Chapter 3

This is the third chapter of Spellward Bound. It is divided in eleven parts: This is Fine, Clowning Around, Out of the Pan, Drinks for All, Laughing Gull, Proof, Papers Plz, BFFs, Family Reunion, Dusty, Off on Adventure.

This is Fine
One day has passed since Matteo went to the water realm and accidentally left Tyson there. He has been trying to teleport back to the magic realms all night trying to find his friend but nothing happened. He even convinced Tyson's parents that he is staying the night and convinced the school that he was sick (which, he commented, was even harder). He is worried that if everyone realizes that Tyson is missing, he'll face charges and be sent to prison since no one, not even Tyson's parents, will believe that he is trapped in another world. Matteo continues to silently ad-lib his worries to himself, he suddenly sneezes bubbles, causing his classmates to look at him. Mr. Caff, without turning his head, tells a boy named Alex to stop disrupting class like the previous times, to which the latter contradicts as he didn't do it. A while later, the dismissal bell rings and the students then leave the classroom. Mr. Caff calls out to Matteo and gives him a box of tissues in case he sneezes again, with latter thanking him. Matteo walks outside and exasperatedly tells himself that his life is over. He then kicks a stone and it falls through a sewer grate. After looking at where the stone went, Matteo decides to do something...

Clowning Around
...and he lets out a frustrated yell, startling Jason, who is just across the street with two girls, the latter helping Jason with his new video and are angry that Matteo interrupted them. Matteo sees water rising from the grate and realizes that he still has water magic inside him. As he tries to concentrate on the water, it only splashed back into the sewers, making him realize that mastering magic may be harder then he thought and that he needs to use a lot of magic to get to the realms. However, instead of water rising, something different happened: sparks appearing on his hand. Meanwhile, as Matteo is doing so, Jason and the two girls give him an odd stare and wonder what gotten into him. The girls then start arguing about what is lurking in the sewers, from clowns to alligators, much to Jason's annoyance. A while later, they noticed that Matteo vanished, when in actuality, he teleported to the realms again.

In the Fire Realm, three elves are discussing about the storms and seeking help from other people. Suddenly, Matteo appeared and crashed on their table, surprising them. Matteo attempts to keep them away with his water magic but finds it hard to control when it breaks up. As he wards off the three elves, he feels his middle and ring fingers fuse into one as his hand becomes webbed again.

Out of the Pan
The three elves realize that Matteo has magic poisoning and try to ask him what brought him to their place. That is when Matteo blew out a stream of fire to scare them away while a pair of antennas sprout on his head. As the elves put out the fire, Matteo makes his escape and notices that he ends up in another realm, since he is now in a bustling town where most of the residents are tekchyiks. While exploring the town, he bumps into a tekchyik which made him run away into a corner.

After deducing his current location, as well as Tyson's and the elves', Matteo decides to ask the locals for help. He then heads over to a tekchyik vendor to ask him for directions. The vendor asks is Matteo's gonna buy anything in his store. Confused about the currency in the fire realm, Matteo decided to pool out his pocket money, which consists of a $1 bill, a penny, and two quarters.

Drinks for All
The vendor inspects Matteo's money and asks if he has anything to trade. The boy rummages through his bag to find anything worth trading when the vendor finds a bottle of soda and wants to have it while also planning to give directions out of the Fire Realms to Matteo. As the vendor drinks the soda, he suddenly feels his throat burning because of the fizz. All the while, a small, four-eyed, six-legged, furry creature enters Matteo's backpack. Matteo overhears some nearby tekchyiks talking about an elf hero and asks them who that hero is. The two tekchyiks become enamored by his sudden appearance, worried about his magic poisoning, and excited about adopting him when he becomes a tekchyik. Exasperated, Matteo expects himself to pay information from them like the vendor.