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Age 9 to 12

‘The Deserter’ By Dominic Nichols Age 9

The Deserter

I’d landed on a golden, sandy and tropical beach with shells dotted around. I walked further inland and tall towers rose up above me, Union Jacks and lots of other Britishness around me, being a Spaniard I really didn’t feel welcome.

As I got even further inland stalls were appearing around me and palm trees around every corner, ships captains were bustling about in their hats, long coats and trousers, cutlass hanging by their side. They were stocking their carts up with fresh produce before leaping back into their carts and driving off to their boats.

After abandoning my tall ship of terrors I thought it was a good idea but now I’m regretting it, well I was until the professor came up to me …

I thought he was just an old man until he asked me if I wanted to trial for Colberts Sailing Academy. I thought it would just be a few lame sailing lessons as they would call them but my heart missed a beat when I saw the Academy.

It was probably the most majestic building I have seen so far, tall towers rising into the clouds, the walls 10 men tall, the drawbridge was unravelling and inside it just got better. In the centre there was a giant lake with the coolest ships I’ve ever seen. Some tall ships and canoes. Amazing.

The walls were roughly 5 metres thick and home to the dormitories where I would be sleeping, I was asked a lot of questions and then they decided I was in the house of Professor McDaddles, by coincidence that was the Professor who introduced me to Colberts. They then introduced me to my dormitory. I was sharing with another person called Dickens from the same house as me.

The dormitory was clean with a silk purple mat on the floor and purple silk bed sheets, the walls were also purple. I decided our house colour must be purple. I remember now one of the epic ships was purple. The door read “Purple, house of war and glory”.

Dickens was a small boy who was light on his feet. I discovered he was a soldier. He was also very good with the cutlass and he normally beat me when we were sparring, I’ve never been very good with a cutlass.

It was getting very dark when I realized how tired I was, I walked straight to the inside of the wall where I tried to find my way to my dormitory. After a while I found Dormitory 228 and went inside, Dickens was studying and I climbed into bed.

That night I had a horrible dream. It went like this:
“David get to work!” “Sorry Captain” I called to captain Dr. James Smith of the ‘tall ship of terrors’ or the Dragon Breath as captain called it. “owww” “you deserve it scumbag” captain noted and he kicked me. I went rolling down the deck and the edge of the ship was coming closer and closer then I felt another sharp blow to the head and I lost consciousness…