Quest for the Sword of Gentsudia

CHAPTER ONE

     "Benjamin!" called a feminine voice, "Just because it's summer doesn't mean you can just lay in bed all day!”

     Up the stairs, down a hallway, past two doors, around a “Beware!” sign, and under the covers of a bed lay a boy (who was also known as Ben) waking up to the ten o' clock morning sunshine.  "Oh, no!" yelled Ben.  "Baseball starts in just thirty minutes!”  Ben got out from under his covers, ran down the stairs, and just as he was headed toward the door his mom yelled,

     "Wait!  You forgot to..." she began.

     "Can’t!  Late!  Bye!" Ben called back.

     Ben's house was only ten minutes away from the ballpark, but to him it seemed longer than that, and he was in a hurry.  He did not want to be late for baseball.  Ben was so worried he'd be late that when he got to the park gate he realized something was very wrong. 

     "I can’t believe it!" he exclaimed.  “I’m still in my pajamas!"  Ben ran back home. 

     As he was running up the stairs his mom asked him, "Forget something?"

     "Can’t!  Still late!" Ben yelled down the stairs.  Ready for baseball in his normal everyday clothes, Ben dashed out of the house knowing he didn't have a moment to lose.

     "Ben!  You forgot your cap!" yelled his mom.

     "Late!" he shouted back to her.

     Just as he was entering the park it started to rain.  "Aaaarrg!" he exclaimed.  Quite frustrated, Ben began his journey back home.  

     He was only a few minutes from entering his door when a sphere of light whizzed by his head.  Ben watched it as it entered the woods.  Filled with curiosity, he hurried after it.

     It was very difficult for Ben to follow the light, jumping over hedges and avoiding branches.  He was just about to give up the chase when the light disappeared behind a tree.  When he got to the spot, he saw a lady with her dog, who was barking at the ground.  “Sit!  Stay!" the lady commanded her dog.  She looked at Ben.  "Dogs," she began to tell him, "Always barking at nothing.“  She walked away, tugging at her dog’s leash. 

     Ben just stared in disbelief.  "Nothing?” Ben asked himself.  “Then what did I see?"  Ben stared at the ground.  "I wonder…"

     He began to dig in the same spot the dog was barking at.  It only took a few minutes until another flash of light came and dove into the same spot where Ben was digging.  He dug faster.   Another flash of light vanished as it hit the ground.  Another one came and did the same.  Ben had dug about a foot in the ground when three more flashes of light plummeted into the hole.  Ben kept digging.

     Then, without warning, he disappeared. 

     Ben had just gained consciousness when he found himself in a forest.  "Where am I?" Ben asked himself as he awoke.  He stood up and looked around.  "I'm in the same forest!"

     "Halt!" said a voice from behind him.  "Put your hands up!”

     "Who are yo-" Ben started to say.

      “Now!” the voice demanded.

     "Okay!" Ben yelled back.  Ben put up his hands.

     "Hold still."  The voice said.

     Ben heard footsteps behind him.  They began to softly grow louder.

     "Where's your bag?"  The voice asked Ben.

     "I don't have one." Ben replied

     "You're not from around here, are you?" the voice asked again.

     "Actually, I live near the ballpark," Ben said.

     "What's a ballpark?" the voice questioned Ben.

     "What's a ballpark?" Ben said, “what’s a BALLPARK?"

     Ben was offended.  He turned around to see a girl around the same age as him. She had long brown hair and was wearing a long robe and a small bag.  But that wasn't the only thing Ben noticed: the girl that had halted Ben was holding her arms stretched out at him, her hands opened wide, and suddenly a small flash of blue light shot out from her hands and knocked Ben down.  As Ben was just getting up, he felt his whole body freeze.  He was covered in ice!

     "I told you to hold still," the girl replied.  She mumbled a few words and touched the ice that covered Ben's head.  All the ice melted.

     "How'd you do that?" Ben asked.

     "Same way you got here: by magic,” the girl replied.

     "Magic?" Ben asked.

     "You need to go home now,” the girl said to him.

     "Why?"

     "It doesn't matter."

     "If it doesn't matter, then why do I need to go home?"

     "I can't tell you. If you don't go home now, then I'll ice you again."

     "No."

     The girl reached into her bag when all of a sudden the ground began to rumble.  Fear struck both of them.  The girl then turned around and fled just as three massive mammals came trampling through the forest.  Ben barely had enough time to leap out of the way of one of the huge beast's feet.  Ben then jumped behind a nearby tree to avoid being trampled on.  That's when he noticed that there were lizard-men on the backs of the beasts.

     "Are you sssure the sssage came through thisss way?"  Ben heard one of them say.

     "Yesss.  I can sssmell her sscent from here,” he heard another one say.

     The third one sniffed the air.  "Arra wasss here resscently,” the lizard-man said.

     "Arra, huh?"  Ben said to himself.

     "Wait."  The first one sniffed the air.  "I sssmell sssomething elssse."

     Ben looked around behind him.  He couldn't see anything.  Just as he was about to turn back a fierce hand grasped his shoulder and Ben was pulled before the most horrifying yellow teeth he ever saw.  He looked up to see the same yellow color glaring at him.

     "A human!" the lizard-man hissed.

     "One without a bag,” the third lizard-man sneered.

     "Look at hisss clothing,” the second lizard-man said pointing at his shirt.

     "I don't care.  Let’sss jussst eat him already,” the first one said.  He opened his mouth wide, releasing a fowl smell and getting ready to bite Ben's head right off, when all the lizard-men were being lifted into the air by tree roots wrapped around them.

(Originally written Sept. 3, 2007)

CHAPTER 3

     “Don’t you dare touch him!” cried a voice. Ben turned around to see Arra standing right beside him. He couldn’t help but smile knowing that he was not going to become soufflé a la Ben. 

     He was about to stand up and thank the girl, when she started to shout in his face, “I told you to go home! And look at what happens!”  She pointed up to the hissing lizards above their heads. “You almost lost your head!” 

      “Ugh, you sound like my mother," replied Ben.  “Besides, can you really blame a guy for being curious?”  

     Arra glared at him.  She snapped her fingers and the roots flung the hissing lizard-men over the trees.  “You do not belong here," she sternly said to Ben.  “You need to go home.”      

     “I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on," Ben said just as sternly as Arra. 

     “I…” Arra interrupted her sentence with a heavy sigh. “Will you go home if I tell you why?”

     Arra continued. “There is a war going on in this land.  You cannot be here because you are from the future.  I am here to retrieve the energy orb from your time.”  She walked a few steps and began to dig.  Only minutes later did Ben watch Arra pull out a glowing blue ball.  “When you touched this you were teleported to the past with the energy the orb had gathered for many centuries.”  She walked over to him. “If you interfere with the past you risk the chance of changing your future and our victory.”  She held the orb out to him. “Now, touch it and go home.”

(Originally written Sept. 30, 2007)