Excerpt - Kaylee meets the plant-girl

Here is an excerpt from the novel I am currently writing. I hope you enjoy it!

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Kaylee's mouth fell open and she couldn't help but stare in disbelief at the plant-girl's words. Islen wouldn't take her to the Fortress because she didn't want to have anything to do with the outside world?!

Islen brushed a couple of small hair-like vines off of her face and shrugged.

"Why would you ever want to spend your life hidden away in some pretend-world like this when you live in a world that is full of so many wondrous things?!" Kaylee said."Since I've been here, I've seen a dragon, a flying ship, and even a horse with a unicorn's horn and a pegasus's wings; not to mention the hundreds of other things. The world is full of amazing and wonderful things if you just take the time and effort to find them."

"The real world is a scary place," Islen said. Kaylee could tell she spoke from personal experience. She wondered what had happened to Islen to make her this way. Was it the reason she rarely left the Wild Lands?

"Pretending will not change things," Kaylee said. "You can pretend things forever, but nothing will ever be real in the pretend-world. But if you work hard in the real world, all of your dreams can become real. Though things rarely happen in exactly the way you thought they would-"

Islen sighed. "You're going to bother me until I agree to be your guide to the Fortress, aren't you?"

Kaylee grinned. "Yep! You've got that right."