The Slowworm

Once upon a time, two little girls called Susam and Tawitha were out in the forest picking flowers and berries when, suddenly, slithering out from behind some rocks came what they thought was a snake.

“Snake!”, they both cried, running away from it in fear.

But then, a little further along, by the edge of a sparkling stream, Susam and Tawitha stopped to collect flowers and berries again and they were laughing and chatting merrily.

However, just at that moment, from behind a bush they saw the snake like creature again.

“Oh, snake, Susam, run”, said Tawitha, picking up a stone from the side of the stream and throwing it at the creature and then both the girls ran away again.

But then, not long afterwards, the two little girls, yawning,  sat down on a large mossy rock to have a rest.

As they did however, they saw the snake like creature slither out from behind it.

“Snake!”, cried Susam, about to pick up a stone and throw it at the creature.

“Stop!”, said the creature, “I’m not a snake. I’m a slowworm, a lizard without legs. I only look like a snake but Slowworms aren’t dangerous. They don’t bite little girls”.

“They don’t?”, asked Tawitha.

“Oh no”, said the Slowworm, “I only wanted to say hello to you because I wanted to be friendly”.

But just then however, a real snake appeared, a Viper and it was rearing up and hissing and bearing its fangs at the girls.

“Well, I’m not friendly”, said the Viper with a hissing snigger.

But then, just as it was about to strike at Tawitha’s leg; the slowworm quickly coiled itself around the snake, gripping it tightly and Tawitha and Susam saw the two creatures wrestle but the viper was no match for the slowworm and, in the end, defeated, it slithered off to hide under a rock.

“You saved us”, said Tawitha, “Thank you”.

“You’re welcome”, said the Slowworm, “And now you see that not everything that looks like a snake is a snake”.

Tawitha reached down and picked up the slowworm then started to stroke its head.

“Poor Slowworm”, said Tawitha, “We’re sorry we ran away from you but now we know you mean us no harm, we can be friends”.

Then the girls gave the slow worm some sweet berries to eat and a flower as a present and each gave it a kiss upon its head and, after that, the girls and the slowworm were the best of friends.