And it Begins

This astounding work is the first page of DahkSinol’s latest project for his continuing reading and writing program – a book of short stories intricately woven together into a novel. The book outline (which is currently classified top-secret/eyes-only) shows pride in his heritage, as he uses Philippine mythological creatures as seven of his main characters.

These kinds of projects develop a lot of the student’s writing skills. The technical aspect of writing, such as the consideration of the point of view, the setting and the coherence of the plot, were tackled during the long pre-writing period. The mechanical aspects of writing, on the other hand – like his adherence to capitalization and punctuation rules, subject and verb agreement, and his consistent use of verb tenses – are constantly addressed through the numerous rounds of editing.

White. A bright light shines upon me. I can hear a voice calling, “Welcome to the New World, Meru-Maru.” A calm voice shines upon me. I look up. I see… What I see is… The Root. The source of this blinding light is above me. I try to make out the details, but every time I try to look at it, I’m forced to close my eyes. The light itself irritates my eyes even when I shut them as hard as I can. I look at the ground, trying to seek refuge from the light’s sheer power. But even that won’t help.

“Meru-Maru… you need to help me…” it calls. Desperation comes from her tone. The light slowly disappears, like a mist slowly dispersing. While it faded out, I could see the forest and this blue glowing orb coming in front of me. “Can you save me? I need you to save me… Can you do this?”

I try to think about what this thing wants. It wants me, Meru-Maru, to save it. This is completely wrong. What does it want from me? I’m nothing special. There’s nothing to know about me. I don’t even know about myself. What a joke! Someone’s asking for help from a person who knows nothing about what he can do! This is too funny to be real. Wait, am I real? I don’t know. I feel like this uncontrollable fear is controlling my mind. Only one word came into my mind. RUN.

I break into a sprint. I start to run as fast as I could, but these feet won’t do. My body wants me to stop, but I won’t stop. I will never stop. Not until I know I’m safe. Suddenly, I trip on a log. I start to fall to the ground, but the will to survive still lives in me. I start to crawl. I keep crawling. I don’t care what happens. I continue to crawl. The soil is moist which gives extra help in bringing me forward. I stop. My body won’t go anymore. I think I broke it. I look up. I notice I’m still inside this forest. Around me is the light blue water, a river. I let my hand in and start scooping it to my mouth. It’s cold. The cold water goes down my dry throat. I let the feeling of the cold water surround me as I let my face fall inside this pool. The water cleanses my face of the dirt that I accumulated while I ran through the dirt and the mud. Suddenly, this weird feeling. My mind wants me to pull myself out from the water. I pull out from the cold and let the drops water run down my face as I look at the river again.

Wait… Is this? This face is something else. What’s that word? Now I remember. It is called human. What a freak! While I look at it, it always copies me – when I wave, when I touch the water, when I close one eye – all of it. And then something slams inside my mind. THIS. IS. ME. The very truth shocks me to my core. I look at my hands, but what I see are not normal hands, but claws. I try to take in these facts. Then I hear the voice again.

“Why have you run away? Do you not wish to save me?” it asks. I turn around and see that the orb is here. I can’t escape.

written by DahkSinol

DahkSinol is 12 year-old Isak, who is currently in his freshman year in high school. The amazing progress of his literacy skills is reflected in the dynamic and cumulative development of his intervention programs, the first few of which mainly focused on tapping into his then emerging reading, spelling and expressive skills through the multi-sensory approach. The next set then focused on developing specific comprehension skills, genuine love for reading, and in furthering the progress of his oral and written expressive skills. Now on his 23^rd reading and writing program, Isak is asked to focus on self-direction and –management, as well as on other higher order comprehension skills.