Secret Of Pearl Egg

Secret of Pearl Egg By Kasey Lee

Table of Content

Chapter 1 Grayloon --------------------------- 1 Chapter 2 Arrival ------------------------------ 4 Chapter 3 Dranimals ------------------------- 14 Chapter 4 Escape ---------------------------- 29 Chapter 5 Arg Fell to the Trap ------------- 42

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Chapter 1 Grayloon

It’s summer again. Emily was really excited because she was invited to Grayloon by her cousin Kasia. Emily had never been there before. She heard her parents talking about the place all the time. They used to live there. Until now Emily still remembered many beautiful stories her mother told her. In her mom’s stories, Grayloon was a place that had a lot of mountains and caves, trees and plants. The mountains were tall, skinny, and pointy like the tips of human fingers. Deep into the mountain there were many caves. Inside the caves, it was as dark as the night sky when there’s no moon. There were

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rocks in different shapes. Some looked like animals, some looked like vegetables. One looked like a magic mirror. The legend had it that the mirror could scare monsters away. A river flowed around the mountains. Green grass filled the riverbank. The river was as clear as crystal. Standing by the river tiny blue and brown fish could be seen swimming gracefully in the water. There was a big tree on the riverbank. The villagers called it grandfather tree. It took ten people extending their arms to surround the tree. Near the grandfather tree there was a village. They used wood to build the houses and leaves to make the roof tiles. Some of the trees in the village could grow candy! The villagers collected the candies and sold them in the grandfather tree festival. Standing in the riverbank something glowing could be seen on the top of the tallest mountain. That’s the Pearl Egg. It kept the villagers safe.

4

Grandfather Tree

5

Chapter 2 Arrival Emily said goodbye to her parents at the horse wagon station. Emily waved to her parents, “Bye mom, bye dad!” “Bye Emily, take care!” Emily’s mom and dad waved back. The wagon took off and headed for Grayloon. When Emily’s wagon stopped near the riverbank, she got off and Kasia greeted her with a broad smile on her face. “Hi Emily, nice to see you. I was looking forward to today.” Emily hugged Kasia tightly, “I missed you! Thanks for inviting me over.” Kasia took Emily’s luggage and led her towards the river, “This way, we’ll take the bamboo boat to the village.” “Bamboo boat!” Emily exclaimed. “That’s cool. Can I row the boat?”

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“Sure.” Kasia handed her the pole. They rowed the boat together and it took off down the river. When they got to Kasia’s house, they saw Kasia’s parents Iza and Ticka who smiled at them. “Hi, Uncle Ticka and Auntie Iza.” Emily said. “Nice to see you.” Iza, Kasia’s mom extended her arms and hugged Emily. Emily noticed Ticka’s serious look in his eyes, “What’s the matter Uncle Ticka?” “Nothing.” Ticka shook his head, “It’s just that Tompy’s chickens were killed last night and I’ve been thinking who did it.” “Oh, whoever did it must be really bad.” Emily said. “SUPPER TIME!” Iza entered the dining room holding two hot dishes.

Emily sniffed the air.

“Smells good, I can’t wait to eat. I’m starving.” They all sat down at the dinning table and picked up their forks. Emily looked at something black and gooey. “What’s that?” “They are snails.” Kasia replied. “Tastes good, try it.” Emily took one, closed her eyes and put one in her mouth. “Yummy! I have never 7

tasted anything so delicious.” After dinner, the girls got to watch a movie before they were sent to bed. The next day Emily was awoken by a noise outside the window. She opened the curtains to see what the matter was. A person was screaming, “My brother has changed into stone!!!” A group of people surrounded the person. “What do you mean your brother has changed into stone?” inquired somebody. The person began to tell the story. “One night my brother disappeared. I was very worried. Nobody knew where he was. The next day I went to the mountain to search for my brother. Half way to the hill, I saw my brother standing there. I was excited. I called him loudly. But he did not move. So I ran over to pat him on the shoulder. ‘Hey, brother. Where have you been?’ I talked to him. He still did not move. I put my hand on his face. It felt like a rock.

My brother had become a stone!”

Nobody believed him. “It can’t be true,” somebody

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said. “Follow me. I will show you.” That villager replied. Kasia whispered to Emily, “The man shouting outside is Tompy. He and his brother live in a house on the foot of the mountain.” Emily nudged Kasia. “Let’s follow them.” Kasia protested, “No, mom will never let us go,” “Well, just say we’re going to get ice cream,” whispered Emily. After a few moments they were ready to go. Kasia shouted over her shoulder, “Mom, we’re going to the market!” “Okay, come back soon.” They ran out of the house and followed the crowd. After a few turns in the mountain path the crowd began to slow down. Things started to change. The place was all black like a wildfire just burned through the whole forest. The trees didn’t have a single leave. Then they saw it, a stone statue. Kasia opened her mouth but no words came out. She had never seen such a terrible sight.

Kasia became

transfix as if she became a stone herself. 9

Emily

patted Kasia on the shoulder and got no response. Emily waved her hand in front of Kasia’s eyes. “Anybody home?” Kasia woke up suddenly “What?” “Are you scared?” asked Emily. “Yes, look at those terrible stone eyes.

They really chilled me out,”

admitted Kasia. “Hey, there’s something on the top of his head,” someone shouted. Tompy reached out and grabbed the piece of paper. He looked at the piece of paper, “Hey, it’s a note!” he shouted. I’ll read it out loud. The note says ‘If you don’t show me the path to the Pearl Egg, I’ll turn you all into stone statues just like him. ---- Arg, your lord’.” Everybody started talking all at once. “Who does he think he is?” “Shhh. Don’t let his henchmen hear you.” “Arg has spies everywhere.” “Hey, he wants the gem, why don’t we give it to him.”

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“He wants to rule us! With the Pearl Egg he will have unstoppable power.”

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In the middle of all he fusses, Emily still could speak calmly, “Who is Arg?”

“He is the evilest

creature on the planet,” Kasia responded. “He knows magic. My parents are very scared of him. They just 13

don’t tell me those horrible stories.

You don’t know

how much we’ve been through with Arg. Our great harvest of candies was stolen by Arg. I spent a lot of work on helping mom grow the candies. Let’s go home before mom found out we came to see the stone man.” Kasia kept a strait face. But Emily could see the hatred boiling in her eyes. Emily said reluctantly, “Okay, but I want to learn more about this evil Arg.” At dinnertime, Iza prepared tomatoes and fruit salad. To welcome Emily’s visit, Ticka caught fish and roasted them. Iza put grandfather tree candies all around it. “That looks yummy,” Emily said pointing to the candy, “but what was it?” “It’s grandfather tree candy,” Iza replied. “We collected them last year.” “Oh, that was the candy Kasia was talking about.” Kasia gave her a warning glance, but Emily didn’t notice. She started eating. Emily took a big bite. “I wonder who Arg is,” She said suddenly. Hearing the name both Iza and Ticka looked up with worry eyes. 14

“You kids shouldn’t know this kind of thing,” Iza said.

“Please,” Emily pleaded.

glanced at each other.

Iza and Ticka

Finally Ticka broke the

silence, “I will tell you who Arg is if you kids promise to stay away from that evil Arg.”

Both

Emily and Kasia said yes eagerly. After dinner, the girls helped clean up the table. Iza brought up some tea. Then they sat around the table. Ticka took a sip of his tea and began the story. “Arg was a villager of Grayloon. One day he disappeared. Someone saw him taking a boat and went down stream. He did not return until ten years later. After he came back strange things happened. Animals in Tompy’s farm disappeared one by one everyday. Somebody saw a lot of chicken feather and chicken bones scattered around Arg’s house. One day in the market somebody accidentally bumped into Arg, that night his house was on fire.

The

villagers suspected that Arg was the person behind all these. A few villagers went to confront Arg. After 15

listening to the villagers’ questions, Arg laughed, “Ha ha ha ha… what do you think?” The villagers did not know what to say. Arg went on, “If all these are true, you know I have super power. Do you guys want to join me? I will rule Grayloon.” Everybody said no. Mopo wanted to hit Arg, but before he could reach him Arg raised his hand and pointed at Mopo. Arg mumbled, “Peepee poopoo gola gola.”

A light

flashed from his finger and Mopo was turned to stone. The villagers were stunned. Everybody went away except Slim and Scrutyia, the twins. They beg to be Arg’s servants. From then on, they robbed the villagers as they wished and people were afraid of them. However the villagers were still protected by the Pearl Egg’s force. As long as the villagers stayed in the mountain close to the Pearl Egg, Arg could not reach them. Now Arg wanted to get the Pearl Egg so that he could rule Grayloon.

Now you know how

evil he is. Stay away from him.”

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Chapter 3 Dranimals The next day, Kasia and Emily were playing in Kasia’s room. They opened a box. Inside, there was a beautiful, glistening red gem that had a little flame glowing inside it. “Wow, it’s so beautiful. Where did you get it?” Emily asked. “I got it in Mt.Gemileen. One time I went into the mountain with my dad. We found this red gem in a cave. Do you want to go to the cave? Maybe we can find more gems.” “Sure!” said Emily. “Let’s go.” They scooted out the door. Kasia yelled, “Mom, we are going to Mt. Gemileen.” Iza was cooking and there was smoke all around the

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kitchen. “Watch out for trouble, and come back soon.” Kasia and Emily went up the path to the mountain. After a while, the path became narrow and steep.

Along the path, there were tall trees and

bushes. Water stream flowed down the mountain. Sometimes they had to climb up rocks to cross the streams. Emily was exhausted. “Have we got there yet?” “We are almost there,” panted Kasia. “Look up the hill. Can you see that big tree? The cave is behind it.” They kept up the pace and finally reached the big tree. Emily looked around, “Where is the cave? I only see bushes and vines.” Kasia started walking towards the vines. “Follow me.” She got out her pocketknife and cut two bamboo sticks.

She

handed one to Emily. Kasia used the bamboo stick to push the vine aside. Emily followed suit. Then they went into a dark cave. Emily yelled, “Kasia, where are you.

I cannot see anything.” Kasia answered

calmly, “Just wait for your eyes to adjust.” After a 19

few second, Emily saw Kasia under the dim light from cave entrance.

Emily looked around. She

moved farther into the cave. It was even darker here. Suddenly Emily saw a spark. “What’s that?” Emily asked. “What was what?”

Kasia asked, puzzled.

Emily pointed to the corner, “Over there.” Kasia was puzzled, “There is nothing there.” Emily watched for a few seconds. “Well, I thought it was something there. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. Let’s go.” They walked further into the cave. “Look. What is that spark?” This time it was Kasia asking. Emily saw that too. “Yes. That is the same thing I saw.” The spark disappeared once more. “Let’s hide over there and see if something is coming out,” Kasia suggested. “Good idea,” Emily agreed. They hid behind a big rock and watched. A few minutes later, they saw a spark. Then three more sparks appeared. The sparks began to bounce each other and jumped around.

They gave out squishy noises like gee gee

goo goo. Boom! A cloud of smoke came out. After

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the smoke cleared, four little creatures appeared. They flew around. Kasia and Emily were stunned. For a while they did not know what to do.

All the

sudden, a flame burst out from one of the creatures. It almost burned Emily. She squished over to Kasia’s side. Kasia lost balance and fell on the ground with a small bump.

The creatures hovered for a while,

suspicious. Then they disappeared on the sound of bump. Kasia and Emily came out from their hiding place. “Where did they go?” asked Kasia. Emily answered frowning. “I don’t know. Who are these things? Did you see them before?” Kasia shook her head. “I have no idea. Never heard of them before.” Emily said hopefully, “Do you think we can get them out again?” Kasia sighed. “I wish. But I don’t know how. Maybe we can ask my dad. He might know some stories.” Emily said enthusiastically, “Let’s go home and ask him now.” They forgot all about the gems and ran down the mountain.

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Once Kasia and Emily reached the door of the house, Kasia yelled “Dad, where are you?” Iza came out from the kitchen. “Dad is not home yet.

You

girls found any gems in the cave?” “Oh, we totally forgot about the gems.” Kasia exclaimed. Iza puzzled, “How can you forget? Isn’t it the reason you went to the cave?” Kasia answered, “Yes. But we saw some strange creatures. One of them can blow out flames. We almost got burned. We were so excited that we forgot about the gems. Mom, do you know what those things are?” Iza was really worried, “What are you talking about?

Nobody can blow

flames except Arg. Did you run into Arg? Oh my god.” “I told you girls to stay away from Arg. What did you do?” Ticka said, entering the house. Kasia turned around surprised, “Oh dad, we went to the cave to find gems and we saw some strange creatures. They made sparks. They flew. One of them can blow fire. That one almost got us burnt. 22

Have you heard anything about them before?” Ticka thought for a minute, “Hmm, my grandma told me legends about Dranimals. According to the legend, Dranimals live in the caves. They can fly. They can blow fire and water. They can turn water into ice. But nobody actually saw them. Maybe you girls just discovered the Dranimals.” Emily said, “Wow. Are they good creatures?” Ticka explained, “According to the legends, the Dranimals protected Grayloon from evils. Maybe we can ask them to help us fight the evil Arg.” Kasia said excitedly, “Emily and I will go find them.” Iza said, “You girls must be careful. I will pack some snacks for your trip.” The next morning Kasia and Emily left the house in the morning. It was not a typical morning. The street was quieter than usual. There was nobody in the path to the mountain. The only sounds were birds from the forest and the girls’ footsteps on the mountain path. “Do you think we can see them today in the cave?” Kasia asked. “I hope so. We should do 23

the exact same thing we did yesterday. If we are lucky, we’ll probably see them.” Emily answered. Emily and Kasia reached the hilltop. entered the cave cautiously.

They

The cave was dark.

Emily and Kasia walked around and could not see any sparkling.

Kasia said disappointedly, “The

Dranimals are gone.”

“Let’s go deeper into the

cave,” suggested Emily. They walked slowly into the deeper part of the cave. Emily crashed into a wall, “Ouch! It’s a dead end.”

They touched the wall

trying to find a path. Kasia said, “Come over here. There is a crack in the wall. Do you think there is a path over the crack?” Emily said excitedly, “Let me see.” They knelt down and pressed their face against the crack trying to see through. “Look, sparkling!” Emily whispered excitedly. She tried to squeeze through but Kasia grabbed her by the shirt. “You’ll scare them away.” she warned Emily. “What should we do?” asked Emily. “Maybe we can give them something they like.” suggested Kasia. She fished 24

through her pockets and found several grandfather tree candies left over from breakfast.

Kasia threw

one candy over the crack. They landed in a few steps away from the crack. All the sudden, the sparkling disappeared. Emily whispered, “Oh jeez, you scared them away.”

Kasia put her finger on her lip,

“Shhh…” Suddenly the candy floated in mid air and it disappeared. “What happened?”

Emily asked.

“Let’s go over to take a look.” She squeezed one leg into the crack and managed to pull herself through. Kasia asked nervously “What do you see?” Emily said, “Wow, there is a big room here. Come over.” Kasia followed Emily through the crack. When her sneakers touched the other end she saw a great stone hall opened right in front of her. Kasia got out more candies and put them on her palm and extended her arm.

“Come Dranimals,

there’s more candy.” she called. Something brushed on

her

hand

disappeared.

and

a

grandfather

tree

candy

Suddenly, four creatures appeared. 25

They were the size of a reindeer. They stood on their hind legs, studying if the girls were going to harm them. Emily extended her arm and tried to pet the white one. All the Dranimals flapped their wings and flew around the room.

Kasia hurried out more

candies. She called out, “We like to be your friends. Here are more candies. Please come down.” She put the candies on the ground. One of the Dranimals, which was blue with white stripes, flew near the candies. It approached the candies cautiously. She snapped the candies with her front hands and gobbled them up. The others watched and followed suit. The blue and white one approached Kasia and nudged Kasia’s hands with its head. Kasia patted its head gently. The creature gave out a whistle. The other three approached Emily and touched her with their heads. The dranimal, which was red with yellow stripes, flapped her wings and jumped onto Emily’s shoulders. Emily almost toppled. Suddenly she felt she was lifted into the air. She looked up and saw the

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red dranimal was flying and gripping to her shoulders. She was flying with the dranimal. Kasia yelled, “Put my friend down!” The blue one knelt down and motioned Kasia to climb on her back. Kasia hesitated, but eventually she climbed onto the Dranimals back. The dranimal lifted off the ground into the air.

Kasia felt so wonderful that she

screamed with joy. After a while, the Dranimals stopped and put the girls down with great care. Kasia patted the blue and white dranimal on the head and said, “My dad said that you have great super powers. Can you show us what super powers you have?”

The Dranimals

led the girls out of the cave. Walking out from the cave they saw trees were filling out the valley below them. A big green lake lied in the far distance. The blue and white dranimal faced the lake and opened its mouth.

All of a

sudden, water flew up from the lake into the dranimal’s mouth. Emily exclaimed, “Look! The 27

water in the lake is almost gone.” Kasia looked at the dranimal stunned, “Where is the water? Are they all in your belly?” The blue and white dranimal nodded its head and opened its mouth again. This time the water shot out from the dranimal’s mouth and sprouted down into the lake like a rainbow bridge. The white dranimal blew cold air to the water rainbow. The water turned into ice immediately. The red dranimal stepped on the ice bridge and slid down. Kasia and Emily saw the red dranimal sliding down like a fireball and landed on surface of the lake. “Wow, that’s cool,” exclaimed Emily. The blue and white dranimal motioned the girls to step up to the bridge. Emily stepped onto the bridge, uncertain of what would happen. Suddenly she felt like she was flying down. She screamed and shut her eyes tightly closed. The wind blew heavily onto her face. She kept on saying, “I won’t die, I won’t die, I won’t…” Thump. She landed on the lake with a “thump”. She heard another bump and saw Kasia beside her. They

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tried to stand up but slid down again. That’s when they noticed they were sitting on ice.

The red

dranimal slid over to the girls and invited them to climb on its back.

After the girls settled on the

dranimal’s back, it took off.

A minute later, the

dranimal put the girls on the shore. The girls looked up and saw the ice bridge still in the air. Kasia asked, “How do you get the water back into the lake?” The red dranimal raised it head and blew fire towards the ice bridge.

The ice melted in the air and rained

down heavily. A strong wind from the cave in the mountaintop blew the rain down to the lake. The rumbling rain lasted for a few minutes. After the heavy rain stopped, the lake was filled with water again.

It was calm and peaceful, like nothing had

happened before. Kasia turned around and asked the Dranimals, “How do we bring you home? You are so big.” The Dranimals flew back into the cave with Kasia and Emily running after them. Once in the cave, the 29

Dranimals shrunk back into the size of an ant and jumped back into their gems, which Emily and Kasia picked up and placed into their pockets. “Great, now we can bring them back home!” Kasia said.

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Chapter 4 Escape Kasia and Emily brought the Dranimals home. They were eager to show mom and dad their new friends. Running down the hill to the house, Kasia yelled “Mom, Dad, I want to show you something cool.” Iza came out immediately. “What’s the matter, honey?” Emily handed her aunt Iza a gem, “Look at what we found.” Iza picked up the gem and studied it. The gem was as big as an egg and as blue as the sky. She held it to the sun and peered inside. creature inside the gem.

She saw a small

“What is that?” she

questioned. “We named it Wateria,” Kasia replied proudly. Iza puzzled, “Wateria? What is that?” 31

Emily answered, “It is our new dranimal friend. Look at these gems too. The red one is Fira. The diamond one is Windia. The pearl one is Icia.” Iza studied the gems one by one carefully. “Where did you find them?” Kasia answered, “The cave at Mt. Gemileen. Wateria can shoot water. Fira can blow flames. Windia can make tornados. And last but not least, Icia can freeze anything.” “That’s nice, but can you show me the Dranimals in their actual size?” Iza asked, “That’s what we were thinking,” Kasia replied. Emily and Kasia whispered something into the gem but the Dranimals refused to come out. Kasia and Emily were puzzled. They thought for a moment. Kasia asked Iza, “Mom, do you still have any chocolate left over from last Halloween?”

“Sure honey.

There may be some in the kitchen. But why?” Iza asked. Before Iza knew it, the girls blew into the kitchen like a tornado and swept up all the 32

candies. They brought all the candies out and placed them in front of the gems, but the Dranimals still refused to come out. The girls were again puzzled. A light bulb went off in Emily’s head, “I know! We have to give them Grandfather Tree candies!”

Immediately, two

tornados formed and this time the tornadoes were heading for Kasia’s room.

Once the girls got

the candy, they ran back and dropped it in front of the gems. Iza’s mouth dropped open. “Wow.” She stared at the Dranimals stunned, and said “We have to show your dad when he comes home.” After dinner, Ticka watched all the tricks the Dranimals showed him. Everybody could tell he was impressed.

Kasia shook her dad’s arm,

“Daddy, do you think these Dranimals can help us fight Arg?” “Maybe.” Her dad answered, “But you girls must not go alone.” Iza rose up from her chair, “Girls, it is time for bed.” 33

Kasia asked,

“Can the Dranimals sleep with us?”

Iza

answered, “Of course, honey.” The girls took the crystal eggs with them to their room. Soon after they closed the door, the kids fought over which dranimal to sleep with. Emily settled down with Fira and Icia. Wateria and Windia slept in Kasia's bed. Downstairs Iza and Ticka sipped tea and chatted in the living room. After the noise from the kids room died down, Iza asked, “Are you sure we should let the Dranimals stay?” Ticka replied, “I can see from their eyes that they are harmless to the girls. In fact, I think they can protect the girls when they are in danger.” The next morning was a boiling July day. Kasia and Emily got up early. They were eager to play with the Dranimals. At the breakfast table, Iza asked, “Where were your girls going today?”

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Kasia answered, “We want to play in the river, can we?” Iza said “Of course. I will get you some bamboo rice for lunch. Do you like that?” The girls answered together, “My favorite!” “Some grandfather candies too, please.” Added Kasia. “Sure honey,” Iza replied. The girls headed to the riverbank. After thirty minutes walk in the steaming hot weather they finally reached the riverbank. They carefully placed the gems in their hats they were wearing and put the hats on the sandy beach.

Emily

yelled, “GET INTO THE WATER!!” Splash! Both girls jumped into the river. “I can finally get into the water! Kasia said.

They were racing and

chasing and mostly just floating and relaxing on the surface of the river. Suddenly, Kasia saw two men wearing dark clothes sneaking to the place where they hid the eggs. “Someone’s trying to steal our eggs,” Kasia called while she swam over 35

to the beach. By the time they reached the beach one of the creepy dudes already stole one of the gems. Emily yelled, “Stop right there that’s ours.” One of the men glared at them with sharp brown eyes. “Yours? Nothing is yours. All the good stuff belongs to our lord.” He said in a nasty voice. Kasia backed away. “Whoa, do you mean Arg?” “Yes.” The man holding the gem said. He added, “So hand over the gems.” “Never!” Emily yelled angrily. “Never? You’ll see about that.” One of them said. He turned around and started to leave taking one of the gems with him. Suddenly, the gem the dudes were holding started to shake and Windia flew out. The bad guys looked at each other and said, “Wow!” They desperately tried to push the big dranimal back into the tiny gem. This got Windia angry. It puffed up a bit and the bad guys bounced off. One of them said, “This creature is more powerful than we thought. 36

Let’s go get the boss and let him take care of these things.” Kasia waved her hands. “Okay. Windia give them a boost to help them run!”

The guys

were puzzled and Kasia didn’t think anything would happen at all. She meant it to be a joke. But to the two men’s and her surprise, Windia blew them all the way up the hill with a stream of hot air and they landed hard on their butts in front of Arg.

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Emily picked up all the gems and whispered, “We have to go. Arg may be coming.” The kids packed up their umbrella and put their gems in their sacks.

Suddenly, twenty creepy people

rolled out of the woods and surrounded them. Arg stepped out from the middle of the group. “I heard you didn’t give my men your gems. Now give the gems to me.” “Nooooo!” The girls screamed. Arg got angry. “No one dares to say no to me. Do you want to be turn into stone?” Arg pointed his finger at them. All of a sudden, a strong wind blew out. It lifted up the sand on the beach. The sky darkened and nobody could see a thing. After ten minutes, the sky cleared and the girls disappeared.

“Where’d they go?” asked Arg.

“We don’t know Sir,” the followers replied. “Don’t stand there gaping at me! Take action you dung buckets!” Arg said angrily.

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When the kids reached home they patted the Dranimals. “You did a great job Windia,” Kasia remarked. When they got into the house Iza came over and said, “Was it fun, sweethearts?” Kasia answered right away, “Mom, we met Arg.” “He was really mean,” Emily added. Iza clutched her heart, “We must call dad right now.” Ticka heard the call and came back immediately, “You girls were lucky that you escaped from Arg.” “All the thanks go to Windia,” Emily replied. That night they ate in silent thinking about the episode and went to bed earlier. Back in the cave, Arg was furious. “Arhhh! Those scrawny little kids will pay for being so disrespectful!” Arg growled. “Snatcha!” He called. “Here I am, master.” A man dressed all in black ran in front of him and knelt down.

39

“Prepare for departure,” Arg commanded, “I will turn the whole village into stone.” “But…” “Do not question my command.” The next morning, the whole Haspa family and Emily woke up to a startling noise outside. All of Arg’s men and Arg himself was standing twelve yards away right on the horizon. All of the villagers

rushed

out

with

worried

faces.

“Beware,” Arg boomed, “I shall turn the whole village into stone.” Everyone froze. They saw the Arg raised up his hand and pointed at them. Suddenly, they saw a beam of gray light coming right towards the village. All the villagers started to talk. The beam almost touched the village. Everyone shut their eyes and prepared to be turned into stone. After ten seconds, they opened their eyes again. There was a force field around

40

them which covered the whole village. Icia made it. Kasia turned to Icia, “I never knew you could make ice shields. Icia nodded. Everyone was greatly relieved. “Uh-oh,” Emily muttered, “here comes trouble.” She pointed to the ice field. It was turning into stone. Soon, the whole force field became a huge upside down stone bowl. Everyone stared upwards at the bowl they knew that could not be removed. They also knew what was coming next. They could be suffocated if they did not manage to get out of the stone bowl. A little mouse scurried underneath them and they quickly looked down. “I know!” A man from the village exclaimed. “What?” Everyone stared at him. “We can get all our shovels and tools to…” “To do what?” a short grandma asked, “To camp outside?”

41

“No, to dig a tunnel under ground and get out of here.” “Then how do we remove this huge stone bowl?” someone asked in the crowd. The man who had the brilliant idea was stumped. “We’ll have to go get some diamonds and saw this thing open.” Ticka interrupted, “But before we do that, we have to get out of here so start moving.” All raced back home to get their tools. They also brought some flashlights because it was dark under the big bowl. They started digging right away. They finished the tunnel by noon. Most of them were covered with dirt and sweat. But they were happy that they finally finished. They crept up a mountain and started finding diamonds right away.

After they gathered enough, they went

back and had a jewelry storeowner shape them

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into saws for them. All the men, holding their new diamond saws, went out and started working. They finally finished right when the sun was setting.

Arg saw the stone bowl crash to the

ground and stopped laughing. “What happened?” he asked. “I think they broke the stone shield, master.” One of his men said. Arg thought for a second and told his men to pack up and went back into the cave where they came from. He was going to plan for an evil attack. That night, while they were having dinner, Kasia asked, “Daddy I think we can use our Dranimals to fight Arg.” “That’s a good idea Kasia. But how are we going to do that?” “I don’t know. But, Emily and I will figure out a plan.” Kasia and Emily rushed upstairs. Iza and Ticka sat down in the living room, trying to think of a plan. When the girls came back Kasia said,

43

“We finally figured out a plan.” Kasia whispered something into her dad’s ear and her dad nodded with approval.

44

Chapter 5 Arg Fell to the Trap The next morning was a sunny day perfect for outdoor picnic. However nobody cared about doing that because they were busy preparing for the battle with Arg. At first, Ticka called the other villagers to help him build a very strong iron cage that had all sorts of traps in it.

Then Ticka

remembered something Kasia said. He told the other

villagers

the

thing

he

remembered.

“Everybody, we have to get a rounded jade to pretend to be the Pearl Egg. They hid the iron cage in the bottom of the lake. Building the cage was so hard that it took them a whole day to finish. After they finished Ticka told Kasia, “We 45

are ready, you can lead Arg over now.” Kasia and Emily took off.

They found one of Arg’s

followers looking for them. Emily and Kasia hid behind a tree. When he came near, Emily walked up to him pretending to be very scared.

She

whispered, “The whole village is really scared of Arg. We know the path to the Pearl Egg. If Arg promises not to hurt the villagers anymore we will lead him to the gem. We will be here tomorrow at dawn.” Then the girls took off. The follower ran back to Arg’s nasty cave and told Arg the news “Master, I found the girls but I didn’t catch them because…” Arg slapped him before he could finish the sentence. “You idiot. You let them slip away again.” “No, no, no. They are afraid of you, master. They promised to take you to the great treasure.”

“What treasure?”

impatiently. “The Pearl Egg. Master.”

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Arg said

That night, at dinner Kasia told her dad she met one of Arg’s followers. “Did he try to hurt you?” Iza asked. “Nope.” Emily answered, “We just told them we can take them to the Pearl Egg. We ran away before he even tried to catch us.” “Good” Iza breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’re

supposed to meet them at Evergreen Forest at dawn.” Kasia informed them. Ticka told Kasia and Emily, “Tomorrow when you meet with Arg, I’ll take some villagers and follow you. Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.” That night Iza couldn’t fall asleep. She prayed, “Please protect my girls.” The next morning Emily woke up early. She shook Kasia and said, “Time to wake up.” The girls dressed and put their gems into their pant pockets. When they went downstairs, Iza already had everything prepared.

After the girls ate

breakfast, Iza put a good luck charm around each 47

girl’s neck. “I hope you girls will be all right.” said Iza. “We’ll be alright, don’t worry about it mom.” Kasia went over and gave her mom a big hug. The street was more quiet than usual. The sky was filled with heavy clouds and it looked like it was going to rain. The girls were followed by Ticka and some of the villagers. When the girls got to Evergreen Forest they saw nobody there. Kasia whispered to Emily, “Looks like Arg is not here yet.” Suddenly, a voice behind them in the forest boomed, “Little girls, where is the Pearl Egg?”

Startled by the weird voice, the girls

jumped. They turned slowly to the voice and saw Arg. Arg came out from the woods followed by two of his men. Facing Arg, Emily said calmly, “If you want the Pearl Egg, you have to promise.” “Promise what?” “Promise not to hurt any of the villagers anymore.”

Secretly Arg thought to 48

himself, “If I have the Pearl Egg, I will be the king.

Promise or not, I rule them.” Arg said

impatiently, “I promise.” Kasia and Emily didn’t believe one single word Arg said.

But they

pretended to. After a long walk in the mountains the party finally reached the top of Mt.Gemileen.

They

walked to the edge of the mountain. Everybody looked down. The green Lake Samalitaly lay at the foot of the mountain like a huge jade. Kasia pointed down, “The entrance of the secret path to Pearl Egg is right there in a cave at the bottom of the lake. If you want the Pearl Egg you have to go down into the water.” “How do you get down there?” Arg asked. “This way,” Emily replied, “There is a crystal slide.” Arg followed the girls and they walked around the mountain. They all saw the crystal slide. It was so pretty. One of Arg's unfortunate followers tried to take a little 49

chip of the bridge. The results were getting burnt by one of Arg’s fire blasts. Arg looked down at the slide again. He was a bit suspicious, “You go first he said as he pushed Emily forward. “Okay,” Emily said, “Since you are such a scaredy-cat.” Before Emily stepped on the crystal slide, she blew out a loud whistle. The dranimal hiding in the water got into position.

Emily waved at

Kasia, “See you later.” and she slid down the slide. She sort of looked liked a rainbow ball sliding down. SPLASH! The dranimal caught Emily when she dived into the water and pushed her to the surface of the water.

Emily’s head

popped up. She waved at Kasia and Arg. Now that Arg knew that it was safe his eyes sparkled with glee. “I’m going down!” he shouted as he ran towards the bridge, “The Pearl Egg is mine!” Arg stepped on the ice slide and, before he could stop

himself,

slipped 50

and

fell

down.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!” he screamed.

Arg

went down the slide like a pig. SPLASH!! He slid into water. BANG! The cage’s door closed tightly behind him. Inside, Arg turned around and tried to kick open the door. Suddenly, several bamboo arrows came shooting at him from the top of the cage.

“Jeez, I must have kicked the

trigger.” Arg thought, “These arrows are a piece of cake.” He used his finger like a knife and broke the arrows. All the arrows were broken and fell to the ground. Arg was very proud. “Ho! Do you dumb people think you could lock me in with this stupid cage?! I’ll blast it with one attack!” Right after he finished his sentence, Arg spiraled around. “Fire dance!” He yelled. But only a puff of smoke came out from his palm. Arg’s eyes grew big. He stared at his palm, “What the…?” Then he remembered he was in the water, he also remembered that he was out of breath. “mmph!” 51

Arg squirmed around. The villagers lifted Arg up a little bit so he could breathe. Arg came up gasping for air. When he’s done doing that, he glared at Kasia and Emily who had just came out from the water.

“You cheaters!” He spat, “I

should have known that you were doing some kind of trick! I will turn you into stone!” Arg pointed his index finger at the girls. When the villagers saw him doing that they quickly dropped him into the water again. Arg’s curse hit a fish in the water instead of the girls. The fish froze and sank to the bottom of the lake.

Inside the cage,

Arg desperately tried to get out because he could not breathe again. pleaded.

“Pull me up please,” Arg

The more he talked the more air he

wasted. “No way,” one of the villagers said, “If we pull you up you’ll turn us into stone.” “N-no II w-won’t.

I-I pr-promise,” Arg managed to

squeeze out crooked words. Up on top Ticka told 52

all the villagers and the dranimals, “Be careful, it’s likely that Arg will do that spell again.” Ticka’s prediction was exactly right. Arg did that spell again. Windia saw it coming.

She blew

strong winds and made Arg’s cage spin like a top. Arg tried to aim at Ticka but the curse hit a rock instead, breaking it in pieces.

The villagers

quickly dropped Arg down in the water again. “How can we prevent him from killing us?” A villager asked. Icia gently tapped on Kasia’s shoulder. Kasia turned around and looked at Icia. “I know,” She shouted, “We tell Icia to freeze Arg up! Will you freeze him, Icia?” Icia nodded and flew up. There was a sudden coldness. The cage and water around it froze.

“Hmm…” Kasia

wondered, “It’s so heavy. How do we pull it up, it’s a big chunk of ice?” This time Fira tapped Emily’s shoulder. Emily turned around, “Right, Fira can melt the frozen water surrounding the 53

cage. Will you melt it Fira?” Fira nodded and used her firepower like a laser and melted the ice around the cage, careful not to melt the ice in the cage. The villagers pulled Arg up. Fira melted the ice around Arg’s head so he could speak. “Now you know what it feels like to be turned into stone!” Emily scowled. Arg returned an angry look and said, “Do you think you can make me change my mind about ruling Grayloon? Stupid!” “If you don’t change your mind and free the people you turned to stone, then we’re going to leave you here,” Kasia said as she started to walk away. All the villagers looked at Arg and started to leave. “I don’t care if you freeze me all year!” Arg screamed after them.

Suddenly, someone

said, “What happens when the ice melt?” Kasia turned around, “Right. Daddy, is Arg going to get away?” A farmer called Thropple said, “My cows in the farm are all huddling together, I guess they 54

are predicting cold weather.” “Great,” Ticka said, “We can go and sleep for the night. Bye Arg.” That night, the Haspa family and Emily were eating dinner at the round table. “We got Arg all frozen up in that cage,” Emily started as she chewed on her rice filled bamboo shoot. “We’re going to freeze him all night until he can’t take it anymore,” Kasia continued, “Tomorrow we’re going to pay him a visit.” After they devoured all their food, Ticka washed the dishes. Iza read the long mail she got from her friend and the girls cleaned the floor. After that they went to sleep. The next day the girls woke up early. They went straight to the master bedroom.

Kasia

knocked on the door until his dad said in a sleepy voice, “(yawn) Come in.” Kasia opened the door and pounced on her dad. “Get up daddy,” She said as she shook him, “We have to see Arg.” A

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sleepy dad came out of the blankets, followed by a sleepy mom. “What are you girls doing?” Iza asked, “You girls should be sleeping.” “I told you, we have to go see Arg,” Kasia replied. Ticka rubbed his eyes, “Oh right,” he exclaimed, “We’ll go right after breakfast.”

After going to the

bathroom, everybody waited impatiently for Iza to cook breakfast. “Come on mom, hurry up! I want to go see Arg!” Kasia shouted. “Yeah, the sun is rising fast, the ice may melt.” Emily said. “Okay girls, help me place the dishes on the table,” Iza commanded, “Hey, Ticka, will you lend me a hand?” “Coming right up,” Kasia replied as she pushed her dad forward. Because Iza and Ticka only had five minutes to cook, everybody had a lousy breakfast. After they changed into their everyday clothes, Emily told everyone, “I think we should give Arg something to eat, we don’t want him to starve to death.” “Okay,” Iza agreed, 56

“We could give him the granola tree bars that you and Kasia don’t like.” “That’s a great idea.” Kasia remarked. Ticka stepped into the middle, “I hate to break your conversation but I think I should get some villagers, just in case.” Everyone agreed. While Ticka went to get some villagers, Kasia and Emily grew impatient again.

Fortunately, the

villagers arrived fast. They set out for the lake. The sun was rising up, breaking the morning fog. When they approached the lake, they saw Windia flying towards them. Windia rubbed its head on Emily’s shoulder.

Emily embraced

Windia tightly. “Windia, I miss you. Did Arg give you any trouble?” Emily asked.

Windia

shook its head and motioned them to follow it to the lake.

They saw Arg dosing inside the ice

cube. He raised his head when he heard footsteps coming. “Let me go!” he shouted, “Thanks to you, I’m starving, and I have a cramp.” Kasia 57

said, “We brought you some granola tree bars.” She put one to Arg’s mouth. Arg chewed up the tree bars and swallowed them quickly. “Hmm, it will be better if you bring me some chicken.” Ticka said, “Arg, think about the people you turn into stones. Aren’t they hungry? You hurt them simply because they did not follow you.” Arg was silent.

“Arg, will you turn the stone villagers

back?” Emily asked. Arg did not answer. Emily continued, “See, you are making everybody sad. The village has become a land of sadness. Even if you become the king of Grayloon, will you be happy ruling a sad land?” Arg thought about it for a moment.

He realized he had no negotiating

power because he was locked up in an ice cube. He wanted to get himself out of the trap first. After he was out, he could then threaten everyone with his evil power once again. Whoever was disobedient would be turned into stone. He would 58

be in the position to rule them again. First, he had to get out. So, he came up with an idea. He pretended, “I promise not to rule Grayloon anymore, will you let me go?” Ticka spoke up. “Yes, but only if you don’t harm the villagers, or steal their chickens. But, how can we trust you? You always broke your promises.” “Don’t worry,” Arg replied, “I can swear to the Pearl Egg that if I do anything harmful, I’ll get iced up forever,” thinking that all the villagers trusted the Pearl Egg, though he did not think much of it himself. “Okay,” the villagers said, “as long as you swear to the Pearl Egg.” Fira brew fire to the ice cube. The ices melt. Arg got out of the cage, he laughed an evil laughed and howled, “Do you think I would obey you just like that? I have every right to rule you all!” A brave villager stepped up and said, “I don’t think you would do that because you 59

already swore to the Pearl Egg that you wouldn’t hurt a single soul.” “Hhmppph! Why would I believe in the Pearl Egg. Even if it is powerful, it is not those making promise things. Now, I will turn anyone who betrays me into stone. He will be my example.” With a flick of his hand the air surrounding him turned into a gray beam of light. It touched the villager and he instantly turned into stone. The other villagers backed off and Arg broke into an evil grin, “See, the Pearl Egg cannot help him! HaHa!” Right after he laughed, a smooth silky rope of teal light flowed gracefully towards Arg. It was help coming from the Pearl Egg! When Arg noticed it, it was already too late. “Aargh!” The silvery light had rapped around him like a lasso. No matter how hard Arg struggled, the rope held on tight. Even when Arg blasted it with his firepower, the fire just dissolved in a puff of smoke.

For fire cannot withstand water, 60

especially water from the Pearl Egg.

Arg, he

heard someone say, Arg! Then he knew what it was, it was the spirit of the Pearl Egg speaking to him. Arg, you are too wrapped up in your plans to rule Grayloon that you betrayed the most important rule in human life. Love. You only knew about strength and revenge. You will never win this way. Never. Arg didn’t know it, but he was already at the top of the mountain. The huge mountain cracked open and sucked the helpless Arg into it. The crack closed just after the rope of light escaped.

The rope of light suddenly

dissolved into sparkling dust and rained down upon the whole village of Grayloon, melting away the stone curse that was put upon the unfortunate people.

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The next day when the Haspa family and Emily woke up, there was a loud cheering noise outside. They peered out the window to see what happened. The whole village was having a party, welcoming back the people that used to be stone figures. The Haspa family and Emily got dress and raced down the street to join the noisy parade. The parade turned into a huge outdoor party. The villagers were dancing, laughing.

Some

people even started showing off their talents. Like Sir. Hotah showed off his famous grape juggling trick and Mrs. Dilly showed the villagers how to make candy cream pie. The whole village was filled with joy. Everybody was so happy that they did not need to be afraid of the evil Arg any more. The summer quickly went by. Before they knew it, it was time for Emily to go home. The girls got up early. Iza helped Emily pack up. At

62

the breakfast table, everybody was eating silently. Emily broke the silence, “Time goes by too fast. I really wish I could stay longer.” “You can always come back next summer.” Iza said, “And ask your parents to come too.” “That’s what I was thinking of too,” said Emily. At the wagon station, the two girls hugged together. Kasia handed Emily a box. “What is it?” Emily asked. Kasia said, “Something for you. I hope you like it.” Emily opened the box. It was the blazing red gem she had always wanted. “I love it. Thank you very much.” The wagon finally came and Emily said goodbye. Emily climbed onto the wagon and set off clutching the red gem Kasia gave her. Kasia waved to Emily until she disappeared over the horizon.

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The Author: Kasey is a fourth grader from Francis Wyman School in Burlington, MA. This is Kasey’s first book. Fascinated by fantasy stories, Kasey started her writing a year ago when she was eight. She traveled thousands of miles to the beautiful city Guilin of China, where the scene of the story is originated.

The illustration in this book was

also created by Kasey.

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