Prince Mikal's Quest

By Eileen Petersen

The grundleputs are a race of happy industrious creatures unique to the Great Forest. They keep watch over the sacred chest that protects all life in its woodlands. When Mikal is appointed Chief Prince, all its inhabitants rejoice. With Prince Mikal in charge, the woodland creatures believe they will always be safe. Nothing can go wrong. Or can it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: Aug 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781486613038

Book preview

Author

Foreword

There’s something about a good story. Stories help us make sense of things. They take place in the imagination and have the ability to create genuine emotions, presence (the sense of being there), and behavioural responses. Through story, characters become real as we become participants in the narrative. Mysteries beyond our ability to understand through other means become wondrously accessible. Lessons become unlocked, and formerly hidden truth is revealed to the reader.

Since the oldest stories told in caves or around campfires, storytellers have used allegory to expose hidden things through imagery, symbolic figures, myth, and fantasy. There is usually a moment where it dawns upon a reader that they have stepped into something greater than a story. There is a dawning realization that something bigger is afoot—something that awakens you to a timeless moral precept or a larger spiritual truth. Prince Mikal’s Quest is such a story. Author Eileen Petersen engages our hearts through the charm of the grundleputs—unassuming, peaceable forest creatures. Through severe testing Prince Mikal and the grundleputs discover the strength to meet near insurmountable challenges.

Some readers will have already experienced places like the pit in their own journey. Some, through traversing the darkness, have discovered that they too possess great strength. Some are even fortunate enough to have met a gentle king to walk beside, learning in the living out of their own story that the king can be trusted. It is both the author’s hope and mine that, like Mikal, Lassertoo, Mordlebud, and Wheezegal, readers might become better acquainted with hope and the goodness of King Grundlegrass.

Jim Tune

Contributing Editor, Christian Standard

Associate Editor, One Body Magazine

President, Impact Ministry Group

Introduction

Welcome to the Great Forest and the wonderful world of the grundleputs.

I hope you will enjoy getting to know Prince Mikal and all his friends as much I have loved writing about them. When I read the first chapters of this story to my family, they just sat on the edge of their seats. They couldn’t wait for more.

Before long, the grundleputs became part of our dinner-table conversations. On trips, we couldn’t drive by a forest or wooded area without wondering if there were grundleputs nearby. Of course, they couldn’t live there. They are unique to the Great Forest!

Nevertheless, I even found notes from Prince Mikal on my desk, and if something went missing, well, it was probably borrowed by the grundleputs.

You can see we’ve had a lot of fun with these adorable creatures, and we still do, but there’s a serious side to their story too. Prince Mikal and his friends are gentle creatures, but in the forest they are confronted with the presence of evil. Their behaviour is very humanlike, and we can identify with their reactions as we follow them on their quest.

I look upon this story as a special gift from God. It lifts me up every time I read it. I pray it will do the same for you.

Happy reading!

Eileen Petersen

PROLOGUE

The Quest

The forest was unusually quiet. A gentle breeze skipped over the peaks of the tallest ash and pine trees. Even so, there was a sharp tingle of expectancy in the air. The birds had ceased their chatter and were perched in readiness on the highest branches. Down below, in the forest proper, the animals, big and small, crouched silently in the underbrush. Instinctively they knew that danger was very near.

In a nearby clearing, where dying aspens canopied the darkening sky, Mikal, chief prince of the grundleputs, paced back and forth, forging a deepening path in the fallen yellow leaves. Tonight his princely crown weighed heavy upon his head, and his royal blue cape cast an eerie shadow as he moved.

What’s taking Wendel and the others so long? he wondered. Time was getting short. They must act immediately, or the grundleputs and their forest would be lost forever. He stopped to listen, perking up his large round ears, hoping to hear the slightest sound that would tell him his companions were approaching.

At the crackle of a broken twig his ears stiffened and he spun around. There stood Wendel, his best friend and his brother prince. They stared at one another. A sigh of understanding passed between them. They had shared so much—and now they would be facing the final battle. For a few moments neither Mikal nor Wendel could speak.

In appearance, the two princes were almost identical. Both had the grundleputs’ distinctive round head, large soft eyes, and round, lightly pointed ears that could stiffen at the slightest sound. Beneath their puppy-like noses their mouths were wide and friendly. Their slender necks rested on short stocky bodies of smooth fawn-coloured fur. Both princes wore small golden crowns. While Mikal wore the cape of a chief prince, Wendel wore the chevron-shaped collar of the king’s scouts. Their most striking difference was the emerald key that Mikal wore on a chain around his neck.

The grundleputs were gentle creatures, as a rule. However, the strength of their lean arms and legs had been a source of surprise to their enemies, the gradlerats, who now posed the greatest threat to their existence.

Wendel! Mikal cried, I thought you would never come. Where are the others? Will they be here soon?

Yes, brother. Very soon. How much time do we have?

Very little. Look up! Even the trees and plants here in the Deep Forest will soon wither. If we don’t act right now it may be too late to save the forest.

As the young prince stood there, his royal cape and crown blending into the evening twilight, Wendel placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder and spoke. Mikal, I’ve never seen you lose hope before. How bad do you think it is? You know we are ready to go with you tonight.

Mikal smiled and nodded at Wendel’s loyalty. He knew he would not face the coming conflict alone, but he feared the cost would be heavy. Could he really ask his dearest friends to risk their lives once again? Hadn’t they suffered enough? Perhaps, if he sent them away, they could at least escape the danger and be protected by King Grundlegrass. Many of the grundleputs who had started out on the quest with Prince Mikal were now scattered or even lost in the Deep Forest. He could only pray they would find their way to a place of safety. A small band of eight was all that remained. Their final perilous would begin in earnest when the final six arrived.

Mikal’s heart warmed when he thought of his brothers and sisters who were on their way. He pictured them in his mind. There was his brother Dancar, his faithful map maker, who put his fear aside to keep them on the right path even in their darkest hours. He could also see Mordlebud, tall and lean, his hair standing on end, stoically continuing even when he believed all was lost. Then there was Lassertoo, who was so proud of his archery skills and had been both brave and reckless in his attempts to protect his prince.