Fred's snow day!

Fred's Halloween Adventure Part 9

Home Safe and Sound

The journey back from the castle was frightening and rushed but not too eventful. They were all filled with fear and for Fred everything seemed to rush by.
It wasn't until Fred was sitting in his room with the door locked and chatting to his new friends that Fred really realised that he was finally home, safe and sound.
"Phew!" said Fred, "What an adventure!"

"Hooray!" said Teddy, the munchkin pumpkin and the little creature he'd rescued, in unison.
Fred felt very happy to have some new friends, and he hoped they'd stay.
"So little creature, what's your name?" Fred said to his newest of friends.
"Terry, my name is," said the little creature with buttons for eyes, "I got caught in the castle looking for my family and they locked me up. I've a huge family and they're all over the place you see, and we're all called Terry. But I miss them"
"Oh dear," said Fred, "is there anything I can do?"
"You rescued me Fred! Can we be friends?"
"Absolutely!" said Fred, realising he'd found a friend as lost as he is.

The End

Fred's Halloween Adventure Part 8

The Rescue
Fred and the bunny sat squished inside the glass cage watching the chicks watch them. Then there seemed to be some kind of drama and they all lined up and ran off.
"Hmm" said Fred, wondering what was going on.
"Now's our chance!" said the pink bunny rabbit, looking around with sharp eyes.
"But how do we get out?" asked Fred.
"Maybe we can push it over..." replied the bunny and they both put all of their weight against one side of the glass.
Fred even stood up as tall as he could in order to try to topple it, but no luck!
Breathing hard the sat down again disappointed.
"We need someone on the other side of the glass," said the bunny just as they heard a noise outside the cage.
Fred peered through the low light and saw two sets of little bunny ears poking over a stack of old books.
"Psst" they whispered, or so Fred supposed as he couldn't hear well.
Carefully, keeping a careful watch two little grey bunnies in equally little, ill-fitting clothes, crept out and stood in front of the glass cage.
"Right, lets do this quickly!" said the little girl bunny to the little boy bunny in and urgent whisper.
All at once they got their paws under the edge of the glass and Fred and the pink bunny pushed against the other side.
It was enough and the glass toppled over, freeing the trapped bunnies.
Luckily it didn't shatter.
"Hooray!" declared Fred, glad to have the bunnies on his side.
The little grey rabbits hugged the pink bunny and Fred realised that there was a whole group of bunnies in hiding, but who were there to rescue not only him, but the other poor creatures trapped in the castle.
"We'd better be quick!" said the pink bunny, "they might come back soon, and there is no way I'm leaving without completing my mission!"
So after agreeing enthusiastically that he would help, the bunnies split up and each went quietly round the room from hiding place to hiding place, trying to find and rescue the poor experimented on creatures.
The little grey bunnies were very good at this, what with being so little and quiet, and they soon each found a creature.
They helped the migraine suffering one, which had a bolt through its head, and the big hairy one clambered over to the entrance.
They had decided to gather there so they could keep watch whilst the others looked.
Also for a quick exit.
Soon enough they had the key people too, and as the gathered by the door someone warned "something's coming!"
Everyone hid, but peered out to see what it was.
It was just the white rabbit!
They all scampered out again and the white rabbit said "Sorry I'm late, I realised what was happening and managed to distract the chicks. they're at the other side of the castle, they think I'm barricaded inside the top tower! But we'd better be quick!"
So he helped too and soon enough all the creatures had been rescued and were all assembled in a secret spot by the door.
"Hooray!" said Fred, glad that things had worked out.
"Don't get excited yet Fred, we've still to get out of the castle. I won't be happy till we get to the safe-house,"  said the pink rabbit.

"Yeah Fred, its not wise to count your chickens before they've hatched," said the white rabbit.
"That's a very distasteful joke, considering what we've all been through."
"Sorry, pinky, I wasn't thinking."
"I just don't ever wanna see another chick let alone hear about them."
"But sometimes you've just gotta laugh at it all."
"Alright, alright, lets get out of here," said one of the little grey sylvanian bunnies.
As they struggled and limped quietly to the door, the pink bunny looked around to make sure everyone was there, and noticed Fred off in a corner.
"C'mon Fred, we're going, hurry up, we need to be outta here before the chicks come back," he said.
Fred looked up in surprise and said "coming now!"
Fred had heard a rattle inside a little jewellery cabinet, and although at first afraid, he remembered the lucky key that was around his neck.
Fred had learnt today that if you're cowardly and ignore your intuition, you'd be haunted by what if's and the squirmy feeling in your stomach would make you worry endlessly.
Far better to know and be scared than not even try, thought Fred and rather fearlessly he took the key and put it in the lock.

It fit!
Fred opened the cabinet and out peered a tiny little creature with two big button eyes.
"Hello," whispered Fred.
"Hello," said the little thing in a little voice, "help me, I want to come too! Don't leave me here, please!"
It was just at this point that everyone was leaving and the pink rabbit was calling after Fred.

So Fred said "ok!" and snuck the creature into his bag.
As Fred left the eerie room cluttered with mysterious objects, aglow with beautiful candlelight, Fred hoped that after all this, hopefully, he had found himself, his place and some real friends.

Fred's Halloween Adventure Part 7

It all goes horribly wrong.
As soon as Fred stepped into the cluttered, candlelit room of the castle he knew something wasn't right.
The creatures had gone.
Had they run away?
Fred had an awful feeling in his stomach that the creatures were still there but had gone back into their hiding holes.
What had scared them?
Fred had the strangest feeling he was being watched.
Fred heard a noise and knew he must get out of there, it had been a mistake to come back.
It was too late.
Fred half turned to leave but suddenly everything went black.
Fred fell to the ground with a soft flump.
He'd been knocked out.
The little chicks swarmed over him, pinning his arms and legs in case he woke up and tried to move, but whatever they had hit him with, he was out cold.
"Ha ha!" shouted the Easter chicks, "Down with the bunnies!" they started chanting.
"Now, now, that's enough boys," said a much larger fluffy yellow chick, "calm down till we get this bunny under lock and key, then we can celebrate!"
Then to a little blue chick he said "Now that's how its done, Bluey. Simple-like."
"You wouldn't have done it without me setting it up, Yells," grumbled Bluey, the little blue chick.
"True, true, thanks for that..." responded Yells, walking off to take command.

Bluey watched him walk off, knowing fine rightly that he'd get all Bluey's credit. A flash of anger rose up, but he knew that it was this passion, this over-excitement, and wildness that had stopped him being second in command, so he took a deep breath and helped ready the glass cage.

When Fred woke up he was sitting upright, his head hurt, his face was pressed against something cold and everything sounded muffled.
Fred slowly opened his eyes, thinking "how hard did I hit my head? What happened?"
Fred looked around and realised he was now trapped inside a glass cage, he could see out but he couldn't escape, and his arms and legs were tied anyway.
"Wha...?" Fred began but as soon as he spotted the little Easter chicks dancing around his cage, he just sighed.
"Typical," he said to himself. Fred had been captured a few times by these creatures and by this point he was so sick of it. If it weren't genuinely frightening, he'd have been rather bored.
Fred heard a muffled voice above his head and looked up.
"Typical" Fred said again.
There atop his glass cage was the little blue chick that had repeatedly been bothering him with threats and warnings.
It jumped about obviously very happy to have captured him.
It looked like it was trying to say something to him but its speech was too muffled through the glass and Fred couldn't decipher any of the words.
Fred was so fed up and so tired from his adventures that he rested his head against the glass again and closed his eyes.
As far as Fred knew, there was no way to escape and nothing to do until they chicks made some kind of move.
Before Fred knew it, exhausted he fell asleep.

Fred awoke again when there was movement and he looked around to see the pink rabbit being thrown into his cage as well.
They were too quick, there was no chance to escape.
Fred sighed and said hello to the bunny. "I finally caught up with you then," he said.
The pink rabbit was very angry and shouted at Fred for not passing on the message that would've warned the bunnies that the chicks knew about their plan to break into the castle, and that they were assembling there to launch a counter-attack.
"Oh," said Fred, "So that's what it meant."
The pink rabbit was still very angry, especially as there was no room to move inside the glass prison.
In an attempt to defend himself, Fred asked him all the questions he'd been meaning to.
"It's all fairy stories, Fred! we don't steal eggs, its a human tradition. We're barely involved, just there for decoration. In fact the bunnies and chicks used to live harmoniously at Easter. Its just the chicks feel unappreciated so they're always angry and someone fed them these stories. Its got to the point now where they wholeheartedly believe it and they're on this crusade to 'right the world'."
The bunny sighed and sat down.
"That's when they started to experiment," he said.
Fred sat in horror whilst the bunny described how the chicks(or whomever was in charge of them) had been trying to make creatures of war. Instead they had created poor melancholy things, the ones Fred had seen earlier, that were incapable of fighting and horribly maltreated, so they hid in dark corners.
"You were going to rescue them," said Fred, cottoning on.
He now felt awful that he'd not helped the creatures himself, and now here he was trapped and entirely uncertain of his fate.
"I guess you're a proper bunny now, eh?" said the pink rabbit, watching the chicks surrounding them.

Fred's Halloween Adventure Part 6

The Creatures Crawl out of the Darkness

Whilst Fred was distracted by the the munchkin pumpkin bouncing about with his new happy bunny face, he didn't notice the movement in the shadows of the room.
Suddenly it seemed, from out of nowhere creatures were moving towards them.
Fred was shocked and surprised, and as they came to the edges of the shadows, Fred started to feel rather frightened.
The creatures crawling towards them seemed malformed, one was just a hairy mass that blocked out all light and created huge shadows, one seemed to have a bolt through its head, crippled by the pain it caused and two shy creatures supporting each other seemed to have keys for limbs.
"Heerrppp" groaned the one with the bolt, inching itself closer and closer.

 Fred wasn't sure what to do.
The creatures were so scary and coming closer and closer.
"Were they friendly or were they of ill intent?" thought Fred to himself.


He looked at the pumpkin to try to decide what to do and realised the poor thing was shivering with fear and had turned round to his sad scared face.
"Fred, I don't want to stay here any longer, its so scary! Can we just run away?!"
"Okay" whispered Fred back, despite his indecision he had to do the best for his new friend, the pumpkin.
Fred gathered him up, grabbed his bag and made a run for it.

The little pumpkin wailed as they ran, but soon enough they were out in the fresh air atop a turret of the castle.
Tired and out of breath, Fred put the wee pumpkin down and sat down to catch his breath.
"Phew" said the pumpkin, "I thought they were going to get us"
"Hmm," said Fred, " I'm not sure, it sounded like that creature was asking for help, now I think about it."
"And they seemed fairly helpless, I mean what could they have really done to us?"
"Oh I dunno," said the pumpkin, "that big hairy one looked pretty scary to me."
"Hmm," said Fred thinking to himself, and feeling racked with guilt. What if they'd needed his help? thought Fred. What if they're just like me? A confused, mixed up sort of creature, neither one thing nor the other.
Fred couldn't stand it any longer.
"I have to go back," said Fred to the pumpkin, resigned now.
"But what if they hurt you Fred?" said the pumpkin, still wearing its scared face.
"I'll be ok." Fred replied "I need to know the truth, whether I could help them. And I still didn't find out about the pink rabbit and the chicks."
"Okay Fred, I'll wait for you here and keep an eye out. Good luck!" shouted the pumpkin nestling into a neat hidy hole, where he wouldn't be seen.
With that Fred went back again into the castle, unaware of what may befall him.

Fred's Halloween Adventure Part 5

Inside the castle

Once inside the castle walls, Fred soon found the main entrance, the doors wide open and emitting a strange glow. Fred entered and was amazed by what he saw.
The room was full of ancient objects and mysteries, all layered up and piled on top of each other, with thousands of candles littered about.
Fred knew he ought to be scared as anything could be lurking in this place, but under candlelight the room seemed rather beautiful.
Fred had a good look about but he couldn't see any obvious entrances and exits in this room, other than the one he came through, and the pink rabbit was nowhere to be seen.
"Where could he be?" thought Fred.
Fred spotted a small bird and wondered if he was nice and friendly, perhaps it might tell him of the location of the secret entrances.
"Hello?" said Fred to the little kiwi.
It didn't move a muscle.
Fred wasn't sure if the poor thing was too frightened to talk to him or if he maybe spoke another language.
"Erm... kia ora!" he said, trying to remember some Maori "Kei te pehea koe?"
The Kiwi seemed to blink at that, but still said nothing. "He must be very frightened!" thought Fred, concerned that maybe he should be more frightened too...
Soon Fred did find someone who would talk to him, a dainty little fairy trapped inside a globe.
She looked rather content trapped in there but I suppose she was quite safe.
Fred leaned in desperately trying to hear what she was saying to him, but couldn't hear anything through the glass. Fred was disappointed and waved goodbye to the little fairy, and kept on looking for more creatures to talk to.
Soon Fred found an elephant whose belly was intricately carved so you could see a baby inside.
"Hello" said Fred, hopefully.
"Oh hello dear," said the elephant.
Hooray, thought Fred , then saying aloud, "I don't suppose you know where the pink rabbit is, do you?" Fred asked politely.
"The pink rabbit?" said the elephant, "Now let me remember. I think I saw her today, but where she went I've no idea! All my time's taken up with this little one, constantly distracting me."
Almost to prove this point, the baby elephant started whining, and she had to attend to it. Fred sighed and continued on.
Soon enough Fred came to a pool of water and he sat down and looked into it, hoping to find some answers.
Fred sighed again and thought miserably about how it was possible to come through so much struggle only to reach the castle and, having found nothing, to just sit about hoping for answers.
 Whilst Fred was lost in his melancholy thoughts, a voice roused him, shouting "Oi!"
Fred looked up to see a pumpkin glaring at him angrily.
"Do you give up so easily, bunny? Don't be such a wimp! Are you just a waster, you useless, good for nothing?" the pumpkin said quieter but still angrily.
Fred was rather offended by this and asked the pumkin "Why are you being so mean? You don't even know me! Its very rude!"
At this the pumpkin swivelled slowly round to reveal a new face, and burst into tears.
"I'm so sorry!" it said " I don't mean to be mean but its easier than being sad most of the time. I've only got two faces, so that's the only moods I can choose from!"
Fred was no longer angry with the pumpkin, and in fact felt rather bad for it. "It must be tough being a pumpkin," he said.
"You've no idea!" the pumpkin sobbed out.
 Suddenly Fred had a great idea.
"I've got a plan, little pumpkin." he said.
"I'm a munchkin pumpkin," said the pumpkin sadly.
"When I felt really sad, or was acting out because of it, I made myself feel better by putting on a happy face."
"How can I do that?" asked the pumpkin.
"I've just the thing!" said Fred, as he helped the pumpkin over to where he left his bag.
Fred took out his knife and the pumpkin shivered.
Fred said "It might hurt a little bit..." and taking his knife he started to carve a happy bunny face into another side of the pumpkin.
Fred paused, wondering if this was the right thing to do, and whether the spookiness of the castle had hypnotised him into doing something rather cruel and menacing.
Fred asked the pumpkin if it was okay.
"I'm a pumpkin, I'm used to it by now!" snuffled the munchkin pumpkin.
Fred continued, comforted by this and soon enough the pumpkin had a happy bunny face, and bounced about on the spot, glad to have discovered another mood, but one that was far more enjoyable!

Fred's Halloween Adventure Part 4

How to Charm a Curious Cat
Almost there, but there was one last major challenge: the cat guardians of the castle entrance.
Fred wondered what he had in his bag that would help him.
He stopped behind a tree whilst he conjured up a plan.
"OK so if they are cats and I'm a bunny, how am I to get past? Would they try to eat me?" Fred had memories of past experiences with cats that hadn't gone too well...
Being a bunny is probably not the best idea in these circumstances...
"I know!" Fred whispered, almost forgetting himself and his location.
Fred took out the big sunglasses he had brought, looked at them thoughtfully and put them on.
"I wish I had the mirror now", he murmured, suspicious of how unconvincing his disguise was.
Hoping for the best Fred snuck out from behind the tree and approached the two cats guarding the entrance to the castle.
"Hey" said Fred, trying to sound relaxed like he was supposed to be there, and also not a bunny.
Fred held his breath as the cats turned to look at him, absolutely cool as cucumbers.
"No one is allowed through," said the blue cat, "Go home."
Just as Fred was about to try to reason, the yellow cat spoke up, "Wait!" she exclaimed.
"I think he's famous!"
"What?" replied the blue cat, then turning to Fred asked him: "who are you?"
"Wait!" said the yellow cat again, "Let me get it!"
"I know you! I'm sure of it!"
Fred just smiled enigmatically and waited whilst the excited little yellow cat rabbited on,
"I know you I'm sure of it! Let me get it, let me get it. I swear I'll remember."
The little yellow cat was bouncing up and down, full of excitement and asking him strange questions trying to work out how she knew him, "Holby, you were in that?" "are you sure?" "Emmerdale! That must be it!" "No? Are you a singer?"
Fred was starting to quail under all this attention, and was not getting any closer to getting into the castle.
Faining apathy, Fred had a look in his bag again, trying desperately to come out with a plan B.
Fred smiles and brings out the harmonica, "Yep I'm a musician, maybe you'll recognise me once you hear one of my songs?"
The Yellow cat practically jumped out of her skin with excitement, "He's gonna play us a song! Us! This is like a world exclusive!"


At this point Fred started to play the mini harmonica,
playing a gentle lullaby.
Slowly but surely, the song lulls them to sleep.
Fred took away the harmonica from his mouth and smiled, hooray! he had charmed the cats and now could finally get past them.
"Bet the pink rabbit is long gone by now though!" said Fred to himself.
Fred gathered his belongings and feeling his stomach squirm and tighten, withdrew the knife he had brought for emergencies.
Fred went over to the big heavy door and tried to open it, but soon discovered that it was shut tight and no matter what he did it wouldn't budge. Fred sighed, "another obstacle! Didn't think it would be this hard..."
Fred looked up at the high outer wall, thinking, and noticed that the wall was rather crumbling with bricks missing here and there. He knocked the wall heavily, but it seemed quite  sturdy still.
"Right!" said Fred "looks like I'm climbing!"
Fred threw his bag over first and then began the climb up the wall, taking his time, aware of the big drop below.
Soon enough Fred reached the top.
Checking the coast was clear on the other side, Fred took a deep breath and climbed down into the dark shadows of the castle.

Fred's Halloween Adventure Part 3

The Climb
With everything prepared Fred left the comfort of his home and headed back towards the castle and the steep cliff.
Standing in front of it, the castle loomed high overhead, burning against the cobalt blue sky, Fred was no longer so nervous, in fact he was rather intrigued by the mysterious castle.
Fred felt the first rushes of adrenaline through his blood and almost relished this challenge.
"Right," whispered Fred, "lets get this done."
Fred moved over to the entrance to the rocky path and came across his first obstacle.
Two rather large owls sat in the way, one perched upon a log on the ground, the other atop a supernaturally large mushroom, both glaring at him with unblinking amber eyes.
Fred approached them and spoke to the white owl, whose feathers seemed to give off a ghostly effervescence in the twilight, "hello?"
The owls just continued to glare, but slowly blinked their eyes at him.
Realising they had no real interest in him, Fred edged past them and began his ascent to the castle.
No sooner than Fred had began clambering up the steep incline, than he was accosted by a colony of bats.
They fluttered around his head and Fred threw himself to the ground, terrified.
It seemed to go on forever and bat after bat flew past Fred's head.
Eventually it grew quiet and Fred saw that the bats were not so big after all, in fact they were cute and fluffy. Fred felt that if he could fly, he could almost be a bat.
So Fred didn't feel so frightened now, but looking around Fred had thrown himself off into a valley and now was not so sure where he was.

"I know!" said Fred, and he hoked about in his bag, looking for...
...a compass! "Brilliant" said Fred, chuffed that he had remembered to bring it.

Fred took a wee seat and studied the compass. "Hmm" thought Fred, "if I can see the well from here, and the castle is north from that, then I must go... in that direction", and he pointed uphill to the left.

Fred started off in that direction, but had to be careful because he came right to the cliff edge and stumbled a little, almost falling in.
At this point Fred looked over the edge and was horrified by what he saw.
A glint of white, little pieces contributing to make up one grotesque reminder of Fred's dangerous journey: a skeleton.
As Fred peered down the cliff to the rocky bottom, he saw two more skeletons splayed out in a violent manner evocative of their untimely death.
But how did they die? thought a shaking Fred.
The cliff was dangerous, yes, but he didn't think anyone'd be silly enough to fall over the edge.
Something far more dark and dangerous was at play here, which filled Fred with a great terror.
Fred froze.
When he had set out to follow the pink rabbit, Fred had been scared but not once thought that he might die.
He didn't want to walk any further.
Fred sat down, opened his bag and looked for something that would comfort him.
Fred's hand slipped across the edge of the mini bible and he pulled it out, wondering if it would help him.
Fred opened the book at a random page, just where it fell open, and read a line, "So death isn't the end?" he said hopefully.
Being only a bunny, Fred didn't know much about religion, but he felt so relieved to be reassured that he would never be just a skeleton lying at the bottom of a cliff.
Phew, he thought, and he steeled himself for the next part of his journey.

Fred's Halloween Adventure Part 2

Fred gathers his courage.

Fred decides that if he is going to attempt to conquer the castle, he would need to be prepared.

So he goes home and gathers together all the things he think will be useful.

Looking over his assemblage, Fred felt daunted by his task, but he took a deep breath, gathering his courage and thought about what he would need each object for.


Weapons: a knife, a giant safety pin and a cheese grater.

Disguises: glasses, a bow-tie and perfume.

Navigation: a compass, mini pegs.

Good luck omens/ weapons against magic: a mysterious key, a mini harmonica, a mirror, a bible and teddy.


Fred planned his itinerary and found a handy bag to put all his objects in, except for the cheese grater and mirror, which were too big anyway and probably more hassle than they'd be worth.

Fred just hoped he wouldn't run into any vampires. At least I have the bible to ward against evil, thought Fred to himself.

Fred gathered himself and his belongings, with teddy careful stowed in the bag for company (and in case it got scary), and he went out into the dark night, breathing in the cold damp air and preparing himself for whatever may lie ahead, and hoping to unravel the mystery before he himself was unravelled.