Anya walked through the library slowly as she marveled at the beautiful spines of all the books she saw stacked neatly on the shelves stopping every so often to inhale the powerful aroma of imagination in a place that was so full of knowledge and wonder.

??She was thrilled when her father offered to bring her here to spend the day. She craved hearing the sounds of nothing but quiet and peaceful page turnings and minds thinking at their very best and lusted after the strong taste of thinking and enlightment.

??She strolled along cheerfully through numerous bookshelves till she spotted the name of her favourite author on a pretty spine of a book and excitedly lifted it off the shelf. She traced her finger lightly over the worn out cover many other fingers had once touched too as she sat down in a comfortable position to ready herself for the whole new world she was about to explore. She turned the cover page over and closed her eyes as she once again smelt the faint scent of the forest who bore it.

??She started to read the first few lines on the very first page and, before she knew it, she was transported to a whole new world. And it wasn’t in the metaphorical sense. She wasn’t sitting on the hard cold floor in the library anymore but instead on the softest and freshest smelling grass she’d ever sat on. She looked around her and saw creatures of all kind walking past her, some stopping to smile at her and others chattering happily with each other.

??She saw fairies fluttering their wings so delicately they looked like they might break if she touched them, a creature that looked like a dog with two heads hanging both its tongues out and wagging its tail cheerfully, a beautiful horse-like creature with a gold horn on its head and so many other creatures she couldn’t even begin to fathom.

“Anya, you’re finally here!” exclaimed a voice.

??Anya looked up, and to her amazement, saw a funny looking man with long ears that grew sideways. Her eyes glanced down and she saw that the man had what looked to be four horse legs! A man who was half human and half horse! What a strange thing, she thought.

“Come along, we don’t have all day. Let’s go!” he beamed as he held out his hand.

??She grabbed his hand and pulled herself up still shocked that the curious looking man was talking to her.

“W-w-where are we going?” she quaked.

“Somewhere awesome,” the strange man beamed as he wiggled his ears, making Anya laugh.

“We’ve been waiting forever! We’ve planned a whole party just for you,” he said.

“For me? But I don’t even know you,” Anya laughed.

“Ah, but we know you. My name’s Chiron. And my friends and I have been waiting a very long time for you to open that book and come spend some time with us. It’s a tea party we’ve planned! You like tea parties, don’t you?”

“I love tea parties,” Anya squealed.

“Well let’s go then! Come along,” he said motioning for her to follow him through the wood.

??Anya happily ran after Chiron as he made his way through the magical forest past all the other wonderful creatures she saw. Everyone smiled politely at her and some even stopped to say hi and ruffle her hair. It was a beautiful world, one she knew she would never want to leave and have her mother by her side at all times. It was a happy place that smelt of happy things where one could only have happy thoughts that consisted of wild imageries and vibrant colours. Even the trees were so beautiful that it made her question why people would ever cut them down in the first place.

??Chiron finally came to a stop and smiled blissfully at Anya.

“We’re here! We’re finally here!” he chimed.

??There were two trees in front of him that slanted against each other that created a sort of arch and when Anya peeked through it, she saw a huge wooden table filled with food she never knew existed and merry faces with smiles so bright they could rid the world of any disease.

“Come along, then! The food’ll all eaten by the time we get in,” he sang pulling her in.

??As Anya walked in, all faces immediately looked up and smiled with glee at her. She felt like the princesses she’d read about in fairytales and felt so excited that she was almost nervous.

“Anya!” they all cheered in delight.

??Anya gladly slided onto a chair a little blue dragon had pulled out for her and thanked him politely.

“Anya, it’s great to finally meet you! I was in that book you once read about the evil queen and that dog and also the prince!” a girl sitting next to her squealed.

??Anya stared intently at the familiar girl’s face trying to recall where she’d seen or heard of her. And then she realized.

“Princess Annie! It’s you! Oh my, I absolutely loved you in that book. The way you’d tricked the evil queen was amazing,” she marveled making the girl blush.

??And as Anya looked around her, a funny thought came into her head. Every creature she’d talked to during the day, even Chiron, were characters in various books she’d read. All the wonderful smells she’d smelt all day, the cheery hellos she’d received from everyone, even the foods that were on the table, they were all things that she’d read about at one point in time.

??There was Wilbur from Charlotte’s web sitting across from her eating an apple, Sally from The Cat in the Hat licking the icing off a cupcake, Anne and Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables staring lovingly into each others eyes and so many others she thought she was going mad.

“Oh, I can’t believe this is happening! I love you all so much. You’re everything to me, I mean it,” she rejoiced.

“I knew you’d recognize us!” Chiron cheered. “Annie kept saying you wouldn’t, but you did, you absolutely did!”

“Of course I do! You all make me so happy, you have no idea,” she said as tears started to roll out her eyes.

“A big imagination and good company are all you need for a happy heart, my dear,” said Jiminy Cricket as he hopped by her side.

“Thank you all, so much,” she said as she smiled the biggest smile she ever did.

??And before she got a chance to say anything else, Anya suddenly opened her eyes, that she couldn’t remember closing, and woke up only to find herself back in the library again with her father looking down at her.

“There you are. Bother me all the time about how you’ve got nothing to do at home and when I bring you here, you fall asleep,” he muttered almost to himself.

“I-I didn’t realize,” she stuttered, still in shock of what just happened. “But I’d like to borrow this,” she said looking for the magic book she had held in her hands what felt like hours ago.

??She fumbled around, looking under the bookshelves and all around her but couldn’t seem to find a book that looked even a little bit similar to what she had.

“What on earth are you doing? You’re not going to find anything by muddling about. We have to go, I have a meeting later. I’ll bring you back some other time,” he said grabbing her hand and pulling her out the library.

“It...it was just there,” she said almost to herself.

“I’m sure it was,” he replied.

??Anya hushed her voice knowing that saying anything more would further anger her father and instead tried to recall the wonderful memories she had of the land she knew she could never visit again.