Inside the tree ... by Etta

The moment the door shut Sarah cried out for help. She had been kidnapped by the wickedest bird, Gorgonzola. The bird was not really a bird. Sarah knew that because she could read minds. Gorgonzola was a witch and she always wore a top hat because it stored secret magic in it.

Before she was kidnapped, Sarah had been living with her Grandma, Alaska. Alaska was a witch, like Gorgonzola, and they were enemies. Gorgonzola wanted to capture Sarah because Sarah had a birthmark that could shoot out thousands of gold and silver coins when it was pressed.

One day Sarah was playing with her friends in the park near her little house. They were trying to catch rabbits. Sarah caught one and all of a sudden it turned into a fierce looking monster bird with a sharp beak that was so long it knocked over anything in its way. It was Gorgonzola. ‘Now I’ll be rich’, Gorgonzola screeched as she grabbed Sarah and dragged her towards a massive tree that was as fat as six elephants. Then she cackled:

Polka dolka partridge pie,
Let me in and say goodbye

At this the tree opened and Gorgonzola pushed Sarah inside.

Now she was locked inside Gorgonzola’s tree while every day Gorgonzola would go out. Inside, there was slime dripping down the walls. Sarah was kept in a jail along with 8 pixies. The pixies wore dirty ragged green clothes. There were 3 girl pixies with blond hair and 5 boy pixies with midnight black hair.

‘No one cares for us’, the girl pixies cried.

‘I do’, replied Sarah.

‘Really?’ they all said hopefully.

‘Yes, really’, Sarah said.

‘Can you help us?’ they asked excitedly, as they climbed onto Sarah’s shoulders.

‘How can I help you when you are in this tree jail and so am I?’ she whispered, knowing that Gorgonzola was somewhere in the darkness.

Suddenly, they heard a screech.

‘Hey’, a voice boomed.

‘Oh no’, the pixies whispered, ‘that must be Gorgonzola’. They jumped off Sarah’s shoulders and into the pockets of her skirt.

Sarah stood back a couple of steps. She saw Gorgonzola reach out for a leather boot that she always used to hit her prisoners with. Sarah did not run away or try to hide. She just stood still. The boot came down very fast and hit her on her cheek.

‘That will teach you a lesson’, Gorgonzola squawked, as she walked away.

Sarah started to cry. One of the boy pixies started to comfort her, and then all the others joined him.

‘How can we escape? How can we go home?’ Sarah asked, as tears sprouted from her eyes.

The pixies sighed, ‘There is only one solution. We must dig a hole’.

‘But why haven’t you tried that already?’ asked Sarah.

‘Because we were waiting for a human to come and help us’, they replied.

‘But we have nothing to dig a tunnel with’, said Sarah.

They thought for a long while. They thought they could use shovels, forks or spoons but they had none of these. One of the girl pixies picked up Sarah’s hair clip, which had fallen onto the ground.

She said excitedly, ‘I have an idea. We could use the hair clip to dig!’

All the other pixies nodded in agreement and Sarah started to dig straight away.

Sarah and the pixies took turns digging until they were so exhausted they could hardly breathe.

Outside in the moonlight the trees rustled. How Sarah longed to go back to her Grandma’s house!

But the tunnel was only one meter long. Sarah was just about to give up when a baby wombat popped his head out of the dirt. He was soft and cuddly. He looked like he had just been born. Sarah stared at him as he said, ‘My name is Brownie. What’s yours?’

‘My name is Sarah. A terrible witch called Gorgonzola kidnapped me and trapped me in a tree and now we are digging a tunnel to get to freedom.’

‘I can help you dig the tunnel’, squealed Brownie.

‘That would be the best thing ever!!’ Sarah and the pixies yelled cheerfully.

Brownie stretched out his paws and began digging. The faster he dug the more excited Sarah and the pixies became.  Finally, Brownie dug far enough until they saw a speck of light. Sarah squealed with delight and the pixies jumped with joy. They climbed up towards the light and took a deep breath of the glorious fresh air.

But Gorgonzola had heard them. She screeched, waving her hands in the air, and she ran after them. Sarah screamed and picked Brownie up and the pixies ran up her leg and into her pockets.  The wild chase began.

Gorgonzola slipped and hit a tree. She screamed and pulled a ribbon out of her top hat that could make her run faster than a cheetah, but Sarah had read her mind.

She knew up ahead was her neighbour’s garden - the grass was the same colour as her dress which was yellow. She kept running until she reached the garden and hid in the grass. Gorgonzola ran past her.

When she saw that Gorgonzola was gone, Sarah stood up and slowly walked towards her Grandma’s little cottage. She found her Grandma sitting on the porch crying.

‘Surprise’, Sarah yelled, as she jumped into her Grandma’s arms.

Her Grandma reached out and hugged her tightly and said ‘I’m so glad to see you, where have you been?’