The Magic Forest Tale (1st draft)

The Magic Forest Tale

A long time ago, in a forest close by to where your sitting rite now, lies a story. During the days when animals ruled these lands, in the Otter Territory, there was a magical forest kingdom ruled by King X and his beautiful family. These were days when animals ruled all the lands, and here, the Otters from around the river band were supreme rulers. Still, the Magic Forest was its own community, a mish-mash of goblins, dwarves, toads, hobbits and all other magical creatures. The Kingdom was a happi one, ruled wisely by King X and his royal court. Now you should know, they weren’t the evil kind of king and queen. The kingdom was mostly peaceful, except for the occasional and seasonal scuffles between the goblins and the dwarves, or the time the centaurs caught the other creatures spying on them while they were bathing. The goblins were the nawty ones, always tripping the dwarves and the tricking faeries with silly riddles.

Whenever these silly arguments arose, it was up to the King and Queen to make everything alrite. They’d dealt with the goblins and their tricks for years and so they always found a way to make everything all right and all the creatures of the kingdom happy. How did they do this?

It’s simple, they had a magical book written in codes and symbols, a language lost to the world of humans and even most animals. The Great Big Book of Imagica helped the King and Queen whenever they had a tough decision to make. But how could they read the Great Book, since it was in this ancient language? Well, that’s where the Wizard Mouse comes in. The Wizard Mouse was a notoriously shy creature, some say because he was blind he didn’t like very much to be sociable, and yet, it was because he was blind that he could see the truth hidden in the symbols of the Great Book.

And so the Blessed Kingdom, based in the Magic Forest remained happy and it’s inhabitants, besides a few hiccups, were also happy and healthy and living in harmony. The pixies danced at their midnight celebrations, the dwarves worked hard through the day and the sunset was usually the time when the creatures gathered at the mushroom bars to talk about the day.

So what made the Forest a magic one? Why was this Kingdom the one where all the fantastical creatures would spend their days and nights, side by side? True, the King was just and the Queen was wise, and the Great Big Book would come to their rescue (thanks to the Wizard Mouse) whenever it was needed. Still, there was one more magical creature, the daughter of the King and Queen, and her daily role was the one that helped make this Forest extra Magical.

You see, the princess loved to wander up and down the river, and spend her lazy afternoons by the pools, watching the sunlight dance on the tiny ripples and listen to their sounds. One afternoon, she had an amazing idea, she fetched her fathers magical harp and began to imitate the sound of the water. And sure enough, the magical harp did its magic, and the most amazingly soft and brilliantly colourful crystal rain began to fall. And this is how the River became the Crystal River, for every day, she would ride up into the sky on her favourite unicorn and play the Rainbow Harp. And it would rain that special rain pit pat slip slat, and so the Crystal River was always flowing.

But underneath the watchful gaze of the King and Queen, sprinkled by the pit-pat-slip-splat of the Princess’ melodies, there was one creature who was not pleased. She lay just under the earth, watching the creatures wander by in various states of happiness and she began to experience an emotion that almost all creatures can experience. She began to get jealous (of what, we’r not really sure). Perhaps it was the Princess, light as the air and filling the Forest with wonderful music and crystal rain drops. Or it was the Faeires, always fluttering around, drinking nectar and telling jokes. Either way, this jealousy began as a small seed, soon it grew into a dank dark forest of jealousy, blocking the sun from her heart.

Every villain needs an Evil Plan, and so, the Spider Woman sought the counsel of magical creatures from the Fox Territory. The Fox Counsel sent their most cunning fox, Erin, to help her form an evil plan. Erin lay still in the forest, covered by leaves and such, and she watched all the affairs and heard all the chit chat during the day. She sank herself into the pools to hear the Princess talk to her unicorn, snuck up the palace trees to spy on the King and Queen as they walked at sunset. At night, she visited the Goblins and the Rebel Pixies, and soon had gathered enough information to form the Evil Plan.

The Evil Plan hinged on tricking the Wizard Mouse, and this was the trickiest part of the plan. Erin realised that even though being blind allowed the Wizard Mouse to read The Great Big Book of Imagica, it was also his biggest weakness, and so she spent many days hidden under the surface of the water pools where the Princess would talk to her unicorn and sing songs to the pixies, slowly learning the way she spoke, all part of the Evil Plan...

And so, after many weeks of watching and learning, Erin the cunning Fox had created the most evil Evil Plan, and she met with the Spider Woman at the GreatWaterfall ,just East of the Magic Forest. This was of course, the same waterfall that the Roaming Leoprds had met when they split the lands into Territories, and so both the Spider Woman and Erin knew the significanc of the spot. Under half moon light, Erin revealed her plan, and the Spider Woman agreed that this was a very Evil Plan indeed. They agreed to meet again by the Dwarf Bridge deep in the Magic Forest in three days time, for that was when the Evil Plan would unfurl.

The next three days went by blissfully for all.  The Princess flew up every day to play the RainBow Harp, it rained crystal raindrops, the Crystal River flowed strong, the pixies danced under the waxing moon, the dwarves worked hard digging up rocks, the gnomes sat at the mushroom bar smoking pipes and playing cards, and the King and Queen took their walks thru the Magic Forest, each blissfully unaware of the Evil Plan that was about to unfold.

And on the third day, that cunning fox named Erin, under the employ of the jealous Spider Woman, began to weave her web of deceipt. It all started at the steps outside the Wizard Mouse’s house. The cunning Erin had by learned how to sound just like the Princess, and ‘she’ called out to him...”Wizard Mouse, Wizard Mouse, will u answer me this...?”

...and somehow, the wizard mouse is tricked into reading a Forbidden Spell.

And soon as he was done with the first page, and even as he turned to the next page, the Magic Forest began to change, for this Forbidden Spell was very powerful indeed. All the creatures began to notice that the forest became less Green, and all the birds swopped down from the sky and sat on the branches of the trees, most of the trees dropping their golden leaves. The King was perhaps the first to notice, for even as he tried to walk, he found that his feet were rooted to the ground, quite literally. The cunning Erin has chosen his trick well, for part of the spell began to turn the King, and Queen for that matter, into trees, giant trees. The King realised that something was very wrong and called on his faithful sidekick the SunBird, saying “Fly Sunbird, for the Wizard Mouse is being using a Forbidden Spell”. And the SunBird flew as fast and hard as he could, dodging the falling golden leaves, seeking the Mouse.

The Princess saw too, that something very wrong was going on, and jumped on her favourite unicorn, flying up into the sky to do what she knew best. And as she played the Rainbow Harp, the Wizard Mouse heard her, and slowly realised he had been tricked. The SunBird flew past, and with his small feet, the Kings faithful sidekick grabbed the Great Book of Imagica and flew back into the Forest to find the Princess. Even though the Wizard Mouse hadn’t completed the Forbidden Spell, he had gone too far. The Evil Plan was unleashed and now there was no turning back the hands of time.

And that my friends, is how this all came to be. The King and Queen, though gifted with the ability to walk around, remained giant trees, while the Unicorn and Princess became trapped in stones. The Crystal River stopped flowing without the Princess playing her enchanted music. The Sunbird, who saved the day by grabbing the book had flown too close to the Sun, and he caught alight; crashing back down to earth destined for ever more to become a Phoenix. And the Magical Harp and the Great Book? Both were scattered and lost somewhere deep in the Magic Forest.

And what became of our two perpetrators? Well, they were punished most for this Evil Plan, both creatures were charged to become Earth creatures, trapped where they stood, and still to this day, they both stand, some say right by the Dwarf TranceBridge.

And so it remains to this day, the Magic Forest, deserted of most of its magical inhabitants, each tribe drawn to move once the Crystal River had dried up. The great book of Imagica, and the Magical RainBow Harp scattered deep in the forest, moss covered and hidden under leaves. And sometimes, especially when the moon is bright, some say they can hear the Princess sobbing and crying, wishing to soar above the treetops and make music to make the Crystal River flow once more.