The Key to Her Mind

Chapter 1

Hey Everybody, this is a story I wrote a couple of years ago so it's a little different than my usual style. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 1

Jillian Calisha Marika Langsley had lived on a farm all her life. It was a small farm with a big red barn and a little cottage where Jillian and her family lived. Jillian was a very pretty girl with her long brown hair and her bright green eyes but her looks where often masked by dirt and mud from working in the fields. The Langsley's farm was miles from any village so Jillian didn't have many friends but she always managed to think up some magical fairy tale to share with her brothers and sisters. One day however Jillian did not feel much like telling stories.

"Please Jilly, tell us a story", cried her siblings.

"No, not today", she replied.

Jillian walked across the field to her favorite spot under the pear trees. She had been experiencing odd dreams lately. She would be running though a lovely field surrounded by flowers and butterflies but then she would come to a cave with a door and a large and confusing lock. She would reach out to touch it but as she did a witch of sorts would take a large bejeweled key and lock Jillian's mind. Jillian was always confused by this because she always felt like there was something that she should remember but she couldn't. These dreams were reoccurring and they always distressed Jillian very much. At first she had attributed these dreams to her active imagination but now she was beginning to worry.

"Maybe I am starting to go mad", she thought to herself.

"But no that can't be I am very healthy".

"Why do I feel so strange after I see that giant key"?

Jillian sat under the pear tree for a long time thinking and worrying and trying to make sense of her dreams but the hot midday sun soon made her rise and go into the forest to find better shade. Jillian had often played in the forest beyond the family farm as a child and even though she was now sixteen she still loved to go there and cool her feet in the brook. She had long ago found the perfect place to sit along the little stream that meandered through the forest. It was a quiet and secret little bank next to a place where the brook made a deep pool where frogs gathered. There was a little grassy patch along the bank and the very edge of the stream was covered with pebbles. A tree shot up from a grassy knoll and provided shade that always kept the pool cool in the summer. Jillian loved to sit here and listen to the birds, catch frogs in the stream, and think up new stories for her brothers and sisters. It was a quiet and comforting place to her. She would often sit there when she was upset and its beauty would make her feel better. Today however it did not. Although the pool cooled her feet her mind was still too hot to relax. She lay with her feet in the water and ran through her dream over and over in her head. Eventually she started to get a headache so she decided to explore the forest. She stood and wandered along a little path that she had cut for herself earlier in the summer. She walked and mumbled to herself trying to enjoy the afternoon and get her dream out of her head. She had almost succeeded in calming herself when she started to become aware of a horrible sent that was wafting her way.

"What is that horrid smell", she thought?

"It smells like the pigs".

She began to feel dizzy so she propped herself up against an odd looking tree. To her surprise the stench was worse next to the tree. Suddenly the tree moved. Jillian fell on the ground in terror and tried to scramble away but a large and rough hand picked her up from where she lay sprawled in the brush and lifted her high into the sky. She looked up to see a huge and terrifying face right in front of her. She screamed.

"Put me down. Put me down you hideous beast", she yelled.

"What's that you said", said the monster?

"I said put me back on the ground where I belong, I'm not going to be your lunch", replied Jillian.

"Lunch, no I think you have got the wrong idea. I'm Burt Bicklesnack, the giant of this forest", he answered.

"A giant? I don't remember there ever being a giant in this forest before", she puzzled?

"That is truly strange for I have lived in this wood all my life. As for lunch I am not going to eat you. I am not a monster", said Burt.

"Well in that case I am Jillian Calisha Marika Langsley and I would rather like to eat lunch with you if you would like that as long as you return me to the ground for I much prefer it there", answered Jillian.

"That would be quite nice Jillian Calisha Marika Langsley. I will be honored by you company", said Burt.

Jillian was set gently back on the ground and she and Burt sat in the grass to eat their lunch. Now that she was not so close to him, Jillian could clearly see Burt's features. He was old looking with hardly any hair and he had remarkably large ears and a big nose. The two sat and talked and feasted on wild mushrooms and berries. When they had finish they both rose.

"I should be getting back to my farm", said Jillian.

"Back there", asked Burt? "You can't go back that way".

"But why not", asked Jillian? "That is the way that I came".

"You don't really know where you are do you", asked Burt? "There is nothing back that way. The wood goes on for twelve miles".

"That cannot be", answered Jillian. "I did not walk that far from the house"

Suddenly Jillian felt very confused. She couldn't possibly be twelve miles from her farm. That was ridiculous but then again everything had been strange that day.

"How far does the forest continue it that direction", she asked, pointing behind Burt?

"Not far", he answered. "The kingdom of Gantailzia is that way, but be careful no one is safe in that place ever since Queen Lorraliell went missing".

"Missing", thought Jillian, "how awful".

Jillian however could not think of any other choice that she might have other than going into the kingdom now that she could not find her farm. She waved goodbye to Burt and started down the winding path through the forest. The path went on a ways and then broke into three parts. Jillian continued along the middle path and only stopped once in awhile to catch her breath. It was a dirt path with many curves and bends and it was very long. It seemed to go on and on forever but just as Jillian thought she was going to be sick from all the greenery she stepped out of the forest in to the village of Robegz.