The Land Of Mysteries

• Fatima Kashif , Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2022

Clank! Clank! What is that atrocius noise?Harley has been hearing it for the past hour! She was searching under beds, closets drawers and behind doors trying to figure out what the noise was. For a split second she ammuses that it’s a rodent. She starts frolicking around the room, for she had a terrible fear for rodents. She stops, closes her eyes and clenches her fists focusing hard on where the noise was coming from. Now the noise is getting louder and louder. Harley approaches her closet. She pushed the hulking closet aside and stood astound watching the object before her eyes.The object was a door.It was occupied with pearls. It was pink,blue,purple multicoloured! Harley reached for the door handle, as soon as she touched it she fell to the ground.

Harley opened her eyes and observed that she was not in her room, she was on an island! The island was not ordinary. It was alluring. The trees were as green as a turtle, the fruits were as ripe as ever, the grass on the ground was full of flowers of every colour, the sky was swaying with vireo birds and there were valleys and hills! Harley looked around awestruck by the mystical land. There was a river flowing slowly through a narrow valley. Harley walked along the river until she reached the end.

At the end there was a toad. The toad had dry skin, warts, crests behind the eyes and a bright red hat on his round head.’’Would you like to eat this apple?”, urged the toad.”Ahhhhh you can talk!”yelped Harley.”Yes, I can talk”,sighed the toad.”Where am I ”,agonised Harley.”Never mind that, now do you want to eat this apple?”,remarked the toad. Harley grabbed her grumbling stomach, she was longing for food. She grabbed the apple foolishly and inserted it in her mouth. At once her eyes became wide and red.

“Guards grab her ”,sniggered the toad. One by One a dozen guards surrounded Harley. They showed her a red ring, and Harley was hypnotised by it for two minutes, then she surrendered herself to the guards.

The guards put Harley in a wooden cage with another prisiner whom also had her eyes red. She was wearing a white nightgown, and her hair looked as if it was pulled brutally.”Hi, did they also trick you?”inquired a puzzled girl. Harley nodded .”You see that ring?”,whispered the prisoner. “We need it to escape”,uttered the girl. “Ok,”agreed Harley.The two girls waited for the guard at the gate to fall asleep. Ultimately the guard tilted his head and started snoring. Harley extended her arm out of the wooden bars, and outstretched the ring. She got hold of it and smashed it onto the ground.

Harley awoke with a jitter across the floor of her room. After that flabbergast adventure, Harley will never return to the land ever again!