A Story in 26 parts – D
Drawing his cloak around him early next morning, he set off. The cold mists breathed across the land, chilling his feet; the sun hadn’t yet risen above the hilltops and the frost hung on his breath. But Albert was set in his purpose. He walked all day, stopping rarely but quickly to drink from the rivers and streams or to nibble on the jam sandwiches that he had packed. By the end of the day, he’d covered a fair stretch of the grounds and was closing on his destination.
As he entered the land of “bob” all his friends and family, toiling in the fields heard him (actually what they heard were curses coming from Albert as he tripped over a large root, landing in a huge pile of Heffalump dung – something which Albert knew would take many weeks of washing to get out). With a cheer and a laugh and a “stay away from me – you smell” Albert was welcomed into the village (although he did have to stand outside whilst they washed him down and burnt his clothes).
Albert explained his predicament and that he needed help. The ompalumpas mused on this for a bit (not singing, that was a vicous rumour after a particularly cheerful family were drafted to make chocolates) and then in unison cried out “The solution! We have the solution! We need to have a party and invite all the tribes, all the elves and the fairies to a masked ball!” Albert was astounded by the simplicity of the suggestion – and given the time of year ALL of the fairy and elf folk knew that this was the perfect time to set aside any differences.
The plan was set. The Heffalumps and the Ompalumpas carried the invitations setting the time, date and place – and noted that each guest had to bring a present. Many preparations were made until finally the time had come. All the elves and fairies had agreed to a secret Santa gift giving – and each had taken a name from the hat and had prepared a gift.
The date finally arrived – all the guests were there, tentatively at first, but soon the mead and the honey wine, the acorn gin and the mealworm dips were being eaten with relish. Elves and fairies danced together, the music entranced their souls and all war and hatred had been forgotten (it has to be said that the Trolls and the Goblins weren’t invited, but still managed to sit in the corner and bait each other.. but neither really sure why).
And then the gift giving began. “A gift for you”, “a gift from her”, “a gift from us” … leaf wrapping paper soon littered the forest until Albert and the Chief Elf stood side by side. The Albert handed the chief elf a present… a Magnifying glass! The chief elf was very impressed and soon peace was agreed by all (except of course by the Trolls and Goblins, who grumbled as they disappeared off under the bridges and into the caves of famous stories).
And all was at peace. Until one day, a Fairy saw smoke rising from the Elfin kingdom… Fire! the kingdom was on fire! The alarm was raised and all the communities rushed to help… but it was too late. The Kingdom was ruined. As the ELves walked through the wreckage one spotted something at the centre of the Great Elf Hall – a Magnifying glass. The quickly ascertained the king had fallen asleep and had held the glass at just the right angle for the sun to catch it – focus the beam on the curtain…
… Obviously this could never be the Kings fault, it had to be the fault of the gift giver… Albert. And with a sad and sorry heart, Albert left the Elfin kingdom.
So that’s the story, Said Albert – “obviously some of the Elves still harbour a grudge against me”.
“Well, durr” Said Alice, making a most peculiar face “so what’s your plan now, then?”
“Hmm” said Albert, “I think what I’ll do is….” and he walked off into his “Thinking Room”….
A Story in 26 parts – C
Considering the many things that had just happened to Albert in the last few minutes, he was still remarkably calm. Bernice however was not calm
“What’s happened? Who was that? How did my aunt get a ray gun – and use it? She’s hopeless with the remote control normally? Where are we?” She exclaimed. Then she realised that she was looking straight at Albert, rather than down, and she fainted.
Albert was quick to catch her – which was quite fortunate as a Tailsnake slithered past. “Back in!” he cried – and if snakes could crumble as they slithered, this one did a very good impression as it went back into the book.
Sitting Alice down, he took stock of the situation. “Book… swirling… aunt… elves… revenge… ray guns…. Oh no!”
“What” said Alice, a little confused, but realising that there was something that Albert needed to say, “tell me”
“Well” said Albert, “I need to tell you some history…”
The Elf wars were a very violent and dangerous time for Elves and fairies. They had initially fell out when some human – a JT Browling or something – had started to recruit for a documentary she was compiling – about the school of Wizards that was nearby. She had wanted a principle character to show people round. One of the Elves had volunteered – but the fairies were still smarting from the film that they’d been in recently by Disney, which seemed to imply that they were, well, a little soft – and they had desperately wanted to put that right. Well, over the years what started as simple banter and taunting had become much, much worse – especially when the fairies started to recruit Trolls and the Elves had recruited Goblins (both very stupid and violent creatures indeed).
Albert had realised at that point that he had needed to stop this escalation, before things become really bad. He tried speaking with the Fairy Queen, reasoning with the Troll Chief and the Goblin Master, even arguing with the Elf Lord. However, they were not to be swayed – so Albert decided for more direct action…
Story Note: Writing this in a hurry as I do, I’ve just noticed that I introduced Bernice as Alice. There isn’t an Alice, but Bernice did once have a small pet seahorse that she called Andrea….
The writers challenge – Part 2
Firelighting evening
What an excellent evening! We started with a video on firelighting (found at http://scoutmaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/01/neverfail_campf.html as a freely downloadable wmv) which detailed quite clearly how to construct a fire. The presenter then lit his fire with a single match – and all looked good. We then ran three bases for each of the patrols:
base 1 consisted of using fire strikers and gas “clickers” to see how they could get a spark to provide the initial step in making a fire
base 2 gave the patrol the opportunity to get sparks from flint dug from a leaders garden
base 3 looked at what materials could be used to receive a spark – and then provide the basis for a fire.
We had originally considered the bow and friction option – but being a Friday night, with a young Troop, we needed to show thngs that we could make work – perhaps at Scout camp we could have a crack at the friction approach – when there’s time to experiment.
For Base 3 we showed the importance of dried leaves over wet; the properties of Silver Birch (plus warning the Scouts not to take the bark from all the way round); and the properties that a black “cramp ball” / canker (taken from the side of a tree) has in receiving a spark.
(above: a picture of one of the black cramp balls used)
The time just flew by – it had required a fair bit of effort in regard to ensuring that we had the materials and knowledge to present the evening, but I think everyone (including the leaders) learned something. An excellent evening.
A Story in 26 parts – B
But before he could relax and take in the vision of the living book – it’s green eyes just staring wide with menace and wonder and that gooey stuff that was now very sticky on his shoe – he heard a ring at the door. It was a faint sound, and to hear a small piece of metal land on the mat just showed how good his hearing was.
So he got up (feeling a little woozy) and walked over to the door and opened it. There was a tall woman in front of him. He could tell it was a tall woman, as all he could see was ankles and knees in the doorway. Polite as ever, Albert said “hello, come in”. The woman replied “Oh do be serious Albert, I’ll never get into your Doll’s house – but I need to see you”.
At that point, the roof of the house was lifted off. And then Albert could see the woman. It really wasn’t a surprise to either of them – Albert had lived in the Doll’s House ever since Bernice had rescued him from the Elf wars of 1987 (and no one could forget the devastating effect that the Fairies had on the grotto villages with their acorn firing tanks)
“Albert – I need your help” said Bernice. “Somethings not right with my aunt – she seems a little peculiar”
“She’s always been a little peculiar” mused Albert, remembering when she saw Bernice’s aunt dipping what really looked like a goldfish into a soup bowl. “How so this time?”
But before Bernice could reply there was a heavy thud from outside the room. “Good grief!” cried Bernice… and ran out of the room…
Sweet making
An evening that went so well for our Scouts. Right from the off they were occupied – making various sweets that required no cooking – just allowing time to set.
The card based games – used to occupy them whilst the sweets dried, initially seemed a little slow, but the effect was achieved – the time went quickly.
All good fun.
A story in 26 parts – A
As a reminder: I writing a short story, posting each section (hopefully!) every week. Each section will start with the letter of the alphabet. If anyone should decide to comment on that section of the story – and please do – Their comment should also start with the same letter. So this section will start with the letter ‘A’ and all comments should begin with ‘A’; the one starting ‘B’ will begin with ‘B’s etc….
Comments should (if possible) somehow develop the story or the characters.
Just the first very first word, of the first sentence should begin with the chosen letter. At most the section should be about 250 words…..
Albert was bored. It wasn’t that the computer game had been beaten; it wasn’t that the last Harry Potter book was finished; it wasn’t even that the Soduku puzzle wasn’t hard enough; something just wasn’t quite enough.
“I need to design something” he decided. “Something that no-one has thought of before”. With that, he took his pencil, sharpened it – and started to think, tapping the pencil against his forehead. At first he tapped it sharp end to his head, but quickly realised that he wouldn’t think of anything whilst suffering stabbing pains. However with the rubber end tapping his temple – well, then he could really think.
Frustratingly all that he could think of was the railway timetable book, mainly because it was sitting in the middle of the room (which was an unusual place for it to b), but also because it seemed to have a tail and was very slowly moving across the floor…..
Scouting and management
One of the really nice things about Scouting (in my opinion) is that we can introduce young people to concepts and methods normally reserved for adults attending very expensive training courses, where they are challenged to cross a lake using oil drums, or navigate across a mountain range. At these events they are also introduced to managment planning tools.
Well, here’s one that we’ve developed – PATROL. It’s an excellent, simple mnemonic to plan and deal with any problem the team may face.
P – Problem. What’s being asked of the team, what’s gone wrong, hat needs to be achieved?
A- Assess. The need to get ideas asto how to solve the problem. Ideally a team exrcise to map it ou
T- Tasks. Once you know how ty solve the problem – what steps do you need to do – and in what order?
R – Responsibility. Who needs to do what? Specific allocation here, rather than just a vague hope
O – off you go! The actual doing bit.
L -Lead. Someone needs to take responsibility for ensuring that the tasks ae being completed by the person asked to do the job.
A story in 26 parts – the Rules…
On Friday night, I set the Scouts a challenge to help them get the Writers Badge. The notes below detail the rules (the badge requirements can be found at the end of this email).
Joining in with the story will only count towards sections 2 and 3 provided you contribute at least 600 words – which is about 4 to 5 parts of the story. The remaining 2 other steps are down to you – so if you can write a poem, or review a book – then you’ve got the badge!
The story
Each week, I will write a section of the story – published on here (I’ve given it the category of ”challenge”, so you could just see the story and not everything else). Each section will start with a letter of the alphabet – starting with A and moving through to Z.
You are invited to contribute to the story – however their contributions (added as comments) must also start with the same letter. So if the section starts with a letter D then the comment must also start with the letter D. Only the first letter of the first word has to follow that rule (as an example, look at the comment in the first part!). If you decide to add to the story using your WarCraft alias of NinjaDragon5 then could they please let me know who you are on Friday night so I can recognise the contribution.
The content of the story should somehow work together – and remember that as others are also adding to the story there is a need to think how the comment can be added succcessfully without the feeling of “huh? Where did that come from?”
Each section should be about 250 characters- I’m not looking for a complete story in a story here!
As budding writers, you might find that inspiration doesn’t always come immediately. Just because we may be on the letter “G” doesn’t mean that you can’t add to the previous sections (which should be of assistance to you all as we get near exam times!)
Also – don’t be hemmed in by convention. As you have seen, the story already features a walking timetable – so unicycling goldfish, hang-gliding alligators are all ok – assuming you can make it sound like the most normal thing in the world!
Final, important rules…
1. This challenge was set to the Scouts in my Troop. If you are not part of my Troop (but you are a Scout) check with your Leader first before you start – they may decide it isn’t challenging enough for you!!
2. If you are not a Scout, then thanks for taking part - but sorry, I won’t be posting you a badge. Of course, why not contact the Scout Association and see if you can join?
3. All comments are reviewed before posting.
Writers Badge requirements (from Scout Association as at December 2007)
Complete any four requirements from those below, discussing the choice with an appropriate adult:
1. Compose a poem of at least eight lines and discuss its meaning and construction.
2. Create a short story of around 600 words around an idea agreed with an appropriate adult beforehand.
3. Write a descriptive passage of around 600 words on a subject agreed with an appropriate adult beforehand.
4. Write a 400-word review of a favourite book, play or other work of literature and discuss this with an appropriate adult.
5. Produce a published article of around 500 words in length. This could be in the form of a contribution to a school, faith community or Scout magazine or a letter to a local paper.
6. Keep a diary on a subject and for a length of time agreed with an appropriate adult beforehand.
7. Write a play or dramatic sketch lasting at least 10 minutes.
8. Interview a local celebrity, or other interesting person. Write or type out the interview to show the questions you asked and the interviewee’s replies.
9. Write a letter to a pen pal (real or imaginary) of at least 150 words.
10. Read a piece of your work in front of an audience
