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CHAPTER THE FOURTH Ryan huffed in exasperation. He was hoping that once he got to someone else everything would be okay. “Martin! I saw it! With my own eyes! I’ll show you where it was.” Martin smiled at him as if he was a young child who had suggested that atoms were made of chocolate. “Nonsense. Ghosts only exist in storybooks for the weak minded. Silly child.” “Nonsense? “Storybooks?” “Weak minded?” “Silly child?!” Thought Ryan. Since when did Martin talk like a shakespearean poet? He jumped up and grabbed Martin by the arm. “Oh, Lord! Where, pray tell, are you taking me?” He said with a strange flourish in his voice. Ryan felt a surge of bravery rush through his blood. “I’m taking you to prove to you that this ghost is bloody well real.” Ignoring Martin’s classical protests, Ryan dragged him into the Archives of the State library. It wasn’t until he had set foot into the place that he realised he had the same mysterious, pushing feeling at his brain again. His bravery melted away into fear as he realised he had lost control of his legs, which carried him across the floor, deeper into the archives. Martin, obviously not wanting to meet a ghost, yanked his arm out of Ryan’s grip and ran away. “Martin!” Called out Ryan as he took off after him. Oddly enough, Martin seemed to know exactly where he was going, and before long Ryan had lost him. The echoing footsteps had seemingly been swallowed up. All he could do was wander around calling. Ryan was shaking with fear, and his eyes were playing tricks on him. Because of the low light, the weird blobs that form across your eyes looked like monsters and apparitions. The click-clack of his feet echoed across the empty, deafeningly quiet aisles. After a while, he noticed the footsteps were out of timing with when his feet touched the ground. They were much too fast, like he was running instead of walking. He stopped. But the footsteps didn’t. Ryan barely had time to register this before the blackened figure barrelled through a bookshelf, sending it tumbling down a mere few meters from where Ryan was standing. The malevolent burnt child-ghost rustled its spines and screeched so loudly and sharply it made Ryan’s head throb. Ryan took off with a bang, followed closely by the ghost. The chase was horrible beyond words. Ryan would have been toast instantly if this was a flat out, straight-pathed race so had to constantly to duck and weave and turn. His head was throbbing. The sound of the screeching his and the ghost’s feet pummelling the ground became softer and softer. He turned a corner… And almost ran smack bang into a wall again. He whirled around, but it was too late. The ghost was on him. It grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the floor. It raised its sharpened claws… So this is how I die, thought Ryan. Not in a car accident, not in a bed, but eaten by a ghost. He didn’t want his last look on the world to be such a horrifying image, so he tried to look at it in another way. Look at it in another way. “Mum, I don’t want to go down there! It’s too dark!” Said a younger Ryan. “Try to look at it in another way.” Replied his mother. “Mum, this uniform looks stupid.” Said a younger Ryan. “Try to look at it in another way.” Replied his mother. “Mum, Dad is always annoyed at me.” Said a younger Ryan. “Try to look at it, err, him, in another way.” Said his mother. Look at it in another way. Ryan looked at it in another way. For some reason, he instantly saw a hurt, desolate young boy with red strings coming out of him, flowing into a dark, mysterious force. The boy turned back into a ghost. Then flickered back into a boy. Then a ghost. The strange thing was faltering. It shook and spasmed violently, as if trying to fight something off. “Go.” It rasped, voice erratic and disturbed. “GO!” It screeched. Ryan went.

A wobbling, shuddering form appeared in front of him. Instead of seeing it, it was as if Ryan could feel it. It radiated a mixture of hurt, confusion and rage. It was a small, crippled, horribly burnt child’s body with dark, black holes were the eyes and mouth were supposed to be. He was face-to-face with a ghost. Ryan wanted to scream as loud as he ever had, but his fear twisted it into a strangled croak. Even though the ghost resembled a human, it moved like a velociraptor. Its posture was haunched with jagged spikes running down its back and shoulders, Its arms were drawn up, and it had massive, black claws on its hands and feet that were as long as Ryan’s hand. It cocked its head, rustled its spines and let out a malevolent, blood chilling hiss that would haunt Ryan’s dreams for years to come. He got up and ran. He shoulder charged the ghost, but he ran straight through it. As he sped away, his head started throbbing. Every step caused an ice cold jolt shot to sizzle down his back. He could hear it crashing and stomping meters behind him. The creature had dropped down to all fours, and was fast. Things were thrown. Paintings were pulverised. Relics were run over. Walls were ruined. Books were bashed. The library was liquidated. Eventually, the creature reached him, and bit into his shoulder. He screamed in agony, and everything seemed to freeze. Colours flashed. Legs felt like they were running on air. It felt like his brain was being crushed to death by his own skull. He was asleep before he even hit the floor. A small, desolate looking child rubbed the frail hand of his weak mother. She was lying in a hospital bed. The child was wearing a large, rosy red raincoat. Something flashed and the child was sitting on a chair. The hospital and mother gone, the child was at home. His father was yelling at him, furious, horrified that his wife was gone. He obviously somehow blamed the child for killing the mother. A white flash faded into the father and the child. They were both running away from a fierce bushfire. A charred tree fell on top of them. Another white flash turned into the father and the child being dragged out of what little remained of the tree trunk. The child was dead. The father was still alive. The father was ripped apart emotionally. First his wife, then his son. It was too much. He laid the red, rosy raincoat the child used to wear, and buried it, far, far away from his normal home. Two hundred or so years later, somebody dug it up and got ridiculously excited, and sent it to the State Library of NSW. Ryan awoke from one world of nightmares to another with a bang. His whole body felt like it was glued together with sweat. He was lying on the bare floor. His head was throbbing, but this time it was a regular sort of headache. The ghostly pain was gone. Gladly, he wasn’t injured, or at least, he couldn’t feel any injuries- His shoulder. No pain. He felt where the ghost had bitten him. Nothing. He began to sit up but then stopped immediately. The ghost was still out there, somewhere. He laid back down and waited. He froze when he heard feet stomping down some stairs and a voice calling out his name. Ryan squeezed his eyes shut until they burned. The footsteps were getting closer and closer. He braced himself for his death… “Oh!” Said Martin sarcastically upon seeing Ryan. “I see you found your own place to settle down for the night. Where’d you even get all that?” He gestured to the blanket and the pillow. Ryan tried to scream about ghosts and burnt ghosts and weird dreams and fires, but he couldn’t. It felt like his throat had constricted around itself. “Anyway,” Muttered Martin, reaching into a bag, “Dinner.” He said, lobbing a half-eaten bag of chips at Ryan’s head. “Ow.” Muttered Ryan. He paused for a moment, realising he could talk. “MARTIN!! THERE WAS A GHOST! A BURNT ONE! IN THE BASEMENT, um, THE ARCHIVES AND IT WAS ALL BURNT AND HORRIBLE AND IT BIT ME BUT THERE WAS NO WOUND AND I HAD A WEIRD DREAM AND-“ “Jeez, jeez, jibeddy Christmas! Calm down first! Have some chippy whippies!” “Some what?!” “Chippy whippies. It’s what I call chips sometimes.” Eventually, Ryan calmed down enough to tell Martin the whole story. By the time he’d finished, Martin was rubbing his temples. “Arrrrrr… My bloody jiffing head. It’s throbbing.” Then he looked up at Ryan with clouded, unfocused eyes. “Ghosts? Archives? Burns? Fires? Wow. You really must have hit your head hard.” Scoffed Martin. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

~THE CRY OF THE NIGHT~ CHAPTER THE FIRST Ryan was not sure how long the night had been crying. Could have been weeks, could have been months. Maybe it’s all just in his head. But for as long as he could remember, the night cried out like hundreds of souls were trapped with nowhere to go. He shifted between the various objects in the boot of the car, trying to find a comfortable position. He didn’t. It had been like this for the last few weeks after he ran away. His method was simple: Hop on a car. When the car stops, run into whatever place the car brought you to. Find a hidden place to rest and store whatever crumbs of food you have. Manage the hideout to be more homely. Remember the spot, and then go find some food. The only reason he moved from his old place was because he was caught trying to steal some food, and was chased by the police. He didn’t have time to grab anything from his hideout, so he was back to square one. Even though the case ended half an hour ago, his heart was still hammering away at his ribs. It was so loud that he was beginning to worry that the driver would hear it. The car swerved and skidded. Whoever was driving was not very good at their job. Bang! Suddenly the car went over a speed bump, and everything was jostled. It was barely anything, but for Ryan squashed between a bunch of random objects, it hurt. Something metal slammed into his forehead, and before his brain could retake control of his mouth, he cried out. “OW!!” He yelped, and clapped his hand over his mouth. But it was too late. Ryan felt as the car slowed down and stopped. He heard the car door slam as the driver walked over to the boot… Okay, thought Ryan. You’ve done this before. Leap out of the boot screaming. Maybe push someone over. Big. Threatening. He could hear the footsteps getting closer and closer… Finally, the boot opened. “ARRRR-“ Bellowed Ryan, throwing his arms up. The driver yelped and threw a sharp punch at Ryan’s jaw. His bellow turned into a cry as he tumbled out of the boot clutching his mouth. “Oaaahhh.” Moaned Ryan. “Whuh yuh doo daaat?” Then he looked up into the bright green eyes of another child. He bugged out his eyes, opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. “Whuh yuh doo daaat?” He mimicked in a funny tone. “Uh, first off,” He said, in his normal voice, “I didn’t hit you that hard. Second, you just jumped out of the boot of my car screaming your head off. I think I can be forgiven for letting a fist fly.” “Your car?!” Ryan said. The boy smirked. “Okay, granted, it wasn’t mine to start with, but it is now.” So that’s why he was such a bad driver! Thought Ryan. He barely knew how to drive! The strange boy grabbed Ryan’s hand and pulled him up. He looked at Ryan for a while, seemingly deciding wether to trust him or not. “Name’s Martin. What’s yours?” He said finally. Ryan gulped. “I’m Ryan. Are you homeless as well?” Martin barked a laugh. “I barely know the definition of the word home!” He exclaimed as he climbed back into the car. “I’ve been an urchin as long as I can remember.” He said, climbing out of the car with a tattered bag. “Right.” He said in a commanding tone. “Let’s go.” Ryan was confused. “Go where?” “Anywhere.” Martin called over his shoulder. The duo walked for quite a while. Eventually, they passed a large building. A sign stood a few meters away: “The State Library Of NSW” Is what it said. As they drew nearer to the Library, Ryan felt more and more uneasy, as if something was trying to force itself into the workings of Ryan’s mind. Suddenly, it felt as if Ryan had this struggling form in his mouth, like he had just eaten a large frog. He opened his mouth, but instead of coughing and retching, he said, “Hey, Martin. How about we sneak into the library and rest in there? It’s open to the public, and we won’t be constantly battling the elements.” Martin thought for a moment. “Hey, that’s not actually that bad of an idea.” Martin strolled briskly past and disappeared into the state library. It was a clear and quiet night, but Ryan could still hear the mournful sounds of the night crying out into the blackness. The State Library seemed ominous at night. It was completely dark, and quiet. Way too quiet. The massive columns looked like teeth, and the windows looked like eyes, like the library was gnashing its teeth at him. The gargoyle on top of the roof seemed to be glaring at him… Wait. Gargoyle?! There was no Gargoyle there before! Ryan’s head snapped around to look at the gargoyle, but it had disappeared. He heard an odd flapping noise above him, and a horrible, rasping screech. The pushing feeling at his head, like something was messing with the very workings of his brain was back again. He grimaced and massaged his temples. Suddenly, an agonising streak of pain burned up his spine. His head throbbed one more time and then… It stopped. He surveyed his surroundings again. It wasn’t so bad. The library didn’t look aggressive. The columns looked like teeth. A big, jolly smiling mouth. And as for the gargoyle and the flapping noise and the screech… An owl. It was an owl. Ryan chuckled at himself for being so silly. What was he doing dawdling out here when there was so much fun to be had at the library. “Martin! Wait for me!” CHAPTER THE SECOND “This looks like a good place.” Said Martin as they entered a large, grand room. It had long desks and tables lined up with a few computers sitting on them, and around the edges rows and rows of books. Ryan didn’t know it, but this was the Mitchell Library Reading Room. “This place looks pretty cool.” He remarked to Martin. “Yeah.” Muttered Martin. His head was throbbing again-and the sobs of the night were even louder-he wondered if these things were connected. Suddenly, he felt that strange, frog-in-mouth sensation. He tried to resist it, but it didn’t work. “How about we look through the library, like we give ourselves a tour, and then decide which room we should sleep in?” He blurted. Martin scoffed. “Bro, this place has a million rooms.” But Ryan still thought it was a good idea, and now he found himself wandering the hallways. He came to a door marked ARCHIVES, and stood there, listening. The cries of the night seemed to be coming from in there. Ryan shuddered. He didn’t want to go in there. Who knows what lurked behind that door. But… then again…it would be nice to discover the source of the moans and groans that kept him up at night. Yes, it really would be. Ryan opened the door and stepped inside. It was dark and spooky in the archives, and all he could do was wonder along the endless rows of shelves and chests. Finally, he came to the end of the aisle. He was just about to swing to the left and go into the next aisle, but something stopped him. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He suddenly felt so sad, and so lonely, that he could simply curl up somewhere and cry and moan, and it wouldn’t matter, because no one would hear him. He slowly turned around… And what his gaze fell on would change his life forever.

NOTE: Sorry. I posted the wrong file. The other one was just a rough draft. This is the real, edited one. BEASTS OF BERMUDA Prologue In 1967, the first satellite was launched into orbit of the earth. It then took the first picture of the world. The picture became ridiculously famous, and by the next year, almost everyone on earth knew about it. It continued to fly around the earth, snapping pictures wherever it went. But one day, somebody noticed something. Around a certain area of the Atlantic ocean was a group of middle-sized islands. But not just any area of the Atlantic ocean. The Bermuda Triangle. The government decided to send a team of scientists, explorers, and military personnel to the islands to explore and discover them. What they did not know was that only a small lucky handful would return alive… ********************* Andrew Ospengance frowned as he looked at the parcel at the door. It was from the government. He took it inside and opened it. The parcel contained something that looked like a walkie-talkie or a radio. There was also a crumpled note enclosed. Andrew- This audio recorder was found floating in a sealed container in the northern Atlantic ocean. We think it’s from your daughter. She must have sent it from the Island of Bermuda. Nobody knows about the island yet-it’s meant to be top secret. When we tried to link it up to a computer, we couldn’t figure out the passcode… But we thought you could. Kelly was your daughter after all. Regards, Johnathon Meddle Hmm, thought Andrew. Johnathon. The guy who had supposedly rescued him from a monster infested island. When he said he couldn’t remember anything, they said he must have amnesia. They had told him that story hundreds of times. He didn’t believe a word. They even told him that his daughter had been left behind on the monster island. What rubbish. He didn’t have a daughter. But he always felt like a part of his life was missing. When he was either burying himself in chip crumbs in front of the TV, trying to go to sleep, or having a lonely, solitary dinner, he had this strange nagging feeling of loss and sadness, like a dull ache deep in his body that he could never reach. But now the government had come up with solid proof for their crazy stories. He rushed over to his computer with the audio recorder and plugged it in. He had no idea what the passcode was meant to be, so he put in his own passcode that he usually used. Surprisingly, it worked. The passcode was cracked, and he pressed play on the audio. Then, a 13-year old girl’s voice rang out. Andrew froze. He felt a small spark of recognition tingle in his brain. “This audio thing is for my dad, Andrew Ospengance. If you government people are watching, erm, *cough* I mean, listening to this tape, then give it to my father first. It’s for him more than anyone else.” There was a pause. “Hey dad. I know you’re probably wondering what the heck happened, after your daughter disappeared. And I hope you’re alright with the amnesia and everything. But here’s the story of what really happened. The answer to all your questions.” Andrew gasped and sunk back in his chair as his daughter continued talking. Chapter 1 Andrew Ospengance sighed as he turned the key in the doorknob. How would he explain this to her? The second business trip this month. She would not be happy. Andrew heard the lock click and pushed the door open. “Kelly? I’m home!” He called as he kicked off his shoes. “So you are now?” Kelly called back. “I’ve been waiting for ages. What kept you away?” Andrew breathed into his hand and sniffed his breath to make sure it wouldn’t… give anything away. “Umm, traffic jam.” He said quickly. Too quickly. Kelly from the other room laughed. Even though it was a sign that she didn’t believe him, it still made him smile. “That is such a heap of steaming cowpat. What were you really doing, Dad?” Andrew began knotting his fingers. He knew he was on a diet, but he couldn’t help himself… “I told you, I was in a traffic jam.” Kelly poked her head out of the kitchen and down the hallway to where her father was standing. She was 13 years old, but could already cook and clean and do things for herself all day while her father was at work. She had dark skin, but bright green eyes, that seemed to twinkle whenever she smiled. She took one look at Andrew and burst into peals of laughter. “What?” Andrew asked. “G… g… g…” She could hardly say it, she was laughing so much. “Go look in the mirror!” She squeezed out before laughing again. So Andrew did. His skin, unlike his daughter, was fair, and he had messy, raven hair. But smeared around his mouth was the brown, sweet truth of what he had been doing. Eating chocolate. He had just began to lick it off when Kelly had appeared to snatch another look. She was happy, but Andrew wasn’t. Not because of her laughing. Whenever she was happy, he was happy. But this was different. He sighed and turned around. He had to tell Kelly now. “Kelly…” He said. “Hmm? What?” She replied. Andrew sighed. “I have to go…on another business trip.” Kelly’s playful smile slowly disappeared. It was replaced with such a stare that it could have sliced through solid metal. “Good for you.” She said. She spun on her heels and retreated to the kitchen to continue cooking dinner. About 30 minutes later, while the two were having dinner, Kelly spoke up. “So. Tell me about this new fangled business trip.” She said. Andrew thought back to what his boss told him when he saw the flyer looking for volunteers. “Look, Andy!” He had cried, waving his arms around energetically. “The government wants volunteer scientists to go explore these islands in the North Atlantic! I reckon that would be an adventure for you!” So Andrew signed up for the trip, and now it was official. He was going. When Andrew told this to Kelly, she put down her sausage and thought for a moment. “I’ll come with you.” Andrew scoffed. “No. Kelly, you can’t come. It’s too dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Kelly shook her head. “Nothing you say will make me stay here.” Andrew sighed and looked at his watch. 9:26pm. “I’m going to bed.” He said, standing up. Kelly was incredulous. “At this early hour?! Dad, you normally fall asleep at midnight in front of the TV amidst a snowstorm of chip crumbs!” “Well, I’m waking up super early tomorrow, so I can get ready and go.” “Oh. OK. Well, goodnight.” “Goodnight, my heart.” At 6:50 in the morning, Andrew stumbled bleary-eyed into the military facility, searching for somebody named “Wanda Wye.” His daughter, Kelly, was tagging along just to see her father leave. “Kelly!” Hissed Andrew for the 50th time as his daughter touched one of the many things in the facility. “Wot?” Asked Kelly without turning around. “Stop touching everything! It’s this thing you’ve got! You see something poking out of a wall. You touch it. You see something interesting on the ground. You touch it!! Stop it!” Kelly shook her head and rolled her eyes. Eventually, Andrew found the person he was looking for. Wanda Wye had short, blonde hair, pinkish-red glasses and a lab coat that stretched down to her knees, and was clutching a clipboard as if her life depended on it. “Oh!” She said on seeing Andrew. While her dad was talking to Wanda about something to do with leaving soon, Kelly decided to explore. The place was almost entirely made of metal; and it looked quite old and weathered. There were lots of different vehicles. They all had the classic military camouflage pattern, and there were soldiers marching around with their legs flying all over the place with every step. Kelly couldn’t help but giggle at them. Even some of the most serious, no-nonsense people in the world could still look stupid. Kelly hopped into a very long military vehicle. It was like a bus-but had tools and weaponry that you would definitely not find on a normal bus. She walked deeper in the vehicle. Suddenly, she heard a soldier’s voice from outside. “That door’s open!” Said the voice. Another voice spoke. “So what? It’s meant to be open! It literally has a sign on it that says, “Please keep this door open!”” Kelly heard a dull whack. Probably a hand connecting with the back of someone’s head. “Not that one, Nigel! That one! The door to the troop carrier!” “Oh. Ok. Yes. It’s an open door. What about it?” There was an irritated groan. “Close it!” “ALRIGHT YOU DON’T HAVE TO SHOUT AT ME!!” Kelly heard footsteps approaching the vehicle, and then the door was slammed shut, and Kelly was plunged into blackness. Chapter 2 Andrew Ospengance looked over the edge of the ship. It was partly cloudy, and the sea was a dark navy blue, and the water around frothed as the ship cut through the choppy waves. This is what Andrew had been doing for the past few hours, other than eating or playing on his phone. He slowly walked over to the bow. The island they had been looking for had came in sight, and they were quite close. He could hear some of the crew muttering something about setting down the anchor soon. Suddenly, a loud rumbling made Andrew jump. Something wet fell on his head. He looked up. The sky had been blanketed with dark clouds, almost mirroring the ocean beneath it. Rain began to trickle down from the sky. The droplets landed on the metal ship with a TONK. As the TONKing grew louder and more intense, people ducked and ran for cover. Andrew slowly walked after everyone else. Rain didn’t bother him that much. He was already quite damp from the sea spray, so it didn’t really matter. But then, the ship jolted with such force that Andrew fell over. Everyone who was running for cover suddenly stopped and looked around while making confused noises. The ship was bumped again and the stone-faced, completely motionless soldiers fell on their bums. As they had been given orders not to move, they weren’t sure if that meant don’t move unless the ship gets jostled so much you fall over and you have to get back up, or don’t move at all. If they weren’t supposed to move at all, they had all just disobeyed a direct order. Everyone broke into a nervous chatter. Why was the ship bumping so violently? Had they hit a rock? Were they all going to sink? Just then, a giant creature erupted out of the water. It was a bit like a dark blue, more streamlined crocodile with flippers. It flew over the boat, the people on it watching in terror with their mouths agape. The giant creature splashed down on the other side of the ship, creating such a splash that everyone on board was drenched. There was silence for a moment. Then screaming. People ran around crazily, shouting and yelling their heads off, waving their arms everywhere, occasionally hitting other people and making them scream even more. The jaws of the enormous sea monster exploded out of the water and clamped down onto the side of the ship. The people on board threw themselves to the other side of the ship, screaming their lungs out. The creature flicked its head and tore out a huge chunk of the ship. The sea monster descended back into the depths of the ocean. Now there was a massive hole in the ship, and it was rapidly sinking. A giant tail flew out of the water. It leaned dramatically to the left, and gave the ship an almighty WHACK!! Andrew fell backwards and hit his head on something hard, and then everything went black. Chapter 3 Andrew heard voices. Strange, faint, disoriented voices. His eyelids fluttered and flickered. He groaned. Wanda Wye was leaning over him. “Andrew? Andrew. You awake?” Her glasses fell of her nose and hit Andrew in the face. “Ow!” Mumbled Andrew as he sat up slowly, rubbing the back of his head. “Alright. Good. You’re awake.” Said Wanda, standing back up. She helped Andrew back onto his feet, who began to survey the scene around him. They were on a sunny beach. The ship had made it ashore before it sank and carried its passengers just a few more hundred meters to the shore, which was good. It looked like somebody had pushed it up onto the beach, and was now stuck there, and had quite a few bite marks and holes in it. On the beach, there were many survivors. All but a few had survived, and were now either standing to attention, lying down, moping around, eating, or throwing up saltwater. Andrew could only spot a handful of vehicles. The others must have all sank to the bottom of the sea or gotten eaten by the sea monster. Everyone looked completely soaked with water, along with all the vehicles and the ship. If everything was wet, that meant all the radios and communications were dead, so they couldn’t call for help. The beach actually looked quite attractive, like a sunny, tropical beach should, but behind it, inland, there was a dark, dense forest. It looked quite menacing. The giant leaves and vines and trees looked like they could hide an elephant. “Alright, men! Barked an offical looking high-ranked soldier. A commander. He was a bit short, and had a lumpy, pink nose. “We have laid explosives in the jungle. We will detonate them and blow the forest apart to drive out any nasty beasties, as well as clearing an easy path for us all. And if anything dangerous appears, we are going to BLOW IT UP!!” The crazy man spat. He began punching the air. “Blow it up! Blow it up! Blow it up!” He chanted. Eventually, the other soldiers joined in. “Blow it up! Blow it up! Blow it up!” They all bellowed, waving their arms around and marching into the forest. Andrew sighed and shook his head. “This plan is doomed to fail.” He said. “I couldn’t agree more.” Muttered Wanda beside him as the soldiers detonated the first bomb, blowing the first part of the forest apart, and began complaining that the bombs were making them deaf. Andrew and Wanda jumped and they heard gunshots. A loud, menacing roar rang out, seemingly filling the entire island. The ground began to shake as terrible, thundering footsteps approached. A few soldiers burst out of the tree line, taking random shots with their rifles and yelling in fright. A few seconds later, a massive creature burst from the trees. It was a scaly green monster, with a brightly coloured face a bit like a mandril. It was quadrupedal, with its front arms and hands much bigger that its legs, a bit like a gorilla, and had its razor-sharp teeth bared in rage. Its behaviour and appearance slightly resembled that of a very angry gorilla, but there was no mistaking this creature for an ape. Just on all fours, it was about 7 meters tall, and it had mid-green scales, and a sharp horn on its head, which it seemed to be using as a machete and a battering ram. It simply plucked the soldier off the beach with its mouth, not even stopping, and swallowed the soldier whole. Wanda gasped as Andrew grabbed her and they bolted, through the foliage they ran, occasionally nicking themselves on a sharp leaf or stick. A few other people running from the monster joined with Andrew and Wanda, and soon they were all standing breathless in a clearing of the forest. Just a few meters away from them was a massive gouge in the earths crust. A ravine. There were a bunch of long, thick vines hanging down above the layer of thick mist that was obscuring the ground. Andrew flopped down. “Thank god.” He breathed. “I think we lost it.” An earsplitting, ferocious roar only a few meters away from him begged to differ. Chapter 4 All heads turned quickly towards the source of the sound. It was the creature from before. Its gums were bared and it was growling viciously. It opened its mouth and its lower jaw widened, revealing a mouth crammed with teeth. Andrew’s stomach lurched when he spotted what little remained of the creature’s victims stuck between its teeth. Suddenly, something crashed through the trees, making a loud noise. It was a military truck! The creature barely had time to finish its comical double-take when the front of the truck slammed into the creature, sending it hurtling into the ravine. It roared with fury as it fell. It crashed through the vines, until eventually it got so tangled it stopped falling. It wriggled and kicked and roared, but it couldn’t get free. The door of the truck opened and Andrew went over. “Thank you. You saved our li-“ “You’re welcome, Dad. Don’t mention it.” Said Kelly Ospengance. Andrew stood there staring at his daughter with his eyes wide. He rubbed his eyes and blinked, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Kelly?!” He panted finally. Kelly put her hands on her hips. “Wot?” “Kelly what are you doing here!? You are in so much trouble young lady!” He yelled, shaking his hand with every word he said. Kelly crossed her arms. “Don’t call me “young lady”, dad. I may be one, but I do not appreciate your tone.” “This is your daughter?!” Asked Wanda, incredulous. “Yes, yes she is.” Andrew replied, brushing her off. Wanda still had “what the heck” written all over her face. “She shouldn’t be here.” Andrew shook his head. “Dang right she shouldn’t be here!” He said angrily. Wanda opened her mouth to say something else, but then a twig snapped audibly. Everybody jumped. “What…was…that?” Somebody asked. The foliage rustled, and they could hear footsteps coming. The soldiers had their guns up and ready to shoot whatever emerged from the bushes. Just then the leaves were pulled aside to reveal… A human. He stopped and looked at our terrified faces in confusion. “All right?” He said in perfect English. Chapter 5 Nobody said anything. They just stared in amazement at the person. He was a native person of the island. He definitely wasn’t one of them, as he had a completely different skin colour. He wasn’t black, like most of the other native people of the world; he had sort of a… green tinge to him. He was wearing a dark green shirt with leaves stuck on it, and brown pants with no knees and had a ring of decorative leaves around the leg holes. The clothes seemed to shimmer as he moved. Camouflage. He also had a tattered, red headband tied around his forehead. Andrew stepped forward. “Ummmm… Hi. Me,” He said, pointing to himself, “Andrew. An-dr-ew.” He pointed back at the native man. “You?” The man looked confused. “Can you speak English?” He said. Andrew, and everyone else looked shocked. “You speak English?” He asked, surprised. Now the man just looked confused. “Okay.” He said. “I asked you, “Can you speak English.” And, you responded to me, in english, asking me if I spoke english.” He spread out his arms. “So… I guess we both speak english.” He looked across at the group of strangers. They were just staring at him, mouths open, in amazement. Just then, Kelly spoke up from the people and strode confidently over to the man. “My name is Kelly Ospengance.” She said, shaking the man’s calloused hand. “And we all speak english.” The man nodded. “Good, good.” He said. “My name is Guashino. Welcome to our island.” Kelly opened her mouth to say something else, but then somebody burst through the trees, making everyone jump. “Aargh!! Huff, puff, huh, puff.” He huffed. He was a short, squat figure with a ruddy nose and a long moustache that connected with his sideburns. He was dressed in a military uniform, with medals plastered all over his chest, holding a big rifle. He looked like the He kept panting. It seemed he was running for a long time, as he was so breathless he couldn’t talk. “I’ve… got a… a… sti…a… stitch!” He wheezed. “Are you alright, sir?” Said one of the soldiers. “Yes, yes, i’m fi… fine.” The moustache guy batted the soldier’s hand away from him. He got up and surveyed the group, as if sizing them up. Then he noticed the green local staring at him. He yelped, as if he was stung by a bee and pointing his rifle square at the Guashino’s chest. Guashino obviously did not appreciate this gesture at all, and he suddenly whipped out a decorated bow and arrow in less than half a second. Both stared eachother down, weapons pointed at the ready. Andrew stepped between them. “Woah, woah, woah. Break it up, guys.” Guashino lowered his bow slightly, but kept his eyes on the soldier. “Who is this green idiot?” He growled at one of his soldiers. The soldier spoke hesitantly. “Sir. Commander. This is Guashino. He is a local native person that lives here. When we met him, he came in peace. He poses no threat. His bow is no match for our guns…” His voice trailed off as Guashino gave him the most withering look that a human face was capable of. The General lowered his rifle. “Guashino.” He scoffed. “What a stupid name.” Then he sniffed in a sort of cross, arrogant way. The native man and the military commander had only exchanged a few words, and already clearly disliked eachother. The commander turned to the soldiers. “Right men.” He barked. “We are now stuck on this island. We must find the survivors, and make sure we survive as well.” He clicked his fingers at Guashino. “And we will use the natives as tools to help us survive. And…” He said, his face darkening with anger. His voice raised into a shout. “WE WILL FIND THAT GODFORSAKEN CREATURE AND DESTROY IT!!” Suddenly, there were a series of roars coming from the ravine. Everyone rushed over to the ravine and looked down. The creature, the one the commander was talking about, was having a blast. It was swinging and jumping from vine to vine, roaring and whooping in delight. It had evidently forgotten about its lost meal. Guashino smiled. “Aww. Look at that.” He cooed. “Taushenjoonga is having a blast.” Everyone looked at Guashino with bemused looks. Before they could say anything, the commander yelled. “THERE IT IS!!” He fumbled in his pockets for a moment and pulled out grenade. He was just about to pull the pin, when… As quick as lightning, Guashino reached into his quiver of arrows and pulled out a different arrow, a blue one. He took aim and fired and the commander. The arrow streaked through the air, eventually finding its mark, diving into the commander’s leg. The commander suddenly stopped everything. He stopped yelling and his facial muscles relaxed, and he dropped the grenade. It fell down harmlessly into the ravine without exploding. Before the commander could follow, Guashino lunged forward and grabbed the commander, and hauled him back onto the ground. He laid the commander down, and delicately pulled out the arrow. Instantly, the soldiers all pulled out their rifles and pointed them at Guashino. Guashino remained relaxed. “Actually,” He began, “I saved your leader. That silly little exploding object was just going to anger Taushenjoonga, and he would leapt up here in seconds and then eaten everyone. I temporarily put your commander to sleep to stop him doing so. When he wakes up, he will be much calmer.” The soldiers looked at eachother. The crazy green guy had a point. They lowered their guns and regarded him with suspicion. “But why save the creature? It attacked us. It even ate some of us.” Guashino fixed the soldier with a look. “Excuse me, but if a bunch of crazy weirdos march into your house, yell at the top of their lungs about killing things, and then begin to drop bombs on it, you have no choice but to retaliate. Especially if you’re a wild animal.” He looked at the soldiers with one eyebrow raised. It was clear that he knew there were no comebacks to that. And there weren’t. “Right.” Said Guashino, hoisting the disgruntled commander over his shoulder, “Follow me. I’ll take you back to camp.” Everyone stood up and followed. “Camp?” Asked Andrew Ospengance. Chapter 6 “Here we are!” Exclaimed Guashino as the group came to a wall. The wall was about 3 meters tall, and made out of natural-looking bricks, and were decorated with natural paint. On the top of the wall were a few wooden spears. Wanda Wye, however, was more interested in lingering at the back of the group trying to pick as many plant samples as she could. She saw an interesting leaf float down from the tree canopy. She bumbled over to it, rustling in the ferns, trying to find it. She didn’t. “Never mind.” She muttered to herself. “I can get a fresh one from the tree it fell from.” She straightened and looked up. A pair of yellow eyes were staring back at her. She opened her mouth to yell, but she couldn’t talk. Blood flowed to her legs to turn and run. But she couldn’t run. She was frozen in fear. The yellow eyes drifted down from the canopy. The owner of them was a giant snake, which had scales that were a primary colour of muddy-dark green, and a diamond shaped dark yellow pattern running across its back. It descended from the tree. Its body arched and moved but her eyes stayed locked with Wanda’s. It flickered its tongue. “Pollyanna!” Came a call. The giant snake’s eyes flicked over to Guashino, who smiled broadly, approached and patted the snake on its head. It tilted its head and almost seemed to purr. “Everybody, meet Pollyanna. Sorry if she gave you a scare, Wanda. She’s just a bit curious.” He rubbed Pollyanna on the cheek. “Anybody want a pat?” He asked. Everyone took a step back, except Kelly, who smiled broadly and marched confidently over to Pollyanna. “Oh, no you don’t.” Growled Andrew through gritted teeth as he pulled his daughter back. When Pollyanna had slithered off, they continued walking along the wall until they came to a large decretive arch. It was covered with banana leaves. “Welcome to home.” Said Guashino as he pushed the leaves aside. Inside the wall was a very small village. There were several houses made out of wood, and Andrew could have sworn that there were these huge bones making the skeleton of the structure. (Hahahahaha. Get it?) They had no doors, instead having those banana leaves. In the corner, there was a large pond. It had several lily pads floating on the surface, as well as a carpet of duck weed. There was a big log in the middle, completely covered in moss. But the most striking things were the giant, vivid green frogs swimming and splashing about. They were like green tree frogs, except they had a low, long red dorsal fin flowing down their backs, a stumpy little tail, and a strange little bulb on their heads. The bulb glowed a warm yellow colour. The creatures came about knee height to Kelly. Guashino noticed everyone’s eyes bulging out of their heads as they watched, and chuckled. “Oh, you’ll love these cuties. These guys are a special type of giant frog. We call them Bulbits. They usually live here in the shallows, just hanging about, but when they go to hunt they dive down into these underwater caves. They catch fish by attracting them with their glowing bulbs.” He began pointing at them one by one. “This one’s called Frank, He’s called Nigel, and she’s called Sonja.” The Bulbits all perked up and looked to Guashino when their names were called out. “Everybody else,” Guashino continued, “Just left to go hunting in the caves. These guys didn’t go because they’re a bit young. The others will probably surface in about half an hour.” Kelly thought they were cool. “Cool!” She said. She crept up to one. “Hello little cutie.” She said in a baby voice. The Bulbit, Nigel, turned and edged towards her. “Kelly.” Said Andrew in a warning voice. “I don’t think we should touch it.” Being a classic 13 year old girl, Kelly chose to ignore him. “Do you want a pat?” She asked. Nigel did want a pat. He slowly waddled over. Kelly scratched him under the chin. Nigel closed his eyes and his stumpy tail wiggled. Kelly reached up to pat him on the head. “There. Aren’t you a cutie. What a funny little thing you have on your head-“ Nigel’s eyes snapped open, and he opened his mouth wide, revealing a terrifying set of needle-like teeth. He lunged forward, hissing loudly. Kelly yelped, quickly jumped away from the now nasty Nigel. Guashino chuckled. “Don’t worry. He didn’t mean to hurt you,” He said, scratching the now nice Nigel on the chin. “It’s just that when something touches a Bulbit’s bulb, it will lash out, as the bulbs are very sensitive, and used to attract prey. So if you are attracted by it, the Bulbit sees you as prey.” Everybody in the surrounding area shuddered. Suddenly, the snoring commander’s eyes smacked open, and wobbled around wildly. He did not appreciate being slung over Guashino’s shoulder, and started kicking and yelling. “Stupid native idiot!” He yelled. “Put me down, you green Gumby!” Guashino immediately let go of the commander, sending him falling flat on his face. Andrew smothered a grin. “Where the ruddy hell am I?” He bellowed, looking around. “This is my village.” He said. He swivelled around and noticed the Bulbits. “And what are these disgusting things?!” Guashino frowned. “This is Frank, Nigel and Sonja, mind you, and they are not disgusting things.” He growled. The commander shook his head in disgust, muttering something under his breath. Wanda tapped Guashino on the shoulder. “Excuse me for asking, but…” She hesitated. “Where did you learn to speak English?” Guashino laughed. “A few decades ago, these three strangers came to the island. They had these flying metal birds called planes. Anyway, they stayed here, probably because they were stuck, and they taught us English.” They must be some of the people that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle! Thought Andrew. “I see.” Said Wanda, as she made a note of this in her notepad. Kelly asked something. “How many people live here?” She asked. Guashino thought for a moment. “I would say nearly about fifty.” “Fifty?!” Asked Kelly incredulous. “Fifty people live in four houses?!” Andrew stepped in front of Kelly with a weak smile. “Sorry for my daughter’s rudeness. It’s just that she’s 13 and she’s so stubborn-“ “No, no, it’s perfectly alright.” Interrupted Guashino. “Fifty people live in fifty houses.” Kelly shoved Andrew out of the way. “But where are the extra 46 houses?” Guashino smiled and pointed upwards. Everyone looked and gasped. Around 10 meters above their heads, an intricate network of bridges and swing vines connected around 46 houses. A few people were gathered on the bridges, looking down upon the newcomers with curiosity. “Everyone lives up there so we can be safe from predators. These buildings on the ground are warehouses and shops, and because they were so big they were too heavy to build up there.” Explained Guashino. The grumpy commander sneered. “This will be easy.” He muttered. “What was that?” Hissed Guashino. “Oh, nothing.” Said the grumpy commander innocently. “Just admiring your… handiwork.” Then he laughed a cold, evil chuckle. Andrew shuddered. It seemed like the Commander was hiding something… Suddenly, Kelly yelped, making everyone jump. “What was it?” Asked Andrew. Kelly pointed a finger over to a corner where a children’s play area was situated. “The playground moved!” She quivered. “I swear, I saw it wobble.” The commander muttered something about a girl drinking so much rum she was seeing things. Guashino looked over to where Kelly was pointing. “Hm? Oh, that would be Jay Jay.” He smiled. He crouched down and began punching the ground to a specific rhythm. Suddenly, the children’s playground began wobbling and moving. There was a loud CRACK and the entire playground was raised out of the ground. A giant tortoise’s head poked out from underneath it. The tortoise sleepily turned its head towards Guashino. “Introducing Jay Jay.” He said. “Jay Jay is a ginormous type of tortoise that buries itself in the ground when it sleeps. It sleeps in the day and goes to feed at night. He is completely deaf; but he can feel vibrations through the ground. So even while he is asleep, he knows exactly where something is a long as it is moving and connected to the ground.” By now Jay Jay had tottered over to Guashino who gave him a pat. “When he’s asleep, he’s like a dormant volcano, and we set up a little jungle gym for the kids on his shell. Hence his name, Jay Jay. He doesn’t even notice it’s there.” Wanda spoke up. “Umm… You do know that “Gym” is spelt G-Y-M and not J-Y-M.” “Is it?” Said Guashino in surprise. “Yes. So really his name should be Jay Gee.” Guashino shrugged as if to say “I don’t care.” Then he looked at the sky. “Hm.” He muttered. Then he turned back to the newcomers. “Right, everyone, its late. You can come up here and shelter with us. We’ve got a few spare rooms.” Guashino climbed up the ladder, beckoning for everyone to follow him, which they did, reluctantly. Guashino led Andrew and Kelly into their spare home. The walls were made out of a fine coloured, solid wood, but there were also these giant bones seemingly holding everything together. But the most noticeable thing was the carpet. It was damp, and was softer than you could have believed. Kelly bent down and looked at it. “Hey.” She said. “This carpet is made of moss!” Guashino smiled. “So what? Moss is nature’s carpet.” Andrew smiled and went to his bed. It was small, but comfy and quite warm. Guashino blew out a candle as he walked out. “Nighty night.” He said. Andrew rolled over, shut his eyes and stayed still. Then rolled over again. It was quite comfortable here. Except he was lying on his arm and it was getting numb. After repeating this for what seemed like hours, he finally fell asleep. The next morning, Guashino burst into the room, kicking the door open with a bang. His eyes were wild and panicked. “What’s wrong?” Asked Andrew. “The soldiers are gone, along with some of our weaponry!” He spluttered. “They’re going to kill Taushenjoonga!” Chapter 7 Guashino, Andrew, Wanda and Kelly set out to look for the soldiers, or find Taushenjoonga and protect him. They walked for a while in silence. Wanda was lingering at the back of the group picking as many of the native plants as possible. About an hour passed. Suddenly, Guashino yelped and ran over to something hidden in the undergrowth. He was cradling a giant snake’s head in his hands. It had been shot several times. “Pollyanna.” Whispered Guashino. The snake was breathing. Taushenjoonga did not like the visitors. So far, all they did was shoot him, yell about blowing up his territory, and make several attempts to kill him and the other creatures in his territory. But these visitors were different. The other visitors were wild, vicious and had no respect for life. But these ones seemed to be honestly concerned for the long, scaly one. They offered it food. One even went down to a stream to get water. He silently crept down from the branches. Wanda was stroking the giant snake, trying to reassure it, when she yelled in fright. Guashino and everyone else came running back. “What’s wrong?” Gasped Andrew. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Taushenjoonga staring at him. “Get down!” Yelped Guashino. “No eye contact! No sudden movements!” Taushenjoonga leaned closer to Kelly, sniffing her all over. Kelly’s face scrunched up when she smelt the giant predator’s terrible breath. Andrew lunged forward to try and grab Kelly, and yank her away from Taushenjoonga. The monster growled at him, and fixed him with a stare. Andrew stayed in his spot. Kelly slowly lifted up her hand to Taushenjoonga‘s nose. Andrew screamed internally as his daughter reached up and began patting the nose of the creature that had tried to kill them on more than one occasion. Taushenjoonga leaned closer. He almost seemed to purr. But Taushenjoonga was confused. Why did these visitors show submission, respect, and even affection to him if the others only wanted him dead? Taushenjoonga‘s train of thought was shattered by a loud explosion. He roared in fury as he leapt back up into the forest canopy and leapt from tree to tree toward the source of the sound. “KELLY!!!” Raged Andrew. “WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!” Kelly looked at him with a stare. “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT!! GOING UP TO A WILD, MAD CREATURE AND POKING IT ON THE NOSE!! DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!” Kelly reached up and poked her father on the nose. Chapter 8 Guashino, Kelly, Wanda and Andrew hurried through the forest. Guashino had his bow drawn, and at every noise he snapped his head in the direction. They came to the clearing. It was the same place where they had first met Guashino, and when Kelly barged Taushenjoonga off into the ravine. Taushenjoonga was growling ferociously at the commander, who was smiling quite smugly. His men were at a dynamite detonator. He waited until Taushenjoonga was right at the edge of the ravine. “DETONATE!!” He bellowed. The edge of the ravine exploded, and Taushenjoonga was sent tumbling down into the ravine, only to be caught by the vines again. “FIRE!!!” Roared the commander again. All the soldiers began firing and shooting at Taushenjoonga, who roared furiously. Most bullets missed, while some found their mark and burrowed deep into Taushenjoonga‘s flesh. Poor Taushenjoonga bellowed in pain. The soldiers then lit several fuses of dynamite, and threw them down. They exploded mid air, snapping the vines that Taushenjoonga was holding onto. Taushenjoonga howled as he fell out of sight. There was so much smoke and dust nobody could see a thing. When the dust and smoke finally cleared, Taushenjoonga was gone. It was a quick, clever and fearsome plot meant to kill. Guashino drew his bow and began madly shooting at the soldiers, who opened fire with their guns. For Andrew, the following events seemed to happen in slow motion. A soldier fired. The bullet flew out of the barrel of the gun, mercilessly flying straight towards… A small boulder, missing Andrew by a good 2 meters. But then the bullet ricocheted straight off the rock, burrowing deep into Andrew left leg. Andrew yelled in agony and clutched his leg as it folded beneath him, sending him falling down onto the ground. In his unbearable pain, he heard somebody shout, “Wheee! I hit somebody!” Before he was dragged away by Guashino. Andrew awoke back in one of the treehouses of Guashino’s village. He moaned as the pain of his leg being moved rippled through his body. Guashino was standing over him. He stuck three fingers in his face. “How many fingers am I holding up?” He asked hurriedly. “Um, four?” Replied Andrew, still delirious. “Maths isn’t your strong suit, then.” Muttered Guashino. He poked Andrew in the leg where he got shot. Andrew yelped, but then stopped. “Hey, wow, it doesn’t hurt that much.” Guashino nodded. “Mm. I rubbed some of our healing cream on it. Wanda also took out the bullet while you’re asleep.” Andrew rubbed his head and tried to sit up. “You’ll be alright. The bullet didn’t go in too deep.” Just then, Kelly burst into the room. “Um, guys! We got company!” Guashino swore in a native language and began to help Andrew up. “Quickquickquick, we gotta GO, GO, GO!!” Shouted Wanda from outside. Andrew eventually, with Guashino’s help, made it down the ladder and onto the ground. They were just about to rush for freedom, but something cold and metal pressed against their head. It was a gun. “Well, well, well.” Said The Commander. “Fancy seeing you again.” He sneered as he ordered his men. “Tie them up.” He barked. But before they could do that, a downpour of arrows flew from above. The villagers were fighting back! But the commander was quick to respond. He aimed his gun and fired at a rope bridge. The rope bridge collapsed, sending the people hurtling down onto the ground. Some clung onto the rope bridge, and some stayed where they were, but most ran off into the forest. There were a series of short, sharp CRACKS and then several bodies slumped to the ground. Oh. Kelly screamed and looked away. “STAY STILL AND SHUT YOUR MOUTHS!!” Yelled the commander, not sure if he was yelling and them or the locals. Guashino was not going to give up without a fight. While the commander was busy shooting his people, with his hands tied behind his back, he rubbed the ropes against his belt, feeling around for something. Finally, he found it. It was a sharp blade, made from a particularly vicious looking claw. He had forgotten exactly where the claw came from, possibly one of the giant eagles that flew around up in the mountains. He rubbed the rope against the blade, and eventually it was cut in half and dropped off. He struggled and kicked free of the soldiers holding him, and lunged over to the commander, who was now busy rounding up his village. “LET THEM GO!!” He screamed as he crash-tackled the commander to the ground. The commander landed on the ground with a pitiful yelp. But before Guashino could do anything further, he was lifted up and put in a headlock by one of the soldiers. Chapter 8 “So this is how it ends.” Growled the Commander, looking quite pleased with himself. “When I get home, you won’t be with me.” “You people.” He pointed at Guashino, Wanda, Andrew and Kelly. “Dead. Didn’t survive. I tried everything I could to save you. But you died.” He chuckled. “Boo hoo hoo.” He added. “You green idiots.” He pointed at the locals, who shuddered. “Some new slaves!” “Hang on.” Interrupted Wanda. “The government won’t let you do that!” The commander chuckled. “The government won’t be there.” He smiled viciously as he explained his plan. “Before we came here, I was already preparing for a large-scale coup. But then, this island thingo came into play. And I figured that on most islands, there are natives, so there might natives here as well! And because natives are always so primitive, I knew I could just take them in and they could be my slaves-“ Croak. The commander was interrupted by a soft croaking noise. Croak. He wheeled around, to be face to face with a Bulbit. “Croak.” Said the Bulbit. “NO!” Yelled Guashino. “Don’t hurt Emerald!” The commander’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “You name these repulsive things?” He growled. Guashino opened his mouth but the commander yelled at him that it was a rhetorical question. “What’s a rhetorical question?” Asked Guashino. “You seriously don’t know what a rhetorical question is?” “YES! That’s why i’m asking you!” “SHUT UP! That was also a rhetorical question!” Guashino rolled his eyes. Suddenly, the commander felt something on his leg. He looked down. The disgusting toad thing was rubbing his leg! The commander yelped and shot Emerald point-blank in the head. Then, the pond that she emerged from seemed to burst into life. Bulbits poured out, frills and dorsal plates opened out wide, their monstrous teeth bared, hissing wildly. They were not happy. The commander screamed and began taking random shots at the bulbits. Guashino’s eyes filled with tears as he watched them slump to the ground. “GO, GO, GO!!!!” Yelled Andrew. “NOW’S OUR CHANCE!!” The commander looked over his shoulder. “Don’t you idiots go anywhere-“ Then he screamed hideously. A bulbit had latched onto his leg! He shot it dead, but more and more kept coming, as Guashino, Kelly, Andrew and Wanda disappeared into the jungle. Eventually, they burst out onto the beach. To their surprise, there were helicopters and boats and soldiers. A rescue team! The group raced out onto the beach. The soldiers instantly trained their guns on them, but then lowered them when they saw who they were. One soldier stepped forward. “Have you seen Commander Hector?” Wanda opened her mouth, but Guashino interrupted. “You mean the crazy, insane, rude, racist, murdering cuckoo guy with the oversized moustache? Yes, I’ve seen him.” He pointed to the jungle. The soldier looked confused. “Commander Hector is a murderer?” Kelly jumped in. “YES! He just took a native in to be his slaves, and he told us about how he was planning a coup!” The soldier looked very shocked. “He’s planning a coup?!” Just then, the commander in question exploded out of the forest in a flurry of madness, anger, and swearing. “RIGHT, YOU IDIOTS! STUPID CHILD! CRAZY GREEN GUMBY!!! PREPARE TO BE THE FIRST VICTIMS OF MY NEW COUP!!!” That’s when he noticed the baffled-looking soldiers. “Oh…” He moaned. The soldiers walked up to him and tied the commander’s hands behind his back. That was when the sand seemed to move. “What was that?!” Spat Kelly. Andrew spun around. “What was what?” “That!” “What’s ‘That!’?” “The ground moved!” Suddenly, a giant creature erupted from the sand. It was a scaly green monster, with a brightly coloured face a bit like a mandril. It was quadrupedal, with its front arms and hands much bigger that its legs, a bit like a gorilla, and had its razor-sharp teeth bared in rage. Its behaviour and appearance slightly resembled that of a very angry gorilla, but there was no mistaking this creature for an ape. Just on all fours, it was about 7 meters tall, and it had mid-green scales, and a sharp horn on its head, which it seemed to be using as a machete and a battering ram. “Taushenjoonga?” Said Guashino in amazement. Taushenjoonga roared in fury and made a beeline for the commander. The commander squeaked as the giant creature roared with such force it knocked him over. But instead of eating him, Taushenjoonga lined up his fist with precession at the commander. When he was sure he had gotten it right, a finger burst out of the fist, sending the commander flying. In other words, a giant, scaly green monster had just flicked his arch nemesis into the ocean. The commander landed around 400 meters away with a quiet “plip!” Then he floated to the surface, coughing and yelling and screaming. Then the sea monster that had destroyed the boat and left them stranded in the first place came and swallowed him. Everybody stared in silence for a while, except Taushenjoonga, who burst into a sires of short barks and roars, like he was laughing. Finally he stopped, looked around, and realised how many helicopters there were. He roared and lunged at one, bashing it against the ground. It exploded in a ball of fire. Kelly jumped into a nearby helicopter with her father. Taushenjoonga continued rampaging around. Finally, the helicopters lifted off and flew into the sky. Taushenjoonga bellowed a roar of victory, and then retreated back into the tunnel he came out of. Andrew smiled. Then he laughed. “We’re going home!” This sentence was soon declared false by the giant sea monster that had just devoured the commander leapt clean out of the water. Its fearsome jaws crushed the tail of Andrew and Kelly’s helicopter, narrowly missing them. The helicopter immediately stopped flying and splashed into the ocean. Luckily, it wasn’t that high above the ocean, but it was still high enough to shatter. Kelly floated to the surface of the waves. She looked around desperately for her father, and then saw. He was lying with his back underwater, but he was breathing. She swam over to him. “Dad!” She said the word like a prayer. “Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad!” Slowly, Andrew opened his eyes. “Who’s dad?” He asked. Chapter 9 Kelly looked at him incredulously. “You’re dad! Andrew Ospengance!” Andrew nodded slowly. “Uh huh. Who…who are you?” Kelly looked at him, confused. Then, a piece of helicopter fell on top of her. Kelly woke up. She was on the beach, and Guashino was leaning over her. She sat up with a jolt. She stood up and ran over to the shoreline, just in time to see the helicopters disappear over the horizon. “Dad…” She whispered. “Don’t worry.” Said Guashino. “Your father just has a bit of amnesia. He was picked up by the helicopters.” Kelly looked at him. “How do you know?” Guashino sighed. “I swam out to rescue you. Last time I checked, they were telling eachother that you were dead.” Chapter 10 The past faded back into the present as Andrew sat crumpled in his chair, his chest heaving as he took his daughter’s story in. “A few months later…”Said Kelly’s voice, “I recorded this story onto an old audio tape I found, discarded by the commander’s expedition. I stuck it in a container and sealed it as best as I could, and pushed it out to sea.” Andrew rubbed his temples where a headache had just blossomed. “It’s not actually that bad here. It’s quite fun. Me and Guashino have helped the local people rebuild after the disaster of cuckoo commander.” Andrew sighed. “And now I have to go, Guashino’s calling me. I hope we meet again. Love, your stranded daughter. Kelly.” The computer beeped as the recording finished. And suddenly, Andrew could remember everything. Chapter 10 “Mmmmm.” Said Andrew appreciatively. “This cake is delicious.” Andrew, Wanda, Johnathon Meddle and a few other people were gathered around a table eating a cake. On the cake it said: Bon Voyage. “So, where you planning to go, Andy?” Asked Wanda cheerfully. Andrew swallowed his cake. “Hmmm. I’m not sure yet.” “I remember when I went to Hawaii for a week. It was perfect. Lovely weather. You want to go there?” Andrew smiled and shook his head. “No. Not in the pacific…” He looked up and smiled. “How about a certain group of islands in the north Atlantic?” The End. (∩🌔 ͜ʖ🌔)⊃━☆ﾟ.*

Chapter 7 Guashino, Andrew, Wanda and Kelly set out to look for the soldiers, or find Taushenjoonga and protect him. They walked for a while in silence. Wanda was lingering at the back of the group picking as many of the native plants as possible. About an hour passed. Suddenly, Guashino yelped and ran over to something hidden in the undergrowth. Andrew ran to see. Guashino was cradling a giant snake’s head in his hands. It had been shot several times. “Pollyanna.” Whispered Guashino. The snake was breathing. Taushenjoonga did not like the visitors. So far, all they did was shoot him, yell about blowing up his territory, and make several attempts to kill him and the other creatures in his territory. But these visitors were different. The other visitors were wild, vicious and had no respect for life. But these ones seemed to be honestly concerned for the long, scaly one. They offered it food. One even went down to a stream to get water. He silently crept down from the branches. Wanda was stroking the giant snake, trying to reassure it, when she yelled in fright. Guashino and everyone else came running back. “What’s wrong?” Gasped Andrew. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Taushenjoonga staring at him. “Get down!” Yelped Guashino. “No eye contact! No sudden movements!” Taushenjoonga leaned closer to Kelly, sniffing her all over. Kelly’s face scrunched up when she smelt the giant predator’s terrible breath. Andrew lunged forward to try and grab Kelly, and yank her away from Taushenjoonga. The monster growled at him, and fixed him with a stare. Andrew stayed in his spot. Kelly slowly lifted up her hand to Taushenjoonga‘s nose. Andrew screamed internally as his daughter reached up and began patting the nose of the creature that had tried to kill them on more than one occasion. Taushenjoonga leaned closer. He almost seemed to purr. But Taushenjoonga was confused. Why did these visitors show submission, respect, and even affection to him if the others only wanted him dead? Taushenjoonga‘s train of thought was shattered by a loud explosion. He roared in fury as he leapt back up into the forest canopy and leapt from tree to tree toward the source of the sound. “KELLY!!!” Raged Andrew. “WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!” Kelly looked at him with a stare. “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT!! GOING UP TO A WILD, MAD CREATURE AND POKING IT ON THE NOSE!! DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!” Kelly reached up and poked her father on the nose. Chapter 8 Guashino, Kelly, Wanda and Andrew hurried through the forest. Guashino had his bow drawn, and at every noise he snapped his head in the direction. They came to the clearing. It was the same place where they had first met Guashino, and when Kelly barged Taushenjoonga off into the ravine. Taushenjoonga was growling ferociously at the commander, who was smiling quite smugly. His men were at a dynamite detonator. He waited until Taushenjoonga was right at the edge of the ravine. “DETONATE!!” He bellowed. The edge of the ravine exploded, and Taushenjoonga was sent tumbling down into the ravine, only to be caught by the vines again. “FIRE!!!” Roared the commander again. All the soldiers began firing and shooting at Taushenjoonga, who roared furiously. Most bullets missed, while some found their mark and burrowed deep into Taushenjoonga‘s flesh. Poor Taushenjoonga bellowed in pain. The soldiers then lit several fuses of dynamite, and threw them down. They exploded mid air, snapping the vines that Taushenjoonga was holding onto. Taushenjoonga howled as he fell out of sight. There was so much smoke and dust nobody could see a thing. When the dust and smoke finally cleared, Taushenjoonga was gone. It was a quick, clever and fearsome plot meant to kill. Guashino drew his bow and began madly shooting at the soldiers, who opened fire with their guns. For Andrew, the following events seemed to happen in slow motion. A soldier fired. The bullet flew out of the barrel of the gun, mercilessly flying straight towards… A small boulder, missing Andrew by a good 2 meters. But then the bullet ricocheted straight off the rock, burrowing deep into Andrew left leg. Andrew yelled in agony and clutched his leg as it folded beneath him, sending him falling down onto the ground. In his unbearable pain, he heard somebody shout, “Wheee! I hit somebody!” Before he was dragged away by Guashino. Andrew awoke back in one of the treehouses of Guashino’s village. He moaned as the pain of his leg being moved rippled through his body. Guashino was standing over him. He stuck three fingers in his face. “How many fingers am I holding up?” He asked hurriedly. “Um, four?” Replied Andrew, still delirious. “Maths isn’t your strong suit, then.” Muttered Guashino. He poked Andrew in the leg where he got shot. Andrew yelped, but then stopped. “Hey, wow, it doesn’t hurt that much.” Guashino nodded. “Mm. I rubbed some of our healing cream on it. Wanda also took out the bullet while you’re asleep.” Andrew rubbed his head and tried to sit up. “You’ll be alright. The bullet didn’t go in too deep.” Just then, Kelly burst into the room. “Um, guys! We got company!” Guashino swore in a native language and began to help Andrew up. “Quickquickquick, we gotta GO, GO, GO!!” Shouted Wanda from outside. Andrew eventually, with Guashino’s help, made it down the ladder and onto the ground. They were just about to rush for freedom, but something cold and metal pressed against their head. It was a gun. “Well, well, well.” Said The Commander. “Fancy seeing you again.” He sneered as he ordered his men. “Tie them up.” He barked. But before they could do that, a downpour of arrows flew from above. The villagers were fighting back! But the commander was quick to respond. He aimed his gun and fired at a rope bridge. The rope bridge collapsed, sending the people hurtling down onto the ground. Some clung onto the rope bridge, and some stayed where they were, but most ran off into the forest. There were a series of short, sharp CRACKS and then several bodies slumped to the ground. Oh. Kelly screamed and looked away. “STAY STILL AND SHUT YOUR MOUTHS!!” Yelled the commander, not sure if he was yelling and them or the locals. Guashino was not going to give up without a fight. While the commander was busy shooting his people, with his hands tied behind his back, he rubbed the ropes against his belt, feeling around for something. Finally, he found it. It was a sharp blade, made from a particularly vicious looking claw. He had forgotten exactly where the claw came from, possibly one of the giant eagles that flew around up in the mountains. He rubbed the rope against the blade, and eventually it was cut in half and dropped off. He struggled and kicked free of the soldiers holding him, and lunged over to the commander, who was now busy rounding up his village. “LET THEM GO!!” He screamed as he crash-tackled the commander to the ground. The commander landed on the ground with a pitiful yelp. But before Guashino could do anything further, he was lifted up and put in a headlock by one of the soldiers.

Chapter 2 Andrew Ospengance looked over the edge of the ship. It was partly cloudy, and the sea was a dark navy blue, and the water around it was frothing as the ship cut through the choppy waves. This is what Andrew had been doing for the past few hours, other than eating or playing on his phone. Andrew slowly walked over to the bow. The island they had been looking for had came in sight, and they were quite close. He could hear some of the crew muttering something about setting down the anchor soon. Suddenly, a loud rumbling made Andrew jump. Something wet fell on his head. He looked up. The sky had been blanketed with dark clouds, almost mirroring the ocean beneath it. Rain began to trickle down from the sky. The droplets landed on the metal ship with a TONK. As the TONKing grew louder and more intense, people ducked and ran for cover. Andrew slowly walked after everyone else. Rain didn’t really bother him. He was already quite damp from the sea spray, so it didn’t really matter. But then, the ship jolted with such force that Andrew fell over. Everyone who was running for cover suddenly stopped and looked around while making confused noises. The ship was bumped again and the stone-faced, completely motionless soldiers fell on their bums. As they had been given orders not to move, they weren’t sure if that meant don’t move unless the ship gets jostled so much you fall over and you have to get back up, or don’t move at all. If they weren’t supposed to move at all, they had all just disobeyed a direct order. Everyone broke into a nervous chatter. Why was the ship bumping so violently? Had they hit a rock? Were they all going to sink? Just then, a giant creature erupted out of the water. It was a bit like a dark blue, more streamlined crocodile with flippers. It flew over the boat, the people on it watching in terror with their mouths agape. The giant creature splashed down on the other side of the ship, creating such a splash that everyone on board was drenched. There was silence for a moment. Then screaming. People ran around crazily, shouting and yelling their heads off, waving their arms everywhere, occasionally hitting other people and making them scream even more. The jaws of the enormous sea monster exploded out of the water and clamped down onto the side of the ship. The people on board threw themselves to the other side of the ship, screaming their lungs out. The creature flicked its head and tore out a huge chunk of the ship. The sea monster descended back into the depths of the ocean. Now there was a massive hole in the ship, and it was rapidly sinking. A giant tail flew out of the water. It leaned dramatically to the left, and gave the ship an almighty WHACK!! Andrew fell backwards and hit his head on something hard, and then everything went black. Chapter 3 Andrew heard voices. Strange, faint, disoriented voices. His eyelids fluttered and flickered. He groaned. Wanda Wye was leaning over him. “Andrew? Andrew. You awake?” Her glasses fell of her nose and hit Andrew in the face. “Ow!” Mumbled Andrew as he sat up slowly, rubbing the back of his head. “Alright. Good. You’re awake.” Said Wanda, standing back up. She helped Andrew back onto his feet, who began to survey the scene around him. They were on a sunny beach. The ship had made it ashore before it sank and carried its passengers just a few more hundred meters to the beach, which was good. It looked like somebody had pushed it up onto the beach, and was now stuck there, and had quite a few bite marks and holes in it. On the beach, there were several survivors. All but a few had survived, and were now either standing to attention, lying down, moping around, eating, or throwing up saltwater. Andrew could only spot a handful of vehicles. The others must have all sank to the bottom of the sea or gotten eaten by the sea monster. Everyone looked completely soaked with water, along with all the vehicles and the ship. If everything was wet, that meant all the radios and communications were dead, so they could call for help. The beach actually looked quite attractive, like a sunny, tropical beach should, but behind it, inland, there was a dark, dense forest. It looked quite menacing. The giant leaves and vines and trees looked like they could hide an elephant. “Alright! Barked an offical looking high-ranked soldier. A commander. He was a bit short, and had a lumpy, pink nose. “We are going to charge head on into the trees. If anything dangerous appears, we are going to BLOW IT UP!!” The crazy man spat. He began punching the air. “Blow it up! Blow it up! Blow it up!” He chanted. Eventually, the other soldiers joined in. “Blow it up! Blow it up! Blow it up!” They all bellowed, waving their arms around and marching into the forest. Andrew sighed and shook his head. “This plan is doomed to fail.” He said. “I couldn’t agree more.” Muttered Wanda beside him. Andrew and Wanda jumped and they heard gunshots. A loud, menacing roar rang out, seemingly filling the entire island. The ground began to shake as terrible, thundering footsteps approached. A few soldiers burst out of the tree line, taking random shots with their rifles and yelling in fright. A few seconds later, a massive creature burst from the trees. It was a scaly green monster, with a brightly coloured face a bit like a mandril. It was quadrupedal, with its front arms and hands much bigger that its legs, a bit like a gorilla, and had its razor-sharp teeth bared in rage. Its behaviour and appearance slightly resembled that of a very angry gorilla, but there was no mistaking this creature for an ape. Just on all fours, it was about 7 meters tall, and it had mid-green scales, and a sharp horn on its head, which it seemed to be using as a machete and a battering ram. It simply plucked the soldier off the beach with its mouth, not even stopping, and swallowed the soldier whole. Wanda gasped as Andrew grabbed her and they bolted, through the foliage they ran, occasionally nicking themselves on a sharp leaf or stick. A few other people running from the monster joined with Andrew and Wanda, and soon they were all standing breathless in a clearing of the forest. Just a few meters away from them was a massive gouge in the earths crust. A ravine. There were a bunch of long, thick vines hanging down above the layer of thick mist that was obscuring the ground. Andrew flopped down. “Thank god.” He breathed. “I think we lost it.” An earsplitting, ferocious roar only a few meters away from him begged to differ. Chapter 4 All heads turned quickly towards the source of the sound. It was the creature from before. Its gums were bared and it was growling viciously. It opened its mouth and its lower jaw widened, revealing a mouth crammed with teeth. Andrew’s stomach lurched when he spotted what little remained of the creature victims stuck between its teeth. Suddenly, something crashed through the trees, making a loud noise. It was a military truck! The creature barely had time to finish its comical double-take when the front of the truck slammed into the creature, sending it hurtling into the ravine. It roared with fury as it fell. It crashed through the vines, until eventually it got so tangled it stopped falling. It wriggled and kicked and roared, but it couldn’t get free. The door of the truck opened and Andrew went over. “Thank you. You saved our li-“ “You’re welcome, Dad. Don’t mention it.” Said Kelly Ospengance. Andrew stood there staring at his daughter with his eyes wide. He rubbed his eyes and blinked, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Kelly?!” He panted finally. Kelly put her hands on her hips. “Wot?” “Kelly what are you doing here!? You are in so much trouble young lady!” He yelled, shaking his hand with every word he said. Kelly crossed her arms. “Don’t call me “young lady”, dad. I may be one, but I do not appreciate your tone. “This is your daughter?!” Asked Wanda, incredulous. “Yes, yes she is.” Andrew replied, brushing her off. Wanda still had “what the heck” written all over her face. “She shouldn’t be here.” Andrew shook his head. “Damn right she shouldn’t be here!” He said angrily. Wanda opened her mouth to say something else, but then a twig snapped audibly. Everybody jumped. “What…was…that?” Somebody asked. The foliage rustled, and they could hear footsteps coming. The soldiers had their guns up ad ready to shoot whatever emerged from the bushes. Just then the leaves were pulled aside to reveal… A human. He stopped and looked at our terrified faces in confusion. “All right?” He said in perfect English. Chapter 5 Nobody said anything. They just stared in amazement at the person. He was a native person of the island. He definitely wasn’t one of them, as he had a completely different skin colour. He wasn’t black, like most of the other native people of the world; he had sort of a… green tinge to him. He was wearing a dark green shirt with leaves stuck on it, and brown pants with no knees and had a ring of decorative leaves around the leg holes. The clothes seemed to shimmer as he moved. Camouflage. Andrew stepped forward. “Ummmm… Hi. Me,” He said, pointing to himself, “Andrew. An-dr-ew.” He pointed back at the native man. “You?” The man looked confused. “Can you speak English?” Andrew, and everyone else looked shocked. “You speak English?” He asked, surprised. Now the man just looked confused. “Okay.” He said. “I asked you, “Can you speak English.” And, you responded to me, in english, asking me if I spoke english.” He spread out his arms. “So… I guess we both speak english.” He looked across at the group of strangers. They were just staring at him, mouths open, in amazement. Just then, Kelly spoke up from the people and strode confidently over to the man. “My name is Kelly Ospengance.” She said, shaking the man’s calloused hand. “And we all speak english.” The man nodded. “Good, good.” He said. “My name is Guashino. Welcome to our island.” Guashino opened his mouth to say something else, but then somebody burst through the trees, making everyone jump. “Aargh!! Huff, puff, huh, puff.” He huffed. He was a short, squat figure with a ruddy nose and a long moustache that connected with his sideburns. He was dressed in a military uniform, with medals plastered all over his chest, holding a big rifle. He looked like the He kept panting. It seemed he was running for a long time, as he was so breathless he couldn’t talk. “I’ve… got a… a… sti…a… stitch!” He wheezed. “Are you alright, sir?” Said one of the soldiers. “Yes, yes, i’m fi… fine.” The moustache guy batted the soldiers hand away from him. He got up and surveyed the group, as if sizing them up. Then he noticed the green local. He yelped, as if he was stung by a bee and pointing his rifle square at the Guashino’s chest. Guashino obviously did not appreciate this gesture at all, and he suddenly whipped out a decorated bow and arrow in less than half a second. Both stared eachother down, weapons pointed at the ready. Andrew stepped between them. “Woah, woah, woah. Break it up, guys.” Guashino lowered his bow slightly, but kept his eyes on the soldier. “Who is this green idiot?” He growled at one of his soldiers. The soldier spoke hesitantly. “Sir. Commander. This is Guashino. He is a local native person that lives here. When we met him, he came in peace. He poses no threat. His bow is no match for our guns…” His voice trailed off as Guashino gave him the most withering look that a human face was capable of.” The General lowered his rifle. “Guashino.” He scoffed. “What a stupid name.” Then he sniffed in a sort of cross, arrogant way. The native man and the military commander had only exchanged a few words with eachother, and already disliked eachother. The commander turned to the soldiers. “Right men.” He barked. “We are now stuck on this island. We must find the survivors, and make sure we survive as well.” He clicked his fingers at Guashino. “And we will use the natives as tools to help us survive. And…” He said, his face darkening with anger. His voice raised into a shout. “WE WILL FIND THAT DAMN CREATURE AND DESTROY IT!!” Suddenly, there were a series of roars coming from the ravine. Everyone rushed over to the ravine and looked down. The creature, the one the commander was talking about, was having a blast. It was swinging and jumping from vine to vine, roaring and whooping in delight. It had evidently forgotten about its lost meal. Guashino smiled. “Aww. Look at that.” He cooed. “Taushenjoonga is having a blast.” Everyone looked at Guashino with bemused looks. Before they could say anything, the commander yelled. “THERE IT IS!!” He fumbled in his pockets for a moment and pulled out grenade. He was just about to pull the pin, when… As quick as lightning, Guashino reached into his quiver of arrows and pulled out a different arrow, a blue one. He took aim and fired and the commander. The arrow streaked through the air, eventually finding its mark, diving into the commander’s leg. The commander suddenly stopped everything. He stopped yelling and his facial muscles relaxed, and he dropped the grenade. It fell down harmlessly into the ravine without exploding. Before the commander could follow, Guashino lunged forward and grabbed the commander, and hauled him back onto the ground. He laid the commander down, and delicately pulled out the arrow. Instantly, the soldiers all pulled out their rifles and pointed them at Guashino. Guashino remained relaxed. “Actually,” He began. “I saved your leader. That silly little exploding object was just going to anger Taushenjoonga, and he would leapt up here in second and then eat your leader. I temporarily put your commander to sleep to stop him doing so. When he wakes up, he will be much calmer.” The soldiers looked at eachother. The crazy green guy had a point. They lowered their guns and regarded him with suspicion. “Right.” Said Guashino, hoisting the disgruntled commander over his shoulder, “Follow me. I’ll take you back to camp.” Everyone stood up and followed. “Camp?” Asked Andrew Ospengance. Chapter 6 “Here we are!” Exclaimed Guashino as the group came to a wall. The wall was about 3 meters tall, and made out of natural-looking bricks, and were decorated with natural paint. On the top of the wall were a few wooden spears. They walked along the wall until they came to a large decretive arch. It was covered with banana leaves. “Welcome to home.” Said Guashino as he pushed the leaves aside. Inside the wall was a very small village. There were several houses made out of wood, and Andrew could have sworn that there were these huge bones making the skeleton of the structure. (Hahahahaha. Get it?) They had no doors, instead having those banana leaves. In the corner, there was a large pond. It had several lily pads floating on the surface, as well as a carpet of duck weed. There was a big log in the middle, completely covered in moss. But the most striking things were the giant, vivid green frogs swimming and splashing about. They were like a green tree frog, except they had a low, long red dorsal fin flowing down their backs, a stumpy little tail, and a strange little bulb on their heads. The bulb glowed a warm yellow. The creatures came about knee height to Kelly. Guashino noticed everyone’s eyes bulging out of their heads as they watched, and chuckled. “Oh, you’ll love these cuties. These guys are a special type of giant frog. We call them Bulbits. They usually live here in the shallows, just hanging about, but they go to hunt they dive down into these underwater caves. They catch fish by attracting them with their glowing bulbs.” He began pointing at them one by one. “This one’s called Frank, He’s called Nigel, and she’s called Sonja.” The Bulbits all perked up and looked to Guashino when their names were called out. “Everybody else,” Guashino continued, “Just left to go hunting in the caves. These guys didn’t go because they’re a bit young. The others will probably surface in about half an hour.” Kelly seemed quite interested. “Interesting.” She said. She crept up to one. “Hello little cutie.” She said in a baby voice. The Bulbit, Nigel, turned and edged towards her. “Kelly.” Said Andrew in a warning voice. “I don’t think we should touch it.” Being a classic 13 year old girl, Kelly chose to ignore him. “Do you want a pat?” She asked. Nigel did want a pat. He slowly waddled over. Kelly scratched him under the chin. Nigel closed his eyes and his stumpy tail wiggled. Wanda reached up to pat him on the head. “There. Aren’t you a cutie. What a peculiar thing you have on your head-“ Nigel’s eyes snapped open, and he opened his mouth wide, revealing a terrifying set of needle-like teeth. He lunged forward, hissing loudly. Wanda yelped, quickly jumped away from the now nasty Nigel. Guashino chuckled. “Don’t worry. He didn’t mean to hurt you,” He said, scratching the now nice Nigel on the chin. “It’s just that when something touches a Bulbit’s bulb, it will lash out, as the bulbs a very sensitive, and used to attract prey. So if you are attracted by it, the Bulbit sees you as prey.” Everybody in the surrounding area shuddered. Suddenly, the snoring commander’s eyes snapped open. He did not appreciate being slung over Guashino’s shoulder, and started kicking and yelling. “Stupid native idiot!” He yelled. “Put me down, you green Gumby!” Guashino immediately let go of the commander, sending him falling flat on his face. Andrew smothered a grin. “Where the ruddy hell am I?” He bellowed, looking around. “This is my village.” He said. He swivelled around and noticed the Bulbits. “And what are these disgusting things?!” Guashino frowned. “This is Frank, Nigel and Sonja, mind you, and they are not disgusting things.” He growled. The commander shook his head in disgust, muttering something under his breath. Wanda tapped Guashino on the shoulder. “Excuse me for asking, but…” She hesitated. “Where did you learn to speak English?” Guashino laughed. “A few decades ago, these three strangers came to the island. They had these flying metal birds called planes. Anyway, they stayed here, probably because they were stuck, and they taught us English.” They must be some of the people that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle! Though Andrew. Kelly asked something. “How many people live here?” She asked. Guashino thought for a moment. “I would say nearly about fifty.” “Fifty?!” Asked Kelly incredulous. “Fifty people live in four houses?!” Andrew stepped in front of Kelly with a weak smile. “Sorry for my daughter’s rudeness. It’s just that she’s 13 and she’s so stubborn-“ “No, no, it’s perfectly alright.” Interrupted Guashino. “Fifty people live in 30 houses.” Kelly shoved Andrew out of the way. “But where are the extra 26 houses?” Guashino smiled and pointed upwards. Everyone looked and gasped. Around 10 meters above their heads, an intricate network of bridges and swing vines connected around 40 houses. A few people were gathered on the bridges, looking down upon the newcomers with curiosity. “Everyone lives up there so we can be safe from predators. These buildings on the ground are warehouses and shops, and because they were so big they were too heavy to build up there.” Explained Guashino. The grumpy commander sneered. “This will be easy.” He muttered. “What was that?” Hissed Guashino. “Oh, nothing.” Said the grumpy commander innocently. “Just admiring your… handiwork.” Then he laughed a cold, evil chuckle. Andrew shuddered. It seemed like the Commander was hiding something… Suddenly, Kelly yelped, making everyone jump. “What was it?” Asked Andrew. Kelly pointed a finger over to a corner where a children’s play area was situated. “The playground moved!” She quivered. “I swear, I saw it wobble.” The commander muttered something about a girl drinking so much rum she was seeing things. Guashino looked over to where Kelly was pointing. “Hm? Oh, that would be Jay Jay.” He smiled. He crouched down and began punching the ground to a specific rhythm. Suddenly, the children’s playground began wobbling and moving. There was a loud CRACK and the entire playground was raised out of the ground. A giant tortoise’s head poked out from underneath it. The tortoise sleepily turned its head towards Guashino. “Introducing Jay Jay.” He said. “Jay Jay is a ginormous type of tortoise that buries itself in the ground when it sleeps. It sleeps in the day and goes to feed at night. He is completely deaf; but he can feel vibrations through the ground. So even while he is asleep, he knows exactly where something is a long as it is moving and connected to the ground.” By now Jay Jay had tottered over to Guashino who gave him a pat. “When he’s asleep, he’s like a dormant volcano, and we set up a little jungle gym for the kids on his shell. Hence his name, Jay Jay. He doesn’t even notice it’s there.” Wanda spoke up. “Umm… You do know that “Gym” is spelt G-Y-M and not J-Y-M.” “Is it?” Said Guashino in surprise. “Yes. So really his name should be Jay Gee.” Guashino shrugged as if to say “I don’t care.” Then he looked at the sky. “Hm.” He muttered. Then he turned back to the newcomers. “Right, everyone, its late. You can come up here and shelter with us. We’ve got a few spare rooms.” Guashino climbed up the ladder, beckoning for everyone to follow him, which they did, reluctantly. Guashino led Andrew and Kelly into their spare home. The walls were made out of a fine coloured, solid wood, but there were also these giant bones seemingly holding everything together. But the most noticeable thing was the carpet. It was damp, and was softer than you could have believed. Kelly bent down and looked at it. “Hey.” She said. “This carpet is made of moss!” Guashino smiled. “So what? Moss is nature’s carpet.” Andrew smiled and went to his bed. It was small, but comfy and quite warm. Guashino blew out a candle as he walked out. “Nighty night.” He said. Andrew rolled over, shut his eyes and stayed still. Then rolled over again. It was quite comfortable here. Except he was lying on his arm and it was getting numb. After repeating this for what seemed like hours, he finally fell asleep. The next morning, Guashino burst into the room, kicking the door open with a bang. His eyes were wild and panicked. “What’s wrong?” Asked Andrew. “The soldiers are gone, along with some of our weaponry!” He spluttered. “They’re going to kill Taushenjoonga!”

BEASTS OF BERMUDA (Disclaimer: Elements of this story are not based on real history.) Prologue In 1967, the first satellite was launched into orbit of the earth. It then took the first picture of the world. The picture became ridiculously famous, and by the next year, almost everyone on earth knew about it. It continued to fly around the earth, snapping pictures wherever it went. But one day, somebody noticed something. Around a certain area of the Atlantic ocean was a group of middle-sized islands. But not just any area of the Atlantic ocean. The Bermuda Triangle. The government decided to send a team combo of scientists, explorers, and military personnel to the islands to explore and discover them. What they did not know was that only a small lucky handful would return alive… Chapter 1 Andrew Ospengance sighed as he turned the key in the doorknob. How would he explain this to her? The second business trip this month. She would not be happy. Andrew heard the lock click and pushed the door open. “Kelly? I’m home!” He called as he kicked off his shoes. “So you are now?” Kelly called back. “I’ve been waiting for ages. What kept you away?” Andrew breathed into his hand and sniffed his breath to make sure it wouldn’t… give anything away. “Umm, traffic jam.” He said quickly. Too quickly. Kelly from the other room laughed. Even though it was a sign that she didn’t believe him, it still made him smile. “That is such a heap of steaming cowpat. What were you really doing, Dad?” Andrew began knotting his fingers. He knew he was on a diet, but he couldn’t help himself… “I told you, I was in a traffic jam.” Kelly poked her head out of the kitchen and down the hallway to where her father was standing. She was 13 years old, but could already cook and clean and do things for herself all day while her father was at work. She had dark skin, but bright green eyes, that seemed to twinkle whenever she smiled. She took one look at Andrew and burst into peals of laughter. “What?” Andrew asked. “G… g… g…” She could hardly say it, she was laughing so much. “Go look it the mirror!” She squeezed out before laughing again. So Andrew did. His skin, unlike his daughter, was fair, and he had messy, raven hair. But smeared around his mouth was the brown, sweet truth of what he had been doing. Eating chocolate. He had just began to lick it off when Kelly had appeared to snatch another look. She was happy, but Andrew wasn’t. Not because of her laughing. Whenever she was happy, he was happy. But this was different. He sighed and turned around. He had to tell Kelly now. “Kelly…” He said. “Hmm? What?” She replied. Andrew sighed. “I have to go…on another business trip.” Kelly’s playful smile slowly disappeared. It was replaced with such a stare that it could have sliced through solid metal. “Good for you.” She said. She spun on her heels and retreated to the kitchen to continue cooking dinner. About 30 minutes later, while the two were having dinner, Kelly spoke up. “So. Tell me about this new business trip you’re suddenly going on.” Andrew thought back to what his boss told him when he saw the flyer looking for volunteers. “Look, Andy!” He had cried, waving his arms around energetically. “The government wants volunteer scientists to go explore these islands in the North Atlantic! I reckon that would be an adventure for you!” So Andrew signed up for the trip, and now it was official. He was going. When Andrew told this to Kelly, she put down her sausage and thought for a moment. “I’ll come with you.” Andrew scoffed. “No. Kelly, you can’t come. It’s too dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Kelly shook her head. “Nothing you say will make me stay here.” Andrew sighed and looked at his watch. 9:26pm. “I’m going to bed.” He said, standing up. Kelly was incredulous. “At this early hour?! Dad, you normally fall asleep at midnight in front of the TV amidst a snowstorm of chip crumbs!” “Well, I’m waking up super early tomorrow, so I can get ready and go.” “Oh. OK. Well, goodnight.” “Goodnight, my heart.” At 6:50 in the morning, Andrew stumbled bleary-eyed into the military facility, searching for somebody named “Wanda Wye.” His daughter, Kelly, was tagging along just to see her father leave. Eventually, Andrew found her. Wanda Wye had short, blonde hair, pinkish-red glasses and a lab coat that stretched down to her knees, and was clutching a clipboard as if her life depended on it. “Oh!” She said on seeing Andrew. “You’re just on time. Follow me, we’ll meet the others.” It turned out that “The others” were just a handful of other scientist and a few explorers. The rest were soldiers and military personnel. The scientists were Wanda Wye herself, A man called Harvey, who looked like a mechanic as he was wearing a black, sea shepherd shirt with grease stains all over it. He had blackish-brown hair, and his chin looked freshly shaved. Then there was Hayley and Harry, who were twins. They both had brown hair, and light freckles over their nose. They were constantly arguing. Hmmm, thought Andrew. This isn’t a very good team. While her dad was talking to Wanda about something to do with leaving soon, Kelly decided to explore. The place was almost entirely made of metal; and it looked quite old and weathered. There were lots of different vehicles. They all had the classic military camouflage pattern, and there were soldiers marching around with their legs flying all over the place with every step. Kelly couldn’t help but giggle at them. Even some of the most serious, no-nonsense people in the world could still look stupid. Kelly hopped into a very long military vehicle. It was like a bus-but had tools and weaponry that you would definitely not find on a normal bus. She walked deeper in the van. Suddenly, she heard a soldier’s voice from outside. “That door’s open!” Said the voice. Another voice spoke. “So what? It’s meant to be open! It literally has a sign on it that says, “Please keep this door open!”” Kelly heard a dull whack. Probably a hand connecting with the back of someone’s head. “Not that one, Nigel! That one! The door to the troop carrier!” “Oh. Ok. Yes. It’s an open door. What about it?” There was an irritated groan. “Close it!” “ALRIGHT YOU DON’T HAVE TO SHOUT AT ME!!” Kelly heard footsteps approaching the vehicle, and then the door was slammed shut, and Kelly was plunged into blackness.

Chapter I A small, skinny boy raced across the pavement to somewhere, anywhere, that would provide shelter from the horrible, lashing, PETRIFYING, rain. “Aaaahhh!” Screamed the small, skinny boy. The small boy’s name was Peter, and he suffered from full-blown aquaphobia, a morbid fear of water. Like rain. “Help!” He was seen as a complete misfit in the school playground, which was also why he wasn’t stopping to shelter under a tree or his raincoat, as he had a gang of school bullies hot on his tail. Peter was puffing like a steam train, and the bullies were catching up. Peter saw an open door up ahead, so he turned sharply into the doorway, slammed the door behind him and barricaded it with a heavy armchair. Peter held his breath as he heard the stomping footsteps grow louder and louder… then softer and softer. He then exhaled so much air he could have blown out all the candles on an immortal jellyfish’s birthday cake. He looked out a window. The dreaded rain was still bucketing down, so Peter decided to explore. The room was one big library, with seemingly endless rows of shelves. It looked quite old fashioned, and was dimly lit by a small chandelier hanging from the roof, and a few scattered candles. Even though the rain was still lashing outside, everything seemed eerily quiet. After his eyes adjusted to the low light, Peter saw that there were little white specks rising out from the books, and drifting slowly along the shelves. On closer inspection, they were actually letters and numbers and symbols, in random orders, floating gently. He decided to follow them. They seemed to be moving towards a strange pulsating glow of golden light. The light was coming from a large, leatherback book with a title written in golden, classical letters: The Time Book. The letters and numbers flowed into it, seemingly being absorbed by it. The book made a strange rifling sound, like an indoor fan being turned on. As Peter edged closer, the book opened and flicked its pages gently. He picked up the book, which seemed to warm the air around it, and flicked over to the contents page. He skimmed over it, looking for something interesting. It seemed to start at the origins of the Earth to what was happening right that second. At the end of all of that, there was a chapter entitled “Alternate Realities”. “Cool!” Thought Peter. He traced the dotted line over to the page number. Page 912! Peter huffed in amazement as he flipped over to page 912. The first part of the chapter was, “A world without land” And had a picture of these strange, amphibian-like beings that seemed perfectly adapted for life in an ocean. They seemed to be hanging out in this high-tech looking underwater lab, that had a few of the tallest bits poking out. The only thing that abnormal was that it seemed so realistic, so vivid, so real; that Peter couldn’t help but reach out a hand and touch the beautiful drawing. Suddenly, and invisible force clamped onto his arm and yanked him into the picture, slamming the book shut in the process, leaving no trace that Peter had ever stumbled upon the strange library, and changing his life forever. Peter yelled louder than he ever had. He felt like he was being thrusted backwards, through time and space. He didn’t know for sure, but he felt like he was being squashed and stretched in all the wrong directions, images flashing before his eyes, the G-force rippling his cheeks. Peter felt like he wasn’t going forwards and backwards. He felt like he was going… sideways, almost. Suddenly, he felt himself stop. He was in outer space, looking down on the Earth. “Alternate Realities” He whispered breathlessly as he was yanked back down to Earth. Suddenly, his vision faded into black and white. His ears popped and he saw himself in an ocean. He couldn’t hear or feel anything except the sound of a soft wind. He dived down, deep into the depths, until he came across a large undersea trench. He dived down at remarkable speed. He came to the bottom of the trench, and on the side of the rock face, there was a cragged hole, and in that cragged hole, there were shelves of books. It looked exactly like Peter’s library. There was also a blurry, humanoid figure silhouetted by a glowing, lemon yellow light. He heard a faint, crackly record playing. It sounded familiar-like a lullaby. But this one was out of tune and insanely creepy. He couldn’t hear it at first, but it increased in volume. There was a glowing yellow orb before him. It looked exactly like the light from the hole. Without thinking, he reached out and touched it. It suddenly seemed to get sucked into his arm, making him twitch and convulse. Just as his vision seemed to focus on the figure, he was yanked backwards, out of the hole and out of the ocean, stopping just above the surface. Then his vision focused, his senses came back, and then, he started falling. Chapter II Peter yelled in fright as he fell, down, down, down, until he landed SPLASH! Into the ocean. The water seemed to be rising and falling, dunking him under the water with every fall. Water filled his lungs, making him cough and splutter until he felt like throwing up his internal organs. Needless to say, this was not helping his Aquaphobia. He screamed and kicked and thrashed, his heart clawing his way up his throat. He was sinking like a stone. The corners of his eyes were fading. Then he felt something like a hand grab his leg. A spark jolted down Peter’s spine and everything faded to black. Chapter III Peter woke with a jolt. He was in a white room, like a laboratory. Everything looked extremely blurry. Eventually, his eyesight focused and the room he was in was indeed a laboratory, but with giant windows on each side, looking slightly blacked out. But Peter was paying zero attention to the windows. His attention was focused on the strange, fish-human creatures that were leaning over him. Peter screamed the loudest scream he had ever done. He started desperately kicking and thrashing. Then he heard slightly disoriented voices in his head, a human voice riddled with gurgles. But they didn’t sound like actual noises. They sounded more internal, like thoughts. “Why are you screaming? Why are you screaming? We aren’t going to hurt you. Calm down.” The creatures were talking to him, without moving their mouths or any sort of facial movement. Their faces weren’t busy talking. They were frowning. But not an angry sort of frown. A concerned one. “You’re safe. Don’t worry.” Peter sat up, still hyperventilating. He opened his mouth to talk, then shut it. Then opened and shut it. He tried to speak, but the words came out mangled. “Wha… Nun… Nuhuh?” He babbled. “Num nums?” Asked one of the creatures. “Are you hungry?“ The other creatures behind it sniggered. “Are… Who are you? What am I doing here?” Stammered Peter, finding his voice at last. “My name is Finn.” The alien answered. “You are here, well, becuase we saw you pop up out of nowhere, and then started screaming and thrashing about. We swam over to you, and when we reached you, you were just floating on your back, eyes closed, unresponsive. We thought you were dead.” There was silence for a moment. “Wh-what are you?” asked Peter. “Well, we were just about to ask you that.” Replied Finn flatly. “Are you an alien?” Asked Peter and Finn simultaneously. *No.” They both responded. “Okay, okay.” Said Peter breathlessly. “What species do you belong to?” “Aqua Rambiotistrique.” replied Finn. Peter looked frightened. Finn sighed. “The water people.” Peter nodded uneasily. “I am a Homo Sapiens.” Finn stared at Peter blankly. Peter sighed. “Humans.” “OK. You ah… want me to show you around?” Peter nodded. It was the only thing he felt sure about. Finn walked Peter around the amazing lab. It was amazingly high-tech, and the doors just opened as soon as you got close to them. Finn also gave a quick summary of the anatomy of “The Water People”. Their skin is a shiny, sky blue colour and it dries out in a few hours, so they have to keep it wet. They have long tails that ended in a fork with a large, fin-like red fluke that was extremely strong, and was the main motor for swimming. Peter went white. Swimming? “Are you ok?” Asked Finn. “Yeah. I’m… fine.” Finn then proceeded to explain The Water People’s remarkable telepathic abilities. They could transmit their thoughts to another member of their species within any distance as long as they could see eachother. But with members of a different species, they could only transmit thoughts within a 10-meter radius. “But some of us, with enough training, become exceptional, and transmit thoughts to any species within a 30 metre radius.” Finn seemed to glow with pomposity. “Like me.” Peter rolled his eyes. Suddenly, a question popped into his head. “Finn…?” “Yes?” “Well, you know how you said you have to keep your skin wet? Well, why not build this place near water then?” Finn smiled. “But boy, we are.” He pressed a button on the wall, and suddenly, the walls retracted down. Behind it was a thick sheet of glass. And behind that sheet of glass was one of the most amazing, beautiful… and frightening, sights Peter had ever seen. The building seemed to be completely submerged in water, and outside was the most amazing marine life you could possibly imagine. Creatures with extremely long and bendy necks, leading down to a body with four flippers, like a school of Loch Ness monsters. There were these fish with beaks like a parrot, and glowing stripes down their body. “Woah…” Whispered Peter, his eyes wide. Suddenly, he started shaking uncontrollably. He broke out in a cold sweat. He turned and bolted down the hallway as fast as he could, barging past other water creatures like Finn, setting bemused looks on their faces. He couldn’t get away from the sight of all that water… every time he looked, he felt more and more scared, fuelling his urge to run further. Eventually, the windows ended and he came to a door. He crashed through the door into a smart, futuristic office and dived under a desk. He collided with some boots, and he heard somebody make a very surprised noise and then slumped in their chair. Peter waited for his heart to stop pumping in his mouth and slip back down his throat, and then got up to apologise. “I-i’m sorry I crashed into you. You see-“ Peter realised that the other water creature was unconscious. “Oh no.” He breathed. Peter began to hear Finn’s voice slip back into his mind. “Peter? Peter! Why’d you run away? What’s wrong?” “Finn? Finn! Come quick! I think I hurt someone!” Finn burst into the room. “What? Where? Who’s dead?” The water creature in the chair lifted his head and opened his eyes. He seemed stockier and older than Finn. As soon as he saw Peter he frowned. He clicked his fingers at him. “Finn? Who is this? He doesn’t look like anybody i’ve seen before.” His voice was quite deep and gravelly. “Erm, sorry sir. Apparently he’s a… uh… Pogo… Japiens?”Peter rolled his eyes. “Homo. Sapiens.” The other guy frowned again. “Are you an alien? Where did you come from?” He asked. So I told him the whole story. About aquaphobia, finding the library and then the book. When I finished he looked throughly shocked. “Are you… alright?” Asked Peter. He got up and took Peter by the arm. “Follow me.” He said. Chapter IV The other guy lead Peter into a room, with a long table lined with some spongey looking chairs. They felt really soft and seemed to absorb water. The other water creature began to speak. “My name is Commander Sean. What is yours?” He asked. Peter paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. “His name is Peter.” Answered Finn for him. Commander Sean nodded and wrote something down on a waterproof notebook. “Did any other Pogo Japiens come here with you?” Peter sighed. Was anyone going to get his species name right? “No. Nobody came down here with me.” The Commander nodded again and wrote another thing down. “Nobody would actually come with me.” Peter muttered. Commander Sean looked back up at me sharply. “What was that?” He growled. “Um, *splutter* nothing.” He replied shakily. Commander Sean got up and marched towards him and grabbed my collar. “You said something.” He growled. “What was it?” Finn stepped in between them. “Hey, hey, Commander. Calm down. Peter’s just a kid.” The Commander’s expression turned from angry to surprised, and then his eyes flickered and he was asleep again. As Finn went to nurse his fallen commander, Peter had to ask him. “What’s… wrong with… Sean?” Before Finn could answer, the Commanders eyes flickered open and rolled around lazily. “Pass the beer, grandma.” He mumbled. His eyes then focused. “What did you say my problem was?” “Well…” Peter hesitated, not wanting to offend him. “Why do you keep falling asleep?” The commander rolled his eyes. “Everyone asks me that.” He said, standing up. “I have a condition called narcolepsy. It means I fall asleep when I have a strong emotion or strain too hard.” He thought for a moment. “Why did I faint again?“ “Finn just told you that I am a child.” The commander’s eyes rolled back and he fell backwards once more. Chapter V “So let me get this straight.” Said Commander Sean. “You, a homo sapiens child, just happened to stumble across the one thing that we have been looking for for years and years and years, and you had no intention of activating any of this time travel magic.” Peter sat there, gathering his thoughts. “Um… Yeah, I guess so.” The commander threw a fax machine at the wall. He looked at Finn. “And you KNEW about this?” Finn gulped. “Uhh, yes, sir.” Commander Sean blinked at Finn. “Finn, you’re fired.” “Crap.” Peter jumped to his friend’s rescue. “But Finn was the one who saved me from drowning.” Sean looked back at Finn. “Finn, you’re hired.” “Yay!” Sean looked back at Peter. “Okay, young… uh… Romeo Blatantiens…” Peter groaned. “Homo. Sapiens.” “Fine, young homo sapiens, the magic of that Time Library is… just…” The commander sighed and put his head in his hands. “Pure evil.” A shiver shot down Peter’s spine like an electric charge. “What do you mean, pure evil?” He said. “Ok, let me explain.” Began Commander Sean. “Oh no. Peter, i’m very sorry about this. Sit tight. This’ll take a while.” Said Finn wearily. “Shut up Finn! Ok. Right. So, the magic library you ran into is the birthplace of probably the Universe’s most evil magic. One day, a few decades ago, I was just cruising around in my submersible and-“ “Hang on, sorry to interrupt,” Began Peter, “but why would you be in a submersible if you can swim so well?” The commander grunted. “We can swim really well at the surface, but we can’t go below 200 meters because of the water pressure. And the cold.” Peter nodded and gestured to the commander to go on. “40 years ago or so I was cruising around the deep ocean, and then my radar picked up a large energy source. I came to it, and it was just floating around. The radar showed it was extremely powerful, so I absorbed it into my ship. Suddenly, I could go really super fast, so I turned on my radio to tell everyone, but then I heard this voice come out of it. It sounded raspy at first, and hissed and spat, and then it sounded really calm and friendly.” The commander seemed to grip his chair tight. “It told us all about itself, about how the library was its birthplace, blblblah blblblah blblblah. Then it somehow persuaded me to make it our primary energy source, but then our race became corrupted.” The commander grit his teeth. “It then took control of our weapons, and all hell broke loose. It blew up almost all of Atlantis-“ “What’s Atlantis?” Asked Peter. “The underwater city we all live in.” Said Finn and Sean simultaneously. “And we tried everything to make it stop, but it wouldn’t. But then, Mr. Finn here had the bright idea to simply switch everything off. And it worked.” Finn glowed like an overexcited light bulb. “We didn’t manage to get it out of our systems though. We had to build a new Atlantis and circuit system practically from scratch. The evil power is simply disconnected, but it’s still there. If anyone was to reconnect it, all hell would break loose.” There was silence for a moment. “How could you get rid of it?” Asked Peter. Commander Sean blew out his mouth. “Well, nobody knows, really. But a lot of people think that if you can destroy the library, you can destroy the… thing.” Commander Sean snapped his fingers and turned to Peter. “Have you had any visions?” Chapter VI Peter considered the Commander’s question. He thought back to when he first fell into the alien ocean. The figure he saw… could it be? No, that would be impossible. “Well, er, no, i don’t think so.” He said, finally. “You think so?” Asked the Commander. “Well, yes and no.” Began Peter. “I’m not too sure. Everything was black and white, and there was this undersea trench, and there was this hole in the wall, and the yellow light, and the person, and the voice. And then it was gone. I don’t know.” He spluttered. The commander waved his arms like a penguin trying to take off. “What trench? What Hole? What Wall? What Light? What Person? What Voice? Slow down and use detail!” Finn made a cuckoo signal behind the Commander’s back. Peter tried not to smile and explained his vision in detail. By the time he was finished, Commander Sean was fast asleep and Finn was just standing next to him, looking frazzled. Commander Sean stirred. “Shut up mummy. I like ketchup on my ice cream.” He muttered before waking up properly. He groaned and put his head in his hands. “I know where you’re talking about. We have done a million radar searches but found nothing. It isn’t there. Please don’t let it be there. Anywhere but there.” Peter was confused. “Anywhere but there? Where? Why?” “What?” Peter sighed. “Where is “there”? Why is it so bad?” Finn groaned. “But Peter, that’s… that’s where… it’s…” “It’s what?” Asked Peter, getting impatient. Commander Sean jumped in. “It’s in the Deep.” Chapter VII “What’s the Deep?” Asked Peter. “Only the most dangerous place to ever exist.” Peter shivered. “Why? Why is it so dangerous?” Finn sighed. “Because the water is poison, there is no light, and, most of all, the creatures that live down there.” “Which creatures live down there?” Commander Sean sighed. “You don’t wanna know.” There was a long pause. “Okay. Commander… are we…” “If you are even thinking about that, Finn, I will hijack your shuttle and drop you over a desert.” Finn took out a post-it-note, wrote something on it and stuck it on the back of the Commander’s chair. “So we’re not going anywhere.” “No.” “We just made the discovery of the century, and we’re doing nothing.” “Yes.” “We’re just going to sit here and do nothing.’ Commander Sean gripped his chair tightly. “Obviously not. We’re gonna do something.” “What?” “I dunno.” Finn rolled his eyes in exasperation and smashed his head on the desk. It hurt, so he rubbed his head and muttered curses under his breath. “For Big Blue’s sake Mudskipper. We can’t just sit here and do nothing. We have to destroy it!” Commander Mudskipper Sean’s face darkened. He jumped up out of his chair and grabbed Finn by the collar. “It’s Commander Sean to you, Mister Fatty Fish Lips!!” He thundered. Finn turned up his nose and screwed up his face, like Commander Sean’s breath smelt like dog poo. He slapped the Commander lightly on the cheek. The Commander’s expression turned from mad to furious and his eyes flickered and he slumped onto the floor. Finn peered down at the fallen commander. “Huh. Wow. I must be stronger than I think.” He flexed one of his arms and examined it. He grinned and flexed both arms. “I’m a strongman, baby! Chapter VIII After several minutes of bickering, Finn finally won the argument and the trio found themselves in the Commander’s submersible. “SYSTEM GO FOR DESCENT.” Said an automated voice. The commander flicked a button and the ship started. The bubble jets started and the submersible was propelled forward, into the deep blue depths of the alien ocean. Finn looked back over to Peter and saw him huddling under a chair, shivering and sweating. Finn considered what to say. “Are you… alright?” Peter was so frightened that he could only shake his head. But it was already shaking, so it was hard to tell. “Aquaphobia attack, right?” He asked. Peter nodded slightly. Finn called over to the commander. “Hey, Commander. Can we have the views blocked? Peter’s having a bit of an aquaphobia attack.” The commander flicked a button and the walls extended and covered the view of the beautiful but terrifying ocean view. Peter crawled out from underneath the chair. “Shame though. I thought I saw a school of Angler Parakeet Fish.” The shuttle descended and, even though the windows were up, Peter could tell it was getting darker. Peter began to feel uneasy, but this time, not from the aquaphobia. “Hey, uh, Commander Sean?” Commander Sean grunted with an upwards inflection at the end. “Remember how you said this place was dangerous because of the creatures that live here?” Commander Sean nodded but didn’t answer. “Well, what creatures live here?” Asked Peter wearily. Commander Sean opened his mouth to talk, but Peter’s question was answered when something bumped into the submersible with such force that the lights flickered and everyone and everything was thrown to the left side of the ship. The Commander swore loudly as an echoing moan rattled the ship, and its three occupants. “What is it? What is it?! Get rid of it! Please, make it stop!” Wailed Peter as the submersible was thumped again. The commander hauled himself onto the dashboard and poked some buttons on a mini screen. An automated voice blared out of the speakers. “Munda.” The voice said. “Known Characteristics: Extremely aggressive, sea snake like creatures. They are very aggressive towards boats, and some of the larger specimens are 50 meters long and weigh around 120 tons. When prey first comes into their sights, they will circle around, and bump into it, testing its prey. Then, they wrap their snakelike, flexible bodies around their prey and squeeze. They may squeeze to a pressure of 330 tons. Extremely Dangerous. Do not approach.” Just as the voice stopped, a blood-chilling hiss echoed through the submersible. Commander Sean looked at the radar, which, unlike human radars, showed a detailed and 200 FPS view of the world outside the ship. Right now, there was the green and red Munda, curling around the ship. There were a few other Mundas with it, circling around the ship hissing excitedly. Suddenly, all the other Mundas hissed and bolted away from the submersible. The one still coiled around the ship didn’t notice. Then, a massive, unidentified shape appeared on the radar. It was indescribably ginormous. It latched its powerful jaws onto the helpless Munda and sucked it into its mouth like a tiny noodle. The size difference between the Munda and the giant creature was equal to that of an earthworm and a great white shark. The submersible was probably no bigger than one of the creature’s teeth. The commander gasped, and all colour drained from his face. His eyes flickered and then shut. But not before his fingers had wormed their way towards a button. An automated voice crackled over the speakers. “The Great Unknown. Known Characteristics: None.” Chapter IX The Great Unknown swallowed the Munda whole and swam past the ship. The three occupants inside the ship breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank the tsunamis that that episode is over.” He said, crawling out from a pile of furniture. “Me too.” Peter muttered. Suddenly, there was a long moan, something between a whale song and the metallic grind of steel. The Great Unknown had circled back around and was examining the submersible. Peter could feel its powerful flippers churning and beating the water around it. The whole submersible rattled and quaked, along with its occupants. Then Peter felt a stomach churning Bump! of The Great Unknown’s nose bumping the tiny pea-sized submersible that had recently invaded its territory. Finally, the giant creature lost interest, turned around and swam away. Peter and Finn breathed such a sigh of relief they could have blown up ten balloons in one breath. The commander, who had just woken up from his narcoleptic nap burst through the doors to the lobby with a loud BANG, making Peter jump and dive for safety under an upturned table and Finn squark like a parrot. “Where? What happened? Is everyone ok? Are the Mundas gone? Is The Great U- Finn interrupted his babbling commander. “Yes, yes. Everything’s alright. Calm down.” The truth of this sentence was short-lived as The Great Unknown’s tail whipped around and whacked the submersible all the way to next Monday. The submersible corkscrewed through the water, occasionally bumping into marine life as it went. Needless to say, the effect on the inside was catastrophic. The furniture, chairs, gadgets, Peter, Commander Sean and Finn, not to mention lots of other debris, were sent flying around the shuttle. Peter was smacked in the face by someone’s tail and thrown into a battered chair, colliding midair, whereas the Commander latched on to Finn’s arm, refusing to let go until eventually Peter’s shoe was flung into the air and hit the commander on the chin, and there was a earsplitting din of tables and chairs and furniture and even food banging in to the walls, eachother or one of the three living occupants. Finn flapped his arms around, as if trying to fly away from it all, and the Commander got tangled in his own tail. Peter was slapped by one of Finn’s flailing arms and flew into the commander, who was now in yet another narcoleptic nap. Suddenly, there was a loud BUMP and everything was flung down to the floor, either shattering or breaking. Peter’s head smashed into a table leg and everything went black. Peter’s eyes slowly flickered open amongst a sea of broken furniture. His ears were ringing, and he had a migraine headache. He slowly lifted his head. His whole body protested with a shock of pain that burned through all his joints. He massaged his temples, and eventually his ears stopped ringing and his eyesight focused. He could see Finn lying on the ground, underneath a pile of junk, still unconscious, and the commander in the corner, leaning against the wall, clutching his leg and swearing like there was no tomorrow. Peter drowsily got up and crawled over on his hands and knees to the commander. “What’s wrong? Are you ok?” He asked. The commander swore again, several times. “Yea, nope. No. I think I broke me leg.” He ground his teeth. “Yep. Broken leg.” A few meters away, Finn began to stir. Then he moaned. “Ugh. Ohhhh. I’ve got such a jiffing headache. Does anyone have any headache pills?” He looked over to his swearing commander. “Hey, commander. Your leg alright?” The commander swore one last time for good measure and then passed out. Finn sat up. “I guess not.” He scrambled over to Peter. “What happened?” He asked. Peter pursed his lips. “I think he broke his leg.” “Oh no.” He groaned. He dashed around the submersible, turning over all the broken stuff to find a first aid kit. Suddenly, the lights on the submersible failed and flickered to red and an automated voice crackled onto the speakers. “Warning! You have 30 minutes of air left! Air will run out in 30 minutes! Warning!” Peter sighed. “Great.” He said. Chapter X Finn had wrapped a glowing, metal-like cast over the commander’s leg. He was still semi-conscious, and mumbling in his dreams. “Hello, Bubbles. Do you wanna go on a swim? Do you wanna go on swim? Yes you do! Yes you do!” He mumbled. Finn was desperately trying to get the engine started again. One of the joysticks leered at him. “Heh heh! Stupid fish. Can’t get the submarine up and running. Mister Fatty Fish Lips is a noob.” Finn was about to thump the joystick with all his might when he remembered. “It’s just oxygen deprivation. Nothing else. Just that.” The other buttons and joysticks began laughing at him. The oxygen deprivation was making him irritable, and see and hear things. There was a dull thump from the other room. “Shut up you stupid couch! I’m not soft! Look at me! Now look at you! You got a million rips and cuts in you! Do I? No!” Finn sighed. Looks like it was getting to Peter too. Suddenly somebody swore loudly from the next room. “Oh hello, Commander. Your leg ok?” Enquired Peter. Finn heard a pause. “Why are you punching the couch?” Finn called for help from the pilot’s cockpit. After even more cursing and and cringing, the commander picked himself up and limped over to Finn. “Right, okay.” He began. “Engine’s out, jets are out, and lights are out.” The automated voice crackled back on the speakers. “Warning! You have 15 minutes of air left. Warning.” The commander sighed. “And we’re running out of air.” Commander Sean shoved Finn out of the way and sat in the pilot’s chair. He swatted Finn away from him. “Go fix the lights.” While the commander worked on the engine and Finn worked on the lights, Peter was sitting amongst a pile of stuff, not sure what to do. But what could he do? He was just a kid. Finn and Sean were experienced professionals. “Hey Peter! Could really use a hand here!” Or maybe he could do something. Peter rushed over to Finn. He had the top half of his body shoved up the ceiling and was surrounded by wires. “I need you to do something really important.” Peter straightened. “Yes?” “Tell the commander that if we make it through this ordeal, I want a raise.” Peter sighed. Suddenly, the lights flickered back on and Finn crawled out of the ceiling. He winked at Peter. “You’re welcome.” He said. Just then, the engine and the jets spluttered back into life. Peter’s eyebrows perked up. “Things are looking good.” The submersible’s jets spluttered and shook and they propelled the submersible across the ocean floor. Finn bounced into the pilot’s cockpit. “Hey hey hey! We got the submersible going, commander! Way to go!” Finn paused. “Commander?” Finn spun the chair around, and the commander was lying there, fast asleep in a narcoleptic state, with a big fat smile spread across his face. Chapter XI The small, battered submersible dragged itself slowly forward on the seafloor. It moved towards a massive gouge in the earth’s crust. This was the deepest point in the alien ocean. The submersible floated down the side lazily. The trio inside were completely on edge. “I reckon in the next few minutes,” Predicted Finn, “That this whole submersible will be slowly making its way down something’s gullet.” Peter shivered. He wasn’t sure if he was cold, or frightened. It didn’t matter. Cold or scared was a much better alternative than death. They descended down into the depths of the trench. Eventually, they came to the bottom. The commander gestured around them. “Do you… recognise this place?” He asked Peter. “Yes. I’m pretty sure it was around here somewhere… Oh!” Something began building in volume. It sounded like a lullaby. But this lullaby was out of tune and insanely creepy. It was obvious that the others could hear it too, as Finn’s eyes were bulging out of his head and the commander was frantically swivelling around on his chair to try and discover the source. “What’s that noise?” He asked, flabbergasted. “I heard the song in my vision. We should be close now…” He stopped, seeing a faint splodge of yellow light. “There!” He exclaimed. The submersible turned and propelled towards the light. The yellow light was coming from a hole in the wall. In the hole, there was a library. The exact same one that Peter had gone into several hours ago. A figure emerged from the light. Peter couldn’t see him vey clearly, but he could make out that he had a blood red, scaly body, but still humanoid, with a black cloak around him. His voice was normal and even. “Greetings, searchers. You have come, at last.” The commander grit his teeth. “So you were the one who destroyed half of Atlantis. You have a lot to answer for.” The figure smiled and turned at the commander. “Hello, Mudskipper. You look older. And rounder, I must say.” The commander went purple. He clenched his fists and quaked with rage. He obviously did not like being addressed by his first name. Nor being accused of being round. He slumped back in his chair. “Hmm. I guess your narcolepsy hasn’t improved either.” Finally, Peter spoke up. “Who are you?” The creature smiled again. “I a-“ He stopped mid sentence and did a double take. “Are you… is that… a human?” Finn stepped protectively in front of Peter. “Yes. Why does that concern you?” The creature shifted on his feet. He opened his mouth but before he could answer, he was interrupted by a loud noise. “ZAP!” Yelled Peter as he suddenly pointed his finger sharply at the creature. The creature did something extremely quickly with his hands, and he seemed to shudder violently for a moment. Peter stared at his finger expectantly, like he expected a bolt of lighting to come out and fry the creature. Peter shrugged. I guess humans aren’t magical then.” He said, sounding slightly disappointed. Finn stared a him. “What?” “Well, because the creature there was shifting on his feet when he found out I was human, I guessed that humans had an edge over him or something. So I did that to test my theory. I expected a bolt of lighting to come out and fry the creature. But apparently not.” Suddenly, the creature quickly leapt away and a bolt of lightning appeared right where Peter’s fingers had been a few seconds earlier. The bolt vaporised a nearby rock. Peter examined his fingers for a few seconds in amazement. His frown turned into a smile as he began shooting lightning bolts in rapid fire. “How are you doing it?” Gasped Finn. The creature had to jump out of the light, and now he was no longer silhouetted. He could hear a rifling sound, like a noisy indoor fan. It was the sound he had heard in the vision, and it was louder than ever now. “When the little rat time travelled through my library, he was touched by my powers. He seems to have stolen some, and now he’s using it against meeoooof!” The creature’s sentence was cut short by one of Peter’s thunderbolt’s finding its mark. The creature was catapulted backwards, head over heels, and slammed into the rock face. The creature obviously did not appreciate this and shouted at Peter angrily. “Right. Thunderbolt this, you stupid little ant!” He then clicked his claws. Suddenly, The Great Unknown, still shrouded in its black cape of mystery, appeared. Peter immediately focused on The Great Unknown, desperately trying to drive it back. The creature had now retreated further into the library, and was now generating some sort of glowing orb. It was spinning extremely fast, getting bigger as the creature opened its arms more. It was a dark blue with a dark yellow centre, and seemed to glow with a black aurora. Suddenly, the creature fully widened its arms, shooting the orb out with alarming speed. It surged towards Peter. He quickly shot a bolt of lightning at the it. It repelled the orb and sent it hurtling back towards the creature. The creature’s eyes widened as the orb exploded against his face. KABOOM!!! The explosion spread to the Great Unknown, the trench, and finally, the submersible. Peter was catapulted across the ocean floor. Finally, he stopped. He was lying on his back, and even though he was slowly dying, he felt somewhat… peaceful. He saw the The Great Unknown, swimming around, free of the horrible shroud of darkness of the creature’s mind control. His skin was a dreamy blue colour, and he looked a bit like a mosasaur, a marine reptile from the cretaceous period. In turned around, and Peter could have sworn on his life that it smiled at him. It swam away, humming out a mournful but happy song. Peter could hear his heart slowly stopping. Buh dup, buh dup, buh dup, went his heart. Buh dup… buh dup… … buh… dup. Chapter XII Then, Peter felt something on his body. It seemed to be crawling up. It was a strange, yellow glowing goo. His heart started pumping healthily again. Then… He gasped in a huge gulp of air, probably the biggest in his life. He was just outside where he had found the library in the first place. Where he had escaped the bullies. It was raining. Specks of water riddled his face. But he didn’t feel afraid. He slowly sat up and rose to his feet. He looked around himself and smiled. But his brief moment of mirth was shattered by the sound of heavy shoes on pavement. Peter sighed and turned around, already knowing what he was going to see. A small gang of teenage bullies. The biggest, pimpliest looking one stepped forward and drew his fist back. Peter raised an arm to protect himself, and an extremely powerful gust of wind flew out of his hand and knocked the bully over. The bully got up and, along with his friends, began a barrage of punching and kicking. But they were all simply blown back by the wind. Eventually, Peter got bored of watching the bullies get knocked over like skittles, and decided to lightly fry them with a thunderbolt. Not enough to really hurt them, but enough to send them scampering across the road. Peter smiled and walked away. The bullies couldn’t hurt him. Nothing could hurt him. Not even the absence of friends could hurt him. Because he did have friends. Three very special ones. Two friends that were in a critical but stable condition at the Atlantis Hospital, and one quite new one. One that was ginormous, had lots of teeth, and could sing the most beautiful, tuneful songs. But he could never see those three friends again. But he could. But how could he? Because he had a magical library that he could summon with a snap of his fingers. The End. (∩🌔 ͜ʖ🌔)⊃━☆ﾟ.*

Peter woke with a jolt. He was in a white room, like a laboratory. Everything looked extremely blurry. Eventually, his eyesight focused and the room he was in was indeed a laboratory, but with giant windows on each side, looking slightly blacked out. But Peter was paying zero attention to the windows. His attention was focused on the strange, fish-human creatures that were leaning over him. Peter screamed the loudest scream he had ever done. He started desperately kicking and thrashing. Then he heard slightly disoriented voices in his head, a human voice riddled with gurgles. But they didn’t sound like actual noises. They sounded more internal, like actual thoughts. *Why are you screaming? Why are you screaming? We aren’t going to hurt you. Calm down.* The creatures were talking to him, without moving their mouths or any sort of facial movement. Their faces weren’t busy talking. They were frowning. But not an angry sort of frown. A concerned one. *You’re safe. Don’t worry.* Peter sat up, still hyperventilating. He opened his mouth to talk, then shut it. Then opened and shut it. He tried to speak, but the words came out mangled. “Wha… Nun… Nuhuh?” He babbled. *Num nums?* Asked one of the creatures. *Are you hungry?* The other creatures behind it sniggered. “Are… Who are you? What am I doing here?” Stammered Peter, finding his voice at last. *My name is Finn.* The alien answered. *You are here, well, becuase we saw you pop up out of nowhere, and then started screaming and thrashing about. We swam over to you, and when we reached you, you were just floating on your back, eyes closed, unresponsive. We thought you were dead.* There was silence for a moment. *Yeah! We thought you’d carked it!* Joked one of the aliens behind “Finn”. *Shut up!* Hissed Finn. “Wh-what are you?” Asked Peter. *Well, we were just about to ask you that.* Replied Finn flatly. “Are you an alien?* Asked Peter and Finn simultaneously. *No.” They both responded. “Okay, okay.” Said Peter breathlessly. “What species do you belong to?” *Aqua Rambiotistrique.* Replied Finn. Peter looked frightened. Finn sighed. *The water people.* Peter nodded uneasily. “I am a Homo Sapiens.” Finn stared at Peter blankly. Peter sighed. “Humans.” *OK. You ah… want me to show you around?* Peter nodded. It was the only thing he felt sure about. Finn walked Peter around the amazing lab. It was extremely high-tech, and the doors just opened as soon as you got close to them. Finn also gave a quick summary of the anatomy of “The Water People”. Their skin is a shiny, sky blue colour and it dries out in an hour, so they have to keep it wet. They have long tails that ended in a fork with a large, fin-like red fluke that was extremely strong, and was the main motor for swimming. Peter went white. Swimming? *Are you ok?* Asked Finn. “Yeah. I’m… fine.” Finn then proceeded to explain The Water People’s remarkable telepathic abilities. They could transmit their thoughts to another member of their species within any distance as long as they could see eachother. But with members of a different species, they could only transmit thoughts within a 10-meter radius. *But some of us, with enough training, become exceptional, and transmit thoughts to any species within a 30 meter radius.* Finn seemed to glow with pomposity. *Like me.* Peter rolled his eyes. Suddenly, a question popped into his head. “Finn…?” *Yes?* “Well, you know how you said you have to keep your skin wet? Well, why not build this place near water then?” Finn smiled. *But boy, we are.* He pressed a button on the wall, and suddenly, the walls retracted down. Behind it was a thick sheet of glass. And behind that sheet of glass was one of the most amazing, beautiful… and frightening, sights Peter had ever seen. The building seemed to be completely submerged in water, and outside was the most amazing marine life you could possibly imagine. Creatures with extremely long and bendy necks, leading down to a body with four flippers, like a school of Loch Ness monsters. There were these fish with beaks like a parrot, and glowing stripes down their body. “Woah…” Whispered Peter, his eyes wide. Suddenly, he started shaking uncontrollably. He broke out in a cold sweat. He turned and bolted down the hallway as fast as he could, barging past other water creatures like Finn, setting bemused looks on their faces. He couldn’t get away from the sight of all that water… every time he looked, he felt more and more scared, fuelling his urge to run further. Eventually, the windows ended and he came to a door. He crashed through the door into a smart, futuristic office and dived under a desk. He collided with some boots, and he heard somebody make a very surprised noise and then slumped in their chair. Peter waited for his heart to stop pumping in his mouth and slip back down his throat, and then got up to apologise. “I-i’m sorry I crashed into you. You see-“ Peter realised that the other water creature was unconscious. “Oh no.” He breathed. Peter began to hear Finn’s voice slip back into his mind. *Peter? Peter! Why’d you run away? What’s wrong?* “Finn? Finn! Come quick! I think I hurt someone!” Finn burst into the room. “What? Where? Who’s dead?” The water creature in the chair lifted his head and opened his eyes. He seemed stockier and older than Finn. As soon as he saw Peter he frowned. He clicked his fingers at him. *Finn? Who is this? He doesn’t look like anybody i’ve seen before.* His voice was a deep bass. *Erm, sorry sir. Apparently he’s a… uh… Pogo… Japiens?* Peter rolled his eyes. “Homo. Sapiens.” The other guy frowned again. *Are you an alien? Where did you come from?* He asked. I told him the whole story. About aquaphobia, finding the library and then the book. When I finished he looked throughly shocked. “Are you… alright?” I asked. He got up and took me by the arm. *Follow me.* He said.