The Talisman Chronicles ~ Ember's Wish

I have written a short story about dragons in a new book called The Talisman Chronicles. A lot of young children and teenagers of many ages have written different stories about different things. We had a list of charms for example: Dragons, Pegasus, Unicorn, Frogs, Birds, Crowns etc.
Here is my Story - Embers wish

Drawing by Caitlin Shambrook

Design work by Bekah Shambrook

Please do not use.

Ember searched for Skye, her best friend. Skye was just a normal girl who happened to find a baby dragon in her room before bed, and Ember was an outcast.  She was ‘different’ and that was the excuse her clan gave for abandoning her.  Ember didn’t remember much of the story, she’d been too young, and now Skye was her family, all the family she needed anyway.

“Skye, Skye! Where are you?” shouted Ember. Ember looked everywhere for Skye and wasn’t getting anywhere, not even a scent of the girl teased her. The dragon soared over the beautiful scenery with no intention to look at it or admire it, especially while Skye was gone. She could admire it with Skye but certainly not on her own. Ember bolted through the different trees and valleys, searching for just one thing…Skye.

Smoke whirled up into the air before her. “Oh, Fire dragons,” Ember mumbled struck with envy. She’d always dreamed of becoming a Fire dragon one day, but sadly the only thing she ever breathed out was snow. As soon as the other dragons saw her, they flew up to her and mocked her with scornful looks and snide remarks, and they ignored one of their baby Fire dragons playing right above the forest. Ember watched the baby dragon as it sneezed behind their backs, spouting flames it didn’t expect, and it fell out of the sky!

The flames licked the trees and suddenly the forest lit up in flames. Ember heard the cry of her best friend, “Ember, Ember where are you? I need you right now! Oh please come… please.”
“Skye! Skye! I’m coming don’t you worry, I’ll be there in a minute!” Ember soared over the forest thinking of all the bad things that could happen to Skye as the fire spread. As Ember flew she saw the baby dragon stuck in a tree with a damaged wing.

Ember screeched for help and looked around to the Fire dragons as they laughed and flew away. As the Fire dragons flew away they realised that they had lost the baby! As they realised they came flying back shouting at Ember. Ember called back, “He fell into the woods and he’s about to be incinerated… do you want to help me save him at all?”
“Yes of course we do, can we help?” they shrieked.
“By not leaving him,” Ember cried. “My friend Skye has climbed into the tree to help!” After she spoke she shouted down to the lonely dragon and Skye, “Skye protect the baby Fire dragon. I don’t want anyone hurt and try your best to keep warm!” Ember then took a big deep breath and blew out her unique breath of snow and covered the forest with a blanket of deep white snow.

“Ember, Ember you did it! You saved us both! How can we repay you?” shouted Skye.
“Oh, Skye my beautiful sister, you already have, you’ve given me the best family that anyone could have ever asked for throughout the toughest years of my life!” Ember replied.
The baby Fire dragon began to cry. “Now help us out of the tree!” cried Skye.
“Oh yes, sorry forgot about that!” Ember flew down to help. Skye climbed on Ember’s back and clutched the baby in her arms.
“Thank you Ember… How could we ever repay you?” said the oldest Fire dragon.
“Well, there is one way…” replied Ember.
“Yeah, and what is that?” asked the Fire dragon.
“Can you please show me and Skye who my real birth family is?” asked Ember smiling down at Skye.
“Of course we can, and we’re very sorry we treated you badly,” said the Fire dragon. “Follow us home and we’ll show you everything, after all you are one of us!”
“Come on Skye… We are going on an adventure!” Ember grinned and flew up high.

Drawing by Caitlin Shambrook

Please do not use

A-Z Book Survey

Author(s) You've Read The Most Books From: 
 I don’t read a lot of books by the same authors… I normally just read good books and not look at the author.

Best Sequel Ever:
I don’t really read any sequels so I can’t remember my favourite… but I think that the Hunger Games will be a good sequel.

Currently Reading:
‘The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland With A Ship Of Her Own Making’ by Catherynne M. Valente.

Drink of Choice While Reading:
I don’t really mind… I will drink whatever I have at that time…. This is normally water…!

E-reader or Physical Book?
Well, I don’t have an e- reader at the moment so I have to say Paperback.

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School:
I am not sure…. I don’t really have a crush on anyone in a book… 

Glad You Gave This Book A Chance:
I think this would have to be ‘The boy in the striped pyjamas’ because I thought that it would be pretty rubbish as it was based on past events.

Hidden Gem Book:
I would have to give this one to ‘Loser’ by Jerry Spinelli. I didn’t think that it was going to be up to much… but it proved me wrong and turned out to be one of my favourite books.

Important Moment in Your Reading Life:
I guess my important moment in my reading life would be the first time that I thought  it would be really cool to be able to write like that and that is when I started to write… 

Just Finished:
‘My Girl’ by Patricia Hermes

Kind of Books You Won’t Read:
I will read just about anything interesting, but I do not like fact books because they are really boring. In year 4 my teacher actually told me that I should leave reading fact books and just read Fiction because I am much better at reading them… 

Longest Book you’ve Read:
I am not sure… I don’t remember the length of the books I read… 

Major Book Hangover Because Of:
‘Narnia’… You feel like you are still in their world… 

Number Of Bookcases You Own:
I think that as a family we have a bit over 10 but personally I don’t have any bookcases but if I did I think my books would fit on 2-3 bookcases.

One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:
‘Narnia’ by CS Lewis

Preferred Place To Read: 
I like to read in my bed, chair and outside….

Quote That Inspires You/Gives You All The Feels From A Book You’ve Read:
I don’t really have any favourite quotes from books but I like all the quotes from ‘Alice in the Wonderland’ especially the ones that the mad hatter says!

Reading Regret:
Not finishing ‘The Wish List’ by Eoin Colfer.

Series You Started and Need to Finish:
 I need to finish reading the Percy Jackson series.

Three Of Your All-time Favourite Books:
It’s pretty hard to only chose three, but here they are:
‘Loser’ by Jerry Spinelli.
‘The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland with a Ship of Her Own Making’ by Catherynne M. Valente.
‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll

Unapologetic Fangirl For:
I love books that are based in different worlds like Narnia. I also love sci-fi… 

Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others:
I don’t really know when any books come out…. But I am looking forward to the next Catherynne M. Valente book to go with ‘The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland with a Ship of Her Own Making’ series.

Worst Bookish Habit:
Glancing at the next page to see what will happen.

X Marks The Spot: Start At The Top Left Of Your Shelf & Pick the 27th Book:
‘The Book Thief’ by Marcus Zusak…. This is hopefully the next book on my list to read…

Your Latest Book Purchase:
‘The Hunger Games Trilogy’ by Suzanne Collins.

Zzzzz… Last Book That Kept You Up Way Too Late:
‘The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland With A Ship Of Her Own Making’ by Catherynne M. Valente.

Five Sentence Fiction ~ Bliss

This weeks word is Bliss and here is mine:

Photograph by Bekah Shambrook

Roxy stared around the room, wondering where the delightful aroma was coming from.When she found it she stared up at the person eating it and started to drool, long strings of saliva dripped from her jowls. Every spoonful teased her and she inched closer gazing with her big puppy dog eyes.

She stared at the tormenting tub of vanilla ice-cream, full of enticing pieces of cookie dough and toffee.

Her owner smiled down and offered the tub with the last spoonful and Roxy was in blissful heaven.

Sit N Read - Pocket Watch Bay

For Sit N read round 3. The word was Beach.

Photograph by Lisa Shambrook please do not use.

Pocket Watch Bay

 by Caitlin Shambrook (age 13)

Rose walked down to the beach with her dad and their dog. Dad walked down to the sea with the dog while Rose started to build a sandcastle.
While Rose was making her sandcastle she could smell the fish and chips from the Chippy just down the road from the beach. She looked around the beach at what everyone else was doing, she saw people making more sandcastles, Kids playing in the park, Surfers and Swimmers. She could hear the waves crashing on the shore while everyone was swimming and paddling.
She went back to the sandcastle with the sand shimmering on her fingers then she found a half buried pocket watch with a smashed screen and broken hands. Rose started playing with the watch by moving the hands to the future and playing as if it was the future, and then she turned it back in time, she imagined that she went back to Victorian time and pretended she was Victorian. Once she got bored she slipped the watch into her pocket and carried on playing with her sandcastle.
Rose could see her dad on his way back, she ran up to him with the wind chasing her long brown hair and the sand tickling her feet as she giggled and hugged her dad. Rose begged her dad for some ice-cream because it was a really hot day and he finally gave in, but there was one rule: To make sure that she doesn't tell anyone at all because if she told her sister or brother they would just get jealous and not be quiet about it at all.
Rose and her dad walked back home with their exhausted dog. As they walked in, mum and gran stopped talking to welcome them.
“Mum, Gran… Look what I found on the beach…. It’s a bit broken but it’s really cool!” Rose exclaimed
“Oh Rose dear, I used to have a pocket watch identical to that, it was from your dear granddad Frank,” Gran replied.
 Rose looked at the watch carefully and at the back in very faint letters it read: “My dear Rosemary, I have given you this pocket watch as a token of my love for you… Love Frank.” Rose read it out loud and grans eyes started to well up.
“Oh I miss Frank so much,” cried Gran
“Oh, then I suppose you want it back then Gran?” Rose asked passing the watch back to her gran,
“Oh, my dear Rose, of course you can keep it, you found it and as from now on it can be a family heirloom.”

(433 Words)

Five Sentence Fiction - Charmed

This week's word is Charmed over at Lillie McFerrin's Five Sentence Fiction.

Photo Source Wire Wrapped EU via Pinterest

Ella’s prince cursed her….
Prince Charming gave Ella a present, a beautiful blue heart shaped necklace with a small silver key dangling from the heart; he said it was the key to his heart and she wore it everywhere. There was some kind of fairy dust in there that made it sparkle, but Prince Charming put the ‘fairy dust’ in the necklace because that is what kept the spell on Ella.
Ella had no idea about the spell until she dropped the pendant - and it shattered.
Then her eyes were opened and her Prince Charming was nothing but a frog.

Five Sentence Fiction-Forgotten

This weeks Five Sentence Fiction word is Forgotten.

Photo Source Pinterest

She forgot about the rule “When the clock strikes twelve…”.

 She was at the prom waiting for Prince Charming to find her and she was beginning to think that he wasn’t coming, she wasn’t the prettiest one there anyway, well that’s what she thought. She didn’t have money to go out and get the best dresses in the world or fancy shoes, she always thought that you didn’t need money to get love, but at the moment that didn’t seem to be true.

She wanted to be Cinderella but began to think that it wasn’t going to happen, she knew she wasn’t going to be saved from the enchanted tower by her prince nor be brought back to life by her true loves kiss, but then all of a sudden she heard her name ‘Hey Ella wait up, I’ve been looking for you all night.’ She spun around on her heels and there he was her Prince Charming, he asked her for a dance and she started to blush;  she looked at her watch and saw that she was nearly out of time.

Five Sentence Fiction-Vision

For my third post I am going to do my first Five Sentence Fiction. Basically Five Sentence Fiction is when you get a word for a prompt and you have to write five sentences about the one word.The word changes every week you have one word on a Thursday until the next Thursday in the next week and then the word changes.

The word for this week is: Vision

Photo Source:www.free-extras.com

I sat staring into the puddle in the middle of the forest as the moon shone in my face then something flashed in the water. It flashed again like a vision of some kind, and then it happened again but this time the reflection stayed there getting closer and closer to me. 

Someone shouted my name, I instinctively looked back and saw a boy, a man in fact, he came closer and closer to me and I suddenly saw it was my dad, which confused me because mum said that he was working away somewhere else and definitely not in this country, so how could this be?

 I stood up and started running to him, I ran towards his open arms and spread my arms ready to hug him, but when I reached him he vanished. I shouted his name over and over again but he never answered me, as I started running home I burst into tears, lost without my dad.