Monsters, Swords & Magic (can't think of a proper title yet)

This is my first story any comments & constructive criticism would be great. I wrote it a few years ago and have been looking for somewhere to post it where I could get some opinions.
hope you enjoy :-) (not able to put it all in as character restriction this is about half)


Chapter 1 Supernatural

Zukes, Alice and Web were sitting in the lounge watching the news, something about banks and war, the normal stuff, when a loud crash came from the landing and Gadzooks came hurtling in through the door with the tip of his tail alight, Alice put it out with a flick of her fingers.
Tom poked his head around the door sheepishly "sorry everyone" Tom was a twelve year old amateur magician, not the kind that makes rabbits appear out of their hats and all that rubbish no, Tom was the kind that could make a rabbit appear out of thin air then turn it into an elephant, providing there was enough room. He was always trying out new tricks. And yes you may be thinking ah there was a trap door involved. There’s always a trap door involved! Well hay this time, no trap doors. Tom was a real magician one of a slowly dying out group. And the rest of their little family, well, Alice was a teenage pyrotechnic that means that she can control fire with her thoughts, Gadzookes is the house cat. Just the house cat, unfortunately for him he does ends up getting used for most of Tom's experiments, he's been multicolored, he's been 5 foot tall and he's even had two massive tusks! Zukes is the oldest of the group, he’s a telekinetic he can move stuff with his mind and Web, well no one is really sure what he can do yet.
Today was just a normal Sunday for the kids nothing much happened on Sunday’s. Alice was the most affected by these boring mornings, sure it was nice she could have a lie-in but when she woke up there was nothing to do. Any other child of her age would be out with their friends, hanging round the mall or arcade in town yet she had to stay inside incase something happened, which it usually didn’t, for some reason all the monsters seemed to take Sunday off.
“This is sooo boring” said Alice from the sofa “shup grumpy” said Zukes “just because you would rather be in town shopping or what ever else it is you girls do.” “Oh no she wouldn’t” said Tom in a teasing sing song voice “she’d rather be snogging that chav Craig”
“No I wouldn’t!” replied Alice vehemently “And his names Chris actually” she added blushing slightly
“Calm down both of you” said Zukes chuckling to himself “Tom stop winding your sister up and Alice you know what we do and why we do it so stop complaining, anyway uncle Paul is coming round today.”
“Is he bringing Jake?” asked Web looking over the top of his book
“I hope not that little bugger tore the sofa into shreds last time he came” said Zukes
“That’s because Tom turned it into a deer and then back! So it was only Jake’s instincts please can you ask Uncle Paul to bring him please?”
“Oh ok I’ll think about it” said Zukes giving in to Web’s pleads. He had to admit Jake was a cute little thing really even if he was a wild tiger cub that ripped sofa’s to shreds and ate the soap.
“Thanks Zukes” said Web. Now he could try out his power again, he loved the fact that the others didn’t know what his skill was yet. To be fair he wasn’t completely sure either but he reckoned whatever it was it was going to be totally awesome. Tom teased him saying he had no powers but he did he just didn’t like showing them off and oh was Tom gonna pay, next time they went to the zoo he’d make it so that Tom would find a few snakes down his trousers, actually better make that spiders, Zukes would kill him if he put snakes on Tom, of course they wouldn’t be poisonous ones however much Web wanted revenge he didn’t want to kill anyone, especially not his own brother.
About three hours later Uncle Paul arrived bringing Jake with him. When he arrived Jake rushed straight up the stairs to Web’s room, funny thought Paul it seemed like those two new exactly what the other was thinking. But then you never knew with these kids, one day they had been ordinary children the next, fire, moving objects and mice coming out of the fridge.
Paul wasn’t really the children’s uncle he had just happened to be looking after them when they first discovered their powers, he remembered it well. He arrived home from work to find fire engines, police cars and ambulance’s all outside his house which was on fire, floating three foot above the ground! It had been a very busy day wiping all those memories.
Zukes came down the hall “hi Paul hows things at home?” he said
“Alright I spose, if you don’t include those two ghouls in my attic making a racket every time I go to the loo. How about you lot any more teachers that I have to wipe because Tom’s been showing off”
Zukes laughed “no your alright he’s been pretty good these last couple of weeks, talking of the devil here he comes now”
“The devil were? I could turn him into a cockroach if he stayed still or a pig that would be good, shame I haven’t mastered turning living things into dormant things yet like turning Web into a chair now that would be amusing, where’s Gadzookes gone?”
“No! You are not trying that kind of magic on Gadzookes” said Zukes
“Ok” said Tom.


Chapter 2 Monday morning’s

Web woke up with a start, his duvet was on the floor and Jake was curled up on top of it, Web smiled, having Jake around was fun, it was a shame he wasn’t allowed to take him into school, oh no school! Web jumped out of bed, waking up Jake and rushed to his wardrobe, he grabbed a plastic bag and his school shirt he then tipped the contents of the plastic bag into a bowl on the floor in which Jake then buried his head. Web then concentrated on getting dressed, shirt on, trousers on, find a clean pair of socks and then get tie, Web looked at his tie, great it was all ripped and soggy at the bottom. That was the one problem with having Jake round, he did like to rip things.
Web rushed out of his door and down the stairs where he crashed into Uncle Paul “hay kiddo slow down”
“Sorry uncle”
Paul laughed “you youngsters always rushing here and there any way have you seen Jake any where?”
“Yeh he’s in my room”
“Ok, you haven’t been feeding him raw meat again have you?”
“No Uncle Paul” said Web hoping that Jake would have finished it by the time Paul had got up the stairs. He then rushed through the hall and into the kitchen grabbing a piece of toast off the side
“Bit late waking up this morning aren’t you” said Zukes
“Yeh but its Monday and any way I can’t see Tom or Alice anywhere”
“Ok I’ll let you off as it’s the last week of term but only if you wake the others up”
“Why can’t you?”
“Because I’ve got to go to college in around five minutes”
“Ok I’ll wake Tom first then”
“Why?”
“No reason”
Web rushed up stairs to wake Tom, as soon as he opened Tom’s door Gadzookes rushed out, typical Tom trying out new spells again. When he stepped in the first thing he noticed was a massive pile of duvet’s and pillows on Toms bed, Web grabbed the bottom one and pulled, out came Tom still half asleep but when Web told him that Zukes was going to college in a moment he got straight up with a grin on his face “brill” he said, then rushed around getting his clothes and putting them on. As soon as he was dressed him and Web rushed down the stairs and watched as Zukes went out the back door.
You see what the two boys were so exited about was Zukes skateboard, it was how he got to college every day, but when he got outside there was a surprise for him instead of his skateboard there was a giant fluffy pink teddy bear. “TOM!” Shouted Zukes “Get here now!”
“Here comes the hard part” said Tom with a smile on his face and walked out to see Zukes. As soon as he walked out the bear was slammed into him with such force that he was sent flying back into the kitchen “okay I’ll turn it back” said Tom rubbing his back from where he had crashed into the dishwasher.
“No not okay turn it back now otherwise you will be doing all the chores for the next month!”
“Ok sorry Zukes”
Zukes hated having to shout at his brother but if he didn’t who else was going to keep him in line. He had to admit he could see the funny side of the bear.
When Zukes had gone Web went to wake Alice up. He knocked on Alice’s door and then went in. Alice was already up and dressed “hay kido, how did the big bear go down?”
“Not to well Tom’s got all of this months chores”
“I did warn him not to do it”
“Yeh I seem to recall you asking him if he could turn it into a t-rex”
“It might have made things more interesting though and got us out of school”
“Spose anyway we gotta go soon so you’d better come downstairs and get your toast”
“Did Zukes make it?”
“Yeh”
“Ok I think I’ll pass then.”
After breakfast the three kids left the house, locking the door behind them and walked down the road to the bus stop.
All three kids went to the local school, they’d gone to a few different schools and this one was okay, they’d managed to fit in with their tutor groups pretty easily and the curriculum wasn’t exactly hard. Apart from uncle Paul having to come in and wipe a teachers mind every now and then it was just like any other normally school




Chapter 3 school

Tom was practically bouncing on his seat, this was the last lesson he had before games and today was the day that he proved himself to the football coach. Today the under 12’s had a game against another school and today Tom was going to score.
It was Wednesday afternoon one lesson before lunch, Tom was in French class, Web was in I.C.T and Alice had a free period. Normally Alice would be studying for her next lesson or doing her homework but today she was walking round the grounds near the lake. She had art class after lunch and she hadn’t done her homework which was to draw a landscape. Alice sat down on one of the benches over looking the lake and took out her sketch pad and pencil and began to draw. She’d always been good at drawing ever since she had had her first lesson at primary school.
It was while she was midway through drawing the lake that she saw the swamp goblin climbing up the bank, Alice sighed something’s never changed with a flick of her fingers she sent a tongue of flame shooting at it, the goblin shriveled up and then disappeared in a small explosion of ashes.
Then suddenly around twenty of the creatures came over the bank it was only when Alice looked closer that she saw that there were not just goblins in the group but pixies as well, normally she wouldn’t have been that bothered and just fried them but different types of creatures don’t normally work together, Alice thought this in about five seconds then vaporized the creatures all at once anyway, you could never be too sure, she then went in to find Web and Tom.
She found them in the rec room crowded round the new table football game cheering on the two people playing, apparently it was Chelsea verses Liverpool and Liverpool were winning three two. Alice didn’t really care much for football but she knew that the two boys did so she left them be and decided to tell them on the bus home.
Chelsea won the football match 10:8, after that some other people started to play Tom got bored and decided to leave, by now the crowd had thinned enough so that he didn’t have to push his way out. After lunch Tom was at games playing football, Web had English then double biology and Alice had double art then maths. Web enjoyed some English lessons mainly the ones were they were allowed to read or watch a film but he found all the rest really boring, all the punctuation, summary’s and article reading, fortunately because this was the last English lesson they had they were watching a film. Alice had just handed her homework in and was getting on with her present project which was a giant collage of faces all with different expressions, some with only half a face, some a quarter and some just the mouth or eyes. Her art teacher said it had been an interesting project and that if Alice finished it well then it might be hung up in the entrance hall, so Alice was trying really hard on every face to make it look perfect, never the same face twice, never the exact same expression and never a gap on the card, so far it was going really well and Alice had covered three quarters of the card, she just hoped that she’d be able to finish it this lesson.
Tom was on the bus back to school, he hadn’t been picked for the team someone had made fun of him so he had punched him, it had seemed like the right thing to do at the time but now he was on his way back to school to report back to the deputy head, not the way he had been expecting the day to go. It was while Tom was sulking that the gripganger jumped onto the bus Tom looked out of his window and there it was just looking at him. Tom actually liked the gripganger he liked all the pockets they had in their coat and that you never knew what was going to come out of them, this time he saw a green head pop out of one of the pockets followed by red shoulders then a blue body. Tom laughed, a thruk this really was going to be interesting, but then he wondered why the gripganger was working with the thruk, the gripgangers normally liked to work by themselves oh well they were monsters who knew what they thought Thwack went the rock that Tom had just conjured up as it smashed into the gripganger and the thruk they both disappeared into a puff of ashes. He’d have to tell Alice and Web about this on the bus later.








Chapter 4 An unexpected ally

When all the children had clambered onto the bus it pulled out of the school car park and onto the main road. Alice, Tom and Web were all discussing Alice’s and Tom’s monster experiences they all found it strange that different types of monsters were working together maybe it was just these types. Somehow Web didn’t think so in his opinion the monsters had been getting better coordinated and generally more organized for a few months now but for some reason it was only the weaker monsters so far. Web just prayed to god that the stronger monsters like the werewolves and the hydra’s didn’t get involved.
Suddenly the bus came to an abrupt stop Web who had moved to the front could see why, there was traffic, cars blocking the road ahead for as far as the eye could see. The driver got up opened the door and went out that’s when the sounds came, people screaming, horns blaring, ambulance sirens and yet over all this there was a strange braying noise like a mix between a horse and a cow. Web looked back down the bus towards Alice and Tom and he could see that they were thinking exactly what he was, Minotaur and more than one!
They jumped out of the bus and started running towards the center of the commotion. When they got there they stopped with their mouths open in astonishment, in front of them were five fully grown male minotaurs four of with were currently smashing up the neighbourhood and the fifth, which just happened to be the biggest was looking straight at them!
Now as monsters go minotaurs are probably one of the worst, they average around 6 and a half foot, are very strong, very intelligent and don’t like being called names such as stinky *** which Tom had found out around two months ago when he had called one cow brain. On their own minotaurs have been know to tear down buildings with their bear hands, in groups they are best just left to whatever they are doing.
Alice immediately sent jets of fire straight at the first minotaur which had the effect of badly singing its fur pushing it back a couple of meters and also attracting the attention of the other four “nice going Alice” shouted Tom over the roaring fire “well what else was I going to do?”
“Fair enough” Tom conjured up a giant mallet and stood with his legs braced ready to send the first Minotaur that charged flying.
Web watched in amazement as Alice held two on the Minotaurs at bay with a wall of fire, Tom used his giant hammer to pummel one while another two circled him. While Web was watching Tom tripped one of them up with the handle and then got ready to smash its head but Web saw what the others didn’t. The other Minotaur’s suddenly looked fearful and the one that was on the floor had a gold band round his neck. “STOP, stop fighting, Tom stop fighting” Tom and Alice both turned to look at him and that was all the Minotaur needed to get away from the hammer the other four started to advance on the children, “stop” said a deep gruff voice and the biggest of the minotaurs stepped forward. Alice and Tom looked at the Minotaur in amazement even Web who had been expecting it was stunned. It was then that Zukes turned up running round the corner and coming to a stop when he saw the Minotaurs.
“I am Gresham leader of the White Pelt clan I extend my gratitude to you for saving my life young one and I also come to ask for you help in these dark times”
The four children just stood there in amazement they had been battling monsters for ten years now and had never encountered or expected anything like this.
“Well do you not speak like the rest of your race?”
“Yes we speak” said Web who was the first to pluck up the courage to talk “we err we just never knew that creatures like um like you could talk”
“Ah yes I suppose that is a fair reason for your silence”
“Hey wait a minute, how come out of all the monsters we have faced you lot, the strongest, toughest, meanest looking and hardest to kill are asking for our help?”
“You pose a good question young one but first is there anywhere we can go that we wont be seen, I am cautious that your, how do you say polcemen? May come with their guns”
“Well if you hadn’t been so eager to destroy half the houses on this street then maybe you wouldn’t have anything to worry about” said Tom
“You can come back to our house it’s only round the corner” said Zukes
“Thank you this is much appreciated“said Gresham
“It should be” muttered Tom








Chapter 5 The ruler of monsters

As soon as they got in the house Zukes, with a wave of his hand closed all the curtain or blinds so no one could see in. the minotaurs went into the lounge and sat on the carpet, the children came in and sat on the couch and Gadzookes who was scared by the minotaurs went into retreat underneath the sofa.
“Well why do you want our help then” demanded Tom
“The monsters are being lead by someone who wants to take other both of the realms, our and yours by force, she has already started trying to get the monsters to work together and so far it is partially working, she obviously realizes that this is the only way to conquer both the realms by force in this realm and diplomatically in mine. Fortunately for us some of the stronger creatures are reluctant to join the army that she is amassing”
“so your saying that this person wants to make all the monsters work together to crush this realm and then she will clam herself as ruler of your realm” said Zukes
“Pretty much yes”
“Well that was blunt and to the point” muttered Tom “but why do you need us”
“Because we minotaurs don’t have the numbers for when the war kicks off, we need all the help we can get, that is why we have come to you because if we don’t all work together then we don’t stand a chance, we will be wiped out along with all the other races that don’t obey the She Lord”
“you keep saying her who is this woman”
“She is a vampire countess the most powerful vampire in the whole monster realm and believe me that’s a big area. She calls herself the She lord because that’s what she wants to become, the ruler of all monsters. It is for this reason that many of the powerful creatures including us Minotaurs refuse to join her, we don’t want to be ruled we want to be free to do whatever we want to do”
“What like destroying parts of our world?” replied Tom
“No offence kid but you’re kind of doing that already”
“Wait how come the weaker creatures still join her” asked Alice
“Because she scares them if they don’t join her then they die. She’s found many a way of inflicting pain on creatures and if anything stands in her way, well lets just say it doesn’t get in her way again.”
“ok we’ll help you but what do you want us to do” asked Zukes
“Find allies, when the time comes we will come and get you”
Gresham and Zukes went out of the lounge and into the kitchen closing the door behind them, Alice went out the patio door into the garden and Web went up to his room to see what was on television. Tom was left in the lounge with the other minotaurs
“So what do you guys do for fun then” asked Tom
“Umm crush goblins and practice sword fighting that kinda stuff”
“Right ok” said Tom not being put off “ever watch the Simpson’s?”
“The what”
“I’ll take that as a no then”
When Zukes and Gresham came out of the kitchen Tom and the Minotaurs were watching the Simpson’s eating from a tub of popcorn that Tom had found in his room.
Have you ever heard a minotaur laugh? Probably not, well imagine thunder but rising and falling in pitch it was a bit like that. Tom and the minotaurs spun round, the popcorn disappearing at the same time to see Gresham laughing at them.
“it seems Zukes that your brother here has decided to take it upon himself to educate my finest warriors in your races entertainment” said Gresham
“yeh he does like to make people feel relaxed”
“anyway my warriors and I will be leaving now and Zukes take what I said into consideration it may well save you and your sibling’s lives”
“Don’t worry I’ve already started packing”
A thumping sound came from upstairs and two suitcases came whizzing down the stairs with Web surfing on one, when the suitcases got to the bottom they stopped abruptly sending Web head over heels into Zukes. Grisham left with a smile on his face.
“So were are we going then Zukes” asked Web rubbing his head
“We’re going to a friend of mine from college”
“Is he rich” asked Tom
“No he’s not but I think you might like his basement” said Zukes with a smile on his face.







Chapter 6 A lot of weapons

The bus dropped the children off on a road in what could fairly be called the middle of nowhere; opposite them was a two storey building with a red door and a very messy front lawn. If there had been any neighbors and they had happened to be watching the four children walk up the path then they would have seen a small blond haired boy with sparkling blue eyes look at the lawn and shake his head, as he shook his head all the weeds in the garden started to shrink and when they were around ankle height turned into many different types of flowers.
Alice looked at Tom with surprise
“I didn’t know you were into gardening”
“Well it was a three hour journey and there were a few magazines on the seat so I thought I might as well read them.” Replied Tom.
“Ok but don’t get into a habit of it” said Alice frowning “its weird”
A boy a bit older than Zukes came rushing out of the front door shouting, he was about 6 foot with short blond hair like an army cut, he had grey misty eyes and a face that seemed to be saying been there done that now bring me something challenging. “Oi what the hell do you think your… oh Zukes its you, um yeh, come in,”
The boy lead the children into his lounge “please sit down I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting anyone”
“That’s okay we weren’t expecting you to” said Zukes
“Okay well you going to tell me why you’re here then?” he asked
“Woh hold up you haven’t even told us who you are yet!” said Tom
“Ah yes well okay then, I’m Sam, college student by day bounty hunter by night, I’ve destroyed 465 monsters so far including 5 minotaurs and 3 hydras oh yeh and a werewolf, I’ve failed all my maths exams but passed all my languages any questions”
Tom, Web and Alice looked at Sam.
“Well I spose that answers my question then” said Tom
“Did you say 465” asked Alice
“Yes I did say 465” said Sam “and no Web I’m not proud of it, I kill them because otherwise they will kill me”
“How did you know I was going to say that?”
“Because Zukes has told me a lot about you three and I guessed that you would be the one to ask me if I felt bad about killing monsters”
“Oh right okay then”
“Anyway are you gonna tell me why your all here with suitcases or not”


“Yes I’ll tell you” said Zukes standing up “you three go and play or explore or something”
“Zukes we’re not little kids” said Tom sucking his thumb.
“Just don’t go in the basement” said Sam.
What Sam didn’t realize was the effect that those words have on kids its like saying don’t take any of the cookies while I’m gone, so of course by the time your back the cookies will all be gone and the kids will be in their room hiding. Your might as well say kids help your self to the cookies their on the second shelf next to the oven. Anyway Tom immediately set off for the basement followed by Web and Alice. When they finally found it and opened the door they just stood there. In front of them was rack upon rack or weaponry which included things like swords, pistols, rocket launchers, machine guns and well I could go on forever, basically imagine, have you ever seen the matrix? well if you have then you might remember the scene in the first movie where Neo is in a white room with Trinity and then suddenly racks of guns appear as far as the eye can see, well it was like that except they weren’t in white room, they were in a basement and the racks didn’t go as far as the eye could see, they went round all four walls with a table in the middle. Web stepped into the room and went straight to the rack next to him he picked up a long silver samurai sword and just looked at in amazement. Tom walked straight across the room and picked up an assault rifle underneath it there was a white label with the writing Type: M16A4 rifle
Use: goblins, saber tooth’s, gripgangers and yeti’s
Loaded: normal bullets
“Awesome” said Tom before lifting the weapon and looking down the sights.
Alice walked down the racks looking at the various weapons she stopped at a flamethrower and then carried on shaking her head finally she stopped at a rack of swords. These were the most beautiful swords she had ever seen! Probably Elven made they had a slight curve at the end and were made of silver with a straight leather handle a small hand guard and then a little barb jutting out of the blade, it looked beautiful and deadly at the same time.
Before Alice could reach out and pick up the blades she heard someone at the door, she grabbed Tom as he was the closest and dragged him under the stairs putting her finger to his lips, she then looked through the stairs trying to find Web. Web who had heard the noise around the same time as Tom threw himself across the floor and under the stairs to join the others.
Sam opened the door and walked down the stairs, he looked around the room to check nothing was missing, his eyes stopped at a rack of assault rifles one of the rifles was missing, Sam went over to the table in the middle of the room and started checking the drawers, while he was bending over he saw a glint of light reflect off of something next the stairs. He went over and picked up the rifle and put it back in its case then as he turned around “Alice, Tom, Web how about you come out now”
The three kids crawled out from under the stairs Tom rubbing his knee where Web had collided with it.
“How did you know we were there” asked Alice
“Yeh I put up a sense field so there was no way you could see or hear us” said Web
“yes I thought that that was an interesting touch” said Sam “ but I’m afraid that’s kinda what gave you away you see, I can tell if there are force fields along with a few other things near by”
“What few other things?” asked Web
“Hey wait a minute, Web did you say you put up a sense field?” said Alice
“Yeh I did, Sam what other things”
“Hay you can’t just ignore me like that Web I’m your sister! How long have you been able to make fields?”
“I’ve been able to do it since you guys found your powers”
“Well why didn’t you tell us and don’t say because you didn’t ask”
“I haven’t told you because I didn’t think it was important yet”
“Not important! You could have stopped loads of things from happening like Tom breaking his leg when a thruk charged into him, Zukes having to go into casualty because a hydra’s spear got him through the chest and me getting kicked out of school because I set fire to the head teachers wig which was actually a giful!”
“I’m sorry”
“Well sometimes sorry doesn’t cut it” said Alice walking out of the room slamming the door behind her
“you know” said Tom “ I don’t think she’s gonna be in a good mood for a few days I recommend staying away from anything flammable for awhile”
“Great thanks Tom” said Web.
Web walked around the room for abit looking at the various weapons and then left to try and find out which room was his.







Chapter 7 powers and lessons

For three days Sam stayed in his room only coming out for meal times and then not talking to anyone on the second day when Over the course of the three days Web apologized to Alice Zukes and Tom for keeping them in the dark about his powers. When Sam came out he then showed the others what he had been doing the past three days. He’d been trying to find information about the She-Lord, his method of finding this information had been to capture a goblin that had been going past and probe its mind until it gave him the information he was looking for, he then thanked the goblin for its cooperation and severed a few of the more important links in the brain, instant death quick and painless. The information that he had got was that the She Lord had managed to get the Falc’s, Hydras and Grell’s on her side. The Falc’s were basically a bigger and nastier version of a crow, the Grell’s, demon dogs and the Hydras, big lizard things with jaws that are fully capable of ripping a human head off. The She Lord had also tried to get the centaurs and werewolves on her side but the centaurs had rejected her offer and were now hiding in one of the deserted sections of the monster realm, while the werewolves were still making up their mind. These were the solid facts but there were also rumors that the She Lord had recruited trolls and hags as well as a few giants.
This was a mixture of good and bad news for the group as it meant they had a potential ally but it also meant that the She Lord had quite a few more races in her army.

For the next few days everyone was running around getting things they thought they might need if they were going into the monster realm. Surprisingly Alice was the first packed with a torch, her Ipod incase things got boring and one spare change of clothes. After the others saw how much she had packed they followed suit, everyone that is apart from Sam who had been down in the basement for two days straight. When Alice went down she found him standing in the middle of the room with a samurai sword in each hand the table had been moved to one side of the room providing Sam with room to move. As Alice watched some stuffed dummy’s popped up from the floor and then in a blink of an eye Sam was moving to the first one and slicing then to second one, when he reached the second one the first ones arms and head fell off this carried on for five dummy’s with five more left Sam settled into a fighting stance and then the dummy’s seemed to come alive charging at Sam with silver daggers in their hands, Sam just stood there until the last second when he leapt aside slashing the first one across the stomach and then spinning around and chopping its head of he then charged the other four and proceeded to kill them one by one when Sam had finished he didn’t have a scratch on him! He then went over to the table, on the table were loads of leather straps Sam placed the two swords into slots in the leather, he then picked up the leather bundle and slung it over his back so that the two handle’s were sticking out over his shoulders he then picked up two pistols and put them in holsters with two spare ammo clips. Alice then walked down the steps into the basement.
“Can you teach me to fight like that?”
Sam spun round drawing one of the pistol “oh its you what are you doing down here”
“Looking for you, can you teach me then?”
“What? Oh well I spose so but don’t expect to master it over night”
“That’s okay I don’t mind how long it takes”
“Okay then but I’ll have to find a sword for you”
“Could I use those two” asked Alice pointing at the swords she had noticed earlier
“I don’t know Alice those swords were given to me by the Elf king and queen two years ago they mean a lot to me”
“You mean you’ve been to the elf kingdom”
“Yes I was there for a year”
“What was it like?”
“How about I tell you in our next lesson”
“So you will teach me”
“Yeh starting tomorrow an hour and a half each day”
“Thanks Sam”
“That’s okay just don’t tell Tom otherwise he’ll be wanting a go on the machinegun”
“Okay” said Alice
Three weeks later and there was still no word from Gresham. Alice had learned fast. Sam said that she was probably one of the most talented human’s he had ever seen wield the sword. As Alice went through all this in her mind Web was in his room lying unconscious on the floor while a little blue creature about waist height repeatedly rammed the door.
“Web, Web are you alright in there” Alice shouted from the other side of the door. The blue creature looked at the door and cocked his head then lowered it and charged the door at the same time Alice opened the door, the creature ran straight through the open doorway across the hall and straight into the wall! He looked up and shook his head then promptly jumped through the window. Alice looked out the window and saw the creature running away across the fields.
Web opened his eyes to see Alice leaning over him “Zukes you’d better get up here” she shouted, on the floor in front of her was a platypus
“Um were did that come from” asked Zukes as he entered the room
“I don’t know, I opened the door and this little blue creature came running out, I walked in and it was on the floor”
Web rolled over onto his front suddenly realizing that he was really small and that his vision was very blurry. He could just make out Zukes and Alice watching him. He, well he wasn’t sure what he did now, did he run did he waddle anyway whatever is was it got him over to Zukes who he head butted and then went out the door hoping his plan would work, he could hear Zukes and Alice talking behind him.
“I think he wants us to follow him” said Zukes
“Okay then lets follow him” replied Alice
Web climbed down half the stairs and then fell down the rest, he was just about getting used to this creature sure it was a bit clumsy but he’d just fallen down ten stairs all bigger than him and he hadn’t felt a thing! Web picked himself up and went into the lounge he then climbed up onto a chair and turned around to face Zukes and Alice. Here came the tricky bit communication, he’d read a book once about these kids who could shape shift and they communicated by thought, maybe he could talk to the others through his thoughts it was worth a try at any rate.
“Zukes, Alice can you hear me?”
“Web is that you were are you?” said Zukes looking around
“Right in front of you” said Web immensely proud that his idea had worked.
Zukes and Alice both looked at the platypus Web
“You mean you’re a platypus” said Alice
“No I’m me but I can change into a platypus” and hopefully back added Web to himself
“Sooo you’re a shape shifter then”
“I suppose so yeh” said Web the excitement showing in his voice
“Change back now web” said Zukes
“Okay give me a sec” said Web” it’s not like I’ve done this before” suddenly the platypus bill shrank into its head then the tail was sucked into the body. Slowly but surely Web was turning back into Web. At that moment Tom came into the room, in the chair he saw a waist height creature with pink fur webbed hands no nose and a slit for a mouth.
“What is that” shouted Tom, Web looked up and then fully changed back in about two seconds
“Hi Tom” he said
“What, what, what were you”
“Well I was a platypus but when you came in I was half way through transforming back”
“Since when could you shape shift” said Tom
“Since about ten minutes ago”
“Oh great” said Tom and promptly sat on Web
“Oi get off me you idiot” said Web
“No not until you tell me how you changed your powers”
“I don’t know it just happened”
“Come on what do you take me for?”
“Well now you mention it…”
“Tom get off your brother he’s telling the truth” said Zukes
“But he can’t be” said Tom in a whining voice “it just doesn’t happen, if it does then why hasn’t it happened to me?”
“I don’t know Tom but I suppose we will find out in time, whether we like it or not”
“Well I defiantly like it” said Web




Chapter 8 a new addition to the party

The days went by and nothing much happened, Alice continued her lessons with Sam and was soon occasionally winning some of their bouts. Web found out he could transform into some other animals. When I say found out I mean turned into suddenly. He couldn’t control the first time he turned into an animal after he had been it once he could turn into it whenever he wanted. First he turned into a mole which he had fun with digging up the garden much to Sam’s displeasure. He then turned into a spider monkey which Alice thought was cute and Tom thought was weird because it looked nothing like a spider. Over around two weeks Web had turned into a mole, a spider monkey, a bald eagle and a platypus. Zukes had watched Web’s transformations with interest, Web now had three creatures which were good for escaping the mole digging, the eagle flying, and the monkey climbing but he still had no creatures that were good for fighting. Zukes thoughts were interrupted by Sam coming into the room “hey Zukes Alice is getting on brilliantly I’m thinking of putting her up against some more powerful monsters soon if that’s okay with you”
“Yeh that’s fine just nothing too powerful”
“Don’t worry she’ll be fine”
Tom had watched all of Web’s transformations with earnest his favorite despite what the others said was defiantly the spider monkey mainly because it was so funny and cute. He had also enjoyed watching Web fly as the eagle.
Sam walked down the hall and opened the door and standing in front of him casting a shadow down the hall was Grisham!
“Its time” he said.

It was five o’clock in the morning and the five humans and the Minotaur had been traveling none stop now since around seven o’clock last night “can we please stop now” said Tom
“Yes we can” said Gresham sitting down on the ground and grabbing out at a branch next to him to stop himself falling over. They had been traveling through the wood for five hours now with Web flying ahead and then coming back and telling them which way they had to go now. The directions from Gresham were vague heading for a eight foot tall stone pillar in a clearing, okay so this was very vague but anyway Zukes and Alice had got out a map and looked for all the forest or woods that were near them then Web flew off to find out if it had a clearing or not, this one did, so now Web was flying back and forth keeping them on track.
Sam took a small yellow bag out of his rucksack and threw it on the ground where it grew into four yellow tents one for Gresham, one for Alice, one for Sam and Zukes and one for Web and Tom. “Talk about inconspicuous” muttered Gresham
“It was the only colour I had so it’ll have to make do” said Sam
“Oh stop bickering you two and get some sleep god knows we’re gonna need it” said Alice who had already got into her tent.
I spose that I might as well explain what is in Sam’s rucksack as I probably wont get a chance later. First off the multicolored bags, these turned into a variety of things yellow = tents. Green = fire. Okay so not much of a variety but still. Also he had six little brown furry things these were a very basic form of messaging you tie a written letter to the underbelly of the creature and then tell it who you want it to go to. Anyway back to the story.
For the past week now Shade had been having weird dreams these had caused him to go back to the place where he had sworn he wouldn’t go ever again, the realm portal’s, the dreams had also included humans, now as a rule Shade tried to stay away from humans but the humans in his dream well he kind of sensed that they were different and that they were heading his way. So he set out looking for them.
Web woke up, he could of sworn he heard giggling in the distance “Alice is that you” he said…no answer he changed to eagle and flew to the top of a tall tree. Looking down he saw a creature that looked vaguely human shaped, he decided to take a risk and fly down in front of the creature. It had fur all over it’s face, green narrow eyes and sharp teeth but it didn’t look fierce it looked puzzled and curious, Web shifted to human the creature backed away and then seemed to smile
“Human I found human” it yelled
Shade watched all this from a distance he saw the fang yell and knew what would happen next he could already hear the rest of the hunting pack approaching he knew he had to help this eagle boy mainly because he was one of the humans in his dream and secondly because he really didn’t like fangs. As far as he could tell there was only one thing he could do.
Web saw what he had just got himself into e.g. seven creatures with evil grins on their face licking their lips at him. A black blur flashed past Web and charged into the lead creature, Web saw that the thing attacking the creature was also humanish though more so than the other creatures it had long black hair, and piercing green eyes it also had some evil looking blades hidden up its sleeves and a bow and quiver slung over its back
The fang looked at Shade “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be dead!” said the fang the worry showing in his voice
“What makes you think I’m gonna tell you” said Shade cutting the fangs throat he then stood up using the dead fang as a shield, as he rose he threw six silver daggers at the remaining fangs all the daggers hit their respective fangs straight in the forehead with uncanny accuracy.
Web watched with awe ”who are you” he asked
“My name is Shade and I am a friend” replied Shade
“umm okay then I spose I’d better introduce you to the others” the two walked back into the camp to be greeted by a stony face Alice she went straight up to Web and slapped him across the face “what were you thinking Web, you would have been killed if it hadn’t been for umm I’m sorry I don’t know your name” she said turning to Shade
“Alice this is Shade, Shade this is my sister Alice” said Web rubbing his cheek were Alice had slapped him
“Glad to meet you Alice” said Shade
“I’m glad you came when you did Shade otherwise my little brother here would be shesh kebab”
“Shesh kebab?”
“Dead”
“Oh I get it yes he most certainty would have been” Said Shade
Tom came crawling out of his tent “Geez next time can we book a hotel or at least..” Tom stopped mid sentence when he saw Shade he walked over to Shade “Hi I’m Tom pleased to meet you” he said holding out his hand
Shade looked up and took Tom’s hand uncertainly
“I’m Shade ” he said. Zukes and Sam came out of their tents both noticed Shade straight away and introduced themselves. Tom looked around “is Gresham still not up yet” he exclaimed” “and where’s Web gone?” a loud growl came from Gresham’s tent and an eagle flew out closely followed by Gresham “if you try and do that again I swear I’ll rip that bloody beak of yours off!” Gresham turned round and saw everyone looking at him, he didn’t pay attention to any of the others he walked straight up to Shade and punched him in the face, Shade was sent flying back into a tree “well I suppose I deserved that” he said getting up
“Why did you leave?” demanded Gresham
“I had no choice I was being hunted by a pack of hydras and the She Lord herself the only place I could hide was in the human realm”
“So why are you back then?”
“Because no stupid bloodsucker is going to keep me from my home any more”
“Guys if we could skip the reunion and get going” said Web
“Why” asked Tom
“Because there is a unit of goblins coming our way”
“So” said Alice “we could easily beat them”
“There are thirty of them mounted on grells”
“Okay that’s a good reason to leave”
Everyone rushed into their tents grabbed their things and then started to run in the vague direction of the portal.
As they burst into the clearing an arrow flew past Tom’s ear and looking back he saw the goblins just about to enter the clearing were they would have a clear shot.
“They’re right behind us!” he shouted, fortunately at that moment they all went through the portal.
One minute Alice was looking at a piece of shimmering sky the next she was in a dark twisting tunnel which felt like she was being pulled in every direction possible then she was out into the open again but this time she was in a different place completely she was in the monster realm.