A Gurumapa In The Wood Read online

the darkness; a sleeping Gurumapa, possibly the remains of its last meal, but perhaps the last thing he thought to find was a tomb of gold.

  Oliver couldn’t believe his eyes! It was gold; bright, pure, gold - glorious gold! He looked around, bewildered and curious as to how a Gurumapa had accumulated so much gold and equally, on what it might spend it on.

  Before he could dwell on that further, he heard a rumble coming from outside the cave.

  The Gurumapa.

  Oliver hid behind the riches that filled the monster’s cave. The beast walked heavily into its lair. It was the first time Oliver was able to get a clear look at it in some sort of light. The boy winced at the sight of its scarred, grotesque face, rotting fangs which were as big as himself, and a great dirty beard stained with vomit and blood. Although the giant was so hairy and unclothed, he wasn’t entirely sure where the beard ended and the body hair started.

  Oliver froze. He had that sinking feeling at the thought of being trapped inside this cave. The giant blocked the entrance. He rested up against the mountain of gold trying to not make the slightest of moves. The Gurumapa twitched, gave off a throaty croak. It became increasingly unsettled. It took a huge swipe for its mountain of gold but missed the boy, who leaped to one side and ran as fast as he possibly could towards the mouth of the cave again.

  “Hey! Gurumapa! Here I am!”

  The Gurumapa turned sharply, riled by the boy’s presence. Oliver ran for the entrance of the cave and made a dash back into the wood. Owl said the hole would be under the North Star.

  What Oliver unfortunately could not remember was which star in the sky happened to be the North Star and had little time to dwell on it.

  Through trees and bushes, over rocks and boulders, down and down the hill he ran and ran and prayed he was going in some sort of direction which resembled the right one.

  The Gurumapa was getting closer and closer and eventually cornered the boy up against the wall. There was nowhere for Oliver to go and the Gurumapa was face to face with the boy. The smell of the giant’s breath combined with the crippling fear almost paralysed the boy to a complete standstill.

  The monster snatched Oliver off the ground and was about to gobble him up when something emerged from the shadows and bit at the Gurumapa’s ankles, causing it to drop Oliver back to the ground.

  “What? Fox!” cried Oliver, with elation at the sight of his friend.

  “Run!” cried Fox, battered from its earlier encounter with the grotesque giant. The boy did not run, but stood as tall as he could to help his brave woodland friend.

  Fox was jumping and dodging the Gurumapa’s grasp. The creature’s attention was diverted from Oliver as he climbed up the wall to find a pile of rocks. He threw them at the Gurumapa but the creature barely noticed. With the last one, Oliver shouted, “Leave my friend alone!” And, thrown with all his might, the rock flew straight into the Gurumapa’s eye.

  The monster’s howl of pain could be heard throughout the wood and beyond.

  “Uh oh,” said Oliver, aloud, without realising. The ghastly giant’s attention shifted back to Oliver; it didn’t just want to eat him now - it wanted to tear him apart.

  “Now we run!” cried Fox.

  “Where?!”

  “Who cares, just run!”

  The wind picked up and once again, the mysterious leaf creature formed in front of Oliver and Fox. It gave a faint hint of a smile before dissolving into hundreds of leaves again and whooshing through the air. Oliver trusted it before and had no quarrels about doing so again.

  The Gurumapa, still howling in pain, barged through the trees as if they weren’t there.

  “We can’t be far now,” said Fox.

  And what Fox said was indeed true, as in the faint distance, shining bright under the North Star, was a giant hole - big enough for the Gurumapa to fall into.

  How the woodland animals were able to construct this in such a short space of time, Oliver dared not ask but was eternally thankful for it. He ran closer and closer and saw the gaping void of darkness before him. It was like nothing he had ever seen. An anomaly, a black hole plucked from space and planted into the mysterious wood at the bottom of his garden.

  With its face drenched in blood and mind engulfed with rage, the Gurumapa drove forward and came at Oliver like a tsunami; the boy ducked between its legs and the monster flew through the air… and into the abyss!

  Oliver caught his breath, but felt his legs snatched from under him as the Gurumapa, hanging on for its own life down below, snatched at the boy and roared into his face. “Leave me alone!” screamed the boy.

  Just as the Gurumapa went to gobble Oliver up, Owl soared down and pecked out the giant’s one remaining eye.

  The Gurumapa let go of the boy, with Owl snatching him by the hand. And the beast just fell into the abyss below, its howls becoming fainter by the second.

  Owl dropped Oliver back to the firm, woodland ground. The animals gathered round and cheered the boy’s name in praise and jubilance. The sun rose and the boy felt like he could breathe, for the first time in hours.

  “Oliver,” said Owl, proudly. “We, the folk of the wood, are eternally grateful for your bravery and boldness. And, as a trophy for your efforts, we would like to present you with all the Gurumapa’s gold.”

  “But why does a giant who lives in a cave want so much gold?”

  “Ah,” interjected Fox. “See the thing about the gold, Oliver is...well...it’s a bit odd.”

  “How odd?”

  “He doesn’t have to know,” said Owl to Fox.

  “Tell me,” said Oliver.

  “I really don’t think it’s age appropriate,” said Owl.

  “Just someone say!”

  “Well,” explained Fox. “The gold, solid real gold I may add, is actually the Gurumapa’s droppings.”

  “His...droppings? You mean he gobbles up children and out comes p –...”

  “Gold, yes. Gold. Solid gold.”

  Oliver politely rejected the gold and looked tentatively at the hole where the Gurumapa plummeted to its mysterious end. He wasn’t quite sure what happened next but a fantastic explosion of colour rose from the depths and consumed the entire wood, along with Oliver. He faded and all he had known of this night had ended.

  “Oliver! Time for dinner! Come in, it’s getting dark.” The boy looked up to find himself in the back garden of his house once more.

  Was it all a dream?

  Before he approached the door to his parents’ kitchen, he looked back to the end of the garden. There was something in the bushes.

  It was Fox. Or at least a fox...

  They stared at each other in silence for a moment. Oliver waved at the animal but it said nothing and wandered back into the wood. The boy ran after him calling out his name but the creature turned back sharply and gave out a sound. Not a word, a sound.

  The boy’s heart sank and he didn’t feel the need to chase the fox anymore.

  “Oliver!” shouted mum. “Dinner is getting cold, come in now, please.”

  The boy did as he was told and walked back towards the kitchen. He had his dinner and he listened to his parents chat about things which weren’t talking animals, fantastical leaf creatures, pixie dust or indeed a Gurumapa or its ‘gold’. This made him feel sad.

  As the boy climbed into his soft, safe bed and his mother tucked him in and turned off his light, he heard a fluttering sound at the window. He leaped from beneath the bedcovers and rushed across the room. Opening his curtain, he could see something flying away against the moonlight.

  It was an owl.

  Oliver looked on gladly. Yet, as he was about to close his curtain and climb back into bed, something shimmered in his bedroom. And there it was: sitting neatly on his bed was a solid gold nugget.

  The boy placed it proudly on his book shelf, tucked himself back into bed, rested his head on his pillow and dreamed of magic, animals and things.

  ~The End~


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