The Greedy Little Kujo
Once there was a place called Candy Land, where the trees sprouted gumdrops and the lakes were made of chocolate. It was a peaceful place until one day a greedy little Kujo came along and began to eat everything he could see. But he was a sly creature and only ate when there was no one around to stop him.
One day, when all the other creatures of Candy Land were playing down by the Chocolate Lake, the greedy little Kujo snuck up into the trees and gobbled up every last crumb of the Gingerbread House, leaving nothing for those who needed it most. When he was done, with one long burp, he scurried back down to the lake and joined in with the other creatures.
However, when some hungry pets went to the Gingerbread House, only to find it had been eaten completely, the Obese Fairy lined all the creatures of Candy Land up and questioned them one by one. When she came to the greedy little Kujo, she asked sternly,
'Did you eat the Gingerbread House?'
He shook his head and pointed at his tiny body.
'I could never eat a whole gingerbread house, for I am only tiny!'
'Of course,' she said, agreeing. 'You're much too small to manage that task.'
And so the greedy little Kujo got away with his evil deed, and so he carried on eating and eating away at Candy Land until it was practically bare. Each time the Obese Fairy lined up the creatures and questioned them one by one, but the greedy little Kujo would always reply: 'I am far too small to eat all that', and the fairy would let him be.
One day, when there was nothing left on the ground of Candy Land, and the chocolate lake had almost dried up, the greedy little Kujo found that he still wanted something more to eat. So he eyed the candy fruits of a rather large tree and climbed it, plucking a large, sugary apple. All of a sudden there came a cry that shook the whole of Candy Land.
'Ouch,' screamed the voice, 'Ouch! What do you think you're doing, stealing one of my fruits? Get away, you nasty thief!'
It was the Candy Tree - the oldest creature in the whole of Candy Land. The greedy little Kujo fell from her branches in shock, hitting the ground with the apple tumbling after him. Appearing from the call of the Candy Tree, the Obese fairy saw the Kujo and at once she knew that it had been him all along that had been eating Candy Land.
'You greedy little Kujo! You have lied to me, and been so greedy that you haven't left a thing for anyone else to eat! For that, you must be punished.'
With a wave of her wand, the greedy little Kujo was turned into an ice cream. But he did not understand how this could be a punishment. He licked his fingers, judging the taste. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he started to lick more vigorously until his hand had disappeared, too caught up in his greediness. He continued to lick and lick, unaware that he was slowly disappearing until it was too late. With one final lick, he swallowed his tongue and disappeared completely!
'Only take that which you need,' said the Obese Fairy, 'Or your greed will quickly destroy you.'
And with that, she flew away, set upon restoring Candy Land to its former glory.
The Enchanted Random Plushie
In the sewers of Marada, a long time ago, there lived two hobos, a Mordo and a Leido. They spent their days rummaging through trash, finding items to give the Sewer Monster in exchange for money. Although not much, it was enough to feed them at the local diner each evening. Then each night they would return to their makeshift hut, warm and fed and happy in each other's company.
However, one day while searching the sewers, they came across a sparkling white plushie. At once the Mordo recognised it.
'An Enchanted Random Plushie,' he exclaimed, 'With this I can become royal and leave the sewers forever. Rich beyond my wildest dreams!'
But the Leido knew of the plushie's power and warned his friend not to use it. Their lives were pleasant as they were now - they should not be greedy. However, the Mordo could not look past the vision of a rich and glorious future and so he used the plushie when the Leido turned his back. A shrill cry was heard, and when the Leido turned back to his friend, instead of a hobo - or even a Mordo - he saw a sludgy grey creature; a dreaded, filthy, disgusting Kay.
Horrified at his new appearance, the Kay fled to the hut and stayed there, weeping in the shadows for days and days. At first, the Leido thought his friend deserved it but as time passed and the Kay grew sadder, the Leido took pity on him and began to search the sewers for a way to change him back. He searched for days and days, becoming filthier and filthier, until he was nothing but a rotten Leido. Finally, late one evening, he stumbled upon a plushie, hidden away in the sludge. But this was no ordinary plushie; nor was it an ordinary enchanted plushie. Caked in grime and filth, he had discovered an enchanted angel Chibs plushie.
With eyes in awe and no time to spare, the Leido returned to the shack, plushie in hand, and held it out for the Kay.
'Dear friend,' he said, 'take this plushie and become rich like you always wished to be.'
But when the Kay saw the rotten Leido, his tattered clothes and his bindle gone, he felt selfish and cruel. He took the plushie from his friend and thanked him greatly, but instead of using it himself, he rubbed it on the Leido's shell. With one great flash of light the Leido vanished and in his place a proud, clean Chibs stood, with wings the size of the hut.
'Friendship is all I should have asked for,' said the humbled Kay. 'And you, who asked for nothing, who helped someone so selfish, deserve all the riches of the world.'
The Shaved Pucu
Once upon a time, there was a lonely featherless Pucu who lived in Dukka Town. For years he had lived alone, after his owner had shaved him and disowned him.
Every day, from his tiny cave, he watched the other Pucus flying around the town with magnificent feathers of red, blue, yellow, green - every colour of the rainbow. It made him sad to look at his own pink skin, unable to remember what colour his feathers had been.
One day he plucked up the courage to approach the other Pucus - fed up of being lonely with no one to talk to. However, when he drew close, the other Pucus looked at him and laughed to each other. 'Go away, you strange looking bird. We don't want to play with a creature like you'.
Feeling ugly and ashamed and with tears in his eyes, the Pucu dove into the water and swam away into the Dukka Caves, deciding to live the rest of his life as far from the beautiful Pucus as possible. For days the Pucu travelled. He walked past pirate ships and pyramids, tropical islands and graveyards - even craters of green goo - for he could not fly on featherless arms. Finally, weeks later, he came to rest at the edge of the world where he could live out his life alone as the ugly shaven bird that he was. He sat by the edge of the water, looking out into the sea of emptiness, then finally succumbed to the feelings of loneliness inside him and wept, the tears draining away into the sea.
'Why must I be so ugly? Why must I be so different? Who could have hated me so to take my lovely feathers away from me?'
Although his voice was soft, his cries of desperation were carried away in the cores of his tears. They drifted down into the water, further and further, to a place where no creature should ever hear them. Except one.
A magical mermaid named Pleon was tending to her bubble pit when the sound of the Pucu's cries reached her ear. She searched frantically for the saddened soul, her heart breaking from the sound of his despair. She found him sitting by the edge of the world, his tears ringing louder and louder until it hurt her.
From deep below the water, she took pity on the poor bird. With all the power she could muster, she changed the tides and pulled the Pucu from the shore and dragged him way out to sea.
Above the surface, the Pucu flapped and spluttered, trying to keep from sinking. He had no feathers to fly into the air with and the tide was becoming stronger and stronger. Finally, he was pulled under. Pleon carried the Pucu through the waters until she reached her home of Jenoa. With one final tug on the waves she took the Pucu to a sacred place - a whirlpool with magical powers.
'I cannot guarantee what happens,' she said as she threw the body of the Pucu into the whirlpool, 'But may you never feel sadness like this again.'
At one with the water, Pleon's words were heard by the whirlpool and they knew the Pucu's struggles. The whirlpool filled with rays of light and when the Pucu emerged again on the surface of the water, he looked down at himself and began to weep with happiness.
'Oh, thank you,' he cried, 'I can never repay your kindness. You have been a friend to me and I shall never forget this.'
Unsteadily at first, but with growing ease, the Pucu lifted himself into the sky on wings of rainbows. He was the most magnificent Pucu, with the softest and the brightest feathers, ever seen. From then on, the Pucu travelled to many lands and made many friends, but he never forgot the kindness of the mermaid, and never once returned to the dreary place of Dukka Town.
The Leido and the Lati
Once upon a time, in a small place named Lush Lake, there was a Lati who was faster than any other creature around. He boasted daily about the thousands of Olympic medals he owned, claiming that no one in the whole of Marada could ever beat him.
One day an old Leido, sick and tired of the Lati's constant boasting and belittlement of the other creatures, challenged the Lati to a race. The Leido was old and slow, but he was confident and sure of himself. The Lati laughed for a while but, never the less, he accepted the challenge.
So it was decided that the two were to race ten laps of the Olympic running track and the first to cross the finish line would be champion. Dozens of spectators came to watch - some cheering for the Lati, some cheering for the Leido.
When the race began, the Lati sped away quickly, leaving the old Leido to plod slowly behind, disappearing further and further out of sight. This race was too easy, he thought. The old Leido must have been completely out of his mind.
The first time the Lati lapped the Leido, the poor old Leido was only a quarter of the way around the track. The second time he lapped the Leido, he was only half way around the track. The Lati continued to lap and lap the Leido until he found himself on his final lap.
'With so much time to spare,' he thought, 'I might as well stop for a drink.' And so the Lati left the race track and disappeared into the local Coffee shop. Ordering a large glass of warm milk - his favourite - the Lati watched the Leido crawl around the track, wondering why on earth the Leido had thought he could win.
By the time the Lati left the Coffee shop, the Leido was on his fifth lap. The sun was beating down hard so the Lati decided that he would take a nap by the lake, finishing the race with time to spare when he woke up. As he settled down, the Leido plodded on, never wavering from his slow pace.
With the warm milk in his stomach, the Lati slept and slept and slept. But surely this would do him no harm because the Leido was so far behind. However, it was the sound of loud cheering - louder than ever before - that woke the Lati from his sleep. With a start, he leapt up, searching frantically for the old Leido. In the distance, there he was, plodding along towards the end of a lap at his tediously slow pace. Of course, this was fine, he thought, he must still be laps away from finishing. But then the Lati saw it. A red ribbon had been drawn out over the finishing post.
Realising the Leido was close to finishing the race, the Lati sprang to the race track and ran and ran as fast as he could, desperately trying to catch the Leido up. He ran with his ears down and his tongue sticking out, panting and sweating. But just before the Lati could catch up to the Leido, the Leido's long neck went through the red ribbon and the crowd erupted with cheers.
Feeling ashamed and defeated, the Lati hung his head low as the Leido smiled at the crowds. When he was done taking in their praise, the Leido turned to the Lati and said,
"Never underestimate your opponent, no matter how much stronger you seem to be. You cannot win everything simply by being the fastest. Sometimes, being slow but never giving up is the key to success."
