I’ve never ran across the Sahara desert,

but I have jogged through Thetford Forest.

I’ve never eaten Escargot in France,

but I have had ruby, red, raspberries melt on my taste buds in the summertime.

I’ve never swam with pretty, pink boto dolphins,

but I have paddled with minnows at Santon Downham river.

I’ve never heard a wolf howl to the moon,

but I have listened to a Welsh pony neigh into the sunset.

I’ve never been stung by a blu ray jellyfish,

but I have been stung by a bumblebee at High Lodge, while licking a strawberry flavoured icelolly.

I’ve never touched a lion at Colchester Zoo, 

but I have stroked a crow’s wiry black feathers.

I’ve never caught sight of a chicken fly to the moon,

but I have seen a majestic peacock spread out its feathers at Hall Farm.

I’ve never heard a brown bear talk,

but I have listened to Mrs Baxter shout at the children in my class for talking.

I’ve never swam with baby tigers,

but I have gone swimming with my friends at Snt Helen’s river.

What are loud? A German Shepherd’s long distance cry, my dad after he forgets to lock up his tool shed, and Forest Academy’s bell going off once lunch is over.

What are mute? The summer breeze blowing yellow daffodils in the Thetford fields, a sheepdog after a long, restless day of work and a butterfly looking for delicious nectar.

What are soft? A fluffy calve’s fur at Little Lodge farm, a newborn baby’s teddy bear and my hair after a long, refreshing shower.

What are hard? Year five spelling questions, a seven hundred page book in Santon Downham library and Dwanye Johnson’s muscles.

What are hot? Chilli heatwave crisps from Tescos, a dragon’s boiling breath and my teachers love for David Beckham.

What are cold? A spoon full of chocolate flavoured ice cream from the freezer, a broken heart inside a forgotten person and your face after playing out in the snow.

What are smooth? A new rubber from the cupboard in Elder class, polished wood from my grandad’s workshop and a new english book’s first pages.

What is rough? Velcro from my nan’s knitting set, the feeling of rubbing your fingers against a giraffe’s neck and  the edge of my desktop at home.

Finally, they were ready to leave.

That evening, when the sun was about to set, an important message had arrived with Mr Tate – an owl-carrier – to say that the Gorm were getting closer and closer to the Winter Warren. They were in maximum jeopardy. The Winter Warren, that is as old as a fossil from the dawn of time, was built many winters ago and would be too dangerous to hide from the Gorm in. They would take it down in a heartbeat! The walls were too thin to keep them safe and its roof was way too fragile that if you stood on it, you would fall right through! Unfortunately, the warren would never survive an attack from the Gorm.

And so it was that the three innocent rabbits Primrose, Pook and Pip, left their warm, comfy home and set off on an endless long path. The journey to a safe place would take many days, maybe even weeks to get to. They would have had to climb the Volcher Volcano, cross Waterloo Lake and travel through Mushroom Meadow and they had to walk across these different places extremely carefully so the Gorm didn’t spot them. Mushroom Meadows was right next to the Gorm, so they had to be extra cautious once they got there.

Even the powerful Gorm could not get through to Mushroom Meadows, the meadow has a strong, invisible barrier along the sides of the walls and along the bottom of the ground so they can’t dig through.The barrier has a tiny gap at the end so the mushrooms could get some air, the gap is just big enough for Primrose, Pip and Pook to fit through. Once the three siblings got through the hole they would be safe for as long as they wish to stay in the Mushroom Meadow. There were many different paths to Mushroom Meadows but were protected by supreme Gorm scouts and are too menacing for them as they are so tiny. However,their mother gave them a mysterious map of the kingdom that shows them every single route possible to get to the places and islands they need to go.

Desperately, Podkin was clutching on the map extremely cautiously, terrified to let a gust of wind drift along it. The trio of frightened baby rabbits steadily made their way to Fearful Forest. The only thing in their way was thirty foot tall trees with no way around them, it was the gate to the forest. Although they were tiny creatures, not even one of their claws could fit through the gap in the trees! They first tried climbing but that was no use, then they tried squeezing through the gap even though they knew they had no chance of fitting through. Finally they had found the right way to get through, they would all make a hole and dig through until they got to the other side of the entrance as Fearful Forest does not have an invisible barrier. Once they had got through into the forest, Primrose bravely took the lead and marched towards the end of the woods. Primrose didn’t mind all of the noises in the woods but Pip and Pook would jump at the sight of a baby squirrel or the rustle of a blackberry bush, just in case it was the Gorm!

Eventually, Pook started to get tired so they all decided to make a camp for the night. Pook found some sticks, Pip found some ferns and leaves and Primrose found rocks and bigger sticks to make a fire. After a long while, the den was finally made

That nightfall, as the sun started to slowly set, the kittens settled down for an enjoyable meal of roasted parsnips, fresh grass and hazelnuts they stole from very angry squirrels. They ate in tranquillity, because they were way too nervous for the Gorm hearing them. After their dinner was over,Pook yawned and started to snuggle into Primrose’s arms as they all slowly started to drift off to sleep. Primrose was awoken by a branch snapping and decided to take a peek outside. Primrose was relieved once she knew no one was spying on their den and fell straight back into her dreams.

All of a sudden, it had hit Primrose. She realised the Gorm can camouflage so they could be anywhere! In the woods, in the Winter Burrow maybe even in the den watching them! She awoke scared for her and her brother’s life. Taking  one’s time, she started to go back to sleep, cuddling her two siblings as tight as she could. Were they going to make it out alive?

The sun had just started to rise, just as Penelope woke up with a start. Something was rustiling in the bushes behind the den. A scintillating, scarlet red pair of eyes were behind a colossal, unpleasantly jagged rock. Penelope let out a sigh of relief once she saw Mr Tate the owl messenger. The owl was agitated because the durable Gorm had discovered the bunnies tracks and had planned to track them down and then god knows what next. There was no time to lose, the Gorm was getting closer and closer by the second. Penelope quickly unrolled the dirty, ruffled map and got ready to set off to Blueberry Bush woods.

As they hiked along a sunflower field,they slowly started to see more and more blueberries on the floor, and then they started to see a clear flowing stream leading to the woods followed by a kaleidoscope of coloured butterflies that seemed like they were trying to get water from the river. 

Several hours later, the confident trio of rabbits found themselves very close to Blueberry Bush woods. Penelope silently nudged Poot on the arm and whispered “Poot be as quiet as you can, the Gorm have left some footprints so they must be near”. Poot understood and ensured that they would take a slow, quiet, walk to the woods. The baby rabbits saw more and more blueberries and then more and more footprints and then not so many blueberries and many more footprints. Penelope thought this was quite odd as she thought there would be more blueberries as they were getting closer to the woods but there wasn’t. The bird’s singing started to turn into deep voices and the wind whistling started to sound like an animal whistling and pine cones falling to the floor started to sound like feet banging as someone or something was walking quickly along the trail. That had to mean only one thing – The Gorm was very, very near. The thing was,they couldn’t turn back now, it was way too late. Blueberry Bush woods was only a few steps away; they had to do it and they had to do it right now!

After a long time of thinking, Penelope had an idea. She exclaimed that they should find some wood, fern and anything to cover themselves up so they could join in the Gorm without being caught. Once they were all camouflaged they steadily marched through the forest trying to look like fierce warriors. Hoping their plan would work, Pook was shaking and rethinking their whole decision to run away and thought ‘why didn’t they just let the Gorm catch them in the first place,’ as he was sure it was about to happen. Everything was going as it was supposed to be until a massive blast of wind travelled along the bottom of the woods blowing all the twigs and leaves off the bunnies so they were completely recognised as weak, tiny baby rabbits. Would they ever make it out alive? 

Nervously, Penelope looked around and focused her eyes on the immoral Gorm troopers. They appeared like they were attempting to stare into her sole trying to make her more and more agitated. The obnoxious category of fighters stood tall looking furious but then jolly at the same time like they were happy they had found an innocent, scared bunny rabbit. Their immense figure’s were covered head to toe in jet-black iron body suits that seemed indestructible. With nerve, Penelope sprinted through the warriors and tried her hardest to get away as quickly as possible. Glancing rapidly, Penelope saw one of the heraldry beasts holding a sharp blade covered in gruesome ruby red blood. A murder of crows covered the sky slowly caving in on the Gorm rabbits ready to attack.

With the blaring sound of clanking armour and cawing, brutal crows chasing after them, the trio of worried rabbits fled as fast as their petite pair of feet could carry them. After many brutal hours of running non stop,Pook started to moan and groan. “Penelope, I don’t think I can make it  much further.” he said with a cold, quiet voice. Your legs are much longer than mine are”.

Penelope understood and promised Pook they wouldn’t be running for much longer. Just as she thought Pip was going a bit pale he started to speak in a very low tone.

“I see a burrow,”  he said desperately. Penelope couldn’t have been more proud of him. He had found their shelter for the night! They had finally found a good place to rest.

Carefully pulling back the overgrown plants that had covered the entrance of the burrow, Pip poked his head inside the hole and shouted loudly to see if anyone was there. Once there was no response he instantly knew it was a perfect spot to relax. It was a long burrow that seemed like it would go one forever that had enough space for fifteen rabbits to sleep in so there was plenty of room in it for the three of them. It seemed creepy at first as it was like no one had lived there for decades but they soon got used to it and settled in nicely. They all collapsed on top of eachother and fell deeply into a long long dream. All of a sudden, the three tired bunnies woke up with a start when they heard carriage wheels squeaking past the burrow so they knew the Gorm was somewhere near. Penelope didn’t want to risk making a fire so they had a  boring meal of fern leaves,

 some fresh green grass, mashed up potatoes they had collected and water that they had  got before they left on their journey.

As they started to get some more rest, Penelope remembered that they had never opened the parcel their father had given them just before the great war with the Gorm. She asked Pook if they should open it and he agreed with excitement. Just as the bunny was about to ask Pip if he agreed as well, he was already fast asleep.Trying not to wake him, she reached over to their backpack and scurried around until she found it. Just as she was about to unwrap the scrunched up wrapping paper she thought about why her father had given it to her if it wasn’t extremely special and important.

Nervously taking off the last piece of paper, Penelope’s eyes widened as she saw a small glass bottle of sparkling blue liquid lighting up the whole entire burrow. She had never seen anything like it ever before in her life! A small piece of parchment paper fell to the ground and Pook eagerly grabbed it and started to read it out aloud. “You are a very lucky person to have found this magical bottle of substance. It will make anyone in sight extremely sleepy just by opening the bottle cap on the side.” Pook life had flashed before his dainty little eyes. He was amazed and knew that they had a better chance of beating the Gorm once and for all! 

After a long night of sleep, the trio and the rabbits gathered their things and journeyed onwards towards Volcher Volcano. From how much they ran they had covered most of the ground to get to the volcano so there wasn’t much longer until they reached their destination. In a few seconds, everything had turned right around as Volcher Volcano was very near but so was the Gorm, a huge furious army of them.