THE TIME TRAVELLER’S JOURNAL

[CHAPTER 1] — THEY MEET

It was that night when the stars seemed to collide together, forming a miraculous night sky and a
girl named Akira was fascinated by it. She was a talented and inquisitive girl who liked to
explore. She was sitting on a hammock by a bonfire and next to it her family members were
dancing to the tune of a traditional Asian music in a community event.
Her dog soon came near, pulling her to join the bonfire. Her name was Lei. Akira and Lei
rushed towards the troupe and started enjoying.
‘Akira, you must behave well with this new member of our troupe.’ Said her mom.
‘Who is this ma?’ asked Akira
‘Ask her nicely and make sure to make her your friend.’
‘Okay.’
Akira went to her and introduced herself and Lei. She was Yuki. Akira promptly made Yuki her
friend. She also figured out that Yuki lived nearby, so they decided to meet up again. They
discussed about all the traditions and cultures that they liked and the myths they believed in.
They spoke about their hobbies, which helped them bond quickly.
‘Yuki, what do you really want to do in your life?’
‘I love to explore mysteries and solve it.’
‘I love to explore as well! And I have also heard about an old myth that there was a
journal about time traveling and I really want to find it.’
‘Well then, I can help you!’
It was late when the event concluded and Akira sadly had to bid goodbye to Yuki. They shared a
lot of memories in that little span of time. After Yuki left, Akira spent the entire night thinking
about the old myth and wanted to learn more about it. She was lying on her cute and small bed
inside her room and was looking at the night sky through the window. Eventually she closed her
eyes, unaware of the time when she dozed off.

[CHAPTER 2] — THE DOOR TO THE UNKNOWN

10 years later, Yuki and Akira were in the mission to find the old journal that they wanted to
discover when they first met. Yuki pulled out an old map from the shelf and learned that they
had to first cross a desert in the east to find the journal. That map was given by Yuki’s
grandmother. She knew a lot about old myths and was pleased to help them. They took their
leave from grandmother and navigated towards the desert on foot. Once they reached, they
realized that they needed a camel to ride on to cross the desert. Akira and Yuki searched
everywhere for a camel but in vain, so they decided to keep walking.
The hot sun was burning and they had a lot of bags with them to carry as well which contained
many supplies for this mission. So they were feeling hotter than usual. Suddenly, they saw a
colorful flower in the middle of the desert! It was strange as no flower would grow in this harsh
climate and so they decided to investigate.
As they got closer, they found a strange little shiny button-like structure. They pressed the button
and a big explosion occurred in front of their eyes!
They saw a big cave through the smoke. There were rays of light coming in through small holes
from the surface of the cave. As they walked inside the cave, they found a big galaxy like sky! The
stars seemed to welcome them and their glitters splashed on the sky. They found different types
of colorful flowers that they saw in the desert. It was a splendid view!
‘Where are we, Akira?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Wait a minute! We came to this place by touching a flower, right?’
‘That means that this maybe our way to the journal!’’ exclaimed Akira in excitement.
They continued to follow the rays of light. Suddenly, out of nowhere they saw a small hut at a
corner. They went in and started to search for any type of journal or book. The hut was filled
with many dusty utensils and furniture. They pulled everything down and finally spotted a book.
‘Akira! I found a book! This must be the journal.’
‘Calm down Yuki. Work carefully and do not mess with any unusual substance.’
‘Oh, come on! This is not unusual. I bet it’s the journal.’
‘Let’s see ‘.
They opened the journal and found many writings on it. There were a lot of information about
the mythological place and some sort of riddle was written.

‘I ventured forth through time’s great gate, To an age of dragons, fire, and fate. I walked
among heroes, legends born, But I knew I had to return before the dawn. For if I tarried,
time’s threads would break, and my own era’s future would ache. I had to flee the
dragon’s burning might, and return to my own time before eighteen nights. To come to
thee’s era, I had to find the bird who rises from fire and follow th-

Akira and Yuki understood that the riddle was incomplete and the page was torn. With
excitement they turned the time traveling wheel present in the hut as described in the journal.

[CHAPTER 3] — DRAGON’S BURNING MIGHT

Akira opened her eyes and found Yuki lying down, unconscious. Worried, she tried to wake her
up. She searched everywhere for water to sprinkle on Yuki. As she did so, Yuki woke up in
surprise and tried to remember everything that happened before she time travelled.
‘I literally have no idea where we are.’ Gasped Akira
‘Same.’
‘Should we go in and find out?’
‘This place might have dragons Akira because it was mentioned in the riddle so I would
prefer not to go in.’
‘But if we don’t go in then we will never find out more about the place.’
‘Oh please! It is quite better than getting burnt by a dragon.’ Exclaimed Yuki
They continued to argue on this. It was a hard decision to make as they had to decide if they
wanted to risk their lives for this adventure. It was then, when a big rock containing a lot of dust
came down hard pushing them inside the cave. Suddenly the rock stopped and they could see the
deep valley downwards. There were dragons in there.
‘See Akira! There are dragons down there! I told you!’
‘But maybe they are kk-in-d?’  Akira said while feeling a little uneasy.
‘Of course they are not! They are dragons!’
‘Well instead of shouting at me, maybe you can use your so-called Einstein mind to find a
way to escape.’
‘Umm. try to hold on to the rocks at the edges. That might help ‘
Just then, a huge tornado-like air mixture rushed to them and the rock fell taking them with it.
The girls got hit in the head. They were lucky as the dragons did not notice them. Just when they
felt relieved about it, one mighty dragon instantly spotted them. It was purple with galaxy print
on her body. Her hair was dark violet and her eyes seemed like one of the brightest stars in the
whole galaxy. The two girls were amazed by her beauty and they were too fascinated to realize
that the dragon may be dangerous. But on the other hand, they saw tears in the dragon’s eyes
and they could see the pain in her face. The dragon seemed trapped by a few devil dragons who
are sent from hell to attack the kingdom of dragons. They tied the mighty dragon up with thorny
chains that was hurting the dragon. Akira and Yuki felt so sorry that they called out to her in a
soft voice. They named her Qui. Slowly and steadily, they approached Qui after the devils left.

They started trying to break the chain. Qui was crying in pain. After many tries, the chain finally
broke into pieces and Qui was free. Blood flowed from her body as the spikes are pulled out but
Qui could heal the wounds herself with her magical powers.

[CHAPTER 4] — THE LONG RUN

They felt a sense of accomplishment after releasing Qui to her family. Akira and Yuki tried to
find a shelter that was comfortable and safe as they already befriended one dragon.
‘Where can we find a place to stay?’ Akira asked anxiously.
‘Ummm…maybe another cave?
‘But there are dragons in those’
‘We should try to find one which does not have one!’
Suddenly they saw a ring of fire surrounding a cave. They were over the moon but they had to
be sure whether there were dragons inside. The cave looked scary with many burnt spots on the
surface. That was a sign of dragons killing other organisms. They got alert by the sounds of flame
and smell of ashes. Their suspicion became stronger but they finally decided to go in as it was the
only way to the truth.
‘I hope there are no angry dragons, ‘said Akira.
‘Me too.’
‘But if there are, then what?’
‘There must be a solution. We can find out later.’
‘But what if there is no escape route?’
‘We need to face it. Hopefully we can impress the dragons by some means.’
Taking a risk they stepped inside but in a blink of an eye, Qui came out with a mighty roar,
ready to burn these two! They never expected the dragon they saved would show up like this. At
that moment, there was nothing to do but run. They both hurried their way out of the cave and
started running for life.
‘Yuki! We cannot keep running for long. There are stones everywhere and Qui is quite fast.’
‘I did not expect this to happen. Anyways keep running till we find a solution.’
This was their bad luck. While they ran, they spotted more dragons coming their way. They were
two little humans chased by these mighty dragons. They realized that these dragons will keep
chasing them unless they get out of this time-period. For then, all they could do is find a shelter
and have time to think properly about the way to escape.

[CHAPTER 5] — TIME’S THREAD

They found a small dense forest nearby and decided to hide until they find an escape route. They
were deep in thought as they reminisced the need to get out before eighteen nights as per the
riddle in the journal. Sixteen nights gone; they were left with two to return from the time-travel.
‘Akira, try to remember the last line of the riddle. It said something about the way out.’
‘I think it said to follow the bird that rises from ashes. It was incomplete.’
‘Which bird rises from ashes?’
They were thinking for the entire day.
‘Akira! I got it! A phoenix can only rise from its ashes and can be trust for directions.’
‘Yuki, you are a genius!’
After decoding the riddle, they quickly went out to search for the right phoenix. It was tough as
this age was filled with phoenixes. Finally, they spotted a phoenix but they were unsure if it was
the correct one.
‘We don’t know if this is the right one, Yuki.’
‘She’s our only hope, we have half day left and we don’t have choices.’
‘Then, let’s follow this one.’
They started following the flying phoenix in the sky. It was a wonderful view. The sun was setting
down the horizon and the phoenix was flying high reflecting all the sun’s rays and showing its
power and beauty. They crossed forests, deserts, hills, meadows, valleys but they kept on
following that phoenix hoping that it would lead them to their world. The phoenix tried to
confuse them by changing its route. However, both of them wanted to go home so badly that
they ran, walked, sometimes swam through small streams but did not let the phoenix go off sight.
They walked for hours and then suddenly fell into a hole. They kept on falling but then, they hit
a small rock and fainted right there.
When they woke up, they found themselves in their own world. They were lying down in a
beautiful green meadow beside their farm. They were overjoyed to return to their own world but
indeed enjoyed the entire eighteen nights when they were in that magical world destroyed 10,000
years ago.

THE END