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Billy smiled to himself as he tied his shoe. Today at school his teacher had talked about imagination, and he was beginning to understand about the magic kingdom. Jack had tried to explain it, but Billy hadn't really understood. As he looked around his room, he whispered, "This is reality." Billy felt very grown-up now that he could see more clearly the difference between imagination and reality. He scooted across the floor to the corner of the room and sat down with his back against the wall. There was so much to understand in reality.
Billy looked at his toybox. On top, he saw the box that held his Lego blocks. He knew that even though his mother had made him take the castle down and put the blocks away, the castle was still in the magic kingdom. His eyes swept the room looking for Jack. Sometimes, Jack tried to hide from Billy, but Billy would touch his ring and know exactly where Jack was hiding. "Behind the bookcase," Billy thought. He got up and walked over to the bookcase.
It was one of Billy's favorite pieces of furniture. He and his father had made it when he started sleeping in a real bed. He sometimes thought about his old crib. It was hard now to remember exactly how it felt to sleep in the crib. But he remembers how happy and proud he felt the day his mother had said, "I think Billy is getting too big for the crib. It is time to get a new bed for his room." They all went to Sears and Billy's parents bought him a brand new bed and some really neat sheets with pictures of space ships and stars on them. The day the new bed was delivered, his parents took down the crib and put it in the rafters in the garage.
Then they set the new bed up in his room. It took a little while to get used to the bed, but it was much better than the crib. Cribs were for babies. The day after Billy got the new bed, his father started working on his bookcase. After cutting the boards the right size, he asked Billy to help him put it together. They had such a good time working on it. Billy passed his father the tools he asked for and got to hold the nails for him. His father even let Billy help paint it! After the paint had dried, they carried the beautiful bookcase into Billy's room and placed it against the wall. Then Billy found all his books and lined them up on the top shelf neatly. He didn't have quite enough books then to fill up one shelf. Now he had two of the four shelves full of books and had a few books on the third shelf.
He looked around at the space behind the bookcase. It wasn't very big, but it sure was very dark. Billy knew that Jack was back there somewhere. "Jack," he called. "Where are you?" Billy wished he could fit behind the bookcase. In an instant, the bookcase seemed huge and the space between it and the wall seemed quite wide. Billy slowly stepped behind the bookcase, waiting to let his eyes get used to the dark. "Jack!!" Billy called again. Then Billy heard a noise by the wall. Carefully he walked over to where the noise came from. He couldn't see anything, so he reached out to feel the wall so he wouldn't walk into it. Slowly and carefully, Billy walked across the floor, with both hands stretched out in front of him to feel for the wall. When he took another step, the floor wasn't there, and he felt himself fall and slide down a long dark slide. He reached the bottom of the slide with a thump. "I wish I could see where I was," he thought.
Light began to flicker around him and he saw that he was in a strange dismal woods. There were many trees around him, but they were not like the thick, green, beautiful trees of Fantasy Forest. "What is this place?" Billy wondered as he looked around. He heard a sound off to his left and started toward it. "Jack?" he called. He hadn't gone very far when he heard the sound again, above him. He looked up and saw a small box swinging from a tree high above him. He tried to fly up to the box. To his surprise, he couldn't fly. He touched his magic ring and tried again. Still no luck. Billy was puzzled. He knew he could fly in the magic kingdom, and this certainly was not reality. The magic ring should work, but for some reason, it didn't. Billy looked at the tree that held the box. Maybe he could climb up the tree. He started up the tree, but it was very dry and brittle, and when he tried to climb out on one of the lower branches, the branch broke off and he fell to the ground. The box began to move a little. Then Billy heard a small voice in his head.
"Help me, Billy." It was Jack's voice. He was trapped in the box.
Billy felt very frightened. "I must find help," he thought. He looked around and saw an old worn path going through the woods. Maybe that was the way out. "I'll be back, Jack," Billy said.
He followed the path through the dark woods. It was cold and scary. There were many strange and frightening sounds in the woods, but Billy knew his friend needed his help, so he kept going along the path. After a long time, he saw that the path went out of the woods to an open space. He stepped out of the woods and into the warmth of the golden light. As he looked around, he saw that there were opaliters on the ground. "This must be Desert Land." he thought to himself. He walked across the open space trying to think of a plan to help Jack. He saw many beautiful, small plants. They seemed to glow with many colored lights. He walked over to one of the plants and reached out to touch it.
"Careful, don't hurt the plant," a voice cautioned.
Billy looked around. Behind the plant, laying on the ground, was a long, fat snake. It was stripped with beautiful, shiny colors.
"Who are you?" Billy asked.
"I am Slitherbit. I live here in Desert Land." the snake said. Billy felt a little frightened. He knew that snakes bite and were sometimes poisonous. "These plants are very beautiful," continued Slitherbit. "But they are very delicate. You must be very careful when you touch them or you will hurt them."
"I am lost." Billy said. "I have to find someone who can help my friend." Billy hoped that the snake would tell him where he might go to find help. "My name is Billy, and my friend, Jack is trapped in a box. I want to help him get out."
Slitherbit looked at Billy. "Jack is in trouble?" he asked. "I will try to help you. Jack is a friend of mine too. Where is he?"
Billy pointed toward the woods. "He is in those woods. He is trapped in a box. I don't know how he got there, but I do know that I couldn't fly up to help him, even when I touched the magic ring."
"That is Dreadful Dark Woods. It is on the edge of Reality,and sometimes magic won't work there," Slitherbit explained. "But the real problem is that Taker lives there. He is very dangerous. We must be careful."
"Do you think that Taker has put Jack in the box?" Billy asked.
"I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. I think we had better get more help before we try to rescue Jack."
"OK." said Billy. "Where will we find more help?"
"We must cross Desert Land and go to the base of the Rock of Caves. Selfor lives there and he can help us rescue Jack."
They started off across Desert Land. Billy had never seen such a beautiful desert before. He had pictures in his books of deserts, but none of them had the beautiful plants that lived in Desert Land. The opaliters were all over the ground and they reflected colors like bright lights. There were many small creatures scurrying across the ground. As they walked across Desert Land, they could see off in the distance the Rock of Caves as it rose up on the horizon. It looked so big and forbidding, but Billy knew it was not really a scary place. He knew that Shadowbird lived in one of the highest caves on the great rock. But they were coming from the other side, and couldn't see Shadowbird's cave from this side. Slitherbit moved gracefully along the ground beside Billy and they talked as they walked toward Selfor's home. Billy told Slitherbit about the great adventures he had had in the magic kingdom and Slitherbit told Billy about his life in the beautiful desert.
Slitherbit and his brother, Blackwhip had been born in Desert Land near the edge of Dreadful Dark Woods. When they were very young, the brothers were always together. At that time, they looked very much alike, both were a smooth, shiny brown color. But Blackwhip began to tease and play tricks on the other creatures in Desert Land. Since the brothers looked so much alike, Slitherbit was often blamed for the things Blackwhip did. As time passed, though, Blackwhip's meanness changed his appearance. He became a dull, charcoal color, and his skin began to be rough and twisted. Soon Slitherbit was no longer blamed for his brother's bad behavior. They no longer looked alike at all. Slitherbit had grown beautiful, shiny and bright. Finally, when none of the creatures would go near Blackwhip, he went into Dreadful Dark Woods. Slitherbit never saw his brother again.
As Slitherbit finished his story, he and Billy arrived at the base of the Rock of Caves. The big rock was the size of a mountain. There were small sparkling green bushes all around the base of the rock. Billy looked closely at the bushes and discovered that the leaves looked like small green diamonds. They walked through a cluster of bushes and came upon a narrow, well marked path that went up the side of the rock. It was covered with a soft, carpet of green moss for a short distance, then it became a hard, dirt path.
"Selfor put the carpet down on the path up to his cave," said Slitherbit. "He really likes soft things." They walked up the path to the cave entrance near where the moss carpet ended. The cave entrance was very big. It was smooth and shiny like a dark mirror around the outside, but inside, it was covered with th soft moss. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor were all soft green. Just inside the cave entrance, a rope hung down near thewall. "Pull the rope," Slitherbit said. Billy pulled hard on the rope, and the cave echoed with soft music. Soon they could hear a swishing sound from deep in the cave. The sound got louder and louder and suddenly they were facing what looked like a giant, blue haystack. The haystack swept over to Slitherbit. "Slitherbit, my friend," the haystack said. "How are you? It has been such a long time since I last saw you!"
"Selfor, I'd like you to meet Billy," Slitherbit said. "Billy, this is Selfor."
Billy smiled at Selfor and said "Hi."
"Do come in!" Selfor exclaimed. "I wasn't expecting guests, but I can certainly find us a little snack." He turned and began to swish back into the cave. Billy and Slitherbit had to move quickly to keep up with their host. They soon entered a large chamber. It was beautiful. The walls reflected the brightest and happiest colors. All around the floor were scattered giant pillows, each a different color. "Please sit down," Selfor said. "I'll be right back." Off he went through another opening in the chamber. Before Billy had a chance to really look around, Selfor was back with a tray of fresh fruit and three large glasses of chocolate milk. Billy selected a beautiful banana, but Slitherbit preferred only two small grapes.
While they enjoyed their snacks, Slitherbit explained to Selfor why they had come. He told him about meeting Billy and that Jack needed help in Dreadful Dark Woods. "So I told Billy we needed your help to rescue Jack," Slitherbit said as he finished his snack.
"We must hurry!" said Selfor. "If Jack was captured by Taker, we must waste no more time." The three of them started out of the cave.
When they reached the path, Billy had an idea. "I think we can fly to the edge of Dreadful Dark Woods," he said. He closed his eyes and wished very hard. When he opened his eyes, he was standing at the beginning of the path into Dreadful Dark Woods with his two new friends.
They walked down the path towards the center of the woods. As they went deeper into the woods, it became darker and darker. But as it got darker, Selfor began to glow with a soft blue light. It took a long time for them to reach the clearing where the box was still hanging from the tree. "How are we going to rescue Jack?" Billy asked Slitherbit.
"You stay down here with Selfor, and I will climb the tree," Slitherbit explained. Billy watched as Slitherbit wrapped himself around the tree and carefully climbed up the tall trunk to the branch that held the box. He crawled out on the branch, then slid down the rope to the cage. The cage was tied shut from the outside, and Jack was sitting inside near the door. He couldn't quite reach the knot that held the door. Slitherbit was able to untie the knot and open the door to the cage.
Jack leaned out of the cage and looked down. "I think that I can jump down," he called to Billy. While Slitherbit crawled back down the tree, Jack climbed out of the cage, and holding on to the bottom, he let himself drop to the ground.
"We have to get out of here before Taker gets back," Jack whispered. They started to run back down the path, when they heard loud footsteps coming toward them.
"Quick!!" said Slitherbit. "Hide in Selfor's fur!" Jack, Billy and Slitherbit slid into Selfor's fur coat. As the footsteps grew louder, Billy was afraid they would be found. But the footsteps seemed to go right by them, and soon faded away. As soon as they could no longer hear the footsteps, they hurried down the path and ran into Desert Land.
"Taker captured me when I walked a little ways into Dreadful Dark Woods to see what it was like in there. I didn't even realize that he was near me," Jack explained. "He said that he would use me for bait to get Billy so he could get the magic ring."
"Why didn't Taker see us?" Billy asked Selfor.
Selfor shook with laughter. "Because, when I stand very still in Dreadful Dark Woods, I become invisible."
"Selfor is the only creature who can go into Dreadful Dark Woods and never be seen by Taker. That is why we needed to get his help," Slitherbit explained.
"I am sure glad that Taker didn't get the ring," Billy said. "I like to be able to visit the magic kingdom. I don't want anyone to be able to take it away from me. It is not the same as reality, mostly because it is my own special place. I have such wonderful friends here."
"Let's all go back to my cave and have a snack," suggested Selfor.
"I'd love to," said Billy. "But I think it is almost time for dinner. I have to go back to reality now, but I will be back soon."
"See you later!" his friends called as Billy closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes, he was laying next to his bookcase. "Mom," he called. "What's for supper?"
THE END (of this adventure)
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Last updated September 29, 2006 by Serena.