The Magical Portal

• Olivia Bisschop, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2017

Lucy was on the bus waiting to arrive at school. It was a Monday morning and Lucy was excited to be back after her holiday. She could not wait to see her friends again. Lucy hopped off the bus and went inside to meet her friends.
Lucy heard someone call her name. She turned around and saw a hand beckoning her from behind a corner. Lucy walked towards it. She saw a group of girls standing in the room. They dragged her through a part of the school she had never seen. At the end of the corridor there was a portal. The girls said they had found it and that they were going to go into it. They said that Lucy was to come with them. Lucy stared at the portal. Then the girls led her into a room.
The room was full of tools, armour, weapons and food. They handed Lucy a backpack and told her to pack lots of things to get ready for the adventure ahead. "We don't know what to expect," the other girls said. Lucy finally finished packing and stood staring at the portal, then she stepped in.
Lucy looked around, she was in a jungle. There was scarcely any light around them, they got up and looked around. Then Lucy heard a rustling in the bushes in front of her. Out leapt a tiger. Lucy was very frightened and screamed. The tiger said, "Do not be afraid of me". Lucy stared at the tiger in amazement. It could talk. Then she noticed that instead of it being orange, it was purple. "Welcome to the magical forest," he said. Just then it hit Lucy like a bolt of lightning, how was she going to get home? Lucy got very worried. The tiger said he knew a way to return to her world. "Follow me," he said walking deeper into the jungle. Lucy and the girls followed close behind.
"How much longer do we have to walk?" asked Lucy. "Only a bit further," replied the tiger.
"Look!" exclaimed Lucy. Everyone looked up and saw a large temple. It looked very old and was an unusual shade of blue. They all walked inside the temple and saw a portal at the very end of the room. But guarding the portal was a big scary lion. The tiger walked up to the lion and asked it to let Lucy and her friends pass through. The lion said, "Yes". "One thing before you go", said the tiger. The tiger then handed Lucy a shiny pearl necklace. "Thank you" said Lucy and she jumped through the portal.
Lucy woke up. "Lucy hurry up and get ready. You don't want to miss your first day back at school from school holidays." Lucy then thought it must have all been a dream. She looked at the pearl necklace in her hand... or maybe not?