This story is about two putniks. I suppose you’ve never heard of a putnik? Well, that makes sense. They don’t really like to hang around humans ever since we invaded the forest where they lived. Well, anyway, since you’ve never heard of them, you'll need a description. They are normally around three centimetres tall (almost nearly a metre and a half in putnik measurements) and they are kind of shaped like a small leaf. They are super fluffy and can be all colours of the rainbow. They have big, innocent brown eyes and most of them are afraid of strangers. They have skinny arms and legs. They normally live in bushes or big, hollowed out trees. They also have super jumping power! The first putnik in this story goes by the name of Zongo. He was exactly two centimetres and nine millimetres tall. He was a red putnik who groomed himself regularly. He was out on his daily walk enjoying the warm breeze in his fur and the sunshine on his head when suddenly he got tapped on the shoulder. He whirled around only to see a frizzy green putnik who obviously had never groomed herself in her lifetime. “Hello!” she exclaimed. Zongo, being very afraid of strangers himself, walked away from her, towards his tree. But little did he know, Frizzy Green was following him. Zongo went inside his home and made himself a nice, hot cup of tea. You can imagine his surprise when he looked up from his tea and saw Frizzy Green in front of him, sipping on a chocolate milkshake! Zongo swallowed his mouthful of tea and moaned, “Look. I don’t know who you are or why you are following me, but just tell me what you want with me!” Frizzy Green stopped drinking her milkshake. “I’m Thonny and I've been looking for someone to come and see the outside world with me?” “What?” Zongo laughed. “No way! We’d be attacked by birds and caterpillars and all other sorts of monstrous creatures! Never!” Thonny sighed. “Okay. I’ll go find a cold, hard pebble to sleep on. And if I’m lucky I could eat some mud.” She started shuffling her feet towards the door. Zongo didn’t like to see a putnik in despair. Thonny had just turned the doorknob when Zongo sighed, “Wait.” Thonny turned and grinned at Zongo. “Yes?” “I’ll go,” he mumbled. Thonny jumped up and punched the air. Zongo introduced himself and so Thonny spent the evening with Zongo, helping him pack. Zongo gathered some soft leaves for her to sleep on for the night. The next day they set off, leaving the little putnik village behind. Zongo was starting to regret this more and more. They walked for what seemed like hours until the sun started to sink. “Where are we going to sleep?” Zongo asked Thonny. “In this cave. It seems pretty dry,” Thonny said as she gestured to it. Zongo moaned as he unpacked his sleeping bag. He was much more used to his safe bed in his tree. They had a parsley leaf each for dinner and then they got into bed. When Zongo finally fell asleep he dreamed about hot cups of tea. In the morning they decided to walk further into the rainforest. Zongo and Thonny told jokes to each other and made each other crack up. Zongo was starting to enjoy his decision to come with Thonny. They walked for a bit more until they heard growling.
“What was that?” Zongo asked nervously. “Warties,” Thonny said with bitterness. “WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WARTIES!?!?” Zongo demanded. Thonny scowled. “Warties are gruesome ogres that wear togas and are covered in hairy warts. But don't be scared. They can smell fear.” That didn't help Zongo’s scaredness. The growling became louder and louder until they were surrounded by nine warties, each roughly 100 putnik metres tall (that's 2 metres in actual metres). Zongo yelped and jumped up into a tree and watched Thonny fight. Wow, Zongo thought. She’s amazing with swords. After Thonny had knocked out all of the warties Zongo jumped down from the tree. “You’re really good at fighting warties,” he said with amazement. “Thanks,” Thonny replied. “But we’ve got to get moving. They won’t stay like that forever.” And so they walked off to find some shelter. They couldn’t find anywhere so they made a shelter out of old wooden planks that were lying on the ground. It wasn't bad, actually. Before the sun started to set Thonny spent the rest of the day teaching Zongo how to use swords. Dinner that night was WAY better than parsley leaves- it was PISTACHIO NUTS! Pistachio nuts are considered a delicacy amongst putniks. And sometimes travelling putniks (like Thonny and Zongo) keep the shells to make shelters later on! So that was exactly what they were doing. When the putniks finally fell asleep, they dreamt about the same thing: PISTACHIO NUTS. When they woke up, they decided to go into a swamp because they heard there’s a hut with an old man that sells pistachios. They were too busy looking at the map to see where they were going, so before they knew it, they were halfway up to their knees in sinking mud (which is what we would call quicksand). The two putniks were both FREAKING OUT. Even THONNY didn't know how to get them out of it! They were thrashing their arms around and screaming. They thought they were about to die because they were now up to their fur-covered bellybuttons in sinking mud. But suddenly the tiny creatures got lifted up by a giant hand. Thonny went to thank the person who had just saved their lives but they certainly got a shock when they saw it was a wartie! “Please don't kill us!” pleaded Zongo. “Relax!” said the wartie. “I won’t eat you. I’m a vegetarian wartie. My name is Rex. Who are you?” “I’m Thonny and this is Zongo,” replied Thonny. “Thank you for saving us!” “You’re welcome. Now I’ve got to go,” said Rex as he rushed off. Thonny didn't really know what to say. But Zongo had a LOT to. “Aww,” he groaned. “Now my hair’s all messed up and muddy. What will I do? I didn't bring a brush OR shampoo OR conditioner! This is probably the WORST thing that’s-” Thonny just sighed and pulled him along to the pistachio hut.
When they arrived at the pistachio hut unfortunately, there was no man selling them. But fortunately, there WERE a lot of pistachios! They were just about to go back to their shelter made out of wooden planks, but it was night time and outside was crawling with warties. So they spent that night in the pistachio hut. Before they went to bed, they both thanked Big Spot that the wartie saved them. (Big Spot is the God who putniks pray to.) The next day they trekked off into the desert, avoiding all cacti and possible wartie hiding places. They did nothing much but conserve their energy and talk. If they had anything to talk about, that is. When it was drawing closer to the night, they made a hut out of pistachio shells. Over the next five days they took turns of gathering food so that they wouldn't die of starvation. When they had had enough of the desert, they left to find a new place. On their way, they found a small hole. “Should we jab a stick into it?” asked Zongo, who had become slightly more adventurous. “I will,” volunteered Thonny, reaching for the nearest stick. She jabbed at the hole. For three seconds, nothing happened. Then suddenly the poor putniks were sucked into a sandy whirlpool. After they recovered from the dizziness, they opened their eyes and found that they were on a bridge inside a VERY big underground cave. They were being held at the top of their furry heads by a very hideous wartie. The wartie was walking across the bridge to a giant throne made out of pistachios. (Thonny and Zongo’s mouths both watered at the sight, until they realised they were only the shells.) Occupying the throne was the LARGEST and by FAR the most HIDEOUS wartie Thonny and Zongo had ever seen. He was sleeping, and purple drool poured out of his mouth. The putniks estimated that he was 154 metres (308cm) tall. The wartie holding the putniks plopped them in front of the giant wartie’s very bad smelling toes. “I guess this is the grand wartie,” Zongo whispered to Thonny. Zongo had thought that he would be quiet enough so as not to wake up the grand wartie, but he was wrong. The wartie’s eyes shot open and he let out an ear-splitting roar. “RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” he bellowed. “Who dares wake me from my slumber! I was having an awesome dream! It was about me prancing through the daisy fields...” He grinned, as if he was dreaming of the daisies right then. But then he looked at his feet and his smile melted into a scowl. “So it was YOU!!!!!!!!” He was so angry, you could practically see smoke coming out of his ears and nose. “GUARDS!!!! Kill these fiends!” Zongo and Thonny were in no position to stay put, so they ran like madmen. Or madwomen, in Thonny’s case. The warties were on their heels, while female warties (who were much less warty, maybe one or two warts) knitted scarves and sword sheathes and looked after their babies. (What? All warties have to come from SOMEWHERE.) That gave Thonny an idea. She grabbed Zongo’s hand and used her super jump power to jump over the horde. “What in the name of Big Spot are you-?” Zongo said, flabbergasted.
“No time. Warties. Follow,” Thonny puffed. She swung Zongo over her shoulders (that were way stronger than they should have been,) and raced towards the girl warties. When they got there, they asked politely if they could sit in their laps. They reluctantly said yes, and so for the first time ever in history, putniks pretended to be baby warties. The mother warties covered the putniks in blankets so that they looked more like babies. The warties who were supposed to be killing them were looking for them frantically. Eventually they gave up and went to their rooms. The grand wartie sighed and sulked back to his. When they were sure that the coast was clear, they hopped up and graciously thanked the female warties. “No problem at all,” the mother looking after Thonny smiled. “Would you like to keep the blankets? I made them myself.” Thonny thought about how soft and warm the blankets were. “Yes, thank you,” Thonny replied. Zongo hurriedly stuffed the blankets into his backpack. Thonny grabbed Zongo, who was saying a quick thank you, and jumped through the ceiling to the desert. There was silence, and then Zongo chuckled. This started a laughing fest between the two of them that lasted for fifteen minutes until they calmed down and walked back to the putnik forest. By the time they arrived back at Zongo’s house, it was night time. “Bye!” Zongo said to Thonny cheerily. “I had fun. Thank you SOOOO much for taking me on my first adventure.” Thonny forced a smile. “Yeah. Bye,” Thonny said as Zongo closed the door. Zongo heard a large sigh followed by feet shuffling away. Zongo became suddenly aware that Thonny didn't have a home, because she had told Zongo before that she needed to sleep on a cold, hard, pebble. He quickly ran out the door and caught up to Thonny. “Thonny,” he said. She looked up. “Yeah?” Zongo looked at her with utter seriousness. “Would you like to share my home with me?” he asked. Thonny raced to Zongo’s front door. Zongo smiled. I’ll take that as a yes, he thought. He went inside his tree and made tea for Thonny and himself. The two putniks became best friends and had tea and chocolate milkshakes every day.
THE END