Read Return To Lan Darr for Free Online

took extra care to completely cover the yard. It really did look more like snow in some places than toilet paper. Then Allan sees the van. “This is not a sign of affection,” Allan steams, and rolls to the van. Pages of a book are taped to the windows with lots of thick, clear packing tape.
    Rubic starts pulling off the tape and the pages.
    “Hand them here,” Allan orders. He inspects them, expecting them to be his diary. They weren’t. They are pages from a children’s book by Adam Boldary titled Morty’s Travels . Someone had written a note on the cover page in a red marker. It reads:
    Do these pages look familiar? You didn’t travel to another world, you’re remembering this book. Look through it. The dream spirits are in there and the salamander-people. The Lithic Furies are on page 10, and Dantia’s canal system is on page 8. Sorry, Allan, but you’re just crazy in the head. Get some help, dude.
    With Love and pseudo-affection,
    The Entire School Population of Minister Academy
    Allan tears through the pages of the Adam Boldary book. Sure enough, there are the creatures he’d met and places he’d been: the six-inch creatures, the Lorebs, Dantia’s tall wall, the canals, the Lithic Furies, and even Lyllia of Meduna. They don’t quite look like how he’d seen them because they were illustrations in a children’s book. But there they are, in a book published in 1975.
     
     

 
    Chapter 4
    You’re Just Bat Crazy, Boy
    Allan crumples up the pages of Morty’s Travels and throws the paper ball so hard he rocks his wheelchair. He’s confused to the point of madness. Why were these creatures in a children’s book? Had this book been read to him as a boy? Tears blur the world around him, trapping his sadness in their watery clutches. He grips the push-ring on his wheelchair until his muscles ache. Turning the left ring spins him back toward the house.
    “Those Minister Academy preps think they’re so clever, don’t they? If I find out who did this to you, well, we’ll get ’em back. They’ll be sorry,” Rubic says. “I don’t care if that’s not the adult thing to say.” Rubic tries to reach out to Allan, to touch his shoulder, but Allan keeps rolling.
    Allan takes one last look at the gently swaying streamers of toilet paper that decorate his entire front yard. It hurts him physically to look at it, so he rushes inside as fast as he can.
    Rubic follows, closing and locking the front door. “Look. The prank on our house could be worse. They could’ve thrown rocks through the windows or keyed your van.” Rubic wasn’t getting through to Allan. “I know you thought you really went somewhere. I know you hold on to that with every ounce of strength. You dream about that place. Those friends you made, they feel real to you, as real as anything in this house.” Rubic knocks on the wall. “But that shows you how powerful our brains are. You were drugged with an intense cocktail of chemicals, bud. I experienced a slice of that poison that Alice had flushed into the river. I know.”
    Allan drops his chin to his chest and looks at his hands. “I felt things. Mizzi built me mechanical legs that took me into the Lithic Fury desert. They were so much more than just tall rock creatures. They had souls, every one of them did. Jibbawk came after me. I ran from it. It was real.” Finally, the flood of tears and sobs burst out.
    Rubic hugs Allan for a long time.
    When Allan is able to speak, he pushes away from Rubic. “Laura stole my diary, but… but I don’t hate her. I’m mad at her, but I still want to see her.”
    “You’re so young, man. You’re only fifteen. You’ll be sixteen in six months, I know, but you’ve got a long way to go in life. Friends will come and go.” Rubic tries to smile, but Allan can see anger on his face. “I thought she was better than this. I can’t believe she’d steal from you.” Rubic finds a seat on the edge of the couch.
    “It wasn’t like that. She stole