______________________________________
THE
QUEST SAGA
THE COMPLETE BOOKS 1-5
By DHAYAA ANBAJAGANE
______________________________________
CONTENTS
Book One: CONQUEST
Book Two: ZEQUEST
Book Three: ACQUEST
Book Four: ECQUEST
Book Five: BEQUEST
GATEWAY TO DANGER
CONQUEST
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
2-1
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
3-1
3-2
3-3
3-4
3-5
4-1
4-2
4-3
4-4
4-5
5-1
5-2
5-3
5-4
5-5
ZEQUEST
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
2-1
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
3-1
3-2
3-3
3-4
3-5
4-1
4-2
4-3
4-4
4-5
5-1
5-2
5-3
5-4
5-5
ACQUEST
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
2-1
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
3-1
3-2
3-3
3-4
3-5
4-1
4-2
4-3
4-4
4-5
5-1
5-2
5-3
5-4
5-5
ECQUEST
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
2-1
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
3-1
3-2
3-3
3-4
3-5
4-1
4-2
4-3
4-4
4-5
5-1
5-2
5-3
5-4
5-5
BEQUEST
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
2-1
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
3-1
3-2
3-3
3-4
3-5
4-1
4-2
4-3
4-4
4-5
5-1
5-2
5-3
5-4
5-5
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CONQUEST
Book One of the Quest Saga
1-1
“No video games in class,” screeched a voice.
That was Mrs. Angelo. You’d expect her to be a cool teacher since her name had both ‘Angel’ and ‘Jell-O’ in it, but Angelo actually meant ‘messenger’, which made sense because she was delivering loud, pointless statements that no one was really paying attention to.
Oh, and by the way, she really didn’t like to catch her students playing Super Mario in the middle of class - something that Q rediscovered pretty much every single day.
Yes, his name was just ‘Q’. No snappy comments thank you, he’d suffered enough mockery throughout his school life because of his ‘silly’ name. Kindergarten was the worst - those kids just wouldn’t stop pointing at him when the teacher asked them what letter came after P.
“Q, I’m talking to you,” she said, her loud voice making everyone else look toward him, every single face showing him an ‘I knew it was coming’ look.
He focused his gaze on Mrs. Angelo, not even the slightest bit worried, and raked his hands through his wavy, black hair, his grey eyes looking like they would vaporize her. The harsh sunlight fell through the window and bathed his pale, white skin, threatening to sunburn it into a sickly shade of red.
“This is the limit,” she said, her face contorting into a look of pure irritation. “Mr. Q can spend two hours of happy-fun time in detention.”
The bell rang as she finished her statement and he didn’t need an anvil dropped on his head to see that she was raging.
He got up from his chair and bowed, “Hope you have a good evening, Ma’am,” and with that he charged out of the class.
“Get back here, Q!” she bellowed but he wasn’t planning on going back anytime soon.
He was rushing down the corridor when a hand latched onto his wrist and jerked him to a stop.
“Where are you heading off to?”
He turned around to see a girl standing in front of him. She was about as tall as he was, which was about 5’11”, and seemed way more athletic that most people would ever dream to be. The lights shone off her skin like moonlight, making her seem kinda godly. Her blond hair was neatly pulled into a ponytail and her lightning blue eyes gleamed like diamonds.
“Hi, Taylor,” he said. “God, I wish I were in Junior year along with you. I hate being a sophomore.”
“Oh please. I’d rather sit down and make snowmen like we did years ago than listen to another lecture of trigonometry.”
“But you said the teachers in your classes are totally goofy. It’d be so much fun to tease them,”
“I’ll let my teachers know that,” she laughed. “So why are you running anyway? Did something happen?”
Uh oh, he thought.
Taylor was so protective of him you’d think she was his sister or something. What that meant was that he couldn't have ice cream in the winter when she was around, nor could he sit in his room and play video games all day during summer vacation. Last year she’d barged into his house and dragged him to some baseball camp in the remotest part of the city, all because he wasn't ‘getting enough exercise’.
Definitely not a fun way to spend the summer.
He took his attention off of her for a moment and looked around.
She looked at him teasingly, “You’re in trouble again, aren’t you?” she asked, trying hard to suppress a smile.
Mrs.Angelo hobbled out of the classroom, her eyes lighting up the moment she saw Q.
“Where are you going?” she yelled, waving her hands widely in the air. “Take one more step and you’re in big trouble, young man.”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Taylor grinned.
Q laughed, “It’s always a yes,” and with that he took off, rushing out the school doors and down the road.
His legs kept going, stopping only when he was at least a mile from his school compound. He rested his hands on his knees, crouching down as he took a deep breath, feeling a light breeze graze his cheek.
The road ahead curved down steeply, disappearing from the horizon, and a few miles away stood a tall building faced with bland, gray bricks. He walked on the pavement, following the road toward it.
The structure looked much worse close up than it did from further away. It was completely broken down, its walls filled with three-foot wide
gaps where the wall had broken off.
He pushed through the door and ran up the stairs in the corner. He headed all the way to the top floor and went into the first room on the left.
The small box-like room was completely dark, the only source of light coming from the rays of sunlight entering through the gap in the wall. The room did have windows, but after being left alone for so long, those panes were caked with dust so that thick that no light came in at all.
He sat down next to the gap, letting the warm sunlight fall onto his face. The rays of light gradually changed their colors, turning from yellow to orange to a deep mystic red, becoming darker and darker as the sun set beyond the urban horizon.
His eyes watched the sky, catching the last streak of red as it disappeared, only to be replaced soon after by the thousands of starry dots that now littered the darkness.
He stretched his legs and leaned on the wall, relaxing and making himself comfortable.
Decades ago this broken old building was a big business headquarters but the business went bankrupt a while after it opened, so it had packed up and moved. The bank confiscated the building and left it idle, not breaking it down or attempting to sell it.
And that’s how it stood now.
Of course, it had crumbled a lot but that was natural wear and tear, there weren’t any wrecking balls or big bad wolves threatening to blow the place down.
The view from up there was the best, especially at night.
He peeked out of the gap in the wall, trying to get a better view. He could see hundreds of dark boxes littered with white and yellow light.
The houses in the city.
Almost every one of them turned on their lights around this time of night, brightening up the entire landscape and creating an ocean of stars on the ground.
“I knew I’d find you here,” a voice came from the other side of the room. Taylor walked out of the darkness and sat down next to him.
“Well that isn’t surprising, considering we come here almost every evening,” Q said, his eyes pulling back from the stars and turning toward her.
Her hair flowed in the wind that rushed in and out of the cracks in the walls, making her now loose curls look like a river of gold.
Her face turned toward the sky, and he could see her eyes move up from the horizon, working their way to the stars.
“The stars sure are pretty,” she said, her voice tapering off as she gazed at the sky, mesmerized by the glowing orbs in front of her.
“Yeah,” Q whispered, turning his gaze to them as well.
He stared, trance-like, watching them twinkle on and on, radiant and brave.
***
The first thing he wondered was when he’d actually gone to sleep, mainly because he had no memory of even closing his eyes, let alone actually going to sleep. He looked around, blinking his eyes slowly and drowsily.
Apparently Taylor had left, and he guessed she’d done that after he’d fallen asleep. She probably didn't want to wake him so just left him alone. And that was pretty contradictory for a person who was worried about his safety. Although, in her defense, this building hadn’t posed any threats for the past few years.
He turned to look at the sky, which was no longer a cluster of stars. Rather, it had turned into a beautiful painting, filled with streaks of morning-orange and close to the horizon was a large orb of bright red. The sun was just rising, which was a good thing because it meant he had a whole day ahead of him, and that day was Saturday so he had the whole day to waste.
He didn't really know what he should do with it though. He’d have liked to spend it just sitting there and staring out at the busy city landscape but even he would get bored of that after a while.
He sat deciding what to do, when Taylor ran back into the room hampered just a little bit by the knee-length, navy-blue skirt she was wearing.
“Oh good, you’re up,” she said, panting a little.
“An airplane woke me up,” he said.
“That’s happening quite often isn't it?” she grinned. “Maybe we should get you some ear plugs.”
“I doubt they’d help,” he laughed. “So what’s up?”
“Well, it's Saturday,” she said. “And I thought the two of us could do a little exploring if you were up for it.”
Q smiled, “Of course I’m up for it,” he said. “But I’ll just have to go home and give Carlos a heads up before I leave.”
“I’ve got my phone with me. Can’t you call him?”
“You know how my brother is,” he said, in a matter-of-fact tone. “If he’s gone into one of his spaces then he won’t be coming back down to Earth for a while.”
Taylor laughed a bit, “That is kinda true.”
“I’ll come back in a few minutes,” he said and got up. “My best chance of telling him anything is by trying to talk to him directly.”
“I walked both our bikes here,” she called out to him as he descended down the steps, jumping over four steps at a go.
“A thank you would help, you know,” he heard her voice fade as he ran off.
He got onto the slightly-old bike that’d been stationed out front and cycled past the gate, heading down the road.
His legs pushed down hard as he whizzed by, occasionally glancing at the scenery around him and noticing how it started to switch from plain, gray buildings to lush, green fields.
The city was quite urban and modern, but it was just a tiny speck of modernity in a vast space of regular farming land. Most of this area had remained farmland for almost a hundred years, so, once he left the city, the scenery was completely void of any buildings, bar a lonely barn or two.
Q really loved it this way. Green, green, and green was all he could see, but it wasn't like everything was washed with the color. He could see distinct shades of it in the grass, in the field, the trees on its borders, and the bushes on the side of the roads.
A few more minutes of cycling and he hit the turn in the road indicating his destination.
His legs pedaled faster, making the bike surge as it turned sharply. The dark paved road extended for about a mile before a large, white gate blocked his path.
He cycled over to one of the thick pillars of the gate and held his hand over the curved surface. A section of the curve flapped open and a small screen popped out. He pressed his thumb down onto it until he heard a familiar beep and a mechanical-sounding feminine voice spoke out, “Welcome, Q.”
The gate clinked at once, and its two faces opened up, letting him pedal through. He headed down the road for another half a mile, finally arriving at a huge estate.
A large circular garden stood in front of a mansion, the tall fountain in the center flowing with clear, sparkly water. The mansion was a chocolaty brown, its walls having a brick-like texture in some places, and a buttery smooth one in others.
It reminded Q of the chocolate palace in Willy Wonka but he was quite content with the bricks being made out of stone. Chocolate bricks had plenty of disadvantages, the number one concern being that the walls would become a food source for every fly and ant in the city. And he didn't think he was qualified to feed that many flies.
He parked the bike next to the white, marble staircase and ran up to the thick, old doors, his body straining a bit as he pushed them open.
He didn't bother looking around once he got in and rushed up the wide staircase in front of him. There were four doors on the floor, one door on each wall.
He walked up to the door opposite the staircase and knocked on it. This was Carlos’ so called ‘study’. He knocked once more but no one answered the door.
“Carlos?” Q yelled out, hoping his brother would hear his voice and decide to come out.
No reply.
“I’m going out with Taylor for a while,” he said. “I’ll be back before dinner.”
His brother probably heard what he said, but he didn't want to take any chances, so he found a sheet of paper lying on the floor there in the hall and wrote a note to Carlos,
slipping it under his door. He’d rather have sent a text message but only god knew how long it would take Carlos to notice his message.
“Bye,” he yelled out one last time before heading back out of the mansion.
He jumped back onto the bike and headed past the automatically-opening gate, turning back onto the road and cycling towards the broken building. His legs pedaled faster and soon he could see Taylor standing outside the walls. He was about to wave to her when he noticed the troubled expression on her face and that she was not alone. His legs pumped the pedals and he cycled up the slope.
His view got better, and he could see a few muscular guys stood around Taylor, surrounding her completely. They all wore leather jackets and had silver earrings and piercings. He could pick out a few huge motorcycles parked next to the wall around the building and it didn't take to him long to realize these guys were not here for a Sunday picnic.
He was worried.
Those poor, poor gangsters.
One of them caught her wrist and another put his arm around her shoulder. Q’s nerves tensed up a bit and he clenched his teeth, reminding himself that he had to stay calm.
He pedaled a bit closer to them and stopped behind one of the ragged hedges. The gangsters were so focused on Taylor he was pretty sure they didn't even notice him.
The sound of a motorcycle engine filled the air and everyone looked down the road. A huge guy charged down the road on a Harley Davidson, screeching to a stop right in front of the group. He took off his helmet and looked at everything around him, scrunching his slightly disfigured mouth into what seemed to be a smile. He got up from his vehicle and strode over to Taylor, his smile turning even wider and more idiotic.
Q could see Taylor grit her teeth now. No doubt she felt irritated.
The other men moved away the moment the huge guy walked over to her, his fat legs somehow managing to keep his torso off the ground.
“Listen, sweetheart, let’s say we all go have some fun, eh?”
Taylor smiled at him as though he’d just said the stupidest thing in the world.
He moved in and grabbed her chin with his chubby fingers, “I’m guessing you don’t want me to hurt the kid behind those shrubs. Trust me, I’d just hate to see a pair of lovebirds be heartbroken.”
Q instantly froze up. They knew where he was.
Taylor pushed the guy away from her.
The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5 Page 1