Abby and the Feather Quest

  In no time at all, Abby was tapping the symbol three times – exactly what she had been trying to do in her dream. Suddenly, an intense pink colour of smoke emerged from the tree.It felt fresher than the normal polluted air and smelt of jasmine flowers and pomegranates. It surrounded them until they could see only a faint outline of the distant trees. In front of them, a blue, magical portal appeared and sucked them right into it! For a few minutes while Abby was in the portal, there was a huge swirl of different shades of green and a few sparks of orange. She felt as if all of the bad things that she had ever done had gone away, and she felt free and energetic to explore the world. But then the feeling stopped, and she found herself in a forest with an old, gentle-looking man standing in front of her. She gathered that he would be the Wood Father. She didn’t pay much attention to the man in front of her, as she was looking at the forest, awed.

  There were lovely cherry bushes and multicoloured butterflies flying past her. There were also pink and lilac birds chirping on the trees. Abby noticed that the birds were sitting on nests made out of peach twigs; the red flowers twinkled in the sunlight and the silver ones had a metallic glow to them. Th ere was a pure-water fountain surrounded by blue gems, red rubies, and diamonds – it was as if she was in Snow White’s world, but this was ten times better. Her mind was very relaxed by just looking at the beautiful sights and smelling the sweet odours of the forest. The Wood Father, however, was getting irritated by being ignored.
 “I’m the Wood Father, and you are Abby, aren’t you?” he asked.“Yes, I’m Abby,” she whispered, somewhat surprised. “I’ve been expecting you, you know,” said the Wood Father, trying to get her attention. “Although, for a moment there I thought I was sending those dreams to the wrong person.”
“Oh, so you have been giving me those dreams, hoping I would come here. Why me, though?” Abby asked, still looking around and admiring the peaceful forest, but listening at the same time. “Well, because you’re the chosen one, of course,” he replied. He finally got her full attention.
“I’m the what?” Abby said, shocked at what she just heard.
“You are the only one that can help us. There’s no time to explain everything, Abby,” he said hurriedly. “All you need to know is that you need to get the Golden Feather from Mount Grim and bring it back to me so I can make a potion to kill Shanki, the leader of all gremlins. This will immediately poison all of his followers that will be fighting against the dwarfs in the soon-coming war.” Abby was even more shocked. How could she do all of this? And to make it even worse, all of the dwarfs were depending on her to live! Suddenly, she felt nervous and homesick! “Umm, I can’t do this,” Abby said doubtfully. “I don’t even know how to get to Mount Grim.”
“Well, of course you don’t. Nobody does except this crystal ball!” he replied as he gave it to her along with a card. Th e crystal ball was green and had orange sparks on it, just like she had seen while she was in the portal.
“The crystal ball will tell you your way there,
and once you get the feather, read this spell on the card, and I shall appear straightaway.” He smiled grimly to himself.
“Oh, yes,” the Wood Father continued, “the
feather is said to be kept in a temple guarded by axe men, so be careful.”