Arkervery Stowder ... by Liam, aged 10

Are we there yet? thought Samantha, or, to be precise Samantha Gordon. She liked to be precise, it was her thing. Samantha was twelve, she had long brown hair, blue eyes and a perfect nose.

She was in a car.

It was a completely normal English day. Raining,  of course.  Samantha was on her way to school, just an ordinary day. It seemed so normal to her, but that is where she was wrong. This was no ordinary day. This was the day were she would learn about magic. Samantha didn’t know that, no one did.

It was 8:53. She drifted through all of the things that happened that day, past the maths test, past play and lunch. Past all the school stuff. Gazing out of the passenger seat of her parent’s car on her way home, she saw something strange, something unnerving.

“Mum, drop me off here... I-I’ll walk the rest.”

“Honey are you sure?”

“Yeah I want a bit of exercise.”

“OK.”

Samantha’s mum Stephanie pulled over and let Samantha out. What she had seen was a man, a regular man, but he had snapped his fingers together and conjured up a fireball. He had looked up and seen her watching and it died down. The man had the deepest of blue eyes, black hair escaping from under his Trilby hat.

Samantha walked up to the man.

“Do that again.”

“Do what again?”

“You know... click your fingers and summon a flame.”

 “Damn, you saw that” the man muttered.

The man stared a full circle around her, which Samantha found disturbing.

“You can do it too” said the man.

“No I can’t.”

“Yes you can. You just don’t know it. I can see it in your aura.”

“What’s an aura?”

“It’s a magical thing that surrounds all living things. Don’t you see it?”

“Ha ha very funny. I’m just here to find out how you did that not to talk about some aura, I need to get home. That fireball, did someone project it onto your hand?“

“We need to talk. I’ll duplicate you.”

“Wait. WHAT??”

The man shoved his right hand out and a duplicate of Samantha appeared out of nowhere.

Samantha shrieked.

“WHAT-WHAT IS THAT THING!!”

“Calm down.”

Samantha took a huge breath and finally shut up. The duplicate of Samantha started to walk away.

“It’ll go to your house and carry on with your life while you’re not there. Now where was I. OK, so do you see auras” said the man.

“Sometimes I see fuzzy things around people. But that doesn’t mean anything.”

“OK she sees auras” muttered the man.

“OK let’s start again, and allow me to introduce myself. My name is Arkervery Stowder. Fifth son of the son of the son of the son of the fifth son of some very famous dude that I forget the name of.”

 “OK I get the point” said Samantha “now do that thing again.”

Arkervery snapped his fingers and a flame started in his hand.

“Wow” whispered Samantha.  

“Now I was in this part of town to get a partner from the Order of First Magic, but it seems I may have already found one.”

“Me, you can’t be serious, can you?”

“I am a serious man.”

“Well I can see that. But maybe it would be fun; I mean there is a tiny, tiny, tiny chance that I would like it.”

“That meaning yes?”

“Well... yes that probably would.”

They walked to Arkervery’s car and drove.

“Were are we going?” asked Samantha.

 “To the Order of First Magic, to find out if they approve of you being my partner, it could take awhile.To pass the time Samantha went to sleep. She had a nightmare.

-------------------------

The giant test tube in the chamber had something mysterious in it. It’s name the Frexling. Its tiny yellow eyes looked up. There inside laid only anger, growing stronger by the second, the only reason that it ever existed was to destroy. Its arms wrapped in bandages, but you could still see the giant muscles rippling out all over its body. A man dressed like a king walked into the chamber, his name Serpivious, a scrawny looking slave following.

“The time has come my lord.” 

“Good... The Frexling has awoken, nothing will stop us now."

-------------------------

Samantha awoke  panting. What was that? she thought. She didn’t want to tell Arkervery, she thought he might worry and quiz her.

They pulled over, Arkervery and Samantha got out. Arkervery led the way down an alley, Samantha following. At the end there was a door. Arkervery opened it beckoning to Samantha to follow. She walked in and gasped.

It was all white tiles, people were walking around in lab coats with clipboards and pens, there were corridors leading out of the giant room to other places, at the far end of the room there was a throne with a person on it, trying to look very important. Samantha took an instant dislike to him.

Two people walked up to Arkervery and Samantha, one a man with brown eyes, brown skin, no hair and two swords strapped to his back. The other, blonde hair, beige skin and a beautiful face, she had a lot of throwing knives strapped all over her body.

“Ahhh...  Samantha meet--”

“Tomb Cryer” said the man in a gruff voice.

“And Taniery Come” said the woman.

“These are my colleagues and friends” said Arkervery.

“Hi I’m Samantha nice to meet the two of you.”

Taniery and Samantha shook hands and then so did Samantha and Tomb.

After some convincing the man in the throne agreed to let Samantha become Arkervery’s partner, apparently his name was Shleep Jones which Samantha found hilarious.

Suddenly the lights went out.

“Power failure?" tried Arkervery.

There was a roar and then a giant bandaged hand swooped out of nowhere and picked Samantha up, then it was gone.

-------------------------

Samantha found herself in an abandoned castle, her vision was blurry but she could just make out a man walking towards her.

“Hello sweetheart” said the man in a crude, twisted voice. ”You are here and now Arkervery will be coming. But he won’t save you, I can promise you that, oh, my I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Serpivious Cainv, the to-be destroyer of the Order of First Magic, now I shall reveal my plan. I enjoy this you see, to reveal my plan to give the opponent a sliver of hope and then wrench it just out of their grasp.

“So when the great Arkervery Stowder comes to your rescue he will fail, naturally, and then I shall release the great Frexling upon the Order of First Magic, and then the Order shall be mine and I shall be so powerful that I could do literally anything!" 

-------------------------

Arkervery had followed the giant monster to the castle in his van with Taniery Come and Tomb Cryer. The giant monster had gone in to the castle and obviously put Samantha inside, now it was standing guard outside the castle. Arkervery knew it was a trap. But he had to save Samantha; he was the one who had got her into this mess.

The van pulled over just out of sight of the monster. Arkervery, Taniery and Tomb hopped out of the van.

“How do we get around it?” asked Taniery.

“We don’t.” Whispered Arkervery “It would sense us coming. It’s a Frexling.”

“Crap. We have to fight It.” muttered Tomb.

“One the count of three” said Arkervery “One... Two... Three!”

They all jumped out from hiding, but the Frexling was the first to act, it whipped around sending a giant fist straight for Arkervery’s face. He flew backwards smashing into the castle wall. Taniery slashed at the Frexling’s leg while Tomb took his swords from his back. Arkervery recovered quickly, drawing twin revolvers from the inside of his coat, firing a dozen bullets at point blank range, each bullet smashing square between the Frexling’s eyes, but having no effect.

Tomb jumped up driving his swords into each of the Frexling’s eyes. The creature howled out in pain and reared around and Tomb dropped his swords still in the Frexling’s eyes.

Arkervery clicked his fingers summoning a flame climbing up the Frexling and stuffing it into the Frexling’s heart. Its heart started to throb, literal heart burn. It tumbled to the ground.

Dead.

Arkervery loaded his guns, burned the castle gates and strolled in. He found Serpivious in the king’s chamber. He had two guns pointed at Serpivious’ head.

“You’re under arrest”. Serpivious tried to turn around and fight, but the bullets had already pierced his skull.

-------------------------

Samantha's mind whirred as it thought through the things that had now happened that day, past the fireball, past the Duplicate, past the white roomed Order of Magic, past becoming a Partner of Magic, past the abduction, past the slaying of the Frexling and Serpivious.  Definitely time to get home.

So much for my ordinary day!

The Teafall tree ... by Pearl, aged 11

“Are we there yet?” Michael whined to his mother.

“Does it look like we’re there yet?” she spat back at him. 

“No.” Michael groaned from the back seat of the car. 

“Anna, chill your grill!  It’s been three hours. Just relax.” a voice said from the driver’s seat,  “We’re almost there.”

All the noise woke up Eliza. She had fallen asleep whilst listening to her iPod. She brushed her golden hair out of her eyes and quickly picked up her phone, turned on the camera and looked at her face in horror.  Michael was giggling so hard when Eliza let out a helpless wail. Michael had drawn an ugly moustache on her face with a black texta.

“Mum!” Eliza yelped, “Look at what Michael did to me!”

Anna turned around and saw Eliza’s face.

“Tony!” She gasped and Eliza’s Dad stopped to pull over and looked at her face.

“Oh, Michael.” he sighed, “Why?”

“Well, she was sleeping and...I just couldn’t resist!” Michael replied, still laughing.

“Eliza, go get some water in the park and wash it off,” Tony said. Eliza stomped off into the park towards the taps and madly scrubbed her face with her sleeve, until it hurt too much to continue.

She took her phone out of her pocket to look again, there was a huge red mark above her lip and a faint black moustache, it was an improvement, but it didn’t stop Eliza from wanting to strangle her brother.

As she left the park she saw a sign that read ‘North Teafall Park’ Eliza began to run out, grinning ear to ear.  When she got out she squealed, “We’re here!”

“Well, Yeah.”  Tony said, “I didn’t just stop so you could wash your face.” Eliza turned to give Michael a ‘death stare’ but he was already running towards a giant tree.

“Eliza, can you please go get Michael. “ Anna asked “We need to go find our holiday house.”

“Fine.”  Eliza groaned, and stomped off towards the tree. 

North Teafall was a quiet little town; the houses looked more like cottages and the gardens outside them were very well kept, daisies, roses and so many more beautiful flowers were blooming in the emerald grass.

Eliza walked up to the tree to find Michael, but she couldn’t see her brother anywhere. 

“BOO!”

Eliza screamed and stepped back, only to trip over a large branch.

“Michael!” she screamed.

“Na, Na,” Michael taunted, “You can’t catch me!”

“Michael!” Eliza shouted even louder, “Get back here!” she yelled as he started to climb up the ancient tree.

“I bet you can’t catch me!” Michael teased.

Eliza sighed, reached up to grab the nearest branch and pulled herself up. She stood up on the next branch so she could reach the one above her, once she got to the very top Eliza grabbed Michael and pulled him down by the ear.

Eliza stopped only one step down from the top to see that Michael hadn’t moved.

“Do you want me to take this ear off?”  Eliza growled.

There was a loud snap and Eliza looked down at her feet.  The branch below her had snapped!  They must have been twenty metres from the ground.

“Michael!” Eliza screamed as she fell from the branch, “Help!”

Eliza fell with a thud and she felt extremely dizzy, the last thing she saw was Michael running towards her.

 ---------

                                                             

Eliza woke up still underneath the tree, but Michael was nowhere in sight.  She expected him to jump out any moment. 

“Michael?” she called, “Where are you?”

But instead of Michael jumping out, a little red car pushed itself into the park. Three people stepped out; a tall man with brown hair, a woman of average height with shoulder length black hair and a young boy with brown hair.  It was Eliza’s family.

But wait, Eliza thought, didn’t they get here with me?

The boy who looked like Michael began to run towards her.

“Michael!” Eliza shouted, “Why did you leave me?”  The boy looked confused.

“Um, who are you?” the boy asked.

“I’m Eliza, you dimwit!” she replied, “and you’re Michael, my little brother!”

“I don’t have a sister” Michael stuttered.

“Sure you do! I’m her! Mum and Dad want you to be back, now!” she said angrily.

The man who looked like Tony came up to the tree where they were standing and grabbed Michael’s arm.

“C’mon, Michael” he said.

“Dad!” Eliza called, “You remember me, right?”

The man looked confused, too.

“I don’t have a daughter,” he said.

Tony’s words stabbed like knives. Surely he had to remember her. Eliza was his daughter!

“Wh-What?”  Eliza stuttered, but the man and his son were already walking away.

---------

Eliza had been walking for an hour. She had nowhere to go, as her family did not remember her.  She had practically seen all of North Teafall; the farms, the shops, the parks and everything else.

Eliza pondered every possibility for the incident. Somehow they all got amnesia, she hit her head so hard that she couldn’t understand what everyone was saying or, she was just dreaming.  The last one seemed the most likely for Eliza, but it just seemed so real.

Eliza kept walking, just thinking about what she could do until a big, yellow sign stopped her. It read ‘South Teafall’. 

This place was nothing like North Teafall, it had factories, smog clouds, tunnels, bridges and cars everywhere, the only thing that looked bright and cheery was a small shop called ‘Jimmy’s Rent-a-bike’.

It was getting late but Eliza needed more time to think, she went towards the shop and rang the bell on the counter. To be honest it looked more like a lemonade stand than a bike store.

“How can I help you?”  A tall, brown haired man with a bushy moustache said from the counter.

“How much to rent a bike for an hour?”  Eliza asked.

“Just five dollars”, he said, “We don’t get much business around here so we make it cheap”.

“Okay,” Eliza said, “I’ll take one.”

“Okay I’ll be right back with that.”  The man smiled.  Then he walked out the back of the stand, 2 minutes later he came back with a sky blue, vintage bike. 

“Thanks,” Eliza said, still quite glum about her family.

“Why the long face?” the man asked as he wheeled the blue bike out of the stand.

“This is going to sound crazy,” Eliza sighed, “but, nobody remembers me.”  The man looked somewhat scared, she expected him to laugh but instead he just stared, he made a face like he was thinking, but all the while he didn’t take his eyes off Eliza.

“When you come back,” he said, “I have something for you.”

Eliza smiled her thanks and rode off on the bike.

She thought of all the series of events that could have led to her being erased from everyone's memory, she washed her face, she chased Michael up the tree, she fell, and then they all forgot.

---------

When she got back, the man was still there, waiting for somebody to come.

“Good” he said, “You’re back.” Eliza nodded.

“I can help you with your problem,” He said and Eliza frowned, “Name’s Jimmy.”

He said. “Come,” Eliza left five dollars on the counter and followed.

Jimmy led her to the tree in the park where she fell.

“Were you here when it happened?” he asked, “When they all forgot?”

“Yes,” Eliza replied, unsure of what to think, “How did you know?”

Jimmy smiled, “When I was your age I climbed the Teafall tree, “I fell from way up there,” he said pointing to the exact branch where Eliza fell, “When I woke up, I was completely forgotten.” he sighed,” but I learned a thing or two.” Jimmy walked up to a hollow in the tree and said something in a weird language that Eliza did not understand, then he sang a poem into the tree:

Oh tree, Oh tree

Show us the light

Oh tree, Oh tree

We don’t want to fight,

Oh tree, Oh tree,

Show us your people,

Oh tree, Oh tree,

Without any wheeple.

Jimmy repeated the poem and stood back, as if expecting something to happen, and it did.  The hollow lit up and green sparks blasted out, Eliza and Jimmy stepped back so they didn’t get hit.  Eliza closed her eyes in case the light blinded her.  The light died down and Eliza opened her eyes and looked beside her, she expected to see Jimmy, but instead Michael was by her side and shouting at his mum and dad to come closer. She had been asleep. Had it all been a dream?

---------

The next day Eliza took her family to Jimmy’s rent-a-bike. Eliza skipped up and sat on the counter.

“Oi, off the counter!” Jimmy growled. Eliza smiled and looked up at Jimmy, he smiled back.

“Thank you.” Eliza said