Camilla and Montgomery stood atop the cement stairs that led from the office building’s entrance. The cool air of the morning bristled against Camilla’ face.
“Just follow this path all the way down and then hang a left and the bus stop should be right there,” Montgomery pointed his hand down the stone walkway in front of them. “The shuttle is free for students and staff, but just try blend in and no one should ask you for an ID .”
Camilla took the note and pulled the hood of her cape up. Both to look inconspicuous and to cover her ears from the slight chill.
“Have a nice day then.”
“Wait,” said Camilla, stopping Montgomery before he ran back into the building. “What am I even supposed to do when I get to this castle place? Who am I supposed to talk to specifically?”
“Well, it probably won’t be easy to talk to him, but I’d say the guy who could help you the most is the one who’s running this place: Prince Elios.”
“Prince Elios…” Camilla murmured. The name spun around her. Hearing it was like getting her fingers zapped by the static of a light switch.
“He’s the one in charge of this Puzzleworld and - oh, wait!” said Montgomery. He reached into his pocket and brought out a ruby colored marker. “Let me see that map quick.”
Camilla reached into her pocket, pulled out the folded piece of paper, and handed it to Montgomery. He popped the cap of the marker and Camilla saw that the tip was not just brightly colored, it was glowing. Tiny sparkles flew off it as Montgomery brought it to the paper. On one of its folded planes, Montgomery wrote the words ‘TRACK!’ in big letters. Just as quickly as he had written it, it disappeared and seeped into the rest of the map leaving the glitters behind.
“There. That should make navigating through town a little easier for you.”
Camilla didn’t see how markers with disappearing ink would make any of this easier, but she kept it to herself.
“Well, I better get back before Julius gets even snippier. Good luck out there.”
With that, Montgomery turned and headed back into the building, leaving Camilla alone in the empty college courtyard.
She looked ahead of her. Tall trees rustled on either side of the stone path. It was an open and empty walk for as far as she could see. The place seemed to be quite deserted. Not wanting to waste any time, Camilla began walking with the map in hand. She hadn’t taken two steps from the office building when she heard it.
BRRRING! BRRRING!
A deafening school bell rang through the air. The empty courtyard soon began to fill up as students poured out of the many buildings. Camilla thought about what Montgomery had said about blending in and took this opportunity. She walked a little faster, doing her best to disappear into the large group of people.
Camilla kept her head down, but did her best to survey the crowd. Everyone there looked about college age, moderately tall twenty somethings with backpacks. They were wearing relatively ordinary clothes, jeans here, a skirt there, flannels elsewhere. Even the chatter they engaged in was very average. It didn’t feel any different than walking through her own middle school hallway.
“Oof!” Camilla yelped. Convinced she had just been thwacked by a tree trunk, she grabbed at the back of her head.
“Oh my gosh, sorry!” said a man’s voice. Camilla looked up to see that the owner of the voice was a tall, dark man with wolf ears and nails like claws. She looked over to see that it was his large bushy tail, not a tree trunk, that had hit her.
Next to the young man, clutching his arm, was a young woman. She had fluffy white hair and two large, intimidating ram horns protruding from her skull. A puffy, white tail peaked out through the skirt she was wearing.
“Dang it, Leon, I told you to be careful when you’re walking.”
“What? I said sorry.”
The two were much too preoccupied with themselves to check back in with Camilla. They walked off arm in arm, leaving her there. Camilla didn’t bother pinching herself. The pain in the back of her head was enough to remind her, and fully cement the fact, that she was not dreaming.
The crowd began to thin as all of the people split out and made their way to their desired destinations. Camilla could now properly see the bus stop, and the large line of people moving towards it.
She took her place in the crowded group near the stop. A rusty, faded railing separated everyone from the street. Camilla didn’t have to wait long before she heard the rumble of a vehicle. Coming up the way was a small, yellow shuttle bus. It’s painted metal outside was just as faded as the railing and had its own fair share of rust. The bus didn’t move on wheels or rails. It didn’t move on anything except thin air. The shuttle floated a few inches off of the ground as it glided towards the would be passengers. Camilla saw a bright halo of cerulean light shining from under the bus where it’s wheels should have been. The strange contraption pulled politely into the stop as everyone prepared to board.
Camilla did her best not to get bowled over as the crowd squeezed forward. One after one, the students boarded the bus. Some with tails, some with horns, some with wings. It was now that Camilla was really seeing how out of place she looked. Even the students without fancy extremities were much taller than her. She pulled her hood even further over her face, and hoped no one had taken note of her.
The young girl finally made her way to the front. Sitting in the driver's seat, was a particularly wide blob of a man. He had a pig's snout, and two tusks jutting out from the firm frown he had. Slouched in his seat, he gave small, uninterested looks at the students. When Camilla finally made it into the bus, she felt his gaze linger on her for a minute. Not giving him the time to gawk, Camilla hustled down the metal floor of the bus and found herself a seat at the back. The pig-driver man simply shrugged and put his pudgy arms firmly on the wheel.
A sign on the front of the bus switched from the ‘Solaris College’ to ‘Solaris Pago - Proper’. The driver hit the gas and with that the bus was off. It went forward and then went down. The trail for the bus winded around the mountain that the college sat upon. It was a rather tight fit, but the bus made its way along just fine. In the distance, the many other mountains and stacks of trees that sat there whizzed past the window as the bus trucked along.
Camilla sank back in her seat and stared mindlessly at the roving greenery. Pretty scenery didn’t really change the problems at hand. She reached back and pulled off her transformed backpack. She pulled back the flap and took a look inside. If it was still her regular backpack, there would’ve been a number of different notebooks for different subjects, folders, pamphlets, and a number of handouts that Camilla had forgotten to throw away or read. But there was none of that. The backpack was clean and relatively empty. The only thing in there was her grandfather’s book.
She pulled it out and began to read. There was so much in the book that she recognized. She looked through the pages on Puzzleworlds that were familiar. There was Gnaritas, the Puzzleworld of inventions and grand ideas. There was Caela, the Puzzleworld of the boundless forest and home of the great glade. Even Deniz, the Puzzleworld of the sea and harbor. She felt like she knew it so well.
She flipped back and forth through the book pages. She looked between the ‘R’ and ‘T’ sections. She looked between the ‘D’ and ‘F’ sections. She even looked at the tiny little index in the back of the book, and found nothing. Nowhere in the book were the words ‘Solaris’ or ‘Prince Elio’.
Camilla sank further into the plasticy seat of the bus.
In defeat, she closed the book and placed it back into her backpack. Reading up on this strange place she had never heard of had proven a bust. Seeing no other options, Camilla simply sat back and stared out the window, and tried to prepare herself for all that was to come.
At first, she stared out the window rather absentmindedly. A number of thick, tall, green trees flew by as the bus drove through a small forest. Camilla widened her eyes when she saw that there was much more going on than a few trees. Wide, glistening, glittering rivers moved through the forest on either side of the street. As the bus pressed on, the grassy floor of the forest began to give way to cobblestone tiles. Vast, billowing greenlands surrounded the cobblestone path the bus now rolled on. The large grass waved at her as she marveled at it.
The stone path merged into a tall bridge. Camilla looked ahead and saw a large sign coming up on the side of the bridge. It was made of pipes and different metals. In brass letters, were the words “Welcome to Solaris”.
Camilla dwelled on the word ‘Welcome’. There was no way of telling if Solaris would be welcoming or not. So much laid in front of her, and she didn’t feel prepared for it in the least bit. Being alone for all this didn’t help her mood, either.
But coming here was the only lead she had in getting home. There didn’t seem to be much reason in turning back now. With that, Camilla took a deep breath and exhaled to calm herself. She sat upright in her seat, doing her best to look calm. She sat like this and waited patiently as the bus advanced into Solaris.
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