Published writing

Forest hill street was always the most normal place in the world. There was no nonsense and no peculiarities. The sun glazed the smooth tiles as the blazed high above them. Rows of fine and handsome houses lined the street. It was Saturday and many neighbours were labouring at their green lawns. Today was the best day of Greta’s the week. One, she did not have school two,shewould spend the day with my favourite neighbour Mrs Schwartz. Mrs Schwartz was a kind old lady that lived next door. She was something like the best grandmother in the world. She lived in a handsome house that stood out from all the other houses. It had fruits and roses bushes in its yard that shimmered with droplets of water in the morning. Inside the house was four bedrooms, Mrs Schwartz sleeped in a different one each night. On a hot a summers day you could slip into Mrs Schwartz’s pool. At nine o’clock she hurried next door. Mrs Schwatz seemed oddly strange. Something was out of place. Greta knew she was elderly but something was DEFINITELY wrong. “How is your Monday going dear?”she wheezed . “But it's Saturday Mrs Schwartz.”I exclaimed. “We’ll get moving on dearie, let's have some tea.”She cheerfully,almost too cheerfully. She turned to pour some green tea into my porcelain cup. She could not help but notice her hands was shaking and at one point she nearly dropped the kettle.“Thanks.”She could only muster a weak,small smile. Then things got worse. Mrs Schwartz began shaking, she fell to the floor. The shaking intensified.It looked like she was an old-fashioned clock. Her chest was heaving up and down. Greta phoned the ambulance hurriedly. Mrs Schwartz had al- ready passed out. When the ambulance arrived, a paramedic winked at her and said “You have done a good job.” News of the incident spread quickly around Forest Hill street all thanks to the nosiest `neighbour of all, Alice Romanov. Then a even bigger news struck Forest Hill street, tcMrs Schwartz was selling her house for a nice life in the countryside. When the new neighbour moved in Greta sensed something wicked and evil that she radiated at everyone who dared to approach her. She boarded up the windows of her house, grew thorns and prickly pears a far cry from a “lawn”. She put a prickly fence around the pool. She always sat on the balcony waving and smiling (that’s what she calls a smile,) her face twists with an expression of disgust and delight. She was a tall middle-aged lady that walked with her chin held high. Her hair was raven black and her eyes were purple. She walked around with a cat fur handbag. She always claimed she was a foreign cat breeder. “She might be a witch you know, look at her cat, it's BLACK!” She reasoned to herself. Even the neighbours were talking about her. “She seems nice, the other day she was Ioffering to mow my lawn!’’ Alice Romanov cried loudly. “But Miako Smith is very rude”noted Mrs Johnson bitterly. “ I don’t know what to think of her '' Mr Johnson cut ein. “But HER lawn is horrible!”Mr Johnson added. To her disappointment she was woken up by strange noises and a riot of animals barking and squeaking. What was the problem? It’s Sunday. Animals barking at this unearthly hour. A loud cackle and a swish of a broom. Little did Greta De Medici know what was happening… Maiko Smith was lounging in a black armchair,next door. Surrounded by a hoard of cats and dogs.“For thousands of years witches helped people until… the darks days began, Tens of thousands of witches were killed by a mysterious boy on a steed.” She said evilly. “Children ARE THE CAUSE OF THE fall of MY ancestors I PLEDGE BY THE THREE HAGS THAT I WILL KILL ALL CHILDREN IN THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD!!!”Maiko shouted. “My slaves get to work immediately. I need another three thousand vials of potion.” Her anger had cooled slightly. The cats and dogs stared mutinously at her and began working. Smiling to herself she began to set an ingenious trap. Back up the winding staircase of Greta’s house she lay asleep and couldn’t bear the racket. A minuscule black cat with its luminous orange eyes stared up at her. It blinked and she fell to sleep. The next day she felt a horrible stare following her to Science Art. English. Maths. Lunch. She held onto sanity and wanted to let go into the depths of insanity. A voice was inside her head “kill, ensnare,murder!”the voice shouted louder and louder. She looked around at the mass of students. They too seemed to be tortured by the voice. The voice abruptly changed. “I give you a week to prepare before I strike and kill all of you!” Menacing spiders erupted around the lunch hall. Screams of terror choked the atmosphere. Suspiciousness crept up her throat Time being, time did not slow down for the children at Greta's school.Each day seemed like a few seconds. Disappearances of students, freak weather plagued they school. “Another few disappearances from forest hill street, hurricanes are heading towards the school.” Greta's heartbeat drowned the reporter's posh nasal voice. Who would be next? What would happen at the end of the week? Greta heard more and more cackling next door and went to investigate and there Miako stood in the living room in a billowing black coat and stirring a pot full of what seemed like nothing. Her suspicions confirmed, Miako was a witch. The last day of the week. Doomsday. Miako stood in the middle of the road ready to bring forth a calamity and bring justice to her ancestors. Purple liquid swirled from every corner of the town wrapping around each soul of a kid ready to it from the body. Meanwhile just as the children were outside playing, a huge hurricane tore through the road to the school. This was not controlled by the witch, no. This was much worse, a being of the most evil rode his bony steed across the road burning the ground. It saw the school and Miako ready to attack. The hurricane swirled fiercely and broke the school into pieces. Screaming. Greta knew what to do. Out of the school she sprinted all the way to Miako. She tackled her to the ground. “Stop the hurricane, please stop!”she pleaded. Miako stared at the destruction of her . “ is not me.” “I must go to help, I was blinded by anger.” “This was the events that happened in the time of the dark age.” “Not a boy on a steed but an evil.” Back at the school the children had formed a human chain in front of evil. Despite the teachers shouting, Greta ran to Miakos side. “My school!!”Yelled the principally as the hurricane destroyed his office. The students cheered as all the confiscated stuff flew out. “I can help you Miako and everyone hold on!” Greta and Miako joined the human chain. “Now everyone focus on expelling evil and the hurricane.” Miako addressed. As they all focused a invisible hand pushed and squished the hurricane and evil. Opening their eyes they found that they were standing in a newly repaired playground. They had done it!! Forest hill street was not always normal. Instead of neat lawns, the residents grew beautiful fruits and vegetables. Morning dew sparkled. Miako smith did that too and invited (especially Greta) and the local children to tea. Instead of a bleak school children painted their own classroom. Forest hill street was a vibrant place. Perhaps you would like to visit.

Forest hill street was always the most normal place in the world. There was no nonsense and no peculiarities. The sun glazed the smooth tiles as the blazed high above them. Rows of fine and handsome houses lined the street. It was Saturday and many neighbours were labouring at their green lawns. Today was the best day of the week. One, I did not have school two,I would spend the day with my favourite neighbour Mrs Schwartz. At nine o’clock I hurried next door. Mrs Schwatz seemed oddly strange. Something was out of place. I knew she was elderly but something was DEFINITELY wrong. “How is your Monday going dear?”she wheezed. “But it's Saturday Mrs Schwartz.”I exclaimed. Then things got worse. Mrs Schwartz began shaking, she fell to the floor. The shaking intensified.It looked like she was a alarm on a old-fashion clock. Her chest was heaving up and down up. She was having a seizure. I phoned the ambulance hurriedly. Mrs Schwartz had already passed out. When the ambulance arrived, a paramedic winked at me and said “You have done a good job.” News of the incident spread quickly around Forest Hill street all thanks to the nosiest neighbour of all, Alice Romanov. Then a even bigger news struck Forest Hill street, Mrs Schwartz was selling her house for a nice life in the countryside. When the new neighbour moved in I sensed something wicked and evil that she radiated at everyone who dared to approach her. She boarded up the windows of her house, grew thorns and prickly pears. There was this rumour at school that she had a black cat. At once I grew suspicious.

Secret of the silent librarian Chapter 1 “And this is the sydney Harbour bridge.” I yawned, as my teacher listed all the possible ways to bomb the sydney harbour ( seriously, who would do that?)We were on the bus heading to the state library. The weather was storming. I was excited, not because of the two million books but because I could sneak away to the look at the interesting collection. It reminded me of my dad. He had taught me how to do weird things such as conjuring up sword no one could see. When we arrived I was the first one to get out of the bus. There it was, standing solemnly in the rain. The large building looked sinister in the rain and storm. By this time the class should’ve gotten out. I looked back, the bus was not there! Then I looked at my watch, it was exactly 12:38pm. Of all the peculiar things that happened to me this was the most crazy. Running to the entrance I noticed something, a murder of crows. I approached the door. With simple pull of the door handel I was in the library. Chapter 2 Mr david scott Mitchell Advancing towards the Mitchell reading room I felt scared. Goose bumps were creeping up my arm. This was not good. Every step I took, the courage inside me lessened. After what seemed like an hour of creeping toward the reading room I was there. Everything seemed normal until I saw the shelves. Books were arranging themselves, gliding through the air. The books all seemed dead. A sort of wispy mist energy was being channelled from a unknown hand. This was very, very bad. Then I saw a figure suspended in the air. Its form was flickering like a candle. The exquisitely patterned ceiling was glowing as if it was blessed by the figures presence. The figure was gliding very slowly, using the mysterious energy to arrange the books. Suddenly he spoke, “I am expecting YOU Miss Molly Mcguire.” He spoke quite calmly. His voice was ringing in my head. “It is time” he continued. “I am Mr David Scott Mitchell, you will refer to me as the silent Librarian. “David Scott Mitchell…” I thought.“Are you the founder of this library?” He replied “quite knowledgeable Miss Mcguire.” I took that as a yes ( old fashioned people are so formal). “You are this century’s Guider of the dead.” “For centuries Mcguires have guided sprits to the great afterwards.” “I have remained here because I have been unable to go to the great afterwards.”“It is your duty to also protect spirits. “I have called you to guide me’’ “And your predecessor is your father. I briefly remembered my dad saying that to guide spirits to whatever the “great afterwards” is to bring the spirits “resolution”. “Umm what is your “resolution”?” “My resolution is that I have been murdered by William Barter, he is immortal in the memory which means he is still alive in a spirit form.” “Resolving this would ensure he would not keep terrorising the living.” “I need you to bring me and him to justice.” We walked outside the reading room. We kept walking and David was arranging the books again. I suddenly saw something a dark and mysterious shadow. The shadow seemed to tell me to keep walking. We walked into a gallery. The paintings eyes seemed to follow us. Suddenly a big thing pounced on me. “One of William Barters living creatures, infused with the power of the dead.” “I am powerless against this.” David sighed, then he disappeared in a puff of smoke. I closed my eyes tight and a transparent sword appeared in my hand. This was one weird things my dad taught me. I had used it once to break a glass pot. Then, I charged and stabbed into the creatures head. I kept stabbing. Black stuff came out. “Its the power of the dead.” said David reappearing. “ I must warn you this is just a minion the power of William Barter is greater.”

Into the wilderness Chapter 1 I go to the unknown I closed the book and warmed my hands against the dancing fire. I sighed deeply and watched the glowing embers.I watched the endless scene of mountains. We had made it past the border and had trekked 6km north. The bitter North wind slapped my face. My friend Elian Iwaedal Tyrak was setting up camp and his falcon was dutifully guarding us . I felt fur underneath her tired feet. It was Stormeye, my loyal snow cat. A snowcat was a large cat with fur like snow leopard ones. There was something wrong. Chapter 2 I play dodgeball with Mr dragon An aroma of dead meat wafted through the bizarre landscape. Dead, burnt trees. Bones of their long lost owners scattered the ground. We had reached the peak of the infamous arachnid mountain. There was a cave and inside icy breaths blasted out of an unknown mouth. We ventured deeper into the cave. The menacing moutians loomed over the our tiny beings. Shards of delicate light raidiated out of the sun. A cold breath breathed and the animals scattered... Ice ,cold, drain and death were all I could think about. The cold was more intense. Then we saw the sight that would stay in their minds until a century passed. There was a giant dragon. It was no ordinary dragon. Its smooth white scales were as shiny as moon beams. Its horns were chestnut brown. Its eyes stared down at the us as though daring to fight… I was quite startled. But I had no choice. The dragon blasted ice out of its mouth. We both doged the blast. But where the blast had landed the was a few metres of icicles. This dragon was dangerous. We were doging its blasts quickly. Suddenly I spotted a couple of dry sticks and dashed to it. I rubbed it together furiously. “Come on …”I muttered to myself. Finally, to my relief a roaring fire was created. The dragon stopped firing and backed away. We took the oppotunity to ecsape. Just as we started to run, a silvery mist slipped into one of my empty botanical bottles. Chapter 3 unexpected mutiny We had a little rest stormeye was munching on a bit of grub which was … unusual. I decided not to care. But then I heard stormeye growling. He pounced on to me aggressive. Elians falcon was trying to attract stormeyes attention. Stormeye swiftly raced for the falcon but stopped. He seemed to be in mental combat with his bad side. “Wait a minute, is that herbilicus storn ?”I blurted out. The shrub stormeye was eating a minute ago was indeed herbilicus storn. That had caused him to be aggressive. I quickly mixed out the antidote and smeared some on stomeyes snout. This worked. I jumped into the air with joy. But little did I know there was danger. Chapter 4 the do are die chess match The next day we hiked through the shriviling forest just 5km away from civillisation. We were stoped in our tracks by a bizarre creature “I’m called the eternal vermin to pass my lands you must play a simple game of chess”he said in a very squeaky voice but he made the ‘’simple ‘’ game of chess sound menacing “But…” we glared at him.“if you loss you die.”He made the die part sound like a casual stroll in the city. In front of our very eyes the so called “enternal vermin” conjured a chess board floating in mid-air. My mouth hang open it wasn’t everyday that you see a creature inviting you to a do-or-die-chess game. During the chess game I couldn’t help wondering why the thing was grinning. Things weren’t going that well. When it captured half of my chess pieces. I peered under the chess board without it looking it was carefully manipulating my chess pieces, I was enraged!! He was cheating. I pulled out my hunting knife and shouted”enough is enough”Elian had realised the trick too and had pulled out his sword. Stormeye growled and elians falcon flapped its wings ready to reach top speed. The eternal vermin just laughed and conjured a glowing magic shield. I threw my knife and it just bounced of and hit my shoulder. I cursed in agony as the vermin cackled. Just as I fell to the forest floor I fell in to a trance my hands gripped the bottle with silvery mist and… uncorked it and the full power of the ice dragons breath blasted out and evaporated the eternal vermin. Suddenly the birds were calling and the forest was greener it was no longer the shrivilled forest. The forest gods spirit was with me. I heard the birds rejoice “the curse has been lifted!” Epilouge These are the last words I shall write about the expedition 6 years ago: why settle when you have a lifetime of memories in the wild? Dearest reader, the wilderness is a place where you can connect to the land please use it wisely.

An aroma of dead meat wafted through the air. It was highly unpleasant as both Charlotte and Elian had to avoid passing through a cloud of yellow putrid gas. The peak of mount arachnid was just a dry bare landscape. There was a cave, in the cave an icy breath blasted out of a unknown mouth.

Asterix grasped the jeweled book and ran. The voices got nearer and nearer. She ran out of the library and slammed the door shut. She ran along the hallway to her room where she reached for her phone and put next-to her book. She opened it and held up her phone to take a selfie. Then, She opened the book. Her heart skipped a few paces. She was flying through space and time. She fell. She was hopeless. She opened her eyes. She was standing in the middle of a market in ancient Rome. Shoppers barged past each other. Women wrinkled their noses at her. She looked at her phone. Strange there is still wifi, she thought. Suddenly everything stopped. Horns could be heard. A procession was heading towards a building. Soldiers marched with pride. Prisoners hid their faces and people jeered at them. Asteriex was standing in the way of the procession and her jaw dropped.