02 - Cyril Rises to the Occasion
Cyril meets some strange new friends
By AW
Chapter One
'But you saw them!?' squeaked Victoria, nervously.
'Yes!' replied Paprika, 'All lined up in
Stèornytown! Tweedy bunnies and tweedy hairy gnomes!'
'Well,' piped up Suzie, 'tweedy bunnies might be
quite nice, but I don't know about tweedy hairy gnomes!'
'No, I've heard gnomes carry things like shovels
and axes!' Robbie said. 'And who knows what they might do with those!'
'Oh dear! What are we going to do? said
Kirsty.
'I know!' came a small squeak.
'Cyril?' asked Suzie.
'Yes!' squeaked Cyril, excitedly, untangling himself from his long Dr Who scarf.
'We should get some of my friends to come over! I'm sure the gnomes would behave then!'
'We don't want to hurt anyone!' added
Victoria.
'But we don't want them taking over either!'
added Robbie.
'And bunnies might be nice!' reminded Suzie. 'But
who are your friends?'
'They're from the hills to the south,' replied
Cyril. 'There's Ronald, Roland, Ranald, Ragnar, and
Reginald, and lots more! All their names begin with 'R'; I think it's a tradition. They're about an inch taller than us mice - an inch and a half taller than me! And they're all black or shades of grey!'
'Oo-er!' said Victoria, nervously. 'They don't sound like us TweedyMice!'
'Er... Well... They don't use the --- word. They say humans don't like it,' added Cyril quickly, 'and they all have long whiskers and tails that are black or white! But some of them colour them so they have whiskers and tails that are bright pink, green or blue! They say it helps them to mix with people when they come to Stèornytown!'
'They sound scary!' said Kirsty.
'That's not all,' added Cyril. 'They all have yellow eyes! And some of them wear silver earrings!! One earring in one ear!'
'Oo-er!' said Victoria, 'isn't that dangerous?'
'No,' added Cyril, 'the rings are soldered so they can't pull open, and sewn in the seam of their ears!'
'Wow!' exclaimed five TweedyMice. 'Are we going to meet your friends?'
Knapsack across his shoulder, with plenty of cheese for the journey, Cyril sets out - 'All the best, Cyril! Bye Cyril!'
Chapter Two
'Ooh! Someone's coming!' squeaked Victoria,
'someone's coming!'
All the Fivepenny TweedyMice scampered out to
look to the south. Along the road they could just see two figures, one tall and
dark, and the other, small, with a long trailing... thing.
'That can only be Cyril with his scarf!' said
Robbie.
'Or it's a long scarf with a Cyril on the end,'
said Paprika.
'That's more like it!' squeaked Kirsty. 'Come
and look, Suzie!
'Cyril, you're back!' exclaimed Kirsty, as the other mice ran to welcome
Cyril, who promptly tripped over his long Dr Who scarf.
'Yes! I didn't have to go all the way to the
Southern Mountains! I met some of them this side of Stèornytown, they were on a
day out!'
'And had they heard of the tweedy gnomes?' asked
Robbie.
'Yes - but they said they'd hold a meeting when
they got back. They've been having days out in small groups, but really they're
investigating how far the gnomes have got around the island.'
'Has there been any trouble from them?' asked
Suzie, 'we don't want to start trouble if they've been peaceful!'
'No,' said Paprika, coming to join the group
around Cyril.
'I don't think so,' said Cyril, 'but my friends
said they'd let us know!'
'Hello, everyone!' squeaked Cyril excitedly.
'Hello, Cyril!' squeaked the TweedyMice.
'Who is that?' whispered Kirsty.
'He must be one of Cyril's friends!' whispered
Paprika, 'I can see why the humans are scared of them!'
'Everyone!' squeaked Cyril, 'this is Ragnar, he's
one of my friends from the Southern Mountains! I went to meet him this morning
at the Ness border, so he didn't get lost!'
'We're happy to meet you!' said Suzie.
'Yes,' echoed the others. 'Fetch some cheese!'
Chapter Three
After a welcome snack of good cheese, Ragnar reassured the TweedyMice.
'We had a meeting, and, as I know Cyril, the others decided I should come up to Fivepenny to stay with you. Other Guardians - that's what we've decided to call ourselves - are going to stay with other groups. But the best news, which I haven't told Cyril yet, is that the others have met with the gnomes and they've said they only want to settle in their little groups and use their tools for tending their gardens! They are happy to be peaceful gnomes!'
'Hooray!' cheered the TweedyMice, 'Hooray!' And Cyril ran to fetch another piece of cheese!
© 2019 AW.
