Quest

Chapter 18

I woke up with a throbbing headache and absolutely no vision. I tried to blink to bright sun away, but my hangover amplified the light like a million fold. It told a solid amount of time before I could open my eyes, let alone stand.

The good news was that I was under a sign that said LOS ANGELES COUNTY LINE. The bad news was... well, there was a bunch of bad news. The first was that the sign was in between the junction of two highways, so there were cars flying by just a few feet away. I was tucked into a ditch enough that they probably couldn't see me, but still. Another bad thing was the pile of alcohol bottles next to me. I would've chalked up them up to be just some highway hobo's, but they looked fresh. Like, not tarnished by the sun and not all the way empty.

I took a deep breath and gathered myself. I was really fucking sick of it. Sick of all of it. Sick of my previously broken arm that was throbbing for some reason, sick of the fact that I couldn't rely on anyone to be there for me. I was all just so sick of it.

When I could finally think normal thoughts, I cast myself up into the air and proceeded to fly towards Los Angeles, or at least the direction I assumed I needed to go. From a distance, the city just looked like a hazy, sprawling collection of buildings. From a little closer, it looked pretty much the same.

I didn't make it too far, through. My body suddenly vibrated, a warning. The kind of warning the EPD used instead of sirens. I turned around and saw two sorceresses in EPD uniforms flying towards me on industrial grade brooms, aka just high tech pieces of enchanted fiber glass. I didn't have much of an option other than to stop. Running away wouldn't have done much good, especially in a city. I figured the moment I tried to flee there would be like twenty spells all up in my ass. So, I just stopped.

The officers approached and I saw that they were both were gnomes. Gnomes were mostly a west coast thing, like In-N-Out or kale. "G'morning," the first one said as she flew around to face me. "Name's Officer Trent."

Lol. "Really?"

"Really what?"

"Nothing, sorry."

"Can I see some form of ID?"

"It looks like your eyesight is doing alright, so I would assume so."

Trent the fourth (or fifth? I lost count) raised an eyebrow, not so amused. Bad move on my part.

"I don't have it, lost it somewhere along the way," I reeled from my dumb joke. I shouldn't have made it in the first place.

"Stay still then," Trent nodded to her partner, whose nametag read GREENE. Greene pointed her wand at me, cast a dull purple light then noded.

"Eve Clark. Eighteen years old. Blair, Connecticut. Unmarried, unemployed," Greene said robotically. Her gnomish voice was high pitched, so that was kind of funny. It almost made up for the fact that she totally invaded my privacy.

"Ms. Clark," Trent circled around me. "Are you aware that this is unrestricted airspace?"

"I didn't know there was such thing."

"There aren't roads in Blair, Connecticut?"

"There are, ma'am, but they're on the ground."

Trent did another loop around me, clearly trying to be intimidating or some shit. It didn't totally work because of the gnome thing. "I don't appreciate your attitude, Ms. Clark. This isn't your small town where you can throw your weight around wherever you please."

I held up my hands. "Trust me, I'm not trying to throw anything."

"What brings you to Los Angeles?"