Tales from the playroom
The tale of Inky the Octopus
Every once in a while, when Isabel and Noah are at school, you can catch a glimpse of stuffed animal telling a story to one another. Today you just might hear Inky the Octopus’ story…
.1
‘Once apoun a time,’ says Inky,’ there was a Toy-Maker who lived on the borders of France. He made sublime toys in all different shape and sizes, but no one would buy them. Perhaps they were too poor or maybe they all went to the big toyshop across town, which was run by a very rich man. Of course, none of that all mattered because soon the Toy-Maker grew so poor that he couldn’t run the shop and had to close it. I wanted to help, but there was so little of it that one small Octopus could do and soon all the toys had to leave. I had already made my decision where to go and I wanted to go to the coast.
.2
Inky walked down the cobbled lane towards Waterloo. He had been walking for days and while he had been walking for days he had decided to journey across the sea to Britain. To get to Britain you need a boat and to get a boat you need money and to get money you need to have a job. So Inky decided to get a job in Waterloo.
As he was approaching the town, Inky spotted flags pinned up all around the area. He asked a man what was going on.
‘A battle is coming!’ Exclaimed the villager.
.3
The battle was the Battle of Waterloo and people said it was going to be one of the most famous battles in history. Inky didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what a battle was and he had certainly never been in one. Then he remembered the job.
There were quite a lot of jobs available during the run-up to a battle, though he was too small for all them. He was just about to give up and leave when he found a different job offer. It was making guns for the troops on the battlefield. He took it.
.4
After weeks of hard work over his job, Inky had enough money to travel to Britain. He came out with lots of cuts and bruises, as working in a factory was very dangerous.
He brought himself a boat and set off towards Britain. As he left, he could just about see bombs exploding in the distance, on the battlefield.
‘When I got to Britain Noah and Isabel found me and brought me here,’ explained Inky, ‘Now you know how I got here.’
The end.
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