I was getting bored reading the same old book which I had read so many times so I drifted off to sleep. I was woken up by the sound of a flute playing. I opened my eyes, I realized I wasn’t in my bedroom anymore. I was in a strange land full of elves, gnomes, goblins and munchkins.

“Welcome, we have been waiting for you for such a long time. Let us take you to our king who is quite anxious to meet you,” said one of the elves. I was surprised by their welcome as I was a complete stranger in their land but I thought that they might have mistaken me for someone else.

They took me to their king who was a rather small, elderly elf adorned in jewels sitting on a big throne.

“What brings you here? Humans are strictly forbidden from entering our world without permission unless you are…..” Said the king while giving me a suspicious look.

“Actually I haven’t come here on purpose,” I interrupted him. “I just drifted off to sleep and when I woke up, I was in your world,” I replied humbly.

“What is your name?” the king asked, staring at me.

“I am… Alice, your majesty,” I replied, fearing if I were the same person they were expecting.

“Alice? Yes, finally you are here. You are the chosen one,” the king replied delightfully to my relief.

“Chosen for what?” I asked curiously.

“A quest,” said the king.

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“A QUEST? What sort of a quest?” I asked anxiously not sure what awaited me.

“A quest to kill the evil witch who lives in the castle far away,” said the king.

I was always doubtful if witches ever existed but then I did not believe in goblins and other creatures too until I had seen them.

“How do I kill her? She’s a witch and witches are very hard to kill and why do you want to kill her?” I said reluctantly.

“If this witch is not killed she will attack our kingdom and kill us all. Of course I know it’s a hard quest but not for you because you have already been a savior of other kingdoms. Your reputation is well known against evil forces. If you are successful, we will reward you as you desire,” said the king.

I wasn’t sure about all that but just to know my other option I asked the king “With all due respect what if I decline your offer?”

The king suddenly got angry and said: “Then we will have no choice but to kill you as we don’t want anyone to leak out our intention to kill the evil witch.”

I had to accept the challenge as I had no choice but in return I asked the king that if I would be allowed to go back to my world. The king agreed. According to the plan I was to start off with my journey the same day. Alexandra, the king’s servant, was to accompany me as my guide. I was given a dagger, a sword and a map. The map had a path shown leading to the graveyard.

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“Is the witch living in the graveyard?” I asked Alexandra.

“No, she is living in a castle far away from here. This map is a magical map it will only show our next destination and as we will reach there, the next destination would be shown till we reach the castle,” explained Alexandra.

Thinking that an eventful journey awaited me, I could feel simultaneously the excitement and fear rushing through my blood.

After walking for about two hours, we had reached our first destination. The graveyard was spookier than I expected. Narrow and creepy coffins surrounded us.

“Zombies are lying inside these coffins,” whispered Alexandra “One small sound and they will wake up and hunt us down.”

I tip-toed quietly .But as I stumbled upon one coffin, suddenly a hand reached for my leg and it grabbed my leg tightly. “AAAAAHHHHH!!!” I whispered to Alexandra for help. She handed me a dagger and I stabbed the hand with it. The hand went loose on my leg and fortunately we managed to pass the graveyard without encountering any more zombies. The rest of them remained asleep in their coffins.

Our next destination was on a map a hilly area called “Ghoul land”.

“Ghouls are ruthless killers. They have long sharp nails to scratch and claw the prey and then they have sharp teeth to eat them,” warned Alexandra.

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As we reached the hills I didn’t see any ghoul until I saw a very fast moving figure running towards me. I couldn’t figure out what it was until it came very close. It was a ghoul running towards me and before I could do something, I heard the arrow hitting it. It was Alexandra. She had saved me from the ghoul. Oh, was I terrified to death, I took out my sword and started to kill all the ghouls that came running towards us.

Finally we came out of the “Ghoul land” unscathed except for some bruises and few wounds. Finally the map had shown way leading to the castle.

It seemed a long windy journey to our final destination. Somehow I couldn’t move on. I needed at least a day’s rest to recover from the wounds and regain my stamina. I was tired and exhausted. We found an old cottage which was perfect for us to rest in. This quest was getting impossible but I had no choice.

After a day’s rest, I was strong enough to continue with my journey. We walked till the majestic castle appeared in front of our eyes.

“Wow!!! That is one big castle” I exclaimed.

For a while I forgot about that the castle was an abode to an evil witch and its guard witches. As we were getting nearer to the castle my heart started pounding heavily and I started to lose courage to enter the castle. But to my surprise we found one door which was unguarded, we crept inside without a

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single witch noticing our entry into the castle. I found myself in a big hallway. There were many rooms opening in that hall.

“One of these rooms leads to the blue potion which would help you defeat the witch queen.” Alexandra informed me.

Following my gut instinct I went inside one of the rooms. I couldn’t find the potion there but instead I found a secret passage.

“Over here,” I called out to Alexandra.

I crawled with my partner through the passage and got stuck in a maze. There were five tunnels leading to different ways. I had to choose one of them. “Hmmm…..THE SECOND ONE!” I said. Fortunately, I was right again and finally we saw a big cauldron with blue potion in it. To my surprise, it was unguarded so without any delay I filled up the bottle I was carrying in my bag.

We went back to the entrance hall only to find ourselves surrounded by evil witches. All along it seemed a trap. Alexandra managed her escape and I was taken to the evil queen witch. The evil queen witch was sitting on her throne. She was the ugliest and the fattest witch of them all.

“Well, what brings you here?” the queen witch smiled at me.

“I was just wandering about when I saw your magnificent castle, I just wondered who could have lived in such a nice place. So basically curiosity has brought me here,” I said tactfully.

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“And yes why did you steal my potion. Hand me that over, “she ordered.

I reached for the bottle but it was no longer there. The guards started to frisk me .Without a second thought I grabbed my sword and attacked the guard witches. The queen witch was infuriated and started to throw a spell on me. But no sooner did she utter a word I started chanting the spell from the book I was reading before going to sleep. The spell drove all the witches away. And as soon as I was getting closer to the queen witch. Alexandra threw me the bottle I spilled it on the witch face it became shriveled and black and soon the queen was dead. As I could recall from my book, I set the witch head ablaze and with that all witches were killed. Alexandra was wondering what has caused me to fight those witches so easily. Little did she knew that the knowledge was from the same book that I had read so many times little knowing that it would help me save my life and a kingdom.

Finally we returned back to the fantasy land, the big crowd awaited us. We told them about what happened .The crowd was jubilant to hear the end of an evil witch. The king granted my wish and I was finally back in my own world. The alarm rang and I woke up in my bed. My body was aching and I saw few bruises on my arms wondering whether they were already there or I just got them from the successful return from my quest.

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THE QUEST

Made and illustrated by: Zara Sharif

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