Two New Fairytales
By James Eddy
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Copyright 2012 James Eddy
Cover Credits: George Eddy
Used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.
Cover Design: Lauren Bathurst and James Eddy
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Published in the United Kingdom.
For L.B
Dedicated to Bert and Rudy
Contents
Word Queen
Black Eye
About James Eddy
About Youngblood Books
Word Queen
Flora the Panda lived in a village in the middle of a forest. It was a pretty village, filled with every kind of bear you could possibly imagine. There were grizzly bears brown bears, polar bears and even koala bears but poor Flora was the only panda.
Of course that made her very special, but it also made her feel quite lonely. You see, it was also very quiet in the village because Flora and the other bears didn't know how to talk.
That was why she often wandered out into the forest to listen to all the wonderful noises she heard there. She loved the sounds made by the leaves on the trees as the breeze blew. That wasn't her favourite sound though. What she loved the most were the noises coming from the river that was in the middle of the forest.
More and more often, Flora would lie down by the riverbank just to relax and listen. She soon found that the sound of leaves, the roar of running water, the splashes and the bubbling had become her friends. And when she was with her new friends, Flora felt much less alone.
It still seemed like there was something missing. As she stared across the river, she wondered what was on the other side. Flora stood with all her favourite noises and she was sure she heard them telling her to go and find out.
So, that's exactly what she did and it wasn't long before she reached the other side. She shook the water out of her fur and noticed how quiet everything had become. She shook herself again to try to get any water out of her ears. It didn't do any good though. The quietness of her village had returned.
That was when she saw something that looked interesting. It was a path through the forest and Flora wanted to know where it would take her. So, she followed the way that was laid out for her and soon found that it was the quickest and easiest way out of the forest.
When all the trees were behind her, she only saw two things ahead. The first was a wooden sign attached to a post, with nothing written or drawn onto it. The other thing was three letters, an ‘F’, an ‘O’ and an ‘R’, all lying together on the ground. Flora stared very closely at the letters and tried to make sense of these odd things she'd never seen before.
Then something strange happened. Suddenly, Flora started to understand. From out of nowhere a sound took shape in her mouth. Forming from her breath, she read the word:
“For.”
In an instant, the letters jumped upright.
“Thank you, I am at your service,” said the word, “You must be Flora.”
She thought that must be right, so she nodded her head.
“Yes?” asked ‘For’.
“Yes,” Flora replied.
“Good. I have been waiting for you. I am here to show you all around Paardvarkanda Land.”
“Paardvarkanda Land,” Flora repeated to herself.
As her words reached the air, the wooden sign she'd seen earlier changed. The words, ‘Paardvarkanda Land,’ were painted onto it.
“Shall we be on our way then?” the word asked her.
“Yes,” the panda replied.
So off they went, with ‘For’ bouncing along a letter at a time and telling Flora that Paardvarkanda Land was where all the different types of words and letters came from. All these words were broken up into groups and each group lived somewhere in the Kingdom. They had never mixed with each other though, and that was why Paardvarkanda Land was so empty and quiet.
“I think the first place I'll show you is Noun Town,” ‘For’ told Flora, “That's where all the nouns and pronouns live.”
“Nouns and pronouns?” she said.
“Yes that’s right... Different words do different things when they're spoken or written down. Nouns are words that describe a person, place, thing or idea. And pronouns are their friends who sometimes replace the nouns to stop them getting tired from being used too often.”
Flora didn't understand what any of this meant and it was lucky that, ‘For’ quickly realised that.
“Things will become much clearer when you see them," It told her.
The words of the word made Flora feel a little better. She didn't have to wait long to find out what those words meant either. The two of them were soon walking and bouncing past a sign that read, ‘Noun Town’.
When ‘For’ stopped, the panda did too. What she saw then was lots and lots of words all over the ground. But that was all. There were no houses or roads or trees in the town.
She still wanted a closer look and so she walked over to one of the words and read it out loud:
“Dog?” she said.
An actual dog appeared in the spot that the word had been and Flora knew what she had to do. She read every single word in the town that she could find and made all of them come to life. She managed to fill Noun Town with people, houses, trees, animals and schools.
The town became a normal town but with one major difference. Everything was completely still because none of the nouns could do anything. There was no speaking, running, walking or smiling. The people, the animals and other things simply waited in their places.
“That’s the thing you see,” ‘For’ told her, “Nouns don't actually do anything. They just are what they are and that's it... If you want to see some action then you'll have to see the verbs. Those are the action or doing words and they live in the Verb Village. It’s not too far, if you want to go.”
Flora liked that idea and so she waved goodbye to Noun Town and made her way to the Verb Village.
When she arrived, she discovered lots of new words. They were doing all kinds of amazing things really quickly but for no real reason. This is because without the things that nouns describe, doing words have little use.
Of course, Flora had no idea of this and was much too busy reading the verbs to worry. Not that it was an easy thing to do. Lots of the verbs wouldn't stay still enough to be read. ‘Stand’, ‘giggle’, ‘smile’, ‘see’ and ‘remember’ were easy enough to get hold of, but others like ‘run’, ‘jump’, ‘leap’ and ‘love’ were much trickier. Flora wouldn't give up though and eventually she managed to read them all.
Saying the names of verbs made the words disappear into the air, never to be seen again. Flora had no idea wher
e they'd gone. She had no idea that the effects of what she said were already spreading far beyond the Verb Village.
Soon enough, the men, women, children, animals and other things from Noun Town arrived. Each of them had come to life when Flora said the verbs. And by doing this they had finally given those verbs a real purpose.
The panda thought this was a very good thing indeed. At the same time though, she could tell there was still more to do. Soon enough, ‘For’ told her:
“There is another type of word that you need to see and understand. You actually need words that describe nouns and the people, places, things and ideas they stand for. Those words are known as adjectives. Then there are adverbs, which are very similar to adjectives except they describe verbs and actions instead of nouns”.
“So are we looking for another town or village then?” Flora asked with a smile.
“No,” the word said, “We have to go to the castle.”
“All right,” said Flora, “And where exactly is this castle?”
‘For’ didn't have to answer. A huge stone building appeared in front of them and Flora knew exactly where she had to go.
She walked towards the castle and as she walked, the sun slowly started to set in the sky. She thought what she saw was ‘Beautiful’ and the first words it made her think and feel were the describing words she'd been told about. It made her ‘happy’, ‘energetic’ and ‘enthusiastic’, instead of ‘sad’, ‘lazy’ and ‘bored’. She looked around at the people, animals and things and she suddenly realised there was more to what they were doing than she'd thought. They were all running, walking, skipping and jumping but she could see that they were also using the adverbs, the describing part of those actions. They were moving, ‘happily’, ‘awkwardly’, ‘crazily’, ‘daringly’, ‘easily’, ‘joyfully’, ‘pleasantly’, ‘sadly’, ‘sweetly’ or ‘quickly’.
Even though she was happy to see these things, Flora started to think about her old home in the forest and she wished she could tell the other bears what she'd learned. But there was no need for her to feel like this. Words and sounds had already spread all the way back there and the bears had also learned their wonderful effects.
All the bears from her village actually arrived at the castle in time for Flora to find two new words that had been hidden away and needed to be read. Both words were nouns and were very important.‘Throne’ and ‘Crown’ were laying on the ground waiting for the panda to make them real. Flora said both words and they sprang to life. Perfectly pretty in purple and gold.
All Paardvarkanda Land didn't have then was someone to sit on the soft velvet throne and wear the sparkling crown. The problem was that Flora couldn't see a word for who that person might be.
That was when everyone and everything in the castle, that had a voice, decided to tell her the truth that they already knew. All at once, they happily told her, “It's you.”
She looked at ‘For’, since that word had taught her so much and had never steered her wrong. It only confirmed what they'd said:
“It is true. The throne and the crown are both reserved for a Queen... And that's what you've become. All you need to do is say the word ‘Queen’ and you will see.”
So Flora said the word and the next thing she knew, she was sitting on the throne with the glittering crown on top of her head. Sounds and words filled the air of Paardvarkanda Land and she finally knew what it meant to be happy. Flora the panda had found the place she needed to be because she had truly become the Queen of all words.
****
Black Eye