Hollow Earth

Hollow Earth

Jimmy quickly glanced over his right shoulder.

“What’cha reading?” blurted a nosey young girl with wide blue eyes and a pointy pug nose. She appeared to be around Jimmy’s age, eleven, and she had an abundance of long blond curls tied in two sloppy pigtails and a generous sprinkle of freckles on her cheeks. He thought she was really cute, for a girl.

Jimmy slammed the magazine closed and quickly placed it back into seat pouch in front of him. “Nothing!” he declared, “Just some stupid old magazine.”

Their flight had left the Airport in Anchorage, Alaska in route to Helsinki, Finland an hour earlier and the flight path would take them directly over the North Pole.

“I’m Ibbie,” the girl stated, canting her head to one side as if one pigtail was too heavy. “Ibbie Lietonen.”

“Jimmy Laine,” he replied. “We’re flying to Finland for my dad’s work. We’re going to live there for a while, with family. Ibbie sounds like a silly name?”

Ibbie pushed up on the band holding her right pigtail. “It’s Finnish for “Promise of God,” so it can’t be silly.

“I didn’t mean to say silly,” Jimmy quickly retracted. He noticed she was wearing a long royal blue dress with a colorful red vest over a pure white blouse. She also wore a gold necklace with a blue and white locket around her neck. “Neat locket,” he stated. “The vest is cool too.”

“The locket contains magic seeds,” Ibbie smiled. “Like the ones in, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.”

“You’re kidding me,” Jimmy blurted. “That’s just an old fairy tale. What kind of magic do they have?”

“I don’t know,” Ibbie looked puzzled. “My Mom says I will learn what they do someday.

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud ping and the voice of the pilot. “Please return to your seats and buckle your seatbelts. We are experiencing strong air turbulence but nothing to be concerned about.”

Ibbie waved to Jimmy and returned to her seat. The turbulence grew greater and greater until Jimmy felt like he was riding a bucking bronco. Suddenly, the lights in the cabin flickered and went out spreading a deep darkness inside the cabin. Jimmy fainted.

When he awoke, the cabin lights were back on but it took him a few moments to shake the dizziness from his head. He slowly glanced around the cabin. All the seats were empty, even the seats where his Mom and Dad had been sitting.

He quickly unhooked his seat belt and stepped into the aisle. He looked up and down but saw no one. “Anyone here!” he yelled in a nervous voice, fear and panic was starting to overtake him.

“Back here,” a squeaky voice suddenly replied.

Jimmy walked down the aisle and spotted Ibbie trying to unlatch her safety belt. He could tell she was as dizzy as he was when he had just awaked. He reached over and helped her to unlock the stubborn latch.

“Where is everyone?” Ibbie asked, glancing around at the empty seats.

Jimmy slowly shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Together they walked slowly down the aisle. When they finally reached the front of the airliner, they noticed that the main door was wide open. Bright light was seeping into the cabin and a strange exotic smell permeated the air. They surveyed the exotic scene before them with wide eyes and open mouths.

Beyond the plane stood thousands of gigantic mushrooms, from little ones a foot tall to huge ones ten or twenty feet in height. They were drenched in a vast array of bright colors, some colors that Jimmy was certain he had never seen before. Above the mushrooms was an emerald forest in a thousand shades of green, and flying around the forest a number of birds resembling parrots dressed in multicolored feathers.

“Awesome!” Jimmy gasped. “What is this place?”

Ibbie was also enthralled by their magnificent surroundings. “I think we’re inside the Earth,” she whispered. “Just like in that magazine I saw you reading on the plane.”

Jimmy scrunched his face and replied. “That magazine story was about how Admiral Bird flew over the North Pole and found himself in a hollow Earth. He also saw flying saucers, crystal cities, and strange people. I don’t see any crystal cities or UFO’s flying around out in that rainbow jungle.”

Suddenly, they heard a voice calling for help. “Help me. Someone please help me.”

They looked at each other to make sure the other one had heard the call. They held hands as they stepped from the airliner onto the soft spongy grass which came up to the bottom of the door. Their noses were assaulted by a plethora of strange smells. It was shady, but stray lances of bright sunlight broke through at random.

They slowly walked down a small trail between the towering mushrooms. As they made a sharp turn, they almost ran into a gigantic spider web. Caught in the web was a beautiful young girl. Actually, she was no girl; she was only about six inches tall and possessed shimmering translucent wings. She was a fairy. Less than three feet from her a huge ugly spider was making its way cautiously down the web.

“Do something Jimmy!” Ibbie screamed.

“Spiders! I hate spiders!” Jimmy moaned. He had always been terrified of spiders and this one was huge. He picked up a baseball sized rock from the ground and threw it at the spider. Although he missed, the spider quickly ran back up the web to hide in the foliage.

Ibbie reached up and started pulling the spider webbing from the delicate little fairy. Once she was free, she sat in Ibbie’s hand and inspected her gossamer wings for damage.

“Thank you,” she finally said in a soft exhausted voice. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“Who are you?” Jimmy asked. “Where are we?”

“You are in the land below,” the fairy smiled. “My name is Princess Rikki. I was searching for the Fairy God Mother when I flew into that stupid spider web. I was so worried about my betrothed, Prince Akseli, that I wasn’t watching where I was flying.”

“Fairy God Mother?” Jimmy blurted. “What Fairy God Mother?”

“There’s only one,” Rikki replied. “But she is very busy and hard to find. We desperately need her to help my prince overcome a wicked spell before it’s too late. Time is growing very short. If we can’t break the evil spell soon, Akseli will be cursed forever. Who are you?”

“I’m Ibbie and this is Jimmy,” Ibbie replied. “We live in the outer world.”

“Ibbie,” the fairy gasped. “Are you the heroine, Ibbie the Life Bringer?

Ibbie glanced at Jimmy then back at Rikki. “Sorry, but you have the wrong person. I’m just plain Ibbie Lietonen from Finland.”

“I beg you, please come with me to the palace. I do not have time to find the Fairy God Mother now. You may be able to help save my beloved. Please?”

Jimmy glanced at Ibbie. Neither liked the idea of going very far from the airplane, but the urgency and sincerity in Rikki’s voice finally swayed them. They nodded for her to lead them.

“Be very careful where you walk and stay on the trail,” Rikki advised. “There are many pitfalls and dangers in the forest, some much worse than the giant spiders.”

“Don’t think so,” Jimmy muttered. “Unless it’s a bigger spider.”

They walked for what seemed a long time down the narrow twisting trail. Beautiful birds and giant mushrooms were everywhere. They heard heavy rustling inside the thick brush on several occasions, but Rikki continued to urge them on.

They finally came to a beautiful waterfall with a magnificent castle rising up behind it. They were met by sores of lovely fairies that twittered in Rikki’s face, excited and worried.

“Follow me into the castle,” Rikki stated, pointing at the waterfall. “The entrance is behind the curtain of water.”

Although the castle was beautiful and large, it was by no means built to hold people as large as Jimmy and Ibbie. The largest door they saw as only about three feet tall and the windows much smaller. “We can’t fit into the castle,” Jimmy stated. “We’re too big.”

“Walk through the waterfall,” Rikki replied. “You will then understand what I am trying to show you.”

With a solemn glance at each other, Jimmy and Ibbie slowly walked along the ledge and into the waterfall. The water was cool and refreshing and they were quickly through and on the other side. Rikki met them there, but she had changed. All three of them were the same size.

“You’ve grown larger,” Jimmy stated. “How did you do that?”

Rikki smiled. “I have not grown larger, you have grown smaller,” she giggled and pointed at the enormous main door. It wasn’t the door that Jimmy noticed; an enormous honeybee was perched on a tree sized limb not far over their heads.

They were met inside the castle throne room by a dashing middle aged fairy with greying hair and a flowing white beard. It was Rikki’s father, the King of the Fairies. He welcomed them to the castle then looked shocked when he saw the locket around Ibbie’s neck.

“Is that the locket with the magic seeds inside?” he asked.

“Yes, your grace or you highness,” Ibbie replied. “But I do not know how to use it.”

“I do,” he replied, “follow me.” He led them up a long flight of stairs and finally stopped at a heavy door. When they opened it, they saw a large ugly mouse lying in a bed against the wall. “Prince Akseli,” the King stated. “He has been cursed with a spell and if it is not broken in a few minutes, he will forever remain a sickly mouse.”

“How can we help,” Jimmy asked, revolted by the site of the ugly mouse.

“If Ibbie will allow us to give the Prince two of the magic seeds in her locket, perhaps we can counter the spell,” the King replied, glancing hopefully at Ibbie.

The King asked the chamberlain to bring him a cup of clear water. Ibbie opened her locket and removed two of the pearly white seeds and handed them to the King who walked over to the sickly mouse lying on the bed. He forced the mouse to swallow the seeds then flush them down with a drink of water. For a few moments nothing happened, and then the mouse started jerking and coughing and moving about. The King threw a blanket over the agitating mouse and ordered everyone to leave the bed chamber.

They waited outside the closed door for a long time. Finally, the guards opened the door and the King walked forth with a bright smile on his face. “Prince Akseli,” he shouted.

A handsome young fairy prince slowly walked from the chamber and bowed to the King. Rikki threw her hands up and ran to the prince. They hugged and kissed each other and finally turned to look at Jimmy and Ibbie.

“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” the handsome prince stated. “You have saved me from a fate worse than death, and saved the future of the kingdom. You will forever be honored as heroes.”

“Wake up, Jimmy!” his Mom was shaking him. “We’ve landed in Helsinki.”

Jimmy was groggy but slowly made his way down the aisle. He looked for Ibbie but could not find her. “That stupid article on the Hollow Earth must have twisted my mind,” he muttered.

As they emerged from the customs area and into the baggage claim, several people were standing there waiting for them. Jimmy’s eyes went wide as his Mom introduced them.

“Here are your cousins, Akseli and Eija Lietonen and their daughter Ibbie. They’re the ones we will stay with until we find an apartment.”

Jimmy’s eyes never left the locket around Ibbie’s neck

Word Count: 1999