Young Writers Society

The Sulkie

Melinda was shocked, as her head transformed from human to seal, she felt more free, so it was true, she was a Sulkie. Just to think, all this followed her first swim in the sea. When she swam for that very first time, she ran into a seal. With eyes the black of the ocean depths, it looked into hers. It looked like it wanted to tell her something [she later found out that it did] and with a flick of its tail, it swam away. The way it swam made her want to put everything to the wind and follow him. The sun was setting on the horizon and she had to leave, to the banks she called home. Today was Melinda’s thirteenth birthday and her grandmother was saving a special surprise and she knew it. She could feel in her bones that this day would change her life forever. She walked to the hotel where she was staying the week. Her mother was waiting for her when she arrived, her presents were stacked by the front desk, her family gathered by it. She opened all her presents, books she had really wanted, a ticket to the Nutcracker ballet [obviously from her mother]. Finally there was only one box left. The box was rather large, about two feet on each side, and it was intricately carved of ebony, on the top, a seal resided. Her grandmother looked as if she were going to puke if the suspense lasted much longer, so Melinda opened the box. Inside was a gps with the coordinates of a California school plugged into it. Her eyebrows rose, what was so special about a gps? She didn’t even know how to use it. Her grandmother piped up, go there, you will find the key to your true life. It sounded so crazy that she had to grab a chocolate from the candy bowl to keep from bursting into hysteria. But, to humor her grandmother, she tried it out.

Armed with a crash course in how to use a gps from her dad, she set off. She followed it to a school. She gained entrance [thats another story] and kept following it, until it said she was right where she needed to be, she looked up, right in front of her, was a locker. She tried to get it open, but it had a combination lock. First she entered all her parents birth dates, then she tried addresses, she tried everything she could think of, even phone numbers! After her brain had been racked to no avail, she tried the coordinates, it opened, and a map fell out. The map was written in a runes that she couldn’t make heads or tails of [it actually looked like many creatures heads and tails!] she looked it over in the moonlight, for it was a full moon, the runes glowed bright blue. Then the runes seemed to reform into seals doing different things, some had sharks chasing them. The seals moved to places on the map, she got the distinct feeling she should follow them. She started where the shark was, then she followed the seal. It lead her to a library. She went back to the hotel to wait until it was open.

When she went back to the library, there was a bright young man standing by the counter. The seals had told her to go to the fantasy section and pull on the sign. She asked for the fantasy section from the young man [his name as she found out was Sam] he lead her to a neglected section with cobwebs everywhere, the rusted sign was barely decipherable “thanks” she said to Sam, her cheeks reddening. He left, and she pretended to browse the section until she was sure nobody was watching, then she pulled on the sign, it didn’t budge. “Might need this” Sam said bringing up an oil can. She reddened even more, he poured an outrageous amount of oil on the sign, and pulled. As it opened, she realized it was really a door handle, no wonder he needed so much oil. Inside was a long passage, he nodded her on and before she could thank him, he was back at the desk. She shrugged and continued down the corridor. When she got to the end of the corridor, a mechanism scanned her and fired a bag at her. She stood there, alarmed, holding the bag. She reached inside, to find the softest thing she had ever touched, what is it? She thought. Then it occurred to her, how had Sam known what she needed to do? Had this happened before? Then she turned around and there were two men in masks. She jumped, one tried to spring but the other held him back saying “not yet”. She held the bag tight to her chest, no way was she losing whatever it was that her grandmother wanted her to have so much. “Give it here little girl” snarled the first man in the mask, she clutched it even tighter. The other man took out a knife that was about eight inches long. She panicked, just them the floor gave way under her, she fell into the sea. She swam as no human has swam before, staying under until there was no movement above the water except the waves lapping at the shore. She swam out into the open sea, she saw the beach with only a couple fisher men on the coast. She and the bag were safe, for now.

As soon as she entered the hotel room, she locked everything she could up and went to get a good shower to help her clear her mind. But it didn’t help, the nagging question in the back of her mind needed to be answered, how did he know? When she came out of the shower, room service was at her door, with chamomile tea, perfect, her grandmother always knew what she needed before she needed it. The summer Olympics were on, so she stopped to watch for a while, during the advertisements between swimming races, it said that if you found a girl coming out of a seal, the skin she leaves behind could get you a million dollars, she rightfully thought that this was outrageous so she muted it before she could hear any more, but, what she really missed, was a reward for her alive in a lab for fifty million dollars.

Next day, she went back to the library. Her excuse, “I need a quiet place to read the book you gave me for my birthday” but, this was not the case. What she really wanted to do, get her question answered. She walked right up to the front desk and placed her bag on the counter “how did you know?” she almost yelled. Sam stared at her, then said “you’re not the first………………..”

THE TORNADO TWINS

Cecilia and Von were quite a pair, people had even nicknamed them the tornado twins, those people didn’t know how right they were, for the Tornado twins, were children of the wind. Like the wind, they were always on the go, but all who knew them knew that their mood changed like a calm breeze to a fierce winter storm. But, unlike most twins in stories, you couldn’t tell they were twins just by looking at them, one had a face as white as the snow in the wind, the other as brown as a tornado. Cecilia had brown hair, Von had blond. The odd part about it, is they don’t even know they were twins. One was always following her mother the wind, the other followed the wind because his adoptive father was a wind turbine engineer. Then one day, mother wind said to her daughter Cecilia, “by the way you have a twin brother” did I forget to mention that wind’s character is as unpredictable as how fast she will go. “Oh and we are right in the neighborhood to visit” “yea mom” said Cecilia, who was listening to her ipod. Wind sighed. Then she moved the cloud Cecilia was sitting on to right above the wind turbines. Then she made the cloud rain, Cecilia fell, she realized just in time to start floating. “You could have just blown a gust in my face mom” she landed, her mom repeated her speech about her twin brother, she was starting to swirl pretty fast from frustration, then her daughter stared at her, expressionless. Then in pure horror, [Wind was forming a tornado about now] then Cecilia’s face went pale [even for her, which means it is almost neon white] as she saw her brother, she flew almost the speed of light, and landed in front of him.

Von was walking past the turbine his father was working on, he called up to his father “time for a coffee break” he put his father’s coffee on a little tray table, it really wasn’t that bad being adopted, just that his friends gave him an odd look when he explained it to them. Just then, a girl fell out of the sky and landed right in front, she must have been doing this for a while because she landed on her feet and stared straight into his eyes, her eyes were a little more blue than the sky, and they looked like a kaleidoscope. Her face was deathly pale, not a hint of red in it. She stared at him, he stared back, she shook her head like something disappointed her. Then she held out her hand, and said “come brother, there is so much we have to catch up on”

For one thing, he was adopted, he had no history, only that he was well fed and quite healthy and there was a note on his blanket that said “find a good home for me, my mom doesn't know what to do”. His dad found him on the street and took me in, whenever he was close to the turbines, he felt close to my mom. But this girl? she didn’t even look like him, so he stared at her blankly. She rolled her eyes “Surely our mom told you about a twin sister?” she said, now his mouth fell open, not only a sister, a twin? if this was a prank, whomever was responsible would pay dearly. Then she said “Oh well, I didn’t know either until today, so come on” he took her hand, he felt stronger, almost like he could fly. he looked down, his feet were a couple inches off the ground, he looked back up at his sister, eyes searching. She smiled “you’re getting it” she said sweetly. She lifted her feet off the ground, he went up a little further, then he took off, reaching his father, his father stared in horror as he fell. She rolled her eyes as she went to catch him “seems that you need a helping hand” she seemed friendly enough, so he said “want to meet my dad?” “sure!” she replied, so they flew to where his dad was working his way down to try to find his son. His dad looked at them, then started to fall. they caught him just before he hit the ground. They placed him by his coffee in a lawn chair, they seemed to know what the other was thinking so they didn’t talk. “Yea, maybe we should see my mom, she is probably going to kill me if I don’t explain myself to her soon, even so someone might get killed.” He stared, ok, his mom might kill someone? Perfect. He followed her, this had got to be good. Up they went, to a cloud, she set him down on the cloud, and blew a gust, it was pretty strong, ok, his sister might have super powers, his mother was a murderer, and he could fly but only if he was holding her hand. TMI. A cloud was blown into the shape of a face, was this his mom? His sister greeted her as such. Then he looked at her, and she said in a raspy voice “you are a child of the wind”

Wind started talking to Cecilia, take him to your favorite library, but do as i ask, go to the fantasy section and pull on the sign. “but…” “no buts, do it daughter” said wind a bit too harshly. “ok” sighed Cecilia. She took her brother to the Tehachapi public library. They toured all her favorite spots, then they went to the totally un-cool neglected fantasy section. “This is like, totally stupid, but my- I mean our- mother told me to do this” “go ahead” said Von “I won’t laugh”. She did, and a door opened, she went inside, Von followed hesitantly. They arrived at the end of the corridor at relatively the same time, Cecilia had to prevent Von from running as the mechanism scanned them. It spat a box at them, Von almost screamed as he caught it. The box fell open as it hit them, then a translucent thread bound them together, and disappeared. Then, Cecilia want right outside the library, and tried to fly, she did not succeed. She stamped in frustration, Von could almost see dust devils forming around her, he walked up to her, and took her hand, it felt odd, but before he could grieve both their losses, they were going up so fast that neither of them could see the land going by.

“Von?”

“yea?”

“ I think I found out why mom sent us there”

“why?”

“to teach us that we are more powerful together, even though now I can’t fly alone.”

They flew back to the library, to see Sam, he ought to know that there was a machine in the library that gave out things that made powerful people even more powerful. Von was the first to speak, “Sam I……” he never finished, for in front of him, was a pretty girl with a bag on the desk.

I’m Not A Tree Hugger!

Aspen was hanging out with her friend Tiffany, Tiffany was helping her plant a tree to commemorate Aspens father’s archeological success in Greece. Tiffany was teasing her about how down to earth she was, calling her a tree hugger. Every time something cool happened, she would plant another tree. Today she was planting an oak, the tiny tree only barely peeked above the ground. Her mud covered hands slapped Tiffany across the forehead. Soon the two of them were rolling around on the ground laughing, mud covered both of their faces. “Hey, just because my family is really earthy-crunchy, doesn’t mean I’m a treehugger” “ok fine, you're still my Aspen tree though” Aspen blushed, why had she made up that stupid dryad game anyway? In case you didn’t know, dryads are people who live in trees until someone lets them out, but they have to go back to the tree when winter comes. Aspen always got cabin fever in the winter, actually, it was pretty much the opposite, she refused to leave the house, not even to tend to her trees. She would spend all winter inside. What her parents didn’t tell her was that, when she was a baby, they took her into the snow, the instant she touched the snow, she froze. It took all the medical advancement of the century to revive her.

Time to go to the library! called her mom from the doorway, her mother didn’t get that the library was always her excuse to have Tiffany over. She sighed and got in the car to go to the library. Tiffany always upset the readers there, but neither of them cared. She, unlike most people, LOVED the fantasy section, but not enough to clean off the cobwebs that were everywhere. Tiffany acted a little crazy when she was with Aspen, so when they got to the fantasy section, she started acting nuts and kind of destructive. As you know quite well by now, one of them is going to pull on the sign right? Oh no, turns out Sam can’t keep a secret forever because he came over to them and said “hey, Aspen! Tiffany! Want to see something awesome? You won’t regret it!” He came over to them and, almost without thinking, he pulled on the sign. Now as you know they go down the corridor and get scanned, but here is the thing, Tiffany was pushed out by a robot [which she tried her hardest to destroy] Then Sam looked at Aspen, as if she had purple icing smeared all over her face. He said “I never knew, wait here” and with those words, he stepped up a row of stairs, input a combination, and she heard the machine ticking, just like a ATM counting money. Then, with a deafening bang, a single seed was fired at her. She caught it, “Well” she said, “time to celebrate by planting this seed!” He stared again, shrugged, and followed her. “Maybe you could plant it in the grove outside the library, it would be a safe place for it to grow” “you are quite right Sam, and, with care, she planted the seed. And with a great rumbling, a tree sprouted before her eyes, it grew and grew, until it was fifty feet tall! But it didn’t stop there, it kept growing, it grew to be three times as thick as Aspen was, then is was about the size of a tiny cabin, then it stopped, by far the biggest tree from miles around.

Aspen backed away and stood gaping, had Sam known? Then, she saw a twig beckoning to her, like a sense that told her that she had to do something with that twig. She pulled it, the tree opened its trunk. Inside was a beautiful room, it was a wonderful bedroom, full of life, everything had been grown by the tree. A soft layer of moss covered her bed, and a set of stairs wound up to the second floor, and the third, and so on and so forth. Aspen stared, gaping. Her tree, she was drawn into it, and it closed on her.

She felt right at home in the tree, more than she had ever been, but there was one problem… She had a summer urge to get out and do stuff, and it was only accentuated by the tree. She pounded on the side of the tree saying “you can let me out now Sam!!!!, now? now would be good!” He finally let her out, but in front of her, were four especially talented kids.

The Phoenix Gal

Ok, are you ready for total awesomeness? ‘Cause this is me, Ashling. That’s right, the writer is an awesome myth thing. Ok, I wasn’t very awesome at first because I had absolutely no idea how to control myself. All the others are yelling at me for dwelling on how awesome I am for so long, fine, but I find this conversation very fun. So I was baking, and baking is totally my least favorite activity, especially in the summer when I already feel like I’m going to burn up. But with frustration factoring in, one thing anyone did wrong would set me into a rage that usually got me into the emergency room. I can practically see the walls with the lights that only make me feel sicker staring at me. I had just put the raspberry pie filling into the perfect pie crust and was putting it into the oven when my little sister ran into the room laughing at the top of her lungs. The pie instantly got over-cooked and flung in my face. And by over-cooked, I mean burnt to ashes and the pie dish is about to disintegrate. I went to wash my face, thinking dark thoughts, I had a right to think dark thoughts because there was no hot water and I am in pain when I use cold water. Now was the time I needed to go to the library, that always got me calmed down. So I went, browsed through the sci-fi section, the historical fiction, and just plain history. That day I must have been really worked up because I still wasn’t calm, so I browsed the final section, the Fantasy section.

There was an annoying kid. Browsing the books in that section with me. He kept asking me very personal questions, finally I lost my temper. I’m actually very glad I did at that place and time because my hand hit the sign, the sign burned, and so did the door it was attached to. The kid ran, but I stayed, I doused the flames with a nearby drinking fountain, and went inside. Inside you know what happened so just to spare you from the same lecture for the fourth time, I will cut to the important part. What the machine spat at me was in no container, they were a pair of fiery wings. They flew to me and for a moment, I had my wings, but, as moments tend to do, this one too past. And the wings sank into my back, they were still there, I could feel them. But I was no longer wreathed in fire. I felt stronger, the machine spat a newspaper at me. I got a bit angry and waved my hand at it. It was burnt to a crisp when I turned to look again. Now I needed to ask the librarian something, if he didn’t answer, I had persuasive powers now.

I ran up to the librarian, he was surrounded by people, one looked pretty angry, she had a bag on his desk, the other two had questioning looks on their faces. Sam said…..

The Library Keeper

You know his name, but you don't know his story, and he is a pretty important character. So, Sam is descended from a long line of librarians. But not just any librarians, the keepers of the machine. The machine always scanned a person, then gave them whatever their item of power was, if they had one. If they didn’t, all memory of the room was wiped, and whoever it was pushed out. But Sam, well, Sam was different, he wanted something different in life besides preaching to newbies in the myth world, no, he wanted adventure, not boredom. What are the goat legs for if you can’t have some fun using them? Did I mention that he is a satyr? All the librarians had been a different type of myth. Sam sighed, he survived day by day, thanks to the cheerfulness of certain individuals he was supposed to be monitoring because of a stupid prophecy. They were supposed to be the three from the prophecy, four heroes. Ptooie to that, they were normal for crying out loud.

It was when Melinda came that he started to think the prophecy was true. As she was so secretive about it, there had not been any people coming for the machine since his grandfather died, Melinda changed his mind, for she was a sulkie, the one who was going to be it trouble in the adventure. Now, he had no idea who the antagonist was, he hated prophecies, he usually fell asleep when his tutor started talking prophecy. But these people were different, they almost made him believe that anything was possible. But, he knew it wasn’t, so he felt that prophecies were pointless.

But when the machine sent him exactly five e-mails about five different myths, he became suspicious. He helped Aspen, And Melinda, as you know, so as Melinda plopped the bag on the desk, he knew immediately that she was the sulkie from the prophecy. Then the other four elements came to him, now, we get to his explanation. “ You’re not the first” Then Cecilia and Von burst in. “Here are two of the people who were here before you” Then Ashling came in “Here is the third, the machine has been protected by the librarians in my family for generations, but there is a certain prophecy that has haunted my family for just as long……” Then they heard a yelling from the forest “sounds like our fifth person is ready to come out”

They all went to unleash Aspen, they let her out, “Hi Sam, did I miss anything?” She said.

Introductions And Practice

Everyone introduced themselves, and their powers. “Hey, lets think of a team name” I said. “How about Myth League” shouted Melinda, “sounds good to us!” we all shouted. I almost burnt Aspen to death by accident. Hey she was making me very angry with her talent for cooking so don’t blame me! We all practiced, but Aspen and Melinda had no clue about what to do. I sighed and kept burning holes in a steel wall. Von and Cecilia were practicing sending “waves” of wind, they were pretty dang strong together, it blew out my wings! With my wings, I had more control over my powers, I no longer needed anger to “spark” my powers. I started to burn my way through the cinderblock wall. Who knows? We might need an escape route sometime. I hid my work with a pile of leaves, and went to see what was going on by the lunch table.

At the lunch table, Aspen’s grandfather had come by, he was an old man, I thought I might have seen him somewhere, he must have done something to make her ecstatic because she kissed his cheek. Don’t abandon me now readers, I had to include this so you know what Aspen’s talent is! And he seemed to grow younger, and younger, and younger, until he was about ten years younger. Then Sam said “Ok then, you are a dryad, even have the powers.” Then he explained the whole kettle of fish to her grandfather, he didn’t believe it at first, until I sent a dollar bill leaning out of his pocket on fire, then he believed us. Turns out it was a fifty dollar bill though ‘cause I owe him.

Melinda was still pondering, How could she matchup to those kids? She searched in her bag, there was a thing, a fluffy thing, a soft thing. What the Hay was going on? Is this a prank? Then, the bag left her grasp, and she was in the command of something else……..

The Big Glob Of Industrial Goop

Now, we all hate global warming right? If you don’t, stop reading right this second. If you do, this is going to be awesome. You know how poison seeps into the ground, killing everything? Well, [lets call it TBGOIG, it is way easier to say] TBGOIG is made of these poisons. And he gives off greenhouse gasses when he exales. Fire steams and dies on contact with it. And the poisons seep into the sea whenever it can. Sounds like your worst enemy right? Well, he is ours. It, rather was made in a Factory that was radioactive, the engine got so hot, that the toxic waste reformed into a living thing. Its one objective: destroy the world and everything in it. Isn’t that nice?

Now then, after it left the factory, it headed straight for the library. It must have known that his weakness was building force there, if he stopped them before they got too strong, no problem, World goes bye-bye. If not, major problem. He sneaked up behind the girl who had no idea what to do [which was hard because he left a path of obvious death and destruction in his wake]. And stole her bag. He reached inside, and found to his delight, a seal skin. No wonder! She was with the sea and without her the others wouldn’t be able to destroy him! Plus, he could make her work for him. He growled, she made out the word “follow” and without thinking, she did. And he started to attack the others, she started talking to me, “I can’t help it, he has the bag” Then she scratched me across the face. The blood spattered on my arm, I lunged for TBGOIG, but as my arm touched him, a deathening cold gripped me, and I blacked out.

When I came to, all the others were standing over me. All, that is, except Melinda. “Wha-What happened?”

“Melinda is now in the control of a disgusting glob of goop, that’s what.” said Cecilia.

“She is a sulkie, she has no choice.” Said Sam.

“Why? There is always a choice.” Said Von.

“Now you need to hear the legend of the sulkie, or Selkie, as it is more often called.” Said Sam.

We all gathered round, sure, what do you expect when one of your allies is missing and another just returned to consciousness.

“So, now the story of the sulkie.” Sam had a way of telling stories, I could tell already. “Once upon a time….” Sam continued, then Cecilia cut in and said “forget all the fairy tale riff-raff! Get to the point!” Sam was relieved that Cecilia was like-minded. “Ok, ok. There were seven sulkie sisters, once, all of them decided to visit the land. Well, a man saw them, and took one of their skins. They lived together, had kids…” “EWW!!!!!!!!!!!!” I yelled, at least Melinda wasn’t that stupid. “She had no choice, she belonged to him.” This disturbed me, and therefore shut me up. “Anyway, she was pretty happy, until she found her skin. Then she had to return to the sea, leaving her children, her husband, and all she loved.”

“That is truly terrible!” Said Von, [this is like, the first thing he said to us, so it was truly significant] “It was Von, it truly was.”

Saving Melinda

Melinda was not having fun, unless you call walking in a path of utter destruction fun. Her home was being destroyed, and what could she do about it? Absolutely nothing! She followed it, weary, but she had to go on. I am amazed that even though it owned her she kept a positive attitude. She trudged through the cold goop below her, wishing that she wasn’t there and then. She was preparing for her next fight with her friends, or was it destroying the world? She couldn’t remember. She wanted out, so she reached for the beast, it told her to slap herself in the face everytime i tried. She slaps herself even sometimes today, It told her to go destroy the wind people, they were the most threat. She had to obey, so she headed for the new base, The tree. She went, and the tornado twins were bringing a cloud around the tree to make themselves a room. Ashling was finding a good spot to build a firewall or two. She spent a moment dwelling on what she would be doing if the thing didn’t get her, but she had to fulfil her mission. She stepped forward, the twins ran for her as if they thought she had returned for good. Then she started trying her best to kill them, [like, Von still has finger nail scars down his arms] I took action, wreathing her in fire, she burnt herself several times when she could have avoided it. Then Aspen brought up some vines and wrapped them around Melinda, poor Melinda I thought. SHe told us everything, and I mean everything. Then she said “Now can i kill you so I can be at rest?” I don’t know about you, but it would make me even less at rest to know I had killed my friends. “No Melinda, we will get your skin, and you will be free”

“really?”

“really, just don’t go anywhere”

“You would do that for me?”

“yea, why wouldn’t we?”

“do you know what that thing can do to you?”

“Yea, we saw it happen to Ashling”

“Gee thanks” I said sarcastically. But they were right, we knew what it could do, we were just stupid enough to ignore the fact that it could kill us. She relaxed, as much as you can when you are bound to a chair and in the control of a hideous beast that wanted to destroy the world. “Lets do this!” I yelled to all the people, they came with me, Aspen was really nervous, I can’t blame her, I wouldn’t want to kiss the enemy! We assembled, we looked nothing like an army. Von was slouching, Cecilia had earbuds in, Aspen was trying to look as small as possible, and I was dressed in a short purple dress with frill around the edges and my wings protruded through a burnt hole through the back.

We followed the obvious trail of death and destruction to the big glob of industrial goop’s hideout. We started to fight, but my fire sputtered and died when it hit it, The waves of wind were poisoned, and we could not breath. Did I forget to mention that Aspen is really stealthy? She sneaked up behind the big glob of industrial goop, and stole Melinda’s seal skin. It didn’t even know what took it.

Aspen took the seal skin to Melinda, when the seal skin was hers, she almost broke into tears from relief. Aspen signaled us that we could stop fighting it, we were also relieved, fighting that thing is a pain in the butt. We ran, then Cecilia and Von mounted us all on clouds. We flew like, well, the wind. The tree was very welcoming, especially the part nearby that I had made, an entire house made of fire. Home is where the heart is, and mine was here.

I Never Thought

I never really thought until I had found home, neither had any of the others. Now, I was determined to protect this wonderful place. It had all I needed, even the friends that I knew I would keep forever. But, we could not keep this place if we allowed the world to be destroyed, so something had to be done about that monster. I shared my thoughts with the rest of Myth league, we agreed, even Sam. I felt bad for Sam, He had no place to call his own in our little world. So, when he was in the library, I conversed with the others, and we agreed to surprise him with a house of his own, we would all help.

We were working on the house, when Sam came out, we all dropped what we were doing so we could see what he needed. He came up to us, we all wondered what his power was, but now we knew because he was wearing shorts, and goat legs showed through. Von gaped, as did Aspen, but I wanted to know more. “So, what’s your power?”

“just goat legs, I am more of a mentor to other different people”

“But you’re not the mentor, you know that.”

Sam was a little shocked she knew, he had never really told anyone, and these people knew by being around him, they just knew. “You’re right, I never did like teaching, all I always wanted to do is to do something exciting, and now I know, that thanks to my least favorite subject, and you guys, it’s possible.”

“What is your least favorite subject?”

“prophecy”

So, as you can guess he told us the prophecy.

“So, thats us, right” said Von

“I am pretty sure” said Sam

“so.. The unknown enemy is the big glob of industrial goop”

“correct”

“and the prophecy has already started since we have gotten Melinda back” I said

“Bing” said Sam

“I’m scared” Said Aspen and Von in unison.

“Don’t be, it says none will die”

“and yet all will suffer!” I yelled.

“Yea, but it will be worth it to save all of our families and friends”

We all had to agree. “Anyway, we all need a break from reality, lets go to the ice cream parlor for a bit” We also agreed to that, why do all things money go to me? Sighs. I had to pay for the ice cream too!

New Beginnings

We kept working on the house, we kept a log-cabin feel, a wild house. A fire that never needed to be coddled or fed rested in the fireplace. The house itself was made of branches that the surrounding trees gave of good will, and he had his own personal cloud as a mode of transportation. Only one thing left to do: get the inhabitant. Meanwhile, we built up strength, we did this by building, but we didn’t want to make Sam feel left out. So he worked, they worked on the house, they “practiced” some more. Eventually, the house was done. And they were ready for the impending confrontation. Sam lead us to the goop, I was so nervous, this would not end well and I knew it. I went in first, the thing made a noise resembling a laugh, and sent a freezing tendril at me, Melinda blocked it, the thing started to look like it was sweating. It started for the hideout, the tornado twins came out to stop it. It was really frightened now, so it started to retreat, Aspen blocked his path with Sam at her side. THe thing started to run in the only direction uncovered: the path to Sam’s house, we all gasped and ran for it. Sam was really confused, but he followed us. We followed it right to the house, it started tearing it apart, we all tried our hardest to put him at bay, but it was no good, it was decimated within five minutes. It retreated, knowing it had won this battle. We sat on the useless foundation, fuming, my fists balled and unrolled, balled and unrolled. Sam sat next to Aspen “what was going on here?” She stared at him, and then answered “Your home, that’s what.” we all sighed, agast. “You did that for me?”

“Yea, duh”

“Thank you”

“Well now we have nothing to show for all that hard work so technically you have nothing to thank us for except some charred remains.”

“Thanks for the effort”

We all sighed practically at the same time, now we all made a resolution, mentally we knew all the others were making the same resolution:

We were going to kill that thing if it was the last thing we did.

Melinda’s Best Day Ever

Melinda’s summer was almost over, and she dreaded telling the others that she had to leave, but she had no choice. Her parents were taking her back no matter what. Sulkies had no natural defences, after all. Her mother was waiting for her impatiently at the door to the hotel. “Melinda”

“Yes mother?”

“I have a proposition to make.”

“and what would that be?”

“Your father and I found a house by the library, would you perhaps like to…”

“Yes! Thank you mother!”

She hugged her mother, now she could protect the world! She ran for her friends, she finally knew where she had to build.

All her friends were getting school supplies.

“Guys! I know what we need to do!”

“What? Pencils, check.”

“We need to find the beast”

“Are you crazy? Binders, check.”

“And surround him”

“That didn’t work last time. Books, check.”

“Yea but I have a new placement that will make all the difference”

“Go on. Notebooks, check.”

“So, we surround him”

“Uh-huh, lunchbox, check.”

“We are evenly spaced”

“Yea? Protractor, check.”

“And every time it resists, we close in a little further”

“Oh, I get it, calculator, check.”

“Then, when we are close enough, we all use our powers on it at the exact same time”

“That just might work! Check, check, check, and check!”

“So, we need to be near the ocean so that I can get some seals to help me.”

“And we all need to practice timing”

“Yea, but this is to save the freaking world! It’s worth it!”

“Lets do this thing!” We all yelled at the same time.

The Slaughter of the Beast

We all made weapons, Melinda found the seals and convinced them to help her. The Tornado twins called the birds to their aid. Aspen figured out how to bring the trees and how to bring the vines to tie people up (she tested it on me). I, had no help, fire only has enemies, not friends. Humans aren’t the best help, otherwise I would have called them because they are the only ones that use fire. I just advanced in my wings, I started throwing metal through my wings, it was awesome because it would melt and the molten metal would run down my arms, making an awesome super-hero suit.

“Hey guys, I mean gals and guy”

“Yea? Whoa awesome!”

“yea, I’m epic now”

“Yea! I mean… Eww is that snot running down your arm?”

“NO! That is in-fact molten metal.”

“Where did you get so much metal?”

“I threw your computer through my wings”

He tried his best to kill me.

“Not really! I just took a bunch of trash bins”

He made a face.

I was ready, time for that final confrontation. We stood in a moment of silence for ourselves, as we were sure to lose something, we did not yet know what. We went toward the big glob of industrial goop, what it had in store for us, we could not foretell.

I could not help but to dwell on what we were about to do, how this would stain my idea of a clean record, I could no longer think of myself as anything but a murderer. Now was the time. We all came up on each side of the creature’s lair; an underground hole with exactly six entrances. We each went through one, plan was drive the creature to the sea through his web of passages, where Melinda could give us a hand. Aspen would get the palms to start throwing their weight around, around meaning at the beast. It was so angry that it grew. Ten feet on each side. Great, just great. My fire sizzled momentarily, then died, making a sound as if it were screaming. The seals just annoyed him by splashing water all over the place, how would that hurt anybody? All of our eyes met, and a silent plan confirmed. We all focused our efforts on a single spot on the monster, as the fire met water that met trees and wind a terrible hissing occurred as we went right through him. It screamed in agony as it seeped into the ground, and to this day the beach is off-limits, and for a very good reason, the ground is radioactive.

We had not realized that a crowd had been forming as we did the deed. Not until we heard the cheering, like a play had just been finished. Only a million times louder. My eardrums ring every time I remember it. Out of the crowd peered a face, Clover’s face. That was the last bit of good luck I’ve had for years.

Melinda stared at the seals, she saw a face that she recognized. The seal she had seen that first time in the sea.

“Melinda, it is high time you tried on that skin” Said a powerful voice from the crowd,

her grandmother.

We all nodded in agreement. She looked at the face of the seal and knew that the time had come.

And so, here we are, back at the beginning. I hope you enjoyed it.

Sincerely,

Ashling Firewing.

P.S. Don’t miss my adventure with Clover! Or Melinda’s with her real father! And more adventures are to come!