Chapter one, in which the world is made colourful
A long time ago there were only three other colours in the world besides black and white, namely red, blue and yellow.
This was due to a very special place called Tricolour Country. The King of the land was called Fabulus. To be precise, he was called Fabulus the Thirteenth, because he was the thirteenth Fabulus to be King of the Tricolour Country. He was especially proud of his long beard, which had red, yellow and blue stripes. King Fabulus was also a powerful magician who used the magic of his wand to spread the three colours all over the rest of the world, thus making them colourful.
Every morning, just before sunrise, King Fabulus would go up to the highest pinnacle of his castle. He waves the red, blue and yellow wand high above his head. Then the wand shone especially brightly. A red, blue and yellow striped, thick ray came out of its tip, almost like lightning in a really heavy thunderstorm. This beam shot up into the air, almost to the sky. From there it spread out in all directions. Then, when the sun rose in the ordinary world, the colours were all over the place.
While people didn't notice, Fabulus still stood on the highest pinnacle of his castle and smiled contentedly. And he could, because without him and the magic of his wand, there would have been only black and white in the world.
Tricolour Country was completely hidden and therefore difficult to find. To get there, you had to walk through the most desolate of deserts. There were only particularly prickly cacti and nasty shifting dunes, which constantly showed up somewhere else to mislead and confuse the traveller in such a way that he no longer knew in which direction to go.
Once you had crossed the desolate desert, you came to the foot of a huge mountain range. The mountains were so high, they seemed to bump into the sky. A narrow path led the hiker steeply uphill to a glittering glacier. One had to cross it and then climb over the highest peak. Once you had done that, a lovely valley lay in front of you: The land of three colours, Tricolour Country!
It consisted of three parts, each separated by a magical boundary of thick chalk lines. People never crossed this border. There was the Redland, the Blueland and the Yellowland and in each of them there was only one colour.
Chapter two, which tells of red, blue and yellow people
Everything in Redland was red. There were red flowers, mostly roses. Red ladybirds with red spots and red foxes. People liked strawberry jam with rose petal bread. There were also red noodles with tomato sauce and of course cherry soup with red rice.
The red sun shone mostly from the cloudless sky and it was quite warm here. After all red is a warm colour.The people were friendly and funny, because when it is warm you are in a good mood. The girls mostly painted hearts with their red chalk and the boys painted red racing cars. Everybody thought that there was nothing better than the colour red.
The next country was Blueland. Here, of course, everything was blue, and all the adults and all the children thought that this was particularly beautiful. There were blue peacocks that proudly spread their feathers and made a blue wheel. Blue herons and blue jay fluttered around and blue frogs croaked at the lake where blue fish swam and blue irises and hyacinths grew. The national dish in this country was pancakes with blueberries. Blue dumplings with plum compote were also popular. In the blue country it was not very warm, although the sky was bright blue. But the blue sun simply didn't give so much warmth. So people were rather calm and level-headed. They liked to smile and though they didn't talk very much and didn't laugh as often, they were always friendly and polite. The girls mostly painted lakes and clouds with their blue chalk and the boys painted sailing ships with blue sails.
In the third country, Yellowland, it was not too cold and not too warm. Therefore the people here were not very funny and not very sad. Just quite normal. Here, sunflowers and tulips bloomed most of all. In the laburnum bushes there were always many yellow parrots sitting, talking to each other and lemon butterflies fluttering around them. Chickens and ducks were not only yellow when they were chicks, but also kept their colour when they were fully grown. In the afternoon there was always lemon or banana cake in the yellow country. All the children also liked corn bread with yellow plum jam and pumpkin soup with yellow potato pancakes. The girls usually painted a yellow meadow with sunflowers with their yellow chalk and the boys painted yellow post buses.
At the place where all three parts of Tricolour Country met, stood the castle of the King. It alone was tricoloured, because in each part of the country there was always only one colour. That was fine for the residents of the Tricolour Country, because they found their respective colour most beautiful. It would never have occurred to anyone from Redland to go to Blueland or Yellowland and vice versa.
After all, there were also the chalk line borders that were never crossed. Why these borders existed at all, nobody knew exactly, not even the King. They were simply there and everybody kept to them. Sometimes King Fabulus thought about simply wiping away the chalk lines, but then he didn't dare to do so because he didn't know if it was right for the people.
In Redland they said, "What should we do with the silent blue ones or the strange yellow ones? We'd rather stay in our beautiful Redland where it's so warm."
In Blueland, they said, "Never mind. In Redland they're always so silly, and in Yellowland they're so chatty. By the way, it's much too warm for us Bluelands there as well as here."
Even in the Yellowland people wanted nothing to do with their neighbours. "Why should we go away from our beautiful Yellowland? Anywhere? It's too hot in Redland and too cold in Blueland," they said.
Chapter three, where an accident happens
Everything could have been wonderful, if there hadn't been an accident one day.
Once again, King Fabulus stood on the highest pinnacle of his castle and waved the magic wand high in the air to bring colour to the rest of the world, when he heard a loud, ugly cawing sound. "Croak, croak." A huge raven circled above him.
"Hello," thought Fabulus. "I have never seen this creature in all three countries. It must live in the mountains and be lost."
" Croak, croak," it rang out again. The raven came closer and closer until it finally hovered very close over King Fabulus. Before he knew it, the raven pounced on him and tore the magic wand out of his outstretched hand with his big claws. Then the black thief fluttered away, not without having sneered once more.
Fabulus stood there, stiff as a poker for a long time. He was so surprised. Finally he lowered his hand and sat down on his bottom. A thousand thoughts were tumbling around in his head. A brazen thief had stolen his magic wand! How could this have happened? And above all - what was to happen now? Without the magic wand, Fabulus had no more magic powers and could not send colours to the humans. So in time everything colourful would fade away.
What would remain would be a colourless world in which there would only be black and white. These two colours would mix together and a dreary grey would remain. He shook himself, because he could not imagine a grey world without bright colours.
Sadly King Fabulus shuffled into his castle, lay down in bed and pulled the blanket over his head. It wasn't long and before, he fell asleep from grief. In his dream he stood once more on the highest pinnacle of the castle and waved his magic wand. Then suddenly the big black raven pounced on him again. But when he looked at it properly, he saw that it was not a raven at all, but his cousin Shade. The King had not thought of him for so long that he had forgotten that he existed. This was no wonder, because Shade didn't like it in Tricolour Country because he couldn't stand bright colours. So one day he just disappeared. Nobody missed him because he had always been in a bad mood and grouchy. So he had fallen into oblivion over the years. "Cousin, what are you doing here?" exclaimed the King in horror.
"Suddenly you remember me," Shade growled angrily. "You haven't thought of me for so long."
Confused, King Fabulus looked at his cousin and was amazed. He had always been a bit colourless, now he looked all dark grey.
"Where have your colours gone?" he exclaimed stunned. "Your beard used to be tricoloured, like mine. He hesitated briefly. "Not so colourful, rather a little washed out, but still colourful," he added cautiously.
"Don't call me Shade. My name has been Shadowraven for a long time, because I have discarded everything coloured because I dislike it and I can turn into a raven with the snap of a finger. Now I will make sure that you will finally stop colouring the world with your foolish magic, because your magic wand belongs to me now," he raised his hands with these words.
From his fingers came an icy river that made the King tremble. The magic wand fell from his fingers as if by magic and rolled away. At the same time, Shadowraven turned back into the raven. "I am flying back into the eternal ice, where are no colours and soon there will be no more bright colours in the world," he croaked triumphantly and flew away, screaming with laughter.
Chapter four, in which King Fabulus makes a decision
With a jerk, King Fabulus woke up. He hit his head. "Of course, my cousin stole the wand," he exclaimed. "He's always hated anything colourful. What am I going to do now?" Desperately he pulled his hair up. It had become noon in the meantime. The King's stomach growled despite all his despair. So he decided to eat something, firstly because he was really hungry and secondly because he always had the best ideas when eating. Like every day, his meal consisted of three dishes. From each of the three parts of the country there was one that was brought to him.
Today he had as a starter a tomato salad with red onions from the Redland. The main course came from Blueland and was one of King Fabulus' favorite dishes, namely blue potatoes with red cabbage. Finally, the dessert was a lemon, peach and banana cake from Yellowland. By the time King Fabulus had finished eating everything, he felt much better. In addition, he had had a really good idea during the meal. He had remembered that his grandfather, a great inventor and tinkerer, had built a balloon.
Not a normal balloon, but a mega-sized balloon with a basket at the bottom, in which you could even lie down comfortably to sleep. With this balloon, his grandfather had made many exciting journeys, because he had also been a great discoverer. He had written down in a thick book exactly which countries he had visited and how to get there. Fabulus had often looked at this book, although he had never left Tricolour Country. Even now, he still leafed through it from time to time and thought about what it would be like to fly in a balloon.
Fabulus' father was of a different kind than his grandfather. He preferred to stay at home in the cosy castle and had no desire to travel at all. So, when his grandfather had got too old to travel, he had simply let the air out of the balloon and taken him together with the basket to the cellar, where it still lay.
"If I manage to inflate the balloon so that it can fly again, I could fly with it into the eternal ice and repeat my magic wand. It would be laughable if I couldn't do that. After all, I am King Fabulus the Thirteenth," he exclaimed.
He was a bit queasy at the thought, because after all, his grandfather had only taken him for a short balloon ride once. Fabulus had looked at everything carefully, because flying fascinated him. When they had finally arrived back on the ground, their father had already been waiting for them and had made a big fuss because he didn't want Fabulus to fly with his grandfather in the balloon. Shortly afterwards, the grandfather had given up travelling. The balloon had landed in the cellar. There it lay until today, because Fabulus had never got it out, although sometimes his fingers had itched to do so.
"Never mind, I'll just rock the thing. I'll get the balloon going again," said the King loud and determined.
"Pardon, your majesty?" Fabulus heard a soft voice beside him. Baffled, he looked up and discovered a girl holding the empty tomato salad bowl in her hands.
"Who are you and what do you want?", Fabulus asked grumpily, because the girl had disturbed him in his thinking.
"I am Redmarie. From Redland. I just wanted to fetch the dishes," explained the girl eagerly.
"Redmarie, why are you disturbing me?"
The girl smiled at him. "I heard you say you wanted to fly in a balloon. Does that mean that your grandfather's old balloon really exists? Because my parents told me about it. I can't imagine flying in one of those things. I'd like to try it once in my life. If you do fly away, maybe you could use someone to cook you some food. I made the tomato salad too. And I'm really good at making red noodles with tomato sauce. Please take me with you ...", at this point Redmarie had to catch her breath, because all these sentences were just gushing out.
The King shook his head. "It's not possible. I want to fly to the eternal ice, where my cousin Shadowraven lives. He stole the magic wand from me this morning and I must get it back. It is far too dangerous for a little girl like you, Redmarie."
"That's terrible!" exclaimed Redmarie in horror. "The wand has been stolen? Oh dear, oh dear, what is to become of it now."
She said this because everyone in Tricolour Country knew how important it was that the King sent the colours out into the world with his magic wand every morning. The children learned this before they even went to school. The King nodded his head. "So it is. The wand has been stolen. It is imperative that I repeat it. Otherwise, the world will fade and eventually turn entirely grey."
Redmarie shook herself. "Fie, I can't imagine a gray world. Dear King Fabulus, take me with you. I'm sure I can help you get your wand back. I may not be so tall, but I'm handy and I'm brave too. And I can cook well," she added. Too late she noticed that she had not said Majesty but ‘you’ to the King. But the King did not seem to mind, for he did not scold her for that.
"So if you two are going to go and get the magic wand back, then I'll come along, too," a voice sounded from the background. Astonished, the King looked around. Behind him stood another girl. "By thunder, what is going on here? Where do all these girls come from?" he rumbled.
"I am Yellowrose of Yellowland. Actually, I just came to get the dishes. But now that I've heard everything, I want to come along, too. I am clever and brave, too, and my lemon cake is the best in the whole of Yellowland," the girl explained resolutely.
"I'm coming too," declared a boy and stepped forward.
"Let me guess. You're from Blueland and actually only wanted to fetch the dishes," King Fabulus stated.
"That's right, Bluemax, Blueland", said the boy.
"At least you're not telling me you're a good cook too, my boy", grinned the King amusedly. "But you Bluelands have a reputation for not using too many words."
"Blueberry pie", muttered Bluemax.
Fabulus raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Ah, yes, so you are a good cook after all. Especially blueberry pie?"
"Nah, not cooking, eating. Favourite food."
Fabulus clapped his hands. "So now I'd have one helper from each of the three countries? That's really great. I'm sorry, though. I can't take you with me. The journey to the eternal ice will be dangerous and my cousin Shadowraven is an evil sorcerer. I don't even know how to get the wand away from him. However, I must succeed. Even if I wanted to take you three with me, your parents would never allow it. I'm sure they wouldn't. So I think it's best if you take the dishes and go home now. It's great that you want to help me, but I can't."
"Please, I'm sure my parents will allow it if I ask them. Or we won't ask them at all. I've always badly wanted to fly once. If you don't take me with you, I'll never get the chance", Redmarie begged.
"Right, I'm sure I can help you get the magic wand back. Please!", Yellowrose asked.
"Exactly, me too," mumbled Bluemax.
"Enough of this. Go home, you rascals. That's my final word. In fact, I didn't even want you to know I was planning on flying the balloon. I'm going down to the basement to see if that balloon is still usable. I hope so, because it's my only hope of reaching the ice. In the morning I will give a speech to the people in all three countries and explain to them what happened. Until then, please don't mention it."
"Of course not, I'm not a chatterbox. That's what you think, my King," said Redmarie.
"Of course not. I'm as silent as a book," said Yellowrose.
"Never," said Bluemax.
"All right. Then it's all settled. Now get out," smiled the King, pleased that there were such nice children in the land of three colours. Then he made his way down to the cellar.
What he couldn't have guessed was that the three of them would be putting their heads together for a long time yet and making a decision which would have serious consequences.
This is a sample from my book 'Who will save Tricolour Country'
Here is a link to the book: https://www.amazon.de/Who-will-save-Tricolour-Country/dp/3751901493/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅÕÑ&keywords=Angie+Pfeiffer&qid=1585475272&sr=8-2
All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Angie Pfeiffer.
Published on e-Stories.org on 03/29/2020.
More from this category "Fairy Tales" (Short Stories in english)
Other works from Angie Pfeiffer
Did you like it?
Please have a look at: