The World of Myth Magazine

I climb and climb and climb up a ladder, regularly I look up and cannot see the top. Eventually, I reach it though, the place where the ladder ends. I reach it after climbing for what feels like forever. My arms and legs ache from the climbing and my head throbs. My chest still aches from the two times when my heart literally came out of my body to show me which direction to take. This land I am in is a strange one. I hope that I am going home soon. I am so glad to have left behind the Land of Giants, yet I worry about what awaits me in the Demon's Castle.

When I finally reach the top of the ladder I discover that there are two wooden trap doors. One is red and the other one is yellow. I am not sure which one to choose. There is no sign, no clue, nothing to guide me. I think that I need to choose quickly before my heart chooses for me. My hand hovers below each trapdoor as I tensely wait for the painful feeling of my heart flying through my chest. But (thank goodness) that pain does not come this time. It seems that this world is letting me choose myself. For once my destiny is in my own hands. So, since my favorite color is red, and the other door says: Take this door to enter the castle safely. I choose the red door. I do not trust the words; I believe that the world is trying to trick me. With confidence, I push upwards and feel myself being drawn towards my choice. There is no going back; I hope that the red trapdoor is the correct choice.

I should have guessed; all is not what it seems. My red door leads to a scorching yellow maze. The walls are made of sandy-colored bricks; the floor is made from sand that flows like water. Just like in the first maze I walk around first turning left and then right and then left again. Retracing my steps as I hit a dead end I find the left turns have become right ones sending me into a spiral that then becomes a series of left and right combinations that quickly has me lost and confused. Before I came to this strange land I may have had a severe dislike of yellow, but after an hour in this maze, I can tell you I absolutely hate it. It is just like my worst nightmare.

It is exactly like I imagine it would be like if I were in a desert. This maze is exactly like a lonely, scorching desert. I am now completely and utterly lost and totally homesick. I miss my home, my mom, my family, and my friends. I feel as though I have failed humanity and fail the… I stop to think. Who are these people whom I am doing all these strange things for? Why is it me Sam whom they need to save their world? I quit. I brush my hand accidentally by the yellow walls. Something hiding there drops to my feet. It is a yellow banana skin. Peeling back the skin I discover a strange, green slimy substance is housed within. I take the green slimy inside and without another thought I throw it up into the air and then catch it in my mouth. The beautiful fruit tastes so yummy as it slides right down my throat. I continue through this yellow maze, energized. I begin searching for more of this delicious food. I find five more banana skins, each with the same green goo inside. It is funny that when I finally reached a red door I am disappointed to leave the lonely yellow walls with the lovely new fruit.

When I open the door and step through I find that I am now in a room that is always changing. I step towards a blue door in a green room but then the red door is behind me, and the room has become white. It is really weird, and what is even weirder is that when I finally pull open the door the walls all go black, and the floor drops out. I am hanging by the doorknob, not wanting to fall to my doom while a gale wind whips through my hair. Then the door turned into a cliff face, and I find that I am actually hanging from a tree branch. It feels like it is one of those it couldn't happen to me kinds of things. What is worse is that a voice in my head says over and over again: "You can't hold on to that forever kid. You know eventually, you're going to fall."

It really puts me off that voice and so of course eventually I do fall. I fall into the blackness beneath me, the silence, the nothing. I fall down the cliff face and suddenly there is the distinct sound of a raging river. All the way through my falling I am told over and over by the voice that this is the end of my adventure. I break the surface of the choppy river and instantly I can feel the waters grab me and pull me along. Through raging water and down waterfalls, I fall. The voice is always heard. Even above my screaming, I can hear it. As usual, I have ended up unconscious.

I wake up in the company of some strange shy beasts with fish heads. It feels as if I am lying in a mermaid waste bin. There are scales and fins everywhere. As I get myself up the fish people run away from me. They run towards the forest. I feel like they don't want to know me or help me. I am feeling rejected as I trudge along the path that leads from the river and the strange mermaid place. I squelch as I walk along in the wet clothes that I was given by the doctor that I met in the Land of Giants. I wish and wish as hard as I am able. I wish with all my might that I can see that doctor again.

"Is it me dat you vish to see, yes no?" A familiar voice says.

The doctor jumps down from a tree branch to land at my feet.

"Now vat is it dat you vould like to know eh?"

I find that I am feeling stunned. I wished for something to happen and straight away it happens. If this is the case I think maybe there is a chance for me now to find out exactly where I am.

"Where am I?" I ask out loud.

"Dat vun ist an easy one," The doctor says. "Dis is vere the evil prince demon creature keeps all the beautiful nature from the lands that he has robed."

I move to thank the doctor for the information that he has given me but before I can open my mouth the doctor disappears in a puff of smoke. I continue to walk in the direction (I suppose) that my heart has guided me. It soon becomes dark, and I wonder how it has become night so quickly. I huddle in a tree stump, a place of warmth and protection hoping for some sleep.

That night I dream of Mr. Polar Bear and the doctor and Yobbo and Gov, but I dream especially about the evil demon.

The next morning, I awaken to find Yobbo and Gov standing beside me.

"A very good morning to you for sure, Jess," Gov says.

Yobbo just nods and smiles a friendly smile.

I stand there, stunned, just thinking about my dream from the last night.

Gov and Yobbo each take one of my hands and with ease, they lift me out of the tree stump. "We are here to escort you the rest of the way, Jess," they say as Yobbo hoists me up onto his shoulders. We walk like this for ages, through the beautiful countryside stolen from its right full place and magically transported to where it now sits.

There are forests and deserts and famous buildings and statues but the worst thing, the thing that really shocks me are the schools, especially seeing my own school a long way away from where it should be. It should be in my world, in my neighborhood, but I can see it here now in this forest, it should not be, but it is. During the time in the magical castle, it seems that I have forgotten about my family and friends. They are in trouble just as my whole world is in trouble and I only have a single day remaining to find them. I have already been here for about seven days.

"Yobbo?" I ask. "How quickly does one day pass in this world compared with my world?" "Every four days is half a day in your world I think," Yobbo replies.

This causes me to think again about why I am here in this strange land. After about a minute or two of steady walking, I ask another question that bounces around in my mind.

"How far away are we from the castle?"

"You have always been in the castle my boy, but the demon's house is just beyond this hill," Gov says.

They put me down and wish me luck, then, in a puff of smoke they vanish. This is just like the doctor. I looked about me. I am deep in a green forest. About five meters from me is a black fairy-tale-style castle, the type of castle where traditionally the evil king always lives. I know that this is where I have to go. In front of my path, standing between me and the entrance to the black fairy-tale-style castle there is a huge man dressed in red.

"I am the red guardian!" booms the huge man dressed in red as he unsheathes a very large and long scimitar. "None shall pass without my permission."

"May I have your permission?" I ask, hopeful.

"Well, I don't see why not," the large man dressed in red with the very large sword says in reply after some thought. As he speaks his voice becomes quieter, less booming. I quickly run across the lowered draw bridge before the large man dressed in red can change his mind.

The fortress looks like a face, it is the demon's face with a wide open mouth. It looks as though the mouth is grinning. It is not a friendly face though. It is a face that seems to say that it is going to eat me, and it is going to enjoy eating me very much. I have no other options though; I must go through that open mouth and hope. My hope is that I can save this world that I am in and by doing so I can also save my own world. I don't know if I will succeed, all I know is that succeed I must. I do not want to be stuck here forever and I do not want my world to remain frozen. Bravely I step through that open mouth. Bravely I continue my quest.

Inside the castle there are pictures of ugly hideous shapes which I suppose must be the Demon's family. There is a large set of stairs, a hundred and two stairs that will take me up to the next level. I see closed doors, a dozen or more that lead to mysterious rooms or passageways. Some doors are made from mirrors, the mirrors themselves show other places, not the reflection of the spacious entry hall I find myself in. I am overwhelmed with options. There are so many options of paths that I can follow. Time is running out and I don't know the way. And that is when I see him, the little rodent that steps out from one of those mirror worlds.

"Allo mate," a tiny voice squeak. "I thought ya might be coming and I say to myself, Geep O'Heart me man you gotta show the boy around."

It was a mouse, a tiny brown mouse dressed as a mountaineer. My heart tells me that this mouse will be my guide. He has promised to show me the way.

"Lead on then Geep O'Heart," I say.

"Then follow me, Jess," the mouse says as he gets a running start and leaps up the first step.

Where we are going I hope that I am enough. Bravely I place my feet upon the steps and ever so slowly we head for level two.

-