Chapter 2

The Grade Fives were in math the next day when Mr. Jackson came in and gave something to Mrs. Jackson. A bag of small, orange disks that were glowing brightly. "I just found these in the missing boys' beds." He whispered. "They have been gone for a day now and I think these might have something to do with their disappearance.''

"Shoot.' Mrs. Jackson gasped, 'These are made of metal, so if they are the reason the boys are gone it's my fault.' 'Why?' asked Mr. Jackson. "Because I gave my class a magnet the other day to put under their beds, to see if it would attract anything and these must have been pulled by the magnets.'' Mr. Jackson sighed and then took his phone out of his pocket. He turned around only to discover that all the Grade Fives were staring, but that was not important, he left.

The mystery of the boys was becoming more and more concerning by lunch. Outside people had even come on to the school campus to look for clues but found little of value, not even a footprint. Everything was starting to lead to the orange disks, which were now glowing brighter. The Grade Fives were in Prep with Mrs. Jackson and Miss Laurence after lunch when it happened. The disks were glowing so bright that Mrs. Jackson had locked them in her storeroom, but you could still see the light shining from under the door. All attention was on them when suddenly all went black and the Grade Fives could not see anything. Someone screamed. They were floating through some kind of void. There was soft grass at their feet. They looked around to see that they were no longer at Musikili. The trees were pastel colours and there was no rain.

The Grade Fives looked at each other only to discover that they did not look like themselves. Tisah and Michaela looked like pixies, Miss Laurence and Mrs. Jackson looked like fairies, Josh and Owen looked like gnomes, Chloe had a long, purple tail and ashen skin, and Sarah looked like a banshee. Carmin looked like a witch, Weston a wizard, Josy a centaur, Hayden a sprite, Rhys an elf, Rana a dryad, and Rais was a siren, sitting in a fish tank hanging from one of Rana's branches. 'Whe-where are we?' mumbled Josy, looking down at her horse legs in horror. 'Wha-what are we?' A sudden rustling in the brush forced them to move back as a large group of weird people-like creatures with bows and arrows appeared. They all had the feeling they were about to be targets. It was all so sudden that they did not even see the faces of the people under their hoods.

One of the people-like creatures lowered his bow and arrow and moved towards what looked like the leader and said, "Tyla, don't hurt them, we know these people." The leader named Tyla lowered his arrow. "Gio said he knows you – how does he know you?' said Tyla. 'Gio?' wondered Mrs. Jackson "I don't know how he knows us." Tyla looked at Gio, who put his hand to his hood and lowered it. His face was covered in gems and his nose was rather long, but the Grade Fives still recognized him. "Giovanni!" said Josh. Then all the other weird people-like creatures except Tyla lowered their hoods. "Raiyaaz?" exclaimed Miss Laurence! "Chate, Dominic, Zangi, Cuwien, Jemuel! Where have you been?"

"You!" Tyla pointed at Chloe, "get in that tank with the siren!" "Yes, you!" Rana grabbed Chloe around the waist and put her in the tank with Rais. Rais and Chloe glared at each other with a surprised look. "I am Tyla Weatherbury, leader of the Choconin Army.'' said Tyla. "We work for Queen Crystalia and keep Sparklimmar World safe from attack. Now we must take you to the queen. She will know what to do with you. First, I want to know how you came here.''

The Grade Fives followed Tyla through the forest. As the leader kept accusing them of being things called Flamies in disguise, Giovanni decided to explain to him that they were not Flamies in disguise and that they go to school together. Tyla found that hard to believe. Soon the Grade Fives and Tyla arrived at a large village. "This is where we live." said Tyla, "Come sit down and tell me how you came to be in our world. I'll give you some biscuits." "Um," said Mrs. Jackson, "we'll be glad to tell you how we got here, but we don't need some biscuits, thank you." "Oh, Mrs. Jackson!'' Zangi gasped, "you have to have some, Tyla's homemade biscuits taste incredible." They walked into Tyla's little hut-like house. It was, incredibly, much larger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. There was a large table in the middle. On the one side of the house was an open door through which you could see a small hammock and a bookshelf. Tyla told the Grade Fives to sit at the table. As there were not enough seats for all of them, he clapped and more chairs appeared. The Grade Fives sat down feeling confused and a little afraid. Tyla walked towards a cupboard and opened it. At once, an extremely small dryad flew out. Strangely, there were no cups or plates in the cupboard, but a bed – an exact fit for the tiny dryad. "What will it be today, Mr. Weatherbury, a plate, a kitten?" squeaked the dryad. "I'll have two boxes of my homemade biscuits and…," Tyla turned around and counted the Grade Fives, "twenty-three cups and saucers, thanks, Nutsy." "Are you sure you don't want a kitten, Mr. Weatherbury?" "I am sure." "Are you sure sure…" "I DON'T WANT A KITTEN!" said Tyla strictly. Nutsy flew to the back of the cupboard and came back with a pile of cups and saucers with two boxes, labelled, 'Weatherbury's Vanilla Custard Bites'. Tyla took the pile and gave Nutsy a coin that said '5 Specky' on it. The cupboard closed itself and Tyla handed out a cup, a saucer and a Vanilla Custard Bite to everyone, muttering to himself how annoying cupboard-dryads could be.

When Tyla got to Rana he said; "How did you get through the door? You're a tree!" "As I walked towards the door,"said Rana, surprised, "it grew to the same height as me. Didn't you know your door could do that?" Tyla shrugged, his hood swishing. He still had not taken it off. When he finished handing out the crockery, he clicked his fingers and each cup filled up with tea. He sat down. Sure enough, the biscuits were delicious. "So," said Tyla to Mrs. Jackson, "explain how you come to be in Sparklimmar World, perhaps how you got here is the same way they got here?" he motioned to the boys in the army.

"Well," said Mrs. Jackson, "the members of your chocolate army, or whatever it is called, come to the school where I teach. The other night, they disappeared out of their beds…" "Other night?" interrupted Tyla, "They have been here for a week! I think your days are longer than ours are, but carry on." "We found some weird orange disks in their beds. We don't know what they were but they were glowing and just like that, we all appeared here." Tyla glared at Mrs. Jackson for a moment then shouted; "Nutsy!" as he said this, the cupboard-dryad flew out of the cupboard. "Report to Queen Crystalia that the strange boys travelled here by ploits, immediately!" Nutsy flew towards an open window and left. "What are ploits?" asked Rais. "They are disks, used to get from your world to ours." Tyla explained. "Now I rue knighting Pipi as the Ploit-goblin, stupid things, they are. Never getting the ploits where they are needed." "Where was Pipi taking the ploits?" Rhys asked. "I sent two of my army members to retrieve a flapquirrel, which somehow got through the vortex to your world. We do not know how she got through as Queen Crystalia cast an anti-animal charm on the vortex. Pipi had to take a ploit to them so they could get back here."

There was a moment of silence while everyone was sipping their tea. Michaela said, "What are Flamies in disguise, and why do you think we are them?" "Flamies," Tyla explained, "are dark creatures that are made of fire. The only solid part of their bodies are their head and hooves. They have large fangs and slits for eyes. They have long horns on top of their heads that they use to fire spells. The leader of the flamies, Monarch Flamory, has been trying to take over our kingdom for years. Luckily, it is too dangerous for them to go through or fly over the Forest of Living Gums. The trees in there will attack anything that steps foot in the forest that is not a gum. Above the forest is the Realm of Giants. So, the flamies might never get into Sparklimmar." The Grade Fives looked at each as though Tyla was going crazy. Nobody knew what the Forest of Living Gums was. Nutsy flew back through the window and whispered something in Tyla's ear. Tyla stood up and said firmly to the group that Queen Crystalia wanted to see them. They followed Tyla out of the village and stopped at once when he came to a halt – and there it was, right in front of them.