March 2020
Alternate Universe with stuffie Mary
1: The Beginning of Princess Mary’s Adventure
Princess Mary liked adventures and was always looking for excuses to go on one. She disliked sitting on the throne doing nothing and was always itching to go on a treacherous journey far beyond the forest, far over the mountains, and deep into the desert.
But since she was the rabbit princess, she could not go out alone on that treacherous journey without every single guard in the palace following her. She did not want to go with any guards, so she sat boringly on the throne every single day, dreaming of the desert heat and spiky cacti with lizards darting around.
She dreamed of this every morning and every night, until into the castle came a lizard.
It wasn’t a regular lizard like the ones Princess Mary had seen in the desert every time she made up an excuse to explore; it looked royal. The lizard sat gracefully on the royal carpet, his crown glimmering in the candlelight, inspecting the fabric as if he were the most important lizard in the desert. And he was.
He was the Lizard King, the most powerful lizard in all the deserts, and Princess Mary had never seen him before because he spent entire days on the throne. He, however, was even more bored because he could never make an excuse to explore. He, unlike Princess Mary, was a king and had to rule his kingdom every day; he had no time for adventure.
Princess Mary was very surprised to see another important-looking lizard come into the castle. He had gone all the way from the desert, over the mountains, through the forest, and into the castle to deliver what looked like a message. (The king was using a messenger to feel more important.) She peered at the rolled up piece of paper in his hand.
The lizard unrolled the scroll and read out loud: “Princess Mary has been invited to accompany King Lizardius III on a journey beyond the forest, mountains, desert, and plains, deep into the Jungle of Mysteries on a quest to find the buried treasure. The treasure map is guarded at Lizard Palace. Signed, The Lizardian Council.”
2: The Jungle Temple
As Princess Mary had never been there before, the jungle was a great surprise to her: vines hung from tall, leafy trees; colorful birds she had never seen before that the lizard king explained to her were parrots perched on the branches; a muddy river in which fish of all sorts swam about; and a mossy stone temple with a cobblestone path leading up to it that looked extremely old.
As Mary approached it, she could see cobwebs in all sorts of places. Under the roof, under the door, in the corners, between the stone slabs, and even on the moss. She carefully reached toward the door, making sure to avoid the cobwebs.
The door creaked open, revealing a cold stone cave – also filled with moss and cobwebs. Princess Mary had not noticed this when she had been outside the temple; but the back of the cave was sloped upward, indicating that the temple was halfway sticking out of a hill.
There were cracks in the stone through which Princess Mary could see the roots of the plants that grew on the hill. Bugs crawled over those roots. It was a very gross and old temple, and Princess Mary almost wanted to go back home and sit on the throne.
But Princess Mary did not want to continue sitting on the throne all day, so she held her long ears down to keep them from scraping against the low rocky ceiling and resumed her quest to find the treasure.
Princess Mary had almost forgotten about the lizard king when he entered the jungle temple behind her and held up the map, reminding her.
The old map showed a big red X right where Princess Mary was standing. The map’s guards had said that the map was so old it might show things that were not there anymore. Princess Mary looked down and saw that her furry feet were covered with mud. She also noticed there really was a huge X beneath her; carved into the stone.
Munlandia 