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

and purple, with teeth always baring at something. It’s massive body arose, muscular and broad. Attached to the body were two torn, wings.

“Who dares enter Alstaria’s home?” Alstaria boomed. The kids were paralyzed in fear. “Well? Answer the mighty Alstaria!” Alstaria screamed, she was getting infuriated. “Alstaria,” John murmured, finally broken free from the paralyzing spell. John drew his sword, and charged. Alstaria saw this and sucked in a load of air, and blew out fire. “Oh crap!” John cried, and jumped to the side to avoid the scalding hot fire, but rammed into the other three kids. Jack struggled up, and quickly took his hammer and started to swing it like a maniac. John was able to get to Alstaria’s hand and made a long streak on her index finger, but that didn’t seem to hurt Alstaria. She just swatted him away. Jack got to Alstaria and jumped onto her fingernail. He wrapped his arms and legs around it. Then began to shimmy up towards Alstaria’s snout. He was just getting up to the shoulder when Alstaria spread her wings, and leaped in the air. “Uhhh..... come on!” Jack shouted, he grasped the neck, and jumped up onto the nose, he was just able to get up.

Jack began pounding the snout with everything he had. He ran up to the right eye and began pounding that once he realized hitting the snout had no advantage. With only only one eye still intact, Alstaria tried to claw at Jack. “This is insane!” Isabella thought. Though, Isabella knew, they all knew that Og was up to no good, and the four of them were the only one’s who knew it. They had to do this! “Oh come on! Fall already!” Jack shouted angrily. Alstaria had unwittingly stumbled over a pit of deadly spikes. “Jack! Hit somewhere else! John instructed. “It’s obvious that what you are doing has no affect!” Jack obeyed and made a leap for an arm. He just made it. Now, Jack was in even more danger than before. Jack had to be careful not to get roasted alive or fall into the rock spikes, and have a rocky death. He pulled himself up and tried to stand. Unfortunately if Jack did that, he’d be thrown off and crushed on impact with the mountain. So instead, he crawled up to the neck. Though Alstaria had different plans. She swiped at Jack, but Jack Threw his body forward to avoid the death claw. Jack almost fell off, but gripped the scales at the last moment. All three kids gasped. Jack pulled himself up once again and crawled up to the neck. Wobbling up and leaning on where the neck and shoulder met. “Well, here goes nothing!” Jack said. He gripped his hammer in both his sweaty hands, and brought it down.

Alstaria’s eyes shrunk to microscopic. She let out a tiny shrill, her wings stopped abruptly. Falling to her death. “Oh man, Jack! Jump!” John screamed. Jack did not think, he couldn’t, he jumped thrusting his body towards the mountain. His heart nearly leaped out of his chest as he saw himself plummeting into the mountain’s path. “YEEEEEEAAAAAARRRGH!” He screeched as his metal boot crashed down on the dusty road.

“Isabella, go get Jack, bring Magik” John said. Isabella motioned Magik to follow, surprisingly, Magik obeyed without hesitation. They dashed down the path, Isabella grew even worried that she might see Jack’s dead body sprawled on the floor with each step. They found Jack, alive, but clutching his left ankle, his face was pinched in pain, as well as fear, an aftershock after the jump. “Jack, oh my! You okay? That looks bad!” Isabella rambled on. Jack couldn’t speak, the pain prevented it. He breathed heavily. “Just-huff-put me-huff-on the horse-huff!” Jack wheezed between each breath. Isabella nodded, and grabbed both his hands. She pulled, and just managed to get him to his feet. Jack grabbed Magik’s maine, and put his healthy foot over Magik. Jack, now mounted up on the horse, flashed Isabella a smile, and commanded Magik, “Magik, to the top!” Magik gave out a ninny, and galloped up.

John and Claire were relieved that Jack was okay. “Wow, you are insane for doing what you just did Jack! You realize that if you made one wrong step, just one, you would’ve been killed that very moment?” John exclaimed. “Yeah, you would of died!” Claire chimed in. “Listen guys, I did what I did, it’s done, okay?” Jack pointed out. “Speaking of what you just did, Where is Alstaria?” John wondered. “Yeah, where is that mean ol’ dragon?” Claire chimed in once again. They all peered over toward the pit of spiky rocks. “Hey, look over there!” John said, pointing towards in the distance. There, with the largest spiked rocks plunged into it, was Alstaria’s lifeless body. The spikes that impaled her was drowned in black blood. The four waited. After about twenty minutes, John let out frustrated shout. “Ugh! I knew we shouldn’t have trusted that stupid Al! I knew it! He was drunk, the foolish old man was damn drunk!” John shouted He fell back, into a stalagmite. John slid down as slow as he could. “Well, what now?” Isabella asked. Jack shook his head. “I don’t know,” he sighed. “I don’t....” FWOOSH! An outburst of color sprang to life, leaving the dead body, and hovering above. There was reds, and blues, and yellows, and greens, and oranges, and many, bright, then shady colors. The color swirled, and created a funnel. Growing, and morphing, taking shape.

“What the...?” Isabella heard John whimper. The funnel, was morphing into what seemed like a body, then arms and hands, wings, and finally, a dragon head. The spirit of Alstaria! “You have killed the mighty and all powerful Alstaria!” The spirit boomed. “Now she’s just being modest,” Jack scoffed. “State your question, and I, the all powerful Alstaria, shall answer. “How do you destroy the one, who goes by the name Og?” John pronounced. The spirit stared blankly through them. Did this mean there was no answer to this question at all? Fortunately, the spirit bellowed, “You must travel to the woods of the Red Eyes. Find the rare “Humble seed”, mix it into a potion, and use it against Og. But be warned. “Be warned? Be warned of what?” Isabella demanded. Alas, apparently you could only ask one question per slay, because as soon as she answered, the spirit vanished.

“Okay Isabella, now we go to the “Woods of Red Eyes”. Jack said. Though Isabella was knelt down by three colossal, round objects. One was about to crack. It started at the bottom, one deep crack ran across the bottom. Then, another crack stretched around on top. A dent surfaced in the middle, before a stunning creature, ripped out of the shell. “Oh, my god! An owl lizard, the only mammal that is born from an egg!” john whispered, flabbergasted. “How’d it wind up here?” Isabella wondered. “Well, who cares? We should move on,” John said. “Hey sweetie, you need someone to take care of you?” Isabella cooed. Claire smiled, she seemed to enjoy the thought of this tiny owl int the group. John thought otherwise. “Oh no! We are not taking another animal with us. “I think I’ll call you Misty!” Isabella said thoughtfully, completely ignoring John. She turned to John, and announced, “I’m keeping Misty, and that’s that!” With that, she picked up Misty, and carried her to the rest of the group. “John sighed, he could defeat spiders and monsters, but girls were his weak spot. “Hey everyone, check out the new member!” Jack called. Claire asked, “How’d you get John to let you keep the owl?” Isabella beamed with excitement. “I guess I know his weakness,” Isabella answered with a chuckle.
Chapter 9

Isabella soon found out that Misty could grow to immense size, capable of holding to people while soaring through the sky. Jack was eager to get on the bird, but everyone thought he should stick to Magik, he was hurt, and they didn’t want to take chances. Yet, Jack was persistent, and eventually won them over. So Jack would ride with Isabella and John and Claire would travel on ground with Magik. This way, all four kids could get a fast transport to the destination. It was getting dark, and all of them were starving. So they decided to find a place to camp for the night. The closest place was the Hellock woods. This place was a small, and the ground was hidden behind thick trees to those who travelled in the sky. Misty landed, knowing that the two wanted to land here. Isabella hopped off, and tried to lift Jack up, but he was to heavy, and fell on top of her. Jack rolled off, Isabella felt a sharp pain in her chest, Jack had hurt her, and didn’t even know it.

Instead of naturally crying out, she laughed, because Jack was laughing. This made the pain noticeable, but she didn’t want to cry in front of Jack. He used his left elbow to support himself as he raised some of his upper body. Isabella did the same. Isabella stared into Jack’s ocean blue eyes. He stared into her green eyes, the space between them closed, and closed further still, this was the moment. The moment she would tell Jack about how she really felt about him. “Whoa, are you guys alright?” John called, as Magik reared up beside Misty, whom was reduced back to the small size Isabella had found him in.

Jack pulled back quick, and frantically answered, “Yep, we’re fine, nothing’s wrong here, it’s all...fine!” “Ok?” John said, a bit puzzled. John helped Jack up on his feet. Isabella got up and dusted herself off. Claire looked at Isabella like she knew there was something going on between Isabella and Jack, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Still, there was work to be done. John had gone off searching for wood. Meanwhile, Isabella found a nice shelter not far from where they had landed. Jack had caught four juicy, fat fish from a stream, and carved a cane out of extra tree bark John had brought back for