Wheaton/Scalzi Contest
I mentioned a while back that I entered this contest hosted by geek celebrities Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi. Here’s my entry. Wish me luck! ~Jenn
The Story Never Ends
The unichimaera knew it was up to her.
Not that the Elders of the Magical Story Realm actually said so aloud—it was just obvious to her. She’d read Lord of the Rings and the rest of them after all, and even though she was only a kitten, she knew if she didn’t find the Boy and help the land, the Shadow would take over. Again. Just like it did eons ago, when Atreyu saved the day.
Problem was, the unichimaera had no idea where to find another Bastian. Last time, it was only a matter of infiltrating the imagination of a solitary creative boy. He had been reading a book—no problem. An easy thing, for the Empress to send echoes into his cranium. Nowadays, though—boys aged early, weren’t by habit solitary, and read screens, not books. At least, that’s what the unichimaera had heard.
So she decided to begin with dreams.
Having entered more than a few human dreams within a week, she began to despair. The Orc of Confusion was using his magic shield to fan the Shadow around, and his axe was at least plus-two-vs.-one-horned-monsters. Barely any sunshine poked through the clouds in the Realm, and its long-dormant volcano slowly spewed hot magma six days out of the week. There wasn’t much time.
She remembered having listened to stories recycled from a sort-of Arthurian story set in space. There was a Boy in that series of stories—one with intelligence and innocence, who solved problems and served with Space Knights at least twice his age. She thought he’d be the perfect candidate, and so she found him in his dreams that night.
“I’m sorry, what did you say you needed me for?”
“To save the Realm, like I said.”
“What, I clap my hands and the fairies come back to life? I read that book.”
“It’s not that simple—you have to come with me before the Shadow takes over, and the last light fades from the Magical Story Realm.”
“Where now?”
“Fantasia.”
“Ah. I’ve read that book too. Also saw the movie.”
“So you’ll come?”
“You realize I’m not exactly a young innocent boy anymore, right?”
“You’re not?”
The Boy sighed, and rubbed his sleepy face. “Where’s the Luck Dragon?”
“Ran out of luck.”
“I see.”
“Hop on my back and we’ll go!”
“I’m still in my pajamas—“
“No time!”
“I’m getting too old for this—“ grumbled the Boy as he clambered onto the unichimaera’s back.
They took off through the air, thinking happy thoughts (that’s how one flies, even when one has 
wings), and arrived in the nearly pitch-dark Realm just in the nick.
The Orc of Confusion was just wafting the Shadow into the last of the light crevices. He wanted to make the Realm into a dystopia. One sight of the Boy’s pajama top, though, and he screamed and began to run.
“Catch him!” shouted the Boy.
“I’ll try—meow!” and the unichimaera pounced.
“Great work! Now all we need to do is drop the Orc of Confusion into Mount Doom,” said the Boy.
“Really?”
“Haven’t you read Lord of the Rings?”
“Oh sure, it’s just that—“
“Now! The light is disappearing into Nothing!”
Being extra careful of the axe-plus-two, the unichimaera picked up the Orc by his scruff and flew as fast as she could up to the top of the smoking mountain. Just when she didn’t know if she could bear the heat any longer, she let go her claws and the Orc of Confusion dropped, screaming, into the abyss.
The unichimaera and the Boy had breakfast in the Realm’s brightening dawn sky, before he returned to his own world. He had another important mission there, he said—a grand meeting of different types of wizards, it sounded like… he described it as she flew him home. She wished she could attend too, but the Boy told her that real life monsters weren’t allowed. She thought about that as she curled up, exhausted, back home in the Realm. A meeting of wizards…the name of the meeting was just a letter and a number…
“Thank you, Boy,” she whispered as she fell asleep.
