The labels can be kinda interesting.....

I know I haven't written anything in like foooooorrrrrrreeeeeeevvvvvvveeeeeeerrrrrrr on here, and this is even my own blog!!!! So I thought I should post something today. :) Something extra special...... ;)

Signed,

OK, little warning--I made this a longgggggggggg time ago, so it might seem a little bit more little kiddish. Hope you guys enjoy!!!! :)

Chapter I

The Strange Box

Allegra Anderson. Allegra. What kind of name was Allegra? I mean, it’s nice and all but nobody else has the name Allegra. I mean, in my expensive school we have two Hannah’s in our class, and two Sarah’s, and I think we had three James, and the list went on and on. But nobody else had the name Allegra. Anyway, I was 12 and life wasn’t getting better.

  I sighed and looked at my history textbook. I lived in England, and it was during World War II.  This was a country school, so nobody worried about it being bombed.

  I had to stay here at the boarding school in the girls dorms.  I didn’t leave like the other children either on holiday. I only left when it was the summer break.

  Then, I stayed at a country cottage with my Uncle and Aunt. I led a kind of boring life.

 “Allegra!” my head jerked up, sending my straight, blonde hair flying.

“Yes, ma’am?” I asked, as the history teacher came sailing in, her brown curls bouncing.

  “May I see your history report? The principal confirms you have not handed it in yet.”

  I looked at her. Then I remembered how Alan had been smirking at me. He had probably stolen it and stuffed it in some garbage can.

  “Well, I turned it in. It must have been taken or something.”

“Or maybe,” piped up Alan, “she threw it into the trash can!”

He burst out laughing.

  The teacher came over to his desk. “And would you happen to know what trash can that may be, Mr. Noodletire?”

  He kept laughing, and fell into the trap. “Why don’t you try the cafeteria one!”

 Then, realizing he had given himself away, clamped a hand over his mouth.

  Ms. Trapass (the teacher) nodded with satisfaction. “How would you like the job of digging through the trash can?”

  He looked down.

“I expect it out before lunch. Now, as I was saying…”

And so began a long day of history.

Later that day, I was walking one the grounds, getting my daily exercise with the other children.

  Alan sulked with his buddies, but thankfully didn’t pay me any attention. Lila, one of the girls, walked over and started playing with him in a way you knew she was flirting.

  Disgusting.

I started doing knee-ups across the front lawn, and started wishing we didn’t always have to wear skirts. Oh, the freedom of pants!

  Not that I had ever put a pair on, but I imagined.

    Lucky boys.

Very lucky boys.

That evening, as I was about to go to my dorm, the doorbell rang. A moment later, one of the teachers came my way.

  “Hello, Allegra, this is for you. It was on the step, no sign of the sender.”

I took it. It was a huge box, and I wasn’t sure what was inside.

  “Thank you,” I said, and retreated to the safety of my dorm.

When I was inside, I opened it. It was full of books. Just what a twelve-year-old who has an enough books already needs.

  They looked like pictures books, with stories from different time periods. Then I noticed something else—a letter.

  I opened it, and it read:

Dear Allegra,

You might not think this is very important, but this box of books may save your life. Please guard them well.  Inside, you will find stories from all different time periods, including World War I. Guard well, and enjoy. These books hold more then you think.

Your Protector

Okay. Weird. Who on earth would send a school kid a bunch of books? And what did it mean by protector? Was this my guardian or something? Did Alan send this as a trick, just to be spiteful?

  I wasn’t sure, but sure was going to found out. Soon.

Chapter II

Sean and the Dragon

The next day, I sat in the library.

 “Hey Allegra, what are you doing?” called my friend, Jennifer.

I turned around. Jennifer’s long, brown, beautiful hair was, as usual, perfect. Not like mine.

  “I’m looking for a book on the civil war of the United States. We have to learn about it in our class. I think it was over slave rights. I wish they didn’t even have to have a war.”

  Jennifer nodded. “I know what you mean. Hey, I was wondering, Lila said you got a box of books. I was just kind of curious. What are they about?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. Do you want to come and look at them with me? My next period still isn’t for an hour. We got out early.”

  “I can see that,” commented Jennifer.

We then hurried out of the library, up the several flights of steps to the girl’s dorms.

  I opened my door, and took the box out from under the bed.

“Wow,” said Jennifer, “that’s a big box of books.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking that myself.”

Jennifer got down on the floor with me, and we stared at it.

  “So,” said Jennifer, breaking the silence, “which are you going to read first?”

  I started going through the books. There were dozens, but I saw one that really made me look again.

  It was covered with dragons, and a picture of a knight and maiden covered the front.

 “Do you think I should read this one?” I asked, pulling it out.

Her eyes went big. “Definitely.”

  “Come on, lets go out onto the grounds. I’m glad the next period is P.E.!”

Jennifer nodded, and we headed outside.

A few minutes later, we were outside. I just started to read the book. So far, it was about how a boy became a knight.

 “Uh oh,” said Jennifer. “Here comes Alan!”

I looked up, and sure enough, Alan and his bunch of buddies were coming toward us.

  “Hi,” I said cheerfully, “what do you all want?”

“To get back at you for yesterday!” growled Alan.

“Run!” cried Jennifer.

    The mad chase led us through the courtyard, around the hothouse, and into the garden.

  While I close the gate, I dropped my book. It flipped open to show a picture of the knight about to get eaten by a dragon! In the back round, were two maidens, and a pageboy.

 “Jennifer!” I yelled.

She came back.

Then several things happened at once—Alan opened the gate, Jennifer came running back, I got pushed to the ground.

  But instead of the gardens, when I got up I saw the scene of the picture. Alan and Jennifer were staring wide eyed in horror at what lay in front of them. A dragon!

   I got up (tripping over some long skirts that happened to be on me, but I didn’t really notice), grabbed a fallen sword, rushed up behind the dragon and stabbed it.

  It roared in pain, and turned toward me. I acted as though I did this everyday, and quickly rushed and stabbed it in the heart.

  I stopped, just realizing I had killed a living creature.

It’s just like killing a spider or a lizard, I told myself, except that was a very big lizard.

 The knight got up and walked painfully over to us. I could see blood rushing from his shoulder. Jennifer grimaced.

  Then I noticed the funny clothes Jennifer and Alan were wearing—Jennifer was dressed in a medieval ladies outfit, and Alan like a pageboy!

  Just like on the page in the book!

“It is kind of funny,” remarked the knight, which I knew was Sean (the main character), “that I came to save thee (with the help of my pageboy, of course), and yet thee saved me! How did thee do it?”

  I saw he was directing the question at me. “Oh…well…I just kind of stabbed.”

  Sean looked puzzled. “Thee are speaking strange, fair lady. Thee used to talk like thy, and yet thee now talk differently. Why is it so?”

  I groaned. We had become book characters! “Well, I don’t know. I just…you know, speak this way.”

 Sean shook his head. “I don’t understand thee.”

Chapter III

To the Horror of Jennifer

I sighed. “Look…”

   Jennifer looked at me, but I couldn’t do anything. I knew she was despairing.

  “Where are we, Allegra?!” Alan demanded hotly. “Where is England? What have you done to us?!”

  Sean looked with disapproval at Alan. “Pageboy, what makes thy speak so rude? Thy are lower then they are, and yet thy acts above.”

   Alan turned to Sean. “For your information, I’m not your pageboy! I am a free citizen of England, and I go to an expensive boarding school! So there!”

  I looked at Sean. “Where are we? England?”

 He nodded. He probably thought maybe the dragon had hurt our brains somehow.

  “Thought so,” I mumbled to myself.

Jennifer looked on the verge of tears. “What are we going to do? I want to go back!”

Sean looked puzzled. “Back where?”

I sighed. “We’re from a different time period, but you wouldn’t understand. We fell through a book—you’re a book character, as are we now.” I knew he thought we were crazy. “But you wouldn’t understand. Come on, Jennifer.”

 I pulled her by the hand, and was about to walk away when Sean started speaking.

  “Please, don’t go! I want to understand thee.” He sighed. “So I am only a lowly book character?”

  I nodded. “I’m sorry, really.”

Sean shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. But what are you going to do?”

  I wished I had the book. Oh well.

“I…well, I don’t know.” I thought for a moment, trying to recall the book…of course, I hadn’t got as far as the picture, but still…then it hit me—there was the lovely young princess Aspen, and the Duke Viscount’s young beautiful daughter, Rowena.

 (NOT the one from Ivanhoe.)

I groaned, as I knew who I was—Rowena. The beautiful Rowena. But I wasn’t beautiful, for goodness sakes!

  That’s when I noticed that I had a lot longer curly hair. I looked despairingly at Jennifer.

  “Jennifer, I have something awful to tell you…” I started.

Jennifer looked right at me. “Who am I? I’m someone, aren’t I?” she groaned.

  I cringed. “You’re the princess Aspen.”

She shrieked. “NO I’M NOT!”

  I nodded. “You are in the story.”

 Sean nodded. “Of course thee are. Thee were both taken by that horrible lizard.”

  I turned to Sean. “Look, we have to get out of here, because I’m not going back, and neither is Jennifer. She is not going to act Princess Aspen. Do you understand?”

  Sean nodded. “But I can’t do anything.”

Just then, there was the gallop of hooves, and several horses and riders appeared.

 Jennifer groaned. “They’re going to take me, aren’t they? Come on, Allegra, you know the story—do they separate us?”

  I felt guilty. “Jennifer, I don’t know—I hadn’t gotten very far into the book.”

  She groaned AGAIN.

And the horses stopped right by us. But, to Jennifer’s surprise, they didn’t run to her side, they ran to mine.

  “Rowena!” cried an older man.

I recognized him from the description of Rowena’s father. I smiled, and hoped I could remember to talk like they did, with ‘art’, ‘thee’, ‘thou’…you get the picture.

  “Hello, father, thy daughter is very grateful to thy servant, Sir Sean.” I crossed my fingers behind my back, hoping Sean really was Duke Elbert’s vassal (Duke Elbert was my “father”).

  Elbert smiled. “I see thou art fine, and yes, I must reward our trusted servant, Sir Sean.”

  I smiled.

And inwardly cringed.

He turned to Sir Sean. “I will promote thee to knighthood. Is that what thou wanted?”

  Sean nodded eagerly. “Oh, thank you. Thy servant is forever grateful.”

   

Chapter IV

Nomad’s…friendly or not?

  Allan walked up to me and sneered. “Yeah? And about me?”

    Just then an angry looking man rode out from the middle of the group up to Jennifer.

 “Not so fast, my coddled pet. Thou art going back to thy castle, to face thy father, of course.”

  Jennifer gulped, and looked at me as to say, “help!” I wasn’t feeling jealous of her situation, I can tell you that.

  Elbert smiled down at me. “I am just glad thou art well. When I heard that thou and thy yonder princess had gone away (with the princess taking thy, of course, since thy are her loyal servant), I was much troubled. I am just so glad thy are safe.”

   He kept on hugging me. I smiled (fakely, of course).

     Jennifer didn’t look happy riding on the man’s horse, (I wasn’t sure what his name as, but I was sure I would soon find out) but my “father” seemed pretty nice.

   “Lord Guardian Crispin,” said Elbert, “what art thy going to do with yonder charge?”

   Crispin (which I now knew was the one Jennifer was riding with) grunted. “I told thou—I am taking the princess to her daddy!”  The way he said “daddy” sounded more like “datty”—not to mention him talking in an English accent.

  (As do I).

Elbert and Crispin urged their horses faster, and soon we lost sight of Sean. Not good.

Before he did, I watched as the hero of the book faded away, into the dust, into to falling night. And Allan, of course.

It was nighttime, and still there was no sign of the castle. The Lords all made it look as though it were perfectly normal, and soon were setting up a huge camp.

 Jennifer and I had our own personal silk tent, furnished with the finest things. Jennifer was sleeping in the same tent, as I was her attendant.

  I ate some of the finest things (including Turkish Delight), and went to bed early. I yawned and jumped into the bed, clothes and all.

In the middle of the night, the most atrocious yelling started. Jennifer and I woke with a start.

 “What is that?” asked Jennifer, already hiding under the bed.

    I didn’t answer her, but ran over to the wall and grabbed a sword. Surprisingly, it was strangely light weighted, and fitted my hand perfectly, as though made for it. Then I grabbed a dagger that was sitting on a trunk and stuffed it into the sash on my dress.

 I hid to one side of the tent flap. Soon, a nomadish looking man (that is, Arab dressed) poked his head through. I didn’t have the guts to kill him, so I silently knocked him over the head, making him unconscious.

   I wrinkled my nose at him, and threw him back outside. I heard Jennifer scream, and turned to see a nomad holding her, Jennifer struggling fiercely.

 He said something, and then started laughing.

Bonk!

 Nothingness.

I struggled to open my eyes, but they seemed heavily weighted. Finally, I won the battle and my eyes flew open. Surprisingly, I wasn’t tied up.

  Instead, I was just stuffed into a bag.

    Not that much better, mind you.

I started struggling, but was whacked.

 “Stop that!” came a voice.

I noticed it wasn’t English, and wondered why I could understand him. Then it hit me—young girls of my age, who might acquire the throne some day, were taught different languages.

    Through the sack, I could tell it was daytime. Since my hands were free, I could move them some.

  Then I remembered! The dagger!

I felt my sash, and it was still there. I was ready for action.