The King's Crown by Gavin Johnson (best classic books to read txt) 📕

the night. ‘Do I love Edward?’

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Isabella was awoken by a sharp pain, jabbing into her chest. She lifted her heavy eyelids slightly, to see a blurred Claire standing over her. “Wake up! Edward and Clarke made breakfast for us!” Claire whispered. “Oh really?” Isabella mumbled. Claire nodded, and raced out of the room. Isabella stumbled out of bed, and trudged towards the dining room. Isabella’s first reaction was shock, then hunger. There was plates and plates of food, some had a column of steam billowing from the top. Others were as cool as a cucumber. They were all set out under a fine silk cloth, on the other side had two large pitchers of water, with two plates and glasses. Edward and Clarke came into the room. “Please, take and eat as much as you like,” Edward offered. Isabella and plopped down and dug in. Mouthful after mouthful of amazing food was shoved into Isabella’s mouth, she was starving, despite the enormous dinner she had last night. All the thinking she did must’ve brought a monstrous appetite. After the girls ate, they both took another bath, changing back into their original clothing. Soon, they were out the door, Edward had his spear, and Clarke with his hatchet. “So were to now” Clarke asked. “Well, first we go to Nick’s bar, we have some old friends to pick up,” Isabella said smiling. Clarke nodded, and led the way to Nick’s bar. The path to Nick’s stretched about half the town. Though none of them grew tired. Isabella discovered she had grown much tougher since the beginning of the quest, she saw this in Claire also. When they got to Nick’s bar, the four saw two figures arguing at the side of the building

“How could you have left them on their own? You idiot!” John screamed. “Hey, they are tough girls, they are probably safe, somewhere,” Jack countered. “Yeah, but for all we know, they could be back down in the spider’s cave, or lost in an evil wizard’s lands! Think about that!” John cried. “Yeah, that’s reasonable John. Y’know, ever since we began looking for this crown, you’ve been on my case with every little mistake!” Jack shot back. John looked surprised, but turned, dismissing the argument. “Jack! John!” The two girls shouted. The two whipped their heads around, to see Isabella and Claire running at them. They gave them a big hug. “Where were you two?” John asked. Claire pointed to Edward and Clarke. “These two helped us, we were about to be robbed when they stopped the robbers, they gave us food and shelter, we were in good hands,” Claire explained. “well, uh, thanks,” John said, shaking both Edward and Clarke’s hand. Jack did the same.

“It was no trouble at all,” Clarke said, winking at Claire. She blushed. John grew very tense then. “Well, thank you again, but we must be going now,” John said. “Wait, John, Claire and I agreed on letting Edward and Clarke in the group, can they come? Please?” Isabella pleaded. John sighed, he’d been in too many arguments lately, all of them he lost. He knew this one would be no different. He muttered a, “Fine.” before walking away. “This’ll be a great adventure!” Edward exclaimed, putting his arm around Isabella. Jack grew extremely tense when he witnessed this. “We should split up,” Edward suggested. “That way, we can find something that might lead us to the person who stole the crown.” “Good idea, John Claire and I will stick together, and Jack, Isabella and Edward will go together,” Clarke said. “Sounds good to me!” Isabella said, nodding. “Then follow me,” Edward smiled, waving his left hand toward Jack and Isabella. John and Jack looked at each other, sharing a disapproving glance.

As they searched, Edward began rambling on about the village and his early life, or some other stupid worthless thing he knew about. Jack seemed to be the only one in his group that was actually searching for clues. Though he knew some how John had run into the same exact problem. Isabella was listening intently, soaking in every word. “So you know every inch of this city?” Isabella said, flabbergasted. “Yes, I know every little fact of my city, isn’t it amazing how it started from nothing, to turning into the thriving city it is today?” Edward said. “Yes, quite,” Isabella answered, marveling at the city itself. The trio turned into an alley. Unfortunately it was a dead end. “Guess you don’t know your city as much as you claim you do,” Jack scoffed. Isabella flashed him a dirty look. Edward looked back, and cocked his head slightly. “Well here we are!” He said cheerfully. Isabella and Jack were confused as ever, but Isabella had a feeling there was something...off.

Edward squeezed his eyes shut, when he opened them, his sweet green eyes were now replaced with deadly red flaming ones. KA-BOOM! Edward’s body was suddenly engulfed in flames. When the flames died, Edward, the sweet, and charming Edward, had been replaced by a deadly looking skeleton, clothed in a ripped black robe. The outline of this demon figure was covered in red and blue flames. “W...what are you?” Jack stammered. “The death of you, is all that you need to know,” The new Edward rasped, changing his tone from cheerful to menacing.

“Well, let’s just see about that!” Jack shouted. He took his hammer into his hand, and charged. Jack swung hard, but surprisingly his hammer, as well as himself, phased completely through Edward. “What the...?” Jack said, tumbling over after he phased through. “Ha! You foolish mortal!” Edward cried. “Why are you doing this?” Isabella demanded. “It’s just a job,” Edward replied. “Isabella! Run!” Jack managed to spit out. Edward wagged his finger, “No no little lady! The fun has just begun!” Edward slowly raised his hand. Three huge stalagmites erupted from the ground. They were trapped.

Suddenly, a small shadowy figure came from the horizon, flying over the alley, careening down elegantly to a pot of water, ironically sitting in the alley. The bird was, of course, Misty. Isabella was confused, she squeezed her eyes shut, when she opened them, she hoped to see that Misty was just a trick of her eyes, that the Misty was really waiting outside the city with Magik, and the pot was just a figment of imagination. Instead, time was slowed down, Jack swung his hammer, but would take several minutes until it would completely fall through the intangible Edward. A voice echoed in her head, “Water.” She focused on the water, and then, it miraculously started to lift into the sky, Isabella was controlling the water! She then put her gaze on Edward, and instinctively threw the water, colliding with Edward. Isabella couldn’t believe her eyes, she squeezed them shut, just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. When she opened them, everything was back to normal. Well not everything. Edward no longer had his flames surrounding him, he was soaked from head to toe, he was vulnerable!

Jack smiled, he had the upper hand. “Please, have mercy!” Edward whimpered. Jack said sarcastically, “Sure, why not give the man who tried to kill us our mercy?” Jack raised his hammer, and brought it down on Edward. The skull was smashed was to smithereens. Misty finished the job by coming from behind Isabella and impaling Edward’s rib cage. He began pecking at it. “Did you see the water hit Edward? Freaky huh?” Jack exclaimed. “Yes, well, that was me!” Isabella said admittedly. “No way!” Jack said in disbelief. “How’d you know his weakness?” Jack asked. “I guess I just followed my instincts,” Isabella said, blushing. Then Jack gasped. “What?” Isabella said, worried. “If Edward was really this...beast, then wouldn’t Clarke...?” Jack trailed off suggestively. “We have to find them...fast!” Isabella said.

Jack nodded and ran to the stalagmites. He started to pound one, cracking and breaking it up. As Jack wailed on the stalagmite, Isabella thought, “God I hope they are all right.” with each swing

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John grunted as he was thrown into the side of the city’s main well. Clarke let out a sickening laugh. “You really think you can beat me you foolish mortal?” He cackled. “Bring it on!” Was all John could muster up. Clarke readied to strike. “John!” He could hear someone call. He turned to see who it was. Of course, it was Jack and Isabella, running towards them. “Hit ‘em with water Isabella!” Jack called. Isabella did the same routine as before. She focused on Clarke, and let the water do the rest. Once Clarke was soaked, John swung his sword, chopping off his skull head, destroying him for good. “What was with the water?” John asked. Jack smiled and jabbed his thumb at Isabella. “That was all Isabella, no lie. Now she can control water!” “No way!” John said breathlessly. Isabella nodded, and blushed. “I think we know where Og is heading!” Isabella said out of nowhere.

“Really?” John said. “Then I guess we are done here!” The children made their way to the main gate, when something stopped them in their tracks. “Is that, it can’t be? Imp?” John whimpered. At first, the children thought John was speaking complete hogwash, but then, the saw him. The happy, old man whom they had last seen last in the Woods of Red Eyes. “Imp, I can’t believe it’s really you!” Isabella exclaimed. Isabella and Claire ran to him to give him a huge hug. Imp laughed. “Long time no see, hmm my friends?” Imp said. John looked at Imp suspiciously. “What is wrong John, my friend?” Imp asked. “Imp, weren’t you trapped in the Woods of Red Eyes?” John said. “Oh, well, you see, uh... my friend,” Imp stammered. “Imp, if that is even your real name,” John said, drawing his sword. Imp sighed, “I wanted to do this the nice, and painless way, but oh well.”

Imp smiled. His canine teeth were unusually pointed. Then, in a flash, his body was consumed in flames. When they died down, Imp had been replaced with a hulking beast. His massive upper body was bright red, and had an orange pumping heart in the middle. Attached to that were two enormous arms, with bulging biceps and triceps. He had two claws with black, crooked, sharp fingernails. His head was bald, with two flaming eyes, gnashing teeth, and two long, curved, black horns. There was a cloud of fire where his legs and feet should’ve been.

Uh oh,” Jack said, he quivered as he reached for his hammer. Isabella knew he was right.