Outstanding Stories » The Burns Family Adventures

“The Burns Family Adventures” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Jacob Burns, Southside Christian School, USA.

The Burns Family Adventures

A husky and a man lived happily in the Himalayas. The husky’s name was Ice and the man’s name was Jacob. Although they were happy, they were very poor and did not have enough food. They used to use a steel trap to catch their food. One day, Ice went to check on the trap. He saw nothing at first, but then a Cheetah bolted into him and triggered the trap. Two hours later, Jacob went to check his trap because he heard a bark and a rustling of the cage. He saw two things were caught in the trap they set! One of those things was Ice, and the other was a stowaway Cheetah! The Cheetah was as white as snow. As soon as Jacob found out about the catch he said, “Poor thing! I’ll get you a bed and I’ll get you some water”. When he got into the house he was wondering why the two didn’t attack each other. And then he figured it out. That rustling he heard was them meeting each other and deciding they were friends.

A few weeks later, Jacob went fishing. Ice and Cheetah followed him. On the trip, Ice and Cheetah got to know each other very well. When he got home, they had 18 fish total. Cheetah was very happy, he loved fish. Each one of the family got 6 pieces of fish for dinner. The next morning, Rosa came to the Burns house. Rosa was one of Jacob’s close friends in the Himalayan Mountains in Asia. When she met Cheetah, she suggested right away calling him Spots. “Yes, I’ll call you Spots,” Jacob said in an excited voice.

Two days after Rosa had come to visit them, Jacob, Ice, and Spots went for a walk. A storm had started to build while they were out. They saw a small cave and decided to go inside for shelter. When they were in the cave they couldn’t feel the harsh brew of the storm. When they arrived at the edge of the cave on the way out, they saw it was a blizzard!

Jacob, Spots, and Ice figured that being in the cave was better than being in the blizzard, so they decided to stay until the storm lifted, when they would be able to get out. They felt safe in the cave. But, there was one problem, however, Spots was very hungry. No one wants to stay with a hungry Cheetah. The hungry Cheetah tried to run outside the cave. But he ran right back inside. After Spots ran back inside the cave in the eighth time, Jacob got an idea. He ordered Ice and Spots to stay in the cave. Jacob knew that it would be dangerous, going into the blizzard, but he knew what he had to do.

Jacob grabbed his backpack and headed out of the cave into the storm. When Jacob went out of the cave he heard something like an extremely loud gust of wind. But he kept on walking using his backpack as a wind blocker. When he was about ten feet away, he looked back and he couldn’t see anything in the cave. He became very worried that something was going on. After he looked back in the direction of his house he saw something like a penguin, slide right past him! He said to himself, “Something is fishy”. Then it darted past him again and again!

After what felt like the 17th time, it felt like a tongue lick him as it passed. Jacob said out loud, “What Is It?!” The next time it passed he tried to pick it up, and it worked! But his backpack blew off him so he could not block the wind any longer. Then he brushed off what he had caught and discovered, it was Spots! But where was Ice? He asked Spots “Can I hop on your back so I can get my backpack?” And do you know what Spots did? Spots actually put his paw out and Jacob shook it, meaning yes.

So Jacob hopped on Spots back and he darted off to his backpack. When they got to what looked like the backpack, there was Ice! Spots saw that Ice snuck inside the open backpack. The trip back home had failed. After they got Ice and the backpack, he put Ice back inside the backpack and zipped it up almost all the way. And Spots sat on top of the backpack. Every minute the backpack got heavier and heavier. He stopped in a little cave he saw to rest. The same one they were supposed to stay in earlier. After about two hours, Jacob asked Spots if he was ready and could ride him home. Spots nodded, Jacob hopped on and they were off again. He knew he would not be as fast as Ice and Spots, so now they could all get home fast together. That night when they just had to stop to rest again Rosa found them. She had been searching for them for days and was now glad that she found them.

Rosa showed them the rest of the way home. They all went into the comfortable home and thanked Rosa for saving them. That night, Jacob went fishing and caught 20 fish. They all thought that was a big catch too! They each had 5 fish for dinner, which was like a feast after all of that. Everybody made themselves comfortable in their living room. An hour later it was time for Rosa to leave. They all thanked her again; Jacob with a hug, Ice with a bark and Spots with a lick and then they all said goodbye. Jacob and the animals lived a happy life, together forever.