Burly and Grum's Halloween Adventure Read online

BURLY AND GRUM’S

  HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE

  A Burly and Grum Tale

  by Kate Tenbeth

  Illustrated by Rob Jones

  Copyright 2012 Kathryn E L Tenbeth

  The evening air was cool and clear, a full yellow moon hung low in the sky and the sound of children’s laughter filled the street. Burlington bear adjusted the cloak around his shoulders. “Who did you say I’m meant to be?” he asked his friend Max.

  “Count Dracula,” said Max.

  “And who am I?” asked Grum the groblin. Groblins are rather unusual creatures that live deep in the Great Forest. They’re pea green in colour, with large tufty ears and red eyebrows and have a tendency to be outspoken.

  “Once I get this wig on you, you’ll be The Hulk,” replied Max as he pulled a thick black wig this way and that trying to fit it on between Grum’s ears.

  “Cool!” Grum said happily. “Who’s the Hulk?”

  “Well,” explained Max, “he’s a man but when he gets angry he turns green and can tear things in half.” He gave a final tug and the wig was on.

  “And can I….?”

  “No, you can’t tear things in half,” said Max.

  Grum pouted.

  “What are you?” Burly asked Max.

  “A Mummy from the Crypt,” said Max.

  “Why have you got all those bandages around you? Have you hurt yourself?”

  “No,” said Max, “mummies just look like this, they’re wrapped up in bandages because they’ve been dead for hundreds of years and I suppose the bandages were put on to help hold the bits together.”

  Burly looked worried.

  “I’m not dead, Burly,” said Max. “This is just pretend.”

  “Humans are very strange,” said Grum. “Why are you pretending you’re dead?”

  Max rolled his eyes. “Did you guys listen to anything I said earlier?”

  Burly and Grum looked at each other and made guilty faces. “No, not really,” admitted Grum.

  Max blew out a sigh. “I’ll go through it one more time and then that’s it okay? And Burly, stop fiddling with your cloak, it looks fine.”

  A gorilla and pirate who were busy dividing up some candy didn’t see their little group and bumped into them. Grum gave a menacing snarl. The gorilla gave the thumbs up with his banana. “Great costume dude!”

  Grum beamed. “I think I’m going to like this whatever it is we’re doing tonight.”

  “Okay,” said Max firmly, “for the final time – we are going Trick or Treating because it’s Halloween.”

  Burly raised a paw.

  “Yes?” said Max.

  “What’s Halloween?”

  “It’s a night when monsters and creatures of the night come out – but that’s only a story, what really happens is that us kids dress up as monsters and go from house to house and get lots of candy.”

  “Crispy fried earwigs?” asked Grum hopefully. Crispy fried earwigs with dip-in sauce was his absolute favourite snack.

  “Doubt it,” said Max, “humans don’t really think that crispy fried earwigs and cockroaches and stuff are treats but we can get you some afterwards, you just have a good time scaring people okay?”

  “No problem,” nodded Grum.

  “Why do humans do this?” asked Burly.

  “It’s fun,” replied Max. “Look, just go with the flow Burly – you’ll enjoy yourself, honest, and you look great as Dracula.”

  Grum snickered, Max had emptied two whole tins of talcum powder over Burly to try and make him look pale and then put a large black cloak around his shoulders. Now he looked like a polar bear with a cloak on.

  “Right Burly,” instructed Max. “Say wah-ha-ha in a scary way and show me those fangs of yours.”

  Burly looked down at Grum for help, but Grum merely shrugged his shoulders.

  “Wah-ha-ha?” said Burly.

  “No, with a bit more feeling, you know, like you’re really cross or something and oh, flap your cloak a bit.”

  “Wah-ha-ha!” said Burly more loudly and wafted his cloak.

  Max scratched his head. This wasn’t going quite the way he planned. “Pretend someone has stolen your honey,” he suggested.

  Burly roared “WAH-HA-HA!!!!!!” The whole street shook and bits of Max’s bandage blew away.

  “Maybe you should just snarl after all,” said Max. “Now, come on you two or we’ll miss all the treats.” He gave them each a plastic pumpkin bucket.

  “This is nice,” said Burly. “I like the colour.” He dropped to his front paws and picked up the bucket by the handle with his teeth. He was ready to go.

  “Can I eat it?” Grum sniffed it.

  “It’s up to you but you’ll probably be sick if you do,” said Max. “We walk down the street, knock on doors, look scary, say trick or treat, and people will give us candy. It’s that simple. Ready?”

  “Ready!” chorused Burly and Grum and they set off.

  They’d only gone a couple of steps when a small fairy ran towards them crying and she banged right into Burly, knocking his pumpkin bucket to the ground. “Are you alright?” he asked. The fairy threw her arms around his neck, buried her face in his fur and sobbed even louder.

  Max coughed politely. “Hey, you okay?” he asked.

  The fairy finally let go of Burly’s neck and turned around. Her face was covered in talcum powder and she sneezed loudly. “Here,” said Max. He tore off a piece of bandage and handed it to her. She blew her nose noisily and offered it back to him. Max made a face, “Nah, you keep it.”

  The fairy was very small with frizzy ginger hair and lots of freckles. Her wings and tiara were rather wonky, the star had fallen off her wand, she was smeared in talcum powder, her nose was running and her eyes were swollen and red from crying. She sniffed loudly. “I lost my fairy glitter and my wand broke look - will you let me go trick and treating with you my brother won’t let me go with him and his friends and when I tried I knocked on that door there,” she pointed to a large, dark house with no lights on, “the man said I was the ugliest fairy he’d ever seen and to go away.” Her chin wobbled ominously.

  Burly was immediately angry. “He said you were ugly?! Why, you’re not ugly at all, you’re a lovely fairy, very pretty.” He adjusted her wings and straightened her tiara. “Of course you can come with us, we need a fairy don’t we Max? Grum?”

  “I actually think we should take her home,” suggested Max. “We could get into trouble, what if her parents are looking for her or something?”

  “You’re quite right,” said Burly immediately. “I didn’t think about that, of course we should take her home.”

  “No I don’t want to go home I want to go with you it’s Halloween and anyway I’m not going to tell you where I live.” The fairy crossed her arms.

  “Well, we can’t leave her here,” said Burly.

  “Why not?” asked Grum.

  Max ignored Grum. “What’s your name?” he asked the fairy.

  “Meg.”

  “I’m Max, this is Burly and that’s Grum.”

  “You’re a bit short to be the Hulk aren’t you?” said Meg. “And you’ve got strange names my brother’s called James that’s a normal name why don’t you have normal names?”

  Grum looked Burly and Max. “Honestly, I think we should just walk away now while we have the chance.”

  Meg shot out a hand and grabbed one of Burly’s paws. “You can’t do that I’m only little and I’m all on my own and what if someone’s mean to me again and I need to find my fairy glitter I can’t do spells and stuff without it.” Her bottom lip began to qu
iver.

  Burly squeezed her hand reassuringly. “If we let you come with us for a little while will you tell us where you live? Your parents will be worried you know.”

  Meg thought about this for less than a second. “Yes okay which way are you going this way good there are lots of big houses and have you got a bucket?”

  Burly gave her his pumpkin bucket.

  “We do this side of the street,” Max said to Meg, “and then we take you home. Agreed?”

  Meg beamed up at him. “Okay!” she said happily.

  The next half an hour went quickly. Meg held Burly’s paw and skipped beside him as they made their way down the street. Even though it was Halloween and there were a lot of strange looking people about, everyone who opened the door to the little group did a double take when they saw a large off-white bear flapping his cloak and quivering his lips, a short green beast with an untidy mop of black hair, a Mummy with random bits of bandage torn off and a ginger fairy. With fixed smiles candy was hastily put in their buckets and doors closed. The pumpkin buckets became heavier and heavier and by the time they got to the end of the street they were almost full.

  “You were