The Legend of the Lost Stone of Immortality By David from Toms River High School East

Cassandra languished against the warm bumpy stone at the back of the cave on the side of the mountain and felt quite sad.   She couldn't really understand why she was destined to spend her days with the stone, she had no idea even what stone it was and why it was important but there she was and there she was going to stay she supposed.

In the meantime, down in the valley David the Daring was having a quiet day.  There wasn't too much in the "daring" department going on at the time and he was, quite frankly, bored.

There was a knock on his door and there stood Popolopes, the Head of the Village.

"Hmm, about time we set up a search for the Stone of Immortality", he ventured.

"Wassat then?" answered David the Daring casually.

"Well, there was a stone in the village, years ago, which, if you ran round it three times backwards and shouted "CATASTROPHY" very loudly, you got immortality!"

"What for life?" joked David the Daring.

"Yes," muttered Popolopes (who didn't have much of a sense of humour).  "Anyway, one day it disappeared and we have been unable to find it since.  Rumour has it that it's in some kind of cave on the mountain."

"Sounds quite "daring" to me," said David, perking up.  "Why do you particularly want to find it?"

"Oh I was just thinking that I was getting on and could do with a few more years really," muttered Popopoles vaguely.  "Thought it might give you something to do as well."

David the Daring gathered his bits and pieces together (oh you know, bit of string, a snack or two - or three - one of those pak-a-mac things in case it rained, a rather nice silver tooth-pick he had been given for this birthday etc) and set off up the mountain.

There were quite a few caves in the side of the mountain and David the Daring, who, although Daring was also quite Lazy, tried to think of a way to find the right one without having to traipse in and out of every one.

"Aha!!" he cried,  "I know - what was that word you had to shout whilst running round the stone backwards (three times even)?  Oh yes - Catastrophy - that was it!   CATASTROPHY!!!" he yelled as loud as he could.

I have to say that he wished he hadn't.  The mountain tore itself apart, smoke, fire and bits of gristle (??? No I don't know why there were bits of gristle but there were) flew around David the Daring's head.  An enormous roar bounced around the valley and...out of the crater came...wait for it...hang on a minute...oh yes...a little old man (he did have a very evil face though).

"Why are you calling me?" he roared at the top of his voice.  "Oh I get it, looking for the stone are you?"

David the Daring started to laugh.  All that fuss and noise and gristle for this...a little old man (even if he did have an evil face)

The little old man seemed to grow.  He turned purple.  He grew fangs, teeth and horns (yes, yes - all at the same time - quite something to see actually).  Soon he was almost as tall as the mountain and yellow smoke was coming from his nostrils.

"You will NEVER get that stone - NEVER - do you hear me?"

"Well yes, actually, I do," said David the Daring, standing his ground.  "I wish you would just shut the heck up, actually - you have given me a head-ache!"  He turned and stomped off.

The ex-little old man huffed and puffed a bit more. To be honest, he didn't know quite what to do next.  He hummed and hawed a bit, tapped one of his big purple feet and hummed a little embarrassed tune to himself.  When he saw that David had disappeared round the side of the mountain he slithered back into the crater and settled down to a nice cup of tea.

David, meanwhile was huffing and puffing a bit himself.  But, mid-huff (or it might have been puff) he heard a faint cry.  He made his way up the mountain towards the cry.  He came to a cave and the crying was much more clear.  He took a step into the cave and...

BANG, CRASH, WALLOP

there was Catastrophy again, slap bang in front of him, barring the way.

David thought for a while (not too long since Catastrophy was becoming alarmingly agitated) and, luckily, came up with rather a good idea very quickly.  He got out his pak-a-mac and waved it in front of Catastrophy.  Whilst Catastrophy was wondering what on earth was the purpose of this piece of bright green see-through plastic, David rammed his silver tooth-pick into Catastrophy's left big toe. 

Catastrophy squealed, and began to hop on his right leg.  This, of course, meant he was quite off balance and David was able, quite easily, to shove him quite hard and off he toppled down the mountain.  Going by the enormous splash after eleven and a half minutes of toppling, David guessed he had landed in the lake at the bottom (he was quite right actually and although he couldn't swim...oops mustn't give the game away!)

Anyway, David rescued Cassandra.  Between them they carried the Stone of Immortality (for that was what the stone was, of course) back down to the village.

Popopoles spent many a happy hour running backwards like mad around the stone crying "CATASTROPHY" at regular intervals but, unfortunately, Catastrophy himself, although he couldn't swim, had managed to make his way along a tunnel in the rock to a spot just below the village square.  There was a very narrow shaft just at that point which joined the tunnel and every time Popopoles shouted "CATASTROPHY" a purple arm would shoot up through the shaft and try to catch him.  This went on for ages and ages and although the Stone of Immortality couldn't quite do the business for Popopoles, the regular exercise he got, firstly by running backwards and secondly by leaping this way and that to avoid the purple arm, did him the world of good and he was able to live for many years until the rest of the village got so fed up with all this, they  tied Popopoles up with David's trusty string and hung him from a pole over the shaft.  Catastrophy was kept quiet with his new plaything and Popopoles soon bit the dust (in more ways than one!)

Home Storytelling Education Fun