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Areehah Mitra

Children Stories Action Fantasy

4.5  

Areehah Mitra

Children Stories Action Fantasy

Earth Warriors!

Earth Warriors!

27 mins
779


CHAPTER 1 - RISE OF THE ASHES


One evening, a young boy was in the backyard, skateboarding. He was short and lanky with spectacles that made him look a bit strange. He did a couple of rounds and then went back to his house. He was eating some wafers and then he threw the packet near the dustbin in the backyard.


Suddenly, he saw something shudder! The packet of wafers had become a strange creature - then, something happened!

Ka-Pow!! There was an explosion… Lanny’s skateboard was ripped into pieces.


“Hello, young boy, what’s your name?” asked the creature in a curious manner.

“Hi, I’m Lanny. Who are you?’’

“I am Sham. I live on the ozone layer. My home is being destroyed.”

“Well, you’ve destroyed my skateboard.” Lanny gulped.

“Sorry ‘bout that. I’ll do something about it if you help me complete my mission.”

“What can I do to help you? Who’s destroying it?” asked Lanny.

“The point is people from your planet is destroying my home and the worst thing is that if my home is destroyed, everyone is going to die.” Sham said.

“Why me?” asked Lanny, completely perplexed.

“You are chosen for this task as you have been reading a lot about climate changes in school,” replied Sham.


Lanny was very puzzled. He didn’t know what was going on. But somewhere he wanted to help his new friend from outer space.


Sham told Lanny that he would have to follow Sham’s instructions. Lanny nodded.

They discussed that they would meet again the next day. With that Sham disappeared and Lanny walked back home.


CHAPTER 2: PERMISSION


“Dring!” the alarm rang. It was Lanny’s last day in his grade that year. He wanted to go to school an hour early so that he could read about the ozone layer in the library. He rushed to the bathroom to get ready for school and changed into his uniform. He made himself some cereal and gobbled it up. Then he picked up his coat and cycled to school like a bullet.


The only other person in the library was the librarian. She helped pick some books on global warming and the ozone layer for Lanny to read. Lanny made some notes on the same in his diary.


Almost an hour passed. The school was about to begin. Lanny put the pen and paper in the bag and rushed to his class just before the assembly began.


As soon as school got over, Lanny rushed home. His mom gave him some snacks and asked him to change. Once he finished his meal he went to the backyard and this time Sham had a piece of paper with him.


Lanny questioned: “What is that piece of paper doing in your hand?”

“You want to save my home, right? If yes, then give your mom the permission form to sign. Tell her that I’m not a kidnapper but a friendly alien or else she’ll not let you go. We aliens also have our little website which she could check out where we ask kids to help us with our missions. Explain to her that you’re going for just 4 days and you will be safe,” Sham said firmly.

“Fair enough! Convincing her would be a task but I will try” said Lanny.


Lanny gave a brief description of Sham to his mother, showed her Sham’s website with testimonials from other kids and moms to convince her to let him go. A bit hesitant at first, she ultimately filled in the permission form to allow Lanny.


CHAPTER 3: TRAVELLING


Lanny had the form in his hand. He ran out to the backyard with his suitcase and waited for Sham. In a flash, Sham was standing right in front of Lanny.


“Hello!” said Sham.

“Hi,” said Lanny and gave the form to Sham.

Sham had his face in shock.

“Didn’t I tell you that you need at least 4 days to complete the mission?’’ exclaimed Sham.

 

Sham was a bit disappointed that now they have lesser time to complete such an important assignment. With some anxiety in his heart, he led Lanny into a circular vehicle that looked like a coach.  Lanny couldn’t believe such a strange vehicle could be parked outside his backyard fence. His mom was peering out of the window, so he waved at his mom and his mom waved him back.


Then Sham gave Lanny a checklist. You must visit the following places and do certain tasks. Lanny nodded.

§ Your Neighbourhood

§ The Pacific Ocean

§ The Scrapyard

§ The Internet

§ Space


“You have to give a command to this vehicle, and it will take you to that place in just a second. The vehicle’s name is Ortho.” mentioned Sham. Lanny was really impressed by the make of this vehicle. Ortho was the world’s fastest AI-controlled automobile.


“Ortho, take me to my neighbourhood!” Lanny said.

“But that is right here” asked Sham.

“I know but let us take Ortho for a quick spin before we shoot out”, said Lanny with a grin.

In a zoom, Sham and Lanny reached Lanny’s locality to begin their first adventure together.


CHAPTER 4 - THE AREA NEAR LANNY’S NEIGHBOURHOOD


Lanny was shocked to see how dirty his neighbouring block was. He couldn’t believe while his own compound was so clean, his neighbourhood was in such a mess! Sham had given him an individual challenge (just for practice) and he had to finish cleaning this area in just half a day.

 

Lanny couldn’t imagine how much garbage had been piled outside his neighbour’s house. His neighbours have been acting irresponsibly for a while disposing the garbage in wrong places and littering the zone. It was stinking. So, he put a mask on his mouth and he then got a rake from his neighbour’s storehouse that was unlocked. Lanny’s family has been complaining of this smell for a while but the local councilor did not take it seriously.

 

Lanny was nearly done with cleaning his neighbourhood but the stinky smell was too much for Lanny to bear and he was feeling suffocated and almost losing his breath.


Sham was too busy checking statistics regarding the garbage on Earth on his tablet-like machine that he didn’t see Lanny losing his breath. Only a miracle could save Lanny. About a minute was left until Lanny would lose his breath completely.


However, that very moment, a huge wind came and gave Lanny the air he required to breathe. His breathing was normalized. All these incidents seem lucky for the boys but the luckiest was that all the garbage Lanny still had to collect was instantly put in the bin and the stench magically disappeared in the gust of air.

 

You may think, how is this possible?

Good question. Well, you see that the wind was so strong that it pushed all the garbage into the dustbin and the stinking smell had also been blown away.


 Lanny breathed a sigh of relief and yelled, “Sham, I’ve finished the first assignment and ticked it off my checklist.”


“Excellent job! Now get in Ortho as we’re going to the Pacific and you have to clean a part of the Pacific Ocean” said Sham in an excited tone.


CHAPTER 5: SWALLOWED IN THE PACIFIC


Back in Ortho, Lanny sat on his seat and gave the vehicle a command - “take me to the Pacific Ocean.” In a moment Ortho had transformed into a submarine which meant the vehicle was now in the ocean.


Lanny took his swimsuit out of his suitcase and went into the bathroom to change. He wore his costume and breathing equipment, put on his flippers as well as he took his diving goggles.


“All ready to clean the ocean, Lanny?” asked Sham. Lanny answered, “Yes!”

   Sham opened the door for Lanny. Lanny and Sham dived into the water. There was a huge splash!


Lanny and Sham were both disgusted with the brown coloured water in the ocean. They didn’t know how they were supposed to clean it. They went back in Ortho and got out a couple of rakes and dived into the water again.


Lanny and Sham spent the next few hours cleaning the ocean and throwing rubbish into a net. Then they went back into Ortho and ate lunch. Lanny had a meat sandwich along with a candy. Sham ate a granola bar and took a nap.


Fifteen minutes later, Sham and Lanny changed back into their swimsuits. There was still plenty of work to do. After some more hours of hard-work, Lanny had collected another huge pile of rubbish and put them into the net.


Sham and Lanny worked tirelessly and were nearly done with collecting a large chunk of the garbage. But right in the middle of all this, Lanny saw something coming towards him. He signalled Sham about the same.


They were both looking at that ‘thing’ coming towards them. It had blue fins and sharp teeth and these signs gave evidence to Lanny that this strange creature was nothing but a shark.

 

Lanny and Sham swam fast to get to Ortho but the shark was way faster than them and soon enough, the shark gulped both of them down.


Inside the dark chambers of the shark’s mouth, they almost had panic attacks. They tried various methods to get themselves out - like trying to shove some rubbish out of the shark’s mouth so that if the shark opened his mouth, they could easily slip out. But they failed! Sham and Lanny also tried to tickle the shark from inside but the shark ended up giving a disgusting, smelly burp which left them frazzled even more.


The day was coming to an end and Lanny just had one remedy to solve his problem. He sang to the shark a long lullaby and the shark started feeling drowsy. After several minutes of lullaby-singing, Lanny’s plan finally paid off. The shark gave a huge yawn and fell fast asleep.

 

Lanny and Sham quietly and smartly opened the shark’s mouth, slipped out and got back into Ortho.

Lanny and Sham were completely exhausted by the time they disposed all the oceanic trash into a proper garbage disposal vat.


 “Nice job. Your smart thinking saved our lives today else we would have been a good dinner for the shark,” said Sham to Lanny with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Thanks! Now let’s get changed and get a good night’s sleep. We’ll carry on with our expedition tomorrow. Good night.”

“Good night,” replied Sham. And they both fell asleep.


CHAPTER 6: TROUBLE AT THE SCRAPYARD


Lanny yawned: “Good morning, Sham.”

Sham responded: “Good morning, Lanny.”

Sham looked at the checklist underneath his pillow. They had to go to the scrapyard to segregate the dry, wet and e-waste. “We’ll have to be quick today, otherwise we won’t be able to finish all our tasks.”


“I’ll have to change right now,” Lanny exclaimed. “I’ll go to the kitchen and make some breakfast,” said Sham. Lanny got changed into his regular outfit and brushed his teeth. Sham finished making eggs and fried bacon. He shouted, “Lanny, breakfast is served.”


“Coming!” Lanny shouted from the bathroom.

He got back to his bed and grabbed his bag. He had taken a bottle of water and some snacks too. They finished their breakfast. Lanny gave the command to Ortho. “Take me to the scrapyard.”


Once again, the submarine transformed back into a car and in a moment, they were near the outskirts of the city where the dump-yard was located.


Lanny got out of Ortho and opened the scrapyard gate. Since he had already gotten used to cleaning dirt and garbage, he knew what to expect from the scrapyard. He rummaged through the waste to start segregating them as planned.


He had two rakes in his hand but he figured he didn’t need them. There was a huge electromagnet already lying there. Sham knew how to operate it. He had to recycle the garbage in the scrapyard.


So, Sham took charge of the electromagnet. The electromagnet would segregate the metallic waste from the non-metallic and accordingly, he would recycle them.


Everything was going alright until Sham made a huge mistake. He was wearing an iron watch and the electromagnet’s job was to segregate metals and non-metals. Unfortunately, the electromagnet sucked Sham up. So very soon, Sham was dangling ten feet in the air, on the hook of the electromagnet.

Lanny had never heard of electromagnets except when they were teaching him magnetism at school. He didn’t know what to do. He could hear Sham screaming for help but he didn’t have a solution to save him.


Lanny tried to get Sham off the electromagnet’s hook but he just couldn’t. Sham was running on adrenaline. He couldn’t keep up much longer. Suddenly, Sham fell unconscious.

Lanny was tired too. However, Lanny managed to stay awake for his friend’s sake. Then, Lanny heard a strange sound; “Woof! Woof!”


There was a fierce bulldog standing right in front of Lanny. Lanny got scared and ran like a bolt of lightning but the dog kept running after him.


Finally, Lanny gave up. He couldn’t run any longer. Were Lanny’s days over? Lanny thought he was dead meat.

The dog pounced at Lanny leaving a scar on his elbow but he missed Lanny and banged headfirst straight into the electromagnet.


The bang was so hard that the dog dropped Sham of the electromagnet’s hook and his watch broke. As a result, he also fell off the electromagnet’s hook. The dog wasn’t dead but he had injured himself. Lanny got Sham on his back and took the dog along with him back in Ortho.


As soon as Lanny entered Ortho, Sham was back to normal. He thanked Lanny for saving his life and Lanny narrated the whole story out to Sham. Sham giggled. They also gave the dog first-aid and gave him a name – Spanny! He became their pet companion.


Once again, Lanny had saved the day. Together they also completed their task at the scrapyard. They had done a fabulous job but he knew that they still had to visit two places and complete some jobs over there.

 

CHAPTER 7: AN UNSAFE WEBSITE


“What’s next on the list, Lanny?” asked Sham.

“The Internet,” replied Lanny.

Sham opened a drawer and took out a laptop. He then entered the password and passed it on to Lanny. He went onto the Internet and there was a tab already open.


Sham said: “We’ll be writing a blog on the ill-effects of environmental pollution to make people aware of the imminent dangers of our future. Since I live in the ozone layer and the layer is depleting, this blog will give them a real picture of what is happening around them.”

“What’s a blog?” asked Lanny. “A blog is an e-article that people write. It can be accessed worldwide on the internet.” Sham answered.


They got started. Lanny and Sham made a mind - map on the content they were going to write in their blog. They typed down all the desired information they wanted to give.

They nearly finished writing their blog but misfortune struck them again.


A destructive virus had infected Ortho’s operating system. Ortho’s battery was going down fast and he was making strange noises. They had to fix the issue. Normally, if there’s a virus on your computer you would get a message saying, “Account Hacked…some Data Deleted,” in big bold letters.


However, this wasn’t any normal virus that deletes some of your data. It was a virus that destroys all your files and folders on your computer.


Lanny gasped. Then he saw something on Ortho’s terminal screen. Thankfully, Ortho was saved from the virus. On the wallpaper of the screen, there was a speech bubble from a rat shaped Virus that read, “I eat 25% of your data for breakfast, 25% for lunch, 25% for snacks and 25% for dinner.


Lanny and Sham were alarmed. They had to think of a way out fast. They couldn’t let the virus get the better of them.


It was almost the end of the day and the virus had finished three of its meals. Breakfast, lunch and snack were all in the rat’s stomach. It was about to have its final meal. Lanny had one last hope.


Lanny ran to his suitcase and he got a camera. He took a photo of Spanny and e-mailed it to Sham. When Sham opened his email on Ortho, the image of Spanny appeared on the terminal screen.


As soon as the viral rat saw Spanny’s photo it jumped in fright and put all the deleted files and folders back in place. In a flash, the viral rat disappeared. It was afraid the dog would attack it.


“Lanny, what a brilliant mind you have!” cried Sham.

“Thanks, but I didn’t think I could do it and I shouldn’t get the credit either.” Lanny replied.

“Why?” asked Sham.

“Because without Spanny’s photo the viral rat wouldn’t run away. So kudos to him.”


Spanny licked Sham. The laptop was still on. Sham let Lanny take some rest and he finished writing the blog. He saved it and finally published it online. He showed it to Lanny.


This was how their finished blog looked like.


Beware! - By Lanny and Sham

Billions of trees are cut down every year and we aren’t doing anything about it. It is affecting our environment and depleting the ozone layer. Very soon, the harmful UV rays would directly reach us. So it’s high time we do something about it.

Here are some simple ways to stop global warming from affecting the planet.

·        Stop chopping trees

·        Don’t wastewater

·        Don’t pollute the environment

·        Reuse, Reduce and Recycle whatever possible

Follow these simple rules and you will do your bit to save the planet.

THANK YOU FOR READING


 CHAPTER 8: TO INFINITY AND BEYOND


“Final assignment!” cried Lanny jumping out of bed.

“Woah don’t get excited, dude! We must hurry. It’s the last day. You’re going home tomorrow,” Sham responded.


“By the way, we got a million comments on our blog and more than a billion people have liked it around the world!” Sham exclaimed.

The checklist looked like this at that time.

§    Your Neighbourhood - Done

§   The Pacific Ocean – Done and dusted!

§   The Scrapyard – Next!

§   The Internet - Over!

§   Space – Yet to finish!

 

Sham kept the checklist in the wooden drawer near the laptop. He changed into his astronaut gear and asked Lanny to do the same. Lanny did exactly as he was supposed to and ordered the vehicle, “Ortho, take me to space!!”


“Zapp!” Ortho was gliding smoothly through the stars till Lanny gave it the command to stop. They got out of the spacecraft. It was so beautiful that they thought this was where God’s “de-stressing zone” was located.


It was a picture-perfect paradise. There were constellations all around, cool breeze blowing and by the time they arrived, they could see the sun starting to hide behind the earth. Lanny wondered whether after watching this beautiful spectacle, he could ever fit back into the life on earth.


Both of them couldn’t help but gaze at this marvel for the next five minutes.

“That was amazing!” Lanny exclaimed. He could never forget this moment in his life.

“That’s why you need Space.” Sham joked.

“Good one, Sham,” laughed Lanny.

 “Thanks, Lanny. However, I think we’ll have to get to work,” said Sham.


Lanny knew he was right. So, he nodded. They floated a couple of metres across until they saw something.


There was a room stationed right in the centre of Earth’s orbit. Sham had parked Ortho right next to the room. Sham told Lanny to enter the room. He entered the room and found out that the mysterious room was an astronomical lab for all types of scientific experiments.


“Lanny, this room has a rich history,” Sham narrated. History wasn’t Lanny’s favourite subject but he wanted to know more about the historical story of the room.


Sham continued: “This room belonged to my alien ancestors and they all had one mission which till today hasn’t been accomplished.”


“The ozone layer was slowly depleting and they wanted to make a layer in the atmosphere that could prevent that from happening. They all were confident that they would be able to do it themselves but none of them succeeded.”


“That’s why you got me here to help you. Isn’t it?” asked Lanny.

“Absolutely,” exclaimed Sham.

“Right, let’s get started then,” Sham stated.


Lanny opened the closet and got out three things. A pair of white lab coats, protective glasses and plastic gloves. They hurriedly put them on.


Lanny went to the wooden drawer and pulled out some beakers and placed them on the counter.

Meanwhile, Sham and Lanny tried their hands on making some antiseptic liquids so that they could heal the ozone layer and fill up the gaps that had been formed. The antiseptic liquid that they made had great cooling qualities but Lanny didn’t know how to use it to fix the ozone problem. However, he didn’t want to discard the antiseptic liquid, so he kept it aside.


Lanny knew that this idea of the ‘antiseptic liquid’ was good but there were three issues that needed to be resolved:

1)     The cooling effect of the antiseptic liquid in the ozone layer would reduce global warming but they also needed some protective layer in there to protect the Earth from the harmful ‘ultraviolet rays’;

2)     There will be a large quantity of antiseptic liquid and ‘shade material’ required. How can they produce the same?

3)    How will all of this be held together in space?


He explained this problem to Sham and they started discussing how they could resolve the same.


“Well, Lanny you see that this problem is a major one and it’s difficult to solve but I have a resolution to one of your problems.” claimed Sham.

“What is it then?” asked Lanny.


“For the ‘shade material’, we’ll have to get a lot of leaves and mix it with the antiseptic material.’’ said Sham.

“Where do we find all of these leaves?” asked Lanny.

“We must go back to our planet and fetch some leaves to test this.” said Sham.


They were about to close the door when Lanny spotted a flash of light nearing him.

“Sham watch out! An alien genie tribe is heading for us!” yelled Lanny.

“Hurry!” shouted Sham.


But they were too late. They were surrounded by this alien genie tribe. There were men, women and children in the tribe. They looked a bit like aliens and also somewhat like genies. Interesting! Two of them approached Lanny and Sham. One of them had a big bruise on his knees.

“Spare us. We mean no harm.” said Lanny. His legs were trembling in fright.


“You see, common men, we certainly aren’t going to kill you. But our king is dying and the bruise on his knees is an open wound. We’re a poor alien tribe and we don’t even have enough money to afford an antiseptic spray.”


“Lanny and I have an antiseptic, you can surely take some from it. But could you give us something in return?”

“We’ll grant you three wishes.” exclaimed the Genie who was also the minister of the tribe.

“But if you could grant us three wishes, you could wish for a bit of antiseptic liquid yourself.” Lanny argued.


“That’s exactly the point my friend - the one who creates the wish cannot grant himself/herself the wish.” retorted the Genie Minister.


And the deal was done!! The genie gave Lanny three wishes and Sham lent the genie some of their antiseptic liquid.


“That was scary,” exclaimed Lanny.

“Never mind,” Sham said.

“So, what do we need to wish for?” asked Lanny.

“Don’t worry. We will use these three wishes to solve your three problems above.” Sham answered.


“Genie, I wish that you gift me a billion leaves,” Sham announced.


“Your wish is my command,” the Genie Minister cried.

In a swoosh and a swash, a whoosh and crash, an enormous container of leaves landed on the top of the lab.


“Genie, I wish for you to multiply this antiseptic liquid a million times.” Sham said.

“Your wish is my command.” The Genie Minister replied.


In a swoosh and a swash, a whoosh and a crash, there were a million litres of antiseptic liquid in a gigantic box.


“Genie, my last wish is that you give me 1000 kilograms of magnetic dust equally powerful to the earth’s magnetic field.”

“Your wish is my command. Thank you for saving our king.” said the Genie Minister for the last time.


“Thanks for granting us the wishes. You have not only helped us but would also help our little planet in a big way. Goodbye!” said Lanny.

“Wala!” cried the genie tribe all together and in a moment they all disappeared.


“Wala? What does that mean?” asked Lanny.

“Wala means ‘Adieu’ in alien language. Let’s finish our work now,” said Sham with a chuckle.

“But Sham why did you not ask the genie to solve the ozone layer problem for us and asked for the ingredients instead?” Enquired Lanny, completely confused. “It would have saved us time and effort.”

“But what’s the fun if someone else solves your problem. It is your planet Lanny. So, it is your duty to save it.” replied Sham.

Lanny agreed.


Lanny and Sham were on the verge of success. They neatly mixed the magnetic dust, antiseptic liquid and the leaves together.

Lanny and Sham needed the mixture created by them to be sprayed onto the ozone layer so as to stop its depletion. Lanny and Sham told Ortho to fly around the ozone layer slowly, so that they could carefully spray their mixture throughout the ozone layer.


Ortho followed Lanny and Sham’s command well. The strength of earth’s magnetic field and the mixture’s magnetic field being same, the two balanced each other and the mixture did not fall onto the Earth.


“Phew!!! That was a close save. I was scared that because of this the entire earth would have become dirtier and messier – but God helped us on this one!!!” Lanny said.

Lanny and Sham were very happy and they named their creation, the “SHANNYOZSPHERE”. The name was sounding weird as it was a mix of Lanny- Sham-Ozone atmosphere but it was also super-cool.


“Victory!” screamed Lanny. He couldn’t imagine that he a fifth grader had made an atmosphere with a strange creature and a dog. It was nothing short of a miracle.


“Lanny, I can’t thank you more. You’ve saved so many billions of people, plants and animals from dying. So, I’ve left you a small token of appreciation inside in this box.” Sham stated.

Lanny did not know what to say and how to thank his friend from the outer space. “Thanks a ton buddy.” Lanny mentioned with tears of joy in his eyes.

“Don’t mention it.”

“It’s time to go home now. Let’s leave.” Sham said.


They hopped into Ortho and Lanny gave the command, “Ortho, take me back home.”

Lanny was glad that he had successfully created the SHANNYOZSPHERE but suddenly he had a strange thought in his head.


CHAPTER 9: ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END


This time Ortho took a little more time to go back since there was a bit of air traffic. So, Lanny caught up with Sham.


“Sham, we may have created the SHANNYOZSPHERE, but the world has hardly changed. What’s going to happen in the future?” questioned Lanny.


 Sham said, “I’m glad you asked, Lanny. I want you to keep spreading awareness about protecting the environment in your neighbourhood.”

“I surely will,” promised Lanny.

 Finally, Lanny was back in his backyard. He walked to his house and rang the doorbell.


“Hello, Lanny!” Lanny’s mom exclaimed, delighted to see his son back from his adventure.

“Hi, mom! These were my travel companions; Sham and Spanny.”

“Hello, Sham and Spanny!” Lanny’s mom wished the two.

“Hello, madam.” wished Sham.

“Wello!” barked Spanny.

That was, “Hello,” in dog language.


Sham knew it was time to bid farewell.

“Miss Herschel, I’ll have to leave. Goodbye Lanny. Farewell, Miss. Herschel.”

“Goodbye Sham.” Lanny said.

“So long, Sham. Thank you for taking great care of my son.” Miss Herschel exclaimed.

“Mom, can I drop Sham to his vehicle, Ortho?” Lanny pleaded.

“Okay.” his mom answered.

 

Lanny walked to the backyard gate and dropped Sham there.

“Remember what I told you, right?” Sham asked.

“Of course. Safe journey, Sham. Goodbye Spanny!” Lanny cried.

Sham waved goodbye to Lanny and Spanny barked, “Woofy.” That was something along the lines of ‘Why?’ in dog language.


Lanny waved back and with that Ortho soared back into the clouds and eventually, disappeared.

Lanny walked back home and collapsed on the sofa, exhausted. His mother had made a delicious dinner for him.


His mom and dad asked him a lot of questions while he was eating dinner.

He narrated the whole experience to his parents and they were amazed but found it hard to believe him. It was nearly the end of the day, so Lanny jumped onto his bed, put off his bedroom light and fell asleep.


Once Lanny was sound asleep, his mom and dad switched on the TV to watch a show. When there was an advertisement break, Miss Herschel asked her husband a question.

“Do you really think the story Lanny narrated is true?” she asked her husband.

“I don’t think so, it must be his imagination,” his father stated.


Lanny woke up and brushed his teeth. He greeted his parents, “Good Morning,” and ate his breakfast. He gobbled his cornflakes and ran to the bathroom and had a shower.

Once Lanny finished taking a shower, he went to the guest room and put on the telly; he was going to watch his cartoon, but the British News Channel had something special.


An anchor at the studio was with a microphone and he had just pronounced two words, “Lanny Herschel.”

Lanny called his parents to watch the piece of news. He was very excited.


The man said, “The United States Space station has recently found an atmosphere on the outer layer of earth that was not there two days ago. It is believed that a strange creature and a boy known as Lanny, a fifth-grader from Hobart Green Park Elementary School, England has successfully created a protective atmosphere for the entire planet. This news has come to them from some secret sources.”


The man continued, “Further investigations will be carried out related to this subject and we will update you the same. Until then, stay tuned and continue watching the British News Channel.”


Lanny switched off the TV with a bizarre look on his face. He couldn’t believe that he was going to be interviewed.


“So, you weren’t sharing fantasy stories, after all, were you?” Lanny’s mom asked in a perplexed way as half of her mind was immersed in the fact that her son would be interviewed.

“Do I really do that, Mom?” said Lanny surprised in the fact that his mom did not believe in his adventure stories.

“You do, at times. But this time – we are truly and really proud of YOU!” his dad blurted.


Lanny snatched his mom’s phone from the dining table and typed the password. But as soon as the phone was on, there was a notification. It was an email.


Lanny tapped on it and it read, ‘Ma’am, we the British News Channel would like to interview you and your son today at half past five. Please be ready and if there are any issues with this timing, you can please reschedule it for another date and time. Thanks!’


Lanny showed this email to his parents and they both were amazed. Both of them couldn’t believe their eyes (Lanny on TV!) but they knew they couldn’t cancel it as they would miss their chance to be on TV.”


The interview went very smoothly. Lanny had spoken very confidently and the interviewers were convinced that this wasn’t any fake news. And finally, the interview came to an end.


Lanny and Sham’s discovery started to go viral on social media. Lanny couldn’t wait for school to reopen.


A month later, school reopened and Lanny was a celebrity! Everyone gave Lanny hugs and they all started throwing questions at him. “How did it feel like? “What was the experience?”, “Did you have fun?” Lanny was overwhelmed with the love he was getting from his friends. But there was more to it!

Everybody in his school had also taken an initiative to clean their surroundings and they all were wearing aprons with the words, “THANK YOU, LANNY,” written on them.


All of them smiled at him and Lanny was asked to give a speech in front of the entire school to share his experiences. But Lanny’s favourite thing was that he had become a prefect of his school and he was called an EARTH WARRIOR. He was one indeed!


When he returned from school, he saw that his mailbox had a note and a parcel tied to it.

Sham had written a small but charming note, “CONGRATULATIONS, DEAR LANNY!”


Lanny knew that was sweet but something better was in the parcel.

A BRAND NEW, SKATEBOARD!!


With that Lanny ran to the backyard to test his skateboard. Once he was back, he thanked God for giving him this awesome friend and this absolutely amazing experience with him which helped save his beloved planet.


THE END



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