We are sharing the next story in our series, Featured Short Stories, written by students in the Creative Writing Club.
Every week, the students in the club work on writing short stories, sometimes from their own ideas, and sometimes from story prompts. This week’s prompt was – write a story about twin wizards who are sent on a quest to retrieve a powerful artifact, but it will only work if they can stop competing and start cooperating.
This week’s story was written by Omotayo, aged 10. Enjoy!
The Gem of Power
It was a warm summer day, near the end of July, when Oliver received an interesting call. Oliver was born into a magical family, and he had just completed a challenge in his town to gain new magical skills. Both his parents were powerful wizards; and when they were younger, Oliver and his twin brother, who’s called Jack, went to Wizarding school. Their parents had wanted them to discover and harness their powers at a young age. However, Jack and Oliver didn’t like each other, they had always been competitive, each one trying to be better than the other. As soon as they could, they had gone their separate ways and lived apart.
He picked up his phone and answered the call.
“Hello?” he said.
“Hello, this is the King, Noah. Is this Oliver Jacobs?”
“Yes, it is. Why are you calling me? Has something happened?” Oliver asked.
“You won’t believe what I’m about to tell you! I just found out that our town is the rightful owner to the Gem of Power!”
“The Gem of Power? I thought that was just a nursery rhyme! I can even remember the lyrics: The Gem of Power, the Gem of Power, so powerful as it’s in the name. Until Grog the Dragon took it, and it was never seen again. The Gem of Power, the Gem of Power.” Oliver sang, recalling the lyrics.
“I thought it was just a song too, until I found this old document in my mansion’s basement.”
“Cool! But what does that have to do with me?” Oliver asked.
“It turns out that Grog the Dragon is real, and he did take the Gem of Power. So, I want you and your brother to go and get it for me.”
“What?! I haven’t seen my brother for seven years and I don’t want to break that streak. Anyway, even if you asked me to do it alone, it’s too dangerous. Grog is going to burn me if I even step close to his cave, and you want me to steal it?”
“It’s King’s orders! And there will be a huge reward for you both if you manage to get the Gem of Power back to our town. Now, call your brother and tell him what I’ve just told you. Goodbye.”
The king said firmly, ending the call.
“Do I even still have his number?” Oliver muttered to himself.
For a few minutes, he replayed the conversation and thought about how it would feel to be a hero if he and Jack got the Gem of Power. Then he did what the king had asked.
“Hello Jack. The king just told me that we must go on a quest to get the Gem of Power from Grog the Dragon.”
“You are aware that April Fools’ Day is in April, right? Not July?” Jack said.
“I’m not joking. I told him that it’s too dangerous, but he said that it was king’s order and something about a huge reward, then he hung up.”
“Okay, fine. Come to my house tomorrow and we can plan better.” Jack told Oliver.
When Oliver’s flying alarm clock woke him up, he opened a portal to Jack’s house and went through it.
“Gosh, his house is dirtier than I imagined.” Oliver said to himself.
“I can hear you; you know.” Jack said. “I have my wizard ears on.”
“Sorry,” Oliver muttered.
“Anyway, about this quest. I have looked at the maps of the kingdom. My plan is, we take the North route, as we can get there quicker. Bring your wand, food, water and any other essentials that you need.” Jack said.
“Well, you seem eager,” Oliver said. “Let’s head north then.”
They began their journey to Grog the Dragon’s cave.
Oliver looked towards the horizon as they left the town behind.
“Do you have the magic map? You know, the one that has all the magical destinations on it.” he asked.
“No I don’t. Even if I did, it would be useless. We all thought that Grog and his cave were just in some song for babies; a supposedly fictional place wouldn’t be on a map.”
“So how do we find the cave?” Oliver asked.
“Why don’t you use your teleporting powers so that we can fight Grog, get the gem and be on our way?” Jack suggested.
“I thought you were a wizard. Every good wizard knows that you can’t teleport to magical places. My magic won’t work there, or at least, I seriously doubt it.” Oliver explained.
“Okay fine, but what are we supposed to do now?” Jack asked.
“Let’s keep walking and hope that we are going the right way. If after a few days pass and we don’t find it, we will come back to this spot and go a different way. I will put a magic stone here, so that we can find our way back.”
“Let’s go right. Right is always right.” Jack suggested.
Oliver liked this plan, so they walked right until they got to a forest. It looked dark and eerie but as they didn’t have any other plan, they had to go in. Then they immediately ran into a group of four goblins. Goblins had always hated wizards; they claimed that they were the first magical creatures to ever exist, and that wizards had taken their respect with fancy tricks and wands. They only liked wizards if they were dead and in a burger with their blood as sauce.
“Duck, now! Behind this bush!” Oliver whispered.
“I smell wizard!” One goblin remarked to the others. “I guess that’s our dinner sorted. Fried or boiled?”
“We can decide that later. We need to catch our food before it runs away. Now, use that nose of yours to find them!” The oldest goblin, the leader told him.
Before the goblins could enact their plan, Jack went in and shocked one of them with his wand.
“Haha!” he shouted. He grabbed the second one with his magic beam and shook him, before throwing him onto the ground.
“How are you guys getting beaten up by your lunch?! I’ll have to get him myself. But I’m also eating him by myself!” The leader stated angrily, trying to catch Jack.
“Not if I get you first!” Jack said, swooping from behind and hitting him with the log that he was sitting on. The goblins realised they couldn’t fight him and ran away.
“Tada! Thanks for not helping.”
“Why did you do that? You could have been hurt or killed!” Oliver shouted.
“You should be thanking me for stopping you from lying between two slices of bread!”
“Stop going off without me! Understand?” Oliver told him, frustratedly.
“Gosh, you don’t have to be rude about it.” Jack replied.
They continued walking through the dark and damp forest with menacing clouds hovering over them and eerie trees watching them.
“I thought ‘right was the right way’? Then where’s our dragon?” Oliver asked, with a smirk on his face.
“Sorry, it was just a guess.’ Jack explained. “Hang on, I see something interesting.”
Ahead of them was a small hill, and the entrance to what seemed like an empty cave with a green glow inside.
“Oooh. This could be it! But why is it empty? Shouldn’t Grog be here?” Oliver said, excited.
“Maybe the dragon went to find food,” Jack said, looking around for footprints or tracks.
“Let’s take this as an opportunity to grab the gem before he comes back.” Oliver said.
They crouched down and went into the cave, and there they saw it in a corner – a huge emerald stone, glowing mysteriously.
Oliver picked it up carefully. “Wow, even just holding it makes me feel more powerful.”
“Cool, but I think we have bigger problems!” Jack said, looking straight into the fiery eyes of Grog the Dragon.
“ROARRR!!!!!”
The huge dragon had returned without warning. Grog towered over them, its black scales as hard as armor and sharp as broken glass. Smoke curled from its nostrils with every breath, and when it growled, the ground seemed to tremble. Its wings were jagged and torn at the edges, like it had fought a hundred battles and won every one. Its eyes glowed like burning coals, and its claws were long enough to slice through stone. It lifted itself and tried to stomp on Jack, but he managed to duck out of the way.
“Use the gem!!” Jack shouted.
Oliver concentrated on the gem, rubbing his hands on it and unlocking its powers. Then he was suddenly faster, and stronger and immune to harm.
Grog noticed the yellow glimmer around Oliver and left Jack alone, locking in on a new target. He began to breathe fire, but Oliver was resistant to it.
“Tire him out,” Jack said, as he used his wand to create a bright light to distract the dragon.
Oliver concentrated again and created a green sword. Jack was too busy with the light to notice Grog behind him.
“Jack, watch out!”
But it was too late. Grog breathed fire and burnt Jack.
“NOOOOO!!!!!” Oliver cried.
In a fit of sadness and rage, he jumped up with his sword and forced it into the dragon’s chest. Grog roared and flapped its wings, thrashing about, then it collapsed on the ground.
Oliver rushed to Jack’s side.
“Jack! Jack!” he cried.
He tried to use the Gem to bring Jack back to life, but he couldn’t.
Oliver’s heart felt heavy as he returned home with the Gem of Power. Not even the king’s excitement and the huge parade in the town could cheer him up. He had returned a hero, but now his head was full of grief.
The End
If you have a child who loves writing stories and you want to encourage them to explore their creativity and their imagination, then we would love to have them join our writing club! Just click on the link to register, and we will be in touch. Creative Writing Club – Registration Form.
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