Once upon a time, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, Fern the leopard was exploring the lush, vibrant jungle, accompanied by her best friends, Bella the mouse and Tsunami the purrmaid. As they ventured deeper into the forest, they stumbled upon a hidden glade, illuminated by the soft rays of the sun filtering through the dense canopy.
In the center of the glade stood a magnificent flower, unlike any they had seen before. It had petals that shimmered in a kaleidoscope of colors and emitted a gentle, soothing hum. Curious, Fern approached the flower, mesmerized by its beauty.
As Fern’s nose gently touched one of the petals, a burst of sparkling dust enveloped her. Suddenly, she began to shrink! Within moments, she was no bigger than Bella. Astonished by her new size, Fern marveled at the world from this tiny perspective. The grass seemed like tall trees, and the drops of dew on the leaves sparkled like diamonds.
Embracing this unexpected adventure, the trio decided to explore the miniature world. They encountered insects and creatures that were now the same size as them, observing their ways of life and marveling at the details of the rainforest that were previously invisible to their eyes.
However, their excitement turned to worry as they realized Fern could not reach the flower to return to her normal size. The flower was now like a tall tower to her. Tsunami, with her half-fish agility, tried to climb to the flower but found it too slippery.
Just then, a wise old parrot named Pascal, who had been watching from a nearby tree, spoke up. “The flower you touched is the Mystical Morpho Bloom,” he explained. “It grants the power to change size, but only the pure of heart can harness its magic fully.”
Realizing they needed to work together, Fern, Bella, and Tsunami combined their strengths. Tsunami used her water abilities to create a small stream, Bella gathered leaves to build a raft, and Fern, with her newfound agility, steered the vessel. Working in unison, they reached the flower.
As Fern touched the flower again, the magical dust swirled around them, and she grew back to her original size. The friends were relieved and overjoyed.
Returning home, Fern, Bella, and Tsunami shared their incredible story. They learned that even in unexpected situations, their friendship and ingenuity could overcome any challenge. And the Mystical Morpho Bloom, hidden in the glade, continued to hum softly, guarding its magical secret in the heart of the rainforest.
In the heart of the dense Amazon rainforest, where the sunlight trickled through the leafy canopy, Fern the golden-furred leopard lounged on a branch, her eyes half-closed in the warm glow of the afternoon sun. Her peaceful moment was interrupted by the fluttering of wings as Toco, the vivacious toucan, landed beside her with a mysterious parchment in his beak.
“Look what I found, Fern!” Toco squawked excitedly, presenting the parchment.
Fern’s eyes widened as she examined the old, crinkled map. It depicted a part of the jungle unfamiliar to her, with a marked spot indicating a hidden pyramid. Legends of an ancient pyramid hidden in the depths of the jungle had always fascinated Fern, and now, the possibility of actually discovering it thrilled her.
“We should go on an adventure to find it!” Fern proposed, her adventurous spirit ignited.
Together with Toco and Bella, the clever gray mouse, they embarked on their quest the next morning. The map led them through tangled vines, across glistening streams, and deep into the unexplored parts of the jungle. Bella’s keen eyes spotted clues along the way – ancient symbols etched onto trees and unusual footprints on the forest floor.
As the sun began to descend, casting a golden hue over the jungle, the trio stumbled upon a clearing. There, hidden by the overgrown foliage, stood the majestic pyramid, its stones covered in moss and vines. It was a breathtaking sight, a testament to a long-lost civilization.
The friends cautiously entered the pyramid, their path lit by the flickering light of fireflies that Timothy had called upon to help. Inside, they found a large chamber adorned with intricate carvings and colorful murals depicting scenes from the lives of the people who once inhabited the jungle.
In the center of the chamber sat a large stone pedestal, upon which lay a beautifully crafted amulet. As Fern gently lifted the amulet, the chamber suddenly lit up, revealing a hidden message on the walls – a thank you from the ancient people for rediscovering their legacy.
Fern, Toco, and Bella emerged from the pyramid just as the stars began to twinkle in the night sky. They looked back at the pyramid, feeling a deep connection with the past and a renewed sense of wonder for the secrets the jungle held.
Back at Fern’s golden castle, they celebrated their discovery with a feast, sharing their adventure with Mama Leopard and their other friends. Fern placed the amulet in a place of honor, a reminder of their incredible journey and the enduring mysteries of the rainforest.
The adventure to the hidden pyramid became one of Fern’s most cherished memories, a story that she would recount for many years, inspiring others to explore and appreciate the wonders of their natural world.
Once upon a time, shortly after Bella had moved into the wizard’s tower, she began exploring in the human village. She wanted to explore the village so that she could find food there, not just in the surrounding rainforest.
One morning, at six o’clock, Bella went outside and started to look around. Soon enough she was exploring everywhere. There were little huts that looked like piles of sticks with tiny windows and with campfires in the middle of each one.
And there were some spears along the edge of the one that Bella first passed by. She looked inside, and there were some people cooking animals. This made her sad and sick so she stopped looking in, especially because there were also lots of blankets and pillows made out of animal skin and furs.
As she wandered on, Bella saw more and more human houses and less and less trees. She also noticed that the buildings were getting higher and no longer looked like piles of sticks. Instead of walking along a dirt road, Bella was now scampering along a paved road. A car rumbled past as she hid in the bushes. After a few more minutes of walking, this road even had a sidewalk.
The human village had just been on the outside of a much bigger city. In the city, the houses were much different then the ones in the village. They were made of stone and glass. And they were very tall with thousands of windows. The stone was usually white and the glass inside the window frame was usually blue. There were barely any trees except for in certain patches of wide-open grass. And there were streets criss-crossing everywhere, all with sidewalks along them. Here there were many cars on the road.
Bella noticed that this was when many people were getting outside to do stuff. For example, to walk along the streets very fast and not even look where they were stepping. Bella nearly got squashed a couple of times.
So she decided to walk on the dirt that was right next to the sidewalk, which was lined with bushes. She scurried right underneath. As she walked, she went from side to side, looking for food in the bushes.
Suddenly she spotted a bright red berry in one of the upper reaches of the hedge. So she climbed up and it was a big, red, plump guarana berry on a vine that was weaving through the bushes. Then she put the guarana berry in one of the folds of her cheek and kept climbing along the vine and spotting more of the red berries. A couple of times her head popped out of the bushes by accident because the vine grew super close to the top of the bushes. Then she had to quickly duck back down so that no humans would see her or try to chase her. Because a chase would be exhausting.
As she came to each berry, Bella had to whap her tail against it a few times to loosen the stem, and then she had to catch it before it fell. She then put it in her cheek flap with the other berries. Soon, both of her cheek flaps were full, and so was one of her paws. So she decided to head back to the tower.
But suddenly, something caught her eye. It was a big wall across the street. The wall was in the shape of a big circle. Bella decided to explore it. Bella could not see through or over the wall so she decided to climb it.
First, she waited until there was a gap of people that were walking along on the sidewalk. Then, she quickly scurried out from under the bushes, across the sidewalk and the street to the big wall.
At the wall, Bella jumped onto a ledge in it and started climbing. The wall was very rough. It was hard to climb because of how steep it was. But it was also thick and sloppy, which meant that there were lots of handholds. Finally, finally, finally, she reached the top. From there she could see what was inside the wall.
Bella felt sick. Inside the wall there were some cages with animals inside of them including: leopards, snakes, and even some monkeys. The animals looked very sad or depressed, and a few of them even seemed angry. It didn’t seem like they were taken care of, they looked like they were starved. Bella was too sad to pay any attention to the details of this horrible place but she knew that the animals were trapped. She didn’t want the people who imprisoned the animals to find her, so she quickly scurried down the wall and back into the bushes on the other side of the street.
Now she was sad and hungry for the food that she had collected. She noticed that she had dropped a lot of berries because she had needed all four of her paws to climb up the wall. So Bella picked up the berries that she had dropped and started going back to the Wizard’s Tower.
It seemed to take shorter than before on her way there. In her room in the tower she deposited her berries onto her little rock ledge table. Most of the berries she stowed away in her sack. And then she wondered what she was going to sit on. She had just moved in two days before and hadn’t really had time to use a chair. But now that she was settled down she could think about actual stuff like a pillow and a chair.
So Bella went outside to look for something that would work as a chair. First she looked underneath the bushes by the tower to see if there were any branches she could whittle into the shape of a chair, but there was nothing underneath the bushes. And she didn’t want to break off a branch because that might hurt the whole line of bushes. Next, she looked around to see if there was anything or anywhere that she could look for stuff. And she spotted the perfect spot.
It was one of those patches of grass that she had noticed before. It had more trees than the others. And then, the idea struck her; her idea was to get some bark from underneath a tree and to chip that into a chair with her teeth. Her two front teeth, because mice are good at chipping things with their two front teeth.
So Bella scurried over to a fallen log in the middle of the park. She checked all around it and soon found a pile of wood chips partway underneath the log. She picked out a piece of bark that was just a little bit bigger than her. As she started to drag it back to her house, she heard a sniffing sound.
“I wonder what that could be” she thought. And just as she turned around to see what it was, the cat pounced to the spot where she had been a moment ago but she had scurried away too quickly. The cat looked around in confusion, spotted her and captured Bella between her two paws. Luckily the cat’s paws were wide and the claws spaced apart, and there was just enough time for Bella to scurry out from between the cat’s paws.
“HEY!” squeaked Bella. “What are you doing!?! Why are you trying to catch me?”
“Well” said the Cat, pausing for a second, he was a brown tabby with black stripes along his back, and a black tip on his tail. And he had small pitch black pupils in big, old eyes. “Because first of all, it’s fun to chase someone who is scared of me, and second of all because mice are delicious.” He licked his lips, staring hungrily at where Bella was. Actually the spot where Bella used to be. When he had been talking about how he liked to eat mice she had scurried quickly away into the highest place she could get, which was a very tall bush, and swiftly camouflaged herself in the bluish gray flowers of this particular bush.
“Hey” meowed the cat, “where did you go?…Did you go this way?” He looked behind him and just as he did that a robin landed on the ground. “Yum,” he said, licking his lips. He pounced on the bird, and the chase was on.
“Whew” sighed Bella. She had very nearly gotten eaten! Still, she felt sad for that robin.
. . .
That night, after she had put her chair in the right place, eaten dinner and found a pillow, she went to bed. “I promise,” thought Bella as she snuggled up underneath her grass blanket, “that I will someday go back to that city and free all of those sad animals so they can live a happy life in the wild.
Once upon a time, Fern was sitting on the couch sorting her jewels on the coffee table. She was sorting them by color in rainbow order.
She had one necklace made out of diamonds and emeralds. She had a tiara that had little glinting sapphires among all of the diamonds. Almost all of her jewelry had one or two diamonds; There was a bracelet that had rubies and pearls on it, and there was another necklace that was also made out of rubies. She had an anklet that was made out of amber with a matching tiara as well. She wore her bracelets on her front paws and anklets on her back paws. She also had a crown inset with emerald and aquamarine beryl gems. And an amethyst ring.
But her favorite item was a big, beautiful, magnificent choker that had all of the gems you could think of on it; it had diamonds and emeralds, sapphires and rubies and pearls, and amber, aquamarine beryl, amethysts, pink beryl, and in the middle, the most precious gem of all, was the famous Allnatt yellow diamond. She couldn’t wait to wear it when Tsunami’s family came over for dinner tonight. But for now she couldn’t decide how to sort it because it had all of the colors of the rainbow. She decided to put it in the yellow pile because the center featured a yellow diamond.
Her second favorite jewelry was a pair of earrings which had beautiful, smooth, sparkly, polished emeralds in the center. Her most special jewelry was a necklace made out of amber, emeralds and diamonds.
She would wear her jewelry to ceremonies or if there was a special guest coming over, like Tsunami’s family.
One time for Halloween she was a queen and wore the jewelry for trick-or-treating. She had loved how everyone commented and pointed at her when she walked past.
Another time she wore her jewelry for Christmas because there was a show and she was the queen in it also.
As she was thinking about these good times, Fern noticed an anklet that she hadn’t seen before. It was astounding, made of silver inlaid with amber, sapphire and pearls. Fern looked at it for a bit before she picked it up and put it on.
There was a sudden flash of white light and to her amazement, Fern found herself floating in the air. At first she was kind of scared, but then she realized that she could still control her movements. She started to experiment with her new power:
When she swished her tail back and forth she went forward, and she could use it to turn as well. When she wagged her tail down, she went up, and when she wagged it up, she went down.
Fern was so amazed and surprised! “This is awesome!” she exclaimed. She noticed that her anklet was glowing. “That’s funny,” Fern thought.
Suddenly there was another flash of light and she dropped down on the sofa. “What happened?” Fern blinked. “Why did I drop down? Did I do something wrong?” She looked down and realized that her anklet was no longer glowing. “Maybe the anklet glows only when it is giving some of its power to the person wearing it. Maybe it only glows when you actually need it. Maybe this was the first time it glowed because it needed to show me its power. Maybe it’ll glow when I actually really need it. Maybe I’m right.”
Fern looked at the anklet. “Where can I put this without losing it?” Fern thought. About ten minutes later after a lot more thinking Fern decided to keep it on. “Maybe one day, when I really need it, it will glow.”
She looked at all the jewelry laid out in a rainbow pattern on the coffee table. Then she went to the garage and got one of her sorting boxes. She had a bunch of these boxes because she loved to sort stuff. This particular box had exactly seven sections. Fern quickly finished sorting her jewelry and put each of the piles into the container.
She brought the container up to her room and put it on a shelf. At that moment, the doorbell rang. Fern heard Mama Leopard running down the steps to answer the bell. She put on her favorite choker and the amber tiara along with her favorite emerald earrings.
Fern went out of her room and into the bathroom. There she polished her claws, cleaned her teeth, brushed her fur with her furbrush, and adjusted her jewelry in the mirror. Then she went down the hallway and stood at the top of the steps.
Looking down, she could see Queen Anemone, King Shark and Princess Pearl all together talking with Mama Leopard on the couch. Tsunami was sitting on the rug, she must have come in with her family. The King and Queen looked exactly as Fern had expected; Queen Anemone had a magenta tail and King Shark was a deep green color. Pearl looked exactly like Tsunami but a little bit smaller and instead of a deep blue tail, hers was violet.
Fern went down the steps and bowed to the King and Queen.
“Hello Your Majesties.” She said as politely as she could. “Would anyone like some tea?”
“Yes please.” said Queen Anemone and everyone agreed.
After tea, Fern asked “Would you like to see our garden?” and they all went into the backyard.
“It is wonderful,” said Queen Anemone.
“Hey Fern” Pearl asked, “Do you want to play tag?”
“Of course!” Fern laughed, “that’s my favorite game!” Suddenly Pearl jumped toward her and touched her shoulder. “Tag! You’re it.” Fern jumped up and ran off after Pearl, still laughing. After a little bit, Tsunami joined in and they enjoyed a fun game.
Too soon, Mama Leopard announced that it was time to go inside to eat dinner. They had prepared a special meal for everyone, and when they went to the dining room they immediately sat down to have the best dinner they had ever had.
Once they were seated, Pearl, who was sitting next to Fern, said “I really like your choker and Tiara.”
“Thanks” Fern said shyly, “I love your pearls also.”
“Thanks,” Pearl replied. Pearl was wearing a strand of shimmering pale teal pearls with a seashell and coral tiara. “I love Jewels” she added.
“Me too,” Fern said
“Fern,” Tsunami asked from across the table, “what are we having for dinner?”
“Taro soup, Pato no Tucupi, maniçoba, roasted cassava, with Bolinho de Macaxeira to start. And then there’s going to be a dessert, which is cacao ice cream with mango.” Fern replied.
“Wow!” exclaimed Tsunami “that’s a lot of food!”
Suddenly Mama Leopard came out of the kitchen, carrying the appetizer, which was the Bolinho de Macaxeira. She set the fried balls on the table and went back to the kitchen. She came back out with bowls of Taro soup for everyone, went back in again and got even more food. She also got a lot of veggies and fruits. Soon the table was so crowded that it looked like a dream come true. They all stopped talking as they began to eat.
After dinner, everyone had left. Fern got into bed, turned out the lights, and went to sleep smiling, sure she was going to dream about flying through the sky.
Very, very, very, very, very, very long ago, there was a witch of the sea (a good witch). Nobody knows how, but the ancient purrmaid tribe saved her life from a tsunami. She was so grateful that she granted each of them many unique special abilities. They were passed down through the years from generation to generation and forgotten eventually, except for one ability: the power to control the ocean water.
Not so long ago, but still far away from the rainforest, there lived the Purrmaid King and Queen of the Ocean who had two daughters that were one year apart. The king and queen decided to name the older daughter Tsunami, and the younger daughter Pearl. The queen’s name was Anemone, and the king’s name was Shark.
The four of them each had one special power. Tsunami’s power was to turn into any source of water or remain in her usual purrmaid form. Pearl’s power was to be able to make jewelry, since that was her favorite thing under the sea. Queen Anemone’s power was to be able to talk to ocean animals, and King Shark’s power was to be a strong hunter.
They all lived happily in a huge castle made out of growing coral, because one of the queen’s purrmaid servants could grow plants, and had grown the palace for the queen.
One day, Tsunami was swimming along with Pearl when she realized they were lost! They were in a river – a very big, muddy river that was very long but looked almost like the ocean. Except it was much muddier.
Tsunami was very startled to figure out she was lost, and said, “Don’t worry, Pearl. I’m going to transform into water and figure out where the palace is. You stay right here, it’ll take a second.”
She transformed into water as quick as a blink of an eye, and teleported around the ocean until she recognized she was close to home by the temperature of the colder water. She saw the palace and immediately knew that was it. She teleported quickly back to Pearl and told her (still in the form of water) that if she kept swimming for about 13,000 kilometers south east, she would find the palace. Pearl said thank you, and asked if Tsunami was coming with her.
“No,” said Tsunami. “I want to explore around here and then meet you at home.”
“Oh,” said Pearl. “Well see you.”
She took off as fast as she could because she was very eager to get home.
Tsunami looked around. She didn’t recognize the murky water, so she transformed back into a purrmaid and popped her head out of the water. She was in the rainforest!!!!!!!!!!
She decided to explore, and looked around some more. The closest bank was nearly six miles away from her. The other bank was too far to see. She paddled over to the closest bank, which took her just under ten minutes because she was a super fast swimmer.
On the bank, she saw a log which looked like it had spines all over the back of it. Tsunami looked at it, and wondered why a log would have spikes all over it. Suddenly, the log heaved itself up and opened its mouth! Tsunami gasped. That was a cayman!
She had heard about caymans before and she knew to stay out of their way. She quickly transformed into a puddle near the bank, but she wasn’t quick enough – the cayman had seen her!
He walked around Tsunami the Puddle, confused.
“Hey,” he said. “You don’t have to hide. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Oh,” Tsunami slowly transformed back into her purrmaid form.
The cayman let out a grunt of surprise when he noticed that there was no puddle underneath her. “How did you do that? I want to learn how to do that. Is it some sort of trick?”
“No,” said Tsunami. “I was born with this special ability to transform into water. Everyone in my family was born to have one special power.”
“Oh,” the cayman grunted. “Anyways, my name is Bog. What’s yours?”
“My name is Tsunami,” Tsunami said. Do you know where we are?”
“We” said Bog importantly, drawing himself up. “We are in the Amazon Rainforest.”
“Oh,” said Tsunami. “Well, do you know where the closest place to stay is?”
“Why yes I do,” said Bog. “The closest place is in Queen Sequoia and King Oak’s palace.”
“How do I get to their palace?” Tsunami said, surprised.
“You just follow that path.” He pointed to a path that was right next to them.
“Thanks Bog!” she called as she hurried down the path.
“Bye, Tsunami,” he called after her. “I hope we meet again.”
Tsunami looked around. The trail was very well cleared with only a few vines hanging down. Rows of bromeliads and orchids lined the path in a pattern with the ratio of one bromeliad to four orchids. It was beautiful.
She had been walking for about ten minutes when she finally saw light up ahead. Suddenly, she burst into a small field with a small sized pond in the middle. It was a beautiful pond because it had tall grasses lining the edges and it had one tree that seemed to poke its way through the other plants, and shade the pool so it was always cold. She tried to go into the pond, but just then, the sand around the pond started sinking! Tsunami thought fast and remembered what to do when you got into quicksand. She slowly started to wade into the pool, moving sideways as best as possible. When she finally got into the pool, it reminded her of the ocean.
Tsunami relaxed in it for a little while and then said to herself, “I’m going to go to that castle that Bog was talking about. If nobody’s there, I’ll claim this pond as my home!”
She got out of the pool and continued her way up the path. She burst into another clearing – this one bigger and more magnificent. To her surprise in the middle of the field was a magnificent, gigantic castle made out of wood that seemed to shine.
She walked along the pathway up to the castle and knocked three times on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
Tsunami waited a while, but no one answered.
“Well,” she said, heading back down the path, “I guess that I’m going to live in that little pond!”
So Tsunami went back to the little pond and relaxed in the shade for a little while. A thought popped into her head: she hadn’t said goodbye to her dad and mom and sister!
She quickly transformed back into water and went through a little hole in the bottom of the pond that led back to the river. As soon as she entered the river, she transported back to her house.
When she got there, her mom and dad were waiting for her with very worried expressions.
“Tsunami!” Mama P cried when she saw her, “where were you? We’ve been worried sick!”
“Mom,” said Tsunami. “I was in the rainforest and I found a little pond that was purrfect, and I want to move into there. Is it okay if I move into it?” “Well, honey,” said Mama P. “It’s all right as long as we get to see it first.”
“All right!” said Tsunami. “Hold onto my hands, because I’m going to teleport you back to the Amazon River.”
They all held hands and transported back to the little pond.
“So…” said Tsunami, “what do you think?” “I think it’s wonderful,” said Queen Anemone. “You have permission to move here. How about we have a little party?”
“Yeah!” Tsunami and Pearl said at the same time.
They all had a party and Tsunami lived happily ever after in her little pond.
And once in a while, they have a party when Tsunami’s family comes to visit. And upon leaving the castle, Queen Anemone’s servants set off green fireworks, which is how the Aurora Australis came to be.
Once upon a time, Fern was still a five year old kitten and she would lose her temper really quickly. One afternoon she was walking along to Marsh’s in a really annoyed mood. And as she passed by a bush, her little brother popped out shouting “boo” and made her jump.
“Haha I got you” Pine cried!
“No you didn’t,” snapped Fern, “you just startled me.” She was beginning to feel even more annoyed. “Now go and leave me alone.”
“Okay,” Pine scampered off between the trees.
So Fern continued walking but this time she was really annoyed. “Hi Fern!” Marsh called when she got there. “Did you know that I just learned that leopards are related to a type of cat that stays in the house all day and almost never leaves?”
“I did know that” snapped Fern to her cayman friend. At the same time, Fern was thinking “We are?! I didn’t know that.”
“I’m going back home” Fern told Marsh.
“But why?” Marsh asked, “You barely got here!”
“Because” Fern snapped, “I sometimes need a little bit of privacy.”
“Oh” said Marsh. He slid back into his swamp. “I hope you have a good day” he called after her.
Fern stomped away into the trees and snorted. “He’s lucky he doesn’t have a little brother” she thought to herself.
That morning her little brother had woken her up by singing the good morning song in her ear and practically jumping on top of her. Pine had laughed but Fern thought that it wasn’t funny at all.
Next, at breakfast, Dada Leopard had asked Fern to empty the entire dishwasher. Fern hated emptying the dishwasher, it was her least favorite job. So she had stomped all the way to her room and stayed there until breakfast was over.
When she came back after breakfast, Mama Leopard had asked Fern if she could play with her brother. Fern has said no because she didn’t want to be with her annoying little brother again. But Mama Leopard was busy so Fern eventually had to play with her little brother.
After that Fern’s dad had reminded Fern about the dishwasher. He said that he would take away one of her toys if she didn’t do it. So Fern had to do that also. And thankfully, right after that, she had a little bit of free time so she took it up with reading.
She read her feelings book. It was a big book with a lot of small writing. And it had everything you need to know about feelings. It had a couple of pages with pictures, too. Fern’s favorite page was one with a leopard saying “How are you feeling today?” and a list with different feelings and pictures with their different expressions. Not too long ago she had copied the page onto a poster and hung it up on her wall opposite of the bed. Her favorite expression was the goofy one, which had a picture of the leopard sticking his tongue out in a weird and funny way. It always made her feel a little bit better.
Then, at lunch, Pine had purposefully kicked her under the table because she hadn’t set up a tower properly when she was playing with him. Fern had pretended that she didn’t notice so Pine then started kicking her even more. Then she yelped “Ow” and her Dad fined her because he thought that she was playing around at the table. Fern tried to convince him that Pine was kicking her but when Dada Leopard asked Pine, he lied that he wasn’t kicking her and stopped. So Dada Leopard fined her for lying too. And then, when Fern went to get the money to pay her dad, Mama Leopard called “Fern! Lunch is over.” “What!?” Fern growled. She had only eaten half a spoonful of cereal. And when she went to her room and slammed the door, she heard her dad calling “Fern! You owe me a dollar now.” Well that made Fern really angry. She was cold and hungry because she hadn’t eaten anything that day yet except for that one spoonful of cereal. She had to pay her dad that dollar and that’s when she decided to go to Marsh’s swamp.
But she hadn’t thought that Pine would scare her on the way. And she didn’t think she’d be annoyed by her best friend. And now that playdate hadn’t worked out. She needed some alone time. So she went to Quiet Meadow.
Quiet Meadow was a little field and there was a rule there, that whenever you went there you had to be quiet. That’s why it was called Quiet Meadow. It was a meadow in the shape of a circle and it had a stream bubbling through it, and a pond in the middle, which merged from three separate creeks that came from different directions. It formed a sort of peace sign.
When Fern entered the meadow she noticed there were a lot of people whereas usually the meadow was empty. “Today must be a bad day for everyone” Fern thought. She went over to her favorite little pond and sat down and closed her eyes trying to calm herself down.
Suddenly Fern heard yelling. She opened her eyes and looked around. There was a leopard who was yelling at a porcupine. The porcupine looked very very very spiky, and was almost as round as a ball but also had a long tail. It was brown in the front but bright yellow on its back half.
The leopard was about Fern’s age and he looked very mean. “Uhoh” she thought, “I know that leopard.” His name was Strike, and he was Fern’s worst enemy.
Strike was yelling “I don’t like the look of your spikes. They are ugly and they make you ugly too!” He was very mean.
“They don’t look ugly,” shouted the porcupine back at the leopard, “I think they look splendid.”
“Hah” shouted Strike, “I’ll bet you’ve never looked into the mirror.”
“I have looked into the mirror,” said the porcupine, “and I think they look good. They certainly look better than your fur.”
“Hey” yelled Strike, “my fur looks much better than spikes!”
Fern stood up and walked toward them. “Hey Strike,” she said “I think the porcupine is saying that she likes the look of her spikes as much as you like the look of your own fur. You didn’t like it when she called your fur ugly and she doesn’t like it when you call her spikes ugly.”
“Hah” Strike said “my fur looks much better than her spikes.”
“Does not,” said the porcupine, “I’m with Fern. My spikes look good!”
“Ha ha” sneered Strike, “as if that’s true.”
Fern paused and looked around. Every single animal in the meadow was staring at her. Fern shifted her paws. She didn’t like getting all this attention, especially not before she had combed her fur. “Look Strike” she said, “why don’t you just go, and leave this porcupine alone? How did you two even meet?”
“In Flower’s Field” murmured the porcupine. “I wish we hadn’t met.”
At that point, Fern exploded. “Strike whey don’t you just go and leave us alone?” She repeated louder. “Why did you even get involved with this? You didn’t have to get involved with this.”
“Fine” snarled Strike, “but I don’t think it’s going to last that long.”
Pleased, Fern sat down again. He had actually listened to her! Fern stood up again and started walking back home. She could sense that Strike was glaring at her but she wasn’t worried too much. Right now Fern had to go back home and apologize. To apologize for yelling at Dada Leopard, Pine, and Mama Leopard. She was feeling in a much better mood as she skipped home.
It was Christmas Day, and we had seen all of our closest friends and family earlier in the day. It had been a lot of fun singing carols and drinking hot cocoa with candy canes. After they left, we had opened presents under the twinkling tree.
Bella was super excited because she had gotten a sensor that could track where there were glow in the dark mushrooms. It had been on her wishlist for a very, very long time.
“I’ll be right back,” Bella told me. She scampered out of the door and was gone.
I started cleaning up after the party and presents. “It was weird for Bella to just leave like that,” I thought. “Maybe she was excited to use her mushroom sensor.” I shrugged and continued cleaning.
A couple of hours later, it was dinnertime and Bella still had not come back. The sun was already setting outside the castle window. I searched frantically around with my eyes through the window but I could not see any signs of Bella. I was feeling very worried and anxious about my friend maybe being lost. Bella was very small so the jungle would feel very big and she hadn’t been in the jungle for a long time so she would get lost more easily. “At least we don’t have any enemies” I thought. “Maybe she stopped by Flower’s Field.”
“That’s weird,” my mom told me. “Bella should have been back by now.”
“Maybe I can go look for her,” I suggested, “using my map of the rainforest I got for Christmas.”
“It’s a great idea, honey,” my mom told me. “Just make sure you don’t get lost.”
“I won’t,” I reassured her. “I have my map, remember?” I held it up as I scampered out the door.
Right outside the castle door I looked at the map, it was very detailed. It even had places where there might be glow in the dark mushrooms!
“Let’s search those places first,” I thought, “and then I can search in some of Bella’s favorite spots.”
I went to the closest place with glow in the dark mushrooms. The only thing there, was a very startled panther.
“Hi,” I said. “Did you happen to see a little gray mouse come by?”
“I did,” the panther grunted. “She went that way,” he pointed north with his claw.
“Thank you,” I called through the trees as I scampered away. The only patch of glow in the dark mushrooms north of where she was was at the edge of Flower’s Field. “Maybe I was right and Bella is hanging out with Flower.” I thought.
It took me about half an hour to get there, but finally I made it. When I got to the mushrooms, Flower was sitting on top of them singing. To my disappointment, Bella wasn’t with her.
The mushrooms were glowing greenish yellow and were about the size of my paw, which was pretty big to Flower.
“Hey Fern,” she said when she saw me. “What’s up?”
“I’m looking for Bella,” I told her. “Did you see her come by?”
“Oh yeah,” Flower responded. “She went by here about 30 minutes ago. She had this cool sensor. And I got a glimpse of it and it said “Glow In The Dark Mushrooms” and had little dots lighting up on it. But I didn’t see any more. She was moving quickly and didn’t seem to notice me.”
“Thanks,” I said. “It’s very helpful of you! But which way did she go?”
“Oh,” said Flower, “she went west.” Flower pointed with her tail.
“Thanks again,” I called as I ran westward.
The next place on my map that was west was a little clearing in between Flower’s Field and the Watering Hole. It took 15 minutes to get there and when I did, I got there just in time to see the flicker of Timothy’s light.
“Hi Timothy,” I said. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh hey Fern,” he responded. “I’m just admiring these mushrooms. They’re so pretty!”
“They are very pretty,” I agreed. “Have you seen Bella come by, by any chance?”
“No,” he shook his head. “Is she missing?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I haven’t seen her since the end of the Christmas party.”
“Oh, well good luck finding her! I wish I could help find her but I have to go home in about five minutes.” He said.
I walked toward the trees and glanced down at my map. I had gone to all the places on the map where there were glow in the dark mushrooms. “I’ll never find her,” I thought sadly as I walked back home.
On my way back I heard a small squeak come from the orchid leaves next to me. “Bella?” I squatted down in the path. “Is that you?”
“Yeah it’s me,” Bella said sadly. “I was using my mushroom sensor to look for some mushrooms and got super far away and I was here when I figured out I was lost. I was admiring these glow in the dark mushrooms.” She moved aside to show me a whole patch of glow in the dark mushrooms that wasn’t on the map I had. Then she sighed. “I thought I’d be stuck here all night. But you know the way back home right?” she turned to me with her big eyes shining.
“I do!” I told her proudly. Let me show you the way.
We walked back home, and when we got right in front of the door, I turned to Bella.
“Bella,” I told her. “I’m going to give you my Christmas present – this map. It helped me find my way to you and it has the places where there are glow in the dark mushrooms you can look at.”
“Really?” Bella said, her eyes large. “You’re gonna give me your Christmas present?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s for you.” and handed her the map.
“Oh Fern,” Bella cried, “Thank you! Thank you!”
She jumped up and hugged me.
“Oh you’re welcome, Bella,” I said laughing. “Now, we haven’t had dinner yet. Let’s eat!”
Bella and I ran to the table and sat down.
“Oh hi Bella,” said my mom smiling. “I see Fern found you!”
“Yep,” Bella told her. “She found me!”
“Well that’s just wonderful,” my mom told her. “Guess what we’re having for dinner!!”
“Hmm,” Bella and I said at the same time.
“Mango?” I guessed.
“That’s what we’re having for dessert,” my mom laughed. “Try again!”
“Cheese!?!?!?” Bella asked eagerly.
“Well, that’s part of what you’re having,” my mom told her. “Can you guess what you’re having, Fern?”
“I give up,” I said. “What is it?”
“It’s your favorite,” my mom said with a grin. “Taro soup!”
“Yay!” I cheered.
“What’s that?” Bella asked.
“Taro soup,” I explained, “Is the best soup ever and it tastes like sweet nuts!”
“That sounds good,” Bella told me, “especially with cheese!” Her eyes lit up.
Meanwhile, my mom was back in the kitchen. Bella started thanking me again.
“Thank you Fern for finding me and then giving me your map as a Christmas gift. You made me feel so loved. Is there anything I can do in exchange?”
“Nah,” I told her, “I’m just glad that you’re back.”
This morning I was sitting on the green leaf couch and remembered that I had a playdate with Marsh this afternoon. Yesterday, Marsh had called my mom asking if I had wanted to go on a playdate with him. I had said yes because I thought it was going to be fun. Marsh was a fun cayman; he told a lot of jokes and always was smiling and happy.
I was excited and nervous at the same time. This was my first playdate with Marsh ever. On the couch, I was thinking what if I accidentally tripped and fell into a puddle of mud? What if Marsh laughed at me? It was my first time to ever go on a playdate with Marsh. What if Marsh found it weird that I still watch Nature Cat? I buried my head into a pile of colorful blankets that were lime-green and lemon-yellow and kept worrying about what would happen. What if Marsh said he didn’t want to be my friend?
My mom called from the huge kitchen, “What’s wrong, honey?” and came to sit down next to me. I gave her a hug.
“It’s just, mom…” I said, “I’m really nervous about my playdate with Marsh this afternoon. What if I do something stupid in front of him?”
“Oh, honey,” my mom sighed. “Everyone worries. It’s okay to worry. I used to worry a lot about going to dinner with your dad. What kind of stuff are you worrying about?”
“Well,” I said, “I’m worried about stuff like what if Marsh doesn’t want to be my friend? Or what if he thought it was babyish that I still watch Nature Cat?”
“Well, Fern,” my mom said to me, “Marsh wouldn’t have agreed to the playdate if he didn’t want to be your friend. Also, if he’s a true friend, then he’ll care about you watching Nature Cat, but in a good way. He’ll think it’s interesting that you still watch it.”
“Maybe.” I looked at my mom. “I wanna go think in my bedroom for a little while.”
“Okay, honey,” my mom said. “Bye,” she added as I walked up the wooden stairs.
I went into my lavender room and flopped myself onto the green leopard-print bed and started to day-dream.
My dream was about how I went to Marsh’s playdate and everything bad I had thought came true. In my dream, Marsh was really mean and he did find it babyish that I still watched Nature Cat. He did laugh at me when I accidentally stepped into a mud puddle and he did not want to be my friend.
When I woke up a while later, it was time for me to go on the playdate. I felt worried that my dream would come true, but I still had to go because if I didn’t, Marsh would find it weird no matter what.
I got up and went to the bathroom. I started to comb my fur and polish my claws because I wanted to look good.
“Fern,” my mom called up the stairs. “Time to leave!”
“Okay, mom,” I called back down. I put down my wooden furbrush and raced down the stairs, careful to keep my claws in so they wouldn’t get dirty from the dust. My mom was waiting by the light brown wooden door.
“Fern,” she said. “Don’t forget your mudcastle toys. Marsh said he wanted you to bring them.”
“Okay, mom,” I said. I went into the garage from the back door and started looking for my mud toys. I forgot them because I was too busy getting ready. After about 3 minutes I found them and hurried back to the door.
“All right, honey,” my mom said. “Time to go.”
We started walking to a certain part of the forest that was paler than our part of the rainforest, and I remembered the way we went in case we got lost. I was walking fast because I didn’t want to be late, so I didn’t have a lot of time to remember a lot of landmarks, but I remembered a curly tree and a long overhanging branch that nearly touched my mom’s head. Soon we came to a medium-sized swamp. Marsh was swimming around inside it doing somersaults.
“Hey Fern,” he called. “Do you know why leopards are bad at hide and seek?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Because,” he said, “they’re always spotted! Get it???”
“Hah!” I laughed. “Good one!” I felt a little bit better.
“I see that you brought your mud castle toys. I suggested bringing the toys so that we could make a mud castle! Here, let me swim over to you,” Marsh said.
He ducked his head under the muddy swamp and soon resurfaced a few paws away from me.
“All right, Fern, this is how you make a mud castle. First we’re gonna find a flat, dry spot on the bank to make it. Then we’re gonna get the buckets and fill them up with mud. Then, we’ll get one bucket and empty it out on the flat space. It should stay as a mud castle. Then we wait for it to dry, and once it’s dry we’ll get more buckets and do it again and again and then we’ll make a huge mud castle that we can go into.”
“Um,” I meowed, “won’t my fur get dirty?”
And what about all the time I took to get it ready? I thought to myself.
“Oh sure,” Marsh said to me. “It’ll get really dirty!”
I looked at Marsh’s friendly smile and kind black eyes. I started to feel more comfortable with getting dirty because of Marsh’s comfortable mood. “You know what?” I purred, smiling, “Sure!”
I felt happy and relieved at the same time because my dream hadn’t come true. I also felt good because my mom’s advice had come true. Marsh wouldn’t care that I still watched nature cat and he wouldn’t laugh at me if I stepped into a mud puddle, because he liked me. He wanted to be my friend.
So Marsh and I built a bunch of beautiful mud castles, more mud castles than you could ever imagine. My favorite mud castle was one with three high towers, a big moat, teeny-tiny windows, a small door, and stick-figures of the king, queen, and two castle guards. I decorated it with a little grass flag. After we had finished building it, we played with the stick figures in it. I was the queen and one of the guards, and Marsh was the king and the other guard. We were protecting the castle from the villain, who was an imaginary stick-figure monkey. Even though we were just fighting the air with our stick figures, it was still fun. It made me feel confident in myself and brave.
We played and played until it was time to end the playdate. But it felt like only a few minutes had passed.
“Bye Marsh,” I called to him, waving. “See you soon!”
The walk back felt like it was way, way longer than the walk there. My mom and I didn’t talk on the way back because I was too busy thinking about how much I had enjoyed the playdate.
When we finally got back to our cozy wooden castle, my mom asked me, “So Fern, was it worth it going to Marsh’s playdate?”
“Definitely,” I said, smiling. I felt like I had never been this happy or relieved in my life.
One morning, Malika the python was hanging in a cluster of vines waiting for her prey to go by. She was hoping that a wild boar would go by. But instead, she saw a leopard, that looked about her age, coming toward her.
“Oh,” whispered the leopard to herself. “It’s probably just my imagination.” But Malika could tell that the leopard could tell that she wasn’t alone.
So as soon as the leopard got an inch away from her, Malika dropped down in a coil and hissed, “Hello, I’m Malika.”
“Umm,” stammered the leopard. “Aren’t you going to eat me?”
“Why would I?” Malika hissed.
“Umm, because you’re a python? And pythons eat things like me?”
“Oh, no!” said Malika. “No, that’s just stories. We don’t actually eat you.”
“Oh,” said the leopard, “Um, thank you.” She looked relieved.
“You’re welcome,” hissed Malika cheerfully. “Do you want to come see my house?”
“Sure,” said the leopard. “By the way, my name’s Fern.”
“Cool name,” hissed Malika. “Come, it’s this way…” She slithered off in the direction of her home, which was in the ruins of a golden temple.
“This is your house?” gasped Fern when she saw the ruins.
“Yep,” Malika hissed. “Just watch out for the giant spiders!”
Fern gulped. “Giant spiders?”
“Yeah,” Malika hissed. “They live here too. And unfortunately the stories about them are actually true.”
“So…” said Fern. “Are you sure it’s safe to go in here? I mean, if the stories are true and there actually are giant spiders and the stories actually say that they paralyze you and eat you whole, then I don’t think it’s pretty safe to go in here.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Malika hissed. “I’ll keep you safe. They are our enemies…”
“Oh,” said Fern. “That’s relieving. But how will you keep me safe? Won’t they just paralyze you?”
“Nope,” said Malika. “The paralyzing venom doesn’t work on me. Also if it did work on me, I’m too fast for them to catch.”
“Oh!” said Fern. “Um, is that one right now?” she pointed a shaky paw at the doorway of the temple.
There, perched right above the doorway, was a massive spider with huge fangs, eight red eyes, and silk spinning out of it.
“Yep, that’s one for sure,” hissed Malika. “Stand back, I’ll get it!”
She slowly circled around so that she was right behind the spider. Then she gracefully stretched up so she could reach onto a vine and pulled herself up – slowly, carefully and quietly. She slithered along the vine until she was right above the spider. Then, suddenly, she dropped onto the spider, wrapped herself around, and squeezed!
The spider choked for a second and then fell down, dead.
“That was amazing Malika,” Fern cried. She raced over and hugged Malika super tight.
“Hah, thanks. Anyways, it’s time for you to meet my family. Come.” Malika slithered into the doorway with Fern following close on her tail.
“Wow, it’s even more amazing here than outside.” Purred Fern.
“Just wait till we get to the grand hall,” hissed Malika, delighted. “Here, it’s this way…”
Fern followed Malika through an archway into the treasure room. Malika’s family wasn’t sure how all of the things had gotten there, but this room was full of incredibly awesome human creations encrusted with jewels and precious metals. Her parents were always very proud to show this room to visitors.
Fern stood there in awe for a minute, absorbing the beauty with her eyes. Malika could see the cracks in the walls, but she had painted over with the same golden paint that the temple was painted with, so you could only see them if you looked closely. She wondered if Fern even noticed those cracks. It was Malika’s favorite chore to use that golden paint.
“This is probably the most beautiful place in the world,” Fern gasped to Malika. “How come no one’s ever seen it before? I mean there have been rumors about a lost golden temple of treasure, but I didn’t think those stories were actually true! No one’s ever seen it before!”
“Well,” hissed Malika, “sometimes they do discover it, and when they try to run off, the spiders eat them. Not our fault, though.” Malika felt a little bit guilty about the other leopards that had tried to explore the temple. She had become friends with some of those leopards. She wondered if they had escaped the giant spiders or if some of the bones that her family had come across were from them.
“Oh,” said Fern. “That’s… creepy.”
“Stand back,” said Malika. “There’s another spider up ahead.”
Fern ducked behind a golden statue so that her fur blended in (since her fur was yellow).
Malika did the same thing she had done at the doorway. She strangled that spider after surprising it. “All right, Fern!” Malika called. “You can come out now!”
Fern came out and followed Malika to the next hall. But before they could get through the archway, Malika’s mom blocked their path.
“Malika,” she hissed. “Who have you brought home today?”
“Oh,” said Malika. “Hi, mom. This is my friend, Fern.”
“Nice to meet you,” Malika’s mom hissed to Fern. “Malika, you should have been here an hour ago, it’s lunchtime.”
“Oh,” said Malika. “Sorry. Come on Fern, join us for lunch.”
“Okay,” said Fern. She followed Malika’s mom into the room Malika’s mom had been guarding. Inside, the table was still empty.
“Come on, Fern,” said Malika. “We have a special guest chair for visitors. Here, you can sit next to me!”
She showed Fern to a fancy chair and seated herself next to Fern.
Just then, Malika’s dad, brother and sister slithered over to them.
“That’s Greenla and Marco.” Malika pointed to the two other pythons. She pointed to the bigger one, “That’s my dad, Boris.” She pointed to her mom. “And that’s Hemma.”
“Oh,” said Fern.
“Hello,” hissed Greenla. “Are you joining us for lunch?”
“Yup,” purred Fern.
“Great!” hissed Greenla. “You’ll love the food here. I’ll bet you’ve never tried it before.”
“It must be delicious,” meowed Fern.
“I’ll go get the food,” hissed Boris.
He slithered out of the room and came back a few minutes later carrying a trayful of fruit and meat and whatever was edible.
“That looks delicious!” cried Fern.
Next, Marco got up and went to the kitchen and got some silver plates that looked like they had real flowers on them, even though it was actually paint.
Then Greenla got up and got the silverware and then Malika got up and got some teacups and a tea kettle. Then Hemma got up and got some napkins.
They all returned to their seats and started feeding their plates with food.
Fern did the same and tried each food, one by one, until it looked like she decided which she liked most. Then she ate more food, had some tea, and started shifting around in her seat.
“Um,” said Fern. “I better go back home. My mom is worried at all times and she must be anxious! Malika and everyone, you can come visit my house anytime you want! My house is a wooden castle and it’s in the center of the rainforest. Bye!”
“Bye,” everyone waved to her.
“Here Fern,” Malika offered. “I can lead you outside the temple so you don’t get caught by any giant spiders.”
“Sure,” said Fern. “Thanks again, everyone!”
Malika led her through the archway and warned Fern when there was a giant spider up ahead.
They got out quickly and Malika went out the archway first to make sure there was no spider up above the archway. There wasn’t so they got through quickly.
“Bye,” said Fern, hugging Malika. “Hope to see you soon!”
Malika waved goodbye as Fern walked away toward her house. She thought “I’m going to have a play date with Fern soon.” In the meantime, Malika went back into the temple. She chose a sunny window seat to read a book.
The next morning Malika headed over to Fern’s house. It was a nice and cozy little wooden castle. Mama Leopard answered the door when Malika knocked.
“Hello” hissed Malika, “are you Fern’s mom? I’m Malika, I met Fern yesterday in the jungle. I’m wondering if I can have a play date with her?”
Mama leopard purred “Yes I’m Mama Leopard, Fern’s mom. Of course you can have a play date with her. Let me go tell her that you are here.” She hurried off into the castle.
Malika slithered back and forth by the entrance to the castle as she waited. She could hear the conversation going on through an open window.
“It’s Malika!” Mama Leopard was saying to Fern. “She wants to have a playdate with you!”
Once upon a time there was a little leopard named Fern who was ten and a half years old and loved to read. She would read for a long time in the morning, and a long time in the afternoon, and just keep on reading. But her mom stopped her sometimes; she said Fern needed to rest her eyes in order not to get glasses, and Fern really did not want glasses because she thought they looked ugly.
Fern followed her mama’s directions and didn’t read for an hour or two, and then kept reading.
One day, Fern heard a knock on the door, but Fern was so busy with her book that she didn’t notice.
Mama Leopard opened the door, and there was Flower who was going to go on a playdate with Fern.
“Okay,” said Fern. “But let me finish this chapter.” She finished the chapter, but kept reading after that because she loved the book so much.
“Are you done yet,” Flower asked impatiently.
“Oh, um yeah I’m done.”
She put the book away and started playing with Flower. Once she and Mama Leopard had said goodbye to Flower and she had gone back to her house, Mama Leopard said in a very stern voice, “Fern, what you did was very disrespectful. I hope you don’t do it again.”
“Okay Mama,” Fern apologized, “I will try not to. But now can I please go back to read my book? I just got to the good part.”
“Sure honey,” sighed Mama Leopard.
Fern got back to reading her book for a while.
“Fern,” called Mama Leopard. “It’s time for a reading break. We’re going to have a snack.”
“Okay Mama,” Fern called, remembering that she might need glasses if she didn’t take a break.
Fern went over to the table and watched as Mama Leopard put down two trays of food; one was full of veggies and one was full of fruit.
“So,” said Mama Leopard, sitting down at the table across from Fern. “I noticed something.”
“What mom?” Fern asked her, while crunching on a delicious orange carrot.
“It’s just that…” said Mama Leopard, “when I say it’s time to take a break from reading, you come immediately. But once one of your best friends knocks on the door, you have to “finish this chapter” then you finish the chapter, but you don’t finish reading. Why is that?”
“Well,” said Fern, “it’s because I don’t want to get glasses. It’s also because when I… I just have a habit that makes me keep reading when it’s something not important to me. I don’t think going to the door is as important as reading because I like reading more than going to the door.”
“Well,” said Mama Leopard, “can we try to erase that habit?”
“What does ‘erasing a habit’ mean?” Fern asked her.
“It means getting rid of it,” said Mama Leopard.
“Oh,” meowed Fern, “I mean I guess we could try. But how?”
“Well,” said Mama Leopard. “I’ll just remind you every time you make a mistake, and then you’ll not do that, and then you’ll get into the habit of not doing the bad habit. Does that sound like a good plan?”
“Yeah,” said Fern. “Thanks mom! I’m gonna go read one of my books upstairs”
“You’re welcome honey,” purred Mama Leopard, but Fern was already up the stairs and in her room where she threw herself on her bed and got her favorite book and snuggled up to read it.
The book was full of short stories and it was called, “Animal Stories From Around the World.” Her favorite story in this book was called “Dapplegrim” and it was about a young boy and a horse who rescued a princess from atop a really high mountain and who stomped down the mountain with his horse’s powerful hoof.
A couple of minutes later, Mama Leopard called upstairs. “Fern, Marsh just called on the phone. He says he wants to talk to you.”
“He does?” Fern called back downstairs. “Hold on, I’ll be there in a minute.”
She finished the story quickly and dashed downstairs to the ringing phone.
“Hey Marsh,” said Fern to the phone.
“Hey Fern,” Marsh’s voice answered back. “I want to ask you, what’s your favorite fruit that’s not mango?”
“Pineapple. Why are you asking?”
“You’ll see,” answered Marsh cheerfully.
And he hung up.
“Mom,” Fern asked her mom, “Why do you think Marsh was asking what my favorite fruit is that’s not a mango?”
“I don’t know, honey,” answered Mama Leopard. “Maybe he’s going to get something for your birthday? Maybe he doesn’t know what to get you for your birthday.”
“Oh,” said Fern. “That’s probably it.”
Fern went back upstairs to read a book and Mama Leopard went back to prepare a feast for them to eat with Fern’s grandma and grandpa who were coming over.
A couple of hours later, the doorbell rang.
“Grandma and grandpa are here!” Mama Leopard shouted up the stairs.
“Great!” called Fern.
She rushed downstairs and opened the door and threw herself into a hug from Grandpa Leopard. Then she twisted and jumped into Grandma Leopard’s arms, hugging her as well.
“Hi mom, hi dad,” said Mama Leopard, opening the door. “I haven’t seen you both in a while!”
“Well we’ve been busy going around the world,” said Grandpa Leopard. “But now I’m hungry! Is there anything to eat?”
“Yes,” said Mama Leopard. “In fact, I just made a bunch of food. We can have a feast!”
“Great,” said Grandpa Leopard. “Let’s eat!”
He stomped into the kitchen and sat down at the table and called to them, “Hey are you guys going to come over here?” “Yep,” said Mama Leopard, “We’re coming.”
She hurried over to the table with Grandma Leopard and Fern right behind her, who were chatting about how much Grandpa Leopard loved to eat.
Mama Leopard got all the food, and ate until their tummies were all full.
Once the feast was done, Grandpa Leopard said, “That was a delicious feast! We will come over more often to eat because that was super good!”
“Thank you,” said Mama Leopard.
“You’re welcome,” said Grandpa Leopard.
“Now, now,” said Grandma Leopard. “It’s getting late. We should get going.”
Fern and Mama Leopard waved goodbye as Grandma and Grandpa Leopard started a new journey.
“Well Fern,” Mama Leopard purred, “you did a wonderful job of parting with your book. I think it deserves a reward. How about some ice cream?”
“Yes!” Fern cheered.
“And how about,” said Mama Leopard, “we put the ice cream in a triple scoop cone?”
“I love that!” said Fern.
“But,” said mama Leopard, “Under one condition.”
“What is it, Mama?” Fern asked her. “I’d do anything for triple scoop ice cream!”
“Really,” said Mama Leopard. “What if I asked you to clean the house with me?”
