The View From Above

The view from above the Dungeon of Happiness was splendid. Everything was… Different! There were no humans but shape-shifting creatures. And no animals but some weird looking creatures. Like a bird had been turned into a half giraffe half snake. Imagine that.

I looked at my other friends. They all looked happy especially Safwa as she was the youngest in our posy of friends. I saw a group of trees that formed the words, “Dungeon of Happiness.” Some trees were even dancing! My oh my, was this weird or what?

We landed in the middle of a village where the people were all types of candy such as lollipops, marshmallows, chocolates and many other candy you could think of. I saw Safwa’s eyes sparkling. “I know that spark anywhere at anytime.” Said Syaima’ in her sly tone. “Safwa you better not be thinking of creeping up on that roll of mentos, do you?” Syaima’ called out.

The three of us saw the keen little Safwa, creeping up on a roll of sour mentos that was walking around. Najla giggled while Faiqah and Nurul smiled at the situation. The walking mentos turned around and saw Safwa. The roll of mentos stopped walking and Safwa did too.

After a few minutes, the roll of mentos pipped up, “Hallo!” And it brought Safwa a great sense of excitement. “Hah! A talking mentos! Oh me oh my, it spoke! Well hi there little mentos! I’m Safwa! Mind giving me one piece of mentos??” Safwa blurted out.

“Okay then. What flavour? I have strawberry, orange and apple.” Replied the little mentos. Mine, Ameera’s and Syaima’s mouth went wide open. The mentos would actually give Safwa a piece of its mentos?

“Orange! Please!” Safwa told the mentos. The mentos opened its wrapper from the top and took out one orange piece of mentos. It handed it over to Safwa and she straight away plopped it into her mouth. Ameera, Syaima’ and I stared at Safwa, mouth opened wide.

The mentos took out three more mentos and plopped it into our opened mouths. We chewed and a funny expression came on our faces.

“Sour!”

“Blee!”

“Plah!”

“O oh oh!”

“Haha!” Laughed the walking mentos. “I didn’t introduce myself, now didn’t I? Well, I’m Menoti.”

“Hah, Menoti and mentos.” Whispered Ameera to me. I gave out a giggle and punched her playfully.

Suddenly, a little plump marshmallow came running and started talking like an alien. Najla and the two other creatures seemed to understand and nodded. When the marshmallow had stopped talking, Nurul told us, “we have to go… now.”

The three of us grabbed each of us by hand and Najla had to grab both me and Safwa. The three of them flew as fast as they could. Suddenly, a voice called out, “hey, hey. You ain’t going anywhere this time.”

I looked down and saw a guy in a black bandana. He wore round spectacles like Harry Potter. The guy took out something and threw it towards Faiqah. It was only a metal ring and to my surprise, Faiqah fell with Syaima’ with a loud scream.

Next was Nurul then Najla. The five of us fell down rapidly. When we got to ground, fortunately a crowd of marshmallows were there to save our fall. Najla, Faiqah and Nurul had vanished; leaving me, Syaima, Ameera and Safwa alone with the villagers and the bandana guy. Two more guys came out of nowhere.

“Guys!” Safwa shouted, “take your little boxes and take your weapons!” As she shouted the words out, she threw the little boxes and we three caught them swiftly. Syaima’ and I took out our bow and arrows while Ameera and Safwa took out their out of the ordinary knives and a shield.

A guy in a red bandana came attacking me. I took out one arrow and he let out his hand. “Hah, is that all you got bandana boy?” I asked him with an evil grin.

“Oh you don’t know me well, little gal.” Said the guy as icy wind came out his hands and froze me. I made voices with all my might and the guy only opened his bandana and said, “oh you don’t worry. You’ll meet your friends soon enough little fighter. Haha.”

Meanwhile, the other girls were having their own difficult situation.

“Untie me from this chair!” Ameera shouted. A guy in a grey bandana had tied her up on a wooden chair. The guy walked to her and said, “You can dream on.”

As Ameera moved violently, the guy came closer and Ameera managed to take out her knife. The guy stepped back, and said, “oh come on. You won’t dare to hurt a guy like me, would yah?”

Ameera looked at the guy and moved her knife towards the guy’s chest. The guy in grey was swift enough to move and walked behind Ameera and turned her into stone, with her face stuck with a shouting expression.

“Oh don’t you worry little missy! You’ll be meeting your, posy later on.” Said the guy as he took off his bandana.

Syaima’ was still having trouble with a guy in a black bandana. Syaima’ fought with her bow and arrows while the guy fought with his nun chucks.

“Alright enough is enough!” Said the guy as he used his telekinesis to bring Syaima’ closer. When she was close enough, the guy clapped his hands once and Syaima’ fainted.

“Well it was about time.” Said the guy.

2 hours later…

Ameera, Syaima’ and I found ourselves in a room on the floor. I looked around. I saw a guy with the Harry Potter look at the corner of the room looking at me. A black bandana around his neck. There were two other guys. One of them had a red bandana around his neck while the other had grey.

“Finally out of the ice.” I said.

“Ah, out of stone!” Ameera said in relief.

“Wha, what?” Was Syaima’s first word after she awake. 

“Finally, you three are awake.” Said the black bandana guy as he walked towards us with his two other men.

“Where did you come from? Hogwarts?” I joked as I looked at the black bandana guy. The ones in the red and grey bandana gave out a giggle and the one in black gave them a sharp look.

“I have to say, you do look like Harry Potter, Azim.” Said the one in red.

“If I were to be Harry Potter you were to be Lord Voldemort, Yusof.” Snapped the one in black who I guessed was named Azim.

The guy in grey was laughing near to tears with the three of us girls. Azim and the one in red who’s name was Yusof looked at the four of us in a sharp look.

We stopped laughing. I looked around the room and became worried. “Where’s Safwa??” I asked, alarmed. Ameera and Syaima’ exchanged glances and the three of us went into a fit of worries.

“Safwa? Who’s Safwa?” Asked Azim.

“Hey Azhan do you know who’s Safwa?” Asked Yusof to the guy in grey.

“How could I know? I don’t even know these girls’ names.” The one in grey who’s name was Azhan replied.

Suddenly, a muffled voice came from the corner of the room. We all looked towards that corner and saw Safwa being tied by a guy in a blue bandana.

“Hey, hey, hey,” I said. “You better stop tying that girl up before I shoot you.” I reached out for my bow and arrow and realized they weren’t with me. Ameera and Syaima’ searched for their weapons too but they were nowhere to be found.

“Where are our weapons?” Ameera asked Azhan.

“You have a choice; it’s either your friend Safwa or your weapons.” Azhan said.

“Safwa!” The three of us shouted. Azhan looked at the guy in the blue bandana and nodded towards him. The man in blue let Safwa go and she came running towards us. The three of us got on our feet and hugged Safwa dearly.

We four looked at the four men. They looked like relatives. The man in blue took off his bandana and said, “well, looks like I’m the only one who hasn’t made an indirect introduction. My name is Hakeem. Either call me Kimi or Hakeem.”

“Well girls,” said Yusof. “You four just made an encounter with the bad boys of the Dungeon of Happiness—The bandana brothers.”

To be continued in: Meeting the Bandana Brothers