Standard disclaimers apply. Anya and Mix are mine.
"" denotes talking, denotes written words, words written IN CAPS are emphasised. When Anya uses her ability I may not always say it, she may just pull stuff out of her pocket. Mix is pronounced /meeks/
Chapter One: Into the Labyrinth
"Anya, you're really going to leave?"
"I have to Carmen. I have to find out if this letter is for real. Nobody here seems to think it is."
"But we've been roommates forever, Anya! You're too young to go out by yourself."
"I'll write to you Carmen. Goodbye." With that final word, Anya slipped out the ground floor window of the room they were in. It was June 12th. Exactly four days ago, Anya had turned eleven. That same day, she received a letter.
/Dear Anya,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.../
The letter went on to list the supplies she needed to purchase prior to attending. But the reactions from the others at the year round boarding school she lived at were not as she expected. The other kids thought she was just trying to get attention, while the adults were convinced it was a prank. Thirteen year old Carmen, her roommate, was the only one who believed it was real. And that was because she was the only one who knew about Anya's special ability.
Anya had the ability to resize objects to any size that she needed them. Anya had packed up all of her belongings this way in preparation for leaving. She shrunk everything down to fit in plastic storage bags, then put the bags in her backpack. Then she made her backpack small enough to fit in her pocket. In her jacket pocket, she had some food that she had 'acquired' from the kitchen, as well as a few bottles of water.
Anya's parents had left her at the school when she was very young, saying it was "safer" for her to be there than with them. Ever since she had learned to pick things up, she had been practicing her ability. And she had been longing for a place that she could live without others thinking she was weird -- where others would accept it and she would not have to hide it. So it made sense for there to really be a school for learning magic. She believed it, and Carmen believed it, so she was going to find out. She just had to know.
She left at night, it was almost 10:30pm as she neared the park a few blocks form the school. She remembered a small grove of trees on top of the hill in the center of the park. Climbing over the fence, she then quickly made her way up the hill to the trees. Anya carefully pushed through the trees and soon she was in the center of the grove. She pulled out her sleeping bag and pillow and settled down, confident that she would be safe for the night.
Anya awakened the next morning to the sun shining brightly in her eyes. As she got up to put her bedding away, she realized that she was no longer in the park. In fact, there were no trees immediately surrounding her sleeping place either. She turned all the way around, observing her surroundings. She was still at the top of a hill, although not as steep and all around was sand, instead of the lush grass of the city park. Before her a short distance stood a large stone wall that seemed to stretch forever. From her place at the top of the hill, she could see that it concealed a large maze, with a stone castle in the center.
She began to walk down the hill. As she approached the wall, she noticed that there were fairies flitting about the area. About six inches tall, they were female, had beautiful prism-like wings, and long, white hair. Anya reached out her hand to touch one that was by herself and discovered... they also had very sharp teeth. The one she had reached out to had promptly chomped down on the closest part of Anya's hand. Carefully removing her hand from the fairy's mouth, she spoke. "You know, it's not nice to bite people." The fairy looked up at her.
"Sorry, it's a habit. All of us do it. I'm Mix," chattered the fairy.
"I'm Anya. Say, why don't you come with me? In a couple of months I'm supposed to be going to a school to learn magic. But I don't know how to get there, or anything else about it."
Mix thought for a minute. "Hey, I know! We could go ask the Goblin King about this "school of magic" you speak of. I'm sure he'll know about it."
"Okay. Where does the Goblin King live, Mix?" asked Anya.
Mix flew up and pointed. "He lives there, in the castle beyond the Goblin City. But we have to solve the Labyrinth first in order to get there. It's like proving that we're 'worthy' to speak with him." She flew back down and perched on Anya's shoulder. "I've never been inside though, so I don't know how to get through it."
"If we work together, we'll be able to do it," said Anya. "So... how do we get into the Labyrinth?" As if an unseen force had been listening, two stone doors creaked open in front of them. Mix slipped down into Anya's shirt pocket and Anya walked inside, barely noticing the doors closing behind her. She turned right and started walking down a long corridor. After about fifteen minutes, she stopped and leaned against the wall. "Okay Mix, have any idea why there are no turns or corners in this thing?"
"Nope. No idea at all." Mix stared at the wall. "Wait, let's try walking through it."
"Try walking through it?" asked Anya.
"Yes. This is a magical place that changes constantly, so we should try something out of the ordinary to move ahead."
"That DOES make sense." Anya walked up to the wall in front of ther, arms up and palms outward. As she reached out for the wall, she realized that the wall was farther back than it looked. Now there was a path to choose from. She turned and soon they were navigating a traditional maze section. After a while, they turned into a dead end. "Oh well," said Anya, "we need to rest a bit anyway. I'm getting hungry."
"I agree," said Mix. Anya plopped down and pulled out her food pack and a bottle of water. She cut off two small pieces of bread and cheese while explaining to Mix her ability ro resize objects. She resized one piece of bread and cheese to be enough for MIx and then did the same for herself with the other piece. Mix drank water from her bottle cap. When they were finished, they realized that there was no longer a dead end in front of them. "Hey, where'd the dead end go?" asked Mix.
"It's behind you!" replied a creature dressed in blue. "The only way out of here is to take one of these doors."
Mix nestled herself back in Anya's pocket. "Which door should we take?" asked Anya.
"Uh, we don't know," said a creature dressed in red. He pointed up to two more creatures sitting up higher. "But they do."
"Well then, I'll ask them."
"Umm no. Can't ask us," said the blue one. "You can only ask one of us. And I should warn you -- one of as always tells the truth and one of us always lies."
Mix peeked out of Anya's pocket. She looked very confused. Anya walked over to the red one. "Okay answer yes or no. Would the blue guy tell me that THIS door is the one to choose?"
The red thought for a minute... "Yes," he stated.
"Then the other door is the one I choose," decided Anya. Blue moved and Anya went through the door. She began descending a staircase, as it was the only path to take.
Mix popped her head out of Anya's pocket. "Anya how did you know the right door? The blue may have been telling the truth."
"Yes but then Red would have been lying, so I'd know the answer was no."
"But what if Red was telling the truth?"
"Then Blue would be lying, so I'd know the answer was still no."
"Oh..." Mix still couldn't quite understand.
After the staircase ended, they passed a bunch of large stone faces that were sleeping. Then they came to a tunnel. Turning right had proved good for them numerous times before so she turned right again and soon came to a wall that looked a bit weak. Anya pushed, and the wall fell down quite easily. From there, she climbed the ladder, emerging above ground in a vase and then navigated some more 'traditional' maze sections.
Soon they came to two doors -- again the only way to choose. Following the 'right is right' strategy, they chose the right hand door and ended up in a forest. Anya walked through the forest and then through a tunnel in a rock, which led to the banks of the Bog of Eternal Stench. There they were faced with a new problem, there was no bridge to get across. Catching sight of a small but sturdy rock, Anya put her finger on it and used her ability to stretch it the to the other side.
Quickly running across the rock, she then took off down the path into another forest. Once they were out of the stench, they paused to eat again, then continued through the forest to the gates of the Goblin City. The guard at the gates was asleep and the door was ajar, so they slipped through. In fact, the whole city was asleep and they made it through without incident. Finally they reached the doors of the castle. Mix nestled down in Anya's pocket once again and Anya stepped inside. As she did, she came face to face with the man who would rock her world: The Goblin King.
Well that's it for chapter one. Is it better than what I had before? Please read and review.