Legend of the Red Ruby

By Lara Therrise Chen

A young girl living amongst ancient Egypts golden pyramids is haunted by a story of a stolen red ruby that holds the key to one familys destiny. After her mothers death, Ava and her father struggle to make ends meet. With barely enough food to keep them fed, Ava starts out on the adventure of a lifetime to find the legendary ruby that could change their lives forever and grant them every wish they ever hoped for.
With the help of her camel Sandstorm and her brave new friend Mohammad, Ava leaves her father behind and ventures forth into unexpected dangers, new enemies and mind boggling mysteries along the way.
Will Ava reclaim the legendary red ruby or will the adventure claim her first?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: May 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482899184

Lara Therrise Chen

Lara is a twelve-year-old aspiring writer, an ICAS Medal Winner (top scorer in Singapore) from the University of New South Wales for excellence in English and a Gold Medal Winner from the Queens Royal Commonwealth Essay competition. Her books, Legend of the Red Ruby (2014), Scepter of Snowy Land (2015), and Diary of a Keychain (2016), won praise from young people and adults alike.

Book preview

Legend of the Red Ruby

Lara Therrise Chen

27755.png

Copyright © 2014 by Lara Therrise Chen.

Designed by K. Ng, Illustrated by J.C.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014940466

ISBN: Hardcover     978-1-4828-9917-7

ISBN: Softcover       978-1-4828-9916-0

ISBN: eBook           978-1-4828-9918-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

To order additional copies of this book, contact

Toll Free 800 101 2657 (Singapore)

Toll Free 1 800 81 7340 (Malaysia)

[e-mail]

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

To my mother, father, and younger brother, I dedicate this adventure of a life time.

Praises for Lara Therrise Chen’s

Legend of the Red Ruby

The Legend of the Red Ruby is a delightful and heartwarming tale celebrating courage and friendship. It is a commendable effort for a 9-year old to let her imagination run high and weave different elements into an adventure story of hope, grit and valor. I am especially proud of Lara in this her first story and I look forward to reading more of her stories as she strengthens her craft. Well Done Lara!

Mrs. Yue Yoke Mun

Principal of Raffles Girls’ Primary School

An adventure packed read kids won’t be able to put down, Lara captures her readers imagination in only a way a child can do… fearlessly.

Brooke Keith

Author of Chrissie’s Shell

About the Author

Lara is an aspiring young writer, medal winner from the University of New South Wales for excellence in English. When Lara is not writing, she attends Raffles Girls’ Primary School in Singapore. She lives with her parents and younger brother, enjoys reading, playing the drums, and speed skating. Lara dreams of winning a Pulitzer . . . and having ice-cream for dinner.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1: The Adventure Begins

Chapter 2: The Trouble with the Truth

Chapter 3: Danger Loves Company

Chapter 4: Ava Meets Destiny

Chapter 5: The Future Has Scales

Chapter 6: The Winds of Change

Chapter 7: The World Looks a Lot Different from Down Here

Chapter 8: Into the Abyss

Chapter 9: The Writing’s on the Wall

Chapter 10: Watch Out behind You

Chapter 11: The Ties That Bind

Chapter 12: The Important Stuff Is Always on the Inside

Chapter 13: The Mirror Has Two Faces

Chapter 14: Disappearing Acts

Chapter 15: Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

Chapter 16: The Mystery of the Familiar

Chapter 17: Open the Door

Chapter 18: Open Sesame

Chapter 19: Friends Have Secrets Too

Chapter 20: The Things You Learn after Nearly Being Dragon Food

Chapter 21: Behind the Mask

Chapter 22: All Is Revealed

Chapter 23: Home

chapter_1.jpg

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

—Lao Tzu

CHAPTER 1

The Adventure Begins

27296.png

A hot orange sun beat down on the drifting sands of Egypt, where great pyramids rose up to greet a cloudless blue sky. There Ava, a girl of about ten years old, was fetching water with her