The Story of Bendalot

One day Handi and Sandi were in one of their favourite places by a mountain stream collecting flowers and herbs and watching all their favourite animals chasing around the woods. It was a glorious day; the sun was high in the sky which was dark blue with flecks of little clouds racing through the sky. As always they were happy and talked excitedly about the next village concert where they would both be playing their wooden flutes.

Suddenly they heard the sound of someone approaching through the woods. It was not a happy sound for the person seemed to be crying and no one cried in Bendalot unless someone had died and even then only for a short while since they all knew that after death was an even happier existence in the next world. The sound grew louder until through the bushes strode a small boy about the same age as Handi. Only to Handi it was a tremendous shock to see this boy for he was standing straight rather than bent and was wearing strange clothes  but what was even stranger was that around his waist he had a belt and hanging from this belt was a shiny metal object which to them seemed to be an oversized  knife. He did not see the children at first for his eyes were full of tears and he was covered in scratches from top to toe which must have come from the branches in the woods and his clothes were all torn .In addition he was dripping wet.

As he entered the small clearing where they sat he looked up and let out a gasp of astonishment which was almost matched by the gasps of Handi and Sandi. Immediately he took the big metal object from his belt and waved it at them. Then he proceeded to shout in a language they did not understand and ran around the clearing with his metal thing racing around the air and crying at the same time. While he was doing this he tripped and fell over a root and the metal thing went flying through the air towards the children. They rushed forward and Handi grabbed it whereupon of course it immediately bent in two. At that the other boy let out a wail and covered his head with his hands in total fear and collapsed on the ground in a faint. He was shaking so much his clothes started to fall off him.

The children were equally frightened but they were also concerned about their new friend (they had no concept of enemy). So they approached the boy and tried to comfort him with soothing words. Sandi went to the stream and filled a cup with fresh cool water which she offered the boy. With some trepidation he took the water and drank it thirstily. Then they gathered some leaves and used these to bathe his scratches. All the time he was babbling in this strange language but bit by bit he calmed down and they tried to communicate with signs and mimes. Gradually they found a way to understand a bit and found out that his name was Brunflor and he came from a place called Stetleburn many miles across the mountains.