Trouble in the Land of Dwarves
Chapter 1
The Not-So-Jolly Men
Brumble Wood was just waking from a
long night sleep. He stepped out of his tree
house and looked around the woods where
he and his friends lived! Down on the
ground, Tiny Bud was already awake and
cooking breakfast over the fire. Maid
Madelyn was still sleeping in her
hut.
Brumble slid down a pole to
land near his best friend.
"Good morning, Tiny Bud!" he
greeted, "What's for Breakfast? It smells
tasty!"
Tiny Bud gave a big toothy
grin through his bushy beard when he heard
the compliment. He was the tallest dwarf in
Renegade Forest, maybe even the tallest in
all of Darrowold and he had a big heart to
match his big body.
"Thank
you, Brumble." he said, "I'm making the
same thing I always make for Breakfast.
Fish!!"
Brumble Wood wrinkled
his nose. "Fish again? I thought you were
making something new for once." He
shrugged his shoulders and looked around
the camp. "Where is Friar Tub? Is he
awake yet?"
Before Tiny Bud
could answer, they both heard a loud
shouting coming from the wooden
walkways up in the trees above them.
When they looked up, they saw the Friar
being shoved along by Billy Crimson,
Brumble Wood's younger brother. Bill was
yelling at Friar Tub, scolding him for falling
asleep while he was supposed to be keeping
a watch for King Kugelbone�s men. King
Kugelbone wanted to capture Brumble
Wood and his friends and it was very
important that someone always watch from
the tree tops to see if he and his black
soldiers were coming. The Friar always
seemed to fall asleep when it was his turn to
watch for bad guys and Bill always got mad
at him when he caught him sleeping. One
time Friar Tub almost fell right out of the
highest branches of the tree because he was
sleeping!
They both climbed
down from the trees arguing the whole way.
Brumble Wood was just about to ask them
both to stop shouting at each other, when
suddenly they were interrupted by another
voice from above that made them stop in the
middle of what they were saying. All four
of the men turned and looked up into the
trees. There stood Maid Madelyn with her
hands on her hips and looking very
frustrated.
"Will you guys stop
your yelling so early in the morning? A
woman can't get her beauty sleep with all
this noise!" She was very angry and the
men knew they were in trouble. "The next
one who wakes me up is going to get an
arrow in his fanny! Now good
night!"
She twirled around and
stormed back into her treehouse. Bill
Crimson and Friar Tub stopped arguing
right away and before you could say
"Jumping Jondelbabba", they were all
helping Tiny Bud make breakfast, being as
quiet as church mice.
A few
minutes later, as they were sitting down to
eat, a white pony with purple hair glided to
the ground behind them like a bird. On the
ponys back was a little girl dressed like a
princess in a purple and white dress. When
the pony landed, the girl jumped off it's
back and walked up behind the jolly men at
their fire.
"Hello," she said,
"I'm Princess Nataleigh from Amiera, the
Crystal Castle on Mount Ivory way up
above the clouds. I've come to ask you to
help me! King Balderdash is in trouble and
I've got to warn him of the danger, but I
need help!"
None of the men
payed any attention to Nataleigh. They
were too focused on their breakfast to
notice a child, especially Friar Tub who
almost never stopped filling his large belly
anyway. Bill Crimson waved her away
without even looking at her. "Go away,
little girl. We don't have time to play
childish games. We�re busy
men."
�I�m not a little girl!�
Nataleigh protested. �I�m taller than any of
you dwarves!�
At this, Tiny
Bud began to laugh. �Ha, ha! Do you hear
that, Brumble? A little girl thinks she�s
taller than me!� He stood and turned
around to face her. �Who you calling a
dwar...?� He stopped as his eyes fixed on
her knees and then slowly looked up and up
until he realized that the Princess really was
a whole head taller than even him. The
smile on his face slowly faded and he
stumbled backwards. He bumped into Billy
and fell back into a small frog pond nearby
still looking up at the giant girl.
Brumble and Billy both started
laughing now.
�Oh, come
now, Tiny Bud! It�s just a girl. How scary
can she be!� Billy taunted!
Now
he and Brumble also turned. A moment
later there were two more splashes as they
stumbled backwards into the frog pond as
well. All three of them sat there in the pond
with their mouths wide open staring at the
giant princess. Friar Tub was still eating
away, totally unaware of what was going
on.
Nataleigh tried again to get
their help. �Please, don�t be afraid of me.�
She pleaded. �I am just a kid, even if I�m
not a dwarf. I need your help!�
She stepped toward them.
The Jolly men jumped to their feet and
began to run for their weapons shouting!
�Get thee back, you foul creature! You
won�t fool us you, you... you ogre in girls
clothing!�
�I beg your pardon!
How rude!� Nataleigh was beginning to get
very upset because they weren't listening.
She started to say more when all of a
sudden Jewel scooped her up onto her back
and leapt into the air to protect her.
The pony landed above them on
the wooden platform in the trees. Nataleigh
tried to explain herself again, but saw that
they were not listening. Tiny Bud and Billy
were moving up trees after her, while
Brumble was loading an arrow into his
crossbow. They were really after her! This
was not at all what Nataleigh was
expecting.
She got down off of
Jewel�s back again and started to cry in
frustration. �Why won�t they listen, Jewel?
How can we help them if they won�t
listen?�
All of a sudden a
firey arrow whizzed past her from behind
and hit a tree right next to Brumble Wood.
The JollyMen all stopped what they were
doing, (including Friar Tub who was just
stuffing a tater tot into his mouth) and
looked up into the trees. There stood Maid
Madelyn! She was awake again and this
time she was holding her bow, ready to
shoot another flaming arrow from a
platform just above Princess Nataleigh in
the tree tops!
Chapter 2
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