Flint Smith and the Book of Elements

Chapter One: The Mysterious Book

Flint Smith was boy, whose past had been very strange. At the age of twelve, Flint's life had been abnormally odd, mainly because of one thing, which he didn't completely understand about. When he was three, something had happened to both of his parents which left them dead on the floor, but Flint was left alive and eventually discovered by his next door neighbour. All Flint could remember was seeing a blazing red flash. Parentless he was then sent to the local adoption agency, where he stayed till his current age. All he could remember was a flash of red light.

Flint's life had change since then; he had grown a lot since the life changing event, his gingery-brown hair had thickened over the years. His body had become very thin, due to the fact he was eating far less then he did when he was with his parents, he's was still quite small, again, due to the fact of less food. But one thing had stayed the exactly the same from the night of the event. His golden brown eyes had stayed the same; confused, mysterious, yet brave and heart warming.

When Flint was found by his next door neighbour, they had sent him to Bell's inner village adoption agency. This was the poorest, oldest and worst agency in all of Europe. When he first arrived there the building itself didn't look to bad, horrible coloured moss had grown on the side of the building while vines of curly ivy had grown up the walls and drain pipes. The windows had been boarded up with long thin planks of green wood. The inside was even worse. The whole had an old smell, and everything was coved in an inch thick layer of dust. Sure, the bedrooms were small, smelly, and old and dust, but it was better then living on the streets. The orphanage was situated in the middle of a small village called Alnford, and Alnford is due west of Alnwick in Northumberland. It has been there only for 50 years, but it is still looks much older then most of he other villages. Running through the village is the river Aln.

When Flint had first arrived at the orphanage, there were no other children living there. But as the years went past, more and more children came to the orphanage. Firstly, a pair of sister's who both were around the same age as Flint. The older of the two was Brooke Robinson, who was also the same age as Flint. She had a round face with short black hair and sapphire blue eyes, which were as clear as the sea. She was also small and thin like Flint, because of the lack of food they were getting at the orphanage. Brooke had a younger sister who was nothing like herself. Her name was Nieve Robinson, She had long fair blond hair which crept all the way down her back, she had a round face as well like her sister, yet she was taller then her sister and her eyes where a very light blue, almost a clear white. Most people stayed clear of Nieve because her eyes made her look cold and heartless, but that was just her appearance, she was actually a very friendly and helpful girl, but she sometimes would be very stupid.

After the Robinson's had joined Bell's inner village orphanage, it was at least another year before the next person joined. Telford Harrison was the next person to join, he was a year older the both Brooke and Flint. He was obviously someone who was very interested in fitness as when he joined the orphanage, as he brought along a weight bench and some dumbbells. He was taller and bigger then the average person for his age, but for someone very active, he was not very intelligent. He had black hair with grey eyes and a very round face.

Not long after Telford had become an orphan and joined the orphanage, did another person join. George Taylor joined. He was very quite boy, who would spend all of his time outside, from sunrise to sunset. About three times a week, he would convince people to camp out in the local park with him. George did enjoy the outdoors, from animals to plants. He was very small with dirt brown hair on his head, and hazel green eyes. He had numerous scars on his hands from where he had accidently cut himself when planting seeds, or tending weeds. He would help people out a lot when he could, but most of the time he would help nature out more.

It was at least two years until the next person joined the group at Bell's inner village orphanage. And when they did, it wasn't just one person; it was a pair of twins, one a boy and the other a girl. Thora Thompson was the oldest of the twins, being born only ten minutes before her brother Storm Thompson. Thora had long curly blond hair with amber coloured eyes. Her brother Storm on the other hand had light black hair which was very thick, with light grey eyes. He, like George too, enjoyed being outside especially on warm summer days when there is a slight refreshing breeze. Thora enjoyed both being inside and out. Both Thora and Storm where of average high for there age, and they both where of average within.

The Thompsons where the last to join the orphanage as it had ran out of rooms , already Thora and Strom were sharing a room, and so was Brooke and Nieve. Oddly no one else ever came to the orphanage looking for children to adopt, not one had ever come during all the years Flint had been there, but he just assumed that people didn't like the look of the building and grounds so they assumed the orphanage was out of business. Years when by, and all the children could do was wait. All of them wanted to be adopted really but they most likely would never get adopted.

The years went by and nothing ever happened, it got boring after a while as there was nothing to do. Sure they could go to the local park and play on the old rusty swings and the bumpy run-down slide, but it was getting boring and all the children had played on them thousands of times. When something interesting did happen, it was either a camp out at the park in the rain, or an odd day of sunshine where they could sit outside and play. Life was boring at the orphanage. Even with six other children running around inside or outside or even the park, it did get boring after a while. Most of the older children spent most of their in there rooms, Telford would go back to his room after breakfast and appear at lunch time sweaty and tired, then he would eat and return to his room for another few hours of fitness training, then after dinner he would go outside for a jog and return later even tired and even sweatier.

Meanwhile the younger children like George would spend as much time as they could outside their rooms. George would get up as early as possible to watch the sunrise very single morning, even in the rain or snow. Then he would eat breakfast and then go back outside and tend to the vegetable patch and fruit tree's and bushes. Then in the afternoon he would water and weed all the other plants. In the evening after dinner he would either read a book about nature, or go out and observe nature at night time.

Though the children were all completely different, they all become friends fast, as they would see each other all the time in the orphanage and in the garden and at the parks, sure they do argue, especially Brooke and Nieve over stupid things. But they all would work together when they wanted to, or need to. They were like a family, and that's a reason why they didn't want to be adopted, they didn't want to break the family.

Obviously in a family there is also two other people who are older the children, parents or guardians, in this case, guardians. The two people who owned Bell's inner village adoption agency are Mr and Mrs Bell. Mr Bell is a very tall man; he has lost all of his hair on his head, but has a very thick moustache on his face. He is quite large around the waist and never ever stops eating. He also always wears a suit. Even on the hottest day of the year, and the coldest day of the year, u would see Mr Bell walking around with a top hat on and a grey suit. He was also a quite a young man, making him seem odd due to the fact that his wife is quite a bit older then him

Meanwhile Mrs Bell is quite the opposite. She is a very small woman, small then all of the children except George, who was only inch smaller then her. She is also very thin, most of the older children thought she may have problems with her weight due to the fact she has to take tablets prescribed by the doctor. She had plenty of long wrinkles on her face and neck making her look very old. She would also wear colour bright summer dress, which contrasted from her husband and also made the place look even duller.

After a long time at the Bell's inter city orphanage, things got very predictable. But none of the children expected what happened on the morning of the 18th of July, to ever happen, not even in a million years. They had all just woken up after a very windy night. All of them sat at the rotten breakfast table and ate some of the best ever porridge they children had ever had. It was lumpy. Anyway, all the children swallowed the disgusting food, as they knew they would need it, and went outside to play. Today they decided to search down in the basement, they had been down there plenty of times, but thought it was cool due to there being no adults around, so one by one they disappeared down into the basement, until the only person left to go down was Nieve. She snuck to the door of the basement, and slowly pulled the door, making sure that it didn't creek. She squeezed through the gap and slowly pulled the door until it was a centimetres off closing, it had an automatic lock from the outside, so if the door closed they would be stuck in there, so she left the door and started to walk down the stairs slowly, making sure not be heard. Mr and Mrs Bell didn't like the children going down to the basement in case they got hurt.

Anyway, Nieve snuck slowly until she reached the bottom of the stairs. Looking up she could just make out everybody by the light of the small dusty window in the far corner. She snuck over to her sister, making sure not to trip over anything.

"Found anything yet Brooke?" said Nieve curiously

"Nope, just a load of rubbish, a few books, old magazines and other old boring stuff" said Brooke unhappily

"We'll find something" said Nieve, trying to cheer her sister up, but even she new they were never going to find something

They searched for ages and ages until eventually they found a pack of old sweets, though they thought not to eat them due to the fact they were over ten years old, so they chucked them back onto the pile and continued to dig. The basement wasn't too bad after a while; the sun had raised high and made things more visible in the basement, eventually they could see each other. But after about an hour of digging they gave up, and started looking at some of the old books. George picked up the oldest of all the books and began to brush off the dust, it took a few minutes but eventually he was staring down at a very old book called, 'The Book of Elements'. The first thing he noticed on the book was the big picture in the middle of the front page. It was a big circle which had been separated into seven different colours. Firstly there was Red, as rich as a freshly made fire. Then there was Blue, as beautiful as calm water. Then there was light blue, as crystal-clear as ice. Then there was grey, as dull as a ten pence piece. Then there was green, as colourful as freshly cut grass. Then there was gold, as shocking as a lightning storm. And finally there was silver, as soft as the wind. In the middle of the circle was another small circle, which was filled with two colours. There was black, as dark as the night sky, and then white, as light as a cloud. George decides to open the book, but then realises that it has a lock on it.

"Hey everyone, come have a look at this book".

"What's up with the book like" said Telford in a curious tone.

"It's got a lock on it, how many books, have a lock on it, maybe it's a diary of some old dead guy" said George in a fascinated way.

"Or maybe it's just a book with a lock on it" said Brooke in a sarcastic tone, while raising hair black eyebrows.

"Well it's worth a look" said Nieve.

"Or maybe we should just leave it alone, it's only a book" said an angry Brooke raising her voice slightly making sure not to make too much noise.

"Or maybe it's a diary of some old died guy" shouted George, making sure that everyone could here what he thought.

"Who knows, we will just have to find the key and look for ourselves" said Thora and Storm, both trying to stop the argument between Brooke and Nieve.

"Well I personally think we should have a vote" said Flint, in a calming tone.

So they all took a vote, everyone except Brooke voted that they should all search for the key, Brooke voted that they should all give up and go down to the river for a paddle in the water. So they all searched for the key, taking extra care as they key could be very fragile and could snap if stood on. Eventually Thora found it, a small bronze, different from any key they had ever seen, but none of them could work out why it looked different, they decided in the end it was because of how old it was. So Thora give the key to George and he unlocked the locked. They slowly began to open the book taking caution in case the pages turned to dust. They turned to the first page, which had 'The book of Elements' in great big letters. Directly under the title were small scribbles of writing in very scruff handwriting, written as if someone had written in it in a hurry.

"Be warned" spoke Telford "If you turn this page you will wish you had never even looked upon this book, please, don't turn the page".

"So, should we turn it" spoke Thora in a hushed voice.

"I personally think we should" said Storm sounding much anticipated.

No-one was had the chance to say anything as Storm turned the page of the book. At first all the children just sat there and stared at the next page. Oddly it looked exactly like the front page of the book except this time, it look my real. None of the children could explain what happened next, as it was something so unreal, that not even a toddler would understand. A very bright light shone out of all the different colours. The red light shot towards Flint, the blue light shot towards Brooke, the light blue light shot towards Nieve, the grey shot towards Telford, the green shot towards George, the Gold shot towards Thora, the Silver shot towards Storm. But both the white and black lights disappeared.