Chapter 4

As the children walked inside sounds of violins, flutes, drums and upbeat chatter filled the air. The entrance opened with a long white carpet leading deeper into the palace. Statues of stately people and beautiful animals graced the sides of the hall. The glass windows in the hall each had a colorful sun in the center. They continued to walk down the immaculately clean foyer when suddenly to the left a large alcove appeared. The room was filled with people all sitting down enjoying an amazing feast. At the end the of the table farthest from the children was the King. Behind him were maybe ten performers on a stage playing. No one seemed to notice the children until the King was reaching his glass and gazed down the room.
"Attention!", said the King. Everyone became silent. "Our friends have arrived!"
All the people at the table looked toward the hall.
"Hooray!" They shouted.
"Come sit down," said the King with a large smile.
The children timidly walked to four empty chairs nearest to where the King was sitting.
The people at the table and the musicians then went right back to there twaddle.
"Welcome, we are so pleased to have you here. I am King Lot, and this is the land of Aathair" said the King.
King Lot was short and plump and seemed very old. He had to be the most cheerful person you've ever seen with plenty of wrinkles around his eyes and mouth from smiling so much. He had electric white hair sticking out of his golden crown and a long white beard.
"Who told you we were coming?" asked Odell.
"Why Reo of course" replied King Lot.
Odell felt silly after that and kept quiet. King Lot could tell Odell felt embarressed.
"I look forward to getting to know all of you, but first please help yourself." he said gesturing to the long table decorated with platters and bowls full of all sorts of food.
The children were very hungry and were more then happy to stop chatting and start eating.
There was chicken, lamb, fish, breads, fruit bowls, roasted vegetables and plenty of desserts. Austin and Audrey loved the lavender colored strawberries in one of the fruit salads. They were the sweestest, juiciest berries they had ever tasted. Camille preferred the chicken noodle soup that had carved star shaped carrots and potatoes. Odell began first with eating peach tarts and white chocalate pumkin truffles.
As they satisfied there hunger they began to tell King Lot there story of finding the cave and traveling to the palace. King Lot was fun to talk to and the children quickly grew fond of him. "You should stay here for the evening, then in the morning you can travel back home when the suns out." he offered.
It was completely fine with the children, they were having such a nice time they started to forget about home and how much there parents were probably extremely worried about them.
After what seemed hours the people started to leave and the music stopped, by then it was just the children and King Lot sitting at the table.
"Thank you so much for the delicous food and letting us stay." Camille said as she finished her last bite of Lime Souffle.
"Yes, thank you, " sighed Austin and Audrey as they started to yawn and tilt there heads.
"Hoheheho," laughed King lot. "What you children need is some sleep. I will show you to your room."
He led them up a spiral staircase to the next floor and opened the first door in the hall.
"Wow, " cried Audrey, now a bit more awake.
The room was so spacious with four beds on the far wall.
The room was lighted with a large ball of light attached to nothing right below the center of the ceiling.
"This is great," Odell shouted.
"Glad you like it," said the king with a smile. "There are night clothes for each of you on the wall and the washrooms are on the left through the mirror door. See you in the morning."
King Lot then waved goodbye and shut the door.
"Wow, these pajamas look more like princes and princesses outfits," Camille gleefully annouced.
"Cool, we should just stay here all the time," said Austin. "This place is so much fun."
As everyone was getting ready for bed Audrey walked up to the large window to look outside. The crescent moon was so fresh and bright and you could see the silhouette of mountains towering around the valley.
"This place is so special," whispered Audrey to herself. "I hope we stay here longer."
Just then a bright shooting star flashed above the moon in the night.
"I guess we are," she chuckled to herself.
"Audrey," Camille shouted, "Get to bed."

Chapter 3

Audrey became the leader of the line down the long stone staircase leading toward the palace. As they approached closer they could see the glimmering marble walls in the moonlight. They finally reached the bottom of the mountain and were covered in a thick mesh of trees. As they continued to walk on the trail the trees opened up to the massive palace. They could hear beautiful music and laughter echoing through the windows and main entrance. The trail became brightly lit on both sides with what seemed to be large, glowing quartz crystals hanging off of tree poles. As they came to the grand palace doors which had to be fifty feet high they could see the silhouette of a butterfly poised on the wall. It was completely still.
"Hello there," timidly spoke Odell. The wings started to shudder after which the butterfly flew off the marble wall and floated in the air facing the children. The butterfly was beautiful. Its wingspan stretched four feet and its eyes were shimmering white fire. Its iridescent wings resemble a Blue Morpho except the wings also had flares of orange, pink, and red.
"Lu nu nu nu" calmly spoke the butterfly.
"What is that?" asked Camille.
The butterfly gently smiled, she then asked again, "Who are you?"
"We are lost" shouted Austin, "We are looking for shelter now it is dark, could you please help us?"
"Hold on Austin" Odell said annoyed pushing back Austin. "We saw your beautiful palace and well...... I'm Odell, this is my two younger sisters and younger brother. What is your name?"
"My name is Reo, I am the protector of the palace." replied the butterfly.
"We wanted to meet the King of this palace.....there is a King right?." bounced back Odell.
"Hehehmhm" chuckled Reo. "One moment."
Reo closed her eyes and though her wings stopped moving she was able to stay perfectly still in the air. A blue ball of bright light appeared a few feet in the air above Reo's head. It gently lowered till it disappeared into Reo's eyes. She opened her eyes and smiled.
"Yes there is a king, and he is waiting for you inside. You may enter."
Just then, smaller butterflies came out of the trees carrying musical pipes and in a chorus of sound the main doors open. A beautifully lit hall awaited them.

Chapter 2

They started to hear bells ringing. It seemed to be coming from the cave. The sound was soft and pleasant. The children looked at each other confused knowing everyone could hear it. Odell kneel ed down and poked his head inside. He quickly crawled inside into the dark hole. Austin and Camille gasped.
"Come inside" spoke Odell. "The cave is huge!"
Camille went in next, followed by Austin, then Audrey. Everyone appeared as dark silhouettes in the entrance. The sounds of chimes was still apparent. "Look, there must be another opening to this cave." said Austin. The others watched his silhouette point deeper in the cave. He was referring to a soft light emanating from deeper in the cave.
There fears was overruled by awe and excitement. They started to carefully walk further into the cave.
The walls started to open up more and more. The light was becoming more tangible. It then became amazingly evident. Stone steps appeared in front of them.
By now the children were so awestruck they had no words to say and kept following the light.
The steps began to descend rapidly. They started to notice gold and silver sparkles appearing on the walls. Then appeared beautifully intricate engravings. The many murals included what looked like unicorns running through forests, fairies flying the sky creating stars with their wands, and dragons embroidered with rubies, diamonds, and sapphires in its wings.
The bell-like chimes subsided. Things became completely silent. The light in the stairwell became almost blinding. The stairwell opened up to the most inspiring vista the children had ever experienced.
In front of there eyes was the setting sun gently pulsing its crimson and lavender rays across an endless green valley. It spread as far as the eyes could see off into the clouds and flocks of birds were dancing in the last bit of light. The air was scented with wildflowers mixed into the freshest breeze they had ever experienced. Like the earth was enlivened by a rainstorm.
Music again filled the air. It seemed to come and go with the passing wind. It was if hundreds of harps were being caressed, creating melodies that stirred your whole being with passion.
After pausing in the moment for what seemed forever the children looked behind them at the cave, by then looking dark and cold.
"Where could we possibly be?" whispered Camille. "Who knows, but it is amazing" replied Odell.
"It is getting dark, we better head back in the cave," said Austin with much concern.
"Look at what is here," replied Audrey. "We shouldn't hurry back. Something is telling me we should stay."
Just then they noticed a glorious palace down to the left of the cliff they were on. Its spires were still glowing in the last bit of sunlight. There were large flags gracing there tops. Each flag was colored purple or blue with a large twelve pointed yellow star in the middle. Most of the windows in the palace had a warm glow of light that stuck out in the dusk. Magically on the side of the cliff appeared a stairwell that seemed to have hundreds of steps that led down to the palace.
"Lets go" shouted Audrey.

Chapter 1

"Camille! ...Odell?...Austin!? I'm coming!" shouted Audrey as she continued searching through the tall grass. The morning fog hung over the large fields on the edge of the forest behind the Braun's home. There were lots of places to hide around there country home. Granite boulders, pine tree groves and small ravines made up parts of the property.
As Audrey headed toward a group of small pines, she had a gut feeling Camille was hiding inside. Instead she started to hear rustling noises to the right of her coming fast.
Eeeek!, she screamed. Through the fog came running Odell. After panicking and realizing it was her older brother, not a sasquatch, she scolded him, saying, "what are you doing you big dummy, I'm it and your suppose to be hiding!"
Then there was silence. They looked at each other for a moment, Odell's face was radiating excitement. Audrey was puzzled. "Lets stop playing, I need to show you something".
Audrey was annoyed he ruined the game, but her curiosity made her want to follow.
He then grabbed her hand and started to run. Poor little Audrey was half his age and almost half his size, it was hard trying to keep in speed with a 12 year old.
They went closer to the fields end into the dark grove of fir trees. Audrey never liked to go in there because the trees always squeaked. They sounded like witches laughing to her.
"Why are we going in here?"
"Theres a cave under this rock" Odell replied pointing to a rock beside a massive tree.
"I've been in these trees many times, but never knew there was a cave here." he said.
Audrey is usually very nervous to explore caves by herself, but with her brother there she felt alright to look.
Odell started to yell, "Austin! Camille! where are you? come over here!"
Audrey could feel her whole body wanting to go towards the cave. It was like she was one large magnet, being pulled by another one.
Austin and Camille finally came running through the trees.
"What is it" they stammered.
"Look!" Audrey replied.
They became silent and slowly walked closer to the black hole under the rock. "So cool! I love caves," cheered Austin.
Odell stepped in front of the entrance, scouting it out.
"Shhhhh!" he whispered with his finger pointed in front of his mouth. "Listen!"