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I was always told that I was off in my own world, it was seldom found a time where I didn't have my nose in a book. I couldn't help it though, the world I lived in was just so...tame, so boring and I just wanted to escape.

Socially I was never really popular, I am really tall, stick thin and have hair to my waist, tied in a ponytail, I was looked over by any of the "popular" girls but that didn't really matter to me because I've only ever had eyes for guys, but if they ever found that out they would pay me the wrong kind of attention. My parents, well lets just say that as far as they are concerned they have no son, they have only the capacity for how much they hate eachother. Theirs was a marriage of convenience, he was a prince, she was poor but beautiful, so they married, one month later his kingdom fell in a violent civil war, and just like that we were poor. The fallen prince and the beggar woman with a child on the way, what a romantic couple right? Wrong, neither of them had worked a day in their life and now they had a family to support, dad got a reasonable job from an old family friend and mum became a news anchor, dad worked away a lot and mum was rarely home so I never saw much of either of them, but when they were home together the screaming matches started and I hid away in my room, quite often crying my eyes out.

When I discovered books my whole life changed, I was immersed in a world where anything could happen and the things straight out if my wildest dreams were real, I was instantly hooked, in this world I could become anyone, be taken on a journey of epic proportions and no one could upset me or hate me there. And when I found the world of anthropomorphic beings I fell in love, I was constantly looking in the local book shops for anything on the subject, my favorites were always wolves, so masculine while at the same time being loyal and defensive of their pack mates, in those days I would have given anything to join a wolf pack.

One day, as I was doing my usual book shop scavenger hunt I came across a beautiful fur covered hardback called "The Wolves of Tellinar" and while I was against using real fur I just couldn't resist that book, I bought it and took it straight home to read, when I got there I saw that both of my parents were home so I quickly ran up to my room and locked myself in for the night, I had picked up a sound-proofing technique from the web and it came in great use on a night like that night. With my sound barrier in place I opened my latest purchase and was about to peruse when my parents came bursting into my room. "What the hell is all this?!" My mother exclaimed as she took in the random piles of books strewn out on the floor (for no other reason than my cupboard was full) "Ummm my collection?" I replied sheepishly. "And where did you get the money for all this?" Asked dad. "It was that credit card I gave you wasn't it? I told you only to use that in emergencies!" Mum was looking pretty furious at that remark. "So I work my ass off to put food on the table and you give our son a credit card?! No wonder we keep falling behind on our mortgage payments when he buys all this with it!" And then the screaming match started, I just sat in the corner crying while my parents turned my bedroom into a battlefield of insults and finger pointing, I wanted nothing more than to get away at that point, to escape.

That night I had a dream, a most wonderful magical dream, I was sitting in my bedroom and woke up to my new book rustling in a non-existent wind and when I opened my eyes there stood a large wolf made entirely of paper, I got up and walked over to it but when I got close the paper fluttered and turned into a doorway, on the other side was a deep woods and the sounds of howling but when I tried to take a step inside, I woke up.

The next day I got ready for school early and was out of the house before my parents had a chance to start arguing again. I sat in home room waiting for my name to be called, "Andrew? Andrew Sparks?" That horrible, disgusting name, it just felt wrong to me, it sounded...off. The rest of the day went as usual, I was completely ignored without a friend in the world, but that suited me just fine, I hated my fellow humans, they were abhorrent and cruel, I would much rather have been born an alien.

Finally I got home and sat in my bedroom to start reading the book but when I opened it the book flew out of my hands, the pages started flipping wildly before tearing themselves out, they started to shape themselves and the ink itself began to lift off the paper in pools, when the paper finally settled back down I saw in front of me a large wolf made entirely of paper, all of his features painted with black ink. This was the wolf of my dream only this time he spoke, "I am Hexis, keeper of the door, what is your business with me?" I was astonished at first but I quickly regained my composure enough to give my response "The door? What door?" "Why the door to Tellinar of course." I knew instantly that the world on the other side of the books I had gotten so lost in was now just a quick decision away, and an easier decision I have never made, I had nothing keeping me back so I said "I wish to enter, I wish to know your world" he tipped his head back and laughed "Be careful what you wish for young human, for now you shall see all my world has to offer, the good and the bad." Then he fell apart and the paper began rearranging itself into a portal with the black ink filling it. "Enter now or you shall never again have this opportunity, step through the darkness and you shall find the light!" And so began my journey into the depths of Tellinar.