Strange Lands 2018 by The Cabin, a center for readers & writers

CABIN

STRANGE LANDS WRITING CAMPS 2018

This is a Log Cabin Book, an imprint of THE CABIN 801 South Capitol Boulevard, Boise, Idaho 83702 (208) 331-8000 www.thecabinidaho.org (c) 2018 The Cabin All rights reserved. Book design by Jocelyn Robertson Printed and bound in the USA in an edition of 250 copies.

Writing Camps and publication of STRANGE LANDS are made possible by generous support from: The City of Boise, Idaho Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Amberjack Publishing and the Idaho Community Foundation.

CONTENTS Introduction • 1 THE 526TH DIMENSION • 5 GOLDEN ONE & GOLDEN TWO • 21 ART OF INCREDIBLE POWER • 39 ELF HOMES & ORPHANAGES • 51 Teaching-Writer Biographies • 69 Acknowledgements • 73 Index • 75

INTRODUCTION This summer I had the honor of taking on the role of summer camps manager at The Cabin. Having started as an intern helping organize camps logistics, shuling campers to their designated teaching-writers, and processing the endless surveys, my transition into camps manager was a natural process. While I was more of a behind-the-scenes force for the camps, I had the delight of seeing these worlds brought to life at each Friday’s reading. The readings for Strange Lands are easily the most rewarding. Each week I was exposed to original tales of untold millions of zombies, laser-eyed cats, well-mannered elves, water wizards, and His Royal Highness King Panda, supreme ruler of the observable universe. Long may he reign. Whether it was driting between Bradbury’s endless stories or recanting the pulpy yet doomed heroics of fending of space orcs, the seed for my own writings was irmly established in science iction and fantasy. That I could be in a position to allow for the next generation of writers the opportunity to bring their endless imaginations to the page is nothing short of fulilling. It’s hard to believe that the ground where these worlds and stories were revealed are now covered in leaves, a morethan-oicial reminder of the summer’s end. It is my privilege to be a part of this program and to share this wonderful work with you. – Tyler Weber, Development & Operations Assistant

STRANGE LANDS WRITING CAMPS 2018

THE 526TH DIMENSION

GIANT’S CAVE (EXCERPT) Pacience Gordon Grade 4, Kuna

In the cave there was dirt, moss and a lot of gross stuf. I almost puked. Then I heard someone or something coming. So I ran across the room and hid under a tiny blanket. I was freaking out. But then I saw something. It was the computer! I grabbed it as quick as I could. Now how can I get out. I looked around the cave, making sure the giant did not see me. Then I saw a pipe. I snuck over to the pipe and got in it. I was crawling for a little bit when all of a sudden, a big light came in. I looked up and there was a hole. I was so happy I almost screamed. I got out and went to the castle. I talked to King Candy about it. He said to type in… CANDYP So I did. It said how to get peace! I was so excited!

A MARSHMALLOW JOURNEY (EXCERPT) Ronin Foy Grade 4, Boise

This place is called Marshmallow World, and everybody is made of marshmallows. King Panda (the only panda on the planet) is the greatest ruler in the whole universe. The planet is pink and has 304 billion-jillion and one marshmallow people. The planet spins three times faster than our earth, so one day is only eight hours. Way in the future, the year is 6054. “Come on. In you go,” Sir William said as he took the prisoner into King Panda’s castle. “This is such a hard job,” he thought. “This is sooo boring,” I thought as I pulled my baby marshmallow brother in a wagon across town. (Oh I forgot to tell you that my name is Hector.) I want to tell you a little bit about myself: I am 12 years old, I have a baby brother that I am currently pulling in a wagon, I live in Marsh Town, and I want to live in the town closest to King Panda. But unfortunately I 7

cannot go, because I am 12. “Wait. What time is it?” My watch said 12:25, but my watch is one minute fast. So it is really 12:24. Snap. I have to get home in six minutes! “I have to get home quick,” I said. So I started running in the direction of home. But that woke up the baby. “Waaaa!” he started crying, “I want my mallowmommy!” (Oh, and by the way my brother is a complete crymarshmallow.) I’m at home now. Mom heard the baby. I got grounded. I hate being grounded. I think I’m going to run away. Thankfully, I don’t have to pack food because I am a marshmallow. It is that simple. I don’t have to eat. I am going to leave now. While I pack to leave, I’m thinking about how I will get to the town I want to get to, Mallowy. Oh! I’ll take the train, so I need to bring money. I’m walking to the train station. The woman at the ticket stand said, “One ticket to Mallowy?” I said, “Yes, please.” I handed her some coins and she counted them and handed me a ticket. I ran to the train and got on. Soon, the driver yelled, “Last stop, Melty Woods!” “Wait. What?” I said. Then I said, “I am getting of at Mallowy.” “Then you got on the wrong train,” he yelled. “I can take you back to the station, but you’ll have to give me your ticket.” I considered. Did I really have another option? No. “Okay,” I said and I gave him my ticket. Later he said, “We are here.” I went to the ticket stand and purchased another ticket to Mallowy. I got on the correct train, but I have little money let. I will tell you one more thing about me. My father was cold, so he built a ire. Fires are against the law, so he got arrested a month ago. “Mallowy!” The conductor yelled, so I got of. As I walked away from the train station, I wondered how I would ind shelter.

THE SURVIVOR (EXCERPT) Santina Hunt Grade 3, Boise

I’m a survivor. I’m in California, in the Redwood Forest. You know the place with lots of trees. You know that place. All by myself. I’m by myself because there was a really big earthquake where I was living in California. So I had to come out here. I got separated from my parents. I had to hurry up and go. I don’t even know if I have everything. I have a tent, water, sleeping back, some food and a irst aid kit. No, I was in such a rush I forgot my compass. What am I going to do! I’m in the middle of nowhere with barely any water or food and it’s getting dark and cold, so I’m going to set up my tent and go to bed. When I wake up, I hear a noise like a person when I get out of my tent and there, standing there is a person. I say hi, and it says hi back. I say what are you doing here. She says, “I’m the traveler. I am to help you on your journey.” “What are you going to help me with?” “Well, I have a compass for you.” “You do? Thank you.” “Let’s go,” says the traveler. “I’m really nervous,” I say. “Where are you going to take me?” “I’m taking you to my tree house.” “You live in a tree house? What do you eat?” The traveler says, “I eat nuts and berries and leaves.” “Interesting.” The traveler says, “Why are you here?” “Well, where I was living there was a big earthquake, so I got separated from my parents and came out here by myself. I don’t even know where they went.” “That’s sad,” says the traveler.

LET’S GET FIRED UP (EXCERPT) Dev Alluri Grade 3, Boise

Chapter 6 Silver has ire. Kaiser has rock. Remember that for the battle. – Note from Silver He is not a great writer. – Note by author “Tidal lame crusher.” “Black needle.” “Flame deity buster.” “Let’s get ired up, lava burn.” “Razor rock, lame of Kaiser, rock gravel, let’s end this.” “Too late. I have taken over the world.” “Final move.” “Final move.” “Needle storm.” “Thunder break, gargantuan punisher x tempest.” BOOM! “I lost, remember.” Then Kaiser disintegrated. Chapter 7 Well I guess that’s over. Ow. My head. Then he remembered he was swept up by a tornado. He swam to Red City. He was raised by Camen’s father. Well at least the world’s safe. When a hurricane the size of 65 whales showed up. How many days? Only 18. Looks like a new adventure. “You’re excited?” said Lana. LET’S GET FIRED UP. To Be Continued…! The End! Or is it!

LIZARD MAN

Ethan Santillian Grade 7, Boise Lizard man is a cool dude who likes to eat food because he is very rude he has a friend named Larry but he got sued a guy lizard man ate was Gary he was a snail who decided to hate

SPACE CITY (EXCERPT) Houston Jones Grade 4, Boise

Everyone is an alien. The city is very rocky. There are one billion aliens. One day, the aliens saw a space shuttle landing in the city. ALL THE ALIENS wanted WAR. They grabbed their stafs. The humans let the ship. They felt scared because they have never seen these aliens that kept saying, “Blah blah blah,” which meant war. The humans shot their guns that had the power to turn the aliens into humans. But then one didn’t work well and made the alien turn into a bigger and stronger alien, but they defeated it and turned it into a human. The humans were trying to escape before the aliens attacked. So then they got in the spaceship. It didn’t work. They hid in the spaceship. One hour later, the space ship licked on the lights and lew away. The aliens were mad. 11

THE ROSE GARDEN Hendrix Hurlbutt Grade 3, Boise

Once in a faraway land, I, Hendrix, was walking through a rose garden when the roses came to life. The thorns turned to ingers. They were sharp. I was surrounded. They clawed at me. I did not know what to do! I started dodging them. When I got out, I turned around and they were normal. Maybe I imagined it.

THE 10 SECOND TRAGEDY Grifen English Grade 4, Boise

One year into the future, earth turned into acid with a man-made time bomb with 10 seconds let on it. When the French scientist started the bomb he said, “When it blows up there, will be non pitié so qui. We will all die.” And everything went black! Then orange. David the 2-year-old loated to the surface, more people did so. Soon hundreds of people were above the acid, then, “SWIM FOR YOUR LIVES!” someone yelled, “THERE IS A BOMB!” (00:10) So they swam. (00:09) Then David’s friend Bob said, “These goggles hurt!” (00:08) “I’ll take them of…I’m blind!” he yelled. (00:07) Suddenly lap, lap lap, “PIGS CAN FLY!” someone yelled…then it dove…(00:06) with a lash it ate two people and was gone. (00:05) David yelled, “TO THE HELICOPTER!” (00:04) Wup, wup, wup, wup. Slowly they rose into the air. (00:03) We will not die, (00:02) but we will not have any pitié… (00:01) Then he jumped out! (00:00) ….BOOM….! The acid turned white and the ground got closer and closer and closer. 12

THE HIDDEN CATACORNS Keren “KK” Patterson Grade 3, Boise

In the ice kingdom, Queen Snowy’s daughter is going exploring. She accidentally goes to the rainforest. She is really tired. She accidentally sits on a rock and goes to where the hidden catacorns are. When she sees them she faints. When she wakes up she’s in her ice hammock. In the sea kingdom, the sea cats just built an air fountain, and Queen Wave’s daughter—the queen of the sea kingdom—fell into where the hidden catcorns are. She didn’t faint. She asked, “Who are you?” “We are the hidden catacorns,” said the hidden catacorns. And then she fainted. When she woke up, she fainted.

TRANSFORMATION Mateo Wallace Grade 3, Boise

Part 1 My mom is transforming. She’s turning into a dog! I need to do something quick or else . . . Oh no, she’s got a tail now! Now we have to be super fast before anything happens . . Oh no! My mom is almost a full dog. What should we do? . . . To be continued! Part 2 I think we should call 9-1-1, but we do not have a . . . oh, where is my mom? I do not have a clue where she IS. What should we do?

A NORMAL DAY IN THE LAND OF MOORE Craig Sanders Grade 4, Boise

It was a normal day. I was walking in a cabin when I saw a portal. It was very strange, and when I walked in, I FELT really weird. My body felt . . . robotic. My head turned . . . green. And it grew antennas. I was an alien-robot! I was somewhere, and I didn’t know where. But I did when I saw a sign in front of me. The sign said “Welcome to the Wonder Woods.” Not many things were normal. The grass wasn’t green, but blue. The tree logs were not brown, nor white, but bright red. It was a whole new world! I noticed that my let hand had turned into some kind of gun. When I opened my hand, the gun shot a laser! The planet was so strange. Then something stepped—no, HOVERED in front of me. It was a six-arm hovering monster. Somehow I knew its name. Tentleclasp. The portal must have afected my brain as well. The tentleclasp greeted me. He, strangely, did not attack me. I greeted him back. “I’m lost,” I said. “Can you help me?” He said, “Yes,” and led me to a village called “Brightville.” He told me I could stay in Brightville, or New Prism City. Then he told me to go check-in with the king. “Every new monster has to do it,” he said. So he led me to the king’s lair, and the king looked truly amazing. His face and robes were so white, it made snow look black. Ater he talked with me about what I used to be and what planet I came from, he let me stay in a motel. So then I lived in a motel with Tentleclasp. It was surprising to know that monsters lived kind of like humans do. But some things were diferent. Like the food they ate. By the way, the king seemed very surprised that I was a human. Also, he told me that robots were evil. At one point in the night, there was a very loud CLANK. I went outside to ind a robot lying on the ground. Then it got up to ind me in front of it. I was about to blast it, but it said very quickly, “Waitpleasedon’tshootmeIwasthrownoutofmyhomeI’m 14

notevil!!!” I lowered my gun arm. I told him he could come inside. He told me that he was thrown out by his leader because he was very clumsy. Then, Tentleclasp woke up to ind me with a robot. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF KING SEEVIOUS ARE YOU DOING?!” said Tentleclasp. “IF THE KING FINDS OUT, HE’LL GRIND US INTO HEAD CHEESE!” Just then, there was a knock at the door. When I opened the door, I saw that it was the king! “I know what you did,” he said. I said, “”WAIT! I CAN EXPL—“ He cut me of by saying, “Thank you.”

LULU THE CAT AND A MONSTER: A SHORT POEM Max Large Grade 3, Boise

He was normal at irst. But he stepped on goo that felt like putty. His shoulders hunched. His clothes ripped with the sound of fabric ripping. He grew hairs on his chest! His ingernails grew. He was not doing well! He grew yellow scales up his spine! Until . . . POP!

ZACH AND CHARLOTTE: PIGGY PROBLEMS (EXCERPT) Leo Traynor Grade 3, Boise

This world is a diferent dimension of planet earth. In fact, it is the 526th dimension but that won’t matter. What will matter is that you know the characters. Chapter One: Zach and Charlotte Zach has black hair and a smile that enlightens his face. Charlotte has freckles spotted all over her with blond, lowing hair. Their dad was recently injured and they have to give a message to the almighty, winged pig who can also breathe lightening. Zach is 13. Charlotte is 12. And yes, they have almost started a civil war between each other. “Come on, Charlotte! We have to get there quick. We have to get to Atoxis Village.” If you don’t know, they were kind of dreading Atoxis Village because it had a great war going on. “Well then, let’s go,” said Charlotte. One long boat ride later from Horloy to Atoxis: “Well, we’re inally here,” Zach said exhaustively. “It only took two hours and 55 minutes.” It sounded like violence of course, because it was in war. It smelled like smoke and hot dogs. Then they saw the great archer Macaw. He came up to them. “Hola, welcome to the war.” Macaw had a feather in his hair and had an ancient necklace around his neck. Mawcaw knew everybody. “We need to get through this place quick,” said Charlotte urgently. “Well then hop on this very expensive hover board. If you break it, you won’t be accepted by the pig.” ZOOM! In a matter of seconds, Zach and Charlotte were already at Zoghart. If you don’t know, Zoghart is a troubled land where people are crazy and they break all the laws, such as singing right before eating a lemon. Some people were born with laser guns in their hands. “Well, it’s going to be a hard time getting through here,” said Charlotte. 16

“Only a few crazy towns let until the great magical pig land (with a few chickens),” said Zach very sarcastically.

MONSTERS (EXCERPT) Brooks Toomey Grade 4, Eagle

Suddenly, he put his ist up and all the soldiers halted. A heavy fog was heading directly toward them and then in a blink of an eye, they were covered by the wispy fog. Then James saw it: a black shape of humans running around them, but they were outside of the fog so he couldn’t see them very well. “Run, go, we need to get of this island.” James ran out of the fog and saw the black things moving through the bushes. He reached for his gun and started iring at the things. “C’mon men, we need to get of this island,” he repeated. Soldiers came running out of the fog. One of the creatures stood up. It was blackish-greenish and was dripping with black thick goo. It looked like a human except for its color, goo and smell. It smelled like rotting death. The soldiers got back to base camp. “Load the helicopter,” James yelled. Then he turned to the other men. “Fire at those things.” Ater about ive minutes, the helicopter was loaded. “Everyone get on.” The helicopter’s blades roared with power and lited of. All the men were exhausted and breathing heavily. “Wow, we actually escaped. I thought we were never going to make it out of there,” a soldier said. Back on the island, the zombie-alien-type-things were on the edge of the land watching the helicopter ly away. Then suddenly they all jumped into the water and swam ater the helicopter. Also, little did they know that there was another beast that could transform into a water beast. So it followed the helicopter, which was headed directly toward Chicago.

A LONG JOURNEY (EXCERPT) Lucy Brewton Grade 4, Boise

Chapter One: A Normal Day? “Beep! Beep! Beep!” “Ugh!” Leila Smith groaned. She turned the alarm clock of. “Another boring day!” she thought. She got out of bed, dressed in a pink and white striped t-shirt and black jeans. She gazed into her mirror. Leila was 16. She had blonde hair with curls. Her hair was dyed pink at the ends. She had light blue, almond-shaped eyes. Her skin was sot and peachy. She grabbed her homework and headed downstairs for breakfast. While she was getting a lunch ready, she noticed a door in the back of the cupboard. Leila removed the boxes. She reached all the way back and felt a latch. It took one minute for her to igure out how to open it. “Ugh. Pull, Leila, pull…” she had thought to herself. When it opened, she saw a small piece of paper. She opened it. It read: “Dear whoever is reading this, I let this note here in case I didn’t come back. While I was in my studies, I igured out how to get to a diferent dimension called ‘Comet’. If you’re reading this, it means I’ve not come home. If you want to look for me, eat a cereal of any kind, add milk and do ive pushups. Sincerely, Dr. John Smith.” Once Leila read who it was from she let out a surprised shout. The letter was from her father who disappeared nine years ago in the year 2000. She’d wanted to ind him since she was eight. She followed the directions on the letter. Once she inished the inal pushup, she lay sprawled on the ground and fell asleep.

THE ADVENTURES OF WOODLAND (EXCERPT) Natalie Parsons Grade 3, Boise

Melissa is nine years old. She has moppy blonde hair and blue eyes. She has freckles and her favorite place in Woodland is Duckling Cove because she always helps the mama ducks with the ducklings. Duckling Cove smells like lower blossoms. Melissa has always wanted a friend, so she is of to ind one. “Hmph! Where is a friend?” she says. Every day Melissa searches for a friend, she says, “Hey do you want to be my friend?” She’s over there at the water well trying to get that girl’s attention (her nose in a book). Melissa came over to the cove and said, “I give up.” Then Melissa saw a dragon. “Ahh!” she said (there has never been a dragon in Woodland before). “I’ll lead it to the underwater forest.” But by the time they got there, Melissa noticed something. She didn’t need to ind a friend. She could make friends with the dragon! So Melissa said, “Hey dragon.” “What?” he said. “Do you want to be my friend?” “ROAR,” the dragon said. “Okay, what’s your name then?” she asked. “Max,” Max said, then he stomped so hard that he created a tornado. “Help! Help!” Melissa cried, her hair swishing and waving like the sea during a great storm. Max was breathing ire at the storm. “Max stop!” Melissa screamed at the top of her lungs. When the storm stopped, Max led Melissa back to his home. Back at the water well… Wendy (the girl that had her nose in a book) was sneaking around inside the water well. “Why am I doing this?” she thought. “I am just going to get in trouble.” 19

Damaging the water well was a rule in Woodland. If someone did break that rule, you would get “normal water” for one hour. “Normal water” is unbreathable water. All of a sudden, the queen Jane looked inside of the water well. “Wendy what in all of Woodland are you doing!” Jane asked. “I’m just…” Wendy stammered. “Breaking the rule,” Jane said.

MY PONY DIMENSION Miren Sieber Grade 3, Boise

The story is about a person who is like a ighter. She is going to do a lot to ight for it. She’s going to be McKenna Ann. She’s going to tell you a story about her, and her life as a 12-year-old. She is very nice but needs to have a ight to ind her puppy and move to London or her family will leave without her and the pup. They do. McKenna Ann has to ight for them before the villains get her parents or else she’ll have to live alone. So on the way she somehow goes to another dimension and she inds ponies from My Little Pony. And she’s now a pony named Sugar Cake and lives with Pinky Pie and the Cakes. Twilight Sparkle and the rest are so happy, oh and the puppy is a dragon and a nice one. She made friends, lots and lots in Ponyville and Canterlot, they both are kind and sweet. They had a ireworks show and had lots of food and drinks. When they had ireworks, they found out they had more ponies, so they found her pony mom and dad. They are hoping to see her world someday. One day later, she gets a house there and becomes good friends with the princess, and is friends with everybody and hopes to have more friends in Canterlot and that’s the end.

GOLDEN ONE & GOLDEN TWO

SAPPHIRE BLUE, FIGHTER (EXCERPT) Serena Traynor Grade 5, Boise

Chapter One Stretching, Sapphire yawned and started to groom herself. She walked out of her den, ready to greet the day. Sapphire Blue is a cat who lives on a planet just like Earth. It is called Reath. She lives in a house with a lot of cat gimmicks. LOTS and LOTS of cat gimmicks. They have loating shelves, tunnels, and bridges. Little did their human, Pete, know that the cats actually had developed their own city. There were ive restaurants, seventeen shops selling everything from wet food, to toys, to even dens. And since there were 22 (grown) cats, there were 21 dens. (This is because one cat has a roommate.) Sapphire’s home was above the living room. You had to cross a bridge, which had a platform for sightseeing. To the let was Sapphire’s den. There was a small garden out front. Inside there was a hammock, a bed, a window providing the perfect sunspot, an armchair, and a deck. Outside there was a backyard and a bridge leading to the skylight. All in all, Sapphire’s life was pretty great. Chapter Two Sapphire yawned and scratched her armchair. She went to the hunting grounds, where cats could hunt mice, birds, and kibble. Ater she paid the manager (15 kibble) and caught her breakfast mouse, she strolled over to the skylight. It was fairly close: take a let, go straight, take another let, go up, and you’re there. She was just about to begin her trip when she heard hissing. She bolted to the sound and nearly knocked over the Meowayor (the president). She found a Siamese cat and a tuxedo cat ighting. Suddenly, the tuxedo became distracted, and the Siamese knocked him over. With one inal meow, the tuxedo landed on the ground. The group of cats watching cheered. Sapphire’s white fur and amber stripes on her face 23

and tail shook. That poor tuxedo cat. It looked terrible, embarrassing, and . . . awesome! “Meow, rawoo mewah rah,” Sapphire meowed. It meant, I challenge you. The ight was stationed on a very high shelf. The Siamese, named Puck, batted at Sapphire. She dodged and pounced, biting Puck’s tail. He hissed and returned the favor by scratching her face. Ater ive minutes, Sapphire pounced and pushed Puck of the shelf. The cats cheered. They gave Sapphire her prize: a coupon for the diner counter that served human food. Sapphire smiled. Maybe, just maybe, if she kept ighting, she could make it to the inals where the reward was 150 treats (equivalent to $1,500 Earth dollars). It would be easy. Until she met Elvis. Chapter Three Elvis was a huge, fat black cat. He was famous for crushing his enemies—literally—and only speaking Cat. “Meow rawoo mew rew?” (Do I have a new challenger?) he boomed. “Yes, in fact, you do,” a voice said, before Sapphire could respond. An old tabby emerged from the crowd. “I am Ginger Peachy,” the odd cat said. “I’ve come to train this youngling.” She pointed her tail at Sapphire. “M-me?” said Sapphire. “Yes, you.” “Why?” “Because every good ighter needs a good trainer.” Half an hour later, Sapphire found herself in Ginger’s old den. One look at the antique furniture, old paintings, and loral dresses, and Sapphire knew that Ginger was the type of cat who thought 2018 was 1820. Turns out, Ginger was an older ighter. Ater training, Sapphire thought she was ready. She knew. Sure enough, she won the ight. Elvis tried to tackle her, but she dodged and bit his right paw. Tackle. Dodge. Bite. Repeat. 24

“Thanks, Ginger,” Sapphire said. “All the more to lose when I defeat you,” Ginger muttered. “What?” “All the more to know when you win.”

EXCERPT FROM THE BATTLE FOR LIGHT BOOK 1 Lilly Fossey Grade 6, Boise

Chapter Two Squirrel woke up, stretched, and walked to the window. The morning star was already up! Her eyes widened. “I overslept again!” Squirrel said to herself. She rushed to the closet and looked at her three dresses. Should she wear the black dress with a red belt, the dress with a green belt, or the black dress with the black belt? She chose the black belt one. Squirrel pulled it on and went to the pantry. Only one slice of bread let. Squirrel let it for supper. She grabbed her shovel and ran to the mountain. Squirrel forgot to lock the door. Squirrel arrived at the mountain. She looked at the star, then headed in. The mountain had gold in it. Kids 6 to 17 came here and shoveled for gold. Squirrel saw a tunnel she’d never seen before. Squirrel looked around, then headed in. It was so dark, darker than the sky. If there was any gold, she missed it. The deeper she went, the brighter it became. Soon Squirrel came upon a bright golden orb. Squirrel reached out and touched it. With that touch, she felt safe. It transformed into a bright golden lion. Squirrel dropped into a bow. “Sol, we need you,” Squirrel said. “I know, but you must stay strong,” Sol said. “Please, come back.” “I’m still imprisoned. This is just a ghost of me.” “Huh?” “Now, listen closely,” Sol said. “Ok.” “You must go on a quest. Find a shapeshiter who goes by Rapture Red. Find her and tell her I sent you to be trained. Then ind a cave and Lunar will tell you the rest.” Sol faded away 25

leaving a bare wall of glimmering gold. Squirrel let the gold and ran home. She packed the bread. She packed the blanket, knife, soap, coins, and dresses. She found an old map and packed that also. She would leave at dawn. Chapter Three Squirrel slung her satchel over her shoulder. She ran across town to the edge of the forest. Squirrel took a deep breath and disappeared into the woods. She found a path and followed it. The deeper she went in, the closer and thicker the trees became. Squirrel heard a noise. It sounded like singing. Squirrel quickened her pace not realizing she had gone of the trail. The music got louder. Squirrel stopped to listen. Squirrel heard a girl start singing: The life so grand! I love it. I do it on the run. So fun! Squirrel heard a rustle behind her. A blazing pig stepped out followed by other iery animals such as a horse, cat, fox, turtle, and owl. Squirrel screamed and ran. The animals chased her. The owl set a large wooden shed on ire (which was probably where the music was coming from). Squirrel ran while animals led the shed. There was a bright light and a snake made of water came from behind the shed. It came crashing through the laming animals, sending them into a furious lurry of lames until they were nothing more than a memory. The snake put out the ire on the shed and disappeared with a lash. A girl with ice blue eyes, auburn hair, and pale skin came out of the shadows. She was wearing long thick pants, a camoulage t-shirt, and a long red cape. The girl couldn’t have been older than ive. The girl narrowed her icy eyes at Squirrel. Staring daggers at Squirrel, she walked toward her. “Who are you, and why did you do this?” the girl asked. “I am Grey Squirrel, and I didn’t do this. I was sent by Sol to ind Rapture Red,” Squirrel said. “I am Rapture Red,” the girl said. 26

THE SHRINK RAY Zayma Akram Grade 5, Boise

While walking in the rose garden, I saw something shiny in the grass. It read: SHRINK RAY DO NOT TOUCH! I thought that it was a toy my little brother was playing with for his toy monster. I thought Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d take it back to him, so I picked it up, and I suddenly felt a large pain. I noticed the rose bushes were growing as big as museums. I closed my eyes tight. When I opened them, I was small! I led for shelter as my classmates stomped right into me. Their feet were as large as 20 acres of land. The grass blades were like giant redwood trees. I ran as fast as I could. I ran in one direction. I climbed up the prickly, thorny rosebush. I cut myself on the arm. I took shelter inside a rose. The smell was too unbearable at this size. I fainted. When I woke up, I was stuck on some pollen. A bee came. I screeched for help, but I got stuck to the bee before anyone came. Then I realized I was lying with it. It was AMAZING! Ater we came down, I built a shelter out of sticks, leaves, and petals. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was big again. I was so happy. I had so much fun being small that I forgot how it felt being big. I knew what to do with the shrink ray. I gave it to the museum for scientists to study. It was the right thing to do. The museum let me and my brother visit and use it anytime we wanted. It was fun being small.

FIRE VS. DEATH

Tensei Thompson Grade 5, Boise There were three pillars illed with 100 people each. There used to be ive but two fell. Everything was dead outside the pillars. In the pillars there was one wizard each water, ire, grass, rock, and air. Two of them were crushed inside the two collapsed pillars. Fire, water, and grass were let. In the ire pillar they heard a “zap click, zap click.” Everyone fell quiet. The ire wizard named TNT, with smoke billowing from his black clothes and lames shooting from his hands, put a gas mask on and went outside as he saw the grass pillar fall. Soon the water wizard named Mizu, came out. He shot a burst of water at the reaper jumping at the water pillar. The reaper dodged the burst of water as he burst into lame. A reaper was the size of a bulldog, but had no eyes. They had two black rhino horns and three lizard tails coming from their necks. As the reaper died a voice dark and evil said, “Find me at the end of the wasteland at the pond of death. I can only touch it for I am Death itself.” So TNT and Mizu set of to kill Death. Soon they found the pool of darkness. A black and blood-red castle stood in the center of the pool of darkness. They crossed a bridge to get to the castle. There were 100 reapers. Half were all in lames in two seconds. Forty of them backed into the pool and seven were shot by water. The last three reapers looked diferent. One was green, one was see through, one was brown like the wizards. Green burst into lames. Brown melted into mud. See-Through sent Mizu into the pool just as he burst into lame, and See-Through died. A blue reaper crawled out of the ground as all the bubbles popped around Mizu. TNT turned the blue reaper into steam. He walked into the throne room. A loating skull with green smoke around it sat on the chair of dead bodies. Two golden reapers sat beside the throne. As Golden One and Golden Two burst into lames a shriek came from Golden One. It sounded like the Queen when she had died. Then it hit TNT that they were the people’s souls shoved into a monster’s body. TNT felt weak like there was no reason to live. His powers were gone. As Death was about to touch his face, TNT 28

took a rock and smashed Deathâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skull in. As Death died, the forest, trees, lakes, rivers, and grass came to life. As TNT came-to, the two pillars, people were outside playing. TNT died thinking, at least I saved 200 people.

THE LOVE OF THE UNICORN (EXCERPT) Ruby Ann Lee Grade 3, Boise

Chapter One Arbor Rose is a planet kind of like Earth. The land is still the same but the water is Arbor Rose. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why the planet is called what it is. Want to hear a secret? There are rare dinosaurs and unicorns, but you can tame them. How do I know? Well, I live there. There are three years of winter, three months of summer, one month of fall, and one month of spring. Chapter Two I am twelve. My name is Annabelle. I am happy all the time. My eye color is lavender. I live by the ocean. My hair color is reddish blondish. I never act badly. I am very sweet. Anyways, on with the story. So one morning I woke up, and I got breakfast and went outside by the ocean. It was near a forest that if anything entered it was sure to never come back. Suddenly, I saw a unicorn. It was headed toward me! I had never seen one, so I fainted. I awoke to talking. I was on a chair.

SHAPESHIFTER

Tucker Wensman Grade 5, Star Hi, I am Eddie and this is my world. It has lots of weird creatures like a turtle duck and technology, even laser guns. But I learned not all of this place is nice when the shapeshiters took over. A shapeshiter can be anyone, anywhere, at any time. But one thing is for sure. They won’t stand a chance to me. October 5, 2060 A policeman once was a shapeshiter, and I don’t want to tell you what happened. December 2, 2060 My dad has been acting weird, like violent. I noticed he was a shapeshiter and I told everyone to grab weapons so we defeated the shapeshiters.

MAGICLANDIA

Junseo Kim Grade 5, Garden City Hello I am Wiker. I don’t want to be here, but it’s because my mom who is a witch is Queen of magic here. Our world is diferent, we have no technology but magic. It’s time to write and my hands are writing 1,000 pages in a second. By the time we’re done we’ve done ininity pages. I hate Melina. Everyone loves her. She’s rated #1 Beauty Queen in magazines. Even people ask her for autographs! I even can’t sleep on my broom because people are so loud because of something called autograph time. I had to sign 1,000,000 autographs that weren’t even mine. Disaster. Rocket boosters and bombs. Our force ields are too weak. The robots are coming into all gates. Now everyone is screaming. We used our brooms to shoot out water to clear the ire. “Everyone get your swords and arrows. Let’s shoot!” The robots are shooting bullets at us, “force ield!” There I saw General Snake Leader of the robots who 30

was my dad who let me when I was a baby. It was an epic battle between my mom and dad. My mom was going to use magic but my dad took her broom. She gave her crown to me, and sacriiced her life to create herself into a blue ball which killed my dad and the robots.

HARRY THE HAIRY GUY Annabella Dutton Grade 6, Boise

“Ahh! It’s Bigfoot! He probably wants his shoe back!” “Get George the Giant!” “George give him back his shoe!” “Ah, inally peace.” .3 Seconds Later “Ahh! It’s Bigfoot again! What does he want now?” “Guys chillax! It’s just me! Harry the Hairy Guy.” “Oh, okay, my bad, Harry.” As Harry walks home… “Ahh! It’s Bigfoot!” “Bigfoot! Sasquatch!” “Ahh! Panic!” “Man, I really need a nametag.” Later… “Ouch! Get of me Harry!” “Oh! Sorry Matt the Mat!” “You better be, Harry!” Inside… “Doo doo doo doo! There! Harry, the very hairy guy that looks like Bigfoot, but is deinitely, absolutely not!” Walking out of the house… “Ouch ouch! Stop walking on me Harry!” “Well stop laying there like a mat, Matt! It’s scary! You look exactly like a mat! Stand up and start moving.” “Yeah, Harry? Shave your body, and actually put on your clothes for once!” “But then I wouldn’t be Harry the Hairy Guy!” “And I wouldn’t be Matt the Mat.” “Fine, look like a mat, but I’m going for a world record!” “Blah, blah, blah, just go away Harry!” “Geez, sassy, I’m going!” 31

Walking through town… “Man, I’m beginning to see a diference with this name tag!” “Bigfoot!” “No, no, look, it’s Harry!” “Oh yeah, hi Harry!” The next day… “Hey Harry, you coming to my party tonight?” “Roar!” “Okay, see you there!” Harry watching from a distance… “Hmm, who’s that? He looks a lot like me.” “Ouch, watch it Harry!” “Sorry!” “Bob the Buoy! That’s not me! That’s Bigfoot! I’m Harry!” “Eh, Bigfoot you say? He seems pretty cool.” Party that night… DISASTER. Winter… “Hey look who he befriended, Abraham the Abominable Snowman!” “Bbiiggfooooott?” “Man, you’re good at this game!” Party that night… CATASTROPHE. “Peggy, Unicornius, come here, we’re having a party tonight!” Party that night… SPARKLY RAINBOWS. “Hey, Black Death, come to our party tonight! Oh and bring your friends, Apocalypse, War, and Plague!” Party that night… DESTRUCTION AND DEATH.

ONE DISABILITY, TWO HEARTS Avery Singer Grade 6, Boise

I slip on my let leg and fall in the water, not being able to breathe, water pouncing on my face. Then the villager grabs me and pulls me to the shallow lood water. “Thanks,” I try to say then my heart stops beating and I feel nothing but a chill and my mom’s necklace not on my neck. Then I see something in the water. It’s shiny. I don’t want to go in but if I do I will possibly die with a part of my mom near me. I clutch my leg and go in. I can’t see so I feel around and grab something and then I feel the pull of the strong ocean current pulling me out to sea. I try to stop but I can’t. Lukian can’t reach me and I’m running out of air. I hold the object in my hand. It feels circular and there’s a point on the side. I try to go up for air but my let leg won’t move so I feel around to ind something pointy to wake up my leg. I ind a stick. I puncture my let leg. I open my eyes briely and see blood pouring out of my leg. I inally push up to air. I breathe in, my lungs hardly surviving. I then get pulled under again, pain in my whole body.

UNTITLED

Austin Freyer Grade 5, Boise “Hey, stop that kid,” the security guard yelled. Many hands reached out at me as I ran. A strong hand reached out and grabbed my wrist. “Hey kid, what are you doing?” a woman said. I tried pulling my hand free but couldn’t. I then grabbed her hand and twisted as she yelped in pain. Once she let go, I kept running and inally I saw my turn. By now the security guards were far behind me, although I could still hear them screaming at me as I made my way through the dark alleyway. I saw tons of fallen newspaper and now that was my stop. I swiped the newspapers all away and found a hatch. I pulled it open and with a swit move I got 33

in and closed the door, disappearing from the city and all the people in it.… Inside, I grabbed at the dark air, trying to ind the switch. Finally, I found it and pulled. Suddenly the light lickered on showing the relieved faces of my two siblings. “Ben, what took you so long?” Whined my little brother Landon. “Sorry, I had some trouble with security. How long have I been gone?” I asked my near twin. Jackson looked down at his watch. “Three hours!” he responded. My eyes widened. “I’m sor…Were you guys hungry?” “Yes!” they replied, annoyed. I then took an empty crate and took the warm food and unwrapped it. Suddenly the room illed with aromas of freshly baked bread, grilled meat, and fresh fruits of all sorts….. The next day I was woken up to the sounds of metal hitting metal. Somebody was trying to break in. My brothers were already awake. They looked at me and I nodded. I knew what they were thinking— something I never wanted to think. We all rushed to the closet and opened it up. Inside were multiple kinds of blasters and swords, some stunning and some, well, you get the point. We each grabbed a stun gun and split up into our hiding spots. Just then the door busted in and a group of fully armed humans came in and searched the room. My brothers looked at me waiting for the signal. Once the humans had their backs turned, I nodded and we charged. It only took us a few seconds and they were on the ground stunned. My brothers gave each other high ives, and looked at me for one, but I just shook my head. “They know where we live,” I said, worried….

AN ELF CALLED FERN Anna Salaam Grade 5, Boise

Chapter One Ping! Ping! Ping! The arrows, one by one, landed in the middle of the target. “Nice shot, Fern!” Koriun called. “Thanks!” Fern smiled. “You are the best archer in all of Crystia,” he said. Fern blushed. Korium ruled his sandy hair. Like all elves, he had pointy ears, but he also had curly, sandy hair and two diferent colored eyes: a green one and a blue one. He grinned mischievously at her who couldn’t be more diferent. She had long, wavy, auburn hair and chocolate colored eyes. Ring! Ring! Fern looked around. The gong was ringing; it was time to go back to the orphanage. “Jet!” Fern called. A large stag with white specks on his back bounded out of the sweet smelling trees, stopping with a halt in front of Fern. “Bye, Koriun!” Fern said. Koriun waved and Jet took of towards home. When Fern got home, she knew by the delicious smelling aroma that Mother Lisa was making mushroom soup. “Hello, Darling!” Mother Lisa said. “The others are in the living room.” Like all elf homes and orphanages, Fern’s orphanage was a huge hollow tree. She sat in her favorite arm chair and waited, a cracking ire making the room warm and bright. The room was illed with a steady buzz of the other forty-nine 14 to 18-year-old elves talking and sharing with their closest. Soon, Mother Lisa brought in 51 bowls of mushroom soup and they all ate. Ater dinner, Mother Lisa introduced their topic of talk: Your families. Everyone shared something about their families like an heirloom or a lullaby. When it was Fern’s turn she opened her mouth conidently to share--but then closed it again. She realized with a pang that she could not remember anything about her parents. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” Mother Lisa said sympathetically. “May I be excused?” Fern asked, her voice trembling. When Mother Lisa nodded, Fern ran up to the room she shared with the twenty-four other girls in the orphanage. She lay facing the wall on her bunk, waiting for people to start pouring in for bed…. 35

KINGDOM CLASH Ethan York Grade 5, Boise

Finn woke up and brushed his teeth. He made his breakfast and packed his backpack; the same routine every day. “Dad!” he yelled, “I’m going to school!” No answer. Finn marched up the stairs into his dad’s room. As usual he was asleep. Finn would be mad if he didn’t know he was a night guard for a living. “Dad,” he said shaking him up. “Finn, it’s a Saturday.” Finn’s expression turned blank. His dad always called Finn by his name instead of son or anything else. See, he was adopted and his father never liked him. But according to the law, his father couldn’t give him up or sell him to anyone. If it was a Saturday then Finn would be where he usually was: at the library reading the next book of Kingdom Clash, his favorite book series. Finn was an outstanding reader. But right before he let something caught his eye. It was a silver metal cube. Each face had a strange symbol. It was about the size of Finn’s hand. Even though Finn would usually be bored with something like that, it seemed to be shining in Finn’s eyes. It was so beautiful and seemed to say, “Touch me Finn, touch me.” Finn moved forward and grabbed it quickly. He suddenly felt a strength in his hand and electricity lowed through his veins. He felt as if his hand was on ire. He dropped on his knees, his teeth clenched and his eyes squeezed shut. “Finn?” came his father’s voice booming like a foghorn. “Yeah I better get going,” Finn stood back up. Silently he slipped the cube into his pocket and hustled back downstairs.

UNTITLED

Trevor Schoolield Grade 5, Boise I ran down the darkened hallway to grab my favorite weapon. It was a large electriied sword, perfect for slaying a monster as evil as this. I grabbed my sword and followed the shatters and crashes of the running monster until the noises stopped. I turned and climbed up the closest of the many food crates to try to ind it from above. As I climbed up on to the onto the crate I felt a rumbling like an earthquake as the massive creature came bolting through the crates like a wrecking ball, smashing them as it went. In the split second before it crushed me I ducked under him and thrust my sword at his only weak point. My sword shattered. But, luckily it penetrated his skin enough that he was electriied. I was about to reach out and touch him, when a brilliant gold dust, so ine it could only be classiied as mist, settled upon him. His outline started to fade away. As I walked away, I inhaled some of the gold mist. Suddenly, I felt powerful, like I could do anything. I had the sudden urge to use my ighting skills, and possibly ind were my friends and family along with everyone in the city. I grabbed my plasma blaster and set of on my irst, and quite possibly last, quest. I stepped onto the street and saw a humanoid coming at me and blasted it to pieces. I felt stronger than I ever felt before. Another humanoid, another blast. But then, two robotic hands grabbed me from behind and everything went black. When I woke up, my head was screaming with pain. I tried to stand, but realized I was chained to my chair. I tried to speak, but my mouth was gagged. Then I saw him, our prime commander, Jone Borwan. He looked at me, I stared at him feeling something that I have never felt before: sadness, betrayal and fear. He strutted toward me talking to one of the humanoids. He passed pretending not to notice me. But as he walked near me, he slipped something into my bound hands. I felt the slippery blade of a knife. As Jone walked away, he secretly winked and smiled at me, as I started cutting. Once both my ropes were cut, I grabbed my chair and threw it at the humanoid guarding me. It only distracted him, but it gave me time to grab my plasma blaster and blast him 37

to pieces. I destroyed enough humanoids to clear a path and started to walk out. But, before I could, I saw a licker of pink and green light. I saw a creature made of what looked like wisps of light, and attached to its back were wings like a dragon. Some moments it was there, and then, gone like leaves in the wind. I was about to set out when a robotic voice screamed, “Lockdown Procedure activate.” I turned around and saw a smiling person on the controls. The person I had thought to be on my side, Jone Borwan. Suddenly I felt the loor rising up into the sky like an elevator to the moon. Suddenly, the roof opened and I was raised up, thousands of feet into the air. I could see all the way to the wasteland. Then the loor I was standing on started to turn so I was dangerously hanging by one hand. I felt my inders slipping until I was holding on with only my ingertips. Then I felt myself falling. My eyes closed, and I blacked out. When I woke up I was in my secret facility with the strange wispy creature I saw earlier hovering over me. The look in his eyes said he wanted to go save everyone already. Perfect, because that was what I was ready to do. I grabbed my grenade belt and my extra plasma blaster. As the creature motioned for me to climb on to his back, I did, and together me and this wonderful monster lew into the night sky in search of all mankind.

ART OF INCREDIBLE POWER

THE LANDS OF ATHEES (EXCERPT) Lucas LaSalle Grade 5, Boise

Chapter Three Desert and Tart let that night. It would be a long journey. During the night, Desert caught enough food for the rest of the next day. Ater the sun started coming up, Tart looked exhausted. “Why are you so tired, Tart? You look like a helpless little maggot,” Desert said. That kept Tart’s energy up the rest of the day even though it was all uphill. On the way back down from the mountain, they heard a huge roar. Desert looked back and saw a huge Phoenotaur. (A Phoenotaur is a mix of a phoenix and a minotaur. They have giant golden laming wings. Every ive minutes, they can make a square-foot ireball come out of their mouth. They have a phoenix head and magma hands and horns.) Desert lew up into the air, and Tart turned into a blanket. The Phoenotaur looked at him confused, then saw Desert lick his tail and ire spikes at the Phoenotaur. The Phoenotaur dodged two and destroyed the others with a ireball. Desert tackled the Phoenotaur. They plummeted toward the ground. Desert blacked out. When he woke, it was night again. The Phoenotaur was gone and in its place was a puddle of black goo. He saw Tart pacing nearby. He started shouting. “Why didn’t you help me, you pathetic piece of plankton?” Tart got so startled he actually turned into one. Desert started laughing so hard he almost passed out from not being able to breathe. By the next night, they got to the sea. Once they got to the edge, the water started to bubble, and ire giants burst out. Chapter Four Immediately, they went into combat. One of the giants grabbed hold of Desert’s leg and lung him into the sea. He groaned. His leg was broken, but that just made him more enraged. He shot out of the water and tried to blast a giant to bits. All it did was leave a little burn mark. The giant tried to swat him, but he landed on the ground to see where Tart was tackling 41

another giant as small as a tiger. Tart ripped its eyes out, and the giant bellowed in rage. Desert looked into the minds of the other giants and saw their greatest fear: spikes and claws. Desert shot two spikes at each giant. The giants ran around in panic. Then the giant that Tart was attacking threw Tart of and tried to smash Desert. This made Desert mad. He charged the giant and slashed him down. Then he went onto the rest. When there were only two let, he went ater the smaller one. Suddenly, he felt an unbelievable pain in his broken leg. The other giant had thrown a rock at him. He lew straight into the other giant, knocking them both into the sea. Desert slashed out the giant’s heart but didn’t have enough energy to swim to the surface. Suddenly, he felt a little tug. He looked over his shoulder and saw Tart as an orca. Working together, they got him to shore. But there was still one more giant to defeat. It was walking toward him. With one more burst of energy, he lew up into the air and tackled him while slashing him to shreds, killing the last of the giants.

THE CAT MAN (EXCERPT) Gretta Henderson Grade 6, Boise

Chapter Three I am still looking all around, and I don’t see any wifercore plant. It is a plant that can heal any sickness. Meow meow hiss. I go toward my bag and let my cat out of the bag, and it is getting bigger and bigger and human. I see a man dressed in black just like my cat. I jump and land on my butt. He reaches out his hand, pulls me close, and says, “Thank you for freeing me from Timeless Ruby.” I say, “You’re welcome?” in a puzzled voice. I ask him, “Where is Aqua, my cat?” “My name was Aqua.” I nod, shocked. “My real name is Jonquil Acacia,” he said. He tells me he will help me for as long as he can. Pouf. Timeless Ruby shows up. “I see you freed my pet. Well, no matter. You will have to get past my giant clock, which is guarded by tribes of imps, and I trained them to make mischief.” She disappears. 42

It takes days to get to the castle, but our heroes get there, and they see the imps. Only one sees them. It bounces toward them, its round belly bouncing. Quickly, Jonquil turns into a cat and then moves away and then goes inside the clock. Chapter Four It is dark and wet. The water isn’t touching me, but Jonquil is super wet. I am not, which is super weird. A giant wave comes toward me. I see a glass ball. Ruby is watching me through it. I put my hands in front of my face, and the water goes around me and splashes Jonquil. I look at my hands. I move them up, and the water goes up. I pretend I am making a sandwich, and I make a water sandwich. We reach the main maze. Jonquil says he knows the way through the maze. Let, up, up, let, right, up, up, up, right, down, jump over the spikes, slide past laming balls. “Okay, we are here,” I say to Jonquil. “Stay here.” I open a hatch and get out of the maze and see a desk with paper on it. I go toward the paper. I see it says Pop Quiz. I jump back and yell, “Nooo noo noo!” Timeless Ruby shows up and pops another desk up and sits down. I sit in my chair. She asks, “Pen or pencil?” I say, “Pen.” I sit down. The paper has riddles1 on it. They read: What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up, up it goes, And yet never grows? (Mountain) Voiceless it cries, Wingless lutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters. (Wind) It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it ills. 1

Riddles are borrowed from Tolkiens The Hobbit.

It comes out irst and follows ater, Ends life, kills laughter. (Dark) This thing all things devours; Birds, beasts, trees, lowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, And beats mountain down. (Time) We check our answers. I got two wrong, and Ruby got one. I lost my powers for the battle.

SCORCHED LANDS (EXCERPT) Frederick Scarett Grade 5, Boise

Chapter One Red Geranium is a human that got teleported to a diferent planet by accident. The planet looks like Earth, except the life on the planet is nothing like Earth. There are monsters, phantoms, black lions, unicorns, lying whales, and much, much more! The planet is named PUL-17 (aka weirdness). Red loves the animals that live on PUL-17. He is 15. He lives in the Golden Forest near a crystalclear lake. He lives on a bed of moss with an animal called a lobliblib in a pond near him. He has old dirty clothes. The teleportation changed Red. He has purple hair, platinum blonde eyes, sparkly skin, and one of his eyes can change colors. He has a power called AOIP or Art Of Incredible Power. Basically, he can draw stuf in mid-air, and it will turn 3-D. He discovered it one day because he stuck out a inger and thought of the color blue, and he swiped his inger through the air. To his surprise, a blue streak appeared out of nowhere right where he had swiped his inger. He tried it again, but he didn’t think of a color, so it didn’t appear. He tried it every day since, and Red igured out how to do it. He made himself an old mansion and the furniture inside. He drew a wagon and a giant telescope to look at distant 44

lands. Red spotted the Dragon Kingdom, and now he is ready to explore it, but he is not aware of the dangers ahead. Chapter Two Red woke up. He had a good dream. He got out of bed, feeling like today was going to be a good day. Red brushed his teeth quickly and ran downstairs. He ran into the kitchen, opening his fridge and getting 2 eggs out. He closed the refrigerator and cracked his eggs in a pan. He got some bacon cooking on the stove alongside his eggs. Red poured milk into a glass. He put the eggs and bacon on a plate, and he set it on the table. Ater breakfast, Red walked to the border of the Golden Forest and the Dragon Kingdom. He sat down and peered at the scorched lands past his beautiful forest. “Help! It’s eating me! Help! No! Aaaaaahh!” a squeaky voice cried. Ater a couple of years on PUL-17, he can identify animals by their sounds. That creature sounded like a humaphont. Red raced back to his house. He put on a cold, insulated suit to keep him cool in the hot kingdom. He grabbed a lacolaster-P9 (a giant laser-sword), a hybrid cruiser S style (a hoverboard that actually hovers), and an AR proton blaster class 15 (a really fast shooting gun). Red ran to the border, and he stepped one foot onto the Dragon Kingdom, or at least he thought he did! But when Red looked down, he couldn’t see his foot! He quickly pulled it back. Then he jumped into the Dragon Kingdom. But he instantly got teleported back to the forest. “What?!” Red shouted. He went home. Later he came back. The time was 6:07. He tried going in. This time it worked. “Finally,” Red panted excitedly. “I’m here.” But he probably shouldn’t have yelled, because some other creatures heard him.

DIARY OF THE ORIGINAL EXPLORER (EXCERPT) Conrad Ness Grade 6, Boise

April 30, 3011 Entry 6 Today we found Apoiga! It’s so much brighter than the place we let! (Or, it could just be that I’ve been in a dark jungle for like, 37 days.) It’s so colorful! (Also could have been because I was in the jungle.) When we were looking around, we heard trumpets blast. A few seconds later, there was a huge cloud of dust coming towards us! We heard another blast of noise and the same thing started happening on the other side! We soon realized we were in the middle of a war! We ran toward the neighboring trees but someone fell down!

THE TRAVEL TO THE PORTAL (EXCERPT) Aubrey Oakey Grade 5, Boise

When they woke up, a beautiful head was eyeing them closely. Then sat up and gave a rustle of the leaf-like wings. Wet Foot stepped out and said, “Hello, my name is Wet Foot. We have come here for our fourth member that the Black Fox chose. Please forgive us if we were in your den.” “Do not mind me,” answered the leaf wing. “My name is Snap Twig and I’m one of the chosen ones too.” The gorgeous leaf wing had luminescent jade green scales, see-through purple wings shaped like leaves, a browniecolored underside with black dagger claw. Leaves came down his spinal cord with amber eyes. They spent the next two days getting to know Snap Twig, restoring their energy and planning their next trip to the kingdom. Two days later, they started out to the kingdom through the dense tree brush and moist dirt, leaving deep paw prints in the muddy soil. Then a huge brick came falling out of the sky, leaving a blank gray space in the middle of the life-threatening 46

sky. Smashing trees, throwing life taking splinters everywhere. “The world is falling apart,” gasped Snap Twig. They pushed on, avoiding poison sap dripping from the leaves, high atop the branches of trees. When they departed the forest, they turned southwest toward the kingdom. Going step ater tiring step (except for Sun Field, leap ater leap), passing spiny cactuses, rotting carcasses letover from the lava melt canaries. Sot sand started erupting out of huge craters bubbling up and falling smoothly back down into the sand! When night fell, only a couple hours later, they used sot bark laying stray wrinkled leaves on sot sand for their beds, hollowing out under rock or cactuses even straight into the sand. The moon pushed the sun aside and called for the stars to awaken the night. The sun rose and all woke up. Apple Trunk’s gasp echoed through the chilly air because blocking them in were vines, bricks, trees and even lava pulsing toward them. A vine reached out grabbing Wet Foot’s hind leg, dragging him into the massive vine mess. Sun Field leapt forward, tearing apart the vine and untangling the vine wound around Wet Foot’s legs. Snap Twig shuled all of them on his back, though he was only the size of a small full-grown horse. Arising into the air and onto the other side of the horrendous danger, all gasping for breath, sprawled out on the gritty sand was Snap Twig, Sun Field, Apple Trunk, and Wet Foot. When the inally got to the palace, there stood a puppy border collie with a blue and purple sack at her feet that all of a sudden blew away with nothing but a feather inside. She said her name was Airy and was one of the chosen ones, the ith and inal. They set of with her and with the dark fox’s guidance to the portal.

THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE Jude Monford Grade 5, Boise

“This universe is ruled by cats. The only metal is titanium, so technology there is scarce. The cats have a huge military of orc monsters with titanium armor, and then they get cloned, so the army is twice as big. The world is very hot because it has four suns. Some people there are normal, but some are zombies and mythical gods, and have powers that make it so they cannot die.’ “Some of the plants there are poisonous and some are edible. There are some villages, but a couple of them got destroyed by scary monsters and the people in the villages had to lee to other villages. The monster realm was a palace taken over by an army of monsters and turned into a palace for monsters. The wizard palace was an open ield of land until some wizards came by and used their magic to create a 200 foot palace, and every year more and more wizards came to live in the palace, and every year the palace’s walls got stronger by length and width.’ “Over here we have some—oh! Hello, who are you?” “I am Jones Sherett.” “What are you doing?” “I am on a quest to ind the lost treasure, but I need a partner. Will you help me?”

LOST ON E-135291BX (EXCERPT) Nevyn Brandel Grade 5, Boise

Julia was nervous. She was in NASA’S locker rooms, getting her spacesuit on. When she told her parents that she wanted to go to Mars, they had surprised her on her 15th birthday that they applied her to go to Mars with a group of scientists and some other civilians. When she got the news she was so excited! She had been selected out of about 500 applicants and got to ly in the 2063 Apollo 31. 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…but now, standing there, she was not sure about this idea…1…blast of! 48

… It was 2:34 in the morning when the warning buzzer sounded. We had just gone to bed because we were busy getting stuf ready for landing on Mars. The halls were illuminated with red light and people were running and screaming everywhere. Dr. Barar was in the front of the ship with some other scientists staring ahead at what I expected to be Mars, but instead it looked like a clif of a mountain that was orbiting around four suns! Then over the intercom I heard, “Brace yourself.” We collided with the clif and the whole ship smashed on impact. I immediately jumped out and ran. … The run was constantly downhill and she got tired easily, but the farther down she went, the air got thicker and inally she stopped. She stopped in a meadow. Well, at least she thought it was a meadow. This planet was so strange. The fact that it was a mountain and that it had living things like grass was beyond her imagination. Julia was turning around to view her surroundings when she heard a voice that said, “Welcome to E-135291BX! Would you like to have a tour of the planet?” “Sure,” said Julia. “Okay. We are very diferent from your planet earth. In fact, we are not even a planet. We are a huge vast mountain that orbits around four suns, two of which are made of ice. We have 2-D plants and very little water that mostly just drips of the bottom of our mountain-planet. The plants are strange colors and you can thank our fairies for that.’ “Oh yes and over there are our burnt ields that our dragon accidentally set on ire. Now we use them as our titanium mines, which is the only metal we have here. Watch your step by the way; this is a super rugged planet.’ “Don’t touch those please! Those are man-eating plants. At the tip of the mountain, we have our rulers, the lying alpacas!! We have barely any gravity, and in some places, none! No, you can’t go to the no-gravity section, only us born and raised on this planet can tolerate the no gravity. You probably would die if you went there. We also have a caldera of gems. It’s awesome! Wait, where are you going? Come back I am not done!” And no one knows what happened to Julia. 49

THE DEMON RAKAN (EXCERPT) Paige Porter Grade 6, Boise

It was the irst time Layla had seen—or smelled—a giant. He smelled like spoiled milk mixed with rotten eggs. Layla had to tilt her head all the way back to see him. He had gnarled hands and a sickly yellow-brown skin. He grinned at Layla, showing his blackened and missing teeth, and Layla shrunk back. His features were rather distorted: his angry red eyes never let Layla. He wore only a pair of beaten and weathered shorts made of some animal skin. Layla thought he must have been hundreds of feet tall. The giant’s foot could crush Layla’s tree without any efort; it would be like humansized Layla stepping on a beetle. He had more wrinkles than Great Elder and had more lesh than all of the orcs combined, Layla igured. The giant grunted something, a loud rumbling noise that echoed in the mountains. His voice was a thousand times louder than anything Layla had heard before.

ELF HOMES & ORPHANAGES

THE BATTLE AGAINST THE SHADOW BOX (EXCERPT) Zoe Sims Grade 5, Boise

Gasping for breath, I looked and saw Annie was struggling to hold the beast of. Then I noticed that part of an arm was loating a few feet away from Annie! Darn I hoped that arm was not hers. Ater a few seconds, the beast seemed to get excited and I joined in giving the beast a large cut across the face. The animal started swimming away to our relief. We swam to the ship where our mates pulled us up to the deck. When I looked over at Annie I realized that the arm had been hers, as from her hand to her shoulder was missing. Once Annie was dry, my mates started the typical medical procedures. Even from the deck, I could hear Annie wailing. Ater about an hour, the wailing stopped. I wondered what had happened. The medical procedures usually took longer than that. Then I hear someone scream, “SHADOW BOX!” The color in my face drained. My substitute irst mate Stinkyfoot Sam must have seen my face, because she asked, “This what I think, Cap’n?” “Yup mate. Take of your shoes.” We both peeled our shoes of and sprinted down the stairs to the lower deck and saw what I never wanted to see. Our rival pirates from the Shadow Box were on the Little Lady. The pirates from the Shadow Box are all men, and they are always mad at us because we stole the title of best pirates in the century. I grabbed my dagger and charged into battle. Ater a few minutes, I heard a scratching. I looked at the loor just as it caved in, sending both crews into the water. We looked around and saw the same beast that had taken Annie’s arm. “SHQUARK!” yelled a pirate from the Shadow Box.

CATONIA (EXCERPT) Gavin Cloyed Grade 6, Boise

This planet, Catonia, is rugged, but it produced many needed parts for starships. The planet has very limited technology, and all of it has to be imported. Only the rich cats that rule Catonia and the ship manufacturers have access to this technology. This is because titanium is the only known metal on the planet, and importing tools from diferent planets is very costly. In the outer regions, huge trees can be found. They are ive times as big as earth trees. These trees are the only reason life exists on Catonia. As mentioned earlier, cats rule this planet, and are very powerful and rich. No one has ever been able to overthrow the cats, because they have laser eyes. Using their riches and technology, they are able to create a vast cat-clone army. It consists of 20,000 laser-eyed cats equipped with light sabers and titanium armor. They reside in the palace owned by the ruler, Han Furball. He is an excellent ruler and keeps Catonia in order. The palace looks over the city of Ridgepoint, Hanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest achievement. He put a lot of time and money and efort planning Ridgepoint. However, there was a problem. For the past few weeks, the water storage and treatment plant, which ilters the water from the very few but dirty lakes on the planet, has had multiple leakages. The source of the problem has not been determined. Now, the treatment plant staf is reporting unusual noises.

RICK CATS VS. LOTS OF SOMBIES (EXCERPT) Isaac Santillian Grade 5, Boise

There is a world where cats and zombies ight. The cats have guns and big forts. But the zombies have 6,579,361 of them. That’s a lot of zombies. But in the forest, zombies don’t know where the cat base is at. The trees are 1,000 feet high and the cat base is in the trees. There are about 700 cats. But they have lying planes with mini guns. There are evil dogs. They make the zombies. The dogs don’t like the cats, so they want to steal the guns and their base. The cats have a monster in the trees. The dogs built a big plane so the zombies can attack. They both have secret bases. The dogs have big boats and Zombie Island. They have lots of guys on them. The Battleield: There are lots of zombies ighting the cats. The dogs are working on a big robot wolf. The cats have a big cat. There’s a big dragon that kills lots of people and people are trying to kill him. I have a guy named Noob. He is a police guy. He makes sure nobody breaks the rules. In the war, all the cats died. The zombies died. That’s crazy. Six million zombies died. But I never said evil dogs won. There’s still Noob. And of course Noob wins. But then a nuclear boom hits him and he dies. The End. PS: Lots of people died by the storm. The storm kills people.

OUT IN THE FIELDS Mia Albrecht Grade 7, Boise

As dirt roads create dust you cruise along in your old truck the smell of corn and beans smacks you with a hint of pond water The bright sun relects on mirrors there’s nice warm days every hill there’s another hill The birds chirp for miles and miles your hair blazes in the wind when you’re out in the ields

DISASTER IN ARDOCK Ciana Amarello Grade 6, Boise

I do not like how cold my country is. I live in a small house that feels freezing. I use coal for a ire. Tonight, I’m going to make hot soup. A nice hot soup with the silver veggies that grow on my loor. The good thing about my house is that it brings back good memories. I took a bite out of my soup. That night, I drank a hot cup of tea. It wasn’t the type of tea you think of, it’s the lavor of illed, fermented planet gas tea. It’s not a human type of tea. Humans are strange. They think that us humanoid creatures are rather strange. But, as a matter of fact, we are not the aliens. Our universe is diferent, but humans have no right to judge our universe. Here, on our planet, we use rockets as cars. Now, you may think that’s strange, but it’s not. Let everything I said sit in your mind. That night, I lay in my bed. A red ire came to my mind. My dreams were far beyond reality as I slept. Then, inally, the purple sun on my planet felt the morning glory and woke me up. The leakage of purple sun seeped in my window and opened my eyes. My house, as I remember it, was still here. I grabbed my blue glasses and walked out to get breakfast. I poured the green icy milk into a bowl and then I poured the rock hard cereal in next. Ater breakfast, I changed into my spacesuit. 56

JUMP

Hailey Wilson Grade 7, Virginia Water, England Chapter One I remember when this all started. I was in the waiting room for my latest medical checkup when the doctor came over to me. He had a grim look that did not match his smile wrinkles. He ushered me to a remote area, and I hurriedly wheeled myself over. He paused for me to catch up and said, “There were some signiicant anomalies to your results.” I felt shock ripple through me as I said, “What, what sort of anomalies?” He just looked at me sadly and shook his head. “Come back tomorrow at 10:00,” he said. “We can do more tests then. I glanced at him, wanting to ask more questions, but not sure what the answers might be. “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow,” and with that I rolled my wheelchair out of the hospital and away from all of its stricken feeling. I never managed to make that appointment.

WOLF

Heath Toomey Grade 7, Boise The dark creatures slid out into the clearing. Kuna shook with fear at the sight of them, their metal parts in stark contrast to his white fur. Fire Byte approached, pipes and tubes protruded from his body, jets on ire shot at random out of his ghostly form. Water Byte approached leaving a trail of dirty water in his wake. Earth Byte approached, spikes and dead plants grew and shrunk all over his body. Finally Air Byte approached, loating of the ground, steam hissed and leaked from his evil shape. “Hello, Kuna,” they all said at once. “Prepare your thoughts, for we are about to end them.”

BOTTLED

Rebecca Schuldenfrei Grade 9, Boise The towers were so tall for such an impractical purpose. They were planted in strategic places in several areas of the city where the sky was most vibrant. When people irst learned you could own a bit of the sky in a bottle they were understandably skeptical. Even when they got to see a little bit of translucent sherbet pink and orange like ink dissolved in water with tiny wisps of clouds in an art museum people had their doubts. Holograms were not so uncommon in art ater all. Over time the sky extractor towers were built and people came around. Bits of sky were popular with doomsday preppers, saying when the world ends they wanted to have something to remember “what an unobstructed sky looked like.” There were sky collectors with entire rooms illed with jars of storms and sunrises and ribbons of auroras in dark blobs of space. Git shops would sell sky from exotic places. And parents would buy big jars full of Northern Lights or muted lightning to use as nightlights. Everyone loved it. Maybe this is why no one bothered to notice when the sky started wearing through.

SIRENS AND SCREAMS (ABOUT WAR) Emily Medema Grade 8, Meridian

Air raid sirens wailed louder than the children. Even louder than that were the high-pitched screeches of the B-58’s. Explosions had silenced many, both in and out of bunkers. When the “all clear” inally came, shoes stepped over bones, and blood, sweat, and tears were all that was let of the city and its people.

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN TOLD Anna Price Grade 9, Boise

I’ve always been told the truth is subjective, and it changes depending on what angle you see it from. I’ve always agreed because I’m not smart enough to argue against it. Up until now, that is. I’ve discovered some hard and fast traits of the truth, and they are the following: 1. It always comes in a briefcase, or in a large box without a return address

It never arrives where or when you want it, but will arrive and will not stop haunting you until you face it

There must be at least one blurry and seemingly faked photo. If the truth you receive does not have this it is a government decoy and must be destroyed immediately

CONTAINMENT BREACH Olivia Jones Grade 10, Boise

My boots hit the ground with a splash as I run down the streets of my city. I look behind me, my breathing quickens and my feet go a little faster. I can hear shouting behind me as I make a quick turn. My body runs into the brick wall of the alleyway. I wince but ignore the pain as rain pours down the alley, the darker my, the darker my surrounds become. My hope increases when I see the heavy metal door to my home. The shouts of the containment team become muled as I inally reach the door. My legs are weak and my side is hurting, but I yank open the door. I yelp out as pain shoots up my shoulder. My ribs cry out as I pull the door open. I collapse on the inside of my home with a sigh of relief.

TAKEDOWN

Jake Hublou Grade 8, Boise Andrew sat down at Cafe Zarte, a cofee shop renamed ater the big change, which was the raising of the earth. He was wearing normal attire for the people of this city, with his suit underneath, just in case. He lives in a loating, dystopian city called Neo-Boise. The Lab, the tallest building which was run by the government, was behind him. Right beside it was Death Tower, as we call it, which used to be the Wells Fargo building. It homes the Trio of Power, which used to be called the Trio of Greatness. They run this place with an iron ist. When Andrew got his cofee, he opened up his hacked lightscreen and paid. He started the trek to his temporary home. The lightscreen is where you can hold anything, even money. The currency is called Spacecoin, as one of the trio’s name is Galaxias. The trio contain Galaxias, a women who is the smartest of the three and created all of our high tech stuf, (the reason why I have a hacked lightboard is because with the lightboard Galaxias can track anyone’s movements), Demo, the strongest and Ace, who is the most feared. Demo is head of police, and Ace keeps everyone in order. As Andrew continued his walk, he smelled smoke. No doubt it was Heatwave, aka Halle Sorin, one of the Mutates. This woman had the ability to control ire. Andrew was also a Mutate, his alias being Ripple. He was the water controller. He could see the cops rushing from their station on their motorcycles with gravitonics. Gravitonics allow their motorcycles to make turns easier, and allows them to hover. He whistled, in awe. The enemy may be their enemy, but they had some sweet stuf. As he entered the run down area of the city, where most of the buildings are in bad shape or just rubble, he entered one of the broken-down houses and made his descent into the Mutates temporary base. As soon as he walked in, a girl jumped in front of him. It was Katie Quells, better known as Solar. She was the earth Mutate. Katie is a very talkative girl, never shutting up. For some weird reason she only listens to David Foster, the air Mutate. David is a quiet man, very mysterious. He goes by Airstrike, and never listens to anyone. “Hey Katie.” He said, putting down a bag of food on the table. 60

“Didyougetmyfavorite?” She says rapidly and looks in the bag. “Wherearemybiscuits?YouknowIlovemybiscuits.” Again, she never shuts up. “Hesh Katie.. I got your biscuits. That’s for Halle when she gets back.” Andrew hands the girl a bag, and walks into the next room, where David sits all day until needed. “I got your food man.” Andrew says, placing the bag next to the levitating man. It seems he can do that by having the wind lit him. “I heard Halle went out, you see?” Andrew nodded. Of course he would know, David is so powerful he could see through the air. “Yep. The police were there in seconds. I got it all mapped out. Sweet gravitonics too.” “Good.” Just one word, and Andrew knew it meant big times were coming. Andrew let the room and sat next to Katie, who was chowing down on some biscuits. He took a sip of his cofee. It tasted like the best thing ever. And Cafe Zarte isn’t known for that. “Katie, what did you do to my cofee?” He asks, already knowing the earth mutate’s answer. “Oh I modiied it for you so it tastes better.” Katie responded. “Now you owe me ive things.” “And what would be the other four?” Andrew said, again knowing the answer. “Because I say so.” Bingo. Andrew shrugged. About an hour later, Halle came down the stairs, eyes blazing. “That was fun.” She said, sitting down in between Katie and Andrew, grabbing her bag of food. “Killed four cops in a ire, the rest started iring. That is when I melted and came here.” Halle had the ability to transport through ire, allowing her body to become part of it. She called it ‘melting.’ “Nice. We are all ready to start the attack. Your attack gave us the inal coordinate that we needed to ind the police station.” The station where the oicers were located is practically invisible, no one except the force and the government know where it is. “Can’t wait to get a hold of those motorcycles.” Of course, Katie was the irst to respond. “What makes them so fast? They seem to be at the scene in seconds.” “Well Katie, the motorcycles have gravitonics on them.” 61

With the confused look from both the girls, Andrew continued. “Gravitonics make a vehicle faster, more agile, and allows them to hover.” Andrew was the mechanic in the group, despite being the water mutate. “Oh God… that explains a lot.” Though, Andrew knew Halle didn’t mean it. The God part that is. All three of them are Atheist, except David. He believes God granted them these powers to clean up the mortals’ dirty work. At that moment, David walked in. “Grab your stuf. Demo is here.”

THE GREY OF LIFE Isaac Maust Grade 9, Boise

There is a world, much like ours, except that everything is paper-sheet white. There is no shadow nor highlight, and everything just looks… lat. Color and depth are nonexistent. Except for the people. The people are shades of grey. Dark grey, light grey, any grey will do. There’s no rhyme or reason to any of it, yet the people are people and diferent shades they are. Alas, the world is still mostly white, so the people must go about blindly. When the only distinguishable feature is a human, life is pretty hard to navigate. Many stumble, with only their instinct to guide them. They feel the wall to their front door, and the fence along the path. Sometimes they trip and fall, but they don’t mind, because maybe, just maybe, they’ll run into someone. That’s the best feeling in the world to them. No matter who it is, they are better on the eyes than stark white. So the people are very happy, and enjoy the greys of life.

WONDERS FROM OTHER WORLDS Abigail Peck Grade 9, Boise

Ann Marie ran the best shop in town. Relics from other worlds. Never taken from the actual main characters of the story, and as she’d learned, there’s almost two of everything. Her shop was dusty and old-looking, and in fading gold letters read Wonders From Other Worlds. If you stepped inside, you would be amazed: the little shop sold Harry Potter wands and elven made swords, old-looking sonic screwdrivers and arrows that a sign proclaimed Katniss herself had wielded. Most of the merchandise was known, but some just gave the world name on a tiny card next to the item in question, having no idea what the item actually was. There was any object you could think of, from any universe: The cloak of a Ranger from the book series titled Ranger’s Apprentice, a written spell from a series known as Magyk, and what was said to be a real RainWing dragon egg, from a series called Wings Of Fire. Lightsabers and wands, magic and spells were all sold at Wonders From Other Worlds. Evidently everyone thought that the RainWing egg was too dangerous, and so it remained in Ann Marie’s shop when it hatched. The tiny dragon was named Genevive, and the local children fed her fruit, as it was discovered that she didn’t eat meat. The children loved to play with her, and hide and seek was Genevive’s favorite game, probably because she always won and used her color-changing scales to blend into the background. In the late aternoon, the little dragon could be seen dozing with her wings outstretched in the glistening sunlight. But one day, the small, excitable town of Exoria became bedazzled when Ann Marie brought back a small wooden box from an unknown universe. This small box changed the town of Exoria forever…

THE POWER OF JACOB WILSON Jamison McKinney Grade 8, Boise

“Hello is this Jacob Wilson?” The oicer says. “Yes this is oicer how may I help you?” Jacob says. “We have a problem. There is a bank robbery at Neon’s bank. We need your help.” The oicer says. “I’ll be right over.” Jacob says. Jacob changes into his suit and sped out the door and onto the streets of Boise, Idaho. Jacob inally gets to Neon’s Bank, and saw a man walking out of the bank. It was him. The man that killed Jacobs family. This man’s name was Killer Lord The Destroyer of Europe. As soon as Jacob sprinted at him, Killer Lord knocked him out cold. When Jacob woke up, the police were sitting right next to him and he realizes that Killer Lord was gone. Jacob was mad. He lost him, and he has to ind him again. He inally got up out of his bed and took a shower. Jacob was a day of from work so he decided to take a walk around the city. As soon as he got to a street called Bannock, he saw a red barn that wasn’t used. Jacob started running towards it, and there was a man in there. It was Killer Lord. Jacob took a hit, and then punched Killer Lord in the stomach. Finally, Jacob took of his casual clothes and had his suit under them. Jacob started sprinting around Killer Lord making a force so Killer Lord wouldn’t get out. Jacob punched Killer Lord in the face so hard it knocked him out and he wouldn’t wake up. Jacob called the police and they arrested Killer Lord, and he couldn’t use his powers. “Thank you so much Jacob you did really good.” Nice Job. The police mentions. “I’m happy to help.” Jacob says. Ater that week, Jacob was normal again. He got good grades in school, did awesome in sports, and most of all he rescued people. He continued to have his powers and that was the story of The Speedster Jacob Wilson.

THE DEATH SLIDE Alexander Brower Grade 9, Boise

One time little Billy was at JUMP from 6 through 8 PM. Little Billy was ive at the time. He walks up to the lady and asks if he can go down the slide, the lady says sure and lets him go down. Billy starts reaching super high speeds and near the end of the slide he disappears. Then he realized he was somewhere else like underground. Billy starts to wander around and look at all the interesting things like blood and bones. He starts to overreact and faints, later he is being hung by a rope upside down. He faints again and wakes up on the slide with paramedics and cops all around him and he looks down and looks at the blood everywhere.

I HAVE ARRIVED Yixin He Grade 10, Boise

I have arrived in America now for seven days. It’s a very beautiful country and I want to know more about the place and its people. I think it must be very interesting, and I expect to fascinate me. But, when I join my irst class I was very afraid because my English is not very good. I was afraid that I wouldn’t understand, that the teacher would be mean, and that other students would laugh. So, I never said anything in class. But, although I was in this tough situation I did make one friend. Her name is Abby. She’s an enthusiastic girl and she usually helps me. She’s the only one I could talk to and not feel nervous. Today is the last day, but I don’t want to leave all of my classmates. This has been an experience I will remember forever, and I hope we can all meet again.

CHRISTIAN’S PUNISHMENT Devyn Hymer Grade 8, Boise

JUMP is a mysterious place. It makes perfectly happy people kill themselves. They jump of a high place and splat on the street, like a middle-aged writer. I believe his name was Christian. He was a happy man till that one day, he jumped. Another man sawed of his arm in the woodwork. He bled out there. I believe his name was also Christian. Another stabbed himself in the eye. His name is also Christian. Another Christian hung himself with his shirt in the kitchen. Another cooked himself alive in the kitchen oven. Another Christian drank paint. It ended up killing him. The deaths go on stapling themselves to the wall, eating themselves, performing surgery on himself, bashing his head into the wall to the point half of his body was lat, he was squished by a shelf, he forced himself to choke on an apple, he fell down an elevator shat, and most of all, he guillotined himself. I’ll miss you. Love you Dad.

BLOATED IMMORTALS Clara Ness Grade 8, Boise

She is a startlingly intelligent creature. She’s twice as such as any man, and her reputation as an enormously coldhearted killer is boundless. Her house, although she does not live there, is full of endless pale rooms and darkened corridors. Each room only houses one piece of furniture: a human body. Twisted into unnatural positions, with bloodless faces, shining blue lips, and hollow eyes, her victims sufer in eternity for their innate curiosity. When all her rooms are full, she gently lits each body to let it sink, ashen feet lashing against the cold water. There the bloated dead lie, forevermore immortal.

MACHETE MAN Quinn Gusinow Grade 8, Meridian

As I ran to the slide, I looked around the corner. I saw a person dressed in all black with a face mask. They were holding a machete, and looking straight at me. I decided it was a man because of his build. He started running at me, so I naturally decided to run. I ran as fast as I could towards the stairs. I knew the elevator would be too slow. I hurried down the stairs, skipping a few. He grabbed my arm right as we got to the second loor. I twisted out of his grip, and kept running.

KING’S DAY

Lucy Reynolds Grade 9, Boise “That faker of a king. How dare he.” Valder spits venomously. “Demanding gits when we don’t have jack squat.” “Mhm.” I hum, spinning around. “Are you even listening, Char?” he demands. I nod vigorously. “Yep. Totally am. 100% on board. Choo-choo!” My eyes wander when I hear a loud chirping noise. Jumping slightly, I look around to see a small blue dragon ly close to Valder and my heads. Too close. I watch the dragon ly back right to King Tur’el. I try to get Valder’s attention, but he’s too busy muttering curses and insults to listen. Tur’el turns his gaze directly towards us, brown eyes burning holes in our foreheads. “You two. Where is your git for King’s Day?” he asks, voice deafening. “We don’t have one, you jerk! We can’t aford one!” Valder yells. His skin and hair glow like grubs from the irelight; red eyes glinting with hatred. King Tur’el stands up. His black robes and silver crown make him look much more intimidating. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I take that ice dragon,” he states. Valder turns to me, motioning to the tunnel behind us. Nodding, we both face the tunnel, and bolt. 67

THE FOREST

Rebecca Schuldenfrei Grade 9, Boise From the time I was born until I was about eight I lived with a forest behind my house. It was the kind of place that felt halfway between magic and reality. You ind those a lot in the forests of rural Oregon. I spent most of my time picking blackberries, looking under rocks, and catching frogs in the little man-made pond in my yard. I would love to explore the forest when my parents would let me, walking on fallen logs and not caring if I was encroaching on the neighborsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; property. I would look for things that most adults would tell me werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t real. Fairies. Druids. Dragons. Dragons were my favorite. I planned to ind one and tame it; it would hide in the forest, and when I was meant to be asleep I would sneak out and ride it, soaring over the lights of my small town. I had it all planned out. But my family had to move when I was eight. Away to the city in urban Idaho. Where almost no one believed in magic, and I was something strange and other-worldly. Like something out of the depths of the forest.

TEACHING-WRITER BIOGRAPHIES Christian Winn, the 2016-2019 Idaho Writer in Residence, is a iction writer, poet, journalist, and teacher of creative writing. His iction has appeared in McSweeney’s, Ploughshares, The Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row Journal, TriQuarterly Hayden’s Ferry Review, Greensboro Review, Chattahoochee Review, Gulf Coast, Bat City Review, Every Day Fiction, The Pinch, Santa Monica Review, and elsewhere. His short story collections of, NAKED ME and What’s Wrong With You is What’s Wrong With Me are out from Dock Street Press. He teaches iction and poetry with The Cabin. He has written for The Boise Weekly, Thrive, The Idaho Statesman, and Idaho Magazine. He is the founder of the Writers Write iction workshop series, co-founder of Storyfort, and curator of Modern Campire Stories and the Couch Surfer Artist Series. Daniel Stewart has taught in the Writers in the Schools program since 1999, and serves as Writer-in-Residence at Ada County Juvenile Detention, and Frank Church High, an alternative school, in Boise, ID. He is the author of a book a poems, The Imaginary World (Wolf Peach Press, 2003). His poems have appeared in Puerto Del Sol, Rattle, Prairie Schooner, Educe, A Journal of Queer Literature, Sixfold, Thrush Poetry Journal, and YesPoetry, among others. Hannah Rodabaugh received an MA in literature from Miami University and an MFA in poetry from Naropa University. Her poetry has been published in magazines like Berkeley Poetry Review, ROAR Magazine, Horse Less Review, Written River, Rat’s Ass Review, Nerve Lantern, and others. She has a chapbook of poems titled With Words: Verse in Concordance modeled ater dictionary entries out from Dancing Girl Press. She also has poetry in Flim Forum Press’ anthology A Sing Economy and Nerve Lantern’s 69

Yoko Ono: A Tribute to Yoko Ono, a collection of writing in response to Yoko Ono’s performance art. She recently received grants from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, and the Alexa Rose Foundation, and she is a 2017 Artist in Residence for Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve. She works as a teaching writer at The Cabin Idaho and as a co-curator for Ghosts & Projectors, a Boise-based poetry reading series. Playwright Heidi Kraay examines the connection between brain and body, seeking empathy with fractured characters. Plays include How to Hide Your Monster, New Eden, Kilgore, Rajpurr: Tale of a Tiger and Slap! A Beaver Tale. Co-devised work includes small matters, SuperSecretSiteSpeciicSomething (Migration Theory) and DIRT (HomeGrown Theatre). Her work has been presented in Boise, regionally and in NYC. Heidi holds an MFA in Creative Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Arts from California Institute of Integral Studies. Member of the Dramatists Guild. www. heidikraay.com Former Senator Nicole LeFavour is a poet, essayist and former newspaper reporter with an MFA in short story writing from the University of Montana. Her stories have appeared in the North American Review and other journals. Her blogs and feature length news stories have received recognition locally and nationally. Torii Grabowski works as a writer and educator in Boise, where she lives with her husband and two canine children. Originally from Chicago, Torii moved to Boise to pursue her MFA in iction writing at Boise State University. While there she taught undergraduate writing and worked as the Associate Editor of The Idaho Review. Her stories can be found in The Manchester Review, The Southern Paciic Review, and The Hudson Review, among others. She is a two time winner of The Glenn Balch Fiction Award, and has collaborated with local ilm projects. Tracy Sunderland has worked as a professional writer, director, actor and teacher for over 20 years. She’s written several award winning short ilms and her irst feature ilm script is slated to shoot this fall. Her plays for young audiences, Maggie Lumière and the Ghost Train and Spooky Action at a Distance have played in schools and theaters throughout Idaho and Washington. Along 70

with fellow Cabin writer, Heidi Kraay, Tracy also devised and wrote last summer’s immersive theatre experience through downtown Boise SuperSecretSiteSpeciicSomething. She is an Associate Artist at Boise Contemporary Theater and teaches at Boise State University and College of Idaho. She is the recipient of the 2015 Adjunct Faculty of the Year Award at Boise State and a 2015 Idaho Commission on the Arts Fellowship in ilmmaking.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Cabin Writing Camps touch the lives of hundreds of young people and adults each summer due to the talent of our teaching writers, the generosity of funders, and the gits of time and support from volunteers, interns, board members and community partners. Thank you to teaching-writers Ashley Miller, Cassie Angley, Catherine Kyle, Christian Winn, Colleen Brennan, Danny Stewart, Hannah Rodabaugh, Heidi Kraay, Laura Roghaar, Natalie Disney, Nicole LeFavour, Ruth Salter, Torii Grabowski, and Tracy Sunderland. Many thanks to our 2018 interns, volunteers, and Cabin staf: Kelsey Hall, Shanyn Park, Paige Thomas, Hillary Colton, Areebah Hargan, Ashlee Vanliew, Aubrie Davis, August McKernan, Bethany Nitz-Maile, Brianna Campbell, Brock Bonnell, Candyce Utter, Cierra Bryant, Elise Adams, Emilee Harris, Haadiya Tariq, Hannah Clay, Humzza Hargan, India Roper-Moyes, Izzy Foxcrot, James Sorenson, Jason Hayhurst, Josephine Miller, Kaitlyn Schweitzer, Kendall Byers, Kylie Chappel, Lea Gombert, Lisa Chesnut, Madeline Ryan, Michael Vessel, Rachel Block, Cassie Angley, Hillary Bilinski, Gen Emerson, Katie Fuller, Megan Ramey, Tyler Weber, Megan Williams, Kurt Zwolfer, and Bean. A big thank you to our friends from the following organizations throughout the state who provided venues, learning opportunities, and ield trip locations to our campers: Boise Rock School, Boise Weekly, City of Boise Parks and Recreation, Flying M Cofee, Idaho Botanical Garden, The Discovery Center, The Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Hailey, the Boise Art Museum, The Fine Arts Center at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, The Foothills Learning Center in Boise, The Record Exchange, The Timbee Hall Recreation Center in the Fort Hall Shoshone and Bannock Reservation, 73

Zoo Boise, the World Center for Birds of Prey, The Boise Bicycle Project, BSUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Service-Learning Program, The Morrison Center for Performing Arts, JUMP!, The Egyptian Theatre, and Quality Art.

INDEX A

J/K

Akram, Zayma • 27 Albrecht, Mia • 56 Alluri, Dev • 10 Amarello, Ciana • 56

Jones, Houston • 11 Jones, Olivia • 59 Kim, Junseo • 30

B Brandel, Nevyn • 48 Brewton, Lucy • 18 Brower, Alexander • 65

C/D Cloyed, Gavin • 54 Dutton, Anabella • 31

E/F/G English, Griin • 12 Fossey, Lilly • 25 Foy, Ronin • 7 Freyer, Austin • 33 Gordon, Pacience • 7 Gusinow, Quinn • 67

H He, Yixin • 65 Henderson, Gretta • 42 Hublou, Jake • 60 Hunt, Santina • 9 Hurlbutt, Hendrix • 12 Hymer, Devyn • 66

L Large, Max • 15 LaSalle, Lucas • 41 Lee, Ruby Ann • 29

M Maust, Isaac • 62 McKinney, Jamison • 64 Medema, Emily • 58 Monford, Jude • 48

N/O Ness, Clara • 66 Ness, Conrad • 46 Oakey, Aubrey • 46

P/R Parsons, Natalie • 19 Patterson, Keren “KK” • 13 Peck, Abigail • 63 Porter, Paige • 50 Price, Anna • 59 Reynolds, Lucy • 67

S Salaam, Anna • 35 Sanders, Craig • 14 Santillian, Ethan • 11 Santillian, Issac • 55 Scarett, Frederick • 44 Schoolield, Trevor • 37 Schuldenfrei, Rebecca • 58, 68 Sieber, Miren • 20 Sims, Zoe • 53 Singer, Avery • 33

T Thompson, Tensei • 27 Toomey, Brooks • 17 Toomey, Heath • 57 Traynor, Leo • 16 Traynor, Serena • 23

W/Y/Z Wallace, Mateo • 13 Wensman, Tucker • 30 Wilson, Hailey • 57 York, Ethan • 36

STRANGE LANDS WRITING CAMPS 2018 Sapphire Blue is a cat who lives on a planet just like Earth. It is called Reath. She lives in a house with a lot of cat gimmicks. LOTS and LOTS of cat gimmicks. They have ﬂoating shelves, tunnels, and bridges. Little did their human, Pete, know that the cats actually had developed their own city. There were ﬁve restaurants, seventeen shops selling everything from wet food, to toys, to even dens. And since there were 22 (grown) cats, there were 21 dens. (This is because one cat has a roommate.) – SERENA TRAYNOR The Cabin is a Boise, Idaho literary arts organization. We forge community through the voices of all readers, writers, and learners. Writing Camps nurture the imagination and awaken the senses through creative adventures in the art of writing.

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