An Unexpected Adventure

Inspired by Hayden's dream.

Holidays are always exciting. Holidays are a time for adventures.

'Not this time’ thought Hayden gloomily. He was going on holiday far away from anything, far away from anything exciting and far away from any adventures.

“But mum…” he moaned. “A tiny island in the middle of nowhere, with no internet, no skatepark and no theme parks... is not going to be a fun holiday”.

Hayden knew he needed a plan for adventure, but what could he do?

They arrived on a tiny plane to stay in a tiny hut surrounded by tall palm trees, bright blue waters and miles and miles of golden sand.

“Perfect” said Hayden’s mum dreamily.

Hayden looked around scoping out the tiny hut that they were staying in. There were two beds and a wardrobe in a tiny bedroom; a tiny bathroom, tiny table and chairs outside overlooking the ocean and that’s it. No internet. Nothing.

“BORING!"

"I’m going for a walk” he said miserably and set off down the sandy path towards the beach.

“Be careful” called out his mum. “And don’t go too far”.

The beach was small with cliffs on both sides. There was no-one there, not a soul, just a few empty beach huts. Who was he going to talk to? Who was he going to play with? He had a feeling that this was going to be a very long holiday.

Every day was the same.

Walk down to the beach and swim in the warm, flat, crystal clear ocean. Which, if he was honest, was good but he really wanted some action and there weren’t even any waves.

Hayden lay under a palm tree, looking up wondering if he would become one of the statistics of people getting hit by falling coconuts, when he heard loud thunder.

The sky turned a dark shade of purple and bright strikes of lightning flickered on the horizon. CRACK. The lightning was extraordinarily loud. CRACK. It was terrifying. The rain came down hard, hitting the ocean with force as Hayden ran for shelter in one of the beach huts. He wasn’t sure this little hut would withstand the storm.

In the distance, Hayden spotted a boat being smashed in the storm. He thought he saw a person on the boat. Was he seeing things? Surely not! Hayden sat in the hut feeling pretty helpless as he watched the boat and the storm getting tangled up together.

In no time at all the dark purple sky turned the brightest shade of orange, the rain stopped and the ocean became calm again. He looked for the boat but he couldn’t see it.

Running down to the waters edge Hayden passed pieces of the boat, one of its sails, bits of palm trees and debris. ‘What a mess’ he thought to himself, it wasn't like there was anyone else there was there?

“Hello” said a strange voice behind him.

Hayden jumped, his heart beating that little bit faster. He turned to see who it was.

“Hello” said the voice again coming from behind him. He turned around fast and someone tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned again and this time saw the boy. He had bright blonde hair and orange eyes, like the colour of the sky. “I’m Jasper” he said cheerfully.

“I’m Hayden” he replied, a little wary.

“Can you help me mend my boat, I can’t do it by myself”.

“Your boat? Where is it?”

“It’s over there” said Jasper pointing to a rock that Hayden was pretty sure wasn’t there before. The two boys swam out in the warm clear water towards a big rock sticking out of the ocean.

“There’s no boat here” observed Hayden.

“Come with me” replied Jasper, and with that he dived under the water and disappeared. Hayden dived in too. Although he didn’t have his goggles on so he wasn’t sure he’d get very far.

Surprisingly he could see clearly in the water. There were multi-coloured fish everywhere and the brightest, most beautiful coral waving to him as he swam after Jasper.

Coming up for breath Hayden saw Jasper was crouching over what looked like another boy laying down on the rock. Hayden swam over too and peered at the sleeping boy.

"Hunter?"

Shaking him he called his name louder “HUNTER!!”

Hunter woke up, looked at Hayden, looked at Jasper and then looked around shaking his head. ‘Huh? Where am I?’

“No time for explaining now, we have to fix the boat. Come quick, we’ll explain on the way”.

The boys dived under the water together and swam for a little while. Suddenly Jasper stopped. So Hayden stopped and so did Hunter They looked ahead at an enormous beaten up old ship in front of them, half in the water, half out of the water. It had broken panels, sails missing and a huge hole in one side as it was smashed against the rocks.

"We can't fix that" said Hayden. "It's wrecked".

"We definitely can fix it, I just need your help."

Both Hayden and Hunter agreed to help his new friend. They set about finding bits of wood and placed it by the side of the beach in a pile. The sky was getting dark and Hayden knew his mum would be worried.

"I have to go" he told the boys. “Come with me and shelter in our hut?"

“Let’s stay here in these huts, it will be safe here and I need to and guard the boat."

“Good idea!” So Hayden let his mum know the plan and the three boys slept in a beach hut near to the boat.

As the sun rose, Hunter and Hayden woke to find that Jasper wasn’t in the hut. They peered out of the window and saw that Jasper was already working on the boat. Quickly running down to help him, they were soon dragging broken trees, sawing planks, nailing panels to the outside of the boat. It was hard work. After what seemed like days, slowly but surely the boat repairs were starting to take shape.

"Let's go on an adventure somewhere new" said Jasper. "I reckon the boat is good now. We could take it out and be back by dark, it'll be fun" he said encouragingly.

"You're on" said the others jumping at the chance for a real adventure.

All three of the boys pulled down the sails and they set off in the boat in the calm gentle seas. All they could see for miles and miles was the clear blue ocean and a couple of seagulls.

"Watch it you three” said one of the seagulls. Hunter looked up in surprise as the seagull perched on top of a beam and winked at him.

There was a peculiar feel in the air, it was warmer than usual. As they got out to sea, the wind picked up and the boat started to sway.

“Hold on tight!” warned Jasper as he held tightly on the the ship’s helm, turning left and right to navigate the waves and keep them in straight line.

Soon the boat was out of control. It lifted up from the water and almost seemed to be flying through the air on top of the waves. The boys were up on deck still but holding on for dear life as the boat flew higher into the sky, not touching the water but touching the clouds. An aeroplane flew past and the boat seemed to be moving around and around in circles.

“Look!" exclaimed Hayden looking at a huge city in the distance. The city was on fire, blazing red flames on the buildings and the blackest smoke filling the sky. The smell was suffocating and all three boys coughed uncontrollably.

“We’re heading straight for it” shouted Hunter.

The three boys were scared as the boat flew through the sky at a faster rate than ever. Behind the boat, the ocean followed creating an enormous wall of water heading towards the city. The boat was very unstable rocking side to side.

As the boat flew over the city, water fell down onto the fires. A loud tsssssing sound came up from the city as it became covered with water. It was wet but it was no longer burning.

“Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!” shouted the boys together. They couldn’t believe that they’d helped to put out the city fire. They were exhausted. What an adventure!

After the holidays, Hayden arrived at his new school. He was in the same class as Hunter. Class 4 in Room A15. The boys entered their classroom for the first time and met their teacher.

“Welcome class, sit down and take your seats. I have some serious information that you need to take notice of.”

The children looked warily at each other wondering what their new teacher was going to say.

“There has been funny goings on around these parts lately and you need to be alert. If you see anything that is not allowed on school grounds you should report it to a teacher. That can be me, or any of the other teachers.”

Hayden looked out of the window at the older children on their phones. He wondered what they were talking about.

“Settle down class, no more talking”. He then made an announcement that made Hunter and Hayden look up immediately. There was a boy standing next to the teacher.

“This is Jasper, please welcome him to year 4.”

Jasper turned around and winked at Hayden and Hunter, taking a seat next to them. This was going to be a good year.

---

Where this story came from

This story was written and posted on Kids Dream Stories by mother and son duo.

Hayden work up one morning and told me he’d had a dream. This is what he said: ‘I was on an island and someone came but their boat sunk and we had to make a boat out of wood. Then we sailed to the city and then my friend took me to school. It was my first day at school we were in classroom A15 and then the teacher said something weird. If you see anything that is not allowed on school grounds you should report it to the teacher, and then we went out to see if anyone was on their phones or doing anything.’

Tough brief.

Ideas can come from anywhere. That's the beauty of storytelling.