The World of Myth Magazine

Emma walked up to a small well that oddly was located in the center of the desert. There was a small stone wall that circled the hole and a few large sticks that created the frame for a bucket to hang from; the young child leaned and looked down at the dark void. It appeared old and dry.

I wonder if there is any water left inside the well, Emma thought. Let me see… What can I use to check and find out.

Emma turned away from the well and glanced down at the sand around her. She kneeled and began to run her fingers through the ground. Over and over, she moved counterclockwise until the final grain fell away and a small pebble remained in her palm.

"Perfect," Emma said with a smile, while she glanced down at the small stone. "I can use this to check."

Emma stood to her feet and walked back over to the old well, she placed her hand with the pebble over the open part of the well. "Okay, if there is a thump, it means it's dry and if it splashes, we got something to drink. Okay, here goes nothing. One… Two… Three…"

Emma dropped the stone pebble into the darkness of the well and waited.

There was nothing.

No thump or slash, only silence.

Is the well so dry that it hit powder sand, Emma thought and continued to listen for a sound. A feeling of sadness and failure wrapped around her. Nothing. All this way for nothing.

As she moved away in pity, Emma heard, SPLASH!

Quickly she turned and ran back to the wall now with excitement defined in her movement.

"This must be a multidimensional well," Emma said to herself, as she lowered the bucket down into the hole. "Yoon told us…"

Emma instinctively turned to talk to her little sister, but no one was there. A bit of sadness struck her. Olivia had always been by her side, and now she was gone. Their dad used to call them Peanut Butter and Jelly because they were always together, their mother left the living when Olivia was a baby. Emma had always been there for her and as she currently realized, the same can be said for her baby sister.

"Oh yeah, you're not here. Well, I guess, Yoon told me about the multidimensional wells and how it magically teleported dimensions until water is found."

The rope which was connected to the bucket felt weightless for a moment, then the tension slowly came back as the water filled the inside. Once the line was straight from the weight of the water, Emma pulled the rope until the bucket was back in her hands. She removed a pouch made of a water dragon's stomach the cyclops gave to her earlier in the day. She began to pour the water inside and repeated the process multiple times until the container was completely full.

With the final bucket of water, Emma slowly sipped the wet and cool fluid. She wanted the pouch to be full first, and now she could enjoy her share and did not realize just how thirsty she actually was.

Once she finished and was satisfied, she threw the pouch over her shoulder and head back toward her sister and their friends. "I'm on my way, Livi."

Located in the middle of the village Ravenwood a large stone fell from the Heavens, the locals hallowed out the insides and turned it into their temple to the Sky God. But Olmec the Mousse of Chocolate converted it into their prison, where they old three of the four friends.

"I told you that I would capture you, for all the wrong you and your friends did in the Kingdom of Fudge, Olmec the Mousse of Chocolate said at Olivia and the others. They were inside a steel cage, which was used as a makeshift jail cell.

"What did I do," Kén Tauros asked from behind the metal bars. "I have only been peaceful."

Olmec glared at Kén and grumbled, "You are the Centaur who bit off my guard's butt are you not?"

"Oh, yeah… I kinda forgot about that," Kén said sheepishly.

"I heard about holding a grudge, but come on, "Olivia said in a strong tone, although she was beyond afraid for her and the other's well-being. "We are kids, we do stupid stuff from time to time."

"Oh, my mother said that if you are caught and are imprisoned that you should never talk back and that in fact that you should keep your mouth closed at all times because you could be inadvertently making them angrier as you continue to speak. Mother said especially me because she said that I talked all the time and never know when to shut up," Prince Theo nervously rambled to Olmec.

"Oh. I remember you," Olmec the Mousse of Chocolate growled, and ran his fingers over his face.

"Yeah," Livi said and nodded. "Somehow he has managed to survive so far."

"I am surprised as well," one of the chocolate bunny guards said as he entered the room. "My liege, reporting for duty."

As the chocolate bunny walked in, something caught Olivia's attention. While he was mostly made of brown colored chocolate, his bottom and tail were made of white chocolate. She turned her head and stared intently until she noticed that the lighter portion was in a bite mark pattern. "Ooooh… You are the Bunny who got his butt bit off by Kén."

"Oh man," Kén coward. "Look. Mister Bunny… I was really hungry at the time and I honestly did not mean to… Well, you know, eat your butt and I hope you forgive me."

"I will forgive you after tomorrow," the Bunny said with a wicked smile.

"What is tomorrow," Prince Theo asked nervously.

"Tomorrow you will all be pounded down into cocoa butter and reformed into a mold as new soldiers for the Kingdom of Fudge.

Olivia turned at Theo and asked with frustration evident, "You had to ask, didn't you?"

Theo nervously shrugged.

Many hours passed by the time Emma walked into the village of Ravenwood, the first moon had lowered and became what was known as Dark Night. The area was motionless, everyone was fast asleep, and she wondered if her sister and the others if they were spending the night in the Magus' hut.

Emma moved through the silent village, it felt more deserted rather than asleep, but she knew that was not the case since off in a distance was the Magus' hut and lightly explored from its portholes. The oldest of the sisters knew that once she reached the wood and hay structure, there would be a time of rest and then through the portal to the land of the Zombie Fairies and her beloved Yoon the Unicorn.

"I'm almost there, Yoon, we will defeat Schartzmugel and free you," Emma said to herself as she moved through the village and found that being alone caused her tremendous anxiety and fear, which she did not like. "Daddy always said it was okay to be afraid, but never outwardly show that you are scared."

Bravely, she moved on. Emma's imagination played tricks on her as with glowing eyes following behind of cloth that waved in the wind were ghosts that maneuver about in the night. Unknowingly, tears ran down her big cheeks while her inside battle with fear waged on. The tears intensified as he worried that Olivia might not be well or even worse…

Tears were accompanied by audible sounds of crying, Emma stopped and dropped to her knees. The thought of her sister hurt or even worse was much more than she could bear. While they fought and bickered a lot of the time, there was no denying that the fact that the two sisters loved each other more than word could explain.

"Oh, Livi… Livi, please, oh please be safe," Emma cried into her hands. "I love you and I don't know what I could do if you weren't here anymore."

At that moment alone, Emma's strength broke. She was not the strong big sister; whose courage was greater than anyone before her that set everyone off on the grand adventure to save Yoon while fighting unbelievable creatures in each realm of imagination.

At that moment, she was nine-year-old, Emma, and wanted nothing more than her little sister and daddy.

"Are you lost, child?" An old voice asked softly. Emma glanced up and wiped away the tears with the back of her hand.

"I'm scared that my sister Olivia may be hurt or even worse," Emma said and wiped her nose with her other hand.

"My how you have grown, Emma," he said. She looked at the man puzzled, he was tall and rather skinny, with a long gray beard which melted into the long hair of the man's head. On top of which was an old tater blue pointy hat that dipped down into his face. "I remember when Yoon first brought you to my hut."

Emma's eyes grew in surprise, she knew who he was, but he appeared much older than she remembered. "Master Magus?"

The old man smiled and nodded, "Please, just call me, Oscar."

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