It is with mixed emotions that I can officially start preparing you- we
are moving back home! I am sad to
leave our wonderful friends here in Colorado but I am so excited to be reunited
with family and old friends in Pennsylvania. Your Dad has a great new job opportunity, which will allow
me to stay at home with you for awhile and help you transition (as I know you
are going to love being back with your Mimi, Poppy, Uncle Ryan, and Aunt Sammy,
it is going to be so hard for you to leave your many friends here). So Ellie, this fall will bring many
changes (and I do have to tell you when your Mimi found out the good news, she
cried tears of joy of finally being able to watch you grow in person all the
time!).
Congratulations to your Daddy-O!
I see a lot more of this in our future Ellie Bean!
We went up to the mountains (where your Daddy feels closest to Kyle) to tell Kyle where we are going.
And now here is our yearlong bedtime story/stories (with
many chapters to write!) for you.
So as for our weekly guidelines: I write a piece one week in
regular font, and then your Mimi will write a piece in italics the next
week. The only things your Mimi
and I agreed on were the characters- Ellie and a magic teapot and the setting
(a forest with trolls). Anything
else is fair game and will make our adventure a new tale. We also need to figure out an
illustration to go with our part.
Our goal Ellie is to have a beloved bedtime story for you and future
generations.
And so we will continue our third piece of fiction.
Ellie and the Magic
Teapot: Into the Secret Forest Part 8
… Lion’s emotions as
to what had just happened took a turn quickly, speechless at first by two
amazing singing voices and then shocked when he realized that this last ogre,
Rockin’ Troll, was really quite nice.
He knew that Rockin’ worked for Trudy and Trudy would expect him to do
everything in his power to capture Ellie and Lion, but Lion was pretty sure
that Rockin’ did not try his absolute hardest. Actually he was pretty sure that Rockin’ was having a good
time in the sing-off with Ellie and maybe even let her win in the end. No matter though. At least they escaped another troll.
“Ellie?” Lion
hesitated still a bit confused.
“Yes Lion, what is
it?” she responded warmly.
“I’m not going to lie. This dark forest is very creepy and
scary but the trolls that we have crossed paths with so far have been more
‘odd’ than anything else. Tootsie
Troll was a bit crazy, Hotdog Troll was kind of goofy, Fruity Troll was a bit
tricky and Rockin’ Troll was kind of… well… kind. If it wasn’t for this spooky forest I would actually think that
this adventure could be fun,” he stated with a delayed tremble.
Turning her head while
they continued to walk Ellie answered, “I know Lion. I agree with you.
I’m a bit scared too but at least I have you with me.”
She then gave him her
biggest and bravest smile and squeezed his hand, “Come on, we have to keep
moving forward. Hopefully we can
figure out why Trudy is turning children into trolls before we actually find
her and then stop her when we do come face to face!”
“Yeah, before she
turns us into them. I don’t think
I want to be a troll Ellie,” Lion mumbled hoping that no ‘hidden ears’ in the
forest had heard him. Silently he
snuggled closer to Ellie’s side and synchronized his step to match hers because
the forests’ sounds were getting eerier and creepier the deeper they walked.
“I’m going to call on
Oliver, Lion. I don’t know why but
I think we may need him,” Ellie said with some trepidation.
“That’s fine with me
Ellie. You can call Sebastian,
Ted, your mom, your Mimi and anyone else that would like to join us too. The more the merrier for the trolls to
capture first!” Lion blurted out accidentally.
“LION!” Ellie scolded
though she understood her little friend’s fears. Then ignoring his comment she started to hoot. “Whooooo… whooooo.”
Within seconds Oliver
appeared on a leafless branch above them, “Yes Miss Ellie. How can I be of service?”
Grateful for his prompt
company she answered, “I am not really sure Oliver but something from the
storybook tells me that I might need your guidance. I remember reading about a troll who uses vocabulary to trap
children and I fear that he may be our next challenge.”
“Quite possibly so. Do
Whoooo… or rather ‘you’ have a plan?” he hooted.
“As a matter of fact I
do.” Ellie answered as she fumbled through one of her many pockets. “Uh-huh! Here they are!” she stated as
she pulled out three black devices.
“Oop, wait a minute I almost forgot,” and with her other hand she fumbled
through another pocket.,“Come on now… where is that book?” she questioned
herself and smiled when she felt the leather binding touch her fingers. With her left hand she presented Oliver
with one of three ear/microphone headsets (keeping the second one for her own
use and giving the third one to Lion.) With her other hand she presented Oliver with a dictionary
and whispered to him to have it by his side and available at a moments notice. She then directed him on how to operate
the headset, “Oliver, turn the black knob to station #11 and I’ll do the
same. Now keep that frequency open
in case I call for your help. Lion,
you also. Got it?” Lion nodded yes in response. “Ok… now for the dictionary my
feathered friend. At some point it
is going to come in handy but exactly when, I am not sure. Anyway wish us luck Oliver with what
ever lays ahead. I think we are
going to need it!” she sighed.
Oliver bowed his head in affirmation and flew not to far off in the
distance camouflaging himself within the forest trees.
Sure enough it wasn’t
long before the scenery in front of them started to change. It began with a pattern of pebbles on
the dirt path. Both Lion and Ellie
crouched down to observe their layout, “Hmmmm…. This first set spells out three
letters El. O-O-B.”
“Lion, you are reading
it upside down. Walk around to the
other side and see what it says.” Ellie directed.
“Oh. Ok. B-O-O. aghhhhh! Ellie,
it spells BOO!”
Ellie walked a bit
further and crouched down to read the next set, “This one spells S-C-A-R-Y…
SCARY!”
“Ellie, I-I-I-I am
n-n-n-not liking this,” he stuttered as he walked a few more steps past her and
saw another set of letters, “This one spells M-O-N-S-T-E-R. Mmmmmmonst….Yikes El! It spells MONSTER!”
“Hold on Lion, I see
one more set of letters. Hold my
hand and let’s figure it out together. Ok?” she coaxed.
“Ok,” he hesitated. Together they got down on their
knees and together they read the letters out loud, “A-H-E-A-D… AHEAD.”
“A Head???” lion
screamed out. “Whose head??? My
head???” he continued at fever pitch, “I’m out of here El!” And he was just about ready to turn and
run out of the forest before Ellie stopped him.
“Nooooooo Lion! Calm down. Someone is trying to scare us but not by taking your
head. Look. Read the four sets of words together.”
So Lion did just that and he realized that it spelled out ‘Boo… scary monster
ahead!’ “Ok, I guess no one is
going to take my head, but this message doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy
feeling either Ellie,” he sighed with a smidgeon of relief.
“Agreed dear friend
but let’s see who’s behind this.” And with a brave front both Ellie and Lion
stood up tall with their shoulders pulled back, head raised high and together
in unison they yelled out, “WhoEver you are, We are NOT afraid of YOU!” Five seconds past. Fifteen seconds past. Thirty seconds past. And just as Ellie and Lion were
starting to relax out popped a short pudgy troll with crazy wild hair from behind
a perfectly square stump that bellowed “BOO!”
“Aghhhh!” screamed
Lion, “Who are you?”
“The scary monster that
lay ahead of you in the woods,” he hollered out, but his words had more of a
factual tone to them rather than a scary tone.
“No you’re not,” said
Ellie with a hint of a giggle.
“Who are you really?”
“Well… you are quite
correct in discovering my little white lie. Actually I am Wrd Troll. Trudy named me that because of my intellectual and advanced
vocabulary. But the other trolls
in the forest call me Wrdy Nrdy.
And that’s ok, as I see it as a sign of their immaturity. But enough with the introductions. I know who you two are and my job is to
capture you and bring you to Trudy’s cave. So if you would be so kind, please put on these blindfolds…
and tie them tightly around your head so you cannot peak underneath, and I will
spin you 5 times… and not to get you dizzy by the way, but rather to confuse
you as to which direction you are going in. Chop, chop!” He
stated while handing Ellie and Lion two ABC patterned blindfolds.
Ellie took them both
with her right hand and started to twirl them. “Ummmmm, Mr. Wrd… before we blindfold ourselves, could we
possibly interest you in a Word Challenge?” Wrdy Nerdy’s ears wiggled and perked straight up. Knowing that she had his attention,
Ellie continued on, “You can name the game, but to be fair make it best out of
three, and if you win then we will tie the blindfolds around our heads and you
can lead us off to Trudy. But if
Lion and I win then we are free to pass and find Trudy on our own. Agreed?”
“Oooooooo, I LOVE word
games! Yes, yes, yes yes!! I will take the challenge!” he
screeched out excitedly while he rubbed his chubby little hands together. “Alright then, let me think for a moment,”
he added while somewhat distracted.
Ellie knew this was the perfect moment for her and Lion to quietly slip
on their headsets unnoticed. “Hmmmm… what game will be easy for me to win and you to
lose?” Wrd continued while playing with a strand of his crazy hair, “Ok, I’ve
got it! For the first round you
need to tell me what the longest word in the dictionary is and you have less
than thirty seconds to do so. On your mark, get set, GO!”
Ellie whispered into her
microphone, “Oliver, scan the dictionary quickly for the longest word. HURRY as we have less than thirty
seconds!”
“Tick tock, tick tock…
twenty-one, twenty, nineteen, tick tock goes the clock,” sang Mr. Wrd Troll in
an off-key note.
Ellie, there are over
a thousand pages in this book… I can’t possibly flip through them that fast to
find it, but I’m trying!” answered a frantic Oliver.
“Tick tock, tick tock…
ten, nine, eight, tick tock goes the clock,” Wrd Troll continued singing.
“Oh my Ellie… I am so
sorry. I cannot find it!” Oliver
resigned.
“Halt! Times up! Do you have an answer?” asked Wrd with a raised eyebrow.
“No,” admitted Ellie
disappointedly, “What is it?”
“Ha! It is 45 letters long and it is
pronounced Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovol-
canoconiosis,” answered
the proud and know-it-all troll.
“I’m not exactly sure what it is, but that doesn’t matter as its
definition wasn’t part of the game!
So let’s go on to round two.
What is the shortest word in the dictionary and this time you only have
twelve seconds to answer! Tick
tock… GO!”
Lion looked at Ellie
and said to her, “That’s easy, it is the first letter in the alphabet… a”.
“NO, it’s a trick
question!” squawked Oliver, “Everybody says that answer because it’s the first
word they see, but there are actually two answers. A… like ‘a’ game and also I… like ‘I’ like you.”
“Thanks Oliver. I think you just saved us!” Ellie
beamed. “A and I,” she yelled over
to Wrd Troll.
“What? How did you know that?” he pouted while
narrowing his beady eyes at them.
“Ok then, we are tied… one to one. But I plan on winning this last round. It is one of my favorite games, kind of
like a race of sorts.” He then
reached under the log stump and pulled out a bag holding seven small square
blocks with a letter on each side.
Wrd explained the rules as he dumped them out on the table. “The word spelled out here is
CAPTURE. We each have twenty
seconds to find the biggest word within this word. Lion, I am putting you in charge of counting backwards so no
cheating. If you do, you both will
be disqualified and shipped off to Trudy, pronto. Ready, set, GO!”
As Lion started
counting backwards Ellie quickly scanned the letters and the word possibilities
within CAPTURE. With Oliver’s help
they came up with words such as ‘put, rat, tape, and pear.’ Wrd Troll was also scanning the letters
and called out words such as “pat, cap, tear, and race.” Lion was at the number three in
the countdown and knowing there was not much time left he took a very slow deep
breath before following it with two, then with one. Fearfully looking at Ellie he called out, “Stop! Your answers please.”
Wrd Troll spoke first,
“I found CRATE and it is five letters long!” “Ha! I won, I won, I know I won!”
Before admitting
defeat Ellie took one last glance at the letters on her own. And what she saw made her smile. “My word is… TEACUP… and it is six
letters long!”
Realizing that she
just won the game, Ellie quietly whispered a sincere thank you to Oliver for helping
her and Lion and told him they would be in touch again soon. Another thank you was said by Ellie but
only in the form of a ‘thought.’
It was to her Mimi for introducing tea parties to Lion and herself.
“WHAT??? IT CAN’T BE!” Wrd stomped, “I’ve never
lost this game!” he continued in a shocked state. And then with some fretting he grumbled, “Oh my… Trudy is
going to be angry with me!”
“Maybe so Mr. Wrd.,
but a challenge is a challenge and we won fair and square. May we leave your area of the forest
and continue on now?” Ellie politely asked.
“I guess so. A challenge is a challenge and you and
your friend did win. So you may
go, but if you do find Trudy before she finds you, please tell her that I
picked the wrong word game for the tiebreaker and I’ll do better next
time. Ok?” Wrd whined.
“You’ve got it Mr. Wrd
Troll. And for the record, you are
one very smart ogre who knows his words!” complimented both Ellie and Lion with
a broad smile, “Now we had better get going since we are not sure how much
farther we need to travel. Bye!”
“Yeah. Bye. Hey, thanks for not calling me Wrdy Nrdy! You two are really sweet. Just be careful because Trudy really
likes that. She says that sweet
kids always have laughter in them.”
Ellie and Lion looked at
each other with a quizzical expression once again but continued on their
journey anyway…
We love you Spaghetti!
Mom & Mimi
