This story is of long ago, when the lands of the earth were not quite as tamed as they are today. The story takes place in a little town known as Endelhiam. Our story is of two brave young boys out to save a town and its people. Their names were Zach and Jake.

Endelhiam was in a valley in the mountain range of Halloosha. This mountain range was forbidden to all the people of the village by the elders, for whoever had tried to enter this mountain range had never returned. Last year, the villagers were very happy and having their annual harvest festival. The people were dancing and singing in the streets of the little village. The time was getting very late, so the parents had sent the children to their cottages to go to sleep. When the children had awakened in the morning, the elders and most of the parents were gone. Just a few mothers and fathers were left, and only the children remained to fend for themselves. Zach and Jake looked all around the village for their mother and father, but there was no sign of anyone's parents.

"What has happened to all the parents in the village, Zach?" asked Jake in wonderment. "Do you think that they are just playing a little game with us? You know, like hide-and-seek?"

"I would not think that all the parents would go for an all-out hide-and-seek game from their children," said Zach.

"Then where are they?" questioned Jake, with a little quiver in his voice.

The two boys were very good boys; they always helped their mother and father as much as they could. Zach, being the older of the two brothers, said, "Jake, we must go and see the other children or whoever is left in the village." As the boys went from house to house, they found that all the children were still in their houses. They were afraid to come out without their parents. At four of the houses, there were four of the mothers that had left the festival early to tend to their children. As Zach and Jake talked to the mothers, not one of them knew what could have happened to the rest of the parents.

"It's getting cool outside, Jake. We must go to the forest and gather some firewood to keep the other children and the mothers warm," said Zach. In the forest, Zach and Jake were busy gathering firewood when all of a sudden, Zach said, "Jake, I have a great idea!"

"So tell me what this great idea that you have is?" Jake said with a bit of wonderment in his voice.

"We will go see the oldest man in our village, Halamar," said Zach.

"Halamar! Have you lost your mind?" Jake said with a quivering voice.

When the two boys had finished gathering the wood in large bundles, they made their way back to the village and toward the other end of the village to where Halamar's cottage stood. Jake began to slow down.

"Come on, slowpoke. You aren't getting cold feet, are you?" yelled Zach.

"I'm not afraid of anything or anyone!" cried Jake.

At this, Jake began to run as fast as he could go toward the door of Halamar's cottage. Just as Jake began to knock on the door, the door flew wide open. There stood Halamar, a wrinkled old man, with his eyes closed and his hands over his eyes.

"Come in! Come in!" hollered Halamar.

As Zach and Jake entered into the room, they could barely see. The windows were covered tightly with flour sacks, so not one speck of daylight could be seen. When their eyes had adjusted to the very little light that was coming from a candle that was sitting in the middle of the room, they saw the old man, a goat, a cat, and a parrot.

"I have been expecting you boys," said Halamar.

"Expecting us?" asked Jake. "How did you even know we were coming? We have been looking for our mother and father and the rest of the villagers."

"I know. I know," said Halamar. "I, the great Halamar, know everything."

"Well, let us know where they are so we may go to them," said Jake.

"Well, it is not that easy, my boy!" Halamar exclaimed. "First, you must take the time to listen to me, and then you two boys will have to work out a plan. It will be very dangerous."

"Why should we trust you, old man? Everyone in the village says you are crazy or possessed," said Zach.

"That's because no one has seen me out and around in the daylight for over twenty-five years," Halamar explained. "I am going to tell you boys a secret that you must keep to yourselves and promise never to reveal to anyone, not even to your parents. That's if we are going to be able to save them."

"What! To save them? Old man, what are you talking about?" said Zach.

"Well, let me start from the beginning. About twenty-five years ago, the mean Wizards of Tylonia came to see me. These wizards are a large group of mean and evil sorcerers that had scattered over the lands in small groups, trying to take over for their own greed and personal gains. They had come to see me to join their evil group, for I am the last of the good Wizards of Sylonia. I had told them that I was not interested in any such nonsense and that they should depart from my cottage. For in small groups, all the magic that they have cannot stand up to the great power and magic that has been bestowed on me and all that I have learned in the last one hundred and seventy-three years. You see, as a Sylonian Wizard dies, his power is passed down to the rest, and by now, I am the last. Then all the Tylonians came to see me with their entire coven and demanded that I join their cult. I refused, so they combined all their powers to force me into accepting their offer. But my magic was too strong, and they could not bend my will. This made them very angry. So together they put a spell on me that if I should ever step outside of my cottage in the daylight, I would be blinded forever."

"So that's why you answered the door with your eyes closed and covered up," said Jake.

"Yes, that's right. I work my garden after everyone else has gone to bed, and all the rest of the villagers think I'm crazy or mean and evil. I am the one who put the signs at the base of the mountains to warn others to stay away. For you see, the Tylonian Wizards have taken control of the entire mountain range to do their evil. I fear that they have taken all the older villagers to be their slaves. They left the younger people to grow up to take the places of the slaves who will die."

"Jake and I are not going to stand around and see our parents and friends be turned into slaves for anyone!" exclaimed Zach. "But is there not a magic spell that will help you to break the evil spell that they have put on you?"

"There is only one way that the spell that possesses me can be broken, and that is the juice of the purple Candenberry, which only grows on the high mountain range. I could go to get the berries myself, but once I step foot on their mountain, I will lose all my powers until I am home again. The catch to this is it takes at least two days to get there, and by sunlight, I will have already gone blind and be at the mercy of the Tylonians."

The boys sat quietly and listened to Halamar as he explained the right paths that the two boys must take to get at least a fighting chance to get to their parents, let alone rescue them. As Halamar talked, the sun began to go down beyond the mountains.

"First, you must take the highland road to the three-point road and then veer to the right, looking only for a square-shaped rock. At this rock, you must start looking for a very large needle plant," explained Halamar.

"A needle plant?" yelled Jake. "How are we supposed to find something as small as a needle plant?"

"Settle down," said Halamar. "A needle plant is about seven knees high. A knee is the measurement from the ground to your knee. After you find the needle plant, you must wait until dawn. Just as the sun is about to peek from over the crest of the highest mountaintop, it will shine through the eye of the needle, and it will show you the exact location of the secret entrance to the wizards' domain. But be very careful not to awaken the two dragons that guard the entrance to the cave. From now on you must go by only your senses and trust no one except each other, for the wizards can make themselves look like anyone else they so wish. The only way that you can really tell is to—"

Ka-boom!

"What was that?" screamed Jake.

"Quickly! Quickly!" shouted Halamar. "Here, you must take this button."

Halamar reached up and ripped a button from his old, worn-out lapel.

"This button is a magic button. You may only use it three times. Just say, `Button, take me to' wherever you want to go. Do not use your wishes foolishly, for the foolish wish may have been the wish that could have saved your lives."

Then with another roar of thunder—ka-boom!—the cottage began to shake.

"Quickly, you must get out of here as fast as you can," screamed Halamar. "It is the Tylonians. They are coming for a visit. You must be gone. Now! Hurry. Hurry. While you still have a chance."

As the two boys charged through the door of the cottage, Zach slammed the door behind them. The two boys ran as fast as their legs would let them run. They ran past their house and hid in the forest. They were still within sight of Halamar's cottage. The cottage had a brilliant green color within its domain. The air around the cottage seemed to pulsate with an eerie breathlike motion of a heaving chest. The boys watched and waited.

After several hours, the sun began to peek out over the mountaintops; the lights dimmed in the cottage and disappeared. As the boys looked on, something flew straight into their faces.

"What the!" said Zach as he and Jake fell backward to keep from being hit.

"QUICKLY! QUICKLY!" squawked Halamar's parrot. "HALAMAR NEEDS YOU!"

The boys slowly moved down from their hiding place in the forest and toward Halamar's cottage. As they approached the back side of the cottage, Jake peeked into the windows.

The windows. The flour sacks were torn down, he thought to himself.

"What do you see?" asked Zach.

"I don't know. He's not moving. Let's go in," said Jake.

As the two boys crept quietly to the front side of the cottage, they peeped in through the doorway, and there lay Halamar. The boys ran quickly to his side and rolled him over slowly.

"Oh, boys," said Halamar. "We had a showdown of powers, and I am weak. For they tore down my curtains, and during the struggle, the sun arose and caught me in my eyes. Now, Zach and Jake, I am blind. You boys must waste no more time. You must leave now if you are to ever save your parents and the rest of the villagers. The wizards are moving their entire fortress to a new land thousands of miles from here in just six days."

The boys helped Halamar to his bed.

"I'm so weak," said Halamar. "But I will be just fine, so get out of here for your quest."

The brothers took food for three days. They figured it took two days to get there, and if things didn't go right, they weren't going to need the food to weigh them down anyway. So off went our two heroes.

"Where's the button that Halamar gave us?" Jake asked.

"I have it in my pants pocket," said Zach.

"Well, I think that I might be able to carry that button at least half the way," said Jake.

"We have a lot more things to think about besides who is going to carry this button," said Zach.

"Well, then you won't mind if I take the button," said Jake.

"Well, I'll carry it the first half of the way, and you carry it the other half. OK?" suggested Zach.

"OK," agreed Jake. "It's a deal."

The two boys walked about a day, and they were getting very tired.

"I wonder how much farther we will have to go?" said Jake.

"I don't know," said Zach. "But here we are at the three-point road."

"Zach, did Halamar say to veer to the left or the right?" asked Jake.

"He said that we must veer to the right," said Zach.

So the boys took the right path and began looking for the square rock. On and on they walked, not really having much to say. All they could think of was the whereabouts of their mother and father. As they walked on, they noticed that the terrain was getting much bushier and brushier. It had been almost another day, and they had covered a lot of ground.

"Look!" yelled Jake. "Look, I see the square rock!"

"Shush!" Zach said with a lot less volume. "I'm glad that you have found the square rock, but we do not have to let everyone in the whole wide world know it. Do we?"

"By the way, brother, are we halfway to our destination yet?" asked Jake.

"Not yet," answered Zach.

"I just can't wait until it's my turn to carry the magic button," said Jake.

They two boys climbed up on the top of the square rock, which was about the size of an ox cart.

"Look, Jake! There is the needle plant. I can see it, but it is still a little too dark to see the eye," said Zach excitedly.

So off they went, and soon they were standing in front of the huge needle.

"Zach, the needle didn't look that big from the square rock," said Jake. "This needle must be at least six or seven knees high."

"Well, we do not have all that much time to be messing around. The sun will be up in just a few minutes. Look over there," said Zach. "There is an old dead tree trunk. Give me a hand. I have an idea."

The two ran over to the dead tree. They broke off a long limb and began to drag it as fast as they could toward the huge needle. Quickly the boys worked, tugging and lifting the heavy limb higher and higher.

"We must get this dead limb higher than this," said Zach.

They worked faster and faster. After a little while, they had the heavy limb into position. Zach quickly lifted Jake high upon the limb. Soon he pulled himself up beside his brother and just in time.

"Look, the sun, Zach. It is starting to peek over the mountaintops," said Jake. "We have made it!"

In moments, the sun came over the highest mountain peak, and in seconds, the sunbeams were shining brightly through the eye of the needle plant.

"Now, Jake, please pay attention to where the cave entrance is. Make a landmark in your mind, and I shall do the same," said Zach.

"It is almost too bright to look at. It is starting to hurt my eyes," said Jake, as he began to blink and squint his eyes.

"Please do not look away, Jake. We must find the cave," said Zach. "No one said that this was going to be an easy quest. For if it were easy, anyone could find the entrance to the secret cave. Just keep looking for the passage."

"I see it! I see it!" yelled Jake.

"And so do I," said Zach. "Now keep a mental note of it. Look for landmarks."

Almost as fast as the entrance had appeared, it disappeared, and the vision that was through the eye of the needles was gone.

"Did you get a good look at where the cave entrance was located, Zach?" asked Jake.

"Yes, I did. I got a great look at where it is, and now we must be on our way, my brother," said Zach.

"I am so tired of all this walking that I do not know if I can go on," said Jake, as he sat down for a rest on the bottom of the dead tree limb that they were just standing on.

"We do not have time for such luxuries as rest. For Mother and Father and the rest of the villagers do not have much time left before they are going to be taken to some faraway place in some distant land on the other side of the world," encouraged Zach.

"I have a great idea how to get to the secret entrance of the cave," said Jake. "We'll use the magic button."

"No!" said Zach. "Halamar said not to waste our wishes on something silly, for it might be the wish that will save our lives."

"We forgot to ask him if you and I get three wishes or if you get three and then I get three," said Jake.

"Did you want to take the chance and waste one wish just because we are getting tired?" asked Zach.

"No. I do not want to take the chance with the lives of the ones I love," said Jake with resignation.

As the boys got their bearings and started out toward the cave, one thing did come into Jake's weary head.

"Big brother, do you think that there are really dragons that guard the entrance to the cave?" asked Jake.

"Well, Jake, everything that Halamar has told us has been right so far. And I would say that there will be two giant dragons guarding that entrance," Zach said with a lot of worry and concern in his voice.

The weary travelers walked as fast as they could up into the mountain terrain. The farther they walked, the rougher the terrain was getting. They had noticed that as they got higher and closer, the land now turned into very heavy brush. Not just any brush—this brush was full of thistles and thorns.