Ben and Lucy: The Sunken Kingdom
Chapter 1 Night Flight

Ben awoke in the middle of the night. The house was quiet, yet he could not sleep. The rest of the house was still as the cool autumn night. He looked around and was amazed to see that his room had opened up to the world outside. Where there were once plastic mobiles of planets there was now an open sky with real planets and stars glowing in the night. Ben sat there in his bed and watched as celestial beings shot across the sky. A galaxy was now visible. The sky was more alive than ever he could have imagined.

Ben felt the night air upon his skin. Clean and crisp, the temperature was perfect. He thought he was dreaming, but this was so real. He reached down to his arm and pinched himself. No, he was not asleep. A surprised look sprang upon his face. How could this be? The thirteen year old boy accepted the change with wonder and astonishment. Ben’s experiences had not yet shut off his ability to dream or accept the unexpected. Joy rose inside him and he knew he had to wake up his twin sister Lucy.

Ben sprung out of bed and ran from his room through the hallway and into his Lucy’s. Her room had remained the same as always. A typical girl’s room in an old plantation house. Canopy bed with an armoire and many stuffed animals about the room. A bulletin board with ribbons and notes pinned up. Pictures of teen idols cut from magazines hung about the walls. Typical teen girl.

The family had just moved in and the twins had sensed that the house had magic as they first stepped into the house. There was an energy about it. A feeling had risen in Ben of excitement. At first he had fought against the move. Their father had moved the family due to his work needs and their mother’s desires to get away from the city.

“Lucy. Lucy, Lucy. Wake up!” whispered Ben.

“What is it?” answered Lucy slightly groggy and a little annoyed.

“You need to come to my room and see what has happened.”

“Oh just tell me and go back to bed.”

“No Lucy, you must see this. It is amazing. I knew this place was special. Come on.” Ben was now pulling Lucy by the arm.

“Ok, ok. You are going to wake Mom and Dad.”

“No I won’t. They are at the other end of the house. Come on!”

Ben was right, the children’s bedrooms where on opposite sides of the old plantation style house. The children’s father, George Henderson, had recently moved his family out of the big city and into a residential community with a long history in up state New York. The house was nestled in a wooded area with seclusion and beautiful scenes off of Keuga lake. George was a corporate manager in New York City and had finally made enough to move out into the country. His company, Taft Marketing, had recently changed directions and was now trying to implement a new innovative strategy to allow the employees to work more at home and reduce office space in the city. The company’s plan was that 80% of all work could be done remotely, hence office cubicles were not needed in the expensive real estate properties of Manhattan. George’s unit was one of the first to test this theory out. George had taken advantage of this and moved his family into an ideal scenic community.

The twins stepped out of Lucy’s room and now Lucy could hear wind blowing in the house.

“Ben, didn’t mother tell you to close your window?”

“Lucy, that is not the window, come and see.”

Ben stopped at his closed door. He was now grinning from ear to ear. He was going to enjoy the look on Lucy’s face when he opened the door. He waited.

“Come on Ben, stop teasing me. Open the door!”

“Ok, but you have to remain quiet.”

“Sure, now open the door.”

Ben slowly opened the door to his room. As Lucy watched the door open and reveal what Ben knew, her eyes widened.

“Oh my Ben!”

Lucy looked up into the sky filled with stars. The room appeared to have no ceiling, opening directly into the night. The wind blew through Lucy’s blonde shoulder length hair. The wind was cool and fresh. Lucy took a deep breath with closed eyes. Ben and Lucy crawled up on Ben’s bed. They laid down to look above them and see the full sky. Stars glistened. Both of the amazed children stared into the night sky for minutes without even saying a word. Their eyes were wide-open, drawing all the sights into their spongelike brains. Faintly they heard birds chirping in the dark night. The sound was barely audible at first and then began to rise in volume. As the birds became more and more apparent, the bed began to rise. The change was so subtle that both of the children did not notice the rest of the room melting away into the night.

The gentle breeze that played with Lucy’s hair now began to build. The air grew colder. Lucy pulled the covers around her for warmth. Ben was the first to notice the change in the environment.

“Lucy, look!” Ben was pointing to the floor, or what should have been the floor. Far below them they could see the rest of Ben’s room. The distance was hundreds of feet and rapidly growing.

“Ben, what is happening?”

“I don’t know. We are too high to get down.”

“I’m scared.” Said Lucy

“It will be okay ”. Ben tried to remain calm, for he knew that if Lucy got scared she usually screamed. Ben was not sure what was happening but he still did not want to wake his parents.

The bed continued to rise, or the world continued to drop away, one could not tell the difference. The wind was now blowing quite steadily and the children had to pull the covers tightly to stay warm. They could not see anything around them as the clear night sky was overtaken by a blowing mist that surrounded the bed. Lucy now held Ben, to Ben’s relief the screaming never did come as he had feared. Ben’s apprehension about waking his parents had completely disappeared at this stage. How he wished he would awake from this dream. He yelled. No reassuring sound came. Any noise he or his sister could make was now muffled by the wind. The bed now was twisting in the sky, spinning around and around. The wind continued to increase. The sound of the blowing wind muffled out the sounds of the birds and any other sound that Lucy might have made. Ben thought to himself, “What is happening?” If this is a nightmare then he really wanted it to end quickly. He held Lucy tight in his arms not wanting to be separated. The twins threw the covers over their heads and held each other tightly.

The children were swept away with no idea of what was happening. The air continued to grow colder. The bed was now spinning around like a top. Lucy began to scream. Ben and Lucy were now hidden under the covers, trying to ride out this harrowing ride. Just when the kids thought they could not handle it any longer, the wind and noise began to calm down. As the bed slowed, the twins could hear the birds chirping and singing once more.

A fresh smell permeated the senses. Lucy thought of the flowers that were always in her grandmother’s garden. Gardenias, Lilacs, Roses, fresh pine scent. She began to relax. Their grandmother’s house was always a place Lucy loved. Always filled with fresh cut flowers, even in the winter the house had that feel of a lived in greenhouse. As Lucy’s head filled with the images and memories of her grandmother, the bed came to a gentle landing. Together Ben and Lucy threw back the covers. What they saw took their breath away. Before them was a forest of trees. Sunshine beat down on them and the warm air heated the children after their cold trip. Ben looked up and noticed something odd. The trees were not set haphazard as if the forest was wild but the trees appeared to be aligned in a pattern. Ben looked closer at the tops of the trees. As he looked he noticed that there were birds of all sizes and shapes sitting perched atop. Some he had never seen before. Lucy had been looking around the bed at the trees as well. She noticed that the trees formed a pattern circling around the bed, yet right before them it appeared that the trees formed a path, a hallway amongst the trees. Lucy wondered where it lead.