There were two friends sitting on a bench in a park full of children who were yelling with joy and playing happily. The older girl, whose name was Anne, kicked her legs as if she was bored. Mary looked at her menacingly and nudged her to stop doing it. It was a bright and sunny day, with birds singing merrily. Anne and Mary were bored. They always went to the park when they were bored. They knew the park like the back of their hands.
Suddenly, Anne pointed in the direction of the see-saw. “Have you seen that door before?” she questioned Mary. Mary looked towards where she was pointing and stretched her neck. “Where?” she said, “I can’t see it.” Anne went toward the see-saw and threw back some ivy. Astonishingly there was a wooden door. it was rotten and many termites who had found it, had chewed the wood.
Mary sprang up, and went to examine it. “We haven’t seen this door before, have we?” she looked at Anne and Anne shook her head. “No, definitely not. We have examined every portion of this park and not discovered anything like this. Lets go inside and see.” and before Mary could stop her, she swung the door and hopped inside. Mary followed her meekly.
They were speechless when they entered the other side of the door. It was totally dark and the only source of light was a huge glow worm. Its light wasn’t very bright but it was enough for the two girls to see the place around them.
Their feet stood on soft grass. There were flowers around them and a small pond a little bit further. But something was wrong. There was no sun, no birds, no insects (except the glow worm) and absolutely no sign of life. Anne touched the glow worm and discovered that it was artificial.
“Where are we?” Mary whispered. She suddenly jumped as she heard Anne scream on the top of her voice. There right in front of them were two men. They wore a suit of armor and one of them had a huge beard with beady brown eyes. The other man had an equally huge mustache and small blue eyes. The huge beard man jumped on Mary while the other one did the same thing on Anne. They tied their hands with ropes and pushed hem forward. Mary and Anne were puzzled. Who were these people and where were they taking them? “Who are you?” Anne asked. “Be quiet and just move,” the bearded man said.
They soon reached a huge palace where there were many guards. The palace was beautiful and glittered even without the sun. they were pushed inside and taken into the dungeons. They were then searched and locked in the only prison that was there. Inside was one more fugitive. A very kind looking lady. She sat over there with a worried look on her face when Anne and Mary entered. The blue eyed man had removed the ropes and they were massaging their wrists, when thy realized they had company.
The looked curiously at the lady and the lady at them. Finally, Mary broke the silence by asking, “who are you and what is this place?” The lady spoke and said she wanted to know the same about them so Anne explained what had happened and the lady nodded. She then started to tell her story.
” You are in the land of Elm. I am the queen of this land. I ruled my subjects happily when one day a lady came asking for food. She was cloaked. I welcomed her inside and asked my maid to get a basket of fruits for her. The woman suddenly took out a bottle of a deep dark liquid. I have excelled in the art of magic and immediately realized that it was a a potion that helped to capture anything the owner desired. It takes years to make it. Before i could even say something she spilled it on the floor and we were all captured. This woman was none other than the enemy we have feared for quite some time. She is a witch who wanted to capture this land and make it hers. Now she has done so.”
Anne and Mary looked at each other. Then Anne asked, “how can we destroy this witch. There must be something.” The queen nodded. “If light falls on her then she will turn into ashes. But she is always cloaked to prevent that and now she has taken the sun away. Light is the only thing she is afraid of.”
“That is really good because I have a torch that is easily bright enough to destroy the witch.” Mary smiled happily. “I just need to know where is the room where the witch sits.” The queen pointed above and said, “right above this prison. There is an escape route but as I am chained I am not able to escape. The witch doesn’t know about it. This tile on the roof. It looks just like the other tiles but if you will see, there is a lever on the side. Pull it and it will open right behind the throne on which the witch sits.”
Anne nodded approvingly. She climbed on the seat on which the queen was sitting. Fortunately she was tall enough to pull the lever. The tile opened just as the queen had said. Anne climbed in and Mary did the same. They were in a room that had very little light but they could see the head of the witch. She was sitting on the throne and the girls were just behind. Their hearts in their mouths, they bent low so they would not be visible. Mary took out a pen from her pocket. the guards had not taken it as they didn’t know that it was a penlight. Mary sprang up and immediately shone the light on the witch’s head. She screamed and became pile of ashes along with all her other soldiers. She controlled them so without her they were not there too.
Anne and Mary rushed into the dungeons and freed the queen. She then freed her subjects and brought daylight again. The land of Elm looked really different now. It was bright and joyful. Birds came to sing and insects sat on the grass chirping. “Thank you very much. What would you like to have as a reward?” the queen asked them. “We would like to return home please,” Mary answered. And so Mary and Anne were returned home. As they walked towards Anne’s house, Mary said,” We should return sometime there.” Anne agreed. It was truly a fun place to be in.
