Year Eight have been exploring the game MYST as a stimulus for their fantasy narratives. Below are some extracts of work in progress:
I fell to my feet. Crumpled, a broken form. My mind felt fuzzy, distant. Like I was watching myself, a strange dream. My brain, transformed into a primitive creation. I managed to unfurl my body. I looked around. There was nothing but the sparse-planted, fog-clad, 'island', I was on, seemingly hovering amongst the mist. That was what I decided to call it: mist. No, not mist. Something stranger. Ah, yes; Myst. Nothing but the sound of the wind, and the echo of my footsteps. Dark, fertile soil, crumbled under my feet. There was only a strange totem pole in the centre of the island, which looked like some part of an ancient ritual.
Cautiously approaching the strange-totem-pole-thing, part of it clicked, and slid open. I stepped closer. The emblem of a glowing hand appeared inside, and then I realized it was on the cover of something. A book. I took the book, snatching it in case it closed on my hand. I opened the book; it was blank, apart from a strange picture, of a dock. When I moved my hand over the picture, a strange feeling of weightlessness came over me, and I tried to withdraw my hand. I couldn't. It felt like I was being sucked in, and I closed my eyes. The sound of the wind intensified, and a squeezed my eyes shut tighter. When the wind stopped, and the terrible sensation in my gut ceased, I began to un-shutter my eyes. When they were only open a crack, a slammed them shut again. I knew where I was. I had seen it in the book. The dock. (Henry)
They were coming for me. I knew it, I knew most things spirit users usually did. I could feel the nausea in side of me churning. The Tranecks were three minutes away down by the lake of the Gods. I could also sense them resting. No one had gotten to the lake apart from the Gods of course, and well the Tranecks but they weren't really alive. Immortal beings that had once been. The woods enveloped the lake as if it was in protection. The thick green vines entwined themselves with another so no speck of the water was to be seen. Anyone that tried to get to the lake of the gods didn't make it. Its insides are filled with Goblins and Trolls and Gatharacks that wait hungrily for its prey. The sun glints of the greenery of the forest and I looked hopefully at its beauty, even knowing what' inside I still wish one day that i could be the one, the heroic one that gets to the lake and bathes in its depths and becomes the god of spirit. As The ancient prophecy portrays... (Katie)
It was my turn and I couldn't wait. It was my turn to show what I could do. It was my turn to show what I had been practicing for years. It was my turn; and I wasn't about to waste it. Every year on the summer solstice, all of the children that are at the age of fifteen have to be sent into Myst. They will be tested on their protective instincts and this challenge will show how determined they are to protect the clans. The Calloway clan was made up of the bravest and strongest children from every clan. This was what everyone was trying to get into. If you were a Calloway; you were looked up to; you were a hero in everyone's eyes; but it's me we're talking about. No one in my family had ever gotten into the Calloway clan and I was determined to change it. No one believed I could get in; but that didn't matter; because I believed. (Caitlin)
2036
Prologue
The evolutionary stages for Natural Humans were too slow and soon, they had to find a substitute species that were able to rebel against the Dark Lords (creatures with immense misery and negative energy). The Dark Lords were a band of nine extremely powerful warriors that belonged to Cronix, the planet of Darkness and misery. They now came to Earth, and threatened Humans for the Lights, a force much like Gravity, Death and Life. The Humans creation eventually developed a new species known as Enhanced Humans, beings with heightened stamina, strength, mobility, agility and much more abilities that the Natural Humans couldn't achieve. (Jacques)
