Prologue:
Magic doesn't exist. It simply doesn't. And yet our village, Leicht, is surrounded by moss-capped stone walls. These walls are over twenty feet high, and even though the next village is more than fifty miles away and there are no bandits along the roads, no one has dared suggest that they be torn down, if only to make them a little shorter.
Every once and a while, a handful of schoolchildren would doubt this magic-just-doesn't-exist scenario, but the other villagers always would attempt to quench these doubts. In school, we were taught that wild boars lurk beyond the walls of the village in the Black Forest, wild boars more fierce and violent than any others. The walls are simply there to protect us from them.
Then, one morning
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As it was only breakfast time and the younger children hadn't yet stirred, breakfast was laid out in an informal fashion on a sideboard and girls milled about, serving themselves or gossiping.
I grabbed a hunk of toast and an apple, wrapped them up in a napkin, and stepped outside onto the front porch. It was a crisp, breezy October day, and the cold wind in my face made me feel alive. I gazed out into the narrowly paved streets, watching cars zoom past as I bit into my apple. Then, I walked off the porch, around the orphanage, and to the forest's edge. I sighed. Although we had the conveniences of motor vehicles and electricity, I never had felt comfortable with the chaos they usually orchestrated.
I gazed out at the Black Forest until I remembered that I had school and didn't want to be late. Circling the building again, I undid the lock on my bicycle and leapt on, sticking to the sidewalks and checking my watch when it could be spared. I arrived at my school, a pale, yellow concrete building, with no time to spare. I secured my bike on the rack and slipped into line, at the head of which the principal was calling
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When I went through the pale wooden door the principal was sitting on his big leather chair, a mug of something dark and steamy set before him.
"What is it now, Fiona?" he asked, taking a sip.
"Miss Florence finds herself ill and unable to teach her classes today," I said quickly.
"Is that all? I'll attend to that. Now, head on out of here."
I stayed rooted to the spot. I had a question to ask, a question that had been on my lips since I was twelve, three years in the past.
“Fiona, leave,” came the commanding voice of my principal.
“Sir?” I asked.
“What, Fiona? I don’t have all day.”
“Sir, everyone here is keeping something from us. Something important. Sir, what is that? I already know that it can’t be wild boars.”
The principal’s lips thinned. “We’re hiding nothing from you,” he said, as if humoring a child. But I knew that he was telling me a lie. I could tell by the way he rocked back and forth with that insane smile on his lips.
“Tell me what you’re hiding from me,” I pressed, leaning closer across the desk. “Tell me what you’re all afraid of!”
That’s when I heard it. The voice I thought I’d heard when I was twelve, calling my
I walk past the secretaries’ desks and I can feel their eyes shaming me. As I approach the principal’s office, I hear his gruff voice through the doorway. “Well, I apologize for this inconvenience, Miss Taylor. You are free to return to class.”
Zero awoke to find himself standing, it was not something he was familiar with and he searched his memory for any recollection of it happening before. Quickly he discovered that large parts of his memory were missing, gone were the seemingly endless data bases of information. Quickly he sent out feelers trying for a connection of some sort but he drew a blank. It seemed that where ever he was now, had limited connection capacity. Instead he used his visual feed to survey his surrounding, it appeared he was in some kind of desert of discarded parts.
Brock awoke to the sound of a trumpet. He was ready to get training. Brock put on his long johns, pants, shirt, coat, and hat. Then he slowly walked out of his tent. When he walked out he was greeted by Major General Wayne. He said, “Follow me i'll show you where you will be training.” Brock followed him for a about a mile until they walked into a large field with hundreds of saddled horses, and about 80 other men. Major General Wayne said,
In this unique and especially cool essay I’m going to show you the wild . . . pig. Yes I said pig; the pig is actually a very cool animal. At least once you get past the unique sex life and let’s just say unusual bodies. Not to mention the unsettling eating diets! They have a huge impact on us all and their environment, so let’s learn a little about them, shall we?
The Creature That Opened My Eyes Sympathy, anger, hate, and empathy, these are just a few of the emotions that came over me while getting to know and trying to understand the creature created by victor frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. For the first time I became completely enthralled in a novel and learned to appreciate literature not only for the great stories they tell but also for the affect it could have on someones life as cliché as that might sound, if that weren’t enough it also gave me a greater appreciation and understanding of the idiom “never judge a book by its cover.” As a pimply faced, insecure, loner, and at most times self absorbed sophomore in high school I was never one to put anytime or focus when it came time
As the sun rose in a pool of crimson gold, light spilled across the sprawling rainforest, heralding in the start of a new day. Thousands of feet below under the thick canopy of trees, I was abruptly woken by the raucous cry of a large bird. Sluggishly sitting up on my thick taffeta sleeping mat, I turned to see my equipment shambolically scattered from last night’s blind rummage for a torch. My body ached from last night's trek. Struggling to crawl out, I was struck by a burst of crisp, cool and calming gush of wind.
Grady was able to step away a couple of feet away from the mother bear, so he can get a head start of running away from the bear... I stepped away from the bear, so if the bear starts chasing me, I can get a head start running to say my last prayers. I started to run as fast as I could because you don't want to just stand there and be gobbled up for dinner. I ran so fast that I couldn't keep a trail if I lost my family, then I tripped over a piece of twig that made me stop and hear the awful sounds of the bear. After I tripped over the twig, I decided to go back to the campgrounds.
A city was fast asleep as the night shrouded it. The only ones awake were those who belong to the night. A young man ran down the sidewalk, panting heavily.
Life in the camp is epitomised by one big question mark. Uncertainty is the order of the day. I don’t know how long I’ve been here or why I’m here. I’m lost in desolation and blended into the sea of blue and white. Papa tells me everything will be fine one day but he has lost the spark in his eyes and is now filled with despair. Today we continue to work on building huts, I can make an escape and meet up with Bruno like I usually did. A soldier gives me a wheelbarrow and I barely manage to hold it upright. I run towards the pile of rubble that hides me from the soldiers, the place where I meet Bruno. But before I could escape a blonde soldier yells at me. “Hey you! Come here. Faster you rat!” My heart pumps loudly, ringing in my ears. I run towards the soldier and he raised his hand, I immediately cower and waited for him to deliver the fatal blow. Instead he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the entrance gates. “We need someone with tiny fingers, you’ll be going somewhere where you are not allowed to talk. Is that clear?” The soldier ordered, I didn’t want to think what they wanted with my small bony hands.
This chilling day began as all days did… with nothing out of the ordinary until the incident had occurred. All school days at Greenwich, Connecticut High School, had started with me not being able to get out of bed, but finding a way to pull myself together to look presentable, but something was different today than how it normally was. The wind that blew the colorful leaves and scattered naked branches, blew peculiar. The ground felt harder and raw as I walked to school unsure of what had changed from the time I had set foot outside the night before.
It was a beautiful friday afternoon as Sam and Jack were preparing for the camping trip up in the Redwood forest. As Sam was listening to the radio he over heard a news cast about wildfires in California. It just makes me treble and shiver when I hear the word fire. “Hey Jack I don’t know if we should go because of the fires up north.”
“Look! think I see the cabin!” Ben Halperin looked up from his Warriors book to his sister Lily's’ call. He could see the cabin he and his family would be staying at for the next week, between two mountains on a ridge in the distance. “Mom, are we going out for dinner tonight?” Ben asked his mom “Sure honey, whatever you want.”
We pull up to the two story run down house, and I feel home. The unwatered brown grass, and scratched up door brings a smile to my red, tear filled face. I go up to the guest room, where I have my secret stash of clothes for whenever I escape my house, to come here. I see the brown bed, with a mint green quilt, with the unmatched white side table where a coster lies, along with a lamp. The dark maroon wall reflects my emotions perfectly.
It was finally the first day of school; I was excited yet nervous. I hoped I would be able to make new friends. The first time I saw the schools name I thought it was the strangest name I’ve ever heard or read, therefore I found it hard to pronounce it in the beginning. The schools’ floors had painted black paw prints, which stood out on the white tiled floor. Once you walk through the doors the office is to the right. The office seemed a bit cramped, since it had so many rooms in such a small area. In the office I meet with a really nice, sweet secretary who helped me register into the school, giving me a small tour of the school, also helping me find
The more time I spent in the stairwell the less I had to interact with other toddlers. Once the teacher started the day, I rushed to the back of the classroom for the seat next to a large window. As I looked down on the city streets and across the treetops, my anxiety settled. Nature was my escape from society; a place in which I was free to wander alone. I remained silent throughout the entire day.