Sarah stomped her feet as she paced round her room.
Everything had been perfect, utterly perfect. She had an amazing social life, a boyfriend, two best friends who she planned to keep for life.
Now everything was ruined because her mother decided to up and move them back to the little town where she grew up.
"Are you going to stop being a petulant child and come down for dinner?. Grandma made your favourite".
Sarah turned to glare at her mother, "No I'm not hungry, that's one and two, doors were invented so people can knock on them asking for permission to enter".
Her mother sighed, "I know you are mad at me right now but you'll see with time that's this is the most magical place to be".
Sarah snorted, folded her arm and looked away.
Her mother closed her door gently, leaving her alone to continue pacing and ranting about her problems.
She felt bad the way she spoke to her mother but yet she didn't understand why they had to move. It wasn't like they were having money issues. That had never been a problem even after her father died.
She got up from the bed, headed towards the window. She looked out, everything looked so old and dry.
Magical my foot
Her tummy rumbled. No amount of anger would make her stay hungry. Quickly wrapping a robe round her body, she made her way out of the room. In her haste, something caught her foot tripping her.
"Ow".
She turned to find what had made her fall. The floorboard stuck up, higher than the rest.
"I know this place is ancient, but the least they could have done was fix the loose floorboards. I could have been seriously injured and now I'm talking to myself, great. This place is driving me nuts"
She got off the floor, adjusted her robe, walked to the door and was about to turn the knob when she turned to look at the floor again.
It felt as if something was calling to her.
She walked towards it, knelt down slowly tracing her fingers along the part that popped up.
"Maybe it could be a hidden passage like in all those movies".
She laughed at the ridiculousness of her thought but something kept pushing at her.
She tried to find a loophole to see if it would come out, she tried and tried, eventually a very large piece of the board came out.
Sarah gasped.
She fished for her phone, grabbing it then turning on the flashlight.
It was an actual passage.
Did Grandma know about this?
The call came again, this time she had no control over it, slowly she descended down the makeshift staircase. The air was musty and thick with the smell of old books. She reached the bottom of the stairs and kept walking until she came to the end. A beautiful large painting flowers and butterflies stood in front of her.
That's it?. All this for an old big painting. Her anger tripled as she turned around to leave.
It definitely wasn't her lucky day because she tripped again and fell backwards right into the painting.
Sarah opened her eyes clutching her head. That fall hit her hard.
"Today is the absolute worst", she mumbled.
Wait a minute, what's wrong with her voice.
She touched her throat trying to figure it out when she noticed something else, her hands looked cartoon like.
Suddenly the sounds of singing birds hit her ears, yes they were actually singing not chirping.
"Hello, you seem to be lost".
Sarah looked down searching for the person that spoke to her. All she found was a little skunk staring back at her.
"Wow that fall must have really hit you".
Sarah screamed, kicking the talking skunk in the process.
She got to her feet quickly racing to find a way out of there.
The skunk kept following her.
"Wait, I'm only trying to help. You could really get hurt. Sarah wait".
She stopped at the call of her name, grabbing a stick she pointed it at the skunk, "How do you know my name?"
"Madelyn and Claire talk about you non stop. I'm Manny by the way"
"My grandma and mother have been here?"
Manny nodded.
"What is this place?"
Manny smiled, "Welcome to Lemoria. The land of dreams and magic"
Sarah looked around and gasped. It was really beautiful.
*"Can everyone talk like you?. How long has my mother known about this place?. Why do I look and feel different?. Am I stuck here forever?
*"Wo, slow down kiddo. One question at a time. We exist in a different dimension. You came in here through the painting, here it's that portal over there. He pointed, "Your maternal family have known about this place for centuries because magic exists in your line, haven't you noticed that strange things happen around you?. You can leave the same way you came".
Sarah's tummy rumbled again interrupting him.
"Come on, let's get something in that tummy of yours". Manny fed her and then he took her around. She couldn't believe it.
"I wish I could stay here forever", she twirled making Manny laugh, "You can visit anytime you want kiddo but for now you need to get back home".
He walked her to the portal, beautiful butterflies flew around and the ground was covered with the exact flowers from the painting. She closed her eyes and stepped through.
"Honey you are going to be late for your first day at school"
She opened her eyes yawning. She smiled at her mum who stood at the door, "Hey mum I'm sorry about yesterday"
Her mother smiled back as she turned leave.
"You were right, this place is really magical"
Her mother shut her door slowly but Sarah heard her when she told her mother, "Someone discovered Lemoria".
Sarah smiled again, she couldn't wait to explore the new possibilities of the world.