A story retold, The cloud who learned to hug.

(Inspired by a dream from Breeze)

 

Tiny cloud was small and thin.

At first he didn’t notice how small he was.  He dived and soared. When he tired of this he stopped and looked around him.

High above him large clouds rolled in an elegant and smooth fashion. They flowed through the sky.

He wished he  could dance like they could.

A cloud ducked low over the earth and  sat on a mountain.  He must be tired, Tiny cloud thought.

Then as tiny cloud watched the giant cloud hugged the mountain.

He felt sad.

“I want to learn to hug.” He  cried as he whizzed past his bigger friends.

“Slow down, enjoy” they whispered. “It will happen when it happens.”

He didn’t hear them.  “I want to be big and great” he sang.

He dived around the earth, wishing and hoping.

“I want to be big and great,” he shouted in his tiny voice.  No one heard  him.

He moved around the sky looking for clues.

He wanted to be bigger.  He was busy watching everyone else.

One day he realised he no longer soared and dived. He didn’t feel like playing and suddenly he noticed how small the birds, rabbits and trees below him looked.

“I like rolling,” he grumbled. “But I feel heavy.”

Tiny cloud began to sink, slowly at first, towards the earth.  He stopped over a mountain. He saw the stones and grass getting closer.

He wondered if he might swallow the mountain.  Suddenly he stopped grumbling and rolling.

He smiled. “I’m hugging a mountain.” He cried as the rain spilled from him.

With the rain gone, he felt light again. As he flew high into the sky to tell the other clouds he was singing, “I like hugging.”

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The kite with a sting in its tail

 

It was hot. There was not the sound of a single bee buzzing. The wood appeared to be empty of animals, and magical beings.

Breeze was on his way to the river. He wanted to paddle his feet. A loud rustle among the leaves above startled him. He spotted a long tail and wondered if it was a giant mouse. It darted away from him. Breeze followed. He ran from tree to tree, staring upwards. Suddenly he tripped. He hit the ground with a loud thump.

Breeze discovered he had fallen over Hamish.

“Have you no manners?” yelled Hamish. “What are you doing squishing Elves?”

Pulling himself to his feet, Breeze replied, “Sorry there is a giant mouse in the trees.”

“Don’t be silly. They live on the ground, not in trees.” Hamish lay back on his bed of moss. “Go away, it’s nap time.”

Breeze decided to leave because a grumpy elf is better left alone. He walked on looking for the mouse and Tulip stopped him to ask why he was looking upwards. He told her about the mouse.

“Lets look for it together.” She said and then they heard it.

When they looked high amongst the trees they spotted a tail with ribbons on it, in a tree.   “If it is not a mouse, what is it?”

Tulip said, “It’s a kite.” she said and flew high above him to release it.

The kite landed at his feet. “What does it do?”

“I’ll show you.” Tulip took the kite and flew a short distance away. The wind caught hold  and the kite flew after her, swooping and diving. With it’s long tail dancing in the wind, it attracted a lot of attention.

Mrs. Groundsel and her grandchildren came to watch the fun.

As the kite tumbled about in the air something strange happened.

Each time it danced in a certain direction so did everyone on the ground.

If the kite dived to earth, everyone watching fell to the ground.

When the kite flew high into the sky, then everyone jumped off the ground and they rose high into the air.

Lily, a tiny ogre, was screaming, “make it stop, I don’t like it.”

The kite began to dance as it moved.

“This is not funny.” Mrs Groundsel puffed as she jigged about.

“I think I know who did this.” Breeze said and marched into the wood.

Tulip couldn’t pull the kite down. It continued to dance in the sky. Everyone watching danced on the grass.

“I’m too old for this.” Mrs. Groundsel said.

Breeze arrived back with a squealing young witch called Lovisma, tucked under his right arm.

“Let me down you oaf.”

He plonked her on the ground, saying, “Lovisma, I’m not an oaf. I’m an ogre.”

Lovisma saw the dancing crowd before her. She cackled with delight. “Oh you do look funny. My friends would love to see this.”

Breeze said,  “make it stop or I will lock you in with Hamish’s pet skunk, Smelly.”

“No, No, No.  You can’t. He stinks.”

“Why shouldn’t we? You have been nasty.” Breeze said.

“You are nice.” She looked at her feet. “You don’t do stuff like that.”

Breeze said, “Lovisma, make it stop.”

She clicked her fingers and the kite raced landed on the ground. Everyone sat for a rest.

“You are one mean witch,” Tulip said.

“But it was funny, wasn’t it?” Lovisma whispered.  “It wasn’t that nasty. Maybe I should try it in another part of the wood and tell my friends to come watch.”

Breeze said, “No you won’t.”

Lovisma trudged away saying, “Breeze is an oaf, a big spoilsport oaf.”

Everyone shouted after her, “No he is an Ogre!”

 

 

Snippet of a story in progress

I will tell you a little about The Munchin Family (this is me, below telling the story)

 

The Munchin family are like their home,  unusual.

Their house is not made of bricks or timber. It is made from steel. Knowing this the sun loves to dance about it. It stays for a while playing and bouncing off the Munchin house sending dazzling rays of light flying about the street.

Once you step through the doorway you will notice that everything (you sit on, eat out of. or sleep on) is made from steel or metal. Because of this, it is a noisy house.

The Munchin family love visitors and hurry to introduce themselves.

Granddad Munchin is tall. His hair is thick and white as snow. His beard is so long he wears it like a scarf on cold winter  days. His smile is toothless.  ‘I had all my teeth removed when I was eleven to help me look normal.’ He explains this to you as his eyes roll continuously about like a hamster on a revolving wheel. His false teeth spend most of their time in his shirt pocket.

Father Munchin is big and jolly with the most enormous looking teeth. ‘Hi’ he smiles puffing his large stomach out before him. ‘I’m proud of these gnashers.’ And to prove it he snaps them together rather like a shark. Unlike Granddad, Father Munchin has not one tiny hair on his shining round head.

Mother Munchin is a roly-poly woman who smiles a lot. Her eyes are so blue you find yourself staring into them as you would into the bright ocean.  When she meets you she always waves her wooden spoon asking, ‘Will you stay for lunch?’

If I were a visitor I would decline.

Why?

The answer is simple – because it is the most terrifying event to watch. As soon as she yells, ‘Ready, come and get it!’Her two children race into the room to join the adults. Within a minute the entire table is stripped bare, not a lettuce leaf remains or as much as a pinch of salt. So if you value your fingers, do not stay for lunch!

 

3rd June – day to be remembered.

It was the 3rd day of June. Breeze remembered this the moment he woke. The reason why was simple. It was his birthday.

He fell out of his broken rickity bed, got dressed in a hurry singing happy birthday to me. He raced into his kitchen and stopped.

The kitchen table was bare. There was not one gift sitting on it. He felt sad.”No one has remembered.” He muttered as he made his breakfast of oatmeal, apples and fresh spring water.

After eating he felt a little better, perhaps they left it outside, he thought. He peeped out his cave door and saw nothing.  He checked under every bush and shrub on the steep mountain path. He got to the wood and checked the path into the wood. There was nothing. Not one thing dangling from a branch not a muffin or a cupcake. No sandwishes for me today, he thought and decided he should go for a nap.

 

On the way to the tree he met a rabbit called Bucket. “Please help me I’ve lost one of my children.”

“Which one?” Breeze asked but the rabbit was running away shouting, “I’ll check the rabbit tunnels you checkout the pathways.”

Breeze walked the whole way around the wood, he didn’t find one young rabbit. He thought it rather strange that he did not meet one of anything. “Stranger and stranger,” he muttered.

Then he spotted Bucket  running and hopping towards the mountain. He decided to follow him.

As Breeze climbed he began to suspect he was having a dream. It was the first time in his life when he had not been greeted by many animals and beings singing “Happy Birthday” when he entered the wood.

“I might as well go home and bake my own cake,” he mumbled.

At the entrance to the cave he stopped and sniffed the air. There was a strange smell of sugar and a whiff of what he suspected was sandwishes. “Wishful thinking,” he said and trudged into the kitchen.

“Happy Birthday” The roar from his friends made him jump. He banged his head off the stone ceiling. The mountain shook. Maisie who had accompanied the witches fell into the bowl of birthday orange juice and had to be fished out by Elegant using her wand.  Mrs. Groundsel who had fallen asleep on Breeze’s chair woke when the chair toppled over. Luckily she landed on Lovisma.

Breeze stood rubbing his head and smiling. He began to chuckle. “I thought you forgot.”

Tulip flew up to him, “Of course we didn’t but we needed to get your present ready. Look.”

Breeze looked. “You baked. It is the largest cake I have ever seen. Thank you everyone.”

Hamish was rubbing his back. “It is the heaviest cake I have ever carried. I’m not carrying it back. Let’s eat.”

Breeze frowned then asked. “But why did you need me out of here?”

Everyone moved aside to reveal a brand new giant bed made out of a fallen beech tree.

Breeze didn’t know what to say, luckily Lillian and Lovisma knew what to do, they both clambered onto the bed.

“It’s really bouncy.” They said and they showed how bouncy the thick layer of moss was as they did tumbles and rolls on it.

Breeze thanked everyone and said, “It’s my birthday, lets enjoy the party.” And they did.