If you remember from my post yesterday, this week I am helping celebrate National Storytelling Week by making up and telling a different story to the children each evening.

And, if you read yesterday, you’ll remember that my shake-up of Rory’s Story Cubes gave me the following things that I need to incorporate into my tale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, with the greatest apologies to the greatest storytellers of the world, a story from NOT the greatest storyteller!

 

 

Once upon a time, long long ago, way before you were even born, Mummy was young.

Young Mummy had no wrinkles, a washboard stomach (artistic licence) and no need for an early bedtime as she slept through at night. Every night.

With youth on her side, and a sunny disposition, Young Mummy was adventurous and brave, fresh-faced and ready and eager for adventure wherever and whenever it found her.

And, one day, it did find her.

Young Mummy was paddling her toes in the cold sea water one day, when she spotted something bobbing towards her.

What could it be?

With no thought to the perils of getting wet on a cold day, Young Mummy bounded into the waves and plucked the object out of the foamy sea.

It was a bottle!

And in the bottle was a piece of paper.

And on the piece of paper was written: “Please come and rescue me and my animal friends. An Evil King has captured us and is trying to make the biggest animal circus in the world. From Wally the World’s Whitest Elephant”.

(Thankfully there was also a map with very clear and precise directions as Young Mummy, despite her fresh face, sunny disposition and washboard stomach, had no sense of direction and was rubbish at reading maps)

So, with no hesitation and no parental permission (for that’s how we rocked in the 70s), Young Mummy packed her backpack with ‘useful items’:

1 needle and thread

1 telescope

1 large conch shell

1 cherry-flavoured lip balm, and

1 spare pair of polka-dot pants.

Now, luckily, Young Mummy had made friends with a gruff old pirate, Big Bearded Bill, in a previous swashbuckling adventure. So she delved into her backpack, plucked out the large conch shell, puckered up and blew with all her might.

And, as if by magic, Big Bearded Bill came bounding up the beach, closely followed by a small monkey and a green parakeet.

“I can’t ‘elp you, I’m afraid”, explained Big Bearded Bill in a curious West Country-esque accent, “my mainsail is broken”.

Thankfully, Young Mummy was resourceful (as well as being fresh-faced and blessed with both a sunny disposition and a washboard stomach), so she reached into her backpack and took out 1 needle and thread and a spare pair of polka-dot pants.

“I knew these would come in handy”, exclaimed Young Mummy and set about patching up the mainsail.

Within minutes, they set sail, Young Mummy, Big Bearded Bill, a small monkey called Little Sammy and a green parakeet called Little Ammie.

Now, with a bit of artistic licence and a strong wind blowing on the now polka-dotted sail, they soon spotted an island with a shiny golden pagoda and a large, brightly-coloured circus tent.

   

Full of energy (thanks to the endless nights of uninterrupted sleep), Young Mummy bounded up to the pagoda, closely followed by Big Bearded Bill, Little Sammy, the small monkey, and Little Ammie, the green parakeet.

“Evil King, you are a rotter! You can’t keep animals chained up and force them to perform. It’s unkind!”, shouted Young Mummy.

The Evil King turned around, fixed Young Mummy with an evil glare and shouted to his Evil Soldiers, “Capture them! With that fresh face and washboard stomach, you’ll be a big hit in my circus!”.

But, as the Evil Soldiers advanced on the team of adventurous swashbucklers, Young Mummy reached into her backpack once more and blew the conch again.

Again, as if by magic, a large octopus appeared from the waves.

But he wasn’t just any old octopus.

This was Oscar the Octopus who Young Mummy had befriended on a previous adventure. And, as luck would have it, Oscar the Octopus was a talking sea-creature with special powers and a magic laser gun.

With no further ado, Oscar the Octopus pointed the magic laser gun at the scowling, furious-looking Evil King. “Take that, you rotter!”

As the beam hit the Evil King’s heavily lined face, furrowed from years of scowling, telling people off and generally being Evil, something odd happened.

One by one, each of the wrinkles on his face softened and disappeared, and the Evil King’s scowly, furious face was magically transformed into that of a pleasant and fresh-faced King. The King immediately unchained all of the animals, apologised to them and set them free.

“Wowzers!” exclaimed Young Mummy.

“Wowzers!” exclaimed Big Bearded Bill.

“I customized my laser gun and fitted it with a special Kindness Laser. It turns Evil people into Kind People. And, as a handy side-effect, it also turns wrinkles into soft, peachy-looking, youthful skin”.

“I get the Evil into Kind. Great idea. But Wrinkles into Peachy? I don’t see the point of that” said Young Mummy, she of the fresh face and washboard stomach.

And, with that, Young Mummy set sail once more, with Big Bearded Bill, Little Sammy the small monkey and Little Ammie the parakeet.

And, this being a happy sort of tale, they got home just in time for tea.

 

Although my tale is very amateur, we did have a great time using Rory’s Story Cubes to make up our own tales yesterday. We’ll be rolling the dice again this evening, all to celebrate National Storytelling Week 2018.