The Land Across the Lake: Part II

Scotty woke up with a start as a bag was pulled over his head. He heard yelling nearby and recognized Wen and Max’s voices. “Get off me! What’s happening?!”

Scotty just sat there in shock until someone picked him up off the ground. He began to flail his legs and arms, and he screamed, “Max!”

Then, he felt something slam into his head, and everything went dark.

Scotty slowly came to. His head was still inside the sack, and he was being carried. He listened to the gravelly sound of rocks grinding together as his captor walked, and he peeked out of the tiny holes in the sack. The brightness stung his eyes, forcing them closed, and he realized how much he was sweating. His skin was slick, and his captor had to keep hoisting him up onto his shoulder–but each time, Scotty felt his skin scrape against something hard and uneven like stone. He realized it had to be the stone golems that Wen was talking about. That meant that they were already in the desert, but they were prisoners.

The golem carried him for what felt like hours, and Scotty tried to come up with a plan–but he didn’t even know where they were going. After a while, he gave up and listened to the grinding sound of the stone body. He could hear more in the distance and thought it had to be Wen and Max’s captors. 

He didn’t hear them struggling, which meant they were probably still asleep, and he couldn’t call out to them for fear that the golem would knock him out again. Instead, he stayed silent and waited for an opportunity to escape. 

After a while, Scotty heard what sounded like a large gate or doors opening. Then, he heard a lot more stone grinding all around him. His captor kept walking until he went up some stairs and plopped Scotty onto the ground. He pulled the bag off Scotty’s head, and the boy squinted. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, the blurry shapes around him came into view, and his jaw dropped. 

Scotty was sitting on what looked like a stage. The rock was carved out below into a large theater, which was full of funny-looking stone people. They were made of different-sized rocks all stuck together: rocks as small as pebbles made up the fingers, and their size gradually increased to a boulder size for the torso and head.

Around the entire space was a large, sandstone wall–about fifteen feet tall, but the ceiling above was open. 

Scotty looked to his left and saw Max and Wen kneeling beside him, still groggy from their involuntary nap. 

“Max! Wen! You ok?” he asked. 

Max’s eyes shot open. “What’s going on?!”

Wen looked down. “The golems found us. They don’t usually enter the forest, but I guess we were too close to the desert last night.”

“So, what should we do?” Max asked. “What do they want?”

Wen met his eyes. “From what I’ve heard, this place is used for one thing: public execution.”

Max’s hands began to shake, and Scotty felt his heartbeat quicken. “They’re gonna kill us?”

Wen nodded, sadly. 

“Can we escape?” Max asked. 

She shook her head. “Not unless you use the stone to wish yourselves home. But I’m not leaving here without my brother.”

“We can’t just wish ourselves out of this place?” Max asked.

“No, that would mean you’re wishing yourself further into the Mountain Kingdom. The only thing you can do now is leave,” she explained. 

Max slammed his hand onto the stage. “We’re not leaving you!” 

He looked around. “I have an idea. Scotty, give me the stone.”

Scotty had placed the stone in his pocket for safekeeping the night before. He fished it out and handed it to Max. 

“Ok, I’m gonna distract them. You guys sneak around and find a way out of here,” he said.

“Are you crazy? How are you gonna distract them?” Wen asked. 

Max smirked. “I’ll use my one and only talent.”

He held the stone, and a guitar attached to an amp appeared next to him. 

“That’s your guitar!” Scotty observed. “How did you get it?”

“I just pictured it in my room and wished it were here,” Max smiled. “Couldn’t pass up a chance like this. Now go!”

The golems stood in shock for a moment, giving Scotty and Wen a chance to slip away unseen. Max picked up the guitar before they could stop him and let loose an ear-shattering E-chord. Then, he began to sing, “Say your prayers, little one, don’t forget, my son. To include everyone. I tuck you in, warm within, keep you free from sin. ‘Til the Sandman, he comes. Sleep with one eye open. Gripping your pillow tightly. Exit light. Enter night.” 

His voice was low and grovely. It echoed through the area along with the guitar, and the golems began to shake. 

Meanwhile, Scotty and Wen made their way around the crowd under the shadow of the wall. “How will we reach it?” Scotty asked. 

Wen watched Max as she answered, distractedly, “We won’t have to.”

She gazed at his brother as if she couldn’t look away. Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips pursed. Scotty followed her gaze. Max’s fingers moved wildly up and down the neck of the guitar, and his throat moved as he sang. He exaggeratedly nodded his head and tapped his foot to the rhythm. Soon, the golems joined in, and the sound of smashing stones became the song’s percussion. Then, Max belted out the guitar solo. The guitar screamed through the arena. Max turned up the amp and played, putting his entire body into it as he rocked back and forth. The golems began smashing more violently, and their bodies began to crack. The screeching of the guitar reverberated throughout the audience, and the frequency of the notes and force of the jumping hit the stone men like a hurricane. They began to crumble to the ground like sand as Max continued to play. 

Wen took the opportunity to lead Scotty to the entrance, but before they snuck through the gates, Scotty looked back at his brother. His eyes were shut, and his fingers moved at the speed of light. 

Scotty smiled and followed Wen out of the arena. They found her stag tied to a stone post outside. He was lying on the ground with an empty bowl of water. 

“Come on, boy! We have to get out of here!” she encouraged him. 

Meanwhile, the song was ending. Max sang, “We’re off to Never-Never Land. Take my hand. We’re off to Never-Never Land. Take my hand…” 

Finally, Wen got the stag to stand up, and they climbed onto his back. Wen led them to the gates just as Max finished playing. A few moments later, he came running out of the arena with ten golems coming after him. 

“Come on! Grab my hand!” Wen yelled.

Max ran to her, and she pulled him onto the stag. He pulled himself up behind her, and Scotty held onto him tightly. 

Wen spurred them on, and they galloped away–rocks flying at them as they left the golems in their dust. 

Wen began to laugh, and the boys joined in. “That was incredible!” she exclaimed. “You were amazing! The way you got them to jump with you and when you upped the amp during the solo–it was really clever.”

Max smiled. “Thanks! I’ve been practicing that for a while, but I never had an audience till now. I guess I just kinda lost it out there.”

Scotty saw the side of his cheeks turn red. “But you left your guitar! You love that guitar!” he exclaimed. 

Max turned. “I know, but a show like that comes once in a lifetime. I don’t regret anything.”

“What about the stone? You used your only wish,” Wen reminded him. “Now, you’re stuck here too. Why would you do that?”

“I couldn’t leave you,” he said. “We’ll find another way, so we can all go home, even your brother. Who knows, maybe the Mountain God will help us.”

Wen was silent. “My brother can’t go home–not unless the Mountain God can change him back.”

“What dp you mean?” Max asked. 

Wen stared at the sun for a while. It was waning fast, and there was greenery a few feet away. Beyond that were the mountains. They towered high over the land and disappeared into the sky. “We should make camp,” Wen suggested.

They rode the remaining miles to the green plain and made camp the same way they had the night before. They sat around the campfire. 

Wen stared into the flames, absently. “When we got here, my brother and I were fighting. Just like you, we just wanted to get home, but I knew we couldn’t find our way back through the fog, and Jimmy wouldn’t stop whining. After the Mountain God gave us the Wishing Stone, Jimmy wanted to wish for a new basketball. He wanted me to use my wish to get us home, but I had a wish too–and Jimmy always gets everything he wants because our parents spoil him. So, I said that I wished that everyone could see Jimmy as the little monster he was–but I was still holding the stone. I didn’t mean to wish for it, but it was too late! Jimmy transformed into a monster. I tried to help him and apologize, but he ran away. I haven’t been able to find him since, but I promised I would find a way to change him back. It’s just that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make it to the Mountain God. I couldn’t even get past the giant, and even if I could, the trees whispered about the desert’s fearsome wardens, and the Sky Palace atop mountains that were too dangerous to climb. Without any more wishes, I was trapped in the forest.”

“How long have you been here?” Max asked softly. 

“I don’t know…a few months?”

“You survived in the forest for months all by yourself?” Max asked. 

“Yeah,” Wen confirmed. “But I deserved it.”

“You made a mistake. You didn’t know that would happen,” he said. “Little brothers can be a real drag.”

Scotty pouted his bottom lip, but Max smiled. “But for some reason, we just can’t kick ‘em.”

Scotty beamed under his brother’s appreciation. 

Max put his hand on Wen’s shoulder. “We’ll get your brother back,” he assured her. “Even if I have to fight the Mountain God, I swear we’ll get him back.”

She turned to Max, and Scotty could see tears in her eyes. 

Max held her against his chest, and Scotty smiled. 

He lay down and faced the mountains. They were so tall that even without the clouds, he couldn’t see the tops. He wondered how they would get to the Sky Palace. He wondered what the Mountain God was like and if he would even help them. He fell asleep imagining a cloud castle in the sky.