The Cliffhanger

• Taylah Gray, Grade 4, Forest Lake State School
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Word Zone 2016' competition

“Crash! The sound of evil taking over still fresh in their heads,” wrote Tessa. What Tessa did not know was the pen she writes with makes stories reality. “The battle was horrid,” Tessa continued. The evil used unknown curses to win. The good began losing hope and gradually disappeared. To this day the remaining good huddle together at the edge of a cliff in search of a new leader to put good back into power.
“Go to Bed,” Lyric complained as she and Magnus came into her room.
“What time is it?”
“It is 11 o’clock,” Magnus chirped.
“Just sleep, you’re staying for a week, unpack tomorrow,” Tessa yawned. As they slept strong winds blew and rain rocketed against the roof. In the morning Lyric woke up first and being her usual O.C.D self, checked the mail box! When Lyric came back in Tessa and Magnus were already up. “Hey, look what was in the mail,” Lyric said coolly. When Tessa saw it she ripped the letter open and screamed. “Read it!” Lyric yelled.
The letter read:
Tessa, Lyric and Magnus, read 1 paragraph of Tessa’s story, spin around then touch Tessa’s pen.
When you arrive, we are at the first cliff to the right of the big maple tree.
“It will do no harm if we just do it,” Magnus said. For some reason Tessa had a bad feeling, even though, she continued. They did everything smoothly but as soon as their fingers brushed the pen, wind came under their feet and took them away.
The spinning stopped in a dark misty land. A cold voice came from behind, “What are you doing on my property?” It barked. “I am the great Burgarie.” A small stuttering sound broke through, “We need t-to visit th-the big ma-maple tree.” It was Magnus, he was white with terror. “To gain my trust you must defeat Fluffy the dragon.” They all nodded in silence. As they left, Tessa the leader of the group, found a small toxic dart. “Take this it could be useful,” Tessa told Lyric.
The next day after they slept they began to plan their fight against Fluffy. “I could write down about defeating the dragon,” Tessa told them. “My pen is magical.” At around half past 8 they left for the arena where they were told to go to.
The countdown began, “3...2...1 GO!” A small cute dragon was released, something was wrong until out of nowhere Burgarie’s slave fed it something and it was the size of a house. Tessa grabbed her pen and wrote something realistic but gives victory. Suddenly Fluffy started shooting fireballs everywhere. Fluffy gets distracted by Lyric while Magnus snuck up from behind and slayed her. Fluffy fell to the ground as fire narrowly missed Lyric’s ear. A voice came through the megaphone, “You can pass through the maple tree.” As quickly as it was wrote the events started unfolding.
It took days to reach the maple tree and they were all so puffed from the walk that they slept for 2 hours. After they slept they headed right for the cliff. When they got to the cliff the good leader told them everything, and decided to launch a surprise attack next year but sleep now.