Imagination's last hope: The quest to save the unseen world

Chapter 6

Rachel felt too scared to open her eyes. All she could feel was that she was sitting on the hard ground.

"Rachel, open your eyes." She heard Finnigan say. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

Rachel was sitting in the middle of a forest. Finnigan was standing right next to her. She looked around.

"What is this place?" She asked as she got up and dusted herself off.

The forest was dark inside; the only thing that lit it up was the fireflies, and most of the plants were glowing. You couldn't see past the trees; it looked like they had a bunch of fog behind them. The fireflies were all different colours. The portal looked the same as in the real world, except it stood upright. There was a long path leading somewhere. It was the only path that Rachel could see in the forest. Everything seemed to glow and had a little glitter in it. The plants, the trees, and even the bugs all glowed brightly.

"This is the Glimmering glade; it contains one of the many portals leading to the real world. It's magical, isn't it?" Rachel nodded. She was looking around in amazement. She has never even thought about someplace like this. "We have to do something about your outfit. You can't walk around in your pyjamas."

"What are we going to do? I don't see any shops around here, and I didn't bring any money."

"You're forgetting that this is the world of imagination. Anything you can imagine becomes reality."

Rachel tried to imagine something, but it wasn't working. "This isn't working."

"It won't. Imagine what you want, and then you have to say: A bippity boo, a bippity ba, a bibbity bingle bangle, and it will appear. Try it."

Rachel was sceptical about whether this would work. She closed her eyes and pictured the outfit that she wanted. Then she said the spell: "A bippity boo, a bippity ba, a bippity bingle bangle."

In a cloud of pink glitter, everything she imagined appeared. Her chestnut hair was hanging over her shoulders in loose beach waves. She wore hot pink trousers, a white T-shirt with 'ready to save the day' written on it in the same shade of pink as her trousers, and white sneakers with a bit of pink on the side. She wore silver hoop earrings, and her nails were an almost see-through white. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Wow, you went all out," Finnigan said.

"I have to look my best to be confident."

"Well, you look great. But the clock is ticking; we have to go now." Finnigan waved to her to follow him.

Rachel followed Finnigan. Many little flowers filled the path, and Rachel was too scared to step on them. "Won't I kill the flowers?" She yelled at Finnigan, who was already a few metres ahead of her.

He just waved to her to follow him. She was hesitant to follow him and looked like she was walking on eggshells, but she soon realised that the flowers just stood back up again. She ran after Finnigan to catch up with him.

They reached the end of the forest, which wasn't what Rachel had expected. The forest just stopped. You couldn't even see that there was a forest. It looked like a black hole was standing in the middle of nowhere.

They were standing in the middle of an open field which only had one or two trees. There were many wildflowers, which caught Rachel's attention. She wanted to look at them, but Finnigan was in a hurry. "Where are we going now?" Rachel asked.

"We have to get to Whimsyville. Once we get there, I'll be able to explain everything to you."

"But how? I don't see a car or anything around. And what's Whimsyville?"

"It's a place. Rachel, have you forgotten this is the world of imagination? You can think of any car or plane you want, and we'll travel with that."

A big smile appeared on her face. She has always wanted to try travelling in a flying car.

She thought about the car she wanted and then said the spell. In a cloud of red glitter, a fancy sports car appeared. It was a bright red Lamborghini with a tail and wings that looked exactly like a plane's.

You could tell that Finnigan was nervous about flying in the car. He's probably never even thought of a flying car.

"Are you sure that this is safe?" Finnigan asked.

Rachel laughed. "Yes, Fin. You'll be fine."

"But you don't even have a license. How is this safe?"

"This is the world of imagination; I don't need one. Plus, it flies itself."

Rachel opened the door and got in. She felt the black leather seats, exactly like she'd imagined. One of her biggest dreams has been to buy some fancy sports car one day when she gets older.

She switched it on and opened the window. She told Finnigan to get in. He was still standing outside, very hesitant to get in.

Finnigan took a deep breath. He wasn't planning on this; he had something different and much safer in mind. He got in next to Rachel. "It's nice, right?" Rachel asked. Finnigan just gave a nod that wasn't very convincing.

"So, how do we fly this thing?" Finnigan asked.

Rachel pointed at the big screen on the dashboard. "We don't. You must type in the name of wherever we must go, and it'll fly itself."

Finnigan did as Rachel said.

The car took off. Finnigan held onto his seat. Rachel giggled at him. For someone who is used to travelling in weird ways, he was very nervous.

They passed over a few rolling hills. Rachel found the flowers fascinating; they were everywhere and had many types and colours.

"You have some explaining to do. How far are we from Whimsy town or whatever you call it?" Rachel asked Finnigan. She had a lot of questions.

This still felt surreal. It wasn't something that happened daily, and this world was nothing like the real world. In the real world, you can't just make things up and make them appear by saying some weird spell. Rachel enjoyed it; she wouldn't mind living here, but it still didn't feel normal.

"We're about ten or fifteen minutes away," Finnigan said, "I'll explain everything to you once we get to Whimsyville. There are more guardians that you'll meet. They'll also help to explain this whole situation to you. They are really nice. I promise you'll like them."