From the Adventures of Sam and his Magic Pocket
Book Two: Shipwrecked in Time
Written by Nicholas
Illustrations by Lawrence Stokes and Susie Day
Contents
The Pit
A mouse named Joshua lay at the bottom of a pit, staring up into the darkness. He was stunned, and senseless. His mind was foggy and unclear. It was so dark that Joshua couldn't see his own paw when he held it up. He lay there for a long time. Little by little, he began to remember how he had come to be in this pit. The first memory that came back to him was a voice. It was an angry voice. It said, "You miserable traitor!" The voice belonged to a boy—a boy named Sam.
"Am I a traitor?" wondered Joshua. He strained his memory to recall more. "Yes, I am. There was a boy, a girl and a dog who had been shrunk down to mouse-size by magic. We all went in search of the Queen of the mice in order to rescue her from an army of fiddler crabs. I can remember now that I had a secret plan of my own. I schemed to get those kids to help me find a pouch containing the magical dust of the Stone of Argus, knowing that when we finally did find it, I would leave them trapped in the underground vault. But that is not what happened. I was tricked. Then Sam used the magical dust to bring the tunnel to life. It became a living creature and a time tunnel—the very jaws of time. I was swallowed by it, and fell down into this pit." Joshua was feeling no remorse for his acts of treachery—only pity for himself.
"It was like being swallowed by a living creature," thought Joshua. No wonder his mind had gone senseless—the memory of it was too awful to recall. Now, as Joshua forced himself to remember, he began to shiver and shake. He was reliving the experience all over again in his mind.
Sam had called the tunnel to life using the magical dust. Then he commanded the tunnel to take them across a channel of the sea. Immediately, it started twisting and turning. They all could feel the motion of the ground beneath them as it began to move forward. It was like being inside a slithering snake. The tunnel twisted and coiled as it moved through the water. Joshua was tearing his hair and he had a wild look in his eyes. Suddenly, he bolted from the vault and fled into the gloom of the tunnel.
He heard strange, hollow sounding voices. They seemed to be all around him—taunting him and laughing, always laughing. "Come to meee, Josh. He, he, heee." The voices echoed off the walls and filled his mind with dread. Joshua ran and ran, though he knew not where.
As he ran, the tunnel got steeper and steeper. He lost his footing and started sliding down into the darkness. He tried to cling onto the walls and floor to stop himself, but he couldn't get a hold. He kept slipping down and down. At last, the tunnel became so steep that Joshua began spinning through the open air. The walls of the tunnel disappeared, and he was falling through a nothingness. Everything around him was black except a whirl of sparks that encircled him. He screamed incessantly as he fell. He could still hear Sam's words repeating in his mind as he spun around and around in the darkness, "You miserable traitor!"
At last, Joshua began to slow down. The air was getting thicker and harder to fall through. He seemed to be moving in slow motion. Even his torturous screams sounded, to him, as if they were contorted and slurred. Then he hit the floor. It was a jolt, but no more. He was not hurt. He laid there in a heap on the ground at the bottom of this pit, staring up into the darkness. Now that his full memory had returned, he wished he could forget it.
"Whatever am I to do now?" thought Joshua. In this uneasy mood, he finally fell into a deep sleep.
When he awoke, it was foggy, and he was in a forest. "How did I get here?" asked Joshua. "I thought I had fallen into a pit." He was nervous. He didn't like the idea of falling asleep in one place and waking up in another.
It was nighttime and the air was cold. The dampness clung to his clothes and fur. A chill ran through him. He sat up and looked around, but couldn't see more than a few feet. Crickets were chirping in the brush. The lush foliage that surrounded him was nothing more than a green blur, and was just barely visible through the mist. Then the fog lifted slightly, revealing the sky and the moon in a patch directly above him.
Suddenly, something that felt like a thick branch whopped him across the back of the head. "Oh, pardon me. I didn't see you standing there," said a voice. A shadowy something slipped away out of view.
Joshua instantly turned to see who had hit him. Seeing no one, he backed up against the trunk of a tree. His eyes were open wide with fright. His teeth were clenched as he grabbed at the bark of the tree with his trembling paws. "Who did that!" cried Joshua. "Show yourself at once!"
He heard the sound of laughter coming from deep within the woods. "Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho." As he tried to turn to face this new creature, the tree's bark clamped down on his paws. Joshua wailed as he tried without success to free himself.
A goofy voice that seemed to be coming right out of the tree itself spoke up, saying, "Look! Something for us to play with!" Suddenly, a menagerie of odd sounds and voices sprang up around him in the dark. The fog lifted a few feet off the ground, revealing hundreds of eyes and grins in the forest facing him. But, there was not an animal in sight. The creatures staring and laughing at him were rocks, grass, trees, and shrubs! The forest was alive!
In an extra surge of energy, which was brought on by his extreme fright, Joshua jerked free from the grasp of the tree behind him, and tore through the forest without looking back. As he ran through the grass, they laughed as if his feet were tickling them. The rocks quickly moved out of his way to make a path.
The root of an old tree shot out in front of him and grabbed at his leg, making him trip. As he flew through the air, he looked up and saw the jaws and eyes of the very tree who had tripped him, staring down upon him. They were angry eyes and the teeth were yellow and dripping with sap. "How dare you run through my forest! We will feast on your flesh before this night is through!" screamed the old tree.
Joshua hit the ground with a thud, and he awoke in a cold sweat. He was laying on his back in the darkness at the bottom of the pit. The living forest had just been a bad dream. "What a nightmare! It was so real," thought Joshua. At length, when he had overcome his fright, he got to his feet and groped around in the dark, until he found the sides of the pit. He walked around its perimeter, feeling the walls as he went. They seemed to be made of rough wood, like a giant log that had been hewn out and made hollow by a mighty wind.
As Joshua felt his way in the dark, he began to recall more about his adventure with the children. Their names were Sam and Cynthia. They were both eleven years old, and the dog's name was Max. Sam had a magic pocket. "That's why I needed their help," remembered Joshua. "We would never have made it without the aid of Sam's magic pocket."
The fiddler crabs had stormed the castle of the mice in order to take a pouch of magical dust. The Queen was taken along with the pouch. Joshua had gained the confidence of the children by impersonating King Marcus. He dressed in the King's royal clothes and ran after them as they followed the fiddler crabs across the beach. The adventure that followed was their quest to save the Queen.
"I wonder what the real King Marcus is like?" thought Joshua. Then he shuddered. "But, I wouldn't like to meet him face to face after what I did."
He tapped on the grooved wooden wall of the pit. The sound echoed like the inside of a giant drum. He was trapped, and there didn't seem to be any way of escape. He continued to walk around the edge of the pit. About half way around, he came to a recession in the wall. Was it a door? He felt around frantically now, looking for a latch or a door knob. There wasn't any. He slumped down on the floor in a dejected mood, and gave a deep sigh.
"Why didn't I listen to Hammon? I was warned in time," thought Joshua. Hammon was an incredibly old crab. He looked weathered and bent. His wrinkled shell was an orangish red color. Hammon could see into the future as he studied the stars, and thus he was full of the wisdom of the heavens. He had warned Joshua twice not seek after the magical dust of the Stone of Argus, but Joshua was too proud and wicked to see his danger clearly.
He leaned back against the wall inside the recession, and to his surprise, it gave way a little. Joshua pushed harder and the wall moved a little more, revealing a crack of light around its edge. It was a door! But the door had no latch, he needed only to push it open. He got to his feet and shoved with all his strength. It was a heavy door, with thick edges. It fit tightly and would allow no light to penetrate into the pit when it was closed properly. As Joshua pushed and pushed, the door slowly swung open, revealing the bright sunshine of a beautiful summer day. He covered his eyes to shield them from the light, and cautiously stepped through the door.
Joshua found himself standing on a large, thick branch of a very old oak tree. The door fit into a gap in the bark just above where the branch came out of the main trunk. He looked around him. It was all green from the leaves of the oak tree. He looked down, but the ground was so far away that he could barely see it. Joshua walked along the top of the branch to explore. The birds were singing. He couldn't see the sky, only more green. There was a gentle breeze ruffling the leaves.
As he stood, thinking of his strange, new surroundings, Hammon appeared directly in front of him, accompanied by a mouse. "Where am I?" questioned Joshua.
"Ya've fallen through time, Josh," said the old crab with a quivering and shaky voice, "and this here place be called the Outer Realm."
"That's some sort of jail, isn't it?"
"And I'm the keeper o' the jail—the Warden o' the Outer Realm."
"How do I get out of this place?"
"Get out? Aye, it be possible, but not fer good. Ya'll always be a'drawn back into this here realm, once ya've fallen into it. And ya can't say as ya weren't given a strong warnin' either, young Josh."
Then Hammon's companion spoke up for the first time, saying, "So, this is the mouse that impersonated me. When I first found out, I was furious. But now that I've seen him in person, I have pity on him." It was the real King Marcus standing on the branch by the side of the old crab.
Joshua stepped back, expecting a blow from the King, for that is what he would have done under the same circumstances. "No, you needn't be afraid for your head. Not from me, at any rate," said King Marcus. Then turning to Hammon he asked, "Isn't there anything that can be done for him? Isn't there any mercy in the cold laws of the Great Ones?"
Hammon said with a level voice, and with little emotion, "No, there be no mercy. He will never free himself o' this place fer good. He'll always be a'drawn back in the end."
"That is not entirely true though, is it?" asked King Marcus. "I know of a way. I think he ought to be told of it." The King then looked Joshua in the eye and said in a hushed voice, "This is what I know to be true. The only way to permanently escape from this place is to eat some of the dust of the Stone of Argus. That breaks the drawing power of the Outer Realm."
Joshua looked surprised at finding a friend in such an unlikely place. He winced as the words of Sam came drifting into his mind, "You miserable traitor!"
King Marcus continued, "But, there is a bad card in the deck. If ever the stone is restored to its proper shape, as it is foretold in the book of the happenings of the wizards, then back to the Outer Realm you will be drawn, and that time, without a speck of mercy."
"Yer words be well placed," added Hammon. "Let fate take its course."
"Hammon, the least you can do is to give him some wings," pleaded Marcus.
"That I will do."
Joshua was looking around at the beauty of the place, and couldn't help commenting, "This Outer Realm doesn't look all that bad. What is everyone afraid of?"
"You haven't seen what's on the ground, or what crowds into your mind at night," replied King Marcus with a shudder.
"King Marcus, its time that we be a'goin'," said Hammon, and then turning to Joshua, he added, "I'll be payin' ya a visit another day, no doubt. Til then, farewell." Then with a twinkle of light, they both disappeared.
Joshua felt a stretching, tingling sensation on his back. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw that a pair of wings had sprouted right out from between his shoulders. Joshua gave them a little flexing and he glided up into the air as gracefully as a butterfly.
King Marcus' last words made Joshua curious, so he flew down from the branch of the giant oak tree and fluttered toward the ground to see what he might find. Partway down, he stopped on another branch to rest.
A raven was perched nearby. He flew over to Joshua's side, cocked his head and said, "If it isn't the little mouse that I helped through the swamp nearly half a year ago."
"Half a year?" questioned Joshua, "It was only yesterday! What do you mean?"
"Caw! I've been here five months, and not a day less, you little fur ball," squawked the raven. "You must have come here through the jaws of time. Show me the place where you entered this realm, and I will leave using the same way. I am interested in getting back to Florida at the same time that I left it. My wand is sitting there on the beach, and it's a great burden being without it."
"What? A wand?" asked Joshua with raised eyebrows.
"Yes, a wand. I am not a raven. I am Zachary, the mighty wizard."
Joshua eyed him suspiciously, and hastily changed the subject. "Tell me about this place? What is it like on the ground? And what's all this I've been hearing about dreams?"
"So, this is your first time to be brought here? It is a nightmare! It looks nice, but when you sleep, you see into the future. Did you hear me? I said you have visions of what will befall you in the future! I always see the same thing." The raven closed his eyes and groaned, but wouldn't say what it was that he saw. "The branches of the trees are the only safe places in this world."
"But what's on the ground?"
"If you really want to know, go and take a look," and the raven flew off, disappearing into the green.