Chapter 1
"Mary, dear, come pick up your toys
and Seymour, please go get your brother,"
said Martha.
"Which one?" said Seymour slyly.
"Gosh Seymour, Eddie, don't put that in your mouth!" Martha said as she took a
rock out of 3 year old Eddie's hands.
This
was the life of Martha and her 12 kids. Martha
was a single mother and had
to hire a nanny
often. Martha was a tall, beautiful, and kind mother.
"Joshua, do you mind if you can take everyone outside?"
said Martha, exhausted.
"Ok Mom." Joshua picked up little Eddie and guided the rest of his 10 siblings
outside.
"Ok," Joshua said. "Samantha, Drake, Eddie, Seymour, Mary, Sammy, Kate, Ollie,
Raymond, Tom, and Wendy. Yup that's everyone."
Little Mary tugged on his pants to get his attention.
"Josh, you forgot yourself."
Josh bent down "Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me," He said as he patted her on
the head. "And Josh."
A
half an hour passed as they all played games
of
hide and seek and freeze tag
out in the pasture.
A
tabby cat had snuck past the gate and walked to little Mary.
Mary turned around and saw the tabby. "A kitty!"
She petted the cat gently and eagerly and brought
the cat to her siblings.
"Look guys! I found a kitty!" She said, running to
her siblings.
The cat
followed her and rubbed
against her legs. The cat then sat next to the
tree. Everyone sat and the cat stood up and went behind the tree.
"Well, seems you all could use a
bit
of fun?" said a woman's voice from behind
the tree where
the cat was.
A
young woman, about 18, walked out from behind the tree, dressed in a pastel
pink and
light blue dress; she had a small ball made of wood. She had long, curly, brown
hair to her knees. Her sky blue eyes and kind smile had matched her personality.
Josh stepped up in front of his other siblings and said. "Who are you? You can't
be here; this is not your
land."
"Tsk tsk,
it is ok, just be careful of my friend, he's around here somewhere."
As if
on
cue, a wolf steps out of the bushes behind the woman and sneaks up
behind her.
"Miss,
look out!" Mary says.
The wolf jumped in front of the woman
and, weirdly, it spoke.
"Boo!" said the wolf and the woman laughed at that.
"Tristan!"
The woman said.
The kids watched in amazement
as
the wolf
turned into a boy around the same
age as the young woman.
"I couldn't help it, Sara." Tristan said as he rubbed the
back of his head.
He had wavy
brown
hair that was all messy.
He
also had a kind smile,
but he had
brown eyes and tan and brown clothes.
The woman, as Tristan called her, Sara,
looked at the kids and smiled.
"Come on, me and my friend Tristan have a magical place to show you."
Josh, still a little skeptical, looked at his siblings and smiled.
He looked back at Sara and said "Ok."
Sara smiled and
started walking to the wood.
Josh's brother, Ollie, ran up to the woman and said, "We aren't supposed to go
there."
The woman just smiled and said, "The magical
place I want to show you is in the
wood. Don't worry, you'll be perfectly fine."
Tristan follows up by saying, "She knows
what she's doing. I've been there too.
You'll be safe."
Everyone follows Sara and Tristan into the wood and they appear at a waterfall.
All of the children touched the water and splashed in the pond at the bottom while Sara
and Tristan
watched with smiles.
Tristan speaks up, "Do you want to see the place we were talking about?"
"There is somewhere more magical
than this?" says Seymour.
Both
Tristan and
Sara laugh a little before Sara says, "Yes, little ones, there is"
Tristan and Sara point to behind the waterfall.
"It's behind there," they say in unison.
Tristan becomes a wolf again and runs to behind the waterfall before
disappearing.
The kids all whisper and become scared for him before they hear, "Come on, what
are
you waiting for?"
Sara leads the kids to behind the
waterfall and instead of coming through the
other side, they find themselves in a wonderful place that
can only be dreamed of. The
grass was a blue-green color and the trees had white bark with many colors of leaves.
Tristan was in a tree and Sara was sitting in the grass
on
a very large blanket.
"Come sit," said Sara. Her small wooden ball that she
had been holding earlier
turned into a wand that was as long as a paintbrush. Her dress was now long and flowy
and was galaxy colored.
"You
look so pretty!" Mary says as she sits next to her.
"Aww, thank you
little one." Sara said, flattered.
Tristan was still in the tree. Josh and Seymour were climbing up
to reach Tristan
while Kate,
Wendy, and Mary were sitting with Sara while
she used her flute to play to
the rest of the kids while they danced.
After
about an hour, lots of different animals came out of the wood around them.
They ranged
from wolves to cats and even some bunnies
and deer came out. After a
little while, just like Sara
and Tristan, they turned into people, all around 17, 18,
or 19.
The kids were stunned once they started playing with them like Sara and Tristan
did.
After
it started getting dark, Sara spoke up.
"Kids, I think it's time to head back
home." She said
kindly, her voice stitched with
sadness.
The 12 kids were, indeed, filled with sorrow,
but
knew
that she was right. They all
followed Sara to the
waterfal in which they
had entered this magical place.
"Sara?"
Said Josh, who was following Sara,
his
other siblings not far behind.
"Yes Josh?"
"Will we
ever see you again?" His question was filled with curiosity as he said
this.
"Well Josh," She started to speak. After a small pause, she continued, "the world
works in
wonderful ways, I guess we will have to wait and find out."
She smiles at Josh as they head
behind the waterfall in a single
file line.
When
they arrived back home, thet did continue playing for a little while before
Sara and Tristan made their way back to their home. They sneaked back behind the
waterfall and disappeared, no longer in sight.
The chilrden don't notice until their mother comes out and asks them to come
inside.
The children look
around, only to
find that Sara
and Tristan had left.
They walk back in and stayed quiet until dinner,
when their mom asks,
"You
guys are awfully quiet. What did you do the whole time that you were
outside?"
And just like that, all at once the children blurt 12 things all at the same time. Their
mother calms them down before asking
Josh what happened.
"Mother,
you won't believe it! We
met a
girl named Sara and she took us into the
wood behind the waterfall! We came into this magical place that had cotton candy
colored skies and trees
whose leaves were the color of the sea!"
The children all confirm what Josh had said with nods and many saying yes.
Their mother
just laughs
lightly and wholeheartedly.
"You
kids and your imaginations. Now, off to
bed you lot."
The kids were confused, but they headed to their respective rooms, stopping in
the hallway
to say their goodnights. After they
did, they all went into their room and fell
asleep.
Josh, however, couldn't sleep, Sara's words repeating in
his head.
" The
world works in wonderful ways, I guess
we will have to wait and find out. "
He let
these words rest in his head as he slowly drifted to a dreamless
sleep.