Where it all began

"A long,long time ago,when people believed in magic,there lived a witch named Astoria Greenbridge. People used to think that this witch was very good but in reality, she was horrible. She used to kill and eat people and cast spells on witnesses so that they could not remember any of the crimes she had committed. But one day, she did the worst thing she had ever done. She caught a little girl named Sunny Whiteriver who was roaming in the witch's garden and cast a spell on her so that she lived for centuries. Then she sent her to the moon and changed the course of it. There,she put a forest, a river and put three riddles in connecting craters of the moon. She then put the last golden of a dragon in a deepest hollow of one of the trees in the forest and trapped little Sunny in an eerie part of the moon forever, until someone from her future children only came and rescued her. She then came back to Earth and made a game named 'Tamurest' regarding how to save Sunny. She died a couple of years later and the game was hidden until the witch's former enemy, John Waters took it and was about to destroy it when Albert Whiteriver took it from him. The game was then passed to his great, great, great granddaughter Isabella Whiteriver to give it to the living daughter of the Greenbridges."

"So this means that Isabella still might have the game, mother? "Yes Violet but do not ask for it, for when the time is right, she will give it to you." "Then it is a good thing that i invited her to my party, who knows, she might even bring the game along as a present." "Oi you two! I have not come all the way from Oxford just to do the house-work. Come and help me." "We are coming, Klaus." The three of them then completed decorating the garden and had only fifteen minutes to spare before Amanda Smith and Isabella Whiteriver arrived at two pm.

"Hi Violet, happy birthday!" said Amanda. "Yeah, many happy returns of the day!" piped in Isabella. "Aww, thanks a lot, please do come in." "By the way, where do we keep the gifts?" "Just keep them on the couch and come outside to play." They played games until five pm.Then all of them went inside to eat some snacks.

"Help yourselves to whatever you want girls." They ate whatever they could help themselves to and then Violet cut the pink and white cake decorated with thirteen pink candles. After singing 'Happy Birthday', eating the cake and after Violet gave out the party favours, they both went home at six-thirty. After they went, Violet, Klaus and Elizabeth( their mother) cleared everything and retired to their rooms.Violet had taken the gifts upstairs and was about to unwrap them when someone knocked on the door. Before she could say anything, Klaus came in and said, "I have something for you." He then handed her a blue and yellow coloured budgie in its cage. "Oh wow Klaus,thanks a lot I love it but did you ask permission from mother?" "Yes I did and she said that you can only keep it if you look after it properly." " Of course I will," she chuckled. "I will leave now so that you can open your presents in peace." She started opening her gifts as soon as Klaus left. Her parents had already given her their presents and she opened her father's first which was a maroon coloured leather wallet that contained a hundred pounds in it. She then opened the present from her mother which was a glow-in-the-dark pen and a beautiful green diary. Amanda had given her cute, silver tops and a pink shirt. Even though she loved all the gifts she was wondering what Isabella had given her. Curiosity got the better of her and she quickly unwrapped the package containing Isabella's gift and what she saw astonished her. A rectangular box labelled 'Tamurest' and a small note attached to it met her eyes. She quickly read the letter which said:

"Dear Violet,

I hope you got the game safely and unharmed. My very great grandfather gave it to me to pass it on to you. The instructions are in this game and I hope you can save Sunny Whiteriver as she is my very great aunt. Whatever difficulties you face, just remember we will all be praying for and are counting on you. Hope you succeed with the mission and come home safely.

With loads of love and prayers,

Isabella Whiteriver."

Touched by the letter, she quickly opened the game and read the instructions but the box only contained a small model of a forest, a river, a golden egg and a play button. She already knew what to do but she did not expect to actually land on a place where few had ever set foot on…

Chapter 2: On the Moon… and Earth

On the moon. Violet, along with the game, had landed on the moon. Miraculously, there was oxygen and she was alive and well. Her eyes suddenly jerked open. "Where am I? What am I doing here? How did I get here? And if I am not on Earth, then how come I can breathe?" Her mind was overflowing with questions that needed answering. After she calmed down a bit, she started to remember everything her mother had told her previously. How she came here, what she was doing here, how she could breathe and all her questions answered, she had just one goal in her mind now; to save Sunny Whiteriver as quickly as possible and get out of there.

Her stomach suddenly let out a low rumble as she realized she had not eaten anything after her party. She was very hungry and walked half a mile insearch of food or water just to realize that nothing grew on the moon and there could not possibly be any water on it. What she was forgetting though was that Astoria had changed the whole course of it.

When she came back, she was astounded to find a sleeping bag, some fruits, brown bread, water and some handy tools( a chisel, a mini hammer, a flashlight, a duffle bag and a pair of binoculars) beside the game. "Where and how did these things come here?" She thought to herself. As her stomach was literally growling now, she gave little thought to these questions and quickly ate an apple and gulped down the whole bottle of water. She then ate an orange and as she was very sleepy after walking half a mile, she delayed the search for Sunny by an hour and immediately went to sleep in the sleeping bag.

Meanwhile on Earth( in Violet's house), Elizabeth had just woken up from her nap and decided to check up on Violet but to her surprise, Klaus was in her room and strangely, She was nowhere to be found. Elizabeth knew what had happened at once and stayed calm but Klaus was the exact opposite. He was weeping and through his sobs he said, "Mother, I have s-s- searched the entire h-house and(hic) the garage, she is nowhere to be found. W-w-what do we do now? Should I call the police, should I tell father to come home, should I alert the FBI, Should I-" " Calm down Klaus, I know where she is and trust me, she is good." Elizabeth then told him everything and he finally calmed down and both of them returned to their rooms.

While this was going on, Isabella had just reached home and set foot in the house when she was bombarded with questions from her mother( as there was no-one else at home). "Did you give it to her? Did she open it? Did she know it was the game? Is she on th-" "Calm down mother. I do not know what happened, I just gave it to her and returned home although I do think her mother will know what happened. Let me just phone her and ask." Isabella went to her room and was about to dial Elizabeth Greenbridge's number when the downstairs landline rang. She ran down the stairs and picked it up. "Hello, Isabella Whiteriver speaking, who is this?" "This is Elizabeth Greenbridge. Thank-you sincerely for the game. I just called to inform you that Violet is on the moon and we all hope that she brings your aunt home safely. Thank-you again and have a good day. Bye." Isabella put the telephone down and said, " Mrs Greenbridge said that Violet is on the moon and is going to save Sunny. Just hope it all goes well." After that, they both went to their rooms.

After all this, Violet woke-up from her nap and wondered what must be happening back at home. She hoped that know was worried and wished she could just reassure them that she was alright but as she could not, she did the next best thing she could do; she filled the duffle bag with water, an apple, the chisel and hammer for any accidents(hopefully not) and the flashlight. She was then on her way to find the first riddle when her foot slipped and she fell into a deep, dark hole in one of the craters. She landed on something hard. "Oh my god, where am I and how is this situation going to help me solve the riddles and save Sunny. Guess this place just brings bad luck." At that time, she started weeping but little did she know that this was the exact place to look for the riddles…

Chapter 3: Solving the Riddles (Part 1)

She was about to yell for help when she remembered that there was nobody there(or anywhere, in that case) and she had to help herself to get out of this unlucky situation. Luckily, she had a couple of handy tools(a chisel and a mini hammer) and of course her flashlight. She was about to dig her way out when her hand touched something hard on the soft ground. She quickly removed the sand from the hard ground and thought that her eyes were deceiving her. There, in front of her eyes, was a round, grey, steel trapdoor. On top of it, there was something written. She rubbed the lid and to her astonishment, it was written ' Riddle one: down'. She opened the trapdoor and saw a dark hollow. In the middle of it, she saw a rusted metal staircase going down. She started to go down the staircase hesitantly, having second thoughts about it. She shook at the smallest creek that it made and was so frightened that she forgot that she had a flashlight with her that could easily illuminate the dark tunnel. She did however keep going on because she did want to save Sunny and get out of there as soon as possible.

Finally, at long last, the staircase had ended and she was standing in a broader pathway with a white wall in front of her. On the wall, there were two golden doors and in between the doors, there was a very confusing riddle written; ' second to the left, second to the right, dig there to find the key which opens one of the doors in your sight'. Violet read the riddle five times before she could understand what it was trying to say. " If second to the left is right and if second to the right is left, then second to both of them is the middle! How could I have been so silly! This riddle is all about directions!" She said. Then she quickly went in the middle of the room and started digging.

After digging for fifteen minutes, she felt something small and hard in the ground. She cleared the sand a bit and sure enough, she could see a golden key right in front of her. She took the key out of the ground and went to the door and surprisingly, it opened both the doors. In one door, she could see nothing but darkness and in the other, she could see a trapdoor on the ceiling. She rejoiced in her victory but quickly stopped as she found a loophole in her plans. How was she going to get to the ceiling? She could not see any ladders or a stool that could help her reach the ceiling but she need not have worried because as soon as she started worrying, she felt as if she was being lifted off the ground. When she looked down, she saw that her legs were no longer touching the ground and smiled to herself. She reached the ceiling and opened the trapdoor which said; ' Riddle two: above'. When she opened the door, she landed in the same place as before but there was one problem, as the sand on the ground was quick-sand, she had to float above the ground and she had no problem with it.

This time, the two doors on the wall were made of silver and the riddle was more confusing than before; ' Up and down, right and left, RESTS the key which the great witch left.' Violet figured it out quite easily that the riddle was about directions again and also that the word in bold was a hint to finding the key but before she could think of anything else, she heard a loud roar of maybe a lion coming from one of the doors…

Chapter 4: Solving the Riddles (Part 2)

She screamed and got frightened for a few seconds but calmed down because she thought that from whichever door the roars were coming from, the door was still locked and she would come to no harm, yet. She concentrated on the word 'REST' for a couple of minutes and she had an idea. "What if the letter 'R' is indicating the word 'right' and 'est' is indicating the word 'west'? Maybe I should dig there and hopefully, I can find the key in that area." Violet then started digging in the right-west corner of the room( or more like struggling to dig because the sand was quick sand and as soon as she found the key, it kept slipping out of her hands and she could not concentrate properly because the roars kept frightening her).

Finally, after twenty minutes of hard work, she finally managed to grasp the key in her hands. She went to one of the doors and it opened( and thankfully it was one without the lion) and had 'Riddle 3, ahead' written on it. As soon as she opened the door, she was plunged in water and had to swim up, gasping for breath. Strangely enough, the water was not flowing through the door she had just entered through. She closed the door she had just entered through and turned around to see a riddle written in the wall between two bronze-coloured doors. The riddle was; 'On the ground of the sea is the key, to open a world of nature which will finally suit your behaviour.' She suddenly realized that after she solved this riddle, she would enter the forest to find the golden egg but the question was, how to solve the riddle? She read the riddle three times before understanding it and looked at the flat ground. For the first time, she realized that the ground was covered with different types of tall, short and colourful corals and on the other side, very dirty and mucky green seaweeds. "This is going to take a lot of time," she thought. She looked through the seaweeds and corals for thirty-five minutes

(constantly coming up due to lack of air) and finally found ten keys on the ground. She wasted no time in trying all the keys in both the doors and finally after seven minutes did a purple-coloured key open the left-hand door. She looked awed at the magnificent sight in front of her eyes…

Chapter 5: The last Golden Egg

Her eyes rested upon a huge forest( thirty feet from where she was standing) but it was like no other. The trees were taller than the Eiffel tower in Paris but strangely, as far as she could see, they did not block any of the sunlight. All the leaves of the bushes, trees and plants were not green but magenta! There was grass all over the forest floor, the light green grass led towards the golden egg and the dark green grass just filled in the gaps. The river water on either side of the river was not blue or transparent but pure white! "What a strange forest, I hope it leads me to the golden egg," she thought.

Violet then quickly went into the forest and started to follow the path which led to the golden egg. The path was very long and she soon grew thirsty but she need not have worried because there was water on either side of the grass and she could quench her thirst whenever she wanted. Even though the path seemed endless, she enjoyed the journey thoroughly because she could always eat any type of fruit whenever she wanted from the fruit trees that were along the path and she did eat a couple of strawberries and a banana. Even the plants she saw were enjoyable, from colourful plants to small bushes

( some that did not even exist on Earth)! The animals were also in a great number and most of them were harmless.

Her enjoyable journey was put to a stop abruptly when she approached a dead end with three trees( with hollow holes inside them) all standing in a straight line. She took out her flashlight and shone it in the first tree hollow. "No golden shimmer." She went to the second tree hollow and shone her flashlight again. " No golden shimmer again," she said and sighed. She went to the last tree hollow and shone her flashlight there and viola! She could see the golden shimmer. Just as she was about to go into the hollow, a Blakiston Fish Owl flew from the hollow, carrying the golden egg and dropped it on the forest floor beside her.

Even though Violet had gotten the golden egg, she did not know how to open it and how it would leave her to Sunny Whiteriver. She tried to open it but whenever she did, it gave out sparks and her fingers started to ache after touching it. Finally, after some time with a low rumble, the egg cracked and out came a cute, seablue-coloured, yellow-eyed baby dragon (about twelve inches tall and three inches wide). Violet immediately screamed and started walking backwards very fast. The dragon suddenly spoke, "Do not be in such a hurry, my child. I will not harm you. My name is Magilana and I will lead you to your friend's aunt." Violet had a thousand questions running through her mind but decided to trust Magilana although just in case Magilana turned out to betray her later, she left golden star markings from the first riddle door till where she would go magically, without Magilana knowing nothing about it. The dragon then led her to a very eerie place on the moon…

Chapter 6: Save our Souls

" A landfill. Seriously, how am I going to find Sunny in a landfill, Magilana?" she questioned. "Listen my child, the-" " Will you hurry up and tell me already and for God's sake, stop treating me like a child!" Magilana pretended she had not heard her and continued. " The landfill is five feet high and ten feet broad. I am sure you will not have any trouble finding dear Sunny." " Yeah but what about the smell and the garbage?" "Oh! If you really want to save her, I don't think the smell or the garbage will really bother you." Violet was going to argue but thought it better not to and immediately replied, " Yeah, I think you are right, I am sorry for behaving badly with you. I should start digging now."

Even though the garbage and the stench was killing her, she did not give up although strangely enough, Magilana was not helping her with the whole digging process and it was Violet's first cue to stop trusting her. Eventually, after half an hour of keeping her nose to the grindstone, she found Sunny wrapped in cotton sheets( like a mummy). Violet quickly unwrapped her and was shocked to see her eyes open! Violet quickly explained everything to Sunny and they both hugged and rejoiced; Violet in finding Sunny and Sunny in being free after a really long time. But as usual, victory does not last for long.

Quite unexpectedly, magilana snorted and said, " You both are acting like babies, crying and hugging and all of that nonsense but I guess that is a good thing, it will be easier to gobble you both up in an instant." Then suddenly, right in front of their eyes, the small Magilana grew and grew and grew until it was twelve times their height. " I knew I should not have trusted you, with all your weird actions and behaviors. I regret following you!" Violet screamed and ran and so did Sunny. Even though Sunny had lived almost a thousand years, she was still young and in shape because of the spell Astoria the witch had put on her all those years ago and could run quite easily. They both quickly went through the forest, past the riddle doors and went back to the game. Magilna had the advantage of her enormous height and was just fifty yards away from them. Violet and Sunny were about to faint as they had just run a full kilometer just to escape from this wretched place. They quickly pressed the ' Home' button which had miraculously appeared on the board just as they were approaching the game and felt a sharp pain in the mouth and back before landing back to the place where it had all started…

Chapter 7: Home Sweet Home

Home. The place Violet was finally free and safe and definitely far away from all the drama on the moon. They had appeared in Violet's room and everything was dark and silent. Violet assumed it was night-time and switched on the lights. She hoped everything on the moon was back to normal, it's course and she hoped that the horrible beast of a dragon( Magilana obviously) was dead. "Where are we?" Sunny asked. " We are back on Earth, in my house and in my room and as it is night-time, we should probably get some sleep. Lord knows how much we need it. I will call Isabella in the morning and will ask her to take you home, if that is ok with you." " Yes of course that is alright with me and Violet, thanks a lot for saving me from this whole drama. How will I ever repay you?" " By not getting in any more trouble, perhaps." They both laughed and jumped into bed. Sunny fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow but violet had one job to do before sleeping. She took the game and went outside, took out the biggest hammer from the shed she could find and smashed the game to bits. She then dug a whole in the ground and buried the bits in it so that nobody could find it. These types of adventures were only for sporty people and nobody else deserved to be in so much trouble, even the sporty type. Violet then quickly crept back into bed, looked at her phone and was surprised to see that it had only been twenty-four hours since she had left for the adventure. "Guess life-changing experiences can happen in a day," she thought. She then went into a long deserved sleep.

They woke-up in the morning to Klaus screaming in their ears. "Stop it, Klaus! Calm down! And please tell mom to prepare some breakfast, I am famished. I will call Isabella and tell her to come over." Violet said. Klaus finally calmed down and said, " Mother has already prepared scrambled eggs for everyone so come downstairs and tell us everything. You too, Miss Sunny." They hurried downstairs to the aroma of freshly scrambled eggs. Everyone hurriedly ate their breakfast and just as they were clearing everything up, Isabella came. Elizabeth washed the dishes and everybody gathered around in a circle to listen to Violet's story. Then Isabella thanked Violet from the bottom of her heart and took her aunt home.

A couple of hours later, Elizabeth called Violet to her room to have a chat with her. "Violet dear, you have done something that nobody has done, something remarkable, astounding. What if we contact the news channel or a popular television show and tell them our story. Maybe if they like it and broadcast it to several channels, we will be millionaires. Just think about it, we, the Greenbridges, will be the most famous and rich!" " Sorry to burst your bubble mother but none of that is going to happen.One, because I don't think anybody will believe us and two, Sunny or I do not want or need publicity. This will be a secret that only our families know of and we are taking it to our graves. Don't you dare tell a word of this to the media, mum, or else you will regret it," Violet ordered in a threatening tone. After that, nobody said a word about the incident and so things stayed this way until now. ( I, the narrator, am telling this story now because this happened centuries ago and maybe it is my duty to tell people of the astonishing adventures that happen once in a lifetime. I just hope that I did not offend Violet or Sunny by it. I hope to see you all soon with another exciting and unbelievable story for next time. Bye!)