|
Barney & The Purple Wurples
WARNING!! NOT for children or those who like Barney!
|
| The Mystery of the Stripped Trees
bishojo woke one morning with a purple-wurple practically battering down her door.
She stumbled out of bed to see that Plum, looking quite frantic, was jumping up and
down outside her window.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Thank heavens you're awake! The purple-wurples want to speak to you- and they want to check your larder."
bishojo did a double-take. "My larder?"
"Yes. They think you've been taking all the fruit."
bishojo stared incredulously at the little fuzzy thing.
"Well, the best way to prove it is to let them in," she said, heading towards the door.
|
| Outside, Violet and Lilac stood in front of a crowd of angry looking wurples.
Before they could speak, bishojo addressed them all.
"My friends, it's hard to understand why you would suspect me of this, but I have nothing to
hide. Please, if you want to, feel free to search my little home."
The wurples muttered between themselves, some apparently wondering exactly what had led
them to suspect their friend, but they were all shushed by Violet.
"We know that none of us stripped the trees- our telepathic link means that we all know
what everyone else is doing, but we have no link with you.
You're bigger than us, it would be easier for you, and we don't know where you were."
bishojo looked down at the wurples.
"I may be bigger than you, but do you really think I could strip trees bare by myself?
And, as I said, feel free to search. I have nothing to hide."
The wurples looked to each other. bishojo could hear their thoughts: there were far
too many stripped trees for bishojo to be the cause. But who else could it have been?
|
| The Thing By The River
bishojo, having convinced the wurples of her innocence, offered to take a look at the
trees and see if she could figure out the cause.
Plum led her to the area,
but wouldn't take her all the way thre.
"It's not that I'm frightened," the wurple whispered, "but I really don't like seeing
the trees like that. It's... unnatural."
bishojo nodded, and watched the wurple pad off back into the forest.
She took a deep breath and took the path that her little fuzzy friend had indicated.
Just a little way along the path, with the river not quite in view, there was a horible
sight. The trees nearest bishojo were empty of fruit, when they should be groaning under
the weight, and those nearest the river... weren't there.
Splinters of wood were strewn across the ground, and it took bishojo quite a while to
realise that the splinters were all that was left of the trees.
She suddenly understood why the wurples wouldn't come here with her.
It was horrible, and so quiet.
No birds sang here, and no little animals scampered around the undergrowth.
She wandered through the wreckage, aghast at the damage, and wondered what on earth
could have caused this.
It was obviously something big.
She thought about the only two races on the planet bigger than her,
the dragons and the gargoyles, but there was no reason to suspect them other than their size.
The gargoyles didn't eat fruit- they lived on the soft stone found in the valleys-
and the dragons never came near the forest, for fear of tearing the beautiful wings on the
treetops. Both races were way too nice to do this.
There had to be another suspect. But who?
|
Suddenly, the silence was disturbed by a horrible crashing noise.
After a second, bishojo realised that it was the sound of trees being pushed aside,
and that it came from just the other side of the river.
She darted back to where the trees were full, and hid in a bus by the forest path.
She wanted to be able to run from whatever terrible monster had created this chaos.
As the noise grew nearer, she heard something else.
It sounded like singing- but not the way singing should sound.
It sounded doped, like a slowed-down hippo on drugs.
She strained to hear, and suddenly made out the words:
"I love you, you love me,
we're a happy family,
with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you,
won't you say you love me too?"
bishojo shuddered. There was something hypnotic about the song.
It made her want to sing it, made her want to hug whatever it was that sang it,
made her want to... She shook herself, as if breaking out of a daydream.
The song was still going on, repetitive, hypnotic, terrifying.
bishojo knew that if she listened to it any longer, she would certainly go mad.
She crawled over to a nearby bush that had blossom like cotton-wool,
pulled some off and stuck it in her ears.
At once, her head felt clearer, she felt more awake, more like herself.
The woolly blossom in her ears cancelled out the songs soporific effect.
She crawled back to her hiding place and peeped through the bush.
Not far away from her stood a huge monster.
It was shaped kind of like the dragons, but not quite.
It was smoother, like a child's drawing.
It was shovelling fruit from one of the trees into it's mouth.
But what shocked bishojo most was it's colour.
The thing was purple. It must be from this planet.
As she stared, another thing came into view.
This was the thing still singing the song.
It looked similar to the first one, but it was a different shape- and it was yellow.
It stopped singing.
"Barney, can I eat some of the fruit now?" it said.
The first thing turned. bishojo now had a perfect view of it's back-
and she could see a zipper right up the middle!!
"Later. You have to pick fruit to take back to the caves, or I'll have nothing to eat."
The thing called Barney turned back to the tree it was denuding.
It turned further this time, and bishojo could see the front.
It had a big green bit in the middle.
bishojo squinted, and realised that the green was it's real colour-
there was a big rip down the front of the purple suit it was wearing.
The thing pulled the last fruit of the tree, and started moving.
Slowly but surely, with a step that shook the ground,
it moved towards bishojo's hiding place.
There was no way that she could escape without being seen.
She was about to be squashed just like the dead trees...
|
Will bishojo escape?
Will the trees be saved?
Will Barney be punished for his awful deeds?
You'll have to come back and find out. Part 2 coming soon!!
|
