Visual Story Contest

Kara

She gazed at the open scroll of parchment  she had just climbed out of. The wary and torn mapped paper sat on the desk,  just the way she had left it. In fact, everything, even the light of day, was unchanged from before Kara fell into the mapped portal. A portal leading to an unknown time, a portal leading to an unknown world, a world so full of wonder, it was as if Kara had just awakened from a dream. Had she been dreaming? It felt so surreal being back to where it all began, home. Kara had experienced it all, and yet as she continued to gaze at the seemingly innocent sheet of scribbled parchment, it was still quite difficult to believe. In this other world, where the land was governed by royalty, and fantastical beasts roamed, it had surely felt real to Kara. Kara wasn't quite sure how to begin explaining what had happened to her, what she had seen... the only explanation that came to mind was magic. When Kara finally lifted her eyes, she willed them to turn to where she had procured the wondrous scroll. It all began with a magnificent grandfather clock that had fooled her, and many, from the guarded contents behind it. It was Kara's recent discovery that exposed what seemed like an ordinary clock to had also been a door that opened to a library of scrolls, scrolls just like the one before her...

She slowly stood up and began to walk toward the tempting call of adventure, beyond the door that wasn't meant for her to open. She had focused on approaching the secret library when a screech called out from behind her. It was a low screech, but a screech nonetheless, and Kara immediately knew what had produced it. She hoped and dreaded conflictingly that the source of the screech was in the room with her.  Cautiously she searched the small office until a scaly tale flicked in and out of Kara's sight from behind the desk. Kara froze at its sudden appearance, hoping it wasn't what she knew it was. She watched where the tail had swooned until it screeched yet again. She had dared to take a step forward toward the fantastical beast that flew up into view. Kara recognized it as a small scaly dragon, the dragon she thought she'd left behind.

"Beaubi?" she asked knowing full well who this creature was, it settled on the open scroll, staring back at her with a pair of loving wide eyes. 

Excitement swelled up inside her as she stared at her otherworldly companion, until she realized it wasn't supposed to be there. And just as she returned to her senses, heavy footsteps thumped outside. 

"Kara?" Odin's voice called out in search for her, she heard his footsteps thump toward her and the dragon called Beaubi. Kara's heart began to hammer, but she did not hesitate, the sound of near exposure had snapped Kara to action. She jolted to close the grandfather clock door, hiding the library of scrolls once again. Remembering the open scroll on the desk, Kara turned to retrieve it from under Beaubi, her small dragon friend, who coughed up a small ball of fire. The parchment map had caught the flames, burning away the dragon's only return. Instinctively, Kara threw the parchment on the floor and stomped out the small growing flames. She kicked the burnt scroll under a shelved cabinet, hidden, but whiffs of smoke betrayed Kara. Kara saw the doorknob turn and she hysterically flailed around for Beaubi, tucking him behind her shawl right as the door swung open. 

"Kara?  I see you've lost your way to your desk," Odin observed.

"My desk?" Kara asked.

"Yes, I've been waiting for you downstairs-" he paused and looked around then back down at Kara's restrained poker face, "what are you doing here anyhow? You know you're not allowed up here," Odin reminded her. 

Then it dawned upon Kara that before her massive discovery she had been sent to retrieve supplies  for their trip. 

"Yes, of course, my apologies, but I didn't have any parchment paper of my own and thought I might find some in your office. I would have asked, yet I saw you were speaking to someone and didn't wish to disturb you," that much was true, it all came back to Kara as she recounted it to Odin. Kara wondered how long she'd been gone, at first assuming it was the next day. Could it be possible that it had only been minutes in this world when in the other she had stayed a day? 

Odin looked at Kara suspiciously and then walked over to his desk. He pulled out some parchment and then walked back, handing it to Kara.

"Here, now finish gathering your things," he held the door for Kara to go through. 

Terrified, Kara tightly held onto her small dragon friend who was currently struggling for release. Kara walked out awkwardly, in a sideways position, hoping Odin wouldn't take notice. She had tried her best to not bring about suspicion, when she noted that Odin didn't seem to notice her odd behavior, instead he focused on locking the door behind him.

"I'll be waiting for you outside, don't get lost again," he warned. 

Kara had nodded in understanding, and watched him as he retrieved downstairs, the scene brought about the memory of when they first met. The day Kara became the famed cartographer's apprentice. She had been on her own for a while, barely scraping by in the underground market. She didn't know who he was at the time, she knew his name of course, but not the face to the famed name. It had been a day she thought she'd go to bed hungry, till a cloaked man approached her  initially asking for directions but ended up interviewing Kara on her artistic abilities. Kara had been sketching in the book her mother had given her, it was the only object Kara had of her mother's. Odin had grown interested in Kara's sketches, so much so that eventually he offered her a job as his apprentice. Of course when Kara learned who he was, she gladly accepted. The job though, was not all glorious travel as she assumed, it became tedious and boring, until today. 

 Kara felt a wiggle in between her hands, it was the Baeubi, the dragon. Immediately Kara closed the door behind her and released the creature into her room. She felt the wooden door support her back as she sighed in relief. Kara didn't have a clue on how to care for a dragon. All Kara knew was that Odin was waiting for her and she'd have to deal with all this when she returned. 

As Kara gathered her things bedtime stories wandered into her thoughts, children stories of an ancient man who was time's map maker. A man who could travel through any time and in any realm, of course Kara never would have guessed Odin to be the mythical man behind the legend...but from what she unveiled today he was surely a contender.

Beaubi screeched for Kara's attention as it settled atop her desk. Kara didn't even flinch out of her rushed task, so the dragon cleverly spilled over the desk's ink on a sketch Kara had been working on. Beaubi's plan prevailed as Kara's eyes widened at the sight of her ruined work. Angrily, she turned to the dragon. The small but mighty creature had captured her attention and flew up  for her to see what was wrapped around its neck. The flashy charm finally caught Kara's attention, and upon seeing it, it shocked her anger away.

Kara knew the charm well, she was the one who had bought it once, as a gift to her beloved brother, Jaime. But he had been gone for a while, along with their parents...

Kara sat at her desk and scrutinized the charm in trembling hands. The charm was undoubtedly Jaime's, it had his initials on it and everything, just like the one she had gifted him. Kara looked up at the dragon after a few moments in silence. 

"He's alive?" she whispered.

"Kara? I really do hope we leave today," Odin joked impatiently from below. 

Kara look up at her scaly friend, with a quill in its mouth from its mastermind plan in uncapping the ink to then spill over. Eyes of man and beast met with joyful tears, her brother was alive. The smugglers who had taken Jaime hadn't killed him, they had just hid him away, in another world in some other time, and Kara intended to find him.