Welcome to Story Quest, a weekly podcast where we bring your stories to life!
In this episode we bring Milo’s story – The Sleepy Ninja – to life.
If you have a story idea, you could be like Milo 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 Milo 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 The Sleepy Ninja
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.
The Sleepy Ninja
In a large cavernous nest in the Midnight Mountains lay the Feroghi monster. This monster looks a bit like a dragon and well, a bit like a chicken. Well. It looks like a chicken would look if it was thirty metres tall and constantly in a bad mood. Itâs cluck was more like a BOOM and everyone in the Night River realm was as you can imagine completely TERRIFIED of it. It was said to have powers of enchantment and so would move around and so no one ever quite knew where he might be hiding.
So the Feroghi is a BIG chicken monster and is going to be a BIG part of our story today. But more about him later.
The town where our story starts was famous because it was home to Black Knife Academy the biggest ninja academy in the world. Children would come from every corner of the globe to attend lessons – if they were good enough to pass the entry exams – which included juggling knives (donât do this) throwing shiruken (donât do this either) and swinging nunchucks around in complicated patterns (actually donât do anything that ninjas do, or I will get into trouble). The school had been set up to protect the people of the Night River realm from the ferocious Feroghi monster – although for many years theyâd not been able to find his lair. Well, when they did, theyâd be READY!
Ninjas must be agile and quick and fast and ferocious – and it helps if they can move silently – which is quite difficult when youâre juggling knives, throwing shiruken and swinging nunchucks all at the same time.
One of the ninjas, Mistress Dream, wasnât so great at the throwy swingy stuff⊠but she was GREAT at being silent. Well. If you didnât count the snores. You see THIS ninja was a very very SLEEPY ninja. It wasnât just that the Ninja Academy was particularly tiring⊠it was just that she always felt tired and liked nothing than a lovely nap. Just to get enough energy for her main sleep. Which set her up for the top up nap later. You get the idea.
âYou canât be a sleepy ninja!â said Master Swish who was one of the teachers. âHow can you creep up on someone if youâre tucked up in bed snoring away!â
Mistress Dream shrugged and yawned. It was so EXHAUSTING being told off.
The other ninjas laughed at her but she didnât care – after all she was late for her mid afternoon snooze. She had a magical blanket that sheâd bought from a passing wizard which cancelled out all the noise (helpful in a ninja academy) and so by curling up in itâs soft threads, she slipped off to sleep. Iâd love a blanket like that wouldnât you? The blanket made it so not even the smallest peep could be heard – in fact if you imagined some nice relaxing music the enchantment would make the tune appear just for you, or conjure the sound of birds or the wind – and youâd enjoy the deepest sleep of all.
That afternoon at the Black Knife Academy there was a particularly energetic class where the ninjas had to practice swimming in full steel armour whilst gripping a grappling hook in their mouths. Mistress Dream did not like the sound of this ONE BIT and so she decided to sneak off and hide for the afternoon. She was so quiet that no one usually noticed her anyway and sure enough no one saw her go or missed her in the class. To be fair there was so much splashing and shouting, and everyone was in metal helmets so that it was hard to tell who was who anyway.
She slipped away from the village, borrowing a horse and cart to trot into the deep dark woods, blanket in hand, and after a while found a comfortable place to hide, it was warm and cosy and dark and before she knew it she was fast asleep, as night fell.
Now remember that enormous chicken monster I told you about at the start of this story? The Ferocious Feroghi? Well the Feroghi had had quite a busy day. Although he also quite liked a snooze when he wasnât terrifying peaceable folk (by being an enormous CHICKEN), something had kept him awake all week⊠He had noticed a delicious smell coming from the village. Chocolate! The Ferohgi was very keen on chocolate, in fact he was very keen on eating most things from small shrubs to some of the larger villagers but this smell was particularly AMAZING! Carefully, trying not to be seen by hiding behind trees and buildings (not easy) he had padded out of his nest and went down to the village – trying his best to stay in the shadows. He wasnât afraid of being seen it was just annoying when people saw him and screamed and shouted âITâS THE FEROGHI! THE MONSTROUS CHICKENâ and to be honest it sort of hurt his feelings a bit.
Heâd followed the smell to the village sweet shop – and he could see from the window display that the smell was coming from a delicious looking display of EASTER EGGS! Big ones with bows on, little ones in colourful wrapping, there were LOADS and squinting through the window he could see the storeroom fit to burst with shelf upon shelf of more sweet Easter treats.
His mouth watered and conjuring a enchantment by swishing his enormous wings he teleported every last egg back to his nest and then himself – all before anyone had seen him.`
The storekeeper returned from the kitchen and was FLABBERGASTED to see that all the eggs had disappeared!
âThe Easter Eggs! Theyâve been stolen!â
A murmer went around the village – how awful! How could they celebrate Easter without chocolate eggs – small children cried, and some of the adults too – people in the Night River Realm really did like chocolate.
And the whole village sunk into a gloom.
âIt must have been the Feroghi! – legend has it his eggs were once stolen and this must be his revenge!â wailed an old lady. Now whilst itâs true that the eggs of a Feroghi HAD in ancient times been stolen by an evil wizard, this wasnât about revenge. Our Feroghi just liked chocolate.
So that was that. Now what about Mistress Dream?
Well she woke up after a very long snooze in the darkness of the nook she had found. The nook which as it turned out was at the back of a cavernous NEST. A NEST which now contained the FEROGHI??? who appeared to be sitting on an enormous pile ofâŠ. Easter Eggs??
Her terror at finding herself at such close quarters to the monster was matched at her anger at the sight of the eggs. He must have stolen the lot! Now he was happily sleeping it seemed as if he hadnât a care in the world. How very DARE he!
Mistress Dream knew what she had to do. She had to get the eggs back to the village – but how to do it without waking the creature? She leapt and jumped like an acrobat around the monster without making a sound (she was after all a trained ninja) but when she went to take an egg⊠there was a grumble and a huff from the Feroghi and she was afraid he might wake up. Then she had an idea. Her blanket! Now you might think that a human sized blanket wouldnât be much use for an enormous monster but even though it was the size of a postage stamp,. The magic seemed to take effect and he nestled down with a sigh and Mistress Dream could begin work.
Quickly, quick as a a knife she started taking the eggs one by one and placing them in the cart. It took AGES but thankfully the blanket did a great job keeping the Feroghi snoring away. After sheâd teased the last egg from under the feathers she gently picked the blanket off and quickly rode back to the village.
And what a reception she got! The clamouring villagers cheered her and applauded her and the eggs were returned to the shop.
And as they now knew where the creature was, a consignment of ninjas could be stationed nearby to fend of any other attacks. The Feroghi as it happened was so deeply asleep that he only noticed the eggs had gone some months later when winter set in and by then heâd gone off the idea to be honest.
And Mistress Dream wasnât teased any more about being so sleepy – it had saved the easter eggs – and probably the village too! And thatâs the end of this story about the Sleepy ninja. And I have to be honest, all that readingâs made me quite sleepy – I could just do with a nap!
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