Food-Stained Booklet  

 

The Castle in the Clouds

There once were two children called Pethels and Ryon. They lived with their parents in a small cottage near the forest. One parent was a smith who used the tiny stream by the cottage to cool steel. The other made sure that children had a lot of work to do and were always nice and tired when they went to bed.

Then Lunanyn was sick and crops were dying. The little family by the woods did not have enough food to eat. The parents were hungry and did not have enough money to feed their children. The parents talked and decided that they could not feed their children and so decided to leave them in the woods where they could find their own food if they were able.

Ryon snuck out of the house that night and took a bag full of steel nails from alis parents' smithy. The next day as the parents led the children into the forest, Ryon dropped the nails onto the forest floor. After mid day the parents stopped and turned to go home, leaving Pethels and Ryon alone in the forest.

It was cold and scary in the forest, and Pethels held Ryon to make ali less afraid. When the moon rose its light shone on the steel nails, and the children followed the nails back to their parents' house. They snuck into their beds where their parents found them in the morning. Their parents were surprised, and things went back to the way they were before for a while.

Lunanyn was still sick, and the parents decided to put the children in the forest again. This time Ryon could not find any nails, so al gathered seeds that alis parents had taken as payment for work. When the parents led the children much deeper into the woods than they did before, it was almost dark when the parents turned for home. Pethels and Ryon huddled until the moon rose.

They followed the seeds back toward home. Only an hour later they came upon a black bat sitting on the ground. The bat was eating a seed. It spoke to the children while it chewed.

"Hello, children. You do not belong here. Why are you in this forest?"

Pelthels spoke to the bat. "We are lost, and you have eaten our seeds. Now we cannot find our way home again."

The bat screeched and spoke, "These seeds are mine, for I found them. But if you are lost, then I can help you. Follow me and I will lead you to a safe place."

The children followed the bat to the base of a giant tree. The bat flew up into a high branch and motioned for the children to follow. The children climbed the tree while the bat waited for them in the bracnhes above them. Eventually they reached the top, where the branches were thin. They were up in the clouds and they were very cold.

The bat then flew out over the clouds and again called to the children to follow. "Come with me, children. I will lead you to a castle in the clouds. These clouds will hold you up. You can walk on them as if they were stone."

Ryon turned to Pethels and reached out a hand. Together, hand in hand, the children stepped off the tree branch and into the clouds. They fell through the clouds as the bat screeched. Later the bat went to the castle in the clouds to tell the tale of the lost children. The lord of the castle, the master of lies and tricks, listened to the story the bat told and was pleased. Al granted the bat white fur and golden wings as a reward, for those are the colors pleasing to the lord.

From that day all of the bats dedicated to lies and trickery have been easy to recognize. Smart children never listen to white bats.