Welcome to Gaia! ::

STEP RIGHT UP LADIES AND GENTLYMEN! It's the show you've all been waiting for, right here on my very own stage, taking place right here in your very own forest, using, who else, but your very own selves! That's right everyone, it's AMELIA'S AMAZING TRUNK OF PURE AMAZINGNESS! This trunk has been in the making for years, and you won't find a trunk more amazing, stuffed with more amazing things... you get my drift? Good! I knew you were all smart little beasts!

So here's the deal kiddies, Come and see the show, sit in the audience and watch until your eyes pop out with delight! There's antics and puppet shows and a chance for you to be on stage! That's right little missus and little mistahs, you could be my next assistants if you want to be... Just ask Amelia here, I mean, sure she's my niece and all (adopted of course me lovelies), but she used to be a plain little mouse, just the same way that you're a plain little hog, or you're a plain little bird. Then one day she says to me, "Uncle Bale, tell me how I too can be amazing!" and I told her that all she needed was a piece of apparel.

THAT'S RIGHT KIDDOS! Apparel! And Amelia's trunk here is just choc full of it all. So STEP RIGHT UP! Step on up here and get a paw in that trunk! Pull out whatever costumery you feel suits you best, sahalap 'er on yer little selves and have a seat here on one of these benches. The show will begin shortly!

"Halright kiddos, have a seat, have a seat. Don't push or shove, don't pinch or pull... Just sit. That's right. Now... who here wants to see a story? A wonderful story about a prince and a princess, who live in a castle and are happy until a wicked queen comes and makes life terrible for a short while?

"UNCLE BALE!"

"What is it my love, my sweet niece (by adoption children, by adoption)... What can I do for you, Amelia my love?"

"I HATE the story about the Prince and Princess. I want a NEW story! I want a story about... a... Unicorn and a evil black cat wizard who tries to steal the unicorn's magic powers!"

"Alright, Amelia my love, you find me the characters and I'll tell you the story. Don't trip on your scarf there... Ooh... bet that hurt. Now, brave beasts and evil beasts in the audience, who would like to hear a story about a Magical unicorn and the wicked Evil cat that tried to take the Unicorn's powers from him?"

"I gottem Uncle Bale! I gottem!"

"Thank you Amelia my dear... Let's us see now. This chap here with the colourful hair, he shall be the courageous BrooHA! Unicorn fighter extraordinaire. His deeds shall be sung a thousand times in a thousand circles, and his name shall always be spoken with a hint of jealousy, a heaping teaspoon of fame and just a pinch of celery seeds. This fellow over here.... oh, excuse me, Fellowess. She shall be the evil cat, with aspirations of wickedness met only by the cat she called father, BUT WHO WASN'T HER FATHER! But I won't bore you with mundane details of Persnicket's life here, the fact that her father ISN'T HER FATHER is not entirely important in today's story. Perhaps another time Persnicker? Perhaps, indeed."

"Uncle Bale, her name is Persnicket."

"Good heavens... what did I call her?"

"Persnicker."

"Ah, thank you. I will endeavor to be more attentive in my assertations."

"Uh huh."

"Anyway. Our story begins one night. There was some debate as to whether the night was nice or dire... do you recall which it was?"

"Yes yes, of course. I should have known. BrooHA was walking calmly from his house one day, where he was going I shan't tell you, for you are all little and wouldn't understand the complex desires of a grown man's soul... anywho, he was walking, and in his travels he came across a an old beggar cat in the road. Now, Kiddos, if you ever happen across an old beggar in your travels, you best do whatever they want you to do, because if stories teach us anything, it's that beggars are never simply vagabonds. They usually have magic powers which they won't hesitate to use on you for whatever purpose you earn. This beggar was no different, for no sooner had she asked BrooHA for a spare bite of apple (he refused, the daft animal, all rainbow hair and not a drop of common sense in the beast!), than the beggar stood and became Persniffity, the evil cat wizardess!"

"Persnicket."

"Persnicket, right. She stared him right in the eye and said "Arrrrent you scarrrred little horny horse?... Eh, Horned horse!" *puppetfacepalm* He looked her right in the eye and said "NNNeiiiigh Evil Persnarft..."

"Persnicket."

"Persnicket... I'm Nniiiiiiiiooot afraid of you at allllll." And she grinned an evil grin and smiled and wicked smile and she said. "Oh Arrrrrre you now? Let's play a game... shall we?" And children, should a beggar or an evil wizard ever ask you to play a game you say no. Nothing good has ever come from playing games with wizards. I once played a game of three card shrewish with a wizard's h'aprentice and I lost my lucky tail for a week! Anywho... being the dumb horse that he was, all brawn and rainbow brains make for poor common sense, He told her that he LOVED games and that he could beat her at ANY GAME she chose... Do you know what she chose?"

"No, she chose to play the ol' 'tell me a story game'... You know how to play that game right? The first person tells a story, and the other person has to respond with the right emotion and the right words to make the story make sense.... I'll need a couple of volounteers from the h'audience here... put up cher paws if you want to come up here and help me. Amelia, will you help people to the stage please? That one there... that one... that one too. "

"Yes SAH!"

Amelia rushed down into the audience, and grabbed at some of the beasts who's hands were up. She would later remember that the audience was much larger than the normal... it must have been a market day or something. By the end of her rounds in the audience, she had collected 11 children not all that much older than herself, she had accidentally tied a mouse (Toki) and a bat (Mot) up in her scarf when she turned a corner too quickly, she had stepped on the foot of a bird (Tarke), and she had rounded angrily on two squirrel boys who (she assumed) had purposefully stepped on her scarf to try and get her to trip. When they all made it up onto the small wooden stage, Amelia announced them all with a "TADA!" and promptly flapped her eye patch onto her other eye for good measure.

Bale grinned at her, and gave the volunteers a flourish. "Ladies and small gentlemen, you have been selected. All you have to do... is whatever I say" He grinned at them all and pulled the puppets up on his hands again as if to start.

"Uncle Bale, you gotta organize them." Amelia stamped her little foot and glared at her uncle.

Bale sighed. "H'alright. All you beastlings listen up. There's..." he paused and glanced over them all, counting. "11 of you and Mealy here makes 12. Get in line there little miss." He prodded the little mousemaid with a foot, and enjoyed the death glare she shot him before falling in line next to the little robin. "Now, no mousies next to mousies, lets keep the squirrel in a league... no, only one squirrel? Lots of mousies though." he sighed again. "Hokay. You there, miss, what's yer name? Toki? Alright Toki, you stand here next to this here bat, yer name please? Mot. Miss Toki and Miss Mot here. You're group one. You there, little Red bird, you're with Mealy Mouth, don't you glare at me like that. Now, Mr red squirrel, your name please? Finn. You're with this chap here, name please? Newt. Finn and Newt. You there, pretty miss mousie, you're with this ferret here... your names please? Trix and Zander. Trix, Zander, Zander, Trix, now you're h'aquainted. The little pilot here, Roland, yes thank you, you're getting the hang of this then, you're with the other lovely little miss mousie, name please? Hazel... lovely name for a lovely mousemiss. And that leaves another mouse missy and a pretty young blue with a bell. Your names? Cadence and... Pantoof? Really? I think I knew you in another life. Anywho... now your'e all paired." He sighed again one last time, took a deep breath and launched into the story again.

(( Leaving stage left to right::
1. Toki + Mot
2. Drake and Amelia
3. Finn and Newt
4. Trix and Zander
5. Roland and Hazel
6. Cadence and Pantoof
And no mouse sibling is standing with another. ^_^ ))

"So BrooHA here, says yes, he'll play the Persnicket's game, cause he's oh so clever and oh so smart, and oh so int'hellighent, never knowing all the while that all three of those mean the same thing. He stands up in front of the cat wizardess and tells her "Briiihhhhiiiing it on!" So she does. She launches into a story about a warthog. A warthog named Dartanian who lives in the woods all alone and never has a mean thing to say about nobody. But Dartanian the warthog doesn't have any friends, because can you imagine being friends with someone as ugly as a warthog? They stink and they smell. But one day Dartanian is walking through the woods, snuffing around like a good hogger, looking for tasty food and water, when an evil cat appears out of nowhere, No relation says Persnicket, no relation at all. And the evil cat wizard tells the Hog that all he has a spell that he can cast. All the hog need do is learn the best joke in the land. So the hog goes out to the village and asks everyone all about their jokes, and he comes back with a good one. He tells the Cat his joke and the cat Laughs, the cat actually laughs so hard that he snorts....

The cat wizard tells him that it was the fairest joke in all the land. But that's not the end of the spell, oh no. There were still 5 more parts to the spell. The second thing that he'd need from Dartanian was the smelliest flower in all the forest. Dartanian runs back to the village and is told by a little shrewwifey that she has the smelliest flowers. She gives him one to take back to the Cat, and Dartanian can smell the thing all the way there. Once it's in the Wizard's hands though, it causes him to sneeze a little... at first, but before the wizard knows it he's blowing sneezes that could take the roof off'a yer abode! And he's coughing too.

Next he tells the Hog that he needs the tastiest fruit in all the forest. So the hog goes back to the village and asks all the creatures there about the tastiest fruits... he comes back with a purple berry, which he gives to the wizard. The cat says 'it's a pretty purple berry.' and then he eats it. At first it is so sour, that his whole face puckers up... and then he starts to hiccup and burp.

The Cat's face was so tender that he felt he needed some cheering up. After a drink of water he asked Dartanian if he knew of any good dances that the villagers were doing these days. Of course the Hog did not, so he ran all the way back to the village, where an old ferret taught him to jig, and a raccoon taught him to waltz. He ran back to the cat to show him, and when the cat saw how well the hog danced, he began to dance himself!

The cat said 'Now we've laughed, we've danced, we've had good food... but we will never really know happiness unless we have something to compare it to. We need a sad tale, something that gets down into our hearts and tears through our emotions.' Dartanian, of course, had never really known any sorrow other than lonliness, so he ran back to the village where he learned a few stories... a shrew who's husband was dead of a fever... a songbird with no voice... a turtle who's shell had cracked and chipped away to nothing... many stories of hardship... but it was the story of a mousemaid who only knew her sister, and one day, her sister was taken from her, never to be seen again that got the wizard. He cried and cried... he sobbed until his head hurt, and then he looked at the smelliest flower and he could see, by comparison how pretty the smelly flower was... he may have sneezed once, but he smiled at the flower and sighed.

(( Group 5. here. You don't have to enjoy it, but I do need some kind of pretend crying here in this post. You can also go as far as to sneeze and sigh if you're up to it... if they're too shy feel free to say that Bale encouraged them, and know that lots of kids have gone before them already ^_^ . The whole point of the game is to get the kids to try out their acting. ))

Last, but not least, the Cat wanted to know what true bravery was. How could one stand up to a foe and keep an air of heroics about him in the face of danger? Dartanian did not know, for he had never been attacked, for he was way too ugly a creature. He, yep, you guessed it... he ran back to the village, where an old Mouse Warrior taught him to growl... not just little growls, but proper, soul wrenching, tiger eating, right from the gut growls. When the Hog got back to the Cat, and started to growl, the cat was impressed. He asked the Hog to roar for him, and Dartanian was in such a great mood that he roared right there and there at the top of his warthog lungs.

~~~~~~~

Amelia::

Amelia was no stranger to these stories. In fact, the participation ones were her very favourite, and she often asked her uncle to tell them to her just so she could do things like yell and laugh and bounce around like a fool for no reason. She watched as the first group did their thing, and laughed and snorted, and glancing down the line she imagined that this was going to be a really good story.

When it got to her and the bird she was standing next to, she waited for him to go first, and then joined right in with him, not really waiting all that long after all.

She sneezed a storm, almost literally. Every fake sneeze (sounding more like At-choo than actual sneezes) sent her leaping into the air, doubled over with the exertion of expelling all her air, she gasped and wheezed and eventually collapsed to the floor in a heap. Once she was there, laying on her back she began to fake cough and sneeze her way through her 'best' death scene... little paw clutching at where she assumed her heart was, the other paw reaching out into the air, seeking, grasping, the little fingers curled in mock pain... one last gasp and she fell limp for a moment... but she apparently couldn't leave it at that, for she gave one small extra sneeze for good measure.

Bale couldn't help but be impressed at how little kids always seemed to be ready to rise to the occasion when it came to stage work. Really they were often the best audiences.

He decided to let this group stay on stage for the end of the warthog story, so that they could keep acting out if they wanted... in fact, When the cat wizard in the story told the Warthog to go back to the village and see how many friends he had now, he had the kids each do an encore of their own emotions and encouraged them all to act all the emotions out. He told them all how the wizard hadn't cast a spell at all, and how just by listening to the villagers and asking for help with his problems, he'd found several friends all by himself.

It was one of those moral stories.

They were the kind that Bale liked best.

At the end of the Warthog story, Bale sent all the kids into the audience, and to his surprise, Amelia went too, seating herself on a bench next to some squirrel boys. He told a joke or two, danced a jig, generally made a fool of himself. He told the end of the Unicorn story, which, of course, ended with BrooHA not being able to do any of the emotions in the story because he was so stuck up on himself. And the evil cat Wizardess, Persnicket, ended up turning the unicorn into a frog because it suited him better.

Persnicket told the UnicornFrog that he could be restored to his full self when and only when he learned to love and be loved in return... never to place a thought to his own happiness, when the happiness of another was at stake... but that, children, was another story.

Needless to say there was a lot of dancing and general goofyness on the rabbit's part... it would have been a good show to watch if you were a woodland child.

At the end of the performance, Amelia clapped and shouted and grinned and shoulder punched the squirrel next to her in happiness, just because she was all worked up from the performance. She hopped up on stage and grabbed the Unicorn puppet (which now had a green scarf wrapped all around it) and shook it, yelling something about him learning a lesson. Lastly she marched over to the trunk and stripped off her scarf and eyepatch and hat and belt, leaving just a little mousemaid.

"Amelia... you're not going to be dressed up anymore?" Bale asked his niece.

"Nope." She plunked the scarf into the trunk with a grin. "I'm done being Amazing for a while. I'm just going to be Amelia now."