The Witch, The Wizard, and The Out-Worlder

A New Day, A Familiar Dawn

As soon as everything faded, I woke up in a startle back in my bed. It all seemed instantaneous, just seconds ago my life was in danger in the middle of a fantastical land, now I'm waking up in my own bed in my own room, back in the world I'm familiar with. I looked around for anything abnormal, but I couldn't see anything different, even Felix was waking up at the foot of my bed where he always sleeps.

"Hey Felix," I called out to him in a loud whisper, hoping he would recognize me, give me a sign that everything wasn't just a dream, "hey, it's me, Keiko."

I tried to communicate, but he was completely uninterested in my ramblings. With a heavy sigh, I threw myself back against the headboard, completely at a loss. Everything just felt so real.

"Keiko," I heard my mom yell from below, "it's time for breakfast."

"Coming!" I shouted down to her as I pushed myself up, only to feel a sharp pain in the palm of my hand.

I felt my heart sing and I could feel the chills run down from head to toe. When I lifted my hand, I found the ring, broke in two pieces. I couldn't have dreamed it, it was all real.

"Felix!" I screeched, propelling myself within an inch of his expressionless face.

Getting not response, I sprung off the bed and picked him up, holding him as close to my face as I could. Even before he was turned into a boy, he was a very animated cat, always happy to be around me, but now he just lankly hung between my hands, uncaring.

"Hmm." I lamented as I placed him back on the bed, "Maybe your just tired. We did go through a lot, after all." I sighed again and made my way downstairs to breakfast.

The house was just as it was before. My dad was at the table reading the news on his phone, my mom was setting the table with all kinds of delicious foods. I wasn't sure what the occasion was, but there was an air of celebration.

"That's a lot of food mom!" I was never more hungry than I was at this moment. There was everything I could want; pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage, and even biscuits. It was definitely a time to be spoiled.

"Well, we have to start of the summer break the right way, now don't we?" She smiled at me as she took a seat across from my dad.

Having set the table, my dad set down his phone gave me a pleasant smile, "That's right, and we have a vacation to go on!" He chuckled to himself, seemingly pleased with his news.

"Wait," I started, fully confused. Last I remembered, I wasn't allowed to go on the vacation because of the mirror fiasco, "I can go now?"

My inquiry seemed to confuse my parents both, "Of course you can sweety, why wouldn't we take you?" My mom asked.

I wasn't keen on giving them any reason to disallow me to go on our vacation, so I didn't, "I'm not sure, I guess I'm a little foggy this morning." I gave a small chuckle and started piling my plate full of food. Everything was so confusing, I decided not to think about everything that went on, at least not too seriously. I was back, I wasn't grounded, that was good enough for me.

Our vacation went amazing, we drove to the grand canyon, stopped at too many underground caverns to count, and ate at some bizarre, yet amazing, places. Ever since I returned from Austaria, I had a newfound appreciation for nearly everything. Even my parents began to notice a difference. At first, they kept asking if everything was ok, to which I would just laugh and say that everything was great, because it was.

A couple weeks after being home from our trip, I decided to take a trip to the antique store, where I had exchanged my summer vacation for a mirror all those weeks ago. Ever since I had come back, I was never able to find the mirror, only the fragments of the ring.