Sam, age 12, wrote this exciting and engaging fantasy story in our Lower KS3 Creative Writing tutorials.
In creative writing, one of the biggest challenges is often knowing how to help students get started. Students can be really enthusiastic to write, but the prospect of staring at a blank page can be really daunting for them.
To help overcome this, students were given a rough outline of an adventure story, (specially written by Tutor Dave), which included a typical narrative arc, suggestions for plot points and character development.
The story outline was broken into six sections and students developed and extended the outline of the story over the six tutorials in the topic, completing more in their own time if they wanted to.
“What an amazing story, Sam! You have worked so hard to make this exciting and engaging through your very vivid and (somewhat gory!) descriptions. It’s full of interesting characters and magical moments as well as some good old-fashioned action at various points! It’s really well structured and you’ve done well to keep control of the story over such a lot of writing – I particularly like the clever ending that wraps everything up very neatly. Really well done, Sam.”
Feedback from Tutor Dave
To unleash your child’s creativity and help them to write like this, join our KS3 English Tutorials.
Other Wordly Adventure
Yet another maths lesson. They never seem to end. Mr Jones just somehow cannot stop talking. On and on he goes, until I begin to feel my eyes getting heavy and sleep beckoning.
Mr Jones or what we call him Mr drones, crept up silently behind me tapped me on the shoulder with his pencil, just before I drifted off into sleep. He shouted and shouted until the lesson was over and then after all of that he gave me a detention slip. This was a perfect way to start the week.
As everyone flooded out of the school I ran to catch up with my friends but instead of a “Hi” I got insults and instead of chatting about the new season of fortnite they took turns mocking me “we have had enough of you stealing our kills and bragging about how good you are at fortnite” Said John “Yeah, don’t join us tonight you can play on your own” Said Colin “Fine, I could do with a break from having to revive you” I reply.
I turn around start walking back towards my house my fists clenched as I walk up to my front door I here my dog barking and scratching at the door he must have spotted my through the window as I open the door I hear the whir of an eclectic mixer, mums probably baking again ever since she saw this boring bake off show she’s had her mind set on entering and ‘winning’ but I think if she even get chosen to compete that she will be the first to leave.
I walk into the kitchen and try to tell my mum about what happened today but all she said in reply was “yes you can play fortnite” while hurriedly kneading some dough and then runs over to a saucepan and stirs it.
As I walk out of the kitchen I feel a force inside me that I’ve never felt before. It spreads from the tips of my toes to the end of my fingertips fills me with strength. I shiver as I feel the power within. I run up to my bedroom and jump on my bed and slip under the covers. I look at my fingers as they glow faintly. I feel a power moving through them, I lay there for a while thinking of what to do. After thinking it over I decide to sneak out in the middle of the night to try and clear my head and decide what I should do about my power.
After my parents had gone to sleep and I could hear their muffled snoring I slide my window open and climb out onto the overhanging roof of my living room to my right there is our fluffy orange stray named Carrot he would follow me home from school and and he was so cute we had to adopt him. I reach a hand and rub his fluffy chin, the hair on his chin was so long it made him look like a cat version of Dumbledore. I grab on to the trunk of an old birch to my left and slide down it. I hop over the fence and start walking down the alley next to our house.
As I walk I think of what would be the best thing to do about my power. Just as I start thinking of who I should tell about my powers, something jumps off a nearby wall and onto my back. Fear courses through my body but so does the power from earlier. My fingers start to glow brighter and brighter as I feel the power getting stronger. I wrestle with the creature on my back and then suddenly a beam of light shoots out of my fingers and hits the creature that’s clung to my back. It whimpers in pain and turns into dust. Just as I think it’s safe another beam of light shoots from my fingers and hits someone’s fence, I stare at the big charred hole in the middle of the fence. Another 3 beams of light shoot from my fingers one hits another fence and that explodes showering everything with bits of wood another hits the ground and creates a crater in the ground spraying bits of dirt everywhere and the other hits someone’s house causing the brick to crumble revealing someone’s living room I try to stop it but more beams of light keep shooting from my fingers hitting everything around me
I look around at the destruction I caused: holes in people’s houses, broken fence panels, craters in the ground, trees that have fallen over and broken glass from greenhouses.
I watch as a tall skinny man dressed in black walks up the alley that’s now littered with bits of wood and debris he smiles showing his gleaming white teeth each one immaculate but his emotionless eyes hint evil
“You did all this?” he says without the tiniest hint of surprise as he gestures to the destructions around us “yeah, I didn’t mean to though it was-”
“I already know what it was” he interrupts in a low voice
“You’ve been watching me haven’t you, you’re not going to report me to the police?”
“No I wasn’t watching you neither will I report you to the police” he says in an unreadable tone “you wouldn’t do me much good in prison” he mutters under his breath.
He takes a step closer and starts to speak “Back where I come from I have an army fighting against the terrors in our land but my leaders powers is growing weak and i’m looking for someone better more powerful to help lead my army and you… you would do the job perfectly as I need someone strong young and powerful which you have definitely proven”
As he speaks a chill runs down my spine
“So how about it?”
“How about what?”
“Will you come back with me and become our new leader?” He says I think for a minute and say “No im sorry but I belong here”
“But we need you our planet is dying”
I sense this is a lie and say “im sorry but i’m not coming”
“here you are just a ordinary boring kid but with me you could be the answer to all our problems and be the next great leader”
“I’m not coming!” I say in a stubborn and angry tone
“YES YOU ARE!” he bellows.
I feel rage building inside me and the same power from earlier spreading through my body, my fingers start to glow faintly and a beam of light flashes from my fingers flies towards the man he holds out his hand the beam of lights hits his hand and explodes, after the smoke clears away he is just standing there with a faint blue bubble around him. The explosion hadn’t harmed him, that blue bubble must have protected him, He glares at me and then turns away and walks into the distance.
Fear crawled up my spine like spiders. How could I explain to anyone about the damage I caused? No one will believe a kid has magical powers. they would believe he trashed their fence though. In the distance I could hear the birds singing their morning chorus.
Just as all hope seemed lost, I noticed a fluffy orange stray cat, my fluffy orange cat but he looks a bit different but I don’t care i’m just happy to see a friend “Hi carrot” I say
“My name isn’t Carrot” the cat says in reply, I stumble backwards
“What are you?” I say trying to stop my voice from shaking
“I am a wizard”
“what?”
“My name is Quintus-” A cloud of smoke swirls around the cat and a bright light flashes from within the smoke. As the smoke cleared it revealed a short old guy that looked like he hasn’t shaved for a while, he was wearing a tattered old robe and a scruffy old pointed hat
“Are you homeless? And where did Carrot go?”
“No i’m not homeless” he says in an irritable tone
“And your cats up there” he points at the birch tree (the one I slid down earlier) where Carrot was getting ready to pounce on some birds that were nesting up there
“Carrot NO!” I shout
“Come back here now!”
“Would you like some help?” asked the old man
“Yeah but there’s nothing you can do to help” I say while waving my arms and trying to get Carrot’s attention. With one flick of his wrist a beam of light flies over to Carrot envelopes him in light and pulls him off the tree and gently drops him on the ground, I run over to Carrot and scoop him up into my arms “You naughty little thing” I say rubbing his chin.
“And soon you will be able to do that with the right training” “I’ve been watching you and you’ve passed the test”
“What test?” I ask
“I have been waiting for someone like you to train.”
“If you were watching me can you tell me who that other guy was?”
“Oh yes Lucius he’s a bad tempered fellow I wouldn’t mess with him if you don’t have to, I’m glad you didn’t go with him, he was trying to add you to his army that is controlled by the evil king Clagor who isn’t fighting the evil but is evil.”
“If you’d like I can teach you how to defend yourself from people like Lucius and we need help fighting back against evil that’s why I was sent to find someone like you.”
I think for a minute and then I say excitedly “Yeah sure I’ll join you.” Carrot jumps from hands onto the floor and wonders off
“Do you want to know how to make that glowing orb that got your cat down from the tree?”
“Yes please” I reply
“Ok think of a memory that made you angry”
I think of earlier today when my friends were insulting me
“Ok i’ve got one”
“Let the power build up inside you and let it gently flow out of your fingers but don’t let go of it keep it in front of you and them use your mind to to move it gently at first then try moving it faster”
“Ok” I closed my eyes thinking of earlier when my friends were bullying me and I felt the power swelling in my again I let it gently flow out of my fingers into an orb I open my eyes and see the glowing yellow orb in front of me
“I did it!”
“Now try moving it” says Quintus, I concentrate and then try to gently move it forward after mastering that I tried flying it further away from me
“Try picking something up” Says Quintus I fly the floating orb over to a rusty old hammer of the floor, I try picking it up but it flips out of the orb
“Don’t try to scoop it up onto the orb grab it with the orb” Quintus instructs. I try to grab onto the hammer using the orb, I fly up holding onto the hammer
“I’ve got it!”
“Well done” I fly the orb high into the air until it touches the clouds and then fly back down, I fly the orb towards someones window my plan is to wake up whoever’s in there I get closer and get the hammer into position I try tapping on the window but I accidentally put to much power into it and as the hammer makes contact with the window it shatters into a million pieces
“HEY WHO’S THROWING STONES AT MY WINDOW!”
“Drop the cloud” instructs Quintus, I let the powers slip from my fingers and the glowing or fizzles into smoke and the hammer clatters to the floor “Lets go before we’re caught” Says Quintus as he opens a portal, I hesitate then walk through the portal with Quintus.
The training had been brutal. The first week was all about controlling my power and being able to use it when it was needed. The whole time, I was not allowed to have a good rest, I would get up at 8am and end my day at 8pm. Then it got worse, Quintus decided that I should get as much training in as possible and now he wakes me up at 6 in the morning for training and finally lets me go to bed at 10pm! Quintus turned out to be an amazing trainer though and I got the hang of things really quickly.
Finally, after months of hard work Quintus said
“You’re ready…” As he said those words I felt happiness build inside me, “For the final test,” he finishes. all the happiness drains from me and my shoulders start to sag
“Lets get it over with” I reply. This was worse than I thought. After he explained everything I had to do he told me to set off into the forest where the final test would take place.
I start walking into the mass of trees and bushes, There’s no path to follow but I keep walking. After walking for at least 20 minutes I start thinking or turning around but Quintus said to walk straight until I find a big clearing with a small gold and silver birch tree in the middle but I haven’t seen anything yet so I carry on walking. Another 20 minutes go by and I decide to turn back, but as I’m turning around I catch a glint of something shiny in the distance, I turn and squint my eyes but I just can’t make out what it is. I proceed towards the shiny object. I push apart some bushes to reveal a clearing with a small gold and silver birch tree shining in the warm sunlight.
I walk into the clearing and look around to see no sign of Quintus, he must be late. I’ll give him a minute. I give him several minutes actually but he still doesn’t show up, I start getting worried, I get up and decide to go back and search for him.
I turn around to see a black figure with the same emotionless eyes that hint evil.
“It’s you again!” I growl “I told you no!”
“I know what you said puny little thing”
“Then why are you back?”
“Came to get my revenge” He says smiling “Are you ready?” He whips out two knives from his belt and lunges at me. I jump to the left just missing the knife he swung at my neck. “Come here so I can show you what I’m really capable of!” he says with a sinister laugh, He throws a knife straight at my face I create a glowing yellow orb and use it as a shield just like Quintus showed me. The knife hits the orb and the knife falls to the ground “YOU LITTLE-” shouts Lucius. I move the orb down to the knife, pick it up, fly it a little way into the air and throw it back at Lucius. He’s focused on me so he doesn’t see the knife hurtling towards him. It hits him straight in the chest and he doubles over violently coughing as blood spills from his mouth. The blood coming from his wound starts to dye his top a deep red. He gets back up blood dripping from his mouth. He only looks stronger. He pulls the knife from his chest and without warning throws it at me, I hurriedly bring the glowing orb toward me as fast as I can but it’s not fast enough the knife comes right at my face and just in time I put my arms up to protect me and shut my eyes. I feel the knife piece my left arm and I scream in pain. I opened my eyes out of instinct to check my arm. The knife has gone straight through and you can see the tip of the knife on the other side of my arm. The pain is overwhelming and just the sight of my arm makes me light headed. The blood runs down my arm and collects at my elbow eventually the droplets getting too heavy and falling to the ground. Just moving my fingers is a task that I’m unable to do. Lucius laughs a deep evil laugh “no one to save you now” he walks closer and pushes me over backwards I hit the floor my head landing on something hard, my vision goes blurry but I can just make out his bloody face in front of me “any last words?” he says with fake sadness in his voice, I don’t reply “well it won’t make any difference im still going to kill you” he says lifting a knife above his head, I close my eyes waiting for death to come.
But nothing happens. I open my eyes to see I have regained some of my sight. I look around to see Quintus driving Lucius back with a very large beam of light, Lucius seems to be getting weaker with every second. Suddenly Lucius falls to his knees. Quintus stops and he too falls to his knees, I get up and run over to Quintus’s side.
“Are you ok?” I ask “No i’m not but I need you to listen to me, Lucius will not leave you alone you were lucky today I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier, but I need you to fight against Lucius and win but to do that you will need this” he hands me a glowing orb the same colour as that flouting cloud I made earlier but it’s the size of a big marble “You must use this to defeat Clagor you need to fire it right in between his eyes” He wheezes “Go now” he says before his eyes stop moving and his breathing slows, I start to tear up Quintus was the one who helped me and taught me everything I know and now he’s dead, I get up and say “I will defeat the villain in your honor.”
After sitting by Quintus for a little while and wondering whether I should continue or not, I decide I must continue and defeat the villain and stop him from taking over. I use my power to envelop my wounded arm in a glowing yellow mist and after a few minutes my arm has healed completely and the knife that was once wedged in it is lying on the ground.
Quintus said that I must find Clagor and somehow get close enough to him without his whole army noticing me and fire this little marble thing at his face and hit him right in between his eyes, but with what do I shoot it with? I examine the little orb wondering what I could use to shoot it, as I roll it in my fingers I notice some tiny writing that reads “Benelli Super Black Eagle II” I remember seeing that name somewhere but I can’t put my finger on it. As if by magic it comes to me, the little gold plaque on my dads wall right below his Benelli Super Black Eagle II his favourite gun he use to take me to the woods and we would shoot wooden targets hanging of trees I never could hold it it was to heavy but dad would help me and then he would we would pull the trigger it was exhilarating watching the shotgun slug fly from the barrel, hit the wooden target and smash the wood into a million pieces.
I summon a portal just like Quintus had shown me. Its yellowy glow is like the warm sun and I can feel it beckoning me closer. I emerge into the old alley next to my house, it’s morning and there is police tape everywhere that reads “Crime Scene Do Not Cross” but I ignore it and proceed. But something stapled on a telephone poll stops me in my tracks. I try to slow my breathing and I hope that it’s not true but every time I look back it still says the same thing “Missing Person, Name: Sam, Age: 13, Gender: boy, Last seen, May 7th 2025..” my voice catches in my throat “May 7th” I check my watch and it’s August 19th. That was 3 months and 12 days ago, I read the rest of the missing poster “Hair: black. Reward $1,000,000” I don’t even know where my parents got one million dollars. I hear footsteps coming toward me and frantically look for a hiding place. I spot a
Bush and leap behind it. I hear the footsteps fade away and only then do I realise I had been holding my breath. I get up and start towards my house checking nobody is watching. As I walk up to our house I pick up the brick that has the spare house key hidden beneath it, I take the key and place the brick back where it had been a moment ago. I put the key in the lock, turn it and open the door, I peer inside and see Carrot sitting there “Hello you” I say, Carrot replies with a soft meow and rubs himself against my legs “are you hungry?” I seem to have said exactly what he wanted because he started frantically trying to climb my leg. He follows me through to the kitchen as I rummage through the fridge looking for his wet food “Here it is” I take the wet food and scoop it into his bowl with a spoon “Well I will leave you to enjoy that” I say to Carrot. I remember the reason I came here and go upstairs and into my dads room it feels very empty in here apart from the gleaming Benelli Super Black Eagle II that sits on the wall above his bed, I climb onto his bed and lift the gun of the wall the cool metal of the gun sends a shiver down my spine and it has a good weight to it, I pull out the glowing orb from my pocket and try to figure out how to load it after fiddling with the gun for a few minutes I manage load the orb into the gun and with shaking hands I turn the safety off and rest my finger on the trigger but before I fire I decide that it’s probably safer to try it outside. I pass Carrot on my way out and close the front door behind me. I turn to lock the door but when I turn back a police officer is staring at me from across the road. “Give me the gun kid” He calls in a soft but commanding tone, I don’t know what to say if I give him the gun I may never see it again and all hope will be lost of winning the battle against Clagor but if I keep it I will get into a lot of trouble if I get caught “Drop the weapon” The police officer calls as he unclips his gun from its holster, I start to panic as he points his gun at me “Put the gun down!” he shouts but I dont instead I hold it as if im ready to fire, the police officer starts toward me I panic and almost drop the gun but as I do my finger catches on the trigger and the golden orb flies from the barrel
The police officer screams but it’s already too late the orb flies into his forehead and a sickening crack rings out like a gun shot as his skull splits but as quick as the orb had entered his head it exited out the back, blood and bits of his brain tissue following, the orb comes back round and lands neatly in my palm of my hand, the officer falls to the ground not even a hit of life left, blood starts to pool around him painting the road a deep red along with his clothes. I load the orb back into the gun while examining his face its a mix of blood and torn tissue, there is a hole straight through his forehead, one of his eyes is bloodshot and dangling by a thread on the side of his face and the other is on the road beside him, I look up to see the sight behind him all the cars, road and walls are covered in either blood, tissue or a mixture. I get up and walk off leaving the mess of blood behind me.
I return back through the portal. As the world around me comes into focus I notice the attack. An army of trolls thunder towards me. I jump behind cover.
The trolls come after me but this time I’m ready. I point the gun at the closest troll and fire, green blood oozes from the bullet hole. The orb flies back around and lands in my palm. I grab it and load it back into the weapon aiming it at the next troll firing, after doing this for a little while the trolls start to retreat but I don’t let up. Only after the last troll runs into the distance do I stop firing. Just as I think it’s all over the trolls come back but following them is a troll that’s at least five 7 times the height of me, It must be Clagor “Is it you who has been killing my underlings?” Clagor booms
“Yes and your next!” I replied.
Clagor gathers his strength and lunges at me, I jump to the side missing him by a thread. He turns around and I point my gun at him and fire. He narrowly misses the bullet before he swings a kick in my direction, I roll out of the way but his kick catches my leg and a sickening crack rings out. I try to get back up but my leg is numb with pain. I hold out my hand and the orb flies into it, I grab it and load it into the gun.
Clagor is smiling and coming closer “Any last words?” He growls “Only one” I reply “revenge!” I fire the orb straight at his head but he doesn’t have time to move. His head splits open and a powerful force strong enough to move mountains erupts through the world, the remaining trolls get up looking dazed but they don’t seem angry anymore they almost seem… happy. I use my powers again and heal my leg before standing up.
As I look around I notice the destruction that killing Clagor created, trees that have been unrooted are lying sideways and there is a crater that Clagor’s lifeless body is lying in. I decide that it’s probably a good idea to take the gun home and hide it so no one else can use it.
As I emerge through the portal into my world it looks almost the same but all the police tape has been removed and where the dead police officer once was is perfectly clean and even the missing posters are gone. I walk up to my house but this time the car is parked on the driveway and lights are on in the house, I open the door and walk into the kitchen to meet my parents, my mums cooking I walk closer and tap her on the shoulder she jumps and turns to look at me
“Sam, Is it.. You?”
“Yes mum”
“Where have you been!”
“Im sorry I can explain-”
“You’ve had us so worried”
“Im sorry”
“And is that your father’s gun!?”
“I said I can explain”
“Wait, is it you who killed that police officer outside our house!”
“Im sorry I had no choice”
“Just tell me everything”
After explaining what happened my mum was angry but a bit proud we had dinner and then she sent me to bed. The next morning she made me go to school. I tried and I tried to convince her that I was ill but she wasn’t buying any of it. At school I bumped into my ‘friends’ and they still didn’t want to say anything nice “The kid killers coming for you next” one of them hollered at me my mum told me that there was a kid killer on the loose and he had killed a police officer it had been all over the news and social media but I knew that that would never happen.
The End