“Race ya!” said Finn, grinning mischievously at his friends.
They stood at the top of the hill and readied themselves for a race. It was decided that Rob could not fly in the race, and that if Sara rode the pony she would be disqualified.
Finn shouted, “Go!” and the four children dashed down the hill towards the magnificent castle.
It was a close race. The pony did not know it was a race and by the time it realized that it was a race everyone had a huge head start. Spark dashed around all of them as they laughed down the hill. I cannot remember who fell first, but in a matter of about three seconds they were all rolling down the hill instead of running. About eight seconds after that, they were at the bottom of the hill laughing, and they were all too dizzy to see who won.
Together they walked to the castle. It had been hard to tell from the Perch if the castle had a moat or not, but now that they were there, they could clearly see the encircling water that protected the stone structure. Finn was about to jump into the moat when Woggy grabbed his shoulder and reminded him that most moats are not just full of water, but they are often full of alligators, too.
They walked all the way around the castle to see if they could find the entrance. Finally, they found two massive wooden doors if only they could just get to them. But there was no way to get across the moat, not with the possibility of alligators.
Sara thought of a perfect solution to this problem. She would draw a bridge (and this is probably why they call them draw bridges). She sat down and drew the bridge, trying to match the style of the castle so it would fit just right. She drew bold vertical lines and big arching curves. She even shaded in certain areas to make it look like the bridge was the same age as the castle, not old and crumbly, but certainly not new.
Finn stared down at the water in the moat, and he was pretty sure that he could see round, black eyes peeking up out of the water, which made him both scared and quite curious.
Sara darkened the last line of the bridge and it appeared with a thud right where she wanted it. It was a perfect fit, but just barely. The moat was less narrow than the canyon had been, and if it had been any wider they would have had to sit and think of other solutions, but as it was, there was now a sturdy stone bridge leading right to the massive doors.
The closer they got to the doors, the bigger the doors were. There was no way they were going to get those doors open, especially from the outside. The doors loomed over their heads and looked way too heavy to lift, plus there was not even a handle on the outside.
“I think they usually have some kind of chain they use to open the doors from the inside,” said Woggy.
“I will fly in and check it out,” said Rob, and then she was off and up in the air and gone to the other side of the wall. A few moments later she was back.
“I found the chain thing,” she said, “but I can’t move it by myself. Maybe one of you can come with me; maybe I can carry someone.” But when she tried, she could not lift any of them.
“I could draw a ladder,” said Sara and she pulled out her pencil and the six pieces of paper that she had left.
“Wait,” said Woggy. “We only have a few pieces of paper left. We have to make sure we are smart about how we use them.”
“Yeah, we might want to eat tacos later,” said Finn. “Or maybe now.”
“I think we should hold off on tacos a little bit longer,” said Rob.
Finn nodded in agreement, but now he wanted tacos more than ever, and he could tell by the look on Woggy’s face that he was getting distracted by thinking of the magical flavors of a fresh taco.
“How about a rope?” asked Sara, pulling Woggy’s mind back to the problem at hand. “We could use that for a lot of things.”
“Yeah, a rope is a good idea, and maybe a grappling hook,” Woggy suggested.
“What is a grappling hook?” asked Rob.
“You know, one of those hooks that climbers use. It looks like four hooks in one. That makes it easier to hook around something.”
Sara sat down to draw and soon she was holding a rope and a grappling hook. Everyone tried to throw the hook over the edge so they could climb the wall, but it was a lot harder than they thought it would be, even with the four hooks. The wall was simply too high. So, Rob flew up with the hook, hooked it over the ledge, and then threw the rope down to them.
They thought about just letting Finn go and waiting to see if he and Rob could open the door, but he made the rope climbing look like so much fun that they all decided to do it. Soon all four of them stood on top of the wall, gasping for breath. They could see the pony happily grazing in the field far below.
“Can we eat some tacos now?” panted Woggy.
Finn nodded at him excitedly.
“We only have five pieces of paper left,” said Rob.
“I can’t think of a better use for the paper than tacos,” said Finn.
“The food will give us energy,” added Woggy.
“How about some mangoes?” asked Sara with a sly smile.
“There are so many mangoes back at the Perch,” said Rob longingly.
“Check your backpack, Woggy,” said Sara. “I took out that big heavy book and left it at the Perch and replaced it with something a little more useful.”
Woggy took off his backpack and opened it up to see four golden mangoes just ready to be eaten. And since they were ready to be eaten, and the children were ready to eat, they were soon eating mangoes. The juice dripped down their arms, and the sweet, refreshing flavor filled their mouths. And as amazing as tacos are, they all agreed that the mangos were even better at that moment.
Everyone was satisfied and full of both mangos and gratitude for Sara, who had planned ahead. Now that they were refreshed and reenergized, they were ready to explore the castle. They took their rope and grappling hook, and they were about to climb down the other side when Rob said, “Why don’t we just take the stairs?”
She pointed to the side and, sure enough, there was a nice big stone staircase that was willing to take them down to the next level of their adventure.