red and yellow, big and juicy and they were very sweet. As I sat there munching on the berries watching the last bit of sunlight go down on the horizon, the thought occurred to me that I wished I had a banana to go with these berries.
Morning came very quickly and once again I was off on my exploration of my beach. I did get the sense that I had been making a series of leftward turns throughout this trip and the thought came out that perhaps this was an island paradise and not a large continent at all. There was no way to make a shelter to stay in because even though I was able to pick fruit from the plants, that invisible barrier still prevented me from entering the forest or taking branches from its confines either.
With the ocean on the right and the forest on the left I continued following the beach line around and saw something up ahead that gave me a glimmer of hope in this seemingly endless wandering. A lush meadow full of flowers of all shapes, sizes and colors lay before me; tempting me to turn in their direction, their smells bringing a wonderful aroma to the surrounding air. “It’s not real, don’t even think of going over there,” my brain said to me. I wished that sometimes I could just shut that thing off; while that would be good in one way, in others it would not be so good. True, that never sleeping, sometimes annoying, organ in my body did utter forth things I did not wish to hear; it also controlled my heart, lungs and other vital body functions. My reaction was to do what I often did when trying to do my own thing; I ignored it.
This time I chose the right response because not only was I able to get near enough to the meadow to smell it’s airy delights, but the force field was not present to keep me from entering it. Instead it was on the other side of the meadows entrance and would not allow one to pass by the meadow; the feeling that someone or something was directing my paths was very present at this moment of my life and I was not sure that I liked it one bit. I began to feel like I did as a child when my parents forced me to clean my room or eat broccoli. However, the urge to find the Ice Palace was stronger than my urge to rebel and so forward through the meadow I went.
The walk through the meadow took most of the day and there at the end of the flowery pasture was a parting of the trees with a sign post near the entrance. As fast as my legs could move I ran toward the opening and stopped to read what the sign said: FOLLOW PATH TO THE ICE PALACE. I followed the trail that was laid out before me and kept going until I came to another sign, one that I had seen before and this time I knew what I was going to do. To enter the gate place 600 Smubles into the slot in the red box.” There in the middle of the path was a red circle about three feet in diameter, one that covered the entire width of the path. In the center of the red circle was a red box with a slot cut into it.
I looked into the leather bag and found the same types of coins that had been in the other bag, the very same ones that I had tried to keep hold of and had caused me so much trouble.
This time would be different, I would simply walk past the box and continue down the pathway; keeping all of the riches that I possessed in this little leather bag. What made me think that this idea would work better than that on I had when encountering the Iron Gate, I don’t know. “Yes you do, you’re ignoring me again.” “Shut up brain, I know what I am doing.” “No you don’t.” “Yes I do.”Okay try it again, but if I am right you owe me.” “You are wrong and I know it.”
I hate it when my brain is right and this time it was, and as to what I owe it, I don’t know. I tried to go to the left and that invisible force stopped me. The path to the right didn’t work either, nor did jumping over it. I tried pushing lightly upon the barrier and could not get through; a strong slamming force of my body against it only resulted in me meeting the ground below; which caused me great pain and embarrassment. No one else could see my feeble attempts to bypass the given instructions as far as I could see. The brain, he saw and he laughed at me with each failed attempt. I smacked at the side of my head every time the brain laughed and he even laughed harder at my unsuccessful tries to shut him up.
This barrage of foolish tries had taken up so much time that I had not noticed that the sun had went down and left me in the dark trail of the forest. I returned to the edge of the meadow and found a spot to rest for the night. The air had gotten cooler than the night before and I wished that I had something to make a fire with, some bananas or berries to eat, and something to cover my body with to keep the night air at bay. Somehow I made it through the night without freezing and when the morning sun rose I did the same, making my way to the place where I had found the red circle. To my pleasure it was still there; for during the night I dreamed that I had gone back to the place where it was and the circle and the box were missing, along with the passageway through the forest. I wasted no time and dropped the three red discs into the box and moved forward, only to run headlong into the invisible barrier. A small sign appeared out of the thin air in front of my face and I was astonished to read what it said: your failure to obey will cost you everything that you have in your bag, give it up or you are doomed to stay in the meadow FOREVER. The meadow was very nice, but forever was a long time and there was no food in the meadow and I realized that forever would only last for as long as it took me to starve. So without any delay I put the entire contents of my leather bag into the red box and waited for something to happen. Sure enough there down the pathway a gate made of shining brass appeared out of the emptiness of the trail and the single gate swung open while the path beyond it seemed to glow with a brightness that lit the way through the darkened forest. A fawn appeared at the edge of the pathway along with its mother and a very large buck. Other forest creatures gathered along the trail and it seemed as though they wanted me to follow them and so I did. Nothing seemed odd to me at this point and the desire to reach the Ice Palace was so strong that I would have followed a worm along the trail if I thought it would get me to my destination any quicker. There about two miles down the path I could see the Ice Palace, and with a burst of energy I ran all the way to the entrance of the object of my desire. I could not believe my eyes; there was another large gate to pass through and another fence that went on forever in each direction, but no sign directing me as what to do to enter through it. With a cry of anguish I sat down by the gate and began to weep as I had never done in my entire life; to have come this far and be stopped in my tracks was more than I could bear. There were sounds of merriment and music coming from within the Ice Palace; sounds to torment and tease me about my foolishness in delaying my trip through my selfishness and greed. I rose to my feet and began walking about in circles, first to the left and then to the right, and then reversing directions and continuing on for many hours.
The sun was beginning to set again and I knew that I had missed the party; the party at the Ice Palace had been my source of strength for this journey, and now that it was almost over I concluded that this trip had been for nothing. I again fell on my bottom while weeping and in doing so lost my balance and fell backward into the gate that had blocked me from my future. My head hit the gate and the gate swung wide open; oh what a fool I had been, I had been expecting some sort of direction telling me what to do next and all that was required was to push the gate open and enter through. “Hello, it’s your brain, sometimes you have to think for yourself.” “Well, if you know so much why didn’t you tell me what to do?” “You weren’t listening to me and told me to shut up.”That’s right I wasn’t and I did, didn’t I.” “Yes, this time you are right.””If I ever tell you to shut up again, just ignore me the way I have been ignoring you and tell me what I need to do.” Now that I had things settled with my brain, I decided to go the Ice Palace anyway and see if perhaps there might be some morsel of food left; I was really starving by this time.
The interior of the ice palace was warm yet the ice remained cold. In the tower above I saw my reason for being there. Beautiful blonde hair and a winning smile; rescue time was at hand for this brave lad. First though I had to find the host of this pa
rty and see if there was any food remaining to be found. I had the desire to make a rescue attempt and even the courage to do so; after all there has to be a brave champion to rescue the beautiful blonde in the story. However, even a brave champion can’t battle the enemy on an empty stomach. There might even be hundreds of guards to fight off and that would take skill and cunning. There were still sounds of revelry coming from down the hall and so I walked with a determined and rugged stance toward the sounds.
“She will be gone in the morning,” said the voice through the door. “Yes, and then we will have control over Prince Val,” replied the other voice. “He loves his dear Penelope and would pay anything to have her back; even if it were to hand over his crown,” the first man injected back into the conversation. ‘Do you think that she will be safe in the tower?” “Sure, no one knows she is there, let’s have another mug of brew and then we will get her and move her to the secret location.” With that said the two men went back to their revelry and I turned from my hunt for food