Our Town Books, The Source partner to publish young writers’ stories
By Khristina Helmich
This was our first time as new owners [of Our Town Books in Jacksonville] hosting a writing workshop. We wanted to do one for kids because as parents, too, we are always trying to find something for them to do in the summer.
The writing workshop was a dream of mine since buying the store because I started writing my own short stories at a young age, pretty much as soon as I could write. A writing workshop would have been a dream of mine then.
Taylor Heady, a local writer, helped us plan the workshop and pretty much ran it for us. The kids had an amazing time with us and we enjoyed their imaginations during our group activities. The workshop was just four days long, but we helped these kids start to finish, guiding them on how to write their ideas down and form them into stories. By the end of the workshop, we had six completed stories turned into us for review and we are so excited that The Source is publishing them! We can’t wait to host more of these in the future for kids and adults.
ELUNI’S TROUBLE
by LouElla Aring
Age: 10
700 words
Hi, I’m Eluni and right now I’m heading to school. I like school and all but I don’t like the teachers.
“Hey, Eluni! Like the fit!” says Elli.
“Thanks, just wanted to puff it up,” I say.
“Nice, but gotta head to class. Bye!” Elli says.
I go to class as well right before the bell rings. But…somehow…I feel watched.
After school I am pulled over by a suspicious woman with dark hair. I am pulled to a bunker and the last thing I remember is being drugged. When I wake up, I see the woman making breakfast for us.
“Here’s your breakfast, honey!” says the woman.
She gives me a plate with pancakes and bacon with a little cup of orange juice.
“Who are you, and where am I?” I say.
“I’m your birth mother of course!” says the woman.
“What are you talking about?! You’re not my mother!” I say.
Then she pushes the plate closer to me and tells me to eat up before I go to school.
“But, I usually ride the bus to school,” I say.
“I don’t care! Get in the car now,” the woman says angrily.
I do as she says because I don’t want to go to school with a black eye. And I don’t even bother to know her name. I don’t even talk on the ride to school.
“By the way, I’m Susan, short for Susanese,” says Susan with a smile.
And there it is, the name exchange.
“If you want to know my name, then fine. I’m Eluni,” I say.
“Oh, I already know your name, sweetheart,” Susan says.
“You named me?” I say very loudly.
“Shh, don’t be so loud but, yes,” says Susan.
I don’t talk for the rest of the ride. While I am thinking, I fiddle with my tail. Am I really adopted? If so, I now know why my adopted mother is a wolf.
At the end of school, my adoptive mom, Lany, picks me up.
“Mom, I have a question,” I say.
“Go ahead, sweetie,” says Lany.
“A-am I adopted?” I say.
She doesn’t answer back. Really she doesn’t talk the whole ride home.
“I think it’s time you know,” she says and finally answers me at home.
“Time I know what?” I say, trying not to blurt out the answer.
“Honey, you’re adopted,” says Lany.
I don’t know what I had said but it made her cry. I said something like I wish I was eighteen so I could move out and now I regret it.
She texts me she is going to go out with some friends and she forgives me. I reply back with, “I forgive you, too.” As soon as I send the message my phone dies. I plug it in and take a nap.
“Da-Ding! A notification has been sent to your phone!” says Chatty Phone.
I have a notification from my bank account. Yun-Hi sent me $10.
Before I know it she is knocking on my bedroom door. I open it but there is no one.
“Great,” I say, “Woke up for nothing.”
I start to practice soccer in my room.
“Honey, are you there?” Lany asks.
I stop and listen.
“Yeah, what for?” I say.
“I wanted to check on you and I heard you were kidnapped yesterday then I picked you up today,” says Lany.
“Yeah, but where’d you hear that?” I ask.
“From your birth mom,” Lany says.
“Oh, ok. Did you do something to her?” I say.
“Yes, we called the police on her.” Lany says.
Lany leaves me and I practice more soccer. I now feel a huge weight on my back lift off. When I get back to school, all my friends drown me in attention.
“OMG, are you OK?” Elli says.
“Are you hurt?” says Yun-Hi.
“Here, I bought you this,” says Matin.
“Guys, guys, I’m fine,” I say to my friends. “And thanks for the chocolates, Matin,” I say.
After school my brother picks me up.
“I’m sure our dad would be proud of you,” says my brother, Nav.
“Yeah, me too,” I say.
We all have a huge feast at home and live happily ever after.
The End
LUNA AND THE SCHOOL SURPRISE
by Delaney Corrigan
Age: 9
805 words
CHAPTER 1
MY PRETTY NECKLACE
My LoLo got me this really pretty necklace! She said it was from when she was a kid! LoLo is 77 years old, so this necklace is not made anymore. My LoLo lost her eye at a football game. My LoLo says K’s Merchandise is where she got it. That is a fun name for a place, am I right?
So now my mom is yelling at me to get in the car and brush my teeth at the same time! I am so overwhelmed right now. My mom just picked me up and raced me to the car as fast as the Flash, and probably sped me to 1st grade. Now I am carsick and mad at my mom – but she is mad at me too. I took you and my necklace! So bad right? Anyway, I took my necklace, put it on, danced in the hallway, and ran through the class door. But then my teacher stared at me like I was crazy, then she took that necklace off my neck and broke it.
My eyes filled with tears as I cried and rushed to her desk, grabbed a tardy pass, and sat at my desk. The girl next to me, Rachel, said that I got a really bad start with Mrs. Breeze.
My teacher, Mrs. Breeze, taught us math. The hardest question is 20+40. It took 2 minutes for me to find the answer.
CHAPTER 2
MRS. BREEZE’S SECRET
When it was lunch, I got mac-n-cheese and strawberry milk! It was so yummy! I was late to class, so I ran in and Mrs. Breeze stared at me like her pet vomited on her, and yelled at me saying, “Why are you late? Back in my day you would get expelled for being late!”
I cried really hard. Then she screamed at me. I did my really loud bark, and I heard her yell, “AHH!” and melt. I freaked out and she turned into a snow fairy! She said that she needs help with her fire fairy sister!
ABBY AND GIANA
Giana the snow fairy and Abby the fire fairy – you know, angry and joy? Well anger is Abby and joy is Giana. Abby got so mad she lit cake on fire. Giana just licked it and froze Abby’s eye!
CHAPTER 3
MRS. BREEZE “Again?!”
When I woke up today, I started missing mom, bro, and dad. I asked to go home and Giana looked sad but let me go.
When I saw bro, I smiled, “Bro.”
“Sis,” we hugged. P.S. Troy is my bro, he wanted me to let you know.
But I saw the time…school! I rushed through the doors, ran in the classroom, and saw Mrs. Breeze! I was crying looking at her. She gave me her yell and stomped by me for being late.
I ran to my desk with a tardy pass.
We learned reading but I know how to read, so it was easy. Not allowed to say “easy.” My test for math was an A!
CHAPTER 4
RACHEL
“Hi!” I stole Luna’s diary.
I snooped at ALL of the pages and hey!
CHAPTER 5
GIANA AND NOT ABBY
I have to find out how to not let Abby know I need Giana. So, I will call Giana and see what Abby has planned. Giana has a boring phone and I have a cool iPad. Abby has N-O-T-H-I-N-G planned. AH!
Abby has four things planned now. So, I can get Abby to do all her plans and I get to work with Giana. Me + Giana, Abby + Plans, Great Plan!
I need more than I thought. 17 plans! Not enough! How can I ever defeat evil Mrs. Breeze? Teardrop.
We let Abby know.
CHAPTER 5
ME VS MRS. BREEZE
I got Giana on my team and Abby decided to join! 3 versus 1? Easy! Just hope she does not have a team! Then, we would lose completely. I am so overwhelmed right now! Ugh!
CHAPTER 6
FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!
I am getting chanted to fight Mrs. Breeze! I am so nervous, can I just not fight her? I am starting to feel guilty. But Abby’s hair was on fire!
We fought and fought and fought and we won the fight! I feel great but I could feel better. I decided to build a fairy sword with paper.
How to Build a Fairy Sword:
- Step One: Get a blank piece of paper.
- Step Two: Fold the paper into a triangle.
- Step Three: Get another piece of paper.
- Step Four: Fold that paper to a rectangle.
- Step Five: Get tape.
- Step Six: Tape the two papers together, with the triangle on top of the rectangle on the bottom.
- Step Seven: Then give it PIZZAZZ!
- Step Eight: You’re done.
Goodbye friends!
MEET MIK AND FRIENDS
by Raelynn Gregory
Age: 9
564 words
Hi, this is Mik. Mik is 23 years old. She lives in Bikini Bottom. Mik became a detective because there are so many crimes in the waters.
“If you need a detective, I’m your shark!” said Mik. “It’s just me, my mom Lid and my brother Jome. I bet you’re wondering where my dad is. He left us when Jome was born.”
Fun Fact: Normally both shark parents don’t stay with their kids, but in this book Mik has a mom.
Buck is one of Mik’s friends. He is a detective too. Buck helps with crimes above the waters. It’s because he is a duck so he kind of has to be above water. Mik and Buck like to meet up after work and get fish fries and talk about work.
Next is Kat. She helps answer the calls with the detective’s cases.
“I’m not afraid to work with Mik because she is a tiger shark, and tiger sharks don’t eat big fish,” said Kat.
Fun Fact: Tiger sharks do eat big fish. Smaller tiger sharks eat smaller fish that are easy to find.
Last is Roe, the dolphin. Roe is a scientist for the detectives. She takes the clues the detective finds and tests them.
Fun Fact: Dolphins are really smart so it would be good for one to be a scientist.
MIK & FRIENDS: SHARK DETECTIVE
“No! We’re out of fish fries,” Mik said.
“Well, let’s go get more fish fries,” Buck said happily.
“Fish fries, fish fries, fish fries,” chanted Mik. Soon everyone but Kat was chanting fish fries.
“We’re here,” Roe said.
Ring-ring, ring-ring. “Hello, this is Kat. How can I help you?”
“Hi, this is Bob the blowfish. I have a case for you to solve.”
“Looks like your fish fries will have to wait,” said Roe.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” said Kat happily.
“Waa,” said Mik sadly.
~
“Look, I found more fish fries!” said Mik.
“Nice!” said Roe.
“I’m going to eat them,” said Mik.
“NOOO!” said Roe.
“Fine,” Mik said.
“OK, we are navigating the location now,” said Kat.
“Where is the crime?” said Roe.
“The edge of Bikini Bottom, got that?” said Kat.
“Yep,” agreed Mik, Roe, and Buck.
~
“What’s up?” said Roe.
“Someone stole all our fish fries!” said Bod.
“No way!” said Mik, surprised.
“You have one hour before the store opens,” said Bod.
“What!” they all said.
“OK, we can do this,” said Mik, pumped up.
THE ONE AND ONLY CLUE
“Look, a trail of fish fries. Should we follow it?” said Roe.
“Yes,” they all said.
“Look, it goes to the back of the shop. Why did the trail stop?” asked Mik.
“I don’t know why. Look, this one is half eaten!” said Roe. “I should test it! Can you get my stuff?”
“Hey! Where did you get more fish fries? You said you were out!” said Kat.
“Bye,” said Bod.
“Get him!” they all said.
“He’s going to the door! Go get him. Let’s go!” said Ro.
“Buck, now!” said Mik.
“Got him!” Buck said.
“Nice,” said Roe.
“You’re going to jail for stealing the fish fries. Let’s take him to Fish Co so we can go to bed,” said Buck.
“I’ll take him,” said Kat.
“When I get home I’m going to bed,” said Mik.
3 HOURS LATER
“Night guys,” said Mik. “Good job solving the case.”
THE CHRONICLES OF FALCRON: THE DARKEST DAY
by Joseph M. Vogt
Age: 12
1,980 words
Chapter 1: Where?
“Ugh, my head. Where am I?” said Jason. He was in a bed in a dark tent. He had black hair and blue eyes and was about twelve.
Suddenly, someone said, “You are on Falcron.”
“Where?” asked Jason.
“Falcron,” they repeated. “I am Sunythe Elf, and who are you?” Suny looked about Jason’s age. She had bright yellow eyes and golden hair.
“My name is Jason,” said Jason.
“Are you a mage?” asked Suny.
“A what?” asked Jason.
“A mage, a kind of magic wielder,” answered Suny.
“I don’t remember anything except my name,” said Jason.
“Then we should get you a weapon.”
“Like what?” asked Jason.
“How about you train a bit to find out,” said Suny. She took Jason to an armory to choose a weapon. After his training, Jason picked out a copper sword.
At Jason’s tent, Suny told him that she was a wind mage.
The next day, Suny took Jason to see her friend Nick.
It turned out that Nick was a water half-dragon. He had a dragon’s head and wings, but a human’s body. His scales were light blue and he was about twelve. Nick was very energetic and kind.
One day someone ran into the trio’s camp and told them that the sacred power of the gods was being drained. Jason asked the man if he knew anything about it and the man said that he had seen a strange person near the temple of the gods. Jason asked him where they went and he said that they ran into the forest.
“Looks like we got ourselves a quest,” said Suny.
As they were walking to the forest they noticed strange things happening in the village. Wells were empty, the crops had stopped growing, and all the fires were flickering.
“The gods must be getting weaker,” said Suny.
“The way things are going now, I’d say that we have about two weeks until the order is completely disbalanced and all life as we know it will die,” said Nick.
Suny and Jason stared at him.
“What?” he said. “Dragons know these things!”
There was a long silence. At last, Suny said, “Anyway, we need to follow that thift before everything goes into chaos like Nick said!”
“Thank you!” said Nick, crossing his arms and sounding unappreciative.
“Let’s just go before something bad happens,” said Jason.
As they reached the edge of the forest they heard a whistling noise and fell into a dead faint.
Chapter 2: Prisoners
When Suny woke up she found herself in a cage with her hands chained behind her back. Her feet were also chained together, and a chain around her neck connected her to the cage.
What the? She thought.
She then realized she couldn’t speak because of a gag in her mouth.
“Where are the other two?” wondered Suny. “Who have I been captured by?”
Then she saw a lizard-man.
A komodo, she thought. I need to find a way out.
After an hour of searching for a way out, Suny thought she might as well spy to see if she could find out anything about the “power thift” as she liked to put it, when suddenly she was knocked out.
~
When Jason woke up he found himself chained up and a chain around his neck connecting him to a cage. He had a cloth stuck in his mouth so he could not talk.
Who captured me? He thought.
After two minutes of looking for a way out he gave up and just listened to what his guards were saying. He suddenly sat upright. He had just heard them say, “Isn’t the boss gonna sell that new girl we caught today?”
Suddenly, he was knocked out.
~
When Suny woke back up she felt her cage being carried. Then she overheard what looked like the boss komodo saying, “I can’t believe the overlord bought this girl for $100!”
Then suddenly, Suny realized that the girl he was talking about was her!
Suddenly a komodo realized that she was awake again. He told the boss and the boss yelled, “Then use the tranquilizer darts!”
Suny braced herself but was relieved when her neck was unclamped! The dart had hit the lock! She broke through the door and jumped right into the boss’s arms.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” he said, then he shot her with a tranquilizer dart, threw her back into the cage, and re-clamped her neck.
Chapter 3: Nick?
When Nick woke up he found himself in full battle armor with a spear.
“What?” he said. Suddenly, the cell door opened and two komodos came in and dragged Nick into an arena. That’s when Nick realized that he was in a gladiator arena!
He saw that his opponent was a strong looking human. Then he noticed Suny next to the overlord’s throne. She had a chain around her neck connecting her to the chair. She also now had a golden dress on. Suddenly, he was knocked back.
The strong looking man had punched him in the chest. Nick got up and punched him in the face and the man was knocked out. The crowd cheered. He felt himself being knocked in the head and fainted.
~
When Jason woke back up he found himself in a cell with full battle armor on and his copper sword back on his belt. Suddenly, the cell door swung open and two lizard men dragged him out into an arena.
On the other side of the arena, he saw a rhino-looking monster. It charged at him and Jason had just enough time to dodge its attack. Jason spun around and tried to stab it but it was too quick. It dodged his attack and ran at him again. Jason only had time to glance at Suny, who looked horrified, before he was hit and knocked out.
~
When Jason was hit, Suny was horrified.
Ah, no! She thought.
After about an hour of watching gladiator fights, Suny was taken back to her cell. When she got there, she noticed that someone else was in there.
“Who are you?” asked Suny.
“Cinder,” the girl replied. She had flowing red and orange hair and red eyes. “And who are you?”
“I am Suny,” said Suny. “Are you a mage?”
“Yes,” answered Cinder. “I am a fire mage. Are you a mage?”
“I am a wind mage,” answered Suny.
Chapter 4: Escape
When Jason woke up he saw Nick next to him.
“Nick?” shouted Jason.
“What?” said Nick.
“How long was I out for?!” asked Jason.
“Two hours,” answered Nick. “We only have thirteen days left before the whole chaos thing.”
“That’s not good,” said Jason.
“Wanna play stone-papyrus-shears to pass the time?” asked Nick.
“Sure,” answered Jason.
Meanwhile, Suny and Cinder were trying to come up with an escape plan.
“Maybe you can melt the bars with your fire magic?” suggested Suny.
“I already tried that,” answered Cinder, shaking her head. “They’re unmeltable.”
A few minutes later, Suny and Cinder were both taken to the throne to watch another hour of gladiator fights. Now Suny noticed that neither Nick nor Jason fought that day. (They were still playing stone-papyrus-shears. The score was 199-198.)
That night they devised a plan to break out. First, Cinder would start melting the stone floor with her fire. Once the tunnel was finished, they would go through it and start looking for Nick and Jason. Once they found them, they would look for another exit. After they escaped, Cinder would come with them on their Quest to find the power thift.
Once Cinder had melted the stone and made the tunnel, they went to find Jason and Nick. After two minutes of running, they found them playing stone-papyrus-shears. (Nick had won.)
“What are you doing?” asked Cinder.
“Playing stone-papyrus-shears,” answered Nick. “Who are you?”
“This is Cinder,” said Suny.
After Cinder had melted the bars of their cell, Jason asked how they were getting out.
“Out the front door,” answered Cinder with a smirk.
“But where is the front door?” asked Nick, confused.
“Oh, um, no idea,” said Cinder. “I was just going to make one.”
“How?” asked Jason skeptically.
“Like this,” answered Cinder, casually exploding a nearby wall. They all ran through and into the forest.
Chapter 5: Into the Forest
Jason had remembered to pack some extra tents, so they were able to set up camp. When Jason and Nick went fishing, Suny asked Cinder how she was captured. Cinder told Suny that she was out picking berries when she was knocked out. She woke up in a cage with four komodos guarding it. Then she was sold to the overlord.
Suddenly, Nick and Jason came running out from the bushes. Nick was carrying a basket of fish and Jason was holding a book. Jason told them that when they were fishing, he found this journal buried in the dirt.
Entry One
To whoever finds this book, this is Joseph Vogt from Planet Earth. There is a terrible force lurking in the multiverse. I have been building a portal to go stop the force. I will need allies to help me.
This is Joe Vogt signing off.
After reading that, Jason felt an odd sensation.
“We have to find Joe,” said Jason.
“Why?” asked Cinder.
“It’s just a feeling I have,” answered Jason.
“Eat first, search later,” said Nick.
“Yeah, I’m hungry,” agreed Suny.
A while later, after they had dinner, they went to bed.
~
After they were asleep, something rustled in the bushes. It was a komodo scout who signaled for the others to follow. Suddenly, one disappeared. Then another! Until there were none left.
The next morning, Suny noticed a komodo scale on the ground.
“Guys!” shouted Suny. “Look at this!”
When they saw it, they realized that the camp wasn’t safe. They quickly packed up and darted into the forest. As they were running, Jason felt the book in his hand tingling. He looked down on it and realized it was glowing!
“That’s probably not g––”
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning sounded overhead and hit Jason.
~
Later, Jason found himself in one of their tents. He looked out to see if anyone was there. Suddenly, he felt himself being tackled to the ground by someone. It was Suny.
“Don’t scare me like that again!” she yelled at him.
“What happened?” asked Jason.
“Well, we heard the lightning and checked to see if everyone was okay,” she explained. “When we noticed you weren’t there, we looked behind us and saw you on the ground with the book in your hand.”
“Where is the book anyway?” asked Jason.
“Oh, in your tent of course!” answered Suny.
“I think I was struck by the lightning and the book was glowing,” said Jason.
“What?” said Suny.
“It like…called to me,” said Jason. “Where did you find me anyway?”
“Well, in the middle of the night I was taking a stroll to get some fresh air, when suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck in a clearing in front of me,” said Suny. “I rushed to see what happened and saw you lying on the ground, unconscious.”
Chapter 6: The Power Awakens
Suddenly, a group of komodos leapt out of the bushes, surrounding the camp and charged. Jason was doing pretty well against the komodos when he saw that Nick, Cinder, and Suny were surrounded.
Jason felt a tingling sensation throughout his body. In less than a second, all the komodos fell. Nick, Cinder, and Suny looked at Jason. He was crackling with electricity and levitating a foot off of the ground. He then shot out his arm and suddenly the book shot out from his tent and into his hand and his power faded.
“What just happened?!” yelled Suny.
“I don’t know,” said Jason. “But…look at the book.”
Entry Two
The portal is almost operational. I just need a power source.
To be continued…
THE TALE OF THE CURSED BOOK OF DRAGONS
by Michael Vogt
Age: 10
702 words
Prologue
In the land of animals, the most powerful is the dragon. The most powerful of the dragons is Jukable, and Jukable was so powerful because he had magic and he forged a book with it: the Book of Dragonology.
One dragon, the second most powerful, was trapped in the book. The dragon’s name was Arigato. And the worst thing is that Arigato was Jukable’s son. Jukable tried everything he could to free Arigato and eventually gave up!
Arigato’s time in the book was very long but Arigato never seemed to age. And over time, Arigato also gave up hope that he would escape the book. But one day, he had found a crystal at the corner of the book. And he found three more crystals when he got back to the house he had made and he held all four crystals at once. He magically teleported out of the book. Arigato looked around in amusement. He grabbed the book, prepared to smash it to pieces, but the moment he touched the book, he found himself back in his house.
The crystals were beside him. He took the crystals to his room. His room had a shiny green bed. He had a color-run lamp and a desk.
He grabbed all four crystals together and he was again magically zapped out of the book. This time he didn’t touch the book. He looked around and knew he was in a hollow in the volcano. It was dusty and rocky. He saw something that looked like light. He walked to where the light was and he looked outside and saw the ocean and a village. People were going in and out of the huts like thousands of snakes slithering around.
Arigato said, “I am free! Free at last!”
And so Arigato flew down to the village to meet the people.
Chapter 1
As soon as I went outside and onto the beach, I saw a flying thing above the beach. I thought it was a red-whiskered bulbul or a Japanese white-eye. They are both scavengers so I started looking for something dead nearby. I found nothing.
I also saw it getting bigger and closer. No birds in Hawaii were that big. Not bugs either. It landed near the ocean and also near me. I saw now that it had scales, a red head with white around the eyes. Its body was green and its wings and tail were violet.
Oh, by the way, my name is Kami. Kami is the word for god in the Shinto Japanese religion. I am here with my best friends Valkyrie and Daedalus. You know Valkyrie, the ancient warriors of Norse myth and Daedalus, the famous builder of the Labyrinth. They are both named after important things in different mythologies.
Anyway, I thought that this thing I thought was a bird is actually a dragon. We crept closer to it and it turned around and saw us. We froze. We didn’t move even when it came up to sniff us. It said, “Well, hi there! I’m Arigato. What’s your name?”
Huh. It can speak English.
“Uh, my name is Kami and these are my friends Valkyrie and Daedalus,” I said, and Arigato said, “Funny names! Hey, climb on my back.”
Too scared and bewildered to say no, we climbed on. As soon as we got on, I heard a sort of boom. Then I realized we were no longer on the ground. It must have been Arigato’s wings that made the sound. Air was whooshing past us, stinging our faces. And so we did the only thing we could do… Scream.
“Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!” Daedalus, Valkyrie, and I said. We screamed the entire time and when we got back to the ground our lungs stung.
“So, what do you think? How was it?” Arigato said.
“It was, uh, great,” Valkyrie said. I knew she was lying, though. I knew she wanted to puke on his face and walk away, but she wanted to be nice.
Suddenly, his eyes went white and milky and he was frozen rooted to the ground. Not ten seconds had passed when he woke up and unfroze.
He looked straight to us and said, “We have to find the crystals.”
To be continued…
Adventures of Canine Carnival
by Cataleah Wagy
Age: 10
871 words
Hi! I’m Axel. I’m a 3 year old Golden Retriever Lab mix and I’ll be taking you on an adventure with my friends and I.
I have a sister named Molly. Everyone likes to call her Mol-Mols. Molly and I are heading to Chow-Chow City to pick up our friends, Harley and Sammy. We’re gathering all of our friends for the Canine Island Carnival. We go to this every year and have a ton of fun together! We have one more friend to pick up. That’s Charlie, in Huskyville. We have to ride a plane to get there.
We all board the airplane. After the attendant serves us all of our favorite treats – fresh spring water, blue blueberries and cheese cubes – we decide we should nap with our full bellies to help time pass quicker.
A few hours pass and as I wake up the attendant tells me we will be landing soon. Excited for the whole gang to be together in just a short time, I loudly shout, “Guys, we’re here in Huskyville!”
Everyone does a big stretch and shake and is awake just in time to get off the plane. I explain to everyone that Charlie said he would meet us at the ice cream stand across the street. We quickly make our way across the street to help Charlie finish his extra large peanut butter cup.
As we finish up the pup cup we discuss our excitement for getting on the skylift. The skylift will take us over the hills of Huskyville to Pitbull City. This is where the Carnival is. We quickly get on our 15 minute ride and the lift starts moving towards our destination. As we come over the largest hill in Huskyville, we can see everything! We can see the Carnival, Paw Print Lake, and in the distance we can see the peaks of the Labrador Mountain.
We slowly descend down the hill into the city. We hop off the skylift and run as fast as we can to the entrance of the Carnival. We made it! Now it’s time to enjoy our favorite event of the year.
We’re finally here! Can you believe it? We begin to meander just past the entrance and we quickly begin to spot our favorites.
I’m up first with the balloon pop in the game area. I make my way up and enter the balloon pit. The carnival worker says, “1…2…3. Go!”
I start popping as many balloons as I can in a thirty second timeframe.
“Time’s up!” I hear.
I look around and I popped all the balloons! Looking at the signs I knew I got the biggest prize! I won 100 cheese cubes to share with everyone!
Mol-Mols quickly spots her favorite game too. Among all the other dogs we quickly make our way up the pathway to the ball bit treasure hunt. She hops in and begins to sniff out the prizes. With us cheering her on she ends the game with a new blanket, a bone, and a bag of strawberry yogurt bites – all her favorites!
We begin snacking on cheese cubes and Mol-Mol’s yogurt bites as we make our way to the agility course. Charlie runs to the front of the line and gets his ticket. The employee explains the rates and Charlie goes to get in the line.
The worker says, “1…2…3. Go!”
Charlie dashes through the tunnels and over the hurdles, swims through the water to the finish line. He made it to 3rd place! We all cheer for him in the crowd. He won a bucket of toys! Maybe he’ll share with us. Charlie gives us all 1 toy and still has a half of a bucket for himself.
Now we’re going to the Ferris wheel. The worker says to buckle up and sit down on the ride. The ride will start in 3 minutes. While we wait we talk about what we are doing after the ride. We slowly start to go up. Round and round we go. The views are spectacular with Paw Print Lake just outside the carnival’s gates. The ride slowly comes to an end.
We quickly get off and head to the tower drop. The worker quickly helped us get strapped in. The machine starts and we go up to the top. Once we reach the top, we sit there nervous. Out of nowhere we suddenly start to drop down the six story tower. We get off the ride with our tails tucked and our ears down. That was a thrill!
It is almost dark. We go to the popcorn stand to each grab a bag before we head to Paw Print Lake for the fireworks. We take a short walk past the carnival gates and through the woods. We arrive and run to the Lake making the biggest splash we could. We get out to shake off and begin to sniff out a place to sit and watch the show. We all get in place and the show begins.
We are amazed by all the different types. We start to howl to show our excitement from the day. Then we all begin to talk about all the fun we had, the memories we made, and the plans for next year.
THE END
