The Man With No Teeth (Part 4)

In his wrinkled hand was a small glowing globe, about the size of a tennis ball. Even at my first glance I knew it was something amazing. As I peered closer I could see that things were moving inside the globe...hundreds of things. I saw small trees swaying wildly, as if in a storm. I saw tiny waves crashing on a rocky shore. I saw a minute ship, complete with rigging and sails, being tossed to and fro on a dark blue sea. At first I thought it was some kind of trick, like a high-tech version of those snow globes my pupils could be guaranteed to give me at Christmas, but I soon began to realise that this was no trick. This was real.

The Man With No Teeth chuckled. "This be my land," he said. I looked into his dark eyes. He didn't blink. I knew he was, as strange and ridiculous as it sounds, telling the truth. I looked again at the whirling world in front of me. I wanted to ask questions, I wanted to know more; I knew this was one of the most important discoveries I'd made in my life thus far... but where on earth was I going to start?