Summary of "THE BATTLE OF THE ISLANDS" by Madeline Scroggins

SUMMARY

Later in the morning, Flos and Stella woke up, aching with cramps in their knees and starving. “We need food,” croaked Flos hoarsely. “Let's go to Dumpster.” “Eeeeew, gross!” said Stella. “It's our only supply of free food, whether we like it or not,” replied Flos. She stood up, feeling lightheaded and swaying. Stella was feeling better than her and decided to help her walk to the trash can (not the Dumpster, but, oh well) and picked up a piece of ham that had mold on it. She gave it to Flos who gobbled it up and immediately threw up. “That IS gross,” she said, wiping her mouth. She dug through the trash can and found a piece of chicken that looked fine. Stella found wilting lettuce and mushy strawberries, but it was better than nothing. Not feeling full at all, but still having food in them, they set off. “Where to?” asked Stella, after awhile. “Let's steal a ship,” suggested Flos. Stella raised her eyebrows. “What?” asked Flos. “I want to go to Insula.”




After many hours of trying to steal a small ship called the Shark, Flos and Stella were finally able to get it. They set out to sea, and Flos climbed the mast to look out for anything dangerous. She was still extremely jittery and had adrenaline racing through her veins from yesterday in the bathroom when the Queen started chasing her. She remembered what she had said, and how she had lost her temper. Boy, had it been stupid to do that in front of the Queen, the most evil person in the world; a despicable, evil, murder—
        “Flos! FLOS!” Stella was calling her name.
        “What?” Flos called back.
        “Are we there yet?”
        “No! Not even close! Maybe a week left.”
        “Oh! It's been a day though—”
        “Huh?”
        “Oh, yeah! Right after we stole the ship you collapsed and were out for a day and then you climbed up the mast and you've been up there for a while and now it's almost midnight and that's why it's so dark so come down here so we can eat and then sleep!”
        Flos slowly made her way down the mast and landed on the deck. There were no cabins down below so Flos sat down on the wood and asked, “What's to eat?” “Salted flounder,” replied Stella. “I salted it yesterday, so it should be good enough today, and here's fresh water from the ocean that I boiled yesterday so it's clean and salt-less. And here's your piece of flounder.”
        Flos and Stella enjoyed there flounder silently, and then right after, Flos fell on her side and completely fell asleep, leaving Stella no choice but to stay on guard for the night.




“Flos! FLOS! Wake up sleepyhead. You slept for two days straight! Tomorrow we should be arriving at Insula. Wake up! WAKE UP! We're having leftover flounder. OH MY GOSH WAKE UP ALREADY FLOS NATURA!!!!!!”
        Flos groaned and rolled on her side. When Stella kicked her she sat up and blearily opened her eyes. “Thank you,” sighed Stella, rolling her eyes. “I set the flounder out in the sun so it should be nice and warm.”
        Flos crawled over to her piece of flounder and ate it, waking up a little bit. “So you said we'd be arriving tomorrow?” Flos asked between bites. “Yes,” replied Stella, sitting down opposite Flos and picking up her piece of flounder and taking big bites. “We'll be 'ere tomowwo, I dink,” she repeated through a huge mouthful of salted flounder. “Awound noon, pobably,” Stella said through another mouthful of flounder.
        At around five o'clock, sharks started circling the boat because the could smell the flounder. Then they got really enthusiastic and started bumping the boat and making it rock, and the sharks rocked it to a certain point where water was getting in the boat and ruining their flounder anyways. So Flos hopped down the mast and took all their meat and threw it way behind the ship, where the sharks immediately swam after it.
        Flos briefly wondered if any of the sharks were Pistrix. She remembered feeding him the meat back on Aves. That seemed like a lifetime ago. A million lifetimes ago.





When the Shark reached Insula, Flos saw something that made her freeze with irritation and horror.
        Queen Caeruleus was standing in front of the ship, holding a sword and smiling evilly. Behind her, a huge war was raging on. “Um,” swallowed Stella, “Maybe it wasn't a good idea to go here.”
        “You all are weaponless. What an easy battle this will be.” The Queen laughed. “Funis Suffoco!” Flos shouted. But nothing happened.
        The Queen laughed again. “Magic doesn't work here on Insula.”
        “Fine!” shouted Flos losing her temper, and, followed by Stella, jumped off the boat, ran on the battlefield ducked under the Queen's mighty slash, just grazing her back, and stole someone's sword.
        She sprinted toward the Queen and thrust the sword at her, who parried it.
        For hours, swords clanged and clashed, and people fell.
        With horror, Flos saw that Stella had fallen and now was....dead. But Flos determinedly kept on fighting.
        Then she thrust her sword at an angle and knocked it out of her hand. She quickly stuck her sword inside her and saw shock appear on the Queen's face.
        Flos spat blood out of her mouth from where the hilt of the Queen's sword had hit her and snarled, “Sweet dreams.”




Find out what happens in the full story of The Battle of The Islands written by 9-year-old Madeline Scroggins