Merkish

Merkish!

Story by Manoel Johann Ces

At night, as all grown-ups fall asleep and dream about all the wonderful things in the world, the children of a faraway village stay awake.

A boy named Dricx lies awake in his bed. He has been waiting for his first visit to the magical place where all good children go to play.

When the clock strikes eleven, the door of his bedroom lights up.
“This is it!” he says as he walks to the door.

Think of a happy thought, of a happy place you want to be. He was told.
And your imagination will take you there. And with that happy thought, he reaches for the knob and opens it.

When Dricx walks to the other side of the door, he finds himself not in his house’s hallway...but face-to-face with a magnificent castle.

It’s the Merry Castle! And it is true as he was told. For dragons are flying around
its spires and happily playing with each other.

“Welcome everyone!” Marlow, the castle’s keeper greets each child. “Welcome to the Merry Castle!”

The big gates magically open by themselves and the children rush
inside to be greeted with wonderful delights.He first comes upon the wonderful Candy Garden; where everything is made of all sweet treats anybody can think of!

Dricx then sees the giant slide full of kids. It is so high, it seems to reach the sky. “I guess they call it the Sky Slide,” he says laughing.

There are also children racing against each other on top of flying dragons. The dragons themselves are happy that their little friends are having fun.

Then the castle doors open and the great horns of the Merry Castle are sounded.
Everybody stops whatever they are doing and rushes to the trumpeters.
All the children gathered around are merrily shouting. Dricx cannot understand what is happening. Every child is cheering: “Merkish! Merkish!” Even the dragons are dancing with joy.
Marlow walks through the castle door. Dricx can see the sadness in his face as Marlow asks the children to quiet down.

“What’s a Merkish?” Dricx asks the girl beside him.

She looks at him and smiles. “You must be new here. Merkish is Merry Castle’s Merry Leader.

He chooses the nice kids that are invited to the castle and makes sure everyone is having fun.”

“Children,” Marlow says, “I have bad news today. Our Merkish has gone missing!”

“We must find a new Merkish. The Pixies will now go around and choose a new Merry Leader,” Marlow said as small firefly-looking things fly from inside the castle and mingle with the crowd.

Everyone begins to murmur. Dricx can see all their worried faces.

“Why? What’s wrong?” he again asks the girl.

She replies, ”Without Merkish, the Merry Castle will slowly die. He’s the one who keeps this place going.”

One by one, the fairies approach all the children. The fairies will look them in the eyes and seem to be looking for something. But they are usually not satisfied with what they see so they fly to the next child.

Then one fairy stops in front of Dricx. As she looks him in the eyes, she slowly lights up with joy. She flies over Dricx’s head and scatters fairy dust all over him. Soon, Dricx is glowing brightly. Two other kids are also chosen by the other fairies.

The fairies chose three kids. Marlow says to them: “Each of you has been given the chance to be the next Merkish. But you have to prove yourselves. You will be given a task you must fulfill.”

“You will be given a dragon each. You will ride your dragons and get the crystal orb lying on the Uppermost Cloud. But you have to do it within 15 minutes,” Marlow explains.

“And the one who first gets the orb, wins?” the girl asks.

“Yes, but not exactly,” Marlow says as he gives the three a meaningful wink.
And the three contestants are given their own dragons.

Dricx walks to his red dragon. “Hi, I’m Dricx. What’s your name?” he asks the dragon as he pats its neck.

“His name is Leero,” says the dragon keeper. “He’s the gentlest of them all. Be nice to him, will you?”

“I will,” Dricx promises.

And off to the sky they go. The first two kids’ dragons are clearly the fastest as Dricx is being left behind. The boy is kicking and smacking his dragon with his hand. “Faster! Faster or I won’t stop hitting you!” he shouts to his dragon.

The girl sees that the boy is starting to outrace her. “I must do something or I will lose,” she says to herself. The girl pulls on her dragon’s strap and makes it fly to the boy’s dragon.

The two dragons bump each other and their tails get entangled. Soon they are swirling out of control.

The girl and the boy lose their grip and they both come falling fast to the ground!

Dricx sees the two kids falling. “We must help them, Leero” he says. They turn back and fly down to rescue the kids.

“If you help them, you won’t have enough time to get the crystal orb!” Marlow shouts to Dricx.

Dricx ignores him and continues on his dive.

The two kids are dangerously falling fast to the ground!
But miracle of all miracles! Dricx and Leero swoops by and reaches them just in time.

The trumpets sounded gaily as Marlow announces,

“We have a new Merkish!”

Marlow congratulates Dricx.

“I won? But I didn’t get the orb,” Dricx wonders.

“What did I tell you? It is not a race. You do not become the Merkish by being the fastest or the strongest,” Marlow says.

“You become a Merkish by caring for others. And that’s what’s important in the Merry Castle...or any other place.”

The End