Wendy Messes With Time 1

Wendy Messes with time

Written by Jake Swartwout

Chapter 1

The Gurgling Fountain

Wendy was heading out on her usual hike around the mountains. She tried to stay active, and this was her favorite way to do it.

She was dressed in her favorite hiking shoes and her favorite pink bow. Her light blue eyes were full of adventure and she could feel that today was special.

Wendy jumped from rock to rock, slowly moving up the mountain trail. She jumped again, this time aiming to reach the top of the Big R, a silly nickname she made up for a huge rock she found. She missed and was slammed against the side of the rock.

Wendy fell to the ground, bruised but okay. She crawled out, looking for the trail.

As she walked, Wendy tried to blink the fuzziness out of her eyes, to find where she was. Had she strayed that far from the trail?

She walked and didn’t recognize anything around her. A new rock, an unknown tree, a undiscovered bush.

Wendy stopped pushing her bruised body along and took a drink from a stream. New energy flowed through her, healing her wounds and clearing her sight.

Something must be in this water. Wendy searched around for some explanation to the strange healing. Was it real? Is there magic at work? Or is there just wild mushrooms in the water making her hallucinate? Maybe she somehow dead and dreaming.

Wendy decided to go and find the source of this brook. That would have the answer. She got up, full of new energy and set off to satisfy her craving for knowledge.

The river wound about, again and again. It passed by giant trees and leafy bushes, all seeming to do better than they should be. Maybe this stream was magic. The plants certainly crowded around it.

The trickle of the stream slowly grew louder, and finally Wendy reached the source.

Sitting in the middle of the forest, was a fountain. A 3 tiered fountain made of shining white quartz, speckled with silver and gold. The water was spilling majestically out the top, down the fountain, and away into the forest.

Wendy was shocked, but was able to recover enough to inspect the fountain. Like most fountains she knew of, this one was spewing water out of the top, and it was falling down into several quartz bowls. But, instead of draining out of the biggest one, it was instead flowing out and over the rim, soon to be lost in the forest.

Since the water coming out of the top obviously wasn't coming from the base, Wendy assumed that it was coming from the ground, maybe a natural spring some random stranger decided to spruce up and leave to rot.

Wendy wondered why the stranger left the fountain, unless they didn't realize its healing abilities. Luckily, Wendy did. She grabbed her water pouch, flooded a nearby bush, and filled the pouch to the brim with the new water. She screwed the cap securely on, then set off back home, missing the sounds of the shriveling bush.

And so, after close to an hour of wandering and searching, Wendy finally found somewhere she recognized and was able to return home.