Darling, can't you fall asleep? Vision story competition, category up to 12 yo

in #writing3 years ago (edited)

-Darling, can't you fall asleep?
-No, mummy, what shall I do. My eyes just don't close. Shall I count sheep in my mind? But I can't envision them. It's also too boring.
-Lets think something that is not so boring. Shall we count elephants?
-I thought it has to be sheep.
-Don't worry darling. there are no set rules for this activity. Ok, lets not count. I will tell you a story about a little elephant.
And a boy?
-Yes. The story about Ele the little elephant and a Boy. Now you try to imagine them.
There once was a small elephant. He loved his family, never quarreled with it and never offended anyone.
The elephant loved travelling, when he proudly walked with all the other elephants through the savannah, holding on his mother's tail. Mother elephant explained they were on the move to escape the drought. Drought is when there is no water at all and nothing to drink. Mum tenderly called our little elephant - Ele.
Although small elephant liked his herd, he was a little sad that he was surrounded only by adults because he wanted to play with his own age group.
Then one day Ele met his first friend. The herd of elephants finally found a suitable green place near the muddy river where they could easily walk down to the waters.
Little elephant liked to exercise his trunk pulling sweet fruit from the trees. Then he noticed a monkey eating a banana. This was a strange almost hairless monkey with only long brown hair matted on his head. Ele realized that it was a child.
With curiosity what was actually a human boy approached the little elephant. He smiled at elephant, looking straight into Ele's big eyes, then began to stroke his back, quite nicely by the way. Elephant liked it very much, he even closed his eyes with pleasure. Ele decided to repay the boy and picked him a juicy fruit from a nearby tree. In return the boy gave him a big hug and palted his floppy ears.
They both had so much fun that even after Ele returned to his herd they both never forgot their friendship.
-Did they always remember each other.
-Yes they did. And they met again when the boy was grown up.
-It was a good story. But I still don't want to sleep.
-Ok. I'll tell you another. This one will be called Hedgehog the fisher.
-Is it because he likes to fish? But do hedgehogs fish?
-Shh. Just listen:
One hedgehog had a hobby - fishing. Of course, it was a little strange hobby, because all the other hedgehogs prefer to gather apples on their needles. They only snorted once again seeing Hedgehog the Fisher with his fishing rod. They said to him: "It's not how it should be. No decent hedgehog will be lounging for hours near the water. The hedgehogs sleep during day, don't you know". But our hedgehog just shrugged his shoulders and did his thing. I will tell you his secret. He wasn't really fishing at all!
Little hedgehog liked to sit for hours on the beach, putting the bait, that didn't even had a hook. He enjoyed looking on the moving clouds in the sky, the ripples on the water, and to dream.
But once his serenity was interrupted by an octopus accidentally came there with high tide. Hedgehog was not afraid of Octopus even it was so big. He just helped new mate to return home to the ocean. Sometimes hedgehog thought about his friend when watched waves lap against the shore.
-I feel more asleep now, - said the boy yawning.
-Shall we put on some sound of waves, so we could think about hedgehog fishing.
-That would be nice, - said the boy whose eyes started to close.- It's nice we can imagine things, is it not.
-Yes, it's good to visualize thing that are not actually there. Just see them in our mind. Our imaginations can take us places we've never been to. Just like a dream. So sleep, my darling.
-Maybe while I'm falling asleep you tell me one more story. I like the sound of your voice.
-Once upon a time there were three friends. Pig Oinky, Dog Woof-Woof and Cat Meow who lived in Old England. They were very loyal friends and always there for each other. One day a mysterious old man came to them and gifted a book. The book was magical. After opening the book...
-Zzz...

PS My kid created all those characters in imagination. Cheers to that :)