The Chameleon Shop

When Kaylee opened her eyes again, the cottage had vanished. Instead, she found she was now standing atop a mountain rather close, excessively close for her liking, to the crater of an active volcano. Smoke and hot steam rose up around her cheeks, making her break out in an instant sweat and she could hear the sounds of rumbling below her. It sounded like hot rock stew!

She leapt back again with a cry of absolute terror, clutched the glowing green key to the front of her sweatshirt and looked around in total disbelief.

What had happened? Where was this place? Surely it was not the top of a mountain; a live and very angry looking mountain. She must have fainted or something and be dreaming all of this.

However, as she gazed around her and saw the smaller hills surrounding her, the blue sea on the horizon in the distance, islands floating in front of the two moons up in the sky...

Wait, what? Two moons? Floating islands?

There was a solitary mountain in the distance, jutting out of the landscape, surrounded at present by a blanket of mist, but at its peak, she could just make out what looked to be possibly a castle.

To her left she could see floating islands, complete with grass covered hills. They had flowing waterfalls, tumbling over the sides until they vanished as mist. They were the shape of inverted teardrops, with dirt, rock and root covered points at the bottom, as if they had been plucked out of a giant’s garden.

To her right, beyond the solitary mountain, she could see an ocean of dark blue, which led who knew where in these strange lands. White foamy waves lapped at the beaches of a few lonely islands, far out in the Bay. Near the shore of the mainland a row of galleon ships bobbed at a small Port.

We’re not in Kansas anymore, Kaylee ... a line from The Wizard of Oz came to mind.

‘Oh, hell, how do I get out of this mess?’ Kaylee murmured. She turned to what appeared to be a shingle-covered path winding down the volcano to surrounding fields below. Fields bursting with flora and fauna, but oddly, becoming more brown and barren as they neared the distant Mountain.

Kaylee started walking, fast. That hot, bubbling rock stew looked set to bubble over and she didn’t mean to be hanging around when it did.

She was glad she still had her backpack. At least she had some food and water for the walk. She realized she was still clutching the strange key, so stuffed it back inside the pack and set off.

Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed what at first appeared to be a black bird flying towards her. As it grew nearer though, she saw with complete amazement, it was a horse; a huge, black, flying horse, a Pegasus to be precise.

‘Think I hit my head on that swing harder than I thought? Mum’s never going to believe a word of this.’

The black Pegasus landed gracefully not far from Kaylee. His shiny muscles glistened in the sunlight and his beautiful ebony wings spread as wide as a truck. He trotted majestically up to her, lowered his nose and nudged her outstretched hand, snuffling a friendly ‘Hello’. He knelt on one knee and waited patiently for her to climb on.

She did, of course, with great relief. He was obviously friendly and there to help and she might not have gotten off the path in time otherwise. As she climbed up and snuggled her knees in close behind his soft feathery wings, she wondered what kind soul had sent him, or whether he had just done it as a random act of kindness to help a fellow living creature.

She clung to his long black mane, as his trot quickly became a gallop. Within moments, he leapt up and they were airborne, with Kaylee enjoying the sun’s warmth on her face and the wind whipping past and whistling in her ears. She watched the green fields below, flying beneath them as though she were in an aeroplane. Her stomach dipped as Pegasus dived suddenly, heading for two enormous iron gates.

They touched down with a small jolt to her backside and he let her off in front of the gigantic gates. These towered above them as high as a two-storey house, enclosing a beautiful hidden garden. Branches and flowers escaped to wave in the breeze between the bars, all the way along the fence, in opposite directions as far as the eye could see.

‘What am I supposed to do here?’ She asked the Pegasus, but she discovered he could not talk. He merely pawed the dirt with his hoof and shook his head up and down, seeming to gesture to her to go on, go that way.

‘But I don’t have a ....’

Ah! But she did have a key. With an excited smile, Kaylee pulled out the huge key and stretched up on tippee-toe to slot it into a lock in the left gate.

It fit easily. She turned it with a loud clunk and it swung inwards of its own accord. Beyond the gates lay the most wondrously amazing garden, she had ever seen. Filled with foxgloves, delphiniums, lavender, roses, gardenia’s and some plants she didn’t know the names of ─ oh what a gorgeous perfume! It was an absolute rainbow of colours.

Stretched up and over a massive arched walkway, were crisscrossed intertwining vines; thick with green leaves and purple wisteria. These hung down in long bunches like lace, for what looked like miles ahead.

The fragrances drifting round on the warm breeze were so intoxicating she almost forgot she was supposed to be looking for something. What that was, she was yet to discover but the urge to find it was growing stronger by the minute.