Archie In Trouble!

• Kiara Cooley, Grade 7, Redlands College
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Top Secret 2016' competition

Archie, was supposed to be curled up sleeping in the red barn on the farm. Instead Archie was stuck in a cage, frightened and alone.
Archie was a male, white puppy, with a brown spot above his tail. Archie was impulsive and liked to explore. He had two sisters, Gypsy and Maggie. They were white and fluffy like Archie and had the same brown spot above their tails. The farm they lived on was littered with old rusty farm equipment and piles if sawdust.
Gypsy noticed that Archie was not in his bed and woke Maggie quietly. They knew that Archie wanted to see what was across the log down at the creek. They were told by their parents to never, cross over. Gypsy and Maggie raced down to the creek and stood on the log. The log started spinning and the creek turned into rapids. Finally when the log stopped spinning, Gypsy and Maggie looked up and saw a ghostly character floating above them. The ghost explained to the puppies that they had been teleported back in time. The ghost sprinkled magic dust over Gypsy and Maggie and told them that whenever they sensed danger, their magical powers would be triggered. The ghost vanished.
All Gypsy and Maggie could see in front of them was a dark and eerie landscape with black, stick like trees. Maggie was swooped up by one of the trees. Gypsy started running after the tree carrying Maggie and suddenly she started to fly, she looked over her shoulder and she had grown wings. The tree saw Gypsy flying and turned around to chase her and dropped Maggie. Before Maggie hit the ground, her wings also appeared and both of them flew higher to escape the trees.
Gypsy and Maggie found a cave to rest in, but before they could catch their breath, they turned around to see enormous fire breathing dragons heading towards them. They had flaming red eyes and sword like tails. Gypsy and Maggie both started to glow a fluorescent white and the dragons were screeching and rubbing their eyes. The white glow was burning the dragon’s eyes. Gypsy accidentally pointed her tail towards a dragon and a lightning bolt hit the dragon, it burst into flames. Gypsy and Maggie used their magical powers to defeat the dragons. They found their brother Archie in a cage and they held onto him with one paw each and flew back to the log.
The puppies stood on the log, Gypsy slipped into the rapids. The log started to spin, Archie tried to grasp Gypsy`s tail and then he lost his footing and he fell into the rapids too. Gypsy sensed danger and her wings reappeared, she flew back up onto the log and then she hauled Archie back onto the log.
When the log stopped spinning, they opened their eyes, the puppies had been teleported back to the farm. Gypsy and Maggie frowned at Archie, he was in BIG trouble!