Welcome to Story Quest, a weekly podcast where we bring your stories to life!
In this episode we bring Owen’s story Fred the Fruitivore!- to life.
If you have a story idea, you could be like Owen and have it turned into a Story Quest. All you have to do is send us your story idea here. We know you have the best imaginations and together we can create the most brilliant stories!
That’s just what Owen did. You can watch the story they suggested come to life below, plus they tell us all about the inspiration behind the story at the end.
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Read along to Fred the Fearless Fruitivore ! Here
You can read along to the story while you listen. Just follow the text below. Don’t worry if you find a word tricky – you can pause the video whenever to give yourself more time.
Imagine an enormous monster – so big that even T-Rexes ran away from it in terror! Imagine it was getting closer and closer to you – stomping its feet, snapping his mouth and making the grounds shake. The last thing you would probably think about was grabbing a quick snack, right? Because you’re quite sensible aren’t you? Well the main character in our story ISN’T sensible so you probably can already work out what happens later in the storyquest. But let’s start at the beginning.
Fred was a T Rex and as you know from school or watching films T Rex are all about hunting down prey and ripping it to shreds. The pack of T-Rexes would STAMP and SNARL their way through the thick forests sniffing out their prey and then…. ATTACK and SLASH with their talons and teeth as they gulped great globs of meat.
Powerful visuals right? Well what you might have more trouble imagining was a T-Rex peeling a banana or picking a few grapes to chomp. But Fred was in fact a dinosaur who was exactly like that. I mean he couldn’t peel bananas because, well – his arms were too short and grapes wouldn’t exist for another 50 million years but what he loved was to eat the Juju fruit. He LOVED Fruit. Fred was not a carnivore. He was a FRUITivor.
And that fruit he liked so much? A ju ju fruit is sort of like a cross between an orange, a mango, candyfloss, kittens and biscuits with a touch of the Hebe Jebe – that’s another fruit that grew back then. Hebe Jebe tasted like… well actually we haven’t got time to go into that, we’ll be here all day but basically JuJu fruit was DELICIOUS They were very small and very hard – like marbles in fact – something that will be handy later on. It was easy to bite from the trees where they grew and was so plentiful Fred never felt hungry. Besides he didn’t like hunting for. It was always so hot and running around puffed him out. All of this CHOMPING and lack of exercise meant that Fred was, well, pretty chubby for a T Rex. The others were scornful of this and tried to get him to change his mind.
“what kind of dinosaur only eats fruit?”
“Loads of dinosaurs”
“Name them!”
“Darren, Phil – and there’s Sue. They love leaves. I’ve never seen THEM trying to hunt beavers or gazelles”
“Darren Phil and Sue are all BRONTOSAURUSES..Or BRONTOSAURII – I never can remember what you call them – they’re HERBIVORES they’re MEANT to stick to leaves. YOU however are a CARNIVORE. Come hunting with us and you’ll lose a bit of weight too!
They couldn’t change his mind.
Now its thought today that T Rexes are the MOST ferocious and enormous dinosaurs going – but actually that’s not true. T Rexes themselves were hunted by an even more fearsome beast – ULTRA REX!
What you meant you’ve never heard of Ultra Rex? Never seen them in a book or been taught about them in school? Well I can’t help that but it’s probably because no fossil ULTRA REXES have ever been found. Not yet at least. If you think T Rexes are scary…. Just imagine this.
Ultra Rex redefines fear itself. Towering at a monstrous 100 feet tall, this creature dwarfs even the mightiest of T. rexes. Its ebony-scaled skin, as black as a moonless night, reflects a chilling absence of light, as if it devours all illumination. Sinister ridges protrude from its spine like jagged daggers, casting eerie shadows that dance with every step.
The Ultra Rexes eyes, like smoldering embers, glow a malevolent crimson. They pierce through the darkness, locking onto prey with an uncanny accuracy, and sending shivers down even the bravest spines. Its head is adorned with bony crests, forming an intricate crown of death, each curve and edge exuding an aura of dread.
Its teeth, elongated and serrated, are the stuff of nightmares. As long as a grown human, these nightmarish fangs could rip through flesh and bone with merciless ease. Its massive jaws creak open, revealing a gaping maw that seems to stretch endlessly, an abyss of doom that swallows all hope.
Their jagged claws have an uncanny knack for rending through the thickest of defences, leaving nothing but devastation in their wake. Its footsteps echo like thunder, shaking the very earth beneath it, a chilling announcement of its approach.
And the roar? The Ultra Rex Road is a guttural symphony of terror, a haunting crescendo that resonates through the air like a malevolent storm. The ground quakes with each soundwave, and birds fall silent, as if even nature itself bows to the might of this dread-inducing behemoth.
In the dark of night, when shadows grow long and imaginations run wild, the very mention of the Ultra Rex strikes terror into the hearts of those who dare to ponder its existence. An embodiment of primal fear and a creature that walks the line between reality and nightmare, the mere thought of encountering this monstrous nightmare would be enough to chill the bravest souls to their very core.
Pretty scary right? Well the dinosaurs were about to get a much closer look because on one quiet spring day, distant thudding could be heard in the forest… The birds fell silent, and the light turned to shadows and the dinosaurs slowly turned and as one realised that the Ultra Rex was coming – they could hear the screech ring out across the forest – no mistaking it.
“RUNNN!”
The T Rexes leapt to run as fast as they could, darting through the bracken and vines. Several smaller dinosaurs tried to get out of the way and at least some of them didn’t get squashed. Others? Well, at least it was quicker than being torn apart by a dinosaur so it’s probably what they would have wanted.
Fred was in trouble. The other T Rexes were lean and fit and their powerful haunches launched them away in moments. But Fred, who, as I said was a touch on the tubby side, was huiffing and puffing as the Ultra Rex came nearer and nearer. The ground was shaking with every step of the enormous clawed feet – it was getting closer. MUCH closer. Fred didn’t turn to look – but he could almost feel his hot breath – he pushed himself to run faster – if only he could get through that delicious bush of JuJu fruit he might be able to escape from sight.
Oh. He thought. Juju Fruit! Gosh They’re Juicy looking. Maybe if I open my mouth as I run I could juuuust chomp a little snack on my way past.
This has got to go down as one of the most stupid plans right? I mean when you’re being chased by an Ultra Rex, it’s PROBABLY safest to concentrate on that. Not snacks.
Nevertheless, the fruit was too tempting and his tummy was rumbling. He opened his jaws and snapped at a juicy looking Juju. The branches on the whole bush bent as he pulled past and as the fruit was plucked into his mouth (YUM) it RICHOCHET with a WHOOSH and as the branches swung back all the other ju ju fruit were FLUNG hight into the air like delicious orange hail.
Now remember I said that JuJu fruits were like marbles? Small round and hard? They scattered onto the forest floor and as the ULTRA REX powered through the clearing he found them under his enormous feet (each one the size of a double decker bus). This made him skid and scutter and slide and then SLIPPPED with a SCOOT into the air before he fell flat on his back hitting his head on a rock on his landing with a THUNK and he was out for the count. Possibly dead. But no one wants to hang around a comatose Ultra Rex. Everyone just wants to get the FLIP out of the way.
Fred didn’t realise that the other T Rex had seen his power move (not that he realised it was a power move) and how he’d defeated the Ultra Rex. He just knew that everyone seemed to be cheering him!
“You’ve saved us all!” they shouted and once Fred realised what was going on he was delighted and went quite pink with all the cheering. He was also quite puffed out too.
“…and you said fruit wasn’t good for T-Rexes – It was pretty helpful just now right?”
And the others had to agree with him and from that day onwards no one made fun of his love of fruit. One or two of the others even gave it a try but said it really didn’t beat a tasty beaver. Not much can. And the Ultra rex was never seen or heard of again. Which is probably why you’ve never heard of one before. But now you have! And that’s the story of Fred the Fearless Fruitivore.
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