Kayla Sims

TALA’S ADVENTURE

Once upon a long time ago, there was a small ordinary village that lay in a green countryside. All of its citizens were average, happy people, willing to help one another. Except for one family—this family had been cursed by a witch when an ancestor had accidentally gone into her garden. Every other generation, the firstborn was cursed. This child would always have to speak whatever came into their minds. This had gone on for centuries. The family had looked for a cure with no success, so it was with a heavy heart that they waited for the next firstborn.

It was a girl and they called her Tala, which meant talk in their language. Everyone loved her in the beginning, she was a happy baby that liked to laugh all the time. It was her way of talking. The curse wasn’t really obvious until after she turned four. That was when her younger brother was born. Tala couldn’t help it, she was jealous of her brother, and all of the attention that had once been hers was now given to her brother. She started saying thing such as “I don’t like him” or “I want him to go away.” Her mother, who adored Tala’s little brother began to ignore her, making little Tala even more unhappy.

She would go up to her mother and try to sit on her lap, only to be set down, because her brother was already there. The little comments Tala made just got worse and worse. When she turned six, Tala’s mother didn’t know what to do anymore, and sent her to live with her great aunt. This great aunt also had the same curse as Tala, and for a while Tala was happy living there for several years, then she started to become unhappy. No one in the village would talk to her, or play with her, because Tala couldn’t help but say what came to mind, and sometimes it didn’t make sense, or it was unintentionally mean.

            She started to read books, it meant that she didn’t have to talk to others, and she could avoid saying the first thing that came to mind. Instead she got to be transported into another world. It helped, and she could drift off into another world, one where she didn’t have to say everything she thought.

            One day though she went into the forest to read, and got lost in a book. When she headed on her way home, she got lost in thought and then lost her way in the woods. She didn’t get scared though, she knew the woods very well, and thought she knew the way out. But when she made her way out, she didn’t see the village, she saw a cave. She was a very curious child so she went in, and stopped. There was a huge dragon! It was sleeping though, so she quietly began to tiptoe to the opening of the cave. She was too late though. The cave entrance was suddenly gone and she felt the dragon moving behind her. She squeezed her eyes shut and said “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I didn’t brush my teeth this morning!”

The dragon let out a laugh, and Tala’s eyes opened in surprise. “You laughed, you’re supposed to kill me! You’re not that scary.” Then when the dragon leaned closer to her she stepped back, “I lied! I lied! You’re scary.”

The dragon tilted his head back and said “Not very many people have found this place in recent years, and its powers have gone unused.”

“What powers? Oh, I’m sorry, you weren’t done! I can’t help it, I say everything I think I can’t help it. Oh don’t do it, don’t do it, you look like a booger” She sighed. “This happens all the time, I’m sorry.”

The dragon looked at her curiously and said, “Well, then, I should probably keep this short. There are six doors, if you make it through the right door, one of your wishes will get granted.” It was now when Tala looked around that she saw the doors. The walls were carved so that the doors could be placed in the stone. They all looked different. Some were very unusual ones that she had not seen the like of before.  

She quietly went around and studied the doors. Some of them looked like they were in bad shape, and others looked pretty good.

            She went around, and finally, she picked the second door, the grey double doors with panels in it. “I hope that this is the right one.” Then she opened it. There was nothing inside. “What does this mean? Does it mean I picked the wrong door?” She said.

            In response there was a voice that seemed to be coming from the very walls itself. “No, you chose the right one, but you should have talked to that dragon more and found out more about the doors.”

“Oh! I didn’t think of that, I really should have, does this mean that I have to do something to earn the wish, or are there limits, or should I… I’m rambling. I’m sorry, I’ll stop.” She looked down at her feet then back up, and looked around to see if she could find out where the voice was coming from.

            “There is one thing you need to do, which is to count money, and you have until sundown to do so. Do you understand?” And as the voice spoke, the middle of the floor got piled high with gold coins as tall as she was. Her eyes widened at the sight. Her village could use it, it had been a bad spring, and they didn’t have as much food as they needed for the rest of the year. With this, they could buy what they didn’t have. She sighed and shook her head. It wasn’t her money, and she had no right to it. She remembered that each one of the gold coins were a dollar. She figured that the best way to do this would be to stack them in tens, and so she got started.

            A few hours later she was still busily piling them into stacks of ten, when the voice stopped her. “Your time is up.”

            “I didn’t even get to finish, I’m only half way done! I didn’t even start to count, I was still stacking them! This mean I don’t get my wish!”

            The voice laughed, “You will get your wish. This was simply a test, we wanted to see if you would take some of the money you were counting, and you did not. What is your wish?”

            She already knew, she had been thinking about it when she had been stacking the money. “My village is short on food and therefore supplies because they don’t have enough to trade. I would like to make it so that we never have less than we need.”

            The voice after a long pause said, “Your wish has been fulfilled. It was not the wish that I had expected.”

            Tala was confused, “Why not? The village needs it.”

            The voice said, “You are much more considerate than I would expect of a child. Instead of ending the curse, you decided to help your village. For that kind generosity, I will end the curse as a boon. For anyone that is this kind should have a reward.”

            Tala screamed with joy. She had not expected the curse to be ended. When she blinked, she was outside of the cave again, in a place in the woods where she knew how to make her way home. She wasn’t surprised not really, the cave had to be magic. She whispered, “Thank you.” When she turned around she thought she almost heard the dragon laughing. She ran all the way home, eager to see if the curse really had been lifted.

When she ran into the house, her aunt asked “Would you like some dinner, it’s chicken, rice and cabbage” Once her answer would have automatically been, I hate cabbage. Now she said, “Sure, I would like dinner, but do I have to have the cabbage?” Then over dinner, she explained how the curse had been broken, and she now didn’t say everything that came to mind. Her aunt was very happy, because when the curse had broken, the curse on the entire family had broken and she could say now only what she wanted to, as well. They went to Tala’s house, and told the news, and after that, the village never had problems with the harvest again, and Tala’s family never worried about the curse again.