Chapter One
A Dark, Dark World
It was a rainy day. Lily sat upon the windowsill writing an essay about an exciting moment in her life. A tall stack of crumpled up papers lay at her feet. To Lily’s dismay, nothing exciting ever happened to her. In Lily’s point of view, special things happen to special people, and she was not one. She was the girl that couldn’t do a simple somersault or cartwheel. She couldn’t hang longer than a second on the monkey bars or climb a jungle gym. She only had one friend at Thomas Edison Academy and that was Sammy Wright, who got F’s in almost every class (he was exceptionally good at art).
Sammy had bright blue eyes and freckles all over his peach colored face. His nose was small and straight although his mouth was huge and he talked all the time. His younger sister Miriam says that his mouth is bigger than his brain, and Lily strongly agreed.
Miriam had blonde hair and a small, freckle covered nose like her brother’s. She also had green eyes that gleamed in the sun. Her mouth was smaller than her brother’s, but her voice was louder. You could hear her shout from across the house. I believe that even the largest pair of earmuffs couldn’t block her yelling. She yelled a lot too, Sammy and Miriam argued frequently. Mostly about grades or what clothes Sammy was wearing to school that day. Lily believed that their arguments were nothing but nonsense but the two siblings didn’t seem to care.
Lily crumpled yet another paper. Her brain was in a jam now, and she couldn’t think of anything. She grumpily stared out the window watching the raindrops hit the window when she saw color walking up her driveway. It surprised her at first, but then, the doorbell rang. Lily ran down the stairs into the living room. There were books all over the room, on the couch, shelves, corners, and on top of the coffee table. Her mother collected many books and didn’t always have enough shelf space. The walls were a pale yellow, like the pages of some of the books her mother owned. Her mother bought a new book every week and the room always smelled of fresh new books.
Lily cautiously walked through the room, making sure no piles collapsed. When she stood before the big wooden door, she peered through the peephole, making sure it wasn’t some sillies selling junk. What she saw was Sammy and Miriam stood on the porch holding a peculiar looking shoebox. The two kids looked very impatient so Lily hastily held the door ajar. Miriam looked up at her annoyed.
“May we come in Lily, or must we stand caught in the rain?” Miriam asked in her grown up voice.
“Come in, leave your coats on the rack and come in my room,” Lily answered in a calm tone, hoping that they had an idea for her essay, and wondering what in the world Sammy was going to write about. But the two children didn’t look at all like their playful selves, and Lily wondered what happened that made her two friends look so serious all of a sudden. The two then strode up the stairs slowly, making Lily nervous with their long, drawn out steps. Finally they made it to Lily’s purple bedroom. Miriam sat on the squishy, pillow covered bed, the small box in her lap. Sammy sat on the purple beanbag chair. Lily seated herself on the bed next to Miriam.
“What’s inside that shoebox Miriam?” She asked politely. Miriam looked straight into Lily’s blue eyes.
“Magic,” She said. “The box is full of magic.”
That made Lily laugh. To think that smart old Miriam would come up with something as silly as magic.
You’re kidding, right?” Lily asked, wiping tears from her eyes.
“Since when have I joked around, Lily?” Miriam snapped. “The box has magic inside of it.” Then Sammy stood up and walked towards the girls.
“See?” He said, as he opened the box. Inside, was a shiny piece of stone, glowing red like fire.
“What is this?” Lily asked nervously.
“This is the magic. We have been studying this rock for days,” Miriam told her.
“Don’t touch it,” Sammy explained. “We still don’t know what could happen.”
Lily stared at the rock harder.
“How do you know its magic?”
Miriam dropped a cat’s eye marble on the stone. It vanished in thin air as it touched the red flames.
“I think that it takes whatever touches it somewhere else, but we don’t know where we’d end up,” Miriam sighed.
“I want to try but Miriam says it’s a terrible idea,” Sammy moaned. “I really want to see other places. Maybe I could find a lovely view I could paint. You see, I brought my set so maybe with you here, we could all go and…”
“SAMUEL MARTIN WRIGHT,” Miriam screamed in his face. “HOW MANY TIMES MUST I SAY IT? WE ARE NOT GOING IN WITHOUT A VERY GOOD REASON TO! WHAT IF IT’S DANGEROUS IN THERE? WHAT IF WE CAN’T GET BACK? YOUR MOUTH IS LARGER THAN YOUR BRAIN AND YOU SHOULDN’T EVEN USE YOUR MOUTH UNLESS YOU TRULY NEED TO, SO JUST STOP TALKING!”
She stopped for breath but before she could say another word, she turned and saw that Lily wasn’t even there. She had touched the stone and had vanished like the marble had.
“Well now,” Sammy said, grinning. “I guess we have to now!”
“Not me, nothing is going to make me do it,” Miriam frowned.
“What about Lily? Don’t you care?”
“Why can’t you just do it? I thought you wanted to go ‘so bad’?”
“Not without you I wouldn’t,” He said sadly. “You’re right, my mouth is bigger than my brain. Without you I couldn’t do anything of the sort. So please come too?”
His sister was very smart, and hearing that, she believed that maybe a quick trip wouldn’t hurt.
“I will go,” She sighed with resignation. Then the siblings reached out and tapped the stone. Despite the fact that the stone was flaming, the surface was icy. The two shut their eyes as they were swept away from the purple room and teleported elsewhere. When the ride ended, they could see nothing but blackness. There was no light in this place. Not even a single light switch to enlighten the room, if it even was a room.
“Lily?” Cried Miriam. “Lily Andrews?”
“No Lily here,” Said a faint, squeaky voice in the distance.
“Where is she?”
“Well, she isn’t here.”
“I know that, where did she go?”
“I can assure you that she isn’t in this world, but in another. Here, I’ll turn on the lights.”
The room was like a box, which was perfectly square and was full of odd gadgets that weren’t found in their world. The walls, floor, and ceiling were multi-colored and all had a door on it. On each door was a sort of mail slot with strange writing on it. They figured that this was on another planet, but they couldn’t be so sure. Sammy spotted their cat’s eye marble on the doorknob of one of the doors. He dashed towards it to get it but his wise sister pulled him away. The speaker continued talking.
“Yes, I can assure you Lily is not in Door One, Two, or Three. I believe she went through Door Five,” Said the voice, which was no more than a field mouse. “This is the Entrance to six worlds. There are others like this one found in the other worlds. You live in Door One, also known as Earth. Lily went to Sop, which is Door Five.”
“Sop is a funny name,” Said Sammy, who had just sat up.
“I can assure you that Sop is not funny,” The mouse began to shake with anger. All of its hair shot straight up. “It has a wise and magnificent King, and is home to my brothers and sisters. Sop is a wonderful world where the flowers of life grow, and where the lake of fortune and misfortune are in the middle of the Dark Woods of Peril and Hope, and you must never laugh at its name.”
“Don’t mind my brother,” Miriam said sweetly. “He is known to say dumb things.”
“Now why don’t you and your dumb brother go into Sop, get jumping, that’s the only way to get through that doorway.’
As the children jumped, they miraculously ended up standing on Door Five. Miriam opened the door and the two walked right into the new world. It was a long walk through endless whiteness until Sammy pointed out a trap door in the flooring. Then they fell through the sky and landed with a thump on the top of a tall Birch tree beside a gigantic stone castle which was being guarded by two giant ants.