Short Stories

For someone who is just 15 cms tall, a human bed can be a problem. It is easy enough to get off; you just need to jump, but it can hurt if you don’t land properly. The real problem is getting back onto the bed again. Before jumping off, I always try to make sure some bedclothes are hanging down low enough for me to climb back up again. Mary is very helpful and tries to remember to do this when she makes her bed.

Last week, Mary and her mother went out for the day, so along with my friend Gerald Giraffe, we decided to go up the attic stairs and see what we could find in the scary space under the roof. The stairs are old and very high for a small person, which is why we had never explored there before, so we took some Lego bricks from the toy cupboard to make some extra steps. It took more than one hour to manage the stairs, and we needed to rest when we reached the old door into the attic itself.

The door was very heavy, but Gerald and I managed to push it open enough for us to enter. I made sure to push a piece of wood I found under the door so it couldn’t close again - I remembered a similar adventure I had in a house I used to live in, when we found a teddy who had got himself locked in the attic for years.
It was very dark and hard to see anything, but Gerald had thought to bring a torch. He switched it on to reveal just a large, almost empty space. We were very disappointed, having hoped for treasure, but we headed into the room to see what we could find anyway.

There were some boxes and trunks by the sides, but at the far end was a large doll’s house which we ran over to. The front of the house was open, and I was small enough to get inside once I squashed myself down a bit. Gerald, being much taller, examined the top floor. “Come and see this,” he said. “At the back of this room.”
I pulled myself back out of the room I was in and tried to stretch high enough to see, without any success. “Get on my back,” Gerald suggested. He bent his legs so I could scramble on, and then stood up so I could now see into the room he was telling me about. At the back of the room was a window, and through the opening, I could see what looked like hills covered in purple grass.

“That’s crazy,” I said. “Let me see if I can get into the room and have a closer look.” Gerald lowered his neck so I could use it as a bridge and I managed to squeeze into the room up to the window. “The window doesn’t open,” I called back to Gerald. “But there are some bright orange sheep wandering across the hills as well. And I can see a castle in the distance.”
“Can we get behind the doll’s house?” Gerald suggested. “Maybe we can go and explore.”

I crawled out of the room and back onto Gerald’s back from where he lowered me down to the ground. The doll’s house was pressed hard against the rear wall of the attic but between us we were able to pull on one side of the house until there was a large enough gap behind it for us to see in. I must admit I was a little nervous, I had never seen such strange colours for grass and sheep before.

What we found was a hole in the wall, through which we could see this strange place. A few more pulls on the house allowed us to get behind it and go to the hole. It was quite large, easily big enough for us to step through, although Gerald had to duck his head as he led the way.

“Stop!” I called as his head went through the hole. “Your head has changed colour, you’ve turned green.”

He pulled his head back, and it returned to its normal colour again. He lifted one of his legs and held it through the hole so he could see it as it changed colour. “This is weird,” he said. “But at least it doesn’t seem to be permanent, like those pens we played with the other week. We got into a lot of trouble then.” I remembered Mary’s face when she saw how we had accidentally got some of the pen on our fur. It had taken ages to get it off.

I tried putting an arm through the hole, and it too changed colour, but this time to a bright red. I pulled it back, and it returned to my normal colour again. “Well,” I said. “Do we risk going in?”

“If I go in on my own first, and then come back,” Gerald suggested. “If there is a problem, at least you will be out here and can get help.” He stepped right through the hole, and I could see his colour change to green again.

I could see him walk around a little, then turn back towards me, but he looked puzzled, as if he was lost. I put my arm through the hole, and I could see him come to me and hold my arm as he came back through the hole.

“Once I was through the hole, I couldn’t see it from the other side,” he told me. “All I could see was a wall with no opening at all. I am so glad you thought to put your arm through so I could find my way back.”

“I’m not sure we should go through again,” I said. “What if we had both gone through and never found our way back again?”

“Maybe we should talk to Mary first,” Gerald said. “Then if she knows where we are going, she can come and get us if we get lost.”

“But she could never fit through the hole,” I pointed out."

“But she could put a stick through, and we would see that, just like I saw your arm.”

So we agreed to head back to Mary’s bedroom and tell her when she returned with her mother later. We only got back there a few minutes before we heard them come in, and Mary rushed upstairs to see us.

The Plan

We told Mary about what we had found in the attic and how we needed to make a plan so we could go into the strange land, but be sure we could return safely. Mary told us that her mother didn’t want her to go into the attic because it was very dusty and the dust would upset her asthma. But she knew we really wanted to explore, so she agreed to help us work out a plan to keep us safe.

“Why don’t you tie a piece of string to something in the attic and then tie the other end to one of you so you can follow the string back to find the hole again?” she suggested.
We both agreed that this was a good plan, and Mary went to fetch some string for us. “When will you go?” she asked them.

“We could go tonight while you are asleep,” Gerald suggested.

“But it will be dark,” Mary told him. “But who knows what it will be in that strange place you have found. Perhaps you should go and see, but don’t go in if it is dark, or you could easily get lost.”

It was hard waiting for night to come, but in the end it did, and we set off, back up the attic stairs, using the steps we had made earlier to help us and with the very long piece of string in Gerald’s pocket. Once in the attic, we could see light coming from the hole, and we knew we would be starting our adventure that night.

Between us, we managed to tie one end of the string to the doll’s house and the other end to Gerald. Mary had given us another shorter piece, which we used to tie us together, so I couldn’t get lost. Having checked that the knots were tight, I stepped through the hole, closely followed by Gerald. Looking around, I could see that the hole had disappeared, but the string was still clearly visible, and I felt happy that I could find my way back.

We hadn't gone far into this strange land when we heard a noise coming from a purple bush. On looking closer, we could see a young elf sitting under the bush, crying. Unlike the elves we had met in the past, this young one was bright purple, but in this place, perhaps that was normal.

He looked up when he heard us approach. "What's wrong?" Gerald offered. "Can we help?"

"My parents have been locked up, and I don't know what to do," he told us.

We sat down beside him. "Perhaps you had best tell us all about it," I suggested. "I'm James, by the way, and my friend is Gerald."

He stopped crying. "I'm called Gardell. A few weeks ago, a group of nasty trolls arrived here. One of them, their leader, was really horrible and he has forced everyone to do as he says. We are a peaceful people and had no way to defend ourselves. My father tried to stand up to them and organised a group to try to fight back, but last night two of the monsters arrived and took both my mum and my dad away."

"Do you know where they took them?" I asked him.

"I did follow them, and they went to that castle over there," he replied. "They have dungeons underneath."

"Something has been puzzling me," Gerald said. "I thought trolls turned to stone in daylight. Am I wrong?"

"I thought they did as well, I think that's why they changed the colour of everything," Gardell told us. "They came at night, locked our leaders up, and by the morning the colours had all changed."

"So, as well as finding your parents, we need to get the colours back to what they should be," I said. "I think we start with finding your parents. Gardell, I think you should stay here for now, and once we have your parents safe, we will be back with them."

Gerald and I headed towards the castle, keeping as hidden as we could by the bushes and trees that were growing there. Soon, we were near enough to see two trolls by the front entrance, obviously guarding it. Our string safety line was getting to the end now, so we untied it from us and tied it to a tree so we would know where it was when we returned. We then made our way around the outside of the castle, looking for any way we might be able to sneak in. At the rear of the castle, they had been careless, and a window had been left open.

"It will be safer if only one of us goes in," I said. " I'm the smallest, so I'll go in, and you can keep watch."

Gerald helped me up to the window, and I climbed in. It was a kitchen, and I could see a very large stew pot hanging above an open fire. It gave me an idea. I searched through the cupboards and found what I was looking for: a large quantity of mushrooms. Now, mushrooms are fine to eat for most people, but I knew that if a troll ate one, they would soon fall into a very deep sleep. I tipped them all into the stew, stirred the pot, and headed back out of the window to Gerald. After I told him what I had done, we made our way back around to the front entrance just in time to see someone bring out large bowls of the stew to the guards. Ten minutes later, they were both fast asleep.

"Now's our chance," I said, and we came out of hiding and walked to the castle and in through the doors. We soon found the stairs leading down into the dungeons and headed down. It was dark and damp, and I admit I was a little afraid, even though the Trolls should all be asleep by now. Each cell door had a window, and we soon found where Gardell's parents were. Again, luck was on our side; there was only a bolt locking the door, which we quickly slid open. We introduced ourselves and told them that Gardell was fine and we could take them to him.

"There's something I need to do first," his father, who told us he was called Maihal, said. "I need to get the colours back to how they should be before any trolls catch us."
I explained about the mushrooms, and he relaxed. "So we have some time. I wonder if one of you could take Shonal to our son while I work on restoring the colours." Gerald offered to take Shonal, and I went with Maihal to see how the colours could be changed back. I was very curious; I had always assumed that the colours in nature were fixed.

We were all very glad to be out of the dungeons. Gerald and Shonal went out through the front gates, pleased to see the guards still fast asleep. Maihal led me along a corridor and into what looked like a laboratory. "I was involved in creating this lab," he told me. "The light here used to be of a colour that plants were not very happy with, so we created this machine to change it slightly. Just enough to make things grow better. We never expected it to be used against us like this."

Maihal quickly adjusted some of the controls, and I could see through the window that the sky was now a bright blue and the grass was green. We left the room again, and Maihal locked the door. "I know it won't stop a massive troll from bashing it down, if there are still any around," he said.

"Hopefully, they will all become stone once they get into the light again," I agreed as we left the castle. The two guards had already turned to stone, we were pleased to see.

"How did you and your friend get here?" Maihal asked. I explained how we had discovered the hole in the attic wall. "When I was small, I was told that there used to be a tunnel between your world and ours," he went on to tell me. "We elves were always visiting your lands and helping out, although we always stayed hidden. But it seems that it was your turn to help us this time." He laughed. "We must see if we can find what happened to the tunnel, it would be easier for you to visit us. And I would love to see your world as well."

"The hole we came through can only be seen from the other side," I told him. "From this side, it just looks like a solid wall. Maybe the tunnel is the same?"

I took Maihal to where we had tied the string, and with it firmly attached to me, we made our way to find the others. Gardell and Shonal were delighted to see us. "It's so good to see everything back to normal," Shonal said, looking out across the green hills.

We followed the string back to the wall and showed our new friends how we could go through the hole, even though it was completely invisible. Maihal said again that he would try to find the tunnel that used to connect our worlds, but asked us to come and visit them as soon as we could. He pointed across the fields to a house in the distance. "That is where we live," he told us. "You are always very welcome there."

Gerald and I stepped through the hole and hurried back to Mary's bedroom. She was still asleep, so we had to wait a little while before we could tell her about the adventure we had just had.