Edgar the Odd Goblin
Edgar Discovers the Sun Stone
Chapter 3 – The Stone
Edgar poked the stone with his walking stick. Nothing happened. Edgar nudged the stone with his thick leather boot. Still nothing. Edgar tapped it with the tip of his fingernail. Again, nothing. Finally, Edgar took a deep breath, lurched forward, and picked the stone up with his bare hand.
At first, he didn’t notice anything different, other than the fact that the stone did him no harm. Then Edgar did see something—a small, barely visible green patch in the palm of his hand—the hand holding the stone. Soon, the greenness of his skin expanded. First, it covered his hand, then it crept up his arm, and then engulfed his entire body. Edgar was no longer a dull gray goblin but instead was a beautiful, bright green. His clothing was no longer drab and gray. Now it was a patchwork of different, never-before-seen colors.
Not only did Edgar and his clothing look different, but everything around him glowed with beautiful, strange new colors. Edgar had only known a world of a few colors—gray, brown, dark gray, dark brown, light gray, light brown, and black, of course. But now he saw a rainbow of colors all around him, and somehow even knew their names. He pointed to each new color and called them by name, “Red, blue, purple, yellow, pink!”
What have I found? Edgar thought. Is this a magic stone? And if so, is it good magic or evil magic? And being a goblin, which should I prefer? Edgar couldn’t answer these questions, but three things were sure. Edgar treasured this stone. Edgar wanted to keep this stone. And Edgar wanted to tell everyone about this stone!
Edgar bolted out of the cave with his newfound treasure in his hand. Everything he set his eyes on looked completely different from what it did just a few short minutes before. The dark forest was now full of brilliant colors—green leaves, orange mushrooms, purple salamanders, and yellow butterflies. The forest even sounded different. The song of the birds flying overhead sounded less annoying and more cheerful. The breeze that whistled through the trees sounded like a symphony. The crickets chirped, the bees buzzed, and the squirrels chattered.
Edgar then felt a strange sensation spread across his face. First, he thought something was wrong with him, like the time he tried to eat a dragon pepper, which paralyzed his tongue and mouth for a full day. But his mouth didn’t tingle, or burn, or sag from numbness. He felt his lips spread wide across his face and turn up at the corners. He didn’t know it yet, but for the first time in his life, Edgar smiled.
