The Four Forces of Phoenix By: S.K Lindal arrived at the tower. It was dawn already but there was no sign of Edward. Lindal and Edward’s job was to protect the four forces of Phoenix within any cost. Together the flaming sword, the wishing ring, the steel shield and the locket of invisibility makes any human invincible. Only the king wears it when he absolutely has to. Lindal was a tall and well-built woman. She was personally assigned by the king to do this job because her previous experience. She was a very responsible but on the other hand Edward was a laugh. For generations his family had been assigned to do this job but Edward wasn’t really interested. Lindal knew deep down Edward wanted to be free from responsibility. As soon as Edward arrived they started climbing the spiral staircase. When they had reached the top of the stairs, they stepped into the small, stony room with the familiar misty air. They walked over to the table where the four forces of Phoenix were but to their horror, the forces were missing and the glass covering was shattered. “The forces… the forces are missing”, gasped Lindal. “We need to tell the king immediately” shouted Edward. They ran to the king quickly and told him that the four forces were missing. The king said, ”I knew it, the dark shadow lord would get the four forces one way or another. Lead the way.” The three left the castle and went to the tower. The king examined the scene and soon he found a piece of scrunched up paper. He quickly opened it and realized it was a map. The north of the map had a sword on it and sand, the south of the map had a shield on it and a city, the east of the map had a locket and a maze, and the west had a ring and bare land. The north side of the map was labelled shifting sands, the south side was labelled the city of bats, the east side was labelled the maze of the east and the west was labelled shadow lands. “You two” said the king “I trust you to retrieve the four forces”. “Tomorrow you shall pack to sail north. Once you get one of the forces in the north, you shall go to the east then the south and then the west and then you have to kill the dark shadow lord once and for all. And wait; there will be the evil guardians, which will protect the forces. In order to get the forces you must destroy the guardians.”
The very next day when they had packed, they climbed into their sailing boats and headed out for the sea. The king had warned everyone about the four forces missing so nearly everyone was here to say goodbye. The land was slowly drawing further away by the minute until the people seemed nothing but mere dots. Lindal nudged Edward and showed him another piece of paper. She had drawn a map of Phoenix and marked where the four forces were laid.
“So” said Edward “when we reach land, we have to pass the shifting sands, fight the guardian and retrieve the flaming sword. Is that right?” “Yes,” answered Lindal. After a few hours of sailing, they had finally reached land. They looked around and saw that they were surrounded by sand. Suddenly, the sands started shifting. Lindal fell down and Edward helped her up. They grabbed hands and together they started marching across the shifting sands. Soon they saw a young girl with dark brown hair and blue eyes, shuddering in the sand. Edward and Lindal quickly went over her. “What’s your name?” “Ginny” she answered. “Do you know where the flaming sword is, Ginny?” asked Edward. Ginny shrugged her shoulders and pointed. Just then they saw the flaming sword and Edward ran to it and grabbed it. Ginny cried, “don’t touch it!” Too late, a giant spider appeared right before their eyes! Edward, surrounded by fear, quickly threw the flaming sword at Lindal. She stabbed the spider in the heart and the spider collapsed and died! They had killed the guardian. Edward, Lindal and Ginny ran across the shifting sands once more and headed to the maze of the east. Edward suddenly stopped and said, “We shall rest here tonight.”
They woke up early in the morning and started heading towards the east. They had succeeded in their first quest to get the flaming sword at the shifting sands and now they were going to the maze of the east to get the steel shield. “What are we supposed to find exactly?” Ginny asked Edward. “Well, we found the flaming sword at the shifting sands and now we have to find the steel shield then the locket of invisibility and then the wishing ring.” Edward answered. They stopped at a place called Tom Riddle’s warehouse. Lindal checked the map she drew and said “We are half way there so we can stop here and buy some things that will help us on our quest.” When they went inside the shop, they saw a man at the counter with pimples and a crooked nose. “What would you like to buy? These are the special things,” he said pointing to some peculiar objects on a table labelled special things. “Non-extinguishable fires, a horse, water evaporators, invisibility cloaks, food. What will you buy?” “We will buy the horse, extinguishable fires, a couple of water evaporators, a loaf of bread, a compass and two bottles of water.” said Ginny after deciding with Lindal and Edward. “It will be $200 in total.” Lindal took out five shiny gold pieces. “Would you like this”? Tom stared at it greedily and said “of course” then he snatched it from her hand. They climbed on the horse and galloped all the way to the maze. When they reached the maze and climbed back down, they saw a gigantic maze made out of fire. They went inside the maze careful not to touch catch on fire. They used the compass to lead them to the east of the maze because they knew that the shield would be there. After about 45 minutes of walking and talking, they saw the steel shield. Lindal ran and picked up the sword. Just then, a dragon emerged. The dragon had a scaly, gold layer of skin, red eyes and an enormous mouth. The dragon shot fire out of its breath but Lindal deflected it with the steel shield and the dragon caught on fire. Just then Ginny threw a non- extinguishable fire at the dragon and it collapsed. Edward said “let’s get out of here!” so the three of them ran out of the maze careful not to be burnt again! To their mild surprise when they reached the end of the maze, the horse had mysteriously disappeared so they had to walk all they way to the city of bats tomorrow but tonight they would rest while each one of them took turns keeping watch while the other two would sleep. The next day they knew that they had to go to the city of bats so they packed and headed straight towards it. They had to walk to the city of bats because the day before their horse ran away. “How long will it take to get there?” Ginny asked yawning and stretching her arms. “I have no idea,” said Lindal and Edward together. They walked for about 2 hours, then they sat down underneath an apple tree, picked some apples, they each took a gulp of water, ate the apples and went back to walking.
They stopped dead at the city. They had reached their destination but there was one slight problem. The place was deserted. Windows were smashed, doors were shattered, houses were broken and there was an eerie silence. They passed houses, which were burnt down, damaged and broken. They turned around and that’s when they saw it. The locket of invisibility, it was over a bridge. Ginny ran over to the bridge and was about to get the locket until a bat came from high above and it landed in the middle of the bridge. It turned into a vampire and said “I am terribly sorry but I cannot allow you to cross the bridge until each one of you has answered one of my riddles. If you fail, I will turn you into a vampire but if you succeed, you can cross the bridge and get the locket of invisibility.” “First you!” he said pointing at Lindal. “Who makes it, Has no need for it. Who buys it, Has no use for it. Who uses it can neither see it nor feel it. What is it?” “A coffin” answered Lindal. “That is… correct, you may pass.” Said the vampire. Lindal crossed the bridge. “Now you” said the vampire pointing at Edward. “Mr and Mrs Slayer have two daughters who each have a husband, two brothers and two sons. Can all the slayers fit in a 4 seater car?” “Err… Yes”, said Edward guessing. “That is… correct”, answered the vampire. “You may proceed as well”. Edward crossed the bridge. “Now your turn” “While walking across a bridge, I saw a boat full of vampires. Yet there wasn’t a single vampire. Why?” “There was more than one vampire,” said Ginny. “That is…incorrect!” exclaimed the vampire. He was just about to strike until Edward stabbed the sword at him. He vanished. The three of them grabbed the locket and turned invisible. Just then bats started attacking from everywhere. Edward killed a few of them but they knew it was hopeless because there were too many of them so they just ducked and ran until they were out of the city.
They awoke at midnight because they heard a strange howling. “The dark shadow lord must know that we have found the three forces an d know we are looking for the fourth one. And we are going to kill him, so he must have sent some creatures to kill us,” said Lindal. “We must fight them,” Said Edward. They stepped into view and a werewolf came into view. Edward stabbed the sword at it and it collapsed. They ran quickly to the west of Phoenix. It was about 6 o’clock when they had finally reached shadowlands. A figure suddenly stepped out of the shadows when they arrived. He was wearing a hooded robe and the wishing ring. He also had a wand. He was a dark wizard. He sent a jet of red light out of his wand and it hit Ginny right in the chest. Then he sent another jet of red light and it was just about to hit Edward but they held on to the locket and turned invisible. The wizard got angry so now he sent a jet of green light and said something like “The killing curse ought to kill them”. It was about to hit Lindal this time but she deflected it and the wizard died. Lindal slowly crept over to him and took the wishing ring. As she was returning with the wishing ring, she saw a bottle labelled the potion of life and she handed it to Ginny. Ginny drank it and she healed immediately. It was all over. The guardians were all defeated and they got back the four forces. Now they just needed to go back to the king’s castle. They wished that they would go to the king’s castle and in the next second they were being magically transported to the kings castle. When they were about to return the four forces, the dark shadow lord suddenly appeared. They wished him dead and he died! They finally returned the four forces and the king named Edward king. He married Ginny and Lindal married someone named Clark and together, Ginny and Edward ruled their country, Phoenix. Everyone was happy. All was well. 2,006 Words S Kumar (10 yrs) 2009-04-26