tell you how if you put me into the light.” Heradus called.
I didn’t know who to trust. If the wizard really did do so much to the land and turned Heradus into a shadow then he had to know how to get me home. But then again he did do bad things to the land and turned Heradus into a shadow. And after all I did make a promise to Heradus to help.
“Why did you do this to him?” I asked the wizard.
He sighed. “Heradus was a very bad prince. He took a thriving part of his father’s kingdom and destroyed it over just a few years. Did you see outside? He tried his best to destroy everything.”
Heradus slid over to me. “He’s lying to you. You can break all of his curses right now by just putting me into the light.”
I got down next to the body. I made a promise to Heradus and I was not going to break it now. I pushed his body to where the light had been.
For a second everything stopped. The three of us looked at the body. And then I saw Heradus the shadow move slowly to the body and underneath it. The body’s eyes flew open. He smiled wide and got up.
The wizard stayed put. He simply watched as Heradus regained his body.
Heradus looked himself over and gave me a big grin. “Thank you so much. I don’t know how I could have done this without you, Lawrence.”
Did I tell him my name? I don’t believe I did.
Rumbling started all around. The whole castle was shaking.
“You’ve doomed everyone.” The wizard said. “I promised he could do no more harm to this kingdom and made it so the castle will collapse if he regains his body.”
“Why would you do that?” I yelled.
He didn’t answer. One second the wizard was looking around at the walls and the next he was gone.
“It’s his evil ways.” Heradus said. “You should leave now.”
“What about you?”
“I have my own ways.”
He put his hand up. Slowly his feet left the ground. He rose up into the air.
“Where are you going?” I was starting to panic.
“I’ll be seeing you Lawrence. You really were a big help.”
He rose higher into the air. There was a small hole in the ceiling; he was heading straight for it.
“You need to tell me how to get home.” I begged.
“I have no idea how you can get home.”
The platform crumbled away and I hit the floor.
“You promised.” I shouted up to him.
He was at the hole in the ceiling.
“Good luck.” He yelled down.
He disappeared through the hole.
I turned around and saw the door we came through. I ran back to it. The ceiling began to collapse around me. I avoided falling stone and got to the door. There were no more tricks in the bedchambers or the hall. I ran through them as everything collapsed around me. I shot down the stairs and was immediately lost. Parts of the castle had already fallen. I could see down to the first floor but was wary to jump. And then I remembered my recent invincibility and let the floor disintegrate below me. I dropped through the three levels below and landed with a thud on the ground floor. I weaved in and out of rooms avoiding giant slabs of stone that could have easily crushed me. I found the large doors and made it out. The great building gave one more heave and the whole thing went down in a heap.
4. The Water Ship and its Captain
The giant mass of rubble that was once a grand castle was no longer in a giant hole. Somehow it was now on flat ground. That was all right with me. I didn’t much want to climb out of the hole anyway. That wasn’t the only thing that was different. There were no more trees. A vast empty landscape took the place of the woods. The dry and cracked ground remained.
I wish I had listened to the wizard instead. But he may not have been any help either. I suppose it didn’t matter now what I did. They were both gone and I was still there with no idea as to where I was or how to get home. All I could do now was continue and hopefully find somebody new who might know something.
I picked a direction and started away from what was left of the castle. For the longest time there was nothing but emptiness. It grew tiresome. I missed having company. Heradus hadn’t been so bad. Of course he was just using me to get his body back. It didn’t make sense that he just let his castle crumble. There must have been something else going on between the two of them. I vowed to find them both to get some questions answered. The question I found most important was about the constantly changing landscapes. How could a castle be in a giant hole when we go in and flat ground when I come out?
I can safely say that that had been the strangest day of my life, or two days, or one week. I had no idea. It was now daylight again, but the sun was nowhere to be found. I tried to think back and figure out how many days had really passed so far. It was day when I jumped from the cliff, I think night in the swamp, day in the woods, night in the castle, and now day again. So that was two and a half days. Somebody was probably out looking for me from the department store. They probably checked where I lived first. Where did I live? I think it was a small apartment. That sounded right. Maybe I left from the apartment when I went to the cliff. That sounded right as well. There was just that pesky business of the journey from the apartment to the cliff. I still had no answers for that. There must be someone out there who knew, and I was going to find them.
The barren and dry land ended of a sudden. I now stood on a beach. Waves lapped against golden sand. Only it wasn’t water like I had ever seen. It wasn’t even water. I went up to the edge of the sand to get a better look. I didn’t recognize what it was at first but when I looked beyond the waves it was clear to see. Wood. The water was not water but wood. Not just any wood but a hard wood floor. The entire ocean had lines running through it of a wooden floor.
I tried to comprehend what I was seeing. It wasn’t water but wood. But it sounded like water. The edges hit the sand like water and retreated again just as small waves do. Was it wood colored water or something I had never encountered? I put my hand out and waited for another wave to pass over the sand. It felt like water. I picked up a clump of sand and threw it out beyond the waves. The sand hit the surface as though it were wood.
I scratched my head, completely befuddled. I took a few steps back and ran up to the edge, jumping over the waves. I landed hard on wood. It was only the very edge that acted as water. The rest of the massive sea seemed to be entirely wood. I jumped back to the sand.
There was no one there to sort this out for me. I was once again the only person around. I sighed and started down the beach. If there was an ocean then there should have been a port somewhere.
A giant something appeared in the water ahead of me as if coming out of a fog. It appeared to be a ship. It rose off the wood fifty feet. It had sails, masts, a bow, a stern, and every other part a good sailing ship needed. The only problem was that it was not made of wood. From where I stood it looked to be made entirely out of water. It’s hard to explain. Imagine a ship sized glass filled with ocean water. Now imagine that there was no glass to hold it together and it was simply held together on its own. That’s what I was looking at. I could see fish swimming around inside.
If there was a ship there should have been a crew. I made my way over to it, expecting to see smartly dressed sailors ready to help me board. There were no such people. Instead I came face to face with a short scraggly man wearing a two hundred year old pirate costume complete with an animal on his shoulder. It wasn’t a parrot but a minuscule blue octopus.
He took no notice of me coming up right in front of him. I hailed him from afar but he looked through me.
“Excuse me.” I said.
He finally saw me. His eyes darted all around, and they did not dart together. One whizzed in circles and the other in a square pattern. I tried not to notice. His face was covered in old scars. He had a messy beard that clumped toget
her in three parts.
“What do you want?”
I was expecting a harsh gravelly voice. What came out of his mouth was nothing of the sort. It was angelic. I could almost imagine him bursting into beautifully tuned gospels.
“Is this your ship?”
“It’s a ship.”
“Where are you headed?”
“It’s going to another shore.”
That sounded as good as anything else. “Can I come along?”
His eyes stopped moving for a second as he looked me over. And then they continued to twist and twirl around. “Yes. But hurry up it’s leaving immediately.”
He showed me to a water ladder that protruded out of the ship. I climbed up. I could feel the water running over my hands, but there was something solid underneath. I don’t know what it was; all I could see was water. I made it up to the top. It felt like I was standing in a puddle. I decided that the ship was held together by something, but I couldn’t see it.
I went up to the helm and saw the wheel. The ship began to move beneath me. I went over to the edge and saw that the man was still on the ground.
“It’s moving. How do I stop it?” I yelled down.
“No idea.” He called back.
“You’re the captain.”
He laughed. “I’m not the captain.”
“Then who is?”
“You are now.”
“Where is it going?”
“It goes where it wants to go.”
The ship picked up speed and we left the strange character behind. It glided smoothly across