We appeared in front of two giant gates with a, one very black, and the other a yellowish white. "Come on!" Susa said as she pushed the whitish gate open, grunting a little. I was hesitant but I figured that this gate was probably safer than the black one, and there was nowhere else to go but through the gates; behind me was nothingness that stretched on forever and took a purple-pinkish hue. I followed Susa through the gate and realized that the area around me was split into two halves. The area that Susa and I had entered was sort of normal looking, except for the funny animals and plants. There was a giant meadow that was filled with mostly poppies in front of us but I could see here and there some fuzzy purple flower on a stick. It looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. The other area, which was separated from the one I was in now by some kind a wavy plastic-wrap looking thing. The area was very dark looking, and had a giant castle with ominous spires sticking out of it in all angles. It was sort of swampy, and had no visible plant life except for this green slime stuff that was everywhere.
We proceeded across the meadow and headed toward a girl who was standing on a cement platform. She was wearing a brown fedora (a detective hat) that was pulled down so far that I couldn't even see her chin. Her hair was blonde, a bit darker than mine, but very long with uneven ends. It looked like she had cut it herself.
We walked up to her, and she said, "Oh! Yea! I was beginning to think you didn't find here!" She was unusually cheerful, and I couldn't figure out why. She also had worded that sentence really weird, but I had figured she just got her words mixed up.
"We're supposed to meet you?" I asked. "Are you going to help us on our quest?
"We? Who is we? I only see you?" Lacey said, looking around for another person. I was wondering what she was doing until I remembered she couldn't see Susa.
"Oh, Susa's a ghost, you can't see her," I explained quickly.
"You can see GHOSTS?" She exclaimed.
"Yeah, it is one of my powers, since my mom is the goddess of ghosts… Well, it's my only power. Are you going to take me somewhere?" I asked again, wondering why we were just standing here socializing (something I almost never did due to the fact that my only friend is a ghost). I was supposed to be on a quest to say the world.
Lacey looked around for a second with her eyes all bugged-out, probably trying to see Susa, then said, "Come on! We have to go to the castle!"
"Umm, what castle?" I asked, taking my turn looking around for something not visible.
"It's over the mountains!" She told me, singing it like the song Over the Rainbow that Dorothy sang in The Wizard of OZ.
"What! That will take forever! It's impossible to get over those in any less than two days!" I said, while Lacey's face grew angry. As soon as I was done, she started shouting at me.
"Nothing is impossible! If you would just let me tell you how we will get across… But no, you think that it has to be impossible!" She screamed while waving her arms around dramatically. I wasn't sure what I had said that made her so mad at me. Then she sat down on the platform and cried. I wasn't sure what to do. I had never had to deal with anyone in this state. After all, ghosts don't really cry. Through her sobs Lacey managed to choke out, "I'm sorry. We are supposed to be working together, and the first thing I do is freak out." She looked up at me, recovered from outburst completely (which I find amazing, because the pause was about a second), and said, "I've never been on a quest before."
"Me either," I admitted. "But we have to get a move on. Where is that castle you were talking about?" We had to get started. I was afraid if we loitered here any longer we might fail. I had taken long enough to decide to go, and I felt guilty.
"Over the mountains!" Lacey sang again. "Come on! We'll take the elevator!"
"What elevator?" I asked, getting more confused by the minute. I had no idea what was going on, what I was supposed to be doing, or where I was, and I didn't like it.
"Hurry up so we can deploy!" Lacey said excitedly like a little kid going to Disney World, while beckoning me off the cement platform; she had already leapt off. I hopped down, then Lacey took off her hat, which had all but fallen off her head when she threw her tantrum, and threw it into the center of the platform. The hat instantly started to morph, growing wider and taller, becoming a box-like figure. A crack formed along the front forming a door to the inside, and it continued to morph until it looked like one of those phone booths that they have at the sides of streets in cities. Once it was done she looked at me and smiled. "This will be fun!" she told me, before climbing on the platform and opening the door.
"Welcome to the elevator! We shall have a great ride, or I'll eat my hat!" she announced like a tour guide. I didn't like the looks of this 'elevator', mainly because all I could think of was the telephone booth that Harry and Mr. Weasley (A/N: I have no idea if I spelled this right…) took to the Ministry of Magic for Harry's trial in Harry Potter. But I had no other idea how to get to the castle, and that was the only indication of what I should be doing or where I should go. Castle or bust.
The inside of the booth (or hat) looked exactly like your average Joe telephone booth, except that everything was fuzzy and brown. Yeah, it was weird. I was thinking this would be the only time I would see something this bizarre. I was wrong, for Lacey had all kinds of bizarre things to show me.
Lacey punched in a ton of random numbers (she actually looked away, closed her eyes, and pushed the numbers with both index fingers), then picked up the telephone and said in very official sounding voice, "Yes, I am calling for Fred. Transportation to the castle. Six monkey slap-slap." She hung up the phone, then the 'elevator' jerked sideways and I fell to the floor. The elevator stopped as suddenly as it had started, and I looked up at Lacey. She smiled at me, and then asked, "Why did your legs fall?"
I had no idea what she meant, but she assured me, "It's a safer rider down there, so don't worry about waking them up until we are done."
We weren't done? I didn't have much time to worry, because a instant later the elevator started again. It jolted upward, then changed direction so we were going horizontal. Then the elevator changed so suddenly that Lacey fell down on top of me. She had been expertly balancing the jolts until then.
"Aw man!" Lacey said. "I almost made it!"
"Made what?" I asked, hoping that the ride was almost done.
"To the disco!" Lacey exclaimed like it was common knowledge. Then the music started. Lacey started to disco dance. I grimaced; she was poking me in my stomach. "Here we go!" Lacey shouted as the elevator/hat/phone booth jerked up. Suddenly the elevator stopped.
"Are we done? I asked, hoping she would say yes.
To my relief she answered, "Yep-oroony!" She jumped up, elbowing me in the leg, and opened the door. I was blinded by the bright light. There had only been one tiny light in the elevator, above the phone. I groaned and struggled up, stiff from being crumpled on the floor.
What I saw outside amazed me. There was a giant castle, half made out of some black gemstone, and the other half marble with purple decorations scattered along the walls. The structure itself, aside from the weird decor, was strange. There looked to be at least 20 additions on it, all in contrasting style. Either the architect who made this place was mad (likely), or the people who owned it were mad (very likely) and kept getting different additions on it.
Lacey started looking around the outside of the phone booth/hat, muttering something about something moving.
"What are you looking for?" I asked her, half curious and half impatient.
"The tag. It keeps moving," Lacey replied. "Ah-ha! Found you, little taggie!" The tag was at the bottom of the hat in the front. Lacey yanked on it, and the hat started to shrivel up into reality-size. I expected it to fall into the tunnel that we had shot out of, but the hat rested on solid ground.
"Where'd the tunnel go?" I asked, anticipating a bizarre reply.
"Ég veit það ekki," she replied. Defiantly bizarre.
"Which means?"
"I don't know. It's Icelandic."
"No, it's Lacey's-bizarre-language. Come on, we have to get to the castle." I said, growing frustrated. Lacey was making it extremely hard to do my quest. I couldn't fail, because if I did the world would end and such. But I had no idea what to do, and it seemed like Lacey's idea of the quest was to mess around with hats and play hide and seek with the tunnel.
Lacey became all serious. "You don't like me very much, do you?" she asked. Great, now she thought I hated her. It's not that I hated her, but she was annoying.
Lacey became very depressed looking. "Well, I guess we should get to the castle." I sort of felt sorry for her. She looked really crestfallen or something-I wasn't that good at reading emotions.
She led me into the castle and up a giant spiral staircase. It opened up into a big hallway with a bunch of doors on both sides. She walked up to one and opened it, motioning for me to go inside. "This will be your room," she informed me, then paused thoughtfully. "Does that ghost, Saucy, need a room to? Or does she just roam around the halls like a scary one."
A ghost? She must have been referring to Susa. But where did she go? The last time I remembered seeing her was when I first saw Lacey. She must have disappeared. Ghosts will sometimes do that, if you forget about them. "I don't know where she went," I told Lacey, mad that I didn't sound smarter. Ghosts were my of expertise.
"Oh, well if you find your lost ghost I guess she can stay in your room." It surprised me that Lacey wasn't fazed by the idea of a ghost running around and staying in people's rooms. If it wasn't a bizarre person like Lacey, they would have probably been freaked out.
Lacey left me to rest awhile and told me that she would come and get me for supper. I had forgotten that I did not eat lunch. I hadn't been hungry until then, probably because I wasn't thinking about it. Now I was starving. Then she said something about the rooms changing and that I probably shouldn't come out of my room because I might get lost. I had no idea what she was talking about, and disregarded her advise. Then I went to explore.
I was kind of interested in what kind of place this castle was. Susa said something about being in the Dreamworld. I had no idea what that meant, but I was sure that if this was a dream then I would go get a check-up when I woke up. This kind of stuff isn't normal. If my unconscious mind was making this up I had something seriously wrong with me.
So I walked down the hallway, and the first strange thing I noticed was that everything was either that black gemstone or marble. The second thing was that the walls were covered with all kinds of purple decorations. The third was that all of the fabric I saw was made out of black corduroy. The fourth was that there were little planters of poppy plants all over. Hanging on the walls, sitting on the floor, and even suspended from the ceiling. Maybe everyone here was tripping on opiates. That would defiantly explain some things. But not why I was witnessing this stuff. Unless someone drugged me and I didn't know. Or it was a really messed-up dream.
Anyways, I walked down the hallway and found the giant staircase that Lacey and I had walked up before. Although I could have sworn it had been closer to my room before. I climbed the stairs and came to a giant art gallery. Some of the pictures were of ordinary things, like a family eating a meal together or some kids playing on a playground. Others looked like they came out of some twisted book. There were huge stacks of pancakes with bright green worms crawling through it, a pink and blue chicken wearing a sweater that said, "Moo Cow", and a giant cathedral infested with mushrooms. Still were others that were just swirls of paint. Those reminded me of my dream catchers. I'm not sure why. (A/N: I've just realized that I haven't said anything about her bag. It bugs me when characters have items that they have with them, but the story never mentions it until something important happens to it. Or they don't mention it at all, and you are thinking, "What happened to it?" So here is what happened to Blake's bag: she fell on it in the 'elevator' and something pointy poked her in her butt, she carried it up to her room, then left it on the bed. Just to clarify that the bag is still there, so when I mention it you don't say, "What bag? Since when did she have a bag?" Sorry, now I'm rambling...)
I must have stood in that room for hours. There paintings were so captivating, like they were painted in HD or something to make them look cool. And there were just so many. I love art. Unless it is really bad, I can stare at it for the longest time and not get bored. Which is weird, because usually I can't stand to do the same thing for two minutes.
Finally I peeled myself away from the gallery, and went through a door on the other side of the room. I almost fell over when I saw what was on the other side of the door. At least 50 feet below me stretched a giant trampoline. It's a good thing I didn't fall over; I probably would've broken my neck. I was about to turn back when I felt like actually jumping down onto the trampoline. I wasn't afraid of heights or anything, but I didn't like to try new things. But I felt like jumping down onto the trampoline. So I did.
It was really fun. I free-fell for a moment, and let out and an ear-piercing scream. I didn't know I was capable of that. Then I hit the trampoline. It stretched pretty far down, cushioning my fall, then pushed me back up into the air. I flew back up, past the door to the gallery, and screamed again, bracing for the crash of me hitting the ceiling. It didn't come. I slowed down, then plummeted towards the ground again. The ceiling must have been pretty high. I bounced some more (maybe more than just some more). Then I started to wonder how I would get off of the trampoline. Every time I bounced it flung me up higher. If I didn't figure out how to get off, or at least bounce less, I actually would crash through the roof.
My mind flashed back to science class. One day we had been learning about gravity and free falling and that stuff. I'm not the best student, but I could recall that our teacher had talked about how to have the perfect landing. Something about spreading out the impact area.
On the next bounce I waved my arms trying to flip over so my back was facing the ground. Hopefully it would create more air resistance to slow me down too. I didn't really work, and I landed on my side. The trampoline was so stretchy that it didn't even hurt my arm. I tried to turn again, and managed to get somewhat on my back. I couldn't tell until a few more bounces, but I was actually losing altitude. It took a long time to stop bouncing, but eventually I did. Go physics!
The trampoline was even bigger than I thought it was. It was really high up too, so when it stretched it didn't touch the ground. Lucky for me, there was a ladder up to the side, giving me an escape route.
When I started to walk on the floor it felt really hard. If you've ever been on a trampoline you know the feeling-like the floor should stretch the same way the trampoline did. My stomach rumbled, reminding me of how hungry I was. It was probably time for supper, and I had to get back to my room to meet Lacey. There was only one problem: I couldn't come back the way I came. I looked around, hoping for a way out. The only thing I saw on the wall was a black corduroy curtain. I walked over and pulled it aside. I was covering a doorway that lead into a room that was filled with poppies. I walked into it and looked around. There was a man sitting in a throne at one side of the room. Of course, the throne was made out of that black gemstone and marble. And, of course, he was wearing black corduroy. He was also wearing this Japanese looking t-shirt with a poppy on it. He looked pretty young too, maybe only 25.
When he saw me he chuckled, which was sort of creepy. He had this really deep voice that practically shook the room.
"So there you are! You missed supper, by the way, but no matter. You should go see Lacey, she has herself all worked up because she lost you. We will have to find a map for you, I think Lacey gave her's to Ula and Zeke, but I'm sure there is one somewhere."
The man kept blabbering, but all I could think of was that I needed to tell him about my quest. I didn't know why, but this man had to know.
"Um," I said. Nice way to start a very important statement. "I'm on a quest to..." I suddenly realized that this man didn't know about the gods or goddesses.
"Oh, yes, down to business. But first you should eat." He got up from his chair and led me out of the room. This guy knew about Olympus? Or did he think I was on a quest to invent a quest to invent a new type of bologna? I was really beginning to question reality of all of this. .
The room that we came into was a banquet hall. Or what looked to be one. This castle was odd. There was enough room to seat 1,000 people, no lie. No one was in it though, except for me and the man. It occurred to me that I didn't know what his name was. I wasn't sure if he had told me or not, so I asked, "What was your name again?" The fail-proof way to find out what someone's name is. If you just asked them what their name was, but they all ready told you, your would seem like you didn't care or were stupid or something.
The man chucked. I hate when people chuckle. "Phantasos," he replied, like his name was totally normal. But it wasn't. Figures.
Then it dawned on me. This man was a god! Florence had been explaining to me all of the gods and goddesses, like I would remember them all. I didn't. But I do remember her talking about the three gods of the Dreamworld. Phantasos was the god of inanimate objects. That would explain some things about the castle.
I just stared at him, processing all of the information. He chucked again. If this guy kept chuckling I would have to resort to something drastic. I hate chuckling. Then he snapped his fingers and a plate of pancakes and cotton candy appeared on the table in front of me.
"How did you..."
"I'm the god of inanimate objects," he said, gloating over his superb power.
"...know I like pancakes and cotton candy?" I said, finishing my sentence.
"Oh, you just look like a cotton candy-pancakes kind of person," he replied, looking slightly embarrassed. I sat down and ate, while Phantasos looked over my shoulder. This guy was seriously starting to creep me out.
"Do you need a glass of waters too?" he asked after I was half-way done with my food.
"Some what?" I asked.
"A glass of waters."
"Water," I corrected him. "And yes."
"Oh, yes. I forgot that you refer to liquids as a singular noun." He snapped his fingers and a glass of water appeared.
"Thanks." I drained the glass (I was thirsty), and then turned around on the bench I was sitting on. "So what of my quest?" I asked.
"First you need to get some rest. Then Lacey will come and show you to the Council Room."
"Okay. Where's my room?" I asked, not wanting to on another crazy trampoline adventure.
"Oh, a map. You need a map..." Phantasos said. He closed his eyes in deep thought, then a pamphlet appeared in front of me. The front had a big title that said, "The Happiest Place On Earth". No, it wasn't a map of Disney World. I opened it to find a giant directory of the castle. As I looked at it a room disappeared. In its place was a giant staircase, which led down to a whole new floor. "That's a new one, so be good to it," Phantasos told me. "Your room is right here," he said, pointing to a room on the second floor. I thanked him for the map, then went to my room and got a shower in the adjacent bathroom. I hung my dream catchers on the wall above my bed (the wall was littered with nails and thumbtacks. Whoever had stayed in this room before had hung up a lot of things.) I got my PJ's out of my bag and put them on,then pulled down the sheets on the bed and slipped inside. The bed was quite comfy. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep, despite all the thoughts floating around in my head.
SORRY! This took way too long to put up. Like five months. At least I'm not as bad as Christopher Paolini (dont know if I spelled that right) Did you hear the fourth Eragon Book comes out in November? I'm so excited! Anyways, if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, please tell me so I can fix them. I proofread it, but I tend to overlook things.
Review! You will get a virtual something! I'm actually trying to write a real book, so anything you say about my writting will help. And then when i publish it, I will track you down and give a free copy, promise. So review!
Today's disclaimer is brought to you by Luna Lovegood.
Luna: Minimus deos not own Harry Potter, anything else, or anything else that exsists in real life. And review, because i said so. Even if you don't believe I did.
(that was a bit boring) Me:Thanks Luna.
PS (post Scriptum): Lacey is very much like Luna, just to let you know. Funny thing is Somnium came up with her and she hasn't read Harry Potter.
Luna: She hasn't? How can she! It is so awesome!
Me: I agree. I will end this now because it is getting too lengthy. Plese review!