Thia

Once upon a time, there was a happy but rebellious girl named Thia. She lived with her parents in a countryside house. The house had a beautiful garden, which Thia used to look after. She used to water the plants, talk to the trees and followed the vibrant colorful butterflies. She built a small artificial pond too.

Once while she was cleaning the pond with a net, she met a small frog. She named him croaky as it used to croak a lot. One day croaky stopped talking and Helen was compelled to find a cure for him, as she couldn’t see him so quiet. One thing which she loved to do, apart from gardening, was reading books. So day and night she looked for a cure for poor croaky. she thought “anything.. to make him start croaking again”. Finally, after a couple of days, she found out there was one and only cure- the sap of a magic jungle plant.

She was about to set in search of the plant, when her brother, George, told her that there was a scary lion which eats anyone it saw. However, Thia was determined to find the cure, hence she ignored George.

As soon as she entered the jungle, her worst nightmare came true. She spotted the lion staring right into her eyes. She realized it was no ordinary lion. It was something she had read in the books about. It was a sphinx. What happened next, sent chills down her spine. The sphinx addressed Thia by her name and roared, “Thia,  where do you think you are going?” Thia stood frozen and could not speak a word.

Just when she was about to say something, an evil magical book appeared out of nowhere. The book was as big as Thia herself. There was no breeze, but the book flipped on its own and opened a page in which there was a picture of a giant. The book summoned the giant. The giant materialized right in front of Thia. Giant stretched its skyscraper long hands and held Thia between his hands. She was shivering like a leaf. Just then the sphinx fluttered its wing and wagged its tail and hit the giant. The giant fell on the ground, writhing with pain.

Thia looked at the book who was standing in one corner. She noticed the plant that she needed to cure Crocky. She caught a vine hanging from a tree and swept to snatch the plant. The book called out the giant to grab Thia. But the Sphinx kicked giant on its back, the giant fell inside the book.

Sphinx flung Thia on its back and flew up in the sky. He dropped Thia right in front of her house. She thanked the sphinx and gave him a hug.

Thia entered the house and applied the sap on poor crocky and he started crocking in no time.

Moral: Appearances can be deceptive.