The Monsters
James just chose this one at bath time, after reading books about beasts all day.
Once upon a time, there was a village that had two monsters. Both were frighteningly ugly, with foul faces and hideous arms and legs. Both could talk only in growls and snarls. However, while one monster was nasty and evil, the other was nice and kind. Sadly, the villagers were so scared of the monsters that they had never bothered to figure this out, they were just terrified of both of them.
The bad monster did all sorts of bad things. It would go into the village and steal eggs and chickens. It would run through the fields of corn and trample the crops. It would let the sheep loose so they got lost on the hillsides. Whenever it saw the villagers, it would roar and growl and chase them.
The villagers lived in fear of all this. They hurried from house to house, always looking over their shoulders. The children did not play outside because they were too scared of the monsters.
The good monster was actually very friendly but did not have any friends, because the villagers would run away whenever they saw it, thinking it was the bad monster. This made the good monster feel sad.
Yet the good monster did many helpful things around the village, just out of the kindness of its heart. It would gather up any sheep it found wandering on the hills and bring them back. It chased away any rogues and ruffians who came to the village to cause trouble. It even kept the wild wolves away.
It did take some of the villagers' corn, because that is what it ate, but it made up for it by removing all the little stones from the soil after the farmers had ploughed the fields (the little stones were perfect for filling in the draughty cracks and gaps in the monster's cave).
One day, after the bad monster had trampled the corn, stolen a chicken and let the sheep loose all in one day, the villagers decided that they had had enough. They sent a letter to the queen demanding that she sort out the monster problem.
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The queen (who was kind, generous and beautiful) agreed to help. She sent all her horses and all her men to capture the monsters and take them to prison.
The villagers were delighted. They no longer hurried from house to house and forgot about looking over their shoulders all the time. Best of all, the children could now spend most of their time playing happily in the streets and fields.
But their happiness did not last for long. Rogues and ruffians started coming to the village; they would steal sheep and damage the farm equipment. Wolves would come at night and eat the chickens. When the farmers ploughed their fields, they found that the soil was very stony, so the crops did not grow very well.
“This is worse than when the monsters were here!” the villagers complained.
One day, a wandering wise women came to the village. She saw how unhappy everyone was and asked them why.
“Well, there's the rogues and ruffians, the wild wolves and even the soil is too stony. It's worse than when we had the monsters.”
“You got rid of your monsters?” asked the wandering wise women in surprise.
“Yes,” replied the villagers, “they used to trample the corn, steal the eggs and chickens and set the sheep loose.”
“Hmm... that sounds like the bad monster. But what did the good monster do?”
“Good monster?” asked the villagers.
“Yes,” said the wandering wise woman, “Normally monsters come in pairs – a good one and a bad one. By all means get rid of the bad one, but you should keep the good one.”
The villagers decided to get their good monster back. The chief villager went to see visit the queen, explained the situation, and asked if she could see the two monsters.
“Of course,” said the queen, “but how are you going to work out which is the good monster?”
“Easy,” smiled the chief villager. “I'm just going to ask!”
So off they went to the first monster, which was locked safely away in the prison.
“Are you the good monster or the bad monster?” asked the chief villager.
The monster growled ferociously and tried to bite them.
“That's probably the bad one,” said the queen.
They went to the second monster and asked, “Are you the good monster or the bad monster?”
The monster smiled and made a friendly growl.
“This must be the good one,” said the chief villager, and took it back to the village.
At first, the villagers were still a bit scared of the monster (it was, after all, frighteningly ugly). So they decided to see how it would react to different situations.
First, they took it to the chickens. To their relief, the monster did not try to eat the chickens. Instead, it picked up some eggs that had rolled on the floor and gave them to the villagers.
Then they took it to where the sheep were kept. The monster did not try to let the sheep out, but ran off in to the hills. The villagers were puzzled, but very soon the monster returned with a sheep that had been missing for ages.
Finally, they took it to the corn fields. The monster started to cut down some of the corn.
“Quick, stop it!” shouted some of the villagers.
“No, wait,” said the chief villager, “let's see what is does with the corn. It's not just trampling it.”
The monster took the corn under one arm and went to the newly-ploughed fields. It collected as many little stones as it could carry and took them off to its cave. All the villagers followed, eager to see what it would do next. As before, the monster used the little stones to fill in the cracks in its cave. Then it found a comfy rock and sat down, chewing the corn and watching the villagers.
“See?” said the chief villager. “It just took the corn to eat, and in return, it's cleared some of the stones from the farmer's fields. That will let us grow more corn. And I expect that any rogues, ruffians or wolves that come by will soon be scared away when they see our ferocious monster.”
So at long last, the villagers realised that their monster was very good indeed. It carried on doing all its helpful jobs and was very happy to have so many friends in the village.