Chapter 2

This is the second chapter of Spellward Bound. It is divided in seven parts: Panic, Another Visit, Monsters, Making Friends, Fish Town, Magic, Adventure Time.

Panic
In Tyson's bedroom, he is busy editing a video when his phone starts ringing. He answers the phone to hear Matteo on the other end of the line, telling him about how he got teleported to another world and back to his room where he was holding some sand from the desert he was teleported from. Tyson dismissed this as nothing but a hallucination caused by stress from the career project. Matteo, with nothing else to explain, agrees with Tyson's words. He then looks out the window and wonders if it was all just a dream and he is just losing his mind.

The next day, Matteo and Tyson are at the park making a video about the latter drinking a jar of mayonnaise (actually vanilla pudding) in front of every visitor in the area. Tyson notices Matteo not paying attention as he is still thinking about what happened yesterday. Just then, the two boys notice Jason nearby, with Tyson angrily saying that he is a famous blogger.

Another Visit
As Jason and Tyson start arguing, Matteo begins to complain about the hot sun and wishes it was cloudy or raining as he wouldn't mind either. But once he covered his eyes from the sun, he notices that his fingers are now webbed and that there are blue spots at the back of his hand. Not only that, there are blue spots on his upper cheeks, and his ears now look like an axolotl's gills. While panicking at what is happening to him, he notices that all of his surroundings are becoming blurry. While Jason is answering a call from his phone and Tyson demands him to listen to him, Matteo grabs the latter's shirt and tells him to leave the park immediately. Suddenly, the two boys are then transported to another realm, not like the one Matteo went to the first time. It is a swamp full of vibrant alien-like flora and the whole place is raining. Tyson is surprised by the strange place and even more surprised by Matteo's newly acquired features, realizing that this is all real. As they observe the strange environment, Tyson decided to head home when he suddenly fell in a mud pit. Matteo frantically searches for his friend, using his jacket to fish him out. After a while, Matteo is now worried about what will happen to Tyson, when the latter resurfaced, commenting that the mud pit was slightly deeper than he expected.

Monsters
Tyson demands Matteo to take him home, but the latter replies that he doesn't know how. Just then, Matteo realized that when he teleported the first time, he fell down and he was back in his room. He then tells Tyson to hit him in order for them to get back home. However, Tyson could only do a playful poke on Matteo's cheek, which earned him a kick back into the mud pit. While Tyson resurfaces and tries to find his phone, Matteo hears rustling from a nearby shrub and takes a closer look, discovering a pink hyleft hiding behind it. Frightened by his sudden appearance, the hyleft dives into the mud pit to escape. Upon resurfacing in another part of the swamp, the pink hyleft tells her brother that she saw a 'monster', who happens to be Matteo appearing shortly. The older hyleft tells his sister to run back home, but Matteo assures him that he won't hurt them just as Tyson shows up, saying that his phone is still working fine.

Making Friends
The older hyleft notices the two boys' ears and assumes they were elves, to which Tyson agrees, much to Matteo's annoyance. The hyleft believes that the two boys came from a recent storm and that his farm town rarely had any visitors. Matteo and Tyson are confused about the term 'storm' since it sounded vaguely capitalized to them, much to the hyleft's shock at them not knowing what World Eater Storms are. Matteo says that they're not of this world and the two hylefts decide to bring them to their town. Matteo attempts to decline the offer but Tyson readily accepts it, saying that they don't know how long they were in the Water Realm and that they needed shelter from the pouring rain. In addition, he says that the 'storm' is classic cartoon stuff and the reason they were there. Tyson concludes that all this is connected to video games but Matteo contradicts that this is real life. After a brief introduction, the two hylefts (now named Tele and Kala) guide the two boys to their town. Along the way, Tyson asks Tele when the storm will be over, which the latter replies that the storm ended some time ago. Tyson then asks when will the rain stop but Tele tells him that rain in the Water Realm is constant. He even says that his realm isn't very nice compared to the other worlds (which shocked Matteo and Tyson) but decides to do his best to make the two boys comfortable. Eventually, the four finally arrived at their destination: Beryl Ravine.

Fish Friends
Beryl Ravine is a town carved into the sides of a ravine. Tele explains that the hylefts living here use water to erode their homes into the rock walls and that the plants in the ravine are waterproof. Tele suggests giving Matteo and Tyson a tour of the town while motioning a guard that the two boys are non-threatening. He even adds that while Beryl Ravine rarely gets many visitors, it doesn't mean that there are rooms suited for elves. Matteo remembers the time he teleported himself into the fire realm and comments that he prefers Beryl Ravine over the desert since he loves the rain, much to Tele's delight. The two hylefts then invites them in their house where Matteo and Tyson have trouble walking inside since the flooring of houses there is built for hyleft feet. As Tele greets his mom, the latter throws a mallet at him and berates him for not keeping an eye on Kala. She then welcomes the two boys in, all while examining Matteo, revealing that he has water magic inside him. She even notices Tyson, also thinking he's an elf with his tail and ears cut off.

Magic
Tele tells his mom that Matteo and Tyson doesn't know what the so-called storms are, much to the latter's confusion since she knew elves can be reclusive. She then proceeds to dry Tyson up. When Matteo asks if he gets to get dry up too, Tele's mother declines, saying that Matteo should get used to using water magic. Matteo then forms a small ball of water, with Tele's mom saying that he just needs to feel and hold magic and with practice, he'll have no problem controlling water. Tyson then asks her if he can do that and she replies that elves can't use magic. Matteo says that he and Tyson came from a small disconnected village. Tele's then explains that elves are claimed to be 'keepers of knowledge' and yet they can't even teach villagers common sense. Tele tries to say otherwise but she shot him down saying that real knowledge comes from hard work and that there is nothing in the libraries that he can't learn from. Tyson comments that he and Matteo have really missed out on a lot of things and ask about more details about the 'storms'. Tele's mom explains that 5 years ago, magic began to violently leave the magical realms, draining the world's magic, causing everything around it to die out. Creatures unlucky enough to get caught in a storm found out that their magical energy was scrambled or infused with a new magic, which can be toxic since the body can't carry. Matteo then asks if that is the reason why he has water magic and Tele's mom answers that it can happen, albeit very rarely. External magic sometimes forces a creature's body to adapt into another form that can carry that magic. She then confirms that he is turning into a hyleft. Matteo says that he doesn't want the water magic and tells Tele's mom to take it back. Tele's mother refuses since it is already infused in his whole body. Upon hearing this, Matteo then imagines a worst-case scenario: him (as a hyleft) being rejected the astronaut recruiting facility due to his amphibious appearance and being ordered to apply for the supermarket instead). This made him scream in worry as Tele and his mom thought that he didn't take her words very well.

Adventure Time
Matteo hopes if there is another way to fix this. Tele suggests asking other elves, much to his mom's chagrin. Tele says that elves have been researching magic for years and that they're trying to stop the storms. However, his mom contradicts as she assumes that they only believe in prophecies. Tyson then asks where to find them, causing them to slightly doubt that he and Matteo aren't even elves. Matteo also asks that question and Tele's mom replies that they should head to the city of Felnnor, in the floating islands in the Air Realm. Of course, this made Matteo even more worried than before while Tyson decided to prepare themselves for an adventure, only to realize that Matteo had disappeared. What's more is that Tyson can no longer understand what Tele and his mom are saying.

Back on Earth, Jason notices Matteo nearby and wonders why he is wet before correcting his question to how Matteo got wet. Matteo asks him how long was he gone and Jason replies that they were gone for only 2 seconds. Matteo then notices that his hands are back to normal. He then tells Tyson that they are finally back home, but Tyson is not with him. All the while, Jason wonders what's going on with Matteo.