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Informationen zum Autor Kaza Kingsley Klappentext In this fourth installment! Erec must literally face his worst nightmares to succeed in his quest! but he isn't sure that he can overcome his fears. Illustrations.In this fourth installment! Erec must literally face his worst nightmares to succeed in his quest! but he isn't sure that he can overcome his fears. Illustrations. Leseprobe CHAPTER ONE Letters in Pie HERE ARE TERRIFYING monsters in our world, like the Grumbleswitch of Alexia and the frightful Minotaur. There are beautiful places, too, like Smoolie in Otherness, which is so delightful you can feel the butterflies of disbelief fluttering in your stomach when you first arrive. There are sweet things, like the Valkyries in Lerna who spend their lives happily serving the families who grew them from seeds. But there is nothing in the universe that is more annoying than being teased again and again by a sibling. And again. And again. And again. Except maybe being teased by two siblings. Erec Ulysses Rex should have been having a wonderful time at home in New Jersey. It was like having a vacation in his own house. He had been away for months doing quests to become the next king of Alypium. That was the hidden land where he had been born, where magic was still known and practiced. Now he was enjoying a well-earned break. His adoptive mother, June, had been cooking his favorite meals since he came home last month. And he didn’t even have to go to school, like his five siblings did. When he returned to Alypium he would meet with a tutor instead—a tutor who taught magic. Really, he should have been enjoying himself now, in every way. But Erec had no such luck. When his five siblings were in school he was bored beyond belief. With his mother working, there was nobody for him to talk to. And when his brothers and sisters did come home, things only seemed to get worse. Danny and Sammy, his twin brother and sister who were adopted like the rest of the kids, seemed to know exactly the wrong things to say. Or, more like, the right things to make him furious. And when Erec’s face turned red it was just an invitation for Danny to dish out some more. They teased him about being “special,” becoming a king, and getting spoiled at home. But those things weren’t a big deal to Erec. It was the other thing that they kept bringing up that tormented him—a thing that was already torturing him inside. It was the very reason he was staying in New Jersey, bored and teased, instead of returning to Alypium to finish more of his quests. That thing was Bethany, his best friend in the world. She had traveled with him from New York into wild unknown places that they had never thought existed. She was smart and funny and a lot of fun. Beyond that, she really understood him. She knew what it was like to be different. In fact, she was the only other person Erec knew who had grown up in Upper Earth but later learned that she had been born in Alypium. The problem was, right before he came home, he had done something to completely ruin their friendship. Well, maybe he had ruined it. Erec still wasn’t sure from all the snail mail letters she was sending to him. He had kissed her. Really, it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. He had to kiss her to save her from a deathly enchantment that Baskania, the evil Sorcerer Prince, had put on her. But he had liked kissing her. A lot. So much that it was really starting to bother him. Kissing was not what he had in mind, not as far as his best friend was concerned. Bethany seemed to be handling their kiss better than he was. At first her letters seemed totally normal, just chatting about Erec’s dog, Wolfboy, that she was watching in Alypium for him. Then she started asking when Erec was coming back, then why he wasn’t returning her letters. Erec wanted to wr...
