I wrote this story about a yearor two ago for my Virtual school. the first part was written by classmates and the challenge was that whoever wrote the best ending won. I start writing at the first line of
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Journey
Forest of fear
"John, have you noticed that something has changed?"
"What? Where?"
"Out there. Look. At the end of that wall".
"OK, I can see the wall. What are you talking about?"
"That tree. It wasn't there before."
"Don't be ridiculous, trees can't grow in twenty minutes!"
"When we looked out last time we could see the church tower, over there in the village. Where is it now?"
"It's ..... It’s ..... oh, my gosh!"
“Wait! Is the gate still there?!” Lulu and John looked back toward the huge, rusty gate that had shut behind them. It was still standing in the distance. John was holding the map that they found in the box outside of the gate. The map had told them to walk through the gate, and now here they were, disappointed, and scared wondering what the next step would be.
“Lulu turned to John, and said, “I can’t believe you made me come in here!”
John exclaimed, “Me?! You’re the one who got us into this mess! Now get us out!”
Their only clues would be on the map. They looked at the map, and saw a message at the bottom: “Whoever enters this gate, cannot return without the Key of Liberia. No one has found this key in a million years.”
“We’re stuck here for a million years?!”
Lulu and John were running through the gate, because they thought it was going to close on them, when they ran into a little elf. The elf said, “Don’t run into me! Are you trying to squish me?”
“No!” said John, who was more than a little surprised to see a pointy eared elf wearing a green hat looking up at him.
“Who’s that?!” said the elf in a squeaky voice.
“No one," said John
Lulu peered out from behind John’s back. “THAT!” said the elf.
“Oh, yeah, that’s my little sister, she’s shy, so don’t talk to her.” The elf replied, “Well, I’m little but I’m not shy.”
Suddenly, Lulu flew away into the forest like a deer running away from a hungry mountain lion. John and the elf took one look at each other, then they ran after Lulu. They ran for hours, but couldn’t find or catch her. Worn out, they stopped, leaning on a huge tree, out of breath.
John finally turned to the elf and said, “What’s your name, anyway?”
“Tom, said the elf, “what’s yours?” “John. By the way, thanks for coming with me.”
“We need to rest and think of a plan. My house is just across the bridge. Do you want to come over and talk?” said the elf. John was pretty confused. He didn’t know whether he should go with the elf to his house or not. John was scared, in an unknown forest and his sister was missing. How was he to know whether the elf was even friendly?
John then thought to himself, “Tom has been running with me to help find Lulu for a long time. He is my only hope at this point, I should go see what he has to say.”
Tom lived in a small house near the stream. The house was really tiny. There was small red and green furniture, and a tiny fire in the fireplace was the only light in the dark room. They sat down at the little kitchen table.
The elf put a plate of mushrooms, beef and potatoes on the table. He offered John a drink, “I have water, goat milk, daffodil juice, and root beer to drink.” “Root beer, please!” said John.
Suddenly, they heard a sound outside. They both ran to the door and peeked outside. John heard Lulu’s voice. “There she is, behind the tree!” Lulu was walking with a strange guy wearing a hood over his face. John was mad, and worried that this strange guy was going to hurt his sister. Lulu looked scared.
Just then, Lulu looked up and saw John’s face in the door. She saw that the hooded guy was not paying attention and made a break for it and ran toward the cottage. John and Tom saw her making a break for it and ran out to meet her on the side of the house.
“You were with Hood!?” exclaimed Tom, “We need to run!” Just then, even though they couldn’t see his eyes, they knew that Hood was putting his evil gaze upon them. Lulu and John didn’t have time for a happy reunion, they needed to get away, FAST.
They bolted back toward the stream, and decided to split up. John jumped down into the stream, and hid under the bridge, while the elf and Lulu hurried over the bridge. Just as Hood was following them over the bridge, John popped up and knocked Hood off of the bridge into the water. With Hood unconscious in the stream, John joined Lulu and the elf as they raced through the forest.
They wanted to get back to the safety of the village, but they still needed the key. The footsteps behind them told them that the Hood was close behind them. They climbed into a tree to hide from sight and make a plan.
Feeling safe in the tree, after evading Hood, Tom, the elf, started to explain that Hood also wanted to get the key. “We need to think of a plan quickly, so that we can get the key before him!”
“The map!” John pulled the map out from his back pocket and quickly opened it. Tom’s eyes widened with surprise. “Where did you find that?!”
Lulu, although out of breath and in a bit of shock from being taken by Hood, explained, “We found the map in a box outside of the rusty gate, and it told us about the key, but we don’t know much more. When we first met you,” she said, pointing to the elf, “I saw that huge hooded guy over your shoulder and ran! He chased me and kept asking me about the map. I was scared but knew that I shouldn’t tell him where it was. He brought me to the cottage and I thought it was his house, but then I saw you two and ran again, and now here we are.”
“Let’s go back to my house and try to learn more from the map,” said Tom. They headed back through the forest, and came upon the stream.
Lulu held the map carefully in her hand so that she didn’t tear or damage it in any way. They took another path back to the elf’s house, to throw Hood off of their trail. Instead of the nice sturdy bridge that they had crossed before, they now had to cross the water on a path of uneven stepping stones. John and Tom hopped across, one at a time, to reach the other side of the water, and hurried off into the forest toward Tom’s house.
Lulu was watching them head into the woods as she stepped onto the first stone. They were disappearing quickly into the trees, and running off toward the right. She felt the next stone under her foot wiggle a little bit. Surprised, she caught her balance and got ready to jump to the next stone.
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“Crooaaakk!” with a shriek Lulu fell into the water. “Lulu!” John had heard her cry and was rapidly advancing towards the creek “Wait, Lulu, I’m coming!”
As he tore around the bend he saw a giant frog with piercing red eyes, talons outstretching from its web-like toes, and worst of all tusks of the thickest and hardest Ivory. Lulu was slowly being swallowed by the frog “Help, John!” she cried.
“Uh okay,” he pulled up a large stone and hefted it at the creature, in vain. The creature dodged it with the ease of a ballerina, however it certainly didn’t land with the same grace as one. The frog’s leap ended in a loud Thud! that sent Lulu flying from the monster’s mouth.
Meanwhile a couple yards from the bend, Tom was moping and pouting “Does anyone ever wait for poor old Tom and his short legs, Nooo, it’s always gotta be, do this go here never wait for Tom. He’s not important we’ve got better things to do than wait for a poor Dwelf. We’ve gotta..g..gg…save our sister from a …g... giant frog!”
And than upon seeing the creature which was called a Fragglestont the little Elf-dwarf (who had had much too much Lava Leaf to drink) promptly fainted for what was probably the first time.
A man in a black suit leaped from the trees “The Hood!” but the man did not attack them instead he sent the hawk on his shoulder to flight. The hawk soared towards the Fragglestont “Silver-wing, attack!” The hawk sliced through the air and after a few minutes had made a lean cuisine out of the Fragglestont.
“Who are you?” asked Lulu.
” I’m Alex the rogue.” Answered the man in the black suit.
“Whoa, you’re tough, little bird!” Exclaimed, John.
“Of course he is, Silverwing has been passed down from Xang Rogue to Xang Rogue.
“Wait, then that bird is thousands of years old!!??” asked John.
“Tens of thousands actually,” replied Alex.
“What’s a Xang Rogue?” asked Lulu curiously.
“It’s my family’s rogue gang name, NOW CAN WE PLEASE GET ON WITH THINGSSSS!!!”
“I think you irritated him” Tom observed. He continued. “Anyway we better hurry this is not good.”
“What isn’t,” asked Lulu?
“That Fragglestont shouldn’t have been there it was one of the king’s personal trained beasts!” said Tom.
“Oh cool there’s a king, maybe he can help us with the Hood,” Said John.
“OOHH, you’re not getting it! The Hood is the king’s minion. The king (Morvak) is EEEVVVVIIILLL that is spelled E.V.L.!!!!!!!” exclaims Tom.
“What’s wrong Tom you’re going from goofy to angry in the blink of an eye and back again!” said John
“Toadstool stress runs in the family, next on the list for symptoms is commanding then emotional breakdown.” Continues Tom.
“Oh great like I’d like to see that” said Lulu.
“Uh guys!” said Alex.
“What!?” they said in unison.
“I...I…I…..I.”
They all looked to where he was pointing and saw a giant, marble castle rising up on top of the hill with no way in except a large metal doorway guarded by two young Alcazmars in Morvak uniform and four Secilliac’s.
“Just to let you guys know, Tom’s Toadstool Symptom should be kicking in any time now” said Alex.
“Why are you Mr. Know-It-All now!?” Asked Lulu who was develeloping an attitude.
“I’m not but look.” Tom was about to attack a secilliac. Shouting strange things such as “ Come on private, Move, Move, move!” Surprisingly he knocked out three Secilliacs with a large stick, however when he came to the 1st Alcazmar he was promptly swept off his feet and into a nearby tree-trunk
“Let’s go, silver wing, attack !“ Alex and silver wing began chopping at the creatures. He tossed a sword to Lulu, a croizar to John, and tossed Tom his stick which bonked him on the noggin and therefore he was sprawled across the ground for the 3rd time in his life and today. They poured water on Tom’s head to revive him and proceeded together into the tower.
It turns out that the door led to the very lowest part of the castle, which was much more like a dungeon. Lying by the entrance was a spool of yarn.
“This must lead us to another of those armored young Alcazmars and the entrance to the first floor of the castle. We can beat them easy!” says Lulu.
“Nooo!” shouted Tom but it was too late she had already picked it up.
A loud noise erupted from the darker part of the dungeon, as a large iron door opened. It was the entrance to the upper part of the castle. Out stepped an Alcazmar. Tom repeatedly banged it over the head with his stick while John and Lulu whacked at its knees. Then they ran through the castle. They had to deal with many Scadexazes along the way. Then they came to two giant, golden doors. They had to use all their strength to get them open.
They stepped into a large throne room with a large stained glass dome roof depicting stories of the king’s cruelty.
“HA HA HA!!! WELCOME TO MY CASTLE! I DON’T GET VISITORS VERY OFTEN SO, I ALMOST FEEL SORRY FOR THE TORCHEROUS DEATH YOURE GOING TO EXPERIENCE FROM BAGNO, COME ON OUT BAGNO !!!!!” all of a sudden a very large alcazmar approached from the shadows
“I, KING MORVAK SENTENCE YOU TO DEATH FOR SNEAKING IN MY HOUSE AND…Uh…FROGSLAUGHTER!!!!”
“Frogslaughter!, that doesn’t even exist!!!!” Alex cried.
Alex lunged at the large alcazmar “DIE BEAST!!!” however he was batted away like a fly. “Wait look Lulu” there was a stained-glass window showing a short pointy-eared thing.” The stained glass window pictured, blue dots darting from a dwelf’s eyes. A king was also portrayed, cowering in the corner of his throne, trying to escape the beam of blue that came from the pointy eared dwelf.
“That’s it!” exclaimed Lulu. “Tom, you are the answer. You can save us.”
“Save us, how? What could you possibly mean?” exclaimed Tom.
“Look, the stained glass window.” Lulu says.
Tom watches dumbfounded as they are beaten down one by one.
“S…S..Silverwing go!” “HA HA HA !!!! YOU ARE DEFEATED NOW!!!,GIVE UP DWELF!!!! YOU ARE A WEAK, PUNY, LITTLE CREATURE YOU COULDN’T EVEN SAVE YOUR OWN FRIENDS!!!” “Yourrrree rrriiiiiiggghtt, WAAA WAAA WAAAAA AAAA WAAAA WAAAAA” “AHHH I’M MELLl…l…ll”
“Way to go ,Tom” said John .
Finally, the Hood entered, upon seeing the demise of his master, he leapt from the building and died.
Alex pulls up in Hood’s hover craft. Silverwing had made an owl/hawk pellet in the craft just as Alex pulled up. “Get in,” Alex cries.
“Yuck!” said Lulu, “What happened to your bird?”
“Never mind that, he always does that,” replies Alex.
“Oh look its shiny,” says John.
“Where,” sniffs Tom. He reaches his hand into the bird’s putrid pellet and pulls out a key!
“That’s our ticket home!” cries Lulu. John holds it up to the map and sees that it does have the same inscription as the map.
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Most days, Lulu and John think it was all an elaborate dream they shared. Yet, on rainy days, Lulu and John believe they see Alex and Tom on the rooftops watching them.
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