A Spark in the Dark

By Pendragan

How did such a little caterpillar land up in such a deep, dark cave? And, more importantly, how is he going to get out?
Hungry Jiggly keeps crawling forwards, seeking a way.
What he finds are the weirdest and most wonderful cave-dwellers. Some of them greet him, some want to eat him, and down here, nothing is what it seems!
From a blob called Blubber and a blue bat called Azul, to a hungry spider and an even-hungrier flower, they all find Jiggly’s company delicious in different ways...
Will he find his way out of the cave alive?
An action-packed quest for survival, set in the realms of the magical, with hilarious twists around every corner!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dragan Matijevic
• Release date: Aug 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310870552

Pendragan

'Pendragan' is the pen-name for children's fiction-writing duo Penny Williams and Dragan Matijevic. They also write independantly as Penny Williams and Dragan Matijevic (adult fiction, self-help and cookery books). They launched Pendragan Publishing as an independent, international publishing platform for storytellers around the world. If you would like news about forthcoming publications, or books in the works, or if you have questions about any of the characters, please let us know. Dragan Matijevic Dragan started writing during the war that broke up Yugoslavia in the early '90s. Living in England with his one-year old son at the time, Dragan wondered how he could help his people in Croatia. The solution turned out to be magic! Dragan founded a theatre charity called Rise Phoenix, wrote his first puppet play for children, created his own puppets, and together with a bunch of troubadours, jesters and jugglers, drove a truck down to the war zone. In 1993, "Peppe the Magician" began to appear in refugee camps throughout Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Small puppets and theatre plays gave way to giant puppets and theatre spectacles. Children who had lost everything rediscovered the ability to laugh. Adults slowly joined in. One Croatian soldier shouted from the audience, "Croatia needs puppets, not guns!" Quentin Blake agreed and gave permission for Rise Phoenix to take his Big Friendly Giant to the war zone. Dragan went on to write and perform in many other children's plays, quite a few of which are now stories and novels. When not writing, Dragan teaches at The Artisan Bakery School, and continues to perform as the magician Sol Ray. Penny Williams As a child, Penny would row ashore to school from the sailing boat she grew up on with her family. This gave her a quirky view on life, encouraged by the stories she heard from blue-water sailors arriving in Falmouth Harbour. Penny grew up with a hunger for distant horizons and foreign shores. Her explorations took her to Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and even Antarctica. But her biggest adventure, which was falling in love with a Croatian magician (Dragan), happened right on her own front door step in England! So far, their story includes building their own woodfired oven for The Artisan Bakery School, moving to a crazy old cottage in Devon, taking an Invisible Man to Singapore, working with children in Sri Lanka and India and kayaking round the islands of Dalmatia. Penny also runs a professional copywriting, editing and translation business. She and Dragan write together to celebrate the magic that happens in real life. *** Connect With Us *** [e-mail] www.pendragan.com

Book preview

Chapter 1: The Cave

Down in the middle of a deep, dark cave, a young caterpillar was lost. Jiggly waggled his feelers and sniffed. The darkness smelled of cold, damp rock. He strained his eyes and his ears, but he could not see a thing or hear a sound. He had no idea where he was, or how he had got here.

Being so young, Jiggly only had one memory so far. He thought about it. The memory was of being born on a bright green leaf, in bright yellow sunlight, and of munching the juicy leaves around him, before Something Big knocked him off his leaf, and he dropped into this mysterious darkness.

Remembering the green leaves made Jiggly hungry. He started crawling forwards, sniffing for food. The ground was rough, and soon his belly was sore on the outside as well as aching on the inside, so he stopped. He curled himself up in a ball and tried to rest.

But he was too hungry. Wherever could he find something to eat? As he began to crawl forwards again, he smelled some water. Humping along the rocky ground, he soon found his feet in a little puddle. It smelled surprisingly fresh and sweet, so he drank and drank until his belly was bursting.

Yet still he felt terribly hungry. All he could think about were crisp green leaves, and biting into their sweet, juicy flesh.

He crawled and crawled, hoping to find food, until his feet were so sore that they just would not crawl any further. Jiggly laid his head on the damp rock. As he wondered if things would ever get better, he fell into a deep, deep sleep.

The good thing about being asleep, was that Jiggly was back inside his own head. And his head was not full of dark nothingness, but full of colours and sunlight, and delicious green leaves everywhere. Then he dreamed of something he had never seen in all his very short life. A creature with huge, coloured wings was hovering above his head.

Hello! Are you well? asked the winged creature.

Never better! Jiggly laughed.

One day, you will be like me, Jiggly. You’ll be flying in the sunshine day after day, until you're so happy that you will shine yourself!

That sounds wonderful! Jiggly exclaimed. But I'm only a little bug. I don’t have any wings…

Trust me! urged the winged being. Be strong. Be brave. Keep going and never give up! You were born to fly. Remember that.

But what if I forget? worried Jiggly, in his sleep. I’ve only got a little brain.

I will do something for you, so you'll never forget, said the lovely creature, with a dazzling smile on his face. One day, you'll be so happy, that you yourself will turn into pure sunlight! With that, the winged creature started to glow. His colours got brighter and brighter until he shone so hard, he turned into a big ball of light. Then he whizzed off into the big blue sky and disappeared.

Jiggly was left all alone, but he felt so wonderful, so warm and comfortable, that he didn’t mind. Even though he didn’t have wings, he seemed to be floating happily through the air. There were flowers below him and the sun was shining down on him with such a glorious brightness, that Jiggly just wriggled with glee. He was just beginning to feel himself sort of glowing when, of course, he woke up.

The darkness seemed blacker than ever.

Jiggly peered around.

Friend! he called. Where are you?

There was silence, except for a lonely drop of water splashing into a puddle. The ache in his belly reminded Jiggly where he really was; in the darkest, emptiest, hungriest place in the whole wide world!

Jiggly started to cry. He couldn’t help it. He felt lonelier now than ever. And hungrier! But then he had another thought. Now, he had two memories to think about when he shut his eyes against the darkness; the memory of eating juicy green leaves, and the memory of the winged friend in his dream. It didn’t matter if the dream was real or not. He decided he would never forget it, and that he would always remember to be brave, and that on top of that, he would get out of the dark, and into the light!

Chapter 2: Spider Mum

Where am I? Jiggly called out, bravely.

Where am I? his