The Jack Chambers Adventures: The Book of Legends

By Dean Adams

Jack Chambers is an eleven year old boy with a love for adventure and an even greater love for his Grandad. Every Saturday Jack would help his Grandad with chores around the house whilst listening to his exciting stories from the past, some so engrossing that Jack could picture himself living them out.
One cold starry night his Grandad reveals to him a secret treasure chest and a worn leather bound manuscript; ‘The Book of Legends’. From the moment Jack learns the story of the ancient book he soon finds himself on a perilous quest to find five pieces of a fallen star.
His Grandad, wise and adventurous guides him on a dangerous mission from London, England to the outback of Australia where they soon encounter a group of evil men intent on finding the star before they do.
Leading the enemy is an old adversary of Jack’s Grandad, a nasty man called Kazael. It does not take long for him to gain the upper hand and for Jack to be left alone in a foreign land without the support of his hero for the first time in his life.
Jack must face his fears as he battles a crocodile, takes a ride on a wild Emu and with the help of three local indigenous aboriginal men tracks Kazael to a remote cave.
What ensues is a climactic battle, where new allies and foes alike rush to capture the star.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dean Adams
• Release date: Mar 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311166821

Book preview

The Book of Legends

By Dean Adams

www.thejackchambersadventures.com

Copyright © Dean Adams

Text copyright © Dean Adams

Cover art copyright © Dean Adams and Terry Adams

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

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First published in September 2013

Dedicated to the memory of my Grandad.

My friend, my teacher, my hero.

Thanks to my wonderful fiancé Becky and to my mum and dad.

Contents

Chapter 1 – Story Time

Chapter 2 – Just your average family

Chapter 3 – Buried treasure

Chapter 4 – Legends

Chapter 5 – Six months later

Chapter 6 – Parachutes and camels

Chapter 7 – The order of five

Chapter 8 – Battle against a dinosaur

Chapter 9 – The last meal

Chapter 10 – Journey to the cave

Chapter 11 – Kazael and the star

Chapter 12 – Back to reality

Chapter 1

Story time

Bullets whizzed through the air one after the other. The plane was catching up, it flew lower and faster, the noise was so loud the ground shook. Again the bullets began firing, chasing behind his feet as he ran. The grass was damp from where it had been raining the night before and the bullets made a thud as they buried deep into the mud. In front of him about a 100 metres away he could see a small village across from the field, it seemed an eternity away but at the same time he knew he was nearly there. As he ran closer he noticed there were no people in the street and all of the windows were darkened out, but still he kept running. The sky above him was bright blue with only a few fluffy white clouds floating in the wind and it seemed to him as he was running that if it weren’t for that damn plane it would be a beautiful day. But still the noise of the plane grew louder, this great grey flying monster with wings as big as houses and a propeller so large it could eat the entire village. It was man versus machine and he knew he was running out of time and energy.

As he reached the village he picked up speed, partly because he knew for sure, now was his chance to escape and partly because the hard cobbles below him made it easier for him to run. He spotted an open doorway to a house coming up on his left, he knew he had to make it or else. Quickly, without a second to spare he dived through the door and landed face down on the ground, he could hear the plane fly past the house, he had only just made it, and how great he felt as he lay there for a few minutes panting whilst trying to catch his breath. Gradually he lifted his head from the cold, hard wooden floor and looked around. The first thing to catch his eye was a large grand piano, so big it nearly filled the room. The walls were painted in a deep red with a gold chandelier hanging from the ceiling and there were oil paintings of a family and their dogs on the wall. As he lifted himself from the floor and re-gained his composure he stared at one of the paintings on the wall. ‘A nice looking young lady’ he said to himself with a smile.

‘he he he’ Giggling came from in the room.

‘ssshhh’ Another voice said.

He was not alone, someone else was in there with him. Looking around as quick as he could he spotted them, over in the corner of the room behind where the grand piano stood there was an old antique looking sofa and poking out from behind this he could see some feet shuffling around.

‘Who’s there?’

Silence.

‘I said, who is there? Show yourself this instant!’

Then a tuft of hair appeared, bright blonde and curly it began rising from behind the sofa. As her face came into view he could see she was a young girl of only maybe three or four years old. Next to her another face appeared. With long flowing brunette hair and a pretty face. His eyes were locked upon hers, it was the young lady from the painting.

After a few seconds he spoke again.

‘Please do come forward. Is there anyone else with you?’

Neither girl spoke.

‘I won’t bite. I’m one of the good guys. That airplane that just flew over, the machine gun fire, it was after me. My airplane got shot down and I had to parachute out before it crashed. I landed right in front of the enemy camp and have been running ever since, with the airplane chasing after me. I thought I wasn’t going to make it until I saw your open door.’

The eldest girl stood and walked towards him, he wondered what she was going to do. She remained silent staring forwards as though looking straight through him. She was getting closer. He could feel the breeze from the door behind him, blowing her white silk dress as she moved. Then just as he was about to speak she carried on walking, straight past him into the long dark hallway and up a steep flight of stairs.

Where was she going? Should he follow? He did not know where she had gone or if he was meant to go with her. As he took a step forward he felt something pulling on his shirt. Looking down he could see the little girl staring up at him with her bright blue eyes and a big smile.

‘Have you come to save us?’ said the little girl.

Startled he stumbled for words.

‘I uh, well I suppose…’ Looking up he could see the young lady appear at the top of the stairs again before proceeding to walk back down. But now she was holding something.

‘Please, give me your hand.’ The young lady said.

‘My hand, well I….’

‘You are wounded sir, I shall bandage it for you.’

As he held out his hand, she gently began to tend to his wound. Carefully wrapping the bandage around his palm he could feel his skin tingle with her soft touch. They both looked each other in the eyes, oblivious to the outside world, they moved in closer, his lips touching hers.

‘Uuuggh, Grandad!’

Laughing Grandad said ‘Ok Jack, I’ll stop now. That’s enough of that story.’

‘Tell me another.’ Jack asked.

‘No, that’ll do for today Jack.’

‘Oh, Grandad.’

Jack loved to hear his Grandads old war stories, in fact he just loved spending time with his Grandad. Be it listening to his stories, or his jokes, Jack had always been very close to him. Every Saturday his mum would take him and his little sister Ruby round to see his grandmother and Grandad. They lived in a small two storey semi-detached house in a suburb of London called Ealing. It was a narrow street with cars parked along both sides of the road and a few trees scattered along the pavement. It was very similar to Jacks house, only slighter larger with a long back garden where his Grandad would spend much of his time.

Jack would rush in to find his Grandad, darting past his grandmother as she greeted them at the front door. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to spend time with his grandmother, he actually loved being with her, it was just that his Grandad understood him and would talk to him like a man. Jack would help his Grandad with the gardening and any building renovations he was doing. Then they would sit and have a tea and a sandwich that grandmother brought out to them. Sitting like a couple of workmates on their lunch break, Jack felt really chuffed with himself for being so grown up.

They would work on all manner of things. His Grandad had worked in various jobs since the war and he was skilled in many professions. Jack could never remember how old his Grandad was but it didn’t matter to him, his Grandad was fitter and stronger than any other man he knew. He could also tell better jokes. His Grandad was not a large man, nor was he small. He really was just your average man. His usual attire would be a pair of jogging bottoms with trainers and a sweatshirt, in the summer he would take this off and have on a t-shirt.

One summer his Grandad even took Jack to work with him for a week during the school holidays. He asked Jack if he could help him wallpaper the living room in a house and he would pay him for it. Jack said he did not want paying but his Grandad insisted and said he really needed his help and it was only fair he got paid for the work as it was his job to complete. Jack went along with this but secretly he believed his Grandad was only asking so as to spend some more time with him. But Jack didn’t mind, as this after all, was his favourite thing to do.

Chapter 2

Just your average family

Jack lived at home with his parents and his little sister Ruby. Ruby was only two years old and had short blonde curly hair, with a small round cheeky face. She would follow Jack around everywhere in the house and was always pulling on his t-shirt for Jack to pick her up and cuddle her. Jack loved his little sister and was very protective of her, though he sometimes got irritated by the fact that she now commanded all of the attention in the household and this left him feeling slightly isolated from his parents.

Every evening Jack sat in front of the television for dinner and would immerse himself in the shows he was watching. Even when the news came on he would be transported away into an alternate reality where he was part