Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists

With the ability to summon any mammal, I was safe. So, my adventure started in the Mystic Woods. That was a warm, breezy day when the soil opened in a fold and I fell in. When I landed on some concrete, the unnatural purple color told me straightaway where I was—Professor Haunter’s course. He traps his victims and puts them, well, basically in a death course. Anyway, the room’s only light in this room was a ghostly mauve. Do I have to get through this room? I summoned my long-eared jerboa, a nocturnal mammal with excellent navigation skills. It would be able to sense the way to the next part. As it hopped, I followed the hollow sound as it hopped toward the exit. After a few crashes, I was at the next course. A large lake with piranhas (an amount that can only be described as a lot) stood before me. They took no notice for now, but they would smell me if I went in the water. I thought for a while and swapped my long-eared jerboa for my jaguar, a mammal that frequently swam in rivers (in the Amazon), and was used to swimming with those fish. I hopped on my jaguar and it went in reluctantly, with me trying not to touch the water. It had been quite a while since my jaguar had been utilized, so in the middle, my jaguar stopped for a break. (Well, it is a big lake, so I don’t blame it.) To my surprise, it ate a piranha while resting. Then my jaguar kept swimming, closer and closer to the edge, and finally reached it. I was at the next part. I took one look at it and knew that it was even more treacherous and I wondered how I was going to get there… Er… I’m on a ledge fifteen centimeters from the surface of a deep salty sea. If you’re alone now, you’re dead. So I swapped my jaguar for my dusky dolphin, a small water-dwelling mammal. I choose small over powerful, it was three feet wide and… er… very long. Oh well, never mind that! The dusky has little activity. So I told it to go full speed ahead. It bolted off with me clinging on its dorsal fin. Soon, a dark blue-purple glow came from below. My dolphin knew that a lot of box jellyfish were coming. It sped ahead like a torpedo knowingly. Finally, after what seemed like a million years, I had successfully made it to the next course. This was the final part since I could see the light of the exit. Just then, Professor Haunter came into sight in his purple-black starship. He chuckles, “Oh, you? You’ll never get out THIS time.” “Really?” I shouted reluctantly, retrieving my dusky dolphin (he couldn’t see my dusky dolphin or my hand with my summoning tool as it was at the wrong angle). But he was already gone. In his place are sixteen angry, hissing king cobras. To fend them off, my banded mongoose had to take action. Banded mongoose regularly eat snakes, so my banded mongoose chased the sixteen, slick, sneaky snakes with ease and fought them, catching them with its little paws, then ripping its flesh with its teeth. I tried to help, but I didn’t catch any. After quite a long time, all the king cobras were dead, and I was through to the exit. Once I was back in the Mystic Woods, I retrieved my banded mongoose and went home. If Professor Haunter won’t learn, he’ll never get me. With the help of over five thousand mammals, nothing can stop me from going on in my distinct adventure.