Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2016 finalist, Therese Viehoever! Therese finished 3rd grade this past school year. She submitted a story called “Looking for Makayo.” It’s all about a big sister who has to go on a journey to rescue her brother from a villain! Here’s what one of our judges, Jennifer Fosberry, had to say about the story: “What a fantastic fantasy setting – the portals, the division of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in the new land, the bravery of the characters – I felt all that. And I loved her creative names for the places in the story. A definitely accomplished writer of setting!” Enjoy!
Looking for Makayo
by Therese Viehoever
Off in a far away land lived a boy named Makayo and a girl named Annabelle. Annabelle and Makayo are brother and sister, but they are not a typical brother and sister. They are best friends and they love going on adventures. They never, ever fight with each other.
Annabelle has dark brown curly hair, blue eyes, mostly peach skin with a little bit of tan. She usually wears a black dress with purple swirls and gold stars at the top. Her gold leggings match the stars and have just a pinch of sparkle in them. The stars on her dress are special – they shine and sparkle in the night.
Makayo has straight black hair, blue eyes, and mostly peach skin, but his skin tans just a bit more tan than his sister, but still not a lot. He usually wears his shirt with his name on it and black and gray stripes. His favorite blue pants, which he usually wears, have 8 pockets, 4 in the front and 4 in back. He fills his front pockets with things to help them on their adventures such as ropes, binoculars and much more. He fills his back pockets with good luck charms and four leaf clovers that they would find on their adventures.
One day, they went inside their grandma’s attic. Her was attic was brown and creepy with lots of spider webs. There were all sorts of old toys big and small; many things were broken. There were tons of pictures everywhere, some they recognized as their mom or their uncle or their grandma or even them when they were babies. But there were some they knew not who it was. And there were things that they had no idea what it could be. They were playing in the attic when they saw a portrait hole. They were curious, so they jumped through it. They forgot that it could be dangerous. It was really dark, pitch black. They could not see at all. They started turning round and round, and suddenly Annabelle landed in what seemed like an odd kingdom.
Annabelle had no idea where she was. She looked around and realized that Makayo was not with her. Where could he be? She went looking for Makayo. She thought maybe he might have a good idea for what to do. She did not travel very far before she came along a cute, fluffy bunny. The bunny had light brown hair, teal blue eyes and long ears.
“Excuse me,” said Annabelle, “Do you know where we are?”
“Yes I do!” said the bunny. “We are in the kingdom of good and bad. Over here is the good part of kingdom; over there is the bad part of kingdom” the bunny replied.
“Thank you” said Annabelle.
“You are welcome,” said the bunny, “But why did you ask? Do you need help? Are you lost? Did you lose something? Are you looking for someone? Do you need something?”
“Um…well, yes, I do need help. I was playing in my Grandma’s attic with my brother Makayo, and we found some sort of picture hole. We went in it because we were curious then, then I landed here, and I did not see my brother anywhere.”
“Oh, well that explains it. My name is Sophia… I do not know where Makayo is, but I can help you. There is a museum not far from here, and I am friends with the owner, and he is very wise and knowledgeable,so if anyone knows where Makayo is, it’s him,” said Sophia confidently. “He also will let me use things from the museum.”
“Ok then, let’s go,” said Annabelle.
When they got to the museum, someone new was running the museum. He had disgusting bumpy skin and looked like an overgrown toad. He said grumpily, “The owner is not here, I am looking after the museum today; the owner is sick. What do you need?”
“The owner is my friend and we wanted to borrow some things from the museum and ask him some questions. Do you think we could borrow those things?” Sophia asked.
The overgrown toad frowned and said, “Of course not, you are probably just trying to steal some valuable things from this museum. Out with you, NOW!”
They ran outside, a bit scared, and thought and thought and finally Annabelle said, “Maybe Makayo is still in the attic?”
“Let’s check there! Great idea Annabelle,” said Sophia, “but… there’s still one problem, how do we get back into your Grandma’s attic?” asked Sophia.
“Oh, ya that, um…..well maybe we could go to where I came out, maybe there is another picture hole that can transfer us back. I think I remember the place.”
Annabelle guided Sophia back on a zigzag path. “Ok, I think this is the place, so let’s look for a picture hole.”
“I do not see any picture holes, all I see are cars with signs that have pictures of places on them and little holes in front of them,” said Sophia.
“Well, maybe if we find a car with a picture that looks like my grandma’s attic, and we get in the car and drive into the hole, then we might be transferred to my grandma’s attic,” said Annabelle.
“Oh ya, I did not think of that! So, let’s get a move on!” exclaimed Sophia.
They split up to look at as many cars as possible, and just when they thought they had looked at every single car, Annabelle shouted, “I found it! Here is a car with a picture of my Grandma’s attic!” Sophia ran over to Annabelle, and they both jumped in.
Sophia said to Annabelle, “OK what are you waiting for, drive the car!”
“I thought you were going to drive – I don’t know how to drive!” shouted Annabelle, suddenly not sure what to do.
Sophia said, “Calm down, we can figure this out.”
They found a book in a small box in the car that gave directions on how to operate the car, however it was written in a language that Annabelle had never seen before.
Annabelle said hopefully, “Sophia, do you know how to read this?”
“No,” replied Sophia. She thought for a moment raising her paw to scratch her head when her elbow accidentally pushed a button. Suddenly, the car started to fly upwards around and around a pole. Suddenly, they landed with a “THUNK” in Annabelle’s Grandma’s attic.
The attic was dusty and creepy as usual. They quickly started looking for Makayo but did not find him anywhere. They looked in every corner and behind every door, but never found him in the attic, so they jumped though the picture hole again to land back in the kingdom of Good and Evil.
They rested on patch of green grass and thought and thought, “Where could he be?”
“Maybe Makayo landed in the bad part of the kingdom!” they both shouted at the same time.
“We should check there!” Sophia said excitedly. “I have a map of the whole kingdom of good and bad.”
She pulled an old, crumpled piece of paper from an invisible pocket in her fur.
“Here is the line that separates the good side from the bad.” Sophia told Annabelle as she pointed to the map. “On the bad side of the map, it shows the Doom Cave, Villain Village, and Goop Town,” Sophia continued. “My friend went to bad town before she told me about the places there. We should go to Goop Town first, then Villain Village, and last Doom Cave.”
Sophia led them down a hill and through a beautiful garden to Goop Town. ”Goop Town is full of really sticky goop, so we need the goggles to help us see. We have to dive in the goop then swim in it to get across the town.”
“Ok, do you think Makayo could be here in Goop Town?” Annabelle asked.
Sophia replied, “Well, maybe, but we have to go through Goop Town to get to the other parts of the Kingdom of Evil anyway.”
“Let’s start looking together,” said Annabelle, “It will be easier.”
“Eww, it is sticky and gooey,” said Sophia as she tried to unstick her arms from the goop. “They should sell something so you won’t get stuck. Let’s go farther down.”
As Annabelle tried to lift her legs out of the goop, she noticed something, “Look, there are two things that look like spacesuits stuck in that block of goop.”
They looked closer, and the suits had a tag that explained that the suits are called the Fluberblubber suits. They were made out of silk and rubber and had a bubble built in them so goop does not get all over the person inside the suit.
Annabelle said, “Let’s see if we can get the suits out of there and put them on. You pull that side, I will pull this side.”
The goop wiggled back and forth, plop, plop. The suits almost squirmed out of their grip. Annabelle was sure the suits weren’t going to come out, but then, BOOM, out they came. They put the suits on as fast as they could, and a bubble formed around them. The bubble around the suit made it hard to steer. It was also a little squished inside, but it was better than being stuck in the goop.
They looked all over the goop, but Makayo was nowhere to be found.
“Look!” called Annabelle, “There is a piece of paper in that block of goop. Maybe it can help us find Makayo!”
Annabelle pulled the paper out of the goop. It tore in two, but when they put it back together it read, “I Ieft the goop at 1:00. A villain named Elijah is taking me to a castle. He said they were going to buy some supplies for a potion to make him more powerful and convert other people to his side. I don’t know where this castle is because he didn’t tell me where we are going. Please help. Makayo.”
“Oh my, it is a letter from Makayo, he must have known that we would come looking for him!” said Annabelle excitedly.
Sophia was not excited. She looked frightened and whispered, “It is a scary and dangerous place we can easily get hurt, but I will help you because I know he means a lot to you.”
Suddenly Sophia blurrted out, “What if he has Makayo….”
Annabelle did not let Sophia say anything else. Annabelle said, “Where do we go next?”.
Sophia looked nervous, but she took Annabelle around the corner, and then they saw a big, dark, castle. Sophia said, “Are you sure you want to go in there?”
Annabelle replied, “Definitely, we absolutely have to find Makayo, whatever it takes.”
Annabelle started to run towards the castle, but Sophia whispered loudly, “Annabelle, slow down, there are many villains that could hurt us, and we have to stay safe to rescue Makayo!”
Annabelle stopped, and said “Fine, but we can’t give up, even if we get hurt.”
Sophia replied, “OK, but don’t run off without me! I’m the one who has the map, remember?”
Annabelle agreed, and the two friends carefully approached the castle. They tiptoed inside where they saw a huge room full of spell books, cauldrons, potions, capes, potion ingredients, and really expensive wands. There were evil looking people wandering around the room with evil grins. They would cast evil looks at Annabelle and Sophia as if they were doing something wrong.
“Wow, there sure are a lot of evil looking villains,” whispered Annabelle.
“There are lots of different sections in Villain Village. It says here on the map that the castle is part of the Christmas village. I think we should investigate here first; the villains like to try to ruin Christmas because people like Christmas, it brings the most joy to people, and Christmas is coming soon,” said Sophia.
“Makayo should be around here somewhere,” said Sophia, “it’s 1:15 and Makayo said they left at 1:00, and he said that the villain was taking him to the castle, so he should be here by now.” Suddenly, Annabelle shouted, “Look, there is Makayo! A villain has him in his arms.”
They ran up and shouted, “Give Makayo back!”
The villain shouted back, “No way! Makayo is my new sidekick. He will stay with me forever.” Then he flew away, giving a cape to Makayo so that Makayo could fly if he needed to, but he was still clutching Makayo tightly in his arms.
Makayo was forced to help, but he threw the cape down to Sophia and Annabelle instead. They both put it on and flew towards Makayo. Annabelle and Sophia pushed Elijah away from Makayo together then grabbed him.
The villain shouted, “NOOOO!” as the three friends flew away to safety away from Elijah.
Then they told Makayo all about the toad, the flying cars, and their journey in bad land. Makayo said Elijah had told him all about his evil plans to conquer the bad land that he also wanted to destroy good land after they got out of goop town. He was working on a potion that would turn all the good people into villains.
Makayo grinned and then said happily, “But what he doesn’t know is that I smashed all of his potion ingredients so he can’t use them now!”
Annabelle and Sophia cheered and shouted “Awesome, Makayo, way to go!”
They were tired from all the excitement, but they walked back to find the car to get back to their grandma’s attic. Annabelle and Makayo hugged Sophia goodbye. They promised to visit good land again the next time they came to their grandma’s house. They found the car with a picture of grandma’s attic and Annabelle showed Makayo which button to push. They started to fly upwards around and around a pole. Again, they landed with a “THUNK” in Annabelle’s Grandma’s attic.
Then they happily went back home.
Sophia, Annabelle and Makayo all lived happily ever after.
