Larco and the Quog

NUBBINS

  A SERIES OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS

  BY

  BRIAN CAIN

  EPISODE ONE

  LARCO AND THE QUOG

  The Snub Nubbins

  Copyright 2014 Brian Cain

  The information, views, opinions and visuals expressed in this publication are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of the publisher. The publisher disclaims any liabilities or responsibilities whatsoever for any damages, libel or liabilities arising directly or indirectly from the contents of the publication.

  Previous general and adult publications by Brian Cain

  Circles of Fear

  The Sword And The Dagger

  Vigilante

  Flaxmead

  Once Upon A Time In Australia

  In The Name Of The Mother

  Jodi Ann

  Bella Elizabeth

  The Hunt For Rose

  Louise Legrande

  For Aidan and Rhiannon, who are growing up hearing stories, and drawing pictures of the Snub Nubbins.

  PREFACE

  The Snub Nubbins are a bit different, we can expect that, after all they do come from the planet so far away, an area in space called the Cosmos. Just like humans they have a planet to live on that is no different to our own earth.

  They found something called Quog, it was magical stuff, they didn't know what it was, but used it for many things. Quog could keep them warm, keep them cool, make things go along and even make Bok Bok's disappear but they didn't know where too. Quog could make Snub Nubbins very sick, if one was not very careful with it.

  Snub Nubbins knew a lot about their Universe because they had a special hole, they could look into the bright coloured lights, sparkling and popping inside the hole, and if they closed their eyes and concentrated with their head in the hole, they could see the universe and far beyond.

  Larco the scientist had studied the hole for Palliums, bit like earth years. One Peck, like an earth day, he saw a planet just like his own, he called it Plop Plop. It was blue, and had lots of water, it was round, and looked exciting, just like home. There were living things on the planet, similar to Snub Nubbins, but they were very ugly. Larco could understand their language, and listened to them with great interest. He wrote a report to the Grand Snub Nubbin and was invited to talk to the Grand council of Snubs. There was great concern, and great anticipation, and the race was on to find out more about the planet Plop Plop.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PREFACE

  LARCO AND THE QUOG

  EPISODE ONE. LARCO AND THE QUOG.

  Snub Nubbins live on a planet just like earth, it has air, water, trees, land, sea, sky and clouds. The sky is a lovely blue like the oceans and lakes. The trees are leafy green with brown trunks, and they grow in lovely black soil among a mass of different plants shinning like rainbows with colour. On the trees grow magnificent flowers, they are the biggest brightest flowers in the universe, and from these flowers come Snub Nubbins.

  Snub Nubbins don't have years on their planet, they have pallium's, just like earth years and one peck is a day. Snub Nubbins never sleep because it never gets dark, unlike earth the planet Snub revolves around their sun without rotating, leaving one side of the planet facing the sun all the time, just like we can see one side of our moon as it goes round the earth.

  Growing into a Snub Nubbin can be quite frightening, you have to survive the terrible poo poo wind. Baby Snub Nubbins start as a bud, and grow upside down with rather large heads and bodies as one, narrowing down to tiny legs attached to the tree branch, makes them look a bit like a pear with legs and arms. The tree is their mother, and the planet Snub is their father. The have tiny arms, a big long nose, long eyes that stretch from the base of their nose to their forehead, and big ears that look rather large and leafy. They have a very small mouth as they never eat, and only use it to talk. By the time a Snub Nubbin is a pallium old it starts to communicate, they learn from passing Snub Nubbins walking through the undergrowth amongst the trees below them, and they learn by the stories the older Snub Nubbins tell them, they like stories.

  When a Snub is five pallium's old, it's mother tree releases its legs and the Snub is pulled to the Snub planets surface by a power they don't understand, it makes them stick to the planet. The young snubs learn that falling to the ground is not so scary after all, as they watch what happens to others when they drop to the planet surface. Large leaves shoot from above their ears turning them the correct way up, and supporting them in the gentle breeze and they float to the ground like a parachutist, they aren't very tall, about the size of a pear from a pear tree on earth. As soon as they touch the ground the leaves fall off, and they can walk on their legs looking a bit like tree roots.

  Snubs need food; they grow to the size a human, but it takes a long time. They get food by wiggling their legs into the ground when they feel hungry, and feeding on tasty compost left by dying plants and deceased Snub Nubbins. They drink allot as they are mostly made of water, just like a human, and can be seen down by the lake sitting in the water, one may think they are swimming, but they're drinking through their legs.

  Snub Nubbins rely on the sun to warm their skin and make their body work properly, for without their sun they would perish. Snub Nubbins are really just like humans, they need food, water, sun and they have a heart and lungs to breathe and a huge brain, far larger than a human. Snub Nubbins cannot breathe under water, if water gets into their lungs they return to the earth and grow more Snub Nubbins as compost.

  Snubs have no fear, they have no predators, they have no enemies and they have no arguments, they live for a very long time, you could say forever. They live on the sunny side of their planet and until recently didn't even know what was on the dark side, there was no need to go there, because they couldn't see in the dark. But they were running out of jungle to fit everyone in. Snubs learned to count just like humans and over billions of palliums began to learn much about their planet. Snubs have a grand council, but its use has fallen away, it made laws that no one knew about, and was frightened of any change. They had however, recently made a Snub a scientist, they thought he was a nut, and of course coming from a tree, he could be. They even named the scientist, Larco, or he would just get lost amongst the other Snubs, he was the only Snub with a name.

  One day Larco, now a mischievous scientist, went on an expedition to the black wall of the dark side, he noticed blotches of light and could see a baron landscape. He ventured in, to look at the strange discovery, the first Snub to ever enter the dark side of the planet, or so he thought. Beautiful orange glowing rocks, he picked one up and used it to see where he was going, he left small glowing rocks in a row behind him to find his way back. He found nothing, and he got very cold, but if he held an orange rock his hand felt warm. He was excited with his discovery and returned to the sunny side with a handful of the orange rocks, when he entered the sunny side through the wall of light, he couldn't see they were orange, the sun somehow blanked out the glow.

  He took his discovery to the Snub grand council of Wobbly's. To be a Wobbly you had to get old, very old, and start falling over, but they knew more than young Snubs, Snub Wobbly's were very important.

  The Snub Wobbly's of the grand council wouldn't believe his outrageous story, they saw Larco as a bit of a nut, from the nut tree side of the Snubs past, nuts were always a little eccentric. But they liked it anyway, Snubs like stories, even it the story was rubbish, it was quite exciting.

  Larco felt very strange after his experience, and the rocks were thrown out by controlling Wobbly's back to the dark side. He hadn't felt like this before, he hoped to become a grand Wobbly, but this was a devastating blow to his jungle status.

  Larco hounded a grand Wobbly
he knew to be from the same line of nut trees as he, as the Wobbly was a little eccentric, he could see merit in Larco's story, and agreed to go with Larco to the dark side wall.

  Just before they were about to head off, Larco became rather ill, he fell over, his eyes had red lines in them and he didn't want to eat or drink. The grand Wobbly nut summoned the head doctor Wobbly, a great honour, as a normal Snubs would have been left for compost. The doctor Wobbly ran his hands over Larco, the doctor had seen this before, Snubs that spent too much time in the sun. But Larco had been in the shade of the jungle nearly all the time, mainly talking to baby Snubs hanging from the trees.

  They took Larco to the edge of the lake, and under a shady mother tree, they dipped his legs in the water, and left him to recover. Several pecks later, Larco was good as new, the doctor wished to accompany Larco, and the nut grand Wobbly, to the dark side wall, he thought it may be something to do with the orange rocks, the sun was orange, the rocks Larco spoke of were orange, and they were both