The Adventure Chronicles 

By Suki

Episode 1 The Sky Dragon

Scarlet reached for the rope and tugged it, her feet nearly slipping off the deck. The rain battered hard against her back, causing her to crawl to the cabins. The wind howled around her, making it twice as hard to reach the hatch. She undid the heavy bolt and clambered in, her clothes as wet as if she had just spent hours in the deep, blue sea. The Sky Dragon flew faster and soon the bad weather ceased and all was calm, for a minute.

At that moment,  three hungry dragons burst out of the clouds like daggers cutting through butter. Fire poured out of their mouths, engulfing their skyship in flame. 

‘Get out of here!’ Captain Rover  yelled, turning The Sky Dragon to avoid another deadly river of embers. Scarlet, John and Milly climbed onto the deck with their fireproof cloaks and big buckets of water. The rest of the crew were already fending off the dragons with cannons and guns or helping by putting out the fire. Scarlet and Milly ran with their buckets over to the fire while John ran straight to the guns.

The Captain made a quick cut into a large cloud, sending a ginormous, damp puff of air into everyone’s lungs. They tore  out of the clouds, gasping for air and looking behind for the dragons. Had they lost them?

Episode 2 Landing

Scarlet suddenly realised The Sky Dragon was falling rapidly. She scanned the sky ship looking for the cause, the wind tugging vigorously at her cloak. She stopped, eyes wide in amazement; there on the balloon was a ginormous, gaping tear, like an angry wound. The wind keeping the air ship afloat was seeping out of it. They were going to crash!

Wind tugged against the skyship causing it to blow off route. They were heading straight for a forest that stretched as far as the eye could see. Scarlet wondered what forest it was. Was it Merrydale Wood? No, Merrydale consisted of happy silver birches and gorgeous honey bells. The Forest of Shadows? No, they were heading for The Moonlit Plains they couldn’t be that off course.Could they?

Just then, they collided with the ground in a small clearing, in the centre of the abandoned forest. Scarlet stumbled out, dazed. John and Milly scrambled after her.

‘Are you alright?’ they cried.

‘Fine,’ she replied.

Scarlet paused for a second to take in her surroundings. Tall, dark pine trees dominated the view and small, holly bushes with bright red berries hid, in their spiky depths. The clearing was dull and plain, rotting grass and withered flowers crushed under her boots as she went to help the rest of the crew. After what felt like a lifetime, the sun began to set and the area became ever darker.

Suddenly, a scream rang out …

Scarlet whipped around, her long, brown locks slightly blurring her vision.

It was Milly. She was staring, gaping in fear. For there, on the floor in front of her, was John. He was wrestling with the dark figure of an animal, blood streaming from a gash on his knee. The crew, men and women, were rushing to help him, trying to pull the creature off. Finally, Captain Rover heaved the creature off John.

‘It’s a white leopard!’ someone shrieked.

The leopard slinked off back into the darkness of the trees.

White leopards were rare, even for the second continent, and are only found in the Forest of Shadows. ‘So that’s where we are!’ thought Scarlet. ‘We need to get out of here quickly!’

Even though the white leopard was gone, Scarlet still felt she was being watched by a million eyes. ‘Nothing worse could happen now!’ she told herself.

But what she didn’t know, the worst was still to come…

Episode 3 Sapphira

The next morning, the leopard came again. It had a small doe clamped in it’s mouth. No one dared to approach. It padded slowly into the middle of the clearing and stopped, placing it’s catch on the ground, then backing away into the depths of the forest.

It carried on like that for a few more days until people started going over to it. Scarlet was the first to approach, she held out her hand and it casually rubbed its soft, warm fur against her palm. She had never felt anything like it before, she felt like she was stroking heaven itself.

‘If it carries on like this we will have enough material to start setting off again in no time!’ Captain Rover told the crew a few days later. Most of the crew responded with whoops and yells for finally launching back into the sky.

Scarlet was overjoyed to hear the news but she also felt another feeling. Sadness? She had bonded with the white leopard over the last few days and was sad to have to finally leave.

Maybe she could take it with her?

She questioned the captain about it the following day.

‘Absolutely not!’ she cried.’We can’t fly and airship with a wild animal on board! It will rip everything to shreds!’

‘It won’t, I swear!’ Scarlet replied.

‘My answer is no and that is final! I will not have that beast boarding my ship! Am I understood?’

‘Yes captain,’

Scarlet slumped into her bed, trying to fight back the urge to cry. She couldn’t. ‘No matter what, I won’t leave it behind!’ she whispered, shoving her head deep into the pillow, tears streaming down her cheeks.

A week later, everything was ready to go and Scarlet’s plan was in full swing. She and the leopard were silently sneaking across the side of the deck, aiming for the small hatch. John was unknowingly helping them by distracting the crew with another one of his epic tales.

‘Nearly there, so close!’

They were now quietly slinking down the hallway.

‘There’s my room!’ Scarlet cried but then quickly covered her mouth and looked to see if someone had heard her.

Trying to be as stealthy as possible, she pushed open the door with a small ‘Creek!’

Scarlet froze because there, on her bed, sat Milly.

Milly starred in absolute horror as Scarlet came in and  shut the door with the white leopard standing beside her.

‘What are you doing with an animal in here?!’ she shrieked.

‘Keep it down!’ Scarlet replied.’ Please Milly, don’t tell anyone until we set off, ok? Captain said I couldn’t take her with us, but I can’t bring myself to leave her all alone again!’

‘No, I won’t let you!’

‘Please Milly!’

Milly considered.’Fine,’ she mumbled. ‘I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have her aboard.’

‘Thank you! Oh I forgot to introduce you. This is Sapphira. Sapphira, this is Milly.’

‘Well we’d better get some rest, tomorrow will be a busy day!’

‘Agreed!’

Episode 4 Back In The Air

All night, the wind howled. Alone, Milly gripped the railings. Mist clung to the skyship, making it very difficult to see. Milly shivered. Had she done the right thing?

At that moment, she heard heavy breathing coming towards her. Silently, a creature appeared, crawling up the ship’s side. An amber eye glimmered in the torchlight. Milly gasped. Was it a goblin?

In an instant, Scarlet and John were right beside her, peering at the figure. The amber eye peered back then took flight. It soared through the air like a firework. Then something happened. 

Out of the blue, another silhouette appeared. It dived straight for them. They stared in horror unable to get away…

A chuckle came from behind them. They turned around and saw Captain Rover.

‘What are you doing?’ she enquired. The two silhouettes came and perched on her shoulders. 

Scarlet, Milly and John were speechless. The two shadows were acorn and oak, Captain Rover’s hawks.

‘You’d better get to bed, otherwise you three will be imagining all kinds of things.’ she ordered.

And so The  Sky Dragon drifted on through the night, the children dreaming of dragons and skyships and their next great adventure…