Rock, Woody and Boris the Frog
Rock lived on the Blue Mountains, high up and hidden away.
Rock was no ordinary Rock. He was smaller than a pebble but
larger than a boulder. His dad, Cliff, and his mum, Crevasse
would let him wander along the mountain path during the day
when it was very hot and sunny.
And at night, they would shelter and protect him under the
moonlight, especially when it was icy cold.
“Don’t go too far away,” his mum would say.
His
dad
would
simply
tell
him:
“Rock, you must Never move
away from the path that runs
around The Blue Mountains”.
“O.K”, Dad,”
said Rock.
One day, out of the blue, a big thunderstorm appeared and sat right
above the mountain. The lightening cracked in the sky like giant
fireworks, and the thunder shook the mountains with a loud roar.
Then the rain came down and fell like sharp arrows from the angry
black sky.
Rock was sheltering beside his mum, but the rain began to wash
away the path where he stood.
It became very soggy and Rock was afraid. Suddenly the path
completely disappeared beneath his feet.
Rock slipped and he started to roll. Slowly at first, but with the falling
rain, it was like a giant waterslide that took him faster and faster down
the mountain.
“Help!” shouted Rock gulping in mouthfuls of water.
“I can’t stop rolling!”
He rolled and rolled down the mountain, bumping and bouncing off
the other rocks that had managed to hold on tight and not fall.
“Excuse me!” They shouted. “Do you mind!”
“Sorry!” gurgled Rock as he rolled further and further away from his
mum and dad who could only look down the mountain helpless,
unable to do anything for him.
After what felt like hours, Rock stopped rolling and fell into the
long green grass that grew beneath the mountain. THUD!!!
“Ouch!!” he cried. He looked up and saw how far he had rolled.
The mountains were so high he almost fell backwards looking
up. “Mum, Dad!” he shouted. “I’m OK”. But he was so far away
from them they didn’t hear him.
“There’s only one thing for it”, he said.
“I’ll have to find the path that’ll take me home”.
And he started to walk……………
Woody lived in the Red Forest and he was a tree
He was no ordinary tree. In fact, all of the trees in the Red Forest
were magic trees. They could bend, squeeze, twist
and turn, and change themselves into almost anything you could
imagine.
Woody was very playful and he enjoyed turning himself into a ladder or a chair,
a long stick and occasionally a picnic table. Sometimes, you would see him
bouncing like a spring between the other trees.
“Watch out Woody!” They would say. ”You’ll have someone’s eye
out bouncing like that!”
One day Woody was being especially jolly, and he decided he was
going to become a wheel.
So he grunted and spluttered and magically started wheeling himself
in and out of the trees, weaving and dodging, narrowly missing all of
the bigger trees that were minding their own business getting on with
the chores of the day.
As he traveled along, it made his tummy tickle.
“Tee, hee hee,” he chuckled “I like doing this. It’s fun”.
“Hee hee, tee hee!”
But he hadn’t noticed that he was traveling further away from his
home, and when he finally stopped, he looked back and saw that he’d
gone right through the Red Forest and out into the big wide open
space.
“Gulp”, whispered Woody.
The forest looked dark red and he could hear the rustling of the
leaves and the creaking of the branches, warning him not to go any
further.
But he was on an adventure and rather than go back, he turned
himself into a bicycle…………
And cycled further away from the Red Forest.
Boris was a frog and he was green.
He was perhaps the cleverest frog you would ever meet, and he wore
glasses. He lived beside the Green River with other frogs that weren’t
quite so clever, but they didn’t know it.
In fact they made fun of Boris because he could read, paint, and play
the flute. “What’s the use of doing that?” they would croak.”
Frogs just sit around and say ‘Ribbit and Needip’, and other
pointless words”.
Not Boris the frog.
He always felt there was more to life than sitting around and puffing
yourself up, croaking loudly and eating flies.
In fact, Boris enjoyed other things like baking cakes and doing
crosswords.
Knitting wooly jumpers and working out how things worked….
but that’s another story.
One day, Boris was reading a particularly good article in Whirlpool
Gazette, when he noticed something for sale. It was a bright blue
spotted bow tie. He had always wanted one of those. It said:
‘One bright blue spotted bow tie for sale, one careful owner,
must collect, no timewasters please’.
“Excellent.” he bounced up.
“I must prepare to collect this bow tie personally.
How jolly exciting!”
He packed his small suitcase, took another spare pair of glasses, just
in case, and said goodbye to his fellow frogs.
“Bye” they croaked, not really caring if he stayed or went.
“Righty-ho then!” said Boris.
“No point in hanging around here any more”.
And off he went, in the direction of the bright blue spotted bow tie.
By this time, Rock had walked much further away from the Blue
Mountains.
Suddenly he heard a noise along the path, just like a stick swishing
through the grass.
Swish, Swish. Swish.
“Whooooo’s there?” he whispered with a quivering voice.
“Only me!”
It was Woody, turning himself magically back into himself.
Then they both turned and saw a large pair of glasses coming
towards them.
“Eeeek!! What’s that?” They jumped. Was it a car or a van or even
a speeding truck?
Before they could decide, the green bits around the glasses appeared
and Boris the frog came hopping out of the grass.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen. My name is Boris the frog”.
“I’m Rock”. Said Rock.
“And I’m Woody” said Woody.
After much shaking of hands, Boris continued;
“I’ve just bought this rather fine bright blue spotted bow tie, and
I can’t seem to find my way back home”.
“Me too” Rock and Woody said together.
“So we’re all lost” said Rocky rather sadly, missing his mum and dad,
and wondering what he was going to have for tea.
”I suppose we are,” said Boris,” But no point being sad. We’re
together now and we can help each other”.
“Good plan!” jumped Woody who’d just been a telescope trying to see
exactly where they all were.
“Right!” said Boris ‘Let’s go this way and see where it takes us”.
“Ready Rock?”
“Yup!”
“Ready Woody?”
“Yars!”
“O.K. Off We Go!”
Rock, Woody and Boris the Frog walked away, happy to be together,
into the land of exciting adventures, and to find their way home.
© Story and Concept Dave Cooke 2007
© Illustrations Ian Heath 2007