I think I also need an illustrator!
How the elk
got his tattoo
A long time
ago, three years ago, deep in the forests of central Sweden, lived a family of
elks. There was Mama Elk, Papa Elk, Peter Elk and little Stina Elk.
Peter and
Stina were very fond of eating the berries that grew on bushes all over the
forest floor. They started in June with wild strawberries and when they were
finished, the blueberries were ready. They ate the berries and stuck their
bright blue tongues out at each other.
Mama Elk sighed and told them to stop doing that before their father go
home, so they went out into a clearing and stuck their blueberry tongues out at
the crossbills instead.
After the
blueberries, the lingon berries were ripe.
They were bright red and so sour the berries made Peters’ and Stinas’ eyes
cross! That made them giggle.
One day at
the end of October, Peter and Stina found a mound of strange, oval, hard, brown
berries, a fire stone ring and an old grinder box on a beach. They had never seen brown berries before, so
Peter licked them. A tingle ran up his tongue and down his back and out of his
tail. He was so surprised; he sat down
right on the old fire place. Some of the coals were still hot! Ooof, up he
jumped and his long spindly legs went up in all directions and he landed on the
coals again! Stina laughed and laughed so much she fell over too.
When they
got home, Mama Elk cleaned Peter’s burns and put dock leaves on them to help.
Papa Elk said that the brown beans were called coffee and said that Peter’s
burns looked just like the beans. Peter
looked at his burns. “Oh, what a pretty
pattern” exclaimed Stina, “they make you look different”. Peter felt quite proud and started to parade
around the forest showing all his friends, who got quite jealous. Their mums and dads were not so pleased
though! And that was how the elk got his
tattoo.
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