The Rubbish Realm

Chapter 4

Chapter 4
Clyde woke back up in an unfamiliar room, although, to tell the truth, all rooms in Perelandrea were unfamiliar to him. Lysander was standing over him, clearly worried and, more shockingly, he looked worn out. But when he noticed that Clyde was awake, he broke into a wide grin. “You’re back! I had been worried about you.”
Clyde was groggy, but smiled at the sight of Lysander. “I could tell.”
Lysander raised an eyebrow childishly. “You were unconscious. You couldn’t tell.”
Clyde attempted a side eye. “Hrmmm… anyway, where am I?” He sat up and surveyed the small, but yet cozy room.
“This is my room!” Lysander, though already happy, grinned even wider as he showed Clyde everything in it. “There’s my dresser, there’s my old magic wand, here’s my bed, here’s the painting I made when I was 6, here’s the door charm to make sure my parents don’t intrude…”
Clyde chuckled a little at the last one. “Did they intrude before you put the charm up?”
“Yes, all the time. They always wanted me to finish my vegetables, but their insidious plans were foiled!”
Clyde felt bad for his parents. Lysander must be quite the handful, he thought with a grin. Even so, that painting was quite impressive, especially for someone who was 6 years old. “Is the painting magical?”
“Nope, I made it myself.” He grinned proudly.
“How did you learn magic anyway?” he asked, changing the subject.
Lysander smirked, then strode towards a closet and flung it open dramatically. It was packed to the brim with books. “Research.” he stated, evidently quite proud of himself.
Clyde was impressed that someone who clearly couldn’t even sit still could find the time and patience to read so many books and actually remember anything about them, let alone whole magic spells and the like. “Wow.”
“It also helps that I have an affinity for mind-reading…” Lysander trailed off smugly.
That explains a lot, thought Clyde.
Lysander caught him thinking that. “Hey!” He shook his head at Clyde like he was being a naughty child. “Tsk tsk.”
“No fair.” Clyde pouted sarcastically.
“Says the luckiest one on the whole planet!” retorted Lysander.
That thought sobered Clyde, and the grin left his face. “Yeah. I’m a bit too lucky for my own good, I would say.”
Lysander turned back towards Clyde, looking straight at him, unnerving Clyde with how he seemed to look straight through him. “It’s lucky for us, here, that you were really lucky. I guess you probably haven’t heard of Beresford’s prophecy, because I haven’t told you yet, right?”
“Yeah.” Clyde nodded solemnly, but at the same time he was rather curious. He could be involved in a prophecy?
“Well, that’s probably because I don’t remember it. It’s something about the sky falling and the one from above having to save the world to avoid the rest of the sky falling. Not many people know about it anyway, though.” Lysander shrugged empathetically. “I’m sorry that the pressure is all on you, but at least you’re not on your own anymore.”
Clyde sighed. “Seriously?” Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Sheesh. He had figured that only Earth had problems, but, apparently, magical worlds had their fair share of issues as well. Although it would have been nice if they had given him more information. Snippets of a prophecy wasn’t much to go off of.
Lysander smiled wryly. “Yeah. But do you want to meet my parents?” He didn’t like dwelling on unpleasant subjects such as those, only doing so if he had to.
“Sure.” Clyde appreciated the change of subject. He could learn more about Beresford later. “Where are they?” Really, Clyde wasn’t wondering where Lysander’s parents were, he was wondering where the door was. There was none in sight, even with the charm set to keep his parents from intruding.
“In the kitchen, probably. After all, it’s almost supper time. Come on, I’ll take you to them.” Lysander promptly walked straight through the wall.
“More magic?” Clyde muttered to himself, more tired than incredulous, before following Lysander through, fully expecting it to just be a wall, not a doorway like it had been for Lysander.
“What did you expect? This is Pereleandrea, after all.” Lysander shrugged, before turning around and pointing to a couple of other elves behind him, far taller than him. “These are my parents, in the kitchen, like I told you.”
“Hello.” They acknowledged Clyde’s presence with a solemn nod. “You must be Clyde?”
Clyde nodded in return. “Yerp. And you two are…”
His mother spoke up. “Amelia and Theodosius, Lysander’s parents. He’s quite the adventure.” They smiled at each other knowingly, although Theodosius muttered under his breath, “It’s Theo.”
Lysander scowled playfully. “Hey!”
Clyde smirked. “I could tell.” Then he decided to cut straight to the point. “Have you heard of Beresford’s prophecy?”
Judging by the shocked look on Theodosuis’s face, he had. “But nobody’s heard of it! We only know of it because Lysander found it in an old tome of his. It’s about the one who comes from above - -” Theodosius stopped abruptly, realizing what he was saying. His tired white eyes widened with shock, although it was a bit hard to tell, his eyes being white and all. “It’s you,” He whispered in awe. “After all these years, finally!” Amelia hugged him, knowing Theodosius hadn’t been this excited in a very long time, but not having paid attention to what was going on, per her usual. “And just in the nick of time.” He sobered the conversation, staring forlornly out of the window towards the crumbling sky.
Nobody spoke for a moment, all of them following Theodosius’s gaze, all of them wondering how much longer they had before the rest of the sky came down with it.
Lysander, though he was enjoying the awkward silence, was reminded of a more pressing need by his growling stomach and returned the conversation to the matter which he thought should have been on hand. “Is supper ready yet?”