Antara slowly opened her heavy eyelids. How tired she felt! She pulled her dead weight of a body up, and noticed an old man and a young man standing in the clearing where she was. Who were they?

She gradually pulled herself to her feet, and cautiously walked over to the men.

As if in answer to her thought, the old man said, 'Hello there! My name is Merv, and this is my nephew, Blake. You see, we had been trying some rather complicated magic, involving transfer of humans, and well… uh… to tell you the truth… you just… showed up!'

"You guys have got to be kidding me! Complicated magic! Yeah, right! There is no such thing as magic. Have you whacked your head or something?" Antara yelled. This was seriously scaring her. How could they be acting so calmly, when they were talking about things that did not exist? She just wanted to go home!

"Why don't you come with us to our place? Then maybe I could explain this to you," Blake responded.

"No! I will make this point-blank. I refuse to go to someone's house who is a complete nutcase. Especially a quote 'magical' nutcase."

"Fine, have it your way. Either you come with this old nutcase and this young nutcase, or you stay here in this clearing, only to be attacked by Cloaks at night," Merv said.

"Wha-? W-who are Cloaks? What are you talking about? What the heck is going on here!?" Antara squealed, staring to get frightened for the second time she got here.

"Antara, we can't explain here. They may be lurking around here, and they might even be eavesdropping," said Blake, looking deep into her eyes.

Antara was too busy looking into Blake's deep blue eyes to notice the soft swishing sound that came from behind the surrounding trees.

"Okay. Let's go," she said softly.


Thus, Antara went with them to their house. The house was a rather imposing building, and it was massive. It had a warm climate, even though the weather outside the tall stone walls had become cold and wet. 'How is this possible?' Antara thought.

Blake showed her to a luxurious guest bedroom, richly decorated with blue, green, and brown furniture and curtains. Antara plopped herself onto the bed, tired for the first time since she arrived.

As Blake closed the door, she caught a glimpse of his eyes again. She called him back, sat him down in a large, over-stuffed armchair, and they chatted about nothing in particular, as Antara did not want to talk about magic. Na-ah, no way!