Lost and Found

Chapter 3 - Fire

Nya ran down the stairs and into her living room, turning her head in every direction, so excited to tell her dad of the hidden attic and the illusion telescope. Anything to take her mind off the past few months. 

But looking around the living room, Nya stopped. The couch wasn't there before, was it? And that china cabinet had never existed, she knew that for a fact. All their old family pictures were gone. Nya swivelled around, shocked. Her dad couldn't change all this since she'd last been in there this morning. 

And Nya's dad would never, ever, pack away the family photos. It would like be admitting that her mum might be, might be... No, don't think about that. Don't think about that. She'll be back. She was sure.

Meanwhile, Nya raced out of the room into the hallway. She now recognised differences she hadn't before. There was an old fashioned hat stand next to the front door. The wallpaper was a slightly lighter shade of blue with a faint floral pattern. Dust covered everything, like the house hadn't been lived in in years.

Nya was starting to feel a little scared. Something was wrong. Really wrong. And she had a creeping sensation that this place, so like her old house yet so different, was starting to remind her of the attic. 

Suddenly, she remembered seeing her dad outside through the window of the attic, hanging out the washing. Nya walked down the hallway slowly, careful not to disturb anything in this creepy place. 

The last difference Nya noticed was the door handle. As she put her hand on it to turn it, she felt the unevenly carved wood against her palm. Nya glanced down and saw that the handle was carved into the shape of a bear's head, its mouth open in a silent roar.

Nya silently prayed for her dad to be outside, that when she opened the door, everything, inside and out, would be normal again. 

She turned the handle and stared out into a lush green forest so alive she could hear it buzzing. It was the world of the telescope. Under normal circumstances, Nya would be jumping up and down yelling, "MAGIC IS REAL! WOO HOO!". 

Which was precisely the circumstances today. 

"YES! WOOOO HOOOOO! I'M A WITCH! I'M A DEMIGOD! I'M A NINJAGO NINJA! MAGIC IS REAL!!!!!!!!!!"

Nya ran down the porch steps and spun around breathing in the forest air and feeling very, very alive. When she spun around to face the house it looked nothing like before. Gone was the light blue paint, the chocolate coloured awnings. In their place was stacks of wood, giving it the look of a classic log cabin in the woods. Like something that came right out of a book.

Suddenly Nya noticed that the door was boarded up, as were all the windows. She stared in alarm at the house before running up and feeling the boards. They were nailed on tight. But she had just come out of that door less than a minute ago. There was no way back in now.

Nya was struck with the reality of the situation. Sure, she was in a magic forest just having come out of a magic house with a magic attic, but she had nothing. No food, no water, no clothes, no possessions at all if she was to survive in a forest alone. 

Except one. She felt in the pocket of her jeans pocket in relief. Her lucky stick was still there. Nya took it everywhere with her, ever since her mum had left, or 'gone missing' as she liked to believe. It was the only thing of her's she had, found in the deepest pocket of her favourite coat when she was searching for clues of her mum's disappearance.

Nya sighed. What had she done? Now her dad will have lost three family members. He'll never get through it alone. Looking at those boards she has remembered something important that the fictional worlds she read about had told her. Magic isn't always good.