The Land of Imagination Five-Fern

(The fifth short story I wrote when I was younger. This one is edited because I used it for a class assignment a couple of years ago.)

Fern 

  “What’s wrong, Raffi?”

  My husky looked sadly at me. She had been acting strangely all day, and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I asked her continuously what was wrong but she couldn’t tell me because she was mute. Now, you’re probably thinking,

  “Duh! Of course your pet husky can’t tell you anything. Dogs are supposed to be mute. Hello! Have you gone crazy?!”

  Well, to answer your question, I haven’t gone crazy, don’t worry. My other five pets can talk. Why? Well, they aren’t real animals. They’re imaginary pets. And I got all of them from a wonderful place called the Land Of Imagination or LOI. It’s a place where you can adopt abandoned imaginary pets, but only if you have a good imagination. So that explains the talking. But Raffi can’t talk, because I think her old owner, when she had first imagined Raffi, had also been mute. So now, here I am stuck with a mute and very worried husky.

   I gave up asking her and went to talk to her twin brother, Rio. He was looking over a new sled that I had imagined for him and Raffi. I sat down next to him. He glanced at me, then looked back at the sled. I said,

  “So, um, well, I don’t know how to say this nicely, but, uh, what’s wrong with Raffi?”

  He sighed, and looked at me. He looked worn out. He started to speak, then stopped, and then finally said

  “Raffi has, well, special abilities. Even though she can’t speak, she has other things. She can sense things, things that might be in the past, or… in the future,”

   He looked down. I was shocked. Did I have a telepathic husky? Yikes. What had I gotten myself into? I had to find out.

  “So, has she sensed something bad? Am I going to be attacked by my hairbrush tomorrow?”

   He looked at me sharply and said,

  “This isn’t a laughing matter. There are bad things happening in LOI and you’re joking about Raffi’s abilities,”

   He growled and I felt sorry for making my lame joke. Wait a minute. Did he say bad thing happening in LOI?!

  “What’s happening in LOI?” I blurted out.

   He stopped growling and sighed again.

   “There was a boy who adopted a pet from LOI. His pet was a Terrier puppy and they loved each other. But one day, in LOI, they went to the Wild Mountains, even though the Old Owl told them not to. They were attacked by a wild hawk. It picked up the puppy and flew off, despite the boys’ efforts to stop it. The boy has never been the same since then. He is very violent now, and he absolutely hates birds. Including the Old Owl.”

   I was shocked. How could any one hate the Old Owl? (The Old Owl is the mayor of LOI) Sure, he was a bit odd, but he was wonderful too. Wow. This boy must have lots of issues. I said,

  “So, what does this have to do with Raffi?”

  Rio looked down, then said,

   “Raffi has sensed that he is hunting down and capturing all the birds in LOI that he can. I suppose it’s his form of revenge.”

  I stared at him in disbelief. Hunting and capturing? In LOI?! That sort of thing only happens in the real world. I had to stop this kid. I was about to say so when Raffi came in and gave me a long stare. I looked at Rio and he translated, saying,

  “Raffi wants to go with you.”

  Okay, a rescue mission. Wait a minute. How did Rio know what Raffi wants?

  “Rio, how did you know that?”

  He smiled and said, “Raffi is able to send me her thoughts. It’s quite amazing really.”

   Oh brother. Two telepathic dogs? What had I gotten myself into?!

*        *        *        *        *

  After I packed some food, Raffi, Rio and I set out for the Bridge of Mist. (This is how we get to LOI) We walked onto the Bridge and it got all misty. After a couple seconds of walking, the mist cleared and the bridge was gone. We were back in LOI! I had missed it so much. But something was wrong. None of the imaginary birds were singing. It was too quiet. We immediately went to the Old Owls tree house. When we got there, it was in shambles! The door had been ripped out and the Owls’ things were all over the floor. Rio and Raffi got a scent and followed it. The scent led to the base of the Wild Mountains. We could hear the faint sound of birds’ shrieking. Rio said,

  “Raffi says we must go up. The boy is up there and has all the LOI birds captive.”

  I stared up at the mountains. Go up? Oh dear.

*        *        *        *        *

  After a long, and dangerous, painful climb, we got to a flattened area that was shaped like a square. There were cliffs on three sides, but on the fourth side, there was the mouth of a cave. Bird shrieks came out of it and we walked over to it. It was very dark and some bits of rock fell down as we approached the entrance. I really didn’t want to go in, but how else would I save all the birds? I started to walk forward, but Raffi stopped me. She shook her head no and Rio translated,

  “She says that we can’t go in if there is no light source. You don’t have a flashlight, do you?”

   I hadn’t even thought of bringing one. What were we going to do? We couldn’t just walk into a dark cave and hope to not die or something. We sat down and thought for awhile. We finally decided to eat something, and then go in. As I started to get the food out of my backpack, I saw a bird sitting on a branch that was a few feet away. It was a big bald eagle and looked like a female. She cocked her head at me and said,

  “Are you Karlin? The great one who the Old Owl says will save us? You just made it through the bridge before that horrid little boy sealed it. You must be Karlin. Your hair gives you away.”

  I smiled. LOI birds usually chattered away and sometimes it was hard to talk with them. I said,

  “Yes, I am Karlin, and this is Rio and Raffi, my husky twins. We came to save you, as you said. But what was that about sealing the bridge?”

   The eagle shook her wings and said,

 “You don’t know about the bridge keeper? There is a skylark named Tok that fixes the bridge when it doesn’t solidify. And he also has the ability to seal and unseal the bridge so that no humans can come here. That horrid boy forced him to seal the bridge. You made it here just in time.”

   Wow. I didn’t know that you could control the bridge. But I could think about that later. I said,

  “So, can you help us rescue the other birds? We don’t have a light, so we can’t go into the cave. And what’s your name by the way?”

   She fluttered her wings and said, “My name is Fern, Queen of the Eagles. And I have a light. One of the owners left a flashlight here and I grabbed it, for such a time as this. So, what are we waiting for?”

*        *        *        *        *

  After about half an hour of running into spider webs and finding dead ends, we made it to the entrance of a big chamber. The bird shrieks were very loud now, and there was also a loud hissing sound that I couldn’t identify. Fern said she would scout on ahead and if she didn’t come back in ten minutes, then we could go in and would have to rescue her and every one else. Ten minutes later, Fern hadn’t come back and we discussed what to do. Rio said,

  “We need to go in now! We have to rescue the other birds!” I thought that was a good idea but Raffi shook her head. Rio translated, saying,

  “Raffi says there is a big animal thing that she’s never seen before. It is neither bird nor lizard. It has big scaly wings and shoots fire. We have to plan carefully.”

   I agreed and we all walked into the chamber. The sight that we saw was amazing. There were thousands of cages containing birds of every type. There were big and small birds, imagined and real birds. And they were all making as much noise as they could. And in the center of the cavern, there was a HUGE DRAGON!!! It was being ordered around by a little boy with dirt brown hair. The dragon had chains on its fore legs and the chains ran along the floor to a big ring in the wall. We looked around and finally found the Old Owl. He was in a cage that was probably made for a sparrow; he was about ten times to big for it. And he was attempting to clean himself! Oh brother. As I tried to figure out a way to rescue every one, I hear the dragon screech and I saw that it was battling a bird that wasn’t in a cage. It was a bald eagle, and it looked familiar. Rio tugged at my pant leg and said,

 “It’s Fern! She’s distracting the dragon for us! We must open the locks NOW!”

  We all ran to the nearest cage and tried to open the lock. But there wasn’t any key hole! What would we do? Suddenly, Fern screeched and I saw the dragons’ claw rip through her wing. She fell down and lay still. But I didn’t have time to think about that because suddenly the little boy started to run over. We were in trouble. The dragon was following him and they were coming fast. Before I knew it, the dragon had Rio and Raffi pinned down and I was cornered. The little boy laughed and said,

   “Did you really think that you could beat me? I imagined all those locks and cages, and now you can’t rescue the birds. I imagined this dragon, and he’s invincible. Where are you now? Will you surrender?”

  I didn’t know what to do. He had won. What else could I do? I didn’t have any powers. I was about to say yes, when suddenly a sweet, silent voice seemed to float into my mind. It said,

  “You do have a power. Your imagination. Use it! Unimagine it all!”

  I looked at Raffi and she nodded. I said,

  “As a member of the LOI parliament, I unimagine your dragon, and all the locks and cages in this chamber!”

  With that, the cages, the locks, and the dragon vanished. Every one was quite for a moment, and then a sparrow cried out,

 “We’re free!!!!!!”

   In a sudden frenzy, all the birds flew in every direction and they attacked the boy. They carried him out of the chamber and down the pathway to the outside. The husky twins and I were about to follow when I remembered Fern. I ran over to her and knelt down. She had lost a lot of blood and was unconscious. I carried her out of the cave. Most of the birds were already gone, dragging the boy with them. The Old Owl was still there though, with a couple of injured birds. He flew over to me when I came out and said, “Well done Karlin! I couldn’t have done it better. I am SO glad that you rescued us all,”

  I said, “Thanks, but I also had the help of Rio, Raffi, and Fern. What’s going to happen to the boy?”

   The Owl hooted and said,

   “He is going to be banned from LOI. This is very unusual for us, but under the circumstances, it’s necessary. Is Fern all right? Her wing will probably be permanently damaged. No one will want to adopt her. Unless…”

   He looked at me. Every time I had come to LOI, he had wanted me to adopt a pet. And I had always said yes.

   “I think you know my answer, sir. I can always adopt another pet. I’ll just have to imagine a whole new room, that’s all.”

   He nodded approvingly and said,

    “I know I can always count on you. Well, let’s go down.”  

*        *        *        *        *

  After we visited the LOI hospital, my three pets and I walked to the bridge. It had been unsealed a little while ago. The Old Owl had said goodbye and then left, saying something about tree house fixing. My pets crossed first, and then as I crossed, I started to make myself a promise about no more pets, but then I stopped my self. Of course I was going to adopt more pets. After all; I would be back in LOI.

The End? Maybe, maybe not