Marcus B

Chapter 1

Welcome to Chillbore

I woke to the sound of ice breaking and the view of the faint blue icicles hanging from the roof. I walked outside and lit the fire. After an hour you could see the rich red flame of the bonfire. My father sat on the cold stone outside our house, his black electric sockets on the back of his head were glistening in the cold white snow. For my race, these sockets helped us feel and we could also use them as weapons, so we could ambush during the night as our bodies are dark as obsidian. In our home of the 99 canyons there lived small animals called cubes and as you can guess from the name, they were squares with faces and short stubby legs that could transform into a mythical creature depending what type it is.

But my life from that point on was over and would never be the same again. I stood watching as the warm fire turned to a cold ash pit. As the cubes hopped around our canyon laughing. As I was watching my father, a corrupted fireball was shot at Chiller my pet fro-zone cube.

Soon Chiller’s clear sky blue body turned into a violent red. He had been corrupted. Chiller leapt at my father's heart the snow around his legs splashing everywhere and froze my father's heart solid. I ran up to him and knelt in tears as his four eyes turned from a pure yellow into a pale white. Chiller’s face soon was filled with the sky blue of his normal self, he ran up to the black body lying in the snow and grabbed onto my dad's arm. He hugged it as a cold tear ran down his small face. I stayed kneeling as the ash crept deep into my sockets. I grabbed Chiller and my jumper and vowed to find what had done this to Chiller and to my father.

Chapter 2

Beyond Told

I ran as fast as I could, tears lashing down my face, in the direction that the fireball had come from. After a few hours the sky started darkening. I ran over to a nearby tree and started chopping it with my hands and sockets to collect firewood for a base camp. But it was what happened next that I was not prepared for. I had taken down a few trees and set up a campfire. I lay on the cold hard floor, my only source of warmth was my jacket wrapped around my chest, as Chiller lay by my side. I lay watching the cold black inkiness of space, I started to close my eyes.

Then I heard a voice calling my name, “Sling Sling.” My eyes opened and I saw a cloud shaped like my father. The cloud said, “Son, you must avenge me. This will be the greatest battle of your life. You must fight the Puppeteer. She was a childhood friend but one day she learned how to bend cubes to her will. When she found how to use jealousy as a dangerous weapon, she has always been jealous of everybody. Please, son do it for me, do it for Chiller, do it for your mother.” His spirit moved away with the wind. Chiller and I started chasing. I yelled, “Dad, no, you can’t just leave me, come back please! I can’t do this alone I can’t afford to lose you again,” tears rushed down my face. Chiller puffed at the cloud, “Phew Phew Phew!!.” We returned to the campsite in tears, I lay, eyes opened thinking about the untold magic that lay in this place.

Chapter 3

The Gateway

As I woke the next morning I looked at my arm, somebody or something had attached a cube blaster to my arm permanently! It had a vision cube loaded in it. I shot it, I was now looking into my father's bright yellow eyes. The vision said, “Son I have attached this to your arm so you have a chance at defeating the Puppeteer,” then the vision disappeared. A cube blaster was a device that the species in our canyons used to fire cubes and make them transform. I was so excited I immediately grabbed Chiller and inserted him into the blaster and shot him at a tree.

My eyes lay in shock as the small cube I loved turned into an ice dragon, as he made contact with the tree a puff of smoke appeared. Chiller emerged from the rubble and now had little wings sticking out of his small body. I ran over to him and was confronted by a doorway, I saw some text encrypted into the doorway,

Here lies the portal to Lavaron. If you wish to enter you must find the stone of blue. It will guide you through the portal and through the dimension you wish to enter!

As I finished the passage, I realised I had heard those four words before. The stone of blue. The gateway must mean the water crystal that appears in the river canal of the highest mountain. My head turned to Chiller and said, “Buddy do you think you can make a mountain in your transformation.” His head nodded, so I loaded him up and he did what he said he would do. A glow appeared from the highest cave. The easy part was done now came the hard part, getting up to the top.

Chapter 4

The Mountain

I jumped from rock to rock until I reached the first cave, I set up a base camp to make sure I didn’t freeze during the night. I had finished setting up and Chiller had made an ice door to stop any snow from coming in. I heard a large growl coming from deeper in the cave. I yelled, “Who are you and what do you want?” Five corrupted earth cubes emerged from the darkness, their heads twisting in every direction. I knew this place wasn’t safe, somebody knew where we were. I grabbed Chiller and ran at the earth cubes thinking that if I went the way they had come from that I might be able to find out who was doing this and put an end to it. But the corrupted cubes had a different idea and shot Chiller off my shoulder, causing him to fall into the abyss, without thinking I jumped after him. I grabbed hold of him fearing the pain we would soon feel. But no, instead we felt the fast moving, bone chilling water of a river on our legs as we fell. Chiller and I gasped for air as rocks bashed against our bodies.

As I was gasping for air, I saw a blue aura coming from a blue stone. It was the water crystal which lay on the shore. I ran panting through the cold water with Chiller in my arms. I grabbed the stone and put it in my jacket pocket, as the sand beneath my feet started to collapse in on itself soon, we were left shivering. I grabbed the crystal out of my pocket and put it above the water so that I wouldn’t lose it. I felt calm once I could see where we're going. I started panicking again once I was thrust against a log in the river. I looked at the crystal and saw it was shining against a wall, then I remembered, “It will guide you,” I muttered to myself. I felt a burst of courage hit me and I ran to that spot and followed the aura until I saw light again.

I ran panting towards the light then a large night shaded body jumped in front of me and shot a web at the water crystal as it flew out of my hands and hit the stone wall behind me. Then the body vanished into the shadows. I loaded Chiller up and ran to the crystal but the body jumped in front of me and soon I was staring into it’s demonic eyes. I shot Chiller at its leg as it started to lose balance, but unfortunately it became angrier and angrier. I felt the only way to stop it was to keep shooting it’s legs which wasn’t easy because the legs kept growing back. Then the spider like creature, shot a web at my arm and I became immobilized. I kept tugging at the web as the wet goo stuck to my skin dried. Soon the cool sludgy goo turned to a hot thick layer of stone. Then I realized the web immobilizes your limbs. The spider shot a large web at me so I shot chiller at the web that was flying through the air like a rocket. Chiller’s wings were soon covered in the web which was what I had planned for. I broke free and grabbed his small body and ran underneath the beast’s legs and soon it fell onto the rocky floor. I ran for the crystal and ran out of the cave. I inserted the crystal into the doorway. Soon a bright red portal appeared inside the door.

Chapter 5:

Any Last Words

I slowly stepped through the portal and heard a voice coming from a patch of black smoke in front of me, “Sling, how are you? Have been dying to meet you in person oh and that must be Chiller.”

I yelled back, “How do you know who we are? Who are you?”

The voice replied, “Did daddy never mention me? I am the Puppeteer.” My heart sank as I saw her pure white body emerge from the black ash that lay in front of me. Rumours had it that she controlled cubes with the corrupted fire that always lay in her palms like puppets so that is how she got the name the Puppeteer. I yelled, threw a punch at her and knocked her off her feet and said,”You have put me through things unimaginable and now you're going to pay for what you have done,”

“Oh I don’t think, so I am in my element,” she said as she whistled. A fire dragon appeared out of the boiling rushing lava below us , flew above the puppeteer letting out an almighty roar. So I thought I would even the odds and shot Chiller at the dragon and they started fighting. I threw a punch at the puppeteer and made a river of rich red blood leak from her face as she wailed in agony. I called Chiller over and told him to create a portal to another underworld and soon a gateway filled with cool running water appeared in the dense ash. She rose to her feet and tried to call her dragon but before she could whistle I tackled her and sent her and myself into the underworld never to be seen again.

Join Sling, a teenager in an alien race on a journey to avenge his father, who is killed by a childhood friend after she finds how to use jealousy as a dreadful weapon.

If you like a story full of mysterious traps and page turning twists then you should try Cold hearted revenge.

‘A great read. Had me on the edge of my seat the whole time.’

Sydney Morning Herald