Knick-Knack Tree Adventure Series Introduction
The Gambit
Trouble in Trickletown
Fictional adventure novel for children 7 – 9 years
Hidden somewhere here on Planet Earth there is a crater: Trickletown Valleys’ Crater. It is a place where adventures begin and dreams come true. But you would be very lucky if you found it, as it is hidden in a thick grey mist.
Many millions of years ago, and long before life on Planet Earth had even had the chance to exist, the Crater was not very important at all, just a dusty shallow crater. Nothing grew here, nothing lived here, and certainly nothing ever came here. Until one day, out of the stillness of space and from somewhere beyond the Moon, something magical happened!
Its arrival was nothing out of the ordinary, as by all accounts it was just another shooting star – a small insignificant object twinkling in the sky very briefly, before tumbling to the ground, never to be thought of again.
But this particular shooting star had not just arrived here – it had been sent! This small, orange object, only the size and shape of a coconut had tumbled onto the slopes of the Crater.
A small cloud of dust was all that marked the object’s arrival, but before the dust had settled, magical things began to happen.
A tiny white root wriggled free and began tunnelling itself into the ground. It was followed very closely by another and soon by several more.
The clouds above the Crater blackened and lightning crackled in the skies. The roots grew larger … Soon they became so big that the ground beneath the Crater started to move.
The roots formed living labyrinths beneath the surface and pushed snow capped mountains high around the Crater’s edge. Soon seven rivers flowed down seven valleys and on the northern slope of the Crater, where the shooting star had landed, a curious living tree had started to grow.
To begin with it looked like any other tree, but this tree was different! Very different! This tree was not just living, it could breathe – it was alive! Soon a face appeared, and two eyes opened. As its large mouth yawned; its breath swept a carpet of life across the Crater’s floor. The Knick-Knack Tree had arrived and the Crater had changed for ever.
So what was this all about? What was the Knick-Knack Tree … and why was it here?
Well what happened next begins to answer these questions.
A large number of Fuddles arrived in the Crater.
Fuddles were human like us, but they had evolved to be slightly different. In addition to some other curious things (which the Knick-Knack Tree Adventures will reveal), they appeared to have ears a little larger or smaller than what you might call normal and they were also super-intelligent and never forget a single thing they were told.
They had travelled to this crater from their homes on a small orange planet called Fuddle, hiding secretly behind Earth’s Moon. If you look very carefully you can sometimes see it, especially when the Moon is full and the glow around the edge of it is orange.
On arrival they emerged from beyond a sizing stone, one of a series of magical stones which protect the very small entrances to the Knick-Knack Tree’s passageways, treasures and secrets. These stones would alter their size, (small to go in and back to full size when coming out again), this allowed them to move in and out of these entrances with ease. However these stones would only allow anyone to enter if their intentions were good!
This particular sizing stone sat outside the entrance to the hole at the base of the Knick-Knack Tree’s trunk. The hole was the entrance to a den, from where doors and passageways led to places deep inside the Tree’s roots and – provided you could find your way around them – they could take you anywhere you wished.
The Fuddles had arrived in Trickletown Valleys’ Crater for a reason. They needed a safe place to keep their fish! The Million Wiggle Fish were colourful intelligent fish with powers of their own – powers so extraordinary that everyone in the Universe wanted them. When the Fuddles first found these mysterious fish, in deep, dark caverns beneath the surface of Planet Fuddle, everything had started off well. Space travellers came from far and wide to buy the magnificent fish and have fun with them. The fish could help them travel through time; they could take them to places we could only dream about; and they could warn them and guide them away from danger … In fact one or another of these colourful fish could do almost anything you imagined. Each type was a different colour of the rainbow.
But Trouble was brewing – the mysterious Mists of Time (the Fuddles’ arch enemy) wanted these fish for themselves and were prepared to do anything to get hold of them! The Mists of Time were dangerous. They had a mind of their own. The mist inside them was so thick, that the past, the present, and the future tangled together. You could soon get lost, and there are many Fuddles who have entered them who have never been seen again.
The surface of the newly formed crater changed again, as the Fuddles built Trickletown. Seven hamlets full of colourful houses soon appeared between the seven river valleys; and seven cobbled streets, each one paved in a different colour of the rainbow, wound past forests and mountains.
Inside a circular road named Inner Street the Fuddles left an area of grass they called ‘The Gambit’.
It was a place where they could go to think, but The Gambit was so much more than just an area of grass. Mysterious and magical things could happen here and in the Knick-Knack Tree Adventures they often do!
At the centre of The Gambit, inside a ring of seven large oak trees, the Fuddles built a fish pond – ‘The Million Wiggle Fish Pond’ – and this was the brand new home for their precious fish. The fountain of the pool was made from living granite and this brand new wonder of the universe could change its shape to whatever it liked.
The pool was guarded by seven Rainbow Fish. These seven living, stone fish hovered around the edge of the pool in globes of water. Each one was a different colour of the rainbow, and large enough to sit on, which was something they occasionally let you do.
Floating above the centre of the fountain, looking out over the tops of the seven oak trees, hovered one very clever, living, stone fish. This one was silver and gold and its job was to look out for trouble!
Surrounding the fish pond, there was something even more magical! A spiral passageway through time, called Rainbow Walk. This was truly a magical place – ‘a place where adventures begin and dreams come true’.
The magical Million Wiggle Fish Pond, besides being a home for the Million Wiggle Fish, was built to protect them. In times of danger a brightly coloured mosaic barrier sealed the surface. Then, when the Hour Glass Key was placed in the Granite Key Stone, the fish pond lowered itself beneath the ground and was hidden away from its enemies by the surface of The Gambit. Its position could then be locked by placing the stone from the Emerald Ring in its slot, at the centre of the Hour Glass Key.
Life in Trickletown Valleys’ Crater became great fun. The Knick-Knack Tree and the inhabitants of Trickletown appeared to be safe in their brand new homes, and travellers began to arrive from every corner of the universe to purchase the Million Wiggle Fish.
These travellers began telling of their adventures, and as each new story was told, a brand new Knick-Knack was hung on the Knick-Knack Tree’s branches. It reminded everyone of the story. Soon the Tree was covered from root to twig in a glorious collection of Knick-Knacks.
A tiny elf-like character called Knicky-Knacky began telling the stories of these adventures. He lived in a cosy den among the Tree’s roots, and whenever a Knick-Knack was chosen, he would appear from his den and begin to tell everyone its story …
