Penny and the Missing Animals by Mai  from South Harford Middle

 

The villagers were beside themselves.  All their  very favourite cats and dogs were disappearing one by one. 

Now, considering that the village was set in the very middle of a dark and gloomy forest, where to see anything much at all except for tree trunks was extremely difficult, it would not seem bizarre for the odd cat or odd dog to go missing from time to time.  But this was different.  Gradually, at the rate of about one and half a day (yes, I know that it's quite difficult to lose one and half dogs or cats but I added them all up and divided by...well...whatever, really...and came up with one and half OK?) the villagers' pets were lost.

The villagers had a pretty good idea who was responsible, mind.  It was rumoured that, even deeper into the dark and gloomy forest, lives a mouldy old troll (a descendant of he who terrorised the Three Billy Goats Gruff I believe) who was allergic to animal hair of any kind (what do you mean - I am NOT talking nonsense at all.   Of course trolls can be allergic to anything they like!  Or rather not like I suppose.  ANYWAY, this one WAS, alright?).  Now, where was I?   Oh yes, it was thought that he (or she, not quite sure just at this moment) was probably quite fed up with coughing and sneezing every time he (or she) slithered past the village on his (her) way to the supermarket (hey, don't start that...yes they DO have supermarkets in dark and gloomy forests, just like anywhere else - it's just a bit difficult to find your way there because of all the tree trunks, is all!).  I am really losing the thread now so am taking a few deep breaths before I carry on...

...there we are, I feel better now, so shall continue with this tale if that's alright with you!

The villagers were so convinced that the culprit was the super-allergic mouldy old troll that they sent out search parties:

Now, when searching for mouldy old trolls, one must stay quite, quite quiet in order not to miss the tell-tale slither as they approach.  Our bunch of villagers found this quite hard actually.  They were the kind of villagers who loved to gossip, talk about the weather, the price of bread, the latest goings on in Up The Treetrunk, the local soap opera, etc.  No matter how they all tried to keep quiet, a whisper could always be heard, somewhere within the group.  Since the sound of a whisper and the sound of a slither are quite similar, the search party spent its time following each other round in circles and, yes, you have guessed it, the mouldy old troll found it really quite simple to make its way to the supermarket and stock up on weekly essentials (oh you know, mouldy old troll kind of essentials - old cheese, those bits of meat with green on, rotten fruit etc).

The villagers, worn out with following each other around in circles, held a meeting.  It was decided to bring in Penny  (now, may I explain that I am not quite sure who this Penny was - have heard there is one in these parts who does a lot of stuff on the Internet but it may not be her, there is also one tied up - not literally - with those Thunderbird chappies and also one who is a stalwart in some kind of car race - Whacky Races I believe).  Whichever Penny she was, she had bright sparkling green eyes which could see just about anywhere (perhaps it IS the Internet one after all - I think her sons may think that this description just about fits!) and was VERY good at finding things.

She arrived, clutching her trusty cat Frank under her arm, listened to what the villagers had to say, stood up straight, held Frank even closer, opened her sparkling green eyes wide and strode purposefully off into the forest.

The villagers stood as quietly as they could in the centre of the village (oh yes, still the odd whisper don't you know?) and listened carefully.

"Ouch!", "Oops!", "Bother!", "Yeeaoiouw!" wafted towards the village from the depths of the forest (I did say there were an awful lot of treetrunks didn't I?) and then nothing.  All went quiet.

The villagers, waited, and waited, and waited.  They began to shuffle their feet.  A few started singing those spirit-lifting folk-songs (Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Rum proved to be a favourite) as dusk began to fall (quite difficult to tell since the forest was so dark and gloomy anyway but someone had a watch I believe so they knew it was dusk-time).

The villagers were just about to give up all hope when a new sound was heard.  A faint yapping and a meow or two (or three or four actually).  They strained their ears and eyes to see and hear what was happening.  The noises got louder and louder and, suddenly, into the village rushed scores of cats and dogs, tails wagging and waving, barking and crying all together.  Each villager rushed to meet their pet and a great fuss was made of all.

As they celebrated, a bedraggled and bruised figure appeared clutching an even more bedraggled and bruised cat under her arm.  To be quite honest, the villagers hardly noticed her, they were so excited.  She tried to talk to one or other of them but they were so involved in greeting their pets she could get nowhere.

She turned sadly, hoiked Frank up onto her shoulder, and walked away from the village.

As she disappeared into the distance one or two of the villagers noticed and asked each other: "Who WAS that woman?"  The answer came back: "I know not, could be that Internet Penny, or it could be the Thunderbird one, or, on the other hand, it may well be the one they call Pitstop!"

Life went back to normal.  It was only weeks and weeks later that the villagers found out what had happened.  The funny thing was, it was the mouldy old troll who came into the village to tell them.  Quite a different mouldy old troll it was too.  This one was clean and smart, no long coughing and sneezing and his shopping trolley (he was on his way back from the Supermarket) was full of crisp salads, fresh meat and lovely French bread).

He told the villagers that, firstly, Penny had found him snivelling and snuffling at the bottom of a treetrunk, had supplied him with anti-allergy tablets and in return he had led her to the cave where he had stored the villagers' pets and the two had parted the very best of friends.

The moral of this story is that you get back what you give, in one way or another.   As for Penny, well, whoever she was (or wasn't), she lived to fight another day, always with her trusty Frank by her side - watch out for her - she may show up somewhere near you!

 

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