Lee Nelson
Jen Carney
It was a regular Sunday morning in Mersinger, a city where rare animals lived peacefully among humans.
Two-Nosed Borovines ambled down avenues seeking shady spots to rest. Giant-bees, busily making honey in the city’s huge municipal hives, buzzed songs of joy. And children laughed as they jumped around on Pudding – the enormous cat-shaped bouncy castle in the middle of Mersinger Park.
Jess Teress, a little girl with curly red hair, smiled as she skipped along Mersinger Greenway with her family. Today was her eighth birthday – the day she’d inherit the Warrior Gem from her father. A magic gem with the power to grant its owner two wishes, Jess couldn’t wait to try it out.
Although he’d never said, Jess suspected one of her father’s wishes had been to win the lottery because the Teress family never struggled for money.
Excitement bubbling, Jess’s mood dipped when she spotted Tiger Leggoman whizzing towards her on his grass-surfer.
A cruel prankster, Tiger sneered at Jess, flung some itching powder into a Polish Paramedic-Turtle’s nest then sped off towards the pond.
Jess decided immediately what her first wish would be: I wish I was braver so I could give Tiger Leggoman a piece of my mind.
After that, her plan was to wish for an endless supply of chocolate, which was hard to come by in Mersinger.
As usual, when the family reached the regenerating Bacon Tree, they split up. Jess went for a wander round the bee hives while her parents took her baby brother, Hugo, to play on Pudding.
‘Morning, Inaya!’ said Jess, as she neared the first hive and spotted her BBF (Best Bee Friend). ‘Invented any new games?’
Inaya didn’t reply. Not because she couldn’t talk (in Mersinger most things could talk and almost everything acted like a human being), but because, right at that moment, a deep booming noise blasted through the air and the ground began to shake.
‘What the…?’ cried Jess, craning her neck to see if the sky was falling down. (It wasn’t.)
The noise got louder.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The bee hives shook like giant maracas.
‘Look out!’ buzzed Inaya, pointing towards the regenerating Bacon Tree.
Jess whipped her head around and her jaw dropped.
Stomping through the park, was a monster!
Now Jess Teress was used to seeing monsters. They visited Mersinger all the time to buy giant-bee honey for their babies. But she’d NEVER seen one as HUGE as this before. Or as angry-looking.
Bigger than Godzilla, its head was made of grimy water that showered the ground with dirt every time it took a step. It had four long arms covered in black scales and a bulging red belly that wobbled like a bowl of strawberry jelly. Its three legs, covered in woody thorns, were as thick as the bell tower on Mersinger city hall. And, judging by the rancid stench that whooshed from its mouth when it roared, it had terrible breath.
Petrified, Jess froze.
The beast stomped over the playground, flattening the metal slide as though it was a paper cup. It lobbed the ice-cream van into Mersinger pond like a pebble. It kicked trees, sending them flying across the city. And it roared with such force that brick buildings toppled as though they were made of straw.
‘RUN!’ came a desperate yell, jolting Jess from her stunned state.
Jess turned towards the call and saw her parents running towards her. In her father’s arms, little Hugo wailed, flailing his chubby arms around like a frenzied windmill.
‘Mum! Dad!’ she shouted. ‘What’s happening?’
‘RUN!’ repeated Jess’s mother. ‘It’s a Bad-Breathed Flood-Monster! Run for your life!’
So that’s what Jess did.
She turned on her heel and ran as fast as she could, away from the dreadful beast that, for some reason, seemed to be heading directly for her family.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM
Caught up in a stampede of other terrified Mersingians, Jess found herself at the city’s large marina. With everyone and everything desperate to escape the flood-monster, boats were filling quickly.
Her heart pounding and her forehead damp with sweat, Jess scanned the crowd for her family. From the corner of her eye, she saw two pizzas waving at her from a long wooden boat.
‘There’s a space in here!’ yelled one of them. ‘Quick! Jump in!’
Jess glanced towards the city as the sound of the monster grew closer. Where were the rest of her family?
Remembering her mother’s instruction, Jess ran towards the pizzas and leapt into the boat.
‘THAT’S NINETY-THREE!’ shouted a wiry-armed laptop at the boat’s helm. ‘WE’RE FULL AND READY TO SAIL!’
As the boat pulled away from the marina, Jess gazed at the ninety-two strangers she’d found herself aboard with, and her bottom lip trembled.
‘Don’t cry,’ said one of the pizzas. ‘You’re safe now. Bad-Breathed Flood-Monsters can’t swim.’ He thrust his doughy hand towards Jess. ‘Hello by the way, I’m Henry Pepperoni.’ He gestured to the other pizza. ‘This is my brother Cobby Green-Salsa. People call us the Pizza brothers.’
Jess was in no mood for polite introductions. ‘But my family,’ she sobbed. ‘I lost them. I don’t know if they’re safe.’
An arm fell round Jess’s shoulder. ‘Try not to worry, dear,’ said the arm’s owner – an old lady who smelled of vinegary chip-shop chips. ‘You saw how many refugee boats were at the marina. I’m sure your family will have jumped on another.’
Jess drew in a shaky breath. ‘Do you know where the boats are headed?’
The lady gestured to the laptop’s screen. ‘I’d say, from the look of that map, we’re off to Australia.’
Jess gasped. She knew from her geography lessons that Australia was almost as far away from Mersinger as the moon.
All she could hope was that the rest of her family had escaped the monster, and that they too were on a boat to Australia.
Otherwise, she might have lost them forever.
Three hours later, exhausted and emotional, Jess had almost cried herself to sleep when the boat began to rock. Violent waves crashed onto the deck and the laptop at the helm blasted his whistle.
‘Look out!’ shouted Cobby. Green salsa slid off him as he jumped from his seat in alarm. ‘It’s a Kraken!’
Jess’s eyes widened in terror. A colossal octopus was heading their way.
Thrashing its huge slimy tentacles and licking its blubbery lips, the Kraken locked its single orange eye on Henry.
‘MINE!’ it howled, twirling its black tongue towards the pepperoni-covered pizza.
‘NO!’ screamed Jess, surprising herself. ‘Go and pick on someone your own size you BIG SLIMY BULLY!’
The Kraken drew back its tongue. Its eye glowed red. It thrashed its tentacles like a toddler throwing a tantrum. It let out an ear-splitting scream. Then, to Jess’s horror, it flung her high into the sky where the air was so cold, she felt like her brain might freeze.
The next thing Jess knew, she was sitting on a patch of soft moss at the edge of a forest with a pizza on her head.
‘How did I get here?’ she exclaimed.
‘All I remember is being flung by a Kraken,’ said Henry, sliding down Jess’s hair. Arranging his pepperoni discs into their rightful places, he shuddered. ‘I’m lucky to be alive; Krakens love pizza!’
Just then, the sound of a long, loud trump made the pair of them jump. The delicious smell of banana-split whooshed up Jess’s nostrils. Puzzled, she turned to investigate and was surprised to see the kind old lady from the boat.
Hobbling to her feet, the lady shook her head. ‘It was a frightful experience. One by one, all ninety-three of us were flung left, right and centre by that horrible sea beast.’
She trumped again. This time, the smell she produced was melted chocolate.
‘Don’t mind my changing smell,’ she said with a wave of her hand. ‘I fart delicious smells when I’m anxious.’ She held out her hand for Jess to shake. ‘Don’t laugh, but my name is Silly-Bum.’
Jess was in no mood for laughing. And by the look of it, neither was Henry who burst into tears of tomato sauce.
‘I hope Cobby’s alright,’ he sniffed, wiping his cheesy eyes. ‘I’ve never been away from my brother before.’
Jess had never been away from her family before either. What if the Kraken had attacked their boat too? What if they’d not made it to a boat at all and had been trampled into the ground by the flood-monster?
‘What do you think we should do?’ sobbed Henry.
Silly-Bum made the air around the three of them smell like succulent orange blossom. ‘I have no idea.’
It was then that Jess realised she’d have to take charge. Jumping to her feet, she gestured to a building in the middle of the forest. ‘Let’s go and see if anyone lives there. Maybe they can help us.’
‘I’m not sure about that,’ said Henry.
Raising his doughy arm, he pointed to a signpost nailed to a tree at the forest’s edge. It read WOLF-DEMON FOREST
Jess took a deep breath. ‘Have either of you got a better idea?’
Her heart pounding, Jess led her companions through the forest, determined to find help.
She held her nerve as they passed poisonous-looking spiders. She held Henry’s hand when he said his bready little legs couldn’t take another step through the slimy goop that covered much of the forest floor. And she held her breath when Silly-Bum accidentally let off a trump that smelled of rotten cabbage (which she said sometimes escaped when she was hungry).
Arriving at the building – an impressive brick-built structure with a large chimney – Jess stopped to inspect a gravestone in its front garden. Its engraving read: HERE LIES THE BIG BAD WOLF.
Jess gulped. Were they trespassing on a burial ground? Was this a religious building?
She glanced above the building’s door. Etched into the brick, were the words AUSTRALIA’S OUTBACK ORPHANAGE.
‘Looks like we’re in Australia then!’ said Silly-Bum, the scent of vanilla escaping from her bottom. ‘I guess that’s a good thing. All we need now are directions to the marina where the other boats from Mersinger will dock.’
Nodding her agreement, Jess knocked on the door and hoped for the best.
The door was answered by a creature that looked like a cross between a pig and a bruised pear.
Gazing into Jess’s eyes, it chanted a rhyme which made the three thick whiskers on its chin dance.
‘Little girl, by the hairs on my chinny chin chin,
I’d love it if you’d step right in!’
Unperturbed by the creature’s odd appearance, Jess burst into tears of relief at finding a kind stranger.
The pig-pear raised a trotter, patted Jess’s back and wiggled its snout.
‘Don’t cry young girl, I beg of you,
Come in and have a bowl of stew.’
‘Actually,’ said Henry, jogging to keep up as the pig-pear led them into a straw-carpeted kitchen. ‘We don’t want food or drink. We want advice.’
At that the creature’s pinky-brown skin paled.
‘A monster attacked Mersinger, you see,’ added Silly-Bum. ‘That’s where we live.’
‘And then a Kraken attacked the boat we were trying to escape on,’ explained Henry. ‘And flung us here with its slippery tentacle.’
‘And I don’t know where my family are,’ added Jess with a sob. ‘I need to get to the marina to see if they’re safe. Can you give us directions?’
The pig-pear sighed and shook its head.
‘Directions, sadly, aren’t my thing,
But wait! Let’s ask my brother, Ping.’
As Silly-Bum let off an anxious cookie-scented trump, the pig-pear knocked on a hatch to his right. A creature that looked like a pig crossed with an over-ripe banana opened it.
‘Hello, Ping,’ said Jess, eager to speed things up. ‘My name is Jess. I’m sorry to bother you, but we need to find the marina. Can you help us?’
The pig-banana nodded his head.
‘Come closer Jess and I’ll explain,
You really need to locate Pain.’
At that, Henry yanked a disc of pepperoni off his tummy and threw it against a wall. ‘Look for pain? What’s that supposed to mean?’
The fruity-pigs glanced at each other. In unison they chanted:
‘Pain’s our sister, wise is she,
She’ll sure know how to find the sea.’
Simultaneously, they rapped their trotters on the floor and a trapdoor opened beneath Jess, Henry and Silly-Bum.
The trio plummeted into a room that looked remarkably like the coach of an underground train. Its only occupant, a creature that was half pig and half pineapple, smiled and waved its trotter.
‘Hallo there, folks! My name is Pain.
I have a wise and helpful brain.’
Jess told Pain everything.
In response, Pain pulled a Know-All from a compartment in her pineapple-shaped head.
Jess gasped. Phone-sized gadgets, Know-Alls were incredibly rare and unbelievably useful. You could use them to discover ANYTHING.
At last, they were getting somewhere.
After clicking a few buttons on the Know-All, Pain’s beady eyes scanned the information that appeared. Her brow furrowing, she stared at Jess.
‘Your family is in trouble, dear,
But I can help you, do not fear.’
Jess began to hyperventilate. ‘Wha…how…why…what kind of trouble?’
‘Excuse me,’ said Henry, who’d started to sog, ‘but is there any way you could stop talking in rhyme. This sounds serious.’
‘Yes,’ said Silly-Bum, sternly. She drew Jess into her arms and nodded towards the Know-All. ‘Just tell us what you’ve discovered.’
As a waft of freshly-baked scones escaped from Silly-Bum’s bottom, a sad look crept across Pain’s face.
‘Cursed Fruit-Pigs only talk in rhyme.
But read this please, and don’t waste time.’
Grabbing the Know-All, Henry began to read. ‘It says the monster that rampaged through Mersinger was created by Mister Virtual, a corrupt computer programmer who is searching for a magical gem. It says he wants to hack into the gem’s magic so he can grant himself unlimited wishes and become the richest, most powerful being in the universe.’
Jess gasped. ‘My father owns a Warrior Wishing Gem.’
Henry’s cheesy brow furrowed. ‘Yes, it says that when the monster failed to find the gem in your house, Mister Virtual sent his accomplice to kidnap your family.’
‘No!’ yelled Jess, wriggling free from Silly-Bum’s arms.
Henry’s lips twisted to one side. ‘It says the accomplice, someone known as Shadow Guy, won’t release your family until your father has revealed the gem’s location.’
Jess stared at Henry, a steely determination in her voice. ‘I need to help my family. Where are they being held?’
‘Eggland.’
Jess flung her arms into the air. ‘Eggland! That’s on the other side of the world! How am I supposed to get there?’
At that, Pain wobbled over to the window of her train carriage room and pointed outside.
There, in the woodland beyond Australia’s Outback Orphanage, was a station for The Orbiter – the roller-coaster that circumnavigated the world.
The Orbiter was rapid.
Rumbling over tracks that scaled mountains and tunnelled beneath oceans, it arrived in Eggland in less than an hour.
As Jess unbuckled her seatbelt, wondering where Shadow Guy might be holding her family captive, a crayon made of wax that shone as bright as the sun rushed over to them.
‘You made it!’ it squealed.
‘Who are you?’ asked Henry, who, due to travelling at supersonic speed, had lost all his pepperoni slices.
‘I am the crayon of light,’ squeaked the crayon. ‘I heard from the fruit-pigs that you were on your way.’
It scurried towards a black stone paving slab and beckoned the trio to follow. ‘I’m here to help. Come quickly. We have no time to lose if we are to save the Teress family and prevent Mister Virtual from getting his hands on the Warrior Gem.’
Jess, Henry and Silly-Bum ran to the crayon who gave them instructions.
‘Use me to write a question. My light power will show you the answer.’
Jess immediately grabbed the crayon and scribbled on the pavement: Where are my parents?
A beam of light shone from underground and Jess’s writing was replaced by the words: In Shadow Man’s Secret Base.
In a waft of treacle tart, Silly-Bum grabbed the crayon. Where EXACTLY is Shadow Man’s secret base? she wrote.
Another flash illuminated the floor and an answer appeared: In the basement of the Yellow Hotel.
Jumping from Silly-Bum’s tight grasp, the crayon of light pelted towards the exit of the Orbiter station.
‘I know where the Yellow Hotel is! Follow me!’
Shaped like a giant baby, The Yellow Hotel was at least 300 storeys high, as wide as nine football pitches, and as yellow as a bowl of custard.
‘I hope we’re not too late!’ panted Henry as he, Jess, Silly-Bum and their helpful crayon assistant ran through the hotel’s lobby.
As they jumped into a lift, Jess tried not to panic. She knew her father well – he wouldn’t reveal the Warrior Gem’s location without a fight. Jess just hoped she could rescue her family before Shadow Guy harmed them.
After descending seventeen floors below ground level, Jess and her friends dashed out of the lift and found themselves in a long corridor. At one end was a white door labelled GRUB. At the other, was a black curtain being guarded by three gruesome trolls.
‘That must be the secret base,’ Jess whispered.
She pulled everyone back into the lift before the trolls could spot them.
‘How are we going to get past those guys?’ whispered Henry, shaking in fear as one of the trolls shouted, ‘I SMELL PIZZA!’
‘Leave that to me,’ said Silly-Bum.
Pushing her bottom out of the lift door, she filled the corridor with the smell of blueberry muffins. ‘Trolls love blueberry muffins,’ she explained. ‘They won’t be able to resist trying to find them.’
Silly-Bum was right. Seconds later, the trolls lolloped past the lift, drooling as they headed for the door marked GRUB.
Jess turned to her friends and took a deep breath. ‘Thank you so much for your help, but I think I should take it on my own from here. I don’t want to put you in any danger.’
With that, she ran down the corridor and drew back the black curtain…
‘Mum! Dad! Hugo!’ shouted Jess, as she saw her family huddled on the floor of a locked metal cage.
Not one of them moved. Jess tensed. Was she too late? Had Shadow Guy discovered where the Warrior Gem was and left her family to die?
‘MUM! DAD! HUGO!’ she repeated, kicking the metal bars. ‘IT’S JESS. ARE YOU OKAY? CAN YOU HEAR ME?’
A long shadow swept from behind her and towards the cage. ‘They can’t hear you,’ squeaked a familiar-sounding voice.
Jess tried to stop her voice from wobbling. ‘Who’s there?’
Was this Shadow Guy? An actual shadow?
‘I knew I’d get you here, Jess Teress!’ cackled the shadow as it transformed into…
…the crayon of light.
Jess staggered backwards. ‘What…how…why…who…?’
As Jess struggled to understand what was happening, a shout came from the corridor.
‘SHADOW GUY’S A SHAPE-SHIFTER!’
Jess turned and saw Silly-Bum dashing towards her with Henry in her arms. ‘We heard the trolls gossiping. Shadow Guy took the form of the crayon of light to lure you here.’
‘Your smelly friend is right!’ cackled the crayon. ‘I knew you’d trust that weedy do-gooder.’
Dissolving into a shadow, then reappearing in the form of a huge black crayon with a blunt tip, Shadow Guy grinned like an evil goblin. ‘By the power of shadows, I can transform myself to resemble anything in the universe!’
Jess’s legs turned to jelly. ‘Wh-what do you want with me?’
‘I want your father to tell me where the Warrior Gem is. If he doesn’t, Mister Virtual has ordered me to draw your death.’ He paused. ‘And if a crayon of darkness draws someone’s death…they DIE!’
Transforming into a loud hailer, Shadow Guy approached the metal cage. ‘WAKE NOW! YOU HAVE A VISITOR!’
Freed from the deep sleep they’d been cursed with, Jess’s family stirred.
‘JESS!’ shouted her father, Sonny. ‘You’re safe!’
Midnight Teress, Jess’s mother, hugged baby Hugo tightly. ‘My girl!’ she exclaimed, her eyes welling with tears. ‘I’m so happy to-’
‘Enough of this sad reunion!’ interrupted Shadow Guy, returning to the form of Black Crayon. ‘Now, tell me where the Warrior Gem is, Mr Teress, or I will draw your daughter’s death.’
‘TELL HIM, SONNY!’ shrieked Midnight.
Sonny Teress jumped to his feet. Plunging his fingers into his mouth, he pulled a rainbow-coloured stone from behind his front teeth.
‘Here!’ he said. ‘This is the Warrior Gem. Take it.’
Jess gasped. She’d never seen the Warrior Gem before. It was tiny but beautiful, and it shimmered like a river of rainbows.
Sneering, Shadow Guy grabbed for the gem.
At the same time, Sonny Teress threw it across the room. ‘CATCH, JESS!’ he yelled. ‘And make a wish!’
With less than a millisecond to think, Jess caught the gem. ‘I wish for all Mersingians to be back in Mersinger!’ she blurted.
Immediately, a gust of wild rainbow-wind swept through the room.
WHOOOOOOOSH…
Back in the safety of Mersinger park, Jess could barely believe her eyes.
All around her, Mersingians of all shapes and sizes plopped back into the city like drops of rainbow-rain.
‘You saved us, Jess!’ shouted Henry, dancing a salsa as his brother, Cobby, ran towards him.
‘Thank you, Jess!’ said Silly-Bum. ‘You’re a true hero.’
Jess shrugged. ‘But look at our beautiful city.’
A barren landscape, only the regenerating Bacon Tree had survived the flood-monster’s destructive attack.
Jess squeezed the Warrior Gem, still clasped in her hand, and knew what her second wish would have to be.
‘I wish for Mersinger to be rebuilt,’ she whispered.
In an instant, buildings rose from the ground, roads repaired themselves, Pudding the bouncy castle inflated, trees sprouted and flowers bloomed.
An almighty Mersingian cheer erupted as all the flood-monster’s damage was fixed.
Jess smiled proudly as her parents flung their arms around her.
When Tiger Leggoman whizzed past them on his grass-surfer, she tensed.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked her father.
Jess’s shoulders slumped. ‘It’s just…I’ve used both my wishes. How will I ever become brave enough to stand up to Tiger Leggoman?’
Sonny Teress laughed. ‘You survived a monster attack. You were flung from a boat by a Kraken. You rode The Orbiter to Eggland and you rescued us from Shadow Guy. You don’t need a wish to be brave, Jess. You ARE brave.’
Jess smiled. Her father was right. She doubted anyone or anything would scare her ever again.
‘Now,’ added Sonny with a wink. ‘Let’s go home. We’ve had a kilo of chocolate imported for your birthday.’
Jess grinned and looked at her mother. ‘Really?’
Midnight Teress nodded. ‘Really. And on our way home, I’ll tell you a story. It’s about a man called Sonny who worked hard for all his money, and used his own Warrior Gem wishes to bring two healthy babies into the world.’
Luton Literature’s Storytelling Project was made possible thanks to our funders, Arts Council England and Luton Rising through Bedfordshire and Luton Communities Fund.