Fantasia and the Dragon’s Mountain

by Colin K. 

Orie: An ostrich who really loves magic.

Riles: A cockatoo who loves magic wands. However, he does not know he will soon have one!

Morton: A rook crow who loves dragons. He’ll be excited about the adventures ahead!

Nilsa: A robin who loves unicorns. 

One day in Usak, Turkey, four friends, an ostrich named Orie, a cockatoo named Riles, a rook crow named Morton, and a robin named Nilsa, were walking together. “We’ve had a great time together,” said Orie. “But I think I have to go back to Kenya.” “We’ve got to go back to England,”  said Nilsa. As they were finishing their walk, Riles noticed a swirly thing nestled in some trees. Riles read a lot of books about magic worlds, so he immediately knew what it was.  

“Wait is that a portal?!?!?! Let’s go!!!” said Riles.  “I’m going in!”  ZOOP! “Riles!” called Nilsa. “Oh no, we have to find him!!!!!” So the friends followed Riles into the portal and came into a strange world. 

They saw a beautiful meadow with purple flowers and berry trees. The sky was cyan and swirling. Instead of a sun, there was a beautiful, light yellow star in the sky, and there were unicorns flying around everywhere. “Oh, this is so lovely!” said Nilsa. In the distance there was a red flaming mountain with smoke coming out of it. Fortunately, it was not erupting. “Ohhhh! Could there be a dragon in there? I’ve read stories where a dragon guards treasure in a mountain. Let’s go!!!” said Morton. “Maybe we should be prepared,” said Orie. “Nahhh!” said Morton. “Let’s go now!!” “Alright, fine,” said Orie. “We can start heading over.” 

As they started walking, they noticed a berry bush. “I would like to try these berries,” said Riles. “Those are wish berries,” said a voice. “Who said that?!” exclaimed Riles.

“I did!”  A unicorn landed on the ground.  “Those wish berries can grant any wish,” said the unicorn. “Just say your wish and eat the berry.” Riles took a berry. “I wish I had a magic wand!” said Riles. CHOMP! “Wow!” said Riles. A magic wand had appeared in his beak. Orie took a berry next. “I wish I could fly!” Orie’s wings stretched out and she took off. “Look, I’m flying!” Then, Morton took a berry. “I wish that my wings looked like dragon wings! Wow! I have red, patterned wings!” Finally, Nilsa took a berry. “I wish I had a unicorn horn! Amazing! I have grown a pink horn!” “Well, these items will sure be useful on our long journey to the mountain,” said Orie.  “Goodbye, birds,” said the unicorn.  “Use these items well on your journey.  Oh, and Orie, congratulations on flying!”  The birds thanked the unicorn and continued on towards the smoking mountain.   

“Wait, I see see something ahead!” said Nilsa. “Hold on,” said Morton. “Why are we not getting any closer? It seems we’re in an infinite loop.” “Wait! I have a magic wand!” exclaimed Riles. “Abra cadabra! Remove the loop so we can pass!” After Riles said the magic words, a white flash filled the air.  When the air cleared, the birds saw that the infinite loop had disappeared.  “It worked!” exclaimed Orie.  Although the birds were not yet aware of it, Morton’s magic wand could do anything. The wand used to belong to the dragon in Fantasia Mountain, and when Morton wished for it, the wish teleported the magic wand from the dragon’s gold pile to Riles. 

The friends continued on and saw something in the distance.   As the friends moved closer, they realized it was a town. It was actually a town full of millions of gnomes! “Welcome to Gnomeria! The Town of Gnomes!” greeted a gnome.  He was three-feet tall and wore a red pyramid-shaped hat with a white sphere on top.  “We’re very happy to meet you,” said Orie.  The birds looked around the town and saw blue houses with red-sloped roofs and a white sphere on top.  All of the businesses looked the same. In the middle of the town, there was a train station. On the train platform, one sign said WEST TO MAGICMENTO and the other read EAST TO MAGICAPPOLIS. Trains were coming and going. Every five seconds a train would pull into the station.

When the birds passed a gnome near the train station, Nilsa asked, “How do we take the train to Fantasia Mountain?”  The gnome replied, “Take the eastbound train to Magicdan, and once you reach Magicdan station, take the northbound train to Magictoon.  There you will only be 200 miles away from Fantasia Mountain.”  “Thank you very much,” said Nilsa.  “We will buy tickets right away.”

When the birds arrived in Magictoon, they could clearly see the mountain in the distance with smoke spewing out the top. “Wow!” said Nilsa. “That was an amazing ride!” “Yeah,” said Orie.  “Those gnomes were very helpful.” ”We”ll be there in no time!” added Morton.  “Actually, we should speed up!” said Nilsa. “It’s almost night!” 

When it struck night, the birds started flying, but Nilsa had a problem.  Two years ago, Nilsa fell off of Big Ben and hurt her wing, so she flew very slowly. “Hey! I can’t keep up!” shouted Nilsa. “I can’t fly properly!”  So the birds had to slow down. However, they were now a good target for the creatures that were lurking in the night.  All of a sudden, a giant bat with red eyes came out of a cave and it targeted the birds! The bird friends had to put Nilsa on top of Orie so they could keep going. After escaping the giant bat, a giant mammoth appeared.  It had red eyes, sharp teeth, and giant pointy tusks, and it was heading straight towards them!  “AAAHHHH!” screamed the birds as they flew as fast as they could to escape the mammoth. 

Soon, they came to a beautiful cave with lush plants in it. It was almost five a.m. and there was yellow on the horizon. The birds grabbed a wish berry, hurried into the cave, and wished the creatures were gone. Now, it was peaceful again. “Wow, this cave is so beautiful!” said Nilsa. Along the cave walls, there were purple vines that had peppers growing on them. The birds ate them and they got stronger! They realized they were now able to punch holes in the stone walls, unroot trees, and hold very heavy things. “Well, these powers will be very helpful if there is actually a dragon in the mountain!” said Morton.  “Yup,” said Riles, “and the odds are there is.”  

With that, the friends continued, and they were now only eighty miles from the mountain. “Wow! We are so much closer to the mountain! I can’t wait to arrive!” said Morton. After walking a few miles they entered the town of Magicknife where the residents were purple bears! “Hello!” said one of the bears. “I hope you enjoy your stay in our special town!” “We are very happy to be here,” said Nilsa. “But we are very tired,” said Orie.  “Could you please tell us where the highest quality hotel is in this town?”  The bear replied, “The highest quality hotel is Magic Holiday Inn at 29 6th Street.”  “All right, thank you so much.  Now, we’d better get on our way,” said Nilsa.  So the friends walked to the Magic Holiday Inn and had a short sleep.

When the birds woke up, it was already aften eleven. They had been asleep since six. The birds were only seventy miles from the mountain, and Morton was exploding with excitement. “Yay! We’re almost there!!!!! Let’s go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” excitedly shouted Morton. The friends were approaching the mountains where the dragon could be.  “I know there might be a dragon,” said Nilsa, “but these mountains seem beautiful and peaceful.” Just after Nilsa spoke, lava started spewing out the top of the dragon’s mountain. “AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the friends screamed as they dashed into a cave. 

When the birds came out of the cave, they saw a lot of melted stone and a rushing stream of lava. “Well, I guess we can fly across this stream,” said Orie.  However, as the birds exited the cave, they saw there was a ceiling of pumice four feet above the lava stream.  Three of the birds could easily fly across, but not Orie.  She was too big to fit.  “Uh oh,” said Orie.  “How can I get across?”  “Orie, we can use the magic powers we got from those magical peppers we ate yesterday,” said Nilsa.  “Oh yeah,” said Orie, “we can use them to uproot that tree at the entrance and use the trunk to break the pumice.”  Orie lifted the tree and smashed the pumice.  “Phew,” said Nilsa.  “Good thing we ate those peppers yesterday.”  The birds safely flew over the lava stream and continued their journey.  

As they walked, they noticed that trees were scarce in these mountains. However, there were beautiful unicorns, lush grass, all sorts of flowers, and wishberry bushes all over.  Nilsa said hello to one of the unicorns and fed it. Morton was bursting with excitement because the mountain was only 40 miles away, but the other birds were not sure whether to be excited or not. They realized night was falling again, but they did not notice any monsters. “This seems safe,” said Nilsa.  Then, all of a sudden, a rock giant appeared followed by a lava unicorn! “Then, on the other hand, maybe we should run away!” shouted Nilsa.  Luckily, even though trees were scarce, there was one close by.   Orie uprooted it, and then the birds dashed into another cave and blocked the entrance with the tree.  They hid the rest of the night.

In the morning, the birds came out of the cave. The lava had dried up. The mountain was just another twenty-five miles away. “We are so close!” said Morton.  As they were walking, they came to a drop off.  Fifteen hundred feet down, there was a lake full of lava!  However, they could fly over the lake, right? Nilsa tested it, and she found there was an invisible ceiling preventing them from flying over.  “How do we get over now?” asked Riles.  “Look!” said Nilsa. “We can go down there!  There is a platform!”  Sure enough, about thirty feet down, there was a stone platform. The birds dropped down on the platform. There was another invisible ceiling above them, and hanging from the ceiling were stalactites. The birds would have to jump to them. “That looks very dangerous,” said Orie. “Absolutely!” said Nilsa. “I would not do that in a billion years!”  But, unfortunately, it was the only way across.  Orie went first.  She successfully made it.  Riles and Morton also made it. Tiny Nilsa went last. She failed the final jump and fell. “Nilsa!!!” screamed Orie. Without thinking, Riles flew off the ledge. “I’m coming to save you!” he yelled.  He flew as fast as he could, grabbed Nilsa with his beak, and carried her back to the top.  “You saved me!” said Nilsa with delight.  Everyone hugged her. After gathering their wits, they continued on.

At the twenty-mile point, the birds came to a cave. This was the only way forward. “Should we gggggo in?” asked Nilsa with fright.  “Well, we have to,” said Morton.  “Or I won’t see the dragon I’ve always wanted to see.”  “I am also very brave,” said Riles.  “Let’s go!”  Morton and Riles ran into the cave. Orie and Nilsa carefully followed behind. As they went through the entrance, the ground collapsed out from under them, and they fell hundreds of feet into a pool of water. “How do we get out NOW?” asked Nilsa, once again with fright.  “Just follow me and Morton!” said Riles. They flew deeper into the cave and saw a cavern up ahead.  Paintings of dragons were all over the walls.  When they entered the cavern, they found another invisible ceiling, and there were skinny logs hanging out from the wall.  The floor was made of lava; however, this time it was rising. “AAAAAHHHH!” they all screamed as they jumped from log to log as fast as they could.  Fortunately, everyone safely made it up. “Phew!!” everyone said, and they continued on their journey.

As the birds approached the mountain, Morton and Riles kept getting more excited. They were jumping off of rocks and joyfully flying around. Nilsa and Orie were the opposite. They were so scared they could hardly breathe. “Ddddooooo youuu thiiiiink weeee”lllll bbbbbeeeeee ffffiiiine?” said Nilsa frightfully. “Sure we will!” said Morton excitingly. “Just follow me!” “Okkkay,” answered Nilsa, still very scared. The friends were only five short miles away from the mountain, and the steam rose high into the air. Lava was coming out again, but at least it was coming slowly. The friends still were not 100% sure there was a dragon inside the mountain. However, that did not stop Morton. He excitedly led the group through the dangerous mountain range. As they were walking, the friends suddenly stepped on a stone that was loose! Down they fell again. Down, down, down, into the darkness they fell. They landed in some sort of underground passage. There were more paintings of dragons on the stone walls. “Wwwwhat is this place???” said Nilsa, now more scared than ever. They looked around, but it appeared they were stuck.

“Hey,” said Morton, “come over here.” The friends came over to where Morton was standing. There, in the wall, was a secret door. It was completely camouflaged by the stone wall. The only way to see it was a rectangular crack in the wall, and a tiny sphere attached to the rectangle. Morton turned the sphere. It was the knob! The door opened, and behind it, was a dark spooky passage. There was light at the end, but also smoke. “Wow!” said Orie. “This could be the best secret passage ever!” Nilsa was now more scared than ever before. She was clearly shaking with fear. The friends didn't know if she could make it. 

At the end of the passage, there was a small opening, but the friends could not fit through it.  Orie used her strength from the magic peppers to make the opening bigger, and then they were through and only one mile to the smoking mountain!  The group trudged over one more mountain and were surprised to not encounter any dangers, and then there it was, the smoking volcano they had been traveling toward for days! Just then, the birds heard a loud roar. “YAY!” screamed Morton with delight. “There really is a dragon!” Nilsa was extremely scared, but she carried on as the birds made their way into the mountain’s entrance.

Inside of the mountain, the birds carried on. Soon, they came to a large, rectangular room. The room was made of smoothly polished granite. Nilsa happened to look up, and what she saw almost scared her heart out of her. There was a giant rifle! The rifle was aimed at the birds and fired out ten lava unicorns! “AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!” screamed everyone as they ran down the corridor as fast as they could, with the lava unicorns right behind. Orie once again used her powers from the magic peppers to seal the entrance of the next room, leaving the lava unicorns trapped. “Phew!!” exclaimed Nilsa, as the birds climbed a ladder out of the room. 

When they reached the top, the friends moved through the mountain slowly down a tunnel, except for Morton, who was too excited and ran ahead. They traveled through the tunnel for a while, but after a few more minutes, they had reached the end. Then, they came to a large cavern with a trapdoor on the ceiling. They were hearing lots of roars now, and Morton was getting more and more excited, while Nilsa was getting more and more scared. “Let’s go through that trapdoor!” said Morton excitedly. “Ooookkkkaaay,” said Nilsa, who was super frightened and worried. Orie opened the trapdoor, and the friends flew in. Right before them, they saw what they had been looking for. The door to the treasure room! The door was made out of silver, while the knob was made out of solid gold. It was completely outlined with gems, such as diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. Lava was coming out of the bottom of the door, then cooling, and the roars kept getting louder and louder! 

Orie slowly opened the door. “Get ready to fight,” she said nervously. “Oh yeah! Let’s go!” said Morton, now more excited than ever.” “Okkkay,” said Nilsa, now having trouble breathing from anxiety.  And there before them was the dragon! It was bright red with yellow, patterned wings. “Don’t hurt me dragon!” said Morton. “I have dragon wings, too!” The friends started fighting the dragon, all except for Morton. He noticed a pink dot on the dragon’s belly. Morton knew tons about dragons from reading about them and one thing he had learned is that some dragons have a pink dot called The Dot Of Friendliness. Morton touched The Dot Of Friendliness, and a second later, the dragon grew quiet. “Hello friends,” he said in a very friendly voice.

“Hello friendly, adorable dragon!” said Morton happily. “I never could have imagined this,” said Nilsa. “Would you like to hear the story of my past?” asked the Dragon. “Absolutely!” shouted Morton.  The dragon shared, “My name is Treasure. Four hundred years ago, on a mountain very far away, I was born. As a kid, I was always friendly and loving. I visited places all over Fantasia, and the gnome children all adored me. However, one day, when I was fifteen years old, my evil uncle, Power, killed my father and mother. I was now controlled by him. I wanted to keep being loving and kind. But my Uncle would not let that happen. He forced me to go to his old mountain home, which is where we are now. He gave me lessons in being evil until I was. Then, he made me control his mountain. However, there was still kindness in me. That pink dot that made me friendly grew from my belly when I became evil. Unfortunately, I could not reach it. I apologize for all the destruction and chaos I caused on your journey through the mountains. I am now friendly,” finished the dragon.

Wow!” said everyone together. “That’s amazing!” “Would you like to come home with us?” asked Morton. “Absolutely!” said the Dragon. “YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” said Morton with great delight. On the journey home, the birds watched how the gnome children in Gnomeria played and jumped on the dragon. The birds joined in, too. “Weeee!” they said together. When they reached the portal, the unicorns flew down and greeted the birds and the dragon. “Hello birds! Nice to see you again!” said one of the unicorns. “And hello Treasure! Long time no see!”

The birds and Treasure went through the portal back into Usak. Then they traveled to London. The dragon was amazed by Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. The dragon flew the birds up to the top of Big Ben. Then they flew even higher and got a good view of the English Channel and the distant shore of France. “Amazing!” said Treasure. In no time at all, night was already falling.

“Are there dangerous nighttime creatures in your world?” “Nope!” said Orie. “You are perfectly safe.” After chatting some more, the friends had to say goodbye. “See you soon Treasure! Bye!” said the birds as Treasure left to go back to Fantasia. “Mind if I stay with you three for a little while longer?” asked Orie. “Of course!” said Orie’s friends, and the birds started on their way back to their home in Sheffield.

THE END