Grandpa's Window

Grandpa died a week ago. He won’t be missed by many, maybe any. Shel was sure he had lost his mind years ago. On any of the sparse visits they made to Grandpa’s apartment he would go on about castles he had visited, elves he had encountered and evil he had vanquished. The doorman to the entrance of his apartment assured us that he seldom left and when he did leave, it was never for long, just for groceries or toiletries and such. Shel was not looking forward to cleaning this place out. A lot of junk that nobody wanted. A glint above the desk caught Shel’s eye. There hung a silver pendant on a delicate intricately woven silver chain. The pendant was a thin circle encasing a large tree. Shel had never looked this close at the trinket before. Grandpa had said that he got it from the queen of the elves for doing some heroic something or other. Now that he saw it up close. He could see very small symbols following the circumference of the pendant. He had never writing so incredibly small, or symbols of this nature before.

“Elves” Shell snuffed to no one in particular. “Maybe if I was a kid, I would believe such nonsense”

Shel tossed the pendant in a box along with a smattering of Grandpa’s other “treasures”. An old looking leather bound book, a short spindle of wood with weird pictures on it, a painting of a large tree, similar to the one on the pendant, and more.

Underneath a tray in the top drawer of the desk, Shel fished out a disk-like gemstone. Now this looked more interesting. Shel hefted it in his palm a few times. It was heavy, not plastic. Maybe glass. He was sure it was not the real deal. Holding the disk up to his eye and looking at the light streaming through the office window, Shel yelped, jumped, and dropped the disk.

“What was that?” he said, again to no one in particular. Staring at the window where he saw an outline of fire. He picked up the disk-gem again. With a slightly shaking hand he inserted the disk into his line of sight between his eye and the sun. Again, he saw the window through the gem, and it was outlined with fire. Removing the disk from his eye, the window looked normal once again.

“What the…” Shel put the disk on the table and touched the glass. It was solid, warm to the touch from the sun, but no warmer. He lightly traced the outline of the window with his fingers. It seemed normal. Replacing the disk to his eye, he studied the widow a little closer. Flames ringed the window. Shel watched his hand through the disk as he touched the window frame. If felt normal. Not hot. His fingers felt normal. Then Shel looked through the window expecting to see the neighbouring apartment building. Instead, he saw the interior of a simple log cabin. Moving the disk back and forth from his eye, apartment building, log cabin, apartment building, log cabin.

“What the…” He said again, his mind trying to make sense of what his eyes were feeding it. Holding onto the disk in one hand, Shel reached out with the other and touched the window again. This time, instead of his fingers touching the glass, his fingers passed into the glass and disappeared. When he looked at his hand through the disk, he could see that his fingers were entering into the log cabin beyond.

Maybe he should have thought it through a little more, instead climbed through the window into the cabin. Immediately the cold air hit his face. Wherever this was, it was much colder. Shel didn’t have a jacket, but he did notice a long brown robe with a hood on a wooden peg on the far wall. Shel grabbed the robe and put it on, tying the belt snuggly around his middle. Looking round the cabin, it was much smaller than he imagined from looking through the window. It was one room, a fireplace, a wobbly table with a tree stump that served as a chair. There was one window, out of which he could see a lush forest with vibrant greens of leaves and grass. To confirm a thought he just had, Shel lifted the disk to his eye and looked through the window. It was framed in fire just as before and through the window he could see the office in grandpa’s apartment.

Shel breathed a sigh of relief and dropped the disk into the pocket of his blue jeans. That’s when he heard a scuffling noise outside.

“Hello?” He called “Is there anyone out there?”

Shel listened intently for a moment and heard nothing other than bird chirping to one another. Looking round for something to defend himself with he spied a long wooden staff leaning against the wall beside the wooden peg that was home to the robe he now wore. Gripping the staff he moved quietly as he could to the door and turned the knob. To Shel’s surprise the door made no noise has he swung it open letting the sunlight find its way to the inside of the cabin.

Taking a couple of steps onto the covered porch Shel called again “Hello? Anyone out there?”

Someone thrust something over Shel’s head and held it there while someone else grabbed his hands. 

“We finally got you, mage” a deep gruff voice said. That last word dripped with distain

Shel thrashed about trying to free himself but was quickly overpowered, losing the staff in the process. Head covering secured and hands bound in front of him, Shel was mad. More mad than scared. “Who are you? What do you want with me?”

There was no answer as he was pulled by the rope on his hands setting him in motion. Shel could hear the footsteps of his captors a few feet ahead of him. “Where are you taking me?” Again, no answer. Shel’s anger slowly subsided, and fear began to grow as was led, blindfolded, to his destination. Wherever that was.

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Mallion paced back and forth across his ante chamber, fuming. “What is that mage up to now. He hasn’t shown his face in over a week now. I know he’s planning to get back at me. But how?” Mallion stared out the castle tower window and saw three figures. He recognized all three. The first two were personal guards and the third, although the head was covered, Mallion recognized the mage by the robes.

“Hah!” Mallion exclaimed “You won’t have a chance to exact your revenge on me. Mage”

Mallion sat on the finest chair in the room and looked as ‘kingly’ as he could, even though he was not a king and waited for the trio to arrive. Eventually the door opened, and the two guards yanked their prisoner into the chamber and pushed him to stand in front of Mallion.

“Well, well, well” Mallion said slowly, melodramatically. “If it isn’t…”

The words died on his tongue as he pulled the bag off of Shel’s head. The two stared at each for a moment.

“Who are you?” growled Mallion

“I would ask the same of you” Shel shot back.

“I ask the questions” Mallion tried to stare a hole through the boy trying to figure out the game. “Where is the mage?

“What mage?”

“I said I ask the questions” Mallion leaned back in his chair, put his elbows on the arms and steepled his fingers thoughtfully. “Why do you wear the mages robe”

“I’m not a mage” retorted Shel “They aren’t even real. It’s just stuff of kids stories”

“Oh, they’re real all right, and if you don’t want to talk, I’ll make that  permanent.” Mallion motioned to his guardsmen. “Take him to the dungeon and slate him for the gallows at daybreak.”

The guards obeyed the order as Shel twisted and turned, kicked and flailed trying to escape. As they left the ante chamber en-route to the lower levels Mallion wondered “What are you up to mage and why send a decoy?”

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Shel was unceremoniously dumped onto the dungeon cell floor. The door slammed shut behind him. Shel wondered how he had gotten himself into such a predicament. Maybe it was some kind elaborate hoax or a very un-hilarious joke. Shel studied his surroundings. I looked very real. Solid stone walls, floor and ceiling. One small window that Shel guessed he could crawl out of if the bars were absent. As for furnishings, there were none. Shel slumped down on the floor with his back against the wall and waited.

It was a moonless night. No light to shine into his cell. Shel waved his hand in front of his face without seeing it. It seemed like this night was going to last forever. He wasn’t sure but he thought that the gallows were something that he would like to avoid. A light noise tickled at the edge of his hearing. It almost sounded like wind in the grass, but without the wind. There it was again. A little louder this time. Then there was a whisper of a voice that sounded like the wind itself.

“We will have you out in just a minute.”

There were some sounds of someone moving about outside of his window. Shel moved closer to the window to try to see who was out there. The bars over the window started to spurt with purple sparks. Then just a quickly went out, resolving to black once again.

“Grab the rope” The voice said again.

Shel groped in the darkness until he found the rope, pulled it taut and held on tight. Shel emerged from the hard rock of the dungeon to the soft grass of the outdoors.

“Thank you” Shel said to his liberators.

“The pleasure is all ours. The queen sends her regards and her condolences.”

“The queen?”

“Silvantia, queen of the elves. You have never met her of course but she and your grandfather were very fine acquaintances.” Shel had more questions, many more, but he could not wrap words around them. “Come.” Said one of the elf rescuers. “We are not safe here”

On their way back to the log cabin, the elven rescuers explained how his grandfather would visit frequently. Living as a mage, assisting those in need whenever he could and undoing Mallion's plans just as often. Upon entering the cabin Shel thanked his rescuers again.

“Our pleasure. Please do return when you can. There is need for a young mage in these parts and the queen would also like to meet you”

Shel smiled “I’ll try”

As Shel prepared to crawl through grandpa’s window, back into his own world, he thought about all he had encountered. Castles, elves, adventures just like his grandfather had described. The best part of it all, he was thoroughly convinced that his grandfather hadn’t lost his mind after all.