Alan L

Planes and their Master

Waski sat in his classroom completing the work set by the teacher, who knew Waski didn't like to write. Looking out the window, Waski saw Difter and Darkus playing soccer. Waski longed to go outside and introduce himself as it was the start of a new school year but his teacher's ambitions to make Waski love school work restricted that. Waski noticed that Difter was extremely tall unlike Darkus who was very short. Waski thought it was very ironic, an idea formed and a smile creeped across his face. While the teacher turned his back, Waski took his chance, he turned his piece of writing into a paper plane and swiftly ran outside to join the boys. Waski was too busy introducing himself to notice a small person creep behind him and move inside the school building. Little did he know, this person snuck to his desk and took Waski’ writing. Darkus had planned all of this and a smile lurked on his face.

A while later, Darkus left Difter and Waski alone. Difter and Waski had become instant friends. Difter began explaining everything he knew about Darkus to his new friend. Waski had already made the decision to keep his distance from him. The next day, Waski and Difter awakened to a horrible sight. Although they were far apart, the problem was so big, it was visible from all angles. What appeared to be a small person was standing close to Darkus. To the boys’ horror, he was being punched and beaten up. Something was wrong; very wrong. Suddenly, little clouds of smoke were rising out of the library. As a small flame appeared, a corner of the school library crumbled.

Within seconds, the small boy standing next to Darkus had fainted and was lying on the ground, bruises covered his slight body. Difter was the first to react to the fire. He ran over to a hose attached to the school hall and quickly unwinded it. He aimed it at the rapidly crumbling library, waiting for the water to come. What Difter didn't know was that the hose was linked to a lake and clay from the lake blocked the tube. Therefore no water came. Now it was Waski's turn. He had already come to the conclusion that his life wouldn't continue the same. Immediately, he recalled all the people who had jeered at him for liking to work. Waski pushed that thought aside and rushed into the building.

Waski dashed up the stairs, trying and hoping to find objects that would help stop the fire. Out of the corner of his eye, Waski saw something that shouldn't have been in the library. It was his piece of writing from yesterday as a paper airplane. Oddly, it was wet. It was quickly getting harder to breathe. Waski stumbled over to his wet work and threw it at the nearest flame. It went out. Waski rushed over to the plane. Surprisingly, it wasn't destroyed. Waski threw it at another flame. This time the flame was extinguished too and the plane flew around by itself, putting out the fire, flame by flame. Slowly, the amazing truth came to Waski. The paper plane was alive.

Soon, the last flame twinkled out and Waski and his plane walked back outside to the beautiful day and fresh air. Difter and Darkus gaped at Waski. Waski decided to name his plane Ali-Cat. Ali-Cat followed Waski around everywhere and the teachers always stumbled over their words whenever they saw them together. The most common thing they said was- "Waski! How, how d-did y...y...you d-do th-tha-that?"Darkus, now being Waski and Difter's enemy, didn't bother spending any time with Waski and Difter. Waski spent a lot of his time pondering how the fire started. But one day, a test was handed out and it was an extremely important one. He needed to focus.

The first question was: "This boy is . . .?" Waski looked at the boy and it showed remarkable resemblance to Darkus, so he put down ugly. Although Difter was a fast worker, he was having fun with the first question. In the end, he wrote down tiny and arrogant. Whereas Darkus put down handsome and clever. The next question was- “how many bones in your body? Waski didn’t know the answer so he took a sneaky peak at Difter’s test. Difter had written down don’t know, therefore Waski put down neither do I. When Waski realized what he had done, he brought his fist down on his desk and turned his most important test into a paper airplane to try to hide it. From then on, Waski's test was known as Tom-Cat. Now two living paper airplanes circled Waski. Tom-Cat and Ali-Cat

"What did you do?" Whispered the teacher in a devastated voice.

"Nothing," Waski replied calmly, hoping to trick the teacher

"You did something," said the teacher.

"Only one," Waski replied again. Waski ended up sitting outside the principal's office.

Waski was told to write two pages of brilliance. The principal held a grudge with Waski. The main reason of that was because every sentence, the letters t,h,e,n appeared in a particular order. So when Waski finished writing, the principal said there were only three things wrong with the story. The beginning, middle and the end. Waski spent the rest of the day in the principal's office. As the principal left the office during the second hour, Waski became excited. He wrinkled his nose as the scent of old books reached it. Waski looked around and found some of the principal's work and did the first thing that came to mind: turned it into a paper plane. To Waski's surprise, it didn't start flying; it stayed dead.

When Waski was finally released, he went straight to Difter. Waski told him everything about the principal's office and the plane that didn't come alive. Difter's thoughts were elsewhere.

"Hear about the kid called Fleming?" asked Difter. Waski realized Difter wasn't going to listen to him so he started wondering about the name Fleming. Suddenly, he knew who Fleming was. Fleming was the person who had been beaten up by Darkus. He was sure of it. Waski had seen the name Fleming in the principal's work. Fleming was the one who had started the fire in the library. While Waski could make paper planes alive, Fleming was some sort of pyromancer.

Difter and Waski wrote down all the problems they had now. A midget, Darkus, who was a blockage, a weird pyromancer, enemies with the school because of Ali-Cat and Tom-Cat, and the fact that the principal would find his important papers as a paper planes. Frustrated with everything on their list, Waski turned it into a paper airplane: Bub-Cat. Bub-Cat didn't last long as Fleming appeared out of nowhere and screeched the word fire. Flames shot out of his hand and in a moment, Bub-Cat's left wing was blazing. Soon the whole plane was engulfed in flames and Bub-Cat was struggling to control himself. Unable to do keep itself under control, Bub-Cat stalled and plummeted to the ground. All that remained of Bub-Cat was a pile of burning ashes. Fleming turned his attention to Tom-Cat and soon it was as bright as the sun. But this time, Ali-Cat was ready.

Ali-Cat was created from water and fire so it flew straight at Tom-Cat and hit it with a lot of power. The collision put out the fire but it was too late. Though Tom-Cat had been salvaged, he had been touched with something bad. It was now Shadow-Cat. Wherever its shadow touched, a presence of evil and glumness would be felt. Waski felt a hot rage boiling inside him. It was all Darkus' evil scheme. Waski started hatching a plan and he was only going to tell Difter. Waski was going to escape.

Waski stayed up the whole night making paper planes. The next morning, Waski would let the planes go around terrorizing and confusing everyone. Although he knew he would regret it, he was going to do it. Doing that would give Waski time to escape. If Difter wanted to come, he was welcome. Waski would make that crystal clear.

When the morning finally arrived, Waski let the planes go free. When the first few planes had started exiting his room, Difter entered. He immediately noticed the shadows under Waski's eyes and decided not to mention it.

"I am going to escape. Are you going to join me?" Waski asked excitedly.

"Great. You are finally escaping, but I'm afraid I can not join you," Difter replied, gritting his teeth. He regretted not going with Waski but he knew something Waski didn't.

"Fine, it's all good. I bid you good luck," Difter said. Waski started hearing screams of fear so he started running towards the school fence. Without warning Ali-Cat enlarged and it was soon big enough for Waski to hop on it. Not giving it a second thought, Waski jumped on Ali-Cat. "This couldn't be more perfect," he thought.

The plane flew over the school fence towards the crystal clear water in an oddly shaped lake. On the ground, Darkus was cursing at Waski and Difter.

"How did they do this?" he asked himself. Darkus screamed at Fleming and he chanted: "Fire, fire, fire, fire… !"

Waski didn't notice what was happening at first but a trail of smoke signaled that something was wrong. Waski twisted around and what he saw, devastated him. Just when he was about to escape, Darkus ordered Fleming to set fire to the planes. Waski had seen this all before, it was as if he was having déjà vu. Waski's planes started plummeting towards the hard rocky ground.

Waski, frustrated at Darkus' actions, turned towards Darkus. He planned to ram him. But Darkus was ready. Darkus swiftly stepped aside and Fleming set fire to the back of Ali-Cat. Waski didn't notice but when he did, the fire had already taken over the bottom of Ali-Cat. The flames were starting to lick at the wings and Waski knew if he didn't act straight away, Ali-Cat would be lost forever. Waski urged Ali-Cat on towards the lake.

When Ali-Cat arrived at the lake, it was a gigantic fireball, hurtling towards the water. Waski streamlined Ali-Cat and started the ditching process. When Ali-Cat hit the water, a grey cloud immediately appeared in the water. Waski urged Ali-Cat on even though it was drenched.

When Waski turned around, he saw Darkus in a boat. He was shouting:

"Duel me! Don't you want to? Come on, don't be scared. I am a midget. Or are you scared of a midget? Hmm."

Darkus kept taunting Waski until he finally caved. Before long, Waski was on Ali-Cat, dueling Darkus who was in a small, random boat he probably stole and Difter was at the edge of the lake being the judge. Fleming lay at the edge of the lake too. He had fainted when Darkus used him as a lift to get over the school fence. Darkus cursed as he realized how useful Fleming would have been. He discarded the thought as he realized he was face to face with Waski. Waski dived into the water and tried to push Darkus' boat over. He couldn't...

Darkus started laughing in triumph and when Waski started screaming for help, he laughed even harder. Waski's head went back into the water. He screamed again, letting out precious bubbles of air. There was only one option left. He swam lower into the lake, hoping that Darkus would go away. Waski's chest was pounding and his head was screaming:

"AIR, AIR, AIR, AIR!" Suddenly, Waski spotted something that he wished he hadn't. To make sure what he saw was what he thought he saw, Waski swam to the bottom of the lake. It was. It was his lovely sky blue journal, though it was soaked through, from a long time ago, back when he liked to write.

Waski's head went back several years. He was much smaller, playing with a bunch of teenagers. Waski showed them his best piece of writing and the teenagers laughed and ripped it apart. From that moment on, Waski hated working and thought there was no point in doing it. His memories floated back even further to when he was completing his first piece of writing. After completing it, he had been extremely happy and had felt a sense of achievement. Waski immediately snapped out of his trance and he pushed the ground and started going up to the fragments of light which signaled victory. Although he was sorry to leave his journal at the bottom of the lake, he could get it later.

Meanwhile, Difter paced around, counting the seconds. He had been worried when Waski went under for it had been eight minutes. For the first few minutes, bubbles continued to rise to the surface but they abruptly stopped after three minutes. Suddenly, with a loud splash, Waski surfaced and Difter breathed a sigh of relief. Ali-Cat had shrunk when Waski went under but now it enlarged again and Waski clambered on, still dripping wet. Powered by the memory of his journal Waski used Ali-Cat’s power and started filling Darkus’ boat. Darkus looked like a forlorn war sailor whose boat was sinking after a hard battle. When the boat was fully submerged, Darkus had no choice but to jump out. Waski realized another problem had arisen. Darkus was going to find his journal.

That is when something incredible happened soon after. A great big wave tossed out Darkus from the water and he landed on top of Fleming. Ali-Cat couldn’t help it and its wings started folding and unfolding.

“You little devil,” muttered Waski as he realised that Ali-Cat had created the wave. A groan brought their victory to a halt.

Fleming had woken up. The water Darkus carried when he landed on top of him had woken him up. He stumbled towards Waski and Difter who were staring at Fleming with a blank expression. Finally Difter broke the silence

“Anything to say?”

Fleming turned on his heel and ran, only to find the lake. He fell into it and started flailing about.

“That should put his flame out,” chuckled Waski. A sudden thought made him turn around. He needed his journal.

“And I had just gotten dry,” Waski thought sourly. Waski reluctantly dived back into the lake to retrieve his journal.

When Waski surfaced again, a strange sight lay before him. Difter and Fleming were having a conversation. Waski scrambled out of the lake, clutching his precious journal in his ice cold hands. He asked what was going on.

“Oh, hi!” Fleming decided to leave Darkus and come with us. turned out Darkus threatened him when Fleming didn’t do his bidding. His pyro skills are extremely powerful and highly destructive. By the way, what are we going to do about him?” asked Difter, pointing to Darkus who had just regained consciousness and was lying at the edge of the lake.

“Don’t worry,” replied Waski with a cheeky grin spreading across his face.

When Fleming switched sides, all effects that he had done were reversed and that meant Shadow-Cat was once again Tom-Cat. Waski called for Tom-Cat to annoy Darkus. Agreeing, it battered Darkus in a playful manner. As Ali-Cat enlarged, Waski let Difter and Fleming join him. Soon the trio were soaring through the sky while Darkus was still being battered by Tom-Cat. Seeing Waski have fun, Tom-Cat enlarged and Darkus was pushed into the lake.

“Hello lake,” Darkus said casually as he landed in the icy waters of the lake.

Ali-Cat landed on the soft wet grass.

“Why did Ali-Cat have to be wet?” Waski wondered. He opened his journal and for a split second, Waski saw his best piece of writing. There and un-ripped. In the same moment, it was gone. Waski wanted to show Difter and Fleming this so he looked around for them. He couldn’t find them. Waski eventually found Difter and Fleming at the lake. They were talking about paper planes and Difter was so engrossed in the conversation that he didn’t know what happened next. Fleming simply pushed Difter into the lake and ran off. Difter had put on his belt as this was the first actual conversation he was going to have with Fleming. He didn’t know it was going to end like this. Difter’s last words were directed at Waski who had watched with shock and horror.

“Go… Go find my letter… In my secret… Compartment… Secrets will… will be no more… Go find it… Every… Everything will be explained,” Difter panted. With one last effort, he said: “please.” With that, Difter sank to the bottom of the lake and there he rested.

Waski stood up, still shaken at the news. Difter was gone. Fleming was a traitor. Difter wanted him to find a letter. Difter’s letter. Waski knew where Difter’s secret compartment was. He ran back into his classroom and straight to Difter’s desk. Waski crouched under it and pulled down the bottom. There was a small wooden tub. There was lot of paper in the tub and right at the bottom, was an envelope. Waski picked it up and with shaking hands, opened it. The letter read:

Dear: Whomever Finds This

Difter has shown you many clues already

I am Difter, the one who was thought a friend.

From the beginning, I could predict the end,

Tall as I am, I am not very courageous

Even if I tried, something would always stop me.

Rest assured, my friend, as you finally will know my secret.

Treats can be good and bad,

Hurry up and do something!

Ending things can help and not help,

Friend and foe are different; very different;

Right is not always right and wrong is not always wrong.

Insane as it is, friend can be foe and foe can be friend.

Ending a friendship is normally bad

Nuisances cause fallouts,

Decrepit as friendships can be, some last forever.

You now know Difter’s (my) secret,

Difter

When Waski finished the first bit, he noticed the letters on the side spelt DIFTER. Waski soon realized what the message meant. Difter had been a friend to the enemy so he could gather intelligence. But he knew he would have been double crossed. Waski had been tricked by Difter and Difter had been tricked by Darkus, who had been tricked by Fleming. Waski read the finalpart again. After he had finished reading the second part, Waski thought it about it for a bit and moved on to the last part; the last piece of the puzzle. Waski put the three words together. DIFTER THE FRIEND. Waski folded up the the piece of paper and put it back in its envelope. After that, Waski put the envelope in Difter’s compartment and picked it up. He ran all the way to the lake where Difter fell in and put the compartment down. Waski ran back to his room and pulled down his own secret compartment. It had two matchboxes, a couple of rude letters sneaked in by other people, some foul smelling candy and a tissue box. Waski picked up a matchbox and the tissue box. He ran all the way back to the lake, clutching the matchbox in one hand and the tissue box in the other.

When Waski arrived back at Difter’s secret compartment, he put five pieces of tissue paper in the wooden tub. Thinking that he had more tissue boxes, he threw the whole box in. After that, Waski slid out the match compartment and took out two. He struck one against the side and after some effort, it caught alight. Waski spread the flame to the other match and dropped both the matches on a tissue. The inside of Difter’s compartment started burning and like the issue box, Waski threw one whole match box in the compartment. A burst of flames shot into the air and fire started licking at the wood and paper. Willing the flame to hurry up, Waski threw the last match box in the compartment.

When the whole inside of the tub was ablaze, Waski pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket and wrote Difter. When he finished doing that, he turned it into a paper plane and immediately dropped it into the burning tub. Waski picked up the tub, which was extremely hot, and put it into the water. Waski let it float and when the fire finally burned a hole in the tub, water gushed in and the tub began to sink. The last flame flickered out when the whole tub submerged under the water. Waski didn’t know if it was coincidence or if it was meant to be that the tub fell exactly where Difter sank. A rush of anger swept through him. Fleming. Fleming Fleming Fleming Fleming. Fleming may have disappeared but Waski could still feel him. Waski made up his mind. He was going to find Fleming.

Ali-Cat glided through the air with Waski perched on top. He was thinking where Fleming would hide. Waski still felt like Fleming was near so he turned around. Fleming was there; on his plane. Ali-Cat tried to shake him off but Fleming stayed on. Tom-Cat appeared out of nowhere. He had been trying to give Waski a little bit of happenstance but he hadn’t succeeded. He saw his chance now. Tom-Cat rammed Fleming and he fell off. Waski winced when Fleming landed. With a few broken bones, Fleming got up and ran away. Waski looked at Tom-Cat, he was shocked at what he saw. Tom-Cat’s point had crumpled and disintegrated and it was struggling to stay in the air. Now that Tom-Cat had rammed Fleming, it thought Fleming was harder than he looked. Waski immediately landed Ali-Cat. Tom-Cat started landing but banked to the left at the last moment and crashed, sending up a plume of dust.

Waski rushed over and tended to Tom-Cat. An amazing sight awaited him. Tom-Cat was slowly healing. All the ripped bits of paper merged themselves in their rightful spot on Tom-Cat. In a few minutes Tom-Cat was as normal as can be. Waski was surprised; he was happy. Darkus wasn’t going to cause him any more trouble, Fleming wouldn’t have the courage to mess with him for a while. Waski decided to make a list of good and bad.

Good/Bad List

Darkus not causing trouble: GOOD

Fleming not messing with him: GOOD

Tom-Cat injured: BAD

Tom-Cat healed: GOOD

Difter dead: BAD SUPER BAD

Difter’s letter: GOOD

Though Waski had changed, a little bit of him still remained the same. Waski picked up the sheet of paper with the good/bad list and chucked it into the lake. It fluttered like a dead leaf in a blast for a while before landing in the very place Difter’s compartment and Difter himself fell. It sank to the bottom where Difter and Difter’s compartment rested.