Amka's Adventures

Story Page

The Key to the Castle

"Daisuke... You awake?", whispered Amka as she gently knocked on the tiny bedroom window of Daisuke's earthen home.

Daisuke, somewhat awake but lost in a daydream, was thinking about the canoe he had found on the river's edge a few days earlier. He imagined himself gliding down the river to visit his friend Anton whom he hadn't seen for a very long time.

Amka's repeated taps on the window and unmistakable voice brought him back to the present moment. He popped up and clumsily tumbled out of bed, a bit annoyed at being pulled away from his daydream, and went to the window.

"Amka, do you know what time it is?", said Daisuke, rubbing his eyes and stretching his limbs.

"Does it matter? Any time is the right time for an adventure isn't it?", Amka replied with complete confidence that he would agree.

She was right! Daisuke quickly responded, "Where are we headed?", as his hands fluffed and smoothed his fur and straightened his "bed ears". In two shakes of a rabbit's tail Daisuke was out the door and with his other friends.

"So, where are we headed?", Daisuke repeated. "Where's Amka?"

Amka came swiftly around the corner to join the rest of the group after she slowly realized she was talking to her own reflection at the window.

"There you are!", Amka said shaking her head.

"Glad you could join us, Amka!", Uki playfully shouted. She then turned her attention to Daisuke. "Do you remember the castle? The one that stands under the mountain?"

"Of course I do... I was the one that found it!", Daisuke proudly responded. "But there's no way to get inside. What will we do? Bring some books to read and have a tea party?", he said with a bit of attitude.

"Whoa... Somebody's certainly grumpy this morning", Amka shot back.

At that moment, a loud howl of greeting came rolling across the tundra. They all turned to see their friend Javier and smiled as they knew their adventure was just about to get more interesting. "Hey! What are you guys up to?", panted Javier as he came to a dramatic stop in front of them.

"Alright", Amka barked to get everyone's attention, "What are we up to? We have a key that we think will get us into the castle".

Daisuke and Javier were the one's that accidentally found the castle several months ago.

"You found the key?", Javier said in disbelief. "Uki found it actually!", Amka replied with a nod to Uki.

As the sun was now just above the horizon Amka knew they had to get started on their adventure. "We're losin' daylight. Giddy-up, let's go!".

The four companions, full of excitement, trotted through the flat lands entertaining themselves with silly songs and talking about their previous adventures until - there it is.

The castle seemed a magical structure to them. The mountain face was intricately etched and carved, by whom they knew not, and from a time now nearly forgotten. That world was remembered only through the stories they sometimes heard their grandparents talk about.

As they stood before the face of the castle, catching their breath and wondering if their key would work, they had another mystery to solve... where exactly was the keyhole on the door? There seemed to be many possibilities and so they went from one hole to another without success.

Frustrated, the band of adventurers were beginning to give up. The key wasn't special after all they concluded and the afternoon began to take on a sour note.

"Do you hear that?", said Amka, her keen ears picking up a melodic humming.

Javier heard it too. The others grew very silent as one by one they all began to hear the sound. The notes seemed to vibrate within each of them and they realized it was coming from within the castle.

Daisuke took the key from Amka and using his large antenna ears he tuned into the sound until it led him to a very specific location on the stone wall. He placed the key in the slot and turned it...

Like magic the surface of the wall began to change! A doorway had opened up like the mouth to a cave and they were all amazed at what had just happened.

Amka, with a nervous smile and eyes full of anticipation, looked at her friends and turned slowly to enter the castle. They followed her, quietly, carefully, as they entered the dimly lit space.

"I feel a bit dizzy", Uki said, "Like I just did twenty cartwheels and can't stand up without falling to one side or the other". Amka told Uki to stand still for a moment, feet firmly planted on the ground, and eyes focused on one spot.

"That did the trick", whispered Uki, "Thanks Amka". Amka gave her a wink and smile and said, "You can count on me, Uki.. always."

The light inside was odd, different... somehow cold but not chilly like outside. It glowed like moonlight and the walls sparkled like the stars in the heavens.

Javier, having ventured a bit further than his friends, suddenly spoke up and called them over. "Look what I found...", he said with measured enthusiasm.

Pointing to the ground he stood at the edge of a small pool of water. There was an object anchored to the center surrounded by perfectly spaced lines, engravings of fanciful creatures, and four letters... N, S, E, and W. It was a compass of some sort. The letter E pulsed with the same light that lit up the castle walls.

Uki stared at the compass and realized there was an indentation that looked strangely like the key they had found. 'What would happen', she thought to herself, 'if we placed the key in that space?'

Just as she had this thought Daisuke moved forward and put the key in the very spot. As he did so the compass began to spin and the humming, the soft music they heard before, began to float into the cavern and increase in volume.

As the light began to dim they realized the opening to the castle was beginning to close up! "Get out! Now!", yelled Amka. Daisuke grabbed the key and they all ran out as fast as they could.

"What was that about?", panted Javier. "I don't know!", Amka replied as she looked around to make sure everyone was accounted for.

Spinning around she cried, "Uki? Uki! Where are you?!". The rest of the group joined Amka and the three of them shouted and searched for Uki but they could not find her.

"This is all my fault", Daisuke said as tears filled his eyes. "I should not have acted so hastily", he sobbed.

"Daisuke, you couldn't have known that would happen", Javier said in an attempt to console his friend.

It had only been about five minutes since the door closed but it felt more like five hours. They sat down and pondered what to do next.

"What are we going to do?", said Javier anxiously, "We can't just leave". Daisuke lifted his head suddenly and said, "Hold on! We still have the key!".

Of course, in all the panic they had forgotten all about the key. Not really knowing what to do next they grew silent and in a few minutes the beautiful humming was heard again. Although the key hole had changed location, Daisuke quickly tuned in, placed the key and watched again as the wall appeared to dissolve and allow access once more.

There sat Uki. She looked up, smiled, and wiped the tears from her face.

"Are you okay, Uki?!", they all shouted as they ushered their friend back out into the daylight.

Daisuke had pulled his ears over his face too afraid to look at Uki. "I thought, I didn't", he stuttered, "think about anything but my own curiousity. Please forgive me Uki."

Uki was silent and unusually calm. She looked up at her friends and told them she was afraid at first but the sound spoke to her and told her that all would be well. She would be back with her friends again.

Uki scrunched her face trying to remember exactly what she heard.

"It was a song. I think it said..." Uki now recalled what she had heard as if she were back in the castle.

"Do not be afraid my little one
Do not be afraid when troubles come
For deep inside you'll find the key
The heart does hold what is meant to be
The doors may close but open too
A day will come when you will see
that you are me and I am you
My little one..."

She repeated the words to her friends as they listened intently without making a sound.

After a moment, Javier gave out a long exhale breaking the silence. "What does that mean?", he asked with wonder, "Is it a riddle?".

"It certainly sounds like a riddle. I think it means", said Amka softly, "that we don't quite realize how precious we are".

Uki now looked at Daisuke and said, "It wasn't your fault. I had the same thought that you did about the key. I would have done the same thing."

Daisuke, feeling a bit relieved by Uki's words, pulled his ears back away from his face and the friends looked at one another with gratitude and thankfulness that they were all safe and the day ended on a high note!

As the group, in a euphoric mood, made their way back home, Uki, her thoughts floating like a sheet of ice across the water, could not stop thinking about her experience.

"For deep inside you'll find the key...", she murmured to herself, "One day, as long as I don't forget, I will understand what this means".

What a magical, extraordinary day it was for the companions. When they got to Uki's house Daisuke handed the key to her for safekeeping and all the friends went their separate ways.

Once Uki was in her room she scribbled the riddle onto a slip of paper and folded it into a tiny square. She then placed the paper and the key into her treasure box knowing that one day they would go back to the castle and unlock more of the secrets that lay hidden inside the mountain.

Love, Mémé

Welcome to Amka's Adventures Torin!

In the most northern part of the Earth is a special place called Alyeska. The name "Alyeska" means Great Land. Alyeska is mostly flat land of low tundras, or treeless plains. Mountains rise in some places and the ground is always frozen in many areas of the plains and mountains. In the summer, when it is warmer, a thin top layer of the frozen ground thaws.

In this magical land of Alyeska lives a group of animal friends that go on all sorts of adventures together — from the shoreline of the cold northern seas, over the windy and cold tundra, through grassy wetlands created by many rivers, all the way to the forest and mountains beyond.

Of course, not many young animals would choose to go on such adventures, but there is one amongst these friends that can't help but go looking for a new adventure all the time. Her name is Amka. She is an arctic fox whose family lives on the edge of the forest, closest to the cold tundra. Alyeska is covered in snow most of the year, with only a couple of months of a bit warmer weather. But it never seems to keep Amka from her adventures whether it is the middle of winter or the warmer summer — she just can't seem to keep out of trouble.

It's a good thing that Amka has such good friends to join her as they learn about their world. Together they make a wonderful team and, though sometimes the adventures can be scary, their friendship always seems to get them back home safe.

Amka never really plans her adventures — they just seem to "happen" randomly, like the roll of dice. Ah! This is where you come in, Torin! You will roll the dice and see Amka off on her next adventure — and the one after that, and the one after that!

Get your parent's help — if you need to — to read the Instructions Page and see how you can introduce Amka to her next adventure with her friends.

You can learn about all of her friends on the Friends Page. We can't wait for you to join us on our next adventure!

How the Game Works

Special note for Torin: If you have trouble reading or understanding these instructions, please have your Mom or Dad help you!

You will be helping to create a new adventure by rolling twelve dice on the Dice Page. When you roll the dice there will appear on each dice face an icon that represents an activity, object, place or other theme in addition to pictures of Amka's friends. Each roll will result in a new, random, set of themes for the adventure.

You may roll the dice as many times as you like. When you like the result, then get your Mom or Dad to create a picture of your rolled dice. Instructions on how to do that are below. Once you have that, get their help to send it to Dahjo and Mémé. Once Dahjo and Mémé get the picture of your rolled dice, they will write a story based on your dice roll, then place it on the Story Page and let you know when it's posted. Then you can read all about the adventure you helped create for Amka and her friends!

After you read the story you helped create, you're ready to help create another adventure. Just roll the dice again, get a picture of the result and send it to Dahjo and Mémé so we can all enjoy the ongoing adventures of Amka and her friends!

The Control Buttons

At the top of the Dice Page you will see the following four buttons:

Each of them have a certain thing they do:

• The "Roll Dice" button rolls the dice. Each new roll is different, so be sure to take a picture of the roll if you want to send it before you roll again!

• The "Align Dice" button simply straightens out the dice for a better look at the dice.

• The "Reset Dice" button will reset the dice for another roll.

• The "Print Dice" button will activate your device's print function to make it easy to capture an image of the dice roll for Dahjo and Mémé.

Printing the Result

(For Mom and Dad)

It's difficult know the specifics of the device the game is played on (preferably either a tablet or laptop/desktop computer), so the following instructions are generalized.

The easiest way to capture the dice roll is to click the print icon ( ) and select "Print to PDF". This makes it easy to send the PDF to Dahjo and Mémé.

If the device is a PC/Windows, you can capture a screenshot of the page by pressing the windows button ( ) then the print screen button ( ). After the screenshot has been captured, simply open an email, put the cursor in the message field, right click and select "paste". It can be included as an attachment or inline. Full instructions can be found on WikiHow.

For instructions for Mac, things are a bit more complex and can be found on WikiHow also.

These are only some of the ways to capture an image of the dice roll — you might have other ways of accomplishing the same thing. In fact, maybe the easiest method is to take a photo with a phone and text or email it to Dahjo and Mémé 😁.

Note: This website works best on a laptop or tablet. It is not optimized for mobile phone devices.

Amka's Friends

Torin's Dice Roll

Timestamp

Copyright Notice

My Stories

✥ Uki's AdventureJan. 2025

Uki's Adventure

The sun rose early above the crest of the distant mountain as Amka came out of her family's den to start a new day. It hadn't snowed for over a week and the air seemed pleasantly warm as she sat looking around through the trees to see what she might see.

"I wonder what adventures today might bring," Amka said aloud.

Amka viewed each new day as a gift - a gift to be lived to its fullest. And for Amka that meant adventure. Oh, to be sure, Amka very often found herself in situations she wished she hadn't fallen into, but, she thought, that was all part of an adventurous life. She wasn't as haphazard as, say, her friend Loki. Rather, Amka had come to learn that one must be cautious when on an adventure, which always seemed to pay off and keep her, and her friends, safe.

She sat up and stretched her arms out and, yawned wide, closed her eyes as she did so. Just as she put her arms down again and opened her eyes, right before her was Loki's sister Uki. Now Uki is very small in stature, but big in heart. Being so small, it was somewhat unusual for Uki to be venturing out away from her home alone. Though she loved adventures, she always wanted someone else with her.

"Uki!" Amka called out, surprised to see her small friend. "What are you doing here? And so early in the morning?"

Uki stood in front of Amka as she caught her breath. "I... I found something Amka!" Uki finally said, her voice both excited and expressing a bit of fear.

"Why so fearful, Uki?" Amka asked. "What is it you found? It must be pretty scary!"

"I... Well I... I mean... Well, it's pretty complicated now that I think about it," Uki stammered.

"It's okay Uki - just go slow and tell me all about it."

"Okay, um, you know that castle that 'the people' always keep locked up? The one near Daisuke's home?" Uki began.

"Yes, of course. That one that between Daisuke and Javier, right?" Amka responded.

"Yep! Well, I was on my way to visit Daisuke when a cold North Wind suddenly rose up. It was the coldest wind I've felt in a long time - especially since there hasn't been much snow lately. Normally I can stand a cold wind, but not yesterday."

"Yesterday?" Amka interrupted, "This all happened yesterday?"

"Oh, ya. I guess I forgot to tell you that part. So this all started yesterday in the late afternoon." Uki said, clearing up Amka's confusion.

"So it was so cold I ran and ran for shelter. I found an abandoned fox den - like yours. Well, I didn't know it was abandoned until I was deep inside where it was warm. Actually, I was hoping to find some friendly folk so I wouldn't be alone, but at least I was warm.

"In fact, I was so warm that I curled up in a ball, hoping the wind would eventually fade away. But instead I fell asleep. I woke up sometime after dark and went out to see if the wind had stopped. The wind did stop but it was really dark outside - too dark I felt to go on trying to find my way home. I didn't pay much attention to where I was going when I ran from the wind, so I sat outside the den for a bit thinking.

"You know how Sophia always looks up at the night sky? Well there wasn't a moon out, so it was very dark - perfect for looking at the stars. It was still cold outside, so I couldn't be looking up for very long, but just before I went back into the den, I saw a big ringed planet plain as day right above me."

"And is that what you found? A new planet in the sky?" asked Amka.

"No, no," answered Uki. "Well, I don't know if it was a new one or not - I just thought it was really pretty to look at."

Amka was getting a little impatient for Uki to tell her what she found and commented, "Soooo.... This planet you saw is not really part of your story."

"Gosh, Amka, I'm getting there. You always say that 'getting there' is the real adventure!" Uki said, a bit upset.

"I'm sorry Uki. You're right. Please continue - and don't leave out any details, okay?" Amka said in a low voice, feeling bad for getting impatient.

"It's okay Amka - I forgive you," Uki offered. Uki then kept telling her story.

"Now here's where things get real strange. The morning sun was quite a bit warmer than the wind the day before, so I felt I'd better get home quickly. Only, well, you know how it is when you see something unusual and you have to follow it to learn more. That's exactly what happened.

I was starting off toward what I figured was the right direction. I began thinking about the planet I saw the evening before, so I looked up. And there it was! A big red balloon floating right above me. It seemed to be following me whatever direction I went. I went to the left, and it followed. I went to the right, it turned and followed again. It was very mesmerizing. So I stopped and just watched it. I wanted to see what it would do if it couldn't follow me anywhere."

Now Amka was getting very interested. She had heard about balloons but had never seen one herself.

"What'd it do?" Amka asked loudly excited.

"It began to move away on its own!" Uki exclaimed.

"It went a bit away from me, then stopped. I didn't move a muscle. Then it swooped over to me and got real low to the ground. I stepped toward it and it quickly swooped right back up above me and moved off a little to my left. That's when I realized - it wanted me to follow it! So I did.

"I followed that red balloon for quite a ways when it led me to a big tree that stood by itself. Then something else that was really strange happened. The balloon hovered right around a long branch that was pretty high up. Right away I saw a nest that was next to the balloon. I was curious why I would be led to a nest in a tree. As I pondered these things, suddenly a big bird flew at the balloon and popped it! It must have been a momma bird, I thought to myself.

"Sure enough, that same bird flew down after checking her nest and stood before me. 'What do you want?' the momma bird yelled out to me. 'Nnnnothing,' I said. I told her, 'I just followed that red balloon here is all.' With that she gave me a mean look and flew back up to her nest.

"I stood at the base of that tree for a while, trying to figure out just what direction home was in. And you won't believe it, Amka, another strange thing happened! Out of the tree a big pine cone fell to the ground right next to me! I wasn't sure if the momma bird made it fall or not, but it bounced away from me several bounces. It stopped over a patch of ice in a pool of water several yards away from the tree. And that's when I found it!"

By this time Amka was overly excited. Hanging on every word of Uki's story, at this last exclamation Amka yelled out, "What was it!?! What was it!?!"

Uki turned around and stepped several feet away and grabbed something from behind a rock. Before showing it to Amka, she looked at Amka with a big smile, then winked before swinging up her hand, which held what she had found.

"A key!" yelled Uki. "I think it is a key to that castle of 'the people'! When I started out yesterday I was on my way to get Daisuke to see if he wanted to help me try to get into the castle for an adventure exploring. And now I have a key! What do you say, Amka? Do you want to go on an adventure with me and Daisuke?"

"I'll be darned," said Amka. "You bet I do! Let's also get Javier to join us since he lives so close to the castle too!"

And so began another day of adventure. In fact, this was a special adventure, thought Amka. Because it was one adventure that came about from another adventure.

Love, Dahjo