It was a beautiful, sunny morning as Mrs Adam and her two lovely little girls, Tina and Mina, moved to their new farm house in the country side. The very next day, Tina and Mina walked a mile to attend school and studied wholeheartedly throughout the day.

Tina and Mina worked very hard and, as a result, they got outstanding grades and it was only natural that their mother was pleased with them. As a reward, she planned a picnic and told them that they could go to the woods nearby. The girls were overjoyed and trotted off to the woods, singing their favourite songs on the way.

When the girls reached the woods, they were famished and gobbled every bit of the meal that their mother had packed.

“Oh, how I long for some adventure” remarked Tina. “Do you think adventure only happens in story books or could we also experience something special?” she questioned, Mina.

“Well, we’ll soon find out what life has in store for us,” replied Mina wisely.

As the girls got up for a casual walk in the hope of finding something interesting, they started to hear faint voices.

“Do you hear what I hear?” asked Tina.

“Yeah, I do, there seems to be some more visitors in the woods today. Maybe we can make some new friends,” said Mina who was always looking for friendship opportunities.

The girls set off to look for the evil monster. They climbed hills, crossed ponds and kept searching all afternoon, but with no result. Tired, hungry and very thirsty, the two girls went back to break their news to the chief elf, not knowing how he would react.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, an elf appeared before them. “Right mates, I heard your call for friendship. Let’s begin our friendship journey here,” said the elf cheerfully. “I invite you to accompany me to the magical land of elves in the fantastic elevator. The land of elves will surprise you and delight you for sure.”

This was definitely not the kind of friendship that Mina had in mind, but she was too shocked and too polite to contradict the magical creature before her.

Tina and Mina followed the elf into an elevator made of pure light. As the light rose, so did the people within. Tina and Mina were dazzled as they passed many layers of clouds.

The first cloud had library written on it with books of all shapes, sizes and colours hanging from trees. Children were busy devouring the books as if eating delicious, juicy apples.

The next cloud was the kitchen cloud with a master chef cooking in the middle and he was surrounded by busy assistants. The strangely delicious smells that emanated from this cloud could be smelt till many clouds above.

After crossing seven layers of clouds, the dazed girls came to a plain black cloud that contained the chief elf’s room. This cloud, also the home of the chief, was completely sober and had no ornaments or décor.

The young elf introduced them to the chief and left, closing the door gently behind him.

The chief elf began “I will give you a test. If you pass you may stay in our land. And if you fail, you will be forced to return to your own land.”

With that he handed them each a form that had four basic questions and a task as given below:

‘What is your name?’

‘How old are you?’

‘Where have you come from?’

‘Why have you come here?’

Task: Find the evil monster and strike a sword in his heart.

After patiently waiting for Tina and Mina to finish reading the test, the chief elf spoke in his deep, peaceful voice, “You must promise me that you will do this and come back to me,” he said.

So both the girls promised and set off with mixed feelings of fear and determination.

The girls set off to look for the evil monster. They climbed hills, crossed ponds and kept searching all afternoon, but with no result. Tired, hungry and very thirsty, the two girls went back to break their news to the chief elf, not knowing how he would react.

When at last they reached the room of the chief elf and broke the news to him, he laughed loudly.

Then he spoke clearly, “My dear I must congratulate you on being the first ones to pass the test. I must explain that this is called the ‘Honesty test’. No monster ever existed or will exist. However, unfortunately all the people before you failed this test because they either simply lied to me or they did not trust their own gut feel and started seeing an imaginary monster even though it never existed. You are pure of heart Mina and Tina, and that is all we care about.

“Everything in our land is not imaginary. So for passing this honesty test you each get a real medal and a real trophy. Furthermore, you have my official permission to come here whenever you wish, which no other human on this planet does. So you are the first humans to set foot on our planet and let’s see if others follow you.”

The girls thanked the chief elf and skipped all the way home to show their mothers their prized possessions and to tell their tale. To their surprise, their mother believed every word that Tina and Mina said and ended the day by serving them their favourite hot chocolate.

Tina and Mina went to bed wondering what other adventures life had in store for them. What do you think?

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 21st, 2019