Volume 3, Issue 3

Eve of Destiny Mission 1 Episode 2: Mansul  

By Bradley Palmer

Mansul was such a beautiful and lush world. It’s full of beautiful creatures and plants. Its very hard to explain exactly what the place looks like. I was never to good at describing things.

I was not to far past the grove of Colossi, when I saw a a letter in a low birds nest. I picked it up and read it. I know your not supposed read other peoples mail but there was no one else in the entire ”world”. It reads;

Dear Hero,

I knew Speaker would send in a goon to track me down. The lazy fool doesn’t ever get his own hands dirty. Anyways if want to know where I am I will tell you, sort of. If you climb this tree, which is the tallest on that island, and look east, You will see a gigantic tree in the middle of the ocean. If you can some how tame a wild bird, you can fly to this island. The tree is completely hollow and has a city of plant and a little animal life in it. If you can solve all of my puzzles on the way down you will find me at the bottom of the tree. It gets a lot hotter on the way down just so you know. I am used to it by now but you might work up quite a sweat. Thats all I’m going to tell you.

Sincerely,

       Atrax

“Great, so Speaker set me right into a death trap and Atrax knows I’m here. Perfect.” I said.

So at this point I decided, against my better judgement, to head for the tree. I should have told you this, but by this point I was at the top of the tree and a giant pelican was flying over head. I saw it was head to the tree island. I saw this thing as my ride over there. I started back, ran, and jumped. I then missed its back which is what I was aiming for. But I grabbed onto its wing as it flapped its wings and threw my self onto its back. I was off, headed for tree island. It looked pretty good to me but I could not see much from the back of a bird but I could still see it. The closer I got the more sure I was that this bird was not gonna stop at this island and I would need to jump. Its not easy getting ready for a jump off a giant bird. As soon as I was over the opening at the top I looked down, took a deep breath and jumped.

End of Episode 2

Scarlet's Brain By Samuel Palmer

Scarlet and the bat found two paths, a gray one and a red one.  The bat said, "I don't know which path to take." Scarlet said, "The one with stones." So, they went up the path with the stones which was the gray one.  But, the ground wasn't thin.  They found a huge, huge, huge wall in front of them.  So, they went back.

 

Ravenclaw Challenge

Congratulations to Minerva Bronte Of Hufflepuff House for answering the Ravenclaw riddle.  The second riddle still remains unanswered.  I will publish it again with a hint, so put your thinking caps on.

Riddle one or riddle two

You know what you need to do.

Fame and glory if you surmise

And you even win a prize!

Minerva Bronte

Riddle One (8 and up)

"There was a green house.

Inside the green house there was a white house

Inside the white house there was a red house.

Inside the red house there were lots of babies."

Riddle Two (under 8)

What is it the more you take the more you leave behind?

Hint: If this occurred on a trail in a National Forest the Ranger wouldn't mind.  He might even tell you, "Good job!"

Fashion Survey Results

By Anna Petersen

Okay, these are the results from the fashion survey.  

40% of people like skinny jeans, 40% love them, and 20% only like them with boots. I personally think they are an amazing discovery of mankind - yes, I did say ‘mankind’.

40% of you like beanies,  20% love them, and 40% hate them. And can I just say, I think beanies are fabulous!

100% of you hate bellbottoms! I agree with you whole-heartedly!

80% of you hate wallet chains, but 20% love them. (I’m the 20%.)

60% hate pre-ripped/distressed jeans and 40% of you love them. I love them too!

80% of you love boots, 20% of you like boots!

Thank you for participating!         

 

Musings

A Weekly Column By Damarco Montoya

Old Men and Babies

As a baby first dazzles the world with his adorable smile and incredibly soft and smooth baby skin and bald head, the old man does the same, only in a creepy old man sort of way.  Just bear with me a moment as I explain just how a baby starts out as a baby and grows up into an old man, or rather a big baby just before he dies.  Okay, we can leave the descriptive “dies” out since I don’t want you to focus on a man dying, especially if you’re thinking of a loved one in particular with this comparison study.  Death is a definite reality to life but way too sensitive a topic for the great Mr. Montoya to focus on, at least for now.

Let’s acknowledge that both the baby and the old man typically have bald heads.  If the old man still has a bit of hair, would you at least agree with me the old man’s hair is very wispy (oh yes, I said “wispy”) and thin (I don’t mean thin as in taking part of the definition of “wispy”, but thin as in there isn’t much up there, so not much hair all scattered around), much like a baby who might have a little hair.   I was thinking about the old man’s head of hair as a side note of course and wondered whether he didn’t really lose his hair but instead maybe it migrated throughout his body to such places as his ears and his back.  Can hair be migratory?  Of course you know that “migratory” is best described with birds, and how they migrate from the North to the South due to temperature changes in the late fall and early winter.  I suppose hair over time might discover the many benefits of living under the cover of a shirt and in the various channels of the ear and nostrils rather than being constantly weathered while living on top of the head. Kind of makes you wonder about the adaptability of hair, doesn’t it?  Does it?

There are just so many comparisons with a baby and an old man, I could write a book.  For the sake of this article I’ll only lightly touch on the next few comparisons.  I mentioned something above about their skin being really soft.  Since I don’t have a habit, the opportunity, or desire to giving old men massages (I’m trying to come up with a clever way of mentioning how little firsthand knowledge I have of just how soft old man skin is) I can at least say I have had two grandpas and can tell you based on the few times I have touched the skin on their arms that it feels very soft and smooth, perhaps because of being indoors more than usual for so many years.  Oh, and have you ever had to call an old man’s name multiple times before he finally responds?  “Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa . . . Never mind.” 

Isn’t it funny how the baby comes into the world with no teeth and quite often the old man leaves the world with no teeth?  Of course nowadays people are increasingly healthier, including their teeth, so this comparison will shortly not be so true.  Then again, many people of today who will have such healthy teeth will be discovered to have had a full mouth of implant teeth, and I’m not talking about dentures.  What do you think all this teeth whitening will do to teeth in the long run?  It’s crazy how much control modern culture has on the population to convince us we need whiter and whiter and whiter teeth.  Why isn’t my teeth’s whiteness level good enough for the world anymore?  How many times does a person need to get teeth whitening before his teeth becomes glow in the dark?  Wouldn’t that be fun?  We wouldn’t need flashlights anymore.  Don’t want to wake anyone else in the room up?  No problem, just smile to help you navigate from your bed to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Speaking of bathroom (and I didn’t mean to go there but . . .), my next comparison is some potty talk, so step away from the dinner table please in order to keep mom happy.  To put it simply, babies and old men both require the assistance of something that is used when one cannot exercise the proper control when that funny feeling comes in the lower abdomen (I’m talking about a diaper people).  The baby doesn’t yet understand what’s happening, and the old man I believe understands just might not have muscle control to do anything about it.  Did you realize your muscles are what allow you to control your bowels and bladder (That’s as polite or clean as I can put it)?  There are many little muscles down there.  Anyway, I’m not a doctor and haven’t ever taken an anatomy class so don’t listen to me just look it up if you’d like. 

Babies are new, cute, fun, cuddly, and just chomping at the bit (a little horse reference for all those horse people out there) to learn new things and start life.  Old men are old, some might call them cute, they had lots of fun, and I can’t in the least vouch for their cuddlability (Microsoft Word says that’s not a word- I’m using it anyway!), and they would probably rather (how’s that for passive writing?!) tell stories upon stories about all the life they lived than learn anything new.  On that note, they HAVE lived long lives and deserve our respect, so be sure to listen to all their stories and try not to stare at the incredible amount of hair coming from their ears and nose, and please don’t be embarrassed if/when they pass gas that could clear an entire village since they might not have the muscle control to stop it from coming.  Are babies just really young old men, or are old men really old babies?  You decide.

St. Andrews Abbey By Alahna Petersen

We went to Saint Andrews Abbey and met real authentic monks, saw mass and toured Saint Andrews. It was positively, awesomely, awe inspiring. We had lunch with the monks and got all sorts of experience like learning how to do calligraphy. We saw what the monks do for a living; they make ceramics and sell them.  The only thing missing was the Palmers and the Morphis.

Monastery

Oulb (the robes monks wear)

No talking at breakfast

Kingdom of god

Saints     

Sarah jane Smith and lady Jane Grey,WW2 and the key

By Emma Palmer

My favorite TV show is the Sarah jane Adventures. My favorite episode is "Lost in time" The show is all about Sarah jane and her neighbor's kids. Rani lives across the street from Sarah jane, she is 17 years old and she is from India. Clyde lives down the street from Sarah jane and is best friends with her son luke who is in college during this episode.      When  Sarah jane was in her 20's she traveled with a time lord. Nobody knows his name and he tells them to call him the "Doctor." Now she lives with her son luke who was grow by the bane 

factory in the first episode of the show, she fights aliens who want to take over earth. In "Lost in time"  Sarah jane and her friends are sent back in time to find 3 different metal objects that are changing history ~ A dagger that will kill Lady Jane Grey before her execution(Rani)~ A hammer that blocks British radar during WW2(Clyde) and a key that keeps two kids in a fiery room (Sarah jane )but when Sarah jane lands she finds out that she was sent to the wrong time!!!! It is a good show. IT is on BBC America or you tube.

 

The Leaf wishes to congratulate Bradley Palmer for turning in his article early, house points have been awarded to Hufflepuff House!