Beyond: Snillotia Trilogy Book One

by Donna Wagner

  Tim unfolded the paper. Instead of his parents handwriting, as he was expecting, it was a typed message, which read:

  “To a Young Snillotian on the Completion of his or her Thirteenth Year. Congratulations! Our people have long celebrated thirteen as a special number. Your thirteenth year has brought about many changes; some you may have noticed and some you have yet to discover. Do not worry! In time, you will understand the importance of these changes. You are now a privileged member of our people. You have earned your key.”

  Tim shook his head. It didn’t make any sense to him. He understood the words (except Snillotian- he had no idea what that was), but they didn’t make sense all together. The key it was referring too, must have been what fell on his foot. He bent down to retrieve it. It wasn’t a key, but a small disk or coin. As he held it, the center started to glow. Not knowing why, he touched the center of the circle. Like magic, the blackness around him disappeared in an instant.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Tim was standing in a mirror image of the room he been living in for the last two months. He looked around in shock. The room was the same, except on the wall farthest from where the secret door was to his room, there was a window, through which sunlight was pouring in. There was furniture in the room as well. It looked like a sitting room, or a den. Tim sat on one of the couches, trying to figure out what was going on. It felt real. He didn’t think this was all in his imagination. He looked down at the small disk-like object in his hand. There were words written on it that he hadn’t been able to see before. “The royal touch opens all.” Tim had no idea what that meant. He turned it over. The other side also had writing on it. “Property of Prince Mit.”

  That explained the word “royal” being on the one side, but it didn’t explain why his parents put it in his birthday card. He slipped the disk in his pocket and walked to the window. The view was breathtaking. It seemed as if this room was on top of a mountain. He could see other mountains in the distance and a valley below, with many houses. It looked like a picture out of a book, or something you’d see in a movie. He continued to look around the room. There was nothing personal anywhere, to tell him if someone lived here. As he reached the side of the room opposite the window, he was surprised to see that the passageway didn’t lead to the back of another secret door. Instead, it opened into a brightly lit hallway. Tim poked his head into the hallway. He didn’t see anyone, so he stepped into it. It looked exactly like a backwards version of the hallway in his house, the one that had the secret door in it. He continued to explore. As he did, he realized he was in a house exactly like his. The only difference, it was like he was on the wrong side of the mirror. Anywhere there was writing it was backwards.

  He went upstairs to where his room should be. When he walked into the room, at first, he thought he was in the wrong room. It didn’t look like his room. Instead, it was set up as a nursery. As he looked around, he realized it looked like pictures of his room as a baby. He just assumed this mirrored house hadn’t been updated in a while. He still wondered why this house existed. He wondered why his parents had never shown it to him, since it was pretty cool. Tim’s stomach rumbled. He decided it was a good a time as any to check out the mirrored kitchen and see if there was any food in this strange place.

  Arriving in the kitchen, Tim found the refrigerator fully stocked. He took out everything he’d need to make a sandwich. As he was putting everything together, a loud voice from behind him made him drop the bottle of mustard. “What do you think you are doing?”

  Tim spun around. There was a girl standing in the doorway, staring at him. As he watched her, not knowing what to say, her eyes widened. Tim stood there frozen. He hadn’t been expecting to find any people in this place. “You- You look….”, the girl’s voice trailed off.

  Tim’s stomach rumbled loudly. He stared longingly at his half-made sandwich. “Go ahead, finish making it,” the girl said.

  Tim finished and took a big bite, then another. The sandwich was soon gone. The girl was just watching him. “Am I in trouble?” Tim asked.

  The girl didn’t answer at first. Then she said, “That depends on where you came from. Do you live in the village? Did you sneak in?”

  Tim shook his head, although the girl already seemed to know what his answer would be. “I’m called Anna, regardless of where you come from. The important thing is, however, what are you called?”

  Tim didn’t know why his name would be important but told her. “I’m Tim. Tim Tollins.”

  She nodded, as if she knew this already too. “You look like him,” she said.

  “Like who?”

  “Prince Mit.”

  Tim recognized the same from the disk in his pocket, but said, “I don’t know who that is.”

  Anna gave him a questioning look. “Yes, you do. I’ll show you.”

  She grabbed his hand and led him further into the house. They approached what Tim thought was the front door, since it looked like the one in his house, but as they went through it, Tim realized they were still inside. It seemed as though this house was larger than his. They finally stopped in a large hallway, which had portraits hanging on the walls. Anna stopped at one and pointed. “That’s Prince Mit.”

  Tim looked at the picture and gasped. It looked just like him. He looked at the next picture and the next. Each picture showed a slightly older version of the boy. As he reached the end of the hallway, Tim was startled to see a picture he actually recognized. It was his parents’ wedding picture. “They’re my parents!” he exclaimed.

  He hadn’t recognized the younger versions of his father, but there was no mistaking his mother, or that picture. It hung in their family room and he saw it almost every day of his life. “I told you that you knew Prince Mit,” Anna said.

  “I don’t understand.”

  Anna gave him that questioning look again. “Didn’t they explain it to you when you turned thirteen? My parents told me all about it and that’s when I came here. I’ve been here alone for weeks now. I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Tim stared at Anna. “Waiting for me? How could you be waiting for me? You don’t even know me. I don’t even know where I am or exactly how I got here. I didn’t even plan to come here! It was just an accident!”

  Anna’s eyes narrowed. “Now I don’t understand. This should have all been explained to you, at least by your thirteenth birthday. I’ve always known. After the uprising, my parents thought it best to prepare me.”

  Tim shook his head. “My parents didn’t tell me anything. They-”

  “How could they be so irresponsible? Don’t they understand that if we’re to save our people- I don’t even know where to begin! How could they give you the key and then not explain anything? Don’t they realize how important this is? Don’t-”

  “STOP!” Tim yelled, angrily, “Just stop!”

  Anna took a step back. Tim kept yelling, “My parents were wonderful parents. They loved me and gave me whatever they could to make me happy! Don’t you dare talk about them. You didn’t even know them!”

  “If we fail, it will be their fault. I don’t have to know them to know that,” Anna said quietly.

  Tim started walking away from her. “I’m out of here. I’m not staying here- wherever here is- just so you can act like little Miss Know-it-all. I’m going home.”

  “Well obviously, I know more than you! You don’t even know you can’t go home when you already are home. If your parents-”

  Tim spun around. “I told you not to talk about my parents! You don’t know everything, so once again, just stop!”

  “But-”

  “My parents are dead!”

  Anna was silent. She stared at Tim. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I- I didn’t know.”

  “Obviously.”

  Tim started walking again. He was almost back to the first room. Anna was following him. “Wait,” she said, “You really can’t go back. Once you activated the key, you closed the door.”

  They had reac
hed the room. “Please, just sit down,” Anna said, pointing to the couch, “I’ll explain to you what I know. But first, welcome to Snillotia. That’s where we are now,” Anna started.

  She walked over to the window and pointed to the valley below. “This is our kingdom.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “When our people first began, Snillotia was ruled by a wonderful king and queen. King Mit was wise and kind. He loved his people and treated them as he would his own family. His wife, Queen Anna, was a beautiful woman. She was very caring and also thought of her people as though they were her family. The origin of our people has been lost in time, so many believe that the king and queen were more than just normal people. Some believed they were god-like and that they had created our world. Their family name was after all Snillot, which sounded a lot like Snillotia. The truth, however, will never be known. They later became known as the Firsts, and that is what I will call them from now on.

  “The Firsts had two children. They were called Prince Mit and Princess Anna. The Firsts loved their children equally; however, the Prince and the Princess did not get along. As the Firsts watched their children grow older, and farther and farther apart, they feared for their kingdom. They did not want their children’s dislike for each other to cause their kingdom to be split into two. When they knew their time was close to coming to an end, the Firsts gathered the Prince and the Princess together and told them (and possibly used a bit of magic- if they did indeed possess it) that they would rule Snillotia together, as Sibling Rulers. They gave them each a disk and told them it was their key to unity and that they should each pass it to their children and instruct them to do the same. Then they decreed that for the next 1000 years that is how the kingdom would be ruled. Prince Mit would take a wife and she would bear him a son. Princess Anna would take a husband and she would bear him a daughter. The Firsts foretold that for years to come the Sons of the Prince and the Daughters of the Princess would rule together, each pair for 50 years.

  “The 1000 years passed. It happened just as the Firsts foretold. After each Prince and Princess married and became King and Queen, for 1000 years, only sons were born to the Prince and only daughters were born to the Princess. King Mit XXI was your grandfather. He was the last prince to become king. His sibling ruler was my grandmother, Queen Anna XXI. After 1000 years, there really was no relation anymore, but the titled was still used.

  “Our grandparents were nearing the end of their 50-year reign. There was talk, of course, that the 1000 years was almost over. People were afraid of what would happen. The ruling families decided to proceed as generations before them had. Your parents had met and were married. My parents had met and were married. On the night before your father’s and my mother’s reign was to begin, our grandparents came to them, in secret, and passed on their portal keys, early. They had heard whispers of a rebel group that had decided they didn’t want to be ruled any longer and thought the end of the 1000 years was a sign that they would win in a fight to power. They were told to get their spouses and each go to their rooms and touch the center of the circle. The disks would allow them to pass into a world, quite like their own, just a little backwards. Our parents thought nothing of it. They knew that every Snillotian had some sort of special power, which awoke when the thirteenth year was reached. So, the idea of passing through to another world did not seem all that strange to them. They were told however, that once they passed through, they would not be able to return, not until their own children had reached their thirteenth year. The keys, you see, could only be used once by each Prince or Princess. Our parents used them to leave this world, and we have used them to return.

  “At first, there were ways to communicate between the worlds. Our parents knew the rebels had won. When the Firsts had foretold the reign of their children’s, children’s, children, and so on, for only 1000 years, they had been correct. The Rebels declared all people free of rulers and for a while, nothing really changed, because our ancestors were not cruel and all in the kingdom had lived well and prospered. Our parents knew when certain Rebels had decided that, although they did not what to be ruled by kings and queens any longer, they themselves liked to rule. Twenty years has passed since our parents left this world, however because time moves differently between the worlds, I don’t know when we’ve returned. The Rebel’s rule is not a kind rule, but an evil one. The Rebels have enslaved our people, forcing them to prosper only for them and have forbidden them from prospering for themselves.

  “My entire life, I have been told about this world. My parents have told me everything they know, to prepare me for coming back here, to prepare me to somehow save our people from the Rebels. Will you help me?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Tim stared at Anna for what seemed like a very long time. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak, but instead of telling her she sounded insane, he said, “Let me get this straight. We are supposed to rule this “kingdom”, but only after we somehow defeat the people who were able to defeat our grandparents and caused our parents to go into hiding?”

  As Anna nodded, Tim continued “And how are we supposed to do that? We’re just kids! It’s impossible! Even though for some strange reason, I believe you, I still think it’s crazy to think two thirteen-year-olds can somehow defeat the same people who basically murdered their grandparents! I’m going home!”

  With that, Tim turned to the wall he came through and started toward it. As he got closer to the corner that mirrored his own magical corner, Anna said, “Wait! I told you that you can’t go back! You can only go through the wall once!”

  Tim looked at her, then looked at the disc that was supposedly a key in his hand. “I’ve already gone through more than once and it was before I even had this.”

  He threw the key to her and disappeared through the wall. Anna gasped as she watched Tim disappear. The key landed at her feet. Ignoring it, she ran to the corner where she had last seen Tim. All she could feel was a solid wall. Apparently, she didn’t have the same ability as Tim. “This changes everything, Tim!” she yelled, “If you can hear me, you better come back. I never said our grandparents were dead! If you don’t come back, you won’t get to meet them!”

  Tim stopped in his tracks. He was halfway through the wall, back in his own secret room, when he heard Anna yell. At the same time, he heard the click of the secret door opening. Right then, crazy as it seemed, fighting the Rebels seemed like a better deal than letting Social Services find him. He quickly jumped back into his secret room, turned toward the corner where the portal was located. Before he could go through the wall again, he heard something that made him stop. “Tim! It’s just me!”

  Ollie’s head appeared first as he peeked into the secret room. Before Tim even had a chance to greet his friend, he realized he wasn’t alone. The man who had impersonated a mime the night before, stood behind Ollie. Tim immediately went on the offensive and lashed out at the only person he could. “I trusted you, Ollie! I can’t believe you sold me out!”

  “He said he just wants to talk to you!”

  Tim looked at the man. “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t trust you,” he said, backing into the corner of the room.

  The man cleared his throat. “I really only do want to talk. We have some things in common and I’d like to help you.”

  Tim narrowed his eyes at the man. It hit him at that moment that he looked like a boy in Tim’s class. He wondered briefly if they were related. They’d played together a few times when they’d been younger. For that reason, he might have been willing to listen to the man, had he not heard what Anna had yelled. He needed to get back to her and have her take him to the only family he had left. He looked at Ollie. “Goodbye,” was all he said and before anyone could stop him, he went through the wall again, back toward Snillotia.

  Anna was sitting on a couch, staring at the wall when he came through. “Okay,” he said, leaving out anything about Ollie and the man, “If my grandparents are alive, take me to them. I need to
see them with my own eyes to believe you.”

  Before she could say anything, he noticed she was wearing different clothes. “Wait, how’d you change so fast?”

  She shook her head. “I told you. Time is different. It’s been two days since you left.”

  Tim didn’t know what to say to that, as it had barely been ten minutes for him. “Oh,” was all he thought of, then he got back on track, “Take me to my grandparents.”

  “Well, it’s not that easy,” Anna started, “When our parents escaped into the backwards world, something happened to the castle. I think it was meant to protect it from the Rebels. No one can come in and no one can go out.”

  “So, your telling me we’re supposed to save this place, without ever going outside? And wait! The refrigerator was full of food! How did that get there if no one can go in or out?” Tim questioned.

  “Well, there is one woman. I think she was the cook here before the Uprising or something. She’s the only one the castle lets in or out. My first day here, I tried to talk to her, but it was like she couldn’t hear me. Every time she comes, I keep trying to talk to her. The last time she didn’t say anything still, but she left a note for me in the kitchen, next to the bread she brought.”

  “What did it say?”

  Anna pulled a worried piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him.

  “Child- You are not alone. Those who have come before you are still in this world and have much to teach you. When the powers have been revealed, you will be able to reach them. Don’t be afraid and remember to never leave his side. To find what you seek, things will not appear straight forward. Look for what’s common in every world,” Tim finished reading and looked at Anna.