The Hills are Alive
by Brynnian
It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen. The sky was clear, but it was obvious that it held a secret. The trees were blooming around the house of the rising sun and the grass was greener than it should have been. There were seven children playing in a meadow, two of them were about to embark on a journey...a quest that they would never forget.
"...and those are a few of my favorite things." The nanny of the seven children said, just as the rest of the kids gathered in front of her.
"Maria? What are we doing all the way out here, its cold, I'm tired, and I want to go home," The oldest girl said impatiently.
"I can't believe you Lisel, you are sixteen going on seventeen and all you do I complain," Maria replied, "and anyways, we are out here for Louisa and Marta, they are about to receive a call."
"A call?" Lisel asked.
"I don't mean to be rude, but I'm Brigitta, she's Louisa," Brigitta said pointing at Louisa, "and I'm the one getting the call, not her."
"Whatever," Maria said.
Maria got so confused with why they were all out in the meadow in the first place she dropped the edelweiss she had collected and decided that they should all march back home. Brigitta and Marta lagged behind, a bit reluctant to know what the future, this "call" held for them.
"What's a call?" Marta asked.
"Hell if I know," Brigitta responded, "Just follow the others and maybe we can get out of whatever it is."
This was when Marta promptly fell on her face. She landed in a wet spot and slid about five feet. When she came to a stop her pink play dress was a horrible mess and there was no way that the stain was ever going to come out. They were a long way from home, and Brigitta thought to herself that it would be better to die out there than to go home and face their father with Marta looking like that. That was when out of nowhere Marta started screaming. It wasn't a scream of pain, because she had already gotten up and was walking peacefully beside Brigitta...the only thing that it could have been was a scream of terror. Then Brigitta started screaming as well.
There was a small lemming-like creature in front of them.
"Do not be frightened children. There is only one way that you can get that stain out. There is hope, just look at my nice blouse. Just a week ago it was stained and now look," the creature said.
The shirt was amazing. It wasn't just the brightest white that was ever seen, but it had a faint green glow to it, giving it an aura of mystery.
"How?" Marta asked.
"Only thing to do is jump over the moon," the lemming responded.
"Huh?" Both girls wondered.
"Never mind," the lemming said, "the only way to get that stain out is to travel to the Castle of the Green Wall."
"Nuh-uh. No way. No quest for us," Brigitta said forcefully. She then took another look at Marta, "Um...which direction."
"Up over those living hills, through the giant black lake, across the lands of sand and tile, and finally pass through the rays of the sun. This is where you will find the Castle of the Green Wall. Don't worry about climbing every mountain though, it's not really worth it," and after speaking the little man was gone.
And off they went. Brigitta and Marta crossed over the living hills and the valley with virtually no problems, singing as they traveled. The first chance they had to stop and think about their impulsive actions was when they arrived at the giant black lake. The girls stopped at the edge and Brigitta started to take off her shoes and stockings when Marta decided to test the temperature of the lake.
"It's frozen over! The lake is hard as a rock!" Marta exclaimed.
"What are you talking about?" Brigitta asked, then she tested the lake for herself. She decided that it was indeed safe, but still made Marta go first.
Halfway across the lake Marta spotted something shining in the sun. She walked over to it and picked it up.
"Brigitta! Look at this!" Marta called.
Brigitta came over to her sister and saw the strange object that she was holding.
"It's so pretty," Brigitta said, stating the obvious.
"I think," said Marta, "that if we went home with this shiny gold button that father would forget all about my dress being dirty."
"I find that hard to believe, but we should keep it anyway. Let's get going; I want to make it to the Castle of the Green Wall before dark," Brigitta said.
Once they had reached the other side of the lake, they continued on their journey. They passed a lonely little goatherd and continued until they encountered another problem. The vast sand land that the little man had told them about. They started to cross when they realized that they were sinking.
"Brigitta! Help!" Marta yelled as she was getting pulled under.
"I can't! I'm stuck," She screamed back.
Just then, a voice came out of nowhere, "Just click your heels together 4 times and say, "There's no place like the other side of this sand-pit. There's no place like the other side of this sand-pit."
And the girls did what the voice said. It had no effect.
"Hey mysterious voice! You were wrong! Now what?" Brigitta yelled impatiently.
"Pay no attention to the voice behind you," the voice said.
The girls tried to turn, but they were stuck in the sand. A second voice came from nowhere, this one completely different than the first.
"All you have to do is sprinkle a bit of fairy dust on yourself and think happy thoughts and you can fly out of that sand trap," the voice said.
"Bull," Brigitta said sarcastically.
Magically, a sand storm came over the area and sand started flying everywhere.
"Fairy Dust," Marta exclaimed.
They both thought happy thoughts and suddenly they were on solid ground again. The girls gave each other a look simply saying that there was no way that they would ever do anything like that again. Then they continued walking. Eventually they came to the doorway of the land of tiles. They stepped in and the doors slammed behind them.
"Only step on the black ones Brigitta," Marta said, very quietly so as not to cause any unnecessary attention.
"Whatever you say," Brigitta said, a bit louder then she expected.
There was a noise coming from the east and both girls stood as still as they could. As soon as the danger passed, they walked through the passageway passed all of the numbered chambers holding God only knows what. They crossed to the other side of the passageway, so they could make a close turn and there it was. Fire and Ice. Painted upon a wall was the largest mural that the girls had ever seen.
"It's so beautiful." Marta said, pointing to the wall with the flaming iceberg painted on it. "Can we take it back with us?"
"I think not, I have confidence, but not that much. I mean how would we carry it all the way back home, and anyway, some evil dragon might live here and if we took it, he might come and kill us." Brigitta rationalized.
"Whatever you say," Marta said,
Together they walked in search of the exit. Once they found it they walked back out into the now warm welcoming sunshine. The sky still looked like it had a few tricks in store, but not for a while. Brigitta and Marta traveled even farther on their way to the rays of the sun. They traveled up and up and up until they could go no farther. Then they saw it, the rays of the sun. The rays traveled from right where they were standing to all the way down the drop-off and straight to the Castle of the Green Wall.
Something inside Marta made her jump to one of the rays of sunlight and she started to slide towards their final destination. Brigitta jumped to another close ray and they both slid down towards the castle. Just as they were about to pass through the castle gates the sun set, and the two girls were tossed to the ground just short of their goal. They then started towards the castle when a group of rabid puppies surrounded them.
"What do you want?" Brigitta managed to squeak out, she was in total shock.
"A toll. You have to pay to get into the castle," the lead puppy said.
"But we don't have anything," Marta told them.
"They we will just have to eat you!" the evil puppies said before coming even closer to the poor girls.
"Wait," Brigitta piped in, just as she was about to get bit, "we do have something!"
"We have confidence!" Marta interjected.
"Not good enough," an evil puppy chimed in. Brigitta then made Marta give the rabid puppies the brilliant gold button that they had found along their journey. The puppies looked content and left the girls alone and they entered the Castle of the Green Wall.
Inside, there were massive shelves along the walls with anything that anyone would ever need lined up neatly across, everything there for the taking. Marta and Brigitta each took a meal, for they had been traveling all day and were extremely hungry. After the much needed meal, they asked to see the owner of the castle. He was a strange old man and he took the girls to a back room.
"Sit," he told Brigitta. "You," pointing to Marta, "go put something else on."
They did as he said, and while Marta was changing out of the dirty dress, no words were exchanged between Brigitta and the man. Finally, Marta came out and the old man snapped his fingers six times and a short woman came out.
"Sir?" she said.
"Get me the supplies," the man ordered.
In less than five minutes there was a bowl of a slimy green substance and another bowl of a clear fizzing liquid. The man dipped the dress into the clear substance and then plunged the dress into the green substance, and back and forth four more times. When he was finished he made Marta and Brigitta eat the green mixture and wash it down with the clear liquid. It was then that the old man told them that it would probably be a good thing for them to stay the night at the castle. They agreed.
The next morning Marta and Brigitta woke early to get a head start on their journey home. They each took enough food to last them the rest of the trip and were soon on their way. The evil rabid puppies were still sleeping and the girls slipped by them with ease. They then rode up the rays of the sun, with the sun bringing them closer and closer to it with its warm glowing light. They crossed back though the passageways of tile, this time walking only on the white squares for they had nothing to fear. They passed back through the sand pit by walking across the sand, their confidence in completing their missing holding them up. They crossed the still frozen black lake and then walked through the valley and finally across the hills back to the meadow.
From there they were on their own, Marta and Brigitta needed to find their way home from the place that they had been so many times, yet the directions slipped their minds. After hours of searching for their home the girls gave up. They curled up and fell asleep right out in the open area of the meadow.
"Marta? Brigitta? Get Maria! Quick," a small screechy voice called from nearby the girls. It was the voice of their youngest sister Gretl.
Maria came rushing in, "You two gave us quite a scare," she said.
"What do you mean?" Marta asked.
"Well, we found you two asleep in the middle of the meadow where we played yesterday. We thought that something had happened to you, and we were very worried."
"But we weren't there! We went on a quest and we met a strange little lemming, and then we crossed hills and a valley, and then a black lake, and after that the lands of sand and tile, and after that we slid on a ray of sunlight, and fought evil rabid puppies, all so we could get to the Castle of the Green Wall, all just so that we could get my dress clean," Marta rambled.
"Sure you did sweetie," Maria said lovingly.
"It's true, we did. And you were there, and so were all of the others: Liesl, Freidrich, Louisa, Kurt, and Gretl. They were all there. I promise!" Brigitta chimed in.
Amazingly, at that very moment, the entire cast appeared and started to sing:
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