Island of Two Trees , livre ebook

TAN Books - Brian Kennelly

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122 pages

English

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What would happen if you found yourself inside your father's imagination? This is the question Connor, Maggie, and Lucy are forced to answer in this adventure story within a story. After creating a model island in their garage filled with castles, caves, mountains, forests, and villages, their father begins to weave a tale around the intricate craft, introducing a host of brave, mysterious, and wicked characters who serve two different magical trees for which their island is named. But when their father begins to suffer from mysterious headaches, the children are summoned within the story-within his imagination by the beautiful and virtuous queen. She informs them that they must confront and conquer a dark power that threatens to rip their father's imagination apart, and in doing so, gain entry into our world. The children set out to save their father, journeying across the very island where his story is set. Back home, as his imagination becomes cloudy and distorted, he struggles to see visions of his children and resorts to searching for signs and clues on the tiny model. The Island of Two Trees is a soaring flight of the imagination and a tale that harnesses the power of love between a father and his children.

Sujets

Adventure

Adventure fiction

Adventure (Guyana)

Informations

Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	29 août 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781505114775
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0600€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

BRIAN KENNELLY

TAN Books Charlotte, North Carolina
The Island of Two Trees © 2019 Brian Kennelly
All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by Caroline Green
Cover art by Laura Elizabeth
Interior sketches/art by Laura Elizabeth
ISBN: 978-1-5051-1475-1
Published in the United States by
TAN Books
PO Box 410487
Charlotte, NC 28241
www.TANBooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
To My Children,
You are the heroes of this tale, but your mother is the true hero of our family. Love her every day.
I love you.
Dad
P.S. – God waits at the end of every adventure. Never stop exploring.
C ONTENTS
1 A Strange Noise
2 Moon Lightning
3 A Sea Voyage
4 An Island on the Horizon
5 Missing Children
6 Going Ashore
7 Climbing through the Mountain
8 Visions of the Island
9 Meeting a Queen
10 The Story of the Two Trees
11 A Dangerous Mission
12 A Faint Light
13 A Night in the Castle
14 Meeting the Master Swordsman
15 Training for Battle
16 Back in the Garage
17 Standing before the Mysteria Tree
18 Down the Mountain, Through the Village, and Into the Forest
19 Trouble amidst the Trees
20 Battling an Enemy Patrol
21 A Night in a Cave
22 Daddy’s Tears
23 To the Far Edge of the Forest
24 A Flight to the Top
25 Descending the Shadow Tree
26 The Final Assault
27 Into the Mud
28 Radicle
29 The End of Shadows
30 A Hero’s Welcome
31 Back Home
1
A S TRANGE N OISE
T he night it happened the children sensed something was different, or at least the girls did. The air was still and heavy as they left their grandparents’ house, where they had just enjoyed a delicious dinner and dessert cooked and baked by their Mumsie.
“You’re right, no wind at all,” Maggie told Lucy as they hooked their seatbelts.
“So there was no wind? So what?” their older brother, Connor, mocked from the backseat of the van. “You always look too much into things.”
“You’re just saying that because that’s what Daddy says to Mommy,” Lucy said. Their mother and father, eavesdropping from the front, glanced at each other and smiled. “Besides, it wasn’t just the wind, or, I mean, how there wasn’t any wind. Something was strange all day.”
“That’s true,” Maggie agreed. “Remember those animals watching us play?”
“What animals?” Connor asked.
His mother turned and shushed him. Baby Mary had finally dosed off to sleep in her car seat.
“What animals?” Connor whispered, and the children’s conversation from here took place with such whispers so as to not wake their sleeping sister.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Lucy said. “When we were out back in the woods, Maggie and I saw two little chipmunks watching us from beneath the fallen leaves, and that giant hawk on the tree limb above us, he was watching us too.”
“And don’t forget about the tiny squirrel who was so curious about us,” Maggie added.
Connor thought back to their escapades in the wooded area behind their home, before they had gone over to their grandparents’ house for dinner. He didn’t recall any critters taking an interest in them, or any giant hawk.
“I still think you two are crazy,” he said with a chuckle.
But it was then that Connor glanced out the window and noticed something that was indeed… strange . Each street lamp they passed flickered and turned off at the precise moment they drove beneath it, then flipped back on just seconds later. The last lamp they passed, a large bird—perhaps the hawk?— landed on top just as it turned back on. Connor furrowed his brow, wondering what would cause the lights to do this. And was that the hawk the girls had been referring to?
Once home, Mommy put Mary in her crib and the rest of the family went through their normal routine. After brushing their teeth and saying their prayers, Mommy lay down with the girls in their room while Daddy went to say goodnight to Connor and lie down with him. He was twelve now, probably too old for this bedtime ritual, but he slept better when his father lay down beside him at the end of the day. It eased his mind as they rested and talked in the dark.
“Good day, buddy?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you stay out of trouble?”
Connor nodded.
“What was all that talk of strange things happening?”
“Probably nothing. Those girls are always thinking stuff is a bigger deal than it really is.”
Daddy smiled.
“I don’t know, buddy, something is in the air. Do you see that moon out there?”
Connor turned toward the window. The moon was full, brightening the night sky and the land beneath it and the rows of homes falling down their street.
“They say strange things happen when the moon is full, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it as full as it is now, not in all my life.”
“What sort of strange things?” Connor asked.
“Well, let me ask you something, son. Have you ever heard of the Giggle Monster?”
Connor rolled his eyes. “Dad, stop. I’m too old for this.” He turned toward the wall and pulled the covers up over his shoulders.
“He’s a ghastly beast that feasts on the giggles of little children,” Daddy went on, undeterred by his son’s cynicism. His voice grew deeper as he slowly rose from the pillow. “He roams from room to room, waiting for a young child to let lose just one little giggle…”
He raised his hands like claws, as if he were an animal about to rip into his prey.
“The only problem is he’s blind. He can only find the children if they giggle. The Giggle Monster could starve if he doesn’t find fun-loving children.”
Connor did feel too old for this nonsense, nonetheless, he found himself choking down laughter. When his father got down on all fours, stomping around the room, Connor let lose a slight giggle. The Giggle Monster snapped to attention as Connor slammed his hand over his mouth, trying to hold his laughter prisoner. The Giggle Monster crawled quickly back to the bed, sniffing it up and down.
“I think the Giggle Monster heard something a moment ago. It came from this region…”
When Daddy began to sniff Connor’s face, he burst out laughing. The Giggle Monster roared and began to eat all the giggles that filled the room and the boy they erupted from.
But as they romped on the bed, Daddy grabbed his head. “Ah!”
“What is it, Dad? Is it your head again?”
“No, I’m fine,” he said, rubbing his temples. “You go to sleep now, okay buddy?”
Daddy ruffled the top of Connor’s shaggy hair and smiled before rising from the bed and leaving the room, heading down the hallway toward the girls’ room. Connor, meanwhile, turned over toward the window and the moonlight cascading into his room. He was worried about his father. He had been getting a lot of headaches lately. Mommy had been urging him to go see a doctor but he didn’t want to. Connor heard these conversations when his parents didn’t think he was listening.
The sound of his sisters giggling found his ears from down the hallway. He knew Daddy had gone next door to hug them goodnight and morphed into the Giggle Monster again. Unlike Connor, it only took the girls about two seconds to start laughing when Daddy got down on all fours. Maggie was only ten and Lucy eight, ages more prone to childish games.
The door cracked open, pouring the hallway light into his room.
“G’night, my little Connor,” his mother said, approaching his bedside. “Sleep tight, okay?”
She leaned in and kissed him on the forehead.
“I’m not little anymore, ya’ know?”
“I know. Don’t remind me. I don’t want you to grow up…be a child forever.”
Before leaving, she blew him a kiss from the doorway. He pretended to catch it and slap it on his cheek. They both smiled.
Connor stared at his ceiling and thought about lots of different things, but mostly his father’s headaches. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed (since time becomes a rather tricky thing to measure when you’re drifting off to sleep) when his door cracked open again. This time, the hallway light did not creep in. In the darkness, he saw two little figures scurry into his room.
Maggie and Lucy climbed into their brother’s bed, dragging their beloved stuffed animals behind them; Maggie had a white bunny and Lucy a raggedy pink dog. They both still insisted on sleeping with them each night.
“What are you doing?” Connor asked, sitting up from his pillow.
“We heard something,” Lucy whispered.
“In the garage,” Maggie added. “Or, we think so anyway.”
“It’s just your imagination.”
“No,” Maggie protested, “we heard it. It was a banging…or shuffling…or something .”
“Well, what was it exactly?”
“I don’t know.”
“Go tell Dad,” Connor demanded, pulling the covers up over his head.
“Their light is out,” Lucy said, still whispering. “You know they get mad when we wake them up.”
“That’s because you get scared every night like this and wake them up,” he said. “But that’s supposed to be their problem, not mine.”
“Please, Connor,” Maggie pleaded. “Come with us to see what it was.”
Connor was about to kick his sisters off his bed when he heard a loud screech , as if a table was being dragged across the room. It grasped his body, like something capturing him. He slowly pushed the covers back from his face and eyed his sisters. He knew they were right; they had to go down and investigate the strange noise.
2
M OON L IGHTNING
I t was a wonder their parents had not also heard the strange noise and woken up. But they were both heavy sleepers, unlike the two girls, who would wake up at the sound of snow falling outside.
The children filed down the stairs and through the kitchen. Their golden retriever, Brody McKenzie, wagged her tail as they passed her lying on the kitchen floor. She was too old to get up and investigate the mischief. In her younger years she would have been barking at the sound—whatever it was—but now the children wondered if she even heard it at all. Her hearing had begun to go, that poor