The kids were known to have a vivid imagination, and they could imagine the strangest, most absurd and disparate things; and from the moment Philip told them about his amusement park, each of them couldn't help themselves and let their imaginations fly about what they would find once they arrived on the island. They had tried to hold back a little, because they feared that if they raised their expectations too much they would end up being disappointed. However, when they arrived, they discovered that for once reality had trumped even the kids' enormous capacity for imagination.
The Boiling Islands were even more spectacular than they had imagined. The amusement park was huge and almost like a small town made up of nothing but rides, toys, candy and toy shops, swimming pools, water features, and so many other things that it was impossible to mention them all even if list one after the other for a whole hour; it was all so beautiful, so incredible, that it seemed to them that they had landed in a land of dreams. It was as if some deity had taken all the things that kids normally liked and combined them, creating a country just for them.
"This place is heaven!" Emira exclaimed upon seeing it as her eyes shone; there were so many attractions that none of them knew where to start.
There was only one detail that was a little out of place. "I wonder why everything here is built with those spiral decorations" Luz commented, pointing to the various rides and buildings, all created with what appeared to be hundreds of colorful snakes coiled together.
"I also noticed it at the docks. It's probably a construction method that Mr. Philip really likes" Amity told her. "It's a bit unusual, but in Bonesborough we definitely have worse antics. Everyone has their own tastes after all"
"Well, let's not waste time discussing architectural style! We're here to have fun, for heaven's sake!" Edric exclaimed, then he ran away faster than a lightning: "I'm going to try that roller coaster!"
"Hey, wait for me! I'm coming too!" Emira screamed running after him.
All the other kids imitated them and spread throughout the amusement park, which soon began to resonate with their laughter. It really seemed to them that they had arrived in paradise.
Luz was eager to get on one of those rides, but she still decided to let Amity choose: "What should we start with?"
"I'd say that looks promising" Amity replied, pointing to a carousel with fake horses that moved allowing the kids to stage simulated battles, and both she and the puppet didn't hesitate to jump on it and start playing.
The Boiling Islands were one laugh after another: Luz couldn't remember ever having so much fun in her entire life. After finishing with the carousel they went to one where they had to stand inside some spinning spheres; then into another which consisted of a large boat that went up and down, as if it were on a stormy sea; and then again on the roller coaster, which made them scream in fear every time they fell, but which once it was over made them burst out laughing... and were also particularly pleasant for couples since when they went down their legs shook so badly that you necessarily had to lean on each other to be able to walk, and therefore stay quite close and with their hair rubbing against each other's cheeks; needless to say that within a few minutes these couples were sitting on a bench, of which fortunately there were numerous, to make out passionately, and Luz and Amity were no exception. In fact, they were so inspired by that experience that their next stop was the tunnel of love, which turned out to be filled with really sweet music that almost seemed to make their hearts do somersaults, and when they came out their faces were covered in kisses and their pupils had become heart-shaped and seemed to pulsate.
"It was… beautiful" Luz murmured; she couldn't remember feeling this much heat on her cheeks since she'd confessed to Amity. "Afterwards we'll do another round"
Amity told her, who was redder than her. "I didn't know you could be so… energetic"
Luz shrugged. "What can I tell you? That music inspired me" she said, pressing another kiss on her girlfriend's face. "And in any case you were no exception. Tell me, did kissing my face become a drug and were you going through withdrawal?"
"I don't know. But if it's not a drug yet, it definitely will be one" Amity replied with a laugh. "After all, you taste too good"
"You're not bad either. Even though I still haven't been able to taste that cotton candy hair of yours" Luz replied, and she jumped as if to pretend she wanted to bite her head but failed.
Amity dodged it with a laugh. By now it had become a game for them: Luz tried to bite her hair and she stopped her, and this only seemed to make the puppet more inclined to kiss her. "Speaking of cotton candy, how about we go get some?"
"Great idea! All this movement has made me very hungry" Luz admitted rubbing her stomach. "We're in a kids' paradise, right? So let's go and get our teeth damaged with the best sweets they have here!"
That's exactly what they did, and then they went to one of the many shops that offered cotton candy; inside, however, they discovered that there was no shop assistant, but rather entire mountains of cotton candy of every flavor and variety and a sign saying 'take as much as you want and eat as much as you can!'. "Oh, well, if they tell us like that, we certainly can't refuse!" Luz laughed, and both she and Amity took an abnormal amount of cotton candy and left the store almost staggering to keep their balance.
That cotton candy turned out to be the best they had ever eaten; it seemed to put pure sweetness on their tongue. No other sweet that they ever ate could be compared to it. That gigantic quantity of cotton candy was finished in just ten minutes; and after licking the remnants of such cotton candy from each other's lips, the two girls decided that it was definitely worth trying to taste some of the other food they offered there. They stocked up on pizzas, ice lollies, milkshakes and other delicacies; it almost seemed as if healthy foods were banned in that place and only tasty ones were allowed. However, again they didn't meet a single clerk. "Why do you think no one works here?" Amity asked.
"Maybe Mr. Philip hasn't had time to hire some staff yet" Luz suggested, then she noticed the man in the distance, "Look, he's over there! Let's go and ask him"
Philip was actually sitting behind an ice cream stand and was serving many kids; when he saw them arrive he greeted them warmly: "So, girls, are you having fun?"
"Yes, a lot!" Luz confirmed with a smile. "But we wondered, why are there no workers here?"
"Oh, there's no need!" Philip answered her. "This amusement park is fully automated! And there's even a bit of magic in it actually. It can run completely by itself!"
"Really? Wow!" Amity exclaimed; being both the daughter of an inventor and a witch she was genuinely fascinated by this. "How come you didn't just hire someone?"
"Well..." Philip approached them as if he wanted to tell them a secret. "Keep it between us, but... I admit that I'm a little selfish. This park was my dream and I didn't feel like sharing it with someone else, even if they were my employee. I wanted to be able to say that I was the one who did it laugh all these guys all the time. The only ones I accepted into my service were Kikimora because she has been by my side for a long time and Steve because he is a good helmsman and I don't know how to steer a ship. I know, it's a bit petty, but..."
"You don't need to justify yourselves, Philip. We understand very well" Luz stopped him. That old man was really obsessed with making kids happy; it was normal that he wanted to share this joy as little as possible. Both she and Amity could turn a blind eye to such selfish desire. "Well then, can you give us some ice cream?"
"Of course! What flavors do you want?" Philip asked.
"EVERYONE!" Luz and Amity responded in unison; the ice creams were so beautiful that it was impossible for them to choose, and their mouths were salivating at the mere thought of eating them; they didn't care that they risked getting a stomach ache.
"Oh, oh! Whatever you want, I'll make you an extra large cone then!" Philip said, and he prepared two abnormal ice creams for both of them; but while the two girls weren't looking, with a quick movement of his finger he touched Luz's one and what looked like a drop of strange black liquid broke away from his skin and fell onto it. "Here you are. Eat and then go back to having fun!"
"We definitely will!" Luz and Amity answered, and they went to sit on a bench to eat ice cream; they finished them in just two minutes, even giving themselves brain freeze a couple of times by bursting into laughter. As she finished hers, however, at a certain point Luz felt a bitter taste on her tongue; she checked her ice cream, seeing if there was any strange taste that she hadn't noticed, but there didn't seem to be anything abnormal. "Luz, what is bothering you?" Amity asked her.
"I don't know, I caught a strange taste but I can't figure out what it is. Well, who cares after all" Luz replied, and she quickly finished her ice cream. "So, what do we do now?"
Just then Gus came rushing towards them: "Girls, come quickly! There's a whole castle made of pillows!"
"What!?" Luz and Amity exclaimed in unison, and immediately followed him until they reached what looked like a fairytale place: a six-story castle complete with towers and spiers that was completely made of cushions, which somehow remained standing without collapsing. When they entered they were greeted by thousands of flying pillows, and two of them landed straight on their heads and opened up covering them with feathers. "Don't get distracted, you silly girls!" Skara told them.
"Yeah! This is a war zone!" Boscha laughed, taking another pillow and spreading it on their faces.
Needless to say, in an instant Luz and Amity armed themselves and began hitting all their friends with even more vigor than them. The pillow fight lasted for hours; no one wanted to stop. All the kids had so much energy in their bodies, and it almost seemed that by playing instead of losing it they gained even more. It was as if their laughter itself was a magic that immediately made any tiredness disappear and recharged them into top shape. Only when they really couldn't even lift the pillows anymore because their arms had become heavy as lead did they finally collapse on the soft floor, but still they didn't stop laughing so much that their eyes watered.
"Oh, you were absolutely right: it was worth coming here!" Luz exclaimed.
"Absolutely! This place is definitely heaven! I didn't think such a beautiful place could exist!" Skara said.
"That guy, Philip, may be a bit weird and has little architectural taste, but he's a genius for fun!" Boscha laughed. "I've never laughed and played so much in my life! And we've barely visited... how many? Ten or twelve attractions? This park is so big, I want to stay here forever!"
It was true: despite having had nonstop fun all day, and despite having done nothing but laugh and play for hours and hours, most of the Boiling Islands were still unexplored for them. It would probably take them days to visit the entire amusement park. That thought reminded Luz of something: "By the way, what time is it?"
Her friends looked at each other; in fact none of them had taken into account the passing of time. They emerged from the pillow castle, and they discovered that the sky had already become dark and studded with stars, and judging by the position of the moon it must have been very late. Noticing Kikimora who was cleaning the street from some papers, they asked her the time. "It's half past two in the morning" was the little woman's reply.
"Wow... damn, we had so much fun that we forgot we had to get back to the ship at nine" Amity murmured feeling a little guilty. "Can't the ship leave now?"
"I'm afraid not. Departure times are decided based on the tides" Kikimora explained to them. "It is not possible to leave the island before nine in the morning tomorrow"
"Damn… my mother will definitely be mad" Skara muttered.
"Yeah. Let's get ready for a good beating as soon as we get home" Boscha commented a little annoyed.
Luz and Amity looked at each other; they didn't have such problems technically, since Eda and Lilith weren't home and couldn't have known that they hadn't returned, but still they were a little sorry since they had technically disobeyed the rule of always returning home before sunset. "I hope King doesn't get scared" Luz said thinking of the young Titan with a lot of bitterness. "Anyway, what do we do now?"
"You can stay here" Kikimora answered them, and she pointed to a corner of the park. "There are hotels there, and they are included in the ticket"
"Right! Philip told us about it" Amity remembered. "There really are no problems?"
"Everything in this park is free for the first month. You can stay here for this entire month without paying anything if you want. When the month is up... well, then you'll have to pay. But you still have at least twenty-nine days before have to worry about that" Kikimora answered to them.
The kids thanked her, and then they went to the hotels; fortunately the street was illuminated by small blue phosphorescent lights hanging from some sort of poles. They discovered that they weren't the only ones left behind: a lot of other kids were there and were choosing a room. It seemed that everyone who came to the Boiling Islands ended up missing the ship. Well, that was to be expected given the amount of entertainment on offer.
They each took the keys to a room, displayed prominently at the entrance, and then they went looking for it. Luz and Amity took a room together and as soon as they entered they fell onto the bed exhausted. Their limbs seemed to have become the consistency of pressurized iron, but neither of them could keep the smile off their faces. "It was one of the best days of my life" Amity admitted.
"Yeah. We definitely have to come back here one day" Luz told her as she snuggled into her arms. "Now let's sleep, tomorrow we have to get up early if we want to catch the ship"
"Yes, you're right. Goodnight, Luz" Amity said, pressing one last kiss on her lips. The two girls tasted each other's tongue one last time, and then they fell asleep.
What they didn't notice was a large eye that appeared on the ceiling, peering at them both illuminated by an evil light; or rather, it looked at Luz, and it seemed particularly happy to see her."Good" a cavernous voice whispered. "The seed took root right away. This body is very promising indeed!"
In the original book, as already explained, Toyland is simply a place where kids can do what they want without adults who force them to be responsible; there is no real description of the place, also because when the book was written many of the rides we have today were not present. To create the Boiling Islands I therefore took inspiration from various amusement parks around the world and took them to extremes, so imagine them as a classic amusement park but made up of Belos' tentacles camouflaged by rides