Daughter of the Flames by Zoe Marriott

A girl called Zira is leading a normal ife of a monk qwith her foster mother. She lives in Rua and Rua is invaded by the neighbouring Sedorne. When her mother tells her to accompany her to a nearby village called Mesgao she happily accepts it. Whenever she goes out she always covers her face so that no one can see her face bbecause she has a burn mark on her face which makes her look ugly. There she saves the life of the ruler of Mesgao - Sorion Mesgao. Though, after some time, there is an attack in their holy place and her mother is killed. That time she realizes that she id the daughter of the late ruler of Rua and she is thelone survivor from the fire that killed her family. Her name is Zahira and not Zira. She is half Rua and half Sedorne. She takes them to Mesgao and in the way they loose many lives. In Mesgao Sorion and Zahira marry. During their marriage, Zahira comes to know that Abheron, the enemy king, is her uncle. He comes and gives them their blessings and invites them to his palace. While on their way, some people of their army follow them. When they go there, they know that something is going to happen to them. But, Zahira is surprised that her uncle asks her if he can kill her husband. She, as expected, tells no. Abheron holds a ball in favour of his niece and one of his rulers getting married. There he threatens her to be in favour of killing her husband or one of their followers will die, who had already been tortured badly and killed. That time there is an attack on the ship and Zahira and Mesgao run away with on of their followers. The followers take them to a nearby house in Mesgao. Where they tell their story. That time, the girl's sun comes and tells them that Abheron has taken all the children between two and twelve years. His condition is that Sorion Mesgao and Zahira should come out of hiding beforedawn the next day, failing to do so will lead to the death of the innocent kids. Zahira has a plan and all the people who are able to fight were hiding where Abheron had told them to come. Zahira was in the crowd. When Abheron comes and the first child's head is going to wipped off, she comes forward and chalanges Abheron to the throne. At firsst, it seems that Zahira is winning, but, gradually, Abheron starts winning and is about to kill Zahira when he tells her to come fight him. When Zahira is going to plunge into him, he throws away his sword and takes the blow and dies instantly. Zahira, then, addresses her people telling them that she is the new queen and her husband, the new king. This story is very good for people aged between ten and sixteen. This book shows us that if you do a good deed it pays off. It also shows how to take the situation into hand. I liked reading this book. Hope you like it!

Hattori Hachi - The Revenge of Praying Mantis by Jane Prowess

Hatti is just a normal girl, learning to defend herself, from her mom(Chiyoko). Like staying inside the lake for fifteen minutes or till the enemy passes away, fighting with whatever is available, defending at the right moment and stuff like that. Her mom has started an orphanage and maintains it. She is a Japanese and has married a Britisher. Hatti's father works in the police force. Her father does not know about all these trainings. Whenever he sees them doing their training he would just assume that they are playing. She has a friend in the orphanage and his name is Mad Dog. She never knew his real name and never even bothered to ask him. Her father always used to tell her to stay away from that guy because he had a dragon tattoo on his head and he never grew his hair and, thus, he looked scary. One day, Mad Dog came to her house to take her mom somewhere. Before going, her mom gave her a necklace with a key in it. Hatti thought her mom would come back. That day she didnt return nor that night. It became days and she didnt return. She had an old lady living dowstairs who used to do all the laundry. Her name was Yazuki. After two days, her father became restless and he didnt do anything properly. He couldnt even sleep. Even Mad Dog dissappeares. Hachi started suspecting Mad Dog of kidnapping his mom, but she didnt tell anyone about it because she had second thoughts. After a week, the police confirm that her mom and Mad Dog were going to the orphanage and there had been a fight there as they had found blood there. The police force started searching for Mad Dog as they accused Mad Dog to kill Hatti's Mom. One day, she realized that Yazuki was no ninety year old lady, but a lady who was in her fifties. Then Hatti finds Mad Dog in a room in the orphanage. Mad Dog saves her from an attack from the Kataki warriors who are in search for her. Yazuki comes to the rescue and keeps Mad Dog with her to train him. Soon Hatti realizies that her real name is Hachi and her mother's family is from the oldest ninjutsu family. The ninja warriors have made two groups- Ninjutsu and the Kataki. The Kataki are in search of her because she is the golden child and if they kill her all their problems will be over. Its the kataki who have kidnapped her mom and she has to go free her mom from there. Because the training had stopped, Yazuki did the same thing Chiyoko would do to train Hachi. Meanwhile, in her karate classes there is a knew guy called Toby and he is showing off. He is trying to get close to Hachi and know all her secrets. Her friend Nina, being interested in guys tries to get close to Toby though Toby becomes close to Hachi's enemy. Once, when Hachi is with Yazuki, she comes to know that there is something called disguise in nijutsu and Mad Dog is using it all the time. Once, there was a party in the neighborhood and that is why her dad and she went there. To her shock even Toby was there. She could smell Toby's after shave and it smelled bad. In the middle of the party she went to her house to find someone sneaking around there. There was some smell coming and it smelled like Toby's after shave. When Hachi tried to follow him, he ran. After some time, a lady called Suzi came to them telling that she was Chiyoko's sister. Hachi took her to her father. It felt good to have someone just like her mum. They became very close and having her was like having her mum back. Meanwhile, Hachi's training was over. Her mum had left her some riddles and she couldnt solve the last one. She posted it onto the fridge to remind her about it. Suzi saw it and got very excited. Infact, she was the one who solved the riddle. Just seconds after they had solved the riddles, her dad came. Suzi went to open the door and started talking to him outside. Meanwhile, Hachi opened the box with the key on her chain ad saw a manuscript inside. She had always had a doubt on Suzi on why she took matters concerning her very seriously. So, she scanned the document in her computer and closed it. She was about to put the box inside when her father came. She hid the hole and drove her father outside whle gesturing to Suzi to keep everything inside. After Suzi was gone and her father was taking a nap, she went into her room and saw the box again. The manuscript was not there. Her suspicions for Suzi were real. She worked for praying mantis. She decided that they should have a new treasurer and she was ready to apply. Though she told, she would need some time to arrange everything. In this some time Hachi found out that Toby works for Praying Mantis and her mom has been in captivity there. During the day of the ceremony, Suzi takes the pen with which her father would sign the documents. Hachi goes down to rescue her mom. At last, we see that Praying Mantis is been carried away to Japan, Toby dissappeares and Mr. Bill is killed. And, of course, CHiyoko is rescued.

Millions of Footprints

I was walking in the woods when suddenly I saw something strange on the path ahead. There were millions of tiny footprints coming out of the bushes, crossing the path, and disappearing into the bushes on the other side. I had some free thime so I decided to follow the footprints. I started following them. After every fifteen steps the woods were getting thicker and thicker. I started having second thoughts, though I didnt turm back. After one hour I had reached a house. It was more like a hut. I think there was only one room inside. Outside it was painted white with the roof painte brown. I was very tired and decided to go inside looking for the owner. I went inside. It was somewhat like what I had thought, though I realized it had been abandoned long ago. I toght I'll sleep ther that night. I started making my bed when I heared drunk voices outside.I didnt want to be mistaken by a thief so I went out. There was a group of men outside, all dressed in ragged clothes. I felt scared. I started regretting that I didnt follow my instincs. They started closing upon me. Just then a guy, about my age, came to my rescue. He took me and started flying. I never knew human biengs coukd fly! I said "How are you flying? Some machine or something?" He replied "Shut up and come before those people know where we are going. You are losing speed." "Wait a minute, I'm not flying. You are. And where are we going?" He just rolled his eyes and kept quiet. After some tome, he looked at me. I ralized this was my friend, Gyan. I trusted him and he took me to the city. And I asked him," How could you fly and who were those people?" He told me that he came following me into the woods and these people had found him. And the flying part, he told me, I just thought we were flying. Infact we were running. That time I realized how tired I was and that I had failed to unravel the mystery. Though, I didnt tell Gyan about it. We went to a reataurant and ate food there. I felt such relief creep into me. We went back home. (We were room mates!)

The Rescue Operation

Once, I was going to school. Suddenly I heard a deafning cry of an eagle. I didnt pay too much attention to it then. If I would have it wouldnt have to suffer so much. When I came back from school, the eagle was still hangigng there with its wing stuck on the branch. I thought its some other eagle and let it be, thinking that it will free it self. The time was half past three. I came down at five to and saw the eagle still hanging there. I saw the media and realised the association had taken steps. Though there was no police force there to help us. The media was interviewing two guys. I think they didnt have news and that is why they published such a news. Nobody was trying to help the eagle. I saw my friend and walked over to her. I asked her why wasnt anyone helping the eagle. She said that the association called the fire brigade. I told "Just because they had called the fire brigade that didnt mean that you shouldnt rescue the eagle. I am going to resue it." Just then the fire brigade van pulled over. Inside, I heaved a sigh of relief. Everything I said was going to backfire. That time it was half past seven. The police took extra one hour to get the eagle down. First they send someone, then called that person down. After half an hour they decided who to send up. That person reched top and asked what to do. After each step he would ask what to do. It was so bugging. My friends and I went near and saw what was happening. The police were always trying to keep us away. But we were we. We found new ways to go close there to while away time. At last that police officer got frustrated and marked off the part where the tree was. We were still trying to find ways when one of my friends, who was not with us, told us we were calling trouble and he pulled all of us out of the park. I always wondered why did he cre so much for us all. After all, if I knew him, and I knew him, he was self centered person. At last the eagle was rescued and all of us heved a sigh. I didnt know if it was for relief or what. Though it sounded as if everyone were holding their breath for so long. I looked at everyone. Nobody seemed to notice me. I didnt care. I was happy to now that the eagle was rescued. And this is how an eagle was rescued from here. I am telling the truth, it literally became news all over the place. I was astonished that half the class talked about the rescue operation. I was blinking at some and staring at some when they told me this. I would ask them how did they know and they would reply that they came to know from the news and then I would tell them that it was from my apartment and then t was their chance to stare at me.

Life... With An Adventure

Life is life. Everyone have their own version of life. For some people it is boring,for some it is dutiful while for some it is filled with surprises. So, I thought, why not add a little masala in Ritz life? Why not add a little adventure and experiment what happens with her life. The result was pretty good .Here it is. Ritz has, kindly, given her story to me to tell the world about it.
   I was in my aunt's house, getting bored because I was away from the city. I was in the countryside of Dehradun. I always thought that I was the only person who hated the countryside. I was outside in the garden waiting for my cousins to come back. My introduction: Hi, I am Ritz and I live in Bangalore. I have come to Dehradun with my younger sister and my parents. I want to go to Singapore and do my graduation. Even my parents want me to go there but after June and that means I'll have to miss the first month of my studies and after that I will not be able to cope up.I asked my cousins if they would help me go to Singapore in May only. They said yes and everyone of my cousins and me are trying to collect money so that I can go there.
Today is the second last day to go there and register my self. I am trying to contact one of my cousins. No body's phone is getting picked up. Anger is building inside me slowly. I go inside the house to find something to do. I found some books and started reading them.
I finished half of the book when my cousin came back. We went to the city and we ate lunch there. I came to the city and suddenly my madness got over. When we went home, a discussion began. "The money has come Ritz. You will be going to Singapore soon." That was one of my cousins. " I hope that's tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day of registration." said I.
" You are good at guessing dates your flight is tomorrow." said Varha. I gave a sigh of relief.
The next day I flew for Singapore via Delhi where I was in the company of my friend Akaash. We went to Singapore and reached our hostel. I couldn't meet him for days to gether as I was busy in my own work. My room mate was fun and her name was Jenny. I still have contact with her.
I met Akaash when I was going to my Chemistry class. He was in a hurry to reach his next class, or that it was he said. I wanted to talk to him about a Math sum when some one came and told me I had a phone. I went to the phone booth and picked up the receiver. It was some weirdo calling himself Sam (I didn't know it was 'my friend' Sam). I just put down the receiver because the phone was not meant for me.
The next day was my birthday and, thank the Gods, nobody knew about it. The whole school was decorated. I wondered why. When I came to my classroom, I sat down and I started going through what sir was going to do today. Then, suddenly, all the lights went off and it was pitch black. I heard someone sing Happy Birthday and I turned all around. There was nobody and I couldn't see anybody and then, it sounded like an echo, many voices started singing Happy Birthday. Suddenly again the lights were on. Everybody were standing there singing Happy Birthday. To tell the truth, I was wrong about my birthdays being a bore. This was really fun.
The next day, Sam was blocked from coming inside. When I went to see him, I realized who had called me that day. I let him come in and, when we were alone, he gave me hug. I was stunned. I led him to my room and Jessica was sitting there. When she saw Sam, she understood who he was and didn't tease me. I told her who Sam was.
Sam was my friend when I was young and when I was in Bangalore. We became very good friends and we used to support each other in his/her misery. Sam had come here because I think he wanted to share some very good news with me or he has come to ask my help and he is in a very bad condition. I was scared that the reason is the latter one.
I needed Jenny with me because she knew what was right in any type of situations. She could help me in anything. For example, even though she has not taken Math and she was very poor in Math in her school days, she helps me in Math and, mind you, her answer is always correct. I knew she could help me in anything and I need not be scared that she will go tell the whole school about it. I assured Sam also that there is no need to be scared of her.
Sam told me that while playing badminton with Sid his leg got stuck in a paper. He took out the paper and he pretended to throw it, though he kept it in his pocket. He went home and looked over it. The script was like the script our ancestors used. He got confused and started questioning himself what is this page doing in the ground. He kept it at home. The next day, he found one more page with a script resembling the first one. He went home and tried to examine if both the pages are one after another or pages from the same book. He came to know that the pages were from the same book and were one after another. He waited for two more days before going to an archaeologist, and in those two days he found two more papers which resembled the first two. Sam thought that on the fourth page the information, or story or whatever it is, ended. The fifth day, he went to an archaeologist and he wrote down the meaning of all the page, and as he had thought the information ended on the fourth page. The pages said :-
"The world is coming to an end. There will be as many as possible natural calamities and calamities such as nuclear power blast, supernova, black hole, etc. There will be a mini ice age that will last for hundred years and it will be severe than all the ice ages. Be warned, mankind is going to suffer and be punished in the way it has used nature. Mankind will finish. Be warned, Be warned, be warned. ". This is what the first page said.
The second page said :-
"Earthquake. Nations will suffer badly and specially those which lie near the sea or ocean. Nations badly to suffer are India, Thailand, United States of America, Argentina and China. Be warned , be warned , be warned.".
The third page said:-
"All the active volcanoes in the world will erupt and most of all the super volcanoes Asia and South America will be pressed down under hot flowing lava."
The fourth page said:-
"If you want to stop all this, you will have to go to Tornado in Canada and put special type of powder on the 'W' there which you will have to find in such a big city and you will find the powder unexpectedly . But, be warned, Ritz and Sam, this work acquires a lot of courage and logical thinking. If you go wrong anywhere the whole of mankind will be destroyed. And, mind you, only the chosen ones can go for this expidition. If they want to have help, they are allowed to take only two or more people. Not more than four people should go for the expidition. The expidition should be over by twenty fifth of July, 2015."
After Sam finished, he saw me staring at him and Jenny staring at me. I couldn't believe my ears. Sam and me were supposed to go save the world and two lucky people would get the chance to go with us and we have to finish this by twenty fifth next month. That meant we had very little time left. I couldn't even leave my studies. I took a big decision and I decided to go with Sam to 'save the world'. The two people whom I chose were Jenny and Akaash. All of us needed all of us.
We sneaked out of school and ran all the way to the taxi stand. Then I remembered, the tickets. "Where are the tickets?" "I don't know. You were supposed to have it." said Aakash. "Guys, guys, guys, I have the tickets. Calm down. Okay." We all gave a sigh of relief. No tickets means going back and going back means getting caught. We caught a taxi and reached the airport. There the flight was two hours late. A lady came to us and told us to catch her purse till she comes back. We asked her her flight number so that we could give it to her in the plane. It was the same as ours. We asked her her seat number also.
When we got into the plane, the lady was not there in her seat. I kept holding the purse and, out of curiosity, I checked the purse. The purse contained nothing but powder and that too a different kind of powder. After that I realised what was that powder. This is one more way of checking something within us. Our carefulness. No wonder we got the powder in the starting.
When we reached Canada, it took has two hours to find our hotel. The hotel was somewhere in the countryside. When we freshened up, we made our plan.
We will go and do sight seeing in Tornado. If we find something which has a 'W' we will research on that. It will take us about two weeks to do that, i.e till the second of July. Two weeks to prepare and to plan how to climb it, i.e fifteenth of July and some five days to practice and be ready, i.e twentieth of July. On twenty first we will do everything and get back to Singapore.
On the first day, we were relaxing after the tiring journey. We kept the powder in one of the drawers of my room. We had taken two rooms, one for the guys and one for the girls. The next day, sight seeing, we saw many W's. We researched on all of them. Nothing related to what we wanted.
This kept on happening for three days. On the fourth day, we found only one W and, when we researched on it, we came to know that everybody believed that this W will bring the end of the world. When it falls, that means that two hours afterwards the world will end. We searched more and more about it because even one mistake the world could end.
Doing a research, Jenny remembered that even Logical Thinking is required. The world will end because of human beings. The force which is behind it, will really make it tough for the chosen ones to stop the world from ending. And, there is this reason also, that the force knows this reason and knows that we will go after the reason and he makes it very easy for us to do it and, because we are following the other path, we will not be able to notice it.
So, we divided ourselves into two groups. First group with Sam and me and the second group with Akaash and Jenny. Sam and me were supposed to go on the latter path and Akaash and Jenny on the first path. We started it from the next day, Sam and me went to see how many ever W's we could and Akaash and Jenny were researching on the tough W's.
After one week, we didn't find anything and I started getting tensed. Everybody tried to calm me down. But, I am I. I didn't calm down and took a drastic step, which came out to be the right one. I started practicing for the big W we had seen. Sam objected but I still got him into it. After some one week we were ready.
  One day, I saw the date and it was already twenty fourth. I got so tensed that I literally started acting like Sam's girlfriend. 
  It was so embarrassing that now every month that date comes, I don't even talk to him, in fact I don't talk to anybody who witnessed the thing. Akaash saw the calender and knew what was happening to me. He send Sam and me to the W with the powder. All the way our fingers were crossed. We didn't know if that is the W we are looking for.
The thing that happened is that that day we didn't find the W. We were searching from the morning to the evening. The next day was twenty fifth and I got more tensed. From the way I was acting, everybody thought that this guy was taking his mad girlfriend to a mental hospital. We returned home after the search and nobody could sleep that night.
The next day we got up very early and went to the spot where this W is to be found. We reached there and found the W there, almost touching the ground. That meant that in some more one or two more hours it will fall down. We had only that much time and two people. We had to sprinkle the powder over the whole thing and that powder should go and sit on the W such that after wards one side of it is covered in this W. We started. The shocking thing is that the powder went and sat over the W and the W didn't fall in one or two hours but three hours. It fell after three hours and we had covered only twenty five percent of the W. We had seventy five percent yet to go and two hours time limit. We started fast and tried to pray that the fates will be reversed. In two hours time, we had almost finished. We needed only five more minutes but, I think, the power didn't care and there was a dangerous shake of the ground. We still continued to do our work. We finished in five minutes and one more earthquake came. We announced and told everybody to pass down this: come in a circle and cover the W and pray. Even we did that. Many people didn't believe us. We tried to force them, but they didn't listen. We left them to die, though I felt bad about it. About only one lakh people listened to me and even half of them died because, while praying you shouldn't have opened your eyes and look about. There was a 9.9 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami who's waves were going as high as the Great Wall of China. Out of one lakh people only about fifty thousand were left. In the whole world, out of seven billion people, only fifty crore were left.
When we opened our eyes, everything was broken into bits. But, after Sam and me saw it, everything started joining back. Though all the lives didn't come back everything was like old again. Then, I remembered my family. I went and took the first mobile I found and phoned home. I got the greatest shock of my life. "Hello, Maa? Papa? Who is this?" "Ritz? You are safe? Oh! Thank God." "Even you are safe. Oh! Thank God. How is everybody else? Are they safe? Maa tell me." " Yes, everybody else is safe. I just thought what would have your grand dad in such a situation. He would-" "Pray." I completed the sentence.
After that I was never upset in my life. It was awakening thought for me. After all this we went back to Singapore thinking we will be dead for running away like this. But when we came back, everybody was celebrating that I 'saved the world'. They threw a party for all four of us. Sam wanted to go. I didn't let him. Sir also told that Sam would attend college free for what he did. He started crying. This time he hugged me in front of everyone and everybody thought- you know what. The party was fun and I never went back to my old ways. Thanks to this adventure.