The Kingdom at the Edge of the Forest
Eviatar Avni
Illustrated by Yael Pushkin
Translated from Hebrew by Tamar Milstein
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 Eviatar Avni
For Rotem
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 – On changing seasons, mysterious parcels and early spring rituals
CHAPTER 2 – On spring drizzles, seasonal lakes and what clouds are made of
CHAPTER 3 – On scary giants, stubborn dwarves and ways of decision-making
CHAPTER 4 – On flower thieves, technology and how to stay up at night
CHAPTER 5 – On carrots and conspiracies
CHAPTER 6 – On special flowers, tiny creatures and new acquaintances
CHAPTER 7 – On progress, friendship and the meaning of life
CHAPTER 8 – On farewells, hungry crocodiles and haunting thoughts
Chapter One
On changing seasons, mysterious parcels
and early spring rituals
On a dark and rainy night, without any warning, the spring appeared in the kingdom. He always appears unannounced, contrary to any standard etiquette. He is fond of showing up in the dead of the night, patiently awaiting the morning in order to welcome the awakening world with an unexpected morning greeting.
This time, he swept lightly into the kingdom from the forest, swiftly passing between the sleeping trees. He came upon the stream that flows through the heart of the forest and continued along it until he had left the woods and arrived at the giant’s hut. Through the window, the spring noticed that the giant was sound asleep in his large bed. He noted that everything seemed to be in order and moved on to the big house, where the other residents of the kingdom lived. On his way, the spring hovered over the spacious garden that surrounded the house, examining its condition and assessing the work it would soon require. He reached the house, and while swirling around it and peeking through its windows, the spring caught sight of the winter – standing motionless at the edge of the garden, his back to the house. As quiet as the breeze, the spring snuck up behind the winter, silently approaching him, until he finally stood just behind him, his mouth a few centimeters away from the winter’s ear.
“Booo!” the spring called out suddenly.
The winter jumped up in fright and turned around. “In the name of all storms and blizzards! It’s about time you grew up,” he grumbled, but a few seconds later, his anger subsided and he smiled and welcomed the spring.
The winter briefed the spring on all the latest news in the kingdom, and the spring updated him on all that has been happening in the places he had visited on his way there. Finally, the winter excused himself and went to fetch his large backpack. In it he stashed away the rain he had brought with him, the cold winds, the gray clouds, the hail and the snow. When he was done, he zipped up his backpack and turned to bid farewell to the spring.
“I should be on my way now,” he said. “The autumn must be waiting for me to replace him.”
“Safe journey,” said the spring and embraced him. He watched as the winter quickly flew away and was soon out of sight. Then he opened his own backpack and pulled out a few white clouds and a pleasant breeze. When he was done, he sat down under a tree and waited for dawn.
The first to rise that morning was the princess. She climbed out of bed, approached the window and peeked outside to see what the new day had brought. She was greeted by blue skies and fresh air. In the garden, the plants lifted their heads and proudly presented their flowers. Insects scurried and flew from here to there, and the birds sat on the treetops and sang in a choir.
“The spring is here,” said the princess joyfully. She quickly dressed, took her basket and left for the forest, searching along the way for interesting flowers to make into perfume.
The prince rose from his sleep a little later. He immediately noticed the change the spring had brought with him and decided there was nothing better to do than to pay a visit to his friends, the deer, who lived in a meadow at the edge of the forest, and to challenge them to a running competition.
Some time later, while the prince and princess were still away, the other kingdom residents were engaged in various activities. The giant was trimming the orange trees in the grove behind the house; the advisor was engaged in his favorite activity, sleeping; and the dwarf stood in the kitchen, humming spring tunes while preparing a fresh jug of orange juice for lunch. As he was about to squeeze the last orange, the door bell rang.
The dwarf wiped his hands, put on his hat and went to the door. He opened the door and saw a parcel. It was about his height, wrapped in white paper with a red ribbon. Next to it stood a small man holding a pen and paper.
“Hello,” said the dwarf.
“Hello,” said the man and handed the pen and paper to the dwarf. “A parcel for the prince. Please sign here, here and here.”
“Who sent the parcel?” asked the dwarf, scribbling his name.
“I don’t know,” said the man and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a delivery from the capital.”
“What’s in it?”
“I haven’t got a clue,” said the man, shrugging his shoulders again. He bowed to the dwarf and left.
The dwarf stared at the parcel and after a few seconds of pondering, pulled out a pair of scissors from his pocket and proceeded to cut the red ribbon. A split second before he snipped the ribbon, the dwarf thought he heard some noise emanating from the parcel, so he stopped and listened. At first, all he could hear was the chopping sounds of the giant’s pruning shears behind the house, but a few seconds later, he heard another noise coming from inside the parcel. It wasn’t a very loud one, but there was no doubt the sound was coming from the parcel. The idea of opening a parcel as tall as he was with noises emanating from it made the dwarf slightly uneasy, so therefore he went to call the giant. He found him bending over an orange tree and trimming its treetop.
“Giant,” the dwarf called to him from the other end of the garden, “come and take a look at something.”
The giant was always happy to take a break from working, so he put down his pruners and approached the dwarf.
“What do you want me to see?” he asked cheerfully.
The dwarf signaled the giant to follow him and began walking towards the main entrance of the house. “A parcel arrived for the prince,” he explained. “Now, as I was about to open it, I heard a noise from inside and thought it might be better if you opened it, just a slit, and peeked inside.”
They arrived at the parcel and the giant eyed it suspiciously. “What kind of noise did you hear?” he asked in a voice that was no longer cheerful.
“Eh, you know, just some kind of a noise,” answered the dwarf offhandedly. “A totally regular noise when it comes to parcels. I simply thought that since you’re especially big, it might be safer if you peeked inside first, that’s all.”
“Maybe we’ll do it later,” suggested the giant. “The prince really wanted me to prune the orange trees.”
“It will only take a minute.”
“Yes, but it’s very important that I finish with the oranges first. The prince decidedly stressed its importance. Besides, I have plans after that too,” added the giant.
“Really?” queried the dwarf. “What plans?”
“I wanted to rest a little and maybe write a letter to my mother.”
“And that’s why you can’t spare a minute to open the parcel?”
The giant shrugged his shoulders and smiled apologetically.
“What kind of an excuse is that?”
The giant smiled again.
“Are you scared?”
“A bit,” the giant admitted.
“Well, maybe a little more than a bit,” he said and lowered his eyes.
“Okay, so I’m really scared!” he burst out. “What if that something inside bites or stings or pokes or pinches or hurts? It could even be poisonous!”
The dwarf didn’t know what to say, so they sat down on the steps in front of the house and waited for some good idea to appear, but nothing came up. Then they waited for someone to come, but nobody did. Finally, the dwarf said that they better go inside the house to consult the advisor. The giant explained that because sometimes he broke things on his way in, perhaps the dwarf had better go alone. Of course he never meant to break anything. It was just that houses tended to be too small for him. That’s why he slept in the hut at the edge of the garden and not in the house.
“Nonsense,” said the dwarf. “I saw the advisor sleeping in the living room earlier. It’s right by the doorway; you won’t have a chance to break anything.”
And so they entered the house, and after the giant had broken one vase that stood in their path and didn’t clear the way fast enough, and the dwarf had cleaned up the shards – they made it to the living room and found the advisor still sleeping in one of the armchairs.
The dwarf stood in front of him and cleared his throat softly, since it’s not polite to wake up eldery, distinguished people. The advisor didn’t respond, and the dwarf cleared his throat again, a little louder. The advisor still did not respond for he loved sleeping dearly, so the dwarf cleared his throat once again – this time as loudly as he could. The advisor didn’t open his eyes, but one of his shoulders slowly began to move. Shortly thereafter, his other shoulder began moving, and his head rocked heavily from side to side. A few seconds later, he opened at first one eye and then the other. The advisor stared at the dwarf, shifted his gaze to the giant, stared at him for a moment, then looked back at the dwarf.
“Do you need anything, fellas?”
The dwarf replied that no, but since the advisor woke up incidentally, they had a little question about something that had come up, and he explained the matter of the parcel to the advisor.
“Hmmm… it is a little fishy,” said the advisor. “Was the delivery man wearing a ski hat, by any chance?”
“No,” answered the dwarf.
“Good,” said the advisor, “that’s one option less. Did he carry a weapon?”
“No,” said the dwarf though he wasn’t sure he knew what a weapon was.
“Did he have a wooden leg?”
“No.”
“A glass eye?”
“No.”
“Three hands or more?”
“No.”
“Hmmmm… that rules out a few options but it may still be some kind of a plot. Let me think about it for a moment,” said the advisor, leaning his forehead over his right hand and closing his eyes.
The giant and the dwarf waited patiently for two minutes, then another three minutes, and finally another one. The giant thought the advisor had fallen back to sleep and decided to draw the dwarf’s attention to it.
“Dwarf,” he said and touched the dwarf’s shoulder with extra tenderness.
“What are you doing?!” screamed the dwarf as he picked himself up from the floor and adjusted his hat.
“Sorry,” apologized the giant. “I just wanted to tell you that the advisor fell asleep again.”
Meanwhile, the dwarf’s yell had awakened the advisor.
“Can I be of any help, fellas?”
“It’s about the parcel,” the dwarf reminded him.
“Oh, yes. Let’s take a look.” The advisor rose slowly from the armchair, using his cane, and followed them to the entrance. He circled the parcel and examined it at length. “I can’t hear anything,” he said and knocked on the box with his cane. Something stirred inside. “Hmmm… very fishy. It requires some thought,” he said and sat down on the steps next to the giant and dwarf. The noise emanated from the box once again and the giant moved a few steps back, just in case.
“There must be a procedure of some kind regarding these matters,” the advisor mumbled.
“No doubt,” the dwarf agreed with him, “I simply cannot recall which procedure it is. Do you remember?”
“Not yet; give me a moment to try and remember,” answered the advisor, then leaned his head on his right hand and fell asleep.
“What’s a pordecure?” asked the giant.
“Look,” the dwarf explained, “a procedure is like… ehhh… let’s say there’s a certain problem, right? Or there’s a slightly problematic situation, yeah? Ehhh… now, what we need to do is find a solution for it, right?”
“Right,” agreed the giant.
“Good. This is where the procedure steps in. It’s actually... hmmm… it’s not such a specific thing, yeah? It’s more of a concept… an idea of sorts, right? Some kind of a conceptual idea, you see? Eh… and that’s what helps us solve the problem, or alternatively – the specific situation,” the dwarf concluded, hoping the giant was confused enough to let it go.
“How does it help?”
“Giant!” the dwarf snapped irritably. “Does it really matter now?! We have a pressing matter to solve. This is neither the time nor the place to explain basic terms that heaven only knows how you managed to grow two and a half meters tall without learning.”
“Sorry,” apologized the giant.
Again they sat and waited for an idea to come up, but none did. Then they waited for someone to arrive, and just when it seemed that no one would come, the prince appeared. He had finished a race with the deer and his spirits were high, even though he had lost – as usual.
“Hello, my friends, how are you?” he asked with a smile.
“Fine, prince,” they answered.
“A parcel arrived,” added the dwarf.
“So why didn’t you open it?”
“There’s a problem,” the dwarf explained gravely. “There’s something in it.”
“Oh,” said the prince and paused. “Isn’t that usually the case – that a parcel contains something? It would be rather odd if it didn’t, right? Why would someone send an empty parcel?”
“Well, this something moves,” explained the dwarf. “We’re not sure what’s in it, but it seems fishy.”
“Who brought the parcel?” asked the prince.
“I don’t know him,” answered the dwarf. “He said it’s from the capital.”
“He didn’t say what was inside?”
“No.”
“Did he have a tail?”
“No.”
“Good, that’s one option less. What did the advisor say?”
“That there is a procedure for these kinds of matters. But he fell asleep before he remembered what it was.”
“Hmm… it is odd,” said the prince and sat down next to the dwarf to think.
A moment or two later, the prince suggested that the dwarf cut a hole in the parcel with the scissors and peek inside. The dwarf considered the suggestion and said it was an excellent idea, only this something inside might poke his eye when he peeked in, and that would be a pity for he was deeply attached to his eyes.
Then the prince had another idea: They could put the parcel inside the pool until whatever was inside it drowned. Then again, he wasn’t sure if they wanted it to drown. Finally he concluded that it would be best to ask that something inside, what kind of thing it was.
The prince stood next to the parcel and called several times “who’s inside?” and several times “who’s in the parcel?”
But there was no answer.
At that point, he decided that being a prince, he must demonstrate leadership and open the parcel, but before he did so – he might as well take some minor precautions. He went to his chamber, opened the closet and found the armor his father had given him when he came of age. He put it on, placed the helmet on his head and grabbed a small sword. Now armed and protected, and filled with courage and determination, the prince left his chamber and made his way back to the entrance. He stood before the dwarf, the giant and the advisor, cleared his throat and prepared to announce that he was about to commit the courageous feat of opening the parcel – when the princess suddenly arrived, holding a bouquet of flowers she had picked in the forest.
“Oh, there’s a parcel here,” she cried out excitedly. “I love parcels.” And before anyone could say anything, she cut the ribbon and opened the parcel.
“Awwww, look what we have here…” she said, lifting a puppy from the box. She held it in front of her face and it pulled out a pink tongue and licked her nose.
“I’ll name you Chips,” she said, and the puppy wagged its tail and licked her nose again. She turned to the group and layed her eyes on the prince.
“You’re wearing armor,” she stated.
“That’s right,” answered the prince hoping she wouldn’t ask him why.
“Why?” asked the princess.
“Hmmm... well…” he started.
“The thing is this,” the dwarf came to his rescue.
“That today is the first day of spring…” said the prince.
“And on that day it is customary to wear a suit of armor,” the dwarf completed the sentence.
“Only the royal family of course,” added the prince.
“Oh no,” said the princess. “Do I need to wear one, too?”
“No, no,” the prince reassured her, “it’s a custom among men only.”
“Good,” she said in relief. “Armor makes my arse look fat.” After a moment she added, “oh well, come along Chipsie,” and she took the puppy and entered the house.
The prince followed her, the dwarf on his heels. The giant got up to remove the empty box just as the advisor woke up.
“What was in the parcel, Giant?” he asked.
“Just a little puppy,” replied the giant.
“So I thought,” sighed the advisor and using his cane, slowly got up and turned towards the house.
From that day on, everyone knew that the first day of spring was an important day for celebration, and on that day people exchanged presents and the royal family wore its armor.
Chapter Two
On spring drizzles, seasonal lakes and what clouds are made of
Time passed after Chips had arrived inside the parcel, and all of the kingdom’s residents came to love him dearly – even the dwarf, who, during the first two weeks, ran around the house with a mop and a bucket, cleaning up the souvenirs Chips left in his wake. In the first three weeks, Chips grew a little bit and then he stopped, since he was a dog of a small kind.
Chips spent most of his time with the princess, but sometimes he liked to do other things. Once in a while, for example, he would join the prince in his running contests with the deer. The prince was disappointed to find out that he couldn’t beat Chips either, but that did not stop him from loving the puppy and enjoying his company whenever he joined him.
The princess decided that Chips needed training, so every other day, he went to train with the dwarf. The first thing that the dwarf taught him to do was to relieve himself outside the house. Chips was disgruntled by this unpleasant change in his conditions – instead of peeing and pooping wherever he wanted, he had to leave the house and go to the garden. But with time, chips learned to accept it.
Next, the dwarf taught him to sit when ordered “sit!” and to extend his front paw when ordered “paw!”. Chips learned very quickly and always sat when he heard “sit” and extended his paw when he heard “paw,” except for those times when he did the opposite. Then the dwarf taught him how to run and fetch an object someone threw, like a little ball or a stick. Later, he taught him how to bark at strangers, but there were no strangers in the kingdom so he never barked at them. The only time he did bark was when the giant stepped on the tip of his tail by mistake. After that, the giant was scared of Chips for a whole week, and only once that week had passed, did they become friends again.
One early afternoon, about a month after Chips had arrived, it began to rain and it poured and poured the entire day. The following morning, the prince woke up and saw that it was still raining. The rain did not stop, so everyone spent the day in the living room drinking hot cocoa and playing cards. The morning after that, the prince woke up and saw that it was still pouring. “It’s sort of odd for it to be raining so much in the middle of spring,” he thought, so he went to ask the advisor if he remembered such a thing.
“Oh, without a doubt,” said the advisor as he stretched and rubbed his eyes. “Of course I remember.” He stopped to think for a moment. “What was the question?”
“I asked if you remember so much rain in the middle of spring,” said the prince.
“Certainly,” said the advisor, “it really is rather odd. You probably want to know what the standard procedure in these situations is. Let us see…”
“I don’t mind that much about the procedure,” the prince quickly stopped him. “I’m just curious to know if you remember so much rain at this time of year.”
“Hmmm… let’s see,” said the advisor. He pondered and mumbled for a minute or two and then mumbled and pondered for another one. “Rain, you said?” he asked finally.
“Precisely,” the prince replied.
“To be honest, I can’t seem to recall. Let me take a look in one of my books. Perhaps something’s written about it.”
He rose from his chair slowly and approached the library. After a moment, he found the book he was looking for and settled back into his chair. He leafed through the volume while humming softly to himself. A few moments later, he said, “Here’s something interesting. Did you know that people used to believe that clouds were made of goose feathers?”
“Really?” wondered the prince. “Why, everyone knows they’re made of bunnies’ fur.”
“Surely, nowadays everyone knows it, but according to the book, the matter was finally and scientifically proven only two hundred years ago.”
The advisor began mumbling again as he returned to the book. A moment later, he lifted his head and turned to the prince. “Remind me what it was you wished to know.”
The prince decided it was best to give up respectfully. “I was wondering what clouds were made of,” he answered quickly.
“Well, my dear fellow, I assume we’ve established that,” said the advisor.
“Wonderful,” agreed the prince. “Well then, I’ll leave you to your business. Thank you so much.”
“Always glad to be of service,” said the advisor.
After the futile conversation with the advisor, the prince went down to the living room, where he met the princess and the dwarf. On the table in front of them were a pot of hot cocoa and a plate of butter cookies, fresh from the oven, baked by the dwarf shortly beforehand. Outside, the rain kept falling, pelting the roof and the windows powerfully, so there was no choice but to spend the day at home. The threesome passed the morning playing card games and then broke for lunch and a little nap. In the afternoon they met again in the living room, and since it was still raining, they tried to think of other things they could do.
“Does anyone know any more card games?” asked the princess.
“Nope,” said the prince.
“I know other games, but they’re only good for four players and I doubt he’s going to join us as a fourth player,” the dwarf said, pointing at the advisor, who was snoring lightly on the nearby sofa.
Suddenly, the dwarf fell silent, his hand frozen in mid-air, still pointing towards the advisor. “Oh dear,” he said. “We completely forgot about the giant.”
“Goodness gracious!” exclaimed the prince. “How could I have forgotten about him! We haven’t seen him since the rain started. Perhaps something happened to him.”
“The poor little thing!” cried the princess. “Perhaps he’s wet and cold and sitting alone, shivering in the dark.”
“I doubt there’s any reason to worry,” the dwarf calmed them. “It takes more than a few raindrops to harm the giant. In any case, I’ll run over to his hut and see how he’s doing.”
The dwarf put on his cape, took his umbrella and started out towards the giant’s hut. He ran the distance, making sure not to step in big puddles and trying to keep as dry as possible. He arrived at the hut, jumped up the steps leading to the door and knocked on it loudly.
“Open up – it’s me, dwarf.”
“Come in through the window,” a cheerful voice called from inside.
The dwarf went to the window and stood helplessly before it, since the window-sill was a meter tall, a little higher than the top of his head, not including his hat. He yelled to the giant for help, and a few seconds later, the window was opened and a strong hand lifted the dwarf and placed him on the large bed next to the giant.
“Sorry, I forgot the window is too high for you,” apologized the giant.
The dwarf didn’t answer him, as he was engrossed by what he saw around him. The entire hut was flooded with water almost a meter deep, and on its surface floated kitchenware, food, clothing and other unidentifiable objects. The giant’s bed, like the rest of his furniture, stood high above the water level.
“How do you like my lake and little island?” asked the giant with a smile.
“Not bad at all,” laughed the dwarf. “Say, aren’t you afraid your bed will get flooded? I mean, your island?”
“No. When the water level rises I simply open the door and let it out.”
“And what do you do here all day by yourself?”
“Oh, all sorts of things,” said the giant. “For instance, I pretend to be a discoverer of continents. I call myself Christolombus, a name I made up myself, and pretend that I have a fleet of three ships.” He pointed to a couple of wash-tubs and a large bowl that were tied to the table. Each ship had a rod as a mast on which flags were hoisted. “I named them Pina, Nina and Marina. I also shoot hoops and eat a little and plan to write a letter to my mother. The only problem is I don’t have much food left.”
The dwarf checked the pantry and saw that there were only ten loaves of bread, a bag of vegetables, a bag of rice, half a bag of fruit and three kilograms of chocolate.
“It isn’t much,” he agreed. “Let’s hope the rain stops soon.”
“I do hope so,” said the giant. “In the meantime, I am thinking about going fishing to stock up on food.”
“Going fishing?” marveled the dwarf. “How could there be any fish here?”
“Why, it’s a lake. Of course there will be fish here,” the giant marveled back. “You want to go fishing with me?”
“You’re kidding me,” said the dwarf.
“Not at all; it will be fun,” said the giant. Giving it another quick thought, he added, “You know what? Any beginning fisherman will tell you that it’s better to fish in the middle of the lake than by the shore. Come, I’ll put you in the Nina and you can fish from there.”