Joshua Krauchi is careful not to give away the ending to his first book.
He’d like the readers to go on an adventure themselves.
“You’ll have to read it,” he says shyly.
Inspired by the Deltora Quest books, which he’s currently reading, Krauchi, 11, has crafted Davius, a medieval world of his own, replete with dragons, sword-fights and weird creatures.
“Davius was what Earth was called, only it’s more scary,” explains Krauchi.
The Five Gems of Davius follow Drake Sylvan on a quest to find five magic stones that fit into an armour.
“Once you find all the gems you can rule the world,” says Krauchi, who already has a sequel in the works.
At 49 pages and 18 chapters, Krauchi knows the Five Gems of Davius is quite a feat, almost a year in the making. Instead of playing video games like most of his friends, he’s been spending time with his imagination.
He’s enjoyed creating Drake and the evil cloaked entity Fenreck, who has a voice that sounds “like a frog burping underwater or a beast that had a large basketball stuck in his throat.”
Besides Drake, there’s Miss Stupid Head or Sarah, a girl he saves and who tags along with the protagonist for part of the adventure.
Miss Stupid Head is apparently a name Drake told him to christen Sarah with.
As Drake and Sarah head out on adventure, they encounter several creatures who are protecting the gems, including a dragon, a scorpion, a werewolf, and slithery beast with no legs.
Just like a seasoned writer, Krauchi wasn’t satisfied with the first draft of his book and reworked a second copy, adding more descriptions and a few extra scenes.
It makes the world of Davius a little more real, says Krauchi, who also illustrated the book and has given a self-published copy of it to the Maple Ridge library.
Krauchi admits like Drake he would like to go on an adventure and explore places much further away from his neighbourhood.
“It’s fun,” says Krauchi, who reveals he sometimes dreams adventures with his brothers, where he’ll test his sword-fighting skills.
Krauchi has lent the book to friends who given him mostly positive feedback. His parents, on the other hand, are extremely proud. But he’s anxious to hear what the librarian in Maple Ridge thinks.
He hopes she likes it.
Once coaxed, Krauchi reveals Drake doesn’t find out Fenreck’s a bad guy until the very end.
He’s trying to get the gems because he wants the world to be a perfect place, says Krauchi, who too would like the world to be free of worry.
“He doesn’t want anything bad to happen to anyone, he doesn’t want monsters about.”
At the library
• The Five Gems of Davius is available at the Maple Ridge public library, 130 – 22470 Dewdney Trunk Road.