It Is Said (Mathias Bootmaker and the Keepers of the Sandbox) Read Free Page B

outside of the house was also red. But like the others in the circular hall, this door was locked.  
    Through the small windows that were set on either side of the door frame, Mathias could see three children playing in a sandbox that was set in the front yard of the house. He knew these children. They had led the battle against him in Fears Corner. He was about to knock on the door, hoping that the children would forgive him and set him free when he heard the giggle of a small child.
    The giggling was coming from inside the house. It was coming from somewhere upstairs.
    Mathias took the steps of the circular staircase two at a time. He raced his way up the stairs passing landing after landing. Room after room. They all passed his view in a blur until he reached the top and found himself staring at yet another door.
    This door was made of an old heavy wood. Dark metal bands held the individual planks together. The frame was made of stone. At the center of the door, there was a square silver slab embellished with decoration. The head of a dragon, carved in crystal, seemed to be pushing its way out of the slab. Its eyes were staring at Mathias. It was waiting.  
    Mathias reached for the knob, but there wasn’t one. He thought for a moment. Then he knocked. Nothing. He knocked louder. Still nothing.
    All the frustration from all that Mathias had endured rose up inside of him. He began pounding on the door with his fists. If this was another trick, another trap, then he wanted to be done with it. He pounded on the door until the house started pounding back.  
    The noise was deafening. Mathias tried his best to cover his ears, but the sound was even pounding in his mind. Everything in the house shook with each impact. Cracks began to appear in the walls.   Fissures opened up in the floors and ceilings, and dust began to rain down everywhere.  
    Mathias rushed down the flight of stairs. Landing after landing brought fresh disasters. Artifacts, trinkets and mementos fell from walls and shelves and crashed to the floors. Windows were exploding into cascading shards of glass. The house was being torn apart.  
    He reached the bottom of the stairs. He made it to the large entry hall as the circular staircase collapsed. Every landing, top to bottom, came down with it. The impact of the crash blasted Mathias out through the red double doors and back into the hall. They slammed shut behind him.  
    He could still hear the sounds of chaos behind those doors, and he could see clouds of debris beginning to seep out of the spaces in the frame. Mathias ran from those double doors as fast as he could. He ran back through the circular hall until he couldn’t hear a thing.   Convinced he was safe, he stopped to catch his breath. His sense of safety was short lived.
    He could hear a sound coming towards him. Something was following after him.  
    From around the turn came a small white mouse. It stopped directly in front of the young man. Like Mathias, it was exhausted and trying to catch its breath. The little mouse looked up and smiled. He shook his tiny body violently. The creature wasn’t white at all, he was covered in dust from the destruction of the house. This newly revealed mouse sparkled.
    This mouse was made entirely of golden sand.
    Satisfied with his appearance, the mouse stood up tall, and with a flourish, bowed deeply before Mathias. As he rose, he winked at the young man. The mouse then raised his little arms until they were level with his chest. He then pushed up onto the toes of his tiny right foot and began to spin.
    As Mathias watched, the little performer began to pick up speed until he was nothing but a shimmering blur. That blur burst into hundreds of teeny grains of sparkling golden sand.  
    Those little sparks of light flew everywhere. They bounced off of everything. They filled the hall of doors with a warm, amber light. Then they all froze in the air. For a second, not one of those tiny stars moved. Then like