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

Chapter 7

Whimsyville was a lot different from what Rachel had expected. She expected it to be some big city like in the real world. Instead, it was two strips of sand leading into the ocean. A stream of water separated the two strips in the middle. Rows of bright and colourful beach houses are on each side of the beach. At the end, the two strips join, and there's a gigantic building shaped like a ball. It has large glass windows on most of the sides. It has a shiny roof that looks like a dome. The building was overgrown with vines and lots of yellow glowing flowers growing on it. It looked a lot different from all the other houses.

"I thought it would be some big city, not this weird beach town thingy," Rachel said. They landed on a part of the beach just before the town.

"You have really busy cities in the real world; I prefer this one," Finnigan said as he exited the car. He sighed in relief. "Thank goodness we made it here."

"Don't look so surprised. I knew we were going to be fine." Rachel stretched her arms out above her head and yawned. She was still feeling a little tired. "Do you have any nice shops?"

"No, we don't need any shops. Anything we can think about, we can create."

"That's fun, but what do you do over weekends? You can't go to the mall and do some window shopping. That's so boring."

Finnigan shook his head. After all these years of being a guardian, he still didn't understand teenagers.

"What do you even do on weekends?" Rachel asked.

"I have to work. We have to go now, come on." Finnigan said as he started walking toward Whimsyville.

"Fine, Mr Grumpy Pants," Rachel said following him. He just shook his head and ignored her.

They walked past the houses on the right side of the stream. There were so many colours. Each home had flower baskets in front of the windows. Most were two stories with a small balcony at the top, looking over Whimsyville. Rachel has always wanted to buy herself a mansion when she gets older, but now she has decided to buy one of these one day. They would match her artsy personality a lot better.

Rachel had no idea what the other guardians would look like. She'd tried imagining them to figure out what they might look or be like. She has seen no other guardian. The only guardian she has ever known was Finnigan. As they walked further, Rachel saw some of them. It was interesting to see what children could come up with. There were fairies, mermaids, brightly coloured animals, and many more creations.

Seeing what children can come up with made Rachel realise how important it is that they keep the portal open.

She still had so many questions to ask Finnigan, but he was on a mission, and there was no stopping him now. She tried running to catch up to him but realised that flying was much faster than walking.

Rachel saw he was walking towards the big ball-shaped building. "Finnigan! Where are you going?" Rachel yelled after him. Finnigan just waved at her to keep on following him. She ran faster and eventually caught up to him.