Short Story – Dino – Story – Strange Shrews

This is really the second part of my short story from this series for children called Battle . In this stage there is a scene with a made up language, checking the story through just now, I am so not sure about it now, but like I said earlier, everything in writing is a learning experience, I think (for now) I’ll leave the made up language in but suspect it may be my only ever scene with a made up language!

Dino-story – Strange Shrews 

The night after Acorn and Twig escaped from the Raptor Queen’s cage was a wonderful night. Although still far from home (they had just made it to the edge of the forest before night fell) it felt good to be back amongst the leaves and the trees, to feel the moss on their backs. Acorn especially, who had been in the cage longer than Twig was incredibly excited. He gorged himself on nuts and berries and rolled around in the fallen leaves.  

When they finally fell back happy and exhausted in an empty knot hole they had found in a tree. Twig turned to Acorn “So are you going to tell me how you ended up in that cage, big brother?” 

But Acorn sleepily shook his head “I’m tired little brother, we’ve got a long journey ahead of us, plenty of time for story telling.” 

Acorn and Twig curled up together in the tree hole and had the best nights sleep both of them had had in a long time. When the sun rose and it’s rays tickled Twig awake, Twig found that Acorn was no longer there. Twig paniced, he could not of lost his brother already? Twig looked out of the hole and breathed a sigh of relief, Acorn was sitting outside on a branch looking over this strange new forest. The expression on Acorn’s face though was one Twig had never seen before, Acorn looked serious and worried, it was like his brother had grown up whilst he was away. 

“Acorn? Are you ok?” 

Acorn, whose mind had been wondering else where was shocked into the present by Twig’s voice, he shook his head as if to shake whatever he was thinking about out of his mind and then smiled “I’m fine little brother. I’m just planning our route home, it’s a long journey and we better get going soon. We’ll find some berries on the way.” 

With that, Acorn and Twig started their long trek through the forest, forever climbing upwards knowing that their forest was on the other side of the valley slopes. Whilst they walked Twig tried to talk, keen to hear of his brother’s adventures. 

“So you must know this forest like the back of your paw then Acorn?” 

“I know up the hill means home Twig, other than that it’s a big forest” 

Twig, feeling brave and confident in the presence of his brother asked him if he had seen any of the tree monsters they had heard tales about as they grew up.

Acorn laughed, somewhat nervously “No, no tree monsters, little brother”.

Twig glanced across at Acorn, what wasn’t he telling him? Twig spent the rest of that day’s journey peering more cautiously through the branches and the undergrowth but the day’s journey was completed uneventfully. Acorn and Twig found another knot hole to sleep in that night but they were woken in the dead of night by a strange eerie cry. Twig was confused at first, not sure why he wasn’t in his comfy hollow at home but Acorn sat bolt upright, yanking Twig into full consciousness.

“Twig! Twig! Wake up! We have to get out of here now! I knew we shouldn’t of slept in this tree!” 

With that Acorn pulled Twig out of the knot hole, Twig, confused about what they were running from made to run along the nearest branch, hoping to be able to make it to the next tree but Acorn held him back. 

“We’ll be safer on the ground!” shouted Acorn above the increasing loud cry arising from the trees around them. 

Twig looked at Acorn, now even more confused, to a Shrew trees always meant safety and they tried to avoid the ground if they could. 

“Trust me! We have to get out of these trees” yelled Acorn. 

Acorn’s head suddenly turned to the right, Twig followed his gaze, a shadow had moved in the darkness, getting closer. 

Acorn grabbed Twig by the paw “Run now!” 

Acorn and Twig hurtled head down along the tree trunk, swerving this way and that to avoid the branches, the ground invisible in the darkness below as more dark shapes rustled amongst the branches, that eerie cry all around them. Suddenly there was the ground rushing up at them, they jumped the last metre and as their paws landed in the soft leaf litter, the eerie cry stopped. 

Twig and Acorn paused, catching their breath, Acorn gasped “They got what they wanted”. 

“Who?” cried Twig. 

“We haven’t got time to talk. I’ll explain at daylight but for now we have to keep running!” and grabbing Twig’s paw again they raced off climbing further up the hill towards safety. 

It was difficult trying to hold paws together, running along the bumpy, slippy forest floor and Acorn and Twig soon settled into just running alongside each other, happy as long as they could see each other. That was until they came to a large section of bushes. 

“We have to go through!” panted Acorn “Try and keep close” and with they hurtled straight into the thick tangle of branches, roots and leaves.

Twig soon lost sight of Acorn, running through the bush but he thought he could still hear the sound of him crashing through the bush so he was sure he was still nearby somewhere. All Twig knew was that he had to keep climbing up and up this slope and eventually this bush was going to end. Twig was right and soon he came crashing through the other side, back into the moonlight, but where was Acorn? There was no comforting rustling coming towards him, signifying his brother was on his way. Twig waited, panting, staring at the bush willing his brother to emerge, but he did not. Twig debated whether to call out, frightened to bring attention to himself, so in the end he opted to whisper in urgent tones. 

“Acorn! Acorn! Where are you?” 

Acorn still did not emerge. Twig really did not want to go back into the bush, he could hardly see a thing in there and doubted he would see well enough to find his brother. Twig paced the edge of the large bush, still no Acorn. Twig opted for the only safety he knew, he would find his brother better in the morning so he started to climb a nearby tree and as he set his paws against the trunk the forest suddenly filled with the same eerie cry. Twig panicked, the trees were dangerous, all he wanted to do was to get home, he’d bring his dad back to help, he just had to get home and with that he ran and ran and ran, forever uphill. Twig’s legs were tiring and his breath coming in ragged, raw gasps and still the sun would not rise over this strange forest. “How long can this hill go up for?” thought Twig desperately as he ran on and then the ground appeared to give way beneath his paws and even the faint light from the moon disappeared and Twig was surrounded by darkness as he fell and then nothing. 

- 

The first thing Twig became aware of was his head pounding, his first thought was that he was back in the Diplodo saddle bag again, which had been the whole disasterous event that had started this mess in the first place. But this time he could feel that he was sitting on a simple wooden chair, with his front and back legs bound to it. He wasn’t sure that would happen in a Diplodo saddle bag but he still was not sure where he was, wherever he was it was pitch black, he could not see a thing. Twig sniffed the air, it smelt earthy and forest like which was at least a comfort for him. Twig vaguely remembered falling, but what into? Twig’s ears pricked up as he could hear a distant scuffling on a soil floor, it was getting closer and then the scuffler spoke. 

“Rascon, va com ba criso reeq”. 

Twig shook his head, he must still be concussed as his hearing obviously was not working properly. 

“Rascon, par com va knom reeq?” said the stern voice. 

Twig, not even sure if this strange person was even talking to him stayed silent. 

“Frambot na!” yelled the voice.

Twig’s muzzy head was clearing and he was beginning to feel increasingly frightened. A calmer, different voice stepped in “Ma knot tum fe cra balcre” 

“Van lalt fe cra balcre, fe’s t Rascon, bily Rascon’s knoo sa cri la balcre sut freely” said the cross voice. 

“Cafty fe cra tu som, fe crat coo cra fe, fe’s t Rascon, sil tuff fem tha ram” replied the calm voice and with that there was some rustling and suddenly a little ball of light erupted into life in one corner, a pile a flickering twigs. Twig could see who these strange creatures where and when he could he almost wished he was in darkness again as he had never seen such strange, menacing looking creatures. Twig’s first thought was “Dinosaur!” as all nasty creatures in his eyes tended to be dinosaurs but he quickly realised they were not, they were too small, only slightly bigger than him and they had a trimmed fur coat which was the darkest of black. They were shielding their small wrinked eyes from the small flickering flame with their small stubby arms, they did not seem to like light. On the end of their paws were large white curled claws which Twig did not want to get too close to. “Who are you?” squeaked Twig. The two strange creatures looked at each other confused. 

“Fe knat freese Rascon” said the calm creature. The creatures shuffled towards Twig, sniffing the air around him. Twig shrunk back in his chair. 

“Fe’s t Rascon gra” said the cross creature “Las solta som ve sase fils, fet ham ss wuh barty”. 

“Tis ha vet palty po kno sam fee wun?” said the calm creature questionly. 

The cross creature just shrugged, he looked at Twig as if Twig was less of a threat to him now and with that the two strange creatures shuffled out again, thankfully leaving the small twig fire still burning, although Twig looked at the fire, he did not think it would last long. Twig used the light that was left to look round his prison. The walls and floors and ceiling seemed to made out of soil, Twig thought he could see a root sticking out of the ceiling at one end of the small chamber, Twig shuddered, he was underground. The light from the small twig fire was just about to flicker out when Twig heard a commotion down the corridor leading to the chamber he was held in. There was lots of shouting in the strange language he had heard the two creatures use and then a light appeared to be heading down the corridor towards him and in burst two Shrews Twig had never seen before. “Hurrah! Rescue!” thought Twig. However the two strange Shrews looked surprised to find Twig there, whilst one of them guarded the entrance to the chamber, the other studied Twig closely and then untied Twig from the chair. Twig stretched his legs, they felt stiff after having been tied up.  Twig’s rescuer studied Twig some more and then said something which to Twig’s surprise he could not understand, “What was it about this place?” thought Twig “Why couldn’t he understand anyone?” The Shrew was talking like he was deliberately talking in a funny voice, really quickly. The Shrew near the door said something to the Shrew who had helped Twig, the Shrew who had helped Twig sighed and then tried to talk to Twig again, this time he started to talk slowly. 

“You’re … from … the … other … side … of … the … hill … arn’t … you?” the Shrew spoke with a thick strange accent but Twig could just about understand him. 

Twig thought about and guess that he was so replied “Yes”. 

“You’re … strange … Shrew’s … you … lot … over … the … hill. You’re … not … in … league … with … the … moles … are … you?” 

“Moles?” asked Twig. 

“The … black … creatures” replied the Shrew. 

Twig shook his head vigourously. The sound of fighting appeared to be getting closer and the Shrew by the door was looking worried, he said something quickly to the Shrew by Twig and the Shrew nearest Twig grabbed his arm. 

“We … better … get … out … of … here. Stick … close … to … us, this … might … get … messy” Twig and the other two strange Shrews cautiously left the underground room and peered into the gloom of the small earthen corridor that lead from it, there was another Shrew in the distance, standing at a bend in the corridor, holding a flickering twig. The sound of the fighting was getting closer. One of the Shrew’s with Twig called out to the Shrew in the distance, the Shrew in the distance checked around him carefully and then beckoned them forwards. As they got closer the Shrews with Twig could talk more easily with the Shrew at the corner, Twig was beginning to get used to these strange Shrews way of talking and their thick accents and was beginning to understand what they were saying amongst themselves. 

“Who’s this?” the Shrew at the corner nodded towards Twig. 

“We found him tied up down this corridor” replied one of Twig’s rescuers. 

“Doesn’t look like one of us, but we better get him out of here, better we deal with him than the Moles” said the new Shrew. 

The sound of fighting was now getting even closer and Twig was not too happy about them standing around and talking. 

The new Shrew pointed around the bend “The exit is down that way, we’ve got it reasonably clear but the Moles are trying to break through our defences so be careful.” 

The Shrew passed Twig’s rescuers another twig which they lit from his twig which was already alight, they wished each other good luck and then Twig and his two rescuers made their way carefully round the bend. The tunnel that they had been walking down turned out to be one of many, all linking to one long tunnel that they were now on, at the end of the tunnel their seemed a distant glow of daylight. Shrews guarded the tunnels leading off the main tunnel, just like the Shrew they had just talked to. Some of the tunnels seemed quiet, dead and black whereas others had Shrews rushing down in great numbers to quell uprisings that seemed to be developing else where in the maze of tunnels. Twig and his rescuers approached each new tunnel opening with caution, so far they had passed each opening with no problem and the welcoming circle of light was getting closer but just as they passed the last tunnel opening before getting to the exit they heard a great collective roars of seemingly a hundred angry Moles all rushing at them down the corridor. Shrews rushed from everywhere, in an attempt to hold them back, Twig’s two rescuers looked like they wanted to go and help to but another Shrew hurriedly pointed them on to the exit, it looked like they wanted Twig out of there. The Shrews and the Moles collided in a giant clash, the Shrews fought them off bravely but some Moles got through and those Moles did not want anyone leaving. They spied Twig and his rescuers hurrying to the exit, which Twig could see as he got closer was a hole in the ceiling. When Twig and the others realised the Moles were hot on their heels they started to run through the tunnel as fast as they could. Twig could hear the large sharp claws of the Moles hitting the earth tunnel behind him, he did not want to look behind him but he could easily imagine the menacing black creatures running behind him and he thought he could feel them trying to grasp at his ankles. One of Twig’s rescuers reached the exit first, he tried to grab a hold of the earth around the opening but he could not reach. The other rescuer soon caught up and helped by letting the first rescuer climb onto his back, that way he could haul himself up into the sunshine. As he did so the second rescuer called out to Twig to climb onto his back to, the first rescuer above waiting to help pull him up, but just as Twig was balanced precariously on the rescuers back, about to reach up to be pulled out the Moles charged. The great big muscular body of the Mole that charged them sent Twig flying off the other Shrews back, the Shrew waiting above cried out in frustration, unable to do anything to help them. Twig’s rescuer still down in the tunnels with him swiped bravely at the Moles and nashed his teeth.  

“Climb onto my shoulders!” he cried out to Twig. 

It felt like one of the hardest things he had ever done, fighting to keep his balance as well as fighting to dodge the blows of the Moles but he made it, wobbling onto the Shrew’s shoulders. Twig’s other rescuer was dangling as best as he could through the hole. 

“Grab my paws!” he shouted. Twig reached out as far as he could, his rescuer stretched a little further, their paws met with great relief and Twig was tugged out of the darkness and into the sunlight. This left Twig’s remaining rescuer, outnumbered at the entrance to the tunnels by the Moles, Twig and his other rescuer reached down as far as they could but they could not reach him. The Moles were charging at him, sending him bouncing off the walls of the tunnel. 

“I have to go back down there” said Twig’s rescuer and with that he jumped back down into the hole to join the fighting. Twig was left at the surface wondering what to do when another troop of Shrews raced over to the hole, two Shrews grabbed him out of the way as the Shrews descended into the hole, they pulled him quickly away from the fighting. 

“You’re the stranger” one of the Shrews said to Twig. 

“We better take you to be questioned” said the other. And without saying another word they both took hold of one of Twig’s paws and marched him through the forest and up into the trees. They clambered from branch to branch, tree to tree until eventually they came to a large, ancient tree, that looked much older than the other trees in the forest of this side of the hill. The tree was greatly aged and there was a large hollow chamber in the middle, open to the sky, this is where they took Twig. At first the chamber was empty, but soon Shrews started to gather on the leafy branches overlooking the chamber and then more important pompous looking Shrews started to enter the chamber itself. Finally a very important looking Shrew entered, Twig could tell this particular Shrew was important as the other Shrews bowed their heads as he arrived. The very important Shrew strolled, relaxed up to Twig, who was being guarded by the two Shrews who had found him outside the Mole hole. 

“You are not from here” said the very important Shrew. 

“I’m from . . . .” Twig was interrupted by a dismissive wave from the Shrew’s hand. 

The very important Shrew pointed at a nervous looking Shrew amongst the crowd in the chamber. “Raptor-foe, speak!” the very important Shrew commanded. 

Raptor-foe stepped forward nervously “Your honour, I saw the stranger in the forest last night when I was on guard duty, your honour. The stranger and another strange Shrew attempted to climb one of the trees, so I issued the alarm call.” 

An official sounding Shrew stepped forward “We have reports from Barkclaw, your honour, who can not be with us at this time your honour because he is leading the current fight against the Moles, but he has reported to me that the strange Shrew was discovered along with another strange Shrew sleeping in one of our trees last night. They were successfully frightened off, it was believed we would not see them again, I am dreadfully sorry sir that those assumptions appear to be false.” 

The very important Shrew stroked his whiskers thoughtfully, “This other strange Shrew he was seen with. Raptor-foe, you say you saw him? Did you get a good look at this other Shrew?” 

Twig shifted nervously, although he did not want to be held by these strange and slightly alarming Shrews he was glad that it was just him, he did not want them to find Acorn to, wherever Acorn was and Twig desperately hoped it was not with the Moles. 

Raptor-foe was speaking to the very important Shrew “Yes, your honour, I saw him” 

“Did he look anything like this?” the very important Shrew looked up to the crowds on the branches above and motioned a Shrew out of Twig’s view to come down to the chamber. The crowd fell silent as the Shrew from the branches strolled into the chamber. 

Twig heard a familiar voice “Your honour” 

“Is this your lost brother?” said the very important Shrew pointing to Twig. 

“Yes, your honour it is.” 

Twig turned to Acorn with a feeling of warm but confused relief. There was Acorn standing before him, alive and well and apparently very at home with these strange Shrews. 

“Acorn? What happened to you?” asked Twig. 

“What happened to you, you mean!” laughed Acorn

“I waited for you outside the hedge but you never appeared.” 

“But I did to, I waited outside the hedge and you didn’t show up” said Twig. 

“It was a big hedge, we could have got separated and one of us ended up one side of the hedge and the other on the other side of the hedge, we wouldn’t of had a chance in the dark. So anyway, when I realised I couldn’t find you, I realised I had to come to these guys for help, which was a risk in itself but I had to do something” Acorn stretched out his paws, motioning at the crowd of Shrews. 

“Who are these Shrews?” whispered Twig to his brother. 

“Not much different from you and me, brother, they just live somewhere different, that’s all. They’ve been having lots of problems recently, with the Raptor war nearby and problems closer to home to, with the Moles, now I know you met those” Twig nodded as Acorn continued “With their problems, they’ve become very suspicious of strangers, that eerie noise we heard that night, I knew it was them, as I had come across them before in my travels and that first encounter had not gone successfully, but when you disappeared I knew they wouldn’t want to leave any Shrew out in the forest alone when war surrounds us. So I came here and begged, His Highness for help”. Acorn bowed his head in respect to the very important Shrew. 

The very important Shrew continued the story “Your brother was right, you may be a stranger but we knew we couldn’t leave you out there, specially when your brother has been of assistance to us before with the Raptors. Word was spread out amongst the forest that you were to be found. Our trees have eyes and news soon came back to us that you had last been seen near the vicinity of a known Mole set. When we received that information I gave the go ahead for an attack on the set to see if we could find you.” 

Twig was awed at the number of Shrews that did not even know him but had been prepared to help in, all he could think to say though was a simple “Thank you.” 

At that moment, another Shrew scurried into the chamber and whispered into the Very Important Shrew’s ear. The Very Important Shrew looked concerned, when the messenger finished speaking, the Very Important Shrew addressed the chamber

“As we stand here talking, the attack on the set is going badly, two of our Shrews have been held captive”, the Very Important Shrew turned to Twig “The two Shrews who in fact rescued this young Shrew from captivity, we need more Shrews to go and reinforce our efforts”. 

Twig paled at the thought of the two Shrews that had rescued him now being held captive themselves, he had to do something he thought. Around Twig, many of the Shrews were now preparing to go and join the battle at the Mole set. Twig spoke out “I should go to, I’ve been in that set, I might have a better idea of where they might be held.” 

Acorn looked shocked “Twig, I need to get you home, this is too dangerous.” 

“This is all because I got lost, I need to help end this” said Twig. 

The Very Important Shrew looked grave “Acorn, I think your little brother is growing into a man, you need to let him find his own path”, he turned to Twig “If you are serious with your offer then I gladly accept your help.” 

Twig nodded, hoping that he looked more brave then he felt. Acorn picked up when the sharpened twigs that were being passed around “In which case” he said “I go to”. 

The Shrews organised themselves into a narrow column and together they crawled silently along the branches of the forest until they got to the set.

The Very Important Shrew himself was leading the battle this time, he conferred with Twig. “Where were you held when you were captive?” 

“It was in an earthen chamber at the end of a corridor, which turned onto the main corridor quite some way from the exit” answered Twig. 

“Could you find it again? It might be where the Moles hold all their captives” said the Very Important Shrew. 

Twig was not sure, his time in the maze of tunnels had been chaotic and frightening, he never thought he would have to go down there again so had not memorised the route, Twig tried to be honest “I think I’ll be able to help you narrow down your search.” 

“In we go then. You’ll be guarded at all times Twig, I’m sure your brother will never leave your side and nor will I. Do not even think about the Moles, let the Shrews around you worry about the Moles. Do you understand?” asked the Very Important Shrew. 

“Yes sir” replied Twig. 

A protective guard surrounded Twig, Acorn and the Very Important Shrew. Together they all run at the entrance, jumping into the hole in the ground, into the darkness. The Shrews at the front had the benefit of surprise and the benefit of numbers as the large group of Shrews stormed the entrance, the guard Moles were quickly swept aside. 

“Tell me where you think the tunnel branches off Twig” yelled the Very Important Shrew above the hub bub of fighting. 

“Not yet sir, it took us a long time for us to escape to the entrance, so we have to make our way down quite a bit of this tunnel.” 

“Onwards” shouted the Very Important Shrew. 

Moles, alerted by the new attack were rushing down the tunnels onto the main tunnel to try and attack the Shrews but the Shrews penned in the Moles, preventing them from accessing the main tunnel. But as Shrews were taken away to guard the many tunnel entrances leading onto the main tunnel there were less Shrews to guard the Very Important Shrew, Twig and Acorn and soon Acorn was joining in with the fighting and Twig and the Very Important Shrew were drawn closer together. 

“Are we closer yet, Twig?” shouted the Very Important Shrew over the noise of the fighting. 

“We’re closer sir, we need to start checking the tunnels, the tunnel I was held down was long, straight and only had one chamber, the one I was being held in and that was right at the bottom of the tunnel.” 

The Very Important Shrew nodded, he instructed the Shrews around him and the Shrews began to check the tunnels as they came across them, the tunnels were too bendy, or too short or had more than one chamber leading off it. And then there was a tunnel that looked like it could be it, what made it look even more like it could be it was the large group of Moles standing guard in it, not rushing forward to attack, like the other Moles did, but standing there, waiting for the Shrews to come to them. The Shrews turned into the tunnel and came to a standstill when they saw the guarding Moles blocking the tunnel. There was a moment of silence, all Twig could hear was the rapid breathing of the tiring Shrews. 

“I think this is it” whispered Twig. 

The Very Important Shrew nodded slowly, he looked at his Shrews waiting for his command and then looked into the small wrinkly mean looking eyes of the Moles, “Light every single fire twig you can Shrews, on my command” whispered the Very Important Shrew. 

The Shrews who until that moment had been trying to preserve their fire twigs, using only just enough to see, reached into their supplies and readied their twigs. On the Very Important Shrew’s command light burst into luminescene in the tunnel, the Moles sensitive eyes, accustomed to the dark , temporarily forgot their duties as they shrank back, shielding their eyes from the bright light. 

“Charge!” yelled the Very Important Shrew. The Shrews baralled down the tunnel, the Moles fleeing before them, not wanting to get too close to the light. Together the Moles and the Shrews burst into the chamber, the Moles trying to shrink into the darkness of the shadows at the back of the chamber. In the middle of the chamber, bound just like Twig had been, were Twig’s two rescuers looking very relieved to see the Shrews. They were quickly untied and the Very Important Shrew gave the order to retreat. The Shrews packed themselves into a tight a group as possible, with the rescued rescuers, Twig, Acorn and the Very Important Shrew in the middle. They raced back down the tunnel and onto the main tunnel, knocking down any Mole who dared approach them. As they reached the entrance, Twig was worried that they would be caught again, just like last time as they tried to climb up through the hole, they got closer and closer and Twig could just see in his minds eye the Moles watching and waiting in the darkness but suddenly the Very Important Shrew, racing next to him let out a loud piercing whistle and down through the entrance appeared two ladders made from bound together twigs. Twig breathed a sigh of relief as he scrabbled up the ladder along with the other Shrews. Not wanting to risk anymore problems the Shrews did not stop running until they got back to the big old oak tree again. 

When the Shrews had all recovered their breath and examined their wounds and counted their numbers, they assembled again and waited for the Very Important Shrew. Twig and Acorn waiting in the centre of the chamber for him. The crowd of waiting Shrews stiffened to attention as the Very Important Shrew walked in with the two rescued Shrews, looking fit and happy to be back, they both smiled gratefully at Twig. The crowd quietened, waiting for the Very Important Shrew to speak. 

The Very Important Shrew cleared his voice “Today, is a day that will be inscribed in our legends forever more, the day Shrews from both sides of the hill united in the face of a common threat. Twig and Acorn are strangers no more to us and I hope sincerely that we are strangers no more to them.”

© JSS 2007

Short Story – Dino – Story – Battle

This is the third in a series of short stories I wrote for children. Although each story could possibly be read in its own right, it is probably best to read at least the first story in the series, Shrew Wood first.

Dino-story – Battle

Twig clambered up to the top of his tree and sat looking over the roof of the forest as it woke up for the day. Twig wondered as he did every day where his brother Acorn was and how he was doing. Acorn and Twig had spent many mornings, just like Twig was now, sitting on the top of their tree wondering what life was like outside their forest and one Spring Acorn, bolstered by his and Twig’s defeat of the Raptor wood cutters the Autumn before had decided to go and see what was out there. Twig missed his older brother but he knew he could not leave his tree yet without finishing school.

Thinking of school Twig realised suddenly that he was going to be late “I better go and get my school bag” he thought as he scampered back down the tree.

Just as Twig was running down the final branch to the hole in the tree trunk where he slept each night and where he kept his belongings, a loud thundering crashing noise filled the forest.

Twig stopped still on the branch, his whiskers twitching “What was that noise?” he thought to himself. He looked worriedly in the direction the noise was coming from, he could see birds scattering in the air in alarm, see leaves rustling and hear branches cracking. Twig also thought he could hear underneath the noises of alarm from the forest a distinct thump, thump, thump of a big bass drum, getting louder as it got closer.

Twig turned to hear his dad call out to him in alarm, “Twig! Get back in the trunk! Now!”

But before Twig could move even a paw forward on the branch, the noise of the big bass drum grew closer, so close it filled the air with its giant THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. Birds squawked in alarm as branches crashed and tumbled to the ground.

“Twig!” called his dad in alarm as a giant war Diplodo clad in spiked leather armour, carrying huge great big saddle bags lumbered past. A fierce Raptor clad in chain mail rode upon it’s back, sitting on a great big saddle and controlling the Diplodo with a set of clanking reins made of metal chains. Following behind the Diplodo were more chain mailed Raptors, this time riding Stegos. The Stegos wore metal helmets to protect their heads. After the Stegos was a squad of more chain mailed Raptors, this time marching on foot in unison, in time to the THUMP, THUMP of the big bass drum which was being carried on a cart, along with the soldier Raptor playing.

Twig tried to run along the branch to the safety of the trunk but the passing procession of Raptor warriors and their dino-beasts rattled the tree and its branches, including the branch Twig was trying to grip his claws into. Twig trembled along with the branch he was trying to cling on to, not daring to move a muscle for fear of falling off. The trembling slowly began to subside as the procession marched off into the distance. Twig, his breathing calming down as he realised the danger had passed prised his claws out of the bark of the tree branch and put one paw forward when suddenly STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, CRASH, SNAP, CRACK, the tree began to shake violently again as the last beast in the procession raced to catch up with the other, a giant Diplodo, running as fast as a giant Diplodo could. Twig watched in horror as the colossal beast ran towards his tree, the metal spikes of it’s thick, battered leather armour glinting in the forest sunshine. The Diplodo just missed Twig’s tree, but the huge leather saddle bags carried on its side did not. Twig heard one final CRACK as the force of the branch Twig was cowering on colliding with the saddle bag ripping the branch from the tree and Twig went flying and then darkness.

-

Twig felt like he was waking up from a long night sleeping on a hard bed in a cold draft. His head and back ached and he felt chilled to the bone. As he lay as still as he could, his eyes shut, his head ached so much he thought it was thumping. His bed seemed to be swaying. Twig could not remember going to bed that night, it all seemed so fuzzy, Twig wonder if he was ill. Twig slowly opened his eyes, it was still dark, his bed felt cold and hard. The whole room still seemed to be swaying.

Twig called out “Mum”. There was no reply.

Twig struggled to sit up, his head felt like it was clearing but he could still hear the thump, thump, thump, ringing in his ears. He reached out a paw to steady himself. The wall felt funny, instead of the reassuring hardness of his tree at home, the wall seemed to be softer, more supple. And there was that chill in the air, even his bedroom at home in the depth of winter did not feel this cold. And his bedroom certainly did not sway like this, even in the fiercest storm. Twig decided that the best thing to do was to get out of wherever  he was but how was he going to do that, it was dark and he could not see a door or hole to escape through.

This mysterious swaying room was not empty. Twig could feel in the darkness many cold hard lumpy objects. Twig tried to clamber up the objects, he slipped a few times as the room swayed like a ship in a storm but eventually he managed to clamber quite high up. Twig looked up, he could see a chink of light above him. Twig, still not sure where he was but getting increasingly sure wherever he was he needed to get out of there. Twig was running out of things to climb up on so he knew the only thing he could do was to cling on to this strange wall with his claws and climb up that way. Twig found it quite easy to stick his claws into the wall and he quickly clambered up to the opening. Twig reached his paws up over the top of the strange wall he had been climbing up. Twig carefully stuck his head over the edge and nearly fell back in shock. Twig tightened his claws into the top of the giant saddle bag he had fallen into. Twig watched in horror as the forest passed him. When Twig dared to look up and behind him he saw the sides of the giant Diplodo crashing through the forest, it’s tiny head swaying high up in the sky with the birds. Twig remembered the procession he had seen from his tree and the Diplodo racing towards him. Twig realised that he must have been knocked off his branch and fallen into the saddle bag. Twig did not know how long he had been knocked out cold for but he had a feeling home was already a long way away and with each thundering step of the Diplodo, he was going even further. Twig shuddered at the memory of the fierce Raptor soldier riding the first war Diplodo he had seen and he realised that there would be a just as fierce soldier riding on top of this Diplodo. The soldier was a lot higher up than the saddle bag though so Twig could not see him and he hoped that that meant the soldier could not see him. You never knew when a hungry Raptor soldier might want a nice snack.

Twig hung miserably from the saddle bag, he did not want to be there but he did not want to fall off either. He watched miserably as the forest passed him by. The procession was climbing up and up. Twig wondered with some fear when they would reach the mythical top of the valley. No Shrew he knew ever went ‘over the top’ and back down into the next valley below. The procession climbed and climbed, marching together to the beat of the big bass drum infront of the Diplodo Twig was riding on. Then suddenly the drum beat stopped and the whole procession came to a halt. The saddle bag Twig was riding in thumped against the side of the Diplodo as the great beast came to a sudden stop, Twig almost slipped, almost falling back down into the bag. Twig could hear some shouting from the Raptors, like instructions being barked. Twig could hear weapons being loaded and felt a new sense of alertness amongst the procession. Even the Diplodo seemed to stiffen it’s muscles. They were going to go over the top. A mythical No-Shrew land for the Shrews and enemy terrority for the Raptors.

The procession carefully wound it’s way through the forest, back down along it’s slopes. Twig fearfully studied the forest, he had imagined a strange place but where were the walking trees or the giant purple leaves from the stories he had heard? It looked just like his forest to him. The trees of this new forest slowly began to thin out as they reached the bottom of this new valley.

Through the thinning trees Twig could see at the edge of the forest a huge tented encampment. There seemed to be hundreds of tents ranging from small simple khaki tents to larger ones, some looking functional, like maybe a field hospital or stores whilst others were covered in silks and flags as if for someone very important. There seemed to be almost as many camp fires. There were large fenced off areas in which grazed Diplodos and Stegos. There was a large fence around this encampment which was closely guarded by a squadron of Raptor soldiers. The procession made its way to the encampment and when the guarding soldiers let them in through its gates the entire procession seemed to breathe a giant sigh of relief.

The procession broke up once in the camp, the soldiers went off to find food and quarters, the dino-beasts led off to their pens and the Diplodos unloaded off their supplies. Twig bristled with fear, he was going to be discovered any minute. He sunk further down into the saddle bag, just peaking over it’s edge. Twig watched two Raptor soldiers approach the Diplodo with a ladder. Twig held his breath in apprehension. Phew they had decided to unload the saddle bag on the other side of the Diplodo first. Twig thought hard, he had to get out of there, he peeked over the edge of the saddle bag to the ground below, it was too big a drop to jump.

“I’m trapped” thought Twig desperately. Just as Twig was about to give up hope he noticed out of the corner of his eye the swinging Diplodo tail, it led almost to the ground.

“I have to go up!” thought Twig.

Twig looked up, the saddle bag was held on to the Diplodo by a huge, thick, leather strap. Twig quickly scurried up it and knowing that he could be spotted at any time, dashed across the Diplodo’s great, broad back and half run, half slithered down the Diplodo’s tail, jumping off the tail just before it tapered to a point.

Twig stopped for a second as he landed on the ground, thick with mud, “Where am I going to go? I’m too exposed out here”.

Twig could not stand still for long because just as he was looking quickly for the best place to hide, the Diplodo shuffled backwards. Twig looked up as he noticed a shadow blot out the sun, it was the Diplodo walking backwards a few steps and its giant foot was about to land on Twig! Twig knew he could not hang around any further, without thinking where he was going to go he ran as fast as he could in the thick mud in any direction as long as it was away from the Diplodo!

It was hard running in the mud, the gap between the tents of the camp, although quite close together for the dinosaurs was a lot bigger for someone Shrew sized. But eventually the thick khaki canvas of a tent loomed into sight. Twig ducked under the canvas and straight into a soldier’s tent. It was very bare, just two basic metal beds and a lantern, Twig soon realised there was no place to hide and think. Twig dashed across the tent and under the canvas on the other side. Twig ran through many tents. He ran through soldier tents, some empty, others occupied where the Raptor soldiers were startled by the sudden blur of movement on the floor of the tent but to battle worn to do anything about it. Twig ran through larger tents, some with many beds, full of wounded Raptors, others with tables and great big steaming pots of Raptor food. But still Twig could not find anywhere he was confident enough to hide until racing through the canvas of yet another soldier tent he reappeared out the other side to see instead of more khaki canvas tents of varying shapes and sizes, instead he saw a large round, domed tent, covered in purple silks and gold embroidery, now this tent was going to be different. Twig raced to the tent, his legs and his belly now caked with the thick mud of the encampment. He struggled through the thick layers of ornate materials covering the round tent and as he passed through it onto the other his head immediately went ‘thack’ onto something wooden. Twig stood still for a minute, still half buried under the heavy materials that made up the tent walls, “What was this?” he thought. Twig rubbed his sore head with his paw and looked at the wood before him. This wood was not like the wood back home, it was darker, smoother, even shiny and it smelt funny. It turned out to have the width of a small tree sapling on the forest floor, but it was not tree sapling as it had been shaped and carved by something. Twig ventured out of the tent wall a little further, avoiding the strange bit of wood this time. Twig could see three more strange columns of wood nearby, he looked up, he was underneath a table, something far more ornate than the tables he had whizzed past so far in the encampment. Twig tried as best as he could to hide behind one of the table legs. He looked round the floor of the tent, he could see the legs of equally ornate chairs and huge carved boxes. There was a pile of cushions in beautiful purple silks in the corner, Twig decided to go and hide there so he could think and decide what to do next.

From Twig’s hiding place behind a soft, silky cushion, he could see the rest of the large tent more clearly. The walls inside the tent were even more ornate than the outside walls of the tent, with more purple silks and intricate embroidery. There were tables piled with papers, books and half eaten plates of food. There were large carved wooden chests overflowing with beautiful fabrics. There were cabinets full of guns and swords both new and antique. There were small statues in white marble of Raptors in various heroic poses. The whole tent was at the other end of the spectrum in comparision to the the bare ordinary soldier tents Twig had run through. In the centre of the tent, hanging from the ceiling was a circle of fine purple gause, hanging from the top of the tent and brushing the finely carpeted floor, it appeared to be hiding something.

Twig sat resting, after the excitement of the day it was good to be in the peace and quiet, even if it was in a strange Raptor tent. The peace and quiet was soon disturbed by a meek, young Raptor, apologetically entering the tent. The Raptor was wearing an white frilly apron and a white frilly hat, Twig thought the Raptor looked silly, not that he normally saw many Raptors but he was did not see many with clothes on, unless it was something related to the job they were doing, woodcutter Raptors for example would wear protective hard hats and soldier Raptors would wear armour. Twig had never seen a Raptor wearing a frilly white apron before and he was not sure what sort of Raptor would, he watched interested, fairly confident that he would not be discovered in his hiding place.

The young Raptor, who Twig guessed was a girl nervously straightened a few things in the tent before gently coughing “Ahem, your majesty, sorry to disturb you but it is time to wake up, your commanders are back from the battle field and they urgently wish your counsel.”

A shape seemed to stir behind the fine purple curtains but there was no reply.

“Ahem, your majesty?” the girl said nervously.

Suddenly a mug came flying out from the curtains, aimed straight at the maid. The maid, used to such behaviour ducked neatly to the side and the mug slammed into the wall of the tent, smashing as it fell onto a table below.

“Your majesty?” said the girl, even more nervously this time.

“Are you still there?” roared a voice from behind the curtains.

The maid shrunk back a little “Yes, your majesty. The commanders, your majesty?”

“Tell the snivelling wretches that they will get my counsel when I decide they get my counsel and no time before! No one disturbs my beauty sleep!”

With that the maid hurried back out of the tent. Shortly Twig could hear angry Raptor voices outside the tent. Two blood and mud splattered soldiers stormed into the tent, closely followed by the maid trying vainly to stop them. The soldiers wore purple sashes of their armour, they looked like important Raptors to Twig.

“Your majesty” they bowed “We must talk. We bring news from the battlefield”.

There was low growl from behind the curtains “I see I am not going to get any more sleep now until these idiots are out of my presence. Maid! Bring me my gown!”

The maid picked a fine purple silk robe decorated with white fur from one of the wooden chests and dissappered behind the curtains. There was a great deal of mutterings and then the curtains opened, revealing a round bed, covered with the finest fabrics from the four corners of the fabric. Sitting on the bed was the Raptor Queen, wrapped in the purple robe and sneering at her commanders. Now the Raptor Queen was a fearsome sight, she was old and battle worn, having in her youth fought her way into power, when most Raptors saw her they were torn on whether to hold her fearsome gaze or to look meekly away but after an initial glance Twig was not at all interested in the Raptor Queen because he had noticed on the queen’s bedside table an elaborate metal cage, residing in which was Twig’s brother Acorn!

It was hard for Twig to resist the urge to leave his hiding place and race over to his brother, even though that would have been under the Raptor Queen’s nose. Twig had to content himself with anxiously watching his brother to see if he was ok. Twig could not see very well from where he was but he could just about make out as well as being trapped in the cage, one of his ankles were tied to the ground on a long fine length of chain.

The Queen and the commanders argued amongst each other, Twig lost track of their conversation, his school level Raptorese escaping him as he worried about his brother but he got the impression that the battle the Raptors were fighting was not going well. Twig just wanted them all to go so that he could go and talk to his brother.

Eventually the commanders left, shame faced and down trodden as the Queen as usual had won her argument. The maid fussed around for a while before being dismissed by the Queen and soon the tent was quiet again. The curtains had been drawn shut again and Twig soon thought he could hear the Queen snoring. Twig had to risk it, so he dashed out from behind his hiding place and under the purple curtains. Twig studied the table Acorn’s cage was on, it seemed bigger now that he was up close to it and it was made of the same smooth, dark shiny wood, Twig did not think he could climb up the table without slipping, that left climbing up onto the bed and then jumping onto the table from there then. Twig shuddered, but he had to do it.

Sticking his claws out to cling onto the fine bedspreads on the bed, Twig quickly scaled up the side of the bed. On top of the bed he could see the great big hulking, snoring form of the Raptor Queen, laying under the covers. Her mouth was open, revealing her sharp pointy teeth and everytime she snored great waves of foul rotten meat smelling breath rolled down the bed, it made Twig’s nervous stomach feel even sicker. Keeping as close to the edge of the bed as possible Twig made it nearly to the top of the bed, with just the area of the pillows to go, but that was where the Queen’s head was, there was not any other way to get up to the table though. Very gingerly Twig climbed onto the giant, soft, feather filled pillow, he was inches away from the Raptor’s mouth now but he was almost as close to the table. Twig jumped as high as he could and landed, almost slipping on the smooth polished table top. Breathing a sigh of relief but knowing the danger was not over yet as he was in a very exposed position he quietly went over to the cage and peered in.

Acorn was laying curled up asleep on the hard cold floor of the cage. To Twig he looked tired and thin, his fur lacking the bounce it normally had. Twig gripped the bars of the cage, he wanted to cry out in anger at what they had done to his brother, keeping him caged, away from the freedom of the trees but he knew he had to keep quiet. Instead he whispered urgently “Acorn!”

Acorn stirred uncomfortably in his sleep.

“Acorn” cried Twig, a little louder this time.

Acorn’s eyes flickered open, he was sure he was dreaming, nobody here knew his name. Acorn shut his eyes again, trying to get back to sleep.

“Acorn!” cried Twig, loud enough this time to make even the sleeping Raptor Queen stir.

Acorn opened his eyes again, even his sleep was getting tortuous he thought. He rolled over “Now I’m seeing things” Acorn thought as the image of this brother Twig came into focus through his tired sleepy eyes.

“Twig?” he said groggily as he sat up stiffly.

“Oh Acorn” said Twig, relieved to have woken him up. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same of you” replied Acorn.

Twig smiled “It was by accident, but I’m glad it happened, wouldn’t of found you otherwise would I? What about you?”

“I have had some adventures little brother since I left the tree” Acorn shook his head slowly “But it is a long, long story and one you don’t have time to hear, you could be easily caught sitting there.”

“I have to get you out” said Twig determinedly.

“I don’t know how” said Acorn sadly.

“I’ll find a way” said Twig more confidently than he felt.

Twig and Acorn both turned suddenly to the sound of movement within the tent.

“Someone is here” whispered Acorn “Hide now!”

With that Twig jumped off the table, onto the bed, scurried down the bedcovers and crawled under the bed.

There were comings and goings in the Queen’s tent throughout the night but Twig paid little attention to them, racking his brains to find a way to help his brother. He needed not only to get the cage open but he needed also to get rid of the chain that was attached to his brother’s leg, Twig knew he could not gnaw through it and so was not sure what he could use.

The Queen was a noisy beast constantly shouting at her staff. The next morning the Queen was having a fight with her maid, something Twig suspected that often happened. Twig wished that they would be quiet as he was having trouble thinking with two Raptors fighting virtually above his head, even though he sheltered by the enormous bed. It sounded like the Queen was not happy with the way the maid was dressing her for the day and things were being thrown everywhere with crashes and splinters. Twig felt doubly sorry for Acorn having to witness this every day. Pots were landing with a smash on the floor next to the bed making Twig shrink further under the bed, but when he saw something small, hard and glinting fall just under the bed he crept forward again, quickly grabbing the object with his paws. It looked like a small metal nail that had been slightly flattened, on one end were the remains of some sort of sticky substance on one end. Twig studied it, it looked strong enough to help him unpick the chains on Acorn’s leg, now he just had to get in the cage and he could think of only one way of doing that and he reckoned there was a 50:50 chance that he could actually get eaten instead, but he thought his best chance would be if he waited until the Queen’s breakfast arrived, he figured that the Queen would be less likely to eat him if she already had food there. Twig waited nervously for breakfast to arrive, eventually he heard the words he had been waiting for.

“Your breakfast, your majesty”

“Oh goody, what is it?” a pause “Gut loops, oh fantastic!”

Twig could hear the springs of the bed above him move as the Queen settled herself to eat her breakfast in bed.

“It’s now or never!” thought Twig as he raced out of his hiding place, climbed once again up the bedspread and ran this time to the centre of the bed, this time in full deliberate view of the Queen.

The Queen squealed in fright, her bowl of Gut Loops flying into the air “It’s a shrew!” she yelled.

“It’s ok , your majesty” said her maid, rushing to her aid, she reached over to the middle of the bed and plucked Twig up with her claws “What do you want me to do with it?”

“Bring it closer” said the Queen, calming herself “I can’t abide how those hairy little things pop up all over the place, giving one such a fright, but if it’s chained and in a cage, why they make quite amusing little play things!”

“The cage then, your majesty?” asked the maid.

“Yes, the hairy little thing in their could do with a friend, he’s been looking quite blue”

The maid, Twig in one hand, opened the cage door and pulled out another chain and cuff, clamping it to Twig’s leg then stuffing Twig into the cage before slamming the door shut.

“Awww, now don’t those two look a pair!” said the Queen.

“Yes your majesty”

“Now it’s time to go and inspect the troops, follow me servant” and with that the Queen swept out of the tent closely followed by her maid.  Acorn and Twig were now free to talk.

“What on earth did you do that for?” burst Acorn.

Twig stood their tight lipped.

“Say something!” said Acorn.

Twig coughed and out of his mouth came the thin piece of metal that he had found on the floor. He was glad to get it out of his mouth, it had tasted so cold and artificial.

“That’s one of the Queen’s fake eyelashes” said Acorn. The brothers both looked at each other, both thinking why anyone would want to fake eyelashes.

Twig smiled, he took hold of the fake eyelash and walked over the Acorn and grabbed hold of his chained leg.

“What are you doing?” said Acorn in surprise.

“Getting you at least out of this” said Twig.

Twig used the metal eyelash to loosen the screw holding the cuff together, it soon with a bit of fiddling loosened enough for Acorn to free his foot.

“Great!” said Acorn “But we’re still in here!”

“We’ll have to figure that out next but for the meanwhile undo my foot will you” said Twig.

“Ok” smiled Acorn “When did my little brother get so grown up?”

Both free from their chains Acorn and Twig decided to stick their feet back into the loosened cuffs so as not to cause suspicion. They decided that the best thing to do would be to wait until the cage door next opened and then dash out. They waited and they waited, the Queen and her entourage came and went many times but no one showed any interest in opening the cage again.

The next time there was the opportunity to talk Twig said “We have to get them to open the cage”

“How?” asked Acorn.

“I have an idea” replied Twig.

When the Queen and her maid returned back to the tent they immediately heard a lot of distressed squeaking coming from the Shrews’ cage. Acorn was laying on his back, his feet stiff in the air, his eyes shut and Twig was nudging him in distress. The Queen and the maid both peered into the cage.

“Looks like one of them is dead, your majesty”

“Ugh get rid of then, I don’t want the smell of dead shrew polluting my tent. It’s a good thing we found that other one then isn’t it” said the Queen.

The maid opened the door, Acorn suddenly sprung to life and both bolted out of the cage entrance, jumping down the maid’s back and straight out underneath the walls of the tent. The last thing Acorn and Twig heard from the Queen’s tent where the frightened squeals of the Queen at the prospect of ‘hairy things’ running all over her tent.

“Make for the forest!” yelled Acorn as the two brothers dashed back to the slopes of the valley.

© JSS 2007

Short Story – Dino – Story – Raptor Valley

This is the second in a series of short stories I wrote for children, although each could be read in their own right, it’s probably best to at least read the first one Shrew Wood first.

Dino-story – Raptor Valley

Claw picked at his breakfast of dried gut hoops whilst his mum fussed around him, sorting out the last of things he would need to take on his school trip to the Diplodo Farm, which was just outside the city.

“I’ve packed you some roasted shrew dear, they’ll be nice as a snack on the bus,” said his mum.

Claw pulled a face at both the thought of roasted shrew and his hardly touched breakfast, as he pushed the bowl away.

“What’s the matter dear? Nervous about your school trip? You’ll have a great time! And you never know it might finally give you a chance to make some friends. And it might make you appreciate your food a bit more, always good to see where it comes from” said his mum.

Claw grabbed his school bags and headed out of the door, reluctantly on the way to school. His mum was right, not that he really liked dried gut hoops anyway but he was nervous about the school trip. He was worried that his classmates would pick on him even more if they got a chance to get him on his own without the teachers around.

When Claw arrived at school, the school bus was already waiting outside the gates. One of his teacher’s was standing by its door with a clipboard ticking off everyone’s names as they got on the bus. The bus was already quite full as Claw climbed nervously up its steps to be greeted as he guessed correctly by a chorus of jeers from his classmates.

“Hey vegbreath, you come to see how real Raptors do it?”

“Yeugh know, you don’t think he’s going to come and sit next to me do you? He might cuddle me or something!”

The Raptors at the back of the bus rolled round their seats shrieking with laughter, their clawed feet waving in the air in merriment. Claw found a seat at the front of the bus next to one of the teachers.

Finally, the bus headed off towards the farm. It rolled through the city streets and out through into the farmland of the valley floor. When they arrived at the farm, the class jumped out excitedly, in the distance they could see the tiny heads of the Diplodo waving on their long necks in one of the giant Diplodo paddocks, they had never seen so many Diplodos together! One of the farm managers was waiting to greet them.

“Welcome everyone to Diplodo Farm. I’m sure you’ve already seen the creatures that the Farm is named after in the paddock over there” the Raptor farmer flicked his tail towards the Diplodos. “But you will come to appreciate after your tour here today that here on Diplodo farm we farm many dinosaurs, most of whom end up on your dinner plate or are used as work beasts, helping within farming, industry, battle or defence against Tyros.”

On mention of the Tyros, the teachers scowled at the farm manager and the class shivered with excitement.

One of Claw’s classmates bounced up and down excitedly, waving his claw in the air, wanting to ask the question that everyone wanted to know.

“You mean the Tyros still exist? Wow cool man!”

The farm manager ignoring the gnashing of teeth from the teachers answered the question.

“There aren’t that many Tyros these days. Certainly as you know not in the city where you come from, patrols from the owners of the farms around the city make sure of that. But we still have sightings every now and then, mainly along the edges of the forests on the valley slopes.”

“Cool man!” Claw’s classmate jumped up and down in even greater excitement. “Are we going there? Are we going there? Please!”

One of the teachers aimed a warning swipe at the head of the excitable Raptor “Our itinery today Bones is strictly amongst the paddocks of Diplodo farm.”

The farm manager sensing that he better get the tour moving said, “If you would all follow me, first stop the Diplodos!”

Claw hurried alongside the teachers as the group moved off to see the first paddock. But try as he might he found it difficult to keep up with the teachers as the teachers kept bouncing authoritively round the group attempting to keep troublemakers in order. Claw could swear he saw Guts and Gore, the two class bullies watching him and waiting for the teachers to get distracted elsewhere before pouncing on him. Claw wondered what Guts and Gore would do to him. The way Guts and Gore sniggered and pointed at him as they passed the Stego enclosure worried Claw. Guts and Gore mimed grabbing Claw and throwing him over the fence into the enclosure. Although Stego’s were not meat eaters they had protective bony plates along there backs and four long spines at the end of their tails which they would not hesitate to swipe at any poor young Raptor that had been thrown into their field. At that, moment there was a commotion at the front of the group, an argument had erupted into a fight between two of the pupils and the teachers had all waded in to join the fight in an attempt to break the two Raptors up and teach them a lesson at the same time. All the other Raptors rushed over to watch the fight, except Guts and Gore, who both put a clawed hand on Claw’s shoulders to pull him back as he tried to make it to the safety of the crowd.

“Not so fast wimp” said Guts.

“We just want to show you something” sniggered Gore evilly.

And before Claw even had a chance to shout out, the two bigger Raptors had between them hauled him into the air and were heading to the fence of the Stego enclosure. The Stegos, nervous about the noise from the Raptor party were swishing their spiny tails nervously.

“No, no, no!” cried Claw.

But nobody could hear him above the noise of the fight, which by now had extended to include all the teachers, several more pupils and the farm manager!

Claw knew that only he could save himself so he wriggled and wriggled making it hard for Guts and Gore to hold onto him and they certainly could not with him wriggling like that push him over the fence. Worried that picking on Claw was taking too long and was getting too much like hard work plus also feeling that there might just be a bit more excitement if they joined the fight, they dropped Claw unceremoniously on the ground. Claw fell awkwardly, hitting his head and for Claw, suddenly the world went black. Guts and Gore did not even notice that Claw was unconscious as they raced over to join the fight and neither did anybody else once the fight eventually died down and the tour commenced further up the path.

The school party were in a completely different section of the farm by the time Claw started to come round. At first Claw could not even remember where he was, so the strange voice he heard as he lay dazed on the path confused him.

“Come here you mangy beast. Get over here now!” ordered the angry voice.

Claw groggily thought the voice was talking to him and he tried unsuccessfully to sit up, his head only still slowly clearing. When he realised sitting up was not quite going to work yet, Claw contented himself to rolling over onto his side and concentrated on opening his eyes so he could work out where he was. The first thing Claw saw when he opened his eyes was the face of a Stego staring back at him only a metre or so from his face. Claw shrunk back in horror, remembering that he was at the farm and what Guts and Gore had tried to do to him. Claw did not want to be in that Stego enclosure. It was only when the wire fence separating Claw and the Stego came clearly into focus to Claw’s still fuzzy vision did Claw realise with relief that he was still on the right side of the Stego enclosure. As Claw lay there, letting his vision clear and the ringing in his head subside he could still hear the angry voice and now he could hear the crack on an electro whip. The voice ranted and raved and with each crack of the whip, the Stego in front of Claw staggered in pain. Claw moved his head gently, he could now see a farmer in the Stego field, the farmer was shouting at the Stego, punctuating his torrent of abuse with cracks of his whip. The farmer was too incensed to notice Claw lying on the path.

“You stupid animal! Why did you have to go and do that for!” yelled the farmer as he aimed a kick at one of the Stego’s legs. As the farmer’s clawed foot made contact with the Stego’s leg the Stego staggered and moaned a low bellow of pain. Claw could make out a tangle of barbed wire trapped around the Stego’s leg. Instead of helping the Stego free itself the farmer was making it worse by kicking the animal and making it panic, straining against the barbed wire even more. The Stego was obviously in great distress but for when clear moment Claw could swear that it held Claw’s gaze, its eyes pleading for help, even if it was from another Raptor. Claw feeling bolder after his recent successful escape from Guts and Gore knew he just could not leave the poor animal to suffer, so his head now feeling quite a bit better, Claw rose to his feet and cried.

“Leave it alone!”

The farmer did not even hear Claw, he was too intent on taking out his frustrations on the first poor animal he had come across that day that could not fight back. Claw took a deeper, bigger breath.

“I said leave it alone!”

This time the farmer heard him, he turned towards Claw, only now noticing him, when he saw that his challenger was only a young schoolboy Raptor, the farmer temporarily stopped abusing the Stego and doubled over with laughter.

“You, you, you” stuttered the farmer, barely able to speak with laughing, “are the funniest thing I’ve seen all day. Because it has to be a joke doesn’t it? Because you have to be joking me. Because you can’t seriously think you can tell me what to do.”  The farmer by now had stopped laughing and stood staring at Claw menacingly across the other side of the fence, tapping his electro-whip rhythmically against the palm of his hand.

Claw stared, dumbstruck back, he was not sure what he was getting himself into and more importantly, how he was going to get himself out of it. The Stego cried again as it tried to free itself from the barbed wire, making the wire dig even deeper instead. Claw realised that he could not back down from his beliefs now.

“You should be helping the poor thing. Not hurting it even more,” said Claw.

“I can think of something else I’m going to hurt in a minute,” said the farmer.

The injured Stego, seeing the farmer temporarily distracted by Claw saw its chance and took a swing at the farmer with its spiked tail. The farmer saw the tail coming just in time and jumped out of the way, roaring “I’ll cut your tail off for that you stupid animal”.

The Stego tried for another swing of its tail and the farmer’s attention was now fully back on the Stego, away from Claw. Claw fearing that things were about to get much worse for the Stego, looked around the field desperately for something to help and there he saw the gate. A break in the barbed wire fence, Claw bounded over to the gate, leapt over it and ran as fast as he could over to the wounded Stego, hoping the other Stegos in the field would not attack him. The wounded Stego’s attention was still fully on the farmer but the farmer had noticed Claw coming up behind the wounded Stego and was temporarily struck still in amazement that he would actually see some weedy school kid in his field full of Stegos. The wounded Stego seeing the farmer’s concentration weaken aimed its best swipe yet, knocking the farmer flying, but the strong farmer was soon clambering back on his feet. Before Claw even realised what he was doing himself he found that he had leapt on the Stego’s back.

“We have to get out of here” said Claw urgently but calmly into the Stego’s ear and aiming the Stego at the gate, the Stego crashed through it and out onto the open pathway running between the fields of the farm.

Riding on the Stego’s back, feeling the wind against his scales, for the first time in a long time, Claw felt free. As it seemed did the Stego to, thundering along the path that led between the enclosures of the farm, the pain in his leg for the moment forgotten, all the Stego wanted was to escape the farm and get back into the wilderness of the forests on the valley slope.

Claw clung tightly to the Stego’s back, not caring for that moment where he was going, just enjoying the ride. He was vaguely aware of a commotion forming behind him as the employees of the farm became aware that one of their Stegos was escaping and the teachers became aware that one of their pupils was on the back of said Stego. But Claw felt he could ride the Stego forever, with only the wind ever catching them up.

The fences and the startled farmers they passed as they made their escape soon dwindled away and the ground beneath the Stego’s feet soon began to gently slope uphill. It felt like only minutes since their escape but already the first few trees of the forest were overhead.

The farmers and the teachers had by now organised a group to chase after Claw and the Stego. The farmer with the electro-whip led the way on another Stego, closely followed by Claw’s angry teachers clinging onto the back of a pickup track, waving their claws in annoyance at Claw. Now that they were organised they were starting to catch up with Claw and the Stego but Claw still had a good lead and he was confident that once they got to the forest, the trees would at least slow down the pickup truck full of teachers. Claw knew in his head that he should just stop the Stego (although he wasn’t sure he actually knew how to do that) and wait for the teachers to pick him up. Claw was worried though that making the Stego stop to let him off would allow the farmer with the electro-whip to eventually catch up with the Stego and he did not want to be responsible for what that farmer would do to the Stego. Claw felt he had to get the Stego deep into the forest where it could finally roam free.

The trees were starting to crowd in now and Claw’s Stego had to weave in and out of the trees, his stampeding feet crunching the fallen leaves and twigs on the forest floor and the wind whistling past Claw’s face. Claw had to watch where they were going as every now and then the Stego would run under a tree branch and Claw would have to hurriedly duck to avoid being hit in the face. Concentrating on not falling off meant that he could not keep an eye on where the pursuing farmer and teachers were. So it was not until they reached a small clearing in the forest could Claw look behind him, the dinosaurs chasing him had gone. The Stego seemed to sense that he was nearing safer ground slowed down his pace, the sides of the great beast labouring in and out as he struggled to regain his breath. Claw looked round, the leaves and branches of the tall trees that surrounded him provided a shady canopy over head from birds flew from branch to branch singing to each other, animals scampered around and over the trees just out of the corner of Claw’s eye.

“I’ve never been this far into the forest before” said Claw half to himself and half to the Stego, as he looked around in wonder.

“You’ll be safe here” said Claw, as he lent over and patted the Stego.

The Stego snuffled contentedly and bent its head to chew at a small bush.

Claw with a bit of difficultly managed to clamber off the Stego and went over to the Stego’s head, carefully avoiding the Stego’s spiked tail. He patted the Stego on the head again and repeated “You’re safe now”.

Claw looked around him, as beautiful as the forest was he knew he could not stay out there forever, he knew it would be cold at night and he was not sure where he would find his food and besides, his mum would worry. Claw had lost track of which way they had come but as he looked down through the sloping forest before him he said to the Stego “I have to go home now, I don’t want to, but I have to. I don’t know the way home but home is at the bottom of this valley, so if I just follow the hill downwards I’ll get out of this forest eventually and then I should be able to find the city more easily”. And with that Claw gave the Stego, who was still munching at a bush one last pat and started to make his way down the hill through the trees.

Claw found that it was easier going through the forest on the back of a Stego. Claw’s feet kept tripping on tree roots and slipping on leaves on the forest floor. The light under the forest canopy with dimming and Claw was getting tired and hungry, it had been a long day. Claw’s mind was wandering as he stumbled down through the forest and he was not watching where he was going, so consequently he did not notice the rustling in the trees of a large creature or that the birds amongst the trees had gone eerily silent, until it was too late. The first thing Claw noticed was the roar, Claw stopped still “What was that!” he thought, the roar seemed very close by. Suddenly a set of huge gaping jaws appeared from behind a group of trees, followed by the glinting menacing eyes of a Tyro as it made a lunge for Claw. Claw screamed in fright and made a leap to the right, the Tyro only just missed him. The huge Tyro crashed through the forest after Claw, Claw stumbling and running for his life, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, yet still he could feel the Tyro’s hot breath on his back and its roar rang in his ears. Claw ran and ran but the Tyro’s giant legs seemed to never tire. Claw crashed through a group of bushes, the twigs and branches of the bush scratching at his scales. As Claw fought his way out of the bushes, still running as fast as he could, the slope of valley helping to speed him on, when he saw what lay in front of him it took all his effort to bring himself to a stop, as before him lay a stony cliff in the valley side. If Claw had run any further he would of gone tumbling over it’s edge. Claw stood panting, his gaze spinning between the steep drop of the cliff before him and the Tyro emerging from the bush behind him. The Tyro had him exactly where he wanted. The Tyro gave a triumphant final roar and lunged again at Claw. Claw closed his eyes as the Tyro’s jaws loomed above him and then suddenly he heard a second crash through the bush, a second roar, this time angry and then suddenly a roar of pain, but the roar of pain was not coming from him! Claw opened his eyes just a little bit, the Stego was here and swinging its tail angrily at the Tyro, who had a huge gash on it’s thigh. The Tyro had turned it’s attention fully on the Stego and it was lunging now at the Stego instead of Claw, but the Tyro kept on having to dodge the Stego’s spiky tail and therefore he had not hurt the Stego yet. The Stego placed another well aimed swipe at the Tyro, as they fought scarily close to the edge of the cliff. The Tyro had to jump backwards to avoid the spiky tail and its feet skidded on the loose crumbly soil at the top of the cliff. The Tyro’s feet fell out from under him and the Tyro landed on his belly, the claws of his hands scrabbling to grip on to the earth and it’s legs dangled into space over the edge of the cliff. The Tyro was slowly pulling itself back off the cliff, Claw knew they did not have long, so as the Stego ran towards him he knew he had no choice but to leap onto the Stego’s back again.

The Stego, with Claw upon his back raced back down through the forest, skirting around the cliff towards the valley floor. It was not long before they heard the angry roar of the Tyro behind them as it crashed through the forest after them.

“Quicker!” yelled Claw as they raced through the forest.

The Stego ran as fast as it could but they could not loose the angry Tyro. The trees of the forest were thinning now and Claw could see glimpses of Diplodo farm on the valley floor through the trees. Before the knew it Stego and Claw had burst through the tree line, closely followed by the Tyro. Free from the trees the Stego could run faster now, but so could the Tyro. The Stego raced along the edge of the farm with the Tyro in hot pursuit. In the distance Claw could a group of Raptors clustering around a bus and they got closer he realised that it was his classmates getting back on their school bus. Claw’s classmates stopped and stared in amazement as Claw raced past them on the Stego, closely pursued by the angry Tyro. Claw even thought he heard a few yell “Go Claw!” in encouragement.

The Stego kept running and running but so did the Tyro and Claw worried that it would be the Stego, who had already run one chase that day already would tire first and then the Tyro could get both him and the Stego. They were still racing through the farm, farmers scattering in shock and amazement at the chase as it passed them. The Stego had been running in pretty much a straight line along the edge of the farm, so Claw was shocked when the Stego suddenly swerved towards the enclosures. Ahead of them was one of the enclosures used for the Diplodos, Claw could tell that as it’s fences were ten times as high as the other fences on the farm. This Diplodo enclosure though was currently empty and it had its gate open. The Stego headed straight for the gate, “What is it doing?” thought Claw in alarm, “We’re going to be trapped!”

However as they passed through the gate, the Tyro chasing closely behind, Claw noticed that there was another gate into the enclosure. Now if they could just get through that gate to and close it before the Tyro got out! The Stego raced through the large enclosure, the second gate was getting nearer and nearer, Claw readied himself to leap off the Stego to close the gate. As the gate was just metres away Claw felt the Stego give one last burst of energy and they almost flew out of the gate. Claw jumped off the Stego’s back and pushed the gate shut as hard as he could, the latch on the strong gate clicked down at it hit the gate post, just as the Tyro slammed into the gate, the Tyro could not get through!

“Shut the other gate!” yelled Claw as loud as he could to the farmers on the other side of the enclosure and they quickly did so. The Tyro was trapped! Loud cheers rose from the farmers and Claw’s classmates who had been following the chase on their school bus.

Claw and the Stego stood there, both catching their breaths as everyone crowded to the fence to see the Tyro that Claw had captured! But Claw’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the farmer with the electro-whip emerge from the crowd and head towards them, he wanted the Stego back. Claw spun towards the Stego and shouted “Run Stego! Run!” The Stego seeing the farmer quickly turned and with thundering feet run back towards the forest. The farmer cursed, he did not have another beast to ride nearby nor a truck and it would take too long for him to work his way back through the crowd surrounding the captured Tyro, the Stego had escaped him. Claw smiled as he saw the Stego disappear into the distance.

© JSS 2007

Short Story – Dino – Story – Shrew Wood

I’ve been working through creative writing exercises for what’s getting to some years now, in an effort to hopefully one day be good enough to be a professional writer and the series of short stories for children that I’ve decided I might as well put somewhere are the result of one of the creative writing exercises I did. It was a simple ‘what if?’ exercise but it developed into something that took a large amount of my scarce writing time, it turns out wrongly. I say I was wrong to devote so much time to these stories because I made a fundamental mistake for someone who wants to write for children, I misjudged my target audience, it’s an anthromorphogenic story but has levels of ‘violence’ that makes them suitable for only older children (9 – 11) whereas anthromorphogenic stories are probably really only commercially successful for much younger children. Still we learn from our mistakes! And I thought instead of letting the series lurk around my hard drive I’d release them into the wild, I’d appreciate any constructive comments but don’t worry I know now why they’re probably never going to be successful. Anyway there are a few stories in this series, so if you like this one, please look out for further Dino – Stories as I’m about to post all of them.

Dino-story –  Shrew Wood

65 million years ago

“Go red team, go!” yelled the red team captain over the team radio system.

The attacking red team ship zoomed after the asteroid, blasting it with a well timed pulse from its blaster, knocking it towards the goal marked by Pluto and one of its moons.

The green team goalie hovered just before the goal and easily caught the asteroid, catching it with its tractor beam and then blasting it back onto the field of play.

The red team were sweating now, the Green team were way in the lead and they just couldn’t get the asteroid through their goal. The red team captain hovering in his ship mid field watching the game unfold reached over one of his three green tentacles and flicked the team radio back on, “We’ve got to step up the pace, come on guys!”

Snarz, the rookie player in the team and desperate to please his captain decided he had to break out on his own and just grab that asteroid. He zoomed after the asteroid and seeing that he didn’t have a direct shot at the goal, took aim and blasted the asteroid to Mumpf in the hope he would have a better shot at goal. Except he missed, the asteroid zoomed past Mumpf and off the play zone.

“Snarz!” shouted the captain “You idiot, you lost the asteroid! Where’s it gone?”

“I’ve got it on screen” said Snarz over the radio. “It’s heading into thesolar system. It’s heading towards a planet sir.”

“Nothing important in this backwater of a system is there?” said the captain dismissively.

“Don’t think so sir” said Mumpf.

Snarz studied the asteroid’s path more closely “It’s that little blue – green planet sir, think there’s life on it sir.”

“Nothing intelligent though” sneered the captain.

“But sir?” questioned Snarz.

“Blow it” thought Snarz, with the asteroid of the pitch the game had ended and the Green team had won, he didn’t want to face his team mates back on the mother ship.

“Might as well go and put the asteroid back” he thought to himself.

Snarz pushed the throttle back on his space ship and zoomed off after the asteroid. Past Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, he was catching up with the asteroid as it just passed Mars. Snarz pushed his ship to its limit, in one last attempt to catch up the asteroid.

Snarz had passed Mars now and he could see Earth growing larger before him, the asteroid still racing ahead. Snarz was not sure if he was going to catch it in time even though he was getting closer and closer. The asteroid was just in the Earth’s atmosphere and Snarz was not sure if he was near enough for his tractor beam to work but he knew he had to try. The tractor beam clicked on and Snarz aimed for the rock, for a moment he thought he had not got it, but it just grabbed it and Snarz swung it round and making sure it was not going to hit any other planets he blasted it out of the solar system.

Meanwhile down on the planet, the dinosaurs continued to stalk and hunt and the tree shrews continued to forage amongst the branches, all unaware of Earth’s near miss.

Present day

The sound of the chain saw sent shivers down Acorn and Twig’s spines as they watched the Raptors cut into the trunk of their neighbours, the Purpleberries home.

“We’ve got to do something dad” said Acorn.

Dad, who was watching the Raptors with the rest of the Greenleaves family, hidden amongst the branches of their tree home, just twitched his whiskers and shook his head.

“Why not dad?” asked Twig.

“What are we going to do lad? I may be bigger than all you lot but even I’m tiny compared to the Raptors. Do you think I can just scurry out of our tree, go over to those two Raptors over there and go ‘excuse me do you mind not cutting our neighbour’s tree down and whilst you’re at it don’t cut our tree down either’. Those scaly monsters would sooner eat me and they would” said dad.

Twig and Acorn exchanged ‘a look’ with each other, despairing of their timid dad.

“Don’t give me that look you two! Us Shrews haven’t survived to be where we are today by going and provoking the Raptors. We’ve stuck to our woods and our forests, hidden in the trees and got on with our lives. If we cross paths with the Raptors we hope and pray that it isn’t our tree they’re going to chop down or that they’re not out looking for a snack. That is the way we are and they way we’ll stay. Now off to school you to, time to go anyway but I don’t want you seeing what’s going to happen to the Purpleberries.”

Acorn and Twig scurried off, muttering about their stuck in the mud, old fashioned father. They climbed up to the top of their tree, where its branches brushed with the branches of the other trees in the wood. It was in that way Acorn and Twig made their way to school, a few trees away from their own.

When they arrived the other pupils were scurrying around excitedly in a nervous kind of way. Even in the school tree they could still hear the Raptor’s chain saw.

Acorn bustled up to his friend Thunder, “Has Bark Purpleberries come to school yet?”

Thunder shook his head sadly “I don’t think his family are going to make it. My dad says there isn’t enough room in the wood for the Purpleberries family to move into another tree or to stay with another family. The trees are already crowded as it is, ever since the Raptors decided to start cutting the trees down.”

“We’ve got to do something” said Acorn.

“But what though?” said Thunder.

By the time Acorn and Twig arrived home from school the place where the Purpleberries tree had stood was empty and it’s fallen trunk chopped up and taken back to the valley where the Raptors lived.

The next day the Shrews were woken by the sound of the Raptors truck roaring back to where they had been working the day before. Acorn and Twig watched as the two Raptors hopped out of their vehicle and strode round the wood looking at each tree in turn. Acorn and Twig held their breath, was it going to be their tree next? They breathed a guilty sigh of relief when the Raptors chose instead to start work on the Crinkleleaves tree.

“Are they ever going to stop?” said Twig half to himself.

“I don’t think so” said Acorn “we have to do something.”

Acorn stared at the Raptors with their frightening loud chain saw which seemed like it could cut through anything and he stared at their long mouths filled with sharp pointy teeth. Acorn looked over at their truck, they had learnt about the Raptors and their vehicles in Dinosaur theory at school, something from the lesson was wiggling to the surface of his mind.

“Ah hah!” cried Acorn “I’ve got it! You won’t have done this in class yet Twig as you’re not old enough but in our class we’ve been learning about Raptors and their trucks and apparently . . .”

Dew, Acorn and Twig’s older sister who loved telling tales about Acorn and Twig to their mum and dad scurried past on the branch. So that his sister wouldn’t hear Acorn whispered the rest of his plan into Twig’s ear. Twig looked unsure about the plan but when their sister suspiciously asked the pair what they were whispering about, they both put on their best innocent faces and sweetly said “Oh nothing”.

After Dew had scurried scowling past the brothers, Acorn turned to Twig.

“Come on we have to do it now before we change our minds!”

With that Acorn turned and started to race down the tree trunk, his claws steadying him on the bark. Twig hesitated and whispered “Are you sure you don’t want to change your mind, Acorn?” But seeing his brother disappear quickly down the tree and knowing that plan would more likely succeed with the both of them, Twig nervously followed.

Acorn was waiting impatiently for Twig at the bottom of their tree. Twig reached the bottom but stopped just short of actually getting off the tree trunk.

“Come on Twig!” said Acorn.

“I don’t know. I’ve never been on the forest floor before” said Twig nervously. “Everything seems so much bigger down here.”

“Come on, we have to be quick and we have to be nimble, that way they won’t see us!” said Acorn and with that he dashed off in the direction of the Raptor’s truck.

It was a long way for Acorn and Twig’s tiny legs, more used to scurrying the branches of a tree than the rough ground of the forest floor. The noise from the chainsaws grew louder and louder as they got closer, so much so it was deafening and Acorn and Twig could not hear each other speak. As they approached the back end of the truck, the Raptors still focusing on their work, Acorn pointed towards the wheels on the left hand side of the truck, the side away from the Raptors for Twig to work on and Acorn went to the right. Twig, remembering what his brother had told him in the tree scurried over to the first of the truck’s tyres. The tyre loomed over him and he was worried that somehow even though it wasn’t moving at that moment it could move any second and squash him flat. Determined to get this over and done with so he could get back to the safety of his tree, Twig opened his mouth as wide as he could and ran at the tyre. The tyre tasted horrible, artificial, un-natural, a taste that caught at the back of your throat but Twig chewed on, determined to be as quick as he could. The tyre was so thick but Twig kept chewing and eventually he could feel a little whistle of air streaking past his whiskers out of the tyre. Twig chewed some more, feeling encouraged and there suddenly the tyre broke and the air hissed out causing the tyre to flatten. Twig raced over to his other tyre and feeling more confident that he knew what to do, managed to bite through the wall of the tyre more easily this time. As Twig turned round spitting out the last bits of disgusting tyre he found Acorn waiting for him.

“You did it!” said Acorn “Come on lets get back home”.

Acorn and Twig scurried back up their tree and settled down on a branch to watch what happened next. The two Raptors had finished cutting up the tree into moveable chunks, clambering all over the fallen tree with their chain saws and had been putting the cut up pieces of tree into their truck. When they could fill their truck no more they hopped back into the cab of their truck and started the engine. All four flat punctured wheels rotated uselessly on their wheel axis. One of the Raptors opened the door of his cab and hopped out, puzzled. He went over to look at the nearest wheel, realised it was flat, cursed in Raptorese, kicked the wheel and then called his workmate out of the truck. They found their spare wheel, changed the flat wheel and then after again hopping back into their truck, started the engine. Acorn and Twig sniggered up in their safe vantage point. This time three flat and punctured wheels rotated uselessly around their wheel shaft. This time both doors of the cab flew open and the Raptors again hopped out, this time puzzled and annoyed. The hopped round the truck, kicking each wheel in turn as they realised it was flat. They only carried one spare wheel. The Raptors argued amongst themselves for a little while, with great gnashing of teeth and waving of claws and flicking of tails. Eventually they calmed down, each only receiving a few scratches from the other and one of the Raptors reached into the cab of their truck and pulled out a radio. After a brief conversation over the radio and studying of their watches, the two Raptors were left waiting for rescue.

Acorn and Twig, still watching were very pleased with themselves. The fight between the two Raptors had drawn the attention of the other Shrews and from the trees around them hundreds of pairs of eyes looked down on the dinosaurs. The Raptors kicked the fallen leaves on the floor for a little bit, gave the wheels of the truck an even bigger kicking and then started to stare to long for the Shrew’s liking at the tree belonging to the family of his friend Thunder. The Raptors looked at their watches again and after a bit of conversation and some pointing at the tree, they retrieved their chainsaws back from the truck and once again the evil chilling sound of the chainsaws filled Shrew Wood.

Dew, who had settled on the branch next to Acorn and Twig, who had previously been crowing about their success, turned and sneered at them “Look what you’ve done now, you idiots! You’ve just given them more time to chop down trees whilst they’re waiting for someone to come and pick them up!”

Acorn and Twig looked on sadly and guiltily as the Raptors hopped around the tree, gleefully shaking the branches of the tree with a long stick in the hope some Shrew were going to fall out into their waiting gaping mouths. The Raptors considered Shrews too small to be a decent meal but they made excellent snacks if they were going to be working late.

The Raptors had the tree on the ground by the time their rescue thundered through the wood. The Raptors and the Shrews heard the beast some time before they saw it. When they did see it, they first saw its tiny head swaying on its long neck over the tree tops, followed by its hulking body and its four stomping cumbersome legs and then it’s huge thick tail, tapering down towards the end, flicking and cracking branches everywhere. The Shrews rarely saw such a beast and most had only read about them in books, as they normally stayed in the open fields of the valley floor. However the Shrews all knew that this was a Diplodo, tamed by the Raptors to perform heavy work in their factories and in the open. On the Diplodo’s vast back was a Raptor, controlling it with a harness, he waved down to the Raptors on the forest floor. Behind the Diplodo was a set of thick loose trailing clunking chains, the Diplodo was positioned in front of the broken down truck and the chains were hooked to its front. The Raptors hopped back onto the truck leaving their latest tree to be collected tomorrow and with a crack of a whip and a pull of the harness the Diplodo thundered back through the wood, towing the truck complete with Raptors and their first load of wood behind it.

That night an early autumn storm blew through Shrew Wood, encouraging some of the browning leaves to fall and niggling at the branches of trees weakened with age. Even without the noise of the storm Acorn and Twig could not sleep. They felt guilty about the felling of an extra tree and were worried that there were few trees standing next to their own tree left and wondered if their home would be next. When the sun rose the next morning Acorn and Twig saw no point in tossing and turning in bed any longer and scampered out to view their world from their tree for what they feared could be the last time. As they emerged onto the branches they realised their tree was different, the storm had knocked loose two large branches from the tree. Both branches were hanging lose from the tree by a few strips of bark. Acorn and Twig’s dad was already up and surveying the damage.

“Oh dear dad” said Twig “it can be fixed though can’t it?”

“Normally yes son, we’ve got pulleys to haul the branches back into place and balms to heal the tree but what’s the point?”

“They might go away before they get to our tree” said Acorn.

Their dad pointed a paw at the increasing clearing that was forming in their part of the forest; their tree was on the edge of the clearing. Their mum bustled onto the branch and whispered in a nagging tone into her husband’s ear.

“Very well dear, I’ll get on with the repairs straight away.”

Acorn and Twig’s dad set about bringing out the pulleys and the ropes to tie to the broken branches to hitch them back into position after he had applied healing balm made out of the herbs from the forest floor. The branches would be held in place for a week by the pulley before the tree healed itself. Their dad completed the work quickly and nagged his children to school.

Whilst at school Acorn, Twig and the other Shrews could not concentrate on their lessons, the Raptors were back and chopping up the second tree they had felled yesterday with their chain saws. The Raptors had finished their work just before lunch and before making the most of their outdoor work to go out and catch themselves some freshly killed lunch, the Shrews could see the Raptors discussing what tree they would chop down next. It was clear that it was going to be Acorn and Twig’s tree.

Acorn and Twig raced home to find their mother hurriedly packing. Their dad was on the forest grapevine, trying to call in favours to find somewhere to stay but everywhere was crowded with Shrews who had previously lost their homes. Acorn and Twig were desperate and truly did not want to leave their home and it was increasingly looking that with their dad’s increasingly frantic calls that they did not have anywhere to go anyway.

Acorn and Twig sat brooding high up in the canopy of their tree, watching for the Raptors to come off their lunch break. Before long the Raptors reappeared with blood smeared on their jaws. They circled Acorn and Twig’s tree, revving their chainsaws. Acorn kicked out in frustration, he did not want to run. Acorn and Twig had been sitting next to the pulley that had been holding one of the injured branches in place and that was hidden from the Raptors by the leaves. His kick temporarily dislodged the branch and it swung down, inches from one of the Raptors face and then swung back up again. The Raptor swerved round confused but soon comforted himself by some more revving of his chainsaw. An idea began to form in Acorn’s mind, maybe they could frighten off the Raptors?  Acorn dislodged the branch again and again is swung down, this time hitting one of the Raptors on the head before bouncing back up again. It looked like the tree was becoming alive and its branches were becoming arms. Twig, seeing what his brother was doing quickly scurried over to the other injured branch on the other side of the tree and copied his brother. Twig’s branch hit the other Raptor on the head before bouncing back up again. The Raptors were getting increasingly confused and angry. One of the Raptors decided that he had to finish off this troublesome tree there and then and was just carefully lining up the blade of his chain saw with the tree trunk. Acorn seeing what was going to happen cried over to his brother.

“Let’s work together” and with some pointing and gesturing so that his younger brother knew exactly what to do, they, in unison dislodged their branches and this time hung on with all their might so that the branches would not bounce straight back. They forced the ends of the branches together, like the tree truly had arms and together they managed to grab the Raptor lining up his chain saw and yank him high up into the air. The Raptor roared in a mixture of anger and fear as he tried to free himself from the tangle of branches. The weight of the branches and the Raptor got too much for Acorn and Twig so they released their pulleys and dropped the Raptor unceremoniously onto the floor. The Raptor lay temporarily shaken by his fall and the other Raptor stood still, staring at the tree in fear. The antics of Acorn and Twig had been watched by the rest of the Shrews in the wood and they jumped up and down, rustling the leaves of their trees in delight. For the Raptors it was like the whole wood was becoming alive. They glanced round at the shaking trees and with one leap bound straight back to their truck, roaring off before they could even finish closing their doors. That was the last Shrew Wood saw of the Raptors for quite some time.

© JSS 2007

Boy Lacer’s Birthday continued (Vegan Chocolate Baking)

So, our plan for the day was a trip to Kew to celebrate Boy Lacer’s birthday, not terribly exciting I know but with a 2 year old that can’t walk yet, you are a bit limited on options and we’d done a lot of the standard London touristy stuff fairly recently over the summer. Anyway, we took the lazy option and drove to Kew, when could have perfectly well of taken the bus, we should of taken the bus, as we didn’t realise but there was a sponsored walk in Kew today so no where to park . We then thought we’d drive back through Richmond Park, maybe finding a place to stop in there and have our picnic but the place was full of Sunday drivers so we drove back home and had our picnic on the living room floor. Still, Boy Lacer enjoyed it, as he does anything involving food. The menu was marmite sandwiches, cocktail sausages, crisps, rice cakes, smoothies, number 2 biscuits from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess which I try and cook every kids birthday (obviously whatever number is applicable) and for the birthday cake, chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World. Now we’re not vegans, but Boy Lacer has suspected cow dairy protein intolerance so he doesn’t have cow milk products, which normally rules out chocolate then, it never occurred to me that chocolate drinking powder (the sort that you have to add to hot milk to make hot chocolate, I use Green & Blacks) itself does not have any dairy in, so there’s your chocolate flavouring but it still rules out a lot of chocolate cake recipes, as they involve the addition of melted chocolate to (I substitute butter for Soya Pure and milk for goats milk). So Vegan Cupcakes take over the World was a blessing, the chocolate cupcakes were the first time I used the book and following the recipe was fun, it was easy to make but a little (to someone used to baking conventionally) like doing a science experiment with the addition of apple cider vinegar and oil (the book suggested canola oil, I substituted this for sunflower oil). I was going to top it with a buttercream (also dairy free) topping from the book but ended up eventually opting for a light dusting of icing sugar. I’d throughly recommend this book to anyone interested in making completely OTT cupcakes, vegan or not, even if you’re determined to stick to the dairy products, it gives you lots and lots of ideas, particularly in toppings and flavourings ideas. The authors of the book state (something along the lines of) when you subtract the flavours of the dairy and the eggs from the recipe you let the other flavours shine through and at least for the chocolate cupcakes this was so true. The recipe didn’t actually call for that much chocolate powder and remember there’s no melted chocolate or anything but the resulting cup cakes were sooooo chocolatey, really rich (probably a bit too rich for a 2 year olds birthday cake really) and although not exactly healthy surely skipping the butter has to make them just a little healthier? So back to the birthday picnic, when Boy Lacer saw me come out with the plate of cupcakes, his with two little candles on the top, he was sooo excited, he motioned me to bring the cakes right to him and I helped him blow the candles out. I then helped him unwrap his cupcake and his face was just a picture, I unwrapped the cupcake right next to him and his mouth was as wide open as he could get it, ready to plunge into that cupcake, we’ve got an absolutely classic picture of the scene which we’ll torture him for life with! He managed in the end just two big mouth fulls (like I say it was extremely chocolatey) before he lost interest in it, but boy did he enjoy those two mouth fulls going “Mmmmm, mmmm” his mouth full of cake crumbs, after that chocolate hit, he was like he’d sneaked a pitcher full of whiskey or something (trust me there was no alcohol in it), so I think despite the lack of day trip he’s had a good birthday so far (he’s asleep at the moment). I loved my chocolate cupcake, although feel highly over chocolated now, which actually is probably what you want when you make chocolate cake, my problem with baking is that I tend to eat all the results, whereas if you make something that is completely delicious but something even the most sweet toothed can only manage one portion of, that has to be a good thing. Girl Lacer liked (and ate all of) her chocolate cupcake to, Mr. Lacer refused his saying he knew just by looking at it, it was too chocolatey. Girl Lacer’s birthday is next month and she has also requested chocolate cake but in her words “a big cake, that’s not too chocolatey, that can be cut into really small slices for daddy so he can have some”, will have to check out Domestic Goddess again.

Happy Birthday Boy Lacer! 2 today!

Happy Birthday Boy Lacer! The kids woke dutifully on cue at 6.00am on the dot, Girl Lacer of course more excited than her brother who didn’t have a clue really. After a morning cuddle it was into the living room to open the presents. I think Boy Lacer thought that the wrapping paper was a mere inconvienence getting in the way of the actual presents but they were all opened eventually (after he got Mr. Lacer to do it) and he’s now got a nice stash of more plastic; a command centre and moon buggy to go with the rocket he got last Christmas, a toy aeroplane, some trucks and an animal rescue helicopter. Toys of the non plastic variety were an Upsy Daisy doll and a puzzle from his sister which I think is his favourite toy. More about Boy Lacer’s birthday later.