Eggsville

By Peter Murray

When the brave knight rescues the beautiful princess, all that remains is a monster sized egg. Best friends Brynn, Alys and Dilan decide to take the egg home to Eggsville, the place where all the kingdoms' eggs are laid, and hatch the giant chicken inside. The only problem is there’s no such thing as a giant chicken.

There are stories however, of fire breathing monsters guarding towers, and legends of great beasts roaming the sky at night. And now they seem to have brought one home, one that will surely require feeding. And what do monsters eat? Chickens of course, and lots of them!

Soon, hatching the egg and dealing with the villagers will be the least of their problems. For a new arrival is imminent, one that is huge and dark and looks intent on destroying more than just a few eggs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398492257

Peter Murray

Peter Murray is a British-born author living with his wife and daughter in Greater Manchester, England. After graduating from university, he started work as an engineer and began writing short stories in the evening for his daughter to read. This progressed into the completion of his first children’s book, Eggsville. He aims to provide children with fun and fantastical stories that help them question and discover the world they are living in today. Peter continues to write stories and hopes to make the jump from part-time storyteller, to full-time author very soon.

Book preview

About the Author

Peter Murray is a British-born author living with his wife and daughter in Greater Manchester, England. After graduating from university, he started work as an engineer and began writing short stories in the evening for his daughter to read. This progressed into the completion of his first children’s book, Eggsville. He aims to provide children with fun and fantastical stories that help them question and discover the world they are living in today. Peter continues to write stories and hopes to make the jump from part-time storyteller, to full-time author very soon.

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to my wife and my daughter, without whom, none of this would have been possible.

Copyright Information ©

Peter Murray 2023

The right of Peter Murray to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398492240 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398492257 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

20230710

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to my mum and dad for their help.

A big thank you to all those who have continued to support and proof read my stories over the past few years.

And a final massive mention to Helena and Milos – my number one source of encouragement from the Czech Republic.

Chapter One

Along Came a Rider

You were never truly alone in Eggsville. Wherever you went, be it up the tallest hill or down the windiest path, you would always be accompanied by a feathered little friend. More likely than not it would be a clucking, strutting, grit-picking hen, which isn’t too surprising when your village is home to a million chickens, or chucks, as they are called in Eggsville.

It had been declared a long time ago, so long ago that nobody really knew why, that every village in the kingdom were to have its own purpose, and Eggsville was no different. Not to be confused with Chickensford however, who provided birds for Sunday roasts, whereas Eggsville provided eggs for any occasion. In fact, they provided all the eggs, every egg the kingdom ever needed.

The eggs were boiled, fried, scrambled and poached. Bakers used them in their cakes and cooks used them in pies and egg wash. Breakfast, dinner and tea would usually have an egg in it somewhere for someone.

At the winter’s end festival, there would be gallons of eggnog on offer, made to toast all the hard work done by the kingdom’s villagers and to the coming successes that the New Year might bring.

So you can see, that is a lot of eggs. And therefore you need a lot of chucks.

Through Eggsville ran a single winding road. It was muddy in winter and dusty in summer. Brynn’s home was at the edge of the village, far away from the square in the middle. She lived there with her dad Hari, and her mum Gwyneth and soon they would be having a little brother or sister. She was sure the new arrival was going to be an annoying boy though with the same scruffy straight brown hair as her. He would always be in her way and would make it even harder for her to complete her chores.

Every child in the village had chores, mainly chuck related. Brynn was lucky in that respect; she got to feed the chucks. Others, like her best friend Alys, had to muck them out. It was one thing she was always thankful for.

It was a warm sticky day in Eggsville and Brynn was standing outside her home, with her best friend Alys and her other best friend Dilan, when she heard the pounding of hoofs heading their way. She turned to Alys and scrunched up her big brown eyes as if that would make hearing the sound any better.

‘Can you hear that? It sounds like Mr Croft’s bull is on the loose again.’

Alys tilted her head towards the sound, allowing her dark blonde curls to drop to one side.

As they both listened Dilan agreed.

HONK.

Which was unusual for a duck, but Dilan was an unusual duck. He lived in a place full of chickens; he sounded a bit like a goose, and followed the two girls around like he was their little brother.

The girls looked at the small mallard and he honked back again.

‘You’re right,’ said Brynn with a nod. ‘It’s a horse, got to be a horse. Mr Croft’s bull is too fat and old to run that quick.’

As the three friends nodded in agreement a gigantic white horse, ridden by a knight dressed in armour, rode down the dusty village path. The stallion raced towards them, suddenly rearing up on its back legs as the knight strained hard on the reigns to bring the magnificent creature to an abrupt halt.

Brynn looked up at the pair as they came to a stop right before them. The knight’s armour was so finely polished that she could see her gapped toothed reflection in the mirrored finish of his armoured boots.

‘Wow,’ she said, covering her eyes from the reflected sun as she gazed upon the horse and rider in front of her in amazement.

The knight raised the grate at the front of his helmet. It swung up on a hinge to reveal an amazingly square chin and charismatic smile full of perfectly white teeth.

‘Tell me little girl,’ he asked Brynn in a deep, smooth voice, ‘is there a large tower around here?’

Of course, there was, they all knew that. It was just down the road, through the woods, over the next hill and through the smelly swamp. So she told him. Proudly swinging her arms around and dipping her head she showed him the route like she was performing a strange dance routine just for him.

Alys nodded, and repeated the last word of each direction given to emphasise the instructions.

‘Road, yep. Woodsy, just there. Hill, aye over that. Swamp, smelly, very smelly.’ She pinched her nose and stuck her tongue out in disgust.

Dilan also added his shillings worth into the mix.

HONK.

He said with a flap of his wings.

The knight looked a little taken aback by a duck whose honk sounded a bit like a goose, but he thanked them kindly and quickly continued on with his quest.

Soon, the sound of the galloping stead had faded and the three friends were left alone in silence. Well almost silence, since the cluck, cluck, clucking of a million chucks could be heard all day and all night in Eggsville. It was kind of soothing, kind of annoying. It helped you to get to sleep in the evening and greeted you when you woke the next day.

And if you never woke up the next day, you can bet a fried egg on toast that there would be a few chucks on the other side to welcome you when you got there.

‘Shall we go feed the chucks?’ asked Brynn.

‘You mean muck them out?’ said Alys with a shrug.

So off they headed back into the village to do their chores.

And why not, that’s what everyone did in Eggsville. They looked after the chucks and sent the eggs to the kingdom. And nothing, it seemed, would ever change that. Would it?

Chapter Two

Storms and Dreams

Brynn woke up in the middle of the night. She could hear a terrifying roar. She jumped out of bed and ran to the window. A flash of light crossed the sky, followed by the roaring of flames. She could smell smoke drifting on the cool breeze. It smelled like a summer fire, seeping through the cracks that crawled around her window pane. Then came an almighty screech. The sound made her hair stand on end. Its sharp echo rose through the trees, burst out the tops and scattered all the sleeping birds back into the sky. In an instant, the noise ceased, the village fell silent once more and the sky returned to the darkness of night.

As Brynn stood by her window she jumped at the sound of her bedroom door opening. Her dad stood there yawning and rubbing his eyes. With his hair stuck up in all directions, he resembled a wild mountain bear. He cleared his throat and spoke in a soft grumpy voice. As you do when you’re half asleep.

‘What’s up kid?’

‘Dad, did