linda brown usnusal hero

8/20/2019 Linda Brown Usnusal Hero

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About the Author

Linda Brown is a wife, mother and grandmother who has lived in

Solihull, Birmingham for most of her life. She was educated at anall-girls high school where she left with secretarial qualifications.

Her four grandchildren are her inspiration for writing children’s

stories.


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Dedication

For Rebecca, Hannah, Sam and Katie, my inspiration.


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L i nda Brown

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Copyright © Linda Brown (2015)

The right of Linda Brown to be identified as author of this workhas been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of

the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any

form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the

publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims

for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the BritishLibrary.

ISBN 978 1 78455 392 0 (paperback)

ISBN 978 1 78455 394 4 (hardback)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2015)Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

25 Canada SquareCanary Wharf

LondonE14 5LB

Printed and bound in Great Britain


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Acknowledgments

Phil, thank you for believing in me.

And Zoe and Simon, for giving me my grandchildren.


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Chapter One

All too soon, the day Tom had been dreading had

arrived; he and his family were moving house, number

6, Dog Kennel Lane, Ditherington, had been theirhome for the last fifteen years, and even though it was

small for a family of five, it held many happy

memories. Tom was the eldest son of Sarah and Peter

West, a typical eleven year old who had reached that

stage in his short life, where everything seemed so

unfair, and was often heard exclaiming ‘IT’S NOTFAIR’ at most things he was asked to do, and now

moving house seemed VERY unfair.

Tom was average height for his age, with blue

eyes, and his appearance first thing in the morning

could be quite scary as his fine wispy hair always

stood up in different directions. His mom referred to

him always looking as though he had been pulledthrough a hedge backwards, which Tom thought quite

strange, and wondered how many times she had seen

someone actually pulled through a hedge backwards.


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His hobby was collecting super hero comics, and

most of the time, his head would be buried in the latest

addition of Sci-fi Adventures or Captain Napier’s

Island , or one of his favourite adventure books.Mostly, he enjoyed doing as little as possible, unless it

was something that really interested him, or he would

be day-dreaming about doing the things his super-

heroes did. He had an eight year old sister, Daisy (who

according to Tom could be most annoying) and a five

year old brother, Sidney, the latter often referred to as

Mom and Dad’s little surprise. All three children had

been born at number 6 Dog Kennel Lane. Sidney and

Daisy were very excited about moving house, little did

they realise this would mean moving to a different

school nearer their new home. The only good thing

Tom could see was that he would finally get a

bedroom to himself.For the last three years he had had to share with

Sidney, so when the family were able to view the new

house, Tom had been given first choice of the five

large bedrooms, and he had chosen a room with a

view over the large back garden. The exterior of the

house looked very grand; this was no ordinary red

brick building, instead it had been built from grey

stone, and Tom had to admit it made the house look

quite special, but as he walked round the interior with

his parents, apart from its size, it wasn’t No. 6 and that

was all Tom had ever known. Moving away also

meant he would not be able to see his friends after

school.The house had been bequeathed to Tom’s Dad by

an old family friend of whom Peter West had no

recollection, and when the letter had arrived from


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Pervis, Pervis and Motram, Solicitors, acting on behalf

of Miss Silvia Davina Meadows, who had reached the

grand old age of ninety four, Peter thought all his

Christmas’s had come at once. He was a very proudman, who worked hard, and when he was informed of

his good fortune, he could hardly believe his luck as

bringing up a family was proving at times to be quite

expensive, and sometimes being self-employed, he

had no work, and struggled to pay the house-hold

bills. It was now half way through summer, and every

piece of furniture, plant pot, anything not fastened

down was being piled into the removal van ready to be

carried to their new home. They had two dogs, Max

and Ben, and a rabbit called Henry who had hopped

into their garden one day; when no-one came forward

to claim him, number six became his new home. Sarah

West was a slim, dark-haired woman, who lovednothing more than cooking and caring for her family.

She had already decided that the huge garden would

be large enough for her to keep chickens, something

she had always wanted to do, but there had been no

room in their previous, postage stamp-sized garden.

Tom’s dad liked renovating old furniture in his spare

time, and with this house came a large workshop at the bottom of the garden.

Tom and his family arrived at the new house in the

family car just as the removal van was slowly turning

up the long drive where it finally stopped outside the

front door. There were no neighbours peeping through

their windows curious to see what the West familymight look like, or what kind of furniture they

possessed; the house stood all alone, surrounded by

fields, and the nearest neighbour was a quarter of a


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mile away. The front door was surrounded by a brick

archway with the words ‘Oak House’ carved in stone

above the arch. A Virginia creeper covered part of the

exterior wall surrounding the windows, and under thelarge bay window was a flower bed full of pansies,

geraniums, and fuchsias.

Tom realised as he got out of the car and looked

up at the house, he should feel grateful for his dad’s

good fortune, and surprisingly felt a tingle of

excitement, as he walked through the front door.Gradually box by box was carried very carefully into

the house, Sidney and Daisy excitedly running

backwards and forwards with Max and Ben still on

their leads watching the removal men empty the van.

Every piece of furniture was carefully carried into the

room it would now live in at their new address, Oak

House, Little Acorns Lane, Meadowville. After whatseemed like several hours, the removal men were gone

and Tom’s mom and dad were arranging furniture,

setting out ornaments, and hanging pictures and

curtains. Tom tried to help but quickly lost interest; he

would rather be outside investigating the area they had

moved to, and asked his mom if he could take Max

and Ben for a walk. Remembering that moving house

had been difficult for Tom, his mom said, “Okay, but

don’t be too long.”

“I won’t,” replied Tom. “Make it a short walk ,

Tom, we shall be having tea soon,” shouted his dad

from the top of a ladder, as he struggled to hang the

lounge curtains. Sidney and Daisy were happilyinvestigating their new home, and arranging

possessions in their new bedrooms, so off Tom went

with Max and Ben trotting closely at his side. Tom


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remembered seeing a public footpath sign pointing

across a field as they were turning into the drive, so

that is where he headed. Once he was on the footpath

he unleashed the dogs to run free, and after walkingfor several minutes, saw a wooden bridge crossing a

small brook in the distance. ‘This is nice’ thought

Tom ‘it’s much nicer than road walking’. As Tom

approached the bridge two large black crows flew low

across his path, just as if they were looking at this

stranger trespassing on their land. He looked over the

side of the bridge at the shallow water rippling over

the different coloured stones when, suddenly, a large

fish swimming close to the surface, pushed its head up

out of the water and looked straight at Tom. He could

not believe his eyes; it looked just as though it was

smiling at him. It must be my imagination, he thought,

and bent closer to look again but the fish quicklyswam away. ‘No’ he thought, pushing the strange

incident from his mind, ‘fish don’t smile’. The dogs

were running backwards and forwards excitedly

splashing in and out of the water waiting to see which

direction Tom would take, and as he crossed the

bridge he shouted, “Come on, boys, this way,” and

after several minutes he came to a wood which thewater flowed around, and out of sight. Wooden posts

with barbed wire running through the top and bottom

of them surrounded the wood, and Tom could see an

old sign which read, ‘Trespassers Prosecuted’, and

which had started to crumble and had fallen on its

side. Tom was just wondering how many people had

perhaps ignored the sign and been brave enough to

enter the wood, when suddenly a strange feeling made

him feel as though he wanted to enter the wood.


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Maybe it was the excitement of the unknown, or

perhaps wanting to go where it was forbidden. Tom

pushed the thought from his mind and called to Max

and Ben “We can’t go in there, boys, this way.” Tomcontinued walking and could smell the trees and soft

earth permeating the air; there seemed to be something

magical about where he was, making him stop to close

his eyes and breath in the beautiful woody perfume,

but as he opened them, to his surprise, he found

himself standing in front of an old gate, which slowly

opened, tempting him to once again enter the wood.

Tom couldn’t understand why, but his legs moved

towards the gate, they felt as though they had a mind

of their own, and before he knew what was happening,

he was through the gate, moving faster and faster,

Max and Ben trotting to keep up with him. He could

see blackberry bushes and wild ivy climbing up thetrunks of trees. Rabbits had burrowed holes at the base

of bushes, and all around him the air was filled with

wonder and excitement. After a while his legs stopped

and Tom could see he had travelled deep into the

wood. He was excited by the thought of adventure, but

it was excitement mixed with fear, after all, he was

alone with only the dogs for company, and he wassomewhere he had never been before, unsure of what

force had carried him there. Tom sat down to think

what he should do, and Max and Ben lay down beside

him, panting loudly in need of a refreshing drink to

cool their hot bodies. Thank goodness he had his best

friends with him, his faithful dogs would help him

find his way back home, but for the moment he rested

against the trunk of a tree, and tilted his head

backwards and looked up at the tall tree’s many


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branches. The sun’s rays were glistening between the

leaves, casting rays of light down to warm the ground,

and a lovely relaxing feeling ran through Tom’s body,

he felt as though he could fall fast asleep. SuddenlyTom jumped with fright just as if he had seen a ghost.

Peering down from one of the branches was a face. At

first Tom thought he was seeing things again, but as

he looked up into the tree, sure enough there it was

staring down at him. It wasn’t an ugly face, but a face

is the last thing you would think of seeing staring

down at you. Sensing Tom’s fright, Max and Ben

began to bark. “Quiet, you two,” said Tom, and they

stopped and lay back down. Tom looked back up into

the tree and could see the face had moved slightly, and

that it was attached to a small body which was a light

shade of green. Not quite sure what to do, Tom called,

“Hello.” He didn’t want to frighten this strangecreature, so, trying to sound friendly, he said, “My

name is Tom, who are you?” The little creature was

silent at first, then just as Tom thought perhaps he

couldn’t speak, or didn’t understand English, a little

voice said, “My name is Riddle, I am a Pog.” Tom

immediately felt excited, this little creature could

speak. “Will you climb down?” asked Tom, he waseager to see the rest of this little creature. The creature

paused for a moment and then said “Alright, stand

back,” and in a flash he was standing right in front of

Tom. On closer inspection Tom could see that he

looked just like a small man, and was green all over.

He stood about three feet tall, and was wearing clothes

that looked as though they had been fashioned from

leaves and petals from flowers. Tom realised this was

so that he would blend into the wood. “Do you live


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here, in the wood?” asked Tom. “Yes,” said the little

man, “I live in Goritor, a place in the wood unseen by

humans. Pogs are very rarely seen, as most of us are

happy to live in our own world and rarely venture intothe human world.”

“Why are you here then?” ask ed Tom.

“I don’t really know, I just suddenly felt I needed

to be here, and here I am.” The little man did a twirl

on tip toe ending with a little bow. Tom was

fascinated and all trace of nerves disappeared. Hewanted to know more about the Pogs, and this little

man didn’t seem afraid to talk to him, and was quite

comfortable with Max and Ben sniffing at his feet.

“Could I, visit your world?” asked Tom. Riddle

coughed a little nervous cough, this was quite an

unexpected request, and he was unsure whether this

would be a good idea. He was just about to reply when

Tom said, “Oh please, please let me see where you

live, I won’t tell anyone I promise.” Riddle was

unsure of what he should do, but then wondered

whether this was why he had been despatched here.

He looked at Tom and the dogs and said “Very

well, but you must do as I say.” “Yes, yes I will,” said Tom excitedly.

“This way,” said Riddle, and Tom and the dogs

followed close behind. Tom realised they were

travelling even deeper into the wood and after a while

they stopped in front of a huge oak tree. Tom looked

up into the branches; he could see that the tree seemedto carry on for ever disappearing up into the sky. The

trunk looked as if several trees had grown together,

twisting and bending, ending in one almighty Oak.


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The grooves in the thick bark created faces which

gave the impression they were looking disapprovingly

at Tom. Riddle took a small object which looked like

a key out of his pocket and inserted it into a small holein the trunk, it immediately began to glow, and Riddle

mumbled several strange hobble-de gobble-de words,

pushed hard with both hands and the key disappeared.

A doorway appeared and Riddle stepped inside.

“Come on, follow me,” he whispered. Once inside the

tree, it grew very dark, but Tom could smell the

woodland again, it seemed to be all around him. A

bright light suddenly shone in his eyes making them

sting, he closed them fast, then as the light

disappeared he opened them again and before him was

the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. ‘Oh what a

wonderful place this is,’ he thought, the heavy

fragrance of honey-suckle hung all around him. Hecould see brightly coloured flowers, waterfalls spilling

out over rocks into a large lake. Birds chased each

other singing as they flew past him. Butterflies and

dragonflies fluttered over Tom’s head, this was a

magical wonderland. Tom turned to look at Riddle,

but to his surprise Riddle was now the same size as

Tom. Had Tom shrunk? He looked at the dogs, hadthey shrunk, too? Even though he was unsure of what

had happened to him, it didn’t seem to matter; all Tom

was interested in was this beautiful place he had

entered. “Welcome to Goritor,” said Riddle “Come

along, this way.” Tom and the dogs followed closely,

Tom’s eyes were round and wide like gob-stoppers, in

awe of the sight set out before him. Brightly coloured

cottages lined the pathway, fruit trees, and berry

bushes hung full of the largest fruit Tom had ever


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seen. Riddle picked blackberries for Tom to try, and

the dogs lapped at water that spilled from a small

waterfall, and collected in puddles. Soon they were

crossing a bridge which carried them over a small pond where Ducks swimming stopped to look at Tom

and began to quack, Tom knew they were saying hello

which made him laugh. On the other side of the bridge

stood a small cottage with walls draped in large

wisteria flowers. Riddle opened the little door and as

he stepped inside he shouted “Teazil, where are you?

We have company.” Tom could hear a voice in the

distance getting louder as it got nearer saying “Oh yes,

and who is it this time?” and before Tom knew it,

standing in front of him was what he realised must be

a female Pog. She was like Riddle in shape and size,

but her face looked much younger and she wore a

dress made from rose petals with a tiny frilly whiteapron over the top. When she saw Tom and the dogs,

her mouth fell open in surprise and she exclaimed,

“Oh good gracious me what have you done, this

is….is…a being, beings do not belong here, what have

you done, this is terrible.” She sat down mopping her

face and brow with a large brightly spotted

handkerchief, the scene had quite clearly shocked her.You must take them back quickly before there is any

harm done.”

“It’s quite alright, Teazil,” said Riddle “I feel our

meeting was meant to be, after-all they passed through

The Mighty Oak with no problem. Look, the two fur-

covered creatures are called dogs, and do everythingtheir master tells them to do. This is Tom, their

master .” Riddle slid his hand along Max and Ben’s

backs showing Teazil that the strange creatures were


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friendly. “Well I hope you are right, Riddle Pog, I

hope your foolish action will not bring danger to

Goritor .” She stuffed her handkerchief into her apron

pocket, and returned to where she had come fromsaying, “Be it on your head, Riddle Pog.” Riddle

escorted Tom to a seat and said, “Take no notice of

Teazil, she makes a fuss about everything, sit down

and I will get you a drink .” As Tom sat down on a

small sofa covered in soft cushions, he noticed that all

the furniture in the cottage was made from rough

branches (or could they be twigs, as Tom was still

unsure quite how much he had shrunk?) The cushions

were covered in soft silky leaves and the curtains at

the window looked as if they had been spun from pure

silk. In front of a little fire place were two comfy-

looking armchairs with little foot stools in front of

them; he could see that this world he had entered wasnot too dissimilar to his own. When Riddle returned

he handed Tom a cup and as he sipped from it, he

could see it was the cup an acorn grows in. Tom

suddenly realised how small he must be and

immediately started to feel very uncomfortable. All he

could think of now was how he would get back home.

Riddle suddenly grabbed Tom’s arm and began toshake him. Tom was feeling faint and queasy, was it

what he was drinking? His eyes closed and he felt his

body begin to float, what was happening to him?

Suddenly his eyes opened with a start and he could see

his mom’s face looking down at him calling him to

wake up. “Come on, Tom, wake-up you’ve fallen

asleep, it must be all the excitement of the move that’s

tired you out. Tea’s ready downstairs in the kitchen,

come on now or you won’t sleep to-night.” Tom


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couldn’t understand what had happened, had he been

in his bedroom all the time? Had he dreamt about the

place called Goritor and Riddle Pog, or HAD he

ventured into a different world? As he sat up hedecided he MUST have been dreaming, but as he

shuffled his feet into his slippers, he felt something

hard under his foot, he bent down to pick it up and

realised it was a tiny acorn cup!


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Chapter Two

A few days had passed and the West family had

settled into their new home quite happily. Tom hadn’t

given No.6 a second thought, all he could think about

was his strange dream. It had felt so real, he wonderedwhether the wood he had visited really existed, or had

he read about this wonderful place in a book, and then

dreamt about it. Then he remembered his mom waking

him, and this assured him that it most definitely had

been a dream. This decision now strongly fixed in his

mind he ventured out into the garden. Flower beds full

of beautiful flowers, ornate trees, a pergola runningdown the side of the garden draped in clematis mixed

with ornate ivy, and an area of decking for lounging in

the sun; all these filled Tom’s eyes with happiness.

How fortunate his family were to have been given this

wonderful house and garden. He felt so happy,

especially for his father who now was in a far better

financial position, no longer struggling to find the

money to keep the roof over their heads; Silvia

Meadows had been very kind to his family. Peter had

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