Pip’s sneaker caught the edge of a glowing rune. The ancient map unfurled with a paper-crackle sound. Swirling ink lifted off the page like smoke, pulling him toward the door before his feet could find purchase.
He blinked at the swirling ink lifting off the page. It pulled him toward the door before his feet could find purchase. The hallway stretched into a tunnel of floating staircases.
Pip ran past a portrait of a stern wizard who opened his mouth to shout, but only bubbles came out, popping with a soft plip against Pip’s shoulder. He ducked under a swinging chandelier that chimed like wind chimes.
Realizing the corridor was bending in impossible directions, he spotted an upside-down library sign hovering above a spiral staircase leading down into the sky. Pip climbed the inverted stairs.
His shoes clicked loudly on the glass floor while books floated by like sleepy fish. A dusty tome flapped its covers open and slapped his knee gently, pointing a page toward a golden key hidden in a potted fern.
He grabbed the key, feeling its cold metal bite into his palm as the map pulsed brighter. The classroom door appeared at the end of a rainbow slide, but it was locked tight with three tumblers spinning wildly.
Pip jammed the key into the lock, spun it left for the bubble-blowing wizard, right for the floating books, and up for the flying stairs. The door burst open with a triumphant boom.
The door burst open with a triumphant boom, revealing his confused classmates waiting outside. Pip stepped back, letting the entire class shuffle through the doorway in a single-file line of giggles and shuffled feet.