Two Worlds (Written by a 10-year-old author, 62,000 words, 72 chapters)

Chapter 41: The magic labyrinth

"Run!" Jake yelled. "Theresa's creating a labyrinth!" Lily said, "How are we supposed to escape?" The others had been cut off by a giant wall. Jake scratched his head. "If it's just a magical illusion, you should pass right through." Lily pounded on the wall, which was already looking and feeling like solid rock. "Seems like a pretty solid illusion," she noted.

Theresa's voice echoed in the corridor. "You have nine minutes to find your way out of here." The walls swirled around Lily, giving her vertigo. The corridor was now split into three different tunnels. She inspected them without getting too close. "That one," she said, pointing at the tunnel to the right. "It looks the most dangerous." "Right it is," Jake agreed. They ran down the tunnel.
Two seconds later white fog spilled into the corridor. "Don't get gassed!" Jake warned. She held her breath and sped deeper into the tunnel. "Seven minutes," Theresa sang. Shut up, Lily wanted to say. The fog disappeared and suddenly they were standing in an empty corridor with no visibly dangerous surprises in sight.

Lily frowned. "Something's not right." Jake leaned forward to take a look and a wall of fire nearly burned his face. Lily screamed as he stumbled back. "I am going to punch Theresa in the face," he grunted. He and Lily gradually made progress to the end of the tunnel.

They waited for the wall in front of them to disappear, but it didn't. Lily pounded on the hard stone. "Four minutes!" Theresa said. "Let us go!" Lily yelled. The queen's voice dripped with false sympathy. "Oh, dear. I believe you've come to a dead end." Something caught Lily's eye. To her left, there was a ladder, almost hidden next to the wall. "Let's go!" She grabbed Jake's arm and led him to the ladder.

A roaring sound filled Lily's ears. At the end of the corridor, there was a wall of gray fire that was rapidly gaining on them. She leaped onto the ladder and scrambled up it, Jake following close behind. Jake climbed over the wall as the ladder crumbled to dust underneath him. "Two minutes," Theresa said. Jake yelled something in elfin, and it sounded suspiciously like, "Will you shut up?" with an accent. "Wait, how can I understand what you're saying?" Lily asked. "Translator," Jake said. Lily thought of the tiny earpiece she had, which she thought was a communicator.

She looked down and saw a gate, rapidly sliding down. Normally she wouldn't have even thought of going through any door she didn't know about, but she could see wisps of magic floating around inside, so it was obviously very dangerous. Typical, Lily thought. She climbed off the wall as fast as she could, hoping that Jake would keep up. They slid under the door right before it clanged shut.

"One minute," Theresa's voice said, "and I'm not going to wait any longer!" "Mangy birdbrain," Jake muttered in elfin. In front of them, there were four doors. Lily opened the leftmost one and Stacy and Tara rushed out. Lily opened the next door. It seemed empty, just a tunnel leading somewhere, but Lily could see the ruins of Theresa's throne and part of her purple dress at the end. "Don't make a sound, of we'll all be destroyed," Lily whispered. Why the sorceress was facing the wrong way, she wasn't sure. But then she saw two other doors in front of the queen - the other two tunnel exits. Lily crept down the corridor as fast as she could.

"Thirty seconds!" Theresa said. Lily rushed forward and tackled her.

"Ack!" The sorceress sat down hard on the floor. Lily got to her feet as the other surrounded her. "Where is everyone else?" she asked. Theresa looked at her innocently. "Oh, I don't know," she said brazenly. "Where are the others?" Stacy pressed. "Maybe Theresa knows," Theresa said, "after all, I am only a hologram." "Liar," Tara said. "I believe the hologram is correct," a voice said.

Theresa stepped into view - the real queen, not the person who was apparently a hologram lying on the floor. "But of course, you can't tell who is real," the sorceress said. The Theresa who was lying on the floor smiled and dissolved into mist. "But now you know," the queen said. Jake stepped forward. "Where is my family?" he demanded. Faster than Lily and just about anyone could react; a bow appeared in Theresa's hands. She aimed an arrow at Jake's face. "I am already past my promise," she hissed. "I gave you ten minutes to live, and yet here you are, still alive and unharmed." Tara darted forward and sliced the arrow in half as it sped towards Jake. The queen aimed another arrow at Tara. "None of you could possibly escape my wrath," she said. "Because nobody here is like me, an elf with a magic part in her brain!"

Lily pretended to mishear her. "A magic fart in your brain?" she asked. "Gah!" Theresa's arrow missed Tara by an inch, embedding itself in the wall. "Clean your ears," she said. Lily sighed. "What do you want, Theresa?"

The sorceress beamed at her. "A wonderful question! I want many things." A gray lab coat appeared over Theresa's dress. A misty notepad and pen appeared in her hands, and glasses popped on her face, so she looked just like a college professor - if college professors had magical powers and wanted to take over the world.

She began to take notes. "Let's see. I want to take over the universe. Everyone wants to do that." Theresa adjusted her glasses and continued to write on the notepad. "I want all elves to respect me, preferably by their destruction - oh, wait. Then they wouldn't be there to bow to me. Ha! Hmm ... what else? Oh, right. I would like to get out of this prison once and for all." The queen tore one page from her notepad and tossed it to Lily. Naturally Lily expected it to dissolve into mist, but as the paper floated through the air it solidified into a single sheet of loose-leaf paper. She caught the note and began to read:

Theresa's Greatest Needs

Take over the universe

Destroy all elves/earn eternal respect

Get out of prison

Visit New York for a vacation

Lily finished reading the note and passed it to Stacy, who crammed it in her pocket. Why Theresa liked vacation spots on Earth, she didn't know. A joke? Jake said, "Well, Theresa, um, Foveae, your needs are, um, impressive, but you still haven't answered our question. Where are our families?" "Oh, in the basement," the queen replied. "But then, they are guarded by Gwai, one of my best attack dogs, so you have no chance of saving them."

"You have a giant guardnamed Gwai," Lily said. "How is Gwai aproper name?" Two seconds later there was a loud BANG, shaking and cracking thefloor. It sounded like something big was tromping underneath them. Lily scannedthe room. How were they supposed to get to the basement? The cracks in thefloor expanded outwards from a single point. Unfortunately, the spot wasdirectly in front of Theresa, and she didn't want to get that close. Withoutthinking, Lily felt herself charging the sorceress. Theresa disappeared in a flashof gray as Lily drove her sword into the ground.