A Wisp of Fate

A simple discovery

"To Fillory we go, hopping to and fro, we'll jump in the fountain and climb up the mountain, ha to Fillory we'll go."
A young boy around nine or ten hops along through a forest. It's dusk and the sun has already set, but he continues skipping around, deeper and deeper into the woods.
The boy has short brown tossled hair, and bright blue eyes, he wears a sweater and jeans, and he's carrying an old book with him.
The forest grows darker, and the boy begins to look scared.
"Oh no, I'm lost. But that's okay, I'm not going home anyways! I'm off to Fillory now," the boy says.
Allow me to explain, Fillory is a make believe land out of an old children's book written by Christopher Plover, the one the boy is carrying. Fillory hosts the wellspring, the source of all magic, and several other things we won't quite get into. It's also home to an ancient prophecy. It is said that a child of earth will someday come and rule all of Fillory. But that's just out of the storybooks anyways.
As darkness falls, the boy stumbles around. Becoming more unnerved as he struggles to see the path in front of him.
Finally he comes to a small clearing, and a huge tree can be seen in front of him, with branches that snake upwards into the dark sky, and roots that seem to run off in every direction.
The boy walks up to the tree, and notices a large clock embedded within the middle of it's trunk.
"Whoah, it's just like the tree in the book!" The boy says, tracing his finger over the edge of the clock.
"A tree as old as time itself."
The boy turns and sits at the base of the tree, opening his book and struggling to read.
"It has to be in here somewhere, it just-"
He begins, before feeling a poke at his back.
He stops talking and turns around.
All at once the wood of the tree parts, and he falls backwards inside it. It envelops him as he screams. Outside the tree, birds fly off, and it is silent. Darkness falls completely.
And the boy is gone.

...

The boy opens his eyes slowly and sits up, looking around. He squints at a bright light and gets his bearings.
He's in a clearing, and the sun is high in the sky. Behind him, is the tree from the previous clearing. With it's clock still there. Actually, this seems to be an identical clearing almost.
"What happened?" The boy asks no one, and only birds chirp in reply.
Moments later, rustling can be heard at the opposite end of the clearing, the boy stumbles to his feet and tries to look around for somewhere to hide. But it's too late, a figure appears at the edge of the clearing.
It's a man, clad in a leather cloak, and carrying a large hammer and a basket.
He sees the frightened looking boy and waves, beginning to walk towards him.
"Hi there little one!" He calls out as he gets in front of the boy. "Are you lost? And where did you get those strange clothes? Are you from the royal city?"
Speaking of strange clothes the man seemed totally strange to the boy as well, wearing tattered garments that appeared to be from medieval times.
"Um, what? Who are you?" The boy asked groggily.
"Just a simple stonemason, I'm actually out gathering berries for a pie my wife wants to bake," the man replied kindly, "say, you must be new to Fillory, you wouldn't happen to be from Earth are you?"
So the boy had done it, his wish had come true, he had arrived in Fillory.
"As a matter of fact, I am! And I'm happy to finally be here," proclaimed the boy.
The man was taken aback by this.
"We don't get many people from earth around these parts, you must be important. I'd say get to the capital city and see what's going on. Just follow the road north and you should get there
before nightfall."

The boy nods, turns, and skips off, happy with the information, and happy, to be in Fillory.