Four young siblings were sitting at the dinner table. The room was dark and gloomy. The dinner table was made out of dark wood. They were eating chicken and the adults were drinking wine. Lilly, the second oldest, noticed her goblet looked different than all the rest, but she didn’t know how to describe how it was different. Lilly was a small girl at the age of nine. She had long brown hair and small brown eyes. She was wearing a long silk dress.
She looked at her oldest brother, Liam. “My goblet looks different,” she whispered.
“Well, you just have a different goblet than the rest of us do,” he said. Liam was very stubborn and loved getting his way.
“What’s wrong?” Isadora asked. Isadora was eight and very adventurous. She loved mysteries and would do anything to solve them.
“Lilly has a different goblet.”
“What?” Mirembe asked. Mirembe was the youngest, just seven years old. She was small, skinny, and always alert.
“My goblet looks funny,” Lilly whispered. Their parents, Minerva and Arthur, looked at Lilly, concerned.
“What’s wrong?” their father asked.
“Oh, nothing,” said Lilly. “We were just talking about jousting.” Their father nodded.
“Let’s find out why this goblet is here,” Isadora said, smiling.
That night, the four children were in the family library, trying to find books to read before bed. “Hey look,” said Liam. “I found a book that says ‘Goblet of Doom’ on the cover. It has a drawing of your goblet on it,” he said to Lilly.
“Let me read it,” Lilly said, yanking the book out of Liam’s hand.
She read, “The Goblet of Doom is a very peculiar-looking goblet, though it can’t truly be described. It can multiply two times, making three goblets. One of them will make you die, but the other two will just be normal goblets,” Lilly read. She looked at the back of the book. There was a message tied to it with a strand of thread.
Mirembe grabbed the message from Lilly and read: “If you have found one of the goblets, know that there are two more. Three people must participate in this challenge. Two goblets will give you special powers. One goblet will make you die. You’ve got to find the three goblets and each of you must choose one to drink. One goblet is in a church, one is in a tavern, and one we do not know.”
“Well, I guess mother and father didn’t just give you a different goblet,” said Isadora. “Let’s find out what really happened.”
“Well I found one of them and I didn’t die,” said Lilly. “I guess when I find the other two goblets, I will get a special power.”
“I don’t think it’s safe to try to find the other two,” said Mirembe.
“Of course we should try to find it,” said Liam. “I want special powers.” He ran to his room and began to pack his bag.
“Stop! What will we do when our parents see that we’re missing?” Lilly said.
“It’s nighttime. They’ll think that we’re asleep,” said Liam.
“You guys can do whatever you want, but I won’t drink from one of those goblets.” said Mirembe.
“Are we going to get going or not?” Isadora asked.
“Yes,” said Liam. The three other kids followed their brother out the door.
“I think I’ll go back,” said Mirembe.
“Don’t you want a special power?” Liam asked Mirembe.
“Well, I guess.”
“Let’s go,” whispered Isadora.
“Hey, let’s try to find a goblet in the graveyard,” said Liam.
“No, of course we shouldn’t! That’s not one of the places in the book,” said Lilly.
“One of them is in the tavern,” said Mirembe.
“Come on,” said Isadora. All of her siblings ran after her. They walked through the town marketplace to get to the tavern. It was dark and gloomy when they got there. There was one man sitting behind the counter with a little candle on a saucer. The man had a long beard and looked bored.
“Hello,” said Liam. “May we please have a drink of water?”
“Yes,” said the man very grumpily as he got up to get the drinks from the back of the tavern.
After the man left, Lilly asked Liam, “How’s that supposed to help us, unless one of us coincidentally gets a special goblet?”
“I don’t know,” said Liam. “But let’s try.” The four children sat at a table. They saw a knight drinking a cup of wine.The man came back with four goblets filled with water. He placed all four on the table. Each of the kids took a goblet. Liam looked at his.
“Hey, mine looks just like the one at home!” Liam said.
The man turned around. “What did you say? You’re not talking about stealing my goblet, are you?”
“No,” said Liam.
“I know you said something,“ said the man. He approached Liam and took a knife out of his pocket.
“Run!” screamed Lilly. Liam took the goblet and ran. Isadora jumped on top of the man.
“Go away!” she yelled.
“You’ve taken my goblet!” screamed the man, who continued to run after the children.
“C’mon! This looks like a safe place,” said Mirembe. They ran into a little shack. Liam slammed the door.
“That was close,” said Lilly. “Do you have the other goblet, Liam?” Liam took the first goblet that they found in the house out of his bag.
“We need to get going,” said Isadora. “We need to find the next goblet.” Mirembe slowly opened the door to make sure the man wasn’t still there.
“All clear,” Mirembe whispered. Liam went around Mirembe and began to run towards the old town church. His siblings followed him.
“Wait, why are you going to the church?” Lilly asked.
“Because, that was in the book too,” said Liam. They walked slowly, making sure the man was out of sight. Lilly walked in front. The wind started to blow. “I’m getting cold,” said Liam, and he began to shiver.
“Come on!” said Isadora as they approached the church. Lilly ran up to the door and opened it with a creak. Isadora jumped in front of Lilly and began to check the church for the last goblet. Mirembe followed up and began to search with Isadora. Liam looked upstairs as carefully as he could. The church was dusty and dark. It smelled like garbage. They found rare prayer books, old papers, and scrolls. But they couldn’t find a goblet.
Lilly sat down and leaned against the wall. She felt something weird behind her. She saw five bricks had moved and there was a tunnel that she could fit through. “Hey guys, look what I found!” Lilly screamed. All her siblings ran up to her and looked in the tunnel.
“I’ll go in first!” Isadora screamed. Isadora slowly slipped into the tunnel.
“I don’t think this is safe,” Mirembe whined.
“Oh, this is perfectly safe!” Liam said and slipped into the tunnel to follow Isadora.
“C’mon,” said Lilly, “this tunnel can’t be too dangerous.” She slipped into the tunnel and Mirembe followed behind her.
“I see light!” Isadora screamed.
“I can’t,” yelled Mirembe. “It’s pitch dark down here.”
Liam pushed Isadora aside and jumped into the light. He could see light above him. He couldn’t make out what was above him, it was just light.
“What do you see?” asked Lilly.
“Nothing,” said Liam, “it’s just light.”
“It can’t just be light!” screamed Isadora. Mirembe passed everyone in front of her and
jumped into the light. She disappeared.
“What happened to Mirembe?” Liam screamed in terror.
“I don’t know, but this can’t be good!” screamed Lilly, her voice echoing around the church. Isadora jumped into the light and she disappeared as well.
“Oh no! What are we going to do?” Isadora and Mirembe disappeared.
Suddenly they heard Mirembe’s voice scream, “I’m here. Jump into the light.”
“But how?” said Liam.
“Oh, c’mon,” said Lilly and she jumped into the light.
Liam stood there trembling. What was he going to do? He couldn’t just stand there. Maybe he should go back to mother and father and tell them. “No,” he said to himself and jumped into the light.
Liam felt cold, then everything went hot. The light started turning blue and green. He felt himself fall. Everything went black. When his vision came to, he saw Lilly staring at him. “Are you an angel?” Liam asked Lilly.
“No, of course not! I’m your sister.” Said Lilly. Lilly helped Liam up.
“Where are we?” said Liam.
“I don’t know!” said Lilly. “But this can’t be good.”Suddenly Isadora ran up to Liam.
“Finally, we’ve been waiting five minutes for you!”
“Sorry,” said Liam.
Mirembe ran up to them. “What are we going to do now?”
“I don’t know, but we got to do something.” said Liam. Lilly saw a small shiny piece of metal on the ground. She got closer. It was the goblet! She picked it up.
“Hey, look what I found!” Lilly screamed. Everyone else came over.
“Now all we need to do is drink from them,” said Liam. They walked back towards the light. Suddenly, they started spinning. Lilly squeezed her eyes shut. She opened them. She was in a big graveyard. Isadora and Mirembe were gone, but Liam was lying right next to her. Lilly was holding all three of the goblets.
“Where’s everyone else?” Liam yelled.
“I don’t know,” said Lily, “but we better drink it fast.”
“Why do we need to drink it now?” yelled Liam. “Why do we even have to drink it at all?”
“Because, don’t you want one of the special powers?” yelled Lilly.
“Well, one of us will die!” yelled Liam. It was just then that Mirembe and Isadora ran up to them.
“Hey! Where were you?” yelled Lilly.
“Well, where were you?” yelled Isadora.
“I don’t know but I don’t care. We need to drink from these things fast,” yelled Lilly.
“I saw a fountain over there,” said Mirembe. Lilly left and went to fill up the goblets with water. The fountain water was cold and dirty, but she filled it up anyway. Then she ran back with the goblet to where the others were sitting.
“I filled them up,” yelled Lilly.
“Wait a minute,” yelled Mirembe. “There are three goblets, and four of us. What should we do?”
“Well I guess one of us won’t have to risk dying, but won’t get a power either. Maybe only three of us should do it,” said Lilly.
“Well you three can do it, but I’m not,” said Mirembe.
“Well, I already drank,” said Lilly, “So I guess it’s Liam’s turn now.” Liam picked up the small goblet. Liam slowly drank the water. Once he had drank it all, he placed the goblet down on the ground.
Isadora picked up the next goblet. “If you guys didn’t die, then how am I gonna survive?”
“You can’t,” Liam said, “Just drink it already.”
“No!” said Lilly.
“Do you want the powers or not?” yelled Liam.
“Well… yes,” Lilly sighed.
“Well, in order for us to have the powers, someone needs to drink from the third goblet,” said Liam.
“Oh, fine, you can have the powers,” Isadora responded, and brought the goblet up to her lips. She was about to take a sip, when Mirembe jumped on top of her and pushed the goblet out of her hands.
Lilly caught the goblet in midair. Liam grabbed the goblet and started running towards the fountain. Isadora stood, surprised and wet. She blinked, and then she fell to the floor.
Mirembe screamed. “You didn’t drink it, how could you die?” she yelled.
“I don’t know!” yelled Lilly, as she tried to pick up Isadora. It was just then Liam was running back with the cup. Water came out of the sides of the cup as he started running towards them. Isadora shrieked.
“What’s happening?” Mirembe yelled, and leapt on top of Isadora. Lilly tried to pull Mirembe off of her.
Liam came over to them with the goblet. “Drink it!” he yelled.
Isadora pushed Liam backwards. Mirembe caught the goblet that still had water in it, and shoved it down Liam’s throat.
“No!” Lilly shrieked. Liam began to choke and he started looking pale. Isadora leapt to her feet. Isadora started charging at Liam but he pushed her back. Isadora looked at her brother and ran to the other side of the graveyard; she was terrified. Mirembe leapt on Liam and tried to strangle him.
“That’s what you get for trying to murder my sister!” yelled Mirembe.
“Leave him alone!” yelled Lilly, and pulled Mirembe off of him. But it was too late. Liam was already dead. Liam’s eyes creepily stared up at them.
“What do we do now?” said Isadora.
“Aren’t you supposed to get powers?” Mirembe said to Lilly.
Suddenly, Lilly felt a small tingling feeling, and felt kind of sore. Lilly’s eyes were forced shut. She opened them again. She had small pink wings, and she was hovering above the ground. She looked down, and Liam stood up. His eyes were staring creepily at them, and his skin had turned green.
“What happened to you?” Lilly shrieked.
“He probably has the power to come back to life!” yelled Isadora.
“He’s a zombie!!!” yelled Mirembe, and she lept onto Lilly’s foot, which was hovering above ground.
Liam pulled a knife out of his pocket.
“Where’d you get a knife from?” yelled Isadora. Liam didn’t seem to hear her. Liam didn’t seem to be charging after any of them. He was only staring straight at Mirembe.
Lilly jumped in front of him but Liam just walked around her and started charging for Mirembe again. Liam paid no attention to anyone around him — he just kept on walking towards Mirembe with the knife. Isadora jumped on Liam and pulled the knife out of his hand. She tossed the knife to Mirembe. Isadora jumped off of Liam. Liam started charging at Mirembe again. Mirembe charged after him at the same time! When she got close enough she threw the knife at Liam. The knife hit Liam straight in the head but he didn’t die. He kept walking at Mirembe with blood pouring out of his head.
Lilly flew toward Liam. Liam sprouted a small pair of wings and started flying at Lilly. Lilly emptied out her pocket and threw everything she had at Liam. Lilly found a small rock in her pocket. She threw it at Liam. One of Liam’s wings fell off and he started wiggling in the air. Liam started gliding to the ground, he started screaming. Mirembe found a small pile of rope on the ground. She tied one end into a small circle and lassoed it into the air. She closed her eyes and pulled on the rope, she had caught Liam in the rope. She pulled him to the ground. Mirembe wrapped Liam in the rope. Lilly glided towards the ground and looked at her near-dead brother. Lilly felt an urge of sadness as Liam closed his eyes for the last time. Lilly bent down next to Liam and then she realized something… Liam was dead. “Come on, let’s go home,” said Lilly gloomily. Mirembe and Isadora followed her home.
Lilly knocked on the door, and her mother answered. “Where’s Liam?” she asked. Lilly looked at Isadora and Mirembe.
“He’s dead,” Lilly sighed.
“What do you mean?” her mother asked “are you playing some kind of game?” Lilly thought to herself what am I going to say?
“I killed him,” said Mirembe.
“What do you mean?” her mother hollered.
“I’ll show you what we mean,” said Mirembe.
Their mother followed them to the church where they had found the third goblet. “Where’s the light?” said Lilly, searching around. Nobody could find the light.
“Will you tell me where Liam is or not?” their mother asked.
“We told you, he’s dead,” said Isadora and Mirembe at the same time. Their mother stayed silent. The three children ran from the church, leaving their mother behind.
“What are we gonna do?” Lilly asked her siblings.
“I don’t know!” Mirembe cried.
“Well, what kind of graveyard did you remember teleporting us to?” asked Lilly.
“I don’t know, it looked like the graveyard next to the church in the town next to us,” said Mirembe. Lilly got her mother and brought her to where her siblings were standing. Their mother followed them to the graveyard. They searched around for Liam’s dead body, but they finally found it. All of them wished they had never found it and had searched forever. Their mother stared at the corpse in disbelief. Liam’s eyes were wide open, staring up at her creepily. Their mother started to shriek. Mirembe looked at her brother. Why had she killed him? Why did she have to be so mean? Then, Lilly could only think of one thing to do. She ran. Lilly ran and ran and then took off into the air. Her mother was trying to chase her down below.
Lilly flew too fast to think. The tops of the trees scratched her as she flew by. She didn’t care. She would fly and run until nobody could find her.
She finally landed. It wasn’t until then she realized that Isadora had been hanging on to her foot when she was flying.
“What are you doing here?” Lilly asked her.
“I didn’t know what to do! I had to come with you. I left Mirembe back with mother.”
“Well, what are we gonna do now? We’re lost in the middle of the woods!” said Lilly.
“We’ll build a shelter, of course,” said Isadora.
“What? What do you mean? How?” Lilly exclaimed.
“You just watch, said Isadora. She began to collect logs and push them over to where they were sitting. Lilly began to help Isadora push the logs. Together, they began to pile them up until they had made a small shack.
“We need to make sure it’s stabilized, we need to tie the logs together with vine,” said Isadora. She began to collect vines. Lilly helped.
They tied the vines together to make them stronger and then used them to tie the logs. Lilly and Isadora looked at their creation.
“Pretty good,” said Isadora to Lilly.
“Now let’s find food,” said Lilly, and she began to fly and search the area for fruits. Lilly came back with a stack of coconuts, apples, and mangoes. They began to eat and dump the rest into their small shack. They collected pine needles to make beds. Days passed and their lives were well.
“I don’t care what happened to Mirembe or anyone else, but I think we should stay here,” said Isadora. And they did.
One day, Lilly was sitting outside the shack, sewing together animal furs to make clothes, when an old man approached her. The man was wearing a black cape and walking with a cane. The man approached her holding a knife. Lily screamed and shut her eyes, suddenly she started spinning. Around her she saw flashes of Liam screaming or when they were finding one of the goblets. The memories flashed as she spun. Then everything went black. She was still screaming.
She opened her eyes. She sat up in bed. She was in bed in her bedroom. Isadora was sleeping in her bed on the other side of the room like she normally was. She looked at the clock. It was two in the morning.
“Liam! Liam!” was the only thing Lilly could think of.
She jumped out of bed. Then she realized she was still in her nightdress, the one that she had back at home. She ran across the hall to Liam’s room and opened the door silently.
Liam was sleeping in his bed breathing normally. Then Lilly realized something.
It was a dream, all a wonderful, adventurous dream.
THE END