Short Story

 “Three, Two, One. Here I come!” yelled Jake as he started his search
for Sarah and Kyle.
        The three friends had been playing hide and seek since they had
first met three years ago when Jake was eight. The woods behind Kyle’s
house was the perfect place to hide in tons of hard to find hiding
places and never failed to entertained the trio. Only a few minutes
into the search, Jake could see Sarah’s bright red shoe sticking out
behind a fallen tree trunk.
“Found you!” Jake screamed.
“Shoot! I knew I should have followed Kyle; He always finds the good
spots.” Sarah complained.
“C’mon. Let’s go find him.” Jake said.
       Sarah showed Jake the direction Kyle was headed and they went
forward. They walked until they came to a huge oak tree with a big
opening in the trunk. The back of the tree went straight into a wall
of dirt that was part of one of the many mountains that called the
woods home.
“Have you ever seen that before?” Sarah asked.
“No I don’t think I have.” Jake said. “Well let’s check it out. He’s
probably in there.
       As they stepped in, they immediately noticed that the tree closed up
behind them.
“What’s going on!? How did that happen!?” Sarah Squealed.
“I don’t know! Look, there’s a light up ahead.” Jake noticed.
       There was a blue light shinning from around the
corner of the path. They crept forward in the dark cave until they
came to the corner of the path. As Jake peered around the corner, a
face met his.
“Woah! The person yelled.
“Kyle! Is that you?” Jake quickly asked.
“Kyle? No, my name is Japa. The person declared.
       As the person got up, Jake and Sarah realized that he had four legs
like an animal.
“W-what are you!? Sarah cried.
“Don’t be alarmed girl. I am a centaur. Im not going to eat you or
anything.” Japa said in what appeared to be a Scottish
accent.
“A centaur? Jake asked.
“Yes a centaur. Clearly you children have never seen my
kind. Thats beside the point. You are in immediate danger and need to
get out of here at this instance!” He barked.
“But we can’t.” Jake said. “The way we came closed.”
“Well then you are going to have to come with me. There is a war going
on here and your smack dab in the middle of it.” The centaur said.
“A war?” Asked Sarah. “Between who?
“The Black Army and the Bright Horizon military. There is no need for you to know facts, just stay close to me.”
“The Black Army? Bright Horizon Military? Where exactly are we?” Jake asked.
“We are currently in Gondarlin, which is located to the far East. This
is the last defense against the Black Army. If we lose here, all is
lost.” Japa said in a mournful tone. “Listen, we need to get out of
here before the caves are over run. There is a secret entrance into
the Gondarlin Castle’s servant quarters. If we can make it out of
here, we can get clear of the battle.”
“Okay.” Jake said. “We will just follow you and worry about getting home later.”
“Good. Now listen, this is going to be very dangerous. What ever you
do, just keep moving. Okay?”
“Okay.” Jake and Sarah said in unison.
“Okay, now quickly follow me!” Japa commanded.
       The two children, lead by the centaur, traveled down the dark
corridor lead by a bright blue ball of light that Japa had conjured up
from just his hands. Confused and scared, Jake and Sarah followed Japa
until they came to a very large room where the cielling, which had
been just inches above the roughly eight foot tall centaurs head,
stretched to nearly fifty feet up. Inside the room was a raging battle
between tall bulky monsters with all black knight armor and men
wearing bright yellow armor. The fight was clearly going in the
monsters favor, and were cutting down the soldiers by the second.
“C’mon hurry, this way!” Japa yelled.
       They ran through the battle, narrowly missing swords from both
parties until they reached a stairway.
“Up these stairs is the servants quarters. Once we make it up there,
all we have to do is go through the main hall and out the back of the
castle. The Black Army wont have made it that far yet.” Japa
explained. “Let’s go!”
       They ran up the spiraling staircase until they got to the top. They
burst through the door and ran down the servants quarters hall way.
When they made it to the main hall, there was already a battle taking
place. Quickly, Japa led them to a detour through the kings room. When
they entered the room, there was a tall and muscular man with a great
white beard putting armor on.
“My king! I didn’t expect to find you still here! Thank the heavens
you are all right!” Japa yelled excitedly.
“Ah Japa. I see you were smart enough to remember my secret passage
out of the castle, and you have brought some friends along.” The king
said. “Do you still have the relic?”
“Yes your majesty, it is right here. Japa pulled out a small yellow
gem the size of a golf ball.
“I will try to figure out it’s importance once I make it out of the...”
       As Japa was speaking, the gem began to light up the whole room.
 “What’s happening to it?” The king asked.
“I... I don’t know” Squealed Japa. “I have never seen it do anything
like this before.”
       As Japa and the king were talking, Sarah noticed that Jake whole body
was giving off a very bright and vibrant glow which resembled that of
the gem.
“Hey, guys! Look at Jake! Something is wrong!” She screamed.
“By the gods!” The king bellowed.
“Impossible! Could it be that the boy has activated the gems
powers!?” Japa yelled in astonishment.
“There is only one way to find out. Give the boy the gem.” The king demanded.
       The closer Japa got to Jake, the brighter the gem and Jake got. When
Jake took the gem, the whole castle burst with the brightest light the
world had ever seen. The very instance this happened, every foul beast
that was in the Black Army perished, leaving the world and returning
to the darkness that they came from. Confused, the soldiers hesitated,
then all began to cheer. The war was over.
“By the Gods’, he did it. He activated the Gem of  Light! How some
boy who I came across by chance could save us all from damnation is a
blessing! Thank you my friend. You have saved us all!” Jaba screamed
with delight.
       When Jaba turned around to thank Jake however, he was gone. When Jake
awoke, he saw  Sarah and Kyle staring at him.
“Dude are you serious? I don’t think I have ever seen someone fall
asleep counting down in hide and seek. This is sad my friend.” Kyle
laughed.
       Confused, Jake went home for the night and got ready for bed. When he
took off his pants, he heard something fall. Looking down he saw it; a
small yellow gem, the size of a golf ball laying right on his floor.
As he picked it up, it began to glow a very bright color illuminating
the whole room...