A ‘Jolly’ Quest
Not long after returning from their quest to save Happy After, Maxi, Nettle
and Wild were snuggled up in their beds. They had asked to share the loft in
their parents new house and they would spend every
evening telling stories about their recent adventure.
This particular evening they were very excited.
Christmas was just around the corner and they were
whispering about all the wonderful things that they
loved about Christmas.
As they drifted off to sleep, dreaming of tinsel and presents and snow they felt
that feeling of falling that often marks the beginning of a good dream…but this
time they didn’t jerk themselves back to reality, this time they continued to fall
and fall and fall. Like Alice plunging down the rabbit hole. They floated and
floated.
All of a sudden the floating stopped…The three children tumbled
into a tangled knot in a pile of snow. Peering up they saw a snowman.
He smiled at them and told them of their quest.
“Greetings Maxi-Nettle Wild, I have heard of your tremendous success in
defeating evil in the Land of Happy After, now we need your help, here, at
Christmas Island. Father Christmas has been taken and there will be no
Christmas unless we find him. You must follow the chocolate buttons and
complete each quest in order to release him from his snowy prison. On your way
you will have to endure many challenges. Do not forget to collect the golden
coins along the way as you will need them to pass through the gingerbread house
of the Snow Queen. Good Luck Maxi-Nettle Wild. May Christmas be in your
hands.
Max, Nettle and Wild looked at each other. Could this really be happening
again? Knowing that they could succeed if they worked together, they got up,
dusted off the snow and began to follow the chocolate button path.
Soon the children came across the first
obstacle. An oversized evil reindeer blocked
their path. He was picking up snowballs and spitting them at the children. They
realised that the snowballs were almost like boulders as one smashed on a rock
close to them. Taking cover they decided to blast the reindeer from all angles.
They quickly made piles and piles of snowballs. Leaving Wild hiding behind the
rock, Max and Nettle sneaked around to the side and behind the reindeer.
While he was bending down to pick up the next boulder-ball, they shouted, “Go!”
and together began to blast him from all sides. With a creak and a groan the
reindeer fell to the ground defeated. The children tip-toed up to him, easing
the gold coin from under his body and dashed back to the chocolate path.
A little further along the way they came across
a giant noughts and crosses board. The snowman
appeared and explained that the boards was
magical. In order to pass they would have to
compete and win a game of noughts and crosses.
If they failed they would be locked as statues
forever in the shape of an X. Taking a deep
breath they began the challenge. Fortunately, they had played many games of
noughts and crosses with each other and Max had identified a fail-proof
formula so that he never, ever lost. Wild and Nettle watched with bated breath
as Max played the magical game. As the board realised it had lost it let out an
ear-splitting blast as it dragged itself into the sparkly forest that covered the
mountain in the centre of the island. The children rushed to grab the gold
coloured ‘O’ coin to put with their other one.
Jumping from chocolate button to chocolate button, the children continued
their journey. All of a sudden they came across what could only be described as
a ‘waffle assault course’ the giant waffle was dripping with syrup. The snowman
appeared again. “If you step in the syrup you will be
stuck on Christmas Island for ever. You must clamber up
the waffle, jumping into each dip of the waffle at
exactly the same time…if you don’t the waffle will
collapse and you will be crushed to death!” The snowman
disappeared. Max, Nettle and Wild practiced walking in
step – like a giant three-legged race….only with six legs
instead. Satisfied that they could step in the same time,
and humming a tune to keep them together they slowly
bounced up the ridges of the waffle. Avoiding the sinister syrup they managed
to scramble to the top and then slide down the candy cane on the other side
(grabbing the third gold coin as they went).
On again, along the chocolate button path, until they came across what can only
be described as a rain – oe….it was a rainbow…and a piano!
Up popped the snowman and told them that in order to
cross the rain-oe, they must play the correct keys for
‘Jingle Bells’ or face the ‘PIT OF DEATH!’. Humming the
tune until they got it right they helped Nettle up to
complete this challenge. She was the musical one. With
ease she leapt from key to key, creating the jingly jangly tune of ‘Jingle Bells’
its notes flew through the forest. As she played the last note the rain-oe keys
lifted Max and Wild up across their rainbow arch and sent them flying down
their giant colourful slide to drop them next to Nettle. Blowing a raspberry at
the ‘Pit of Death’ the children skipped on, flicking the fourth coin up and into
their pockets as they passed it.
In front of them the chocolate button path weaved its way into a dense, dark
forest. Behind them the snowman whispered: “If you can get past the racer
snakes you will stand half a chance. But if they bite you then you will be forever
rooted as a tree in the deep dark forest. Be careful, use your skills and
knowledge of snakes and ladders and you may just be lucky.” As they turned
round to look at him, he had disappeared. A large dice span in the air. Suddenly
it stopped. The floor lit up light a chequer board and the children took the 5
steps that they were allowed. Out of the corner of his eye Max noticed
something slithering towards them. This is
no ordinary game of snakes and ladders, he
thought, these snakes are real! They move!
That shouldn’t happen. With good luck and
speed the children managed to escape the
venomous snakes and claim the gold coin of
victory as they hit the 100th square. Running
through the woods they were drawn by the
delicious smell of sweets and the soft plume of smoke. They must be near a
cottage, they thought.
As they emerged from the deep, dark wood they saw the
beautiful little gingerbread house nestled in the field. It
was a welcome sight after all those challenges. And look at
all those sweets! Wild set off at a run towards it. But just
as he reached the door, a witch threw it open, raised her
hand and screeched at them! “Who are you? And what do
you want?”
“It is Max, Nettle and Wild,” said Max in a trembling voice,
for he had horrific memories still of Babs Haggard and her
wicked ways. “We have saved Ever After and now we will save Christmas. You
will release Father Christmas and all the children in the world will have a lovely
day!” The wicked witch laughed her wicked and evil witchy laugh. “You! Save
Christmas. Never!” “In order to do that you must pay the princely sum of 5
gold coins…and you would never have been able to find those!”
“Well,” said Nettle. “It just so happens that we DO have 5 gold coins. We
worked as a team to save Christmas. We have braved evil reindeer, snowboulders, magic games, vicious snakes and sinister syrup, and we are still here.”
“Take these coins and release Father Christmas at once!”
The witch took the coins in astonishment. However did these children manage
to overcome all those obstacles? She thought. With a hiss of smoke she
disappeared. The children ran through the field to find Father Christmas tied
up with tinsel. They carefully released him and guided him to his sleigh. He
lifted the children onto his sleigh, wrapped them in a blanket and set off. The
children, exhausted by their adventure fell fast asleep. When they woke up
they were back in their beds…Christmas had come. They had saved the day.
The Making of ‘A Jolly Quest’
Based on the book The
Cake, The Wolf and The
Witch we decided to
create our own quest. We
thought of lots of ideas
and then settled on saving
Christmas. A Jolly
Quest was chosen as it is a
play on words…Jolly for
Father Christmas and Quest
to show our journey.
This is us making our adventure happen. We
told our teachers what obstacles the children
faced, then we decided how they would get
there and what would happen in the end. We
hope that you
enjoy
it as much as
we
did.