Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Part 5


Will Trixie, Nick, Captain Cook and I destroy the space-time continuum by revealing arcane knowledge from the future?


"After thinking about it for a while, you decide that it's too risky to try to get back to your own time-who knows where (or when) you might end up.  You take Trixie's collar off and drop it into the deep waters of what will become known as the Cook Strait.


Later that day, you begin working with Joseph Banks.  He is an enthusiastic and interesting man, and before long you discover that you too are passionate about botany.  Together you travel the world, discovering new species of flora and fauna, and you make more of the world known to people.  You live comfortably and Joseph treats you like one of his own children-he is a rich man, and he buys you a home and gives you all you need to be wealthy in your own right.  You feel that the work you do leaves something for the future when people will appreciate the environment differently.


You live a long life, make many friends and always have one of Trixie's descendants by your side".


My CANONICAL ENDING in Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Dog of Time was successful!  No definitive answer on whether you can change history or not, the central question of all time travel stories.  What the ending doesn't mention is that Joseph Banks was also an important figure in the colonization of Australia.


One of Trixie's descendants is known to history as Poshul.


1 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Alternate Endings Part 1


Taking another chance with the Dog of Time doesn't strand me in some other time period.  Having the magical Dinosaur Canyon cell phone would be useful in this book.


"You farewell Nick and Captain Cook, and clamber down into the little boat.  Nick carefully lowers Trixie down to you in a basket.  You clumsily row a short distance from the Endeavour and then pick up Trixie.  If you have this wrong you could be about to go back one hundred years to a time when Maori is the only language spoken in this land, and giant birds ruled the skies. . .


You touch the pendant and the boat rocks, and you lose your grip on Trixie.  You look up, scanning the sky for giant eagles, but seagulls are all you see.  With relief you see sail boats in the distance-you went forward in time!  Now to try it again-well the worst thing that could happen is you have to flag down the Endeavour again. . .


The boat tosses and. . .Success!  The ferry is instantly in sight, and within half an hour the ship has stopped and picked you up.  You are congratulated by some passengers for rescuing the dog, but others are very grumpy that your falling overboard means that the ferry will arrive late.  'Thank you so much for rescuing my Trixie', her owner says.  'But where has her collar gone?'


'I'm sorry-it must have been lost in the water', you say.  Trixie's owner seems upset, and you understand that she knew Trixie had been carrying a treasure.  Later, you tell Max and Stella about what happened, but of course, they don't believe you.  It doesn't matter, though, because in your back pocket you have something that could change their mind.  Just for now you are keeping it for yourself-if you ever need to leap back in time, you'll be prepared".


Stealing a time travel pendant is the perfect crime.  Just go to another period when the cops come after you!


Although You Say Which Ways attempt to remain ambiguous about gender and ethnicity, the player character is probably a European male given how the 19th and 18th century characters react to you.  Playing as a Maori from the present visiting medieval Maori would have been an interesting spinoff.



Results So Far



2 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Alternate Endings Part 2


Avoiding Nick's boat in CHOICE #3 is as stupid an idea as it seems.


"You shake your head.  'No, I don't want to get into your boat.'  The boy looks at you as if you are crazy and then shrugs.  The breeze catches his sails and he moves on, leaving you to tread water looking vainly for the ferry or a better rescue vessel.  Your legs are getting cold and starting to go numb, but you are sure you can feel something twining about them. . .


Suddenly, a long tentacle emerges from the water and slides up your arm.  It is the extremely rare giant squid-and you are not feeling lucky about finding one.  The arms of the giant squid slither across your skin and tighten around you.  You gasp for air as it squashes you, and you struggle to pull yourself free, but the squid is strong and it tugs you down into the water.  You hold your breath, but how long will you last as you're pulled deeper and deeper and the water goes dark?


How did you end up like this?  If only you'd made different choices!  If only you could start again!  Wat!  You can!"


But the future refused to change.


Results So Far



2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Alternate Endings Part 3 Setup


The steward of the ship is much more competent at rescuing Trixie than I am.  "He scoops up the dog-which is now very willing to be in his grasp.  The steward expertly hoists himself back onto the deck and heads towards the cargo area with Trixie under his arm, and her owner following hurriedly behind".


When the ferry docks, we see a man and a woman with a sign saying "MAX AND STELLA".  Max says he doesn't know who these people are.  Their names are Damon and Sandy, and Damon says he's sorry Maddy couldn't be here, but they'll help us in the meantime.  Supposedly the "Islanders take turns gathering supplies from the mainland".  Their cargo is food, mailbags, and red oil cans.  ("Petrol" in New Zealandese).


Dolphins swim and jump around near Damon and Sandy's sailboat, so we start taking pictures.  Sandy says "You might get a chance to swim with some while you're on the island".  Dolphins have been watching me in CYOAS after I shot Drill Sergeant Flipper with a speargun back in Time Machine 6:  The Rings of Saturn. 


But we're not going to Arapawa Island.  Sandy and Damon claim they're giving supplies to the weather station.  Damon says "Tell you what-you kids can go up to the station and tell them the supplies are here.  Don't take cell phones up there though-the radar will scramble all your data, so you'd best leave them here".  This sounds like bunk.  When we go up the hill, it becomes obvious that Damon and Sandy marooned us.  They left behind some crates of supplies.


A note addressed to Stella and Max says "Don't worry.  You will only be here a few days.  Take the food up to the hut and stay there".  Stella immediately suspects there's criminal activity:  "If it's a kidnapping, we need to make sure Mum and Dad know we're here before they have to pay a ransom".  Max points out that they don't have rich parents, so he's unsure why anyone would want to kidnap them.


This small island is warm and has many birds flying around.  We come to a cabin with wooden walls and a metal roof.  There's a hook closing the door, but not a lock.  Nobody's there.  Inside the cabin are bunk beds, a sink, a bench, a stove, and cupboards.  (Harry Potter cupboards or American cupboards?)  Max goes outside and says there's an outdoor toilet called a "long drop".


Max offers to burn the hut and send a smoke signal.  I suggest burning a woodpile instead, and Stella wants to stay in the hut until morning and hope for rescue.  CHOICE #5 may not have been edited properly.  It says "Burn the woodpile?' or 'Don't burn the woodpile get ready to stay the night instead".  Nothing about burning the hut like Max suggests.


I give the sleeping bags to the twins, as long as I get top bunk.  I cook "macaroni cheese", and we have bottled water to drink.  Max makes hot chocolate, and Stella puts up a "battery lantern".  She finds some biscuits too.  Stella offers to tell ghost stories, but Max doesn't want to hear any.  We play I Spy together instead.  Max and Stella leave to use the long drop, and the narration hints my character is an only child, or at least isn't close to their own siblings.  "Lying in the dark you kind of wish you had a brother or a sister with you for stuff like that."


Stella drops the toilet paper in the cabin by mistake, and she notices something she thinks is a trap door when she goes to pick it up.  We all lift the trap door open, and we find stone stairs leading into a tunnel.  At the bottom is "A door with a big, old fashioned lock" which happens to be unlocked.  The hut was probably built on top of this tunnel much later.  The corridor after the door "looks like a cross between a mineshaft and a small railway tunnel".


Stella turns off the lamp when she sees a fluorescent tube on the ceiling.  It's time for Let's Make a Deal again, because we have CHOICE #6 between left and right, with no hints at all!  This book really might be the reincarnation of La Isla de los Dodos. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Alternate Endings Part 4
 
 
Going left in CHOICE #6 may be the correct option.  The noise we hear overhead is the ocean.  We notice an antechamber with supplies, often with foreign languages written on the cans.  A man is standing facing a machine, so I hint to Max and Stella to hide.  I tap him on the shoulder, and lie to him.  My cover story is that "I did something really stupid" and sank my boat, and I'm going solo to look for another boat or a phone.
 
 
The man takes me to a room with a redheaded woman wearing "jeans, sneakers, and a polo-necked sweater".  She says "Congratulations on making your way into the inner sanctum.  I'm Mrs. Rogers, but most people around here call me The Director".  She reveals the history of the cave.  The island had been raised by earthquakes, and the Maori used to stop there while transporting jade ("greenstone") between the two main islands of New Zealand.  Whalers and World War II soldiers stayed there later, until at last it was leased to Mrs. Rogers's company.
 
 
She knows about Stella and Max because her cameras activated as soon as we went through the trap door.  "It was a smart move to split up and see what would happen when you approached Hank.  You have every reason to be suspicious about people in a strange underground hideaway".  Apparently the island is going to be the set for a reality show.  People will live on the surface, and others will live underground, but they aren't supposed to learn about each other's presence in the beginning.  Not everyone has arrived, so the show hasn't started. 
 
 
Stella asks about a boat to go to Arapawa Island, and Mrs. Rogers agrees to take us when she gets a camera crew.  She wants us to be part of her show, and needs us to sign non-disclosure agreements.  She says there's no way we could sail past the rocks at night.  We start looking around for clues at night, because we're all suspicious.  I eventually stumble onto a printing press for counterfeit $100 bills in New Zealand dollars, Australian dollars, and other currency.  The narration calls them "forgers" instead of "counterfeiters".  Maybe that's what they're called in New Zealand?
 
 
The twins wake me up and we find a motor boat at dawn.  Max knows how to drive it because "It's like a dirt bike on water".  Sure, Max, that's how boating works.
 
 
One of the assistants yells "Come back!  You'll kill yourselves!"  CHOICE #7 is to listen to this assistant, or keep going in the boat.
 
 
"Max gives the boat a burst of power and it surges out through a small rocky channel.  On the console, a screen comes to life showing the terrain underneath the boat-you can see an outline of the bottom of the boat, and not far below it are rocks!  'Stella, watch the screen for rocks underneath us', says Max as he steers and you both help him navigate out to sea.
 
 
As you leave the channel the sea level drops off sharply and you no longer have to worry about rocks.  In fact, you can make out the shapes of fish beneath you.  Some of them are very big.  Looking back, it is already hard to see where you came from-the cove is well hidden.  You are now in open water and Max points the boat toward the island you should be on-Arapawa.  It is very close.  Stella is no longer glued to the depth finder screen, but as she straightens up she shouts, 'Oh no!'
 
 
You turn to see that another boat is emerging from the hidden cove.  There are three figures on board, and one of them has red hair blowing in the wind-Mrs. Rogers.  Her boat picks up more speed as soon as it is past the rocks and starts to close the gap between you.  'We have to speed up!' you yell at Max.  He pulls on the throttle and the boat leaps forward.  Out here the waves are bigger, and the increased speed makes the boat seem very unstable.  Arapawa Island is getting closer-you are more than halfway there-and you hope you will get to the island before Mrs. Rogers catches up.  The boat she is on is bigger, and you worry she might ram you.
 
 
The beach is in sight now, and Max is just heading straight for it rather than the little jetty.  Suddenly, Stella grabs the wheel and pulls it to one side-the depth finder is showing rocks beneath you again, and Stella has just avoided some big ones!  Looking back, you can see a large wave coming up behind Mrs. Rogers's boat-they are now close enough that you can see their angry faces.  The wave picks them up, and then it carries your boat too.  It's like being on a surfboard, and Max increases speed to take advantage of it.  In moments you are beached on the golden sand, and scramble out of the boat onto dry land.  Behind you Mrs. Rogers's boat is still in the sea. . .and it isn't moving.  The wave has wedged it on the rocks that Stella avoided.


Mrs. Rogers doesn't look as scary wedged precariously on the rocks, but she does look as angry as a hornet.  A voice suddenly speaks up from behind you.  'Don't worry, the boat will come loose at high tide and the police can get them off.  Who are those people?'  A friendly looking woman has joined you on the beach.  Stella and Max throw themselves onto her-it's Aunt Maddy.


Maddy explains that your 'kidnappers' had left you on the little island to try to press her into selling her rights to the little harbor-they want to set up a business there.  Maddy didn't stand for blackmail, though-she threatened to call the police straight away.  'So Damon went over to the island to get you and then came back to say you had disappeared!  So then I did call the police, and they have been looking for you too.  Oh, here they are now!'


A powerful police launch has come into view and sweeps into the little harbor.  They see Mrs. Rogers in trouble and throw a rope over to her boat.  The police drag the smaller vessel off the rocks and in no time Mrs. Rogers is on shore beside you.  She is busy explaining to the police that she is part of a reality TV show when you remember the plastic bag you are carrying.  You hand it to one of the officers.


'Mrs Rogers might be making a TV show', you say, 'but they are also busy making these'.  The policeman looks into the bag and his eyes widen in surprise.  The scene quickly changes-Mrs. Rogers stops explaining about her TV show, and is instead arrested and taken away on the police launch.


'Well', says Aunt Maddy, 'after all that excitement I think you'll want some breakfast and to get started on your proper holiday?'  'Yes!' you all agree and you set off up to the house.  It's been a great start to your holiday but you wonder what if you'd made some different choices?"


I had to save much of the text in a Word file because a thunderstorm was about to begin when I was first typing this post.  So the font is different from usual. 


Is this going to be like Dinosaur Canyon where the much more interesting time travel parts have to compete for page space with the mundane "petty criminals in the present" stuff?  And "Danger" on Dolphin Island was nothing but the latter.


This is one of the first You Say Which Ways according to Goodreads.  This makes sense, considering the lack of epilogue text compared to other entries.  The "squid premonition" scene also sounds like it's meant to teach kids the concept of a CYOA, and no other installments I've seen have a feature like that.


Results So Far







3 Good Endings



1 Deaths



0 Bad Non-Death Endings



0 Neutral Endings


0 Inconclusive Endings


 

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Alternate Endings Part 4


The counterfeiter's assistant is lying to me.  I shouldn't listen to him when he tells me to stop in CHOICE #7.


"Seeing you hesitate, the agile assistants swarm onto the boat and pull you back to shore.  You are frog-marched to the main room inside, and as one of the men goes to find Mrs. Rogers the bag of money that you took falls out of your pocket.  'Look', shouts one of the men as he snatches it up, 'they know everything!'  Mrs. Rogers strides into the room.


'Okay, kids-this is going to be a working holiday.  I tried to come up with a way you could go home to mummy and daddy, but you had to ruin it by sneaking into things that don't concern you.  Well now you'll work.  For the next few weeks you can learn how to make money-and when we're done here we'll drop you off somewhere and you can make your way back to civilization.  Behave, or you'll be fish food!'


She bundles you into the printing room.  For the next month you work day and night, making fake money and hoping each day won't be your last. . ."


Although it looks like a Bad Non-Death Ending, I'm calling it Inconclusive.  We have no idea what Mrs. Rogers will do to us when the month is up.


Results So Far



3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Alternate Endings Part 5


You thought I was done after outrunning Mrs. Rogers in a speedboat?  Unlike every other Choose Your Own Adventure I've played, Once Upon an Island has epilogue CHOICEs! 


Maddy takes us to her harbor in a horseshoe bay on Arapawa Island.  Her farm house has solar panels and wind turbines, and she grows a garden.  "I'm pretty much self-sufficient, which is important because in bad weather the island can be cut off from the mainland for days.  Come on, let me show you your digs".


Her estate used to be a sheep farm, but now writers and scientists come here.  Her books include "a history of whaling in New Zealand, a couple of cookery books, a few thrillers and mysteries, books about fishing and sailing, and a semaphore manual".  Will the semaphore book come in handy? 


Immediately after I think this, I see that my character is grabbing the semaphore book.  I am one with my Choose Your Own Adventure protagonist.  A goat steals some of my toast, but we aren't going to starve. 


CHOICE #8 is to either fish or "go exploring".  Let's risk the latter.


Stella plays with some goats for a while, while I look around the valley with a camera.  "As your gaze slowly sweeps the ground, a large rock seems to move-zooming in, you find that you are staring at a dinosaur!"  But the dinosaur is smaller when I'm not looking through a zoomed-in camera. 


I wonder if the dinosaur could kill me with a bite, like a venomous snake.  It's described "like a miniature dragon without the wings".  Max and Stella are reaching the meeting place, and Stella is using her arms to give the semaphore message HURRY UP. 


Before I can tell the twins about the dinosaur, Stella notices some plum trees and we all rush off toward them.  I suspect we may be trespassing, but it's clear the nearby house and other buildings are too overgrown and damaged for anyone to live there.


CHOICE #9 is to go into the abandoned house, or look at the plum trees instead.


Not much happens inside the house, and it seems to be a red herring.  The kitchen is described thus:  "The floor is covered in old bird droppings and there is a large iron oven, a small table, and two chairs-the chairs are pulled out as if the owners had just decided to leave, stood up, and walked out without packing or looking back".  I'm about to see a mouse crawling around when we hear an "ominous creak of the back door".


We run away frantically and hear banging, but it seems to be Stella's goat friend.  CHOICE #10 is to either take another chance at the plum trees, or swim.


Never go swimming in a CYOA that offers a premonition of a giant squid on the first page.


"It's a hot day and the lapping of salt water on your toes is delicious.  The sand beneath the waters has been warmed by the sun and feels like chocolate pudding between your toes as you wade deeper in.  Max and Stella are kitting up with snorkels and masks.  You dive under a wave and swim out into the bay.  The three of you move out deeper and deeper.  Max and Stella dive under and when they come back up they tell you about fish they see.  They muck about flicking seaweed at each other.  Suddenly the water feels a lot colder.


'That's because it's so much deeper now-it's about two miles deep out here', says Stella.  They dive back down again, and then you feel one of them tickling your leg-it almost feels like a snake.  Stella surfaces a few feet away and Max on the other side-they are yelling and waving.  Hang on-what is grabbing your leg, then?


The snaking feeling becomes stronger.  A huge tentacle writhes up out of the water and then turns towards you and clamps onto your arm.  It is a giant squid.  The last thing you think as you are dragged below is how incredibly rare a death like this must be glub glub glub".


This Death isn't rare because of the giant squid.  It's rare because it comes after a Good Ending.


Results So Far



3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Alternate Endings Part 6


No, the plums aren't POIsonous in CHOICES #9 and 10.  One of the original Choose Your Own Adventure books would have tried that, but You Say Which Way is often friendlier.  "The dark red fruit is a juicy explosion of sweet and sour in your mouth. . .".  It's no crackleberry!


We meet a boy with a foreign accent named Mikhal near a shed.  He says he was forced to work on someone's boat after his parents couldn't pay money they owed.  After a year, he used a "polystyrene box" to swim to the island.  He's afraid of one of the paths we haven't taken because he thinks the lights are "ghosts or fishermen". 


Stella and Max laugh when I mention the dinosaur, but Mikhal knows about them.  His captain ordered him to tend to exotic animals because he grew up on a farm.  Maddy offers him a room for the night, and to call the police to take him back to his parents.  Mikhal wears Max's clothes because they're the same size.  He asks what the English words for various things are.  (Yet he knows the word "polystyrene". . .)


CHOICE #11 is to get my camera in the dark, or stay indoors.


Going outside in the dark is too long an ending for me to quote in full, so I'll summarize some parts.  Mikhal points out the Southern Cross, and we are able to see by the moon and stars.  We find the camera because it makes a gleam.  Mikhal calls the dinosaur "my little dragon", and says he brought her with him when he landed on the island.


But "three figures" come out and chloroform Mikhal and I before we can go back to Maddy's house.  "Someone wraps his arms around you and presses a rag over your face.  It has a strong smell and you feel yourself blacking out".


Mikhal's sailors have returned to kidnap us.  They don't speak English, so Mikhal translates for me.  "Nobody looks for you!  Now you have a job with us fishing.  And if you do not work then you feed the fish!  You understand?"  Who knew New Zealand was the crime capital of the world?


We're forced to take care of dinosaurs, lizards, and birds.  This ship is well-equipped for a criminal operation, because it has "processing and freezing facilities", and the door to the captain's office has keypad locks.


12 days later, we see land, and then are stuffed into the animal room for 2 days when we're about to jump off the kidnapper's boat.  When we see a yacht, my book selection from earlier comes into play. . .


"Calmly, you perform the semaphore signals you learnt on the island, repeating the same message over and over until one of the crew notices what you are doing and locks you below.  You hardly dare hope that someone on the yacht saw your message.  Even if they did-would they know what it meant? 


The next day you are back on deck when you hear a helicopter.  You and Mikhal are quickly hustled below deck to the room where the animals are kept.  You are there for hours before the door is opened by an Australian naval officer.  You can't hear what he is saying over the noise of the engine, but you can see his surprise as he looks at the cages.  He signals for both of you to follow him out.


Above deck you find that the crew has been rounded up.  A large naval ship is alongside the fishing boat, and there are men and women in naval uniforms everywhere.  You and Mikhail are swung across to the bigger ship, and soon you are telling your story to the authorities.  The Australian officers tell you that the yacht you signaled to had a retired naval officer aboard-he could read your semaphore message and called the navy.  You and Mikhal can be returned to your parents or back to the island-you have saved another of rare birds, and the little dragons are rare New Zealand tuataras that were stolen from a wildlife sanctuary.


The day after you were kidnapped, Max and Stella found your camera and the picture you had taken of the tuatara.  Everyone realized that your disappearance might be linked to the missing lizards, and the New Zealand and Australian navy have been looking for you.  If the greedy captain hadn't kidnapped you then the tuatara and other endangered creatures would have been lost to private collectors, and could have become extinct in the wild.


You are returned home and Mikhal goes home to his parents.  Months later you hear that you have both come into possession of the fishing boat as reparation for your kidnapping and forced labor.  The two of you set up a trust, and the boat is renamed Tuatara.  It becomes a conservation vessel, travelling the Pacific Ocean helping marine biologists save endangered species."


Two Good Endings for the price of one!  And of course there are smugglers, because it seems to be a You Say Which Way requirement, at least for those with a "present-day nature adventure" theme.  But even La Isla de los Dodos had the drug runners.


Results So Far



4 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Alternate Endings Part 7


Taking the coward's way out and staying indoors in CHOICE #11 is a less satisfying epilogue.


"You sit down to a game of cards and Maddy teaches you the rules.  It doesn't take long to learn the game and then you are all hooked.  After a couple of hours, Maddy shoos you off to your own house-Mikhal is looking very tired and you realize that with little food and sleep for the past few days he must be exhausted.


Back in the shearers' quarters, Max and Stella call out to each other for a while before their voices go quiet and you slip off to sleep.  In the morning you will all travel to the mainland to take Mikhal to the police and to sort out a plan to get him home.


Before you leave the next morning, you run up the hill to find your camera but find that morning dew has interfered with the memory card, and there are no pictures.  You have an enjoyable holiday but you often get the feeling that if you had gone to get your camera that night you might have made an important discovery."


A Good Ending, but the animal smugglers and slavers are still active, and I don't have any tuatara photos.



Results So Far


5 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Once Upon an Island Alternate Endings Part 8


Going fishing in CHOICE #8 will be less eventful than the other routes, right?


One detail I forgot to mention earlier is this odd description of the area around Mikhal's shed:  "The plum trees have formed a tight forest around the side of the old house.  It reminds you of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty".  If it were a thicket of thorns, I could understand the comparison. . .


Stella and I enjoy the rock pools, especially the anemones eating fish.  Max warns us that rogue waves could carry us away.  We study the semaphore book because there's no cell phone reception on Arapawa Island.  Our fishing goes well, and Stella appreciates that I have blue cod in my bucket.


Max wants to climb the cliff and look for bird's nests, but Stella gives us an omen:  "That's a good way to get yourself killed".  CHOICE #12 is to either commit suicide by listening to Max, or go back to Maddy's house with our fish.


"With the bucket of fish tied beneath your backpack you feel for hand and foot holds, and slowly make your way up the cliff.  You catch up with Max and look up.  Way above you, at the top of the cliff, is a wire fence.  Maybe there is a sheep paddock and a different route back.  You hope so, because you don't want to have to climb back down this way.


Shrill squawking interrupts your thoughts.  A baby seagull sits inside a nest of grass and seaweed.  It seems to think you might have come to feed him.  Another noise brings your attention back to your climb.  A large seagull is squawking at Max and swooping so close to him that it looks like it will hit Max in the head!  Ouch!  It feels like stones are hitting the back of your head-another bird is attacking you!


It is almost impossible to shelter your head, but you tuck your face in against the cliff.  The gull lands on the bucket swinging beneath you.  It's after the fish!  As the bird propels itself skyward with a fish in its bill, it pushes the bucket behind your knees, your legs give way, and you hang for a moment from your hands.


You see the bird flying away triumphantly with a fish as you plummet to the rocks far below.  Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!"


The true number of "H"s in "Argh!" may not be the same as in the book.  Well, I did have this Death coming when I ignored Stella's advice. 


EDIT:  Going home with the fish leads to another CHOICE between the squid Death and going exploring, so I won't number that.  There's a page where Maddy talks about using semaphore flags without vowels, and Stella says "Um-that's called text messaging, Auntie".  Another "kids these days" joke you'd expect to see in a comic strip that ran out of ideas 30 years ago.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

3 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings