Chapter 3

We were no longer in my bedroom. The three of us were falling into a world of light. We fell
farther and farther, faster and faster. I was dizzy and scared. I screamed out for help but couldn’t hear my
voice. Would I ever stop falling? Am I going to die? Am I already dead? I wondered if I would ever see
the light of day again.
Suddenly, I could hear birds chirping and trees blowing in the wind. The noise seemed to get
closer and closer, but I just kept on falling, not even knowing where I was falling to.
“Ouch!” I said, hitting the ground. My impact was hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to
seriously injure me. Had it not been for the rough landing, I would have thought I was dreaming for sure.
I then quickly got to my feet. I felt my pulse to make sure my heart was still working. I was still
alive, from what I could tell. I was so thankful to have finally stopped falling, but a new question begins
to form now in my head. Where exactly am I?
I was standing on a dirt path in the middle of a thick forest. The trees were tall and dark with
bright green moss covering their trunks. The sun’s rays shined through a light mist. Birds squawked from
high in the trees and, if I listened closely enough, I could hear a tiny stream in the distance.
I spun around, looking in all directions. My breathing increased as I took in my new surroundings. Was I
overreacting or not reacting enough to what had just happened? And what exactly had just happened? I
looked up to see if there was an opening I had fallen through, hoping to see some sort of window into my
bedroom, but all I saw were tree branches and the sky above me.
“Where am I?” I asked myself.
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” As if they had fallen right out of thin air, Julian and Zane landed hard
on the ground beside their friend. They were pale and screaming, and their limbs were stretched out in all
directions. “Am I alive? Am I dying? Are we dead?” Julian asked from the ground with his eyes tightly
closed.
“You’re alive!” I told him. I had never been so happy to see him.
“Uno, is that you?” Julian asked. He slowly opened his eyes one at a time and looked around.
Zane did the same. “Where are we?” he asked as I helped them to their feet.
“It looks like some kind of… forest,” I replied.
It was unlike any forest we had ever seen (in real life, at least). The colors were so vivid and the air was
so crisp. It was as if we had fallen into a painting, a painting I was positive I had seen before.
“Look,” Julian said, pointing at the ground. “Whose pencils are those?”
“They’re mine,” I replied.
“How’d they get here?” Zane asked.
“Funny story actually,” I replied.
“Go on,” Julian said.
“It all began on the night I borrowed the book. I became so interested in the story, that I continued
reading it. While I was doing so, the book began to mysteriously glow. It surprised me, making me drop
the book in shock. I did everything to make it stop glowing, but nothing worked. I tried everything dudes.
Wrapping it around my blanket, placing it under my pillow, stacking several books on top of it, and so
much more. I became so enraged that I began throwing random objects at it. But when I grabbed some
pencils from my pencil case, the books that were once on top of the glowing book magically disappeared.
It blew my mind after realizing that. But what’s more surprising was that both my pillow and blankets had
also disappeared. So I concluded that this was no ordinary book,” I told them.
“Well duh,” Julian replied. “But may I just common how stupid you sounded when you were telling us
about it.”
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“Well, you only found out that the book you borrowed from the library was unlike any other when some
of your stuff disappeared. But doesn’t that sound weird because you first found the book glowing?” Zane
replied.
“Oh,” I said, tilting my head down in embarrassment. “My bad.”
“It’s okay,” Julian replied.
“So why are we only seeing your pencils?” Zane asked.
“Yeah, where are your other stuff?” Julian continued.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out too,” I replied.
The path was littered with the pencils I dropped into the book. But where were all the books I had
dropped also?
“So this is where they all went!” I said.
“But where is here?” Julian asked. “How far away from home are we?”
I couldn’t answer him. I was starting to become just as worried as he was. We were worse than lost.
“This is all your fault, Uno!” Julian yelled.
“My fault?” I replied.
“We wouldn’t be here if you had just let it be and minded your own business,” Zane said.
“I knew you were planning this,” Julian said. “I had to stop you!”
“I wasn’t planning on going into the book. I was just testing it out!” I explained.
“Oh, sure! Was I just supposed to leave you in the book by yourself ?” he exclaimed. “What was I
supposed to tell Sister Grace when she finds out? ‘Hi Sister, hope you had a good day at work. Uno fell
through a book. By the way, what’s for dinner?’ Give me a break!”
Julian began jumping upward as high as he could.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“We fell. From. Somewhere. Up here. There’s. Got. To be. A way. Back,” he said, but all his jumping
was pointless.
Julian eventually tired himself out, and he took a seat on the ground against a tree trunk.
“What if we were transported to another country or something?” Zane asked; his forehead became more
wrinkled the further he thought about it.
“What if it took us to Canada or Mongolia or somewhere? How long is it gonna take for Sister Grace or
someone to find us?” Julian asked.
Suddenly, the ground started shaking. A powerful rumbling had consumed the forest. The branches of the
trees shook, and the small rocks on the ground began jumping as something massive moved closer toward
them.
“What’s happening now?” Zane yelled.
“Let’s take cover!” I said.
The three of us ran off the path and into the forest a little way and took refuge behind a particularly wide
tree.
We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. A huge calvary of soldiers on white horses rode past us. Their
armor was clean and shiny. They carried blue-and-white shields with a large red dragon painted on them
and waved flags with the same design.
“Uno, did we go back in time?” Zane anxiously asked his friend. “That looks like something straight out
of medieval times!”
The pencils were all obliterated under the horses’ hooves. The soldiers were moving at such a fast and
forceful pace that none of them noticed the awestruck trio peeking out from behind the tree.
I was fixated on their shields. A dragon was such an awesome thing to be displayed on a shield, but there
was something so familiar about it. I couldn’t put my finger on it.
The rumbling slowly faded away as the soldiers disappeared down the dirt path. The three of us stayed
behind the tree for a few moments, making sure the coast was clear.
“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had about as much excitement as I can handle for one day,” Zane told
us.
A poster pinned to a nearby tree caught my eye. I walked over to it and pulled it off the tree for further
inspection. It was old, with faded writing, and a picture of a disgruntled-looking little boy with curly
blonde hair was centered on it. The poster read:

WANTED
 DEAD OR ALIVE
RHAMS
FOR BURGLARY AND RUNNING AWAY FROM THE LAW

My face went white, and I stopped breathing for a moment; I had realized where we were. No
wonder the trees had been so recognizable. The book had taken us to the exact place I had hoped.
“Is it possible?” I asked myself.
The wheels in my head had never spun as fast as they were now.
“Is what possible?” Julian asked.
“Do you know where we are?” Zane asked.
“I think so,” I told them.
“Where?” Julian asked, fearing the answer.
“Dudes, we went into the book,” I explained, but he wasn’t following her. “I think we’re actually
in the Heirs of the Universe.”
I handed him the Wanted poster, and he read it. His eyes grew as wide as a lemur.
“No, no, no! This cannot be happening! This is crazy!” he said, shaking his head.
He handed the poster back to me as if it were infected with rabies. He couldn’t believe what I was
saying; he didn’t want to believe what I was saying.
“Are you telling me we’re in the fairy-tale world?” Julian asked.
“I’d recognize this forest anywhere! It’s straight out of the book,” I said with an unplanned smile.
“But it makes perfect sense! Where else would it have taken us?”
“We just fell through a book! Nothing makes sense!” Zane said. “So, are we stuck here or what?
How do we get home?”
“I don’t have all of your answers, Zane,” I said. “Don’t forget, all of this just happened to me,
too!”
Julian began pacing around the trees with his hands on his hips. “I can’t believe I ditched
detention and wound up in another dimension,” he said.
“Wait, you had detention?” Zane asked.
“Yeah,” Julian replied.
“For what?” I asked.
“Let’s just say it was a misunderstanding,” Julian replied.
 “That’s always your excuse when you’ve done something horrible,” Zane said.
“Gentlemen,” I said. “Can we please move on from that and focus on the issue at hand?”
“Yeah sure,” Zane replied.
“What he said,” Julian said.
I was rather grateful that my friends had come with me. We had lived together all our lives and
had been in the same school since middle school. I didn’t know if I could handle being in a different
dimension by myself.
“I hope you’re happy, Uno,” Julian said. “I told you we should have thrown the book into the
creek!”
“Enough with the blaming,” I said. “It doesn’t matter how we got here. The point is we’re here
now! What matters is finding someone who can help us get home!”
“Excuse me, may I help you?” said a proper voice behind us. We jolted at the sound of another
voice besides our own. We turned around to see who it had come from, and once we saw, we wished we
hadn’t.
Standing behind us was what could best be described as a traveling tradesman. He wore a dapper
three-piece suit and carried a large glass jar of lily pads.
“Forgive me for eavesdropping, but I’m rather good with directions if you need some,” the
Tradesman said with a very wide smile.
We were so petrified that we were paralyzed. If we needed any more evidence that we were in the
fairy-tale world, this was our proof.
“You look young to be in the forest by yourselves,” the Tradesman said. “Are you lost?”
Julian let out a high-pitched squeal that lasted much longer than it should have. “Please don’t eat
us!” he said and dropped to the ground in a fetal position.
The tradesman looked down at him with a frown. “Young man, I have no intention of eating
you,” he said.
“Is he always like this?” the tradesman asked me.
I responded with a squeal almost identical to the one my friend had made.
“I know, I know. Don’t worry. I’m used to people screaming at me,” the tradesman told them.
“Get it out of your systems. The shock will only last a minute.”
“We’re sorry!” I finally managed to say. “It’s just that, where we’re from there aren’t many…
um… people like you? Sorry if that isn’t the correct term for what you are!”
Zane let out a similar high-pitched noise. It wasn’t a scream this time, but it was embarrassing
nonetheless.
The tradesman studied our faces and paid special attention to our clothes. “Where exactly are you
from?”
 “Pretty far from here,” I said.
A piercing set of wolf howls echoed through the forest. All four of us jumped at the sound. The
tradesman looked around the trees with fear in his bright green eyes.
“It’s getting dark,” the tradesman said. “We’d better get inside. Please, follow me home. It’s just
a few minutes’ walk from here.”
“Nice try!” Julian said.
The wolf howls echoed again. This time they were much louder than the first. Wherever the
wolves were, they were getting closer.
“I know I don’t look that very trustworthy,” said the tradesman to us, “but I’m nothing compared
to some of the creatures that lurk around these woods at night. I promise I will not harm you.”
There was such concern in his eyes, it was hard for us not to trust him. The tradesman took off at
a brisk walk deeper into the forest.
I nudged both Julian and Zane. “We’d better follow him.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not going home with a stranger!” Julian whispered to me.
“What do we have to lose?” I asked.
“Besides our lives?” Zane said, but, despite his protests, he was dragged up by yours truly and
pulled in the direction the tradesman was leading us.
We hurried behind the tradesman for a good while. We zigzagged between trees and jumped over
boulders and tree roots that stuck up from the ground. The deeper we went into the forest, the thicker the
trees became. It got dark very quickly and was almost pitch-black by the time we reached the frog man’s
home.
The three of us stayed close together. With every step, I second-guessed if I had made a smart
choice going with this strange man.
“This way,” the tradesman said.
The traveling tradesman brushed aside some dead vines growing over a large wooden door that
was camouflaged into the side of a small hill. He pulled the door open and led us inside. He looked back
into the forest, making sure we hadn’t been followed, before shutting the door behind him.
It was very dark underground. We were so close together; we could have been mistaken for
Siamese twins.
“Forgive the mess. I wasn’t expecting company,” the tradesman apologized and lit a lamp with a
match.
I didn’t know what to expect of the tradesman’s home, but what we were seeing definitely wasn’t
it.
We were in a large room with paper-thin walls and a dusty, old ceiling. A cluster of big, cushy
chairs and sofas—many of the cushions had the stuffing sticking out of them—sat in the center of the
room and were angled to face a small fireplace. Nearby, teacups and pots hung from hooks over a tiny
kitchenette.
To Zane’s delight, there were books everywhere. Shelves of books lined the dirt walls; piles of
books were stacked on every available surface and on the ground; it was as if the room were infested with
literature.
“Zane,” I whispered close to him. “Look around at this place! It’s like we're back at the
orphanage!”
Julian looked around and saw what I meant. “If he offers us Turkish delight, I don’t care what
you say: We’re getting out of here!” he whispered back.
“It’s a little dirty, but it’s cozy,” Zane said.
“It’s hard to find a landlord who will house a man like me, so I did the best I could with what I
had.” Robbie replied.
“But aren’t you a TRAVELING tradesman?” Zane asked.
“I am, but my cart was confiscated by a powerful sorceress,” the tradesman replied.
He then placed his jar of lily pads on the mantel and immediately started a fire in the fireplace.
The tradesman filled a tea kettle with water from a pitcher, placed it over the fire, and took a seat in a big,
white chair closest to it. He crossed his legs and folded his hands neatly in his lap. He was one proper
host.
“Please have a seat,” the tradesman said, gesturing to the sofa in front of him.
We reluctantly did as he asked. The sofa was rather lumpy, so we had to shift around in our seats
to get comfortable.
“What are you?” Julian asked the man.
“Julian, don’t be rude!” I said, elbowing him in the side.
“It’s quite alright,” the tradesman said with a complicated smile. “I understand my appearance
takes some time to get used to. Even I haven’t fully adapted to it yet.”
“You mean, you weren’t always a… um…like that?” I asked as politely as I could.
“Heavens, no,” the tradesman said. “I was punished years ago by a very aggressive witch.”
“Is this the same witch that stole your cart?” Zane asked.
The tradesman nodded.
“Why?” I asked.
I was fascinated by how casually he had said it.
“To teach me a lesson, I suppose,” the tradesman told me. “I used to be a very vain young man.
The witch transformed my appearance so I would lose all of the things I took for granted.”
His wide smile softly faded. It had obviously been a very long and painful experience for him,
and he still had a sad sense of loss and longing about him. We had never seen a man like him look so sad.
 “I can’t even imagine what that must have been like,” I said, beaming with sympathy.
“Do you have a name?” Zane asked with a small smirk.
“Zane!” I reprimanded.
“It’s quite alright,” the tradesman nodded, and his smile returned. “I’ve learned that the more
people embrace their disadvantages, the less disadvantaged they become! Please, call me Robbie. I’d
prefer it.”
Zane shrugged and smiled.
“May I get you some lily pad tea?” Robbie asked us.
The three of us nodded; we didn’t want to be rude. Robbie retrieved the teakettle from the fire
and hopped—literally—to the kitchenette and poured water into three teacups. He opened the jar on the
mantel and dropped a lily pad into each teacup and stirred.
“Do either of you take flies with your tea?” he asked, reaching for another jar on his mantel, this
one filled with dead flies.
“No thanks,” I said. “Trying to quit.”
“Suit yourself,” Robbie said and dropped a few flies into his tea.
He handed them each a teacup and reseated himself across from us. We stared down at it for a
few moments before deciding we’d at least pretend to drink it.
“What are your names?” Robbie asked us.
“I’m Uno and these are my friends, Julian and Zane,” I replied.
A large and happy smile came to Robbie’s face.
“Are you by any chance Uno from 11-A?” Froggy asked, grinning from ear to ear.
“Um… yes,” I replied.
I was shocked. How did this stranger know who I am?
“As in ‘This book belongs to Uno’?” Robbie asked.
He leaned over the side of his chair and pulled up a stack of books, opening one to show where
the phrase was written inside it.
“Those are my books!” I said excitedly, recognizing the books she had dropped into the book. “I
was wondering what had happened to them.”
“It was so peculiar,” Robbie explained. “I was out collecting flies and was walking down the path
to the swamp when one just fell from the sky and landed on my head. I returned a few minutes later and
found several more in the same spot. It was the oddest thing that’s ever happened to me!”
“You mean, besides being turned into a tradesman, right?” Julian asked. “Because if I were you,
that would be on the top of my list—ouch!” I elbowed him.
Robbie ignored Julian and went on with his explanation.
 “As you can see from my shelves, I love to collect books, especially when I’m not expecting to,”
he said. “And these books were unlike any I had ever read! They described people and places I had never
seen or heard of, and I thought I had seen it all! The authors wrote about such interesting places. Could
you imagine a world without witches or trolls or giants? What imaginations!”
Robbie chuckled at the thought of this. We laughed along with the best fake laughs we could
muster.
“Please keep them. I have duplicate copies at home,” I told him.
Robbie was delighted to hear this.
“Uh-huh.” Zane cleared his throat. “Speaking of home, I don’t mean to interrupt this little book
club, but we’re very lost and would like to know where we are.”
Robbie’s eyes went back and forth between the three of us, watching us closely.
“Oh, children, you wouldn’t be here if you knew where you were,” Robbie said. “You’re in the
Caspian Forests.”
He had expected to get some sort of worried reaction from us, but we just stared up at him with
very little expression.
“The Caspian Forests?” I asked. “What are the Caspian Forests?”
“You’ve never heard of them?” Robbie asked, completely appalled.
We shook our heads.
“It’s a very dangerous place,” Robbie told us. “It’s the only designated area of land without a
ruler or a government; it’s a kingdom where everyone is their own king. It used to be populated by dwarfs
who worked in the mines, but now it’s full of criminals and fugitives mostly. It’s also a place where
people go when they don’t want to be found.”
Knowing we had not only traveled into another world but were in a dangerous part of that world
did nothing to help our anxiety level.
“Are there other kingdoms?” I asked.
Robbie was stunned. It was as if I had asked him what color the sky was. However, he
seemed to be enjoying our unfamiliarity.
“Of course,” he said. “There’s the Kingdom of Therondia, the Alynthi Kingdom, the Kingdom of
Findara, the Khisfire Kingdom, the Kingdom of Zariya, the Amaris Kingdom, the Gantrick Empire, the
Caspian Forests, and the Prendilor Empire. How can you possibly not know this?”
This was difficult for the three of us to wrap our heads around. How big was the fairy-tale world?
Our puzzled faces inspired Robbie to hop out of his seat and cross to one of the bookshelves and return
with a large, rolled-up scroll. He handed it to us, and we unrolled it.
It was a large, detailed map of the new world we were in. The fairy-tale world was a wide
continent bordered by mountain ranges and covered in forests with castles and palaces and villages
scattered all around.
 The Kingdom of Findara was the largest of the kingdoms and took up most of the top of the map.
The second-largest was the Alynthi Kingdom, spread across to the south, and the third-largest
was the Kingdom of Zariya, which stretched along the east. The Caspian Forests covered the majority of
the west.
The tiny Amaris Kingdom was tucked away in the southwest corner of the continent, and in the
northwest corner was the Gantrick Empire. In between the Kingdom of Findara and the Alynthi Kingdom
was the Kingdom of Zariya, and just above that was the Prendilor Empire.
The Kingdom of Zariya looked beautiful, as it was very colorful and seemed to sparkle on the
map.
The Prendilor Empire looked frightening and appeared to be surrounded by large boulders and
rocks, preventing anything from going in or coming out.
In the very center of it, all was the Amaris Kingdom, circled by an unmistakable brick wall of
gigantic proportions.
We couldn’t believe it. The world I read about was real. It was all real, and it was bigger and
better than I ever could have imagined.
I couldn’t help but get emotional. Tears began to flood my eyes.
“Together, all the kingdoms create the Board of the Supreme,” Robbie explained.
“The Board of the Supreme?” Zane asked with a slight touch of sarcasm in his voice.
“It’s the organization formed to uphold the treaty all the rulers signed so that all the kingdoms
could live in peace and prosperity,” Robbie told us.
“Sounds like our United Nations,” I whispered to Julian.
“All the kingdoms have their own traditions and celebrated histories,” Robbie went on.
“And there are kings and queens, I’m assuming?” I asked.
“Oh, yes,” Froggy said. “The Amaris Kingdom is ruled by King Paul. The Khisfire Kingdom is
watched over by Queen Isobelle. The Alynthi Kingdom—formerly known as the Eastern Kingdom, but
renamed after the fallen monarch, — is governed by Queen Irene and her husband, King Pattersson. And
of course, the Kingdom of Findara is ruled by Lord Pattersson and his mistress, Lady Rose.”
“Who rules the Kingdom of Therondia?” Zane asked.
“King Simon governs that place,” Robbie replied.
“Wait, are these the current monarchs?” I asked, with a spark of excitement in my eyes. “You
mean they’re all still alive?”
“Of course, they are!” Robbie said.
“Oh, my goodness, that’s wonderful!” I said excitedly. “Isn’t that wonderful guys?”
“Whatever,” Julian mumbled.
 “How old do you think they are?” Robbie asked. “Queen Irene and King Pattersson have only
been married a few years. Lady Rose and Lord Pattersson are expecting their first child soon.”
“Wait,” Zane said. “Are you saying all these queens are married to the same guy?”
“Certainly not,” Robbie said. “There are three King Patterssons. They’re brothers.”
“Of course!” I said. “Princess Irene and Lady Rose both married Prince Pattersson! There’s more
than one! How come I never thought about that?”
Zane’s eyes were fixated on the map. He kept searching for some kind of road or bridge that
would lead them back home, but he found nothing.
“Why are there a bunch of rocks around the Prendilor Empire?” Zane asked.
“As punishment,” Robbie said. “Trolls and goblins are nasty creatures and have a habit of
kidnapping people and turning them into slaves. The Board of Light forced the trolls and goblins into one
territory, and none of them are allowed to leave without permission.”
“Board of Light?” I asked.
This world was almost too good to be true.
“Yes, they’re a group of the most powerful fairies of the kingdoms,” Robbie explained.
“Queen Irene’s godmother is one of them, and so is Lady Rose’s mother, and all the fairies that
blessed Lady Rose when she was a baby are on it, too. They rule the Kingdom of Zariya and are the
leaders of the Board of Light.”
“Is the Amaris Kingdom under some sort of punishment, too?” Zane asked. “Why is there a huge
wall built around it?”
I looked down at the map and back up at Robbie, equally curious.
“That was a result of the People’s Revolt,” Robbie said.
“What was the People’s Revolt?” I asked.
Froggy explained. “The Amaris Kingdom used to be a group of villages in the Kingdom of
Therondia that were constantly under attack by wolves. They begged the Old Queen — Lady Rose’s
stepmother, who was on the throne at the time — to help them. But the Queen was too occupied with her
vanity, so they revolted and started their own kingdom. They built a huge wall around it so no wolves
could get in.” Robbie explained.
“And now Prince Paul is the king?” I asked.
“Yes, he’s the only elected king in history,” Robbie said. “The villagers figured his story was the
most symbolic of their struggle, so they chose him to lead them.”
“But isn’t he just a young boy?” I asked.
“No, he’s a tall handsome man now. A very self-obsessed young man, from what I hear. After all,
he named the kingdom after himself! His grandmother does most of the decision-making while she takes
all the credit,” Robbie said. “Unfortunately, the People’s Revolt only led to the rise of the Big Bad Wolf
Pack.”
 “The Big Bad Wolf Pack?” Julian asked.
“Yes, they’re the descendants of the wolves that terrorized the kingdom. They travel around
destroying villages and attacking unsuspecting travelers,” Robbie said.
“Oh joy!” Julian said sarcastically. “I’m sorry I asked.”
“But besides that, things are very peaceful throughout the kingdoms,” Robbie said.
His voice drifted off, and uncertainty grew on his face. “That was, until a week ago.”
We leaned forward.
“What happened a week ago?” I asked.
“The Evil King escaped from the dungeons of Lady Rose’s palace,” Robbie told them. “I thought
everyone had heard.”
“It’s news to us,” Julian said.
“That can’t be good,” I said. “How’d he escape?”
“No one knows,” Robbie said. “He just vanished, along with his Magic Mirror. Lady Rose’s army
has been searching throughout all of the kingdoms for him. They pass through these woods at least twice
a day. So far, they’ve found nothing, not even a footprint, to lead them in her direction.”
“Wait, who’s the Evil King?” Zane asked.
“He’s the former monarch from the Gantrick Empire. His daughter, Princess Sofia is now the
current ruler. He’s super powerful,” Robbie said.
“Powerful?” Zane asked. “What kind of powers does he seek?”
“All kinds,” Robbie said. “But to be more specific, he can manipulate people, take your soul
away, cast magical spells where the effects last longer than most, and so much more. All in all, he’s a
dangerous man and should be imprisoned for what he did.”
“What did he do?” Julian asked.
“He tried to take all the kingdoms by force. What I mean is that he wanted to have control over
all the empires and kingdoms in the land,” Robbie said.
“Damn,” Zane said.
“You could say that again,” Julian replied.
“Do you think they’re going to find him?” I asked.
“I hope so,” Robbie said. “He’s the only king in history to lose his throne; I couldn’t imagine the
revenge he must be seeking. Who knows what he’s planning to do next?”
I suddenly became very tense. It had just occurred to me that, along with all the characters I had
read, all the ones I hated and feared actually existed, too. It made me feel very uneasy and very unsafe.
The fire in the fireplace began to fade, and Robbie got up to add another log. Our eyes and
mouths were wide open, and our heads were spinning from all of this new information.
 “Exactly how far away do you live from here?” Robbie asked as he sat back down across from us.
The three of us looked to each other, back at Robbie, and then back at each other. We didn’t
know what to tell him. Would he believe us if we told him the truth?
“It’s practically a different world,” Zane said. I shot him a dirty look and then nervously laughed,
trying to make light of what my friend just said.
Robbie wasn’t laughing. He sat straight up in his seat and his face grew very still with an
intensity in his eyes, as if he had found the solution to a mystery.
“Interesting,” Robbie said, eyeing us back and forth. “Because, if I didn’t know better, just from
the way you dress and the way you speak — and the way you were so surprised at basic history, I would
say that there was a very good chance you are indeed from a different world.”
We didn’t understand what he was trying to say. Did he know something that we didn’t?
“Just out of curiosity, have you ever heard of another world?” I asked Robbie.
“Or, preferably, how to get back to it?” Julian added.
Robbie studied our faces even more intently for a moment. He got up again and went to a
bookshelf on the far side of the room. He rustled through the books, looking for something of special
interest. Finally, he found it: a small leather-bound journal with a red band around it.
“Have either of you ever heard of the Blessing of Wishes?” Robbie asked us.
We shook our heads. Robbie flipped through the pages of the journal.
“I assumed not,” he said. “It’s a legendary spell composed of a list of items, and, apparently,
when you put the items together, you are granted one wish. It doesn’t matter how extravagant the wish is,
the Blessing of Wishes will grant it. Many people believe that it’s only a myth, and I did, too, until I
found this journal.”
“What does that journal have to do with anything?” Zane asked.
“It was written by a man from the Alynthi Kingdom,” Robbie said. “He managed to discover
what these items were, and he recorded his journey to find them. His one wish was to reunite with the
woman he loved, and in the journal, he claimed she lived in ‘another world.’ ”
The three of us sat straight up. They were sitting on the edges of our seats without realizing it.
“I thought the man writing the journal was crazy. I didn’t believe another world could exist, until
I began finding your books, Uno. And then when I saw you bickering in the forest, I knew you three were
different,” Robbie said. “I knew you had to be from the place that the man had written about.”
We were happy the truth was out. Robbie seemed genuinely excited about the whole thing.
“Did he make it?” I asked. “Did the man cross over into the other world?”
“He must have,” Robbie said. “The journal ends when he found the last item.”
He then handed us the journal and took a seat in his chair.
 “Wherever you’re from, if it’s home that you wish to go back to, I think your best chance is by
following this journal,” Robbie said.
The three of us went silent for a moment. We stared down at the journal in his hands with
immense hope.
“What items does the spell require?” I asked.
“All sorts, from all over,” Robbie told me. “But the journal gives great instructions on where and
how to find them. Some of them are very dangerous to get to.”
“Of course, they are,” Julian said. “Typical.”
“If the spell will grant whatever wish you want, why didn’t you search for the items and wish to
have your life back?” Zane asked Robbie.
Robbie thought about this for a moment. It was a question he had asked himself many times, and
he was ashamed of the answer.
“I’ve kept the journal all these years in case I ever decided to,” Robbie explained with difficulty.
“But searching for the items would mean I’d have to face the world looking like this and, frankly,
children, that’s something I’m not ready to do. It’s something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do.”
He spoke from a place of deep sadness. Clearly, he wasn’t finished learning the witch’s lesson
yet.
“It’s getting late,” Robbie said. “Why don’t you sleep on it and decide what you want to do in the
morning. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you’d like.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I hope we aren’t a bother.”
“No, bother at all.” Robbie smiled earnestly.
Robbie got us a large blanket to share. He blew out all the lamps and put out the fire in the
fireplace. We tossed and turned with thoughts of the Blessing of Wishes all night, but there was no
decision to make. If the journal offered a possible way home, we would have to do anything and
everything it instructed us to. We had no choice. We were about to embark on the greatest scavenger hunt
of our lives.