The Path Behind the Gate
Berty Smurf was an eleven year-old boy. He was a bit antisocial, but that
was to be expected of a person with his name (his classmates would taunt
him,” Feeling blue, huh, Berty Smurf ?”). It was through one of his
antisocial habits that he was forced to take on a seemingly impossible
task, a task that would lead him on a critical, though daunting(for him)
journey.
Berty was taking a lonely walk( his favourite eccentric habit next to
shadow puppets) down the weathered path of his school's beautiful
acreage garden. While the other kids played cricket in the field he would
go wandering, discovering hidden trails, sometimes forgotten by the
gardeners, the shrubbery overtaking the path, like the wave creeping up
on the shore when time decides to slow.
As Berty shuffled slowly, looking around for anything that would be
unusual in an average garden, he saw a light through the bush to his left.
The bushes lining the way were immensely thick so Berty knew it wasn't
simply the sun peeking through to warm its old friend, Trail. He suspected
right away that there was something else, something more complex going
on. He suddenly forgot all reasoning and tried to shove past the bush into
the suspected field-or building-behind its dense foliage.
The strange part was that he succeeded-and stumbled into a
spacious rose garden. Unlike most destinations in the school's acreage,
this garden had never been seen by Berty. Even more unusual, though,
was the dark yet pristine stone entrance way in the garden's corner.
Curiosity eclipsed Berty's sense of well-being and he ran towards the
entrance way, so mesmerized by it that he forgot about the roses and
pricked his legs. This obstacle didn't slow him, though. Berty tread clumsily
through the ominous tunnel behind the entrance way. Soon he realized
what he had done. “How could I have gotten myself into this?”, he
whispered to himself. It was too late to turn back, though, so he trudged
on and soon found himself approaching the end of the tunnel-like trail.
When he made it to this destination, Berty reached a small building, paint
peeling off of its ramshackle frame. He suddenly felt as if he were meant
to be there and without thinking, opened the door. Inside, an old man with
a dense, long beard obscuring most of his body sat in an arm chair.” There
he is, I told you he would come!” The old man was addressing a young girl
about Berty age who's pretty pink dress was covered in flowers. “ Come
here, boy!” Berty shuffled closer and the man spoke to him, “ You, I have
foretold you would come! Now enough of this. You are the one who shall
carry out a task that may save the world. There is a strange relic hidden in
this garden, boy, and it is your duty to find it. This relic is the only things
that will appease the demands of Sally-anne's”- he pointed toward the girl''magic and her magic is the only thing that has the magnificent capability
to defeat the horrible thing in that chest!” The old man did not elaborate
but Berty thought he was referring to a wooden chest with no decorations
sitting in the corner. “ I will accompany you”, said Sally-Anne prettily. With
that Berty was out of the house, his new acquaintance not far behind. “
You know this garden inside-out so maybe you'll know where the Tree's
stump pond is?”, she asked. Berty knew where that was but it was a long
difficult spot to get to. He grunted instead of saying yes for he wasn't
familiar with talking directly to people. Berty led Sally-anne down a
pebble-strewn maze of bushes, she attempting to make him talk and he
pretending to ignore her. Finally they reached a deep bog. There was no
obvious way to get across. “What do you think we should do”, inquired
Sally-anne. Berty knew exactly what they should've done but he'd grown
very shy of Sally-anne, wary of her friendly nature. She rummaged around
a bush and getting leaves stuck in her beautiful hair in the process. After a
few minutes, Berty found it hard to endure, her getting soiled when he
could prevent it. At last he mumbled,”I-I know w-what we should d-do.
Sally-anne turned toward him, “yes?”. “ S-see that branch u-up there? Wwe should throw a piece of vine over-over it and swing across”. The more
he talked to her, the more relaxed he became. They did exactly what he
said to( Sally-anne exclaimed,”you're brilliant”) and soon arrived at the
pond.
Berty did not know what to do next, but Sally-anne solved that
problem,” This might hurt a bit but everything's alright. Its just a waterbreathing spell” Her simple warning was the understatement of the
century. Berty felt a searing sting followed by a horrible throbbing. Tears
welled up in his eyes, but he forced them down and made himself nod
when Sally-anne said, “Cool, right? That one I learned just a week ago”.
After performing the same simple procedure on herself, they both waded
into the mistakenly named “pond” and submerged. There was a small
trapdoor which Berty puzzled at in the hard bottom of the pond. With
unspoken agreement, the two of them opened the door and slipped inside
the room that it opened onto. The most peculiar part of that particular
room was the fact that there was air inside it. “Now what?”, Berty asked
his companion( he could talk to her now almost without stuttering). “I
don't know”, she replied. They went on through a tunnel that lead to the
room. After a while a door was in sight and when opened, produced a large
chamber. There was a man sitting inside. “ I've been waiting”, he said and
then trapped Berty and Sally-anne in the room before they could react,
closing and locking both doors. “Do you have a spell to get us out of
here?”, asked Berty. “Only if I can see a picture of what I'm trying to do!”
Berty was quite good at making shadow puppets. He quickly produced the
shadow of an open door and Sally-anne performed her spell. In an alcove
in the next room, they found the relic, a block of wood the shape of a man,
and swam up to the surface of the lake. By the end of the day, Berty and
Sally-anne made it back to the old man's cottage. Sally-anne used a
complicated spell to save the earth from impending doom and Berty broke
out of his antisocial ways.
THE END