“What a sunny day!” a young girl exclaimed.

“I agree!” a young boy replied. It was a beautiful summer day. The bees were buzzing, and the butterflies were flying. The two 12 year old children were taking a walk, breathing in the fresh air, and examining the cool breeze carefully and gracefully blowing through the trees and grass.

“Look!” the young girl said to the young boy, “That flower has just started to bloom! Remember when we planted that peony?”

“Of course I do!” the young boy assured her, climbing up a

tree, observing its leaves. “It’s so gorgeous out here!” the young boy added.

“I know!” the girl agreed in a singsong voice. “There’s something magical about this forest, I just know it,” Genevieve added.

“You’re right,” responded Liam. “We’re going to find out what it is, no matter how hard the journey could be. This is an amazing opportunity we have to connect with the forest,” he said.  

The night fell over the sky as both the girl and boy were

getting situated in their own rooms in each of their homes that were next to each other. “A shooting star!” the girl excitedly mumbled to herself, “What a beauty.” Next door, the boy saw the shooting star as well, but nobody else in this magical town saw the shooting star. It was as if the star was meant just for them.

The next morning, Liam and Genevieve immediately woke up, deciding to skip breakfast. “Bye, Mom!” they both said, not even bothering to take their pajamas off. They walked out the door. They wanted to talk about the shooting star that they had seen last night. They met up at the sidewalk across the street from their houses. “Didn’t you see the shooting star

last night?” Genevieve asked. “Of course I did!” Liam replied.

“There was something so peculiar about it,” she continued. “Yeah, I thought so, too!” he agreed, “I asked my family if they noticed it, and they didn’t know what I was talking about!”

“Same, here!” Genevieve said. “Do you think the star could be magical?" Liam wondered.

“I think it has to do with the magical energy we sensed in the forest yesterday,” Genevieve assumed. The boy then put the puzzle together in his mind. “Genevieve, we have to go back.

We have to go back to the forest!” he said firmly. Genevieve nodded. They were off. They arrived at the forest, but something was different. The forest had changed overnight!

“Doesn’t something look weird to you?” Genevieve questioned. “Why is everything dead?!” asked Liam, “Hold on a second...” There was something glimmering in the foggy distance ahead of them. They both paused. They started walking towards it very steadily.

They studied the fog. All of the clouds seemed to be pulling towards the unidentified sparkly object. They listened carefully. It was almost as if they were hearing whispers!

“What is that sound?” Genevieve stopped and listened even more.

“You hear it, too?” Liam asked. All of the sudden, a bundle of dead leaves caught the wind, and started whirling around the two friends. It was like a dream. They lost consciousness, getting caught in the gravitational pull of the shiny and floating object. The both fell into a deep sleep, and reappeared in a white box together, with no escape. BOOM! They got pulled out of the box, being left on the icy cold ground, in another world...

They laid on the ground, eyes closed, and unconscious.

Liam was first to open his eyes. “What happened?” he wondered as he slowly sat up. He stared at what was around him. “I’m so cold!” he explained, “And where are we?” He looked down below him, only to see Genevieve on the ground, dead asleep. “Genevieve? Are you okay??” he asked loudly. She slowly woke up.

“Huh? What? Where are we?” Genevieve asked as she tried to keep her eyes open. “I’m not sure,” stated Liam. They helped each other up, trying to figure out what had happened. Where should we go? How do we get out of this place? What should we do? They both wondered.

They started toward the glaciers that they could see up ahead of them. “Genevieve? Do you think the glimmering object in the woods pulled us into a different dimension? Just a thought,” asked Liam.

“You might be right! Oh, goodness! We could be in another world! I knew that forest was magical! I knew it!” Genevieve exclaimed. “But what should we do?” they said in unison. They studied the environment around them. They didn’t know what to do. Being stuck in another dimension might be a little bit of a challenge. They needed help, but couldn’t find any.

They spotted an opening between two mountains, and started heading in that direction. At least a half of an hour later, they arrived.

“What is this place?” Genevieve wondered.

“It’s amazing!” exclaimed Liam. There was an area of shelters that looked similar to the houses we have on Earth. There were interesting creatures moving around, doing some kind of ritual. The creatures were blue, and their arms were bent, touching their legs that were also bent, kneeling on the ground. They walked in that position, tilting their heads every few seconds. All of the creatures stared at each other when

they caught a glimpse of the two children that were standing there.

They then looked at the children with their bright, white eyes. The singing immediately stopped. One bigger chief creature who had been leading the ritual pulled out a small book from his pocket, and started walking towards Liam and Genevieve. He opened the book to a peculiar looking page, on which were five symbols. “What does it mean?” Genevieve whispered. The creature turned the page. There was English on it! “Oh my,” said Liam. It looked like a letter that humans wrote for the aliens, so Genevieve and Liam began to read it. It said:

Hello. We know that you are humans. You accidentally fell through a different dimension through time and space, bringing you here. We know how to get you back t0 planet Earth. You see, one hundred million years ago, a person of your kind came to our planet just like you did. In order to get back home, you have to go on a quest to a magical castle on our small planet, and try to get back home. This castle shall bring you back to any place or planet in the space-time continuum. We cannot help you. You are true humans, meaning you have the right kind of power to do this yourselves. This is all you need to know.

They knew what they had to do. It was their only chance to get back home. But were the creatures telling them everything?

. . .

Two pink clouds laid over the curious children as they hiked up a wheatgrass hill. “This is a beautiful world,” Genevieve opinionated. The dawn was starting to creep upon them as they hiked, while putting their full attention on the gorgeous sky hanging above them. They kept walking up the hill, helping each other balance while they tried to climb up with each of their bare hands. They soon overlooked a white, cold, icy and tall mountain.

They stood there, not knowing what to do or what would happen if they entered it. The didn't move, either, as if they were paralyzed. They couldn't think of any reason why it would be a good idea to enter that mountain.

They still overlooked the mountain as they started to talk about the people they have met in their journey. “You know, I don’t think that those creatures looked too innocent. There was something suspicious about them. Something they weren’t telling us,” Genevieve commented.

“I think you’re right,” agreed Liam.

“But what? What could it possibly be?” Genevieve inquired.

“I just don’t know,” Liam replied. “I’m scared,” Genevieve said out of the blue with a solemn look on her face. Liam hugged her. “I am too! That’s normal! It’s okay,” Liam said, comforting her.

Genevieve then smiled, showing a sign of affection. They started towards the mountain, but the silence didn’t last long. They were startled with something surprisingly unexpected.

“We see you have come a far way, young children. You have

not completed the task yet. Something much bigger is coming for you! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!” thundered a deep voice.

“There it is,” the kids said. “We kind of both knew this was coming,” Genevieve insisted. Suddenly, a dark, black, and icy cold wind swept them both off of the ground. Everything around them then turned black. There was nothing but darkness and fear. 

. . .

The two poor kids woke up in a dark room, grabbing hold of each other for safety. “Why did this happen again? What is

happening?” Liam whispered.

“I don’t know. But we’ve got each other,” consoled Genevieve. They couldn’t see each other in the pitch black darkness, but they both smiled, and they knew. Suddenly, they heard a thump of a boot. Then another. Then another. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. CLICK! KACHAW! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Silence. They then heard a high pitched, terrifying, horrifying, blood-curdling scream:

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!” 

They were terrified. Petrified. Horribly, nervously scared. Both

of them then felt a rough and strange-feeling hand on their cold, pale faces. The hand slowly pulled them away, cupping their mouths so that no one could hear their fearful screams. The creatures took them to a cave that would keep them from being able to find the magical castle to find their way back to Earth.

“What are you going to do to us? Why are you keeping us from getting home?” Liam boldly asked the mysterious creatures.

“Yeah!” Genevieve shouted. She stuttered to find more words but ended up with no luck whatsoever.

“Oh, you poor, naive children. Did you really think we were on your side? We need to keep the humans who come here, so we can put you special aliens in our museum! We intend to ruin the lives of the Earthlings who come here! Now it is time to torture yours,” the aliens said.

“No!” they screamed, “You can’t do this to us!” They broke into a sob.

“Run, Genevieve, run!” Liam struggled to yell as he was sprinting behind her. They ran as fast as they possibly could until a light was seen.

“An opening!” Genevieve emphasized. “Come on, we need to go!” Liam forced out of his mouth as he was breathing heavily. Their hearts raced. They fit their bodies through the rough crack of the hard and icy cold cave wall.

“They’re getting away!” the aliens shouted. But the kids were too fast for them to catch up to. They were already speedily forcing themselves out of the crack of the wall to see the beautiful land outside, not even looking back at the strange, angry faces of the aliens trying to get a hold of them. They were pulled away by the dark and mysterious shadows of the cave.

“What are we going to do now?” Genevieve asked helplessly, “We need to go. We need to continue our journey. There’s no way that we’re going to give up now."

So they hiked up the mountains and glaciers and climbed the hills and the trees. They walked a far distance, until they got to a cave. A big one, too. It was sure a weird looking cave! They knew they would find something or someone to guide them to the castle. This cave was different. It was magical. 

“Wow. This is beautiful,” Genevieve stated in awe as they walked inside the cave.

“It's amazing!” Liam exclaimed. The cave was powerful and mysterious. They walked and walked, aware of everything surrounding them. “What is that dripping noise?” Liam loudly whispered as what he said echoed through the cave. He put his hand over his mouth when he realized he’d have to be a little quieter.

“Yeah, that dripping sound- what is it?” Genevieve asked.

Then they sensed something behind them. They slowly turned around. Liam’s heart was pounding out of his chest. Genevieve’s face lost its color as sweat dripped off of her forehead. They saw a giant, red, 100-eyed, hairy, big scary

monster! “HAHAHA! I found you!” the monster said in a deep, loud voice. The two children screamed. They ran as fast as they could, but immediately stopped when they realized the only thing below them was hot lava.

“Oh no. Oh no!” Genevieve worriedly said.

“Well, this can’t be good,” Liam added. They turned around. The monster was getting closer!

“Liam, there’s only one thing left to do. We have to jump."

"Wha- no!” Liam yelled.

 Genevieve took his arm and jumped towards the lava. “AAHHH!” they shouted.

They were inches away from getting burned to death- until the long, hairy, and spiky, red arm of that monster reached down inside the lava pit and caught them both! He saved them?

“Please don’t eat us! Please don’t eat us!” Liam repeated softly as the monster pulled them up from the lava. But the monster heard Liam.

“Eat you? Eat you? I just wanted to play a friendly game of

hide and go seek! Oh, man! You think I’m scary, don’t you? Everyone thinks I’m scary! I’ll never have any friends! I’m such a loser,” the monster sobbed. Genevieve and Liam looked at each other in disbelief. “Oh, you poor thing! Of course we’ll be your friends!” Genevieve consoled.

The monster looked up. "Really?” he sniffled, “I thought you guys were scared of me!” he sadly assumed.

“No, we're not! We promise. It’s okay!” Liam comforted.

“Thanks, you guys,” the monster said with a smile. The kids smiled back. Liam then needed to ask something.

“I just have one question,” Liam said. “Go ahead!” the monster responded.

“Well, I thought those blue creatures hated humans! How come you are being so kind to us?” Liam questioned the monster.

“Oh! Of course. Well, those creatures are the only ones on this planet who despise Earthlings. All of the other creatures actually love when we get to meet Earthlings and think it’s really cool! We believe that when Earthings get transferred to our planet, it is a sign of good luck and peace!” the monster replied.