Thomas And The Autumn Leaf

Once upon a time, a little boy called Thomas found a very peculiar Autumn leaf lying on the ground.

 

It was not like any Autumn leaf of any tree he had ever seen before; it had five points to it and it was golden and he thought it was very beautiful.

 

So Thomas picked it up and put it in his pocket.

 

“I’ll show it to mum and dad”, he said, “When I get home”.

 

But then, as he was walking home, Thomas met two large, hairy, ugly and very nasty Trolls coming the other way; a husband Troll and a wife Troll

 

And when the Husband Troll saw Thomas, he said to his Troll wife,

 

“Look Trollivia, a little boy; a juicy fat little boy”.

 

“Oh, yes Trolliver”, she agreed, “A very tasty looking boy indeed. Just the right size for my cooking pot”.

 

And then, running towards Thomas, they grabbed hold of him and bundled him, as he struggled and protested, into a large brown sack.

 

Then they took Thomas back to their cave and locked him in cage.

 

“Let me out”, he said.

 

But this only made the Trolls laugh and, so Thomas just sat in his cage and felt sad; a little tear weeping down over the brown freckles on his face.

 

But then, as he was weeping, there was a strange glow within his pocket.

 

And then, looking in his pocket, he saw that it was the golden Autumn leaf that was glowing brightly.

 

“Oh how beautiful you are”, he said, “I was going to show you to my mum and dad but now I’ll never get a chance because now I’m locked in this cage”.

 

However, just then, the door of the cage unlocked itself and swung open.

 

“Wow”, said Thomas to the leaf, “Did you make that happen?”.

 

The leaf flashed brightly twice, as if in reply.

 

But then, Thomas crawled out of the cage and he saw the two Trolls shouting at each other.

 

They were arguing over the recipe for Little Boy Soup.

 

“A pinch of Garlic and a dash of herbs”, said the Troll Husband, “That’s what it needs”.

 

“Oh, since when men know anything about cooking”, said the Troll wife, irritated, “Besides which, your allergic to Garlic, don’t you remember. It makes your ears turns purple and your tail drop off”.

“Oh I’ll never get past those two trolls”, whispered Thomas to the glowing leaf.

 

But then, just at that moment Thomas became invisible.

 

“Oh wow”, he said, looking down at his hands that were holding the leaf and seeing them vanish then looking into a mirror that was on the wall and seeing nothing in it, “I’ve disappeared altogether, the Trolls will never see me now”.

 

So then the invisible Thomas crept past the bickering pair of Trolls and he didn’t reappear until he was outside of the cave.

 

“I’m free”, he said, gasping and sighing with relief.

 

“However”, just then the eyes in the back of the Troll husbands head opened and saw Thomas outside the cave, then turning round just to make sure that his back pair of eyes weren’t daydreaming, he checked with his front pair of eyes and, still seeing Thomas outside the cave, he cried to his wife;

 

“Look, Trollivia. The boy has escaped”.

 

“Well catch him, you twit”, she said, “Before he gets away”.

 

And so the Troll Husband ran out of his cave after Thomas, shouting and, hearing this Thomas started to run.

 

“Oh no you don’t. You’re not getting away. I’m going to have you for my dinner”, shouted the Troll, angrily.

 

And because Trolls have very long legs and very long arms, it wasn’t long before the Troll caught up with the boy and would have snatched hold of him with its large troll claws but then, just as that moment, the autumn leaf in Thomas’s hands started to flash brightly again and then, suddenly, Thomas rose up into the air and flew off at amazing speed, zig-zagging through the trees of the forest until, just as he was reaching his home, the leaf flashed again and Thomas stopped right in front of the door to his house.

 

“Oh, Thomas”, said his mother when she saw him come into the house, “Whereever have you been. You’ve been gone so long that I was worried about you”.

 

But then Thomas showed his mother the glowing leaf and told her all about his adventure with the trolls.

 

“Oh”, she said, “Thank goodness you’re alright”.

 

“Yes”, he said, “Thanks to this magical leaf but I still don’t know where it came from”.

 

But then, suddenly, the door of Thomas’s house flew open and the glowing leaf leapt from his hands and went whooshing out of the door.

 

“Come back”, said Thomas, chasing the star out of the house, “Don’t go”.

 

But the leaf hadn’t gone far, it was just hovering in the air outside Thomas’s house and then, looking up at the sky, Thomas noticed thousands of other glowing autumn leaves high up above.

 

“It’s not a leaf at all”, he said, “It’s a star. A star that fell to earth”.

 

The star flashed brightly twice and, whizzing about and dancing in the air it flew back down into Thomas’s hands.

 

Then Thomas took the star back into his house and he, the star, his mother and father all had a very happy and very magical Autumn.