NEW BOOK

THE JACK LUNA TEWS DIARIES

Okay, so the reason I am writing this book right now is because Luna forced me to. She says we should talk about the ‘adventures of a lifetime’ and blah, blah, blah. My name is Jack Tews, and my sister is Luna.

And now I, Luna will take over writing because Jack is doing to much of his ‘stalling’ technique. Whatever. Now he`s on the ground, groaning like I punched him in the gut. Which I did. Anyway, it all started in a school in Madison Wisconsin. It was called, Eye Point Punching School. Who names their school like that? Anyway, we were not even there. We were taking a field trip to the Smithsonian. We listened to the guide talk non-stop about herbivores and carnivores and stuff like that. I call it boring. Jack calls it ‘educational’. Nerd. So naturally, I pretended to go to the bathroom, and I went to the snack bar. I was just about to order my pickles with cookies when I saw it. In the middle of the bar, was a person. Other people swerved at least a meter of him like he was a blazing fire. His eyes seemed to glare at me. Once I got my snack, I went around to find a table. But they were all taken. The only table left was right next to Mr. Scary. I went over asked “Would you mind if I sat here?” “Of course, sweetheart. In fact, I`ll love it if you sat here.” He said. His voice was raspy, with no sarcasm, but I sensed he didn`t really like me. But I could not resist a nice, steaming pickle with a cookie, right? So, I sat down and began to eat. Suddenly, I saw something that made me almost scream. The man`s face turned momentarily into a skull, and he seemed to have long, sharp teeth like those of a wolverine`s. Before I could decide I had seen that I heard Mr. Vananberg`s voice. “Luna? What are you doing? Sneaking off! I should give you a week of detention!” Yeah right. Like detention would even matter. Right then, I saw the man next to me turn into a skeleton. But he wasn`t a human skeleton. He had the fangs of a wolverine, the claws of a panther, and he had thick horns. Mr. Vananberg walked fearlessly two him. He tapped his ring, a beautiful ring of gold, diamond, and titanium. The ring turned into a double-edged sword decorated with gold and diamond chips. “Good morning, king Tut, are you out for the chips?” He asked calmly. “You know why. Now get out of here before I destroy you as well” The skeleton rasped. “I`m afraid not. All nomads shall come to Snow Fort for protection.” Nomads? I vaguely remembered that nomads were travelers, but I had a home. Then, my teacher swung the sword. It struck the skeleton on the rib. “Go, Luna, before he reforms!” Sure enough, the broken bones slowly started to stick back together. I ran back to the guide. I had a feeling that I would be safe there. Yeah, right. I saw the skeleton move forward, dueling Mr. Vananberg. I grabbed Jack and took off.

Oh, finally, I get to write. Okay so technically, Luna is five minutes younger than me, but she bosses me around. So, when she started pulling me along, I had to follow. She got to the bus, and she did something that nearly made me faint. She started to drive the bus! Somehow, she got to press the brake and the wheels, I could see she typed in ‘Snow Fort’ in the GPS. What in the world was Snow Fort? The GPS rattled, and before my eyes, began to turn into a portal. “Wait, where are we-” I never got to finish my sentence, because then there was a bright flash, and all I could see were huge pieces of light as we swirled around and around. We reappeared in front of a large dome, made of glistening titanium. And we reappeared just in time for monsters.

There was a roar behind us, and we turned to see a huge serpent slithering up to us. I caught my breath. I turned to see Jack. He was as shocked as I was. The snake opened it`s mouth, probably to kill us, when the beatings of drums sounded. An arrow whizzed passed us and struck the thing. A dozen kids charged out and pulverized the poor snake. “Hello, I am Joe” One said. “This is Snow Fort. Welcome!”

So, when you think of a fort, you probably think of a castle with walls of stone and knights everywhere. You would never imagine a metal igloo. Luna and I went in as one of the bricks opened. “So, these guys here are nomads?” I asked. Joe turned. “What do you know about the ancient mesopotamia?” He asked. “Well, it`s between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Sumer was the first urban civilization.” Joe nodded. “Oh, man what do we have here?” a voice roared. I turned to see a boy. He looked just like those kids’ teachers would peg as bullies. He was a five feet tall, with muscles strong enough to smash a boulder in half. “Carson, come on! They just got here!” Joe said. “Exactly. I heard newbies have some cash. There is this new store I want a cookie from.” “No” I said. “No? Well, I`m not asking.” He grabbed at me. And their I was, thrashing and kicking, a foot from the ground. “I don`t know about you, punk, but no one says no to me and lives to tell the tale.” He raised his fist, and I saw that it was capped with steel spikes. I thought to myself, ‘I did not survive a snake to end like this,’ He punched. But his fist went right through me. His hand holding me up simply didn`t hold on. He kicked me and punched me, but all the attacks went through me. So, I launched a punch of my own. I willed my fist to turn solid as it hit Carson, and he doubled over. He was fuming. “Your dead, punk. I`ll rip you for this.” Then he went off. My sister and Joe were looking at me, opened mouthed.

So, my brother can turn into any element of any sort. Hurray. So, Joe showed us the playground, which I thought was inappropriate, because the monkey bars moved, grew spikes, the slide was ended in an acid pool, and the swing swung to the speed of sound. He introduced me to the kid in charge. He was a teenager, a boy. He wore black robes, and he held a long, wooden pole. “That`s Evan Roe.” Joe told us. Evan gave a shallow bow to us. “Hello, Luna and Jack. We were hoping you would survive. Come, I would show you your past.” He walked into a dark room. Suddenly, a bright orange blast lit the room. Evan had made a line of orange sparks. “In the land of ancient Mesopotamia, there was many civilizations. Sumer was the first. You were not born in this age. A long time ago, dinosaurs roamed the land. When the age of them ended, some survived. They became known as monsters. They hunted the new beings of this planet-humans. Some of them had many special powers. The few of those who had power and luck made a time portal. They came to the place where their kind ruled the earth. You people are one of them. You are not orphans, just your parents are a few thousand years older than you.” “But that`s crazy, there are no records of any of this.” “No, but they are mysteries. The land of Mohenjo-Daro, where people flourished, was suddenly destroyed of life. People were flattened on the streets; the roofs were ripped off. Do you think some natural disaster could have been so accurate? No, it is the Shellripper, the most powerful monster of all.” My head was spinning. How could such powerful beings exist? I looked over and saw that my brother was having the same feeling as me. But Evan wasn`t done. “These monsters still exist, forced to the many corners of this earth. But unfortunately, they are not the only ones to stir. Some evil force is stirring the dead, you met king Tut of Egypt. Many say it was tomb raiders who stole the body of him, but now I suspect that another soul could have occupied it for so long. Whichever things may be, the soul who uses the pharaoh’s body is a powerful force. It has eaten the souls of others, and only a spirit of pure evil and power could do this act.”

“This is what I believe to help you the most.” Evan said. He took out a bracelet. “Uh… thanks?” Luna said. “Tap it.” Evan invited. She did. The small bracelet shimmered into a sword. “This is multi-titanium. It can only be heated in the center of the sun, and even so, can only be hammered with the pressure of a hundred pyramids.” He gave me a small bottle of water. I was thirsty, so I screwed of the lid to take a drink. The bottle turned into a meter of brown metal. “This is silt iron. With a single scratch of the blade, it can turn any living being into silt.” He said. “Now let`s go outside.” When we got outside, we heard screaming. A black, wispy figure glided over. He wore a black cloak, had no eyes, no feet, and his cloak sleeves floated without arms. I knew that that was a ghost. Evan confronted the thing, without even his pole. He raised his hand. Orange energy came from it, trapping the thing. Then the origami began to tighten, until the spirit vanished. “How did the soul of Alexander the Great come here?” Then, the metal dome opened. Mr. Vananberg walked to us. “Hello, kids. I saved you life.” He said. Then he began to change. From a man in an Italian silk suit with a necktie, he turned into a lion. At least, partial lion. His head was a tiger, with a lion`s mane around it. His body was a panther, and he had the tail of a scorpion. He had leathery wings that looked like a bat`s. He roared. It was a booming sound, something like a sound of a thundering truck times a thousand. I drew my sword, and saw Luna did the same. “I am not here to hurt you.” He said. “I am here to defend you. The ghost came here by mistake.” “How can we trust you?” I asked. “Because I saved your life.” He said. As to prove it, a dragon the size of a skyscraper came down. It roared. Joe leaned closer. “That`s a baby Shellripper. Maybe a few days old.” The thing heard Joe and was offended. He looked like a flat turtle, with horns and teeth the size of cars. It let out his blast. We closed the door- just in time. I looked out the multi-titanium coated window and saw blue balls of energy the size of Snow Fort blast into us. It hit every time, and the base began to rattle. “It`s a really fierce baby!” Luna said. “Nah, it`s just playing.” Joe said. Mr. Vananberg- I guess roared and lunged out of the emergency break. He jumped to the dragon`s eye and began to claw his face. The thing roared and shook my teacher off. Then he scampered away, into the forest that only came up to it`s feet. Mr. Vananberg turned back into a human and said, “There’s a lot more of that were it came from.” My head was spinning. “So… where are we?” I asked. “We are in the place between space. If you look to your left, you will see a desert, to the right, a snow dune.” Sure enough, divided by the forest by the desert by a pile of rocks. “So… can I have a real bottle of water?” I asked again.

You might expect a place full of kids with superpowers to learn about how to kill monsters and do cool stuff like wrestle with tigers. Nevertheless, the truth is it`s just like a regular school. Our typical class is math, history, recess, spelling, science, magic, recess, and PE. Only recess and magic and PE are fun. In recess, we get to go to that cool playground. The ground around it caves in and it turns into lava. In magic class, we get to practice on certain things, like making pickles explode of getting lions to sleep. PE is the best. We do archery, dodgeball, and duels. I stink at archery. I tried shooting the target, and the arrow didn`t even get in a foot of it. But Joe was incredible. He could shoot the bull`s eye two hundred meters away blindfolded. I know dodgeball sounds boring, but the balls explode. So, to not die, you need to dodge of catch the ball. Dueling was the best. Today, I dueled with a guy named Julian. He was the same age as me, a few centimeters taller, and he had this nice aura around him. He was kind, sharing, and considerate. “Don`t make that fool you.” The dude who fought Julian yesterday said. “When he fights, he`s a demon.” I figured he was wrong. He was right. After a few days of practice, I`m not the worst at sword fighting. But when I went to meet my opponent, my jaw dropped. Julian was dueling five to one, but although he was outnumbered, he was winning. He slashed at one guy, making him stumble back. He stabbed another on the shield with so much force that he fell. Then he saw me. “Hi.” He said, smiling. Before I knew it, I was on the ring with Julian. His look intensified. Then, the whistle blew. I lunged with my sword raised. Julian sidestepped and pushed me back with the hilt of his blade. But then, I kicked him on the chest. Dark fog began to grow from the ground. It fought for me. The fog carried me. I flew up and down, while Julian tried to get at me. I stabbed at him and locked hilts. I flung my sword upward and along came Julian`s. Two black blades appeared in my hands and I brought them down to Julian`s throat. There was moment of awed silence. “Whoa.” Julian managed to say. “The rumors are true.” Then he stood up and went flying down the road (yes, Julian can fly).

So, my sister defeated the only person who could take on a dozen to one. Huzza. So, we were sitting in front of Mr. Vananberg. “So, child. There is a prophecy about two coming to this land. We are very sure it means you two, and I hope you would agree.” Then he began to recite,

“From the abyss shall rise the two.

They shall conquer all that`s true.

One shall veil itself in dark,

the other is of many marks.

Two more shall travel with them too,

A swordsman, and an archer coo

They shall travel north to snow.

And will find the tomb of ago.

They shall save the monster`s wrath,

Until all is in their path”

“Uh… I guess you could say it is us.” I said. “The swordsman would be Julian” “And the archer has to be Joe!” The people we said materialized next to us, giving us (okay, me) quite a fright. “We need to go north, into the snow dune” Joe said. “And we brought gear.

Before we knew it, we were being given weapons, books, and a “Hope you survive” from friends, and we were being sent off. We walked and walked into the dune, until we thought our feet were going to freeze. Luckily, Luna was able to do something about it. She made hovercrafts out of darkness and we flew the rest of the way. Suddenly, we heard a roar. We turned to see the snow dune explode. Out came a… bear. It was a gummy bear, red, and was about two meters high. The thing growled. “This is easy.” Said Joe. He fired an arrow at the food. The arrow sunk a few inches into the creature and then bounced off. “On second thoughts, gummy bears are not cake” Joe said in a small voice. We activated our weapons and ran-away because the thing spat flaming acid at us and melted a foot of snow. We ran into a jungle, and yet the thing pursued. The thing walked on two legs, the others ripping trees apart. I cut two to make an ‘x’, but the bear tore it apart like they were pencils. Then, the thing gained. I swung my sword. That was a mistake. The blade passed clean through its body and chopped the head off. Immediately, the body grew a new head, and the head grew a new body. One punched me. I felt like I was being hit by the toughest, biggest, the most ticked off bouncy ball in the universe. I flew back and hit an elm. Then, Joe fired an arrow. It was a flaming arrow, and as it flew, the arrow turned into a burning sword and impaled a bear against a tree. The thing yelled and fought as it was burned alive, melting into goo. The other yelled for killing its clone. So, we ran again. I made the ‘x’ again and Joe set it ablaze. The annoying bear thing popped his head off and threw it at us. The body, without eyes, sadly burned to death. As it flew, it hit the ground in front of us and spat acid all around us. It wrote, I figured out later ‘I will avenge the gummy bears you burned, ate, and tortured’ but before it could, Luna wrapped it in black binds, and Julian stabbed into the dark bubble with his sword in ‘flame’ mode. After we were done, I set all the gummy bears I brought for the journey free, by the pond, and to my amazement, they came to life and bounced away. I silently swore to never eat a gummy bear again.