The creature at the table lunged at Liam and pinned him up against the wall. From the light that came through the closed shutters over the windows, Liam could see it wasn't a creature. It was an elderly woman with a huge amount of dark hair. At least Liam thought she was elderly. It was hard to see her face through all the hair.

She leaned in close and whispered something in Jep's ear, and the chicken released its hold again. It flapped over to her shoulder.

The woman stared up at Liam as if she was sizing him up. She was a rather short lady wearing what appeared to be about six different layers of clothing. Her face was quite round and had an angry look to it. Her skin was covered in bumps and warts and the occasional hairy mole. The color of her teeth alternated green and yellow from one to the next. What stood out the most, however, were her eyebrows. Liam suspected she had more hair matted together in those eyebrows than he had on his entire head. There was so much hair in those brows, he could not, in fact, actually see her eyes through them.

"I think you're right, Ezra. He's a traveler."

"Yep, he sure is, Masha."

"Good... good." Masha released her hold on Liam and started to walk away with Jep on her shoulder. As she walked, she continued to whisper, "good... good..." under her breath. She had a voice like a growl, and it only added to the scary vibe she was giving off.

"What does it mean that I am a traveler? And why is that good?" Liam was quite nervous about being there in that house but didn't want to take his chances with the guards. He wasn't sure where he would be safest.

"Be quiet!!" The woman screamed and ran at Liam, pinning him to the wall again. "If you don't stop all your yabbering, I'm going to get Jep to bite your nose again!"

Liam looked at Jep sitting on her shoulder and realized he was ready to go at any moment.

"Okay, I'm good. I'm a traveler," Liam said. He was used to dealing with Harry and talking his way out of dangerous situations. He could roll with the "traveler thing." Everything was so strange here. He couldn't help but think that just a few minutes ago, he was standing face to face with Harry in the park. Now he was trying to figure out how to deal with guards chasing him through some strange medieval town, a nose-biting chicken and a short, hairy and quite fearsome woman pinning him against the wall.

"That's right... good... good..." Masha released him and started to walk away again.

Liam sat down at the table next to Ezra. He sized up his new friend. He was a little shorter than Liam—probably a year or so younger. He had dark brown skin, tight curly dark brown hair and a look in his eye that suggested to Liam a thirst for adventure.

"So, Ezra," Liam whispered so as not to bring down the wrath of the hairy woman again. "I don't know what's going on. I don't even know how I got here." He stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. "I don't even know where 'here' is."

Ezra leaned over and put his hand on Liam's arm. "It's okay. I'll explain everything. You're not the first person to come and visit us in our world. I'll bring you up to speed. We get travelers like you all the time. But first, let's have some soup."

Liam looked up just in time to see two rather large eyebrows descend on his position. A bowl of soup plopped down before him and one before Ezra. The soup looked disgusting. In fact, it looked like Liam would not be able to stomach it, and he wondered if he could dispose of it without Eyebrows knowing.

The woman looked angrily at Liam and hollered, "I'm Masha! I live here! I make soup! Good soup! You will eat it now!"

With that, something happened. It took Liam a few moments to wrap his mind around what was going on. He didn't think it was possible, but Masha somehow managed to smoothly grab hold of both Liam and Ezra's tongues with her fingers and yank their heads down to their bowls. She held them in place and yelled, "You will eat soup now!"

Liam wondered how she managed to get her hand into his mouth and grip his tongue without any trouble at all. He struggled and tried to pull away, but her grip was like iron. He thought a tongue was wet and slippery so he should just be able to pull it out, but he was locked down in the bowl of soup.

He tried to look over at Ezra and found a certain satisfaction as he saw Ezra struggle as well. However, he noticed that Ezra didn't seem upset at having his face held down in his soup by Masha. His new friend struggled to eat but seemed fine with the whole arrangement. There was no panic in his eyes; it was simply normal for him. Liam realized the only way out was to have the bowl empty of soup. He began to eat, as best he could with his tongue gripped firmly by an elderly lady's fingers.

When he had finished the soup, or at least as much as he could with his face held in his bowl, Masha let go, scooped up the bowls and stormed away. She seemed happy in her anger or perhaps satisfied her soup was gobbled up with such effort.

Liam's face was absolutely covered in soup. He looked around. There was nothing within reach he could use to clean up, so he wiped his face with his sleeve.

Ezra, on the other hand, reached down, grabbed Jep with his hands and, to Jep's dismay, used the chicken as a towel to wipe his face. He set Jep down and watched as the chicken scurried away looking very unhappy.

Liam looked at Ezra and waited for an explanation about the soup experience. Ezra, however, simply leaned back in his chair and gave no indication it was anything out of the ordinary. He decided it was best to ignore the experience and move on to where he was and what was going on.

"Ezra, where am I and how can I get back home?"

"Well, that's a long story. I suggest we move over by the fireplace while we chat."

Liam looked at the fireplace. In the tiny, one-room house, it was right next to him. He realized he couldn't move any closer to the fireplace without actually moving into it. Ezra simply turned in his chair a bit, seemed satisfied that they were close to the fireplace and began his tale.

"Every now and then a traveler shows up around the city. This has been going on for years. They arrive and are confused about where they are. They never seem to know how they got here or why they are here. Each traveler is here for a time and has a quest they must fulfill before they are able to return to wherever they came from."

"So, what's my quest?" Liam thought if he could get it figured out and taken care of quickly, he might make it back in time for supper tonight.

"I have no idea! How am I supposed to know? Maybe it's to defeat a dragon; maybe you need to battle the evil Chimpanzee army of Rice Pudding Lake; maybe you need to climb a mountain and rescue a princess trapped at the top."

"Do you have a lot of princesses trapped on the top of mountains?" Liam wondered if Ezra was trying to trick him with the talk of Rice Pudding, Chimpanzee armies and the like.

"Of course we do! Just about every mountain has a princess on top, trapped in a cage or in ice or under a waterfall. It's the way mountains have always been!"

Liam was having a little trouble wrapping his mind around how strange this world was. How could having a princess trapped on top of a mountain be normal? For that matter, how could there be an army of chimpanzees? Everything here was strange to him, but maybe everything in his world would be strange to Ezra. He was beginning to realize his time in that world was not going to be easy.

"Okay, so how do we find out what my quest is?" Liam could feel frustration growing in him with Ezra and the whole situation. He also started to think the quest would take longer than he'd like.

I hope you are enjoying the first part of Arestana: The Key Quest. Keep reading to find out what happens next! If you want to get a hold of this entire story, you can pick it up from Amazon, Chapters, Foyles or just about everywhere else!

www.shawnpbrobinson.com/books

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