Bolwayke

A Long Way From Home

The two lead men carrying Bolwayke approached another man, who appeared to be their leader, and dropped the wizard in front of him. A short, stocky man clambered forward and handed the leader a book and a wand.

The man stared at Bolwayke and then spoke, "Where did you come from? How did you get into the mountain?"

Bolwayke just stared at the man, dazed. One second he was crashing through a mirror into a building. The next second he was surrounded by a dozen robed men and being accused of breaking into a mountain. Stealing the book was starting to feel like a bad idea.

Everyone stared at Bolwayke so he felt compelled to respond, "I crashed through a mirror and here I am. I can't be in a mountain because there are no mountains in Woodpine Corner."

"Woodpine Corner?" the leader blurted out in a harsh tone. "You are inside Mount Horeb, in Egypt. I've never even heard of Woodpine Corner in Egypt nor anywhere else in this world."

Bolwayke responded quickly. "Egypt? Where is that? I have never heard of a place called Egypt. It must be on the other side of Terrenox."

"Terrenox?" said the leader inquisitively. "Where is that? I have never heard of Terrenox. Is that in France?"

Bolwayke's confusion was turning to panick, and he felt a cold sweat on his back.

The young wizard stared at the leader, "You are just trying to intimidate me. Okay I took a spell book. Take it back, but don't try to convince me you don't know our world. There is enough space on Terrenox for all of us to live freely. I'll just take my wand and leave."

As Bolwayke reached for the wand, two large robed men stepped forward and grabbed him. The leader approached the young wizard.

"What is your name? This stick you call a wand, I will hold onto it for now. Are you trying to tell us you are not from Earth? There is no place called Terrenox."

Bolwayke did not understand what was happening. Was it actually possible that he was no longer in his world? He was confident a mirror in an alley didn't normally lead to a mountain in a place called Egypt. Discouraged he sat down and covered his face with his hands.

The leader spoke quietly with the two robed men, then he sat down beside Bolwayke.

"Stories were told decades ago of people visiting from another world. I was reminded by my brothers of that. We have concluded that maybe these stories were not made up."

The leader put his hand out to help Bolwayke up. The young wizard removed his hands from his face and reached out to take the leader's outstretched hand.

"My name is brother Macarius. I am the Abbot here. For now I think it best that I hold your stick and the book, but you are free to move around the mountain. We will work together to get you home if we can. Isaac, Yustas, please show this young man to a room on the west side. Then we should eat."

Bolwayke smiled at Macarius, "Thank you. My name is Bolwayke(bull-wok-ee)."

After the monks showed Bolwayke his sleeping quarters, everyone convened on the dining hall. The young wizard guessed more than 30 monks sat at the long table.

Bolwayke was very hungry, but he watched as the other men all just sat there. None of them dove into the food as Bolwayke so desperately wanted to do. They all sat quietly staring into their laps as Macarius stood up at the head of the table. He asked his brothers to bow their heads, then he said a prayer. When he was done, he told everyone to dig in. Macarius then wandered over to Bolwayke.

"You may find us a little different than most people on Earth and likely on Terrenox. We have trained as Shaolin monks. We bless every meal and we have a very rigorous daily schedule. Tomorrow we will show you our schedule, but for tonight after supper we will have prayer time and then it is silent time until morning."

After supper and a short prayer time Bolwayke was very happy to fall into bed. He hoped that he would go to sleep and wake up back in his small town in Terrenox.