It was a warm and sunny day in Zaxneba, the small town inhabited by goldfish on the ridge of volcano Mooshie. This was no ordinary day in Zaxneba; this was the day of a thousand years, the one day every millennium where the volcano of Mooshie would threaten to erupt and destroy the goldfish and the town of Zaxneba. This day was not only special for that reason but for another as well. On this day two brave goldfish would be chosen at random to leave the city and venture off to the sea of Woombata to retrieve the eight buckets of magic ink that would stop the volcano from erupting until the next day of a thousand years. These buckets would be filled by the wise old squid Horatio who survived deep down in the murky waters of Woombata. Although this journey was an honour to have bestowed upon you it was no walk in the park for there were many dangers that lay at the bottom of the volcano. Saying this, when Horhay and Victor two brothers from a well known Zaxnebian family were chosen, they couldn’t wait to get the adventure over with so they departed for Woombata at once. Horhay and Victor found no trouble getting down the volcano. It was when they were at the bottom when they faced their first challenge. It wasn’t a challenge that you might expect like fighting a dragon or climbing a 400 foot wall but the challenge put in front of Horhay and Victor was a small, somewhat deformed chipmunk that seemed to have been prowling behind them. Not that this chipmunk was a challenge at all but rather an annoyance so Horhay and Victor decided that they would just tell this little animal that it’s not like they needed any help from its weird looking, rodent self anyways and so they did and the chipmunk was gone… for the meantime anyways. After about an hour of silence Horhay and Victor finally reached their destination, the sea of Woombata. They took in the sights of the gloomy, almost black looking sea as well as the pine tree forest surrounding it; it seemed as though it could go on for miles. After just minutes more of silence Horhay and Victor heard a rumbling sound coming from the sea and suddenly the most enormous, horrible looking creature emerged from the depths; it was Horatio, the giant squid. Horror-struck the two adventurers slowly began to back away from the monster, when suddenly he called out to them;

“You there, are you the chosen ones sent here to save your city of Zaxneba?”
“Y-y-yes, we are.” Stuttered Victor
“Well then you have reached your destination, I have here for you the ink you need to save your precious land.”
“Th-thank you oh wise one.” Replied the fish, still in disbelief of what they saw.
Horhay and Victor steadily started to approach the squid, who also seemed to be coming up onto the sandy shores of Woombata. The squid, with its eight jell-o arms placed the buckets of ink that would save the land of Zaxneba at the feet of the adventurers.
“These are the buckets you need to empty into your volcano of Mooshie before sundown today. If you don’t the city of Zaxneba will be lost in the fiery magma of Mooshie forever.”

“But how are we supposed to get these buckets of ink back to the volcano in time? We cannot carry all eight buckets all the way up to the ridge where our city is.”

Before Horhay and Victor received their answer, the wise old squid had already disappeared back into the depths of the sea, only to emerge again on the next day of a thousand years. That is, if the adventurers of Zaxneba could get the ink back to save the city in time. Although they were a tad flabbergasted by the fact they had to get all these buckets back to the volcano and then up it, in less than 4 hours, Horhay and Victor knew they couldn’t let their city down and so they got to work, trying every possible way of transporting the buckets. They tried putting the buckets on their heads and carrying one under each arm. Then they even tried hanging all the buckets over a vine, but they didn’t get far with that one either. After about two and a half hours, all these attempts at transporting the buckets had gotten them to the bottom of the volcano and that’s when they saw the one thing they really didn’t need, Winky, the annoying little deformed chipmunk. Of course while Horhay and Victor were trying ever so hard to get the buckets up the volcano without spilling them that stupid little chipmunk was trying to talk to them through motions of his stubby arms. Horhay and Victor had no idea at all what the little freak was saying, so they continued with their attempts for about another hour (and of course, so did Winky.) Finally, the fish got so annoyed with this chipmunk distracting them from their work, (which was literally a life or death situation) that they decided they would try to understand what he was saying. With three rapid arm movements to the left, and then a run towards a large, spiky rock Winky got the fish to follow him, and that’s when they saw the cherry on top of their adventure, a wooden wagon, just big enough to fit all of the buckets! Horhay and Victor were so relieved about this magnificent find and so thankful to Winky, that they actually invited him to attend ‘the dumping of the ink’ that is… if they made it in time. Our adventurers, now a threesome only had half an hour to reach the top of the volcano before sundown, and so, they departed. Up the volcano, dodging falling rocks and rather weird looking animals only to find a horrible sight, when they got back into the city, all the other goldfish were scurrying around like mice trying to get out! The volcano would erupt any second, they had to hurry!! Sprinting like cheetahs our three adventurers flew by the townspeople towards the angry volcano. It was boiling like no one had ever seen; shooting fiery red sparks out every which way, threatening to erupt any second! Without any time to carefully pour each bucket in, Victor, Horhay and Winky used all their might to pick up the whole wagon and hurl it into the volcano, but it was too late. The lava was shooting like crazy out the top, nothing could stop it now, Horhay and Victor had failed themselves and the people of Zaxneba, when suddenly just before Horhay, Victor and Winky could run, a miracle happened. The squirting lava was sucked back into the volcano of Mooshie just like spaghetti, they had done it! They had saved the city! After the people of Zaxneba came out from hiding under rocks and behind tree stumps a ceremony was held in honour of Victor, Horhay and of course Winky to congratulate them for saving the city. After this day of adventure Victor and Horhay promised never to have anything to do with squids or volcanoes again, and so they ended up started their own wagon making business. As for Winky, well he is now the president of his own company, ‘Rapid Hand Signals Really Do Help.’

THE END :]