" Come on Axel!," I shouted. My cousin came running down the hallway, his eyes beaming with excitement. " Are you ready?," I asked shaking in eagerness. " Yeah! Wait...," he quickly skimmed his backpack to make sure he had the right equipment. "Yea, I'm good," I gave my backpack a pat. " Me too, lets go!" We slowly walked downstairs, our bags full of "survival" supplies making noises loud enough for our mothers to hear above their own ruckus. " What are you kids doing this time?," my mom asked absent-mindedly. "Nothing. We're gonna go play," Axel replied. "OK. Be careful!," his mom warns. As my cousin and I walked down, our surroundings started to change. The sound of pots clanging and knives chopping slowly faded and turned into the birds cooing and all other jungle noises. The hot sun was partly covered by the towering, prehistoric trees all around us. "Wow," I whispered astonished. Axel nodded in agreement, completely speechless.
After moments of admiring the strange world we had been transported to, we began to move "Let's go!," I shouted. We began to walk towards a waterfall we faintly heard in the distance. We would need water to survive. "This is awesome! Best 5th birthday ever!" I cried. " Its um... your only 5th birthday Sara." "I know, but still! When you turn 5, you'll know how awesome it is." He rolled his eyes. " OK..." He said. "I wonder if we'll see any..." We stopped in place as his sentence was suddenly interrupted. The ground we were standing on began to heave upward, as if a giant was making its way towards us. "Oh my gosh what's going on!?" Axel shouted, fear in his eyes. A large creature appeared from the trees. It was this animal that had made the ground move. At first sight we could not make out what it was, but we gradually began to realize. It was a dinosaur! " I'm guessing that answers your question?" I asked. " Uhu." Axel nodded. " Lets get closer!" he said loudly. " Shh! We can't. It has a baby walking behind it, the mama dino could hurt us if we got closer." I stated matter of factly. "Oh." He whispered. We waited for the two to pass, listening to the large, heavy footsteps become quitter as we continued our adventure.


We reached the waterfall that we were looking for. It was an absolute wonder! With its clean, crisp water cascading over giant boulders down below, it was the most beautiful fall I had ever seen. I fumbled through my backpack to find my plastic water bottle( which had now turned into an old fashioned water canteen) and filled it up, motioning for Axel to do the same. As we kept on walking, our surroundings began to change once again. The everlasting forest of now extinct trees and animals turned into mountain rocks and we arrived at what seemed a ridiculously enormous cave.
"What are you doing?" I asked confused. " I wanna slay a dragon!" My cousin answered. " Oh. ok." We entered the cave carefully, trying not to wake the huge creature we had come to kill. But, well I guess we weren't quite enough. The dragon stood suddenly on his hind legs, flapping it's wings wildly. " Your sword Axel!" He reached into his backpack and took out his plastic knife which had now become a powerful sword. The dragon dropped on all fours and my daring " partner in crime" took this as a chance. Axel jumped on the dragon's back and sliced the sword through the large creature's neck. "Woohoo!," he shouted, " I did it!" And he truly had. The dragon lay lifeless on the ground.
"Now we have to go tell the king," I said. We arrived at the castle and informed the royal couple of our accomplishments. They thanked us greatly and gifted us with a potion from the great wizard. " You think we can drink this?," I asked rocking the tiny bottle from side to side. "Why not?," Axel answered carelessly. "Ok." But one gulp was enough to discover it was a sleeping potion. We both dropped onto the castle steps, almost immediately falling into a deep sleep.
* * *
"Happy birthday!" I awoke on the living room sofa to the sight of my family holding something in their hands. It was something that I looked forward to all year long. Cake or more specifically, chocolate cake. My favorite. I smiled, still a bit exhausted from that " sleeping potion." " Do you want to go anywhere special today?," my big sister asked. I shook my head. " We already went to a lot of places, I think," I answered with a small yawn. " "Besides, don't you guys have a party to get ready for?," my cousin added to the conversation. " Right," my sister said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head with a smile. As my family broke up and started to decorate, I scooted over to where Axel was. "Today was awesome," he said. " Ya, I know. I wish it could be like this everyday," I replied. "So we would always be little and have fun. Then we wouldn't be grumpy and serious all the time like our moms and dads," I giggled. " I wish... I wish we didn't ever have to grow up," he said. I simply nodded in complete agreement.