The World Between

Chapter 3: Eggs with an Elixir

The garden was full of blossoms Maia did not recognize, but weird flowers were the least of her concerns at this point. Giant fluffy blue petals that put you in mind of storm clouds, complete with small arcs of lightning, seemed almost mundane to Maia as she stared up into a sky that looked to be a perpetual sunrise. Maia could not see anything immediately in the distance except a forest beyond the vine covered stone garden wall, but beyond the forest spires of crystal rose behind the trees. It was literally breathtaking and Maia had to suck in a breath as she remembered she was a being who needed oxygen to survive.

"Maia, come join me!" Clara called from her right, sitting at a table and benches made from a curling living tree. A fountain lay behind her, ornate and bronze like the bathroom fixtures, offering a spray of rainbows from its multiple tiers. Maia wasn't sure how she envisioned paradise, but this garden would certainly at least be a small section of it. Trelli zipped through the air over to her companion, chittering happily.

"What is this place?" Maia said with wide eyes, gesturing to her surroundings.

"Sit and eat, child." Clara said firmly and as Maia complied, she added, "I guess you could call this a waystation of sorts, or an inn for travelers who happen into the between. Not everyone is so lucky as to arrive here, but for some reason this place seems to attract the most visitors. But as I said before, we haven't had a guest in a very long time. "

"At one point, humans regularly appeared. Though there are those who now monitor the comings-and-goings as there were one to many authors going back and writing about their time here, which would have been fine if several of them weren't such awful people. I remember this one fellow Carroll.. An absolute creep. He was lucky he went back alive. Now I think the only author they regularly allow is someone called.. What was it? Gaiman, I think."

"Anyways, this is a place for dreamers, outcasts, and lost ones as well as magical beings and creatures. In order to arrive, you must have either a reason or a guide. The reason could be anything, a child who gets lost in the woods or a writer looking for inspiration. Sometimes, it is just a person who needs a friend." Clara said softly, petting Trelli's small head.

"But to get back, they must have that reason met, which has taken some only hours and others, years."

Maia, who had been carefully applying jam to a flaky pastry, looked up in horror, "Years?"

"Indeed, though some of us decide not to leave at all," Clara said with a small smile. Maia looked around her at the sky, the flowers, and even at the pastry in her hand. She could see why someone might decide to stay. If she didn't have responsibilities waiting for her, if someone could take care of Marshmallow for her.. Maybe. She pushed the thought away. She couldn't stay here, she would stand out like a sore thumb. She was just.. Average. If anything, Maia believed that she was below average: she wasn't very smart, very pretty, very funny.. She just was.

Maia had fallen into the kind of despair that she did not even realize was despair. She truly believed that she could make this place less magical with just her existence in it, which somehow was both egotistical and backwards in a way only humans can manage. Maia, like many people, looked at herself and saw someone who did not deserve such a magical experience such as this. In your world's terms, she saw herself as a side character or an NPC. Yes, even mysterious narrators know about video games.

At some point during her life, Maia, like many children, was told she was too much or too strange, and so had pushed down the part of herself that spoke confidently, who asked grown-ups why when they told her to obey. Maia had slowly quieter and more doubtful of herself. People who squash that light in children deserve a good slap and then some therapy, but they rarely get either.