Isla and the Magical Library

Written by Kiki Peddie, age 10 years.
  
Tap, tap, tap...
Isla, one of the young palace servants, is wide awake in bed. She is 10 years old, with golden-blonde hair and hazel eyes. She is very curious and loyal, and above all loves to read.
Tap, tap, tap…
She keeps hearing this tapping noise and decides to follow it. The sound gets louder.
TAP, TAP, TAP!.
Isla stops in front of the very fancy double doors made with stained glass windows. She reaches towards the handles with shaky hands. As she steps into the library, she is amazed.
Isla breathes in the scent of the ancient books. There are golden pillars holding up the sides of the library, they twist together at the top and reach over and down to hold a large chandelier. The chandelier is gold too, just like the pillars, and it holds many candles to illuminate the room. There is a creaky staircase leading to a balcony, which goes around the sides of the library, with dark, wooden railings. There are wooden floorboards just as dark as the railings. Everything looks wonderful, but the most extraordinary thing about this place is noticed when you look up. Between the golden pillars, a beautiful galaxy is painted on the ceiling. There are blues, purples and pinks of so many different shades, and more stars than Isla could count!
“Hello,” said a voice.
Isla whips her head around, trying to see who is speaking.
“Here,” says the voice again.
It sounds like it is coming from the floor.
“That can’t be right,” thinks Isla but she looks down and sees a beautiful cat.
The cat has shiny black fur with a white chest, white paws and its tail has a white tip. It has a mesmerizingly beautiful green collar with a crystalline green gemstone hanging from it. It has green eyes as bright as the chandelier hanging above them.
“You can talk?” exclaims Isla, in utter disbelief.
“Why yes I can,” says the cat, “My name is Midnight and I live in this magical library.”
“Wait. Magical?”
“Yes,” says Midnight, “Be careful not to get sucked into a book. I’ve never seen anyone come out again,”
“W-what?” asks Isla with a shaky voice.
“It doesn’t matter, really, just be careful,” Midnight explains. “Anyway, want a tour? I don’t get many visitors,”
“Oh- um, that would be lovely! This library is amazing,” Isla says.
“Okay, so this bottom section is split in half,” Midnight says, “non-fiction and fiction, and up there,” Midnight points with her tail, “is the fantasy section!”
“Oooh… can we go up there then? I love fantasy!” says Isla enthusiastically.
“Sure!” says Midnight.
As they walk up the stairs, Isla tries to ignore all the creaking noises.
“This is my favourite book up here,” Midnight says, taking a book off the shelf.
“It’s about a candy land. In that candy land, there is a cotton candy bunny, who…“
CRASH! Bonk! Bonk!
A pile of books falls down behind them, and Midnight jumps – falling straight into one of the books!!
Isla is out of her mind with worry. Her new friend has just disappeared! Without thinking, she jumps into the book after Midnight.
“Midnight!!!” Isla screams. She sees the cat up ahead and runs to hug her new companion. “What’s just happened?” Isla asks Midnight.
“It’s okay,” says Midnight, “we just…” but Midnight’s response has trailed off and Isla can tell that it is NOT okay.
It takes Isla a while to take in her surroundings. For a start, she notices an intriguing choir of gummy bears singing. She listens to their song:
 
Lo-llie-ans all let us rejoice, for we are one and sweet,
we’ve purple soil and lollies to toil, our home is candy by jelly sea,
our land abounds in lollies gifts of sweetness rich and rare,
in history’s page, let every stage advance lo-llie-e fair,
in joyful strains then let us sing, advance lo-llie-e fair,
be-neath our radiant gumdrop sun, we’ll toil with candy and lollies,
to make this candy land of ours renowned of all the lands,
for those who come across the jelly sea, we’ve boundless lollies to share,
with can-dy let us all combine, to advance lo-llie-e fair,
in joyful strains then let us sing,
advance lo-llie-e faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir!
 
Then Isla notices that, just like the gummy bears song, there is pink grass, purple soil, and lollipops as big as trees, cotton candy instead of bushes, bridges made of Zooper-doopers, and the snakes are gummy snakes! There are candy canes and chocolate bars everywhere! The mountains are made of CAKE too! There are even flowers made of fondant, and moss made of icing.
“This place smells wonderful!” thinks Isla. It has all the snacks Isla has wanted to eat, especially when she was serving up the royal family’s dessert. But she knows that it would be offensive to the gummy bears to eat their land.
“What shall we do?” asks Midnight, with her head hung low. “This is all my fault.”
 
***
 
The friends find a makeshift house made of cotton candy by the beach, and they go inside. The waves seem to be made of jelly, topped with Wizz fizz, and the sand is made of colourful sprinkles. The palm trees are made of skewers with sugar fruit strips on top, and what looks like Sour warheads instead of coconuts. This land is extraordinary.
Half of Isla wants to stay here, away from her servant life, but she knows that soon, the homesickness will kick in. She HAS to get back.
As the gumdrop sun rises, Isla ponders what to do. She decides that while she is thinking about what to do, she will have a swim —although, she isn’t sure if it is possible to swim in jelly, but she wants to try. She steps in, and feels the slimy liquid! She moves around in it easily and declares the slimy liquid is better than a normal beach, mainly because if she got ‘water’ in her mouth, it would taste sweet rather than salty.
Plink!
Something hits Isla’s foot and she bends over to pick it up. It’s a message in a bottle!
“Midnight!” Isla shouts. “Wake up!”
“What? Where am I? Oh here,” Midnight mumbles sleepily and yawns, “What is it Isla?”
“Come look at this!” Isla calls from the shore.
Midnight pads across the sprinkle sand towards Isla.
Isla shows Midnight the bottle. It is made of some sort of sweet lolly that Isla hasn’t seen before. It looks almost glassy, but it is very dirty.
“Go on!” says Midnight. “Open it!”
Isla opens the bottle and carefully takes out the paper.
It is a map!
“I don’t think we have time to go on a treasure hunt right now,” says Midnight, stating the obvious.
“I know,” says Isla. “But look!” Pointing to the top of the map she adds, “It says EXIT!”
 
***
 
The friends set off, and pass a flock of sour patch birds. They begin what will be the biggest journey of their lives.
They pass cake mountains, lollipop trees, cotton candy bushes, shores full of sprinkles, and lots and lots  and LOTS of gummy bears. The whole population of this land seems to be gummy bears!
They passed jelly rivers, fondant flowers, and yet more gummy bears. Eventually, they make it to the place marked on the map with a little spiral.
It is a building, perhaps a temple, but really does not match up with anything. It is made of cobblestone, with moss and vines all over it. There is a staircase leading up to the entrance, which has a very disturbing orange glow coming out of it. There are cracked and old pillars dotted around the outside with intricate chiselled patterns in them.
“Well, I guess we have to go in there,” says Isla. “It looks kind of freaky though…”
“Yeah, but we’ll get past it,” encourages Midnight, and the two enter carefully, treading lightly.
Inside, the first thing Isla sees is a tripwire. This is not going to be fun. “Careful of the tripwire!” Isla says.
“I knew this would have traps, as soon as I saw it,” says Midnight confidently, as they step over. “Ah!” Midnight exclaims as a tile falls away from under her paw. “Look for the discoloured tiles,” she warns.
Isla is careful to avoid the traps as the discoloured tiles are easy to see, but what she doesn’t see is the other tripwire.
 
***
 
Isla screams as she is flung across the floor, over lots of the tiles, only to land on one of the discoloured ones!
“Isla!” shouts Midnight, running and jumping over the tiles to get to her.
Isla has fallen in what looks like a bottomless pit, clutching the ledge with two trembling hands.
Midnight makes a bee line for her.
“Quickly!” Shouts Isla, as one hand slips off.
“I’m coming!” calls Midnight, her voice cracking. But she is not fast enough.
Isla’s last hand gives up and she falls into nothingness.
Midnight jumps into the hole after Isla, and plunges through the darkness.
Meanwhile, Isla scrambles for a hold onto anything, until she finds a ledge. With quick reflexes, Isla spreads her arms out and lifts her legs onto it, just as Midnight falls with a loud ‘thump’ onto her back.
“Midnight?” whispers Isla.
There is no answer.
“She must be unconscious,” thinks Isla, although she doesn’t really believe it. She carefully and slowly climbs up out of the hole, carrying Midnight with her.
When she finally gets to the top, the edges are smooth, there are no holds to grab onto, but Isla reaches out with all her strength and pulls herself up and out.
She delicately places Midnight on the ground and waits, small, sparkling tears roll down her cheeks.
“Isla?”
Isla’s face lit up. “You’re alive!!” she cries, enveloping Midnight in a huge hug. “I can’t believe we survived that!” Isla exclaims with a smile so huge, it almost touches her ears. “You were unconscious after falling on my back, so I climbed to the top while carrying you. I thought you were dead!”
“I’m not though…” says Midnight, still sounding a little sleepy. “Let’s go…”
The friends set off again, back through the temple. All sorts of traps keep coming at them, from tripwires, to pressure plates, to mines, but there are no more incidents until… they become hungry. Very VERY hungry. They stop in a grove full of plants.
“I recognise those mushrooms! They’re edible. And so is that moss!” says Isla, happily
“Oh thank goodness. I think I’ll die if I don’t eat soon,” Midnight exaggerates the word die. Isla laughs.
And so they eat… completely oblivious of the giant spider above them.
 
***
 
Scuttle, scuttle…
Isla and Midnight look around trying to find the source of the noise, and then, as if synchronised, they look behind them.
“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!” they scream, staring straight at the huge spider.
“What do we do?!” they both ask in unison.
“RUN!!!” they both shout.
They run through the temple, avoiding the traps. They keep hearing the scuttling of the spider, hot on their tail. They run all the way up to a swirling purple doorway.
BONK!
They look back to see the spider – it has splattered up against an invisible wall.
“It is only be creatures who don’t belong who can pass,” explains Midnight.
“That makes sense,” muses Isla.
They march back through the portal in triumph. Then, feeling like they’re twisting like a hula-hoop, they fly out of the book and land with a ‘thump’ on the library floor.
 
***
 
Not a minute has passed in the real world, but Isla is exhausted! She says goodbye to Midnight, and asks if she visit again soon. Then with her last shreds of energy she walks back to her bedroom, to her very basic servant’s room. Tucked up in bed, she smiles, as she knows she will have more adventures with Midnight in the library soon.

Story © Kiki Peddie, 2025