by Eliza Brenan (age 11)

I.

Tuk-Tuk the rooster was standing in a clearing with the yellowish, summer grass surrounding him. He kept a sharp watch over his flock, who were busily foraging for little grubs. A squirrel scuttled up a tree; the little birds flittered in and out of sight; and far off in the distance his son was foraging with his flock. Tuk-Tuk looked up and saw the sun was already in the middle of the pale blue sky. It was time …

For food! (in this case it was corn, lots of yellow corn). He crowed to notify the hens, and they ran off to Eldor the wizard’s misty blue cottage.  

II.

Tuk-Tuk looked up from where he was eating. He saw all the hens pecking happily at their bright-yellow corn. He was content: until he noticed that Ruffle, Fluffy and Silver had left their corn and were now crowding around an object. At first, he wasn’t sure, but then he realised what it was: it was the wizard’s book!

At that very moment, the wizard burst out of his cottage, door flung wide open. Tuk-Tuk was next to the wizard in a flash. Before he knew it, his neck was craned to look at the book, his silvery beak opened, and he crowed. You may think this is okay, but it wasn’t, because he read some of the book! 

“Ruffle, Fluffy, Silver, you–’’ Tuk-Tuk began. 

The wizard jumped in shock. 

“What is it?” Tuk-Tuk asked. 

“Well, you’re talking in black-and-white ENGLISH!” Eldor exclaimed.  

“Yes, we may have read some of the book,” Tuk-Tuk said, chickenishly. 

“May have!” Eldor yelled. 

“I mean we did. Does that make it better?” Tuk-Tuk asked. 

“No, it doesn’t make it better,” Eldor said, defeated. “We have to fix this before my brother Meldor finds out about you.” 

This came as a surprise to the chickens who had rarely heard of the wizard’s brother, if ever.  

“Who is this Meldor brother of whom you speak?” asked Ruffle.

“Like me, he is one of the few wizards left around these parts, but unlike me, he mainly specialises in training his hens to talk.” Without letting Tuk-Tuk get a word in, the wizard went on, “And the worst thing is he locks his hens in a cage all day and all night.’’

Tuk-Tuk looked aghast.  

“But how can he do that?” asked the Rooster. “How can he trap another living being in such a confined space?’’

“I-I don’t know,” Eldor said. He bent down to pick up his spellbook. “You need to come to my cottage.”

“What, but we’re not allowed in your cottage,” Fluffy said. 

“I know,” said the wizard, “I’m the one that makes the rules. Anyway, we need to get started right away.’’

“So,” Tuk-Tuk said, “what are we going to do at your cottage?’’ 

“Well, we’re going to test your ability-” 

“What ability?’’

“If you had let me finish, I would have said your ability to understand the English language.” 

“Oh, that’s interesting,’’ said Silver. Tuk-Tuk was surprised, as were the others, for this was the first time she had spoken. 

III.

When they arrived at the wizard’s beautiful blue cottage, they got to work immediately. 

“What do you think he’s doing up there?’’ Ruffle asked Fluffy. 

“Probably figuring out what to do about us,’’ Fluffy responded.  

Tuk-Tuk looked over to the staircase and found that Silver had removed herself from the group and was standing there peacefully. 

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

Silver jumped in shocked surprise. “I’m fine,” she replied. “Just thinking.” 

“What about?” 

“Nothing.”

“Well, surely it’s something since you’re spending time thinking about it.” 

“Okay,” she sighed. “What if Meldor finds us?” 

“I’m sure he won’t,” replied Tuk-Tuk, though he wasn’t actually sure. 

The wizard came down, and they practised the rest of the day through. When they were done, he showed them to a musty old room where he used to keep his chickens, and they settled down on the gnarled perches. 

IV.

“ARC-a-rOOdle-dOOo!”

“Ahh, I see you’re up now,” said Eldor, ducking his head in. 

“Yes, and we’re ready to practice,” said Tuk-Tuk. 

“Good, good. Ahh, also I have something to tell you.’’ 

“Yes.” 

“You will be competing in a spelling bee with Meldor’s hens. I hope that will be alright with you? And one last thing – you have no choice. Huh!” Eldor puffed.

“When is it?” asked Silver. 

“It’s tomorrow afternoon,” Eldor answered. 

“But that’s barely any time!” complained the hens. 

“But maybe it’s enough,” Tuk-Tuk suggested. 

“How do you figure?” Silver asked. 

“Well, if we start now, we might have enough time. I know it’s not the answer you wanted, but it’s a start.” 

So they got to work. 

V.

It was the afternoon of the Spelling Bee, so they got ready to win. The crowd started as a slow trickle, but soon enough it built into a fast-flowing flood. The games had begun! 

“Now,” Meldor began, “the games work like this: I read out a word and both the teams will compete to spell the word correctly. Whoever spells the word first gets the point. The first team to reach one hundred points wins!”

“Okay, your first word is corn. How do you spell that?” Meldor asked. 

“Corn?” said Ruffle. “That’s easy-peasy lemon-squeezy!” 

“Corn?’’ said Fluffy. “Where?”

“Co-orn,” said Silver, “c-o-r-n.” 

“That’s correct!” shouted Meldor. “Next!” 

“Come on Meldor,” Eldor said, reading the next card. “This is easy. The next word you have to spell is … cow.”

“Well, you asked for easy, didn’t you brother?” Meldor said. 

“Obviously not that easy,” Eldor said. 

“Umm, cow … ” Tuk-Tuk muttered to himself. He had not spelled this one before, and neither had the others. 

“It is spelled like this,” said a member of the other team. “C-o-w.” She pronounced every letter deliberately slowly, so everyone would get her message (she had been practising years for this moment, and she was not about to let the newbies win her prize or upset her master). 

“It all comes down to this,” proclaimed Meldor. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” (It really did come down to this because the teams had ninety-nine points each!) 

“That’s way too hard!” spluttered the frenetic Eldor.

“You asked for this, brother!” Meldor yelled over the ever-growing crowd of chanters. 

“Me? How did I ask for this!” 

“I thought you wanted hard!”

Meanwhile, down on the battlefield of words, it was a losing battle for both teams but more so for the mighty Tuk-Tuks. 

“We’ve done this before guys,” a hen on Meldor’s team said. 

“So have we,” said Silver. “Come on, think guys, think.” 

“S-u-p-e-r … ’’ The other team began. 

That was when it clicked for Silver. 

“S-U-P-E-R-C-A-L-I-F-R-A-G-I-L-I-S-T-I-C-E-X-P-I-A-L-I-D-O-C-I-O-U-S!” Both teams puffed. But Tuk-Tuk-The-Magnificent’s team . . . lost. 

“O-oh,” went some of the crowd. 

VI.

And that is how Eldor found himself weeping about the chickens whom he had got into this mess. He felt … bad. 

VII.

“Do you think Eldor is going to save us?” suggested Fluffy. 

“I know,” Silver whispered, under her breath. 

“Come on guys,” Tuk-Tuk enthused. “Eldor hasn’t let us down yet. Remember when you got your leg caught in that fence, Fluffy? We couldn’t get you out, but when Eldor heard us cheeping, he came and untangled you and fed us warm porridge.” 

“I had forgotten that,” said Fluffy. “I’m sorry guys.” 

“Sorry for winging you Ruffle,” said Silver.

“That’s alright, I’m sorry too.”

VIII.

Eldor found himself looking at an old photo of he and his wife when they had first got their flock; Tuk-Tuk was just a chick then (as were the others).

“Eldor, pull yourself together,” he found himself saying. “You have yourself a flock to save.” A plan forming in his head, Eldor grabbed his staff and set off into the forest. He had a bone to pick with his brother.

“Oh shoot,” Eldor said. “I forgot to invite him!” 

IX.

The next day, Meldor awoke to find a newly-written letter on his doormat. 

“I wonder who this is from,” Meldor said, picking up the letter. 

“Dear Brother, 

I hereby challenge you to a Wizard’s Duel, today, on the first Sunday of the month. I will fight to reclaim the hens I lost to you in the Grand Spelling Bee. 

I shall be awaiting your response, 

Eldor.” 

“Of course I’ll say yes,” Meldor said, feeling quite sure of himself from the day before. “Does he take me for a fool?” Seating himself at his desk, Meldor whipped out his quill and began writing. 

“Dear Eldor, 

I gladly accept. 

Prepare yourself, for I shall be there within the hour, 

Meldor.”

He signed it and blew it on the North Wind to his brother. 

X.

Three hours later, when Meldor finally arrived, he realised he did not have his staff and would have to ask his brother for one (if he had any). 

“You had a bit of trouble getting here by the look of things,” Eldor said. He was a bit shocked that his brother had walked here, and without his ‘prized staff’.

“Yes, a bit … and I … er …

“Yes, Meldor?” 

Come on Meldor, tell the truth, he thought to himself.  

“I was wondering if I could borrow a staff; if you have a spare,’’ he said, a bit sheepishly. 

Eldor thought for a moment.  I could … No – no! He wondered how he could have thought such a thing.

“Of course you may, I’ll just fetch it for you.” And just like that, it appeared in his hand. Meldor couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous of his brother’s power.

“Should we start the game now or warm up first? You choose,” Eldor began.

“No, let’s just get into it,” said Meldor. 

Well, that’s a stupid choice, Eldor thought, though he couldn’t help feeling sad for his brother. He knew that magic had never really been Meldor’s strong suit and that he had been forced into it by their father. Meldor had become discouraged, seeing Eldor pick up hard subjects with ease, while he himself struggled understanding the most basic of spells. And if Eldor was being honest with himself, he had always been their father’s favourite which had deeply wounded Meldor. So much so that Meldor hardly practised magic any more.

“Let’s get started then,” Eldor said.  

They threw spells back and forth at one another until they were too tired to go any further. 

“That’s 140 points for me,” Meldor said with a grin, thinking it was impossible for Eldor to beat him. What Meldor didn’t know, however, was that Eldor’s staff wouldn’t work as well for him as it would for Eldor. Eldor knew this and used it to his advantage.

“Sorry,” Eldor said, for he already knew his brother had lost. “Drum roll if you please.”  

Meldor did it begrudgingly.  

“Thank you,” Eldor replied. “220 points for me!”

“What! But how?”

“Sorry,” Eldor said, feeling quite genuinely sorry for his brother. 

Meldor sat down, defeated. Eldor sat down next to him. 

“You can take your chickens.” 

“I know.” 

Meldor turned to face his brother, “What more do you want from me then?!” 

“Well, you could come live with me, and your hens too. Learn my way of chicken keeping. Please?” he added. Eldor stood up, offering a hand to his brother. 

“Yes, of course,” Meldor said, taking his brother’s hand. 

 Eldor was shocked to hear these words, but he was happy nonetheless. “Now let’s go get our hens”, he declared.

“Chickens brother, chickens.” The wizards laughed together.  

“Right, sorry.” 

“One little question,” Eldor said. 

“Yes?”  

“Why did you want them?” Eldor asked 

“Well, I-I… I just saw how well you were doing and … got jealous and greedy, and that’s why I challenged you.”

“Ah, I see.” Eldor said. 

And so, they walked together to Meldor’s shed and took all the hens out. It took them a few round trips. Eldor took his chickens, and Meldor the haughty little hen from before, and the chickens talked all the way home (to the brothers’ annoyance). 

Meldor found his staff and both brothers practised every day. 

The End