Stories. Meadow

‘Wow, they’re enormous!’ marvelled Franek, watching the bugs land on flowers.

‘It’s us who are tiny,’ said grandpa. ‘The carpet must have magically made us small and taken us to the meadow by the river.’

‘So what do we do now?’ asked Bogusia. ‘How are we going to return to our size?’

‘Don’t panic,’ said mum. ’First, let’s see what the carpet brought us here fo… Oh!’

Before mum could finish, something big bumped into her and they rolled on the ground together.

‘Mum!’ called the kids running to her. Grandpa was holding Spryciarz who began to bark loudly.

Mum tried to untangle herself from the arms and legs. Next to her was lying a furry ball with large ears and a long tail. It was moving frantically, trying to stand up. Around them lay spilled berries.

‘Eek-eek’, squeaked the animal. ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’

‘Grandpa, it’s a mouse!’ said Bogusia. ‘A huge mouse!’

‘But… she speaks!’ said Franek with surprise and then he whispered to grandpa: ‘Does the carpet allow us to talk to animals?’

‘Seems that way,’ grandpa whispered back.

Franek drew breath and looked at Spryciarz. But the dog only barked as always.

‘It doesn’t seem to be working on Spryciarz though…’ sighed the boy, scratched his friend behind the ears and looked closely at the mouse. He noticed that she was as big as them. She was looking around nervously as if she was afraid something might jump out of the grass. Mum stood up and dusted her trousers.

‘Phew!’ she sighed. ‘What was that?’

‘A mouse!’ said Bogusia. ‘And she speaks like us.’

‘Or perhaps we speak like mice,’ noticed Franek.

‘Where are you running to, Miss Mouse?’ asked the girl.

The mouse shot them a suspicious look but she must have decided they did not have bad intentions because after a moment she answered:

‘My name is Saszka,’ she introduced herself. ‘I’m gathering supplies but I need to get back to my family quickly. For several days now a large fox has been bothering us. I only sneaked out for a few minutes.’

‘Foxes are so cute! They’re so fluffy and red!’ Bogusia’s face lit up. ’I even have a toy fox at home.’

‘But for mice foxes are very dangerous,’ said Saszka, looking at them closely. ‘And you? You don’t look like any animals I know.’

‘We’re people,’ explained Franek. ‘Our magic carpet made us small and took us to this meadow.’

The mouse’s eyes widened in surprise.

‘Is there any way we can help you, Saszka?’ asked mum.

‘But how? You are as small as me. What can you do about a huge fox?’

‘Perhaps we will come up with something together.’

‘Hmm… Alright, come with me. But we have to move fast.’

(…)

On their way they marvelled at nature, touching, smelling and observing everything. The smells seemed much sweeter and much stronger than usual. The grass turned out to be very slick, whereas some of the flowers were either soft like fluff or rough like a vegetable grater. Soon they saw green water flowing fast between the banks. Thin, light green twigs were emerging from it, bent by the river stream. Among the tendrils were swimming small silver-pink fish, whereas between the roots of high golden-green plants with pink flowers sat brown frogs. Some of them were leaping from one stone emerging from the river to the next.