Young Writers Society

Hi! I wrote this story to raise money for B-EAT. I haven't been on YWS in many years, and I'm not sure if people still review things very much here or if it's mainly just about posting work now... but it would be GREAT if I had some insight into whether this is worth £2.50! I'm not sure if it makes sense near the end, you see, and I wouldn't want to waste anyone's money. THANKS ALL :D (bear in mind, there are also illustrations in the actual version.)

Ziva Beaver

Ziva climbed onto the carousel.

“Where would you like to go?” asked the tiger.

“I would like,” declared Ziva, “to go somewhere nice.”

She clambered onto the tiger, and they tumbled through time and space like a washing machine.

THUD.

When they’d landed, the tiger shouted out, “Goodbye!”

He whizzed up into the sky, leaving Ziva all alone in a strange new place. It was full of murkiness and strange, pointed flowers.

“Oh dear,” said Ziva, looking all around her. “I’m lost.”

“That,” said a goblin, peeking at her from the undergrowth. “Is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“What is?”

“What’s what?”

“What’s the silliest thing you ever heard?”

The goblin scratched his head. “The silliest thing I ever heard,” he said, “is that I’ve gone all morning and not been fed!”

“Oh!”

“No, I’ve not eaten all day. Can you believe it?” he said. “Will you join me for tea and crumpets?”

The goblin took Ziva to a secret place, and knocked twice on a secret door.

Secret doors are wonderful things.

When you find a strange, rusty key at the bottom of your knicker drawer, you can bet it belongs to one.

“Who is it?” boomed a voice behind the door.

“It’s me!” squeaked the goblin, jumping up and down. “And I brought a – a – a guest!”

The door opened very slowly.

Ziva looked at the goblin.

The goblin looked at Ziva.

They both stepped inside, and a skeleton came to greet them. He shook her hand eagerly. It was strange, holding such a clammy, bony hand.

“Welcome,” said the skeleton. “Welcome to Horror Hotel. You’re our first guest in five hundred years.”

“We’ve been waiting and waiting,” said the goblin. “But nobody came.”

“I did,” said Ziva. “I’m very happy to be here.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

The little goblin grinned and his cheeks went very red. “Can I get you anything? A glass of wine, perhaps. Or a scone.”

“A scone would be lovely, sir. And a glass of milk.”

****

So Ziva had her bedtime snack with a skeleton and a goblin, and they were very pleased to have her. They kept filling up her glass more and more, and it was the most delicious milk Ziva had ever tasted.

“I’m getting tired,” said Ziva. “But I don’t want to go to sleep, because I want to stay here with you for just a little bit longer.”

“You’re getting sleepy because of the milk,” said the skeleton, who was sat at the head of the table. “I think you need some coffee, dear.”

The skeleton, who seemed to have an ordering-about sort of presence, clicked his fingers, and two cows dressed in pinafores bustled up to him.

Ziva stared, because she had never seen a cow standing upright before.

One of the cows stuck her tongue out at Ziva. It was the most unusual blue colour. Ziva was taken aback. “My dear!” she said to it. “Perhaps you’d better eat one of my red gummy sweets. Your tongue is the wrong colour.”

Ziva was led down hallways underground. Everything looked curiously as though a rabbit had dug it out with its claws – However, it was carpeted with rich silk, and Ziva thought it very warm beneath her toes.

She was just beginning to feel all warm and glowy inside, and the goblin laid her down in bed.

“Would like me to sing you a lullaby?” asked the goblin.

“No thank you,” said Ziva, snuggling down into the soapy-smelling sheets.

She did feel so warm and cosy. Her toes were in slipper socks. What a nice little day she was having. She was thinking about what she would have for breakfast. she hoped it wasn’t anything with milk –

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Five hours later, Ziva woke up.

She was feeling uneasy.

She was in a little little room, and it was dark and smelly. Her bedsheets clung to her because she was sweating -underground tunnels dug out by beavers and rabbits are warmer than you think.

She got up and padded along the passageways, looking for a ghost or a goblin or a skeleton.

She didn’t trust the cows but she trusted the creepy things.

(She was strange.)

Anyway, as I have yet to mention, poor Ziva was not sure whether she was here or there. There was a gentle snoozing snoring sound coming from everywhere; yet she could not see at all.

“I think it’s time to go home now…” Ziva began. “I think it is, indeed…”

She started to run, but it was so dark, so dark… soon, she tripped, and she was sweaty and wondering what on earth to do.

“I think a little nap is in order,” she decided at last. “If only I could find the right way back to my room…”

She felt her way along the walls, feeling very uncomfortable at all of the slugs and spiders and the worms she kept touching. When suddenly –

“Ouch! My nose!”

“Sorry,” said Ziva, turning red. “Do excuse me. I didn’t see you there.” She gave it some thought. “Actually, I’m afraid I don’t see you even now.”

“that’s because you’re not looking hard enough,” said the thing that had spoken. “come on, dear. Look closer. Look closer…”

Ziva had a funny feeling that this would be a bad idea, but she was tired, and her eyes were fluttering; she thought it best to obey. Perhaps she’d find her bedroom quicker, if only she obeyed…

So she reached forward and splayed out her fingers like starfish and felt for this thing that had spoken, but now there was nothing there at all. Instead there was a slide, and Ziva slid down it, but when she got to the bottom there was a room full of glinting knives and chopping boards. The walls were painted red.

“Oh dear, I… I think I might be sick,” thought Ziva, leaning against the wall.

“Don’t be sick,” said the skeleton, coming out of a door on the other side of the room. “Please don’t. I wouldn’t know what to do, if you was sick.”

“I shan’t be sick,” Ziva decided. “As long as you don’t do anything nasty.”

“I would never!” said the shocked skeleton.

He pushed her onto a chair and got a magnifying glass and looked very closely at little Ziva. She was frightened.

“I am afraid I might be sick,” gasped Ziva at last. “If you don’t stop prodding and poking me.”

The skeleton stood back and scratched his head. He whistled, and five ghosts, two cows and a goblin came scurrying in.

“This child is going around the bend,” he concluded. “She needs medicine because she’s obviously very sick.”

“I am not sick!” she protested feebly.

“You are. You just said it yourself.”

“Oh. Yes, I suppose I did.”

“You see! Going around the bend.”

“Which bend?” asked Ziva.

“The one in which you want to stay in a world full of ghosts and scary things, but you don’t want to go to a place with cuddly mothers and warm breakfasts.”

“I want to go back there,” said Ziva at once. “That’s what I want. That’s what’ll make me better!”

“No, dear,” soothed the cow. “You need some medicine, my girl.”

The cow and the ghosts started whipping up a fruit cake; they used blackcurrants and redcurrants and soon the smell of it was wafting around this strange, glinting kitchen.

“Mmmm,” said Ziva.

They fed Ziva some of this cake, and it was indeed very good. It tasted of warmth and pleasant things.

"This cake is your medicine. It will give you what you most need," said the skeleton, leaning in close. "But first it will make your needs be known."

The cake made Ziva feel sleepy. She lay back and gave it some thought.

“I said I wanted to go home…” she began, nodding off. “But I get so sick of school and shouting and cars bleeping. I wish I could stay down here in the burrows with the beavers, even if it is dirty and smelly. Sometimes, I wish I were a beaver myself. It'd be nice and quiet, and I wouldn't have to rush around all day and bother with silly things."

It was the wrong thing to say.

You see, this was a magic cake, and it sent her tumbling through time and space!

She landed with a thud on her mother’s own warm, cosy lap. Ziva breathed her mother’s soft soapy smell. How cosy it was in her mummy’s lap. She snuggled in, cosier and cosier…

But her mummy gave a scream. She spilled hot tea everywhere and ran out of the room.

“How strange,” thought Ziva. “That wasn’t very kind.”

That night, Ziva was very thankful to be home. She usually had a bath on Monday nights, and because she was so filthy, she was looking forward to it!

She poured hot water into the tub, and added the bubbles.

She was just having a nice pleasant yawn. she dipped in her toe and tested the water, when she saw her reflection rippling in the waves and fainted.

(PICTURE OF HER LOOKING INTO THE WATER - SHE'S BEEN TURNED INTO A BEAVER!!!)

THE END.