Dizgaia ~ The Dreamfinder's Daughter

Chapter 6 ~ The 10 Kingdoms

"When I saw the geodesic sphere, I thought maybe..." Mia trailed off and shook her head.

"You thought perhaps this was all just some elaborate hoax," Blair finished for her.

"I suppose there's still a small part of me that's clinging to the idea that this is all just some prank or immersive experience, some new Disney advertising gimmick. But it's all real." She placed a hand against the glass and gazed out in awe at the magnificent world that lay before her. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto," she murmured.

"Who's Toto?" asked Figment, fluttering at her shoulder.

"Dorothy's dog in The Wizard of Oz, a story by Frank L. Baum. I don't suppose you're going to tell me that Emerald City exists somewhere on this world?"

"Not that I've seen," said The Dreamfinder, "And I've traveled over most of this world. Though, there is Wonderland..."

"That place is full of the heebiest of heebies and the jeebiest of jeebies!" said Figment with a shiver.

"Yeah," said Mia, still gazing out through the glass. "That story used to frighten me as a child. I always thought Lewis Carroll was on some serious..." She glanced between Figment and Dreamfinder and quickly checked herself. "Uh... under some sort of chemical influence. But to think a place like that really exists..." She returned her gaze to the window, now pressing both hands against the glass. "What else is there?" she asked. "Neverland?"

Smiling, Blair placed a hand on her shoulder as they both gazed out at the world beyond. "Neverland is indeed a real place. Perhaps the smallest of the 10 Kingdoms. Remind me when we return to my office to show you my maps." He pointed into the distance. "That castle is the focal point of the kingdom in which we now stand, Cerenopia, or "Land of Serenity" in ancient Dizgaian. It is the largest of the 10 Kingdoms, and this city, Epcot, is merely a small part of it. It's quite the impressive range when you think about it. From Neverland to Cerenopia, all the 10 Kingdoms work together to make up the utopia we seek to maintain."

Despite this brief but enlightening run-down of the world he provided her, all Mia seemed to hear was Neverland. Suddenly, she took Blair's hand in hers and began tugging him back towards the escalator.

"Let's go! Right now! Let's take a boat, plane, magic carpet, flying horse, I don't care what! Let's go to Neverland!"

Eyes wide, Blair clapped a hand to his top hat as his adult daughter pulled him towards the escalator with all the exuberance of a little girl; the little girl he'd never gotten to know and whom, had things gone differently, he would have loved to bring along on all his magic journeys. However, he had to put his foot down before she did something rash.

"Hold on now, dear! There's something you really must know before we just go gallivanting off!"

Mia slowed and gazed up at him with all the patience of a five-year-old.

"To you, this may seem like a kind of fantasy world, but in fact it is just as real as the one you've been living in. Everything on this world existed long before the stories were shared with the people of Earth. The ambassadors were inspired by what they saw here and wrote their own interpretations to share back home. In essence, the stories as you may have heard them are not necessarily reflective of events as they happened here. Still, you'll find that many things from those stories are quite real, and not just the fun things. The dangers are also just as real. So, you can see why it would be negligent of me to allow you to take off with such reckless abandon."

Mia frowned, disappointed.

"Now, now. Don't look so downtrodden. You just need a proper orientation before taking off on some grand adventure. Your safety is of the utmost importance, especially after what happened in Disney World today. Come. Let's return to my office and I'll give you a bit of a history and geography lesson."