
The patch of sky above them looked like a beautiful piece of aquamarine embedded in a wall of plain and ordinary rock. It was a welcoming sight to them after wandering for so long in the tunnels. Evey grew some more fresh grass near the pond and they lay down on her back, still gazing at the sky. Lionel lay on his stomach beside her, looking out over the pool of water and thinking about the strangeness of it all.
The extraordinary potential of the cave hadn’t yet revealed itself, however. As they began to lose themselves in thought, the cavern walls erupted into a dazzling array of colours. There was a myriad of different shades of the spectrum, shifting and dancing elaborately on the wall, blending and fading and shining in some complex pattern. The two leapt to their feet in surprise.
The colours reflected on the dim surface of the water and shone down with an eerie light on the two children. Lionel stared in utter amazement at what used to be dark grey rocks. Evey turned and smiled widely at him, then lifted her own hand up towards the colours.
In an instant a stream of beautiful butterflies began to flutter out from no where. They were each a different size, different markings on each one’s wing, and all were a vibrant hue to match the walls. They fluttered crookedly across the cavern, climbing higher towards the patch of sky. Evey looked with pride upon her creations.
A moment later Lionel had joined in by producing a swarm of plain-coloured moths to add balance to the colour-filled room. They weren’t all the same boring kind, though. Each was a different shade of brown, or white or black, or any grey in between. Most were small. They wove through the cloud of their splendid, colourful counterparts. The butterflies did not seem to pay the slightest attention to the new addition.
Soon Evey and Lionel were in another creative competition, each like a conductor creating new parts to some magnificent and stunning orchestra of the imagination. Orbs of light floated around the cavern like the ones Evey had created before. They flew slowly through the airy room, leaving glowing trails of colour behind them. Then a luminous powder came sprinkling down from above, like little sparkles of some kind of fairy dust. The water from the pond flowed upwards in fountains. Birds with long and elegant feathers dove from out of nowhere.
Chaos had arisen in a confusion of colour and excitement. The cavern was in a state of pandemonium, though it was glorious to watch. Evey and Lionel felt their amazedness at their own creation rise with each new addition they invented.
All was going well until a melodious voice sounded behind them. “You children are learning quickly. It really is rather outstanding,” it said smoothly.
Startled, Lionel and Evey dropped their arm and froze. All their imaginative creations had vanished from existence, and the cave had returned to its normal state of boring grey stone.
Slowly they turned to face the owner of the voice.