In ancient times ,on his first journey to find his mother's pouch, a tiny 'Roo' was bullied by a nasty ground-grub.This trauma caused the 'Roo' to lose confidence and hide from his mother.
Long, ago in past ancient times,there existed a fascinating place known as 'Gondwana land.'
In this land lived several enormous marsupials and one very self-conscious and very timid baby
Kangaroo named 'Darby.'
Baby kangaroos are also called 'Joeys' but mostly they are just known as 'Roos'.
When a baby kangaroo is born it has to crawl all alone to it's mother's pouch, with no help at all
from anyone. Many baby kangaroos do not make it to their mother's pouch,for wild animals catch
them,and eat them. Sadly when the little baby Roo is born their own mother does not have any
idea at all that their baby has arrived into the world.They can't see, or hear, their tiny baby Roo
and this causes some mother kangaroos to tread on their own baby ,crushing it.
A newborn kangaroo has the hardest time of any other creature anywhere in the world.It is
almost magical that some baby Roos manage to find their own way,unharmed,into their mother's
pouch.
This story is about one such lucky ancient baby kangaroo, who,after many ordeals, became wiser
and luckier than any other. His name was 'Darby.' Let me tell you how his journey began.
It was a sunny summer day that Darby was born,he was as tiny as your littlest finger-nail.
Baby kangaroos this size are supposed to crawl and climb up their mother's furry coat.It is when
they can do this that they can find their way to their mother's safe,snug,pouch.As you can imagine,
to do this without any help at all,is very ,very,VERY, difficult. Darby,however,did manage to climb half
way up his mother's furry right leg when he lost his grip and fell down onto the dusty red soil below.
He was only a new-born baby, so as you could imagine, he began to cry loudly.Immediately on hearing
Darby's cry, the nastiest witchetti grub you could ever imagine poked his angry face out of the dirt and
violently spat into poor Darby's eyes. In ancient times the witchetti grub's spit was fiery-hot and it
could slowly burn a hole in any animal's skin.Darby screamed,and luckily ,more of his warm soothing
tears streamed out of his wide eyes. A most beautiful king-sized budgerigar heard the cries , he also
saw a nasty smile appear on the wicked grubs face..' That will teach you to stay away from my ground,
you horrible creature,' snarled the spiteful grub. Darby kept crying and as he did, the burning spit dripped out
of his eyes ,and with the spit ,also dripped all of Darby's velvet-brown eye colour.'Your eyes are now so ugly
that not even your mother will want you,and that serves you right!" said the grub spitefully.The king Budgerigar
(whose name was 'budgie') was so kind, and good , that he had no choice but to try to protect the little joey.
He swooped down suddenly and with his very strong sharp beak, he grabbed the witchetti grub, and quickly
swallowed it .' Don't be afraid,little Joey' said Budgie softly. ' My eyes hurt,' cried Darby, 'now my mummy will
not want me.' Budgie drew closer to Darby, 'Let me look at your eyes,' suggested Budgie. 'Perhaps I can help
you.' Now you may not know this,but in ancient times, the King Budgerigar bird had a special ,magical gift
but he only ever used this gift on those who had pure,kind hearts.Luckily, all newborn babies have kind,and
pure hearts, so Budgie decided to use his gift on Darby. 'Your eyes have lost all their colour, little Joey, but
I will use my special gift on your eyes to give you some new colour, then they will be more beautiful than ever .'
After saying this to Darby, Budgie spread his amazingly bright and soft sky-blue feathery wings completely
over Darby's colourless eyes. Budgie then began to sing and chirp,this made a flute-like sound,it filled the
forest with an enchanting melody . All the trees swayed back and forth, as if they were dancing to Budgies
lovely voice. 'Now I will lift my wings away from your eyes' he whispered, "and they will be better than new.'
He did so slowly,and to his delight, there,before him, Budgie saw the most incredible angel-blue hued eyes
that anyone had ever seen. 'There you are little Joey, now you are totally perfect again ,and your mother will
love you with all her heart.' "Thank you kind bird,I will never forget you for helping me.'
Budgie patted his feathery wing across Darby's little head,and, without even asking the little joey for his name,
he flew away to his nest in the far end of the leafy green forest.
'Now, I must continue my journey to my mother's pouch.' he thought to himself,then he loudly yawned. Darby
was becoming very tired.Suddenly, without warning , another nasty witchetti grub poked its head out of the
soil.'Ah har!" shouted a vengeful voice.'I saw what you did,it's all your fault that my brother was killed by that
mean ,king, budgerigar bird, I will make you so sorry for what happened' the grub shouted in a threatening
yell. Immediately the witchetti grub began muttering in zibber-zabber words .He then spat three times on
the dusty red soil these words: ' I am magic too'!' (but it was in fact a lie) 'and the words I just said will make it
true , that nobody in this whole land of Gondwana will ever like you.' Not satisfied with terrifying Darby ,he then
added,' 'And, whenever anyone looks at you, they will scream from fright ,and they will hate you.' Darby was
only a new born Joey, he did not know about lies, so being pure of heart, he believed the nasty cruel grub's
mean words, and once again he cried.The spiteful smile ,(similar to his deceased brother's ) appeared on the
satisfied grub's face, ' Now I am happy again, ' snarled the grub, 'go on your way, you ugly creature, and hide
yourself from everyone , spare us all the sight of your ugly face.' Darby was so tired and upset,in his heart only
sadness remained, he could not find the strength to crawl another step.He put his paws over his tiny brow
and sobbed,'I might never reach my mother's pouch in time,the night creatures will probably eat me."
His sobbing ran out of tears,it was heartbreaking to hear it.A grieving widowed Funnel web spider sat hidden
underneath Jed the wombats ancient, log, home ,she had heard everything that had gone on that day.She
reared herself up from her earthly funnel-home in an attempt to pacify the sad joey-roo. 'There,there,little
Joey-Roo, do stop your sobbing. 'I will carry you to your mothers tail and when she is sleeping , you can find
your way up to her pouch ,there you will be safe from harm.'
Darby could not believe his own ears or eyes.The funnel-web spider was massive with long fangs and many
long gleaming black legs. 'Don't judge me by my frightening looks, little roo,' said the spider with sincere
affection. 'I too know how it feels to be bullied by that mean witchetti grub,he eats my babies as soon as I
lay them,he waits until I'm asleep." Darby then saw a little tear drip from the funnel-web spider's eye. Darby
felt a bond with this scary creature. 'My name's Darby,what's your name"?inquired the shy baby roo.
The funnel-web spider hesitated for a moment, as she had never been asked for her name by any marsupial
before,but she soon answered. 'I am called Bitzey, but please,do not get me confused with Itzey, for itzey
does not kill when she bights ,but my bight always does kill.' Bitzey looked ashamed. 'Can I ever really trust
you?' asked Darby. 'Yes you can ,little Darby,but,only for this one special time,but NEVER afterward,never,
ever then again.' 'Why would you want to do me this one favor?' asked Darby with an astonished look on his
tiny face. 'This one off favour to you is because I know how it feels to lose a baby,so, I do feel very sorry for
your poor mother. ' I want to help you because of her.' Alright then,I accept your offer to help me.' Then Darby
also added, 'Thank you Bitzy, for your kindness,I will always remember it." Darby crawled onto Bitzy's
back ,and the big, mighty funnel-web spider quickly made her way to Darby's sleeping mother.Darby crawled
off Bitzy's back and safely onto his sleeping mother's tail. Bitzy looked officially up at Darby and in a stern
voice she said this, ' Never forget what I have told you ,little Darby,you must never ever trust me or my family
again,do you understand?" 'Yes, I do understand' replied Darby, 'and I wish you well Bitzy, thank you for
saving me.' 'Goodbye little baby roo,keep well, and safe, and get quickly into your mother's pouch.'
Without further conversation they both went their own way ,never expecting to ever meet again.
Soon Darby made it up and over the sleeping kangaroos fur and onto the rim of the pouch ,where he
wriggeled his way down inside to the soft furry pouch-bed inside it.Sleep came quickly to him ,and for the
time in his life, Darby felt safe.
All the other joeys in 'Gondwana Land's beautiful rain-forest had left their mother's pouches soon after
they were old enough to hop, but Darby's traumatic encounter with the bullying witchetti grub had made
him to afraid to be seen again by anyone,not even his own mother.He believed the horrible lies that the grub
had told him,he believed everyone would look at him and hate him.He even convinced himself that the funnel
web spider ,and her help, was all just a dream.He was was far too timid to even sneak a peek above the pouch
rim.Instead, he lay still each day and only moved around at night when his mother slept.Darby's mother was a
big red 'roo,' her name was Kasey-rose. She had the most beautiful velvet- brown eyes,she was very smart yet
she did not know she had a Joey in her pouch.Some of you reading this may think that Darby's mother should
have known he was in her pouch but Darby was deliberately very still, and truly he was as quiet as a stone. One
stormy night, however,when loud thunder beat upon the sky ,and the giants within the clouds beat upon their
drums,Darby panicked.So startled was he by the sounds that he grabbed the inside pouch fur so tightly that
it caused Kasey-rose to squealed from pain.Her squeal frightened him so much that he squealed too as loudly
as he could. Suddenly,she knew something,or someone,was very near to her.Then,in Darby's fear of being
discovered, he tried to claw his way further down through the pouch,this of course did not work ,it made
Kasey-Rose squeal even more.She jumped ,and hopped, and flung back,then forward on her big red tail.Round
and round she hopped ,then pounced up and down until she became so dizzy she was unable to see straight.
.Jed the very wise wombat scurried out of his log home to see if he could be of some help.'What's wrong
Kasey-rose ?' He called loudly to her.She did not answer for the thunder had become so loud that it was
impossible to hear him.Leo the fun-seeking kookaburra began to laugh at Kasey Rose.Leo had never seen a big
red 'roo' pouncing back and forth and round and round before.His laugh got louder, and louder, and soon it was
even louder than the thunder .All the other rain-forest creatures came to find out what Leo was laughing at. By
this time Darby had decided that no amount of clawing downward at the bottom of the pouch was going to help
him escape discovery.He came up with a new idea,he thought that if he stayed really still and if he held his breath
for as long as possible, perhaps everyone would think it was all a big mistake.Perhaps they would think
Kasey-Rose was just a little bit crazy,'Yes,'he thought,'this was a great idea.' Jed the wombat managed to pat
Kasey- rose on her tail,'Settle down dear Kasey- rose,'he sympathetically said.'Everything is alright dear,why are
you so disturbed?" Leo stopped laughing and called down from his eucalyptus branch. ' That was the funniest
thing I've ever seen Kasey- rose,do it again,please, do it again! " Jed looked up at him with an angry glint in his
wise old eyes,' 'Stop taunting her Leo,can't you see she is upset?" Leo looked ashamed,he had thought
Kasey-rose was just trying to have fun,'I am so sorry,' Leo called out to her,'I thought you were just playing
around Kasey-Rose,please forgive me?" She looked up at his sad face and pleading eyes,'I forgive you Leo.'
She replied. 'What was your problem,my dear?'Inquired Jed.'Something hurt me.' she answered. 'Was it a
snake?' yelled out Leo,'if it was,I will swoop him up and make him my dinner!" 'I don't know.' she replied.
'Was it a spider? asked Jed.' I don't know,' she answered.Just then a loud bolt of lightening struck the tree
next to Leo's tree and a fire overtook the tree.They all squealed together and frightened Leo flew swiftly
down landing softly on Kasey- roses big red shoulder. ' 'This is very dangerous weather, ' exclaimed Jed.
Jed had seen many bad fires in his long life and many of his friends had been injured because of fire. ''We
must get out of her quickly,down to the river NOW my friend's! ' he demanded. Darby listened quietly to all
the drama,he had never seen fire before,he could hear the crackling branches ,and he could smell the smoke.
.For the first time in his life he became very curious, and as Kasey- rose bounced toward the river, Darby
peeked his shy little eyes just above the pouch and toward the treetops. The orange and red flames above the
tree branches danced away, and many different feathery birds flew above towards the grayish clouds.
'This is so different from the inside of my snugly pouch' he though to himself, then,suddenly, his eyes lowered
away from the fiery treetops downward to Kasey-rose's face,he had never seen her face before.He saw her
frightened expression as she hopped toward the river.He felt sadness in his young heart.Kasey-roses eyes
were looking upward toward the smoky sky,she did not see the curious little roo gazing up at her.It was
the first time he felt love.All his mother's attention was on getting away from the flames and reaching the
safety of the river,she did not see him peek up at her.Darby drew himself back into the pouch and snuggled
deep into the soft fur inside.I am not afraid of her,' he whispered to himself,she seems kind.'
' TOMORROW , ' (he thought,as love sprouted inside his baby heart ) ' after I've had a long sleep,I may
even find the courage to call out, and say, 'Hello mummy,.' That night,comfort overtook Darby gently it lulled
him into a peaceful sleep and into 'Dreamtime.' Outside of Kasey-rose's pouch,steady,hard rain began to fall.
Thank you Ronald,I have taken your advice,I will do more editing of it over the next week,I really appreciate your input,I want and need all the help I can get to get this story up to scratch,thank you very much.From Kay.
Darby's adventures is a wonderful story for children down under as well as for children the world over who don't know about the wonderful animals that live down under.
I had to stop reading because my eyes crossed trying to struggle with the dense format. All periods, commas, and question marks should have a space after them to make the sentences more readable. The use of indentation and/or lines between paragraphs makes reading much better.
I believe the problem may be the result of pasting directly from the latest versions of the very complicated Microsoft Word format, .docx (secure document), rather from the simpler and older .doc (document) .rtf (rich text format) or simple .txt (text). Contacting AD support can get it fixed.
What a Tale is told in this delightful story of Didge the wayward little Roo.
Catch up with him as he turns the Billabong from a Dull everyday water hole, to a lively, fun place, through many adventures and conquests.
Shifty Characters, invites early readers into the world of change from a lyrical, language arts point of view. These shifty characters have the ability to reposition and re-invent themselves without adding or omitting a single letter. They go about t
