It was almost morning when the sun came up. It was really foggy and peaceful. Pepper was welcoming people in. She had long hair like Rapunzel, Pepper was wearing a red dress with white flowers on it. She was just fourteen and her job was to welcome children into Richmond Park at the gate. Pepper lived near to the Park and liked watching the deer from her tiny bedroom window.
One night there was a big storm with lots of thunder and lightning. The next morning when Pepper went to open the gate it was being guarded by lots of tiny squirrels. They wouldn’t let Pepper open the gate. “Why are you guarding the gate?” asked Pepper. Just then a giant squirrel appeared. He was as big as the biggest tree in Richmond Park. “I was struck by lightning in the storm and now I am a ginormous monster and king of the squirrels. We’re keeping the park to keep all the nuts for ourselves” growled the giant squirrel.
Pepper thought very carefully about what to do next. She decided to play a trick on the naughty squirrels. “I’ve found some nuts for you!” Pepper said nicely to the squirrels. Their ears pricked up and their noses started to wiggle. Pepper said, “I’ve hidden them in an owl’s nest in a hole in a tree in a deep dark wood.” The squirrels were a bit scared but went to the deep dark wood anyway. Pepper ran into the park, and bought all of the children from the village with her.
The squirrels ran into the woods to look for the owl’s nest. On their way they were lost and couldn’t decide on which way to go. The giant squirrel took charge and led the way. Later that evening, “Where are we?” called one of the smaller squirrels. They were still unable to find the tree they were looking for. “WE WILL FIND IT!” replied the giant squirrel angrily. Watching from a distance were Pepper and the children from the village who quietly laughed at the squirrels. “They can’t find the tree” said Pepper. “Good, now we can guard the gate and keep the squirrels out” said Timmy one of the village children.
Suddenly the children heard a disturbing and booming shouting. Straight afterwards they saw a squirrel family looking terrified and frightened and running at top speed towards them. As soon as the squirrels had got their breath back, the children asked them to explain what was going on.
“Nutty, the giant squirrel, is making all of us squirrels search for nuts for him and then he just eats them. My family and I are going to go hungry if we don’t stand up for ourselves,” explained the squirrel sadly. “Nutty got cross with us because we found some nuts and ate them,” continued the squirrel.
Pepper felt furious and mad at the thought of Nutty treating the others like slaves.
“We will help you defeat Nutty!” said Pepper in a calm and confident way. “We need a plan,” she said. So everybody took to thinking up an amazing and epic plan. “First we have to catch Nutty, which is going to be tricky and then somehow we are going to have to return him back to his normal size,” said Pepper.
After some time, Pepper’s best friend Billy smiled.
“I’ve got it!” he said. “We are going to have to make a trap. Everyone go home and get your spades! Squirrels, if you know any badgers or foxes that are good at digging, then fetch them, so that we can get the job done quicker.”
Within minutes the park was full of foxes, rabbits and badgers, ready to help dig a humongous, gigantic, massive hole. All the creatures were gathered together and had begun to move huge amounts of dirt from the park floor. Pepper turned around to Billy to ask him how they could get Nutty back to his usual size but Billy was nowhere to be found. He had already sneaked off whilst everyone was busy. The second part of his plan was very revolting and quite gross and disgusting. Billy went to a long, bumpy road where he had heard that there was a witch who made magical, shrinking potions. He felt petrified as he went through the squeaky door and as he did a witch appeared.
“I was expecting you” said an ugly, green, warty lady. “I suppose you want me to make you a shrinking potion?” she cackled. “I have got the recipe out ready.”
She showed him an old, dirty, scruffy recipe book.
He read the recipe:
Shrink Nuts
- 3 Crocodile’s scales
- 2 drops of eyeball juice
- 4 drops of rattlesnake venom
- 200 piranha’s teeth
- 100g of vampire’s blood-soaked teeth
- 1kg of Cheetah’s intestines
- 1 squashed rat
- 4 rare tree leaves
- 2 table spoons of slug jam
Billy felt disgusted and sick. The witch began to busy herself finding jars and bottles all the while mixing the ingredients into a paste. The smell was pukey and like rotting vegetables. Finally it was done. The witch handed him a single nut.
“Inside this nut is the shrinking potion. As soon as the giant squirrel eats it, he will shrink to his original size.” Billy thanked her!
As soon as he was out of the door he zoomed back to the park, where he found Pepper, the children and animals standing by the completed hole, which had been covered with sticks and leaves so that you couldn’t tell that there was a hole there. Billy explained the next part of his plan to everyone.
“How are we going to get Nutty to come this way?” asked Billy. The little squirrel volunteered to go and get him by telling him that he’d found a nut. Billy then placed the nut on top of the hidden hole.
The squirrel ran off towards the dark woods. Then after some time came the humongous, selfish squirrel. Nutty looked at the nut and sprinted to get it. Finally, Nutty flopped into the trap and ate the nut. As he did he shrank back into his normal size. Everyone felt thrilled that Nutty was back to normal.