Pizza delivery, part III

Standing off to the side, I watched Callan's band of six devour the pizza. The way they ate, you would think that pizza was a delicious treat.
Though considering that they had to use a transdimensional spell to order it, maybe pizza was something special.
Brend left the group and walked over to me. "You don't have isolate yourself, Mister Alex."
I crossed my arms and looked at the apprentice wizard. "I don't belong here, Brend. Why would someone bring me here? I'm just a pizzeria delivery boy."
Brend looked over to Callan's band and shook his head. "Just a pizzeria delivery boy? That makes you important here, despite what you might think. Ever since the discovery of transdimensional spells, the people of my world have grown to love things from other worlds. At the top of that list is pizza." Brend gave a quiet laugh when he noticed me frown. "It may seem odd, but it's true. Many chefs here have tried to replicate the flavor of your pizza, but there is always something missing. People will be interested to meet you, if only to figure out what mistakes they're making in their pizzas."
I shook may head. "I just deliver the pizzas, I don't make them." Sure, I knew how to make pizza, but mine weren't nearly as good as the pizzeria's. "How do we find the person who brought me here?"
Brend tapped his staff against the ground. "A locating spell would be best. Just hold still."
Lifting his staff, Brend began mumbling again. Drawing a circle above my head with his staff, I fought to avoid jerking away as sparks of blue-green spat from the staff. Raising his free hand, Brend's fingers poked at the air like fingers on a keyboard, emitting sparks of their own. Finally, his voice rose as the young wizard said something I didn't understand, and he thumped the bottom of his staff into the dirt.
The staff glowed blue-green, and smoke rose from the top for a minute. Brend swayed, skin pale as he leaned against his smoking staff.
"Well?" I asked, catching sight of Callan heading toward us. Brend pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath through his nose.
"Are you alright, Brend?" Callan asked as he handed the delivery bag to me. "Keep hold of this, Alex. It is a symbol of your rank, which any lover of pizza will respect."
I slung the empty bag over my shoulder, deciding not to question why people from a completely different world would consider a pizza delivery bag as a symbol of rank. Besides, what rank did he think I had?
Some color having returned, Brend took another breath and spoke. "Whoever tried to hijack my spell is at the capital."
Callan whistled. "They must be fairly powerful then."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"The capital is in the north, about two months away from here." Brend scratched in the dirt with his staff, marking the capital with a star and our position with a circle. "That's with the main road being closed due to the dragon migration." He drew a winding line from the circle to the star. "That leaves the old forest trail as the quickest route, though that means we'll face all sorts of creatures." He draw little triangles that I guessed were supposed to be trees in the space between the star and circle, then made a dotted line running chaotically through the triangle forest.
"Is there something wrong about having straight roads?" I asked, motioning at the wildly meandering path he had drawn.
"The only safe path through the forest is not straight." Callan laughed. "If you were to try to cut straight through the forest, then the wraiths would be upon you before half an hour passed."
Brend nodded, then his brows furrowed when he caught my look. "Do they have wraiths were you're from?"
"Wizards, dragons, wraiths, magic. They're all just stories in my world." I shook my head. "It'll take some getting use to. But if we follow this forest path, then we can reach the capital and find whoever brought me here?"
Callan nodded. "Yes. In two months, we'll have answers to your questions, laddy."
I sighed and rubbed my neck. Two months. It would be at least two months before I could get home.
Two months in a world filled with the things of stories.