1. Tag, You're It!
...have you ever played when you didn't want to?
Ro and Ru are caught between a growing Darkness and the Island itself, trying to stop it.
When the Island asks for help, they panic.
What can children do to save the Wild Lands?
…especially when they're only four inches tall?
The Underlings is a new fantasy adventure for children and their parents.
Make sure to tell a friend!
Hello there.
You have good timing, I was about to start a new adventure.
One you just might enjoy.
That is, IF you like magic and monsters, and where the heroes are clever and brave little children who have an impossible quest to achieve?
Does that sound like fun to you?
Oh good, then you're in the right place!
Then sit back, relax, and if you have popcorn, enjoy that too…just chew with your mouth closed so everyone can hear the story, okay?
Who am I?
Oh, I can't tell you that just yet, but you'll figure it out…eventually.
Ready?
Have you ever played the game of tag?
I'm sure you have.
But have you ever played when you didn't want to?
When the others playing are a hundred times your size? When getting tagged means you're likely to get squished,…like a bug?
That's why Ro was running.
As fast as he could.
That's not easy when you are only four inches tall. Your legs don't carry you as fast as you'd like them to.
Ro was being chased by a Bunder. Imagine a giant ape, black and orange, swinging through trees, eating soft fruits, picking its nose, and eating bugs from the hair of other bunders.
I know. Eww.
Ro was racing his sister home, and decided to use the trees to avoid things that wanted to eat him.
That's a good thing, by the way.
Not being eaten.
How was he supposed to know there was a bunder snoring in the tree?
Which is why he didn't SEE its fat, ugly, face and tripped right over it. His tiny boot kicked that poor sleeping ape right up its left nostril, startling it awake.
Don't laugh.
You try getting kicked up the nose and see how hard YOU laugh.
That's when Ro went from racing his sister to don't-let-it-get-me-dont-let-it-get-me, sprinting tree limb from tree limb.
Bunder's normally like Underlings.
That's what Ro was, if you were still wondering. One of the tiny folk.
"Oo-Oo-Oo" grunted the bunder, right on Ro's heels.
The loud crack and crunching from over the Underling's shoulder was just the warning he needed. Just as a hand reached for Ro, he jumped from the top tree limb to the bigger one underneath.
"OooOO?" grunted the beast, confused.
Ro shouldn't have giggled.
Leaves and smaller branches exploded as the beast lunged at the Underling from above. Its orange hands, outstretched, snatched at Ro. If this had been his little sister, Ru, that bunder would have grabbed and squished her into goo.
Well, maybe.
Ro wasn't his sister.
Which is why he threw himself from the tree and into the air. Faster and faster he fell, speeding towards the rocks below that would squish his face. Between you and me, Ro had hit his face on lots of things…and it hurt. That wasn't his plan.
At least not THIS time.
Throwing his arms out wide, he shook his feathers free and gave them a flap.
Arcing his back and tail feathers, he skimmed above the ground, just missing those mean old rocks,…and sending himself back into the air.
"Hah!" Ro shouted. "Ro one, ugly face nothing!"
Now, if Ro was really smart, like he thought he was, he would have flapped away. He'd only learned about his 'gift' a little while ago, and still wasn't the greatest flyer, but he should have kept flapping home. High enough to stay out of reach, and far away from grasping orange hands. Especially orange hands that come jumping out of trees.
"GURK!" Ro grunted, as massive fingers wrapped around his body.
"Oo-Oo-OOOO!" said the bunder. Which meant, "You mean stick, it hurts when you kickded me in the noses!"
Bunder don't speak Underling very well.
"Mooli, you're being too rough," said a little voice. A voice as warm and sweet as a rising spring sun. "I know you're only playing with Ro, and would never want to hurt him!"
Mooli loosened his grip on Ro.
Ru smiled at the bunder, sky blue eyes sparkling like magic. "Thank you, oh so much for catching my brother from falling. You're my hero!"
"OooOOO?" said Mooli. Which meant, "Who, me? A hero?"
"Yes, you," said Ru. "The biggest hero in the whole forest!" She fluttered her eyes like only a five year old could. "Could you set him on the ground?"
Mooli did so.
Softly.
That was the thing with Ro's little sister. When Ru asked you to do things, you just…wanted to do them. Like asking a bunder to carry you home. Ru sat atop the shoulder of a much larger beast than Mooli. Twice his size, in fact. It pulled some low hanging fruit from a tree and offered it to the three inch Underling.
"Are you okay, Ro?" Ru asked.
"Yes," he said. He sounded a bit sour. "And I would have beaten you home, too. Just because I got caught by Mooli doesn't mean I'm slower than you."
"I know," Ru smiled cheerfully. "That's why you're my big brother, and not my smaller brother."
"Yeah," he grunted. "Whatever."
Ru slid down the bunders arm fur and landed gently on the ground. "Thank you for helping me, Mogum. You two have fun today," she chimed. "We'll see you later!"
"No, wait," Ro started to say, but it was too late.
The two bunders wandered off, grinning and grunting. Something about forming a committee for making the forest a better place.
Ro just shook his head and sighed. "We could have gotten a ride home! Now we're going to be late. Äto and Ätä will know we went exploring again."
Ru frowned, her head drooping low. "Sorry," she said softly.
Now here's the thing you need to know about Ro and Ru. They love each like siblings should. Ro was by far the youngest of the family, his next sister more than nine seasons older than him. Yet when Ru was born, something happened. His heart understood her. Even before she could speak to anyone else, she could speak to Ro. A coo or a cough sounded like words, and he understood her. It made him feel special, and he was special.
Ru loved her big brother, and wanted him to be proud of her.
"It's not your fault, Ru," said Ro. "I'm the one who wanted to go exploring this time."
"Well you're the smart one," said Ru, her smile emerging again. In that instant, Ro felt ideas flood his mind. "You'll think of something," she added.
"I've GOT it," Ro grinned. Closing his eyes, he imagined the fastest rodent he knew of…and sprouted a tail. With a shake of his shoulders, Ro exploded with fur. His arms shrank while his leg muscles shifted and stretched.
Ru giggled and clapped her hands with excitement. "You're the cutest hopper mouse EVER!"
Ro's fur shimmered in the sunlight.
"Quick," he squeaked, "hop on!"
Not so far away, a very concerned mother was looking for her curious little children.
If your own mother was a good mother, and I'm sure she is, she would be looking for you, also.
"You haven't seen them anywhere, Mälu?"
"No, Ätä," answered Mälu, who watched her mother pacing back and forth at the base of the giant hard-hard. Ätä means 'den mother', if you were wondering. It's a lot like being the queen, except, well,…you live with a lot of other people, in the same house. Oh, and to these Underlings, 'hard-hard' is the stone mountain they live in.
"Would you find Pë for me?"
"I'm sorry, mother, but father asked Pë to find one of the guards. Opä has not returned. Äto is worried about another attack."
You guessed it. Äto means 'den father'.
Well done!
This concerned the den mother greatly, but she was worried about her smallest children even more.
Mälu slipped her hand into her mothers and gave it a small squeeze. Her own 'gift' was that of healing. Ever since she was a tiny child, her love could heal Underlings, animals, bugs, and even mend plants.
Why would you heal a plant?
Well what if your favorite bungo-fruit tree got sick, and it was the ONLY one of its kind? Would YOU want your favorite food to disappear?
Of course not.
That's why Mälu healed the 200 year old tree.
Now it drops a perfectly ripe bungo in her path, every time she walks by.
The warmth of her love trickled through her hand and up to her mothers heart. For a moment, Ätä held her breath. The worry a mother has for her children is something only another mother can fully understand.
"Thank you, my darling," Ätä said, a smile forming on her lips. "I should not worry so. If the Wild Lands still protect any of our people, it would surely be Ro and Ru."
Mälu squeezed her mother hand again for good measure.
"Hi Mälu!" squealed Ru, her face full of glee upon the back of a hopper mouse. Dodging between Underlings about their daily labors, the exhausted creature stumbled over a rather large pebble and tumbled forward.
Ru squealed again, sailing through the air, landing squarely in her big sisters arms.
The hopper mouse, on the other hand, rolled out of its fur and became poor, exhausted Ro, at the feet of his deeply upset mother.
"Ro makes the best hopper mouse EVER!" beamed Ru. She snuggled into the neck of her sister. "I love going on adventures with my big, strong, brother," she yawned. "Especially when it's supposed to be a secret."
Ro winced, and looked up.
…to find Ätä folding her arms.
She never does that, unless she's very upset at you, and you're going to experience consequences, if you were wondering.
"Stables?" Ro mumbled.
His mother nodded.
The stables were where all the animals were kept. Animals that worked for the den. Creatures like birds and bees, chitters and bingers, even nester worms…though some thought worms didn't count.
Bopu asked the worms, and they told her they did count, so they got to stay in the stables too.
Bopu was the oldest and wisest Underling in the den. She didn't look as old as some, but she was much older than Lammi, the cobbler.
A cobbler is someone who makes shoes, if you were wondering. Shoes could be made from leaves or wood, or even wrinkly old leather…and Lammi was wrinkly-er than any old leather.
Bopu, on the other hand, took very good care of herself. She worked in the garden every day, spent time in the sunshine, her feet in the soil, and only ate things that were healthy for her.
Even if they didn't taste so good.
Bopu loved all the animals, and they loved her back. She also loved Ro and Ru…and they loved her back. Especially because she listened when other grown-ups wouldn't.
"But I don't want to just read scrolls in the den," complained Ro. "There are more fun ways to learn about the Wild Lands!" He tried to shovel the mound of nester worm poo out of the stall, but it was too big and heavy. It was another reason not to have worms in the stables.
Ro raised the shovel over his head like and axe and chopped the poo pile in two. Little specks flew up into his face.
"There are reasons why your parents ask you to do things, Ro," Bopu said, holding out a cloth to wipe his face. "The most important is because they love you and want you safe. The second is because you are still young and small, and the Wild Lands doesn't care if you are 'gifted'."
Ro looked at the cloth and shook his head. Again he tried shoveling the piles of poo, but couldn't move them. He growled at the poo.
Silly, I know, but I guess that's what nine year olds do when they're mad.
"I'm not afraid of the Wild Lands, Bopu," he said. "Not when I can fit in like this…"
Within the blink of a brey-tick's twelve eyes, Ro changed into a beetle the size of Bopu! Using his wide antlers, Ro flipped the mound of worm poo, over his shoulder and right out the front opening of the stables.
There was a 'SPLOTCH'.
…and a scream.
"I didn't MEAN to tattle on us," cried Ru. She walked into the stable, her feet and legs covered in all sorts of green and mustard-yellow yuck. She looked between Bopu and her brother. "That almost landed only HEAD!"
Ro stood upright, an Underling once more and started laughing. "I'm so sorry, Ru. I was just trying to…"
He never got to finish his sentence.
…because the ground started shaking.
The world moved from side to side, up and down, shaking so hard, it felt like the world would crumble to pieces.
"Children," cried Bopu aloud, "to me!"
Together the three huddled under the mighty archway the stable was built around. Arms about one another, they clenched their eyes tight and waited for the shaking to stop.
It did.
Ro and Ru looked at one another, wide-eyed.
Now if it was you or me, we might have been scared about the shaking of the world. The world is a pretty big place, you know, and if it starts shaking like we do when we're cold…something's not right.
But that wasn't what Ro and Ru were scared about.
Come back next time, and you'll find out what that was…
Author Notes
We are so excited to share this first episode with you. This has been an idea that has grown over the past 12-15 years, but something always got in the way. My greatest pleasure has been working with Roman and Ruby, spending time with them and being able to read these completed episodes aloud to them.
It’s also a great deal of fun to watch the reactions, when these are read to their older siblings.
It is our hope that you will share this new adventure with your little ones and those you know. We’d love to have this fully funded, so we can continue to write and publish he Underlings for many years to come.
Oh! If you didn’t know, I’m also doing podcasts with Roman and Ruby about The Underlings…all completely FREE to listen to and enjoy =). The podcast allows you to listen to and experience some of the highlights of this process.
Jaime
BONUS TREATS
Would you like a wallpaper for your computer screen? Well it just so happens that we made one FOR you…awesome, huh?
Created at 3840px X 2160px …just right click and ‘Save Image As’.
MORE Treats!
You can get lovely shirts, mugs, and more for your children and further support this publication through our online store. In fact, get 25% Off through July 27th, 2024, when you use promo code: UNDERLING
Played this in the car while driving my son and grandson to jujitsu.
The verdict? Loved it.
... especially turning up the base on the radio. 😁
Loved The Borrowers, so as they are small you cannot go wrong! It is really awesome and your natural narration is lovely. Passing this on! 🔥🫶