***
Alamander, whose name was arbitrarily shortened from Salamander by
my grandson during a story conference, has a parrot Aringabella; my
grandson merely added an 'a' to each end of 'ring a bell.' The problem is
the same as in the Spider story: long, long ago the people of the world
had no stories.
After successfully testing Alamander, the Lord of the Sky turns the box
of stories over to him. Alamander, with the box on his back climbs
down to the Earth's surface along a rope ladder. He drags the box to the
middle of a meadow, and removes the heavy padlock that holds the lid in
place. Alamander, with Aringabella gripping his shoulder firmly and
helpfully flapping his wings, lifts the lid and steps back to watch all of
the world's stories gain their freedom to roam the world forever. This is
what happened:
There was moment of deep silence. Suddenly, the heavy lid flew up and
over, and crashed to the ground. From out of the box's darkness gusted
a powerful wind that whirled about and away in a cloud of dust.
In an instant there rose from out of the box swarms and tangles of
flapping wings, waving arms, running legs, grasping claws, writhing
tentacles, and a horde of strange wriggling shapes Their number was
beyond counting.
Pages:
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235