Chapter two of the new story

Chapter Two

I swam swiftly towards the surface after the dragon. If we got away from me.... let's just say that I didn't want to lose my head. Yeah. It's serious.

"Gideon's going to kill me," I thought to myself as I swam as fast as I could through the water towards the dragon. Which was, I admit, pretty fast, considering that I was always swimming to keep my strength up. Not only that, but I ran five miles each morning and did a number of sit-ups and such to keep in good shape.

I reached for the dragon and... caught it. I quickly stuffed the dragon in my pouch and started back down towards the portal. I hadn't gone far when an arrow flew through the water right next to me. Starting, I nearly let go of the dragon.

It squirmed and I thrust it inside my pouch, diving through the portal. I felt the rush of wind, water dripping off me and flying in a thousand directions. The lights were too bright for my eyes and I screwed them shut.

"Well, well, well, that was quite interesting," came the sarcastic voice.

I opened my eyes to see the dark curly-haired dreamy-eyed boy who stood in front of me, his arms crossed and a glare on his face.

"What?" I was sopping wet, the water dripping in a huge puddle around me. "I got the dragon eggs, right?" I handed them towards him.

He nodded. "Good. Now go change."

I glared and sulkily went off to do as I was told.

Special sneak peek of the second Time Travelers book from my blog Dragonmaster

I know lots of you guys have read the first book of The Time Travelers series on my blog Dragonmaster. Here is a sneak peek of the first chapter of the second book.

1

The Time Quest

The girls woke up all at the same time. The oldest sister, Jennifer, flicked her hazel eyes open, staring around the room. She flicked a piece of long brown hair over her shoulder and got off the couch she’d been lying on.

   The second oldest, Victoria, opened her blue eyes and looked around. She blew a strand of long blonde hair out of her face and got off the sitting chair she’d been sleeping on, coming to join Jennifer in standing.

     Katherine, the second youngest, burst awake, her fierce green eyes staring around at her sisters in disbelief. Lying on her lap, almost hidden in her piles of black hair, was the Book—the huge, aqua colored book that contained the secret of Time Travel.

     And the youngest, Elizabeth, screamed and then burst out of her sleeping state, huge gray eyes blinking around and bright red hair flying as she cried,

  “Where is he?! Where he is he?!”

    “Relax, Elizabeth,” Jennifer smiled gently. She shrugged lightly, a wan smile on her face. “We’re home.”

  The sisters all looked around the room—she was right. They were home, in the girls’ own special sitting room upstairs. There was Katherine’s pile of books, and Jennifer’s table full of scientist goo, and Elizabeth’s pile of balls and play swords, and Victoria’s wrap lying on the couch.

     “We’re actually back,” breathed Victoria in disbelief. “But remember what the person said? About the question for the four original Time Travelers?”

    Jennifer narrowed her eyes and stared off into space, clenching her teeth. “I bet my life that that was Father Time.”

   “Jolly mean fellow, wasn’t he?” snorted Elizabeth, staring out the window over the rooftops of London. “I say, wouldn’t the four original Time Travelers be our parents and grandparents?”

   Katherine sent Elizabeth a look. “Snap out of your snooty accent, Elizabeth. And, yes, I think you may be right.”

    “So maybe the book will guide us,” whispered Victoria. She looked up at her sisters, her eyes bright. “Maybe all we have to do is touch it again, and the Book with take us to where we need to find the person. We’ll still have to find the person and bring them to Father Time, of course, but still…” Victoria started pacing. “The possibilities….”

     “Victoria is right,” Jennifer nodded. “It’s time our Time Quest began.”

   Victoria nodded, carefully taking the book from Katherine and placing it on the floor. She looked up at her sisters. “Grandmother’s obviously not here. If she was, then she’d be yelling at us to get up. Come on—we’ve got to get started.”

   The other sisters nodded, and they arranged themselves in a circle around the book. At the same moment, they pressed their four hands together on the book.

    Everything seemed black, at first. Then all of them could see a dim light, like a tunnel appearing out of the never-ending darkness. The light seemed to swirl all of them into its light, taking them from the clutches of the dark.

   Then there was a blast of light, and then they saw something that never before had been seen by the human eye.

  They were in space. But they were moving forward, and rapidly. Moving towards a thing that none of them knew what it was. It looked like an eye, to them, at least.

   There was a blast of light as they drew closer to the thing that looked like an eye. It had in their first journey, too. And then there they were, standing on the stone platform that hung weightlessly in space.

   The stone was black, just as it had been before. They looked towards where the door that had led them to Greece had been. Instead of the huge door that they’d seen, they now saw a wooden door.

   Surprisingly the rest of them, Victoria stepped forward first.

  “Wait!” cried Jennifer. “What if…”

   “Remember last time,” Victoria smiled. “We’ve got to go. We’ve got to find everybody and bring them back to Father Time.” She shuddered. “Who knows what will happen if we don’t.”

        Victoria turned to the door, reached out, and touched it. Light sprayed out and blinded them.

A Mysterious Sign

OK, here we go!!!!! Speed it up!!!!!! =D

~Storyteller

A Mysterious Sign

Mom, of course, wanted to know everything that happened, especially since we hadn’t been there when she’d come to pick us up. But first of all, she said, I needed to have a good night’s sleep.

       Early the next morning, Mom woke me up to have me tell them all about it. I’ve never lied, especially not to my parents, so I told them everything that happened. When I told her how we’d had to run away from Sam and his gang, she gasped.

      “Bullies!” she cried, tugging on Dad’s arm. “Asa, there’s bullies at Jess’s school!”

       Dad’s brow furrowed. “I heard her, dear. We’ll have to go talk to the principal about that. I’m not going to have Jessica get beaten up.”

      I sighed. I’d forgotten, in that short day, that they called me two different names. How could I forget? Maybe because I just loved Jessie so much. Or maybe because of Sam. It’s anybody’s guess.

         “I’m calling her principal right away,” Mom declared, running off the couch for the phone and beating Dad to it. She dialed a number and held the phone to her ear. “I’m not going to have our darling Jess get beaten up.” She looked up as somebody on the other end said something. “Yes, this is Mrs. Freeman. I’d like to speak to Doug Black, please.”

        I sighed and started to walk to my room to grab my backpack for school when Dad caught my arm. “Jessica,” he started, “I think that Jake wanted to see you and Logan after school. He even offered to take you home again.”

       “Take me home?” I wondered if I hoped he would hear the horror behind the question or not.

      “Yes,” Dad nodded, “and we’ve agreed. You guys are going to have supper over at his house. He just wanted to get to know you guys better.” He shrugged. “He’s such a nice old man, and since he saved your life and all…”

       Oh. My. Word. Dad, what are you sentencing me to?!

      Mom drove Logan and I to school again. When we got dropped off at the school’s door, Logan looked left and right for Sam, Hunter, and Calvin, and then quickly pulled me through the doors.

     “What was that all about?” I snorted as he pulled me towards our first class.

      “You heard your mom,” Logan snorted right back. “She’s gone and tattled to the principal. And we’re really dead meat.” He shrugged. “I’m just taking extra precautions.” He grinned. “For your sake, of course.”

        I rolled my eyes. “Right.”

School went by faster than I’d thought it would. Maybe because I was dreading going past Sam; or maybe it was because I was dreading having to get picked up by old Jake Schmitz and driven to his house for dinner. I don’t know which. You choose.

      Logan, however, seemed more excited. “Remember what you said about something more?” he prodded. “Well maybe we can find out something by going.”

       I wasn’t going to be excited until I found something. And I definitely hadn’t found anything yet. Yet, mind you.

       The bell rang, and Logan and I collected our books and started for the door. Since Jake knew about Sam and his gang, we’d figured that he’d arrive early, anyways. It seemed we were right as I saw the battered truck parked, waiting, by the curb.

       “Hop on in, kids!” he called through the open window.

       We did just that, me squishing in between them. Jake drove off, starting to talk.

       “I’m so glad you’re coming,” he grinned. “I went and ordered pizza for all of us. You guys like pepperoni?”

       “Love it!” cried Logan.

        I managed a smile. “I like supreme the best, but pepperoni’s my second favorite.”

       Jake nodded. “Fair enough. Hey, you guys having any more trouble from Sam and those other kids?”

        “Nope,” answered Logan.

        Jake nodded. I frowned. It was almost as if it was all the old man’s doing. Now that I thought of it, I hadn’t seen any of the bullies all day. That was strange. Really strange. 

        We finally reached Rain Heights and drove through the town. I saw my house and longed for it, even though I didn’t really like it was it was. It was definitely going to be better than Jake’s house, I decided.

        “There’s the Sinclair!” cried Logan, pointing towards the tiny gas station that was barely even being able to be called a gas station.

       “And there’s my house,” Jake smiled proudly, pointing towards a small cottage on the other side of the Sinclair, half-hidden by weeds. “Hideaway Cottage.”

        Lovely.

        Jake screeched the truck to a halt and we all got out, stumbling towards the cottage through the tall weeds (I found out they were almost up to my waist!). Jake grinned as he held open the door proudly.

     “My beauty.”

      We walked inside. There was a hall that led down to a bigger room. Hundreds of photographs and certificates filled the walls. I found out that Jake was certified to do plumbing, lighting, and to fly planes. Wow. I glanced at the old guy. He definitely didn’t look it.

         “Come on!” he urged, going faster than I’d ever thought an old guy could into the next room.

      The room had a table with chairs and a small kitchen off to the side. Every available surface was cluttered—books, papers, pens, pencils, containers, clothes…anything I could ever think of was lying just about everywhere. There was a pathway through the junk to the kitchen, table, and another door that I supposed went to his room.

        “The pizza’s in here!” Jake called from the kitchen. “Since the dining room’s kinda full, let’s eat it in here, OK?”

       Way not OK. I followed Logan into the kitchen.

        It looked like he hadn’t cleaned anything for years. At least we weren’t using one of the grim-crusted plates that sat in the sink for the pizza. Jake handed us the now-cold pizza in paper towels (thankfully they weren’t used).

        “Yep, this is my home sweet home,” nodded Jake. “How do you guys like it?”

        “It’s awesome!” cried Logan. Guys. Always messy.

         “It’s very nice,” I managed, quickly biting off another hunk of pizza to keep from having to talk more.

       “I’m glad you like it.” Jake chewed off half of the pizza and swallowed it whole. Logan couldn’t stop staring.

      We quickly finished our pizza. Logan and Jake were off talking about something and I wandered into the living room. This guy seriously needed to get married or having a housekeeper or something. It was more of a mess than I’d thought before.

      I accidentally stepped on a book and stepped back. I glanced at it curiously, and then titled my head. I couldn’t read the title quite, so I picked it up. My eyes traced across the front.

         101 Tips for the Experts! The experts of what? I frowned and opened the book, curious.

         I gulped. It wasn’t a book. The inside was hollow, stuffed with what looked like passports, an old gun, compass, and a smaller book. With a trembling hand, I moved past the gun and picked up the book. My eye caught something on the cover that made me drop everything.

        …by Ace Montana, Senior Spy.

        Oh. My. Word.

The Strangely Cryptic Jake Schmitz

OK, so you guys are going to think this is really boring, please just don't rate it meanly! The chapter had to be written. *sigh*

~Storyteller

The Strangely Cryptic Jake Schmitz

I really have no idea why he told us it was going to be a ride to remember. Because we just went the speed limit and there wasn’t anything amazing about the ride. Maybe it was just something he said every time he got into the car. You know, like some kind of password thingy. Who knows.

        Jake, as far as I could tell, was a really old guy with a gray grizzled beard and wore old clothes with a whole bunch of oil stains on them (at least, I hoped they were oil stains). He drove a beat up old pickup and saved kids from the school bullies. I didn’t think he could get weirder.

         “Mr. Schmitz,” started Logan, leaning forward and looking at our strange rescuer, “I just wanted to say thanks for saying us.” He hesitated, and then burst out, “But how on earth did you know we needed help and how on earth did you know when to come and save us?!”

        “Settle down, Logan,” the old man advised, “and just call me Jake. I can’t abide being called ‘Mr. Schmitz’ like some old guy.” Sorry, dude, but you’re an old guy.

        “Oh, OK, Jake.” Logan cleared his throat. “But how did you know?”

        “New topic,” declared Jake. “Now, who were those kids? They looked like plain trouble to me.”

       “Their names are Sam, Hunter, and Calvin,” Logan provided. “They’re the bullies of our school. They were chasing us because Jessie stood up to them.” Logan’s face was in a grin. “She was awesome.”

      “Hmm, thanks,” I snorted sarcastically.

      “Well, sounds like you can take care of yourself, little lady,” smiled Jake.

      “It’s Jessie,” I corrected.

      Jake frowned. “When your parents came to visit me, I distinctly remembered that your mom referred to her daughter Jess and your dad called you Jessica. How strange.” He paused. “And yet now you’re calling yourself Jessie?”
       “It was my idea,” Logan grinned.

       “Well, Jessie’s probably my favorite, anyway,” he shrugged. “Other than Jess. I rather like Jess.”
       “I just needed something different,” I shrugged. “Surely you know what I mean, Jake.”

      Jake’s eyes misted slightly. “Yes. Yes, I do, Jessie. More than you know.”

      Ooo-kay…Jake was being strangely cryptic as his eyes misted, as Flynn Rider from Tangled would say. Logan nudged me, and I was about to punch him back when I realized he wanted me to look out the window. We’d arrived in Rain Heights.

      “Thanks, Jake, for the ride,” I said quickly. “Could you just drop me off here?”

      “You sure you don’t want to be dropped off at the gas station?” Jake questioned with a frown.

         “Oh, no, right here’s fine,” I answered. “I like walking.”

        “Me, too,” agreed Logan.

        “OK, then.” Jake screeched the truck to a halt. The second it stopped, I threw open the door and hopped out.

      “Bye, kids!” Jake waved and roared off.

       “You know,” I started to Logan, “I think there’s something more about that guy.”

     “What do you mean?” questioned Logan.

     “Oh…never mind.” I shook my head. “Come on.”

Please stop adding use-less labels... JK! OK, who put that up there? haha =D

Hey, guys!

Yes, this is Storyteller again.

I wrote more on my story yesterday, so I decided I might as well post it. Willow, Hadassah, Madeline--great stories, guys!! (the rest of you guys have awesome stories, too, I was just mention those because they just recently posted) =D

OK, story time!

~Storyteller

Old Man to the Rescue!

“Guys!” yelled Sam. “Over here!”

       The dark brown haired boy jogged up. “What is it? Did you see them?”

       Sam’s eyes narrowed. “I can smell it.”

       “Smell what?” snorted the surfer dude.

       “Fear.”

        I nearly gulped but stopped myself—I couldn’t make any noise. Logan seemed petrified beside me. I had to think of something, and I had to think of something really fast.

         “They’re close,” continued Sam.

         I tried to recall some defense moves that Dad had taught me, and the limited karate that Mom had taught me, but couldn’t think of either. This wasn’t going to be good.

       Think, Jessie—think!

        “Come on,” urged Sam. “Let’s split up and find them. They can’t be far. Whoever finds them alerts the others and we’ll take them on together. Hunter, go towards the right. Calvin—you can take the left. OK, let’s split!” the boys took off running.

      “Let’s go, let’s go,” I urged, tugging on Logan’s arm.

       As far as I could see, the boys had left to go investigate other corners of the school and we needed to get out of there. The Zodiac Public Park across the way from the school seemed like the perfect choice. There was plenty of places to hide there.

     “No!” hissed Logan.

     “Ah-ha!” shrieked Sam, grabbing Logan’s arm.

      “Hiya!” I yelled, suddenly remembering one of Mom’s karate kicks and kicking him right in the stomach.

        He groaned and crumpled. I grabbed Logan’s arm and sped off towards the park. Logan was shrieking and whooping at the same time. I was just trying to focus on not falling and getting captured.

      “Come back!” yelled one of Sam’s goons from Sam’s side. “Come back and face us like men!”

      “She’s a girl!” Logan shouted over his shoulder. “And I’m a boy! Sorry, losers!” he chuckled. Not a good idea, Logan.

       “That’s it!” shouted the surfer dude.

        The ground literally pounded as they zoomed off after us. It was scary how fast they were. I knew I could go faster, but Logan was trailing behind.

        “Keep up, Logan!” I hissed. “They’re going to catch us! Hurry! This isn’t a game, this is life-or-get-beaten-up!”

          “I’m trying!” cried Logan.

          I pulled him behind a tree as Brownie—what I’d decided to call the brown-haired boy—tried a swipe at him. I rushed us underneath the side just before Surfer—the surfer dude—jumped on Logan.

         “I’m going to die!” shrieked Logan.

       “Hush up and run!” I commanded.

        I lost them behind in the maze of bushes and pulled Logan to a stop behind one of the trees, scrabbling for the branches and pulling myself up. Logan followed, panting heavily.

      “Quiet,” I warned. “They’re still close by.”

       We waited silently. I could hear Brownie and Surfer looking frantically for us through the maze of bushes and trees that went throughout the park.

       “They’re not here,” Surfer came up with.

       Brownie grunted. “Come on. We’ve got to report back to Sam.” As if we were in some kind of magic movie and we were like orcs and they were tracking us. Thanks, Aragorn and Legolas.

       That’s when it struck me—Sam—Samwise Gamgee. Brownie has brown hair like Aragorn. And Surfer has blonde hair like Legolas. Man, this really does make me feel like an orc!

     

 “Come on,” urged Logan in a whisper. “I think it’s safe. Your Mom’s probably in the parking lot by now.”

        I didn’t want to get out of the safety of the tall tree, but Logan had already jumped from the branches. I sighed and jumped off, too, landing shakily on my feet.

      “Come on,” urged Logan.

      “Gotcha!” cried Aragorn. (Hey, I couldn’t help but think of him as him.)

      “Quick!” Logan yelled. “Jessie! Do your hiya thing again!”

       “Not so quickly,” snorted Legolas, grabbing me. “You guys can’t escape about the stunt you pulled!”

       “I didn’t do anything!” tried Logan. Thanks, Logan. We’re real best friends. Not.

      “You’re her friend. It’s your fault.” Aragorn yanked his head towards the waiting Sam by the school. “Come on. Let’s go.”

      That’s when the weirdest thing happened.

      There wasn’t any time to think about what happened. It was so sudden. An old man just stepped out from behind one of the trees and hit both of them. They dropped without a sound.

     “Quickly,” he whispered. “Follow me.”

      He took off military style through the trees, going on his stomach and army crawling all the way towards where a beat up old Ford truck was sitting, rust taking over the blue coloring.

     “Where are you going to take us?” Logan asked nervously. Then he frowned. “Hey, you’re that guy who runs the Sinclair in Rain Heights. Jake, right?”

     “Not now, Logan,” whispered Jake. “Kids, meet Harry Ford. Hop in—this is going to be a ride to remember.”

The Revenge of Captain Jerk--Chapter 3 of Storyteller's Story

Hey, guys, here's the next chapter. Sorry I didn't post yesterday!! I am so bad about this..... I feel like an 80 year old lady, lol..... ;)

The Revenge of Captain Jerko

“…And this is Jessica Freeman.”

   I was glad that the teacher had only briefly introduced me. I knew that in some places they didn’t introduce at all. I guess at small towns like Zodiac that they do. Any which way, it was strange. Everybody was just like staring at me.

     “Anyway…” the teacher, Ms. Swanson, went off on another bunny-trail. She was an easily distracted teacher, the result of which some of the kids used to their advantage.

      Ping! A rubber band shot off the finger of a boy next to me. His blue eyes sparkled mischievously. He noticed me staring at him in horror and only pushed his dark blonde hair off his forehead.

     To my other horror I felt a note being slipping into my lap. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Logan trying to hide the fact that he’d just slipped a note onto my lap.

    Jessie—that’s Sam. He’s one of the pranksters. You probably don’t want to hang out with him, because he’s known to get his friends in trouble on purpose. He thinks it’s funny.

   My horror mounted.

   I quickly glanced around for some way to get rid of the note before somebody else noticed it. I heard a quiet snicker and turned, seeing Sam laughing at me. I glared at him, but he only shrugged and looked towards Ms. Swanson, who was trying to figure out who’d fired the rubber band.

       The rest of school was far from better.

       When the rest of the school found out that I didn’t have a founded “name”, and was called Jessica by my dad, Jess by my mom, and Jessie by my “secret best friend” (yeah right—grow up!), I knew I’d never hear the end of it.

      “Hey, Freeman!” yelled Sam down the hallway as I was walking towards my locker. His slim, athletic form took the few feet between us quickly. He stared me down. “So, what’s your name? Jessica, Jess, or Jessie? Or, wait—is it’s noodle-face?” he burst out laughing.

     Tears pricked my eyes. I tried to push them back. For goodness sakes, I was almost in high school. I was way too old for tears, especially in front of bullies. Instead, I pushed them back and faced Sam head-on, glaring at him and standing firm.

     He only laughed harder. “And what do you think you are, Captain Japan?”

     “Is that supposed to be funny?” I demanded. “Or were you purposely trying to make yourself sound stupid?”

     He seemed to be totally surprised by that, and took a step backwards.

     “And just to say, I’m half Chinese,” I corrected. “Not Japanese. There’s a big difference, you know.” I pushed him backwards. “Learn it.” Then I walked off.

     Logan hurried over to me as I reached my locker. “Oh my gosh! That was totally awesome! Dude, you just like totally pushed Sam off in front of like everybody! You’re practically a hero, dude!”

     I glared at him. “I’m not a ‘dude’.”

     He shrugged. “Whatever, Jessie. That’s not the point! That was awesome!”

     “Thanks.” I managed a wan smile, grabbing my books out of my pretty much bare locker. It wasn’t at all like my locker in California, which had been covered in stickers and signatures from my friends.

     “You know,” mused Logan, following me down the hallway as if we were already best friends and hadn’t just met the day before, “if you’re Captain Japan or China or whatever, than that must mean that Sam’s Captain America! Yeah, that’s a good name for him.”

     “I like Captain America,” I pointed out.

      Logan shrugged. “Well, if you’re Captain China, then he’s got to be captain of something.”

     “How about Captain Jerko?” I offered sarcastically.

      Logan paused for a moment before his face lit up. “Of course! It’s perfect! You don’t know how many people you’re going to inspire by naming him and everything.” Logan’s face was in a huge smile. “I have to tell everybody!”

     And Logan ran off.

It was finally the end of school. I grabbed my backpack in relief that I was finally done with the first day of school at the horror of Zodiac Middle School. The place should’ve been named Horror Middle School. It would’ve been perfect.

      I hadn’t seen Logan since he’d ran off to go tell everybody that Sam’s name was now Captain Jerko. Frankly, it made him seem pretty immature. Oh, well.

       As I walked out of the doors, I couldn’t help but have the feeling that I was being followed. I remembered all of those movies where the bully follows you after you say something back to them or something.

      I’d just humiliated Sam in front of the whole hallway full of kids. This couldn’t be good.

     I walked more quickly, sticking to groups of kids. I’d just walked out the door when I felt somebody grab my shoulder. I was sure I was going to be doomed, and that all my parents would ever find would be a pile of sucked bones.

      I was about to scream.

     “Jessie, shh!” warned Logan, glancing around the corner into the school.

     “Logan!” I hissed. “Why on earth did you do that? You totally freaked me out!”

     “We still have to wait for your mom,” he pointed out, looking back at me. “But she’s not here yet. I’m sure that Captain Jerko’s going to be making his move soon. I mean, you did make fun of him in front of the whole hallway.”
      “I did not make fun of him!” I defended. “I was defending myself.”

      “Yeah, well, he’s hopping mad. I can tell.” Logan glanced around the corner again.

      “It’s not as if we can just sit here for the rest of the day,” I pointed out. “Come on. Mom’s probably on the other end of the parking lot.”

      Logan sighed in frustration. “Even if she is, we wouldn’t survive until there! Look!” he pointed towards the door.

      Sam walked out. He was followed by an athletic boy with dark brown hair and a boy who could’ve been a surfer for all I knew. Logan pulled me farther behind the corner of the block.

     “We’re so dead, we’re so dead,” Logan kept on repeating underneath his breath.

       Sam’s eyes surveyed the parking lot. He spoke to his friends, and then they split up. The dark brown haired boy walked our way. Logan gulped. I wanted to roll my eyes, but the seriousness of the situation took hold of me.

     I was about to get the beating of my life.