R.J. and the Seed War
CHAPTER 1
It was a cloudy Saturday morning in Nutwood. R.J. woke up to the sound of Radio 1's jingle followed by the start of a song he didn't like, so he promptly turned off the clock radio as he got out of bed. He went downstairs to see what his mother or granddad had made for breakfast.
"Good morning Granddad," said R.J. "Did you make the pancakes?"
"No, your mother did," replied his granddad Rupert, "There's not enough time for me to cook on a Saturday morning when Toby and I must have the shop open at ten o' clock. So R.J., what do you have planned for today?"
"I was going to meet up with Phillip at the field later this morning," said R.J. "His dad was so generous in letting me join the football team late, and we both thought it would be good to brush up on my skills."
"Well, it would be good if we could see some green around here," said Rupert, "It has definitely warmed up, yet however it's also been rather dry even after all the rain we've had."
"I'm certain the grass will turn green, it always does," said R.J.
"Good morning R.J." said his mother Bethany as she emerged from the laundry room,"I need to ask a favour of you."
"What is that?" asked R.J.
"After breakfast I want you to bring your clothes down to wash," explained his mum, "and then after that I have a couple of chores for you."
"Mum, I told Phillip that I would meet him at half past ten," said R.J.
"Why do you have to get temperamental when I ask you something?" she asked, "All I want for you to do is vacuum around your homework desk and under your bed, and then I want you to dust the wooden furniture in your room. As long as you don't waste your time this morning you will get to see Phillip at the time you planned."
"Yes mum, usually it seems like it's going to be much more than that," said R.J.
"Now R.J., I understand you have your commitments so don't take things personally," said his mum.
Rupert looked at the time and got up from his seat, "Well, I should load my traveller with the goodies and head on over to the shop. I have a feeling that it's going to be busy this afternoon. You have a good day R.J."
"Bye Granddad, see you this evening," said R.J.
"Bye Bethany," said Rupert to R.J.'s mum.
After getting his chores done, R.J. left his house and walked toward the field, taking a suitable shortcut through a preserved forest area. The scenery was quite unusual for early spring. For as common at it was for leaves to sprout on the trees, the branches were just as bare as they were when he first arrived in town. But as he walked further along, he came across an even more unusual sight. He found a tree that had its leaves, yet they had already changed from green to yellow.
"This is odd, these leaves are gold like they would be in the autumn," said R.J. He was trying to figure out why a tree's leaves would turn so quickly after they sprout. Then to the right of that, he saw something even stranger. An entire tree started to bloom with new leaves right before his eyes, but all of a sudden the leaves browned up and fell instantly.
"Now that is certainly not right!" said R.J. who was highly frightened by what he saw. He didn't know what to make of it, what was causing the trees to not hold their leaves? His first thought was perhaps there was some sort of plant disease going around, but then he thought that if a whole tree would blossom its leaves only to drop them seconds later, maybe that wasn't the case.
Mindful of original plans, R.J. decided not to think more of it and continued his way toward the field. As he got close he heard the sound of a clarinet, indicating that his friend Phillip Fox was already there so he went in the direction of the music. He saw Phillip sitting on top of a rock, resting his feet on the football as he played his clarinet.
"You're a natural pied piper Phillip, you would be harder to find if you weren't practicing your music," said R.J. as he walked over.
Phillip stopped playing and greeted his friend, "Hello R.J. Somehow I knew my clarinet could lead you over here."
"I have heard that melody before, what is it called?" asked R.J.
"Its part of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A," answered Phillip, "it's something that the school orchestra and I are playing at the spring concert."
"Speaking of spring, haven't you noticed that nothing around here has turned green like it should have?" asked R.J.
"Tis true buddy bear," replied Phillip, "you would have seen leaves sprouting on the trees by now, but nothing seems to have happened yet."
"I wouldn't say that nothing has happened Phillip," said R.J., "While I was taking a shortcut through that wood, I passed by a tree that had yellow leaves on it."
"Yellow leaves? That's unheard of in April," said Phillip.
"But that's not all," said R.J. "I also saw a tree sprout its leaves and then within a minute they turned brown and dropped everywhere."
Phillip looked at R.J. with a curious face, "If what you are saying is true R.J., can you show me where it happened?"
"This way," said R.J. as he pointed Phillip in the direction of where he travelled. The two of them first came up to the tree that sprouted and dropped its leaves. Phillip took a close look at the leaves on the ground.
"Usually the wind would have blown the leaves away months ago," he said as he picked one up, "Of course after the rain we've been having they wouldn't feel so dry either. This is very strange."
"Come over this way Phillip, I'll show you the tree that has the yellow leaves on it," said R.J. as they both walk over. They arrived just in time, as the leaves on that tree started to brown up and fall as they arrived.
"How could they just turn brown and crusty right before our eyes like that?" asked Phillip, "That's only supposed to happen over a longer period of days."
"That's what I thought too," said R.J. "I'm worried if there is a plant disease is going around."
"That is what an educated botanist would normally say, yet I don't think this matter is within bounds of a botanist's integrity," said Phillip as he started to knock on trees with his fist, confusing R.J.
"What are doing Phillip, checking for hollow wood?" he asked.
"Not so much that as I am looking to see if there are any autumn elves or imps of spring home," said Phillip, "They live inside the trees."
"Autumn elves, imps of spring?" wondered R.J. "You cannot be serious, aren't they just a story like frost fairies?"
"If Jack Frost heard you say that, he would blow flurries around your ears with his ice wand," said Phillip as he kept knocking on trees.
"Jack Frost?" asked R.J.
"Oh yes, I am a good friend of his. I see him come by every October," said Phillip.
R.J. looked at Phillip strangely, "I don't dig it Phillip. Certainly you of anyone would have grown out of these nursery stories by now."
"Well, I wouldn't be knocking on trees if your granddad didn't tell me where to find them," said Phillip, "You know this might take awhile, perhaps you could help me out."
"Maybe it would be better if the problem was handled by someone else, and besides the reason we were meeting today is so we can practice football," said R.J.
"R.J. it's not noon yet, we have plenty of time. Even more if you wanted to help," said Phillip.
R.J. sighed. "All right Phillip, but you do realize I find this awkward."
So R.J. and Phillip knock on trees, trying to find one that is home to an imp or an elf. After knocking on about eighty trees, R.J. became impatient.
"My hand is starting to hurt," said R.J. "I'm sorry Phillip, but I really think you are making this up."
"You have to trust me R.J." said Phillip, "They are somewhere in this forest, and just as long as we keep at it we should find one," replied Phillip.
Suddenly, the two of them heard screams running in their direction, "Help! Help! She's after me! She's after me!"
"Get back here you slimy twit!" yelled a female voice in the distance. The yelling caught R.J. and Phillip's attention and soon enough they heard something move behind a nearby tree.
"What's going on?" wondered R.J.
"I heard something right over by that tree R.J." said Phillip as he pointed towards it.
R.J. looked at the unusually large tree root it had, "Look at the size of that root Phillip, is that for real?"
"Of course it's a real tree root," said a familiar voice on the other side of the tree. Phillip gave R.J. a sly look, and then he tiptoed over to the root and pinched it.
"YEOW!" Out from behind the tree emerged Ogey Otter.
"I thought otters had long tails, not tree roots," said Phillip.
"What are you guys trying to do, give me away?!" asked Ogey.
"That all depends on what you're trying to hide from Ogey," said Phillip.
"I'm hiding from a five foot tall cockroach in a magenta skirt," said Ogey.
"A cockroach in a magenta skirt?" wondered R.J. "With the way you're acting that seems more believable than people living in trees."
"I'm afraid he isn't talking about an insect R.J." said Phillip.
Just then, an older otter girl ran up and swung a tennis racket at Ogey. He fell backward on a tree after dodging a hit, causing a small door on the other side of it to open.
"You're trapped now coward, this will serve you right for sneaking into my dresser," said the girl as she lifted her racket.
Ogey picked up his cap and went into a begging position, "Please have mercy Olivia, I only needed a couple of pounds. You know there's more where that came from."
"I earned those pounds more than you ever earned any of yours, you little thief," said Olivia.
"But Olivia, please, I have to have that other cymbal for my drum set," pleaded Ogey.
"Those stupid drums of yours are already annoying enough as it is, you can never play them right." said Olivia.
"Ogey, just give your cousin her money back," said Phillip.
"I have a better idea Philly, you be my bodyguard," said Ogey as he ran behind Phillip.
"Oh no I'm not," said Phillip as he moved out of the way.
R.J. thought of something else, "Tell you what, I am carrying a few pounds from my bucket. If Ogey promises to pay me back, I will give you the money so you don't have to whack him."
Olivia looked at R.J. "Who are you?"
"I'm R.J. Bruin. I'm a friend of your cousin Ogey."
"He's right Olivia, and I will pay R.J. back, I swear!" said Ogey.
Olivia sighed, "Fine, you win this round Ogey, but next time I'll have your head on a stick!" She took the money R.J. offered her and left.
"Thank you R.J. You are such a lifesaver," said Ogey who squeezed R.J.'s arm.
"Don't mention it; I just couldn't bear to see you get smacked," said R.J. "But I will say that stealing from a cousin wouldn't be my first choice towards getting what I want. You should know better."
"He probably never will. You should have seen the way she came at me when I walked in on her one time, but conveniently silly Ogden here never gave that any thought," said Phillip, "Part of me thinks he deserved it."
"Oh get over it Philly that was over a year ago" said Ogey, "well, it's off to the music store, SOO-TOOLA!" He waived as he said the last word, and dashed off.
"Soo-toola? What does that mean?" asked R.J.
"It's supposed to be 'see you two later' for short, and then its soo-la when he only talks to one of us," said Phillip, "You know how it is with Ogey."
"Well, I suppose you want to proceed with our tree knocking," said R.J. "of course now after what happened I forgot where I was at."
Phillip looked around and thought about it, "Tell you what, I'm no longer in the mood for it myself. Let's go back to the field so we can get our practice in."
"Good idea," replied R.J.
But just then, a sudden wind gust caused something to make a noise. It sounded like a squeaky door.
"Phillip, did you hear that?" said R.J. "something just creaked over there."
"Really, what?" asked Phillip.
"Whatever it was, it seems as though it came from the tree that Ogey fell up against when dodging Olivia's tennis racket," said R.J.
Both of them go over to that tree, and looking around it they saw an open door. "Well, what do you know, we found one of the tree homes," said Phillip, "Come on buddy bear, let's go inside."
"Are we allowed to?" asked R.J.
"I'll bet this is an autumn elf's home. Inside they are usually in a deep sleep that they don't wake from until September, so he or she won't notice unless they are awoken by us," said Phillip, "an imp of spring would otherwise be started by the sound of Ogey falling backward on the tree."
"As long as you know what you are doing Phillip," said R.J.
"Trust me R.J., we'll be fine," said Phillip. So R.J. followed Phillip through the door into the tree home, hoping to find some answers.
