The thing in the box (Amazing weekly writing story)

The Thing in the Box The mysterious package arrived at our house Saturday morning in April like a regular parcel. It was delivered by a regular mailman in a regular uniform with a regular mail bag. Absolutely EVERYTHING was normal. Well, except the package, that is. It was not in a cardboard box like a regular package. It was in a wood crate put together with boards and nails. It looked like a package that a pioneer would give to someone. Whatever it was, it was weirder than weird. It had no return address, and it was from “Aunt Petunia.” Except that my parents were both only children, so I don’t have any aunts. It had “Happy Birthday!” written on the side of it in a peculiar shade of indigo. Well, at least that wasn’t weird. It was my 12th birthday that Saturday. So, obviously, I opened it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At first it seemed to play “Happy Birthday to You!”, but this was not normal. It was the same tune, but the words were all messed up, like cockroaches got in the tape player, and were running on it like a treadmill. If you could call it a tape. It was not coming from anywhere but the box itself. After the song was done, a mysterious trapdoor at the bottom of the box unlocked, and popped open. A little platform moved upward, and it was holding a peculiar thing. Another box. This time, it was the size of a small jewelry box, and it was covered in purple velvet embroidered in red and yellow thread, and sparkled with gold beads, with a gold lock. A matching gold key sat on the top of the box. This one was labeled, “Under No Circumstances, Shall You Open This Box,” in more gold thread. So, of course, I decided to open it. That’s sort of the way it goes with these things. If you tell a kid not to touch the chocolate cake while you are gone, when you come home, naturally their whole face will be covered in chocolate icing and crumbs, and there will be fingerprints in the icing, and half of it will be missing. This was one of those times. I took the small key, shoved it into the tiny lock, and turned it. Then, I blacked out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I woke up, I was in a strange world. Well, it wasn’t that strange. It had trees and water and grass and flowers like Earth, and was quite normal. The only peculiar thing was the carving on the trees. They looked like an antler, but they were GLOWING. And I don’t mean like a glow stick, I mean like actually radiating light like a star. And it kept getting brighter, until it was really hard to keep looking at. And, in a split second, a creature jumped out of the tree through the antler entrance. And it was like the antler was a regular tree carving again. This creature was like a cat, but it had a single antler like in the carving, and was about the size of a small kitten. After it jumped out of the tree, it wound itself around my legs, and called for the others that it was safe. About 10 others bursted out of the tree. “Do you think this is the one we need to beat Landesgown?” the cat-like creature asked. One cat, who had an antler engraved with gold, spoke up. He was obviously their leader. “Yes, this is who the elders described. Tall, long dark hair. Yes, she sure fits our description.” he said. “Then we must assemble the weapons! The gold sword, the iron armour, the ruby-encrusted shield! All the wonderful armour that has been locked away for centuries! This is the hero who will defeat the great Dragon-Monster!” another creature said. “Wait, I don’t even know you! How do I beat this Landesgown dragon thing? What is all this armour stuff for!” I yelled at their leader. “Oh, hush. You are obviously the creature the prophecy spoke of! And if you must know, I am Gold Antler, and my two armour men, Sharp Eye and Spotted Deer will explain everything as they dress you in armour and the finest battle gear this country has seen! Besides, Landesgown is only 70 times the size of you! You’ll be fine!” Gold Antler explained. “Sharp Eye, Spotted Deer, take this child to the Armoury Room, and dress him in our finest armour!” Gold Antler commanded. Two Cat-Deer animals stepped out of the crowd, bowed to their leader, and used their antlers to push me towards the tree. I shrieked for them to stop, bt they kept going, but instead of hitting the hard bark, it was like the tree was made of bubbles. I just went right through it. “Wow!” I exclaimed. Inside, the tree was lit up with fireflies, and other Cat-Deers were chatting and there had to be thousands of them, all in this amazingly large tree. In the middle of the room was the most beautiful gold staircase leading to the top in a spiral formation, where there was a balcony where you could see the treetop, and hundreds of maple leaves bigger than the size of my hands. It was day in their world, so a couple of the Cat-Deers were taking advantage of this, and were sitting up there in the sun having a sort of pool party. Once they showed me around all the rooms, like the kitchen, dorms, dining area, and so on. We got supplies like blankets, food, and water from some of these places, and Spotted Deer fetched a leather satchel to store these in. Finally, once we got all the supplies, we went into a dark, grim, corridor, to a small and heavy-looking maple door. It had a gold lock on the door like on the velvet box. Suddenly, I realised the gold key was still in my hand. “Unlock the door,” Sharp Eye instructed me. “It will recognise you, and the armour will conform to the correct sizing for you.” I took the tiny gold key, and unlocked the solid maple door. I pushed it open, and saw the most amazing sight. It was a wood room with gold engraved maple leaves on all the walls. There was a glass cabinet in the middle of the room with a full set of iron armour set with rubies and more gold engravings. At the top of the cabinet was a gold engraved wooden chest. Sharp Eye took down the box carefully, and yet again, it had the same lock as the box. I opened it with the gold key again, and there was a giant iron sword, set with more diamonds and glittering gemstones at the hilt, and gold engraved spirals leading up to the tip, which was gleaming sharp. Now, Sharp eye and Spotted Deer grabbed pieces of this armour, and fastened it on top of my hands, legs, arms, everywhere, until I was head to toe in pure shining iron armour encrusted in more gemstones any given person had ever seen in their life. And it wasn’t even like in movies, where it was heavy and uncomfortable. It was like I was wearing pants and a t-shirt, but more comfy than that. It was amazing. As soon as I had all the armour on, Spotted Deer put the jewel-encrusted helmet on my head, and I put down the visor. It was cool, and for some reason, the visor didn’t obstruct my view, but I could still tell it was there. Now, Sharp Eye grabbed a shield, which was also in the case, and handed it to me. I grabbed the sword, and it was also very light. Then, we took off all my armour, and put it in the satchel. Then, I put on the satchel, and the last thing Sharp Eye and Spotted Deer gave me was a map. The map was also weird. Whenever I held it and walked, the dot that was titled “You” moved too. There was also another dot titled “Landesgown”, which also moved. Then, the two Cat-Deers explained everything. “See that mountainous land up ahead? It is not that far. That is where the Dragon-Monster lives. Be careful around there, and wear your armour in that region. Put it on in that forest before it. It should take you about 3 days to complete this mission. It should take one day to get there, one to beat Landesgown, and one to come back. Got it?” Sharp Eye explained. “Yes, I do,” I said. “Good. Now, remember everything I told you. Don’t eat too much food in one day, or you might not have enough for part of the journey. Remember the map if you get lost, and any trees with antler carvings are safe to shelter in. They will all know who you are if you show them your sword,” Spotted Deer also explained. “Good luck, and have fun!” they told me. I followed them up to the antler, and walked through the antler. I was ready to start the journey to the dragon’s lair. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, the way was simple. All the regions were marked out, the dragon was plain in sight, and I was geared up, and ready to go. First was the forest. I looked off the map, and saw it up a little ways ahead. As the map said, there was a trail leading out to the higher plains area, leading eventually to the mountains. I walked towards the trail, and followed it until nightfall. That was easy. Now for somewhere to stay. It was a bit trickier trying to find shelter. No trees I could find bore the antler symbol I had saw earlier. The only choice I had was to keep going until I reached a tree with the carving on it. I kept traveling, and eventually, sometime at around midnight, I came to an antler tree. I was so exhausted, I walked right in, and collapsed on the floor. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I woke up, I heard voices around me. It was coming from more Cat-Deers. The leader of this bunch had his antler engraved with silver instead of gold. The other ones were swarming around me, and I stood up, and got my sword out. They backed away instantly. I grumbled, put it back, and took some food out of the bag. I ate an apple and slice of bread, then put the rest back for later. I cleaned up my area, and walked back outside. It was still quite dark out, so they must have woken me up early. I got out my map to see where I was. I was close to the plains, and I could easily make this trip in a day, as Spotted Deer and Sharp Eye had said. I started walking, and soon I had finished the trail, and was out in the isolated plains. I shivered in the wind. Then, I remembered my armour. I would be near the mountains soon, and maybe an extra layer would warm me up. I put it on, put the satchel on over top of the armour, and put down the visor to keep out the wind. Now, I was warm. I kept walking, and although I could hear the wind, there were no cracks in the armour to let the wind in. I kept up the pace like yesterday, and soon, I could see the mountains in the distance. In a couple of hours, I was in the mountain range. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was basically night by the time I reached the mountain range. I was looking for trees with antler carvings, and luckily, they were the only trees there, so I could see one as soon as it got dark. It was a little far off, but I kept walking, and I was exhausted like the day before from getting up early, so I collapsed again, but at least I was awake enough to drag a blanket and some food out of my bag. Then, I ate and fell asleep. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the morning, I was able to wake up later than last time. These Cat-Deers weren’t so picky. They knew who I was, at least, and let me sleep. This leader was also a girl, instead. Her antler was embedded with copper, and had vines and flowers on it. I cleared up, and the leader sent two Cat-Deers named Moth Shadow and Dusky Moon to me carrying fresh bread and honey. I ate the whole loaf of bread, because I was so starving. The honey was also fresh in the honeycomb. I accepted it greatly, and gave Moth Shadow and Dusky Moon an apple each. They gave them back, explaining the best thing they can do to help the one to beat Landesgown is be good hosts. Anyways, I was off again to Landesgown to fulfill the Cat-Deer’s revenge. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyways, I was kind of wondering how to beat this huge beast. He obviously had the advantage here, being, bigger, tougher, and well, meaner. The only thing I could think of as an advantage here was the element of surprise, and even then, how could I kill something of that size with one stab? The answer: stabbing it somewhere like an organ. But how could I manage to get there in time? A dragon could fly, and the places I’d seen this guy go were places obviously no thing could get to any other way. And I could even see it from the cave I was hiding out in trying to decide what to do. And then, I spotted it. A gold glimmer. I looked a little closer. Was that… a tiny gold lock on it’s leg? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now this was getting interesting. A lock on a dragon? What did this mean? Then I remembered… the gold key in my satchel. Could this defeat the dragon? Only one way to find out. I climbed down the tunnel into another cave closer to the dragon. It was the same lock! The only thing I needed now was to somehow reach the lock to unlock this dragon. Never knew I’d say something like that. I got out the key, and left the satchel in the cave. I also got out the sword, just in case it was necessary. Then, I climbed down the ledge, and quietly crept towards the quiet dragon, and slipped the key into the lock. Suddenly, he turned around. The only thing I could do was run. Luckily, the key stayed in the lock, and as I ran towards the cave, and scrambled up towards the cave, a funny thing happened. It’s leg bumped into the cliff face, and the lock clicked. Then, it disappeared into thin air. Then, there was a tiny clink. The only thing left was the lock and the key. I checked the map. Landesgown was gone. I ran down the cliff face again, and grabbed the remaining lock and key. I put it in the satchel, and started my journey back to the original tree. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once I had made it back to the tree, I walked in. The whole place was lit up with streamers and balloons, and a huge party was going on. Gold Antler stepped out of the mass of animals, and congratulated me. I handed him the lock and key, and he took the lock, but not the key. He handed me the velvet box, and explained it to me. “This box ended up outside our tree once the monster was slayed. I assume it is to take you back to your world,” he said. A single tear fell from his eyes. “Well, I guess if I can, I’ll come back and visit you,” I said. It did the trick. “Now, let’s say a farewell to our hero!” Gold Antler said to the crowd. “Farewell!” the crowd answered back. I took the box, and slid the key in the lock, and turned. I blacked out again. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I woke up, the armour was gone, along with the wood box that had came in the mail. The only things left were the velvet box and key. I took these upstairs, and put them on my dresser in my room. Then, I noticed something. The key was shaped like an antler. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The End