The Narrative Nexus 1: The Rainbow Gemstone

I could see something shining in the distance. When I got closer I realised that it was a shining gemstone. A spectrum of colour shone on my face as I picked up the light and luminous object. It was rainbow and made of many minerals and metals such as ruby, emerald, diamond, gold, silver and iron.

A second later a blinding light shot out of the stone. Sweat dripped from my face. The wind howled like a determined wolf and a cool breeze brushed past me. I drifted through towering trees that seemed to be teasing me as I tried to push against them. The jewel in my hand was saturated from my cool sweat.

Finally, after a minute that felt like a millennium, I came to a sudden halt which caused me to sprain my ankle and to add insult to injury, sand had blown into one of my eyes. I gazed around at the surroundings with my good eye. It wasn’t a gloomy forest anymore; it was a dusty desert. The sun illuminated the sandy landscape, and the sky was a clear blue. There were also a dozen cacti scattered around the place.

Suddenly, I realised something, the crystal was gone. I limped through the deep sand, looking for it and stumbled across a piece of parchment that was folded. I unfolded the paper and saw that it had writing. It said:

“Go east as much as you can,

Until you stumble across a camel.

Get onto it if you can,

But if you can’t, you will become its chocolate waffle.”

I walked towards the direction the sun rises and kept going until I got to a lonely camel that was lying on the ground. I patted him on his large hump, and it slowly got up. When it finally got to its feet, I climbed onto it and suddenly it started sprinting.

I kept propelling the camel forward to the point where I unexpectedly fell off. I was right next to a deep ditch with a ladder that went straight down. I decided to check what was down there.

The hole was endless and seemed to be extending to the epicentre of the world and with a sprained ankle, it was horrible to continuously walk. Finally, I got to the end and the place I ended up was at an ice-cold room dimly lit by candles. The metal floor clanked as I walked across it. On the walls of the place there were shelves full of rare and beautiful objects. While I was admiring the artefacts a deep voice echoed throughout the room.

“Hello young boy.” It boomed.

“You came to my secret lair and I brought you here so that you would know where the gemstone you found is.” I finally spotted him in the far-left corner of the room, placing the stone on the most conspicuous spot of the shelf.

“I am the only way you can get back home is to get this crystal back and use it to get home. I wanted to give you a chance to get it back by sending you a note. But first you need to get past me.” He thundered.

“I will get it.” The camel I rode earlier stormed through the hall and knocked him as well as a pot of the world’s first ever chocolate syrup and gobbled them down together. “I never knew camels sprint and eat humans.” I laughed to myself.

While the camel was busy feasting, I got the gemstone and teleported first to the forest, then to my actual house.