The first 10 pages of Taco Jones and the Amazing Three

Greetings! I’m so glad you can join me for this story. There are so many other options to choose from, but it warms my heart that you decided to join me on this little adventure. Anyway, I should get started, shouldn’t I? Well then let’s begin! Are you sitting comfortably? I wouldn’t want you to get a back cramp while I tell this. And you ate today right? And drank water? Oh! And if you need to go to the bathroom, feel free to do so anytime, I’ll be here when you get back. Alright, enough stalling, I know I should get on with this. Well then let’s begin!

This is a story about many things, but most of all, it’s about love. Love can do many things, it can bring us together, inspire us to help others, and bring us to new lands. Love can drive away the darkest monsters and bring peace to the world. But love can also tear us apart, it can make us cry and want to rip our hearts out. In some ways, love can even drive us to do terrible things and hurt others, even our friends. Love takes many shapes and forms and almost nothing about it remains the same over time. But the one thing that will always be true is that love is powerful and can do powerful things. Allow me to tell you a tale of that power, the tale of Taco Jones and the Amazing Three. 

To start things off, Taco Jones was a taco. I know, funny right? A walking, talking taco with eyes and a mouth, running around, doing taco things. Isn’t that silly? Well, in the land of Ravlore, it wasn’t silly, as all the citizens were living objects like Taco Jones. There was Brick James who taught at the school, his lessons were tough but he did care for all his students. There was also Triangle Friend, the local gardener who tended to the flowers around the village. Isn’t that lovely. Jeff the Bull, he was pretty mean. I wonder why? What’s his story? I suppose some people are just mean. Oh right! This isn’t about him, it’s about Taco Jones! 

Taco Jones, or TJ as his friends called him, lived in the village, mostly hanging around and sightseeing. TJ was a dreamer, with his head always in the clouds imagining a land far away. The other villagers were often confused by TJ and how he could be so lost in his own head… well, shell… lettuce? Anyway, the other villagers would whisper things about TJ behind his back, about how he was always drawing out in the field, how Burrito Beth can do better than him and how his decisions came from his heart more than his brain. Isn’t that just mean? He was different, but he wasn’t hurting anyone. I’m going too much in detail, I think you’ll learn exactly who Taco Jones is and why he does what he does as we continue our little adventure. 

It was a normal day in the village of Ravlore...well as normal as a village with a salt shaker as mayor could be. That was, until the evil beasts from the dark realm began to attack again. The beasts were mostly purple blobs with sharp claws and glowing red eyes, sometimes two, mostly more. They often came into the village to attack the residents and destroy their property. No one in Ravlore seemed to know where they came from, they just seemed to appear out of nowhere. Taco Jones was simply enjoying the day, sitting beside a tree looking up at the sky. Daydreaming, as he often did. Suddenly, he heard a strange sound from behind him. Could something have fallen out of the tree? Was Burrito Beth coming up behind to surprise him? TJ sprang to his feet and looked behind the tree to the source of the sound. Unfortunately, it wasn’t his girlfriend waiting to have a surprise picnic, far from it. It was three beasts, quickly making their way towards Taco Jones. 

“Uh oh” TJ said in surprise. 

Thinking quickly, Taco Jones picked up a stick and held it as if it were a mighty sword. 

“Stay back! I’m warning you! I don’t know how to use this but I can probably figure it out as I go!” 

Taco Jones attempted to do a cool twirl with the stick trying to scare away the beasts, but he ended up hitting himself in the shell. Too bad, it would've been cool to watch him succeed. Knowing now that he didn’t stand a chance against three beasts, Taco Jones began running into town to try to get some help. 

“Help! The beasts are out again!” Taco Jones shouted as he ran into the town center. 

“The beasts!? Again?!” Plugger asked in shock. 

“That’s the third time this week. This is becoming too much to handle!” Dropford replied. 

The rest of the townspeople began panicking, running inside and locking their doors as the beasts continued to chase after TJ. Just as he was about to turn a corner, Jones slipped on a pebble and fell to the ground. The beast began to slowly lurch forward at Taco Jones as he continued to beg for help. 

All seems pretty dire right now, doesn’t it? TJ watched as the three beasts began circling around him, almost taunting him. 

‘Somebody has to do something’ he thought. 

But don’t worry, because Ravlore had heroes of its own, and it just so happens that they are the other half of the title. 

“Amazing Three! Unite!” Circle Guy shouted as he jumped from a rooftop just before jumping down and landing a fiery punch on the beast just in front of TJ. The mighty blow caused the beast to disappear in a puff of smoke. 

“Nothing to worry about, citizen” he said heroically

That’s all fine, but there were still two beasts getting closer and closer to Taco Jones and Circle Guy. Circle Guy was good at hand to hand combat, no, he was the best in all of Ravlore! But it would be hard for him to win a two on one battle. 

Suddenly, a blast of fire zoomed through the alley and hit one of the other beasts, causing it to poof into smoke like the other one. Taco Jones quickly turned his shell to see where the blast came from. He then saw the source, Burrito Beth, mage of the Amazing Three, rushing to the scene, her long pointed hat swaying as she ran. 

“Sweetheart, are you hurt?” Beth asked as she darted towards TJ’s side. 

“Y-yes...I think I scraped my knee,” Taco Jones replied. 

“I believe I have just the thing for that” an elegant voice said, also dashing in. 

This was Bimmy, the fancy octopus and healer of the Amazing Three. Just as quickly as the other two had acted, Bimmy reached into his top hat and pulled out a cup of tea on a small plate. I guess he just had that in there the whole time? Seems like it should’ve spilled and burnt the top of his head as he was running. Well, I am talking about a walking octopus with a handlebar mustache and a monocle here so I suppose we should just expect anything at this point. 

Bimmy gently handed the cup to Taco Jones who promptly drank it. Right away, the scrape on his knee healed up. 

“Thank you!” Taco Jones said enthusiastically. 

“Don’t relax quite yet” Burrito Beth interrupted “we’ve still got one more”  

The remaining beast began to slowly make its way toward the trio, its ooze creating a slimy trail behind it. Quickly, Bimmy pulled two more cups of tea out of his hat...how does he keep all of those in there? 

“Circle Guy, Burrito Beth! Drink this, it will strengthen your next attack” he said, handing the cups to his allies. 

“Thanks, Bimmy, we couldn’t do this without you” Beth said before guzzling down the elixir. 

“No time for talking! We need to take this one down! Now!” Circle Guy replied rather rudely as he slurped down the tea. 

Right after gaining the strength boost from the tea, Circle Guy and Burrito Beth rushed towards the remaining beast. Beth held her staff out and fired off an ice spell just before Circle Guy could deliver a devastating punch to the creature. Upon contact with Circle Guy’s fist the beast burst into shards of ice that drifted gently to the ground, like snowflakes in the winter. The Amazing Three had saved the day! 

Taco Jones picked himself up and began profusely thanking The Amazing Three for saving their life. 

“Omigosh, that was so cool! The way it seemed so hopeless at first and then you swooped in like ‘Amazing Three Assemble!’ and then you came in with your spells and stuff and then…” 

“It’s all in a day’s work of The Amazing Three” Circle Guy said rather abruptly before striking a heroic pose. 

Burrito Beth immediately ran past Circle Guy, not giving one care to his stoicism, and towards Taco Jones. 

“So, what happened? Do you know why those things were attacking?” she asked. 

“I’m not sure, I was just sitting by a tree and they just popped out of nowhere”. 

“Hmmm” Bimmy chimed in “these attacks are becoming far more frequent. Quite a shame that we aren’t The Amazing Four any more. I think we could really use some help from…” 

Circle Guy cut Bimmy off. 

“He made his choice. And it’s no matter, there’s no conflict we three can’t solve!” 

“Alright...but he could have built something to maybe help track the beats?” Beth replied. 

Circle Guy’s calm and heroic demeanor quickly faded, giving way to a sort of annoyance. 

“I don’t want to hear about him anymore, ok? As far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t exist”.

Taco Jones could sense that this was an issue within the Amazing Three that he had no part in and felt very awkward standing around. 

“Alright...well I’m just gonna go home now and…” 

TJ turned around and began to walk away. But as soon as he did so, he saw a strange creature inspecting the ice shards from the last beast. The Amazing Three all turned to see the figure as well. 

The creature was kneeling down, holding the shard in their three fingers. Despite being crouched down, they were much taller than any of the villagers in Ravlore. They were wearing long dark robes and a cloak with a hood over their face. Long blue pointed ears poked through holes in the side of the hood. Some sort of light was emanating from their hand as they held the shard. 

“Well...that’s a new one” Circle guy said, breaking the silence “We need to take it out now before it hurts Jones or anyone else!”

The Amazing Three began to slowly approach this strange creature. The creature turned its head to the three and began to stand up. At full height, the creature stood about four villagers tall. After looking at the three approaching it, the creature raised their hands up. 

Taco Jones found this odd, but strangely familiar. The way the creature raised its arms made it seem like they were trying to show that they meant no harm. Could this thing be...intelligent?

“It’s preparing a spell! Attack it now!” Circle Guy shouted. 

Just as the three were about to attack, it hit Taco Jones. He’d just seen this scenario play out in front of him. Three creatures moving toward one helpless being, confused, scared. It was what just happened to him just a moment ago, but this time, The Amazing Three were the monsters. 

Before TJ could think about what he was doing, he ran in front of the creature to defend them against The Amazing Three, against his friends. 

“Wait! Stop! They’re not hurting anyone!” He shouted. 

The Amazing Three stopped. 

“Jones! Please, we’re trying to protect you from that...that thing!” Circle Guy shouted. 

“No, he’s right! I mean you no harm!” a high-pitched voice cried out from behind TJ. 

Slowly, TJ turned around to try to find the source of the voice. The creature then lowered themselves trying to make eye contact with Taco Jones. Then, they took their hood off, revealing a smooth, light blue face with bright green eyes and two small tusks poking out from their lower jaw, like the boars living in town. The creature’s light green and white hair went down to their shoulders and framed their face. The creature then began to speak, revealing that the high-pitched voice belonged to them. They gave Taco Jones a very gentle smile. 

“My name is Mirror. What’s yours?” the creature asked. 

“I...I’m Taco Jones”. 

“Well, Taco Jones, I need your help”. 

Taco Jones and the Amazing Three is still unpublished and unrepresented.

Please reach out if you are looking to get involved in this project!

spencerpalko@gmail.com