Fantastopia: The New Life (Part 1)

Oh, come on!

I couldn’t fall asleep that night, my mind was filling up with thoughts about everything. Fantastopia, Aria, being a hero, everything that happened today was keeping me up. Not that I intended to fall asleep at the moment, I knew this was going to happen. But at the same time, I really need to get some sleep or else I’m gonna fall asleep at my desk again, and I’m getting sick of cleaning up my saliva.

After laying down with my thoughts for a moment, I decided I needed to have another look at my ring. So after turning on the lamp, I opened the drawer of my nightstand and pulled out the ring and held it up to my face to admire the designs and the way the gem sparkled in the light from my lamp. I wonder what were the other colors it can change to from my mood? Probably the typical mood ring colors like red for anger and green for jealousy, I don’t know I’ll have to wait and see.

I have no idea what will happen if I lose the ring or let it end up in the wrong hands, but I know that I’m gonna get in a lot of trouble for it. I need to find some way for me to make sure I’ll never lose it, someway that whenever I take it off and I’m not home, I can put it somewhere so I’ll know it’s safe. I got a lot of thinking to do, but until then, if I don’t fall asleep within the next hour, I might as well go drink some beer until I pass out.

__________

Thankfully I managed to fall asleep after putting the ring away, and I woke up to the sound of my mother calling me from downstairs. Oh and what do you know, I didn’t drool this time. I tried to hurry through breakfast because I was feeling excited to go back to Fantastopia, but we were having pancakes, so I had to get a lot. By the time I had gotten myself cleaned up, I made sure no one was coming upstairs as I shut my door and began to change into the clothes Aria had given me. Which reminds me, I need to get more of these clothes cause I can’t wear the same ones every day.

But after that, I slid on my ring and was about to rub it when I heard a knock at my door.

“Jesse” I heard my grandfather call “Can I come in?”

“Yeah sure,” I replied with a hint of frustration for interrupting.

He opened the door and stepped in while making sure no one was around.

“Wow,” he chuckled when he saw what I was wearing “Looking good Jesse.”

“They’re surprisingly comfortable,” I remarked.

“Oh I know, I remember when I first tried on mine, I still have one of the shirts I wore that’s in my attic now, still covered in dirt, sweat, and blood, good times.”

Um, that’s kinda gross.

“Is that the reason your attic smells so much?” I questioned.

“Most likely. But nevermind that, the reason I came up here is that I need to tell you something. Before you go, you should know that when you rub your ring to get to Fantastopia, it doesn’t always take you to the place you want to go when you use it for the first time. But the more you use it, the more it’ll know exactly where you want to go.”

“Oh,” I responded a bit surprised, “Um, is there a way I can prevent that?”

“Not that I know of, just try to think of where you want to go and see what happens. Although if you end up in a unicorn area, ran as fast as you can from those creatures. The legends are true, they do not like the company of men.”

“Aw,” I pouted “But I wanted to see a unicorn.”

“If you wanna see a unicorn without getting impaled by their horns, make sure you bring a girl with you.”

“Got it,” I nodded when a thought came to me “Although I need to know, do they really have rainbow shits?”

I had to ask that because from what I’ve seen on Pinterest and Youtube of people making unicorn poop out of slime, I had to know if that’s really true or not.

“Find out yourself,” he snickered while patting my shoulder “Just go on and try to have fun okay? And by ‘have fun’ I mean don’t die out there.”

I forced a smile when he added- “Your parents and I will be going out today, and Kendra will be going to a friend’s house, so you’ll have the house to yourself until around 5. But when I’m not around, you’re gonna have to find some excuse to tell your parents so that they don’t get worried, okay?”

I nodded as he left my room. I’m sure finding an excuse won’t be so hard, right? Nevermind, let’s just get this over with. Once I was ready, I tried to focus on getting teleported to the castle as I rubbed the ring 3 times, and just like that, I was back in Fantastopia. And like what my grandfather told me, the ring took me to another spot than last time, I was still in the woods, but I didn’t know where.

“Yep, I’m lost.”

Great, now how am I gonna find the castle? Maybe if I get myself in trouble again I’ll get saved by whoever knows their ways to the castle, although that kinda sounds like a bad idea, what if I actually die this time? Okay, you know what Jesse? Use that brain of yours, you’re lost in the woods, what do you do? Well, first I try to find a stream because every stream has to lead to a town right? But I’m not hearing a stream, so I guess that’s out of the way.

Damn, I really should’ve asked for a map.

Maybe I can- whoa wait a minute. Is- is my ring glowing? Holy s**t, I think it is, that’s not good. I suddenly heard a rustle from behind as I turned and noticed movement within the trees. This is already getting off to a bad start, my ring is glowing, I don’t know what danger is near, I’m weaponless, lost, I forgot to use the toilet before I left and now I have to pee, this is just not good.

But just when I thought things couldn’t get worst, I heard the rustle again from behind followed by some footsteps. I really didn’t want to turn around, but I did so anyway to prepare what was about to come. And that’s when the creature came into view and oh my God- it was a unicorn. And to think that my grandfather just warned me about these creatures, and how they hate the company of the men species.

I couldn’t believe my eyes at the sight. On one hand, I was looking at an actual unicorn, and it was so beautiful. But on the other hand, my heart was racing with fear cause it was a unicorn that could any minute stab me with that horn.

“Uh...” I was frozen to say anything as the unicorn stared at me with its dark eyes “Hello.”

Bad idea, because that caused the creature to give off a loud neigh while raising it’s front legs above me as I quickly ran out of the way.

“Okay okay, I’m leaving!” I raised my hands up in defense.

But that caused it to neigh again as it took steps towards me with its horn aiming right at my chest, and that was my signal to run. I can’t believe this is happening, my second day back in Fantastopia and I’m getting chased by a unicorn, a unicorn! Come on!