by JB Rowley
The king gestured to the books with a sweep of his arm. “Much knowledge can be found in books,” he said.
Nellie, Hamish and Charli went from bookshelf to bookshelf, looking at the ancient books.
When the time came to leave the library Nellie said, “Please allow us to stay a little longer with the books. We all love books.” Charli and Hamish looked confused but did not say anything. “We must not take up any more of your time,” continued Nellie. “It is not necessary for you to stay with us. We would be very happy to have one of your servants come back later and escort us to the feast. Wouldn’t we, Prince Alphonse?”
Nellie turned to Hamish and gave him a look that urged him to agree with her. By now, Charli realised that Nellie must have some sort of plan and staying in the library was part of that plan. She nudged her brother. “That’s a great idea, Ham...Prince Alphonse.”
Hamish, still looking confused, nodded his head. “Yes, certainly,” he said, trying to sound like a prince. “That is what we wish to do, your majesty.”
“Splendid,” said the king. “Spending time in the library is an honourable occupation. A royal servant will return for you when our feast is ready.”
He clapped his hands. The big doors of the library opened slowly. The servants at the door stood with heads bowed as the king and queen swept past. The great doors creaked as they were pulled shut.
Now that they were alone in the library, Nellie relaxed.
“What was all that about?” said Hamish.
“You have a plan, Nellie?” asked Charli.
“Well, I am not sure if it is a plan but I have an idea. Remember what Fairy Godmother told us when we asked her how to get back to General Realm?”
“I think I remember the first part,” said Charli.
Choose the way that is best and you’ll pass each test,
Of false friends beware but never despair
“That’s right. I am sure our false friends were Mr Renard and Evil Em. What about the second part?”
“Something about secrets,” said Hamish.
“Yes,” said Charli, “and pages, a room of pages. Oh, of course, a library.”
“Yes,” said Nellie. She repeated the second part of Fairy Godmother’s message.
For in the room of pages beyond the words of sages
Lies the secret track to take you back.
Hamish looked around the room at the shelves of books.
“What does beyond the words of sages mean?” said Charli.
“Behind the books,” said Hamish. “A secret passage behind a book shelf. These old castles always had a secret passage so that the royal family could escape from their enemies.”
“That’s right,” said Nellie.
“But which bookshelf?” said Charli.
“That’s what we have to find out before they come back for us. Otherwise we will be stuck in this fairy tale forever,” said Nellie.
“And I will be married off to that princess.”
“Yes, Prince Alphonse,” said Charli with a giggle. Nellie giggled too.
Hamish glared at them. “Come on. Let’s get on with it.”
Charli studied the tall bookcases. “I don’t think we can move these bookcases, Nellie.”
“We won’t have to, silly,” said Hamish. “We just have to turn the right knob or press on the secret panel and the bookcase will move.”
“Sure,” said Charli, “and all we have to do is find it, unless of course you are so smart you know exactly where it is.”
“Cut it out, you two. We need to concentrate,” said Nellie. “Focus on our task. We had better find the secret track before someone comes looking for us. Press on all the panels and look for hidden knobs.”
Together they searched the room. They looked behind the framed portraits that hung on the walls, pressed on the wall panels around the fireplace and ran their hands underneath shelves and tables. They had still not found what they were looking for when they heard footsteps in the hall and voices outside the door.
“Great,” said Hamish. “They’re coming for us and we still haven’t found any secret passage.”
“We can’t give up yet,” said Nellie.
The library doors began to creak open.
“Oh, no,” said Charli.
Looking at the open bookcase next to the fireplace Nellie saw that one shelf was not completely full, leaving an empty section at one end. She ran to it and moved the books along the shelf. Behind the books was a small panel. Nellie pressed on it. Immediately, the bookcase swung open. At the same time, the library doors opened.
11: General Realm
“Quick,” said Nellie. “Let’s go.”
Nellie pushed Hamish and Charli into the dark passageway behind the bookcase and quickly followed. The bookcase closed after them with a clunk.
They ran. The tunnel twisted and turned this way and that and took them uphill and downhill. They were so eager to escape that they hardly noticed how dark it was in the tunnel. When Charli felt something brush against her leg, she screamed but quickly clamped a hand over her mouth to cut the scream off.
“It’s just a rat,” said Hamish. “Keep moving and it won’t have a chance to bite you.”
Charli squealed again. Nellie grabbed her arm and pulled her along.
The children ran on through the tunnel until it eventually ended at a heavy wooden door. They all stopped, panting and gasping for air.
“I think I heard someone following us,” said Charli, through breathless pants.
“You mean a giant rat?” said Hamish.
“Quick,” said Nellie. “We’d better get out of the tunnel.”
Hamish pushed the door. It was heavy but he managed to open it enough to squeeze through. Nellie and Charli followed. They found themselves in a hollow tree trunk. Looking back, Nellie noticed that the door they had just come through had disappeared. She saw only the inside of the tree trunk.
“Where are we?” said Charli.
“Not in another fairy tale, I hope,” said Hamish.
“Let’s find out,” said Nellie.
Vines and other climbing plants formed a green curtain across an opening in the tree’s trunk. Nellie parted the vines and they stepped out.
“I think we’re back in the forest,” said Charli.
“Yes,” said Hamish. “This looks a bit like the place where we arrived.”
Nellie looked around at the green ferns and tall trees. “I think we’re back in General Realm.”
“Jiminy, jumpity.”
“Who was that?” said Charli and Hamish together.
Nellie smiled. She knew who it was. They were definitely back in General Realm.
“It’s Meg,” she said. “Meg, where are you?”
“Here I am, friend Nellie.”
Nellie saw another huge old tree nearby. Its trunk broadened at the base to become almost as large as a room in her house. At ground level the tree had an opening covered in climbing plants just like the tree they had just been in. Nellie’s eyes scanned the trunk. It was bare of branches for the first few metres. Then she saw him. Sitting on the first branch several metres above the ground was Meg. Nellie looked at his familiar dark face, the mischief in his chocolate brown eyes, and the cheeky grin revealing his white teeth.
“Meg!” She waved up at him.
“Jiminy, jumpity, friend Nellie, you came back.”
“Who is that?” said Hamish.
Nellie, overjoyed at seeing her cheeky friend, ignored Hamish.
“I just couldn’t leave Gondwana so soon, Meg.”
Meg’s grin widened. He nodded his understanding.
“I have two more travellers for you to meet, Meg.”
“I will come down,” said Meg.
Nellie expected Meg to swing down from the tree on a vine. When she had first met him he had been sitting in a tree branch and had used a vine to swing as effortlessly as a monkey to the ground. Instead, Meg disappeared into the tree trunk. While they waite
d, Nellie answered Hamish’s question.
“I met Meg during my Gondwana adventure. He showed me amazing places in Gondwana and helped me get to the centre.”
“Why do you call him Meg?” said Charli.
“It’s short for Meghashyam. That’s his full name. He’s from India and he was named after a Hindu god.”
Meg emerged, grinning, pushing aside the curtain of plants and creepers. Nellie noticed that the garland of wildflowers around his neck were different to the ones he had worn previously. The leaves in his leaf sarong also seemed to be fresh ones. Then she realised that night had passed while they had been in Fairytale Realm and it was a new day in Gondwana.
“Meg, these are my friends,” said Nellie. She introduced Hamish and Charli.
“Welcome to my home,” said Meg, pointing to the tall tree he had been sitting in.
“How did you get down from where you were?” said Charli.
“Come,” said Meg. “I will show you.”
They followed Meg into the tree. Inside, Nellie noticed Meg had turned the hollow tree trunk into a comfortable room with a wooden table made from tree branches and chairs made from rocks. Knot holes in the tree trunk let light into the room.
“This is a nice room, Meg,” said Nellie.
Meg grinned. “I also have an upstairs bedroom, friend Nellie.”
“Upstairs?”
Meg pointed up to a natural ledge jutting out in the tree trunk. It was not large but it would be large enough for Meg to use as a bed.
“There is the staircase,” said Meg, gesturing toward a ladder made from forest vines dangling in a far corner. It was swinging slightly probably because Meg had just used it.
“You are clever, Meg,” said Nellie. “You made that ladder yourself.”
“It’s not hard to make a ladder from vines,” said Hamish.
Meg smiled at Nellie. “It is a long ladder that goes all the way up to the branch where I was sitting.”
“Great,” said Hamish, rushing over to the vine ladder. “I want to try it out.”
“Yes, friend Hamish, you may try it out.”
Hamish started to climb.
“When you reach the top, friend Hamish, climb out onto the branch. Then shake the ladder up and down to let us know it is empty.”
“Okay,” said Hamish. They watched him climb until he disappeared from sight. Their view was blocked by the ledge Meg used as a bed.
“It is better that we climb up one person at a time,” said Meg. “If there are too many bodies on the ladder at once it might break.”
One by one they climbed the ladder. Nellie noticed that Meg’s upstairs bedroom consisted of a mattress made out of a pile of fern fronds.
“How did the tree get to be hollowed out?” asked Charli when they had all climbed to the top and were sitting on the branch like a row of owls.
“This is a sacred tree that has been hollowed out by bats,” said Meg.
“Bats? How could they hollow out a tree?”
“They are burrowing bats. These burrowing bats chip at the trunk, thousands and thousands of them, until they have made a safe place to gather together.”
“Where are the bats now?” asked Charli.
“The bats do not live here. They arrive once a year when it is a time for the female bats to have babies.”
“I thought you didn’t like bats, Meg,” said Nellie.
“It was the giant bat I did not like, friend Nellie. But it is true; I am not so friendly with bats. I am not friendly with even these small bats. I do not stay here when the bats come.”
Nellie explained to Charli and Hamish how travellers have to pass a big test before they can get to the centre of Gondwana. Meg’s big test was to get past a giant black bat.
“Hamish and Charli have just finished the first part of their adventure. Now they have to find out about the second part. I am sure that will include a big test.”
Hamish and Charli groaned.
“What was your big test, Nellie?” said Charli.
“It was a giant weta.”
“Oh, we have those in New Zealand. They are ugly looking things. I wouldn’t like to meet a giant one.”
“It wasn’t so bad,” said Nellie.
Nellie had been expecting Pari to appear. She asked Meg where he was.
Meg smiled. “Pari is asleep. He usually sleeps during the day but he stayed awake all day yesterday when we were in your adventure, friend Nellie. Now he is very tired.”
“Who is Pari?” asked Charli.
“Oh, Charli, you’ll adore Pari. He is the most beautiful possum with striped fur in different shades of red.”
“Really? I’d love to meet him.”
Hamish rolled his eyes. “Charli and her animals. That’s all she cares about.”
“There’s nothing wrong with caring about animals, Hamish,” said Charli. She smiled at Nellie. “I’m always finding animals that are hurt and need help. I just take them home. When they are better I take them back to where I found them in the forest.”
“Even possums,” said Hamish. “They’re a pest in New Zealand because there are too many of them but she still lets them go back into the wild.” Hamish threw his arms in a gesture of frustration at what he considered his sister’s foolishness.
“Charli has a kind heart,” said Nellie. “Don’t worry, Hamish, Pari is not a brush tail possum. He’s a pygmy possum.” She turned to Meg.
“Will Pari sleep all day, Meg?”
Meg smiled. “Only one thing will wake Pari.”
He reached into his leaf sarong and brought out the wooden flute Nellie has seen him play during her adventure. Meg began to play a soft lilting tune that, to Nellie, sounded like water trickling over smooth rocks. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a movement in the branches above. Before she had a chance to look up, Pari swung down to sit on Meg’s shoulder. Meg smiled and continued playing. Charli gasped.
“Oh, Nellie, you were right. He is the most gorgeous, gorgeous, the most beautiful, beautiful possum in the whole wide, wide world.”
Pari grunted and bobbed up and down. Nellie laughed.
“See how he understands what we say.”
Charli leaned past Nellie to stroke Pari. Meg stopped playing.
“Don’t stop playing, Meg. I like it,” said Charli.
“Perhaps I will play more for you later, friend Charli,” said Meg, tucking his flute into the waist of his sarong.
“You mean you’ll come with us for the second part of the adventure?” said Nellie.
“I will come with you, friend Nellie.”
Nellie clapped her hands. “You are a good friend, Meg.”
As if in answer to Nellie’s clapping, other hands clapped nearby. They all turned to see who it was.
12: Walking Woodland
On a branch on the other side of the tree trunk, stood a round white shape. Nellie almost fell off out of the tree in her excitement at seeing Kikka, the spirit of the mist.
“Kikka,” she cried. She turned to Charli and Hamish. “This is Kikka. She was a good friend to us in my adventure, wasn’t she Meg?”
Meg nodded. “Kikka is a friend and guide.”
“There are new travellers in Gondwana,” said Kikka in her husky voice.
Nellie introduced Hamish and Charli.
“Kikka is a spirit of the mist,” she told them.
“There are no spirits in the mist,” said Hamish. “That is superstitious nonsense.”
“Maybe, but Gondwana is not an ordinary forest and Gondwana mists are not ordinary mists,” said Nellie.
Meg grinned. “You learned much about Gondwana on your adventure, friend Nellie.”
Kikka clapped her hands again.
“I wish she’d stop clapping,” said Hamish.
“Kikka claps because she has a message to deliver,” said Meg.
“Kikka has an important message,” said the little white spirit.
She fixed her milky round eyes on them.
> “Well, if you’ve got a message, get on with it,” said Hamish.
“Hamish!” said Charli. “There’s no need to be rude.”
Remembering her own impatience with Kikka, Nellie smiled. She knew Kikka would deliver the message only when she was ready.
“Kikka has a message from the master,” said Kikka.
Charli nudged Hamish who had been about to say something. “Wait,” she hissed.
“Gondvan congratulates the travellers on the completion of part one of their adventure. If you wish to go home you must now complete part two.”
“If we wish to go...” began Hamish. Nellie interrupted him.
“Thank you, Kikka.”
Kikka smiled, showing her tiny seed-like teeth.
“Travellers must reach the centre of Gondwana before sunset,” said Kikka.
“Isn’t that what you had to do, Nellie?” said Charli.
“Yes, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.”
Kikka clapped her hands and chanted:
Through the walking wood travellers must go
To cross where the giant guards the flow
“Walking wood?” said Charli. “Does she mean woodland, like a forest? A walking forest would be weird.”
“Not as weird as it sounds,” said Hamish, flicking his head slightly so that his long curls bounced up and down. He seemed to do that, Nellie noticed, when he was about to explain something. “There are plants that can walk, well sort of. In the rainforests of South America there are huge palms that grow on stilt roots. If the tree falls over, it grows new stilt roots from the old roots and starts to grow in a different spot. They call them Walking Palms.”
“Only you would know something like that, Hamish,” said Charli.
“Well, I’m more worried about the giant,” said Nellie. “The giant weta Meg and I had to fight in my adventure was as big as a Stegosaurus. I hope the giant that is guarding the flow is not another one of those.”
