Page 32 of With the Potion in the Courtyard

Jessie nodded beside me. "Prepare for anything."

I pulled out my wand and nodded. Robbie did the same and the three of us began our trek toward the door. Today, I realized, there was a little less enthusiasm and excitement, and more grim determination. But, I guess, a night spent on the ground with no dinner has a way of sobering people up.

We walked for hours, the side of the mountain growing steeper with each step. My breaths came heavy, and I promised myself, between gasps, that I'd start exercising more when we got back, if we got back. For now, though, I’d have to try to ignore the way my knees and thighs were aching and press on.If Robbie and Jessie could do it, I had to keep going too.

Finally, we reached the door. It was unlike anything I'd seen, even in Doodle. Scribbles formed a wild mosaic of colors across its surface, a shiny doorknob looking like a blob of silver slime in the center, clearly the work of a child's hands.

"Here it is," Robbie said. "Bet you can't guess where it leads."

"Knowing this place? Probably another world made of bubblegum or something," I said, still catching my breath.

"I bet it’s a place filled with cats and puppies," Jessie said.

Robbie tapped his chin. "Or maybe one filled with slime and play dough."

Jessie laughed and waved her wand. The door creaked open, revealing a pitch-black tunnel. She flicked her wrist, and a bright orb of light popped into existence, hovering above our heads like a miniature sun.

"Better than a flashlight," shesmiled proudly.

"Yeah, because I wasn’t going to enter a dark tunnel without a light," I joked, although I wasn’t really joking. There was no way I could get over the creepiness of that.

"I’m not afraid of the dark," Robbie said, then whispered. "But don’t make me go in it."

We all laughed, but no one started forward. It was like we were trying to prepare ourselves for whatever was coming next. I felt like a football player, slapping the other players helmets and shouting to get my head in the game.

"Lead the way then," I teased.

Jessie grinned. "I’ll go first, since I have the light."

She entered the darkness, Robbie followed her, and I stepped into the mouth of the cave right behind them. The orb cast moving shadows on walls that looked like they were sketched with charcoal and smudged by eager fingers. Stalactites and stalagmites crisscrossed above and below, some sharp and others rounded, like they were molded out of clay by impatient, playful hands.

"Watch your step," Robbie said as we navigatedthrough a particularly narrow part of the cavern. "These rocks don't look too stable."

"Everything here seems like it could come alive," I said, half-expecting the stones to start dancing around us.

"Wouldn't be the strangest thing we've seen so far," Jessie added, her laughter echoing off the cave walls.

The deeper we went, the more the tunnels felt like a drawing of an underground maze. And with each step, the door behind us seemed less like reality and more like a dream I was only half-remembering.

We followed the winding path through the cave, Jessie's orb of light our only guide. The tunnel opened, and we stepped out into the cool air of Doodle. Before us stood a hulking structure, its corrugated metal walls marked with splashes of color as if someone had thrown paint at it in a fit of artistic rage. Vines crept up the sides and the windows were jagged lines that looked like they'd been cut out with a rusty can opener.

"Looks more war zone than cozy cottage," I said.

"Should we split up and look around a little?" Jessiesuggested.

"As long as you can show us how to make that light," I said.

So, she showed us how to do the enchantment, and then we all took off in opposite directions, promising to be careful and meet back in that room. I found myself along a long hallway. Each door I opened was a bedroom with a different theme. One looked like it was dinosaur themed, except the dinosaurs were pink and purple and had giant smiles. Another one had yellow trees with wings all over the walls. None of the beds looked like they’d been slept in for a very long time though. It was creepy. Where did the people who lived here go?

Reaching the end of the hall, I turned around and came back to the central room where I’d split off from Robbie and Jessie. Neither of them were there. I tapped my foot and waited, growing nervous and impatient when they didn’t arrive. I was about to start shouting for them when I saw two distant lights coming from their halls.

Relief sung through me as they came into view. "Found anything interesting?"

"Nothing," Jessie said, seemingly frustrated.

"I think I might have found a few things," Robbie said, excitement in his voice.

We followed him down his dark hallway, but he ignored most of the doors we passed. I stared at his back, wondering what he was so excited about. Could it be a portal room to take us right home? No, that would be too easy.