In Yosemite National Park within walking distance of the sequoia grove where Grizzly the giant redwood tree stands there lives a goat tied on a leash. The leash is a magical leash that can untangle itself from anything it is attached to – the leash has to be this way because the goat is forever getting itself tangled around the tree he is tied to. The goat, called Munch, is friends with a gecko, who goes by the name of Stick. Sometimes it rains on the goat but there is always hay close at hand for him to munch on and so he is content.
One day, however, Munch gets free of his leash and climbs the sequoia called Grizzly to check out the view. Suddenly he is grabbed by the back in the strong talons of a bald eagle who hoists him up out of the tree and away off to her eyrie on one of the highest peaks in Yosemite where she rears her young. His trusty gecko friend is hanging on to Munch’s tail and the three animals flying through the air look quite a sight.
And so it is that when it gets dark, Stick is there to give Munch a piggy back down the cliff from the eyrie until they reach a waterfall which they decide to hide behind for the night. Behind the waterfall is a beautiful cave full of crystals and luminescent algae.
When the pair wake up they realise they are not the only ones in the cave and while they've been sleeping their hiding place has changed into a magical jail with bars made out of stalagmites and stalactites. The goat brays, and if the gecko could blink then he would and then as if their situation couldn’t get any worse who should their jailer turn out to be but the mighty queen of the Sierra Nevada. Chilli, the chipmunk queen, is feared throughout the land and is known to take fearsome revenge on lost travellers if they do not pay her tribute. The queen will curse those unfortunate souls to an eternity of having their feet tickled by feather dusters.
Now a little known fact about Queen Chilli is that she has been plagued for years by weeds ten foot high in her vegetable patch and all she needs is someone to clear them for her and she would be a happy chipmunk, no longer terrible. So imagine her glee when she recognised hiding in her own cave, Munch the goat crowned the Northwest's champion weed clearer for four years running - his capacity to munch through anything from hay to mattresses was talked of far and wide. So in payment for their trespass Queen Chilli set the captives free to start work on the weeds in her vegetable patch, all the while keeping her oh so very ticklish feather duster at hand.
Munch got to work and soon had made good progress in removing the queen’s weeds. But the sun was now high in the sky and the chipmunk queen, who had been up all night casting magic spells to build her captives’ prison, felt her eyes beginning to droop. Meanwhile Munch happily carried on munching through the weeds too stupid to realise his opportunity for freedom. So engrossed was he with his munching that his friend Stick was unable to distract him so the two of them could make their escape.
Once all the weeds were gone, the goat looked around for something else to munch still oblivious to his friends attempts to get his attention. He spotted the chipmunk queen's prize marrows and started to munch through these but soon he had finished off all the marrows and he looked around for something else to munch. He spotted the chipmunk queen's prize greenhouse with tropical fruits from all over the world. He munched his way through tomatoes. He munched his way through raspberries and strawberries. He munched his way through pineapples and pears. And when he had munched his way through all the chipmunk queen's tropical fruit he found her giant hot red chilli after which she was named.
Just as Munch was halfway through munching the chilli pepper, Queen Chilli, the evil chipmink queen, awoke. She awoke to a vegetable patch empty of weeds, yes, but also empty of vegetables! The poor vegetable-less and now very angry chipmunk queen looked around for her feather duster but, you guessed it, that insatiable goat had munched that as well! In a rage the chipmunk flew at the goat, just as Munch was finishing off the last of the giant hot red chilli. And all this time the gecko was swinging back and forth from his friend’s horns trying to make him see the danger and run.
Rumble.
Rumble!
RUMBLE!
Just as the chipmunk took its leap at the goat the goat's stomach started to rumble like a rocket on a launch pad and then just like a rocket the goat shot up in the air propelled by hot wind made by the giant hot red chilli. With the gecko hunkered down on the goat's shoulders, the goat flew through the glass roof of the chipmunk queen's prize green house – SMASH – up, up into the air higher than the tallest sequoia and then began to fall, the wind whistling past them like a hurricane only to land – PFFFF – on the enormous mound of hay as tall as a sequoia that had built up around the goat’s tree while the gecko and he had been away.
Home, sweet home.
THE END
Characters:
Munch the Goat
That’s not something I’m telling you to do! "Munch" was the name of the goat because that was the noise he made when he ate.
Stick the Gecko
The gecko didn't need to have glue put on his feet to get them to stick to things – they did this all by themselves and so this is why he was called “Stick”. Usually this meant he could get his feet unstuck when he walked but even so there was one occasion on which he climbed up on to a helium balloon and the static electricity from the balloon’s surface held him there so firmly that he couldn’t get free again.
Queen Chilli
Queen Chilli grew such fabulous chilli peppers that legend had it they allowed fart powered flight. Few have been brave enough to try one but this changed after Munch and Stick fell into the hands of the evil queen.
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