Story 1 The Camping Night

The Camping Night

There were no stars in the sky; only the full moon in its splendor. An B, the dog, No. 8, the rabbit, Kara, the monkey and Super IV, the panda can at last go camping together.

An B and No. 8 are baby twins. They both love eating red carrots and chewing bones. The colour of their complexion changes with their mood: when they are happy, their skin is rosy pink; when they are unhappy, their skin becomes transparent so that their friends would not be able to see them. When they play cool, they become all black.

 Super IV says: ‘So boring! Anything fun to play?’

 Kara says: ‘It is so dark now and nothing to play. Let’s go to sleep.’

 Super IV says: ‘It’s so rare that Mum lets us go camping so we shouldn’t sleep yet. How ‘bout we share a story?’

No. 8 says: ‘Ok! But it can’t be too scary or I won’t be able to ever sleep.’

‘I’ll start first.’ An B says, as he begins his story: ‘Do you know that I snuck out one night and went to go find the “Smarty Bean”?’

No.8, Kara and Super IV widen their eyes and look at him with disbelief. For the legendary Smarty Bean has existed for hundreds of years; legends tell that just by merely smelling the plant makes you more knowledgeable by a thousand fold! Nevertheless, no person has ever seen it before.

An B continues: ‘Do you remember the day when I carelessly dropped Mum’s vase which was a dowry gift from Grandma? I was

so scared that I dared not to come out to have dinner. I told her I was not feeling well and wanted to sleep. Thinking I failed my examination and was too scared to tell her, Mum just left me alone.’

‘What happened then?’ Super IV asked.

‘I was looking at the remains of the vase and thinking how to glue them back together. Suddenly, some yellow neon smoke rose from the mess.’ ‘I was frightened and thought it was a ghost. Gradually, the smoke become a map with rough edges. I touched the map and suddenly became 3-D! In the middle of the map, there was a building marked as “The Smarty Bean”.

l checked again and realized it’s the 5-star-star library in our school!’ An B exclaimed.

The 5-star-star library is the only library in the village and the only star-shaped library in the world.

There are two points standing on the ground marking the entrance and the exit of the library. The middle 2 points are the main body of the building. The place pointing towards the Sky is the Galaxy Observatory Floor.

The Smarty Bean was hidden in the Pig-head-shaped book shelf next to the entrance of the library. Students never borrowed books from this shelf; a myth warns that only ‘pig-head’ students would borrow books from the ‘pig-head’ book shelf.

An B was hungry and stole a sandwich from the kitchen. Once he finished eating, he started making his way to school.

It was only a 5 minute walk to the school and An B snuck into the library. Following the map, he stopped in front of the pig-head book shelf. He counted from the bottom to the third level of the shelf and took out the third book, as per the instructions on the map. If the map is correct, the Smarty Bean should be inside the book.

An B opened the book and read from the left to the right and the right to the left, but nothing appeared.

‘I guess I’m the pig-headed one.’ An b thinks. ‘I probably shouldn’t be that stupid next time.’

When he went to put the book back to the book shelf, he noticed some sort of sand on the cover of the book. As he went to put

the book away, all of a sudden, the book is exploded like mute fireworks. Each page of the book turned into a lotus leaf. In the middle of the lotus, a pink pig appeared. The pig walked toward An B and because of her kind and gentle disposition, An B was not afraid.

The Fairy Pig talked to An b with a smile: ‘My little friend, there is no Smarty Bean in this world. No food exists that can make you clever without hard work. However, every child is unique. They must think of their own ways to make themselves smarter.’ The Fairy Piggy stretched out her pork chop. She blew the top of her palm, revealing a tiny pink lotus flower. She blew it again, the flower landing on An B’s left shoulder but disappeared in an instant.

Accomplishing her task, the Fairy Piggy waved farewell to An B and flew away into the starry night.

No. 8, Kara and Super IV stared at An B. An B pulls up his sleeve of the Tee, revealing a tattoo of a bone laced with lotus flowers on both sides.

Super IV points to the tattoo and asks: ‘Did it hurt?’

An B sighs: ‘No, but I wish it was a skeleton rather than just a bone. It’d look so much cooler.’

‘Got any special tricks you can do now?’ Kara asks excitedly.

‘Tricks?’ An b thinks for a while and replies. ‘No, but I think I could eat a lot more than before.’

Everybody bursts into laughter.

No. 8 says: ‘Alright, it’s my turn.’

She sits on the swing and begins to ponder on how she would start her story.

Our story continues on Saturday 10th June...