The Land of 40 winks

 From the Land of Lands Challenge

Heather sat in the tree house on a huge beanbag reading a book. As she turned a page, she heard a noise below her. Looking out of the window, she saw her twin brother Albert ascending the ladder. Heather buried her nose deeper into her book, pushing her horn-rimmed glasses further up her freckly nose. The trapdoor opened and Albert climbed into the tree house.
"Hi." he said.
Heather acknowledged him with a nod, not looking up. Albert turned away from her and looked at the shelf mounted on the wall of the tree house. It was full of books, as both of the Peliconundromicarrow twins loved to read. He took down a book about electricity, sat down on a red beanbag, and began to read. After about ten minutes, Heather looked back up at her brother. His black hair was swept out of his face and his brow was furrowed. Heather grinned, she loved watching her brother read. He always looked so stern and was always concentrating very hard. Albert looked up too.
"What?" he asked Heather, seeing her grin.
"Oh, nothing."
Albert raised his eyebrows and was about to disappear behind his book again when there was a grinding noise. Heather heard it too and looked around, thinking that the tree house was about to collapse. She almost got a heart attack. Sitting in the middle of the room was a bright turquoise and red car.
"What, how, where, what?" Heather spluttered staring at the car. "Where did that come from?"
"I have no idea." Albert answered, rather unhelpfully. "Scientifically, that is not possible. However, hallucinations are scientifically correct. Although I doubt we could both see the same thing. Hang on, do we though? What do you see?"
"I see a turquoise and red car." Heather answered.
"Me too." Albert added.
And he strode over to the car and reached out his hand to touch it. As his finger made contact with the car's bonnet, Heather's bushy black hair was swept around her as a gust of wind swept around the tree house, making it sway. Heather gripped the windowsill. As soon as it had started however, it was over, and the tree house had stopped moving. Heather looked at her brother in shock and shakily made her way over to him.
She gasped. As Heather looked at the seats in the car, she saw that the left one, the passenger seat, had her name embroidered on the back of it. And on the right, there was Albert's name.
"Do you think we should get in?" she asked.
"No! How can we trust a car that just magically appeared in the tree house?" Albert shook his head.
However, before either of them had a choice, the wind howled suddenly around them again and Albert and Heather were lifted off their feet and were plonked into the car seats. Their seat belts strapped themselves around the twins and plugged themselves in. Heather looked at Albert, not sure what to think. He looked back at her looking terrified. Then, without warning an archway opened and formed in the wall of the tree house, with vines wrapped around it. Stretched behind it, was a winding long road. The car lurched forward and started to move along the road. There was a whole other land past the archway, not the Peliconundromicarrow house and their garden!
"Okay, this is terrifying and super scary." Albert said, his hands on the steering wheel. "And I'm not even old enough to drive!"
"Yeah." Heather agreed.
After about ten minutes of driving down the winding road, with nothing but bushes and trees to look at, Albert was feeling more confident at driving and as they rounded a corner, a signpost loomed into view.
"Yay! Something else to look at!" Heather exclaimed happily. Albert pulled the car to a stop at the foot of the signpost.
Where every arrow pointed, there was a road driving into the distance.
"Where should we go?" Albert asked Heather, looking at her.
Heather had already made up her mind.
"There." She said confidently, pointing at an arrow.
Albert steered the car in the direction she was pointing, and started to drive.

 

Heather sighed with happiness. She did not know how this whole adventure came to be about, and how the car had appeared in their treehouse, but she didn’t care much. The car turned a corner and Heather screamed. Albert turned white in the face, and his hands clutched the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles went blue. Heather wanted to cover her eyes, but at the same time, she did not want to take her eyes off the road. They were snaking along the side of a cliff, along a very narrow road. They could barely fit on it. Suddenly, without so much as a jolt of warning, the car swerved dangerously and tipped off the edge. Heather screamed till she thought her lungs would burst as the little car plummeted downwards and Albert was yelling too, till suddenly with a little bump, quite unlike what Heather had been expecting, they landed neatly on a different road below the cliff, and the car set off again. Heather wheeled around to look at Albert. They stared at each other, shocked and numb. Then they both burst into laughter.

“What was that about?” Albert choked.

“No idea.”

They were now travelling along a tree lined road with colourful birds twittering madly and flying all around them. They sang a deep mournful song, which made one want to sleep. And there were also the queerest smells that floated up the twin’s nostrils and made them dizzy. Finally, after many long minutes, they reached an archway which had a sign pinned above it. On it said, ‘The land of the 40 winks.’

Heather gazed up at it as they drove through. As soon as they had passed through the arch, Heather became very sleepy. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. Heather gazed blearily at her brother and saw to her alarm that he was already fast asleep! Heather popped her eyes open determinedly and looked around at this strange land. She saw for the first time, to her shock, that there were many dead bodies around her! No, wait, they were not dead, for she could see that they were breathing. They seemed to be in a very deep sleep. A wave of terror swept through her as she realized that Albert must be in a really deep sleep. Heather’s eyes rested upon a huge signpost. It read: In the land of 40 winks, a spell will overcome you. In your brain you will think, that you want to say adieu. Your eyes will droop, you will become a nincompoop, as you fall asleep forever. With this spell, you will sleep, never to wake again!

Heather gasped with horror as she realized that Albert might never wake again! She made up her mind then and there to rescue as many people and animals from this land and save them from eternal sleep. She jumped out of the car, and rounded the back. Then, mustering all her strength, while trying to stay awake, she began to push the car towards the exit. The car didn’t budge and Heather began to panic. They would never get back to their treehouse! Just then she heard a galloping and she looked up towards the archway. Coming through there was a centaur!  Heather gasped with terror and stumbled backwards. But as the handsome palomino centaur trotted through the arch, she suddenly swayed and almost fell over. The sleep spell was descending upon her as well!

“Hey! Over here! Careful, don’t fall asleep miss!” Heather shouted at her.

The centaur reared in surprise as she spotted Heather.

“Why hello foal.” She replied, trotting over to her.

“Look at that sign!” Heather pointed.

The centaur looked over and read the sign.

“Oh no! I have to get out of here!” she gasped, turning around, about to gallop away.”

“WAIT!” Heather yelled. “Don’t leave us! I am trying to get my brother out of here, he has fallen asleep, but the car is too heavy to push, and I don’t know how to drive!”

“Oh, my apologies. I’m Minnie, nice to meet you.”

“Yes, um nice to meet you too. I’m Heather and this is my brother, Albert. Could you help push the car?”

“I can do better than that!” She exclaimed. And trotting over to Albert, she picked him bodily up and carried him towards the exit, where she dumped him gently on the ground. Heather watched apprehensively, and when Albert didn’t wake up, she began to cry.

“He is dead, he is dead, the spell has killed him!” she wailed.

“Hey, he isn’t dead.” Replied Minnie, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Look, he’s waking up now!”

And sure enough, Albert had opened his eyes and sat up.

“What happened?” He asked blearily.

“Oh Albert!” Heather hugged him.

“Come on, let’s get the others out.” Minnie said, galloping to the entrance.

“But, there are hundreds of them!” Heather exclaimed, her face falling.

“Don’t worry, we won’t do them all ourselves! Once we wake some up, they can help as well!”

So Heather and Albert bounded forwards, eager to help.

Heather ran over to the first man. She and Albert lifted him up and struggled over to the entrance, where he immediately awoke. He, unlike Albert, seemed to know exactly what had happened. Heather presumed he had read the signpost.

“Oh thank you fellas!” He said jovially.

The little man had the face of a clock as a head and his arms were the arrows on a clock. Heather found him to be a very funny sight.

“Well, shouldn’t we get cracking?” He smiled, in a thick Irish accent.

And they walked with him back into the land of 40 winks.

 

After about 2 long and tedious hours, almost all the people had been evacuated. There were just two little bunnies left. Heather and Albert each carried one, and they woke up with squeaks as they left the land.

“Thank you awfully!” the bigger, pompous looking rabbit said. “We couldn’t have done it without your help. Jolly good, jolly good!”

Everyone cheered with happiness as the bunnies hopped away.

“Miss, Miss?” said a voice by Heather’s feet.

“Oh hello!”

It was a beaver.

“Don’t you think miss, we should put up a sign warning people not to go in there, since it is so dangerous?” The beaver asked.

“Oh yes! Good idea.”

Albert came over with a plank of wood, and the beaver set to work immediately. He gnawed with his long teeth these words: DO NOT ENTER! VERY DANGEROUS!

“Oh very good!” Heather exclaimed, admiring his work. Then she propped it up by the arch, and everybody cheered again.

“Well, goodbye everyone!” Albert called, getting into the car. Heather got in too, and they drove away, amidst the cheering of the people and animals they had saved.

 

“Well that was so fun!” Albert said, as they climbed out of the car back in the treehouse.

“Yes it was!” Heather agreed. As soon as she had stepped out of the car, there was a gust of wind, and the car disappeared.

The End

Written by Beth, I hope you enjoyed it!