Adventures in Diviniand

by Nancy Olawale

  “Are you asking about the captor or guraser?”

  “What?”

  “Oh, right. I forgot you don’t know anything about Diviniand.” She took a breath and then carried on, “The guraser is a gun that erases anything with the bullet. Basically, whatever the bullet touches, poof. It’s gone. The captor is something that captures living things—any living thing that it touches goes inside it.”

  Jess looked at the captor, which was transparent and shaped like a globe.

  “Guys, did you hear Neenee?” Jess asked Olivia and Harry. They both nodded.

  “Why would they need those items?” Harry questioned. Olivia shrugged. Jess then remembered when Neenee talked about remembering this place when they went searching for the Divinament, but then a horrible thought dawned on her. “Guys, we cannot leave this place. I think I know what the Divinament are doing.” The thought was disgusting and unbelievably unbearable.

  “What is it…?” Olivia asked, but Jess thought that she must’ve already thought of it because she looked as equally devastated as Jess felt.

  “They’re going to—they’re going to destroy the portal and capture us in the captors!”

  “But why?” Olivia muttered.

  “Why what?” Harry asked. “I mean, it is pretty obvious.”

  Olivia ignored him. “Neenee, how many portals are there in Diviniand?”

  “Five. Why?”

  “Because it wouldn’t make sense to ruin a portal that people need to get back home.”

  “It doesn’t really make much of a difference.” Neenee shrugged. “In the portals, you choose where you want to go.”

  “And how would you do that?” Jess looked down at the diveel standing on her palm. She just realised that Neenee’s boots must be sticky or something because she was standing straight on her palm without falling off. Pretty cool.

  “Well, the portal has some buttons inside, and you choose one to, you know, get there.”

  “Interesting…”

  “Still, can’t they just capture the portal?” Olivia questioned. “I mean, if they erased one of the portals, there would only be four, which would definitely cause much more traffic! Is it really worth it to do that just so they can imprison us and get rid of Jess’s necklace?”

  “You’re right! There is more to this!” Jess exclaimed.

  “Did you guys seriously not listen to Neenee?” Harry started. “She said living things, not anything!”

  “Oh yeah!” Olivia blushed. “Well, I guess that problem is sorted.”

  “No it’s not! We still do not know what to do to not be captured!” Jess exclaimed.

  “Have you ever heard of a plan where you plan along as you go?” Neenee asked with a grin. “Because I think that’s where we are kind of heading.”

  “Besides,” Harry interrupted, “we kind of do have a plan. Destroy the necklace in front of them and then leave!”

  “I guess you’re right…”

  “No more time to discuss this now, though!” Olivia pointed at the upcoming army, which was very close to where they were.

  Jess looked up to the sky and saw the sun starting to set. That was not good…at all. “We’ll be facing them and Olivia and Harry’s clones. Look up.”

  Jess saw all of their faces fall. They were silent for a moment, and she decided to break it. “Harry, where is the match?” As soon as she said that, she saw Harry run across a few metres and then turn right. A few minutes later, he was carefully walking with a lit match in his hand.

  Jess took off her pendant and placed it on the floor. Harry then gave her the match. Neenee was fidgeting weirdly, and she asked something: “Um. This might be a bit weird, but, like, you know when people place their hands in the middle and go, like, ‘Go team!’ Can we please do that…?”

  “Sure!” Jess said, smiling, “Everyone place your hands in, in three…two…one…”

  The four of them placed their hands (Jess placed the one that the match wasn’t in) and shouted, “Go us!” And Jess knew that they actually stood a chance together.

  Chapter 28

  “We need to think of something quick to know who the real Harry and Olivia are. The clones look exactly like them, so we need some ideas,” Jess said.

  “Maybe they should go hide somewhere while you destroy the necklace,” Neenee offered.

  “Yeah, but if we do that, Jess might be in even more danger!” Olivia pointed out.

  “Even more danger than a bunch of clones looking like you, sounding like you, and trying to trick me?”

  Olivia fell quiet.

  “Jess, am I coming with you?” Neenee asked.

  “Yes. You’ll be pretty useful with your hearing.” Jess hesitated and asked Neenee something: “Do the clones all have the same thoughts as Harry and Olivia?”

  “I can’t actually hear the clones’ thoughts, only their voices,” Neenee replied to Jess.

  “Okay. Just wondering.” Jess turned to Harry and Olivia. “You guys should probably hide somewhere.”

  “No,” Harry said firmly. “We are not going to hide whether you like it or not. After all, we are stuck in this together.”

  “Harry’s right. It’s either all of us or none of us!” Olivia piped in.

  “Come on, Jess! Just let them help you!” Neenee said.

  Jess couldn’t believe her friends’ stubbornness and was happy that she was going through this with them. She had to admit, she didn’t want to go face the Divinament with only Neenee. Jess felt her nerves starting to go away and suddenly felt more confident. “You guys are right. We are going to do this together!”

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Olivia asked.

  “Let’s do this!” Harry said.

  The Divinament was just a few metres away from them. They would need to stay near the portal so their plan would work. After a few minutes of intense waiting and planning, they were all face to face with Axel and the rest of the Divinament. Everything seemed to happen so fast. Captors were thrown everywhere. Jess, Olivia, and Harry had to dodge them and the guraser bullets.

  “This. Is. Too. Hard!” Harry panted. He had just dodged a captor that had nearly hit him.

  “We’re nearly getting out of here! Just make sure you two don’t get mixed with the clones,” Jess replied. Olivia and Harry definitely had a tricky job. The Divinament seemed to be acting kind, though, because all of the clones seemed to be behind the people with gurasers and captors. They weren’t going to confuse them…for now.

  “You should destroy it now, Jess! Axel is at the front!” Oliva said. Jess listened to her and bent down until she was where she dropped her necklace.

  “Listen up, people!” Jess shouted. Everyone looked at her and fell silent. “I don’t know what I did for this to happen, and I’m sorry for whatever I did, but I do know one thing for sure. You want my necklace!” She paused. “I know it’s legendary or something, but it is also dangerous. I am going to destroy it and then leave with my friends. I will never, ever come back here. This is basically goodbye!”

  “NO!” Axel screamed, but it was too late. The necklace was already burning and was already nearly a pile of ashes. “You’ll pay for this! Clones! Confuse her!” As soon as Axel said that, clones followed her.

  Jess then thought of an idea. “If you’re the real Harry and Olivia, go in the portal now! I’ll catch up to you!” Jess knew that they knew that they had to go if they wanted Jess to escape as well. She then saw them walking. Olivia was trying her hardest not to cry, and Harry looked like he was about to punch something in frustration. They were then gone. Jess saw Axel, and he was holding something. The guraser. She ran as fast as she could, imagining that it was the end of the world. Well, that actually didn’t take much imagining. With captors being flung and clones attempting to grab onto her, it seemed like an impossible job. Axel was ahead of her. She wouldn’t make it. She wouldn’t and couldn’t.

  “Neenee, if I do make it, I guess this is goodbye. You need to go now,” Je
ss said whilst running.

  “I’ll really, really miss you.”

  “You could come with us, you know…”

  Neenee shook her head. “I want to, Jess, but Diviniand is my home. I may have no friends here, but I could never leave.”

  “What are you talking about, Neenee? You do have friends here! Us! And please try making other ones, Neenee! There are so many nice people here!” Jess’s eyes were starting to fill with tears. At first, she hadn’t liked the small diveel, but she had started to grow on her. She had never thought that she would have to say goodbye to Neenee. “You are one of the best friends I have ever had, Neenee. I want you to know that.”

  The diveel nodded with watery eyes. “You know, when Axel said something about the tracker and me running away…” Jess nodded, and Neenee carried on, “It was my parents I ran away from, as they were being really mean to me.” She then jumped off Jess’s hand and ran away from the Divinament.

  Jess was on her own now. Against Axel. She put all of her strength into reaching the portal first. And she was there just a few seconds before Axel. She dived into the familiar vivid blue colour and saw many different buttons. How she did it, she did not know. She was just happy that it was all over. There was no more Axel. No more crazy necklace and no more Diviniand. She looked around and found a button that said Kent and pressed it. And the familiar sensation of feeling that she was going to throw up came over her.

  Chapter 29

  When Jess got out, Harry and Olivia were waiting for her on the other side. They didn’t say anything at all. They just hugged each other. There was a long silence, and then Olivia spoke. “So should we get back to the beach? Turns out, the portal was where Jess opened the portal!”

  She was right. Jess saw the same bench, the same sand, the same everything.

  “What do you mean?” Jess asked. “The beach clean-up would’ve been over by now, remember. We’ve been gone for days!”

  “Turns out we haven’t!” Harry said. “Diviniand probably has quicker time than our world! In fact, it’s only been an hour since we were gone!”

  “Are you being serious?”

  “Yep! But here’s a more important question. What are we going to tell our parents?” Harry asked.

  “Nothing,” Jess said firmly. “All I’m going to say is that my pendant broke.”

  “Are you sure?” Olivia asked.

  “Yeah. We should make this our little secret!”

  “And what about you knowing more about your family’s history?”

  “After all of this, I think I’d rather not know, but I can guess,” Jess said. “Maybe they were in the same situation we were in. People were so envious of the necklace that they thought it was not safe to keep visiting…especially with a one-year-old baby.”

  “Interesting…” Olivia seemed to have realised something. “Jess, we should probably get back to the beach now!”

  “You’re right! See you later, Harry!” They were about to walk away when Harry said, “Could I—could I go with you guys?” Olivia and Jess smiled.

  EPILOGUE

  When Jess arrived at the holiday house, Jennifer was happy to see her. “How was the clean-up, Jess?”

  It took a longer time for Jess to respond than normal, and she said, “Interesting.”

  That was strange. Jennifer looked up at Jess and then noticed that her beloved legendary Diviniand necklace was missing. She decided to press the matter. “Honey, what happened to the necklace?”

  Jess looked guilty.

  “Um, it broke…”

  But the thing was, nothing could have broken the necklace. It was simply indestructible. The only thing that could’ve broken it was a Diviniand fire. Did that mean what Jennifer thought it meant? But that meant that the key was in her bag. How did Jess manage to get it? The only person who had the key to open the lock was Sam. Somehow, he knew that Jess was talented enough to solve their Diviniand problems, and she did. Now they didn’t need to be haunted by their past here. Now they could truly enjoy the rest of the summer holidays here and Sam’s business trip.

  “So, how was your trip to Diviniand, Jess?”

  Jess was shocked. Jennifer just smiled, and soon they were in a conversation about a diveel called Neenee, an evil man called Axel, and her friends whom she couldn’t have done it without, who were Harry and Olivia.

  You made a good choice this time, Sam.

  About the Author

  Nancy is the author of Adventures in Diviniand, which she wrote at eleven years old. She is from England and lives in Worcestershire with her parents and two brothers. When Nancy isn’t writing, she enjoys reading, playing netball, drawing and, baking. She also loves maths and has represented her school at a maths competition. Nancy is also learning to play the violin and is a fan of pop music. She was inspired to write Adventures in Diviniand by her passion for reading and particularly enjoys adventure and fantasy genres.