BECOMING A HERO

'Game over' the screen flashes and the console plays the losing chime. Adam stares blankly at the screen, he lost again. He's been spending the last two weeks on this game, unable to win. If he could just defeat that dragon, he could rescue the princess and win the kingdom. He could be the hero of the story.

Adam isn't a very active boy and he doesn't have many friends. In fact, at school he is quite lonely, but in his own world, he can be a brave knight who fights ferocious dragons, or he can be a wise wizard  casting complex spells and turning his enemies into toads. In his world, Adam can be amazing. 

Adam turns off the console and glances at the wall clock, twenty to four. 'Oh no,' Adam remembers that his library book must be returned today by four. He grabs the book from his desk, 'Dragons, knights and magic'. He'll take his bike, the library is just a few blocks away. Adam runs downstairs to the garage and puts the book in the tray behind his seat.

The spokes on Adam's bike wizz as he rides down the street. He turns a corner and it comes into his view, the large library building at the end of the street. Adam checks his watch, twelve to four, he's going to make it. Suddenly, a squirrel runs in front of him. Adams makes a sharp right turn to miss the squirrel and hits the curb. The front wheel of his bike sticks on the curb, causing Adam to fly over the handlebars and land in a bush. 

Adam lifts his head and peeks through leaves and twigs. On the other side of the bush he sees the book, lying open on the grass. Adam crawls out of the bush toward the book. He reaches for the book, but before he can pick it up the open pages start to glow golden-yellow. There is a burst of light from the book and Adam disappears. 

The light fades and Adam blinks his eyes, but to his surprise, his surroundings are not the same. He looks around him, where the street once was there is now a river and all the houses are gone. Adam finds himself in a secluded forrest, with no one around. 

“Hello out there?” A voice suddenly comes from behind Adam, he jumps and spins around quickly. Adam scans the area, but he sees no one. 

“Hello?” He asks softly. From behind a fallen tree, a hat appears, then a head. 

“Hi there,” says the little person, as he walks around the log. He's a dwarf. 

“Are you alright, tall boy?” the dwarf asks, “I saw you fall from the sky, what happened?” 

Adam tells the dwarf all about his book, falling off his bike and how he got here. 

“Strange, so strange, I've never heard of such a thing,” says the dwarf, who introduced himself as Mosby. 

“I have to find a way to get back home.”

“I know just who can help!” the dwarf grabs Adam's arm and leads off on a trail heading out of the forest.

Mosby and Adam exit the forest  and head east down a sandy path. 

“Where exactly are we going?” 

“To the wise wizard, he'll know how to get you back.”

Everything in this world is like something from a book, dwarfs and wizards, what else lies ahead for Adam? They reach a small town, filled with small houses and small people, a dwarf town. They walk down a narrow path to the end of the town and come to a small house. 

“Wait here,” says Mosby as he enters. 

Adam hears loud voices from inside the house and moments later Mosby poops out with a girl dwarf. 

“Adam, this is my sister, Milly.” 

Adam waves, but Milly scoffs and starts walking down the road. Mosby lifts his shoulders and tilts his head in question.

“Come on,” he says to Adam and they follow Milly. 

“How do you know the wizard can help me?” Adam asks after a while. 

“Well, the wizard is wise,” answers Mosby, “and he's helped me before. When I accidentally ate a blue mushroom, my head swelled up and I started floating around, the wizard helped me go back to normal.” 

Adam raises an eyebrow, 'what a strange place.'

It feels like they've been walking forever, then Adam spots it. 

“The tower!” he yells out and points to the tip of a tower peeking out from behind some trees. Adam starts to run in the direction of the tower. 

“No!” shouts Milly and chases after him. 

Adam is close to the stone bridge leading to the tower when his legs suddenly  get tied up and he falls down with a thud. 

“Are you trying to get us killed, tall boy?” Mosby asks and helps his sister drag Adam away from the bridge to behind a large boulder. 

Milly unties his legs and gives him a stern look “trolls,” she says. “This is a troll bridge, we can only cross here when the trolls are not around.”

Adam peeks around the boulder, he sees no trolls. “Doesn't look like there are any trolls there,” he says.

“Don't be naive,” Milly says sternly. “Its day time, the trolls are sleeping.” 

Mosby opens his backpack and takes a sip of water from his jug. “If they're sleeping, why can't we cross?” asks Adam. 

Mosby offers the jug to Adam, “trolls have better hearing than a giant-eared bat, step one foot on the bridge and they will pounce.” says Mosby. 

Adam stands up, “I have read many books with trolls in them, to cross a troll bridge you must answer a riddle.”

Milly chokes on her water. “A riddle?” she exclaimes. “What would a troll do with that?” 

Adam throws his pack over his shoulder, “I'll show you,” he says and runs over to the bridge. 

The dwarves jump up and yell after him, but Adam keeps running. As soon as Adam steps one foot on the bridge, it shakes and creaks and a large troll climes up over the edge. 

“I want to cross your bridge, ask me a riddle!” Adam says. 

The troll does not react to his question. This is no fairytale troll, the creature has no understanding of language. The troll lifts a heavy claw and gives a goading roar, saliva spewing from its mouth. Adam screams as loud as he can. His dwarf friends are trying to distract the beast by throwing rocks, but he is fixated on Adam. As the troll's massive claw comes swinging down, just before squashing Adam, there is a storm of dust and when the dust settles, Adam is left staring at a tiny toad. The toad croaks and hops off the bridge, plopping into the water. From across the bridge comes a man clothed in a long, dark robe, a pointed hat on his head. 

“Little boy,” he says when he reaches Adam, “are you alright?” 

The dwarves come running up and they ask Adam the same question. Adam blinks his wide eyes quickly. 

“Yes, thank you,” Adam answers. “You're the wizard aren't you?” 

“What were you doing taunting a troll?” the man ignores Adam's question. 

“I need to cross the bridge to see the wizard so he can help me get back home.”

“Back home?” asks the man. “Where is your home?”

Adam tells the man everything that's happened so far. The man listens patiently, then reaches into his robe and pulls out a long staff. 

“You are the wizard,” Adam exclaims. 

“To my tower,” says the wizard. 

He pounds his staff on the floor and the four of them get whisked away to the top of the tower. As Adam and the dwarves look around the tower, the wizard is walking around the room, throwing potions into a cauldron and reading excerpts from large leather-bound spell books. Adam stares into the pot of smouldering purple liquid, it looks kind of scary. Adam feels a flutter in his stomach, 'what if I come out the other side all weird,' he thinks to himself. 

“It's ready,” says the wizard and he scoops a cup of the brew. “All you have to do is think about the last thing you remember doing in your world.”

Adam closes his eyes and thinks back to the moment he fell off his bike, before he got pulled into the book. 

“Now, drink the potion, every last drop.” 

Adam throws the potion down his throat, it's sour. Adam starts to feel weird, his head grows heavy. He falls to the floor, but when he opens his eyes, he sees Mosby, Milly and the Wizard.

“I don't understand, I did exactly what you said,” says Adam.

He looks to the wizard. The wizard is frowning, he scratches his chin. Everyone is waiting for an answer. 

“It should have worked,” says the wizard. He pages through a book, looking for answers. 

If the wizard can't help Adam to get out of the book and back home, he'll be stuck in here forever. He's read the book, Adam doesn't want to be stuck in a world with trolls and dragons. Especially this world, where reality is not the same as what he read, where nothing is as it seems. 

“I can't find the answer,” says the wizard. “It should have worked.” 

“I know why it didn't work,” says Adam and he stands up. 

“This world is not what it seems. Trolls don't ask for riddles, magic is not the answer.” Adam takes his backpack. 

“The book wants something more. The answer is more complicated than it seems.”

“What is the answer?” asks Mosby.

“I don't know, but I have to find out.”

Adam and Mosby take Milly back home, then they head off to the old library, there has to be something there that will give them the answer. Adam combs through many books, interesting that this world has no stories, just retellings of historic events and academic notes. 

“None of this is helping,” Adam sighs after a few hours of reading. “In my world, there were fairy tales and stories, and they always ended the same way.”

“How did they end?” asks Mosby.

“The hero defeats the dragon and saves the princess, then they all live happily ever after,” says Adam. “The hero!” he exclaims. 

Mosby looks confused.

“The hero must save the princess,” Adam explains. “We have to find the hero.”

“There's no hero here, tall boy,” says Mosby.

“No hero? But every story must have a hero.”

“What if you are the hero?” asks Mosby.

“I can't be the hero, I'm just a boy. I can't save the princess.”

“We don't have a princess,” says Mosby, “but there is a dragon. He lives in the forest and guards the precious ruby of wishes.”

A ruby that grants wishes? That's exactly what Adam needs to get back home, but to fight a dragon? Surely, that's impossible.

“How do we get this ruby?”

“The dragon should be hibernating, you could just grab it.”

Adam and Mosby go back to the dwarf village. 

“Are you crazy?” asks Milly when they tell her their plan. “You can't go fight a dragon!”

“We won't have to fight the dragon, we just have to steal the ruby.” Mosby states.

“Your world has no hero, and to end the story the hero has to complete his quest.” Adam says as he packs blue mushrooms into his backpack. “I must be the hero, only then will I be able to get out of the book and back to my world.”

“I will come with you,” says Milly.

Adam and Mosby look at each other, then at Milly. They jerk up their shoulders.

“Alright then, lets go.” says Adam and the three of them head out the door, to the dark forest. 

Before long, they reach the edge of the dark forest. Miles of trees lie stretched out in front of them. How will they ever find the dragon’s lair in this maze? Adam and the dwarves enter the forest. The canopy of trees blocks out most of the sun and it gets darker and darker as they walk deeper into the forest. Milly takes out a lamp, which gives a little bit of light. The air is damp and smells of wet tree bark. Adam has no sense of direction in the forest, everything looks the same. 

“Are we going the right way?” he asks.

Milly stops and looks around. “The river should be this way,” she says and points to the west.

“No,” argues Mosby, “The river is west, the well is east.”

‘I knew we would get lost in here.’ Adam thinks to himself as the dwarf siblings fight over which way they should go. Adam tries to make out his surroundings, but the darkness makes it difficult. He tries to listen out for the sound of a river. He hears something, but it doesn’t sound like a river. It sounds like leaves and twigs being crushed. 

“Something is coming,” he yells.

Everyone turns to the direction of the noise, which is growing louder as the creature comes closer. From the sound of the footsteps, this must be an enormous creature.

“Run!” yells Milly. They all turn around and run in the opposite direction.

“It’s after me!” yells Adam when he realises the footsteps are moving faster, chasing them. 

With their short legs they’ll never outrun whatever this creature is. Suddenly, the three friends fall down a slippery hill and come to a stop at the bottom, in a muddy mess. They listen out for the footsteps, but they hear nothing. As Milly lights the lantern again, they see a large hare sitting in front of them. It gives them a fright. 

“Fret not, little people,” says the hare. “I don’t eat humans. What were we running from?”

“We were running for you,” says Adam, helping Mosby to get Milly out of the mud. 

“We thought you were a monster," says Mosby.

The hare laughs. “Are you lost?”

“We’re trying to get to the old pavilion,” answers Mosby when they freed Milly. 

The hare’s face looks shocked. “Why would you want to go there, know you not of the fierce dragon who protects that area?”

“Yes, but we need to get the ruby of wishes,” Milly explains, “this boy is not from our world, he needs to get back home.”

“Do you know where the pavilion is?” Adam asks the hare.

He nods and points a furry white finger in the direction of the pavilion. “Careful now, you don’t want to wake a sleeping dragon.”

The white marble pavilion lies in the centre of the forest, the only place where there are no trees and the sunlight reflects marvelously off the stone. It's beautiful. In the centre of the pavilion, on a pedestal sits the ruby, shining in the light. There is no dragon around. Adam walks closer to the ruby, then a loud roar fills the air.

“Who comes to steal my ruby?” asks the voice.

Adam looks around for the dragon, he sees nothing.

“The ruby will not grant you what you seek,” the voice continues, “the ruby can only destroy, and so I shall destroy it.” 

“No!” Adam yells and he leaps forward to the ruby. 

A pillar of fire rains down from the sky onto the ruby, and when the smoke clears, there is just a pile of red ash. 

“No, what have you done?” Adam yells out and kneels by the pedestal. 

He picks up the ash, it treacles through his fingers. From behind the pillar appears a small lizard, frightening Adam.

“It is not what it seems,” says the lizard. “You think it will grant your wish, but instead, it plays a trick.”

“Who are you?” asks Adam.

“I am not, I was. I was the fierce and mighty dragon that once lived here, before the ruby turned me to this. I wished on the ruby to make me the strongest reptile in all the land, and it did. By turning all other dragons into flowers, and me into a lizard with powers.”

Adam feels sorry for the dragon, or lizard. “This was my only way to get home and you destroyed it. I was supposed to be the hero, that's the only way my story can end.” 

“What’s a hero?” asks the dragon.

“A hero is a person who is brave and saves the princess.” Adam answers.

“Well, you didn’t save a princess, but you were brave nonetheless.” says the dragon.

“He’s right,” says Milly.

“You didn’t know he was a lizard, yet you still ran into danger.” says Mosby.

“I’m a hero?” asks Adam. “I am a hero.”

As soon as he said those words, a bright light came from the sky, blinding everyone. And when the light disappeared and Adam opened his eyes, he saw an old woman standing over him. 

“Are you alright young man?” she asks, helping him off the grass. “You had a fall with your bike.”

Adam sees his book on the floor and picks it up. “Yes, thank you,” he says. “A squirrel ran into the road, and I had to be a hero. Now, I better get this back to the library.”

Adam reaches the library just in time. He puts the book on the counter, slides his library card to the librarian and says: "Another adventure please."