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

jump over. Though he foolishly left his most weakest spot open, his stomach. With a thrust, John killed Steven as well. After Claire was cut down, the kids tried to find a way out of the arena. “Man, We have to get out of here,” Jack said. “I know, but how? The walls are sloped, we can’t climb them!” John said. “Plus, this place is huge! It’ll take hours to find a way out!” Isabella cried. “Well, we’d better start then,” Jack sighed.

They split into two teams. John and Claire, and Isabella and Jack. Taking one side of the arena. Isabella tried to find a way out, but her attention was mainly on Jack. Wondering if he liked her, or thought she was cute. She thought he was cute. Jack had caught her staring, and gave her a weird look. She quickly turned, cursing herself, embarrassing herself. “So, you actually took on a gigantic spider all by yourself?” Jack said, trying to strike up a conversation. “Yep, me, all me, no one else but me!” Isabella said jittery. Jack smiled weakly and decided to kill the conversation. Meanwhile, Claire and John were looking for the exit, silently. Claire stayed close to John, just incase there were anymore pesky spiders running around. That’s when her eyes fell on an entrance.

She pulled John’s sleeve. “What, what is it Claire?” John asked. She pointed to the exit, and John gasped. They began calling Jack and Isabella to come. Jack and Isabella’s expressions were the same as John’s. There was something blocking the exit, something they would never tell anyone for as long as they lived. It was a unicorn, it was trapped in a web, and was drained dry from it’s color. The unicorn had it’s eyes closed, hardly breathing at all. Claire knew she had to do something, so she took John’s sword(Who had loosened his grip in shock) and rand up to the unicorn, slashing the weak webbing. The creature’s body went down with a THUMP! Claire dropped the sword and knelt down, trying to figure out if the thing is dead or not. “Claire, I think it’s dead,” John said softly. Suddenly, the unicorn sprung to life. It’s body, regaining full color again. It had a white body, but a red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and indigo hair color. the colors of the rainbow. Claire had a smile cross her lips.

“I think I’ll call you Magik,” Claire said. “Wait a minute! You’re actually planning on keeping that...that thing?!” John exclaimed. “No, I plan on keeping Magik,” Claire firmly said. “No, no way am I letting some horse, or pony, or whatever this is into the group!” John shouted. “But...” Claire started. John cut her off. “Claire! We found it in a cave! For all we know, it could be diseased!” John protested. Claire crossed her arms and stared into John’s eyes. “We are keeping Magik whether you like it or not!” Claire said. Her eyes stared hard into his, almost burning them. “Well, we could use the horse for transport, you know, if any of us get injured or something,” Jack said thoughtfully. There was a suspicious smile on his face, you could see a plan already reeling in the back of his head. “Yeah, that does sound like it could come in handy!” Isabella chimed in.

“Good, so we are keeping Magik!” Claire smiled. John started to argue when Magik dashed down the pitch black cavern she once blocked. “Magik? Magik, where are you going?” Claire shouted down after her. She began running down after her. “No! Wait Claire!” Isabella called her. Then, a blinding light of blasted from the cavern the passage was completely filled with light. “I can’t see!” Isabella said. “We gotta find Claire, c’mon,” John’s voice erupted in the air. Extending their arms in front of them, like Frankenstein and carefully walked forward. Feeling their way around, Isabella couldn’t help but wonder if Magik was such a good addition to the quest, after all, she did blind them. The cavern was, like all caverns, rocky, and ice cold. The ground was covered in pebbles, thankfully Isabella’s leather shoes gave some protection, but not much.

The cavern stretched for a bit more, suddenly, the light grew smaller and smaller and smaller, it began to morph into a shape. First, it just looked like a blob, but then it shrunk to a horse, and then the horse was accompanied by a silhouette of a young girl. Claire! Claire was there, sure enough, she was busy stroking Magik’s side. Then, the kids got a look at the scenery, there was a bright blue sky, sweet air filled their nostrils, a great pasture stretched through the landscape. They were out. Jack smiled and laughed. “Come on John, Magik saved us, how can you not let her in the group?” Claire said. “But...” John began to protest. “John, c’mon, Magik saved us! The least you could do is let her in the group,” Isabella pointed. John let out a sigh, before muttering, “Fine we can keept it.” “Yay! Thank you thank you thank you John!” Claire giggled. She hugged John, which made him blush. “Hey guys, why don’t we go down to the pasture for some shut eye,” Jack suggested. Everyone agreed. They were on a ledge, and the way down was to go down a slope, so they carefully stepped down. On the way down Claire said to John, “Oh, by the way John, we are keeping Magik.”
Chapter 8

The kids slept in the pasture for two days straight. They had grew weak from their battle with the spider queen. Sleep was the medicine they needed. When the kids awoke, all of them were crazy hungry, for they had lost all their supplies when they got trapped in the cave. While they were trying to decide what to do for food, a crooked laughter rang out in the distance. “What the....?” Isabella said aloud. “It came from over there!” Jack said, pointing his finger north. The kids went to see what the laughter was about. Claire rode on Magik while the other three ran. A moment later, they came across a drunken old man, sitting in the pasture, with bottles and bottles of ale. There were some empty bottles, though many were full. The empty bottles were cracked open, pointy shards stood were the coverings should be. The man held a small rock in his left hand, and a unopened bottle in his right.

“How do you do young fellers?” the man asked, dazed. He caught John glimpsing at his whiskey, so he asked him groggily, “Want some?” He held up the bottle he was holding with a shaky hand. “Uh, no thank you?” John said, pushing away the bottle. The man smiled a big, toothy grin and said, “More for me.” He took the rock, and smashed the bottle covering off the bottle. He sipped a bit of the ale. The man wore dirty, ripped pants, wore a single strip of clothing across his chest, and was bare footed, his scruffy white beard was dripping with whiskey.

“Um, hi, I’m Isabella, and these are my friends, Claire, Jack, and John,” Isabella said. The man nodded deeply, and took a greedy gulp of ale. “The name’s Al” The man said. “So, Al, where did you get all these bottles of beer?” John asked. “I raid Kingdoms at night, get all kinds of goodies there. “Hey, you got any good grub around here?” Jack butted in. Al pointed to a crudely hand made sack, filled with stale bread, there was nothing else, so Jack decided to choke it down rather than starve. Al continued. “I sneak in at night time, across rooftops, sneak past guards. Get good beer.” “Do you know what the kingdom of Ken-yang looks like?” Claire asked. “Naw, I only hit small kingdoms,” Al answered. He finished his bottle, then took another, and opened it. “So, where are you off to young fellers?” Al asked them. “Oh, we are off to find away to stop the man called Og!” John answered.

Al’s expression changed from drunken to serious. He leaped up and grabbed tightly to John’s arms. “No! Og is to powerful! I know this man! The only way to beat him is only known by the dragon Alstaria! Head to her mountain, it’s not far from here <hic> slay her <hic> you will get a <hic> wish! Go <hic> Go......” With that, Al fell back, unconscious. The kids knew what they had to do. Claire mounted up on Magik, and the kids began their Journey towards Alstaria’s mountain.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
“How come we have to walk, and Claire gets to ride on a horse?” Jack complained. “Well, first off, Magik is Claire’s horse, and the horse is for only when one of us get injured,” John said. “Besides, we are almost there anyway.” It was true, the mountain was in the distance. Isabella could feel heat from Alstaria’s fire breath. When they approached the mountain, they found that there was a path that stretched around the mountain like a snake. “Well, let’s start climbing then,” John said. Jack groaned. The path was steep, so they had to take their time while going up the way. It seemed to take about twenty minutes to get to the top. But they got there nonetheless. The top of Alstaria’s mountain had a flat ground, covered in tree bark and leaves. The perimeter was surrounded by rock stalagmites that were taller than any human. Isabella got the feeling they were being watched. “Man, this place is creeping me out!” Jack said. “Yeah, it’s almost like a huge....nest!” John concurred.

Suddenly, a huge roar rumbled in the kid’s ears. Then, out of nowhere, a gigantic hand shot out from behind the mountain, and grasped the stalagmites. The hand had blood red scales, and black, long fingernails, pointed for killing this behemoth’s prey. Another hand came and did the same. John and Jack drew their weapons, they knew what was about to come. A dragon’s head, larger than anything Isabella had seen in her entire life, peeped up. The dragon was was red