A short story by the Tuesday 9 o'clock group
Part 1 (by the whole group)
Once upon a time there was a strange little boy who lived in Budapest. One day he was strolling through a dark forest with a swift dog and looking for a small key to open a box his grandfather had given him.
It was difficult to find the key because there was a lot of grass, stones, bushes and nettles.
Suddenly there was a strange rumbling sound behind him and the dog started barking madly. The dog seemed to want to show him the way. He followed it with haste and they soon arrived at a ruined middle-aged castle surrounded by a high stone wall, covered with moss and ivy. He climbed it with ease and when he reached the top he couldn’t believe his eyes. Instead of a courtyard he saw a large bubbling lava lake with a small island and a terrifying black dragon sitting in the middle of it. To his surprise, he caught a glimpse of the key tucked under the dragon’s huge belly.
How could he reach the island? What was he going to do?
He put his hands together to pray and as he started to step into the lava, thinking he was going to die, but to his great surprise, a wooden bridge appeared.
He realised that he would have to distract the dragon so he could get hold of the key. He had several caramel biscuits in his trouser pocket so he threw one of them to the other side of the island. The greedy dragon sniffed the lovely smell of caramel and quickly turned around and trotted over to gobble it up.
As he was munching on the delicious cookie the young lad sprinted over the middle of the island and grabbed the little key. He quickly ran back over the bridge, jumped over the stone wall and looking back over his shoulder, he saw that the bridge was in flames.
Part 2 ( by Marie-Madeleine) - adapted from Jean de la Fontaine
He ran through the forest with his dog and after many miles he saw a blue line on the horizon. It was the Balaton lake. However, he realised that he was on the wrong side of the lake. His grandfather lived on the other side.
He met a fisherman who was going to fish in the lake. Luckily, the fisherman offered to take him to the other side.
The water was very calm and the fisherman firmly rowed across.
Suddenly the strange little boy saw bubbles in the water in front of the boat. Big waves started to appear and before he knew it, the Balaton monster, a kind of mutant dark blue dragon-shark sprang from the water laughing. It said “Hahaha, you thought you were the most cunning, didn’t you, you pathetic little human being!”.
All of a sudden, the dragon whipped the little boat with his large scaly tail and the tiny key slipped out of the boy’s hand and plopped into the deep dark depths of the lake, and with another crack of his tail, the dragon-shark was gone.
Later that day, back at his grandfather’s hut, the little boy weeped as he told of his adventure.
When he finished, his grandfather comforted him, saying “don’t you worry my young lad, the box was empty. This was just a test to see how courageous you are. And you have proved to be the bravest little boy I have ever known. Now you are a Man, and you are ready to face real life and all its hardships.”
The boy smiled and the dog wagged its tail.