“Inward!” a voice shouted from entirely too nearby.
That was a word Leo knew.
There was a thundering sound of armored knights entering into the bailey.
They were elves, Leo realized. His own people. Some of them likely still lived.
They didn’t seem to recognize him.
Leo grabbed the dagger and the bag and ran for the tower, screaming.
A whipping sound flew past his ear: an arrow. They were bloody shooting at him!
“I’m an elf! I’m an elf!” he shouted at them as he ran. He realized his modern school apparel and Modern Loegrian language probably weren’t helping his case any.
“Elfe! Ye olde elfe!” he yelled. The only thing he knew about Middle Loegrian was that it had a lot more “E”s in it.
An arrow pierced the wood of the tower door, and then another.
If he kept running for it, they’d hit him for sure.
Leo cut back and forth across the bailey, trying to move as unpredictably as possible.
And then, in the corner opposite the yew, he spotted his salvation.
A forge. Leo could see the fire burning within it through the large window in front of it.
Leo reached into the bag for the dagger as he ran, hoping to get it by the handle.
Or the blade. He’d take the blade at this point.
“You see that?” he said to the dagger once he had it in his hand. “That’s where you came from. You’re going back there.”
An arrow struck his bag. Another grazed his long ear.
He was nearly there now. He leapt over the windowsill and took cover underneath it. They would be on him in seconds; they were as fast as he was, and they were wearing armor.
He said the incantation three more times—who knew if it helped?—and threw the dagger into the fire.
Oh Gods, they were still coming.
Leo crawled around on the floor, trying to get under a table.
He’d nearly made it there, nearly made it, when the world lurched backwards again.
When Leo awoke, there was no castle to be seen.
The ground was clear and dry. Tall trees loomed overhead, their yellow leaves falling gently.
He heard movement nearby.
He sat up on pure instinct. He was exhausted, but his impulse to survive refused to let him give up so easily.
A woman emerged from behind a tree. She was wearing strange furs, and behind her were a pair of white, feathery wings.
She said something to Leo in another language he didn’t know.
He scrambled to his feet, nearly falling over from the effort.
