Fenton the Walabee and

The Choptree Swarm

            by Luke Vavasour

 

            Long, long ago, before playgrounds and recess, there lived a happy people called the Walabees. Walabees were a very kind sort, always willing to give you a bite to eat with a glass of warm milk too, yet Walabees did not know how to be nice to other creatures because they had never seen any. They loved playing in their little Walabee homes in their town called Walabeeville. Walabeeville was not any ordinary town, no, not at all. Walabeeville was way up high in the trees so that almost nobody had ever even seen a Walabee except the monkeys and birds. Walabees loved trees more than anything. They would spend their time jumping from tree to tree happily until they had to go home to their Walabee moms and Walabee dads to eat.

 

 

            Walabees were a very funny creature. Small as they were, they had two long legs so they could jump to even the furthest tree. Then they had two short strong arms which could bend both ways to help them swing. Even with the long legs and strong arms, Walabees were smaller than even a little monkey. A Walabee tail is a very funny thing because it stays rolled up in a ball so that it looks like a bunny tail, but if a Walabee does not jump far enough it can stretch its tail out and grab onto branches. Fenton Walabee was different from all the other Walabees. Fenton had arms that were so skinny all the other Walabees called him Twigs and on top of that, he didn’t even have a tail that unrolled.

            One day Fenton was jumping and hopping from tree to tree as happy as could be when all of a sudden he fell from his Walabee perch on his favorite tree. He tried to grab it with his tail but it just stayed stuck. Walabees never fall from trees. He knew all the other Walabees would laugh and chortle at him until they had to go home to eat. Fenton fell and fell trying with all his might to grab onto a tree branch, but his weak little arms had no luck and his tail wouldn’t grab branches so he just kept right on falling and falling and f a l l i n g.

            Lucky for Fenton, all Walabees have round little bellies with lots of fur so he did not get hurt when he hit the ground. He just scraped his knee and flattened his fur a little bit. Now Walabees almost never go down to the ground unless they are curious young little Walabees that disobey their parents. All Walabees know that the ground is dangerous and you could hurt yourself on rocks and such. The ground is strange to a Walabee just like Walabeeville is strange for all creatures besides birds and monkeys. Fenton was tired from his fall, and he wanted to wait til’ all the other Walabees were eating before climbing back up so as not to be seen, so he crawled into a bush and took a nap. When Fenton woke up he stretched his long legs and short little arms and let out a big yawn. Just then Fenton looked out of his bush and saw the strangest thing he had ever seen. Over through the trees were a big group of strange little creatures dancing around a fire. They looked happy enough, maybe one of them would be friends with Fenton. They were even funnier creatures than the Walabees, how could they possibly laugh at Fenton? These creatures had tiny little legs with huge arms and no fur. How could they have no fur? Fenton giggled to himself for even he, strangest of Walabees had fur. These people would have to be friends with him. He poked his head out and started to walk over to this new strange sort.

 

 

            “Hello. My name is Fenton.” He said in the biggest voice he could muster. The strange creatures stopped dancing and looked at him.

            “Hello Fenton, we are the Choptree swarm.” They replied all as one. Fenton and the Choptrees became quick friends. He showed them how high he could jump and they showed him how far they could throw sticks. They had so much fun playing catch together that before they knew it, it was dark out.

            “Oh no,” said Fenton, “I was supposed to be home by now. My mom will be so worried.” They said their goodbyes and Fenton promised to come back the next day to keep playing with his new friends. When Fenton got home his mom was very worried, but to his surprise she was not even mad when he came home late. She was worried about something else.

            “Oh Fenton, a terrible thing is happening. All the trees outside Walabeeville have been falling. What will we do if our trees fall?” Now Fenton was very worried too. He didn’t know what he would do if Walabeeville fell. The next day all the Walabees in Walabeeville gathered around to discuss the problem. There was a pack of funny little animals cutting down all the trees around for firewood. They decided to send the biggest Walabee in Walabeeville down to talk to them. The Walabees were oh so nervous while they waited for him to come back, hoping it would be good news.

 

 

            “They wouldn’t even talk to me,” he said, “they just kept cutting trees and cutting trees and I even stood up on my back legs, but they weren’t scared. What will we do?”

            So the next day they sent down all the biggest Walabees they had in Walabeeville. The rest waited oh so nervously for the big Walabees to come back, hoping it would be good news this time.

            “They wouldn’t even talk to us,” they said, “they just kept cutting trees and cutting trees and we all stood up on our back legs and stretched our tails out and they still didn’t even look at us. What will we do?” This time the Walabees were really scared. They had sent their biggest, scariest Walabees down and the funny little creatures didn’t even look at them. Now Walabees are not a fighting sort, but they were scared for their homes and did not know what to do. The whole crowd of Walabees was buzzing with excitement.

            “Ahem…,’ said Fenton. All the other Walabees paid no attention to him. “AHEM,” said Fenton again, this time louder. All the Walabees looked at him. “I can talk to them, they are my friends. They will listen to me.” The Walabees all laughed and laughed.

            “You won’t be able to stop them. You are the smallest of all of us,” they said between laughs.

            “But I will, I was nice to them and they were nice to me. You’ll see, you’ll all see.” And with that, Fenton started climbing down trees until the other Walabees couldn’t see him. When Fenton got to the bottom he saw his Choptree friends happily dancing around their fire.

            “Hello Fenton, we were wondering when you would come back to play with us. We saw some funny little animals that looked just like you recently, but they were rude, we don’t talk to rude people.” They all said.

            “Well actually those are all my friends. And I was wondering if you might not cut these trees down anymore, please.” Fenton asked his friends.

            “But Fenton we need trees so we can dance around our fires, it is as we have always done.”

            “But I live in the trees you will ruin my whole village. Maybe you could burn the brush and leaves in big piles or cut down trees in the abandoned forest where nobody lives.” He said as nicely as possible. The Choptree swarm gathered together and whispered with each other.

 

 

            “OK, Fenton, but just for you and just because you asked so nicely.” And then the Choptree swarm and Fenton played catch until he had to go home. When he came back all the Walabees laughed at him again.

            “No luck? Don’t feel bad Fenton. You are so small, but its not your fault.”

            “But I had plenty of luck. They are going to cut down trees in the abandoned forest and burn brush instead of our trees. All because I fell out of a tree one day and made friends with them.” Fenton had never been so happy with himself. All the other Walabees were amazed. They didn’t even make fun of him for falling out of a tree. Before long Fenton was the most popular of all Walabees because he had saved the whole town. All the other Walabees would take turns going down to play catch with Fenton and the Choptree Swarm and they all lived happily ever after.