The Tinkerberry tales - The Balance of the Forest: The Tinkerberry Tales, #2

By Anthony Kirkpatrick

The first installment of a series of tales from a family deep in the forest on a quest to restore balance. Full of excitement and nail-biting action, this story follows the Tinkerberry family on their adventures through good and evil encounters with fairies, pixies, witches, and many more magical creatures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anthony Kirkpatrick
• Release date: Dec 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201251192

Book preview

In the heart of the Pacific Ocean lies an island called Gopsall Island. The island is split into three areas. The Overlands, The Underlands and The Dark Mountains.

The Overlands is the north part of the island, very easy conditions to live in and covered with perfect forest areas and fresh green grass. Rivers flow through the north part of the island with fish and plenty of life, with golden shores around the coastline.

The Dark Mountains are mountains that run through the middle of the island from the north east to the south west. No one really knows what lies in the middle of The Dark Mountains as it hasn’t been fully explored by any of the creatures that inhabit Gopsall Island although loud rumblings have been heard coming from within them.

The Underlands fall to the south side of the island, constantly covered in snow and ice. It is hard for creatures to live on the land and blizzards come in from the southern winds and make it difficult to even search the land.

This particular set of tales begins in The Overlands, bordering on the Dark Mountains is Hugglescote Forest and a tiny village called Willowwood, which is where we shall begin.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TALE ONE: The Dark Witch of Greed

TALE TWO: The Pride of the Nixies

TALE THREE: The Caves of Sloth

TALE FOUR: The Fairy Lust War

TALE FIVE: Envy of the Elvlings

TALE SIX: Glorious Gluttony

TALE SEVEN: Witches Wrath

TALE EIGHT: In the Balance

Tale One

The Dark Witch of Greed

I

t was 11.59pm on the 17th of February and Winston Tinkerberry was waiting for the clock to strike midnight. Little did he know what was to come on his 21st birthday. Winston was the youngest male in the Tinkerberry family with three older brothers and one younger sister. The Tinkerberrys were tiny creatures known as Dragon-Sprites that lived in the trunks of giant trees in the Hugglescote Forest. The Tinkerberrys lived in a tree village called Willowwood. Dragon-Sprites stood no taller than fifteen centimeters and they always wore dark hooded cloaks to hide their leathery, wrinkled skin. Their eyes as dark as the night sky but with piercing white pupils which allows them to see in the dark of night. All of the siblings- Winston, Ivan, Tobias, Charlie and Harriet, loved to come out through the night and chase through the forest. Dragon-Sprites were curious and playful creatures, that all had special abilities, but everyone throughout the land knew that the tears of a Dragon-Sprite would bring never ending good fortune.

DING, DING, DING

The clock chimed its midnight bells and Winston was finally 21. Upon his 21st birthday he was promised to be allowed to venture outside the forest by his father, The Great Twinkle Tinkerberry. Twinkle always had concerns over leaving the forest in fear of evil beings that scouted the land to try and capture the Dragon-Sprites for their tears. Stories had been passed down for generations forcing the Tinkerberrys into hiding. But Winston was NOT afraid.

He jumped up and out of bed and ran down the stairs as fast as he could but as he got to the front of the tree there was a loud BANG as The Great Twinkle struck his staff on the ground and called for Winston to stop.

‘WINSTON’

‘Wait! Right! There!’ said The Great Twinkle 

‘But Father...I’m 21 today and you promised!’ replied Winston

‘I know, I know but there are some things I need you to know before you go’ explained The Great Twinkle.

The Great Twinkle wanted to explain the dark and evil things in the forest, especially The Witch of Greed. He had heard whispers throughout the forest that she was close by and scouting the nearby towns for any information on the Dragon-Sprites. But Winston didn’t care, he just wanted to go and explore. The Witch of Greed was one of four enchanted witches that were known for scouting the land in search Dragon-Sprites, Elvlings and other mythical creatures. If a witch was ever to catch someone, they would try and drain their powers and use them for themselves, the witches also liked to cause trouble at every opportunity. The Witch of Greed was known for wanting to steal all of the powers for herself so that she could take over the land. It was said that she was so greedy that it had driven everyone away from her, making her evil to her core. No one had ever been able to survive capture from The Witch of Greed, but Winston had heard enough and was ready to explore.

‘Blah, Blah, Blah’ is all Winston heard when being warned about the grave danger he was about to face.

Just before Winston left, The Great Twinkle said

‘I want you to take this staff; it will help you when you need it most.’

Winston, in a hurry grabbed the staff and said ‘Yeah, Yeah’ and shot out of the tree.

Within the Hugglescote Forest there were the Dragon-Sprites, the Water-Sprites and the Elvlings which were the main creatures that lived there. The Elvlings were very similar to the Dragon-Sprites however they had pointier ears and a longer nose and tried to keep to themselves, they lived in the village of Great Hollow that Winston would soon be approaching. The Great Owls offered protection for the west side of the forest, not many people ever saw the Great Owls however everyone knew they were there, and everyone definitely respected them.

As Winston left the village of Willowwood he was excited to be on his first adventure. He knew that the closest town, Ravenstone was a reasonable walk away and he would have to travel north to the stream and follow that down across to the Elvling village of Great Hollow before going over the hill to reach Ravenstone. Winston briskly walked along through the forest and as planned approached the stream. Winston liked the stream as the fish would swim alongside him and he would talk to them, not that they could ever talk back.

He walked along the stream and he could hear the people of Great Hollow celebrating the Elvling New Year which always fell around Winston’s birthday. As he got to Great Hollow, he joined in with some of the singing and the dancing and played with some of the Elvling children as he passed through. Some of the kids wanted him to stay longer, but there was no way Winston was going to miss out on seeing Ravenstone for the first time. Secretly, Winston wanted to see a real human, and nothing was going to stop him.

As he left Great Hollow, Winston became surrounded by darkness; he could hear the hoots of the Great Owls communicating as they kept watch over the forest. One of the Great Owls, Ansel, flew down and perched on the branch ahead of Winston.

‘Hoot, where are you headed?’ said Ansel as he spanned his light brown wings that looked like a shield of feathers to slow Winston down.

’21 today and off to play’ Winston replied in a fun and chirpy voice.

‘Be careful, there have been witches seen nearby’ Exclaimed Ansel as Winston skipped on past.

As Winston wandered through the forest, getting closer and closer to Ravenstone he walked up the hill. On top of the hill, he could see Ravenstone. Some of the houses had lights on, street lamps lighting up the square in the middle. He could even see Snarestone Castle in the distance. Winston stopped to admire the view for a few short moments and took a drink of water ready for what he thought would be the final leg of his journey.

‘Break over’ He said to himself, and off he set again.

As Winston walked down the hill into the last part of the forest before Ravenstone it wasn’t too long before he noticed that something didn’t feel right. It was quiet; in fact it was too quiet. The hooting of the Great Owls was no longer able to be heard, the sound of the wind through the leaves of the tree had stopped and there was an eerie feel to everything around him. The feeling of excitement had suddenly vanished, and Winston had started to cling to the staff given to him by his father. Winston had reached the edge of the forest. Stood in front of him was the dark outline of a house with no lights on. He slowly started to walk down the