The Fight for Magicallus - Barbara Venkataraman

The Fight for Magicallus by Barbara Venkataraman

Book excerpt

“Take a look at this, Josh. It’s really cool. Come on, just pause the game for a minute.”

Scott was waving something silver in front of his little brother’s face. It was an odd looking stick covered with small blue stars that glowed.

“I can’t look now, so quit bugging me! I’m trying to capture the dragon in The Fight for Magicallus and this is my highest score ever.” Josh never took his eyes off the computer screen. His fingers jumped around on the controls.

“But Josh,” Scott insisted, “You're gonna like this. I traded my Derek Jeter autographed baseball card to Nick and he gave me this magic wand from Germany. Anyway it’s my turn to play; you’ve been hogging the game for an hour."

Josh didn’t bother to answer, he was concentrating too hard. His eyes followed the green and blue dragon on the screen. It was breathing fire and growing bigger and stronger. A knight was fighting the dragon with a battleax and a lance. With every blow, the knight grew bigger and the dragon grew smaller. Scott was growing irritated. He waved the wand over his brother’s head.

“Hocus Pocus, try to focus. Josh, look here or you’ll disappear.”

The room suddenly went dark and strangely quiet. After a minute the lights flickered and came back on. Scott dropped the wand yelling, “Ow! My hand is burning!” The wand lay glowing on the floor, its stars fluttering like butterflies. Scott looked around; he was alone in the room. His hand really hurt and he was in no mood for jokes. Scott did not deal well with pain.

“Josh, where are you? Quit goofing around!”

No answer. Scott’s brown eyes widened with surprise. He pushed his wavy black hair back from his face and walked from his bedroom to the hallway and into the family room. Josh was nowhere to be found. His mom was in the kitchen cooking dinner and it smelled delicious. Spaghetti with garlic rolls was his favorite.

He poked his head in, “Mom, have you seen Josh?”

His mother looked up from the sauce she was stirring and smiled.

“Isn’t he with you?” she asked, handing him a warm garlic roll. Scott ate it in two bites and licked his fingers. As she talked, she sliced carrots for the salad.

“Listen Scott, Dad will be home soon so finish up your game. I swear you’re both going to go blind sitting in front of that computer all the time. You boys should ride bikes or read a book once in a while.” She shook her head and sighed deeply for effect.

“Yes Mom.” Scott had heard this lecture before. He raced back to the bedroom, still no Josh. He looked under the bed and in the closet. He was looking behind the door when he happened to glance at the computer screen and his mouth fell open. There was the dragon, still breathing fire and looking ferocious but the knight fighting him wasn’t Sir Edward the Fearless. It was Josh! He was still dressed in his favorite camp shirt, red shorts and sneakers but he was only 2” tall! Sure Josh had always been smaller than other seven-year-old kids but this was just crazy.

“But…how? What is going on?” Scott sputtered. He started shaking the computer monitor and shouting as loudly as he could, “JOSH, JOSH CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

His mother yelled back from the kitchen. “The whole neighborhood can hear you, honey.”

This can’t be happening, Scott thought, starting to sweat. He had to try to undo whatever it was he'd done. Scott gingerly picked up the wand and pointing it at his teeny tiny brother said: “Hocus Pocus try to focus. Josh reappear and come back here!”

The wand began to vibrate and hum and a soft cloud of greenish mist formed in front of the computer screen-but nothing else happened. When the mist cleared, Scott was horrified to see the dragon closing in on Josh who was out of weapons! Scott tossed the wand aside, grabbed the controller and started to play the game. Most times, he could beat the dragon at this level. He really hoped this was one of those times. The dragon’s fiery breath was almost touching Josh’s chest. Scott couldn’t let that happen or the game would be over and his little brother would be toast! He was so nervous he bit his lip until he drew blood. Playing with a concentration far beyond his ten years, Scott worked the controls until finally, exhausted, he was able to re-arm Josh with a battleax. At least his brother was no longer defenseless, he thought.

It was all up to Josh now. Scott watched the screen intently; afraid to blink for fear he would miss something. While Josh slashed furiously at the dangerous dragon looming over him, Scott chewed on his nails. With each blow of Josh’s battleax, the terrible beast shrank back, its firepower weakening. Meanwhile, Josh was growing steadily, and by the time he defeated the dragon, he was a full three inches tall. Only four feet to go and he will be back to himself, Scott thought. The once fearsome dragon was now small enough to be Josh’s pet Chihuahua. Scott was relieved to see that its breath wouldn’t even light a match. He watched as Josh turned towards the creature, swung his right foot all the way back and kicked the dragon so hard it broke into a million particles of light. Josh then grinned at Scott and gave him thumbs up. This made Scott laugh out loud.

In the kitchen, their mother was happy to hear them having such a good time. At least when they played computer games they were more animated than when they watched T.V. She had no idea just how animated her youngest son was at that moment.

Back in the bedroom, Scott’s happiness was short-lived. Hideous goblins were creeping up on Josh from all sides but of course he wasn’t paying attention. He was too busy trying to communicate with Scott using weird sign language. First, he pointed at the ground and then pointed at himself. Next, he shook his head “no” while jumping high in the air and pulling his hair straight up. Scott, who had absolutely no idea what his brother was trying to say, began yelling at the screen, “Look out Josh, behind you!” Although Josh could see Scott, it seemed he couldn't hear him. Scott was frantic. He'd never seen goblins in this game and had no idea what to do. He tried all the buttons on the controller in every combination but nothing worked. The goblins were even closer now.

Convinced that there was no time to waste, Scott made a decision. He grabbed the wand off the floor, pointed it at himself and in a shaky voice, said: “Hocus Pocus try to focus, Scott look here or you’ll disappear.”

Instantly, he found himself in total darkness, spinning around uncontrollably like water being sucked down the drain of a bathtub. The force of it was making him sick to his stomach. Scott held onto the wand as tightly as he could and right before he passed out, whispered, “I hope this isn’t going to hurt.”

When he opened his eyes, Scott was amazed by the bizarre colors around him. Trees were purple with vivid orange leaves; the grass was neon blue and the sky was yellow and cloudless. There was no sun yet everything was painfully bright. Scott took a deep breath and let it out. He could smell absolutely nothing: no flowers, no trees and certainly no spaghetti with garlic rolls. Sitting up slowly, Scott tried to take inventory of every bruise and bump. Surprisingly he felt alright, just a bit lightheaded. Actually, he felt light all over. Standing up, he took a step and effortlessly leaped several feet into the air like an astronaut walking on the moon. It was so cool. His body shimmered as if he were made of nothing more than light. Scott really didn’t want to dwell on that. To his relief, he still had the wand which now resembled a piece of red licorice. As Scott watched, the stars changed into crawling black spiders that tickled his hand. But where was Josh? Did the goblins get him? Was Scott too late to save his little brother?

Someone tapped him forcefully on the shoulder but when Scott turned around, nobody was there.