The Hidden Island

This is a story I wrote in school for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Three characters in this book are based off of some of my friends.

Chapter One

A Tight Schedule

Nora finally got home from school after a long day. She was very tall, in sixth grade, and had short, dark red hair. “I’m home!” She said with a sigh as she put her backpack down. She arrived at a giant mansion, almost the height of four giraffes stacked up on each other. It was dark brown on the outside, but inside it was beige. Tall stairs stood behind the door, and around the corner she saw her twin sister. She greeted her right away. “Hi Nora!” Ray cheered.

Ray was about average height, and she had green eyes and long red hair. She looked pretty kind, and she was. She also really enjoyed hanging out with her sister.

“Hello Ray,” she calmly replied.

They walked together up the long staircase to the kitchen and made a sandwich. “I wish this was a crepe with mangos and whipped cream,” Ray complained. “I wish this was pasta!” Nora yelled. She did not like sandwiches much, but what she really liked was pasta with browned butter and lots of cheese. Although this was her favorite meal, her dad did not think she should eat it too often because it wasn’t super healthy, but it was delicious.

Once they finished their turkey, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches, their dad called from the other room for them to practice their instruments, so they went up another floor to the music room.

“Where did my flute go!?” Nora screamed.

“Did you leave it in your room?” Ray asked.

“I don't think so, but I can check.”

Nora went up another flight of stairs to the top floor. She turned right and went down a narrow hall of rooms. She didn’t even know what most of them were, and some she wasn’t allowed to go in. When she turned into her room, her dad was right behind her, and she started to have a guilty feeling in her. “What are you doing!?” He yelled.

“I am getting my instrument!” she answered.

“Why is it in your room?”

“I thought I put it in the music room, but it isn’t there.”

“Get back to practice!”

She kept going into her room though. She found her instrument near her bed, grabbed it, and went back to the music room to find her sister singing while playing her viola. “Hi Nora! Did you find it?”

“Yes, but dad yelled at me,” she responded.

They started practicing their music, and the girls sounded great together. The Nora began the melody and it was like a breeze swaying through the forest leaves. Then Ray started playing the harmony in a lower octave, and it was a wonderful sound.

Later, they finished all of their music and packed up their instruments. Their dad called for them to clean their rooms, so they went to do that. Ray went to the room on the right, and Nora back to her room on the left. They thought cleaning was the most boring job ever.

Nora started to clear off her desk that was to the right of her bed. It took forever just to organize it, but she still had to clean the rest of her huge room. Ray started to organize her bed and her closet. She hadn’t cleaned it in forever, so it was a disaster! After two hours, both of their rooms were spotless.

As time stretched on, their dad called for them again from the kitchen, and this time it was for them to eat dinner. They always had an exact set schedule, and their dad would never let them do anything different from that. Tonight they were going to eat steak with asparagus and potatoes. The potatoes were delicious, creamy, and buttery. They were so perfect and fluffy. The steak was grilled on the barbecue outside, it was perfectly rare, and when they sliced into it, the juice from the delicious meat ran onto their large, white plates. On the other hand, the asparagus was awful. It was chewy and tasted just like the brussel sprouts they had last night.

When they were done with dinner, they finally had their free time. It was the only time of the day that they had to be creative and free. Nora and Ray both went up to the game room and pulled out a board game to play. They played the game for about an hour, then decided to switch to video games. They didn’t have very many, but it did not matter to them; they were fine with the ones they had.

“It is time to read!” their dad called for them once again.

“I hate reading,” Nora whispered to her sister.

“I don’t mind it much,” Ray commented. She loved that when she read her books they transported her into a amazing, magical place in her mind.

So, they went to their rooms to read, and said goodnight to each other in the hall because they couldn’t read together and had to go to bed right afterwards.

Nora read a fictional book about a girl from the moon, and Ray read a book about a hyperoliidae, a kind of frog, a swamp deer, and a large pigeon who team up to find a magic wand.

“Time to sleep!” their dad yelled.

They went to bed, Nora, curling up under her blankets and grabbing her stuffed deer, fell asleep right away. But for Ray it was the opposite. She could never fall asleep, especially with all of her stuffed toys taking up more than half of her bed, so she went under her blanket and kept reading. She loved the book so much she just couldn’t stop reading, and she usually finished one or two books every night. Her dad never caught her doing this, so she did it every night for about an hour, then she was tired. She never told anyone about it, not even her sister. This was time she got to herself and could just float away into her imagination.

Chapter Two

A New School

Early the next morning, the alarm went off, but Nora did not want to get up. She wasn’t usually like this, but she was so tired. Ray, on the other hand, got up right away, and started to head down the two floors to go get breakfast, when she realized Nora was not up yet.

“Nora!” she said, banging on her door. “Come get some breakfast!”

“I’m too tired,” Nora replied.

“Come on, we have to get ready for school!”

“Fine.”

The two of them ran down the stairs because they didn’t want to be late. Their dad was waiting for them and asked why they were one minute late.

“I was just getting Nora up!” Ray said, so she wouldn’t get in trouble.

“Nora, why did your sister have to get you up?”

“I was tired…”

“Well, get some breakfast, I guess it isn’t that bad being only one minute late, but just this time.”

“That was close!” Ray whispered to Nora.

They both got something to eat, Ray made an egg, and Nora made some toast.

“I have some important news for you, so when you’re done eating, come to the couch,” their dad said, looking slightly worried.

They quickly finished eating and went to the couch that was right next to the kitchen. Their dad sat down with them, and shared the news.

“We are going to a different school!?” Nora and Ray screamed.

“Yes, and it is going to be in Wyoming, but we have to leave today. There is an amazing opportunity there that I just can’t pass up. You need to start packing right away.”

“But I don’t want to leave Hawaii!” Nora yelled, then she stomped up the stairs.

“Nora wait!” Ray called. “How long are we going to be there?” she asked her dad.

“Two years,” he answered, then he sighed and went to get his own breakfast.

Ray followed up after Nora, and found her on her bed in her room. Nora asked if she was doing fine, but she didn’t answer. Ray also told her they were only going for two years, and luckily, Nora cheered up a little at that.

Ray went back to her room to start packing, and Nora did too. They had to pack for two years! That meant almost all of their stuff. But they had to leave a lot of the toys and things like that. They both started packing all of their clothes, and they had plenty of room because they had many suitcases. It didn’t take long to pack all of their clothes. They started to collect the other things they needed, and that took forever because they had to sort through it all. They were coming back eventually, but not for a while.

Two hours later they finished and went to tell their dad. He was done packing as well, so it was finally time to go.

They got in the car to go to the airport. The drive seemed to drag out forever. They had nothing to do, except wait until they got there. It was an hour and a half ride to the airport, so the ride was long and terrible.

           

Chapter Three

The Airport

After what seemed like eternity, they arrived at the airport and parked the car. The three of them got their suitcases and went inside. There were so many people there that they could barely get through the crowd. They had to turn a lot; right, then left, then right again, and Nora and Ray had no idea where they were going. Nora, Ray, and their dad finally got to the security scanners and checked their bags at the ticket counter. It actually went surprisingly fast, but that meant they had to sit for a couple hours for the plane to arrive. They found a good seat near the big, tall, windows, and since they were the first people there, they could spread out. Ray and Nora decided to play on their phones, so they did that for a while and luckily they had chargers under the seats.

The airport terminal was a plain light grey. The seats were very uncomfortable and hard, and they were very small. This was probably the most boring place they have been.

The plane finally arrived. It was time to go to Wyoming for two years. Nora got very nervous. All of a sudden she did not want to go. “Come on Nora!” Ray nudged at her to get up, but she wouldn’t. “We are going to be late!” she continued.

“I don’t want to leave,” Nora whined.  

“Come on Nora!” her dad yelled at her, and that’s what got her up, because if she didn’t listen to him, she would be in big trouble.

They were boarding the plane now. The two of them were very nervous. They had never been on a plane before, which was strange considering they were both twelve, but they had been on a boat.

They ran their tickets through the scanner, walked down a small tunnel that was connected to the plane, then found their seats and waited for everyone to board the plane, then they started moving forward. The girls grabbed each other’s hands. The plane was going really fast down the runway, then they felt a strange feeling. After several loud mechanical noises, they were in the air!           

Chapter Four

The Hidden Island

They had been in the air for an hour. Suddenly, the plane started to shake. It tipped left, and the girls thought it was turning, but it continued to fall with the wing pointed towards the water. Everyone on the plane started to scream. The plane was crashing into the ocean. The plane jerked a little more, then it started to drop. It fell faster and faster, and people started to pull the emergency doors open, get the parachutes, and jump out, but there was nowhere to go. Nora and Ray took the last two parachutes out of the overhead compartment and jumped out of the back of the plane just in time, then the plane crashed into the water. They screamed out loud when they realized their dad was still on the plane when it went under the waves of the ocean.

While Nora and Ray were falling down from the sky, they started seeing the water change right before their eyes. Instead of blues and whites, it began to turn green, and brown. There was an island! But other people had landed in the water. Where did the water go? Was this a magical place? With their parachutes open, the twins floated through the air and landed on the small island. They weren’t just seeing things. They could feel the soft dirt and the thick grass, not water.

They looked around and to the left they saw a huge waterfall that tumbled over giant rocks. It was shining in the bright sun, with shimmering blues and yellows. They walked over to the beautiful waterfall, and they could see their reflection. They could also sort of see a yellow glowing light coming from a crack underwater, but Nora thought she was imagining things. Ray couldn’t ignore it though. However, she thought she would just keep it to herself for now.

They decided they should explore the island if they wanted to survive. Ray thought that this place was magical, so she searched every mysterious thing. Nora noticed a glowing blue flower on the ground, and she had never seen anything like it. “Ray! Look at this!” She pointed to the flower. “Wow! That’s very mysterious. Do you have a strange feeling about this place too?”

“Yes, I think it may be magical!”

“Me too!”

Ray and Nora kept walking around and found another flower, this time it was orange and glowing in the center of a pond. They only found one of each flower, and then they found, growing on a tree was some moss, with a pink glowing flower. “What are all of these flowers doing here? I don’t think they are supposed to glow!” Nora yelled.

“We should probably build a shelter, even with all of these weird things happening.” Ray calmly said.

“Let’s go find a good place to build it.” Nora replied.

They went off again and found a nice clear area with a big, jagged, gray rock. Ray decided to go look for wood, and she told Nora to look for big leaves.

Ray went off and found a big place with thick grass. In that grass she found a lot of bark and sticks all over. Nora went in the opposite direction and found giant trees with many leaves. She started to pick them up off of the ground because she couldn’t climb, even though the bigger leaves were at the top.

They met back up at the rock, and they placed some sticks against it and tied the leaves around it to hold it up. They had to try this many times until they could get it right, but eventually it held up. They added more sticks to the shelter to make it more sturdy, also adding leaves on top for shade.

A long time later, their shelter was finished. It was big enough for the two to sit in it, but not stand up or lie down. As the sun began to set, they decided to go find some food. This time they went together. First, they went out to find some bushes that possibly had edible berries. Eventually they got to a place that looked like it was snowing. It didn’t seem likely though, since it was late summer. It got kind of hard to breathe with all of this “snow” in the air. They decided it wasn’t snow because it blew like feathers in the wind. Ray had heard of a tree that did this, but she couldn’t remember what it was called.

They decided not to stay because it got even harder to breathe. They went back to their shelter and rested for an hour.

Chapter Five

The Plan

Victoria soared over the shelter and watched quietly. “There are some new people on this island, Bailey,” she said while she landed back down on a tree.

Bailey was a beautiful, tall, brown deer, who was mentioned in a legend, along with a bird and a frog. Victoria, the bird mentioned in the legend, was a bird that was three feet tall with a blue beak and a grey head. The rest of her was a dark blue.

“It appears they have found the flowers, too. This could be dangerous,” Bailey replied.

Just then something jumped out of the water. He was midnight blue with a few black spots. “Hello Levi,” Victoria said. Unlike Victoria, Levi wasn’t energetic, neither was Bailey, but they were all calm and responsible; they were the protectors of the sky, earth, and sea, after all.

“So who are these new people, and why can they see this island?” Levi asked.

“We aren’t sure yet, but we’ve decided that this could be a very dangerous situation for us all,” Bailey said while still inspecting Nora and Ray.

“We should tell Alexander. He will probably know what to do. Levi, can you go do that?” Bailey asked.

“Sure. I will be back soon.” So Levi left off toward the center of the island, hopping the whole way.

Levi finally got to Alexander, a small, light pink axolotl. He lived in a small underwater cave with a thin crack at the top, and there was and yellow glowing orb behind him. Levi knew this was the Weather Orb, but it wasn’t a surprise. All four of them had known forever.

Alexander asked Levi what was wrong. Levi told him about Nora and Ray, but he didn’t use their names because they had just arrived on the island. He told him that the Weather Orb might be in danger.

“Most people are not able to come to this island. There is a reason for that, but now it is pointless, since two people are here. We must do something to get them off the island safely, before anything happens.” Alexander replied, but still didn’t know exactly what they could do.

“I will go inform Bailey and Victoria. We might be able to come up with a plan.”

Levi left the cave through the small crack and returned to the northern part of the island where they were waiting. Bailey asked what Alexander told him. Levi told them all the news and the plan.

“How are we going to do that!? We can’t build something then just send them off!” Victoria yelled.

“Don’t yell! They are not too far away, they might hear us.” Bailey whispered.

Eventually they came up with a great plan. One they could pull off easily, and soon. Victoria decided they should start right away.

Chapter Six

Survival

Nora and Ray were very tired when they woke up. It wasn’t very comfortable to sit while sleeping on the hard ground. They missed their luxurious pillows and squishy mattress. They also missed their dad. The two of them were starving. They had forgotten to get food when they ran into the  “snow trees.” Even though it was hard to work, they had to do it to survive. Nora set out without Ray because they decided they needed someone to watch the shelter so an animal wouldn’t make its home in there or destroy it.

Nora walked for a while and she eventually made it to a small waterfall that led to a pond that had some colorful fish swimming around in it. She thought this was a good place to get food. First, though, she needed to get water. She found a big green leaf and scooped up some cold, fresh water. She was so lucky she even caught a fish on accident as it swam into her leaf by mistake!

Nora headed back to their shelter and put the fish inside. Ray glanced at the gross fish and shivered in disgust. They had no way to cook it yet, but they were not concerned about that.

It was Ray’s turn to go out to get water with the same leaf. Nora was much more lucky than Ray, because the leaf tore on the way back. She found another one, and successfully brought it back to the shelter. They drank some water, but they were both really hungry.

Nora went and found two small, sharp stones to start a fire to cook their fish. Nora had trouble getting enough sparks to do anything, but Ray got it on her first try. She also found a good stick to put the fish on and cook. Nora kept blowing on the fire to keep it burning.

Six minutes later they ate the fish, but it was disgusting. They liked other fish at home, but this was the worst they had ever had. It was still scaly and slimy, but they just looked at each other and ate, without saying a word.  

It was very late. Luckily, Nora still had her watch, and she realized it was already 8:38pm.

“Wow, it’s much later than I expected!” Nora said, startled.

“What time is it? I don’t think it would be past seven.” Ray asked.

“It’s already after 8:30!”

Nora and Ray decided they wanted to go to sleep because they were extremely tired, but also hungry. Ray fell asleep immediately, which was very unlike her, and five minutes later Nora was gone. She had surreptitiously gotten out of the shelter to get food, but it was too hard to see in the dark so she went back to the shelter

Chapter Seven

The Raft

“Let’s find some more wood, then we will be ready to put it all together. Levi, can you find something to tie this together?” Bailey asked.

Levi sighed and said yes, because he was always the one who had to report messages or find a material for something.

While he was doing that, Bailey and Victoria traveled along the beach of the small island and collected large sticks. Victoria would pick up the stick with her beak and set it on Bailey’s back. They continued this process for a while, then went to the southwest part of the island and waited for Levi.

Once the frog came back they noticed he was dragging very long vines. “That’s perfect!” Victoria whispered, not wanting Nora and Ray to hear them. Bailey let the large sticks roll off of her back. “Those are really heavy.” She said to herself.

“I’ll explain the plan again from the beginning,” Levi began. “We are going to build a raft durable enough to hold the two people. Victoria will lay the stick it the correct position, Bailey will lay out the vines, and I will secure them. Then, we are going to get the people over here and send them off on the raft, back home. After that, Victoria will make sure the raft is going in the right direction, all the way to Hawaii. Everyone got it?”

“Yes.” Victoria and Bailey answered together.

They started at about midnight, both Nora and Ray were fast asleep. Victoria layed down the first two stick, and then another, and she kept going until there weren’t any left. Bailey was weaving the vines into the sticks while Levi was right behind her tying them in knots to stay secure. Then, they sent Victoria out to get some food and water for Nora and Ray’s trip while the others were finishing up. She put the water in small containers made of large leaves stuck together with sundew, and the food in weaved vine baskets. She collected various types of fruits such as papaya and mango.

It was almost time to get the girls on the raft. It had been about two hours and they would send them off at five. It had taken them a very long time to get the hang of building the raft, and it took a while to collect the materials. In only three hours Nora and Ray would be back on their way to Hawaii. Luckily Levi, Victoria, and Bailey knew which way that was.

“How are we going to get them on the raft?” Victoria asked.

Chapter Eight

The Magic Orb

“What is that noise!?” Nora yelled as she woke up. Looking at her watch, she realized it was only 4:54 am, but there was no way she could fall back asleep with all the stomping and squawking outside the shelter. Nora got up and looked outside, but she didn’t see anything, and as soon as she left the noise stopped. She traveled to where she thought the noise was coming from, which was in a southwest direction, but she didn’t know that. She kept walking, and soon she was at the beach, and a big, perfect, raft with food and water stood right in front of her. It even had a small sail attached to it! She went up to it, and immediately a very large deer appeared, almost out of nowhere.

The deer came closer, and Nora backed up onto the raft. She was very confused, because usually wildlife ran away from people. Suddenly, a giant bird swooped down, making a loud noise and pushing the raft a little bit onto the water. Nora immediately ran back towards the center of the island to find she was lost. She had not been to this part of the island before.

“Victoria! You had to wait for the other person to come before you did that!” Bailey angrily whispered.

“Sorry! You never said that!”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Levi asked.

“Let’s just get back to the plan,” Bailey reminded them.

When Nora got back to the shelter after wandering around trying to find her way for half an hour she noticed Ray was not there. “Ray! Where are you!? Ray!” But Ray didn’t answer; she had left to investigate the island.

Ray found herself in the very center of the island. She noticed the glow coming from the lake from when they first arrived. It had only been a day since then, but it felt like so much longer. She could see a light blue glow, which was odd because last time it was yellow. She looked up, and it was cloudy. She thought the color of the orb had to do something with the weather.

Ray dived into the small pool of water, which was actually pretty deep. She noticed a small hole at the very bottom of the lake, and it was just big enough for her to put her arm through it. Suddenly the orb flashed to a dark blue, and she started to see drops at the surface of the water. Ray stuck her hand into the opening and took the Weather Orb. It had a very intricate design on it that seemed to resemble wind, leaves, and water circling around an animal, but she didn’t know what it was. Right as she took it, she felt something move across her arm, so she quickly jerked back and swam to the surface, scared at what might be down there.

Once the orb left the water, it started changing purple. Ray wondered what this might mean, because what type of weather was represented as purple? Then, the sky began to flash. She forgot that lightning was actually blue and purple, not yellow. The lightning immediately hit right at the northern beach of the island, then the orb turned orange, and it began to snow.

Nora was very frightened. She didn’t know what was happening. Her sister was missing, random lighting hit close by, and now it’s snowing? She was very confused. “Ray!” she shouted one last time, then through the thick layer of snow that had already fallen Ray appeared.

“Nora! I’m glad to see you. I have a lot to tell you.” Ray told Nora all about what happened underwater, and how when the orb left the water weird things started happening. “What!? It just did that when you left the water? But why?” Nora asked.

“I have no idea, but we have to get out of this place!”

Chapter Nine

The Flowers

Out of nowhere, the magical flowers started to grow bigger. Nora and Ray could see the glow brightening in the distance, but they were too cold to care. The flowers eventually turned into shapes that looked like animals, a deer, a frog, and a bird. They started running, flying, and hopping, very fast toward Ray and the orb, but they couldn’t reach her because the deep snow was blocking the entrance of the shelter. Immediately after the flower animals got close, the Weather Orb turned purple, but this time it was more red than blue.

Lightning flashed right outside, right next to their shelter, and started a fire. The tree that was hit burned very quickly, but the snow only melted a little bit. More lighting hit, but this time it mostly hit the snow. Now, the orb was turning more blue than red, and Nora and Ray realized water seeping into their temporary house.

Most of the snow had melted, so the island was flooding. They had to get out of here right now. Nora and Ray hurried out of the shelter and raced all the way to the beach. They noticed the raft that had been there before, but it was burning as well. There was no way they could get off the island. They ran all the way around the shore until they ended up back at the burning raft. “What are we going to do!?” Nora screamed.

Victoria had been watching this from above the island, trying to avoid the storm and random snow that fell from the sky. “What is happening?” she whispered to herself, as she swooped down to the island to find Bailey and Levi.

“Victoria! This is important! Look at the flowers!” Levi yelled.

“This could only mean one thing… The orb has been stolen”

Chapter Ten

The Search

“What? But how could that be?” Levi said, very surprised.

“Where is Bailey? Weren’t you with her?”

“No, I thought she was with y-”

Suddenly, the ground started to shake. “What’s happening!? There are never earthquakes around here, unless… Bailey left?” Victoria questioned.

“Why would she leave? How would she leave? Well, we need to find her to see what’s going on.”

The two of them searched all around the small island; Victoria looking from above, and Levi searching under the few trees that remained. Soon, he found a massive pile of snow that remained. Levi tried to get into the snow, but only a thin layer of it was on top. The rest was ice, and it was too dark to see anything in it.

“Levi! Have you found anything yet?” Victoria called out while flying toward him.

“Not really, besides this giant block of ice.”

“I don’t think we are going to be able to find her. For now, let’s just focus on the Weather Orb, I guess.”

Levi and Victoria went towards Nora and Ray’s shelter, but before they got there, they noticed two of the flowers, the pink one and the orange one, but not the blue one. They only saw a blue glow from in the shelter.

Nora looked at the blue flower that she had picked from a small patch of grass, very interested in it. “Why does this flower glow? It’s so mysterious,” She said, continuing to examine this magical plant. Ray ignored her, more interested the designs on the orb. When she looked closer, she realized the animal in the middle looked like a salamander, but with something on its face. She knew it was some kind of amphibian.

When Nora put down the flower, it started to wilt instantaneously, and soon, it was completely dry and brown, no longer glowing.

Chapter Eleven

Alexander’s Power

Nora was very startled by the flower. She had never seen any plant shrivel so quickly and randomly. “What just happened? That flower was pretty! Oh well. There are two others anyway. I can just grab those,” she acknowledged.

“The blue one was the best, though. I really like that color. Maybe there are other ones that are that same color.” Ray told Nora, not really paying attention.

“I’m starving. We should go find some more food,” Nora continued, “I know there are some mango trees around here somewhere.”

They started to head outside, Ray keeping the Weather Orb with her, but right outside the shelter was the bird that Nora had seen earlier on the raft. She started bolting in towards Ray, trying to get the orb, but Ray ran back inside while Nora darted out the opposite direction.

Nora found herself in a part of the island that still had many trees, but also some very deep snow; maybe about three feet. She continued forward, struggling to get through the snow, and found a tree that was about eleven feet tall, and she noticed some fruit on it. Nora could just barely not reach the fruit, so she looked around for a long stick.

Levi had gone all the way to Alexander to see what they could do to stop Nora and Ray. “Alexander, what are we going to do about this situation? They have stolen the Weather Orb, we can’t find Bailey, and we've tried everything to get it back!”

“I will use my power. Then, it will be possible to reclaim the orb. But before I can complete this task, you must deliver the three flowers here. The Blue Earth Flower, the Pink Sky Flower, and the Orange Sea Flower. Only then will it be possible to bring peace back to this island, and, the world.”

With that, Levi left back to the waterfall that Nora and Ray found when they had first arrived. He found the pink flower, and the orange one, but there was no sign of the blue one, the one that resembled the earth guardian. It’s like it had just vanished, or it had been stolen. But there were only two people who could have stolen it; Nora and Ray.

Chapter Twelve

The Missing Flower

Ray was trapped. She had nowhere to go unless she faced the bird. She stayed huddled in the shelter and waited for Nora to come back. While she remained motionless waiting for her sister, the weather got worse. There was lighting, snow, and heavy rain all at once. Victoria had trouble flying in the rain, so she left and went back to find Levi. Even with Victoria gone, Ray was still trapped. The rain was like rocks pouring from the clouds, then there was the additional flash of lighting, and snow that was already a foot deep blocked the exit.

Nora finally found a stick, but it was very hard to get back to the tree. There was even more snow than before, so she had to crawl. She used the stick to hit some fruit off of the tree, then collected a few and headed back. She could only carry three at a time, but that was enough to last them a while. When she got back, she didn’t see their shelter. Nora was sure this was the place, but Ray wasn’t there. As she was walking forward, she stepped on something that appeared to be made out of sticks and leaves. Their shelter was buried in snow! Nora dug a hole in the front to get inside, to find Ray inside, freezing. “Ray! Are you alright? I brought back some fruit! I’m not sure what kind it is, but it looks pretty tasty.”

“Thank you, Nora! I was worried about you! This giant bird was trying to get into the shelter, when all of the sudden it started raining, then it left.”

They bit into the fruit and realized it was a papaya. They weren’t sure if the skin was edible, so they peeled it off and ate the rest.

“This is the best papaya I’ve ever had! These seeds aren’t too bad either,” Nora cheered. It was perfectly ripe, sweet, and juicy.

Victoria was terrified to see that the blue flower was missing. Not even wilted, but totally gone. “Levi! How did this happen? Where is the flower? What did Alexander say?”

“I don’t know where the flower is, but Alexander said we need to collect the three flowers and bring them to him to get the Weather Orb back and fix all of this.”

“But if the flower is missing… We have to find Bailey. Right now.”

Victoria flew over to the large chunk of ice that Levi had mentioned earlier once it had stopped raining. They met up there, and she blew all of the snow off by rapidly flapping her wings at it. The ice was dark, but they thought that getting rid of it might be the solution. To melt the ice, though, they would need fire. Where would they get fire?

Suddenly, another bright flash of lighting hit the water. If it hit the grass or trees, they could get a stick near the flames the bolt caused and use it as a torch! More lighting hit a palm tree nearby, but they were still searching and didn’t have a stick yet. The palm tree and its frons burned extremely quickly.

Once again, the lightning struck, this time almost hitting the ice it was so close. This time, they were ready. Victoria had the stick in her beak and she glided down safely, right above the fire, and the flames lit up on the stick. Now, they just had to keep it burning while they melted the large, freezing block of ice.

Levi found a large bundle of dry grass and a few sticks that they could put next to the ice to keep melting it without holding the stick. They set it in the bundly right at the base of the ice, and strangely, the ice started to melt rapidly, and there was no water. It just shrank, and they started to see something in it. They could barely wait to see what it was.

They finally saw what it was. A small pile of seeds? What would they do with this? But Levi looked closely and noticed one of the seeds was a little blue. Maybe they had to plant that seed. Maybe, this was the way they could get the last flower! But would this really work? It wouldn’t hurt to try.

Victoria and Levi went to a small area of the island that was not stormy, besides a little rain, but that was perfect for planting a seed. They found the softest part of the soil and planted the flower.

“Do you really think this will work? This might just be a normal flower,” Victoria said, hoping to see this plan work. All of the sudden the flower shot up out of the ground. It’s beautiful glow shimmered brightly all over the island, then it went back to its usual color; a nice, sky blue. Levi immediately dug the flower out of the ground with the dirt so it wouldn’t wilt again.

Victoria collected the orange and pink flowers from the waterfall and they swiftly headed towards the underwater cave back to Alexander.

Chapter Thirteen

The Problem Continues

“Alexander! We found the flowers!” Levi told Alexander, trying to catch his breath.

“Bring them here, and quickly; not much time remains.”

Levi brought the flowers to Alexander. They started glowing brightly, then started circling around him. The flowers started to shrink, then suddenly, they vanished, along with Alexander.

Ray was startled when the Weather Orb disappeared. It had just vanished, much like Alexander and the flowers. Where did it all go?

“What just happened? It’s just… Gone. Why did it just disappear?” Ray said dismally.

“What? Didn’t you just have it? Now it’s just gone!? I knew we should’ve left this island sooner! More and more weird things keep happening!”

“Hey! Look outside! It’s nice and sunny now! Do you think that orb had something to do with it? Nora?” But she wouldn’t respond. She just sat there, looking very sorrowful.

“Alexander!?” Levi yelled with a very frightened look. He swam up immediately to tell Victoria what just happened. Just as he arrived, standing right there was Bailey.

“Bailey! You’re okay! I have so much to tell you! While I was down there, the flowers started glowing very bright, then, they just vanished! Along with Alexander! We should go check the Weather Orb. Maybe it vanished too, because it’s not down there.”

The three of them joyfully went over to Nora and Ray’s shelter, and inside, they saw no glow; just two, twelve-year-old girls, sitting quietly inside. Victoria flew up to peek in, but no Weather Orb could be seen. It was gone, and the land was peaceful once again. The three of them could almost relax again, but first, they had to get Nora and Ray off of the island, and this time, there was no weather to interfere.

“Are we going to build another raft? Because, that didn’t work too well last time. And, if not, any other ideas?” Victoria asked.

“I guess we could build a small boat, but that would be pretty challenging,” Levi said, not willing to do much more about this problem.

“We should just build another raft. The only reason it didn’t work last time was because the plan was ‘not clear enough.’”

Just like last time, they built a raft with the same procedure and supplies. Victoria, again, made some containers out of glued leaves for water, and weaved baskets for food. When it was ready, they made sure it was sturdy enough to hold both of the young girls. Now they could finally get Nora and Ray off of this island so they wouldn’t cause any more trouble.

This time, they tried to get them to the raft without causing a lot of noise. It was about 8:30 pm, so they had enough time to get them on the raft and send them off. Bailey came over to the shelter and knocked one of the sticks down. Nora and Ray jumped, afraid of what was at the entrance. Ray peeked out, and noticed it was just a friendly deer.

“It’s okay Nora!” She said, petting the deer. Bailey seemed to like it, even thought she was pretty angry about what they had done. They followed the deer all the way to the raft, and Nora and Ray knew this was their chance to go home, to finally be comfortable and safe. But they thought about their dad. They couldn’t come home to no one. They would have to stay.

Nora and Ray decided to stay, but they also decided not to steal anything or do anything bad. They took the food and water from the raft, pet the deer, and went back to their shelter.

Epilogue

A New Home

-12 years later-

Nora and Ray were both 24 years old. They had been living on this island for a long time, and after they decided to stay, they named it Météo Island. They had built a house out of the fallen trees from the unusual storms, vines, and “sundew glue.” Their new house was only about the size of a small bedroom, but it was much better than their old shelter. Nora made beds out of giant leaves from banana trees and the fluff from cottonwood trees packed underneath the leaves, and secured by vines. Ray made a table and chairs out of large sticks and vines, and they worked together to create a large, wooden, storage container. They kept the food and water containers that they had pulled from the raft years before, and made more out of the same materials. The two of them discovered more types of fruit on the island like bananas, tomatoes, lemons, limes, pineapples, and oranges.

Ray became a very good chef. She usually was the one to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for both of them, and Nora collected the food and materials for Ray. After a while of starting a fire for cooking in a random place, she built a fireplace out of stones near the beach, and used cottonwood for firewood. She made some meals like tropical crab salad and grilled pineapple with a lime and orange sauce that she made by cooking the juice together with some zest. For breakfast they usually had lots of fruit; mostly mangos. It took her awhile to figure out how to prepare most of the foods, especially crab, but once she did it was delicious.

Nora helped Ray by collecting ingredients and making drinks to go with their meals. They mostly drank water, but Nora was curious and wondered what happens when you boil a banana. They had plenty of them, and there were still more growing, so she tried it out. She ate the boiled banana before bed, and surprisingly, she fell asleep right away. The next day, Ray drank the water that the banana was in, and that also worked. They drank banana tea with guava nectar to make it sweeter every night before bed after that. Nora became a fantastic fisher. She made her own fishing rod out of a long stick and a thin vine and used any food that had rotted as bait. She preferred fishing in the ocean because there weren’t many big lakes on Météo Island. She mostly caught crabs and moonfish, but sometimes she caught even tastier fish like the yellowfin tuna.

For many more years they learned more about the island; its plants, animals, and any other magical things there were. They also befriended Levi, Victoria, and Bailey, and were very surprised when they learned they could talk to them. The five of them had a very good time together on Météo Island. Nora and Ray were very happy, but from time to time they would sneak away and sit by the waves that would lap at the shore and feel sad that their dad was not with them to experience this amazing adventure. Although no one really knew what happened to Alexander the day he made the decision to save the earth, sky and sea, his friend missed his terribly and thought about him every day.

They all helped each other out; Bailey educated Nora and Ray with advanced and important things from each grade since they were only at a 6th grade level, Levi searched for any new materials that might be helpful to them, and Victoria cured them as best as she could when they got sick or injured.

As they got older, they kept learning and expanding their home. Nora eventually found that she really liked to carve wooden sculptures like animals including small birds and sea turtles, so she put them as decorations all over the house, and, she liked to weave, so she made baskets and blankets out of various items Levi found, such as long strands of moss.

When they were 40 years old, their house was two stories tall, and about 20 feet by 25 feet. It had all sorts of furniture in it like a couch, a coffee table, and even a pantry. Nora and Ray decided to move their beds upstairs, so that is were they slept. They had learned so much, and had made the best friends anyone could ever have. Every day was better than the day before because they always had something fun to do. Nora mostly harvested, fished, and carved, and Ray mostly experimented with food and cooked. Their days past twelve were the most exciting, crazy, and fun times they ever had.