Angelo & the Sunbeam Jewel

On a world far away rain, trees, clouds, rivers, fire, sky and other elements created their own spirits so they could talk to each other through them.

Occasionally one of the young spirits managed to break away from the element that had created it. Immediately they started to grow older and develop strange powers.

One of these creatures was called Olivanda.

Olivanda liked to juggle the sunbeams.

One day the sunbeams became confused and plunged down into a cave of mirror crystals.

They travelled deeper and deeper until they shone out through a cave on the other side of the planet.

Olivanda could not stop the sunbeams and they streamed away into space.

Even the world could not close the caves with a planet quake.

Soon, there would be nothing left of the sun.

Marinda, the spirit of the sky, searched for a spell to stop the sunbeams.

When she had found it she asked the other spirits to collect the ingredients.

These were:-

The shell of the pink sea kite,

Whisker of the wisp warbler,

Pollen of the witch wood catkins,

Sequin from the daughter of the dawn’s slipper,

Stamen from the lily of the sunset,

Feather from an ice mammoth,

Crystal from the cave of the diamond toothed serpent,

Fruit from the plumberry tree - and a little black pepper.

Marinda' s spell allowed the sunbeams to break free.

She watched them whirl away into space through the telescope of the spirit of the moon.

The sunbeams had to be brought back.

Marinda rode after them on an asteroid dragon.

A small meteor captured the stream of sunbeams.

Glittering like a tiny sun, it fell to the ground of a distant planet.

As Angelo ran home that evening, he saw the brilliant meteorite and picked it up.

When Angelo's father touched the sunbeam jewel it gave him a nasty shock.

He was angry and took Angelo to the priest.

The sunbeam jewel also gave the priest a shock when he tried to touch it.

He accused Angelo of finding a bauble of the Devil and told the mayor.

A lorry full of soldiers arrived.

As nobody but Angelo could handle the sunbeam jewel, they took both of them to the capital city.

Scientists tried to examine the jewel but the tongs they used melted when they touched it.

Soldiers drove Angelo and the sunbeam jewel to the desert.

They told him to place his treasure by a marker so they could blast it into pieces.

As soon as Angelo was far enough away he ran off and hid in a hollow cactus until the next morning.

While he had the jewel, Angelo did not feel thirsty, hungry or tired.

He eventually reached the border of a forest and came to a village.

An old lady offered him a drink. Then she noticed the glow coming from his satchel.

Angelo took out the sunbeam jewel.

Before he could warn her not to, the old woman touched it. The jewel seemed to throb with approval.

One day a strange golden haired girl arrived.

Soon afterwards the soldiers came.

The villagers tried to protect Angelo but they were driven away.

One soldier tried to move the sunbeam jewel with his bayonet.

The steel melted.

Suddenly the golden haired girl changed into the spirit of the sky.

Marinda reflected the sunbeams in the small meteorite back into space with a crystal from the mirror cave.

The Church declared what had happened to be a miracle and the village prospered because so many people visited it.

Marinda guided the sunbeams home and the sun was restored to its normal size.

back to book list