Fiction Fantastic 2025 Winning Story: “The Secret and Magical Garden” by Hazel Rallen

The story below is a winner from our Fiction Fantastic Young Writers Contest, open to all youth in Lane County. For more information on this contest, including how to enter, visit here. Support this program with a donation.

You can purchase this story in the 2025 Winners Anthology, Echoes of the Future.

“The Secret and Magical Garden” by Hazel Rallen, Ridgeline Montessori Public Charter School

K-2 Spotlight, K-2, 2025

The Secret and Magical Garden

by Hazel Rallen

Ridgeline Montessori Public Charter School

Introduction: Forest Creatures

Once, when you and I were just babies, there was a vibrant forest, and in that forest lived a hedgehog named Pokey. He had a friend who was a deer named Toni. Toni’s mom was a fox named Red Tip. And Red Tip’s sister was named Lava. Lava was a robin. They lived in a forest called Friendly Forest.

Chapter 1: The Mystery

One day, Toni woke up and went to her mom’s room. When she got there, she couldn’t find Red Tip. She looked and looked. Finally, she called her friends. When her friends got there, Toni explained that Red Tip was missing.

Chapter 2: The Discovery

Pokey, the hedgehog, asked Toni, “Did Red Tip tell you any plans?”

“Well, a couple days ago she said we were going to Portland, but she said she was going to bring me with her.”

Lava, the robin, said, “She canceled that trip.”

“Why did she cancel it?” asked Pokey.

Toni said, “I had to go to a doctor’s appointment in the middle of the trip if we had gone.”

Pokey said, “Can we just get back to the mystery?”

“Yes,” answered Toni.

“What’s this? Whoa!” said Lava. She held up a crystal necklace.

Toni said, “A while ago, when I was about three, I saw my mother at a party and she was wearing that. I think it’s some kind of signal. Maybe we should go to where the party was at, the National Forest Creature Ballroom.”

But before they could leave, Lava said, “Uhm, what about this?” She was pointing at a painting with a circle on it. Inside the circle there were little dotted lines that made an X.

Pokey walked over and poked the painting right on the X. When she poked it, the painting swung open like a door.

Chapter 3: The Garden

The three friends walked in the doorway. When they entered, they were amazed at what they saw. They saw a garden, but the plants were growing so fast. There were green frogs and brightly colored areas, and then they gasped. They saw a giant flying saucer. But wait, it wasn’t a flying saucer. It was a dragon! And they saw the faint shape of Red Tip on the dragon’s back.

They called, “Red Tip!”

Red Tip looked down. The dragon flew down. The three friends guessed that Red Tip had told the dragon to fly down. When the dragon landed, Red Tip jumped off the dragon’s back and the dragon told the three friends that his name was Penny. He was Red Tip’s friend.

Penny asked, “What are your names?”

“Our names are Pokey and Toni and Lava.”

“Red Tip, we were so worried. We didn’t know where you were,” said the three friends at once.

Red Tip chuckled. “Aww, I should have told you. Sorry.”

“How do we get back?” asked Pokey.

Red Tip answered, “Ride on Penny’s back.”

The four animals got on Penny’s back. Penny flew to Toni and Red Tip’s house.

And that is the story of when Toni, Pokey, and Lava found the Magic Garden.