New Trust

 Hey everybody! Sorry I have not been posting much lately, but I guess I'm not really into blogging. So, don't be checking everyday for a post (you'll end up pretty disappointed), but try to check every month, because I may be posting more often. With my story, Trust, I decided to kind of rewrite it (make it better and a little more realistic), but the concept will still be the same. Here is some of what I have written lately. Just warn you it's not much!    
 
        As soon as the school bell rang, the doors were unlocked and all the students of North Kila Middle School rushed out like a swarm of bees. It was a beautiful day, but nobody walked home. We all remembered as soon as we left the building that it was to dangerous to walk. So we climbed into our cars and rode home instead, many of us wistful that such a lovely afternoon was going to waste. But we couldn’t help it, for even the birds seemed to have ceased their singing because of the tragedy that had happened the previous evening.
I climbed into my car and told my destination to it. Then, with a small jolt, I was heading home. My car, a shiny silver Futuristic Car, was given to me for my thirteenth birthday. Ever since then I have drove it to wherever I needed to go that was not within walking distance. School was within walking distance, but, as I have said before, today was definitely not a walking day.
Traffic was heavy, but thankfully my pod was only two blocks away, so I wasn’t stuck for to long. My car soon pulled up at the end of the driveway of my pod, and I stepped out, breathing in the fresh air. I looked around before heading inside, and shivered when I thought of what had happened. The neighborhood hardly looked any different, the only difference being no kids playing 
outside. You wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking that something this terrible had occurred.      

Stay tuned for more!

Six Flags New Orleans

Six Flags New Orleans is, as its name says, a Six Flags in New Orleans. It was abandoned after a devastating hurricane in that area, and so for an assignment for school, I wrote this short story. Enjoy!

        My throat burned from lack of water, and I could barely see through my tears. I kept running though, not wanting to turn around yet. I did stop running, however when I reached a big iron gate. I sniffed and dug a key out my pocket, and, after fiddling with the lock on the gate for a few seconds, heard a click and pushed the gates open. I gulped, and then started running again, running in no specific direction, just running. Finally, I couldn’t run any farther. I gasped for breath and, panting, looked around me. There were the Farris Wheels and roller coasters, all which belonged to my parents, owners and founders of Six Flags New Orleans. My eyes were drawn to the Titan, the tallest roller coaster in all of the amusement park, thus making it a popular attraction. But right now, there were no people laughing and playing, and no screams were heard from the track. The whole Six Flags had been closed for a hurricane that was coming our way, but that wasn’t going to stop me. 

I was sure that the hurricane-Hurricane Sandy, they called it- wouldn’t be coming anytime soon, so I felt free to roam the park. This place was always a big comfort to me when I was in despair (I don’t really know why), and boy did I need comfort right now. I could feel the drying tears about to pour again, so I began running again, this time to a destination; Titan. I slowed to a walk when I reached the place where people boarded and got off the roller coasters. I walked past the roller coasters and stepped onto the track, the cold metal on my bare feet making me shiver. I kept walking on the track, using the long metal bars that ran across the track as ladder rungs when it came to steep hills. Thoughts raced through my head, and I tried to stop them before they made me dizzy. But then I remembered what my Aunt Hannah had once told me. “It’s best to just cry your problems out. Never keep them in, otherwise you will feel worse.” I took a deep breath and painfully let the thoughts flow. I forced myself to not start running on the track, and stiffly kept walking. 

My brother was leaving. I sucked in my breath in pain. How could he leave! He had just come home from college and now he was leaving to join the army! What if he got killed? What if he got worked to death in boot camp? What if I never saw him again? He had just revealed the news to us tonight, and my parents had been thrilled for him. But I was devastated! 

I reached the highest hill of the roller coaster and turned to look out over the park and into the woods behind it. I realized that the cool evening breeze had turned to a vicious, freezing cold wind. I squinted in the darkness and began to make out a lot of big storm clouds. “What!” The words caught in my throat. Was this Hurricane Catrina? I watched the storm clouds warily, and in five minutes my fears were confirmed. I was in the middle of a category five hurricane. 

My instincts told me to get off the track as soon as possible, but my brain seemed to have lost control. I couldn’t move. I could feel the wind about to blow me off the track to the ground twenty or so feet below. I came to my senses enough to at least get on my stomach on the track and cling onto the rungs. I loved heights, but this was terrifying. The storm raged on for about an hour longer, but it seemed like days. By the time the weather settled, I felt sick. I thought I could feel the roller coaster still swaying a little, but then again maybe it was just me. I willed myself to sit up from my very uncomfortable laying position, and nearly fell off from shock. My mom and dad’s park was ruined! Everything within sight was damaged, but most of it I couldn’t see because it was covered in water. I didn’t feel ready to start climbing down, but just then I thought I heard sirens in the distance. I watched as fire trucks and police cars pulled up to the amusement park, followed by one normal vehicle that I recognized as my parents minivan. Relief swelled over me in an instant, and that was when I realized how tired I was. I saw as my parents and brother jumped out of their vehicle screaming for me. I yelled back, my voice squeaking. 

Later, when I looked back at the amusement park, my heart went out to it. No more Six Flags New Orleans.

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An Authors Life

Here is a small segment that I wrote from the point of view of an author. It is nothing much, just something I thought wouldn't hurt if I posted it. It's really short, and is supposed to be a little humorous. It is called An Authors Life. See what you think.

Ring! Ring! The alarm jolted me awake and nearly made me fall out of my chair. I quickly grabbed the edge of my desk before falling over backwards. I glanced bleary eyed at the alarm clock which was sitting on the bedside table beside my bed, and saw that it was six-o-clock.

“Ughh,” I groaned, “I forgot to turn it off. That’s just perfect for a Saturday.” I rubbed my eyes, and stood up to go turn the clock off. Then I went back to the desk and sat down with a sigh. “Well, I probably won’t fall back asleep now,” I thought. “Oh well.” 

I gazed down at the papers that I had been working on the night before; until I had fallen asleep, that is. As I looked at the unfinished story, I felt the sudden urge to write, as I seem to feel almost every time I look at a blank page or a pencil. I grabbed a mechanical pencil and soon found myself engrossed in my work.

By the time I had finished the fourth chapter of the story (I had been just starting it the night before), it was nearly lunchtime. My stomach growled when I saw that it was twelve-thirty, and I realized I hadn’t ever had breakfast. I reluctantly got up from my desk chair, opened my door, and walked down the hallway to the stairs. Before I even reached the kitchen the delicious aroma of hot dogs reached my nose, and made me feel even hungrier than before. Dad looked up from his grilling when I came in, and shook his head with a smile when he saw me. 

“What?” I asked, picking up a hotdog from a plate and grabbing the buns from a cabinet. “What’s so funny?”

“You authors,” He shook his head again and went back to cooking the hotdogs on his indoor grill. “Always forgetting to do things. Like get dressed,” he added. I looked down at my blue-and-green polka-dotted pjs and smiled sheepishly. “Oops.”

That's it! 

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Tiger! Continued

Here is the rest of my tiger attack story.


 Later
   I woke up to the sound of beeping machines and calm voices. I saw a sympathetic woman's face looking down on me, and heard her say, "She's awake." 
       Wondering where I was I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in an arm and my back caused me to fall back onto the bed with a groan. 
       "Yeah, you better not try to get up until your a little better, sweetie," the woman said in an even more compassionate voice. I looked at her in confusion, and as if in answer to my unspoken question she said, "Your'e in the hospital honey. They say you were attacked by a tiger, and as you may have already found out you took a pretty serious blow. The police found the body of the tiger also, though, and your friends say you managed to kill it before you blacked out." She was checking a machine near my bed, and turned a few knobs before answering another one of my silent questions. "Your'e two friends are alright, and very grateful to you." 
       Having been relieved of my main concern (my friends' health), I soon fell into a deep sleep.
                                                           The End

A MIni Story by Me! Continued

Here is the rest of my first mini story.


A second went by, then another. I heard some sudden movement in the bushes in front of me. I forced my eyes to stay shut. Another second went by… Cookie Dough barked sharply. My eye lids flew open. “Aaaagh!” I screamed. All I could see was teeth. But next all those rows of sharp teeth drew back, and I heard Dagger screech in pain. I backed out of the bushes immediately and stood up. 

Cookie Dough was digging his claws deep into the shark’s slippery flesh with anger, and biting Dagger as much and as hard as he possibly could. Dagger started flinging himself around once again, and they began to fight. After a few minutes I could tell that the shark’s energy was going down, but Cookie Dough’s was going down faster. After what seemed like hours, Cookie Dough fell off out of pure exhaustion. Poor dog! 

I turned to see the shark, and spun around and started running when I saw him looking straight at me, breathing heavily. I scrambled as fast as I could toward the huge tree I had been climbing before, and started to go up. As I climbed, I dared to hope that the shark could not go up high. Twice during the climb my long black hair got caught in the branches. I hurried to unwind it, but it took so long I was certain I would not be able to make it. I heard a commotion down below here and there, but kept on climbing. “Hang on Kiara!” someone called from below once. I looked down, and saw Sam with a giant stick in his hand. He was beating Dagger at the base of the tree as hard as he could with the stick. I clung onto the branches as I watched him, praying that he would be all right. Thankfully, Dagger was already all worn from earlier, so he did not put up much of a fight before falling flat on the ground. 

It was when I finally reached the bottom when I realized how tired I was. I could not believe what I had just gone through! A shark! If it had not been for Sam and Cookie Dough I probably would…Cookie Dough! I rushed over to the puppy that was just now getting up. I knelt down and picked him up. When he saw the shark laying there he barked and wagged his tail, as if he knew that it was dead. I laughed, and it felt so good! What a relief that all that was finally over. 

I turned to Sam who was standing breathless over the shark, still holding the stick. I asked him if he was alright. “Yeah,” he breathed, “I’m alright. But let’s get out of here fast!” I agreed. Together we hurried on the path leading to the city that now seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. I was never so thankful that I had my friends than on that day.

Tiger!

Another one of my mini stories.

          Click! I took my tenth photo of the unique bird of paradise. I looked at the result and shook my head. It was hard to get a good picture when the bird was hopping to-and-fro like it was. Click! Click! Click! After a few more photos I gave up for the moment and decided I would come back to it later. I let go of my camera and let it swing on the straps around my neck as I ran to catch up with my two friends, who were a little ways ahead of me.
          "Fiona!" one of my friends, Alissa, said to me once I reached them, panting heavily. "Look at this beautiful frog!" She reached out to a red-and-blue frog sitting on a tropical plant near the trail we were on.
          "No, don't touch that!" I almost yelled, jerking her away from the frog. She looked at me in confusion. "That's a poisonous dart frog," I explained. "Even though it's gorgeous, it's poison can kill you." Alissa jumped back in alarm. "Yikes!" She said. "That was close!"
           Gabriella, my other friend, sat on the other side of the trail carefully sketching a colorful flower which grew in front of her. "Isn't it amazing how beautiful everything is in the rainforest?" She said in her soft voice, admiringly gazing at her sketch as we walked up to her. Alissa and I both nodded in agreement.
           Just then there was a noisy rattling in the bushes behind us. Alissa and I spun around and Gabby (that was Gabriella's nickname) jumped to her feet. We looked intently at the place where we thought the noise had come from, and I realized I was holding my breath. Suddenly, something orange and black jumped out of the bushes. I fell down backwards in shock, my camera strap slipping off and my camera clattering and rolling a foot away. I heard a click as a button was hit and my camera took a picture, but I didn't bother to think about that, because I was to worried about what stood in front of us.
          I saw Gabby frozen in place out of the corner of my eye, and saw Alissa fall to her knees, also in shock, wide eyed. We all stared, terrified, at the huge tiger in front of us.
          I knew that we had no time for fear, though, when I saw the tigers narrowed eyes glaring at Gabby viciously. I willed myself to slowly stand up, and was surprised when I actually found myself doing it. I kept my eyes on the tiger all the time, hoping it wouldn't attack, at least not right then. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a large branch near Gabby's foot, and I quietly reached out to grab it. The tiger switched his gaze to me, and began to crouch low to the ground. I quickly shoved first Gabriella then Alissa into the bushes off the edge of the trail and swung my heavy branch to meet the tiger, who was now leaping at me with bared teeth. The tiger was knocked to the ground from the blow in the face, but immediately jumped back up again and leaped at me again.
        I don't remember anything after that, except for falling and seeing the tiger laying on the ground a ways away, just before everything went black.
                                                                   
To be continued.

A MIni Story by Me!

One of my mini stories I have written, and I thought you might want to read it. This one is kind of weird.

 “Huff, puff,” I panted hard as I climbed the practically Mount Everest tree. I told myself not to look down, because I knew that if I did I would be frozen in place for a long time. I was scared. I had always been afraid of heights, ever since the fourth grade, when I had fallen off a tall climbing wall and broken both of my arms. Now each time I climb up something even semi-tall, for a moment a vision of me falling down and never getting up again haunts my mind. Every single time since then someone has helped me down, at least after telling me to try to jump a dozen times. 

But this time I was trying. Not the jumping-down-from-really-high part, but the climbing-up-really-high part. I was determined to overcome my fear of heights, and to feel at home in the air, like I had before the fall. Right then I was taking an even bigger chance than most kids do. I was carrying my dog, my beagle puppy, up with me. So, I wasn’t the only one in that tree who was scared.

“It’s okay Cookie Dough,” I told the shaking four-month-old puppy. “We can do this.” As if he had heard me, my best friend, Sam, called to me from so far below on the ground: “You can do it! What do you see?” “All I see is woods for miles and miles!” I yelled back, starting to climb back down, “Nothing else!” 

Sam and I were lost. We had decided to explore our small (or so we thought) town of Mihhoma, and had ended up in a strange, very dense woods. We had traveled for hours, and now we did not know how to get back. There was no sign of any houses or schools or anything. So we were lost.

Suddenly, as I was climbing down, I saw something large coming up behind Sam. “Huh?” I said. I leaned forward to look, one hand holding on very tightly to a branch, and the other holding Cookie Dough. I gasped, and as I did I lost my grip on the tree branches and fell to the ground far below.

“Uumph!” I landed hard on the ground, right behind Sam, and right behind the shark. “Kiara are you all right?” Sam asked worriedly. My only response was a scream. My eyes were glued to the shark that was strangely floating in mid-air, as if it could fly. Its teeth were bared, like it was ready to strike at any moment. Sharks. Another one of my major fears since I was little. 

Sam spun around and fell back in shock. I heard him draw in his breath when he landed. I was still scooting back, and I ran into some thick bushes. I huddled inside, praying the shark would not notice me, and definitely not attack Sam! Sam started scooting back into some other bushes, but the shark’s eyes were still trained on him. The shark let out a growl, and even though it was not loud, it sent my heart beating fast. 

The humongous normally sea-predator had to be a great white shark because of its size. I could now see why it was called a great white shark for its skin was gleaming and practically reflecting the sun light into my eyes. And its jaw, oh its jaw! Its teeth looked like spears and the mouth was so big I was certain it could swallow me whole in a second. The shark’s eyes were an evil green, so evil that I felt that they alone would hurt me more than anything else on the shark.

My eyes were all of a sudden drawn to something hanging onto a branch just above the shark. Cookie Dough! The poor puppy was barely hanging onto the branch with one paw, and with a sharp yelp he immediately lost his grip and catapulted down… right onto the shark’s back. 

Everything was silent. Sam was now safely hidden in the bushes. I held my breath and did not dare move for fear that the huge beast would turn and target me. And for a moment little Cookie Dough sat motionless.

Then Cookie Dough slowly raised his head. Bad move. Dagger (that was what I started calling the shark later on) started swinging his tail around vigorously trying to free himself from the strange creature on his back. The puppy clung on with his claws, and that made Dagger roar even louder. The evil creature started swinging around to and fro, around in circles, and up and down. Finally Cookie Dough was slung off, right into my lap. He whimpered and ran in the bushes right next to a tree behind me. 

Dagger caught his breath for a second, and then glared at… the bushes I was in! Slowly I turned around, not wanting to see the shark any longer. If he did eat me, I did not want to see it! I closed my eyes and took a deep breath... 

Trust

...After that I ran into my room and grabbed my jacket and tennis-shoes. I slipped them on as fast as I could and ran out the front door. I climbed in my sceaba and reached out to close my sceaba door, but first I heard a different door slam in the house. Oh no, I thought, sucking in my breath. Mom is coming already. I slammed my door and then slid the keys in the ignition and turned them. The engine responded right away and I geared it into fast mode. I drove around Mom’s sceaba and out into the street. 

I glanced at the review mirror to see where Mom was, and finally noticed a shadowy figure standing at the window. I had to take my attention away from the mirror, though, to avoid crashing into a tree.

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Trust

A few minutes later, the reporter began to talk about another news story.

“As many of you may know,” she said. “There have been more sightings of Kasues, the evil man who has been teaching false beliefs. K.D.C associates say that he must be corrupted by evil spirits... “Marilla Spagh had been sick with corinor disease, but her last check-up showed completely negative signs of the sickness. Marilla claims that Kasues healed her and she even believes Him when He claims He is the Son of Hallah!”

“THE SON OF HALLAH?!” I exclaimed... “He is here!”Just then Mom came through the door... “Who’s here?” She asked, coming into the living room. I did not answer her right away, because a video of the top leader of the K.D.C. had just begun playing on the screen.

“Kasues is a threat to all of the Great Planets,” My mom said on the screen, her voice grave. “He is evil, and we must eliminate him from Kila immediately.”

Trust

Trust posts will now be posted only once/twice a month.

A few hours later I woke up. I groggily lifted my arm and looked at my watch. It was all blurry because of the tears still in my eyes, and I wiped them hard on the sleeve of my shirt. I looked again, and almost gasped when I saw that it was four p.m. School was way past over, and people must have been worried about me. Especially my mom.

I tried to sit up, but by now my body was really sore from laying on the hard ground for so long. All of a sudden, I heard something. Crunch, Crunch, Crunch. My heart started beating fast. Was the mongoe coming back? “Kalina!” Someone was screaming. “Kalina where are you?!” Suddenly I felt relieved but terribly exhausted all at once. 

“Over here,” I croaked, my voice hoarse. My mom broke through the brush into the small clearing I was in, accompanied by a few other men and woman.

“Kalina!” Mom exclaimed. She ran over to me. “Kalina I was so worried!” 

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Trust

I forgot everything my mongoe book had told me and screamed. The mongoe let out a horrible roar and got even nearer to me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone running towards the mongoe and I. Please! I thought desperately. Please help me! I screamed again, and then jerked my arm over my face as the mongoe suddenly lurched forward, teeth bared. And then everything went black.

The next thing I knew I was standing and almost being blinded by a burst of fireshine. I blinked a few times, then realized it really wasn’t fireshine that was shining on me. It actually seemed even brighter. Hmm? What is that!?

Olympics Time!

This year, I'm really looking forward to the Olympics. Its actually only about a day away, can you believe it!?

        I think this is one of the first years where my family is actually celebrating the olympics; we're making flags, cupcakes, and even t-shirts! I am really excited.

Here are some photos of the activities we did:

Here I am drawing out my design on my shirt.

Mom was drawing for Carter.

Pictures of Carter's finished Olympic Swimming shirt.

Tyler's Basketball Olympics shirt

My gymnastics t-shirt.

Olympic cupcakes

Olympic flags

We had a fun few weeks of Olympics. Did you?

Exiting Experiences at the Zoo!

I know I have already made a post about the zoo, but that was in Tyler Texas. This time I went to the big Dallas Zoo with my brothers, Tyler and Carter, and my mom and my grandma. Here are some pictures and videos of the exciting things we got to see and do. 

We got to see a bird show!

Here are Tyler, Carter and I looking at some muskrats through a little bubble in the ground.

Woohooh! We got to ride on a camel named Mathew! The worker who led us around the pen said that this was Mathew's first year giving rides in public. Tyler sat on the hump of the camel, and he said that it was really scary.

Thank you Mathew!

We each climbed up on a fake elephant. There I am!

We even got to to pet giraffes! Mom didn't want to buy any lettuce for us to feed the giraffes, but one girl was really kind and gave us some.

We saw lions really up close! If it hadn't been for the glass in that restaurant, I probably could have reached out and touched them.

Whoa! Look at those teeth! The lion was yawning.

Here is a video I took of the lions.

Cool alligator!

                                     

Ew! Look at these huge snakes!

So as you can see, we saw lots of amazing creatures. Isn't it amazing how God created all these magnificent animals!? The Bible says that he made the animals for our enjoyment. They are also for our health; if there were no animals, the trees would not be able to make oxygen and we would not be able to breath. Evolution couldn't have made all these tiny details. Our God is an amazing God.

Birthday Room Makeover

My birthday was on June 25th this year, and I turned eleven! My parents always ask my brothers and I what we wanted for our birthdays, but this year I couldn't  really think of anything I wanted. Then Mom showed me a picture of a really cool modern room, and I decided that I wanted to make a room like that for my birthday present.

Here I am painting my headboard.

                                      This is what you see when you first come into my room

I really enjoy my new 'room makeover'! It is a room style that I will probably enjoy for several years and not want to change. I am glad that Mom and Dad helped me work and buy the things for my new room. I hope this was some inspiration for rooms in your house!

Trust

I again looked for any familiar landmarks. I walked a little in the direction I thought I had come from, but still did not know where I was. Suddenly, I saw something rush through the trees on the right of me out of the corner of my eye. I spun around and scanned the forest surrounding me. It flew by again, startling me, and as I took a step back, it came out right in front of me! I fell backwards, terrified, landed roughly on the hard ground, and the mongoe drew closer. I didn’t realize I had dropped my backpack when I fell, because I was focused on the mongoe. It was so terrible looking I couldn’t look at it, but I could not look away, either. It must have been a foot long, and three fourths a foot tall. Its yellow and black-striped body glittered in a horrifying way in the sun, as did its long, golden mane. I could hardly see its tiny wings about seven inches tall; they were so clear they were almost invisible. It opened its mouth to show the long, sharp teeth of a lion. Out of all, its eyes were the most terrible; they had such a wild and savage look. It reminded me of a nightmare I had once when I first heard about mongoes. The look in it’s eyes said that it was desperate to kill.

 

Trust

The weeks passed, and there was no sign of any danger. No Samaj, no Kasues, and no mongoes....  One Wednesday, I asked Mom if I could walk to school the next day. She said yes, and the next morning I immediately got ready, desperate for some fresh air after being cooped up inside for weeks... I packed up my backpack and ran out the front door, shutting it before Moonball could follow...

Being outside was great!... The fresh air made me feel adventurous, for some reason, and I decided to take the long route through some woods a few miles away-I had enough time. When I got there, I was delighted to hear the leaves crunching under my feet again; they seemed to call me deeper into the forest. Not thinking of what I was doing, I ran farther into the dense trees, enjoying it more than I ever had before.                             

I started walking a few minutes later, catching my breath. It was then that I realized I had gotten off course, and I was probably late for school. I wondered where I was, and looked around for any familiar markings. I had thought I had been through the whole of the forest before. All of a sudden, sunlight bounced off of something imbedded in the dirt. I bent over and picked it up. It was clear, and I could see right through it. The object was in the shape of a cube, and had a little design on one side in black. When I looked closely, I could see that the design was made to look like a bird, a hawk.

trust again

“What was that all about?” I asked. I had grabbed a magazine from the side table and started reading, but could not help but overhear. Now I sat up, wondering what was going on. Mom sat down beside me and looked straight at me. I figured that she was about to tell me something important by her expression. “You know how we believe that Hallah created the universe, and that he promised to send a savior to do something great for us, right, Kalina?” Mom asked softly. “Yes, Mother, I know,” I waited for Mom to explain further. Moonball hopped onto the couch and laid down on my lap while I stroked his back. “Well two officers from the K.D.C. have secretly gone to Samaj, and met a man who claimed to be the savior. Now, this man looks nothing like a savior from the descriptions we received, so he cannot possibly be Hallah’s chosen man. The great savior has to look like one in order to show who he is.” “Yes, Mom, right.” I moved my hand down to scratch under Moonball’s chin and rub his belly. “This man-Kasues is his name-told our officers that next he would come to Kila to preach. He is probably drunk or possessed by an evil spirit, spreading rumors that he is the savior, so we must be especially cautious of this man. What endangers us more is that Kasues spreads a massage far different than Samaj’s belief, too, and he has made himself present in the house of their emperor and ‘taught’. This made Samaj especially angry, and they are out to kill him. Our officers say that Samaj seemed angry enough to travel the whole universe chasing him and trying to destroy him, so they will probably come to Kila in search of him if he disappears as he said. We need to avoid them, as they might hurt Kila citizens, too. Keep a close eye out, and stay away from anyone who seems suspicious,"

TRUST

Saralina pressed one of the orange buttons underneath the row of books her art book was in (every book has one of its own buttons) labeled ART, and only the glass covering her book slid to the side so she could grab it. She slid on a pair of gloves that were in a small, round compartment and then carefully took the book out. Even though these books were brand-new to our school, they were actually very old. In fact, all books in the book office are so old we have to wear gloves whenever we are handling them. While Saralina went to tell Miss Lshit she had picked out a book, I turned back to examining the titles. Suddenly, I gasped, startling Bridget, who was just reaching out to press one of the orange buttons. I grabbed gloves, and then retrieved a book from inside the dome and walked to the nearest table where a group of students were reading, and sat down. I opened the book with “All You Need to Know about Mongoes” as its heading and turned to the table of contents. My eyes were drawn to the fifth chapter, which said “Weaknesses of the Mongoe”. I had not thought mongoes had any weakness, so this interested me. I flipped the pages until I got to page 104, and started reading. Mongoes’ habitats are usually in volcanic areas. Mongoes seem to be especially drawn to Mount Niphmore, which is nicknamed ‘Mongoe Flowing’. More than a hundred thousand mongoes live there. They like it there because of the extreme heat. (The only reason mongoes leave the warmth of the volcanoes, is because they are driven out. This hardly ever happens, however, because mongoes can put up quite a fight, and most people are frightened of them.) The main weakness of the mongoe is the opposite of what it is used to: extreme cold. If you ever get attacked by a mongoe, get something really cold and throw it at the mongoe. If you hit it a few times, it should eventually go away. If that does not work, the best thing to do is not to move at all or make any sound. The mongoe will wait for you to give any sign that you are frightened or angry, and then it will attack. If you show no emotion, it will either attack only out of frustration (or hunger), or go away in search of a more fearful prey. Your best chance is, again, to stay still and noiseless.