Kingdom of Lava - Chapter 1

Tam and Nino discover a secret lever in the bedroom wardrobe

Nino and Tam were best friends. Ever since Nino had moved away from London the previous Easter, their parents had promised them that they could spend some time together in the summer holidays.

Eventually summer came and just as had been promised, Tam arrived on the first day of the holidays at Nino’s new house in the country. The two boys were really excited at the prospect of spending several weeks of the holiday together. They went racing up to Nino’s bedroom to talk and make plans about what they were going to do.

Nino did most of the talking. He was 7 years old, sprightly and impish with brown eyes and as he talked Tam watched quietly.
‘Look at my megablocks Dragons and my magnetix horse backed rider.’ He said enthusiastically. ‘Here, you have this one and I’ll have the red one and we can get the castle down and set it all up as a war scene to play with during the holidays. We can get all the army men and the pirates out as well.’

Tam had a wry smile on his face and listened to Nino with interest. He was also 7 and although he was more than capable of being as cheeky as Nino when he felt like it, he had a quiet and reflective air about him.

They decided that they would play dragons, dinosaurs and football, in no particular order. And they also had to do some reading to keep Nino’s mum happy every day but they would think of a way to get out of that.

‘I’ve already read six books’, said Tam, ‘but you’ve still got to read yours Nino so I’ll read my fantasy adventure books whilst you read the pirate books, ok?’

After tea they were sent upstairs to get ready for bed. Once they had their pyjamas on, they decided to play hide and seek before Nino’s mum came upstairs. It was Nino’s turn first and whilst Tam did the counting he decided to hide in his wardrobe.

He had a compact bedroom with just enough room to fit his cabin bed and the neat little desk which rotated out from it. Underneath his bed were his book cupboard and drawers and his toy box. It was a small room but he loved it because it was his. His younger brother Laurence wasn’t allowed in there as in the new house they had their own rooms. On the very first day in the new house, Nino had written Keep Out on a post-it, which now stayed firmly stuck on the outside of his bedroom door.

He also had a walk-in wardrobe which was so big it had a proper door and looked like another little room. Inside there was a double row of coat hangers and his mum had piled up all his board games in a couple of giant boxes at the back of it.

Tam found Nino’s hiding place straight away but the boys did not continue their game of hide and seek. Instead, they sat and talked inside the wardrobe. It was dark and they wondered what Nino’s mum would do if she came upstairs now to find that they had disappeared! Tam leaned back on the boxes to see how far back he could go.

‘Ow!’ said Tam
‘What’s wrong Tam?’ said Nino.
‘I’ve hit my head on something hard on the back wall,’ exclaimed Tam.

He got up and turned around to push on the hard object with his hand, thinking it was part of a box or a random shoe that was sticking out. Suddenly a square hole opened up in the back of the wardrobe. Tam and Nino stared at it in astonishment.

Beyond the hole was a strange, mountainous landscape. There were red, rocks nearby the hole and stretching out into the distance where the skyline was dominated by ominous, purple and black mountains. The sky was a stormy mixture of blood red and muddy burgundy.
Nino jumped through the hole pulling Tam through with him and before they had time think about what they were doing, the hole behind them closed up.

They were alone in a strange land.