The Book of Elyon

By Emmanuel Jean-Pierre

Selidoria is a world where children never grow old and everyone has a peculiar set of powers. Filled with pretzel trees, chocolate rivers, and strawberry mountains, its the most splendid realm of all realms. Most importantly, the children never diethat is, until one of them breaks the only rule every Selidorian must follow. In a moment, all powers are gone, and the children begin to die.

To make matters worse, those who have broken the rule begin transforming into Teradoxesmonstrous, hideous, and terribly violent wolves. Their only hope is a promised hero who will reverse the curse. But will this hero make it to their world in time? Or will every child be reduced to savage beasts forever?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781496971012

Emmanuel Jean-Pierre

Emmanuel Jean-Pierre has a passion for writing, kids, and Christ. He loves combining these three by writing stories that teach kids biblical truths in fresh new ways. He was published in the 2006 edition of Anthology of Short Stories by Young Americans and is pursuing a master’s of divinity at Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, New York. His inspirations include C. S. Lewis, Disney movies, and his native Haitian culture. He lives in Orange, New Jersey, with his family and attends Living Word Family Baptist Church in Newark, where he leads a youth and children’s ministry. When he’s not writing or working with kids, he enjoys playing the piano, watching movies, and doing parkour.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

T here once was a kingdom named Selidoria. It was the most beautiful kingdom in the entire universe and was ruled by the wisest and most fun king alive—King Elyon. And this kingdom was filled with children from three years old to twelve years old who never grew old and remained young forever. Four of these children were Levy, Lea, Eva and Ely and they each had special powers. Levy could create fire, Lea could see the future, Eva could read minds and Ely could transform into any animal or person he thought of.

They would spend all day using their powers to play with King Elyon and with the royal subjects in the castle. They would hike up mountains made of popcorn, climb trees made of pretzels and swim through rivers of chocolate. When they wanted to be entertained, they would listen to funny jokes the animals would tell—because every animal in Selidoria could talk. And then at night they would go to the castle’s dining hall and eat the grandest dinners with King Elyon anyone had ever seen. There’d be plates of pasta alfredo and fried chicken, twelve-foot sandwiches, French fries and hamburgers, cheesecake and every flavor of ice cream one could imagine. And the food never ran out.

And there was no evil in Selidoria. Every morning, the children would watch the sunrise and King Elyon would tell them, When you see the Sun, you know that I have won. So no one was afraid of the dark. Every time the Moon went up at night and the Sun came up the next day, they would remember that King Elyon would always win. It was the most splendid place in the universe.

There was only one rule in Selidoria. Outside of the kingdom was a Black Forest where giant wolves lived called Teradoxes. King Elyon told the children that they should never eat the fruit from the trees in the Black Forest because if they ever did, a dark mist would cover Selidoria and cast a curse on the entire kingdom. They would lose their powers, begin to grow old and would eventually die. So they stayed far away from the Black Forest and spent their entire lives playing inside Selidoria.

CHAPTER 2

O ne morning at dawn, Levy, Lea, Eva and Ely gathered on the hill where the castle was and sat with King Elyon to watch the sunrise.

Give us light, Levy, Eva said as they nestled close on the grass. She shivered as a crisp breeze tickled her face.

Levy snapped his fingers and flames flashed on his hands. King Elyon held them close and they sat in the light of the fire as they watched the horizon in the distance.

They saw the Moon glowing in the night sky above them and heard the Teradoxes howling in the Black Forest in the distance. The darkness made the trees look like giant, black skeletons reaching out to grab them, but they weren’t afraid—not with King Elyon holding them close.

Here it comes! Ely shouted and pointed in the distance.

A thin line of fire was dancing at the edge of Selidoria and a soft note was sounding as it did. And as it grew and flashed brighter, the darkness around it started to melt away, the Moon began to fade and a massive, flaming ball of red light rose into the sky. The note rose higher and was joined by horns, strings, pipes and drums as the sunlight danced to the morning song. Soon the entire kingdom was being washed with the Sun’s radiance and hummingbirds, monkeys, flying puppies, baby dragons and giant bunnies and every creature in Selidoria joined in a great choir, singing, chirping, barking and whistling all around the children.

The children cheered as they watched and jumped to their feet.

Remember, King Elyon told them. When you see the Sun, you know that I have won.

They smiled and nodded.

What will we do today? Lea asked him.

King Elyon stood to his feet with a sly grin. His brown skin was glowing in the sunlight, as if the Sun were trying to cover his mischievousness. Why don’t you give me some time to figure it out…? One hundred…ninety-nine…ninety-eight…

Go! they shouted. And they ran away to hide, giggling along the way.

Eva rushed through the forest and found a hiding spot inside a hole in a tree. She rolled a log in front of it to conceal herself more then listened for King Elyon’s mind when he was getting nearer.

Ely will get caught first, Levy thought to himself. Eva could hear his thoughts nearby and spotted him sitting on top of a branch high above her head.

Lea sprinted between the trees and found a cave and hid inside.

Ready or not, here I come! she heard King Elyon shout.

She back-pedaled deeper into the shadows of the cave and then suddenly, she had a vision. She froze in her spot and saw Ely’s face in her mind. He was floating in the air with a cloud of black mist surrounding him and his eyes were green. Then, as quickly as it had come, the vision was gone and she was back in the cave again. What did it mean?

King Elyon walked through the forest and Eva could hear his footsteps crunching the leaves. She stayed as still as possible and tried to quiet her breathing.

Then, all of a sudden, the log floated into the air and King Elyon was standing over her.

I can hear your thoughts too, he told her.

You still have to catch me first! she said and she ran away.

King Elyon dropped the log and flew after her, laughing at the top of his lungs.

CHAPTER 3

M eanwhile, on the other side of Selidoria, Ely was still looking for a hiding spot. And before he knew it, he was at the edge of the Black Forest. So she turned to go back into Selidoria and heard a voice behind him.

Where are you going? It was a Teradox—a giant wolf, black as night and with glowing green eyes. It was standing on its hind legs and its head was grazing the branches of the trees around it, tall enough to make Ely nothing but a puppy in front of it.

Ely gulped in fear and began to back away.

I’m going back to Selidoria, he told it. I shouldn’t be here.

Why?

Because King Elyon said so.

The Teradox laughed. "So many rules. You can’t go in the Forest, you can’t touch the trees, you can’t eat the fruit—you can’t do anything."

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The fruit. That was when Ely noticed the trees around the Teradox. They were thick as buildings and stretched so high that he couldn’t see where their tops ended and the night sky began. But