Mr. Linden's Library By Emily Oswald

Crista was just inside the walls of Mr. Linden's library. Some people thought the place was magical but that was nonsense, wasn’t it? She was twirling her long curly brown hair that covered her dark green eyes, and emphasized her tall, skinny frame of her body. Crista picked a book of the shelf but just as she was about to turn and leave a voice boomed above her then a dark face appeared. The voice boomed in the quiet little library and said, “be careful what you read bad things can come of it.” Ignoring what the voice had said Crista left with her head held high skipping toward home to read the book Mr. Linden had just warned her about. Later that night the moon looked like a sliver in the starry sky. She snuggled up in bed to read the mysterious book. The book was thick and leather bound with pages torn at the edges. Inside it was strange there was no author or title, a warning said’ many strange things happen who read this book.” She was curious to read on, there were tales of old times. One said a man was walking through the forest the next thing he knew there was a satyr attacking him. And then out from the book came a satyr charging at her. But as soon as it reached her it disappeared. Every tale she read something would come out at her then disappear. Until she came upon one called Vine, but she was too tired she yawned then fell fast asleep. Soon she woke up startled and awake, but she could not move she was tangled in vines. Even though she lifted four water buckets to and from the well every morning and every afternoon it was no use against the vines. That's what the title meant, but this time it did not go away. And it was too late now, then everything went black! She had gotten sucked inside the book. Every story she had read surrounded her and it was too late to undo anything. And then there were people she recognized from town that had disappeared years before, that’s what the warning meant. Soon the vines took her away to become part of one of the characters of the book she just read.                                                                           

                                                          ****

In the morning her mother saw the book lying on her bed. But Crista was not there, she picked up the book and walked to her bedroom to read the mysterious book. It was like a magnet was pulling her to read the book.

                                                          ****

4 years later everyone was gone and the house was empty and quiet, and Mr. Linden picked up the book to take it back to the library.

He walked outside and looked up to the window where Crista used to stand 4 years ago and smiled and thought “ I had warned her, but it is too late now, maybe I should buy the house”. Mr. Linden laughed to himself about the last comment.

He then walked back to his house and saw a mysterious falcon staring down at him from the roof. He thought “why is it staring at me like that”, a shiver went down his spine.

He walked inside and placed the book back on the shelf. Then Mr. Linden stared at the wall for a few seconds then the out of nowhere, writing appeared  why did you do this to me, he wanted to say I warned you but soon the words disappeared like dust. And he was left blinking his eyes, like did I just see what I thought I saw? Stammered and surprised he left in silence to read his newest book on the shelves. It was very weird 32 people had disappeared over the last few years, and only he knew what had happened to them. He put on his crooked smile and walked upstairs, he had warned each and every one of them but no one had listened.

****

Crista awoke and arose to her surroundings she was in a dark vibrant green forest at the edge of a small village. She went over to a small watering hole where she could get a nice long drink, and a good look at herself in the reflection of the glass like water. When she looked down at herself she let out a loud screech she was a dragon. Standing just less than seven feet tall, an estimate of 16 feet or more in wingspan, with her giant black and grey wings that enveloped her body. Crista had black and blue scales up and down her body, dark green eyes, black spikes down the center of her back. A long black and grey snout with sharp white teeth that gave a menacing grin, and sharp talons that curled down over her feet. Crista left the watering hole and her image of her new self behind her and made her way through the forest being sure not to be seen as her talons clicked on the forest floor. She reached the edge of the village that read River Seine people of Rouen. Christa's stomach let out a loud grumble. The first thing Crista had to do was try and find food, but the only thing she could find was people so she thought she could hold her hunger.

****

As time past Crista now a dragon spent her days in the forest. When Crista thought she couldn't hold her hunger in any longer, she went back to the town where the people of Rouen lived. Crista started to eat people, once her own kind, she didn't want to do it but it was the only way to live. It's not like she could walk up and ask for food, the people of Rouen would only hear a great roar.

****

One day as Crista was doing her daily routine a new Rouen was out in the town the Archbishop of Rouen; St Romanus had presented himself to Crista. She went down to grab him to quench her hunger, but as she did so St. Romanus stabbed her in the stomach. Feeling weaker Crista tried to fend him off but St. Romanus triumphed over Crista and with one last stab she fell at his feet. St. Romanus took Crista over to a fire already set ablaze with roasting stick; the dragon lay there rotating. And when St. Romanus thought she was completely burned he put out the fire, but when he put out the fire the head and neck were untouched by the fire. St Romanus and the people of Rouen mounted the head on a building as an image of sending away evil.

****

        Several days later Crista awoke frozen to a wall unable to move. She was shocked to see that now she was a grotesque gargoyle half dragon, half animal, just her head and her neck. Crista was frozen with her stubby wings up in the air, her ears perked behind, a menacing scowl on her face, her talons gripping the side of the building, and she was frozen in stone. She looked back down at her neck, and then everything went black.

****

Crista awoke and arose to her surroundings she was back in the lush green forest at the edge of the village. Crista thought to herself, “now I understood every time someone reads this chapter I will start as a dragon then turn into gargoyle.” This was her way of life.

Folk Tale of the Gargoyle:

La Gargouille, was a legendary dragon that lived in the River Seine, which in the 7th Century was ravaging the town and people of Rouen. It was slain by St Romanus, the Archbishop of Rouen. After the dragon was slain its body was set ablaze, its body was consumed by fire but the head and neck survived and was mounted on a building.

Works Cited

"Gargoyles - Mythology and Folklore - The White Goddess." Gargoyles - Mythology and Folklore - The White Goddess. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 July 2016. <http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/articles/mythology_folklore/gargoyles.asp>.

The Bloody Night in the Mansion By Hannah Efron

Aah!!! Aah!!
The scream rang in my ears. I had to find out what was going on.


Eek!!

There it was again. I followed the sound until I came to a locked bathroom. Blood was gushing out the crack in the door. Then I got my switchblade out of my pocket and cut a ginormous hole in the door. I jumped through the hole and when I came into the room … the criminal was gone. There lay an unconscious, bloody, cut up woman at my feet. I needed to find out who did this. So when I had transported the women to the hospital, I got my detective fingerprint pad from my bedroom. When I had done a clear search of the bathroom and gotten the criminal’s fingerprints, I went to the police station to see if I could find a matching set of fingerprints in the police station’s records. I did. And when I saw the name written on the records sheet I almost jumped out of my skin. It was Tom ‘’Chainsaw’’ Rellepe. The most wanted criminal in the world for more than 10 years. And I was going to capture him. So the next day I got up early and searched for a trail of footprints out on the sidewalk. I found some. I was sooooo glad it was winter. I followed the footprints to a rundown lumber mill and went inside. Then I suddenly stopped when I saw a gang of men standing behind a bookshelf. I eavesdropped on them. This is what I heard.

‘’ After we take out all the criminal sniffers we can do whatever we want so lets do this.’’
‘’ Yeah!’’
I knew that the world couldn’t take that so I went outside, barricaded all the exits, climbed up a ladder, got on the roof and dropped my HUGE net on them. Next, I quickly called the police to take the criminals away.
’Hey, what is going on’’, they said.
‘’ You have been caught. 30 police officers are on the way here.’’, I yelled.

And so it was. I had captured Tom Rellepe and 5 other most wanted men. Now I was a famous detective worldwide. But, more importantly, the world doesn’t have as many thugs loose to hurt people everywhere.

Zombie Vs. Me by Hannah Efron

When I stepped into the dark alley behind Zebra Hills Cemetery I knew that things had taken a turn for the worse. But maybe that was because an 8 ft. zombie was moaning in front of me. It had a cold, blank stare (It felt like the zombie was staring right through me.). I grabbed the huge ninja star from my even bigger pocket and threw it so it cut off his head. But his ghostly arms reached out and put his head back on his neck. Ever heard the rumor that zombies speed up when they’re near their prey? Well, it’s true. As the zombie lunged toward me I came up with a plan. I had a rope in my pocket. I could use that to tie up his mouth so he couldn’t bite me. Then I would turn him into a statue with a homemade cement gun. But to make a cement gun I would need

ketchup
granite
a dead worm 

So first I tied his mouth shut in a blink of an eye.
Then I picked a tomato and squeezed the juice out into a cup. Next I got a granite rock from the landscape. Now all I would need is a dead worm. But worms vanished from earth like a jillion years ago. Or did they? Lately I have seen better soil than ever. So well the zombie struggled to untie the knot I checked every corner of the cemetery and FINALLY found a dead worm buried beneath centuries of dust on a golden plaque at the head of a coffin. But I was running out of time. I needed to make the cement gun fast. Quickly I covered the granite in ketchup and lay the smooshed dead worm on top of it. Then faster than a second my concoction had turned into a cement gun. I quickly ran over to the zombie and squirted him with cement. Then I grabbed a hammer from the toolshed and smashed him into a million pieces. Next I whistled as I walked back home after a days work. Boy, would my Mom be proud of me.

Seasons by Adalyn Raney

The ground is covered with a layer of cotton,

Though this type of cotton is icy

And cold.

It melts on your tongue as it falls from the sky,

And makes you wish for the warm July.

We tip our hats to the cold, white men,

Though we know they can’t respond.

We pass by the angels

Who lay on the ground.

And we have these joys,

Until the sun peeks out

From behind it’s cotton cloud,

And all our fun begins to disappear.

The men no longer tip their hats,

And the angels go back to the clouds,

And green begins to appear.

In the trees to on the ground,

Green slowly appears.

Then the green turns to pink,

Blushing with colors and cheer.

The trees blush until the weather is too hot,

And bees hover around.

Fierce bolts of fire

Burn down some of the trees,

And beetles take care of some others

Until the time when they loose their leaves,

Because of fright,

At the sight of jack o lanterns.

 The world is now full of red, orange, yellow and brown,

And crunchy leaves cover the ground,

And all around you can see,

Goblins, Witches, Ghosts galore!

And then comes a time to yell,

Trick or Treat!

Soon people feast on a delicious variety,

Thankful for all they have.

As the wind gets colder,

And the days get shorter,

Cotton covers the world,

Again.

Blind Girl by Hannah Efron

Smells humid
Like it's going to start raining
I hear nature
and little kids playing
I touch bleachers
with lots of texture
so long sight!
Goodbye forever

DRAGON'S DESTINY Chapter 2 by Kyle Muenchow, Isaiah Klepfer, Theodore Nguyen

Chapter 2

“Doubt it,” said Fireball feeling victorious. All the dragons felt triumphant because they had just won the battle. But the war was still to come.

“Good job everyone!” said Cosmo. “That little runt ran like a baby dragon!”

“But he said he’d be back,” said Kevalth. “So we should prepare for the next battle.”

“ He wanted our planet and still wants it. But we can’t let him take Helheim because it's our home and think about all of the innocent creatures that live on this planet that would lose their lives. So from this moment on… we are at war.” said Kevalth

“But he had an army that big and that might have only been a scouting party he will most likely be back with something way bigger than that knowing that we are here. So how are we going to defeat him?” Cosmo pointed out with a worried expression on his face.

“We  could get some weapons,” suggested Fireball.

“You’re right,” said Cosmo. “But we’ll still need reinforcements.”

“But they are too far away currently they are at the other side of the universe they sent us here to be the new frontier dragons remember?”

“Well,” said Fireball. “Let’s make an army. We have thousands of mechanical parts here. We’ll make a robot army and stop the humans from ever trying to take our land. Even if it means killing the general Mike.

“How do we do that we don’t even know how to make any of this stuff into anything and besides we would just crush the parts before we tried holding them” said Kevalth.

“Then how do you suppose we stop Mike?” asked Cosmo. “The dragons can’t get to us, and we can't build an army.”

“We’ll have to do it lonesome,” replied Fireball.

“Agreed” said Kevalth.

“No there is another way, in ancient legends there are 6 items made for dragons they grant undesirable power even 1 object is enough to wipe out 3 times of those robots and 6 times those soldiers at the same time.” Cosmo replied

“Why didn’t you tell us about these objects before?” asked Fireball feeling a bit betrayed.

“Because it was the ancient cosmic dragons that created the items and if they got into the wrong hands it would mean the end of all the galaxies as we know it. So they decided to only tell certain cosmic dragons about them and make them swear not to tell anyone or else they would be killed unless it was an emergency. And I’m pretty sure this is an emergency” explained Cosmo.

“But why did they tell you about it?” asked Fireball.

“Because I am a descendent from the dragon who hid them.”said Cosmo .

“So then where are they?” asked Kevalth anxiously.

“They are on another planet maybe about 200 miles away from here” replied Cosmo.

“Ugh that’s way too far for us to fly there and the only way is to use Grimlore’s magic,” said Fireball.

“I may know some magic to fly us there, Grimlore may have taught me some magic so that I could go hunting underwater,”Kevalth said

“All right so Kevalth will allow us to breathe in the darkness and we can help by giving some of our energy to him,” Fireball said

“Once we get the relic we can come back and defeat the next soldiers that come although I do not know how to use it,” Cosmo said.

“We can figure it out when we get there,” Kevalth said. He used his magic that he learned to give the dragons air while in space the dragons arrived on the planet that Cosmo described.

“Alright now that we are here I’ll use my tracking skills to find the relic,” Kevalth said.

Kevalth leads the other 2 dragons to the place that is resonating energy.

“This place looks like an old temple,”Kevalth said.

“Woah I feel a lot of energy here” Fireball said.

“Like I said this relic is over powered,”Cosmo said.

The dragons went inside the old temple.

“Careful there might be traps inside that could hurt us more than that army of soldiers,”Cosmo said.

“It’s fine I’ll just shoot a fireball to disable all the traps,” Fireball said.

“I think we should let Fireball do this while we stand outside,” Kevalth said.

“Agreed,” Cosmo agreed.

As they stepped outside they heard arrows, rocks breaking wood, snapping and many other things as Fireball stepped outside they saw his face covered with arrows.

“What did I say?” Cosmo asked a little annoyed.

“Hey at least I burned the half of arrows and traps,” said Fireball.

“He’ll never learn wont he?” Kevalth asked.

“Yep” Cosmo said.

After the dragons took out Fireball’s face arrows they stepped inside they saw tons of burn marks.

“See I burned all of it,” Fireball said.

“Good,” Cosmo said.

As they reached the end of the tunnel in the temple they saw a ravine and on the other side a entrance of light.

Cosmo said “Don’t fly over there are  most likely traps like that tunnel.”

“Then what do we do now?”Kevalth asked.

“I want you to shoot some of your spikes straight at the tunnel across the ravine” Cosmo said.

Kevalth shot his spikes straight at the tunnel ahead and indeed it was filled with traps spiked logs rained down and boulders and they even saw some arrows lit on fire

“That was definitely overkill” Fireball said. “ C’mon, let’s go.”

They dragons flew over the ravine to the other side.

“Finally no more traps,” said Fireball relieved.

“But now we have a huge maze by the looks of it,” Kevalth added.

“How is that better?” asked Fireball.

“Fireball just blow up the place,” pleaded Cosmo. “We don’t have time.”

Fireball shot 10 fireballs straight at the walls.“What the,” he said. “Nothing happened.”

“Let me try,” said Cosmo. Cosmo shoots out his disintegration beam destroying the wall.

“Well that drained half of my energy but at least it took down the wall,” said Cosmo. “Let’s go!”

The dragons move into the next tunnel where there is a giant stone man asleep. “We come in peace stone person” said Kevalth.

The stone person awoke.

“Awww great job you made him wake up,” said Fireball.

The stone man starts attacking without warning. “See this is why we don’t wake up grumpy stone men in temples,” sais Cosmo.

“I’m sorry?” said Kevalth. He turned invisible and sneaked up behind the stone man and brought him down shattering him into pieces.

“At least you made up for what you did,” said Fireball.

They came into the next room where they saw pictures of dragons specifically 3 dragons they kinda looked like them. A dark dragon a reddish orange dragon and a greenish dragon. The pictures showed them fighting small things it almost looked humans. In the center of the round room they saw a staff embedded in the rock pedestal.

“Ooo I call dibs it’s mine!” Fireball said while running over to the center.

Fireball picked up the staff and magically it magically retracted into a ball and flew over onto Fireball’s tail attaching itself almost like it was alive.

“Woah that was cool” Fireball said.

“Well now it’s yours and I believe this is called the Multi Staff it can turn into a staff or a sphere and it is pretty convenient fitting on your tail” said Cosmo

“What magic can it do? It’s so cool! And it has a fiery outline!”Fireball said enthusiastically.

“It can also transform into 3 settings,” said Cosmo.

“It sounds too convenient to be true,” said Kevalth. “I mean it’s almost like it was destined to Fireball. He just called dibs on it.”

“Well,” started Fireball. “Destined or not, let’s find the next relic.”

Gobi Jerboa by Emily Oswald

The gobi jerboa is the wildest thing

They can withstand harsh climates

And have a crazy body shape

With a body and head like a mouse

Sensory whiskers like a cat

Eyes like an owl

Ears like a squirrel or a jackrabbit

Back legs like a kangaroo

Forearms like a prairie dog

And a long thin disproportionate tail

The gobi jerboa lives in the grassland and the desert

And is the wildest thing