The Serpent of Cinders

The Bronx Preserve

     There was no way that the sight in front of Timothy was possible. Where there used to be a broom closet, an entire street had popped up. There were shops lining the sides along with a giant mansion at the end. In total, there were about fifty shops pushing and shoving each other to get noticed. There was a tall, green shop with a silver roof lined with spikes, a red and brown building with a bell-like roof that ended with curls like ram horns, and a wooden shack with bars on the windows. A pure white building that looked like it was made entirely of folded paper stood next to a wide black building with burning braziers above the doorway. Two streets branches off from the main path, but curved around and joined the original at the mansion. Shops lined the two side streets as well.

The entire complex was a collage of bright colors, wonderful designs, and strange people. There was a man in full chain-mail hawking his wares in front of a shop filled with armor. A woman sat in the middle of the street with a giant, floating eye on the table in front of her. There were also people with strange body parts such as a man with a lion's head, a short greenish-gray creature darting between people, and a giant man with blue skin. In total, there were about two hundred people and creatures crowding the center street.

The man in the trench coat snapped his fingers in front of Timothy's awestruck face. His fingers made a slight grinding noise like fingernails on a chalkboard. Timothy switched his gaze to the man who brought him in, but the fedora put his face in too much shadow. The man continued to walk again indicating that Timothy should follow.

     "Welcome to the Bronx Preserve and all that crap," the mystery man said as if Timothy was on a tour, "you can find almost any magical item or minor creature in the large assortment of shops-"

     "What's the mansion at the end for?" Timothy interrupted. The man gave Timothy a sullying look.

     "Straight to the point I see," the man remarked,"that is our destination for today, but first I was told to get you climatized to the preserve."

     Timothy just nodded slowly, still in a daze from the scene surrounding him. As he and the man stood in the small courtyard at the head of the road, Timothy turned in slow circles to take in his surroundings. Then, he realized something.

"You never told me your name," he told the man.

"You never asked," the man replied before continuing to stand silently. Timothy thinking that the man needed more prompting opened his mouth, but the man spoke again before he could say anything. "The name's Brick."

Brick began walking again, so Timothy followed him to the store that looked like a bunch of folded paper. Timothy remembered hearing the name Brick from his "caretaker" in the apartment. As they walked inside the paper building, Timothy realized that it was a bookstore, but he didn't recognize any of the titles that adorned the shelves. The Secret Life of Magic, Dangerous Creatures 101, and For All Your Sorceric Needs were among a few of the odd titles. Brick walked up to the circular desk in the center of the compound. Behind it, a bored looking teenage girl was spinning around on a swivel chair. She looked familiar to Timothy.

The girl had auburn hair and was about Timothy's age. She had brown, almond-shaped eyes that turned towards Timothy. She stopped her chair to talk to him while completely ignoring Brick.

"Hey, you're the kid from the car," she told him. Now he recognized her, she was the girl who he had seen after the beast that attacked his dad and him disappeared.

"Who are you calling kid?" he retorted. She just giggled and turned to Brick.

"I like this guy already," she enunciated to Brick. Brick grunted and shook his head. As Timothy looked at Brick more, he began to realize that Brick looked less like a human. He had a jaw that was too chiseled and skin that was too flat. He looked like his face was literally carved from stone. Before he could study Brick more, the large man began talking.

"Sarah wants you to show him around. He doesn't have any experience, if you know what I mean," Brick told the girl. She looked at Timothy with new eyes.

"Hmm, is that so? Follow me then," she commanded Timothy as she swiveled out from behind the desk. She stood up and beckoned at Timothy to follow.

As Timothy followed her, he glanced back to see Brick take of his hat revealing a blocky head made of gray, stone skin with drought cracks in it. His eyes were entirely bright blue and glowed with energy. He looked up and made eye-contact with Timothy before placing his fedora back on his head and leaving the store. He looked oddly familiar.

Timothy turned around and followed the new girl to the back of the store where she climbed up a ladder and began asking him questions:"What's your name?", "Do you like to read?", "How does it feel to be a normal teenager." The last question really puzzled Timothy, but he answered anyways.

"My name's Timothy, and I, uh, I like to read," he managed to stutter out. "What do you mean by a normal teenager?" he asked.

"Oh, you know," she began,"Going to school, living with your family, no monsters trying to kill you. I've always wished that I had a normal boring life, but I was born into this one." She sounded so depressed about it so Timothy decided not to press anymore.

"So, uh, what do you do here?" he asked lamely.

"I'm the librarian, but today I can show you around the preserve."

"I mean, what do people do at this....preserve?" Timothy finished just as lamely.

"Well," the girl began,"This is a place for any magically related people or creatures can come to live peacefully."

"Wait, magic exists?!" Timothy exclaimed.

"Of course, how do you think all of this is possible," she said while waving her hands to encompass the entire preserve.

"I guess so," Timothy stuttered before realizing that he never got the girl's name. "Uh, what's your name again?"

"My name's Veronica, but you can call me Vera," she told him while smiling widely,"What's yours?"

"I'm Timothy," he told her.

"Well Timothy, I think you're really going to like it here. Now, where was that book; ah, right here," she said as she drew a compact-looking black book from the shelf. The book had bone-white accents and gold calligraphy for the title. There was nothing else on the cover other than the title. A small layer of dust covered the book, but Veronica blew it away. She dusted the cover a bit with her fingers then held it out to Timothy. He reached out, grabbed it, and checked out the title. It read An Easy Guide to the Magical World.

"Why was this book so dusty?" Timothy asked. Before glancing up again. Veronica got a thoughtful look on her face. Her eyebrows scrunched together and the tip of her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth. Timothy found it a bit cute.

"Well, everyone who comes to the preserve usually knows about magic. In fact, you're the first person I've met in here whose never heard of magic." Timothy raised his eyebrow at that but decided not to question her. Veronica began walking towards the front of the store again.

"You can start reading that after you get settled, but I'll give you the grand tour for now!"

The grand tour encompassed the large plaza that Timothy had entered when he had gone through the janitor closet. Vera showed him the best shops, the best places to avoid, the cool people, and those that weren't so cool. Timothy had to remember so many new names and terms: Drake Halson, Lenold Thomas, John Poland, gyroots, wyverns, and myrmekes. He met the store owners of various establishments as Veronica introduced him to them as the new guy. After hearing that he was new to the magical world, the people he met would look him over a second time, as if he was somehow inherently different.

At the end of the tour, as the sun began setting, Vera walked him to the mansion at the end of the street. They walked together in companionable silence until reaching their destination.

"Well, bye," Vera told Timothy as she waved her hand, "See you around." Timothy did a small waving gesture back at her before she walked away, back towards the bookstore no doubt. Timothy stood alone on the porch of the giant building before tentatively reaching towards the doorbell. Almost as soon as he rang it, the door was opened by none other than Lana.

"Hey Timmy."