Toy Realm

Dawn M. Wiens

Description

Come on an enchanted visit to Toy Realm, the most wondrous toy store in the world. Its fairytale outline shimmers high into the sky and within its swirling walls you can find every toy you have ever heard of as well as a few astounding ones you have not. When Kaci and Danny Ticklebury delve a little too closely into Toy Realm’s secrets they find they are in for much more of an adventure than they had bargained for.

Sujets

• Fiction Jeunesse
• Juvenilee Fiction
• Adventure (Guyana)
• Fairy tale (disambiguation)
• Enchanted
• Fairytale
• Children
• Adventure
• Il était une fois (film, 2007)
• Action
• Jeunesse Aventure

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 04 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663243058
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

TOY REALM
DAWN M. WIENS


TOY REALM
 
 
Copyright © 2022 Dawn M. Wiens.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
 
iUniverse
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www.iuniverse.com
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4300-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4305-8 (e)
 
 
 
 
iUniverse rev. date: 08/23/2022
Contents
Chapter 1 A Very Unusual Toy Store
Chapter 2 Meet the Tickleburys
Chapter 3 Discovering Toy Realm
Chapter 4 Pepperlite Pocket Ponies
Chapter 5 Missing Children
Chapter 6 The NightCrawler
Chapter 7 Freaky Freebie Friday
Chapter 8 Tragedy Strikes
Chapter 9 Kaci’s Brave Idea
Chapter 10 Retracing Danny’s Steps
Chapter 11 A Very Strange Place
Chapter 12 The King and Queen
Chapter 13 Unpleasant Peasantry
Chapter 14 Lunch with the Jesters
Chapter 15 Toy Makers of Toy Realm
Chapter 16 Hard Labor Begins
Chapter 17 The Castle Revisited
Chapter 18 Conduit Dust in Action
Chapter 19 Raiders of the Gilded Corridor
Chapter 20 Kaci’s Big Idea
Chapter 21 Not as Planned
Chapter 22 Run for Your Life
Chapter 23 A Toy-Soldier Surprise
CHAPTER 1

A VERY UNUSUAL TOY STORE
There is something curiously enchanted about Toy Realm.
More than any other store, Toy Realm draws children to it as a bright light attracts moths. Not just because it sells toys, for there are many toy stores to be found in this old city. Even the fact that Toy Realm appears to have been transported straight out of a fairy tale is not why children flock through its doors, although this certainly adds to the store’s mystery.
Toy Realm stands tall and tapered, resembling more than anything an improbable glittering unicorn horn that juts right up in the middle of the city. Massive blue-black swirls of the building’s outer wall appear to grow from beneath the ground itself, and the glistening layers smoothly twist into the sky, where they tower over the rooftops of all the surrounding buildings. At its base, Toy Realm is large enough to occupy three whole city blocks. Gradually, it narrows to a sharp point at the very top that reaches so high in the air it brushes the fluffy cotton-ball clouds lazily meandering by.
The really interesting fact about this building—some say the rather strange part—is that you can see the mysterious twinkling of millions of tiny lights just beneath the dark glossy surface of Toy Realm’s outer wall. It’s as if untold galaxies of stars were plucked from the midnight sky and trapped there beneath glass. These tiny bright pinpoints pulsate brilliantly enough for the store’s towering outline to shimmer distinctly all through the night.
Although the lights make Toy Realm stand out, they still aren’t the reason why children think this is such an extraordinary store. The answer to that mystery is simple: if you look hard enough in Toy Realm, among all the thousands and thousands of ordinary toys that in truth you can purchase at other stores, you’ll also find some absolutely wondrous toys unheard of anywhere else.
Toys as mystical and unusual as the toy store itself.
“Just how extraordinary can Toy Realm’s toys be?” you may ask. Just listen …
Only in Toy Realm is it possible to find a soccer ball that shoots out a long stream of blue and silver sparks every time it’s kicked. Or buy colorful glittering balloons that dance five feet off the ground even though they are filled with only normal air. Or purchase a pogo stick that enables the rider to bounce up high into the air and perform slow-motion somersaults before gliding down to a perfect landing.
Hard to believe, but it’s true!
Kids can even find realistic rubber snakes that slither, hiss, and slowly wind themselves around unguarded ankles and legs—very popular for scaring unsuspecting grandmothers.
And nowhere else but in Toy Realm can one find pink spangled ballet slippers and tutus that enable their wearers to instantly become expert ballerinas. Or peek through a toy telescope so powerful it gives the viewer a close-up look of Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons.
And these are only a few of the fantastic toys to be found in Toy Realm. Many people wonder just where all these miraculous creations come from. Even the salesclerks who work in Toy Realm are unable to say exactly who supplies them. Although truckloads of new toys arrive daily, the store’s employees swear that all the special enchanted toys will just somehow inexplicably appear in the storeroom overnight.
Very strange, yes, but as Toy Realm is already a little out of the ordinary, this never seems to raise too many eyebrows. In fact, about the only aspect troubling anyone about these mysterious enchanted toys is the cost. They are very expensive to buy, and few people can afford all the seemingly magical toys their children would like. Most kids have to agonize until Christmas or their birthdays roll around before they can expect to receive any. And, even worse, there are less-fortunate kids from lower-income families who don’t have the money to buy any of these extraordinary toys at all.
And since this really is unfair, Toy Realm created a wonderful solution to the problem. The store has set aside several specially designated days throughout the year, called Freebie Fridays, where children can receive a small enchanted toy for free. These wildly popular events take place on every third Friday of every third month. This means that four times a year, every child age twelve or under is gifted a small enchanted toy in celebration of passing through Toy Realm’s door.
A marvelously strange and unusual toy.
The most recent toy given away on Freebie Friday is a miniature hummingbird. Shimmering with every color of the rainbow, this fragile little creature is no bigger than an unshelled peanut. It hums and skims through the air just as a real hummingbird does, but only for a few minutes at a time before stopping to rest in the palm of its owner’s hand.
The toy hummingbirds also feature a mystifying trait shared by all the other special toys found at Toy Realm: they never need batteries! As unreal as it sounds, enchanted toys seem to operate from an inner power all their own, without ever running out of energy or showing signs of wearing out. They are designed to last forever—although a few of the hummingbirds have fallen victim to the family cat.
It is no surprise that kids flock to Freebie Fridays. These gala Fridays have become so popular, in fact, that local schools close for the day since very few children show up for class anyway. Those who know of Toy Realm’s giveaway, including parents and more than a few teachers, cannot wait to see what fantastic new item the store will offer.
Yes, everyone loves Freebie Fridays. And for those kids in less-fortunate circumstances, these special days are more than just an excuse to skip school or a way to boost their enchanted toy collections. Freebie Fridays actually represent the only chance they ever get to receive an enchanted toy at all. And for some of the poorer kids, it’s the only opportunity they ever have to actually go and visit the store.
Yes, for some kids … kids like Kaci Ticklebury.
CHAPTER 2

MEET THE TICKLEBURYS
Kaci Ticklebury is a shy eleven-year-old who lives on the outskirts of the city in a tall and creaky old-fashioned house. This house is unremarkable in every respect except for the fact that it is filled to bursting with Tickleburys. Quite literally bursting, for living along with Kaci and her mother are Kaci’s uncle Gilbert, her auntie Prue, and umpteen Ticklebury cousins, all happily crammed within the rambling old walls.
Uncle Gilbert and Auntie Prue actually have fourteen children in all, ranging in age from eleven to thirty-six. Since all the Tickleburys enjoy one another’s company so much, none of the kids ever want to move out when they become adults. They just get married and bring their husbands and wives straight back to the house to live with the rest of the family. The married couples soon give birth to children of their own, adding an astonishing number of assorted baby and toddler Tickleburys to the already-crowded household.
Kaci once counted fifty-two people living in the Ticklebury home. But as it is impossible to keep all the exuberant Tickleburys collected in one spot for any length of time, she might have missed one or two.
Even though Kaci and her mom live with the Tickleburys now, the pair did not start out as Tickleburys in the beginning. Tragically, Kaci’s father died in a coal-mining accident when she was just nine years old, leaving Kaci and her mother penniless.
Auntie Prue was on the phone immediately upon hearing the dreadful news, insisting in a stricken voice, “