by Dean Adams
The Book of Legends
By Dean Adams
www.thejackchambersadventures.com
Copyright © Dean Adams
Text copyright © Dean Adams
Cover art copyright © Dean Adams and Terry Adams
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
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First published in September 2013
Dedicated to the memory of my Grandad.
My friend, my teacher, my hero.
Thanks to my wonderful fiancé Becky and to my mum and dad.
Contents
Chapter 1 – Story Time
Chapter 2 – Just your average family
Chapter 3 – Buried treasure
Chapter 4 – Legends
Chapter 5 – Six months later
Chapter 6 – Parachutes and camels
Chapter 7 – The order of five
Chapter 8 – Battle against a dinosaur
Chapter 9 – The last meal
Chapter 10 – Journey to the cave
Chapter 11 – Kazael and the star
Chapter 12 – Back to reality
Chapter 1
Story time
Bullets whizzed through the air one after the other. The plane was catching up, it flew lower and faster, the noise was so loud the ground shook. Again the bullets began firing, chasing behind his feet as he ran. The grass was damp from where it had been raining the night before and the bullets made a thud as they buried deep into the mud. In front of him about a 100 metres away he could see a small village across from the field, it seemed an eternity away but at the same time he knew he was nearly there. As he ran closer he noticed there were no people in the street and all of the windows were darkened out, but still he kept running. The sky above him was bright blue with only a few fluffy white clouds floating in the wind and it seemed to him as he was running that if it weren’t for that damn plane it would be a beautiful day. But still the noise of the plane grew louder, this great grey flying monster with wings as big as houses and a propeller so large it could eat the entire village. It was man versus machine and he knew he was running out of time and energy.
As he reached the village he picked up speed, partly because he knew for sure, now was his chance to escape and partly because the hard cobbles below him made it easier for him to run. He spotted an open doorway to a house coming up on his left, he knew he had to make it or else. Quickly, without a second to spare he dived through the door and landed face down on the ground, he could hear the plane fly past the house, he had only just made it, and how great he felt as he lay there for a few minutes panting whilst trying to catch his breath. Gradually he lifted his head from the cold, hard wooden floor and looked around. The first thing to catch his eye was a large grand piano, so big it nearly filled the room. The walls were painted in a deep red with a gold chandelier hanging from the ceiling and there were oil paintings of a family and their dogs on the wall. As he lifted himself from the floor and re-gained his composure he stared at one of the paintings on the wall. ‘A nice looking young lady’ he said to himself with a smile.
‘he he he’ Giggling came from in the room.
‘ssshhh’ Another voice said.
He was not alone, someone else was in there with him. Looking around as quick as he could he spotted them, over in the corner of the room behind where the grand piano stood there was an old antique looking sofa and poking out from behind this he could see some feet shuffling around.
‘Who’s there?’
Silence.
‘I said, who is there? Show yourself this instant!’
Then a tuft of hair appeared, bright blonde and curly it began rising from behind the sofa. As her face came into view he could see she was a young girl of only maybe three or four years old. Next to her another face appeared. With long flowing brunette hair and a pretty face. His eyes were locked upon hers, it was the young lady from the painting.
After a few seconds he spoke again.
‘Please do come forward. Is there anyone else with you?’
Neither girl spoke.
‘I won’t bite. I’m one of the good guys. That airplane that just flew over, the machine gun fire, it was after me. My airplane got shot down and I had to parachute out before it crashed. I landed right in front of the enemy camp and have been running ever since, with the airplane chasing after me. I thought I wasn’t going to make it until I saw your open door.’
The eldest girl stood and walked towards him, he wondered what she was going to do. She remained silent staring forwards as though looking straight through him. She was getting closer. He could feel the breeze from the door behind him, blowing her white silk dress as she moved. Then just as he was about to speak she carried on walking, straight past him into the long dark hallway and up a steep flight of stairs.
Where was she going? Should he follow? He did not know where she had gone or if he was meant to go with her. As he took a step forward he felt something pulling on his shirt. Looking down he could see the little girl staring up at him with her bright blue eyes and a big smile.
‘Have you come to save us?’ said the little girl.
Startled he stumbled for words.
‘I uh, well I suppose…’ Looking up he could see the young lady appear at the top of the stairs again before proceeding to walk back down. But now she was holding something.
‘Please, give me your hand.’ The young lady said.
‘My hand, well I….’
‘You are wounded sir, I shall bandage it for you.’
As he held out his hand, she gently began to tend to his wound. Carefully wrapping the bandage around his palm he could feel his skin tingle with her soft touch. They both looked each other in the eyes, oblivious to the outside world, they moved in closer, his lips touching hers.
‘Uuuggh, Grandad!’
Laughing Grandad said ‘Ok Jack, I’ll stop now. That’s enough of that story.’
‘Tell me another.’ Jack asked.
‘No, that’ll do for today Jack.’
‘Oh, Grandad.’
Jack loved to hear his Grandads old war stories, in fact he just loved spending time with his Grandad. Be it listening to his stories, or his jokes, Jack had always been very close to him. Every Saturday his mum would take him and his little sister Ruby round to see his grandmother and Grandad. They lived in a small two storey semi-detached house in a suburb of London called Ealing. It was a narrow street with cars parked along both sides of the road and a few trees scattered along the pavement. It was very similar to Jacks house, only slighter larger with a long back garden where his Grandad would spend much of his time.
Jack would rush in to find his Grandad, darting past his grandmother as she greeted them at the front door. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to spend time with his grandmother, he actually loved being with her, it was just that his Grandad understood him and would talk to him like a man. Jack would help his Grandad with the gardening and any building renovations he was doing. Then they would sit and have a tea and a sandwich that grandmother brought out to them. Sitting like a couple
of workmates on their lunch break, Jack felt really chuffed with himself for being so grown up.
They would work on all manner of things. His Grandad had worked in various jobs since the war and he was skilled in many professions. Jack could never remember how old his Grandad was but it didn’t matter to him, his Grandad was fitter and stronger than any other man he knew. He could also tell better jokes. His Grandad was not a large man, nor was he small. He really was just your average man. His usual attire would be a pair of jogging bottoms with trainers and a sweatshirt, in the summer he would take this off and have on a t-shirt.
One summer his Grandad even took Jack to work with him for a week during the school holidays. He asked Jack if he could help him wallpaper the living room in a house and he would pay him for it. Jack said he did not want paying but his Grandad insisted and said he really needed his help and it was only fair he got paid for the work as it was his job to complete. Jack went along with this but secretly he believed his Grandad was only asking so as to spend some more time with him. But Jack didn’t mind, as this after all, was his favourite thing to do.