The Epic Sword Hunters

• Brody Townshend, Grade 2, Palm Beach State School -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

Once, two boys called Brody and Edward were trying to find their ultimate treasure – the breathtaking gold encrusted Sword of Australia. It had vanished many years ago after a series of earthquakes had struck the country and they had received information that gave them a good idea of where they should search.
Their long journey started with many days travelling through windblown desert dunes and land covered in vicious thorns and sharp bushes.
They were happy to finally come upon a change in the landscape when they started to see long green grass and then a large lake spread out in front of them as far as their eyes could see.
Their excitement quickly stopped when they saw five gargantuan creatures, which they could only describe as monsters, standing in the distance near the far edge of the lake.
They didn’t know what to do and had to make a quick decision to run or try to face them. They decided they would have to get past them in the best way they could as they were standing in the way of getting their treasure.
As they got closer, the monsters lifted their heads and appeared to see them. They started to move towards them and they grabbed their zappers out of their backpacks. They knew they were going to have to bring their ‘A’ game or they could end up being monster food! In case you don’t know what a zapper is, it is a laser that contains sunbeams and when shot it shoots single sunbeams, which were so strong, they could kill someone, or something, instantly.
Two died straight away when they hit them, but the others took eighteen beams to get down. Brody thought, “Are you serious? Eighteen beams!”
They ran on past the lake and over monstrous hills until they saw something shining in the sunlight. They weren’t sure what it could be, but thought they should check it out.
Edward got there first and then stopped. Brody caught up to him wondering what was going on.
He soon knew why Edward was standing there with his mouth wide open. Out of the top of a field of flowers, they could see the handle of what looked like a golden sword.
They had found it! Their treasure!
They ran as fast as they could for the short distance left to get to the shining sword and just as Brody reached out his hand to grab it, his body became stiff like a statue. He had been hit by something like a tazer. Another team of treasure hunters were there too! In the confusion, Edward was able to grab the sword and dragged Brody to safety.
They were able to make it to the coast and got on board a cargo ship, which took them home. They were safe for now but knew that more danger and adventures weren’t far away.