6 A Different Dimension

When my vision cleared, I looked up.

The sun was shining in this area. At that moment, on the other side of the cave back in the forest, it was late at night. The atmosphere was peaceful and quiet, with the occasional sounds of birds chirping in the distance.

A huge wall loomed above me, reaching to a height of one hundred meters. A few meters directly in front of me were medieval styled iron gates that were about five meters tall.

I could see that behind the wall and gates was a kingdom bustling with life.

Four faerie soldiers wearing silver armor stood guard on each side of the gate. Amy went up to one of the soldiers and spoke a few words to him.

The soldier grunted and shouted an order to the soldiers on the other side of the gate to raise the gates.

The sound of creaking cogwheels echoed through the air. The iron gate slowly started to rise. Amy gestured for me to follow her and walked through the raised gates.

I strode after her and watched in awe as the gates closed behind me.

"What you are seeing right now, is the Fey Kingdom." Amy said, her eyes shining with pride.

Amy then explained to me that the Fey Kingdom accommodated almost the entire population of half a billion faeries from all over the world. The cave we walked through was a magic portal that transported us to a different dimension, the dimension where the fey lived. It could be called another world, on a different planet of which the name was unknown.

Only faeries would be able to find and make it through the portal since there was also a magic barrier set up to prevent humans from finding it.

There were various portals all over the world for faeries to be able to travel to this dimension more efficiently. All of them came in different forms, not just caves. And just like the portal we entered, the other portals around the world was protected by a magical barrier.

It was also good if the faeries wanted to travel in the shortest time possible to different places of the world. They could use the fey dimension as a shortcut for travelling.

Faeries get around to different parts of the kingdom using magic teleportation portals similar to the dimension portals. The only difference was that it took less magic energy to maintain.

The Fey Kingdom was one large circle consisting of four inner layers of circles, with the capital located in the fourth circle.

The first circle which is also the largest circle, held nine different cities. The second circle held six cities, the third circle held three, and the fourth circle was the capital itself.

The portal that Amy and I had entered led us to the outside of the second city of the first circle named Higean. Each city had at least five different dimension portals leading to its outskirts, which meant there were ninety-five portals in total hidden all over the Earth that would lead to this dimension.

I took some time to digestion the new information as I tagged along beside Amy through the city. We were surrounded by many markets and shop areas similar to Earth's, and it was only when we reached further in did we start to pass the housing areas.

There were many faeries around, but they paid us no attention and continued with their daily lives. The houses were brightly colored and mainly two stories in height They were also highly similar to the landed estates on Earth. Amy then told me that most of the structures in the kingdom were adapted from Earth.

We walked past a few houses before Amy stopped at a brown house that seemed a little broken down and shabby compared to the other bright and shiny houses next to it. She rang the doorbell and tapped lightly on the door three times with her knuckles.

When no one answered the door after waiting for some time, she reached up to her left ear and took off a gold, key shaped ear stud that I did not notice she was wearing before. She clenched the ear stud in her right hand and stared intensely at it.

A bright green glow flashed from the inside of her palm and enshrouded her hand for a few seconds before disappearing out of sight.

She relaxed her hand and slowly opened it. In place of the tiny ear stud was a gold key, and I assumed she had shrunk that key to wear as an ear stud to only be used during critical situations. I wondered what might have happened to the person to cause him or her not to answer the door.

Amy unlocked the door and walked in. I followed her and closed the door behind me. In contrast to how it looked from the outside, the interior of the house looked nicely furnished and clean.

We walked down the hallway and passed a kitchen on the left, as well as a living room and dining room on the right before walking up a set of stairs that was located directly at the end of the hallway.

Two doors could be seen on the second level right after reaching the top of the stairs, one on the left side of the level, and one on the right. A balcony hung over the house just behind the stairs, facing the entrance of the house.

Amy stopped at the door on the right.

"There is someone I want you to meet. He will guide you from now onward because I have matters in the capital to attend to, and you are his responsibility in the first place." Amy turned and motioned to me to open the door.

I found her words strange, but nevertheless nodded to signal that I was okay with her plans without asking any questions.

Although it has been less than twenty four hours since I met Amy, I already gained a sense of security and trust towards her, and I knew she would not do anything to hurt me.

I held my breath with anticipation and pushed open the door with a quick and swift action.

There, standing barefooted beside a black bed was a boy with wet auburn hair and green eyes. He was topless with a white bath towel draped around his waist. Beads of water glistened and dripped off his wet hair and body.

His top half was exposed, and I could see his perfectly defined and sculptured muscles flexing as he brushed his wet hair back from his forehead. I gulped, swallowing my words. He looked vaguely familiar, like the boy back in the forest. Except instead of red eyes, he had beautiful emerald green eyes.

He looked at me and frowned. It was then I realized I was staring and looked away blushing, embarrassment welling up inside me.

"This is Zachary. The boy you met in the forest last night." Amy put an around my shoulder and continued,

"This is awfully bad timing. You should wait outside for a moment. I have to leave now. Zachary, you know what you're supposed to do. Do not scare her." Amy stated firmly and turned around to leave. I followed her in a hurry and slammed the door close, my face still red and a little sweaty.

Well, I guess my question about that boy in the forest has been answered.