The Land of Literacy

By Xanthia Patel, age 12 

My eyes promptly opened and I could instantly hear a loud consistent ringing sound that echoed throughout my ears and was incredibly annoying.I shot up immediately before realising that the sound belonged to the antique clock downstairs and that it was only striking one am like it did every single night.I breathed out a quick sigh of relief and was just about to lie back down when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a bright golden light."What in the world" I muttered sleepily to myself, rubbing my eyes wearily to get a better look.To my shock,I realised that it was my Grandma's pocket watch that she had given me yesterday for my thirteenth birthday.The watch was exceedingly beautiful, it was a painted a lovely bronze colour, had a unique background chequered look, had a mirror facing opposite to the watch face and seemed immensely old.I had been overjoyed when I'd received it since I'd never owned anything of any value before.I was entranced by the watch, with it's mysterious golden glow and the constant ticking sound it was making, getting louder and louder by the minute.I started transfixed for what seemed like hours but was probably only a few minutes, when I heard it, the faintest clicking sound that altered me that something had changed, something was about to happen.

I felt my head hit the ground and for a few seconds I simply lay there, listening to my pumping heartbeat and my rasping breath, both seemed to echo around me in this silent deserted place and I wished that I was home, tucked away safely in bed.Eventually I tried to move, but the moment I sat up an agonising pain shot through my head and I immediately howled in anguish.But nevertheless I continued to try to stand, and once I'd shook my head and blinked my eyes several times, my head finally cleared and the pain left, so for the first time I was able to see where I was.Surrounding me were trees, all were large, spooky and intimidating.I realised I had landed in a small clearing and after listening and staring around me for several minutes I determined no one was around but me.I felt deeply frustrated so I kicked the ground as hard as I could, suddenly I spotted Grandma's pocket watch.I jumped with joy and immediately picked it up, I instantly started tampering with it but no matter what I did nothing happened.By now I was at the edge of tears and was ready to admit defeat when I heard the faintest rustling sound.

"Who's there" I called out in the most confident voice I could manage, everything was silent for a moment but suddenly a large pack of wolves came strolling out, all were thin and weary, and each and every one of them had a look of immense hunger in it's eyes.I felt paralysed with fear and although my first instinct was to run, a feeling of helplessness quickly took over me and all I could do was wait to be devoured.The wolves sensing my defeat hurriedly started to close in, but just before the leader of the pack could leap at me, a flash of blonde hurdled towards him and knocked him to the ground before vaulting herself towards all the other wolves and soon the place was deserted once again.I turned to look up at my saviour but to my surprise I saw it was the adult version of Goldilocks.I blinked and rubbed my eyes several times but nothing changed.In my confusion instead of thanking her, I stammered, "are you really Goldilocks"? Her triumphant smile quickly turned to a frown as she replied, "of course I am who else could I possibly be, Cinderella"?. "Sorry, and thanks for saving my butt, by the way my name is Violet" I said."Nice to meet you" Goldilocks replied.Goldilocks was a tall strong girl with beautiful golden locks that hung like a curtain around her face, she wore a long red coat with black pants and black boots, on her back was a worn brown backpack and sticking out of it was the handle of a beautiful sword.I was terrified of her so for a few minutes we walked in utter silence before I finally worked up the nerve to ask her one really important question.

"Um Goldilocks, I was wondering if you could possibly tell me where I am"? Goldilocks turned to me with a look of surprise on her face."Why your in the Land of Literacy" Goldilocks said and seeing my confused expression she explained everything to me."The Land of Literacy is a land full of character's from different stories from all around the world, it was created by a dark and evil man who went by the name,The Dome, The Dome had somehow created a portal that could take characters out of there book and transport them to a different land, he created only two portals that could access this land and he put both into antique watches but unfortunately for him, he lost one, and since then he has been on the hunt for the other, it is said that if the two portals collide they would create a huge portal that leads to Earth Goldilocks said before taking a deep breath and continuing."But if The Dome gets his hands on the second portal, he would let out all the most dangerous and vicious creatures of the Land of Literacy into Earth and completely wreak havoc Goldilocks finished shivering with the thought of it.For a moment I was completely speechless but finally I muttered "that's horrible". "I know" Goldilocks replied, "thats why it's been my life's mission to stop him, but so far I haven't succeeded". Suddenly a thought came to me, what is the missing portal was my pocket watch! "Goldilocks, how would you destroy the portals"? I asked curiously .

"To destroy the two portals you have to bring them both together and also have access to the sword of destiny, once you activate the portal you use the sword of destiny to destroy it and once it's destroyed nobody outside the Land of Literacy will be able to access it Goldilocks said breathlessly as she continued to walk briskly through the the forest.After some thinking I decided to tell Goldilocks about the watch and once I did she instantly stopped in her tracks and turned to me a doubtful expression plastered on her face ."Are you telling me that you really have the exact watch that I've been looking for my whole entire life" Goldilocks scornfully said, I nodded my head before carefully taking the watch out of my pocket and holding it before her astonished eyes.After examining it thoroughly Goldilocks finally looked down at me and said, "I can't believe it, this really is the exact watch I've been searching for all my life" before gently handing the watch back to me and sitting down on a tree stump."Are you okay"? I cautioned to ask after standing in silence for a few minutes."I'm better then okay Goldilocks said leaping to her feet,"now we can finally put my plan into action.

"Um sorry but what plan"? I asked furiously."Sorry" Goldilocks said before explaining everything to me."You see now that you have the second portal and I have the sword of destiny,she stopped to produce the sword from her backpack, we can finally break into the Domes mansion and stop him once and for all"!, "Now listen carefully, to get out of this forest I will start running around crazily and will start banging into tree's, and you must copy me, the tree's around here hate being touched in any kind of form so just to get rid of us they will probably ope up a tiny clearing and once you see the clearing run through it as fast as you can as the clearing usually closes up within ten seconds, now any questions"? "Just one I said, if you knew how to get out of here all along how come you didn't tell me sooner"? Goldilocks just shrugged in reply as I grinned at her.Suddenly she stared running and banging into all the trees .Then to my horror the tree's started to creak and groan and slowly faces started to appear on their trunks and small twiggy branches pushed themselves out of the right and left side's as hands, but the most shocking thing was when they started to groan and yelp.Suddenly I noticed a small opening appear in a large rose bush and I instantly dived through it followed closely by Goldilocks.

After I had stood catching my breath for a few seconds I finally looked up and what I saw made me feel like I was six years old again.All around me, fairy's were frolicking, teddy bears were picnicking and animals of all shapes and sizes were playing in the playground, that's when I noticed that just up ahead was a ginormous palace.It was painted a beautiful daisy white, had large golden doors, numerous picture windows and several alluring balconies. "What is that place" I muttered in awe."That, muttered Goldilocks, is the Domes palace, and it's exactly where we are heading".

Twenty minutes later we were standing right outside the palace of the Dome, desperately trying to look like we were anything but afraid."Right Goldilocks said, this is what's going to happen, to get to the Domes palace you need to pass three extremely difficult challenges, I do not know what the challenges are as I have neither set foot in the place, but nevertheless I have a feeling that they aren't as hard as he makes them out to be and remember that no matter what happens we're in this together okay". I was to frightened to respond so I just nodded my head and tried not to think about the abominable danger that lay ahead.Creeping quietly we hurriedly scaled the wall (as the gates were electrified) and leapt down before facing the very first challenge, in front of me on a small table was a computer, and on it's screen was a riddle.Not wanting to waste any time I quickly scanned the riddle and then slowly repeated the words, "I have key's but no locks or space, and no room's, you can enter but you can't go outside, what am I"? I was immensely confused as was Goldilocks and we sat there for countless minutes pondering the riddle.Suddenly the answer came to me, and I swiftly leapt up and rushed towards the computer before rapidly typing the words keyboard into the answer box.Goldilocks and I waited anxiously for less then a second when we saw a large light we hadn't noticed before flash green and with a loud click an indefinite door opened and we stared at each other excitedly."How on earth did you figure that out" Goldilocks whispered avidly, "I don't really know, it just came to me" I said with a shrug.

As Goldilocks and I cautiously entered the room, we saw that pieces of paper with different four digit number's on each one covered all three walls and that on the wall farthest from us was door with a key pad lock, and that's when I realised that one of these many pieces of papers had the code to unlock this door.Suddenly Goldilocks noticed a piece of paper taped to the door that read; there are 4 digit's in the code.Using these clue's, figure out what the digits are.A small drawing underneath showed four blank spaces with A B C D underneath each blank space and underneath that were the clue's."Digit C is one more then digit A, which is twice then digit D, which is ten less then digit A plus 8". "Digit B is digit A+C+D minus two" Goldilocks repeated attentively."Damn it, I'm terrible at maths I muttered, do you have any idea what this mean's? But Goldilocks didn't reply, she just kept staring at the door lost in thought.Finally her eyes widened and without saying a word she leaned forward and snatched up a piece of paper that read 4952 before pacing towards the key pad lock and punching the number's in.With a satisfying hiss the door banged open and Goldilocks sauntered through it, beckoning for me to follow. Then before I could even open my mouth, Goldilocks turned towards me and said,"I used to love maths when I went to school". I just smiled in reply as we turned around, ready to face the final challenge, together.

We walked through the door expecting to see something bizarre, but instead there was a newspaper and a pen lying on a circular table in the centre of a spacious room.Goldilocks and I scurried towards and I picked it up gently in my hands."It's a cryptic crossword, expect there's only one space to fill" I muttered confused before reading the clue out loud; If I walk one kilometre South, one kilometre East and one kilometre North I am still in the same place that I began in where am I?Suddenly Goldilocks reached into her pocket and pulled out a map, she studied it carefully, as did I, when suddenly her eyes lit up and she muttered, "the equator"! "That has to be it, the equator run's around the world and is the only thing it could be" I said excitedly as I grabbed the pen and wrote down the word equator into the box before placing it back on the table.Suddenly an luminous light shone down and scanned the paper and with a creak a staircase appeared.So with slight hesitation we walked up the staircase and into a room of horror.

"So I see that you've finally found me" a voice snarled as Goldilocks and I entered a room full of darkness."Whose there"? I replied my voice shaky.Suddenly a man stepped out of the darkness and Goldilocks and I gasped in horror.The man wore shiny office shoes, a white T-shirt and black jeans and seemed quite normal, but the top half of his head was replaced with a large glass dome which inside held a ginormous brain that buzzed with electricity."Why"? I murmured while he chuckled softly." You see, when I was younger he began, I dreamed of rising to the top, but unfortunately I wasn't a particularly smart child, so instead I lied, cheated and did what I had to get there, and once I'd reached it, I got this brain transplanted into my head, unfortunately the brain was so big they had to replace the top of my head with this dome to fit the brain inside" he said with a sigh. "But it was worth it he continued with a smile, because now after all my hard work I can finally achieve my dream, taking over planet Earth, now hand over the watch.To my shock Goldilocks gestured for me to give her the watch and I watched in disbelief as she walked over to the Dome and slowly extended her arm.the Dome immediately made a grab for it but just in time Goldilocks swiped out the Sword of Destiny and threw the watch towards me.I lunged and just about caught it before Goldilocks and the Dome broke into a wild fight.Swords clashed and I was completely unsure of what to do when suddenly an ingenious idea came to me. I hurriedly crawled towards the Dome and while he was distracted, I reached into his pocket and pulled out the second watch.Then I quickly turned both hands to one and suddenly a large, golden, swirling light appeared and both Goldilocks and the Dome stopped to gaze at it in wonder.Goldilocks hurriedly realising what was happening, threw the sword at me and before the Dome could catch on, I sliced the portal in two, and with a hiss the portal crumbled into dust and the Dome collapsed to his knees sobbing.I turned to Goldilocks with a triumphant smile but saw there was a certain sadness in her eyes.That's when I realised that Goldilocks was fading.Destroying that portal meant that The Land of Literacy was no longer of access to anyone on Earth, so that meant that I was never going to see Goldilocks again.I quickly ran towards the fading Goldilocks and wrapped my arms around her as tears ran down both our faces.No words needed to be said, the feeling was mutual.But just before she disappeared completely, she faintly whispered,"I will never forget you, or the amazing adventure we had, and no matter what I will always be with you, goodbye Violet","goodbye Goldilocks I replied as she faded away completely and I was left standing there hugging nothing but air.Finally I let my arm's fall to my side and despite everything, despite the fact I had just saved an entire land, despite the fact that I would never see Goldilocks again and despite the fact that I was completely exhausted and was in dire need of sleep, I smiled, because after all, it's not every day that you get to meet Goldilocks, the most wonderful friend a person could have.