Raven Boy looked at Elf Girl and Elf Girl looked at Raven Boy.
Then they both looked at the scary, dark cave-mouth again.
‘In there?’ asked Raven Boy.
‘In there,’ said Elf Girl, firmly.
‘Are you sure?’ asked Raven Boy.
‘I’m sure,’ said Elf Girl.
‘But it’s scary,’ said Raven Boy.
‘Yes, it is.’
‘And dark.’
‘I noticed that,’ said Elf Girl. ‘But we have to go inside.’
‘We do?’
Elf Girl didn’t even reply, but just gave Raven Boy a shove towards the dark cave-mouth.
Raven Boy took one little step towards the cave, then stopped.
‘Why?’ he said.

Winning story by Anna Cane, aged 10, from Oxfordshire

‘You know why you idiot we need to rescue Swan Girl your sister!’ said Elf Girl losing her patience.
‘Oh yeah I remember she got kidnapped by Mercus, emperor of darkness.’ said Raven Boy.
‘Yes well done genius now get in the cave already!’ she said sarcastically
‘Okay okay I’m going I’m going.’ he said making his way into the pitch black cave as Elf Girl followed behind him. The two heroes felt their way through the darkness until they stopped to hear a strange noise.
‘What was that?’ asked Raven Boy stopping dead in his tracks.
‘I don’t know.’ Whispered Elf Girl
‘I think it’s coming from the ceiling.’ said Raven Boy as he looked up and to his horror the ceiling was alive with bats!
‘Ahhhh! Bats! I hate bats!’ screamed Elf Girl covering her eyes with her hands, and with that the bats began to fly at full speed right at them.
‘RUN!’ said Raven Boy as they clambered frantically over vast rocks and boulders until they came to a narrow archway. They squeezed in just in the nick of time as one of the bats was just about to stick its vampire like fangs into Elf Girl’s neck.
‘Oh we’re alive we’re alive, now let’s get out of here!’ cried Raven Boy as he headed back to the narrow archway.
‘Err aren’t you forgetting something.’ said Elf Girl rolling her eyes.
‘I don’t think so, no’ said Raven Boy looking puzzled.
‘Your sister!’ shouted Elf Girl
‘Oh her.’ said Raven Boy just then they heard a familiar voice it was Swan Girl’s voice and it was coming from round the corner. When the two the friends got there they were surprised to see that Mercus and Swan Girl were sitting at a wooden table having a cup of tea and discussing the weather.
‘Unhand her you fiend!’ threatened Raven Boy.
‘Oh, it’s okay bro, turns out Mercus was going to lock me up, but he changed his mind. You see we actually have a lot in common.’ said Swan Girl taking a sip of tea.
’It’s true I have never met anyone with such an interest in flower arranging before.’ said Mercus.
‘So you’re saying that we came all this way to rescue Swan Girl nearly killing ourselves and then to realize that she never even needed rescuing in the first place!’ said Elf Girl through gritted teeth.
‘Well yes.’ said Mercus.
‘Why do I bother!’ said Elf Girl with a sigh.