Sachie RickettsIsland Pacific School, Bowen Island, BC CanadaCommonwealth Essay B.5.The Long Way HomeKiran ran, letting his breath take over and his brain move his legs without thought. As he sprinted through the forest;the trees seemed to blur from clear things to blurs of emerald and jade, and the sky, once seemingly so blue, had turned dark andovercast. He could hear Them behind him, and knew he had little time left to reach the portal.Funny how things like this happened. One minute you are a relatively normal teenage boy, minding your business, justrunning in the park with your dog and admiring the sunbathers, the next you are running for your life. Kiran had been walking hisdog Stella, and after a long run had decided to take the long way home and get some refreshments. As they had walked down astreet that he now realized had been oddly silent and deserted, he had suddenly fell into a manhole, that he had been certain was

not

there before, and darkness had taken his mind.When he awoke, he had peered groggily into the face of an odd yellow animal that looked sort of like a cross between asquirrel and a cat, and who was chittering angrily at him. He screeched in alarm, quickly jumping to his feet and backing awayfrom a seemingly rabid and mutated animal. Being in such a harrowing situation, it did not occur to him that his surroundings hadchanged drastically. The cold asphalt and sturdy brownstones had disappeared, and in their place was a soft carpet of grass, anddecidedly large trees, somewhat greener than those in Central Park, but otherwise normal. All of the sudden, the yellow creature satdown and started licking itself, then looked up and let out a plaintive "Mriaoooow" that startled Kiran. He kept backing away, untilhis back hit a tree that he was sure had not existed. This bump cleared his mind, and he looked around in wonder. There wasnothing

awesome

about the clearing he was situated in, but the surprise was the huge difference of it was from his cold greysurroundings in New York. Suddenly he realized that Stella was missing, which worried him immensely, but he knew that he hadto get out of this odd place, and back home. He cursed, "How could I be so stupid as to go for a jog, and end up in some crazy place where squirrels and cats are one and the same?" The cquirrel hissed at him in a way that was surprisingly menacing, and herealized that there was a bigger problem to deal with right now than getting out of this place, and finding Stella, and that wasdealing with this cquirrel. He looked back at it, and it suddenly scampered over to him tugged on his pant leg, then scampered back over to the place where it had been sitting before, and which Kiran now saw was clearly a path. Kiran looked at the cquirrel inastonishment, and when he made no move towards the path, the cquirrel huffed angrily, then scampered back over to him, andmriaowed once again. It gave him a look that seemed to last for 3 minutes, then deliberately walked back over to the path, lifted a paw, and

beckoned!

Kiran just stared at the cquirrel, so it beckoned again before walking down the path. Kiran, by now over his shock, racedafter the cquirrel, calling "Hey wait a minute, did you just...?". The cquirrel looked back at him, and seeing that Kiran wasfollowing it, picked up its pace, doing something of a half scamper half bound that was surprisingly hard to keep up with, even for

a jogger like Kiran. Kiran ended up chasing glimpses of yellow tail through the twisted path.Suddenly he reached a clearing in the of a grove of saplings. The cqurriel was twining its way around the legs of a beautiful lady, who wore a crown of holly and a dress of the purest white. She greeted him with a hand gesture he had never seen before, and said "Welcome to Everglade, Kiran. You do not know me, but I know you and I know that it was a fluke that youarrived through that rogue portal." Kiran looked at her in utter shock. Not only did this woman know his name, but she knew abouthis trip here to ...Everglade? She pulled from her robes a piece of paper, and beckoned for Kiran to come and see it. He cautiouslywent over, and a glance at the parchment told him that it was a map. It was labelled "Everglade" in script, and was finely detailed."This is a map of Everglade. You can see that the portals to earth are clearly marked in blue. The nearest one is about half a day'swalk from here." She pointed to "here" which was a picture of a beautiful waterfall; one that I had not seen upon entering theclearing. I looked around for said waterfall, only to realize that it was right in front of me, bubbling merrily. Funny.The woman showed me the path to take to reach the portal, explaining nothing much other than to say the oddly ominous words"Worry not, as nothing will implant itself in your memory, dear Kiran."With that parting note, she whispered something at the cquirrel, and said "Fleet will lead you to the portal. Good luck Kiran" Kiran said goodbye, feeling oddly calm for someone in his situation, and turned to go down the path. When he turned back,the lady had disappeared, and Fleet, who was aptly named, was scrambling away from him down the path at a rather fast pace.They went on for a while, walking and jogging intermittently on Kiran's part, where Fleet was constantly moving at a pace thatsometimes seemed quick, sometimes slow, but was never hard to keep up with.After some time, they reached another clearing, this one with a small streamed, which burbled and trilled merrily, thesunlight bouncing off of it and playing patterns against the trees. Fleet meowed at Kiran, then sat down and started to lick its paw.Kiran was getting thirsty, and he had taken Fleet's meow to mean that the water was okay, so he stooped to drink. Once he wassufficiently hydrated, he looked in the bushes for anything that he might be able to eat, as he hadn't eaten since breakfast. He foundsome berries that looked appeared to be similar to blueberries, as well as some wild strawberries, and a piece of Stride gum hefound in his pocket. He decided to take a rest, as he was really very tired from all the walking he had been doing, and the streamhad such a calming sound. Kiran yawned. It was so relaxing, it just made him want to......Kiran was startled awake in an instant to find Fleet in his face, chittering incessantly at him, and pulling on his hair withits claws. Kiran jumped up, suddenly on his guard. Fleet chittered angrily at him again, looking only somewhat more relieved."What? What!" his dream had entirely left his thoughts, as there appeared to be a new issue at hand. Fleet chittered, then hissed,and lifted its long tail to point into the distance. Kiran looked at where Fleet was pointing, but saw only shadows. He lookedharder, knowing there must be something that he was missing. With a start, he realized that the

shadows

were moving closer, andthey seemed to be enclosing Fleet and him. He felt a growing sense of unease creep up on him, and suddenly the sky seemed todarken, graying. Clouds covered the sun and the

shadows

were almost completely invisible. It was only the feeling of snakes in hisstomach that told him they were still there, creeping. He looked down at the map, got his bearings, and sprinted in what he hoped