A long time ago, when my great grandmother, Mary was just a little girl, she was out walking in the bush when she came across something shining in the sun. Wondering what it was, she walked over to find a minuscule music box. But this was no ordinary music box. Shaped like a miniature castle with little people coming in and out of it each heading off into the forest. The music box was not what Mary had expected. She watched the little people for a short time before she decided to follow them. She hid amongst the trees and crouched silently behind large stones. They all seemed to come to a stop at an uneventful looking grey rock wall. As each little person arrived they reached out as if to stroke a small clump of moss, and as Mary looked on a sliver of darkness opened up in the solitary rock wall. Then the little person who had just arrived, walked inside. So when the next little person came along Mary crept in behind them. She walked into what appeared to be a small crack in a rock, but before her very eyes she saw an enormous cavern.
A noise!
She turned and strained her ears...
… a creature no higher than Mary’s own knee stood at her feet. She stood in shock, wondering what she should do. As the scaly creature walked a smidgen closer he looked up at her and introduced himself.
“Hello, my name is Tika. I come from the Land of the Underworld and I am here to take you to there.”
“You don’t be afraid of me” he giggled. “I will become as your friend once you get used to us.” Mary took a deep breath and mustered all her courage before she crouched down and said, “What do you mean by us? Are there more of you?”
“No no! We will meet some new people on the way,” he whispered, like a frog with a croak.
And so it was that Mary and Tika set off for their adventure. They clambered across a rocky riverbed before climbing up a small rise to a carpet of lush green grass. They walked on untroubled. But little did they know that they were about to get themselves into a lot of trouble. Unsuspecting and tired they sat themselves on a fallen log, but once they glanced up Tika realised where they were. They had just arrived at the Wild Whispering Woods. The taniwha stood up “We must go, before they come.” Mary was confused. “Where must we go? Before who come?”
“The stoats, they will come if we don’t leave now. Come on.”
They rushed onwards but after a while tired again and slowed down. Out of the blue came a slim, sneaky stoat.
“Now what do we have here?” the lean stoat said with a lowered voice.
“We’re too late.” Tika whispered to Mary. “They will want to fight! Stay strong.”
“ONWARDS!”
On his command bucket loads of stoats poured out, like water out of a tap flooding towards Mary and Tika. They ran as fast as they could but their opponents ran faster. The stoats dived on them and they were washed underneath, into the wave, and slowly started to coil up. She gasped. Mary’s eyes flew open as she sat up. Her heart racing, she realised it was just a silly dream.
The end
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