Chapter I
The school bell at Sanborn rang as usual. This school was one of the only ones in the area that went from kindergarten through high school. It looked like it could have been as old as the cavemen. Every stone had a weathered texture and looked as if it could fall apart any minute.
The emotions before school were wild! The cacophony of sound was alluring. Some people had a bright and cheery smile, some had a dazed and half asleep look, and others had a red and exhausted look from running to the bus stop to avoid being late. Kids hustled into the destroyer of fun and happiness, some in large groups, some by themselves, and even some who didn't go in at all.
That "some" consisted of me, a short boy with dirty blonde hair. The next was a squirrel with an I.Q. of a physics professor. I have him do all of my tests and homework. I have straight A's. When he was born he was taken to an artificial intelligence lab. He snuck away before they could teach him to speak. Sadly the squirrel couldn't talk, so he settled for being my pet. The last one was a mean and wicked girl named Alice. She enjoyed being mean just for fun! She was like a queen in her little Posse of Petite Princesses. They followed her everywhere. Sometimes I wondered if they even followed her into the bathroom. Alice had this short curly red hair that reminded me of flames. Her tongue also reminded me of flames.
"Squirt, hurry get in my backpack before my teacher finds out I brought you to school again!" I whispered to my pet squirrel as he leaped into my backpack. This was our daily routine: take the bus to school, walk to the door, I tell Squirt to get in my backpack, at lunch I let him use the bathroom (one time he couldn't hold it. Boy was I mad!), then at the end of the day we would bike home. Pretty boring. Right? Except one time we got caught by my teacher.
I had missed the bus this morning and had just made it to school right as the bell rang. All I had wanted to do was come in and sit down to another boring day at school. When all of a sudden who had to show up but Alice and her Posse of Petite Princesses
"Kyle, if you brought Squirt to school to again, you might as well schedule a detention now. Because I'm going to tell if you did!" Alice nagged. As she did this her little band of Petite Princesses shook their heads in agreement. There were three princesses. Annabel, the tall dumb one (if she kicks you would be a goner), Kandy, the annoying but deceitful crybaby, and Caren, the loud-mouthed egotistical nag. However, Alice was the worst of them. With her wicked mouth and scary looks she would turn anyone to stone.
For some reason she loved to pick on me. For instance this one time in first grade she told me that my Thanksgiving drawing looked like a hippo on parade, when really it was an Indian shooting a turkey with a bow and arrow. It probably didn't look like that, but that doesn't mean that you have to be mean.
"For information, I didn't bring Squirt!" I retorted. Alice stared in disbelief at my backpack. What did she think was in there? A squirrel? Gosh, people these days are so critical. I mean you bring a squirrel to school once and you're branded as a squirrel bringer to schooler person. Gosh!
"Oh really, then why is your backpack moving?"
I paused to let her think that she had won. The calm before the storm that's what I always say.
"I have a jittering lunchbox?" I said hoping that would fly. I was praying for a miracle of any sort.
All of the Petite Princesses peered over Alice's shoulder waiting for her orders. It was a little creepy. They were like robots just waiting for Alice to give the command to destroy me.
Again she stared at my backpack. What was she trying to do, use her X-ray vision to see Squirt? Or maybe she was trying to burn a hole in it with her heat vision. You never know what goes on in the mind of a lunatic.
"Fine, but I'm watching you and your jittering lunchbox!" she said as she gave me the "I'm watching you", look before running into a door. Her petite princesses glared at me then went over to help their mistress up. Lunatics I tell you.
"Squirt, we should feel honored we were just in the presence of the world's first Type-A clown!" from my backpack I heard a small chuckle. A wave of relief washed over me as Alice walked away staring. I could not believe it she had bought it. Actually, I could!
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"Lizzy!!!!!!!" Ted shouted. Lizzy looked up in time to see her friend Ted barreling down the hallway to see her. She ducked out of the way just in time to not get run over by Ted.
Ted and Lizzy had been friends since kindergarten, but over the past month they had gone through some rough times. Lizzy got mad at Ted because he had stopped hanging out with her as much. Ted, of course saw things the exact opposite. But really, both of them had found some friends who were exactly their kind of friends. They both pretended that they didn't want to be friends with the other so they could hang out with their other friends more. But, really they still wanted badly to be friends. Lizzy and Ted both had the same looks, dark skin and black hair. Lizzy however had a more Asian look. She was adopted from China when she was just a baby
"What do you want Ted?" Lizzy said hoping Ted was going to stop being pigheaded and apologize for ignoring her.
"To say . . . hello," Ted started. It took him a little bit to remember what he had really intended to say, "And to ask you if you if you would hang with my friends and me at lunch. Pleeeease!" Ted held out on the ee part of the please trying to be as pleading as possible. Ted had this thing in his voice that when he talked complete and utter honesty shone through all his other pretenses. His honesty was so true that it was hard to refuse him when he asked something not so out of the question. However, when he asked something way out of the question it made you wonder what in the world he was really asking.
Lizzy also had the same aura, only hers wasn't as able to be seen on the surface. You would have to look hard to find her honesty and loyalty. But, when she showed that side of herself it was guaranteed that it was for a good cause.
Lizzy felt a pull to say yes but then remembered that her and Ted were mad at each other.
"Oh, alright," Lizzy agreed, "It's a one shot deal only." She said that smugly trying to make it seem like she didn't care at all. In truth this made her feel like a ton of weight had been taken off her shoulders. Now that she and Ted were friends again she finally felt like life was better.
"THANK YOU LIZZY!" Ted hollered. Then Lizzy remembered one of her and Ted's sayings, 'the people in china could hear you'. It made her giggle.
"You've got to work on being quieter"
"OKAY LIZZY! I'll try to remember that." Ted said whispering the last part of the sentence. It made Lizzy's heart swell. She and Ted were finally friends again.
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Tono, a tall dark skinned boy with long black hair looked at the clock, five minutes till lunch. Tono has a problem with daydreaming. He's had it since he was five. Some times he would go days without sleep because he would just sit on his bed and daydream until his own invention of an alarm clock told him that he had to go to school.
Don't forget this, Tono may do dumb things but he is not dumb. He can solve any riddle in less than thirty seconds and also create machines out of plastic cups, paper and wire. In fact that's what he made his alarm clock out of.
Tono thinks to himself, "Why am I here? Who put me here? Why does Kyle have a pet squirrel, and what's for lunch?" His thoughts trailed on until –
"Tono, stop daydreaming!" an annoyed teacher shouted.
"Is it lunch time?" Tono excited.
"No, it's breakfast! What do you think? Of course it's lunch. And actually its five minutes past. Now hurry up and get your butt out of hear before I have the janitor sweep you up in the dustpan." She said.
"Well, just because I spaced out and didn't leave when everyone else did doesn't mean you have to get snippy with me." The teacher tried to scream, "Don't try to interrupt me that is very rude and-." Tono was cut off by the teacher pulling his shirt collar and dragging him to a desk.
"You listen Mr. Fancy talker, just because you can use your intellectual ability to fancy talk your way out of every other teacher's bad side does not mean you can fancy talk your way out of my bad side! I know every trick in the book. Why, I have been teaching for thirty years! You think a simple flick of the tongue can get you out of this one."
Tono knew that talking wasn't going to save him this time so he decided that he would have to stoop to the lowest he could.
"I'm sorry Miss it's just that I don't have any friends so I try to impress the teachers with my smart mouth of mine. I really won't do that again." He finished it by sniffling and letting a single tear slide down his face. He was a master of making teachers let him off the hook. He knew just when to cry, just when to look ashamed, and just when to praise the teacher. He had been perfecting this since he was in first grade
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't understand what you were going through. Next time this happens I'll just let you go on your way." The teacher finished adding a smile.
Tono slouched out of the room, staying in character till he was out of sight of the teacher then bolting to lunch. Of course he had friends and all the other stuff he said he didn't have. But what fun would that be if he was his real self all the time. And with that Tono sped off for lunch.
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"What's taking Tono so long?" Lizzy hollered.
"Who knows, for all I know Tono could be in the hallway admiring his tongue." We waited a few more seconds.
Then a figure came barreling towards us. No doubt it was Tono.
"What took you so long?" we hollered in unison at him as he took his place at the lunch table.
"Can't a guy admire his tongue once in awhile? Sheesh you guys are way too critical." Lizzy then gave him a stare that could have turned him to stone. Bickering soon ensued between Lizzy and Tono. Neither one was ceasing until a tall boy with dark hair and pale skin approached us and took a seat.
He was an outcast and a wanderer. He never seemed to be around the same group of people too long. After a while he would leave that group and stay alone for a while. Thus the cycle would repeat. This time felt different. This time it felt like something crucial was nearing.
All was silent. This boy was silent yet somehow gave off a loud and powerful presence. Despite his weak composure he commanded a strong sense of respect and power. We ate the rest of our lunch in silence. Even Squirt who would always peek out of my jacket and chatter on and on about things that we couldn't understand was quiet.
As we were all finishing up our lunch we stayed seated waiting to see what the boy wanted. Tono finally shattered the silence with a trenchant four-word question.
"Why are you here!?" Tono belted. Apparently he wasn't surprised by the boy's sudden appearance. He must have just been preoccupied with another thought. Possibly the one about whether cheeseburgers were a thought or a fruit.
All our eyes turned to the boy, awaiting his response to Tono all too blunt remark. Leave it to him to ask a rude question. Or destroy the world. Take your pick.
"I think you should follow me." The boy said ominously. He appeared to be unscathed by Tono's rude remark.
"What is going on John?" Ted asked. He wouldn't say anything. He stood up and left the table. We all left with him. It was as if we had been hypnotized. Dumping our trays of our lunch we continued to mindlessly follow him. He was the shepherd, we were the sheep.
He just kept walking, and walking, and walking. He had soon led us outside of school and to the park where we spent most of our recesses.
We wove through the play set where I noticed Alice and her gang of Petite Princesses standing behind her. She gave me a horrifying look. Who knows in another life she could have been Medusa. Or the ugly duckling. Scratch that. Even in a million years she could never come remotely close to looking nice.
Next we then passed the swings where I noticed my brother and his friends running through the swings while other kids were swinging. He had to be one of the smartest kids in his grade and yet common sense eluded him. I had the urge to yell at him and warn him what would happen. I then decided it would be fun just to watch him get hit. What a mean brother I am.
The last part of our journey involved weaving through my school's massive jungle gym that was inconveniently placed right next to the desert. It had a two-story height with platforms protruding from the structure. It resembled a castle in some respects except that it was practically deserted. Few kids dared to pass even near it.
That could partly be because of the hilly desert looming terrifyingly close to the structure. It wasn't really a desert, but everyone called it that, considering that all the grass was dry (if not dead and gone), there was no shade, its many hills were rocky and sharp, and it was the hottest part of the school. It almost was as if a curse had been placed here that made it always hot and dry. We looked around but saw nothing of great interest in our immediate vision.
I felt a little annoyed that John had brought us all the way out here for nothing. We were all ready sweating enough to fill an ocean. I turned to John and gave him the meanest possible glare. He didn't seem to notice. Finally I had to stop because I was running out of energy. Being in the desert sure took its toll on you. As soon as I stopped so did everyone else. Including John.
"Look," John pointed at an endless pit standing right in front of us. I felt incredibly stupid that I hadn't even thought too look at the ground. I still was unimpressed at that pit. I mean for all I know it could just go down two feet. I highly doubted it but it was possible.
"It's a hole, a big hole. What's so special?" Ted asked.
I was kind of feeling the same way. I think John knows something I don't. I hate that!
"What's so special?" Ted asked. John seemed a little perplexed at the question.
"It has six gold idols down there! That's what's so special." John exclaimed. The pit was so dark I could hardly see those idol thingies. Lizzy pulled out her cell phone to illuminate the darkness. The pit was huge. It looked big enough to house a dozen cars. I was surprised that no one had seen it yet.
We all looked down it and sure enough there were six gold idols. They were amazing! I had never seen such craftsmanship in my entire life. One had a squirrel face, another had a horn with engravings to small to read, and others included a winged dog and one with four stones strung together on a necklace.
The last two looked very similar. They were both in the form of an orb-like shape. The difference was that one was giving off an eerie black light, while the other gave off a pure good light. Whatever that meant.
"We should try to get those gold idol things or whatever." I said.
"That's why I took you guys here. I figured you could keep a secret and help me retrieve them. I had no idea who else I could trust. So are you in?" John said.
"I'm in!" I shouted. It seemed like a no brainer I mean who wouldn't want to explore a bottomless pit.
"Me too." Tono said. I'm glad someone isn't afraid.
"I guess so, if Lizzy is." Ted said. Of course Ted had to ask Lizzy to come. We stared at Lizzy waiting for her to join in. Well, I should say hoping she would join in.
"Oh, I guess so" she said. We all cheered.
"Then it's decided. We'll meet today after school," John said.
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Meanwhile Alice and her Petite Princesses were waiting at the play set for Lizzy. Alice was eavesdropping and found out about their plans. It made her furious! How could Lizzy tell her she would come to her house after school and then change her mind? It took a few moments to decide what to do. She decided she would have to say something right now!
"LIZZY CAN'T COME AFTER SCHOOL!!!!!" Alice bellowed.
"We can hear you Alice." I reminded. She looked at us and sneered.
"I know. I was speaking for her. Come Lizzy" Alice spoke. Lizzy made a feeble excuse. Then spoke, "Alice, we might have to reschedule." Lizzy finished as the end of recess bell rang. Alice huffed off.
"And that's who you've been hanging out with?" Ted chuckled.
"Shush" Lizzy whispered.
"We need to hide the pit." John ordered. No one spoke until I had the idea to disguise it as a hill using dirt. After thirty seconds of hard labor we were finished.
"Come on we have to hurry or we'll be missed!" Tono said with a sense of urgency in his voice.
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When we got back to class Alice had told everyone about what we found. The entire class was staring in disbelief as we bustled in.
"Is this true?" Ms. Cimino (our teacher) asked. How could she have bought something so unbelievable? We shook our heads no. Ms. Cimino looked puzzled.
"See it was just a big misunderstanding." Ms. Cimino said.
Whew
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"DING! Ding! Ding!" sang the bell. School was over!
"Guys hurry we have to reach the pit before anyone else. Especially Alice." I exclaimed as we sifted through the jammed hallway.
As soon as we got outside we flew towards where we thought the pit was.
"Where is it?" Lizzy panicked.
"I don't know," John said, "follow me!"
The group started walking forward when suddenly the ground was yanked from their feet!
"I think we found it" I said falling.
"AAAaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!" Lizzy shrieked as she grabbed onto a gold winged dog.
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!" Tono cheered grabbing onto the golden horn. The fall was terrifying yet somehow very enlightening. During the fall I saw some of the world's greatest treasures. I could have sworn that I saw the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in one of the inlets in the pit. My hands were flailing like whips when my fingers grasped a rock. I thought that my arms were going to be ripped out of my sockets. Looking up to the rock I noticed that it wasn't a rock at all but more of a statue .I had caught onto the golden squirrel. I craned my head down to my backpack and looked at Squirt. He looked shaken, but alive. John had caught onto the golden idol with a white light coming from it.
"Ted!" we yelled out
"I'm right here. I'm hanging out on to one of the idols." He said.
"All right, we're not going to get anywhere doing this so we probably should just find a way back." John whimpered.
We probably would have thought of something to get us back if it hadn't have been for the low thrum coming from the wall. As the thrum became louder my hold on the idol started to slip. Before I could regain my grasp the idol began to recoil into the wall. Before I knew it all five of us were falling. As I was falling I couldn't help but notice that John had disappeared. The fall took forever. As time passed my mind slowly slid into a dream state. When I woke up I was very aware that this was not a dream.
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"Lizzy where are you? My mom said you could come over tomorrow at six o'clock for a sleepover." Suddenly a bird flew like a speeding bucket towards Alice. It was a raven. "Aaah! Help a bird is chasing me. Aaah!" Alice yelled. Alice started running very fast; so fast she wasn't looking where she was going so she fell right into the pit. "Aaaaaah!" she screamed as she grabbed onto the idol with the black light. She was instantly transported to a very bleak castle. The castle was filled with pictures of death and destruction. "Where am I?" the raven came and perched on her shoulder. "Oh raven, I don't think I'm at school anymore"
"No you're not." A mysterious voice said.
"Who are you?" Alice asked.
"The real question is who you are" the voice yelled, "But are you Alice Abbot?" it finished.
"Why yes I am! This is just like my book I'm reading," she remembered. Suddenly a cloak, two daggers and a spell book appeared. "Where am I" she coaxed
"In the world of Xhar"
"Thank you, for everything. Just one more question." Alice meandered, "Who are those people living in those huts out there by the castle's border? They don't even look like anything human."
"It's because they are Ring Shaun, a sub-species of the Ravens." Sensing Alice's cluelesness He divulged, "Ravens are a highly intelligent species of birds. Ring-Shaun is a group of Ravens whose lineage is un-pure. That means that a Raven mated with a different type of bird, making them the perfect chattel!"
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"So where are we? Somewhere that's not Earth for sure." Ted screamed.
I looked around and noticed the beauty and majesty of this gray landscape. Every flower and blade of grass looked like a beautiful prize that is only thought of, never a reality. I wondered how such a beautiful place could be so bleak and dismal. There had to have been a time when people once lived here and loved the colors and clarity. Now it was a bleak reminder of how things used to be and how things could be again.
Of course my perfect daydream had to be interrupted by Tono doing something stupid.
"I don't know about you, but these leaves are G-o-o-d good!" Tono raved "Tono that's poison ivy." I said sarcastically."My tongue itches! My tongue itches!" he screamed clawing at his tongue. We had no clue where to go. Then by the wind's breeze a note fluttered by begging to be grabbed. Lizzy yanked it out of the air."What's it say? What's it say?" Ted pleaded. Lizzy read aloud,
"Dear friends,
How are you? I'm fine, do you like
Xhar? That's this world's
name. Meet me at Kayo Castle.
Your friend,
John," Lizzy finished.
"Well, how do we get there it's not like there's a map" I said. Lizzy reached into the envelope and pulled out crudely drawn map. Now with the map to Kayo Castle and direction to go in our journey finally begins!
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