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.
