#martinperry

“In a village, the children were told by their parents, ‘Whatever you do, don’t go near the top of the mountain. It’s where the monster lives.’ All the previous generations of children had heeded this warning and not gone near the top of the mountain.

One day, some brave young men in the village decided that they had to go and see the monster - to see what it was really like and to defeat it. So they loaded their packs with provisions and set off up the mountain. Halfway up, they were stopped in their tracks by a huge roar and a terrible stench. Half the men ran down the mountain screaming.

The other half of the group continued on their journey. As they got further up the mountain, they noticed that the monster was smaller than they had expected - but it continued to roar and emit the stench that had all but one of the men running for their lives back down the mountain into the village.

‘I am going to get the monster,’ the one remaining man said to himself, and took another step forward. As he did so, the monster shrank until it was the same size as the man. As he took another step towards the monster, it shrank again. It was still hideously ugly and continued to emit the stench, but the man was so close to the monster now that he could actually pick it up and hold it in the palm of his hand. As he looked at it, he said to the monster: ‘Well then, who are you?’

In a tiny high-pitched voice, the monster squeaked: ‘My name is fear.’”