​Becoming A True Hero Ruby was an 11 year old trained warrior. She had glossy red pinkish hair with beautiful soft, pure skin, and shining emerald eyes. One evening, she was lying down on her bed thinking about what she could do to be a better warrior. Then she heard her mother scream. She rushed over to her room and saw her intense, challenging master, a gigantic spider, who never backed down during a fight. He said, “Ruby, to show the true skills of being the next warrior and hero of our nation, you must capture the diamond of Everest and place it on the podium at the magical secret garden. This is found through the mystical white gates that will appear after you receive this powerful diamond to get your mother back. You will have three challenges. To pass the challenges, you must go against the giant sea serpent, retrieve the fang of the poisonous, purple spotted cheetah, and find the sacred golden leaf hidden in the village of Arcaria.” The giant spider opened up a secret portal. This was no ordinary portal. It had a purple swirling entrance with pink sparks coming from it. In the middle, was a little sphere that was the color emerald, just like her eyes. Once again, he said, “ You must take that little emerald and say, mission start. Once you say it, the timer is on and you must race to finish these challenges on time. When you go into this portal, the battlefield will appear and you must face these three creatures to receive the diamond of Everest. And one more thing, you have until tomorrow afternoon to retrieve the diamond. If you don't make it, then your village will be in danger and your mother will not return.” “What!” Ruby exclaimed. “That's not enough time! I’m just a child. I’m not ready yet. Why did you choose me when there are so many other warriors that are better!?” “Rules are rules, you cannot disobey them,” said her master. “There is no need to answer you now. If you pass, I will give you the answer you seek. If you don’t it will remain a secret. Let this be a little motivation for you. I will send you off with one more tip, look at things around you. They can help you survive. Now go.” Right when Ruby was going to argue to give a different warrior this mission. But she knew that he wouldn't let that happen, so Ruby grabbed the little emerald sphere, and yelled, “Mission START!” Ruby ran to the portal as fast as she could hoping to not waste her time. She was starting to get a little nauseous from all the swirling from the portal. As she walked closer and closer, the colors seemed to change from purple, to blue, slowly to green, then yellow, to orange, and finally to red. Scared, a little dizzy but determined, she got her weapons ready to face her first creature, the giant sea serpent. Ruby emerged from the portal with her sword in one hand and shield in the other. When she emerged from the portal she saw almost nothing but blue salty ocean water. There was barely any land. She thought, ​I knew this mission wasn't going to be easy. ​She saw the giant scarlet sea serpent with its rocky back and spiky tail. She waited for the sea serpent to charge after her, but realized that it had a big wound on its tail that was almost the size of herself! Ruby wanted to help, but was a little nervous the serpent would charge if she got near it. “Hmm, oooh,” she mumbled. She breathed in and out three times. She carefully approached the sea serpent. She’d packed a big white handkerchief in case she got hurt. She decided to wrap it around the sea serpent’s tail. She thought it would help to relieve the pain from the salty ocean water. Although, not knowing if it would be big enough, she tried. “It works!” she exclaimed. She thought, ​the sea serpent isn’t as scary as I thought it would be. ​ Soon enough, Ruby became good friends with the sea serpent and they agreed that it would take Ruby to the next challenge. The sea serpent swam across the ocean with Ruby. When they found the portal, Ruby and the sea serpent had to say goodbye because this was her challenge alone and she could not have any help. “Now this is the real challenge,” Ruby quietly said as she was getting ready to retrieve the fang of the purple spotted cheetah. Once again, she got her ruby, shiny, beautiful, and strong sword and her big amethyst diamond shaped shield ready and walked into the portal to the next stage. In this new location, the arena was a big jungle with many vines, leaves, and trees. There were many random puddles of swirling, sparkling water too. The poisonous purple spotted cheetah face to face was not at all friendly like the sea serpent. The cheetah growled with purple poison dripping from its huge fangs. It charged at Ruby with all its might. Ruby, absolutely petrified, tried to dodge but dropped her sword. This time, the cheetah guarded the sword so Ruby couldn't reach it.​ Oh no, Ughhh!, I dropped my sword. What should I do? s ​he thought. She quickly scanned the room with her 20/20 vision, and saw a long green vine reaching from one tree all the way to another on the other side of the battlefield. Ruby remembered that she had packed a big picnic blanket for when she needed to eat. Ruby quickly got the picnic blanket, jumped, threw the blanket over the vine, and rode across the vine to the other side like a zipline. She quickly grabbed her sword and tried to stab the cheetah but it was too fast. She missed. The cheetah tried to pounce on her. But with the speed of light, Ruby pointed her sword to the sky and stabbed the poisonous cheetah as it dropped to the ground. Now is the hard part, ​she thought. The final step was to take out the poisonous fang. She tried pulling it out, but when she did, she saw purple streaks spreading from her finger to her hand. Without a doubt, she knew it was the poison. Right then, Ruby remembered what her master had said, “Look at things around you and they can help you survive.” She looked around and saw a tiny pond near the tree she was sitting next to. Ruby put her hand in the pond and all the poison went away. ​This is awesome, ​she thought. Ruby quickly put the magic water and the fang carefully into tiny bottles just in case she needed them later. Ruby looked at her wrist-watch. It was almost 3:00 am. “I’ve worked hard enough. I’ll wake up at 5:00 am and go to the portal for the next stage.” And with that Ruby fell sound asleep after a hard, unexpected, and tiring night. “Yaaaaaaaaaawwnn. Today’s the day, the last challenge when I am finally finished with this mission. After all the hard work that I've done, it’s finally the las…. Oh no! It’s already 8:00 am! I was supposed to get up three hours ago! Will I even be able to finish the last challenge on time?” Ruby quickly grabbed her bag and rushed to the portal. Once again feeling a little less nauseous she went through the color changing portal that was starting to close. She ran faster than a cheetah all the way to the diminishing portal that would take her to the last stage. “Yes! I made it!” she exclaimed. The portal took her to the village in Arcaria. It wasn't such a happy village. Everyone looked very tired and very serious about something. The streets had almost no cars and the sidewalks had about 7 people. Ruby walked around in a circle, trying to remember what she needed to find. 5 minutes later….. 10 minutes later…. 25 minutes…. 30…. “Ah ha! I’m supposed to find the the sacred golden leaf hidden in Arcaria.” Ruby dashed to the people in the village. She asked everyone of them, they weren't the nicest people in the universe, but finally found a friendlier and more knowledgeable guy. “It is guarded deep down in the middle of the village in a cave where every person that has tried to retrieve the sacred golden leaf never made it out. In the cave, there are three fierce bears that guard the golden leaf. One’s named Tom, the other’s named Bob, and the last one’s named Willy. I know, the names sound funny, but they charge after any person they ​hear ​.” With Ruby knowing that, she thought she would never make it alive, but she had to, for her own sake and for the world’s sake. Ruby found the middle of the village and the cave, but was too nervous to go down. She had to make sure she was reaaaalllllly ​quiet. ​Just be calm, Ruby said to herself, and took off. She tiptoed very slowly though the trap door, and closed it quietly so the bears wouldn't hear her. When she saw the three bears, she froze. Lucky for her, the bears were fast asleep snoring as loudly as a lion’s roar. Ruby saw the sacred golden leaf floating on top of a tiny dais with beautiful pearl chains hanging on it. The golden leaf was much smaller than she had expected. It was almost the size of her pinky! Once again, she quietly tiptoed to the leaf and grabbed it as quickly as she could, just to make sure no noisy alarm would go off. “YES!” ​she exclaimed…………. Then she saw the three bears growling at her. “​Oh no​,” she whispered. Ruby ran so fast she could barely even breathe. The three growling bears were chasing after her. ​So close ​, Ruby thought as she almost reached the end of the cave. With all her might, Ruby dashed out of the cave, slammed the trap door, and locked it as fast as she could. “Whew,” Ruby said, super relieved. “I can’t believe I am the first one that made it out alive!” With that being said her master appeared. “You have shown great skill, persistence, and determination. Please lay out the handkerchief you used for the sea serpent, the fang of the poisonous purple spotted cheetah, and the sacred golden leaf from the village of Arcaria.” Ruby carefully did what she was told and the diamond of Everest appeared in her hand. Finally, her master opened up a portal and said “This will lead you back to your room. Hurry, you have only 5 minutes left to save your mother.” Ruby dashed away into the portal and emerged in her room. How happy she was to be back home. Still holding the diamond, Ruby ran outside just like her master told her to, and the mystical, sparkling white gates appeared. She carefully walked in and a sudden rush of pink clouds that looked like cotton candy carried Ruby to the podium in the secret garden. Ruby placed the diamond on the podium. A beam of bright jade light shone upon her and swallowed her like a whale and transported her to the exact same room where she started. She spotted her mother in the room, and ran to her to help her up. Once again, her master appeared. “I have come back to answer your question,” he said. “The reason why I chose you was because I saw the potential and skill in you Ruby. Now you have proven to be the best warrior in history by completing this mission that even the best warriors have never accomplished,not even me. That is how I turned into a giant spider. On my last challenge to Arcaria, I got bitten by one of the bears, and slowly turned into a spider by their viscous venom. I was lucky to have made it alive, but sadly failed my own mission from my own master. That is why I asked you to complete this mission, so I can show my master what a skillful warrior student I have,” he said proudly. “Now, because of this great accomplishment, I can turn back into my normal self. It is said that if someone you know well completes the mission that you have failed, the bite will heal, and you will return to normal,” he said. And then, with a sudden flash of rainbow colors her master was transformed into his human self. An older wise, trained warrior appeared. Once again he said, “You have completed the impossible, and therefore you shall receive the shining golden sword representing Leo the lion that triumphed over evil.” Ruby couldn’t believe what was happening. The rarest, and most blazing, sharp sword was right in her hands. She said in an honorable way, “Thank you for the beautiful sword,” as she tried some movements swaying her new blade like lightning. “Now I must go,” said the master. “I will go now to where I belong, but get ready for another day of training tomorrow,” he said with humor. “Everything will go back to normal.” And like that Ruby stepped into her room, went to the bed, laid down, and dreamt about her whole adventure of becoming a true hero.