Land of the Phoenix Part 10 The End

At the Phoenix’s touch, she jolted awake in her own bed. Gasping, she looked around her room, confused. Had she been asleep the whole time? That can’t be possible, she went through the attic door to the Phoenix’s land and had been gone for days! She threw her blanket off and ran to her little sister’s room

“Michelle, Michelle! Wake up!” she whispered as she shook her awake. Marie groaned, “Mmmm, go away, it’s Saturday…”

“Michelle!” Anne cried in disbelief, forgetting to check her voice, “I’ve been gone for days! Haven’t you been wondering where I’ve been?”

“What are you talking about?” Marie yawned.
Anne stopped, had it all been a dream? It can’t have been… She ran back to her room, the sun was just barely tipping its hat to the world as she searched her desk. There it was; her little black book. She flipped through the pages until she found the picture of the puppy she had drawn just before she went up to the attic.

She held her breath and turned the page. There it was; the red flowers, the blue flowers, the little bugs and half of a bird. She ran back to her Michelle’s room and shook the notebook in front of her face.

“See, here’s the proof! I was gone!”

Michelle rubbed her eyes and looked at the drawings. “This doesn’t prove anything, you could have drawn these anywhere”

“But it’s true, listen…” Anne excitedly reminisced her adventure to her sister. Later that day, as soon as Michelle started to gather interest, they went up to the attic to find no hook or key (which Michelle had seen before) and no keyhole behind the panel.

A while after that, Anne told her story to her friend Rosevita who did not believe her at all but did share in her excitement. As they walked along a pier over the nearby lake, Rosevita said, “Too bad this ‘lion-man’ doesn’t exist cause maybe you’d finally get a boyfriend. Imagine you, 18 and still never had a boyfriend!”
“Oh stop, Rosie!” Anne replied irritably, Rosevita made a habit out of reminding her about that. “But still,” she continued, “I can’t stop thinking about him…”

“Thinking about who?” came a deep voice from next to them. Anne and Rosevita, surprised, turned to see a young man holding a fishing pole and tackle-box; a man with a handsome face, wavy strawberry-blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

Anne was stunned at how much he looked like the lion-man. Rosevita squealed as she ran up and hugged him, “Yay, you’re here! Anne, this is my cousin, Toby!”

“Oh, we’ve met already.” Toby said as he smiled teasingly and winked.

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