The Irish Tales

Chapter 3
　
And so it was that Jay and Patsy went off together on their first trip outside of the bedroom.
And what a trip !
At Patsy’s suggestion, Jay sat in the first of the two seats, holding on grimly to the fur on Patsy’s neck, not knowing quite what to expect.
After all, the window in her room was only small and Patsy was big and it was a long drop to the garden below.
Except it wasn’t.

Did I mention that Scaremonsters can fly ? No ? How remiss of me.
Well, they can and Patsy did. Straight out of the window, where she immediately grew to her full size and soared high up into the night sky, which, for a little girl dressed only in jamas, was a little chilly – not to to say scary.

For a while, Jay was too scared to do anything but cling on and marvel at the view which unfolded beneath her.
The cottages and gardens, the fields and streams, the hedgerows and lanes she knew so well, took on a wholly different character from this high up.

"I’m a lucky little pigwig. " she murmoured, then nearly bit her tongue off in annoyance as she realised she’d just repeated a favourite remark of her Father’s.

Below her, Charlie sat brooding in a thicket, watching the lambs frolicking in the next field and plotting bloody murder.
As Patsy flew above him, he shivered suddenly,crept quickly away into his earth in the nearby thicket and shut his eyes feigning sleep.

A large owl, who had been watching a sleepy field mouse through a crack in one eye, suddenly opened both eyes wide in alarm, then shut them both quickly, fake snores emerging from his beak.

In truth, only a wakeful, watchful Alsatian bitch saw and truly welcomed Patsy’s presence in the night sky.
And she merely gummed her lips and said nothing, wise old girl that she was…..

Without warning, Patsy suddenly dipped her head and hurtled down towards the earth, which looked strangely green.
"Here ya go….Forest of Green," muttered Patsy, much as a bus conductor (do they still exist?) might announce that one is about to arrive at Colerne.

Now, the Forest of Green may sound like one of those mythical places you hear of in TeeVee films, where strange, magical things take place, which nobody quite believes in but pretends to because everyone else does.

Oh no. The Forest of Green is a real forest, with green trees, (in season), deep green undergrowth and greenish frogs in the ponds.
Oh.
And Green Monsters. Big, smelly, ugly, Green Monsters.
And the biggest, the smelliest and the ugliest was the King of the Green Monsters, who stood proud and tall as Patsy and Jay skidded to an ignoble stop before him.

Jay, to her shame, lost her grip and fell nose-first into the green mud.
Patsy, however, stood just as tall and just as proud as The King of the Green Monsters and roared savagely :

But just what she roared will have to wait until tomorrow, because I see your eyes are closing.
As indeed are mine…..

……………………..