Read Pan's Realm for Free Online

hoping to get my watch back,” Watch said.
    Adam stood and brushed off his pants. “We’re used to helping strange creatures. We run into them all the time.”
    Sally also stood. “Yeah, as long as the creature isn’t trying to kill us, we help him.”

7
    P an led them to an incredibly huge pine tree that stood by itself in a meadow in the woods. The pine was surrounded by grass but nothing else, not a bush, not another small tree. The circular meadow was two hundred feet across. It almost looked as if it were regularly attended to. The lawn was manicured. Maybe the leprechauns mowed it every week—that was Sally’s opinion, even though Pan did not confirm it. The king of the elementals gestured to the area as they walked up to the tree.
    â€œAre you familiar with interdimensional portals?” he asked.
    â€œOh yeah,” Adam said. “There’s one in our town ­cemetery. We’ve been to a couple of different dimensions.”
    â€œNeither of which was very pleasant,” Sally added.
    â€œThis portal opens only into the realm of the elementals,” Pan explained. “It’s a beautiful place, or at least it was when I was king. But now that Klandor is in charge I have no idea how things have changed. Anyway, we enter my old kingdom by starting at the edge of the circular meadow and walking backward around the tree seven times. With each revolution, we move a few feet closer to the tree. The last circle will be the shortest. Do you understand?”
    Sally waved her hand. “Piece of cake.” She turned to Cindy. “I suppose you’ll have some excuse to stay behind. A sudden attack of the flu perhaps? Or else a nose bleed coming on?”
    Cindy scowled. “I feel fine, thank you, and I’m looking forward to seeing this other dimension. But if you want to stay behind and keep looking for your baby blanket, I won’t judge you.”
    â€œDo leprechauns ever fight like this?” Watch asked Pan.
    â€œOnly when their treasures are stolen,” Pan replied.
    Together, with Pan leading, they began to walk backward around the tree. Despite having four legs, which he had to use in reverse, Pan was a smooth mover. But Adam found it hard to keep his legs moving backward. Seven revolutions around the tree were a lot. Bythe time they neared the tree, he was feeling tired and sore. He wasn’t even sure which was the seventh turn. For that reason the switch into the other dimension caught him completely by surprise.
    They were in the meadow and then they were in deep space.
    There were burning stars, shimmering nebulas, spinning planets. All these seemed to be turning on some giant invisible axis. In black outline he could see his friends and Pan nearby. It was almost as if they stood, for a moment, at the center of the universe. Then there was a flash of white light and Adam found himself falling.
    But he didn’t fall far and landed on a soft carpet of grass in a new dimension lit by a soft blue light. As Adam rolled he realized that Pan’s realm did not mirror the forest outside Spooksville as the other dimensions he had entered had mirrored Spooksville.
    Pan’s kingdom was much grander. They were still in a meadow, true, but the surrounding trees were ten times taller than ordinary trees. Not far away were thundering waterfalls and mountain peaks that seemed to reach the sky. Even the flowers in the bushes were more spectacular, large and radiant with colors squeezed from rainbows. Yet over all a soft blue glow shone. The light seemed to come out of the matter itself, from the bladesof grass, even from the dirt. Pan smiled as he looked around, perhaps it was good to be home. He gestured with a wide sweep of his arm.
    â€œAll this was mine,” he said.
    â€œThose were expensive coin tosses,” Sally said, obviously impressed by the splendor of the dimension. She pointed to a distant mountain peak that rose straight