The Legend of Orphan and The Riku: Part lll

Welcome back everyone! This is it, part three of the Legend of Orphan and The Riku! Hope you all enjoy it!


- 3 years later -

It's been 10 years now sense what happened at Magnolia, and Orphan and John Louis are drawing close to the leveled city. They both know what lies ahead of them. One way or another their adventure was about to end very soon. As they rode on Marigold towards Orphan's demolished house, they take great caution in their surroundings. They both know that the Riku's den is a small 5 miles away from the wreck. That's plenty close enough for the Riku to smell them coming. If they're not careful, and fast at the same time, they'll be killed before they even reach their destination. Coming out of the dense forest they spot a chilling sight: The destroyed city of Magnolia. There was no way around it, they had to ride through it. As they rode through the tragic scene that was once a great city they couldn't help but notice a few things. For example, there were people living there! Living in the destroyed, grey, ash filled homes were poor people as far as the eye can see. Some looked hungrry, some looked angry, but all of them looked sad. "Poor lads. Must be horrible living here, knowing that at anytime the Riku could come back and if they left it would pick them off." said John. That made them wonder. If the Riku won't let anyone leave, why did it let THEM in? Was it expecting them, or was it off somewhere? They'd find out soon enough. They rode through town on Marigold at full speed, jumped over the fence surrounding the city, and headed up the hill to Orphans house. When they made it to the house they were greeted by a pile huge pile of ash and wood. They wondered how the ashes had remained here all these years. John hopped off of Marigold and began looking through the rubble for Dragonsbane. As he was searching, Orphan just sat on Marigold staring blankly at the sight. Horrible memories were flooding back into his brain: The dragon blasting the roof off, his parents telling him to run, his parents obliteration... They were coming back so fast that they made his head hurt. He wanted to cry. But he couldn't. He couldn't grieve over old memories, not now. Now was the time for action. He hopped off of Marigold, wiped the tears from his eyes, and joined John in the search. Five minutes into looking though they heard screams coming from the destroyed town of Magnolia. Horrified screams. Orphan and John stopped to see what they were screaming about, even though they already knew. The Riku was flying over the decimated city, and they noticed two things. 1: It was coming in the opposite direction of its den. And 2: It was heading straight for them! They began to look faster, but the Riku was closing in. 4 miles away...3 miles away...2... Right before it reached them they found the sword, lying in a pile of ash with the bone remnants of a human hand. They ran back to Marigold, hopped on, and began riding. They turned around and rode towards the Riku. But they couldn't fight it, not while it was in midair. They rode towards the destroyed city of Magnolia. As they rode in John kept screaming "Run everyone! Into the safest places you can find, NOW!" The Riku was momentarily confused at where they had gone, but it shortly spotted them. The Riku flew at the city full speed, and Orphan and John hopped off of Marigold. "Go find a safe place girl. We'll be fine." Orphan said to Marigold. She obeyed, and trotted off into the grey buildings. Halfway at the city the Riku got smart. It flew down to the ground, and started to stalk them. It's silver, dagger like scales allowing it to blend in with the buildings. Orphan and John looked everywhere for it, but they couldn't find it. John pulled out his tiny dagger and Orphan uncapped Dragonsbane. Then it happened. The Riku barged through a building, thankfully with no people inside, and lunged at them at lightning speed. Orphan and John barely had enough time to dodge its huge mouth, but quickly recovered their footing. The Riku slammed into a building, dizzying itself, but quickly recovered. It turned around to face its makers. This was it, the battle that would settle it all. Orphan and Louis charged the beast, and the Riku charged at them. The Riku was strong, but they were quick. John rolled around it, quickly stabbing it in the feet and legs every chance it got. While John distracted it, Orphan stalked around it in a circle waiting for the perfect opportunity. John hit it in a weak spot, stumbling it. "NOW!" yelled John. Orphan ran in as fast as he could, Dragonsbane in hand, and stabbed right at the Rikus head! But something went horribly wrong. It bounced off of its hide! Stunned, confused, and horrified, Orphan and Louis had no idea what to do next. The Riku did though. It quickly swung its tail around at them and, sense they had no armor, sent them flying into a collapsed building. Orphan seemed fine, with only a huge bruise on his leg. John, not so lucky. He had a bump on his head, a piece of wood sticking out of his side, and he was holding his chest. His ribs were broken! The Riku got up and slowly walked towards them, triumphantly. The Riku leaned over them, and Orphan noticed something. It had a huge scar over its eye, made by Orphans father 10 years ago. Orphan began to cry. Why didn't Dragonsbane work? Why? It began to charge up a fireball in its throat, and they knew they had lost. They were going to be turned to dust just like Orphans parents. It was the end. The Riku fired, but out of nowhere Marigold came racing in. She took the hit for them! Marigold collapsed a few feet away from them, a huge burn mark in her side. She was still breathing, but barely. "MARIGOOOLD!" Orphan yelled. The Riku took its eyes off of them for a second and began to close in on the horse. Orphan was angry now. He was angry at himself for failing. He was angry at Marigold for disobeying. But most of all he was angry at the Riku for every horrible thing it had ever done. Orphan stood up, and he noticed something. Dragonsbane was now glowing in his hands! Similar to the way it did 10 years ago. The Riku was now leaning over Marigold now, charging up another fireball. Orphan had to act fast. He was desperate, so he did something any panicking person would do. He threw a rock at it. It hit the Riku in the eye, and caught its attention. The Riku, enraged, charged straight towards Orphan. But Orphan dodged, and grabbed onto the Rikus tail. He climbed up its tail, and onto its back. The Riku was shaking around furiously, and Orphan had to be careful not to thrown off or cut by one of the scales. He climbed up even farther, and sliced the Rikus wings off! They cut clean through like tissue paper. The Riku fell to the ground, and Orphan was thrown off. It got back up and walked towards Orphan. It attempted to step on him, but he rolled out of the way. He kept stomping at him, but Orphan kept rolling. The Riku tried one more time, but Orphan reacted and stuck Dragonsbane straight up. It disintegrated the Riku's foot on contact! The Riku fell to the ground, and Orphan walked up to it. He walked up to its one working eye, and stared into its soul. It looked angry, very angry. Orphan raised Dragonsbane and with one final swing jammed it straight into the Riku's eye! The Riku let out one last painful roar before exploding into silver dust. Orphan had done it. He killed the Riku! He looked around and saw people coming out of their hiding spots. They were smiling, crying, and everything in between. These people were free now! He turned around to find Marigold somehow back on her feet, and John Louis leaning on her. They shared a huge smile. For the next 20 years Orphan, John, and Marigold worked with the poor people of Old Magnolia to rebuild the fallen city, and it became even bigger and better then before. To this day you can still visit the city of New Magnolia, and you may even see the statue of Orphan and John on top of Marigold, Dragonsbane in hand.

The End.

The Legend of Orphan and The Riku: Part ll

Welcome back! This is part two of the Legend of Orphan and The Riku. Hope you enjoy it!


-  5 Years Later -

Years have now passed, and Orphan has spent every one of them trying to find a lead on the Rikus whereabouts. He's traveled nearly everywhere on the continent on Pangolia, but all he's found is rumors, literature, and legends. He did find one eye-witness, an old man with a name no one knows. He told Orphan how many years before the attack on Magnolia there was one even worse. He told him of an old, legendary city called Dynamellow. It was the largest city on Pangolia, and was famous for its ore mines and fish-filled waters. Everyone loved the city of Dynamellow, until the Riku came. The old man said it was a horrible sight. Buildings were being leveled, the sky filled with smoke, and you could hear the sound of people screaming left and right. Screaming in pain. In under an hour the entire city was decimated, and just like Orphan was in the Magnolia incident, the old man was the only survivor. The old man seemed very sad telling this story, so Orphan told him he didn't have to go on. The old man smiled at him. He told him about an ancient library in the city of Kelpa, a huge city on the East coast of Pangolia. He told him if there was any place where he could find out how to fell the Riku, it was there. Orphan gladly accepted the info. So he hopped back on top of Marigold, said goodbye to the old man, and made his way towards Kelpa. That was two years ago. Now, Orphan has found his way to Kelpa. Not only that, but he's also managed to get right in the middle of a very busy fish market! Everywhere he looked he could see people hurrying to chop up fish, freeze fish, sell fish, buy fish, cook fish, bring in fresh fish, gut fish, and so on. He tried to ask a few people if they knew about an ancient library, but they either ignored him and kept doing what they were doing or gave him a look of annoyance. He rode around on Marigold for hours looking for someone who might help him. He would've gone looking for the library by himself if Kelpa wasn't so huge. He'd get lost before he came close to finding it. After 4 hours of riding around the market he found a fellow adventurer. His name was John Louis, and he was a weapons merchant. About the same age as Orphan, but with short blonde hair, wild blue eyes, and an excited look on his face. When Orphan walked up to him, he was trying to sell a sword to a young man. A sword that was being sold for WAY more than it was worth. John saw Orphan heading his way, and instantly "shoo'd" away the young man. Orphan sat down on a chair next to him. Instantly, John began trying to convince him to buy lousy swords. Orphan wasn't even slightly interested. He asked him if he knew about the Riku. Johns excited look instantly went away, and his eyes got sad. He said he does know of the Riku, but his story is so grim he doesn't want to speak about it. Instead, Orphan told him his story. John felt so bad for him that he decided to join him on his journey. He told him the ancient library was all the way on the other side of town. So they both hopped on top of Marigold and rode as fast as they could. Without running over any fisherman that is. When they finally made their way to the library, they ran inside and asked the very old librarian if he had a book on the Riku. The old man got up and, very slowly, led them to the forest of bookshelves. After searching for an hour, the old man handed them the book they were looking for. "The Legendary Riku". Orphan and John found a table, sat down, and began reading. They found out everything they needed to know: Where the Riku lives, its strengths, what to bring, but most importantly it's one weakness. The one sword and only that can harm it: Dragonsbane. Orphan looked at the picture of the blade, and at first didn't recognize it. Then it hit him. The only sword that could kill the Riku was his fathers family sword! He had to go back to his house, dig through all the rubble, and get the blade if there was any hope in killing the Riku. But there was one problem. The Riku's den was only 5 miles away from his old house.

To be continued...

The Legend Of Orphan and The Riku

So I've been studying middle ages lately (for the last week mostly King Arthur) and my mom found an assignment for me. I have to write a Medieval Legend! So I decided to make it about a boy who grows up to be a pony salesman. No just kidding. It's about a young boy, who loses everything to a legendary dragon knows as Riku and spends 10 long years plotting revenge. This is going to be a 3 part legend by the way, with a beginning middle and end. The beginning is just the prologue. Each part is going to be about as long as part one. So, on with the Legend!


Once upon a time, in a quiet little town knows as Magnolia, there lived a young boy on a hill just outside of town. The boy was about 12 years old. He had long brown hair, olive skin, and deep green eyes. He wasn't too short either. He lived on a small hill, but high enough so he could see for miles around. He was a farm boy, and he liked it that way. The boy lived the average life of any farm boy; He milked the cows, fed the chickens and took their eggs, sheared the sheep, helped his mother with chores around the house, went into town to buy farming and cooking supplies, and every once and a while took his best friend out for a ride. His best friend was a horse, and her name was Marigold. The boys life was perfect. But that all changed on one day. He was out tending to the chickens when he heard them. The alarm horns. The Dragon alarm horns. The boy and his parents ran to the edge of their hill to see what was going on. What they saw sent shivers down their spines. Magnolia was being town apart by the legendary silver dragon, known only as the Riku. It's destruction left a long line of blue fire, broken buildings, and lifeless bodies. The boy and his parents hid in their house for shelter. But it was no use, for after the dragon was done with Magnolia it caught whiff of the boys farm animals. It flew over to his house using its powerful black wings. Up close, the boy noticed something. It was 30 feet tall and it's scales were like daggers. Blue fire leaked out of its mouth like drool. The boy just sat there, watching from the houses window, as the Riku slaughtered all of the farm animals. Except Marigold, which was for some reason spared. The boy and his parents hoped that if it ate their livestock, it would be full and leave their land. But they were wrong. For after the dragon was done with the crops, it got the whiff of something else. Something human. There was a moment of silence, and then the Riku tore the roof off of the boys house. He thought they were about to die then and there. But his father, heroically, pulled the family sword down from the wall and faced the dragon. His wife was next to him, frying pan in hand. "Run! Get out of here!" they screamed at the boy. He refused, but his mother was determined. She leaned down and put her hand on his cheek. "Go, live your life. We'll do what we can to bring this beast to the ground. Take Marigold and ride as far away as you can. Do you understand me?" The boy cried, but he did what his mother asked. He ran out of their house, past the dragon, jumped on marigolds back, yelled "Hyah!" and rode off with Marigold. After riding for about half a mile he looked back at his house on the hill. He saw his father fighting the Riku with the family sword, and he appeared to be winning. If the Riku bit at him, he dodged. If it breathed fire at him, he'd also dodge. When the dragon lowered it's head down enough, he made a lunge at its head and gouged one of it's eyes out. In pure rage and pain, the dragon sent a huge blue fireball straight at his parents. All the boy could hear was his parents screaming out in agonizing pain. Then the screaming stopped, the fire died down, and the Riku flew away. All the boy could do was sit there, on Marigolds back, and cry. He was homeless, traumatized, and alone (except for Marigold). He wasn't really sure of anything now. But he was sure of one thing. He wanted revenge. He wanted the Riku dead. For the next ten years he'd spend his life trying to learn how to destroy the Riku. His name is Orphan, and this is his story

Writing a Formal Letter to the President of The United States.

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Darien ********. You most likely don't know about me, I'm only a 13 year old boy living in the small town of *******. I'm writing this letter because I have a question for you. Do you know about all the environmental damage that's going on in this country? Animal habitats are being destroyed, large amounts of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Chlorofluorocarbons (chlorine) are being released into the atmosphere causing a major greenhouse effect, and lumberjacks and tree cutting companies keep chopping down our trees. Not only does that mean less home for the animals, but it also means less Oxygen for us to breath! Now, if you ask some of the people who are running these operations they'd probably say "But we need the wood for paper! The animals can live somewhere else!" or "We need the land to fit the growing human population. Animals can adapt or leave." and probably some of them would say "Well if the atmosphere gets too bad we can all just wear gas masks." Those may be some of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Number one I don't think anyone wants to go to Yosemite National Park and see all it's trees cut down and have to wear a gas mask while watching Ol' Faithful. Number two "animals adapt"? They don't adapt. They get confused with all the humans and houses appearing on THEIR land and try to move in. Then the people chase them out with cars, horns, stunguns, and even rifles. Does that seem fair? How would you like to get chased out of your home? I didn't think you would. I know we got all the stuff going on in Iraq and Afghanistan that you have to worry about. Good job at getting Usama by the way. But if you ever get the chance, take a look at all the environmental mayhem that's going on.

From,

           Darien

Don't eat Turkey for Thanksgiving!

This is Special Agent Yellow Feather with a very important message. This Thanksgiving we at the T.I.B Headquarters would like to encourage you to not serve Turkey at your "oh-so needed" Thanksgiving dinner. Think of all the other things you could serve! Here are 3 examples. 1: Chicken! What's so good about us Turkeys? I mean sure we're big and fat (and taste good to you vicious humans...), but we're SO UGLY! Have you even seen a Turkey? We got big blue and red lines of flesh running down our chins and backs. Do you really want THAT on your dinner plate? Unless you're a rabid badger, I sure hope not! Chickens however have very little "extra parts" hanging off their cocka-doodle chins so that's one less thing to worry about! They're also easier to catch. But if you don't want to go chicken hunting, did you know that two chickens costs as much as one Turkey AND you get more out of it? It's true! Just ask us Turkeys! We eat them all the time! And not to mention that chickens are so annoying WHY NOT eat them? Shut them up for good! 2: Pasta with butter and salt! Sure, why not? Nothing wrong with an Italian Thanksgiving. Serve it on the side of your plate for easy access while eating the main course on your plate (as long as it's not Turkey.)! Better yet, combine examples one and two: Instead of stuffing a chicken with mushy croutons, stuff it with warm, buttery and salty pasta! Yum-O! 3: Drum roll please............. TOFU! You know, the white blocks of (I think) plant material? Now I know what you're thinking "Eww tofu is disgusting I hate it so nasty no flavor something out of 'Minecraft' KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!", am I right? Of coarse I am! I'm a Turkey! But if you take a Ramen (chinese noodles) chicken flavor seasoning packet and sprinkle it on the "Tofu blocks of taste-bud death": Voila! You got white starched cubed dry chicken flavored blocks of deliciousness! Or if you don't like that, try examples 1 and 2. Or 1.2 . Those are only three things you could eat instead of Turkey this Thanksgiving! You could try yack! Komodo Dragon! Beat salad! (Yucky Yucky! (inside joke) ) Now a reason not to eat Turkeys: WE got feelings too man! Think of all the innocent chicks that you orphan every day! MY Niece is living on the side of a chicken coop because of you humans! NO ONE deserves that kind of torture! Nevermind you probably eat the chicks too. YOU MONSTERS! But don't be afraid to eat chickens. They laugh on their way to the slaughterhouse. But, after all this I've told you, if you still choose to eat Turkeys this Thanksgiving.. Well.. Don't worry.. We have other ways to convince you not to... Haha.. Hahaha.. HAHAHA... HAHAHAHA... AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAH- "Connection to Special Agent Yellow Feather was lost. The End. Hello viewers this is DJ. This blog post was meant to be a Facebook Status, but because I made it so big (what else is new?) she decided to make me put it on my blog. The idea was to think of a funny way to convince people not to eat turkeys for Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoyed it, and have a happy Thanksgiving!

The Outsiders ten week book report and final exam

So my mom made me write a book report about The Outsiders this week, 300 words, and the final stage is putting it on my blog. So here we go.


The Outsiders is a book written by S. E. Hinton. The Story takes places in the 1980s. The story is about a young man named Ponyboy. Ponyboy is a Greaser, or a gangster or a hoodlum. They're called Greasers because of how much, well, grease they put in their hair. They are currently at a war with the Socs (or Socials), the neighborhood rich kids. They treat them like trash. The story is based off of real life events between rival gangs in the major city's of America. But the Greasers fight back. Sure they don't always win, but its better then being pushed around all the time. Ponyboy has two brothers, both older then him; Sodapop and Darry. Sodapop works in a gas station store, and Darry helps by transporting lumber for construction work. One day Darry hit Ponyboy because he didn't listen to him, and Ponyboy ran away. He went to go ask his friend Johnny if he'd run away with him. He happily obliged (his parents abused him) so they ran away to the park. When they got arrived they found a group of Socs waiting for them. They nearly drown Ponyboy in the fountain, but Johnny stabs and kills their leader. Frightened, they retreat. Johnny and Ponyboy flee town to an abandoned church in the mountains. They live there for a while, but after the church was set ablaze Johnny broke his back saving some kids from the fire. Johnny was in critical condition. While he was in the hospital, Ponyboy and the gang beat the Socs in a final duel., driving them out of town. Johnny died in the hospital. Ponyboy was asked to write an essay on something, so he wrote about this story. The End.

My Journey To Knighthood.

Hello once again people who read this blog! So lately I've been studying knights a lot (you know, those guys who ride around on horses and kill dragons? Yeah them.), what they do and how you become a knight. I finished about a week ago, so Mom got the idea that I should write a little story (are any of my stories ever little?) about how I became a knight. So without further ado, here's my story.



 Once upon a time there was a young boy, born in England in the mid 1500's. He was born into a family of Royals, and as Royals they had connections to the king. Naturally, the king wanted their newly born son to be his next famous knight. That young knight was me, Darien Kinzler, and this is my story. It all started the day I was born. The year was 1569, December 6th. My father, a wealthy (and slightly fat) Royal, was waiting anxiously outside the delivery room. Now, sense we're talking about the 1500s, we didn't have big fancy delivery rooms like you more "sophisticated" people. No, our delivery room was a dark, wooden shack with one candle giving one side of the room a friendly glow, and the other black as night. Now, I don't know this because I don't remember I've only been told by our servants, that during delivery my mother was screaming bloody murder. And when the adoring little baby came out, he wasn't doing much better. But he was such an adorable baby, they could cut him some slack right? Ok, time to stop talking about how cute of a baby I was and get on with it. So after I was born I spent the next 6 years learning how to use proper table, social, and knightly manners. Apparently my father had told the king that "If he were to have a son, he would make him pledge allegiance to you, Your Highness." so I kinda had no choice. He would often hold it against me when I was young that if I didn't train to become a Knight the kind would "Have his head". At the time I didn't know what that meant, or that he was joking, but I was sure it wasn't good. So I did what I was told: Prepared the table for supper, helped make supper, did chores in and outside the house, and went to buy food/supplies/anything else we might need. Then one day my life of "mannerly" training completely changed. I was dusting the knick-knacks like mother had told me to (Mother and father had gone into town to look at meat) when I heard a knock on the door. Mother always told me not to answer the door when nobody was home, but I felt like this was important. KNOCK KNOCK! Whoever it was meant business. So I walked over to the door, feather duster in hand, and opened the door slowly. Apparently not as slowly as I thought, because whoever was at the door took another big knock swing and fell down flat on his face. He wasn't dressed in any clothing I'd ever seen, but I knew right away what he was. He was a knight! I didn't even know what to say so I just stood there. A knight at MY house? After taking a quick dirt nap on the floor Prince Clutz stood back up to face me. He was at least 6'5 feet tall with a face only one of those "Oh I'll marry him because he's got money!" girls would love. He had brown curly hair that was short in the front and long in the back (I only knew this at the time because it was flowing over his shoulders), long muscular arms and legs, bright blue eyes, and white skin. I know what you're thinking "Weren't most of the people in England white at the time?" and yes they were, but this guy was literally white. I'd never seen skin so pale before in my life. "Are you Darien Kinzler?" he said after hardly regaining his balance. I didn't know what to say but sense he was a knight (and like most knights he was armed with a sword) I stood up straight the best I could. "Yes sir." I said with more "shake" in my voice then I thought. "Greetings young lad, I am Sir William." He said before saluting nothing. "At your service." At my service? I had a pet knight now? Oh this was going to be fun. "Now come along, I must take you to the kings castle." Now I was confused. "What for?" "For what you've been training for for the past 7 years of coarse. You're coming to live with me in the castle. There I will teach you further training in your quest to knighthood." Whoa! Father never told me about this part! This was going to be awesome: Awesome bedroom, huge property, incredible food, and no annoying neighbors. "Cool! Will mother and father be coming too?" "No." Just like that all the happy was gone. "W-Why not? Why can't they come live with us?" "Because the castle is for knights, servants, the king and the queen only. Your parents are only royals." "But you can't just take me without them knowing!" "I have already sent a messenger to tell them you'll be leaving today." I was ready to cry, I was only seven after all. "Now pack up your stuff, we're leaving in five minutes." I had no choice. I guess this is what I was meant to do. So I packed up my stuff (clothes, blankets, memories, etc.)  and fallowed Sir William to the castle. I didn't see my family for the next nine years.


Step 2: The Page.


The next 3 steps aren't going to be as long because nothing truly exciting happened during the time.When I arrived at the castle with Sir William I was amazed by how big it was. It was even bigger then I thought it'd be. It must have covered at least 100 acres, and had a property of 300 acres. If I was going to live here I'd better be allowed to walk around out here. It didn't turn out that way. Turns out the next stage to becoming a knight is to become a Page, and for those of you who don't know what that is it basically means I became a 7 year old servant. My job was to prepare the dinner table (that was 50 feet long), help out the maidens/ladies around the castle, do yard work which was SO much fun (sarcasm) and many other things. When I wasn't doing chores, and I was ALWAYS doing chores, Sir William took me out to do some sword practice with a wooden sword and shield. They were neither effective nor light, which I guess was the point. He would also teach me about horse back riding, chess, so many different kinds of manners I can't even count, hunting, religion, and many other things. That was basically all I did as a page.

Step 3: The Squire

Once I reached age 14 Sir William said I was ready to be promoted to the position of Squire. I didn't know much about what a Squire did, sure there were plenty of Squires around but I never got to ask them because they were always in a rush. Sir William seemed awful happy when he told me this. When I spoke to the king about becoming a Squire he told me I'd aid Sir William in many things for the next seven years. That didn't surprise me too much, I always helped Sir William when he needed it. But then the King said I'd be aiding him in things like robberies in the town, fires, and (occasionally) war. I was horrified. I didn't want to die at a young age just because Sir William didn't want to do ALL the dirty work! But I had no choice. It was either that, or go home and disappoint my parents. I would've gladly gone home, if I hadn't known that they would be heart broken. So I stayed and for the next seven years I learned things like "courtly etiquette", how to play instruments (my favorite was the Ocarina), how to dance, and probably my favorite: Jousting. The day Sir William introduced me to jousting I immediately fell in love with it. I mean, what 14 year old wouldn't love riding on a horse with a 10 foot long lance at a moving target? Sir William would often enter me into jousting tournaments so I could earn extra money for the king. It's not like the king has a zillion dollars or anything. I think I only lost one match the out of the five hundred that I did, and that's because my horse stopped mid-charge to look at a flower on the ground. The other jouster kept charging and knocked me right of my horse. While I was on the ground tending to my ribs, the horse was over there eating the pretty flower he just HAD to stop and look at. I did have to aid Sir William in war once, but all I had to do was armor up his horse for battle. There were a bunch of other Squires there as well, doing the same thing as me. Unfortunately while we were there the enemy pulled a sneak attack on us in the middle of the night. All I could do was run (I didn't have a weapon) and hope that Sir William and the other knights were winning the fight. In the end they won, and we only lost two knights in the battle. I didn't know if that was good or bad.
For the next few years Sir William taught me about basic combat. He showed me a great number of weapons - warhammers, greatswords, maces, etc. - but my two favorite were a regular sword and a bow and arrow. Then Sir William let me relax for a few months, because it was almost time for my graduation ceremony.

Step 4: The Knight.

Not much to really say in this section of the story. It was right around Christmas time when the King summoned me to the main room. Light snow was falling outside just enough to glaze over the ground. The castle smelled of Christmas cake, bread, wine, steak, turkey, and many other things. Once I arrived in the main room, Sir William fallowing me, the kind summoned me up to his throne. I walked up to his throne (I'll admit, I was nervous) and knelt down in front of him. The King pulled out his sword and walked down to me. He gave this really long speech about all the great things I've done sense I first came here (which wasn't much), how Sir William had turned me into a nice young man, and so on. But the only thing I really remember is the King putting the tip of his sword on my shoulder ans saying "I hereby name you, Sir Darien The Knight." or something like that. After that there was a huge feast in my honor, and later on I somehow convinced the King to let my parents live with me in the castle. That's basically all I have to say. So I guess I'll just close this off with how most medieval story's end: And they all lived happily ever after. The End.

"DJ the Reporter" interviews a wild barbarian and a tea-sipping goofball. Reports on Vikings Vs. The English Part 2.

Hello once again people who read this blog! So last Friday I left off on my report on the Vikings Vs. The English with me leaving Jarzloft after interviewing Yorloft the Cuddly. He gave some pretty interesting info about how the English ran them out of their home country, and how he thinks cats look tasty. Now lets head over to London, England  and speak with Peter Schwartzmenheimer.

After waving my hand back at Yorloft, buying myself a cheap sword from the blacksmith (because swords are manly bro.), purchasing some fresh cookies from the baker (because cookies are manly bro.), and buying some fluffy fur coats from a kind lady (because, well I think you know what I'm going to say.) I paid for a boat to Europe.

When I finally arrived in Europe I got an awesome surprise. The boat had taken me all the way to London, England! I was expecting it to drop me off in France and I'd have to travel or something. But instead it took me straight to London, so no walking 200 miles for me! Yay! Instead I had to walk 50. Well I didn't technically HAVE to, I just couldn't find this Schwartzmenheimer guys house. So I walked in a huge circle around London for an hour and a half looking for his house, which if you stretched out all the distance I walked, it'd be about 50 miles. I finally decided to ask someone if they knew him. Aren't I a genius for coming up with that idea? I walked up to a middle-aged man, probably in his late 40's, who was pushing a cart over flowing with flowers. Was he a flower salesman? "Excuse me sir?" He looked at me and I noticed he had bright red rosy cheeks. He was also about my height, and he wore a red and black work boots. His hair was slightly gray. Was he the Santa Clause of Flowers? "Yes young man? Would you like to buy some flowers?" His English accent was so rich I can't even describe it by typing it out. I wondered if everyone's voice was like that around here. Why would they be? It's not like I'm in England. "Do you know where I could find a man named Peter?" "Peter who? Peter Phillips? Peter Thomp? Peter-" "Schwartzmenheimer sir." Flower Clause, I decided to call him, looked at me like I was a crazy person. "Why would you want to see HIM?" "I need to ask him a few questions about the vikings." "Young man, did you honestly not see all the signs of him around London? He's our tyrant king!" Hmm. Now that he mentions it, there were a lot of posters of him around London: A tall, red headed, pimply faced Englishmen in a bright red coat and a sword tied to his waist. I didn't know they had advertisement like that back then. I also wondered if everyone around here was trying their best to do Santa Clause cosplay. If they were, my money was on Flower Clause. "Where can I find him?" The old man kept looking at me, like he couldn't believe I still wanted to go see him. "His palace is in the very center of town, but if you go there venture at your own risk Viking. He hates foreigners." Of coarse, the center of town. The one part of town I didn't look in. And Viking? I looked down at myself and noticed I was still wearing my my Viking style fur coats. "Oh, I'm not a viking sir. These are my hunting clothes." I lied. Flower Clause chuckled. "Well don't let any guards see you in that, unless you want a sword to the gut." "Thanks for the advice.." This guy was kinda creepy. I started running in the direction of the palace and heard Flower Clause yelling to me "Anytime young man! If you ever need some flowers, you know where to find me!" I waved my hand back at him and kept running. When I got into view of the palace, I remembered something crucial. "He hates foreigners." Uh oh. I saw some guards coming in my direction and I dove into a back alley. They kept walking with legs held high and hats even higher. After they had passed, I sneaked into a a house to look for clothes. There was a woman nearby hanging up clothes, so I had to be quiet. After looking for five minutes in this tiny, original English-apartment style building I found some clothes. A pair of black boots, brown gloves, and a red coat with a black cross on the back. I tried them on and they fit perfectly. Now if only I was blonde and had longer hair I'd look just like the Fullmetal Alchemist. Before I could finish thinking how awesome I looked I heard footsteps coming into the house. It was the lady from outside! Without thinking (which I'm pretty good at) I jumped out the closest window before she could see me. Fortunately for me the window was only 4 feet off the ground. Unfortunately I landed flat on my face with a loud THUD! After laying there for a minute, and having a cat walk over my head, I got up and headed Schwartzmenheimers palace. After walking for 10 minutes I finally reached the palace gate, but right when I was about to walk in "STOP!". I turned around to see what was talking to me. What I saw was an ogre of a guard, looming over me with a huge Greatsword in his hands! I didn't think they still used those in this age! He was at least 7 feet tall, and around 400 pounds. Unfortunately all that weight was muscle. He wasn't the most attractive looking guy either. His face said "HEY KID GIMME ALL YOUR MONEY OR ILL KILL YOU...REPEATEDLY!". If I were to sum up this guy, he looked like the son of Shrek and Beth Phoenix, but got Shrek's looks and Beth's muscle. "NOW  WHERE DO YOU THINK YER' GOIN' YOUNG MAN? SCRAM!" I looked at him for a minute, then decided to go away. PSYCH! Instead. I walked around to the back the palace and jumped the wall. It was way too easy, because there were no guards! Whoever this Peter guy was he was really stupid, because he only had guards at the front gate. As I snuck into the house I could hear Shrek Phoenix yelling "GIMME COOKIE!" to a passing civilian. Just wow.

After sneaking around the palace for a few minutes I began to notice a few things. #1: The inside of the house was pure white! Everything was white, there was no other color in the house. It must really stink if someone accidentally spills grape juice on the everything. #2:  There were no guards outside because they were all inside! Everywhere you looked there was a guard, all with an English Longsword in their hands. They too were wearing nothing but white. How they didn't see me though, I'm not sure. It's kinda hard to miss a tan kid in red and black walking right past you in a house that's entirely white. But hey, maybe I'm just that awesome. I finally found my way into the main room where Peter was residing. When I walked in I found something that made my jaw drop. The entire room was made out of every kind of color you could imagine! Red, blue, green, yellow, purple, black, opal, burgindene, brown, aquamarine, and many, many others! Now all you needed was a disco ball in here and you'd have a recipe for seizures. Sitting in the middle of the room was a man in a suit that was every color of the rainbow. I started to move closer to him when I stepped on a stick A conveniently placed stick in the middle of a hippies wonderland. The man in the chair turned around to face me. "HAHA! Looks like you fell for my genius trap! I call it, The You Step On This Stick And It Makes A Loud Noise So I know You're Coming Trap!" I could tell already this guy was crazy. He was almost as tall as Shrek Phoenix outside, but he wore a suit like you'd find one of those dancers singing "Hello my lady, Hello my darling!" in the 1960's. Even weirder was the color of the suit. Well, more like color's. Just like this room, his suit was every color you could think of. He had a sword tied to his waist, and the handle was also rainbow colored. I wondered if the blade was rainbow colored as well, and if he cut you with it you'd turn into Nyan Cat and spend the rest of your life flying around in space pooping out rainbows. I wouldn't be surprised. "Are you Peter Schwartzmenheimer?" I asked. "DEPENDS! Who vants to know?" he hollered at me. He had the face of a psycho as well: Messy red hair, cross-eyes, and a grin that reminded me a lot of the Cat-erpillar from Alice in Wonderland. "My name is DJ. I'd like to ask you a few questions about the vikings." "WHO LET YOU IN HERE? WAS IT MARIA? I'LL GET THAT GIRL!" he said shaking his fist to the sky. "No one lit me in sir. I let myself in." "WHO IS THIS NO ONE PERSON? I'LL GET HIM TOO!" he said, still shaking his fist to the sky. "Can I ask you some questions or no?" "Ok sit down." he said with a completely sane voice. Yep, this guy is crazy. I sat down in a multicolored chair and pulled out my notepad. "So, Mr. Peter-" "Call me Peter." he said, rudely. "OK Peter, what do you think of the Vikings?" "I don't like them." he said flatly. "OK, why not?" "They're heathens. They live in filthy climates, they hardly cook their food, they wear animal skins as clothes, and ONE TRIED TO EAT MY CAT!" Just then a fat, white fluffy cat walked into the room. He hopped up on Peter's lap and he began petting it like an evil mastermind. "So I ran them out of their homeland. Apparently they didn't like that, not sure why. So they come and raid my kingdom every Thursday and take a ton of silver. Every time they come they take more and more!" "MREOW!" As Peter kept talking about why he hate the vikings, I wrote every word down in my notepad. This guy had a lot to say. But after two hours of talking, I noticed it was getting dark. "AND THEN THIS ONE TIME-" "OK Peter, I'd best get going. It's getting dark and my family will be worrying." I lied, again. "OK, WHATEVER! GOODBYE CJ!" "DJ." "WHATEVER! LEAVE!" So on that happy quote I walked out the door, snuck past Shrek Phoenix who was digging for gold in his nose, and left London. I pulled out my time machine watch and went 1003 years into the future, satisfied with the info I got. My newspaper became a hit sensation, and I became a wealthy man. The End.

Sorry if this was more like a story then a newspaper article, apparently I don't know how to write newspaper articles. So yeah, that's my report on The Vikings Vs. The English. The End.

"DJ the Reporter" interviews a wild barbarian and a tea-sipping goofball. Report on Vikings vs. The English Part 1.

Hello once again people who read this blog! It's another school year so I'm getting back into the blogging business. Sorry for not doing any posts over the Summer, I kinda forgot/was too busy/didn't even think about it. But now I'm back and I'm going to be interviewing an (imaginary) Viking named Yorloft and an (also imaginary) Englishmen named Peter. No not the Peter from Spider-Man. I'm going to be asking them how they felt about each other, and hopefully I won't make them mad and get a war axe/musket to the face. That would be nice. I guess I should make this sound like a legit newspaper huh. OK. Article: Interviewing a wild barbarian and a tea-sipping goofball. My name is DJ. But most people call me DJ. I've traveled back in time (none of your business how) to 1010 because I'd heard about this huge conflict between the English and the Vikings. Today I'm going to be interviewing a local Viking named Yorloft the Cuddly and a kind Englishmen named Peter Schwartzmenheimer. The first place I went to was the famous Viking city of Jarzloft. When I walked into the city I was greeted by many different smells - some incredible, some incredibly revolting. There were women making bread in their old-fashioned ovens, and their servants were buttering the loafs that were cooling. You could hear the constant PING!s of a blacksmith hammering away at a sword, trying to mold it into his desired shape. His wife was nearby, poring some red-hot magma from an iron bucket into a weapon holder. She then lowered it into some water with a loud SHHHHH! Steam went all over the place. There were people everywhere, whether it be blacksmiths making weapons and armor, bakers baking bread and other goodies, children playing in the streets, or adults playing a type of board game that looked like ancient chess. The only thing that wasn't so pleasing was the horrible smell of animal feces. That I could've lived without... After a good 10 minute walk through Jarzloft I finally arrived at Yorloft's house, and I was stunned by what I saw. I had NEVER seen so many sheep before in my life! There was a huge pin to the left of his house, that might've been made of spruce wood, and inside were at least 70 sheep! I stood there counting them for a minute and lost track at about 73. I didn't even know I could count that high. Once I finally took my eyes off the sheep-ageddon pin I noticed something else. Whoever this Yorloft the Cuddly guy was, he loved sheep and farming. Because scattered all around his house were 20 foot long and 20 foot wide and carrot farms! I walked onto his property and found a basket full of purple vegetables. They were carrots! After I thought about it for a second, that made sense. Viking carrots were purple! If I remember correctly it had something to do with the soil. I was tempted to taste it taste it because, the way my mind works, I was wondering if it tasted like a grape. But before I could I heard a powerful voice yelling at me from behind. "Oi! Who are ya, and what are ya doin' on my properteh?" I turned around to see who was yelling at me. He was a fat (with muscle), red headed viking with a wool hood on his head. Actually, everything he wore was made out of wool. His boots, his coats, his pants, everything was made from deer hide and fluffy sheep wool. I wondered if they made wooly-underwear. If they do, I'll have to ask my mom if she can get me some. I also wondered if Vikings would like 2013 American dollar bills. "Are you Yorloft sir?" The red-headed viking kept looking at me. "Maybe, who wants tu know? And what is a 'sir'?" "My name is DJ." I admit, I could've come up with a more viking-like name like Throthgar or something, but I didn't think about it at the time. "I'm a traveler. I came here to ask you a few questions about the English." Yorloft kept looking at me with his big brown eyes. He gestured his hand towards the front door. "Alright, come on in" I gladly did. It was freezing out there! I stepped inside his house and I immediately noticed two things: One, it was actually warm inside. And two, that's probably because everything was made out of wool! The chairs, the tables, the walls, the floor, the roof, even the fireplace was made out of wool! I wondered how it wasn't catching on fire. I looked over to where the chair was and I found an even bigger surprise. "BAAAH!" There was a sheep in the house. Really. Yorloft walked up to his chair and sat in it, and the sheep jumped up on his lap. Yorloft began, well, cuddling it. I guess that's where he got his name from. I sat on the table, which felt more like a beanbag chair then a table. "So tell me what you think of the English." He looked at me and whistled for his sheep to get down. "Ye English are bad people, bad I tell you. They made us leave our home country, just because we weren't as 'clean' as them. So we took matter into our own hands. We sailed over to their kingdom, burned most of their city to the ground, and took as much silver as we could find. Ye English are scyared of us now. They pay us a very large amount of silver every Thorsday. If they dun't have enough, we threaten em. But none of this vwould've happened if they hadn't started it. And they took my sheepies too! They bad people! bad!" "BAAAH!" As Yorloft kept talking about the English I wrote down the thing's he said in my note pad. "Why exactly did the English run you out of Europe?" "Vwhats 'Europe'?" "Never mind. Why did they chase you away?" "Because we lived in huts and didn't have pretty four-legged beasts." "Horses?" "Vwhats a 'Horse'?" "Never mind. Any other reasons?" "Vwell, I might have thought one of their fluffy little creatures looked tasty..." "A cat?" "Vwhats a 'cat'? OK. That was getting annoying. "Well thanks for the help Yorloft. I best be going now." "Alright, I'll show ye out." I walked out the door into the cold, which actually felt kinda good now. "Bye DJ of Travelers!" "BAAAH!" I waved my hand back at them, and left Jarzloft for Europe. That's the end of Part 1 on my report. Part 2 will come next week. I've actually been studying vikings all week for history class, so that's why mom decided to make me do a news report on them. But I don't think this is what she expected. I got the picture from www.Google.com, and no it is not a picture of Yorlaft. The End.

Stars, Mega Stars, and stars so big you'll wet your pants.

Hello once again people of the world who read my blog and all that happy stuff! So this week me, my mom, my sis, and a few friends decided to go on a little field trip to learn about stars. As a result, my mom got the happy idear of making me do a blog post on stars. She gave me the privelage of choosing what I want to write about stars. So I chose stars, big stars, and really really big stars. So on with the post. Now we all know what stars are - they're those really famous people who play in movies. BUT there is another kind of star, the kind that is really famous and is in video games! Then there are the stars found up in space. No I'm not talking about Lady Gaga singing Extraterrestrial. I mean the big glowing balls of gas that are found throughout the universe. Stars are born when dust in the universe gets really dense (usually the dust of dead stars) and joins together making a star. Not a big one, but still a star. Ove a very long period of time the star gets bigger and bigger. Young stars, like our Sun, are big but still not huge enough to be truly amazing. Fast-forward another 100,000 years and our sun will become a giant. Giant stars are completely different from our Sun in appearence, size, and heat. They can be golden colored, dark red colored, even bright blue! Their heat is 100x as great as our Suns, and each one is big enough to hold 500 of our Sun inside of it! If our Sun was that big, it would be so close to the Earth there would either be nothing left of the Earth or it would be completely ridden of all life. Then there are the super giant stars. These things are so huge that if one was in our solar system Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars would be completely disintegrated from its size and overwhelming heat. And last but most certainly not least are the Red Giants. These stars of gigantic proportions are SO GIGANTIC you could fit over 1 million of our Suns inside of just one of them! Whats even better? When a Red Giant reaches the end of its life it begins to become extremely unstable. Its molecules begin to fry and its gasses begin to compress. Then, BOOM! Supernova. Everything within 100 light years is little more then completely obliterated. Scientists believe that one day our Sun will become a Red Giant and eventually explode into a supernova, destroying our Solar System completely. But, even if it does happen (which won't be for another billion years) we won't be around to witness it. Because like I said earlier by the time our Sun reaches even a super star Earth will be completely ridden of life. At that happy thought, that is my report on stars. The End.

Ripley's Museum in Saint Augustine

Hello people who read my blog! I'm back from spring break (unfortunately :( ) and today mom gave me 2 choices on what blog post I want to do. My choices were: Our trip to The Ripleys Museum in Saint Augustine. Or a report on Henry Flagglor (I don't know if I spelled his name right...) Well considering I don't know or remember anything about Henry Flagglor (I was too busy staring at a pretty bird :D ) today I'm going to be writing about my adventure to The Ripleys Museum! By the way my mom didn't give me the "pleasure" so she calls it on writing about EVERYTHING in the museum. How cruel would that be? Nope instead I only need to write about the 10 photo's below (which just so you know are my personal favorites). So first off we have The Worlds Biggest Fake, The Mermaid. Apparently some years ago that I don't know (sorry for the lack of information on, well, all of these subjects.) a man "discovered" a mermaid off the coast of .............. and brought it back to the city. He became a millionaire by charging people a fortune to see it! Then many years later on his death bed he announced something that completely shocked the world: He said it was a fake and that it was nothing more than a monkeys head and arms glued onto the body of a fish. Can you believe what some people will do for money? Next up is another fake (as far as I could read from the description in the photo its a fake) the fur beared trout. A man off the coast of Scotland supposedly found this creature off the coast of well, Scotland and named it a Official Scotland Rare Species. He then began selling the hair of the trout strand by strand for quite a bit of money. Later on, after all the fur was sold, he announced that it was a fake and that it was really... I think he said dog fur? I'm not sure. Then there's the worlds smallest screws... whats to say? They're little screws (DUH!) that are .0379 of an inch in length. My sister is almost short enough to ride on one of them! Next is the world famous Man Who Swallowed His Nose! Not much is too say except he can put his lip over his nose. Either he has a very small nose or his lip is uncanningly long. Either way he resembles my dad quite a bit. Up next is my sisters personal favorite: The Metal Horse Made Entirely Out Of Bumper Plates! She would've gladly got on and played pretty horsey with it except the only things holding her back was the Stay off! Horse is sharp and Pointy! sign and the fact that if she even tried my mom would smack her so hard she'd look like an exhibit in the museum. So instead she just stood next to it. The fallowing is NOT a true exhibit but something we saw outside the museum. We were walking up to the entrance to the building when my dad saw something of his pea-sized brain's interest.Step right up for the Footsie Tootsie Machine! 50 cents for the best massage of your life! He couldn't resist. So to moms shock and my hysterical laughing he sat for 3 minutes on a kid sized vibrating chair. He said it was the best part of the entire museum. Then I met a statue of my brother from another father, The Lizard Man! I even got a picture with his statue. Don't you see the huge family resemblance? This one was probably my moms personal favorite, the Blue-Faced Man! The true story goes he was born in China with a blue face, hence his name, but the rest of his body was regular color. Not satisfied with that information mom later went on the internet and looked him and his family up. If you'd like to know more contact her on Facebook, I'm sure she'd love to share the info. This next one might be my all time favorite, the Chinese Mansion Made Entirely Out Of Gemstones! I just thought it was so amazing! Some people have WAY too much time on their hands if they're able to make something like THAT! And last but not least is the painted potato chips. I personally had no true interest in them but I figured to upload them for fun. Mom however fell in love with them I don't know if it's because she loved how unique they were painted or because she was wondering how painted potato chips tasted. Either way, she was talking about them the rest of the way out the museum. Well that's my report on The Ripleys Museum. If you'd like to see the 790 other exhibits in the museum head right on down to Saint Augustine Florida! The End.

FLVS Assignment: Human Impacts.

OK so. Today I got the assignment of my virtual school to talk to people about human impacts on animal diversity. There were several different ways I could've done this, but I chose to do a blog post. So, on with the blog post!

We all know about extinction and what it is. It's sad to know that something else dies off - not just one, the entire species - just because of the benefit of something else. I'm talking about Man and its need for food and living space. Man is blind over what it is doing to the environment. Sure we need wood and paper and all those tree bi-products, but we don't need to cut down entire rain forests for it! The animals that live in those forests, some of which can only be found in those specific forests, are losing their home! Humans go to war if their home is threatened by a threat like that but animals can't. There's nothing they can do. And what do we do once the forests are down? We either turn them into living space or we turn them into land fills, so its a double wammy. Then there's the need for food. We humans kill and eat SO MANY fish each year (fish is just an example) that the animals who eat that fish are starving and going extinct! Not to mention the ships that we use to catch the fish in are releasing oil and chemicals into the ocean which then poisons the fish AND the animals that eat the fish. Does anybody ever stop and think about what these animals think of all this? If the animals could actually talk, their first words would probably be "Help."

That's my report on human impacts. The End.

Book report: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Hello once again people who read this one of a kind blog! Recently I have read a rather..."strange" book called The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde so mom decided that I should do a book report on it. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a rather strange story (hence its name). If you haven't read it already the story is about a man named Mr. Henry Jekyll, a wise, smart, and beloved doctor and a man named Mr. Utterson, one of Jekyll's best friends, living in 18th century London. Recently a strange man known as Mr. Hyde has been running around doing disturbing crimes. Everyone wants to find and end Hydes wicked spree...all except Dr. Jekyll! Now I'm not going to tell what happens just encase you haven't read it yet, but you will love this book if your into murders and extreme suspense. Personally I gave this book 3 stars. Sure its very creative and always keeps you thinking but the beginning and the ending are just..weird. That's my book report on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The End.

I Have A Dream: Stop Water Pollution

Hello once again viewers! My mom decided that today for Martin Luther King Jr. Day that I do a post on my dream. This particular dream I have had for quite a long time. My dream is to stop water pollution. Now as you all know I love the ocean, rivers, lakes, and all the creatures that live in them. I love everything about them. Well, almost everything. Leeches don't count. Anyway ever sense I began to love the ocean something has truly horrified me, and that's the pollution of the worlds rivers, lakes, and oceans. So I'm always thinking up ways to stop it (Unfortunately ways that are somewhat way too big for a 12 year old and his blog ...) and I'm determined to put a stop to it someday. Water pollution is a huge threat to not only us humans (which some people seem to only think about) but to the animals that live in that water as well. So say you drop your soda bottle on the ground and you think "Oh that's OK. Not like it's gonna do anything right?" Haha WRONG. Every piece of trash thrown on the ground eventually makes its way to the ocean where animals might eat it thinking it's food. Now before you go on thinking "Well maybe the animals should think before thinking garbage is food." Well it turns out a bunch of these animals have never seen these items before and are probably wondering if it tastes food, and usually if the animal not only tastes it but swallows it that's the end of the animal. For example: Say you're driving home from the grocery store and one of your Walmart bags flies out the window. You don't think very much about it. Now imagine about a few days later it ends up in the ocean. Then a hungry sea turtle comes along. Sea turtles eat jellyfish, and to the turtle the floating plastic Walmart bag looks just like a jellyfish. So he tries to eat it and begins choking. A few days later you're sitting on your couch watching the news. "Today's Main Headline: Beached Turtle Off The Coast of Cedar Key." You would have no idea if the bag that turtle choked on was your bag and you never will. That is the reason I want to stop pollution. Animals don't deserve to suffer and die because we're too lazy to pick up our trash! Who's ever seen the movie Dolphin Tale? Me and my sister have, and it was an amazing movie. Basically a dolphin was minding her own business one day - Winter - and she got her tail stuck in a crab trap that someone didn't feel like taking it back out of the water. Thanks to that person that poor dolphin lost her tail. That's like someone leaving a mine in the road someone is riding along on their bike, that person hits the mine and gets his/her arm blown off! It's not fair for it to happen to the animals. So all I'm asking is if you drop some trash, please pick it up. It could mean the difference of life or death for the poor sea creatures. That's my dream about Stopping Water Pollution. The End.

Black Mamba

The Black Mamba
DJ did not write this, and it is for Earth Kids Club tomorrow.  I had to figure out a way to print it, so I posted it here.  DJ will be doing his next writing assignment soon.


Type – reptile
Diet – Carnivore
Average life span in the wild – 11 years or more
Did you know? Black Mambas use their incredible speed to escape threats, not to hunt prey.

Black mambas are fast, nervous, lethally venomous, and when threatened, highly aggressive.

Black mambas live in the savannas and rocky hills of southern and eastern Africa. They are Africa’s longest venomous snake, reaching up to 14 feet in length, although 8.2 feet is more the average. They are also among the fastest snakes in the world, slithering at speeds of up to 12.5 miles per hour.

They get their name not from their skin color, which tends to be olive to gray, but rather from the blue-black color of the inside of their mouth, which they display when threatened.

Black mambas are shy and will almost always seek to escape when confronted. However, when cornered, these snakes will raise their heads, sometimes with a third of their body off the ground, spread their cobra-like neck-flap, open their black mouths and hiss. If an attacker persists, the mamba will strike not once, but repeatedly, injecting large amounts of potent neuro- and cardiotoxin with each strike.