A Kind of Magic

Fourteen

Leodhais didn't say anything as he trudged behind his companions across the sunlit, granite moorland upon which The Stones stood scattered. In this world free from the Draconia's fog, he finally noticed their strangeness-- the standing stones didn't create one simple ring that he had been expecting to find, but several, at least three large, concentric circles.

However, his mind was so full of more pressing and disturbing thoughts that he didn't appreciate the portal as much as Gilderoy did-- he could see his friend chatting away to the dragon shifter, asking one curious question after another to which Peregrine replied patiently. 

For the first time ever, Leodhais almost envied Gilderoy. He was jealous of the effect the dwarf had on people, of the simplicity of Gilderoy's future compared to his, his life free of the others' expectations and problems... 

Leodhais sighed; he knew well that most of those problems he had created and brought upon himself. He let his eyes stroll to the first human dwellings dispersed in front of them-- a handful of unassuming stone cottages similar to those he had seen in some parts of Silmarea-- announcing the village Peregrine had mentioned. His thoughts strolled to Alaric and his expectations of Leodhais succeeding him on the throne, the expectations which his daughter was bound to form from the moment she found out that her father had sent him as her suitor, the worries he was pushing to the back of his mind but could never quite ignore concerning Auriel and her werewolves, and then the still very new, fascinating, unfathomable, all-obliterating feeling he had for Annwyn...

Peregrine's words pierced through the cloud spun of thoughts as thick and grey as Draconia's fog hanging above his head.

"Stop sulking, elf." His two companions stopped as they reached the village, and Leodhais, lost in thought, walked straight into Peregrine's outstretched arm. "Slow down. We're in the village, we are bound to meet some humans, and they would notice us running through like that. We need to look like tourists, not visitors from a parallel world." 

Peregrine sighed when Leodhais' green eyes, wide with incomprehension, poured into his. "Never mind, you'll understand everything with time," he continued. "There's a small supermarket on the high road, let's get some food, so we can eat while we walk to the train station."

Leodhais nodded. Forcing himself to banish his thoughts until a later, more appropriate moment, he walked next to Gilderoy and, just like his friend, focused on his surroundings. Even the littlest part of this world and its inhabitants, which they had seen so far, was awe-inspiring. 

"Why are they all looking at me and Gilderoy when it's you who looks nothing like them? Your clothes are all wrong for this place," he asked as he smiled and bowed his head gallantly to a couple of girls they passed as they walked up the high road, eyeing Gilderoy, then him, then giggling and blushing as he acknowledged their interest. Leodhais couldn't stop himself from turning after them-- they were dressed in the most revealing garments he had ever seen women wear in public, and he really appreciated the sight they offered...

"It's my kind of magic, elf." Peregrine said, snapping his fingers in Leodhais' face to gain his attention. "I suppose your tutors didn't tell you much about the Highland Dragons, but I thought Annwyn filled you in only too well." He stared at Leodhais for a moment, and when the elf only shook his head, he added, "The humans can't see me as clearly as they can see you two. They see a black-clad tall man, but the rest lies in their imagination, and it varies from person to person. It depends on their character how they perceive me. The same goes for my sword; some of them see it as an umbrella, others as a walking stick..."

"Umbrella?" Gilderoy asked even as they stopped in front of one of the stone cottages that lined the cobbled road on both sides, its ground floor walls replaced almost entirely by glass, a sign above the door which was charmed to open on its own whenever someone approached it declaring that they reached 'Minions' Minimarket'.