Read The Magic Lands for Free Online Page B

Beast," the boy said mildly.
    Opening his eyes, Tom was
relieved to find his vision had returned to normal again. He glared
at the child who swung higher and higher. "Will you please stop
swinging and give me some straight answers!?" bellowed Tom, ready
to snap.
    "All right," replied the boy,
abruptly becoming still. "What do you want to know?"
    "Can you tell me how to get to
my house. It belongs to the McKern’s, have you heard of them?"
    The boy gave him a sympathetic
look. "I've already told you, you can't go home."
    "That's it," blazed Tom,
grabbing hold of the rope that supported the swing. "I've had
enough of your games!" The branch above creaked and groaned with
the exertion. "Now what did you mean..." Tom began, but looking
down, all he saw was an empty seat. He twisted quickly around,
fully expecting to see the little pest retreating into the
undergrowth. But all was silent and still, the boy having
apparently disappeared quite literally into thin air.
    Releasing the rope with a sigh,
Tom sat down heavily onto the swing. Things were not happening the
way that they should. People couldn't just vanish. It was all
completely insane.
    "I just wish someone would tell
me what's going on," he spoke aloud.
    "Tell me what you want to
know," said a voice from behind him.
     
    Tom whirled around like a
cornered animal. His nerves were afire, his heart beating fast in
his chest.
    What he saw didn't make him
feel any better.
    Just a few feet away, quite
still and regarding him with an interested air, was a badger.
    Tom stared at it with wide
eyes, feeling somewhat bemused. He knew that they lived in the
countryside, woods and fields their natural habitat, but he had
never seen one, not in all his days in his Uncle's garden. He
remembered Ira coming across a badger track in the mud once years
before, the imprint fascinating to a young boy.
    "When you see a badger, Tom,"
he had said, "it's a sign that a change is coming."
    Tom hadn't known what his Uncle
had meant by this, but that was not at all unusual, for Ira often
said strange and apparently meaningless things. Yet Tom always took
notice, even when he was very small.
    With this memory still running
through his mind, Tom looked into the animal's eyes. It was an
exceptionally large badger, judging by the pictures he had seen and
by what Ira had told him about the creatures, so large in fact that
it made him feel uneasy.
    "No need to be afraid," the
badger said gently.
    Tom blinked his eyes. He
thought, or he had dreamed, that the animal had spoken, but of
course this could not be.
    "Yes, I can talk," voiced the
badger, as if reading Tom's mind.
    "How...what?" he stammered.
    "Calm yourself," the badger
said in an attempt to reassure him.
    Straightening up, his
body suddenly very rigid, Tom was torn between the desire to run
and the fascination and awe he felt at actually hearing an animal
speak. It was incredible! I'm dreaming
this , he told himself firmly, it can't be real.
    "I won’t bite," the badger told
him with what Tom took to be smile, although it looked rather too
much like simply a baring of sharp teeth. "Stop hopping about and
let me introduce myself." Tom made no reply, watching very
carefully, wary of any sudden movement. "My name is Mo," the
creature said amiably.
    "How can you talk?" whispered
Tom, afraid of his own voice, finding it impossible to believe he
was holding this conversation at all.
    "It's not so strange in these
parts," Mo replied. "You will get used to it in time."
    "Tom…my name’s Tom," the boy
offered tentatively, not sure of what to say.
    "It's a pleasure to meet you
Tom," nodded the animal, coming a little closer. Almost
involuntarily, Tom began to back away. "You do know the difference
between a badger and a wolf, I suppose?" Mo asked.
    Tom looked at him oddly.
"Wolf?" he repeated.
    "Wolf, White Wolf," the badger
said quickly. "You do know about it don't you?"
    "I'm not sure," answered Tom
truthfully. He knew there was something in what the