“Why is this boy so thpethial?” asked the lisping girl.
“Because he might be able to save the Fairyworld,” Charmwill said.
“From whom?” they asked.
“From her, I prefer not to say her name,” Charmwill puffed his pipe then coughed. He’d never been fond of talking about her, and it always got colder when her name came up. Even though he hadn’t revealed her name, the children felt a sudden chill fill the air. A crow cawed somewhere while the trees rustled around them. The Children took a step away from Charmwill as if they’d sensed her vicious presence on his breath.
“Is she a witch?” asked the girl with the missing tooth. She was the bravest girl in the pack, standing in the front line, spreading her protective arms on both sides.
“I’m afraid if I talk more about her, you’d have nightmares,” Charmwill said. “She has her way with dreams, feeding on the nightmares of the young sometimes.”
“Then will you tell us about The Boy Who is a Shadow before you go?” asked the lisping girl, “Pleath?”
“I can’t, because the boy’s story hasn’t been written yet,” Charmwill patted the child as she took a step back toward him. “The Boy Who is a Shadow is the only one who can write his story, depending on the choices he will make and the destiny he will choose.”
“Choices?” the missing-tooth girl wondered.
“Destiny?” another boy scratched his head.
The children questioned each other to see if anyone knew about what ‘choices’ or ‘destiny’ meant. They were new words to them. In the town of Hamlin where they lived, they weren’t allowed to ask their parents too many questions or oppose their way of thinking.
“Is this boy going to be famous? A hero, maybe?” a girl asked.
“Hmm…” Charmwill fiddled with his beard then coughed. Smoking Dragonbreath wasn’t easy. “It’s prophesized that the boy should be a hero, but it’s up to him to choose. Prophecies don’t come true unless we make them.”
Before Charmwill left, he gave the children enchanted candy that would turn their dreams into fairy tales until he visited again. He also gave each one a Book of Sand, which was a small book that carried a single fairy tale. Once a child read a page, it dissolved into sand. Once they finished it the covers of the book turned to dust.
With Pickwick on his shoulder, Charmwill walked to the river Weser, climbed inside his small canoe—which sometimes transformed into a swan—and rowed toward the North Sea.
Charmwill watched Pickwick flutter freely in the skies above. It reminded him why he had created the book enchantment for the parrot long ago. If anything bad ever happened to Charmwill, Pickwick was the world’s savior of true fairy tales; he’d be fluttering high in the sky, and as long as the tales were kept from being altered, they’d eventually find the children somehow so they could read them and retell them. Pickwick didn’t realize that he carried the most treasured scripture known to mankind.
While rowing in the North Sea, a thick fog floated upon the water in the distance. Charmwill stopped smoking and tapped his pipe twice, then watched it turn into a magic willow pipe, which produced a sound like chirping birds that only Pickwick could hear. The parrot responded to the call and landed back on Charmwill’s shoulder, sharing his stare at the fog that was spreading an eerie feeling over the sea like a dense layer of wavy ghosts. Pickwick looked worried.
“It’s alright. Don’t fear the fog, Pickwick,” Charmwill tapped Pickwick’s toenails gently then continued rowing into the fog. “I know this place. It’s safe. It’s only another dimension, not known to the people in the Ordinary World.”
A big tide struck but Charmwill managed to ride it easily with his magical canoe. When it passed, Pickwick saw a black fish with two golden bottle caps for eyes, floating on the water. It had a signpost on its back which read:
Welcome to the Missing Mile
East of the Sun, West of the Moon
Charmwill pulled out his compass, which didn’t point to directions known in the Ordinary World. It pointed to the unseen realm of fairy tales, which was hidden from humans. Charmwill liked to call it the Fairyworld.
Finally, the fog subsided and only then could they make out that the blue sea was filled with enormous dragons that people rode instead of ships. Others rowed in smaller swans and used them like Charmwill used his canoe—which had turned into a swan once they’d crossed.
There were also floating houses in the Missing Mile; they were small whales. When the residents entered the whale through its mouth, its jaws closed behind them. All whales sank deep into the water for privacy at night. Pickwick smiled when he heard the password for opening a whale’s mouth was knocking on it five times: tic-to-tic-to-toc.