In Which Ben Sullivan Finds Another World: Part I

Part 1 of the A World of Magic and Dreams series

A Howl’s Moving Castle Fanfic

Ben blinked drowsily up at the bright blue sky and wondered why his head hurt so much. Everything hurt, in fact, and he was tempted to fall back into unconsciousness.

“Are you alright?” a male voice asked.

Ben tried to roll over so he could push himself up, but his back protested. Someone ran over, grabbed him behind his shoulders, and hauled him into a sitting position.

“Where does it hurt?” the stranger asked.

“Everywhere,” Ben groaned. He glanced over and finally got a good look at the man helping him. To his surprise, he was young, very young. Probably Ben’s age or a little younger. Seventeen? Eighteen?

“Are you a wizard?” the boy asked. Ben frowned. Was that some sort of joke? “I saw you fall out of the sky,” the boy continued. “That was clearly magic.”

Magic, like that spell he had looked at. But– “Magic isn’t real.”

The boy snorted. “Of course it is. So does that mean you’re a wizard or witch, or did you run afoul of one?”

Ben blinked slowly, trying to clear away the fog in his brain and connect the flower-filled field he lay in now with the museum he had been cleaning . . . sometime before. With those ancient spells tucked inside the glass case. “I don’t know.” He looked around. This wasn’t anywhere he recognized. “Where are we?”

“Not too far outside of Kingsbury.” The stranger’s tone was clearly meant to be reassuring.

Kingsbury . . . “London?”

The stranger frowned. “What? No, we’re in Ingary. Where’s London?”

Admittedly he had never paid much attention in geography, but he couldn’t remember ever hearing about Ingary. Was that somewhere in Africa?

The boy was still talking. “Is that in Strangia, perhaps? That’s the closest border to here. Or–”

Ben groaned and started to lean back on the ground, but the other boy leapt forward and pushed him back up. “Don’t do that! It can’t be good for you when you’re already hurt. What’s the matter?”

“Have you really never heard of London?” Ben asked. The boy shook his head, and Ben buried his head in his hands. “And I’ve never heard of Ingary or Strainya or whatever you said. I’m afraid–I’m afraid I’m much farther from home than I thought.”

The other boy sat back. “Hmm. Well, don’t freak out about it. I’ll help you figure out how to get back.”

Ben peeked up between his fingers. “Are you a wizard?”

“Well no, but I know one. Can you walk? I’ll take you to see her.”

“I think I can.” His back felt much better by now, and the pain in his head was beginning to fade. The other boy grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet. “Thanks.”

“‘Course! I’m Prince Justin by the way. I guess I never introduced myself.”

“Ben,” he said automatically, then, “Wait, Prince?” He tripped over his feet as he wondered if he was supposed to bow, or if there was some other custom here."

“Don’t you dare!” Prince Justin grabbed his arm and kept him firmly upright. “You’re injured, remember? Plus, I’m adventuring right now, so no reason for formality.” He led Ben down towards the valley, and, as they crested a small rise, he could see a city not far away.

“Adventuring?” Ben asked. “Going to fight a dragon or something?”

Prince Justin rolled his eyes. “Don’t be silly. Dragons don’t exist.”

Magic exists, dragons don’t, Ben tallied. “Right. Of course. So why were you adventuring?”

Prince Justin grimaced. “My brother and I argued–again. It was over something stupid, really, and I miss him now, but I left to look for something interesting. I was on my way home again, though, when I saw you.”

Ben rubbed his arm and thought about his own argument with his mother. He had finished his first year of university with barely passing grades (and some of those rather generously given), and it had become painfully obvious that whatever lay in his future, it would not come through more schooling. He had hoped his mother would see that as well, but she hadn’t, they’d argued, and now she would probably think he had stormed away and stopped talking to her, just as this prince had done with his brother.

“Do you run away often?”

The prince shrugged, looking rather sheepish.

They reached the city soon after, and Prince Justin amused himself by pointing out all the tastiest restaurants, where all the cute shopgirls worked, and, unashamedly, which businesses could be convinced to hide a troublemaking young man for a few hours.

Ben looked and listened, fascinated, as it seemed to him that he had been dropped straight into one of the watercolor illustrations from his favorite childhood storybook.

He hadn’t paid enough attention to Prince Justin’s clothes before, but now he could see the popular styles were rather old-fashioned compared to Wales, but not quite fitting with any time period he knew of. The architecture was similarly difficult to classify, the closest he could come being a bizarre combination of Bree from Lord of the Rings and a street out of a Charles Dickens novel, and the more he saw of the city, the more it seemed he had landed in a different world altogether.

Eventually Justin led him to a large, stately house that looked far more royal than the prince himself. Ben looked at him nervously but Justin didn’t glance his way, just strode straight to the door and knocked.

An elderly butler answered, seemingly unsurprised to find the prince on the doorstep. “Good afternoon.” Justin smiled charmingly. “I need to speak to Mrs. Pentstemmon.” The butler gave a small nod, then gestured for the boys to follow him inside.

They followed down a long hallway, up a set of stairs, and down several more hallways until they finally came into an open room with a vaulting ceiling decorated in elegant, though striking, shades of blue and gold. In the middle of the room was a large embroidered chair, where an elderly woman dressed all in gold sat as though it were a grand throne and her silver hair a crown.

Ben swallowed, feeling more and more like he wasn’t supposed to be here. “Is she royalty?”

“No,” Justin hissed back, then paused. “At least, I don’t think so. I figure I would know if we were related.”

“Well, Justin?” the woman asked, as though he were a small child coming to ask for sweets. “What do you need this time?”

Justin dragged Ben forward. “This is Ben. He needs your help.”

“Do you now?” The woman turned her searching eyes onto Ben, and his stomach dropped. He felt certain she saw much more than his physical appearance. Her eyes widened. “Oh my.”

Well that couldn’t be good.

“I’m not from here,” he began. “I, um, I made a mistake–” he broke off, wondering how much he should say.

“You were playing with spells, weren’t you?”

He blinked. “I–yes. How did you know?”

She pursed her lips. “You’re full of magical talent, my boy, though you don’t seem to know how to use it. It’s the obvious answer.”

“Oh. I–I didn’t mean to do it, though. I thought magic wasn’t real.”

“Not real?” Mrs. Pentstemmon (that was her name, wasn’t it?) leaned closer and raised one eyebrow. “Where are you from?”

“Wales.” If he could just get back there, he’d find his own way home.

She leaned back, lips flattening into a line, silent for a long moment. “I’ve never heard of a Wales in this world. I’m afraid it will take some time to get you home.”

“Not–in this world?” Ben was well aware his voice was growing hysterical, but he couldn’t seem to stop it as his worst fears were confirmed.

“Calm down. I didn’t say impossible, only that it will take some time. Now, is there anyone who saw you leave? Anyone who might be worrying and waiting? We might be able to get a message back earlier than you yourself.”

Ben thought of his argument with his mother and Alys’s phone call. “They won’t be worrying yet, and I think any sort of magical message would only freak them out more.”

She gave a curt nod, then studied him carefully. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and resisted smoothing his clothes.

“I shall make a deal with you,” Mrs. Pentstemmon said finally. “I know how to open passages to other worlds, but I won’t be able to reach yours as I am unfamiliar with it. Now, I don’t have a current apprentice, and I need someone young around the house to run the occasional errand and help out. You’ll stay here for a few weeks as I teach you how to open the passage yourself, and you can help around the house. Would that be to your satisfaction?”

Ben would do the magic to get himself home? But what if he made a mistake? What if he transported himself somewhere he couldn’t get help? What if–

Mrs. Pentstemmon must have seen the fear on his face, because she continued, “I will, of course, teach you how to return here, should you have any trouble.”

He relaxed then. Maybe he could do this.

He knew he should be upset about not being able to return home for so long, but he couldn’t seem to muster the feeling. He had been transported to a world of magic, a world straight from his daydreams, and, now that he knew he wouldn’t be stuck, he was itching to explore it.

“Thank you, Mrs. Pentstemmon.”

She nodded imperiously, then turned to the prince. “Now, Justin, go home. Your brother has been waiting for you.”

Looking not at all ashamed, Justin spun around, waving over his shoulder. “Bye, Ben! I’m glad you’ll be staying for a while. I’ll come back to see you soon!”

Ben called a goodbye after him, then nervously turned back to the wizard as soon as the butler had led the prince out. She stood up and strode from the room, gesturing for him to follow.

“Come. Let’s have some tea and get acquainted with one another.”

It took three days for Prince Justin to show up again.

Ben was tidying the remains of a spell he had been practicing in Mrs. Pentstemmon’s study, and he didn’t hear the front door. Justin strode into the study without knocking and plopped down in a chair beside where Ben worked.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said without preamble and grinning broadly. “There are very few nobles my age, and any that do exist are no fun at all. Besides that, whenever I try to do anything with the servants, they get all nervous, and my brother gets mad because he doesn’t think I should be friends with them. You, however, are a wizard, and therefore very prestigious and important, so he can’t argue about us being friends.”

“You want to be my friend?” Ben asked dumbly. “Why?”

Justin frowned and waved his hand vaguely. “Didn’t I just explain it all? It’s extremely boring to stay home all day with my brother and sister-in-law. You know, I’m fairly certain princesses make it their life’s mission to be as dull as possible.”

Ben had never met a princess in real life, but be couldn’t say the fairytales he had heard provided any evidence to the contrary.

“But I’m boring!” he protested.

Justin rolled his eyes and stretched his legs up on the desk. “Ben, you’re a wizard and from a different world. You’re far from boring. If either of us is boring, it’s me, stuck in meetings all day with the court.”

Mrs. Pentstemmon’s laugh rang from the hall. “If you’ve ever had a boring day in your life, boy, I’ll eat my hat, and you know I don’t make promises like that lightly. And get your feet off my desk!”

Justin jumped and hastily dropped his feet, then sighed. “That’s the problem with wizards. Always know when you’re getting into mischief.”

Ben lifted his chin in an imitation of the pompous nobleman who had come to request a favor of Mrs. Pentstemmon the day before. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t get into mischief.”

Justin looked horrified. “I take it all back. You are boring. Horribly so.” But he clearly didn’t mean it, and Ben couldn’t help but grin, glad that, even though he would have to return home eventually, he had made a friend here.

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