The Dream-Quest

By Stephanie Louise Lu

In a distant world called Educity, everybody does nothing but study and work. Nobody has thought of changing the peaceful, orderly and rigid system; nobody has considered the meaning of life. This is why the Goddess appoints five twelve-year-olds to embark on a quest for true wisdom. They leave their homes and venture into an unknown world, where they go through precarious adventures, encountering everything from magic to ancient treasure. But at the end of it all, how will they save their silently suffering fellow Educitizens?

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 6, 2006
• ISBN: 9780595822515

Stephanie Louise Lu

Stephanie Louise Lu started writing this novel at age twelve based on her experiences as a student in Singapore. When she was in her preteens, she moved to Vancouver, B.C. with her family to continue learning in a different cultural environment. She was fifteen when she finally submitted the manuscript of The Dream-Quest for publication. Now she is a student of comparative literature at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and plans to write and publish more after graduation. She has a personal website, http://www.swordlily.webs.com, which she updates monthly.

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Copyright © 2006 by Stephanie Louise Lu

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Printed in the United States of America

To all students: What are you studying for?

To all adults: Aren’t you students, too?

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Contents

1   

A Miserable City

2   

The Journey Begins

3   

The Dry Desert

4   

The Crags of Doom

5   

Unfortunate Happenings

6   

A Young Heroine in the Dark

7   

Princess Aura

8   

Pringmarn

9   

Music Making

10

Jesse’s Escape

11

Jesse in Dark Land

12

The Passing of Quentin

13

The Black-Roofed Farmhouse

14

Cletus’ Miracle

15

Passing Pain

16

Madam Quinn

17

The Villains

18

Rescuers in Need of Rescue

19

Painful Partings

20

The Locked Gate

21

The Box

22

Words of Power

23

Keen Witches’ Spleen

24

Kathryn’s Stay with the KWS

25

A Discovered Secret

26

Prepare to Attack!

27

Fire

28

Educity Reborn

1   

A Miserable City

In a world beyond ours, there was one particular city, named Educity. It was the most miserable place you could ever think of. The city was filled with tall buildings, but only one of them was a true food factory, well equipped, with an indoor rice farm in it. Only that building produced real food, and that food was just plain rice, with all the essential vitamins condensed into tasteless juice and sprinkled over the rice. All the Educitizens simply ate rice everyday, together with plain water. Food was nothing enjoyable, only nutritious, but nobody cared. For clothes, there was also only one clothes factory, which produced just normal cotton clothes, with no dye at all. Everybody in Educity wore simple, white cotton clothes, and no one ever complained about that either.

What did they care then? What were all the other buildings for? All the townspeople cared for was education. The most miserable people in Educity were children. The poor young kids! They were forced to study all day long, starting from when they were only seven years old. They woke up early in the morning, went to school where they did countless worksheets, then to the tuition centre, where they did more papers and exercises, and finally back home, but not to rest, just to complete even more homework. The older children had to do researches, too, and they worked in the library till very late in the night. Eventually, when the clock on the Town Tower struck twelve, the children collapsed into bed, to enjoy their momentary night of peace, playing in a beautiful orchard in the marvellous world of dreams, until the clock on the Town Tower chimed six times, and it was time for school again.

The adults did not rest either. They made very good use of the education they had in childhood, and they worked long hours in office buildings, banks, business companies etc. The adults that were unable to learn much when they were young worked in libraries as librarians, or in the wealthy people’s houses as maids, or in factories as workers. The cleverer adults just stayed at home, doing experiments and inventing new machines and robots, or writing new classics.

They pressed very hard on their youngsters, forcing them to do mock exam papers all day.

When they were old, they finally relaxed, living with their children happily ever after until their end.

The most important thing in Educity was the Educity Exam, which twelveyear-olds took after their primary education. Before this great Exam, the people went utterly crazy. More work was rained on the poor helpless children, and mothers continued saying to their exhausted, terribly strained children, ‘You must work hard! The Educity Exam will decide your fate. If you fail it, you will become a worker with low income and no bright future at all. You must work hard! If you do well in it, you will stand a good chance of becoming famous, and you will prove that you are wise and you will be able to find a good job. Imagine prospering when you are older! You must work hard!’

How the children longed to say, ‘I am working hard! Look, I am working so hard that I cannot work harder anymore! At this rate I will work and work until I die!’ Alas for them, they were too exhausted, helpless and young to say such things. It was just not right. If they said it they would be scolded and cuffed on the head, and simply told to concentrate on their studies.

When a child who was not so intelligent could not understand his studies and no matter what explanations were given to him, he was just unable to take it in, his stressed up and weary parents would lose their patience, scold him, and sometimes even beat him.

That was how the children studied and studied and studied before the Exam, and when it came, they would be so very frightened and try their very, very best in it, until the results came out and decided their lifelong fate. Then they would either be praised tremendously, receiving thousands of presents for their success, or be caned until they could bear it no more and be left alone forever, known as a born loser, growing up into hopeless persons who used their physical strength to live, labouring woefully until their later years.

How cruel and merciless Educity was! There were no holidays, no vacations, only work, work and more work until one’s hair grew white.

On Saturdays, things were slightly better. The people need not go to school or to work, and only did some homework at home. On Sundays, it was delightful to the children, because they could escape homework for an entire morning by going to the Town Tower (which was like a church to them) to waste their time. The people of Educity believed that if they prayed in the Town Tower on Sunday mornings, their children would be blessed with good luck and would be able to do better in their exams and tests.

The Town Tower was the only remarkable structure in Educity. From the outside, it looked like an especially tall round ‘well’ (about a hundred metres high) with a pointed orange roof and curved brick walls. Surrounding it was a round O-shaped garden imprisoned within tall rusty creaky fences, in which young lucky children who had not yet started their terrible education played beneath the holy pine trees and danced on the rich green grass creeping right up to its door.

It was old. You could tell by looking at its aged worn walls, with its ancient reddish bricks coated in dirt and dust, moss timidly peeping out from between the cracks. There was no opening into it save a very narrow well-polished wooden door at its feet. A large clock with a rusty iron frame and curly Roman numerals all over its face hung just beneath the roof tiles. Sometimes a rook or two perched on the roof to look at the city, only to be scared off by the loud chiming of the clock some time later.

When the Educitizens squeezed in through the narrow doorway to pray on Sunday mornings, the huge clock chimed deafeningly, welcoming them into the Town Tower. They gathered in the circular hall, seating themselves cross-legged on the red-carpeted floor, facing a curved bench that was pressed against the western side of the wall. Nobody dared to sit on this bench, because that was where the Goddess sat. This Goddess was not a statue, not imaginary, not immortal, but simply a mortal young lady. She was chosen, because she was the wisest of all the Educitizens, and the townspeople worshipped her because she could help to ease their pain. She could not entirely solve their problems, but she could give them temporary peace and set their troubled hearts at rest for that lovely morning, until the clock chimed and it was time to go home again. From the day she was elected she had been living in the Town Tower, sitting all day long on the bench, her hands clasped together on her lap, her soft brown eyes closed. Her skin was fair, her cheeks rosy, and her face beautiful, the long brown locks curling down over her forehead. There seemed to be a mysterious mist of wisdom hovering about her, but she stayed in that position for as long as anyone could remember, her slender long legs placed firmly on the floor. When she spoke, her voice was sweet and comforting, ringing like silver bells, but it sounded very far away.

The Sunday mornings always started with the Goddess leading them to say a prayer in a language that they could not understand, and then she would start calling out names in turn. Those called went up to her to tell her their problems and she would console them. While the others waited for their turn, they sat quietly, gazing up at the round roof high above and sinking deep into their thoughts, until the clear musical voice called them out of their mind chambers. When they spoke with the Goddess, they were never afraid that anyone should overhear them, because the other waiting people were under the Goddess’ silent power, and just dreamed until she summoned them.

At the very back of all the Educitizens sitting in the hall, five children aged twelve sat together, lost in their dreams. Their names were Kathryn, Glenda, Jesse, Cletus, and Elmer. They were not exactly special, and very much looked down upon, for their grades were low. All of them fared badly academically, but they never could understand why, for they worked like slaves. Their parents and teachers and tutors rained countless practice papers on them, day and night, until they could hardly stand the stress. When exams came, they were totally in despair, for they were unable to answer most of the questions. They dreaded the day the results came out, because then they would have to endure scolding and beating from their anguished, worried parents, and jeers from cleverer students. Their greatest desire was to do well in the Educity Exam and receive their promised rewards from overjoyed parents, but even in practices they failed. Their second greatest desire was to escape from this torment totally and enter the beautiful orchard of peace in their dreams forever, off to play and relax to their heart’s content. Unfortunately it was not so, and they were still stuck in this pitiless Educity, struggling to bear the burdens laid on their exhausted, sore backs.

Kathryn and Glenda were twin sisters. They were poor, and their parents worked all day to provide money for their school fees and tuition fees, so the girls were usually left alone at home. They were fair-skinned, auburn-haired and brown-eyed, and the only difference between their appearances was that Kathryn wore her hair in a ponytail while Glenda left her hair loose over her shoulders. Kathryn considered herself a big sister, because Glenda was born five minutes after her. Glenda loved and admired Kathryn with all her heart, but Kathryn barely appreciated her sister’s love, bossing Glenda about all the time. Still Glenda remained steadfastly loyal; she did not know why she loved Kathryn so much, but she just did.

Jesse and Cletus were best of friends. Jesse could run very fast, and was a good young sportsman. He always won the wrestling games with other children when he was very young and had not yet started school. Sadly, ever since he started school, he became deprived of freedom, and he gave up sports. He made friends with Cletus, who fared just slightly better than him in school, and they usually did homework together in the library. They often had problems, but did not dare to copy each other for fear both their answers were wrong, which would only lead to trouble with the teacher. Through all these times, good and bad, they stayed together. It was a beautiful irony because they were so different, both in physical appearance and in personality. Jesse was dark-skinned and had black curly hair and small, bright black eyes, and he was very tall and muscular. Cletus was also dark-skinned, but his brown hair was straight, and he was short but stout, a dwarf next to his friend. He was a natural pessimist, always bemoaning the unfairness of life, while Jesse had little patience for such things.

Elmer seemed to be the odd one out of the group of five. All he knew was sing, but that was not what his mother wanted. He was always forced to do loads of work by his mother, who controlled him by depriving him of dinner if he did not finish his homework. That was why he was so thin and pale, almost a ghost. He had fair skin, and his eyes were pale blue and strangely enormous, and his golden hair pricked up like short needles on his head.

These children always sat together in the Town Tower on Sunday mornings. They lived in the same estate, so it was easy to visit each other. Also, since all of them performed badly in school and were rejected by the smarter kids, they found sanctuary within their own miserable little social circle.

‘Kathryn, Glenda, Jesse, Cletus, and Elmer!’ the Goddess’ clear voice rang out. She always called them all together, because they were the most miserable children in Educity, and shared the same problem.

They slipped out of the beautiful imaginary orchard of their dreams, and hurried past the solemn townspeople over to the curved bench. There they knelt down before the Goddess’ feet, their heads bowed, and waited.

‘What problem weighs down your minds, dears?’ asked the Goddess gently.

‘You already know, don’t you,’ said Jesse, lifting his head. His voice carried a layer of bitterness. ‘We are suffering from schoolwork and exams, and as you know, the Educity Exam is coming next month…’

The Goddess looked at him with her soft brown eyes, and the anger died in his throat, replaced by a strange sense of peace, in spite of himself.

‘Have you ever daydreamed, dears?’ questioned the Goddess.

‘Um…yes, before I started school,’ replied Cletus, ‘but ever since I went to school, I was told that daydreaming was wrong, and that I should concentrate on my schoolwork. So I never daydreamed again.’

‘Do you know that daydreaming is not wrong, dears?’ said the Goddess. ‘One cannot help daydreaming when one is bored and lonely. However, one should avoid it, because it kills time. I always daydream, during the weekdays in this empty chamber when all others are out in the busy city. I hate the busy world, in which people suffer so. Daydreaming clears one’s mind and relieves one’s troubled heart. When you sit down quietly, and sink into dreaminess, the world blurs away, leaving you exploring your mind chambers. You see your greatest desires coming true right before your eyes, and you sigh with pleasure, enjoying…enjoying, until you hear someone call. A faint voice sounds, and the mist around you trembles. The voice calls again, louder, and the mist grows fainter. Then suddenly, as a hand touches your shoulder, the mist totally clears, leaving you in the real world again, your dreams spoilt. Your heart jolts, and you feel terrible—everything that happened just now was just a dream! You look, and find that the voice is coming from your teacher, or your mother, or your father. You are scolded for daydreaming, and told to do your work. Is that not true, dears?’

‘It is!’ chorused the five children altogether.

‘But why do you tell us such a thing, Goddess?’ said Jesse. ‘Even if daydreaming is not wrong, the adults will never understand, and we will still be scolded for it. We can’t help it!’

‘I know you can’t, and that’s why I pity you,’ said the Goddess gently. ‘I feel your despair pouring from your troubled minds, much more strongly than I feel in other children. At last, at long last, I think I shall spill my secret to you. Look at me!’ she suddenly commanded in a voice louder and sterner than her usual soft, gentle voice. That voice sounded very present, unlike her usual magical voice, sounding very faraway and distant.

The children were startled, but one by one they lifted their heads and stared at the Goddess. To their tremendous surprise, she had opened her eyes, something she had not done for years. When they looked into her eyes, they saw what special eyes those were. The eyes were soft and brown, and when they looked into them, they felt that there was a long straight brown tunnel going on and on and on, with no end, and after only a few seconds of gazing, their minds became fuzzy, and they could not endure her gaze any longer. Slowly, they lowered their eyes, and once they did so, they felt that they were released from a very strong power hidden somewhere in those magical eyes. There was a light in those eyes, a mystical, shining golden light, but none of them could guess what it was.

‘Look at me!’ ordered the Goddess again, and her eyes flashed menacingly.

They did so, but reluctantly, and this time, the eyes did not seem as frightening as before. But still, it made the children giddy to stare for long, because they felt that their souls were wandering into those brown tunnels, deeper and deeper…they were wrenched by a terrible thirst, as though there was something at the end of the tunnel which they longed for very much…and as their souls dived deeper and deeper, the loud, fast pumping of their hearts sped up…their minds swam…they tried to withdraw their gaze, for they felt they could not endure it much longer, but the hidden power of the Goddess held them firmly, not letting them go.

‘I shall tell you the secret I have treasured for many years,’ said the Goddess, and her voice sounded very deep in the brown tunnels, echoing faintly in the distance. ‘Do you know where all my wisdom came from, dears?’

The children tried to answer, but they felt they were too deep in the tunnel to answer, and yet they were still going deeper and deeper…Their voices fought to get out of their throats. But eventually only Elmer the singer managed to project out a somewhat strangled voice, ‘No, Goddess, we don’t know.’

‘It all came from a dream,’ said the Goddess dreamily and slowly, as though recalling a long-forgotten thing of the past. ‘When I was a twelve-year-old child just like all of you, I was at the bottom of my class, and all I longed for was wisdom. At that time, the Goddess here was an old lady shrivelled like a pea, and she fidgeted all day long and croaked like a frog. She told me that all Goddesses in the Town Tower go through a strange dream, and that dream must be told by the previous Goddess, who would choose a young twelve-year-old. Once that dream is told, the youngster will dream it at night, and the very next day the previous Goddess will die, and the youngster will be elected as the new Goddess. Do not fear, girls, I am not going to let either of you be the Goddess after me, and I will not die tomorrow, but I am going to tell you the dream, yes, the boys too—just a small part of it, so that you may seek wisdom. That old woman chose me as the next Goddess, and told me her dream.

‘That dream is not something you can simply imagine. You have to look in the previous Goddess’ eyes to understand it, and that Goddess keeps her eyes closed unless she wants someone to look in them. When you look in them, you feel that you are going deeper and deeper into some sort of tunnel, don’t you, dears?’

Once again, they struggled to speak, but it was even more difficult, because they were even deeper in those tunnels. After a long while of fighting to let their voices out, they eventually choked out one word, ‘Yes.’

‘Yes, that was what I felt too, when I first looked into the old woman’s eyes,’ continued the Goddess serenely, with deep understanding. ‘It is part of the dream. When you travel deeper and deeper into the tunnel—for you will only go into one tunnel instead of both the tunnels, since they lead to the same destination—you will finally see a spark of light at the distant end. Once you glimpse that spark, you will somehow yearn and desire it tremendously, and when you finally reach it, you will receive instructions on what to do when you leave the tunnel. Outside the tunnel you will go through journeys until you reach a castle, and in that castle you will find the ancient chest of wisdom. Open it, and drink in the wisdom, and you will be one of the wisest people in the world. But it is not as easy as I tell it, and the journeys are perilous. You will understand, when you go through it. Tonight, you will dream it. I shall make sure that you do. I cannot bear to feel the pain you are experiencing. It is much more terrible than any other child’s. Go now.’

Suddenly, they were released from the Goddess’ mysterious power, and they felt themselves rushing back out of her eyes, as though pulled by a very strong force, and next moment, they were kneeling back on the red carpet at the Goddess’ feet, and when they looked up, the Goddess’ magical eyes were shut again, and she was frozen in that position once more, as still as a statue.

Kathryn, Glenda, Cletus, Jesse and Elmer made their way back to the far end of the circular hall, and sank down heavily on the floor. They were strangely weary, as though their energy had been extracted by the power of the Goddess. Although they had finished their talk with the Goddess, their hearts were heavy, as though weighed down by tons, and the mysterious brown eyes kept looming into view before their eyes. They closed their eyes, and tried to think of other things, but the eyes were all they could think of. They could hardly get rid of that thought for the rest of that long day, and their legs were like lead when they walked home with their parents. The work that their parents made them do at home were more than half wrong, and their parents were quizzed to see a mysterious light dancing in their eyes, the same mystical shining golden light in the Goddess’ eyes.

‘What is bothering you, Elmer?’ his mother asked. ‘Your fractions test paper is very badly done! You’ve only got twenty-one questions right out of forty-five! What’s the matter with you? What are you thinking about?’

‘Nothing,’ murmured Elmer. ‘Nothing…’

‘There is a strange light in your eyes,’ said his mother. ‘Are you worried about something?’

‘No, no,’ mumbled Elmer, lost in his thoughts. ‘No.’

‘Then concentrate on your homework,’ snapped his mother. ‘I want to see at least thirty questions correct in this second fractions test paper, and do all your corrections!’ Seeing the dreamy expression on her son’s face, she added, ‘And don’t daydream!’

‘The Goddess said it was all right to daydream,’ blurted out Elmer, but he regretted his words as soon as he said them.

‘The Goddess?’ repeated his mother. ‘She’s the wisest in all Educity! How can she allow this bad habit of daydreaming? Don’t play tricks with me! I know you’re lying!’

Elmer flushed as scarlet as a beetroot, but he did not dare to say more.

‘Now you concentrate on that fractions test paper, and unless you get thirty or more questions correct, you aren’t going to have any dinner.’

‘If she dares to deprive me of dinner,’ muttered Elmer to himself, ‘I’m going to steal some food from the kitchen somehow. This is a wrong way of punishment! She’s weakening me, that’s what she’s doing.’

‘What’s that you’re saying?’ said his mother sharply.

‘Nothing,’ said Elmer instantly, ‘and I’m not daydreaming!’

‘Ha, ha, Glenda! I’ve finished my tuition homework before you!’ laughed Kathryn.

‘I’ve only got one question left,’ said Glenda, in a feeble attempt at defence.

‘You’ve been working on that for fifteen minutes already! Come on, Glenda! Admit you can’t do it! Don’t pretend!’

‘I know how to do it,’ said Glenda, wishing her sister would stop teasing.

‘Now I’ll start on my Science workbook exercises,’ grinned Kathryn. ‘I should be able to finish it by three o’clock. How about you? Going to burn all your brain cells on that last question until you faint?’

Glenda did not say anything. She was still thinking about the magical brown eyes, and she wished she could forget them for a while and do her homework, but it was not easy. She wondered how Kathryn could forget them so successfully. She lowered her head, blinked hard to get the vision out of her eyes, and focused on her worksheet.

‘One exercise finished!’ said Kathryn triumphantly, flipping a page over. ‘Still working on that question, Glenda?’

‘No, I’m thinking,’ sighed Glenda, her mind swimming. ‘Thinking about the Goddess’ eyes…oh dear, I do wish I can forget them for a minute! Please don’t bother me now, Kathryn. I’ve got a headache.’

‘I’ll help you forget,’ offered Kathryn, putting on a kind voice. ‘Come, I’ll read out that question as loudly as possible and drive that thought out of your mind. That’s how I forget. I was screaming myself hoarse in my mind, so you can’t hear me, but I’ll have to really bellow at you, because I can’t help you think.’

‘Thank you,’ said Glenda gratefully.

Kathryn shouted out the question in Glenda’s ear, almost deafening her, and finally Glenda could forget that vision for a moment, but her eardrums were ringing. She was about to pick up her pen and complete her worksheet, but Kathryn said, ‘Glenda, you must pay me back for helping you solve your problem! Get me a glass of iced lemonade, and be quick!’

‘All right,’ moaned Glenda, getting up.

Cletus was biting the end of his pen hard and staring fixedly down at his arithmetic book, and Jesse was propped up on his elbow, his eyelids as heavy as lead. They were doing their homework together in Cletus’ house, and Cletus’ mother was busy in the kitchen. At last, Jesse could bear it no longer.

‘Cletus! Shall we ask for some food?’

‘No,’ groaned Cletus. ‘Mum won’t allow us to eat in my bedroom. And besides, eating won’t help us get rid of those brown eyes. They’re flitting in and out of my eyes, driving me crazy.’

Jesse nodded vehemently. ‘Me too! I can’t concentrate! The Goddess’ torturing us instead of helping us. I wish I could forget her eyes. One hour’s past already, and I haven’t even finished one page yet! How about you?’

‘Only half a page done,’ said Cletus sadly.

Jesse slammed down his pen with impatience. ‘Shall we just stop doing all this sickening stuff totally and wait for night to come, so that we can dream that dream the Goddess’ promised us?’

‘I can’t,’ sighed Cletus. ‘Mum will wallop me if she finds out that I haven’t finished. She wants at least five pages of this arithmetic book done by three o’clock, and now it’s two o’clock already. At this rate, I’ll never finish it.’

‘I would have done it much faster if only I can stop thinking about those stupid eyes,’ complained Jesse.

Cletus’ mother suddenly burst into the room, wiping her hands on her apron. ‘How many pages done, Cletus?’

‘Two,’ lied Cletus miserably, covering up his book.

His mother nodded and went out, leaving Cletus almost crying in despair. Out of pity for his friend, Jesse went over and helped him with his work. They scribbled as quickly and well as they could.

At long, long last, night came, accompanied by the loud chiming of the Town Tower clock. The children collapsed into bed, but the adults stayed up for some time to complete their own business before they allowed themselves to rest.

While other children were happily dancing in their imaginary orchard of peace and happiness, Kathryn, Glenda, Jesse, Cletus and Elmer were in a place in the world of dreams which they had never known before. Although Cletus had been whacked by his mother for completing only three pages by three o’clock, he did not have any painful marks on his arms when he found himself in the dream. Elmer had also been punished and did not have dinner, but he was not hungry at all when he dreamt. The Goddess had cured them with her power.

First, they saw total darkness, and then a spark appeared in the distance, providing a very dim light. Now they were in the brown tunnel again, running forward towards the spark, not knowing why they did so, and as they ran, they were surprised to find that they were not huffing and puffing, but moving easily, although their hearts were pumping quickly. Not long, the spark grew brighter and larger as they neared it, and finally they reached it.

It was not a gold necklace as Kathryn and Glenda had imagined, or a shiny suit of armour as Jesse and Cletus had thought, or a magnificent well polished piano, as Elmer had assumed. It was just sunlight, peeping in through the end of the tunnel. The Goddess was there in her white dress, sitting on a wooden bench. She was poised in the same position as in the Town Tower, but her fair forehead was creased with worry and her eyes were slightly open. Sunlight crept over her shoulders, lighting up the place. The children blinked in the sudden light.

‘Um…good day, Goddess,’ said Glenda timidly, not knowing whether she should say good night, which was true as they were dreaming, or good day, which sounded more right as the sunrays were pouring in.

‘It is still night, dears,’ said the Goddess. ‘And you are in this dream, which I have promised you. I will give you the instructions. However, you will not awaken and escape from this dream unless you come back to this tunnel or find some other magical source. To become wise is not your only goal, I’m afraid. You have to relieve Educity from all the torment before you return, because even if you are wise, you will not be able to help your fellow townspeople very much. You will learn how to free Educity later. First, take these five backpacks that I have provided, and choose a path that you think is easiest and best. You may go now, dears, and I shall have to return to the Town Tower in Educity. I cannot abandon the other townspeople.’

‘How do we know where the castle is?’ demanded Jesse.

‘You will see, dears, when you open your backpacks,’ the Goddess smiled, yawned, and woke up from the dream, disappearing into thin air in a burst of pink and orange sparks.

‘Well,’ decided Kathryn, ‘let’s go out into the open and look into those backpacks. Then we’ll start our adventure.’

The children stepped out into the light, shielding their eyes.

2   

The Journey Begins

‘I don’t like this place,’ whined Cletus. ‘It’s hot!’ Elmer turned around slowly, staring with widened blue eyes at the landscape.

‘Hey!’ cried Jesse. ‘The Goddess has left us on the edge of a desert!’

The girls were at the backpacks. Kathryn had immediately declared one of them her own, and was busy opening it. Glenda followed suit. Each backpack was made of plain, white cloth, fastened by a large round black button. There were provisions in each backpack: a clear plastic water-bottle with a black cap, and a similar-styled lunchbox containing six tasteless but filling hard little rice cakes and six vitamin tablets. Each backpack also included a black-rimmed compass, a roll of white paper bound with a black silk ribbon, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, and a transparent plastic bag with three sets of clean white clothes in them for change. The children tried carrying the backpacks, and they were quite light, but the water weighed them down.

‘I wonder what this roll of paper is,’ said Glenda, pulling it out of her backpack.

The other children also took out their rolls of paper, untied the black ribbon and unrolled the paper. They found out that it was a map. (A copy of it can be found at the front of the book.) It had rivers, lakes, lands, realms, farmlands, grasslands, deserts, and many others. At the far right of the map, there was the place they looked for—the Castle of Wisdom. However, between the castle and where they were now, there were still many more kilometres to go.

‘What a very long way it is,’ observed Cletus without enthusiasm.

‘We’ll just have to cover it, then,’ said Kathryn matter-of-factly, shooting Cletus a glare out of the corner of her eye. ‘The first step is crossing the Desert. Yeah, it’s big, any idiot can see that, but we’re used to working hard, aren’t we?’

‘But these poor provisions won’t last us very long,’ protested Jesse. ‘Look, we’ll get horribly thirsty in the Dry Desert, and there’s only about three litres to spare! And even if we eat only one rice cake per day, I doubt we’ll cross this wide stretch of desert in only six days! Even if we do manage, how can you be sure that we will find food and water just out of the Desert?’

‘Well,’ shrugged Kathryn. ‘We have to cross this Desert somehow. First of all we must head east and go to this Verbena Village, whatever verbena is,’ she said, pointing to a little village about two kilometres away from the edge of the Dry Desert. ‘Maybe we can get more provisions and some camels there.’

‘Camels?’ asked Glenda.

‘How on earth are you going to cross the Desert without camels, you stupid?’ said Kathryn impatiently.

Glenda was used to defending herself. ‘But Kathryn, I don’t understand. If we’re going to Verbena Village, that means we’re going on the East Route. Why do we have to cross the Desert? The Castle of Wisdom is directly east.’

‘Oh shut up,’ snapped Kathryn, but she was thinking.

Glenda meekly lowered her head.

‘Girls,’ muttered Jesse to himself. ‘They always quarrel.’

Elmer stared dreamily into the distance.

At last, Kathryn spoke. ‘You know what?’ she said to Glenda. ‘I hate admitting this, but you’re right. There’s no point crossing the Desert when we’re going east anyway.’

So it was agreed, and they shouldered their backpacks and journeyed towards the East Route. Although the backpacks had seemed light at first, they began to weigh down soon after, for the children were not used to walking far, and when afternoon came, they were staggering. Kathryn was glad in spite of herself that she had not gone into the Dry Desert, for she was already sore and thirsty, and the Dry Desert would be far hotter and difficult to walk on than this smooth road. The East Route went on and on, sometimes curving slightly to the right or to the left, and sometimes going up a tiny hill and down again, but they never seemed to get any nearer to Verbena Village. Finally, when they had covered about ten kilometres, Kathryn suggested a rest under a shady beech tree and they all agreed to it.

‘I’m hungry,’ complained Cletus.

‘I’m used to it,’ said Elmer quietly.

‘Oh, whatever,’ said Kathryn, prying off the black lid of her lunchbox. ‘I’m going to eat.’ She took a large bite.

Glenda followed suit.

‘I can’t believe the Goddess gave us such horrid food,’ ranted Jesse. ‘You’d think she’d give us something better, now that we’re out of Educity!’

‘She’s giving us a chance,’ said Glenda appreciatively. ‘That’s better than anything else.’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Kathryn irritably.

Cletus was looking at his half-eaten rice ball mournfully. ‘I don’t feel good using up my provisions so quickly,’ he commented. ‘I’m so hungry and thirsty, but I haven’t dared to drink a drop so far…I really don’t want to use up my provisions so quickly…At a rate of two rice cakes per day, three days and we’ll all starve. And this water is really too little! Even if we drink only one litre each day, we’ll die of thirst after three days!’

‘Stop being so pessimistic,’ said Jesse impatiently. ‘That’s the only thing I don’t like about you. Just eat!’ He softened a little at his friend’s uneasiness, and said more comfortingly, ‘We can definitely reach Verbena Village by today, as long as we keep walking, and we should be able to get some food there.’

Cletus was about to say something, but Kathryn stated dryly, ‘No point worrying. We’ll just have to make do with what we have now.’

The children each munched a rice cake, ate a vitamin tablet and drank a little water. They stretched out under the shady beech tree and rested for some time. When they felt quite refreshed and ready again, they continued their journey.

After walking a kilometre or so, Glenda thought she saw a shadow some way ahead. She was not sure, but she became certain when it drew nearer. He was actually a cat! When they reached the cat, they realized what a fine cat he was. He was merely black, but his fur was very smoothly brushed and shone like silver. His eyes were emerald green, and his nose was small and black. His body was glossy and slender, and he walked noiselessly and proudly with his tail thrust high up in the air.

‘Hello,’ said the cat, startling the children, for they had never heard a cat talk before, but after some thought, they remembered that they were in a dream, so it was not surprising for animals to speak. ‘Who are you?’ Before they could answer, he said quickly, ‘Oh, of course, you must be travellers! Of course you must have some important errand in this dreamy world, or maybe just wandering around, like me. Where are you going?’ Again, he went on before they could say a word, ‘Of course, you must be going to Verbena Village! It’s the only good destination towards the East. Am I right?’ The children tried to reply, but he chattered on, ‘Of course, of course I’m right! I’m a very clever cat, of course.’

The children did