Araleigah - 1. Welcome to Araleigah

My brother left me a magical land.

No really. My brother and his best childhood friend who grew up to be the love of his life, they discovered a magical land. Or they might have created it. I was never sure, I wasn’t there. I was eight, Tony was twelve, and I was an annoying little younger brother. He couldn’t wait to leave me behind. I didn’t blame him much. We were kids, kids did awful things to each other.

But he and Danika discovered a magical land. They used to sit up in his room on the bed and talk about it. They built a tree house or something across the river in the woodland behind where we lived right on the edge of town. They spent all their time there. I, like my parents, thought it was just some great game of pretend. As we all got older, Tony and Danika got better at hiding what they were up to, and we all just thought they were dating. But pictures kept on appearing on his walls, and they spent a lot of time where their phones didn’t seem to work.

When I was fifteen, my brother left for college. He came back home for Thanksgiving, but he seemed sad, morose, and moped about the house for days. The day after thanksgiving, when our parents were out shopping, he asked me to go with him for a walk in the woods.

“You like college then?” It was cold, but the early frost had mostly melted, simply leaving patches in the perma-shade of trees.

“Yes. I like it. I miss coming home, but it’s not the same.”

“You’ve only been gone two months. Are we all really that different?”

“It’s not that,” Tony was walking with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his old duffle coat. I was wearing my sheepskin flight-jacket, wishing I had something warmer on than just jeans and boots, “I’m a man now, no pretending otherwise.” I had no idea what he was on about.

We reached the river, and I was sort of surprised to see the old rope and plank bridge Danika and Tony had built was still in pretty good shape. He chuckled.

“Remember when we were kids?”

“Yeah, and you and Dani used to run off all the time to smooch across the river. You used to tell us you’d gone to a magical land.”

“Yeah, Araleigah.”

“Oh yeah. Silly the things kids will make up.” I answered, kicking at a rough bit of tree root.

“We didn’t make it up Aiden.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Aiden!” Tony grabbed the collar of my jacket, “We didn’t make it up. It’s a real place.”

I grunted and pulled away.

“I always meant to bring you out here when you were younger, when it would have been easier to get you to see it. There was never the right time.”

“What are you getting at Tony?” I stuck my hands in my pockets, “Are you trying to apologise for not being around much? I don’t hold it against you. Anyway, I never was very interested in your advice. Wouldn’t be much use, what with you being straight.”

“Aiden will you listen for two seconds?” My coming out had been a complete non-issue to my brother, and I almost, almost, resented him for it, “Araleigah is a real place. Dani and I are king and queen there.” I stared at my older brother, wondering when the punch line of this joke was going to kick in, “But were getting too old to go, and being away is too hard. The people need someone, and you are a prince.”

“Are you high?”

“Aiden!” Tony grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face the river before frog marching me onto the bridge. I clung on tight, not wanting to end up in the icy waters. “Look, just close your eyes will you?”

I closed them obediently. No matter what, I liked my only brother to be happy, I’d play along a little bit.

“There’s some fucking candid camera somewhere, or all your mates waiting to rip the piss out of me…” I muttered.

“Right, open your eyes,” I did, it looked the same, “Now open them again.”

“My eyes are already open numbskull. I though college was supposed to make you smarter?”

“Stop being an ass!” Tony slapped the side of my head. “Do it again, and really look this time.”

I closed my eyes. I figured, when I opened them, that I would act all surprised and play along long enough to work out what Tony was trying to get at, and then I could go home, back to my nice warm bed and the magical land of the internet where I had just discovered how to access the sort of porn I actually liked.

I opened my eyes, and then I looked at the woodland. It was the same. I was just about to start being all big-eyed and shocked, when I noticed that the land on the other side of the river was thick with snow, and that the trees were different, all red leafed maples, and there was fruit shiny like giant diamonds from the branches. The sky was blue, it was snowing, and I was looking at another world.

“Holy crap…”

Tony was pushing me across the bridge, and I put one foot in front of the other like an automaton.

“Welcome to Araleigah,” I turned to look at my brother and I was surprised to find him dressed differently. Britches, knee boots, a gold edged green tunic. His duffle coat was a belt leather trench with brass buttons, and there was a thin circlet of gold vines and leaves around his head. He looked like a king, right down to the sword.

“Fucking hell Tony!”

“I told you it was real.” Tony smiled in that all-knowing way he’d always had, “Believe me now little brother?”

“Why now?” I didn’t have the mental space to deal with what I was seeing, so I kicked snow off my boots while my brain went ‘holyfuckingshit holyfuckingshit fuckinghell!’ without me.

“Like I said, the people need someone, and coming back is getting harder. I have a job now, classes, Dani. We wanna have kids. The real world needs me.”

“So stay here. How better to raise a child than as a king?”

“It’s not all sunshine and scenic postcards Aiden.” Tony looked sad, “There’s been war and death. I couldn’t raise a child here and move back and forth between the worlds all the time. It would be awful to a child to move about so much. And I couldn’t leave mum and dad forever.”

“Tony… I don’t understand.”

“I’m leaving Araleigah to you Aiden. It’s going to be your job to take care of it now.”

“You’ll still come back and visit every now and then right?”

“I’ll try.”

So my brother went off to college, and he left me a magical land called Araleigah.

And an advisor. We had all heard Tony talk about his friend Avery, but none of us had ever met him. I met Avery that very afternoon. The reason that none of us had ever met Avery before? Well, he was an ipotane. That is, he was half horse. He was not a centaur, and that was a mistake I made pretty early on.

“He’s a centaur.”

“He is not,” Tony had hissed and shaken the back of my neck, “Forgive my brother Avery. He is not wise.”

“Hey!”

“I remember you at that age sire,” The ipotane had stared at me with wide liquid eyes, his age unguessable, “He might be taller, but you were smarter. And better able to use your head before you spoke.”

The ipotane had the body of a horse, and the posture and upright bearing of a man. But the human half of him looked a lot less human than I or Tony did. He was still covered in short fur and his ‘mane’ ran the length of his spine to where a horse’s wither’s would have been. He wasn’t as big as I imagined a centaur to be either, more pony than stallion sized, which put his head only just above ours. Although he had a humanoid face, there was still no mistaking the equine in his eyes or his features.

“Centaurs are awful creatures!” Avery turned on my with a hard gaze, “We eradicated them from this land many years ago and their creation is against the law.”

“Huh?”

“Not many people know,” My brother shook his head sadly, “That a centaur is a creature made, not born. Literally stitched together with magic. It is not a pleasant thing to see.” He looked like he had experience of this, so I just nodded, and dropped the subject.

“Avery, this is my only brother Aiden. I am leaving Araleigah to him. Will you guide him, as you have guided me so many times?”

“Of course sire. But you are leaving us?”

“I have to. I’ll be back tomorrow for the ceremony and to say some goodbyes.”

“Her ladyship?”

“Dani can’t come back my good friend. She’s pregnant, she can’t cross over.”

“You got Danika pregnant?” I stared at my brother, “Mum’s gonna kill you!”

My brother slapped me upside the head again.

“May the gods help us,” Avery said, shaking his chestnut head, “He’s going to need a lot of work.”