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     As James and Marie walked into the castle, they got a cold chill up their spine. It 

was so huge that they could hear their footsteps echo on the stone floor. The castle 

was located in western Scotland next to a beautiful lake. James rushed to look at the 

Medieval crossbows hanging on the wall. Behind James, his two parents were eyeing 

him, hoping that he wouldn’t pick it up and kill himself! At the other side of the castle, 

Marie was looking at the elaborate banners and ornate furniture that were set up. 

They reminded her of the Medieval poems she enjoyed reading. 

     James is a 12 year old kid who loves to study war techniques. He is tall and strong 

for his age. He likes wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt so he can move around 

easily. He studies bow strategies, but mainly, he loves sword dueling. Marie is 14 

years old and is very observant. She is always vigilant and watchful of danger. She 

studies before she acts. She wears glasses she personally made so she can see better. 

     Marie wandered into a different room. She yelled, “James, come look at this room!”

     James, moaning heavily said, “I’m coming.”

     Their mother looked her watch. She said, “It is lunchtime! I am going to get 

some food from the car to eat! James, stay with your sister.”

     “I will,” responded James.    

     When he entered the room with his sister, James saw elaborate looking shields 

mounted on the side of the wall. They were different colors and many had family 

crests.   His favorite shield had broadswords and flags on it. But, Marie was in awe as 

she stared at the only green shield. In the middle of the shield, a big green emerald 

sparkled in the light. It gave both of them warm feelings when they looked directly at 

it.

     All of a sudden, the emerald started to glow. As is got brighter, it levitated out of 

the shield and into Marie’s pocket.

     James shouted to Marie, ”Hey! Put that back! That emerald is not yours to have. I 

am going to show our parents what you stole!”

     Marie yelled, “I didn’t steal it! It floated into my pocket!”

     James grabbed the emerald and dashed towards the door. Just as he was nearing 

the door, the castle's gates slammed shut. James and Marie were trapped inside the 

castle. There was no exit.

     James shouted,” Oh no… The gate closed! We are trapped inside the castle!”

     Marie said with a freighted look on her face, “Now we can’t get out… Hopefully, 

some help comes!”

      James thought of an idea. He exclaimed, “There may be other exits in the castle. 

Let’s find one!” 

     Suddenly, they heard a loud creaking noise. Behind them, a trapdoor opened and a 

ladder leading into a tunnel appeared. James rushed straight into the tunnel and 

started to look for a way out. 

      James yelled, “Come down here! There may be a way out!”

      Marie looked down the hole. She saw lots of dust and pieces of wood scattered 

across the floor. Skeletons and bones were lying on the ground. But an ancient scroll 

caught her eye. She leaped down the ladder and grabbed the scroll. She examined it 

and noticed it was her favorite poem! The poem was written by a Medieval author 

named Prosogph. It was a poem about a boy who tried to become a knight and was 

able to do so. He later died in battle protecting the queen. 

     Marie looked at the poem. She said, “Oh my! This is one of the original copies of The 

Courage of the Youthful Knight! This is one of my favorite poems ever!”

     James slowly walked away hoping that Marie wouldn’t notice him. He didn’t want 

her to go on and on about her favorite poems. Marie noticed he left. So, she darted 

after him.

      The kids kept searching the underground dungeon until they were standing in 

front of a door. James reached for the handle. 

     Marie quickly warned, “Wait a second, what if there is something dangerous behind 

this door? There could be traps or dangerous terrain or-“ She stopped talking.

      James opened the door and they found a room full of books and scrolls. They were 

all colored with burgundy paint. One of the scrolls was blue colored. At the other side 

of the room, James saw a door leading into another room. He walked up to the door 

and started to kick and bang on it with all his might. However, Marie wanted to look at 

the blue scroll. 

      It was written by a Medieval knight. The scroll read, 

   “Hello, my name is Sir Charles. I am writing this message for you. King Heimah is battling with King Teroagah 

because of Teroagah’s wanting of Heimah’s magic emerald. I have hidden the emerald inside this castle. If you have 

it, use it to defeat him. I do not have much time now. Remember it controls the power of the li----“

     Marie said, “James, I think you want to see this.” 

      James carefully examined the paper. He asked, “So, the emerald you stole actually 

has power?”

     Marie rolled her eyes at her brother then glanced at the shining emerald in her 

pocket. She didn’t realize the power that was inside of it. She took the emerald from 

her pocket and examined it closely. The more she looked, the happier she became.

     Marie thought to herself, “What power does it contain? The scroll said it had the 

power of ‘li---’. Then the sentence cut off.”

     Marie gazed around the room.   She noticed an indentation in a gem that was 

embedded in the wall across the room.   Marie struck an idea. She inserted the emerald 

she had into the indentation in the gem on the wall. The emerald started to light up! 

All of a sudden, the emerald and the gem popped out of the wall. With a thundering 

sound and dust clouds floating, the emerald sprouted out a handle made from 

beautiful rose wood. 

     James said with a surprised look on his face, “What just happened? Now the 

emerald grew a wooden bar. It looks like a magic wand. I wonder what it does.”

      James picked it up and started to wave it around. It shot out a little beam of light. 

They were amazed to see it light up. But when he pointed the wand at the opposite 

door, it shot open and broke off its hinges. James and Marie were in awe and stood 

standing with their mouths opened looking at what they just did.

     They ran out of the room and into the next room. Immediately, they stepped on 

broken pieces of bones and skeletons. James even fell face first onto the stone floor.

     Marie shouted, “James, are you okay?! That must have hurt!”

     James got up from the floor. He said, “Yeah, I am okay.”

     They looked straight forward and saw lots of broken skeletons falling from the 

ceiling. The room was filling up fast with hundreds of skeletons.

     Marie said, “I think we should go back. Maybe our parents are here.” While she was 

saying that, James was already running straight through the falling skeletons.

     James punched away all the bones that were in his way. On the other side, Marie 

was watching James carefully.   She saw a huge skull falling 5 feet above James’s head. 

It was going to hit him hard.   She tried to run in and hit it away. But, it was no use. 

The only thing she could think of in time was to use the emerald wand. She shot a 

beam of light straight at the skull and it exploded into pieces. Marie just saved 

James’s life.

     James finally reached the other side of the room safely. He saw a lever on the side 

of the wall. He pulled the lever down as hard as he could and stopped the skeletons 

from falling through the ceiling. After the dust settled, he saw a metal shard on the 

floor near his feet.   It was shaped like steel blade.

     James said, “Marie, let me see that emerald wand again.”

     Marie handed it to James and he put the shard on top of the emerald wand. 

Suddenly, the shard stuck to the top of the emerald wand like a magnet! It now 

looked like a dagger. James held the weapon up and swung it around. It shot out a 

bigger beam than it had before.

     They finally noticed that a pathway had opened to the side of them. They carefully 

walked through the passageway trying to get out of the skeleton room. As they got 

closer and closer to the next room, it became lighter and lighter.   When they finally 

reached the next room, they were in total light.

     They started to look around the room. They saw old paintings hanging on the wall 

and various sculptures of a man lined upon against the sides of the room. Each one 

was themed from a Medieval king. The paintings showed the king’s picture but 

wearing different clothes in each. The sculptures were him holding a scepter with a 

small gem. The light in the room was coming from small holes in the ceiling which 

lead up to the surface of the ground.

     James yelled, “Mom, dad, can you hear us?! We are trapped inside the castle!”

     They heard no response. All they could hear were little bits of water dripping from 

the ceiling. Marie started to examine the pictures again. She noticed something about 

one picture. It showed a picture of the king with an angry look and soldiers fighting 

behind him.

      The statue corresponding to the picture had a green emerald which looked exactly 

like Marie’s. She picked the emerald out of the scepter the statue king was holding. 

Suddenly, the dripping water they heard before started to trickle faster and faster and 

then get stronger and stronger.   Soon water was pumping into the room.   The room 

was filling up with water! They couldn’t escape the room at all.

     James uncontrollably tried to find out how they could get out. Marie was examining 

the room carefully. James then started to punch all the paintings down to see if there 

was a switch he could hit to stop the water from pouring into the room.

     After several of James’s punches, the water stopped pumping. The water was 

already up to their chest. All of a sudden, the floor broke away and they both started 

to sink down through the ground. They tried pushing up but it was no use. It was like 

quicksand but more solid.   They took a deep breath and continued to slip through the 

ground until they fell down a deep dark hole filled with water.

     They couldn’t breathe. The water surrounded them. In the dark, the emerald from 

the dagger started to light up. They could finally see where they were. Also, they 

could breathe if the light was close to them. 

     They were in a tunnel which led to another room. So, they 

swam as much as they could to get to the other room. After 

they traveled for a little while, they had to swim directly up 

to surface. However, Marie stopped swimming and shook her 

head.

     James remembered that Marie couldn’t swim upwards! 

So, he grabbed her hand and dragged her up the water tunnel 

and through the exit. They finally made it to the surface and 

gasped for breath.

     This room was hot and dark and they noticed that they 

were in a massive fire! Only some patches on the floor were 

unlit. Everything else was covered with insane fire. Marie and 

James were both scared. They knew that there was no 

turning back. They both stood still and in awe as they 

watched the fire.

     Marie yelled, “James, we have to jump onto the patches 

that are not on fire. Then we can get to the other side.”

     James whispered, “I will do it.” James jumped on each 

patch to try to get to the end. He almost fell twice. But, he 

made it!

     James yelled to Marie, “I did it! But, there is no other way 

to get you across… You have to cross over by yourself.”

     Marie thought to herself, “I can do it. I believe in myself. Anything is 

possible.”

     She jumped to the first unlit patch, then the second, then the third. She 

was cruising right along until the last jump. It was a 12 feet long jump 

over fire. Marie started to doubt what she thought earlier.   Then she 

remembered that she was intelligent and knew many things and those 

thoughts gave her the will-power to try. 

     She made a jump for it. She sailed half way across but began to loose 

momentum and started to belly flop into the fire! As she fell, the emerald 

dagger started to get hotter and hotter and the blade grew longer and 

longer until it was a full sized sword! The emerald glowed even brighter 

than before. It shot a huge ray of light onto Marie’s forehead. This gave 

her power to float over the fire and land safely on the other side next to 

James.

     James had a surprised look on his face. He panted, “Thank goodness 

you made it out of there! You were about to be burned by the fire.   But, 

that emerald saved you. I take back what I said earlier. You should have 

stolen that emerald!”

     Marie rolled her eyes and said for the third time, “I didn’t steal it!”

     After resting, they looked behind them. They were standing in front of the 

grandest door that they had ever seen. It suddenly opened up for them and they 

walked in. 

      They saw a gigantic room with someone sitting on a throne. The man was tall 

and wide with broad shoulders. He sat there holding a silver scepter with a ruby 

in the handle. His clothing was very elaborate and king-like. He wore a golden 

crown covered in rubies and his robes were royal purple trimmed in snow leopard 

fur.

     As the kids approached the man yelled, “HAULT! Give me that emerald 

sword!”

      James shouted, “This is our emerald sword! We had it first!”

      The man said, “I need that emerald. It was owned by my rival king, Heimah. 

When he was alive 700 years ago, I wanted that emerald. I need it now to 

control everything in the natural world. Once I retrieve that emerald, I will be 

able to come back to life!”

     Marie asked, “Are you a ghost or something?”

     The man replied, “I am a king and a ghost. My fellow knights died protecting 

me from my rival king. Now they will once again help me control the emerald I’ve 

desperately wanted for 700 years.”

     Suddenly the doors burst open, an army of knights started rushing into 

the room from all sides. They held swords, bows, and daggers. James 

quickly grabbed the emerald sword and started to protect him and Marie. 

He swung at the knights shooting hundreds of light rays per minute. The 

knights got very close to James and Marie and they were using all their 

weapons against the kids. Even though the sword protected James and 

Marie, they were still scared. However, the sword started to glow even 

brighter. It was so bright, no one in the room could look at it without 

being blinded. Then James swung it one more time.   A blast of light 

pierced the knights and sent them flying backwards. The knights were 

defeated and James and Marie were once again safe. 

      The king shot up and swung his scepter. His scepter turned into a 

sword which looked like the complete opposite from James’s sword. The 

king’s sword was rusty, evil-looking, and deadly. The king leaped to James 

and swung at him with his sword. James tried to block the king from 

hitting him. They were fighting a duel with their swords. 

      James tried to upper cut the king. Then the king blocked. The king 

then hit from the side and James ducked. While they fought, Marie was 

carefully observing the king's moves. She noticed that the king would 

protect his left side more than his right side. 

     Marie yelled, “James, aim for his left side!”

     James thrashed the emerald sword to make the hardest hit he could ever do. He 

made contact with the king’s left side and the king stopped approaching.   Then he 

started to glow. He started to float up and burst into a hundred pieces.

      The king shouted, “I will come back some day! I will get that emerald!” He was 

then gone. He had been defeated!

      James and Marie shouted at once, “We did it!”

     Suddenly, they noticed that there was a hole in the castle roof with a ladder 

leading up. They immediately climbed up the stairs to the top of the castle. They were 

outside! They saw the main castle, the road, and their parent’s car! They ran towards 

it! They saw their parents about to call the police. 

      The kids shouted, “Mom! Dad!”   They ran towards them as fast as they could.

      Their mother said, “Where have you been?! We haven’t seen you for a whole 2 

hours! We were worried!   I am so glad that you are okay.”

     Marie explained to their parents how they got the emerald and how they escaped 

from falling skeletons, tunneling water, roaring fire, and a fighting army of Medieval 

knights. Their parents were skeptical and their father said in a sarcastic voice, “And 

what, was there also a magic unicorn?” He laughed.

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