The Real Fantasy World

Our prompt for this blog post was to write a fantasy story keeping in mind the following statement, "There was once a bewildered mermaid who escapes from a dragon’s lair. This was our home assignment and we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it!

Annie and Jack stayed in a village next to a sparkling river and dense forest. One day, they were playing hide and seek and wandered deep into the forest. Suddenly, they found themselves sliding down some soft mud and fell in the river. They were swept away by a strong current and landed on hard ground with a thud. They found themselves staring into ferocious eyes. They jumped back in horror and realized that they were staring at a “DRAGON”!! They rubbed their eyes and looked around and saw that they were in some kind of an underwater lair.

The dragon snorted, “I have two slaves now who will do all my work”. He tied a chain around their legs so that they could only shuffle. He gave them a long list of tasks to do and went out. Poor Annie and Jack…. They had never worked so hard all their life. They scrubbed and cleaned and washed and swept and cooked but the work did not seem to end.

In the midst of this, they saw a light and went towards it timidly. They saw a beautiful fairy tied to a pillar. The fairy told them that the dragon wanted her to make him very powerful through her magic but when she refused, he tied her there. Annie and Jack asked the fairy how they could escape. She said, “The dragon’s life is in a small doll. As soon as you destroy that doll, the dragon will also get vanquished”. Annie shouted excitedly, “Where is that doll?”. The fairy said, “It is in this lair, but I do not know where”. They said, “How can we search for it? We are tied and it is difficult to move.” The fairy smiled and recited a chant and they felt their legs getting squeezed and found that they had turned into a mermaid and merman !!

The chains slipped off their bodies and they could easily float. Annie asked the fairy, “Why don’t you also turn into a mermaid and escape?”. The fairy sadly replied, “I cannot change my form till I am captive”. The kids promised to free her.

They started searching and found the doll in a chest under the giant’s bed. Annie was about to destroy the doll when she heard the dragon’s roar. She dropped the doll in fright and fled, with the dragon in hot pursuit. The bewildered mermaid did not know what to do. The dragon caught her and was about to breathe fire on her when there was a cloud of smoke and poof…. the dragon disappeared. Jack swam to Annie and told her that he had destroyed the doll and thus, the dragon had vanished.

The fairy became free and she granted a boon to Annie and Jack that they could use the chants to turn themselves into a mermaid and merman whenever they wanted. The kids were overjoyed and thanked the fairy. The next day, Annie and Jack set out to …...

By Varenya

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Seek And Ye Shall Find

For our very first session our facilitator took us to 3 different spots in our class building. She told us to write down our observations and feelings in those places. We observed the people, the physical appearance of the place, the smells and the sounds. After coming back to the classroom, we used our observations about those 3 places in our story to set the beginning, middle and end. 


Three New Places

My journey began on the plain cream-coloured wall. I was on a painting which was placed on a wall. I did have quite a few companions but all fell off the painting and rolled away somewhere. Every day I heard people’s chitter-chatter, some in Hindi, some in Marathi and sometimes even in English. Sometimes, sweepers would come with their mops and clean the staircase while singing the latest Hindi songs in town. The garbage the sweepers would carry up and down would leave a stinky smell for endless number of hours. Soon, just like my other companions, I too started becoming loose. Before I knew it, I was off the painting too. From there I rolled down the steps and landed in an unknown place that looked like the ground floor of the building. I wasn’t used to the bright sunlight but I managed. From then, my life has changed. Every day I would see a machine that released water with a lot a pressure. It was used for cleaning the floor. Also, I lay opposite the restaurant, so I could smell lots of yummy food. This place was more like a city for me. One day, a really small child saw me and picked me up. She dragged me to a whole new place and just left me there. I could see myself everyday as there were two mirrors facing me. This place wasn’t at all like the first place I had stayed at. There were about six to seven doors and I would see people walking in and out of those rooms. I felt a little down in the dumps over there because there wasn’t any sunlight. Well after all, I’m only a doll. All I have to do is wait for my new destination.

~By Ira

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The Three Places 

Lila walked near the stairs. As she looked around, she saw a huge painting on the wall. On that painting were seated two puppets. She walked a few steps up and saw that the wall above her was peeling off. She observed that people kept going up and the stairs talking constantly in a language she didn’t know. She walked up some more and saw that people were looking out of the window and after a few minutes she left. As she was walking down the stairs to go the ground floor she heard quiet Indian music in the background.

Once she reached the ground floor she caught the sight of the cleaners. They were cleaning the floor with a huge machine that was spraying water. As she walked ahead, she saw a huge, long table which was extremely dirty. She wondered when the cleaners would clean that. When she turned her head she saw many cars honking on the road. Just then she saw a bunch of tourists who were holding water bottles. She realized that she had forgotten her own bottle upstairs! 

When Lila reached there, she saw two large glass mirrors. Here again she could hear Indian music. Lila personally thought that it was very dark and damp. She realized that it was getting late and picked up her bottle and went home. 

~ By Kripa

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