Seven Wishes

#6 The Quest

The next morning was particularly sunny. The sun was beaming brightly from the windows, shining on Sophie and Jake. The sun was so hot, it finally woke up the two friends, who were sweating to death.

" Ugh, it's boiling!" Sophie groaned, washing her face.

"You don't say," Jake sighed, sitting infront of the electric fan, which shockingly worked smoothly with huge palm leaves as the blades.

"How does that fan even work!?" Sophie asked, astonished.

Sophie and Jake heard footsteps coming towards them, and in came Pumpalot.

"That fan works with magic," Pumpalot answered, yawning, "This is Wumbelpot, kids! We have magic in every corner."

"Can you teach us some magic? You know, since were going on a quest today," Jake pleaded, giving his famous puppy dog eyes to Pumpalot.

Pumpalot eyed Jake seriously, giving him an angry expression. However, slowly and gradually, Pumpalot winced, and broke into a humongous burst of laughter.

"How do you do that? That face?" Pumpalot asked with curiosity, Sophie giggling with him.

"It's just me, man!" Jake laughed, shrugging, "I have the skills,"

Pumpalot chuckled once more, and said, "Okay, little ones, magic, can be done by just saying a few absurd words, for example, if you want to move something, you shout, 'Quenictum', then the object you're moving, and which direction you want it to go to -make sure you snap your fingers right at the object,"

Pumpalot shouted "Quenictum Chair, to the Right!"

Pumpalot's wooden chair moved to the right, and he snapped his fingers, and forcefully saying, "Reego!"

"Reego means stop. If I didn't say Reego, the chair would've crashed into that wall," Pumpalot explained, "And finally, Clarius Canitus - this is the most important one - the protection spell. When you say this, snap your fingers, and there will be a transparent protection bubble around you, which can bounce off anything that comes in your way. But the problem with this spell is that it breaks whenever there are too many things thrown at it."

"That sucks. Isn't there any other useful spells you can teach us?" Sophie asked, as Jake was repeatedly chanting the three spells Pumpalot has taught them.

Pumpalot thought and said, "Well, all the plant creatures, like me, can do things only to do with earth - for example,"

And immediately, Pumpalot punched the ground, sank through it, and appeared outside.

Sophie and Jake gasped, and clapped hard. They have never seen anything so extraordinary before.

Pumpalot punched the ground again, appeared inside the cave. Pumpalot blushed furiously, covering his face, "Well, it's no use telling you, because Zightdons are different - each of them have their own way of creating worlds, and it's most likely Sophie's will be about art, and Jake about strategy,"

Sophie and Jake's faces were still thunderstruck by what Pumpalot just did - which led them thinking about the Zights - Wumbelpot, was basically the core of everything related to magic - and it was most likely Zights were the ones who first gave Earth the idea of what magic and what the supernatural was.

Sophie and Jake nodded at each other, and stood up.

"I think were ready to go," Sophie said, smiling at Pumpalot, "Thank you for everything - no seriously - for everything. Were so lucky to have met you!"

"Yeah, thanks Pumpalot - you've really made me pumped up for this adventure," Jake thanked, winking at him.

"You're welcome, little ones," Pumpalot said, as Sophie and Jake opened the door.

Before the two friends stepped out side, Pumpalot called after them, rushing out of his Grandma Leafseed's cave, "Wait, wait! You guys are so silly! What about food? Water? Clothes? And your map!?"

Sophie and Jake hopped into the air with surprise, and sprinted back to the cave.

As they opened the door, Sophie groaned, "How could we be so stupid!? We rush off without our map?"

Jake grabbed the map carefully - it was their only chance to get back to Earth. Pumpalot jogged to the kitchen, with a bounce in his step, and got out some cinammon rolls, bananas, water and a small flask of a strange purple liquid.

"Um - Pumpalot - thanks for the food and everything, but what's that purple liquid?" Jake asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I reckoned you were going to ask that," Pumpalot smirked, "It's for healing injuries and things like that - but they're really rare - so use it wisely,"

Jake gave him a big hug, and a pat on the back, while Sophie kissed him on the cheek. They said their last thanks and goodbyes, opened the door, and stepped outside.

The trees curling onto each other, some of them forever growing into the sky. The sun was radiating an enormous amount of heat, forcing the twins to squinting at the path they were going to take: North. They trudged up the rocky road, going farther and farther from Pumpalot's welcoming hostility. Sophie and Jake had to resist the urge to run back to Grandma Leafseed's hearth, but they had to go on this journey. They forced themselves to walk one step after the other, heading deeper into Wumbelpot - a world not at all what they thought it was.