The Story of the Blue Planet (2 page)

Once a year an incredible event took place on the blue planet. A ray of light would burst through a little hole in the wall of a cave in the Blue Mountains. This was no ordinary cave. It was full of sleeping butterflies. As the light flooded the cave and shone on their wings, something wonderful happened: the butterflies awoke from their sleep. Very slowly and calmly they moved their wings and then rose in the air, one by one, and flew out of the mouth of the cave. They followed the sun for a whole day, circling the planet over land and sea, mountains and valleys, before fluttering back into the cave and falling asleep again, not to awaken until another year had passed.

The flight of the butterflies was the greatest wonder on the blue planet and a day of true happiness. The children would lie on their backs and watch the butterflies fill the sky until they disappeared with the sun beyond the horizon.

But all these wonders cannot compare with the adventure this story has to tell. Here comes the most dangerous and incredible adventure that any child on the blue planet could ever have imagined.

The Saga Begins

The saga begins on a little island in a deep ocean, shortly before the annual awakening of the butterflies. It was a bright summer’s day and Brimir was wandering along a black sandy beach collecting seashells and skimming the ocean with flat stones. He walked slowly through the penguin nesting grounds, zigzagging through the crowd, taking special care not to step on any eggs.

Brimir was going to show his friend Hulda a beautiful stone he had found near the Blue Mountains. Only a glimpse of his head could be seen, as a lock of his yellow hair stood out among the black and white flock of penguins. His tummy was grumbling because he had completely forgotten to eat on his hike. He looked at the delicious eggs under the penguins’ bottoms and his mouth watered, but when he caught their nasty looks he decided to let them be. After all, he was alone against thousands of them; he had a sharp mind but their beaks were sharper.

Brimir saw Hulda dragging a large sack and ran over to her.

“Hi,” said Brimir. “What’s in the sack?”

“Just a seal.”

“Just a seal?”

“Yes, just one seal, but also oranges and two rabbits!” “Mmmm! Did you catch the seal?”

“Oh, it was no big deal, it was so small. I knocked it out with a club,” said Hulda as she tapped Brimir lightly on his head.

“Shall I help you pull the sack?”

“That would be nice.”

Brimir and Hulda strolled along the beach, dragging the sack behind them, wiping out their tracks in the sand. They looked out over the sea and the black sand in the bay with the palm trees where they were going to skin and cook the seal. They collected logs, lit a fire, and grilled the seal in one piece. When they had eaten their fill they sat in the sand and watched the sunset. Then they lay on their backs and watched the stars grow brighter as the darkness grew blacker.

“I think this was the best and most beautiful day of my life,” whispered Hulda.

“Yes, it’s even better than the second-best day I’ve ever lived, which was yesterday,” said Brimir.

“What did you do yesterday?”

“Nothing special. I just felt so happy,” said Brimir, smiling. “Life keeps getting better and better.”

“And the butterflies are coming soon,” said Hulda, glowing with happiness.

Brimir showed Hulda the stone he found. How it glittered. Like a thousand rainbows. Like a million stars.

“It’s beautiful!”

“You can have it,” said Brimir.

“No, I don’t want it,” said Hulda, “it’s too beautiful.”

“Really, I want you to have it,” said Brimir.

Knowing in her heart that it’s a greater blessing to give than to receive, Hulda accepted the stone to please Brimir.

“What kind of stone is it?”

“I think it’s a wishing stone.”

“Can I make a wish?” asked Hulda.

“Yes, if you want to,” replied Brimir, “but then the stone changes into an ordinary pebble.”

“Do I only get the one wish?”

“Yes, but you can make whatever wish you like.”

Hulda was silent. She thought things over, racked her brains, and let her mind wander.

“I really can’t think of anything to wish for.”

“Nothing?” asked Brimir.

“I have enough to eat and I have many friends because everybody’s my friend. But there’s always been one wish I’ve had,” said Hulda.

“And what’s that?”

“I’ve always wished that my best friend would give me an amazingly beautiful wishing stone. And now my wish has come true so I can’t think of anything else to wish for!”

Hulda smiled shyly, kissed Brimir quickly on the cheek, and held the stone carefully, like a sparrow’s egg.

“That’s a really strange star!” said Brimir suddenly.

“Where?” asked Hulda.

“There!” shouted Brimir.

“There shouldn’t be a star there,” said Hulda and rubbed her eyes.

But the star was not motionless in space. It zoomed about with a large tail of fire, sometimes twisting and turning as it drew glowing letters of fire in the sky.

“It’s making letters in the air,” said Brimir.

“L-E-T T-H-E-R-E B-E F-U-N,” spelled out Hulda.

“Let there be fun? What kind of falling star is that?”

The star suddenly stopped making circles in the air and now it was heading straight for the blue planet! A horrendous roar could be heard that became louder and louder. Brimir and Hulda clung to each other.

“Oh, no, is it an asteroid or a comet?”

“It’s a space rocket! And it’s going to crash!”

The space rocket approached with increasing speed and everything around them became blindingly bright. The birds in the trees flew away shrieking. Squirrels crawled into rabbit holes. Fish hid in seaweed forests.

Hulda shouted, “It’s heading straight for us! We’ll be crushed.”

“Hold me tight,” whispered Brimir.

Hulda held onto Brimir so tightly she almost crushed him. Then came a tremendous explosion.

BAN
G!

The explosion echoed between the mountains, while sand and rocks rained all over the beach.

Brimir and Hulda remained perfectly still with their ears ringing. A deep crater had been formed where the space rocket had crashed. They walked slowly to the crater’s edge and peeked over. Hardly anything could be seen because of the smoke, but they caught a glint of a glowing, battered, shapeless wreck at the bottom.

“It’s just like an old vacuum cleaner,” said Hulda.

“It’s a spaceship,” whispered Brimir.

There was no sign of life in the spaceship, but then a low knocking sound could be heard—bang, wham, thump—as if someone was trying to break open the door of the rocket.

“No one’s come here from outer space for ages,” said Hulda.

The door continued to be struck, now much harder than before.

BANG!
WHAM!
THUMP!

“I hope it’s not a space monster,” whispered Brimir.

Then a dreadful roar could be heard and the door was struck with full force. It fell open with a loud crash and a gigantic dark creature appeared in the doorway. It stared out into the darkness.

The Space Monster

Brimir and Hulda ran through the night as fast as their legs could carry them to let their friends know about the space monster. Their only light was from the moon, which sometimes disappeared behind a cloud or a palm tree. They ran over meadows and through forests and along the river and over the desert. All the time they were shouting and calling:

“Beware of the space monster! A space monster’s arrived!”

The children woke up and shouted terrified out into the darkness:

“Where’s the space monster?”

“It’s down on the beach with the black sand. RUN! HIDE!”

“What does the space monster look like?” some of them asked.

“I think it was black,” shouted Hulda and she kept on running.

“Yes, it was black and hairy with four heads and its teeth were sharper than knives!” cried Brimir.

“Bread knives or meat knives?” called out Arnar the thinker.

“We’re not sure, the space monster was really just black,” cried Hulda pulling Brimir on behind her.

And before they were out of sight they shouted to the kids: “Don’t go near the black beach!”

The news spread through the forest that night like wildfire and lit up fear in every heart. All the children had heard about the monster but few of them knew what it looked like. Some of them said that it was black and hairy and could swallow whole planets with forests and lakes and all the animals in one big mouthful. Others said it had ten heads and eighteen eyes with x-ray vision to see through mountains.

They all imagined the horror of disappearing into the stomach of such a monster and being crushed in its smelly and slimy guts. Brimir and Hulda, exhausted after their running, fell asleep in a forest glade under a sweet-scented pine tree.

Hulda was awoken by a terrified cry from Brimir.

“Oh, I had such a horrible nightmare! The space monster replaced our hearts with lots of feathers, which tickled so much that I couldn’t stop laughing when the monster ate me and chewed me a hundred times because the monster’s mother had taught it to chew its food very well, and finally, when the monster swallowed me, its belly was full of jellyfish jam. And you know how I hate jellyfish!”