The Hero Of Whistle Forest

(I wrote this a few years ago and it is a children's story but adults seem to enjoy it as well.  I would appreciate it if parents could give me an idea of what age range this would appeal to most.)

THE HERO OF WHISTLE FOREST

The sun peeked through a puffy, white cloud as Mira made her way up the familiar green stem to Lily’s silky, pink petals.  “Why don’t you simply fly up here, Mira, instead of wearing yourself out climbing?”  asked Flutter, Mira’s best friend. 

“Oh, I need the exercise, Flutter, my Dear.  Besides, it gives me an excuse to visit Mrs. Toadstool first.  She hasn’t been feeling well since Worly the Worm took a nibble out of her,”  explained Mira as she reached the base of Lily’s bulb.

For those wondering, Mira is a lively ladybug and her friends are Lily, the African Violet, and Flutter, a rather exotic and beautiful butterfly.  Each day Mira and Flutter come to visit Lily to share a tale of the latest adventures in Whistle Forest.  Lily especially looks forward to the visits from her friends since she cannot move throughout the forest and relies on Flutter and Mira to share the latest news with her.

Today would be different, though, because Lily had news of her own to share.  She could hardly wait for Flutter and Mira to arrive and she kept unusually quiet until Mira reached the top of one of her petals.  Then suddenly she could wait no longer and exclaimed, “I have news to share!” 

Flutter and Mira looked at each other with surprise and in chorus said, “You do?” 

“Yes, yes, I do!”  Shrieked Lily.  “Zena, the daffodil from across the pond, passed the word to all of the flowers in the forest to be on alert.  It seems that on the edge of her patch, a person was seen and what happened next was a terrible thing!”  Lily paused for dramatic effect. 

“What happened!  Please, tell us!”  cried Flutter as she flapped her wings with excitement. 

“Yes, Lily, don’t keep us waiting!”  Squealed Mira as she edged closer to Lily’s stamen and pistil - or, her mouth, as it’s frequently called.

“While Zena watched the human with great anticipation, suddenly it knelt by a patch of daisies nearby and did a most horrible thing!  The human wrapped its fingers around a group of the daisies and pulled them right out of the ground!”  Lily exclaimed. 

“Oh, no!  It didn’t do that!”  grieved Mira. 

“I’m afraid so, my friend.  And walked off down the path with the daisies in hand.”  Lily concluded with a tear in her voice.

“My goodness, what are we to do?  Could that human come back, do you think?”  asked a frazzled Flutter. 

“It’s possible, I think.  We’ll have to wait and see,” trembled Lily at the thought of it. 

Mira cried, “What should we do?  We can’t sit around and wait for the human again!  We have to make a plan in case it returns!”

“What can we do?  Humans are much larger than we so what could we do?”  Lily asked without clue. 

“I have an idea,” Flutter claimed with confidence.  “We can send word to the bees, the Queen Bee herself, to ask them for help.  That’s what we’ll do!” 

“But who can plead our case, Flutter?”  Lily questioned this plan. 

“Barney, the Bumble Bee is the perfect bee for the job.  He’s Queen Sasha’s cousin and happens to be a friend of mine, too.  He can get a message to her!  I’ll go right away to find him and he can lead me to her!”  Flutter said as she hurried away.

Flutter dashed from one place to the next to find Barney and finally spotted him at a rose - yellow, it was.  “Barney, Barney,”  Flutter yelled in distress, “please, can you help me?  Can you come now?” 

Barney called without moving at all, “What’s all the fuss, Flutter?  What do you need?”   

Flutter cried excitedly, “Humans have invaded the forest and took a whole family of daisies away.  Pulled them right up with no thought at all!” 

“So, what can I do?  I’m just a bee!”  Barney said sullenly. 

“You can contact your cousin, the Queen!”  Flutter flapped as she yelled.  “I have a plan to run the humans away but I need your help.  Can you come right away?” 

“Okay, if you think we can help, just follow me.”  Barney bellowed and flew, with Flutter following not far behind.  What a sight to see - a little fat bumble bee racing toward home with a blue, red and gold butterfly faithfully in tow. 

Soon they arrived at a very tall tree with a hole in its side.  Flutter waited outside as Barney flew in.  She waited and waited, for hours it seemed.  Then suddenly, out came the Queen with Barney at her side.  Flutter flitted about to show proper respect, then the Queen asked, “What can we do?” 

Flutter explained that she had a plan if the humans returned.  “Since humans and bees don’t really mix, I thought if you could, maybe you would, gather around and drive them away.” 

Queen Sasha circled the tree for a minute or two, then smiled and said, “You know, this could work, if we plan it just right!” 

Flutter squealed with delight and thanked the Queen Bee for her help.  “I’ll go tell the others,” Flutter said then hurried away.

The next day, the forest was more quiet than usual, waiting and wondering to see what would happen if the humans returned.  Their wait wasn’t long when two came along.  They walked straight toward the edge of the pond, right to the place a family of daffodils lived.  As they leaned down with picking in mind, a whole colony of bees surrounded the daffodils buzzing as loud as they pleased.  The humans stood up and moved quickly away as one was heard to say, “We certainly won’t come here anymore!”

The flowers rejoiced and the bees sang full of glee.  The trouble had gone and the forest was free!  Then Mira spoke up and said in a loud, booming voice - for her, anyway - “I think everyone owes Flutter a great big thank you!  After all, it was her plan that saved us all!”  Soon, a roar of applause was suddenly heard as everyone cheered for the hero of Whistle Forest that day!


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