If you walked it was about a ten minute trek to the beach, but Johnny was so eager to get there that he made it in five.
The biggest challenge was how to get to the cave. He stood at the top of the cliff for about ten minutes before he spotted a route. It wasn’t a safe and easy one but it was better than nothing. The route involved staggering down a rather steep cliff face, trekking across some slimy rock pools and walking through waist deep water.
Johnny began walking down the steep side slowly, watching where he put his foot. One slip and he would be rolling down the side as fast as a marble on marble run.
It took Johnny about twenty minutes to reach the bottom but he still had a long way to go. The next part was to walk across the slippery surface of the rock pools, and that was very tricky because the algae had made the rocks like ice so Johnny had a treacherous path ahead of him.
He put his hands out to help him balance and began to shuffle across the rocks. He stumbled a few times but towards the end he got the hang of it. After he completed the rock pool there was only one more thing in his way. The waist deep water. He could now see the cave opening and after all of his hard work he was nearly there.
Johnny thought that it was probably best just to get it over with, so he began. With every inch he moved his feet the water just seemed to get deeper and deeper.
He carried on, determined to finish although he was beginning to get the shivers. Then finally it was over. He had completed the horrible path and all that was ahead of him was a small walk. Then he would finally be at the cave.
Johnny stopped and stared for a moment, dripping with water and breathing deeply.
“Well I’m not going to accomplish anything by just standing here, am I?” He asked himself. “Better get a move on.” And that’s exactly what he did.
He walked slowly towards the cave, tying to rest his legs because they were absolutely exhausted. He reached the entrance, pulled his torch out of his coat pocket, and switched it on. It wasn’t a very strong light but it was better than nothing.
He walked in rather hesitantly, not knowing what on earth he was going to find. He walked slowly through the cave, turning every corner as if it was never going to end. Then suddenly he turned into a wide-open space and he stopped and stared in shock.
He knew what it was. He didn’t know whether to run or to stay. He had seen them landing around the village in the war. Not often, but it happened. In front of him was a war bomb. Un-detonated he guessed.
He walked up to it, unsure of what he was doing. He slowly raised his hand in front of him, shaking, breathing deeply and gently placed it on the side of the bomb. He walked around it, dragging his hand with him. He was amazed at what he was looking at. Then he noticed the brightly coloured control pad. Johnny was tempted to push just one button but was it too dangerous?
He leaned his finger on one of the buttons and gently but slowly pressed it whilst closing his eyes. Nothing happened. He slowly opened his eyes. “Nothing happened,“ he said.
He began to push all of the buttons as if he was composing some sort of song. But Johnny didn’t realize what one of the buttons had written beneath it. A big red button: “Detonate.” And Johnny pushed it.
Johnny was extremely confused. The bomb began to vibrate, beep and make funny clunking noises.
“What’s going on?” he mumbled in a terrified voice. He decided to make a run for it but by then it was too late.
BANG! The sound of the explosion filled the air. Birds abandoned their trees and dogs barked. All of the villagers ran out of their houses to see the cloud of smoke filling the air. Johnny’s mother ran out of the house and froze. She suddenly just sprang into action. She ran inside and quickly dialled 999.
“Hello there how may I be of assistance?” a voice said the other side of the phone.
“There’s been an explosion, on a nearby beach. I think that my son has possibly been involved,” his mother replied.
“We will dispatch a team as soon as you can pin point your location.”
“Uuummmm, the beach.”
“Do you know the map co-ordinates, or the name of the town?”
“The beach is about five minutes out of our village, map co-ordinates 32, 41,” she answered. Helping out with local aid during the war had certainly paid off. That’s how she knew the location.
“That’s great, just hang in there and help is on its way.”
Johnny’s mother put down the phone and looked out of the window. She saw something that lifted her spirit greatly. All of the villagers were heading right down to the explosion. Some were taking First Aid kits and others were carrying blankets. She grabbed her coat and ran out to join them.
“Aauhh, where am I? Why can’t I feel my legs?” Johnny only just worked up the strength to lift his head and he was horrified by the result. “Where have my legs gone? Where are they?”
The explosion had whipped Johnny’s legs clean off of his body. He just lay there in a puddle of his own blood, with only short stumps where his legs used to be, not knowing what to do.
“I’m going to die,” Johnny sobbed. “Without even telling my family I loved them, without even living.”
Then suddenly a man called. “Johnny!” It was like the voice of an angel. “Johnny! Are you in there?”
Johnny barley had the energy to reply. “Y…y…y… yes.”
“Just hang in there boy, we are coming in to get you.”
Johnny took a deep breath and relaxed. He could hear the echo of the sirens in the background and the faint sounds of footsteps coming closer but he could feel himself getting drowsy and it was only getting worse.
The next thing Johnny knew he was in the safe arms of Vicar Clive. “It’s alright lad, you’re in safe hands now, just relax.”
The Rising Knight [Extract]
Alex Williams, Tre Gib
In the dark ages of the Medieval times a multitudinous collection of monstrosities plagued land after land, devouring everything from small hamlets to prodigious kingdoms, leaving only the lingering remains of unlucky souls waiting to be swept away by the wind. But where there is evil ,good shall rise up against it.
Kevin was a mediocrely healthy boy with brown hazelnut hair that was relatively short for most of the boys that accompanied him in knight training, and blue eyes that lit up at the first sign of excitement. He lived in a keep that kept twenty houses inside the walls of Belemor, although some people were homeless and slept by the gate.
At the time of Kevin's initiation the land was covered with snow, blanket by blanket as blasts of cold air slowed down the progress of the keep. But somehow the king Fergus was unaffected by this; maybe because he had his weight's worth in food, drink and money helping him endure the harsh winter.
Kevin had reached the elite before his friends and enemies which made Fergus realise his potential. As the great feast started, Kevin was asked to speak to the king privately in his business room.
"My son. How would you like to cleanse these lands of the filth that infest them from this day?!" he exclaimed, gasping for air.
"It would be an honour my lord, but I couldn't do it alone."
"Yes! So I will appoint two of the best men in Morkey to aid you in your quest. Qatar, a master wizard; and Arkay, the finest archer in the land."
And so the quest began, climbing up mountains fortified with blistering wind, clambering into forgotten vales filled with spiders and goblins until they reached the evilest reach on the planet Karbugh.
Upon entering using Arkay's grapple arrow they noticed an unearthly silence. As they edged across with their backs to the gate they spotted another gate opposite which was open containing giant spider webs. As Qatar and Arkay stared at it horrified, Kevin saw an orc cavorting with a cloaked figure. …Until it spotted them and all hell broke loose.
With arrows going haywire and swords cutting through flesh like scissors through paper, they fought brutally maimed but still carrying on. It was at that moment
a giant spider devoured several orcs by the cathedral.
Each of them sent out sounds of anguish as the spider’s fangs broke through bone and then proceeded to vanquish other orcs as they dwindled in numbers by fleeing the castle. The cloaked figure was nowhere to be seen...
The Little Princess Mermaid
Ffion White, Cwrt Sart
One morning the sun was gazing through to all the bubbly water where the meranimals live in the animers kingdom. They all have to live in merhuts and they fit only two meranimals per one. In one hut there are two meranimals. One is Princess Angel the mermaid panda, who is the daughter of King Triton. The other is Angel’s best buddy Snowflake, who has no parents now because there was trouble on land which killed them when they went up to introduce themselves to friends there.
Princess Angel and Snowflake are very best buddies and they have friends on land but King Triton will not let them go up on land to see them. They have been told by the king that there is danger on the land and he doesn’t want them to get hurt like Snowflakes parents did. But they would not listen. So the next day they arranged to go up and visit their friends.
When the girls went up to land to see their friends they asked them “Is there any trouble or danger up here anymore?”
“No, that was years ago,” said Izzy, their elephant friend with her annoying brother Joebot the nerd robot.
After the meranimals went back home they went to see King Triton and told him that the trouble and danger was years ago and has stopped now so they were safe. And after that day they were allowed to go up on land to go and visit their friends for the rest of their life.
Dave the Deer
Samuel Lewis, Cwrt Sart
We started to give up hope on finding Mr. Weeney.
It all started when we were playing in the forest. Me - Rango the Racoon - Fred the Fox, Bert the Badger, Bob the Bear, Aaron the Antelope and Mr. Weeney
This was no ordinary forest. It had so many trees it was awesome. I climbed up a tree, grabbed a rope thingy, and began to swing like Tarzan! It was cool at first but not when my face was stuck to the floor.
Bob had the great idea of playing a game of touch on the other side of the forest. It was fun at first but then all of a sudden it turned upside down.
We couldn’t find him anywhere! He was nowhere to be found. We looked in bushes, in streams and the oddest place of all… under rocks! It was still no use! So we all decided to spend the night there and look for Mr. Weeney in the morning.
Eventually night fell and we all drifted off to sleep. I had a terrible nightmare about Mr. Weeney. I thought that something really bad had happened to him… DEATH!!!
Finally morning came. The sun rose over the horizon. Hopefully it was the day we would find Mr. Weeney.
I woke up the others and we were ready to start our quest. About half an hour later we were brutally stopped by a herd of zebras. I fainted with shock! After a while I woke up but I was very unstable. Then the chief zebra stepped forward and said:
“What are you animals doing on our turf?”
We all burst out in laughter because his voice was really squeaky! You could see the anger in his eyes. He came up to my face and started grunting with anger. I wasn’t having any of this so I slapped him in the face and he went down like a tonne of bricks. The rest of the herd scattered. After that drama we carried on.
We then came to another unwanted problem… a river. We were clueless and we didn’t know what to do. Then Rango said:
“Why don’t we build a raft?”
We knocked down trees, took rocks and leaves! One hour later it was complete! We manoeuvred it in the flowing river and hoped to God it would float! It did. We got on and started to drift downstream.
A while down the water we heard a funny noise and to our amazement came upon a waterfall. We couldn’t do anything, so we just hoped for the best!
Before we knew it we were at the bottom, everyone was alive and safe. We were all over the moon. We climbed out of the water and sat on the rocks next to it. It took a while for us to come round.
This journey was not over yet. I looked around and something caught my eye… a road.
“I have found road!” I shouted.
Everyone looked at me and said “Where?”
I replied “OVER THERE!”
“Lets go!” I said, rushing over to the discovery.
We started to stroll down the street like gangsters! We were the part! After a ten minute walk we came to the end of the road but it lead us to a town, a small town that lit up the forest.
We slowly crept into the town. There were shops and restaurants everywhere. We were going to be here forever trying to find Mr. Weeney. We then stumbled upon a shop. It had a big glowing sign saying “Luigi’s Ice-Cream Parlour”
The saliva was dripping out of my mouth. Rango went in through the letterbox and opened the door from inside. We all tiptoed in and switched on the lights. It was ice cream heaven. It had all the flavours you could think of. Coconut, Strawberry, Chocolate, the lot! Bob went to the freezer part of the shop and to his astonishment found Mr. Weeney eating a huge tub of ice- cream.
Bob shouted “I FOUND MR.WEENEY!”
Adam replied “WHERE?”
“IN HERE!” yelled Bob.
We went over to see. There he was. We were so happy we all burst into tears. I picked him up and squeezed him so hard he could hardly breathe. Joy and laughter filled the air, everyone was so glad to find him.