Joel L

The Sacred Game

Chapter 1: Parcels

I sat in my stiff plastic chair watching the clock tick and tock. “Class dismissed, have a great holiday, boys. Mr Yale, don’t forget your holiday homework from your lack of marks,” Mr Cable said disappointedly.”Yeah Tom,” the boys responded. I sighed and said,” Yes Mr Cable.” I walked home with great hope and anticipation for my character creation in my new video game.

When I arrived at the door I saw my Mum giggling with Dad evilly through the window. I stepped in the door and Mum said, “A package is upstairs for you.”

“Really, YESSSSS!” I said with much excitement.

When I got upstairs I saw a taped abomination. “NO!” I yelled. It took me twelve minutes to unwrap the tape and packaging around the game. “Finally” I mumbled to myself.

“What!” yelled Mum from the kitchen.

I inserted the disc and fell asleep half-way through the character creation. At 2 o’clock in the morning, a strange voice woke me. I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, I scrambled to find my glasses so that I could see who was in my room calling to me. To my surprise it was the TV saying, “Come with me.” In Spanish, French then English. The TV blurred out and showed a fancy array of letters, G.C.S, they were the first three letters of my new game. I pressed new game, then start. The TV was growing and the new world surrounded my room walls. The silence turned to loud bangs and crashes. With the blink of an eye, I was in a new world.

Chapter 2: Lagvarr

A red velvet sky with bright yellow clouds engulfed me, they reminded me of the lemons and tomatoes in Grandpa’s field. The bird-beaked people ran in and out of the sugar-fruit stalls. I asked someone for directions to the Ice Castle and they directed me to the town gates. When I got to the town gates, a knight stopped me, “How much gold do you have? Have this sack, you're clearly an outsider. I am Knight General Coonage, William Coonage, you can't pass these gates without a certain number of gold,” explained Coonage.

“Thanks,” I responded with a stutter.

I ran off and saw a slouched bag tied. “Perfect,” I mumbled to myself. I crept over as sly as I could and grabbed it. “COME ON! Blue sunflowers, really!” I yelled with disappointment. I saw a strange dog with an elephant’s trunk as it’s nose, it started to bark and bite at me. I walked over to a hotel and hired a room. When I got to my room I fell on my bed and shook my head in utter despair as I was thirsty for gold and had not gotten any. Eventually exhaustion took over and I fell asleep. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and stepped on the balcony, took a deep breath and I fell on a hay trough under my balcony. “Ha ha ha, that's awesome,” I said to myself. “Ooh, pin in my foot,” I said.

Chapter 3: Collection

I climbed out of the trough, sprinted to the weaponry store and bought a one-handed katana, dagger and a bow. “Armour time” I said to myself in my brain. I jumped up and ran on the wall all the way to the stables and climbed up to the top of the stables backflipped into the fountain near the armour store. I sat on the stiff wooden bench while I waited for the armour to be finished being moulded to my fit form. An old man walked out holding a wooden box with hay spilling out and said “Mr Tom.”

“YES! FINALLY!” I yelled. I sprinted out to find gold. I dived into the fountain and I was getting really drenched by money, I was finding so much gold. I was so ecstatic to have finally found gold. I frantically started gathering the gold and stuffed the gold into my pockets. The same elephant trunked dog started barking and hitting me with the trunk, that was a sign of battle. Time stopped when we fought but when the fight was over time went again. A gold coin popped up above me and a fairy jumped out and told me I can go outside the walls of Mellethon, this town.

Chapter 4: The Path

As I walked along a stone path the stones dug into my shoeless feet, I came to a fork in the path. There was an intriguing sign which said, “Left is easier later but right is easy now and hard later.” I struggled with this tough decision, “Should I go left or should I go right …. Mmmmmm.” Eventually I made a decision to take the easy way down the track so I went left, and crawled my way through the weaving trees with multiple mini monsters jumping out at me.

I was nearly at the end of the forest and then suddenly the trees grew down over me and blocked my way. A faint cold breath was running through my armour. When I turned, a four armed and four legged beast confronted me and I skipped a heartbeat. I climbed up a tree, I unscrewed the tip of the arrow and fired it with a deliberate target of the tree just past the beast. As my arrow soared past the beast to the tree, the beast’s roar escaped the forest. He turned, I saw a vulnerable brain and had an idea. I drew another arrow and shot at his exposed brain. The goliath crumbled in pain. I put back my bow, drew my dagger, dropped down from the tree and began stabbing the beast’s brain viciously but unsuccessfully. The harder I stabbed, the harder it got and my dagger buckled under the pressure and toughness of the beast’s brain. “The dagger must be too weak, ditch it,” I thought to myself while I chucked it away. I pulled my sword from it’s holder and as the beast stood up I climbed up from behind and stabbed him, this time he crumbled for good. ”Huh” I said confused that the sword was more powerful than the dagger. The trees opened up again and I gulped at the size of mountains surrounding the mountain with the Ice Castle.

Chapter 5: The Race

When I got to Lifenmor’s base, I accepted a race to the top from a traveller.

“I came from Mellethon and I am here to battle the Ice Lord,” said the traveller.

“I come for the same reason and upbringing, how about the loser has to go back to Mellethon?” I said with a snigger.

“Fair, let's shake on it,” the traveller responded.

“GO!” We both yelled simultaneously.

When we were on the halfway mark, a yeti was climbing up on the side of the ridge, I grabbed it and chucked it towards the traveller. I could feel the ice wrapping the bottom of my foot. When I got to the rickety bridge as I crossed I took off every second plank and upon reaching the end, I did the leap of faith over the ice pinnacles.

Chapter 6: Ice Lord

I cracked my neck then my knuckles, I stepped through and saw the empty throne and a shadow in the arena. As I walked through a voice from the dark said, “another challenger, are you ready to see my wrath. Do you know tha…”

“Let me stop you right there, I know your code makes you say this but lets skip it and fight.” I interrupted

The Ice Lord sprinted towards me and “poof” he ran into a clone. “I see you’ve met my clone, so what's this,” the clone yelled.

“I’m human” I whispered in his ear. Then I bulldozed him in his back with my sword, jumped up to the icicles and it rained arrows. When I had a chance I lit an arrow on fire and fired. “Hot!” The Ice Lord yelled continuously. I threw a fiery match on the floor. “I guess I won the game, I did win the game!” I said to myself with excitement

Chapter 7: Homecoming

“Did you get enough time on that game little Tommy?” Auntie said.

”Yeah, in fact I actually got stuck in that game, I even had to get gold and fight a four legged and four armed monkey beast. I fought an Ice Lord who had ice powers. I shot him with a fire arrow. I killed him from launching a tiny match and the whole castle melted. It was ……….. AWESOME!” I told Auntie.

“Oh” she responded.

“Hey Auntie, I’m gonna do that all again in G.C.S 2. Aggghhh, it’s going to be EPIC!”

“Not again Tommy,” Auntie responded.

It’s only a matter of time until I get G.C.S 2 for my birthday next year.

The End

By Joel Lyons

Blurb

You can embark on an adventure with Tom on a quest for glory and survival in ‘The Sacred Game’. Tom is an ordinary 14 year old school boy on his holidays. When he gets a new game for his birthday, not only does Tom get the game, he gets a completely unexpected school holidays. This book will take you on an all new journey.

‘This is an inspiring tale of adventure where you join Tom on his numerous challenges. A terrific read.’

The Courier-Mail