An Adventure in Old Oman

(This magical adventure story is set in Oman. It is written by the following members of our Children's Creative Writing Group - Anna and Gargi. December 2015)

Art: Anna Lemos, 11, India

Safira was bored. She was the pet cat of a museum owner. Out of boredom, she began to take a stroll in the museum.  

While looking at the century-old artifacts, her eyes fell on a traditional Omani door. 

Safira had never seen this door before even though she had lived in the museum since she was a tiny kitten.

Now, she was a very curious cat and as expected, she peeped through the door and entered. Instead of bumping straight into a wall, she walked into a beautiful old Omani town.  

Once inside, she felt a bit weird so she turned around only to find the door locked. How would she ever escape? She didn’t have the key. Eventually, she realized that the key was nowhere nearby and that she would have to search for it.

Safira turned back around and noticed that there were the ruins of an ancient castle in the distance. Slowly, she started walking towards it. As she approached the castle, she saw that there was a message carved on the gates. 

It read:

‘Whosoever reaches here first will find the Omani pot and halwa.’

Safira wondered what the message meant but she ignored it and continued walking. Her eyes fell on a pretty green necklace made from jade lying on the floor. She picked it up and wore it around her neck. Out of the blue, she heard a guard dog barking in the distance. It got up and started chasing her. Safira ran really fast and got lost.

She found herself in a deserted room. In a corner of that room, she found a low table on which there sat a small mud pot. Safira jumped onto the table and peeped into the pot. She smelled some lovely halwa. She was very tired and hungry so she started eating the halwa. When she finished eating she found a key at the bottom of the pot. Then she remembered the message on the castle gates. 

Meanwhile, the guard dog reappeared and chased her out of the castle and back to where she had started. Safira quickly unlocked the door went through it and locked it again. Her body was flooded with relief. She was safe.

Safira woke up with the sound of a bell. She sighed. Her adventure was just a dream. Surprisingly, the jade necklace was still around her neck. Safira wished that she was back at the old Omani town. She had not had much time to sightsee over there. 

ZOOM! 

She was in the Omani town!

“This must be magic” she thought.

This time at the town she noticed that the castle was decorated with coloured glass and studded with diamonds.

After an hour or so, Safira got hungry and wished that she could go home. 

ZOOM! 

She was back in her bed.

Curiosity took the better of her and she went to the old Omani door to see if it opened. No, the door was still locked. This would be her own special place!