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!”
