I am excited to be bringing you this wonderful story written by my husband. He’s getting ready for NaNoWriMo and this is just a taste of the novel he’s planning on writing in November. Jesse would like for this story to be considered a fable, since he tossed in a few morals, so hopefully everyone will get that idea.
A little background on the main character, Ziggy Swift. He’s loony, but in a good way. He has a tendency to look at things very simply and instill his own interpretations. I’ve been living with Ziggy for awhile, ever since Jesse created him for a Dungeons and Dragon’s campaign, and it’s been a riot.
My husband just gave me the perfect example for Ziggy: If you tell Ziggy to stay put, he’ll respond with “My feet are carrots”. Because to him, carrots don’t move and they are planted, much like his feet. Like I said, he has a twisted view of the world and it’s very amusing when he goes off.
So here’s the first story involving Ziggy Swift. I hope you enjoy it.
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One day Ziggy and Rufus the Penguin were out on a troll hunting picnic when they were surprised by a giant spider.
“You can’t walk through my forest! No Hunter’s allowed!” shouted the spider.
“But we’re hunting trolls, not deer or rabbits.” insisted Rufus.
“No Exceptions!” Demanded the spider. “Leave or I shall wrap you in a web and eat you!”
“I have an idea,” Ziggy interjected. ” Spider, I challenge you to race my penguin friend here to the end of the forest and back.”
The Spider hissed in delight, for he enjoyed wagers. “If your friend can beat me, you may enter and hunt all you like. But what is my reward if I win?” asked the spider.
“well… hrm. You can have the first item I pull from my bag.” Ziggy offered.
“I don’t know Ziggy, he knows the forest much better than I,” Rufus worriedly stated. He’d hate for Ziggy to lose something important because the spider beat him.
“Nonsense,” Ziggy assured Rufus, “The winner will be the first to return with a BoboFlower. They grow in the fields surrounding the forest.”
“Deal,” the spider agreed, then sprinted off into the forest without even waiting for the race to start.
“He cheated! I’ll never catch him, Ziggy!” Rufus stated in defeat.
“You won’t need to. He is headed for the far end of the forest. Even running as fast as he can, he won’t be back for two hours. We’ve Just come into the forest, and we passed a BoboFlower on the way in. Run back to where we entered and collect two flowers. You should be back within 10 minutes.”
Rufus waddled off in the direction they had come in from and soon arrived back with the flowers in his beak. Ziggy took one of the flowers, ground it up, and began mixing it with a vial of blue liquid he had in his bag. They started a campfire and waited for the spider to return while they ate their lunch of sausage and beans. While they waited, Ziggy wrote something on the label in the vial. and held it over the fire. The liquid turned a brilliant yellow.
The spider returned back in two hours exhausted, dragging the flower behind him. He saw Rufus sitting there with his own flower and flew into a rage.
“You must have cheated! You already had the flower! Admit it!” the spider demanded.
“We did not – however you left before I could tell you which side of the forest to race towards.” Ziggy explained, pointing behind him, “The far end of the forest is much too far for my friend to run. The side we came in is much more suitable.”
“You tricked me!” insisted the spider. He was very angry and ready to eat them both.
“Alright, to show that I’m fair, I shall give you the first item I retrieve from my bag.” Ziggy offered, much to the surprise of Rufus.
“Excellent – but no tricks!” The spider warned.
Ziggy reached into his back and pulled out the yellow vial. He held it out to the spider.
The spider grasped the vial between two of it’s legs and read the label. “It says ‘UNKILLABLE’, what does that mean?”
“It’s a potion,” Ziggy answered, “No creature will be able to kill you after drinking it.”
“Excellent – It was very fortunate you stumbled into my forest then!” The spider said triumphantly, and drank the entire thing.
“And now I shall eat you as well-” The spider began, then stopped. He convulsed for a moment, and fell over dead.
“Rufus,” Ziggy asked as he began putting out the camp fire, “Did you know Boboflowers are used to make bug spray? All the wizard’s use it to kill flies and spiders that enter their towers.”
“No, ” Rufus began, but grew concerned, for Ziggy was known to never lie, “but you said it would make him unkillable! You lied to him!”
“I didn’t lie. I said the potion would make him unkillable. You can’t kill something that’s already dead.”
Ziggy’s Rules:
Be wary of making bets with strangers.
Don’t try to cheat- you may cause yourself to lose in the end.
Always listen to all directions before starting.
Don’t bully people- they will remember it and try to get you back.
Don’t be a sore loser- sometimes it’s best to lose gracefully than to win poorly.
If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
