Written by Wendy Yukihiro
Kai
found plenty to do with the lower branch's and all the thick ivy. No
one ever noticed the small opening at the base of the tree. Probably because it was covered most of the time with the thick ivy. The ivy would only open up the area where the small opening was once a century to the family members of the old Oak. And it was upon that year.
One hot summer afternoon Kai noticed there was some
movement in the Ivy...
movement in the Ivy...
It
was late in the day and Kai was having a snack under his favorite
tree in the backyard. He always had his favorite toy that, he called
blue monkey. Kai noticed something move within the base of the
tree. So he decided to investigate. Kai grabbed his blue monkey under
his arm and headed toward the thickly covered Grand Oak.
At
first Kai didn't see anything but thick layers of ivy, but out of
the corner of his right eye he saw something move. He headed toward
the movement in the ivy. To his surprise, there was a small opening
in the bottom of the tree. It was just big enough to crawl through.
With blue monkey tucked under his arm Kai crawled inside the small
opening to see what could be inside. Once Kai was completely inside, the openly disappeared.
The moment he entered it felt like a small space with not much room. Suddenly, Kai could feel a cool breeze whizz by his face. He discovered that the inside wasn't as small as he thought it was. In fact it was quite an large space inside the old Oak Tree! The surrounding walls were
as smooth as glass. Everything
glistened and shimmered. Kai thought he might be in a mysterious ice
castle that had been hidden there
for Thousands of years. Well he didn't know this but he was far from the truth. Kai touched the glassy walls just because he
was so curious. They felt very cold and almost wet.
Suddenly something was moving beyond the glassy walls. Startled, Kai
asked out load, “What's that?”
Kai,
still holding his favorite friend under his arm was a bit frightened
by the hold experience, but just when Kai's anxieties went rapidly in a
state of dread a bright green door appeared with beads of water
dripping down from it. Kai's curiosity got the best of him, so he
decided to have a closer look. When Kai step toward the bright green
door, he felt a fine mist of water.
He
stood there for a few minutes enjoying the cool misty water that was spraying on his face. Kai thought he heard an eerie sound
coming from the odd door. Kai being the curious boy that he was reach for the strange doorknob.
“It
won't open,”thought Kai, twisting the doorknob back and forth.
Then
Kai saw a golden key stuck up on the wall. There were some words next
to it. But it seemed they were in some ancient language. The words
were engraved on a solid golden plate.
Notice
Key
Given to Children Only
Kai decided to give
the key a try anyway,so he reached for the key and it slide quickly
into his hand. It seemed heavy and fit snugly as he put it into the
glowing key hole. The door almost immediately began to glow
brilliantly as Kai turn the golden key. As he turned the key, his
hand began to slip through the door even though it was still close!
Kai was being pulled
through this strange door by some unseen energy force. This seemed
terrifying for some, but for some reason Kai didn't feel nervous or
even afraid. Kai felt cool and wet like he was inside a waterfall. He
realized he was underwater. How could this be, Kai thought to
himself. He wasn't a very good swimmer. Besides, “How are we going to
breath in here?”
Bubbles were coming
from his mouth and nose. Kai soon realized that he cold breath quite
well underwater. By chance Kai had put his hands on his neck, when he
did he discovered he had two small gills on either side of his neck
below each ear. This startled Kai but at the same intrigued his
curiosity to what was going to happen next? Kai didn't realize that
his favorite toy blue monkey wasn't tucked under his arm anymore. He
was to busy enjoying this new enchanted world of water. Kai started
to swim, which he was amazed he could do. This was really the first
time he actually could swim and he was swimming in what looked to be
deep water. As Kai continued to swim along, he started to notice that
he wasn’t alone. There were many different kinds of strange and
creepy looking creatures swimming within only a few yards away from him. As soon as these peculiar sea creatures came, they all vanished in the
forest of deep seaweed that was about a half a mile from him. Kai was
very relieved, but he was still curious what else he might encounter.
Suddenly Kai was
surrounded by a huge cluster of iridescent jellyfish that were
floating all around him. These eerie jellyfish had very long flowing
tails that were pure white but their bodies were glowing colors of
deep blues and greens. They were bouncing off him like colorful
balloons. Then Kai saw something he thought could never be! In the
middle of the cluster of jellyfish was Blue Monkey!
His favorite toy had actually turned into a real monkey and was swimming
around the jellyfish. His friend, was now Real and was having a great time swimming with some new sea creatures that he had made. It was all Kai could do to
keep up with his new friend. Kai, watch his new friend blue
monkey for awhile. First he watch him swim to
the bottom where there were these huge red starfish crawling over the
most colorful coral. There were funny little clams that were very
busy wiggling about in the white sands and graceful dolphins gliding
by, looking amused at Blue Monkey. I don't think they have ever seen
a monkey swimming about in their ocean before.
Two Large golden
seahorses appears and slowly floated down in front of Kai. The water
around them looked like liquid gold. They both had big smiles on
their faces.
“Want to come along
for a ride? We will take you on a great journey to the Emerald
Castle. Your little Monkey can come too!”
At that very moment
Blue Monkey appeared, jumped on one of the fancy golden saddles that
were on the back of the Seahorses and said, “Jump on the other one
Kai. I'm ready to check out that Castle. How about you?”
“You can talk, you
are real. This place is Awesome!”
“Yes. I'm Real Kai.
Now lets go.”
Kai and Blue Monkey
looked at each other, nodded yes and as Kai jumped on the other
Seahorse they heard a voice say, “Hold on tight boys, Here we go!”
Kai and Blue Monkey
were strapped in their saddles with golden ropes. They were going
very fast, so fast that water bubbles were pasting their faces making
them squeal and laugh. Soon they came upon a large group of Sea
lions.
“Look Monkey, I think
they're looking at us. They are doing somersaults and back flips too.
That looks like a lot of fun. How about we go over they and give it a
go.”
Just then one of the
Sea lions stopped by, swimming about and then asked, “ Wanta try a black flip or a
somersault with us?”
“Sure! Kai jumped off
his golden seahorse to give it a try. He found it to be quite easy to
do. He watched Blue Monkey jumped off his seahorse to joy in on the
fun, but when he tried lets just say he wasn't as skilled in doing
water somersaults. Poor Monkey would ended upside down with his feet
kicking as fast as he could. He was going nowhere. Although many of
the sea lions were gently nudging and trying to help him over and
over. By saying, “Lets try again,” and the sea lions would say, “Follow me.”
This time Monkey would
be able to do the most difficult somersaults and back flips without
getting stuck upside down. It was great fun having his favor toy now
his live friend a real monkey and a enchanted world of water where
both he and Monkey could swim together with all the fun creatures of
the sea.
The were having such a
great time that neither of them noticed that they were being watched
by two enormous eyes. About ten feet from them was a forest of
seaweed, which was off a deep cavern. The cavern was a least 10,000
feet in depth. In the thick seaweed was the two large eyes that were
watching Kai and Monkey.
Behind those large
eyes was an massive great white whale. The whale was enchanted. This
meant she could turn invisible if she wished and all you would see is her luring blue eyes.
Suddenly
all the Sea lions scattered and Kai and Monkey noticed the enormous forest of seaweed. There was movement within the vast stalks of the seaweed which made the two friends a little nervous.
“Don't
be frightened,” said the Seahorse,” It's our Queen, the Great
White Whale. She won't hurt you .In
fact if you show her kindness she might bring you to the Emerald
Castle.”
“Really!”
that would be so cool,” said Kai.
Out
of hiding came Snowflake. The monstrous yet kindly whale smiled at
them. She was beautiful
against the deep blue salt water. Kai and Monkey smiled back, as friendly as they could, they were
just a bit nervous still. Even thought they were told they had no
reason to be afraid. Then in a quiet
but deep voice the Magick creature spoke.
“So
I've heard that you two would like to come to my Castle and come
to visit. It's a very special place, deep within my ocean here in the Enchanted seas. I haven't seen a
child in these seas in almost 100-years.
Its is quiet delightful that the
Oak Tree still opens her door to
those who are special and still have
the gift of imagination. That door you found young man doesn't open
to just anybody, it chooses who may come into my world. So it is nice to meet you Kai and of course
Monkey. You two will be my honored guests at my castle tonight.”
“Lead
the way! “said Kai.
“Jump
on your Seahorses and follow me, “roared Snowflake.
As
Snowflake turned her huge body around and started swimming away. Both Kai and Monkey jumped
onto their golden saddles and head after the beautiful white whale.
They quickly caught up with
Snowflake and were right next to one of her large blue eyes. As they
swam along one of her eyes wink
at them. This startle them both and they almost fell off their
Seahorses, but they hung on. It
wasn't long before they saw a green glow in the distance. Soon
the green glow began to take shape. It was a stunning glass castle
with hundreds of
diamond shaped
window. The windows were flooded with a brilliant green glow, that
made the surrounding coral
below seem to dance. Snowflake guided them into an enormous double
gate at the front entrance of
the castle. As they approached the two gates slowly started to open.
There was a very handsome merman on either side
of the gates. They were starting to enter when the castle and Kai noticed a soft
blue light that was coming from inside.
He was so curious what they were going to see when they enter
the castle. Suddenly Kai heard
a faint voice calling him.
“Kai,
where are you?”
Kai
didn't know quite what to do. He wasn't ready to go home yet. They
were almost inside the Enchanted
Castle, but he knew that his mother calling him.
“You
must go home now,”
“But how? And why Snowflake? I didn't get to see your Castle! I so much
wanted to see it and I know Monkey
did too.”
“You
can come again another time and getting home will be easy.”
“Ok, but how?” asked Kai.
“Take
out the golden key that you have in your pocket,” said Snowflake.
Kai
dug into his pocket and took out the key. It shimmered with flakes of
colors of gold and many
others in the water.
“As
you can both see, said Snowflake, “this golden key is very
special, Only children can use it. When return
to your tree in the backyard put it back where you found it. The
next time you want to use it the key
will take you to a different place.”
“Can
I come back to see you again?asked Kai.
"Of
course, but you must say a special rhyme.”
“Its
easy to remember”, said Snowflake.
“All
You have to say is...”
“Magic
key in my hand,
Let
me visit Magicland.
A
Great White whale friend is she,
who
lives far beneath the sea.”
“I
will remember.”
And
with the golden key in his hand he closed his eyes, picture the great oak
tree in his backyard, but before he did all that, he gave a hug to
Snowflake and Monkey.
Because who knows if he will get back to this in enchanted world.