Jack and the Magic Elixir  by Scott

Jack was hungry.  He was sitting in the swamp and his tummy was rumbling so loudly all the alligators were keeping a safe distance.

He desperately needed money, lots of money, to feed himself and the rest of the villagers who were starving in their village on the edge of the swamp.

Suddenly he heard a noise.  A kind of squeaking.  He looked around and saw that one of the rocks near his left foot had moved.

He bent over and tried to lift the rock.  It wouldn't budge.  What to do?

He called out to the wee folk of the swamp.  Normally they would keep well out of sight (because of the alligators) but because the alligators were keeping out of the way whilst Jack's tummy was making that awful noise, they crept out from behind the clumps of reads and slimy bits where they made their homes.

Jack told them what he needed.  The wee folk of the swamp grabbed the rock and pushed and shoved as hard as they could.  Gradually it moved a few inches to the right and there was a piece of old parchment.

"Deep, deep down beneath this piece of old parchment lives an old, old, troll.  Please could you supply the old, old troll with the fountain of youth (so that he may become a young, young troll) and he will reward you with great riches.

PS:  Just chuck it on the ground - that will do nicely!"

Now Jack and the wee folk of the swamp had no idea what or where the fountain of youth was so they sat down in a circle to think.

Wee Wilfred, the wee-est of the wee folk came up with an idea.

"I know where there's an old bottle of something kind of green-ish." he squeaked.  "I haven't wanted to try it since it looks a bit "off" and it has "ola" written on its side."

"Go and get it," cried Jack.  "We can but try!"

Wee Wilfred ran to get the bottle and they sprinkled the rather smelly contents all over the ground.

Luckily, the old, old troll had quite a fancy for "off" Coca Cola (for that's what it was) and really did think it was the fountain of youth.

The ground beneath Jack's feet exploded with a big whoosh and hundreds and hundreds of gold coins flew into the air.

He did let the wee folk of the swamp have some but poor Wee Wilfred was quite overlooked in the rush to get the heck out of there before the old, old, troll realised what the fountain of youth actually was.

They needn't have worried - the old old troll was quite, quite poisoned by the "off" Coca Cola and died horribly with much twitching and twirling!

Jack and the villagers lived happily ever after.  Wee Wilfred didn't though as he had been so over-looked he left home to explore the world.  Unfortunately, since Jack had left and there was no more dreadful noise to frighten the alligators, one of them had a very tasty snack!

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