Beginners Stories

Beginners
The Land of Youth.
The two countries in Ireland (Jonto CC BY-SA 3.0)
Today’s story is a legend from Ireland. Ireland is a small country next to the United Kingdom.
Ireland is an island—notice these two words are different. Ireland and island.
But Ireland, the island, is actually two countries. There is the Republic of Ireland and Northern
Ireland, which is part of the UK. But many Irish people want the Republic of Ireland and Northern
Ireland to be one country.
My dad is Irish. He grew up in the Republic of Ireland. But, to be honest, I’ve only been there for
family funerals. So I don’t know Irish culture that well. I decided to not do Irish accents for this
story—I know in some stories I do accents for the characters—because Irish accents are really
hard to do, and I don’t want to do them badly. Maybe in future.
Also, I want to say that the spelling of Irish words is very unusual. So there are some Irish names in
this story. When you read the spelling, you might think it is said one way, but it actually sounds
very different. For example, the name ‘Neeve’ is spelt N-I-A-M-H. So make sure to listen while you
read the transcript so that you don’t get confused by the names.
OK, I’ll just explain some words that are in today’s story.
Land is the thing below you. So when you walk outside, you are walking on the land. Plants and
trees grow on the land. Land can also mean country. For example, England is a land.
Youth means being young. So when you are not an adult yet, you are in your youth. However,
someone who is 25 can be in their youth, as well. There is not a specific age when youth ends. ‘A
youth’ also means a young person, but it is often used by old people who do not like young people.
For example, if you are an old man and young boys are always running in your garden, you could
say, ‘I don’t like these youths in my garden!’
Forever means always—always now and always in the future. For example, if you say, ‘I will love
you forever,’ it means that you will never stop loving the person. No person or animal can live
forever, but some things can last forever, or ‘live forever’. For example, plastic never goes away, so
we can say that plastic lasts forever, unfortunately!
A druid
A druid is a man who does magic. Druids were part of Celtic societies. Most of Europe was Celtic
before. Now, there are not many Celtic people, but in Ireland, Scotland and Wales people still speak
Celtic languages. However, in these places now they do not have druids. Still, we see druids in
films and TV shows. Druids were a bit like priests.
Your son-in-law is the husband of your child. For example, if your daughter gets married to a man
called Bob, Bob is now your son-in-law. He is like your son, but he is not really your son. Still, you
will probably think of him as part of the family. Some people do not like their son-in-laws or
daughters-in-law at all!
Marry means to get married to someone, to join your life with someone because you love them.
When you really love someone, you might go down on one knee and ask them, ‘Will you marry me?’
When people marry each other, they get special gold rings and put them on their fingers, and they
have a big party. In the old days, mothers often wanted to marry their daughters to rich men.
Do you think this brutalist building is ugly? (Julián Varas CC BY-SA 3.0)
Ugly means not beautiful, something that looks bad. Many people think they are ugly, even if they
are not. In the UK, there was an art movement in the 1970s called brutalism. Because of this
movement, many ugly buildings were built. But some people say that they are not ugly—they’re
beautiful!
A witch casting a spell (Wellcome Images CC BY 4.0)
Cast a spell means to use magic. You move your hand, or a magic wand, and say magic words like
‘Abracadabra!’ or ‘Expecto patronum!’. Druids, wizards and witches cast spells. In Harry Potter,
there are some very bad spells, like avada kedavra, which kills people.
An English hunter from the 20th century
Hunt means to chase and kill animals. In the past, people hunted on horses and used bows and
arrows to kill animals. Now, when people hunt they usually walk and use guns to kill animals. In
the past, people hunted for food, but these days, people usually hunt for fun.
Godzilla is a famous monster movie
A monster is a horrible person or animal who is very dangerous. For example, vampires,
werewolves, mummies and zombies are all monsters. Monsters often eat people. Halloween is the
night where monsters come to life. At least, in stories it is. If someone is very bad or strange, we
can also call them a monster.
Masks can be a form of disguise (Andreas Praefcke CC BY 3.0)
When you want to change how someone looks, you can give them a disguise. For example, maybe
you want to talk to someone but you don’t want them to know who you are. So you disguise
yourself. You put on glasses, grow a beard, change your clothes, change your voice and so on.
People use disguises a lot in spy movies, like James Bond.
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OK, so listen and enjoy!
The Land of Youth

Once there was a place called Tír na nÓg. The name meant ‘the Land of Youth’. It was a magical
land where everyone was young forever.
To decide who would be king in the Land of Youth, they had a game. All the men stood by the
castle and ran to a chair. The first man who sat in the chair became king, and he was king for
seven years. Then they played the game again and there was a new king.
But there was never a queen. A girl called Niamh wanted to be queen very much, but she could not
be queen. There were no queens in the Land of Youth. Everyone said Niamh was beautiful, but
Niamh didn’t want to be beautiful. She wanted to be strong and to be queen!
One year, Niamh’s father won the game and became the king. Niamh was very happy, and said,
‘Father, can I help you be king?’ But her father said, ‘No!’ He didn’t want help from other people. He
wanted to be king on his own.
Niamh’s father was afraid of many things. He thought that someone might try to kill him so that
they could be king. He thought that someone would run faster than him in the next game. But he
had a druid who could see the future, so he asked him to see the future.
‘Nobody will kill you, my king. And only one person would run faster than you: your son-in-law. So if
your daughter never gets married, you will not have a son-in-law, and you can be king forever.’
‘But how can I do that? My daughter is beautiful. Many men will want to marry her.’
‘I have magic, my king!’ said the druid. ‘I can make her so ugly that no man will want to marry her.’
‘Do it,’ said the King.
So the druid cast a spell. Niamh’s body changed. Her face now looked like a pig, and her body
looked like a pig. She was strong and had lots of hair like a pig, but she was not beautiful anymore.
Her father was very sad, and said to the druid, ‘What can I do? I did not want this for my daughter!’
‘I am sorry,’ said the druid. ‘But I cannot change the spell. It is done.’
But Niamh was very happy. Actually, she had asked the druid to cast the spell on her. She wanted
to be strong, like a pig. And now that she was ugly, no man would want to marry her. So she could
do what she wanted.
‘I am going to Ireland,’ said Niamh. ‘The Land of Youth is boring.’
‘Be careful, Niamh,’ said the druid. ‘The spell will not break. But, if you marry the son of Fionn mac
Cumhaill, then the spell will break. Well, it will change. I do not know if it will break.’
‘Hah!’ said Niamh. ‘I will never get married.’
So Niamh went to Ireland and lived alone in the forest. Every day, she cut wood and carried the
heavy trees. She was strong and happy.
There was a family who liked to go hunting in the forest. The men in the family were all very
strong, but one of the sons, Oisín, was not so strong. His brothers always laughed and said, ‘Oisín,
you are so weak!’ Niamh thought that this was stupid. Oisín wasn’t weak. He was not strong, but
he was fast, and he hunted well. Niamh watched him, and thought he was very interesting.
One day, Oisín and his two brothers hunted a big pig. It was very dangerous, and the pig killed
Oisín’s two brothers. But Oisín did not stop hunting it. Niamh thought he would die! But finally,
Oisín was fast and clever, and he killed the pig.
Niamh saw all this, and thought that Oisín was amazing. But the young man could not take the pig
home. It was too heavy, and he was too weak.
‘Oh no!’ said Oisín. ‘I have all this blood on me. If I go home, my father will think that I killed my two
brothers. But I cannot take the pig home, because it is too heavy…’
“Hmm,” thought Niamh. “I want to help the boy, but if he sees me, he will want to kill me, because I
look like a pig. But he is weak and tired… I will help him!”
So Niamh came out of the trees.
‘Hello, Oisín,’ she said. ‘I saw you kill the pig. You are a very clever man.’
‘Who are you?!’ said Oisín.
‘I am Niamh. Do not be afraid. I look like a pig, but I am really a person. I will help you carry the pig
you hunted.’
‘I don’t believe you!’ said Oisín.
‘Fine, don’t believe me,’ said Niamh. Then she picked up the pig and started walking. ‘I can carry it
myself. I am very strong.’
But finally, Oisín helped her, and they carried the pig through the forest. When they were close to
Oisín’s house, Niamh left.
‘Where are you going?’ said Oisín. ‘My family will want to say thank you.’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ she said. ‘They will think I am a monster and that I hurt you.’
‘Can I see you again?’ said Oisín.
Niamh laughed. ‘You really want to see me again?’ Most men thought she was too strong and too
ugly. But Oisín liked her. ‘Fine, come to the forest at night and we will talk.’
So every night, Niamh and Oisín met and talked. They became very close, and Niamh thought that
she loved Oisín. But there was a problem: she couldn’t meet Oisín’s family. They would think she
was a monster.
Then, one day, Oisín told Niamh about his father.
‘He is called Fionn mac Cumhaill, and he is a great hunter. I will never be strong like him.’
Niamh remembered what the druid had said: ‘If you marry the son of Fionn mac Cumhaill, then the
spell will break.’
‘Oisín!’ she said. ‘We have to get married!’
‘Huh?’
‘Believe me. If we get married, I will be a normal girl again, and we can be happy!’
Oisín didn’t think that she was ugly now, but he wanted her to join his family. So he said yes, and
they got married in the forest at night. They found a man who could marry them, and disguised
Niamh so that he could not see her face.
But when Niamh and Oisín kissed, the spell was not broken. Niamh did not change. Instead, Oisín
changed. His face became like a pig, and his body became like a pig. Now they were both ugly and
strong, like pigs!
‘Oh no!’ said Niamh. ‘I am so sorry, Oisín, I did not know…’
Oisín laughed. ‘Do you still like me?’
‘Of course I do!’
‘Then it does not matter. I am strong now, like you. We will go to my family. They will understand,
because we are in love.’
But Oisín’s family did not understand. They thought that Niamh and Oisín were monsters, and
Fionn mac Cumhaill said, ‘Leave! Never come back! You are not my son!’
For many days, Oisín cried. He loved his family, but they did not understand him.
‘Come,’ said Niamh. ‘We will go back to the Land of Youth, Tír na nÓg. I have an idea.’
Niamh disguised them both. They wore heavy clothes, so that nobody could see their faces. They
waited for the time of the game in Tír na nÓg, and then they went there.
‘You will run in the game,’ said Niamh.
Oisín was happy to run. He was very fast and very strong, so he easily won. Niamh’s father was
very angry. Who was this strange man, and how did he win?!
‘But the druid told me this can’t happen!’ said the King. ‘He said that only my son-in-law would be
faster than me, the son of Fionn mac Cumhaill!’
‘I am your son-in-law!’ said Oisín. He took off the disguise, and all the people in the Land of Youth
gasped. Niamh went and stood with him, and took off her disguise. ‘I have married your beautiful
daughter, and now I am king.’
‘And I am queen!’ said Niamh.
‘No!’ said Niamh’s father. ‘There can be no queen in Tír na nÓg!’
‘Actually, there can,’ said Oisín. ‘I am king, and I say that there will be a queen.’
So Niamh became queen, and she was very happy. Because she and Oisín were strong, fast and
clever, nobody could kill them. So they were king and queen for seven years, and after that, Oisín
won the game again, so they were king and queen again.
One day, the druid said to the queen, ‘You know, I could cast another spell. I could make you
beautiful again. You don’t have to be pigs forever.’
But Niamh just laughed. ‘We want to be pigs forever! Pigs are strong and clever. Anyway, the
people of Tír na nÓg love us.’
And it was true. The people loved their king and queen, and everyone was happy in the Land of
Youth.
Of course, Niamh and Oisín were not king and queen forever. Finally, they got bored of it, so one
year Oisín ran slowly, and someone else got to the chair first.
So today’s episode is actually two stories. They have different names but the theme, the topic, of
the stories is
You can’t please everyone.
So first, what does it mean to “please” someone?
When you want to make someone happy, you try to please them. Usually, this means you are
making a big effort and hope the person really likes something. For example, a child who has very
strict parents might work hard at school to please them. They want to be good at school so that
their parents are happy. We can also say something looks or tastes pleasing. For example, a new
piece of clothing could please the eye, it could look very nice and make you happy.
Unfortunately, you can’t make everyone happy and that’s why we have this phrase: “You can’t
please everyone”.
For example, when you are at school, maybe you want to be part of the cool kids, you want to be
one of the popular group at school, but these kids all skip classes and don’t do their classes and
say bad words. But also, you want to please your parents and get good grades at school, so you
try to do both at once. But the cool kids don’t like you because you do your homework, and
because you’re trying to be cool, you don’t do that well, you don’t get good grades. That’s a good
example of how you can’t please everyone.
But some people do try to please everyone, and those people are people pleasers. People pleasers
can be very fun because, obviously, they like to make everyone happy, but they can’t please
everyone.
I used to be a bit of a people pleaser. I would have very different friends because I tried to be
friends with everyone, and I changed myself, I changed my personality, to be friends with certain
people.
This can lead to very strange situations when different groups of your friends meet and you realise
they don’t like each other, they have very different personalities, and you are the only thing
between them. Apart from you, they have nothing in common, they have nothing the same. This
has happened to me a few times.
Anyway, don’t be a people pleaser! Just be yourself. Oh! That’s such a cliché, isn’t it? It’s a
message you hear all the time in TV shows and films, but it’s kind of true.
OK, I’ll just explain some words that are in today’s stories.
A donkey
A donkey is an animal like a horse. Donkeys go HEE-HAW! Donkeys are strong, and can carry
heavy things and people. Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh is a donkey. You can ride donkeys, and they
often work on farms.
When you do something very wrong or very stupid, you feel shame. For example, if you steal
something from someone and they see you, you might feel shame. You will go all red and say
sorry. When you want someone else to feel shame, you can say ‘Shame on you!’ But this isn’t a
very nice thing to say. These days, people don’t say ‘shame on you’ very often.
When you started doing something and you keep doing it, you continue it, then you are keeping on.
For example, I started this podcast in January 2019, and I am still doing it. So I keep on
making Easy Stories in English. Maybe you start reading in the morning, and your friend says, ‘Do
you want to go for lunch?’ But you don’t want to go. You want to keep on reading and not stop.
When you complain, you only talk about how things are bad. Children usually complain a lot. For
example, a child might say, ‘I don’t want to go to the supermarket! I don’t like that food! I want a
horse like that girl!’ In different countries, people complain more or less. In the UK, people often
complain about the weather, because it rains a lot here. Personally, I love complaining.
Your shoulder is a part of your body. Next to your neck you have two shoulders. The shoulders
connect your chest to your arms. Your shoulders can move all around, but you have to be careful,
because you can dislocate your shoulders, they can go pop, and it hurts a lot!
When you pull something out, you pull it and take it out of something. For example, you can pull
hairs out of your skin. Many people pull out their nose hairs, because they think they look bad.
Some people also pull out their leg hairs.
Someone who is mature is like an adult. So usually, children are not mature and adults are mature.
But if a child acts like an adult, for example, they eat slowly and say nice things and don’t fight
other children, then they are mature. Some adults act like children, and eat sweets and play video
games and complain a lot, so they are not mature. We can also say someone looks mature, which
means they look old, but they look good.
A bald man (Shinya Suzuki CC BY 2.0)
Someone who is bald has no hair on their head. Usually, men go bald. Most people start going bald
around 40 or 50, and many men lose all their hair by 70. When people have cancer, they can get a
therapy called chemotherapy, but this makes them go bald.
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The Man, the Boy and the Donkey

Once, a man and his son were going into town. They wanted to sell some potatoes. They went with
their donkey, and the donkey carried the potatoes.
While they walked, another man came past on a horse.
‘Shame on you!’ he said. ‘Why do you have a donkey, but you don’t ride it? Donkeys should be
ridden.’
So the man said to his son, ‘Get on the donkey and ride it.’
They kept on going. A few hours later, a group of old women walked past.
‘Look at that lazy young boy,’ said one of the women. ‘Shame on him! He makes his father walk
while he rides. His father should ride on the horse.’
So the man said to his son, ‘Get off the donkey. I will ride.’
They kept on going. An hour later, an old man walked past them.
‘Shame on that man!’ he said. ‘He sits and rides the donkey, while his son must walk and walk. His
son should ride on the donkey.’
The man didn’t know what to do. Some people said that he should ride, and some people said that
his son should ride. So he picked up the boy and put him on the donkey’s shoulders.
They kept on going, and they came to a house. There, people pointed at them and said things.
‘What is it this time?!’ said the man. ‘What have we done wrong?’
‘Shame on you both!’ they said. ‘That donkey is old, and you and your fat son are sitting on his
back. He will die soon, we think!’
The man and his son got off the donkey and thought about what to do. If the man rode on it,
people complained. If his son rode on it, people complained. If they both rode on it, people
complained. Finally, the man said, ‘We will carry the donkey.’
So the man and his son carried the donkey on their shoulders. Now people pointed and laughed at
them. The donkey did not like being carried. He was afraid. The man and his son also did not like
carrying the donkey, because he was heavy.
They came to a bridge, and the man could not carry the donkey anymore. The donkey fell off the
bridge and into the river.
‘Oh no!’ said the son.
‘Quick!’ said the man.
They ran and took the donkey out of the water, but now he was all wet. The potatoes had all fallen
into the water, and now they could not sell them.
So you see, you cannot please everyone.
The Man and His Two Wives

Once, there was a man who had two wives. One wife was young, and had long, black hair. One wife
was old, and had short, grey hair. The man was not young or old. He had short, black hair, but his
hair was turning grey.
The young wife did not like this. When people saw them, they said, ‘Look, that old man has such a
young wife! He could be her father!’
So every night, she brushed his hair and said, ‘Dear husband, I see a grey hair. Grey hairs make you
look old. Can I pull it out?’
The husband loved his wife, so he said, ‘Of course,’ and she pulled the grey hair out.
‘Now you look more young!’ she said.
But the older wife did not like her husband’s black hairs. When people saw them, they said, ‘Look,
that old woman has such a young husband! She could be his grandmother!’
So if he had grey hair, people would not think that she was his grandmother. She could wait for the
grey hairs to grow, but she did not like waiting.
So every morning, she brushed his hair and said, ‘Dear husband, your grey hairs make you look so
mature. But your black hairs make you look young. Shall I pull out this black hair?’
The husband loved his wife, so he said, ‘Of course,’ and she pulled the black hair out.
‘Now you look more mature!’ she said.
Well, this kept on for many months. First, the wives pulled out one hair, then two hairs, then three
hairs. Soon, they were pulling out twenty hairs a day.
One day, the older wife went to brush her husband’s hair, but there was no hair to brush.
‘What has happened?!’ she said. ‘My dear husband, you are bald!’
‘Bald?’ said the man. He put his hand on his head. ‘Oh, I am bald!’
The older wife did not like this. Now he had no black hairs and no grey hairs. He did not look young
or old, and she wanted him to look mature.
The younger wife also did not like it, because now the man looked older than her.
The man had just wanted his wives to be happy. But he had just made them both sad.
So again you see, you cannot please everyone.
Why the Sea is Salty.
Salt (Lexlex CC BY-SA 4.0)
If something is salty, then it has salt in it, it tastes of salt. Salt is a white powder that you use when
cooking. It is also called sodium, and the scientific symbol for it is NaCl. Some people love salty
food, but some people prefer sweet food. Japanese food is very salty.
When you cheat, you lie or do things in a bad way so that you can have an advantage, so that
things can be better for you, but just for you. For example, if you are playing Monopoly and you
steal money from the bank, you are cheating. If you are in an exam and you copy someone’s
answers, that’s cheating. If you tell someone that you will help them if they give you money, but
you just take the money and don’t help them, then you are cheating the person.
The Devil hurting people in Hell
Hell is the place bad people go when they die. In many religions, there is the idea of Hell. If you are
bad during your life, after you die you go to Hell. In Christianity, Hell is full of fire.
The King of Hell is called the Devil. He is a red man with a tail and horns, and he likes hurting
people and cheating people. There is a famous story called Faust about a man who makes a deal
with the Devil. If he gives the Devil his soul, the Devil will give him all the knowledge in the world.
Flour is a white powder that we use in cooking. When you bake food, like bread, cakes, pancakes
and so on, you always use flour. For example, to make pancakes, you mix flour with eggs and milk.
Wheat is a type of cereal or grain. Wheat is used very often in food. We use wheat to make flour,
which we can use to make bread and pasta. Wheat grows in fields and is very long. Many British
breakfast cereals have wheat in them, for example Shredded Wheat and Weetabix.
Wheat before being ground into flour (David Monniaux CC BY-SA 3.0)
When you want to make something into a powder, or into lots of small pieces, you grind it, and the
past tense is ground. Basically, you rub it together until it breaks apart. For example, sometimes
when you buy salt or pepper, it is in big pieces. To put it on food, you need to grind it first. When
you want to make a cup of coffee, and you have coffee beans, you have to grind them first. You
can make flour by grinding wheat.
Old millstones (Colin Park CC BY-SA 2.0)
A millstone is a big stone, a big tool, for grinding wheat into flour. You put wheat under the
millstone and grind it to turn it into flour. Nowadays, people use machines instead of millstones,
but you can still sometimes see them in museums. They are big, round and very heavy.
When something sinks, and the past tense is sank, it goes underwater. For example, if a ship has
lots of holes on it, or something very heavy is on it, it will sink into the water. This can be very
dangerous, because the people on the ship will sink as well.
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Why the Sea is Salty

Once there were two brothers. One brother was a poor farmer. He worked in the fields, and when
the weather was bad, he had no food. But he was kind and worked a lot. The other brother was a
rich man who worked on a ship. He was not kind, and he often cheated people. In this time, there
was no salt in the sea, so he travelled to other countries to get salt. He brought the salt back, and
the King paid him lots of money.
One winter, the weather was very bad. It rained and rained, and the poor brother had no food. He
went to his rich brother and said, ‘Dear brother, I know that you work a lot for your money. But
please, we have no food. Can you give me just a small piece of food? I will do anything you want.’
The rich brother hated giving things for free, so he said, ‘Take this piece of ham and go to Hell.’
‘Thank you, dear brother!’ said the poor brother.
As he had said that he would do whatever his brother wanted, he now had to go to Hell. So he
walked all day, and finally he came to a dark house. Outside, there was an old man with a big white
beard.
‘Is this Hell?’ asked the poor man.
‘Yes!’ said the old man. ‘Ah, I see you have ham. That is very good. There is no meat in Hell, so the
Devil will want that very much. He has a special millstone on his door. If he wants your meat, then
ask for his millstone.’
When the poor man went into the house, the Devil said, ‘Ah, is that ham? I have not eaten ham in
so long! What do you want for it? I will give you anything. Here, I have gold. Or maybe you want a
beautiful wife? I could also make you very strong.’
‘Hmm,’ said the poor man. ‘No, I don’t want those things. I want that millstone on the door.’
‘Are you sure?’ said the Devil. ‘It is only an old millstone. Gold is much better.’
‘No, I will have the millstone.’
‘Fine,’ said the Devil.
The man gave him the ham, and the Devil ate it with his fingers. Then he took the millstone off the
door and gave it to the poor man, who went home.
At first, he didn’t understand why the millstone was special. But he had a bit of wheat, so he
ground it in the millstone. While he ground, he was very hungry, and he thought about lots of food:
bread and cheese and soup and salad… Normally, millstones ground out flour. But this millstone
did not grind out flour, it ground out the food the man was thinking about!
‘Amazing!’ said the man. ‘Thank you, dear millstone.’
When he said the words, the millstone stopped making food.
‘My dear wife! My dear child!’ said the man. ‘Come, we will have dinner.’
He ground out lots of lovely food. The only thing the millstone could not grind out was meat. But
that didn’t matter. They had lots of food, and they ate well. After the man ground the food, he
always said, ‘Thank you, dear millstone,’ and it stopped making food.
A few days later, the poor man wanted to say thank you to his brother. If his brother had not told
him to go to Hell, he would not have the millstone. So he invited him to dinner.
‘Hah!’ said the rich man. ‘What are we going to eat, air?’
But when he saw all the food, he was very surprised.
‘How do you have all this food?’ he asked. ‘I thought you were poor.’
‘Ah, dear brother,’ said the poor man. ‘I have a special millstone. You grind wheat, and it can make
anything. Only, it cannot make meat.’
‘Can you grind salt with it?’ asked the rich brother.
‘Salt? Do you like salty food, brother? Yes, you can grind salt with it. But you can’t eat just salt!’
‘Brother,’ said the rich man, ‘I will buy your millstone! How much do you want?’
The poor man was surprised. ‘I am not selling it. Anyway, you do not need it. You have lots of
money.’
‘Ah, but I am old,’ said the rich man. ‘My back hurts, and I don’t like working. I always have to travel
to other countries to get salt. If this millstone can make me salt, I can bring it to the King, and I
won’t have to travel.’
‘But that is cheating,’ said the poor man. ‘If the King knew, he would not be happy.’
‘It does not matter!’ said the rich man. ‘I will give you ten thousand pounds.’
Ten thousand pounds was a lot of money. The poor man could not say no.
‘Fine then,’ he said.
‘Wonderful!’
So the rich man gave him ten thousand pounds and took the millstone.
The next day, the King told him to go and get salt. He had to go on his ship. If he did not, then the
King would know that he was cheating. Then the King would take his ship, and the rich man liked
his ship a lot.
He rode the ship into the sea, and then he took out the millstone.
‘Now, make me salt!’ he said.
He started grinding wheat, and the millstone made salt.
‘Perfect!’ said the man. ‘That is lots of salt.’
But the millstone did not stop. It made mountains of salt. There was salt everywhere!
‘Stop, stop!’ said the man.
And still, the millstone ground salt. The whole ship filled up with salt.
‘No!’
The ship started to sink. The salt fell into the sea. All the men in the ship jumped out and swam
back home.
‘I hate my brother!’ said the rich man.

So the ship sank to the bottom of the sea, and the millstone sank with it. Today, the millstone sits
at the bottom of the sea. It still grinds and grinds, making more and more salt, and that is why the
sea is salty.
THE END
Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. There’s going to be a short
conversation part today because I am very tired.
I know many of you were looking forward to the Halloween live stream on Saturday, and I’m really
sorry that I had to cancel it.
I honestly feel very stupid. I didn’t realise how tired I was until Saturday morning.
I have been writing a novel and I wrote the first draft, the first go at the novel, really fast. I wrote it
in like, two months. And then all of my energy just left my body. I was so tired. I didn’t realise how
hard I had been working.
I am autistic. If that’s something you don’t know about, I talk about it more on Elevenses with Ariel.
But anyway, I am autistic, which means I burn out, I lose my energy, very easily. And what I had on
Saturday was a very burnt out state. I couldn’t think easily, I couldn’t talk easily. So if I did the live
stream, I would just tire myself out. It wouldn’t be fun for me and it probably wouldn’t be fun for
you.
And actually, that’s something I’ve realised. I love the live streams, but they are really tiring. That’s
partly the reason I stopped before, because I had to always put on a face, act a certain way, and
bring lots of energy. And I know I could theoretically do a relaxed live stream, but when I start I
bring the energy. I can’t stop myself. I love performing. But when I’m tired, and I push myself to
perform, it’s not good for my health.
So, I’m really happy that I had already decided to take Monday and Tuesday as holidays. I might
even take Wednesday as a holiday, I don’t know. But I needed a few days just to really relax and let
my brain recover.
So I’m really sorry about that. But it was the best thing for my health and for the podcast in the
end. I don’t know if I will do live streams in future. They give me a lot of anxiety, I guess? I do really
enjoy them, though, and I know you really enjoy them. So it’s difficult. I’m thinking about it.
Because, in about five weeks, I think? We will have the 100th episode of the podcast. So I need to
do something really special to celebrate 100 episodes.
The Crying Woman.
Just a warning: today’s story has a mother in it who kills her children by drowning them.
Indigenous people in Canada (Angsar Walk CC BY-SA 2.5)
Indigenous people are people who originally lived in one place. For example, in America, the Native
Americans, or American Indians, are indigenous. In Australia, the aborigines are indigenous. In
Palestine and Israel, the Palestinian people are indigenous. In most of these places, white
Europeans came and killed many indigenous people to take control of the land. Nowadays,
indigenous people still have many problems and are treated very badly.
Handsome means beautiful, but for men. So we say that women are beautiful and men are
handsome.
When you are in a place that you don’t want to be, you might run away, run to another place. For
example, if your mother is very angry at you, you could run away, but she might run after you. If you
see a wolf or a bear, you should probably run away.
A pregnant woman
When someone is going to have a baby, they are pregnant. Pregnant people have big stomachs,
because there is a baby growing inside them. People are usually pregnant for about nine months
before they give birth. There are many problems during pregnancy, for example sickness and
stomach pain.
If you don’t care about something, you have no interest in it, or it doesn’t make you feel strongly.
For example, if someone hits your car and breaks it, most people would care a lot. They would be
very angry or sad. But maybe you hate your car and want to buy a new one, so you don’t care. It’s
not important to you.
When someone drowns, they fall into water and die. If you can swim, then it is harder to drown,
because you can swim out of the water. But maybe the water is very deep, or you are in the sea
and the land is far away, or you are very hurt. In those cases, you might drown. You can also drown
another person, but I don’t recommend it!
When you are right next to something and can feel it, you are touching it. Right now, with
coronavirus, people are not touching each other very much. If you go outside and touch lots of
things, you should wash your hands when you come home. Generally, if you touch something dirty,
you should wash your hands.
Frankenstein’s monster is a famous monster
werewolves, mummies and zombies are all monsters. Monsters often eat people. Halloween is the
night where monsters come to life. At least, in stories it is. If someone is very bad or strange, we
can also call them a monster.
about autism. All week. It’s an interest of mine. You can support the show and get all the extra
content at Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish. That’s Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Jhon
Arias, Mohamed Mohamed and Carole R.. Thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to
me.
The Crying Woman

Once, there was a woman called Inmaculada. Her friends called her Inma. She lived in a village in
Mexico. Inmaculada was indigenous, and her mother and father died when she was very young.
She was poor, and she washed clothes for other people in the village. She wanted to leave the
village and travel the world, but she thought it would never happen.
One day, a Spanish man came to the village. He was rich, and rode on a horse. His name was
Guillermo. Inma thought he was very handsome, but she did not talk to him. He did not want to talk
to poor indigenous girls, she thought.
But that night, when she was washing clothes in the river, Guillermo came to her.
‘You’re working so late,’ he said.
‘Oh!’ She wanted to run away.
‘Please, stay. Do not worry. I won’t hurt you.’
She was afraid of him, and could not look in his eyes. He was so handsome. He touched her face,
and made her look him in the eyes.
‘You are so beautiful. You are too beautiful to be washing clothes in the night.’
Guillermo thought she was beautiful? She couldn’t believe it.
‘I am not beautiful,’ she said. ‘You are so handsome. I am just a poor indigenous girl. I have work to
do.’
‘I will show you you are beautiful,’ he said.
The next night, he came back with a white dress. It was beautiful, and Inmaculada had never seen
a dress like it.
‘It is for you,’ he said.
‘What?’ she said. ‘It is so beautiful… I cannot wear this. People will ask where it is from.’
‘Then you will wear it only inside my house.’
‘Inside your house?’
Guillermo kissed her. She was very surprised. He was the first man who had kissed her.
‘Come home with me, Inma,’ he said.
Inmaculada had lots of clothes to wash, but she forgot about them. She went to Guillermo’s house,
and she put on the white dress. They kissed, and she stayed the night.
Every night, after work, Inmaculada went to Guillermo’s house. She put on the white dress, and
they slept together.
Soon, Inmaculada got pregnant. Everyone asked her who the father was, but she did not tell them.
Guillermo said she couldn’t tell them.
‘They won’t understand our love,’ he said. ‘I am Spanish, and you are indigenous. They will think I
am a monster.’
‘I don’t care!’ said Inmaculada. ‘I love you so much, Guillermo.’
‘They will want to hurt our child,’ he said. ‘You must not tell them.’
So Inmaculada told nobody about her love for him. After she had their son, she stayed inside his
house. He was rich, so she did not have to work. She stayed inside and looked after their son, and
waited for Guillermo to come home.
But Guillermo always came home very late. He only wanted to sleep with her. He didn’t have time
to talk to her, or play with their son. Inma loved Guillermo, but he didn’t look at her anymore.
‘I have to make him love me again,’ she said.
So she got pregnant two more times, and they had two more children, two daughters. Every time,
Inma thought that Guillermo would love her again. They had a beautiful family. Wasn’t he happy?
Didn’t he want to talk to his children?
But Guillermo didn’t love Inmaculada. In the day, Inma cried, and at night, she slept with Guillermo.
One day, Inmaculada said, ‘Please, Guillermo, we must get married. We have three children. God
wants us to get married. I want to get pregnant again. I love you. I don’t care what people say.
Other people don’t matter. Our family matters!’
She touched him, but he moved away.
‘I will think about it,’ Guillermo said. ‘But do not get pregnant again. Use the medicine that the old
women make.’
That night, Guillermo did not come home. Inmaculada was worried. She went into the village and
looked for him.
And then she saw him through a window. He was inside another woman’s house. It was a
beautiful Spanish woman, and they were kissing and laughing.
‘Oh, my love,’ he said. ‘You are so good to me.’
‘Guillermo!’ she said. ‘I don’t care about your words. I don’t care about that indigenous woman.
Just kiss me!’
‘I’m going to take you back to Spain with me,’ he said, and kissed her.
That night, Inmaculada did not sleep. She cried and cried.
‘What’s wrong, Mum?’ said her children.
But Inmaculada didn’t tell them. In the morning, she stopped crying and said, ‘Come on, children.
We’re going to the river.’
She had decided something. She could not live like this anymore. Guillermo stopped loving her
when they had children. So if they didn’t have children, maybe he would love her again.
They went to the river. ‘Go into the water, my children,’ she said.
‘But, Mum,’ they said. ‘We can’t swim.’
‘That is fine,’ she said. ‘Your mother will help you.’
They went into the water, where it was deep. Inmaculada said, ‘Goodbye, my children.’
Then she pushed her children under the water. They shouted, and she cried, but she did not stop.
The children drowned, and died.
Inmaculada stood in the river. It was done. She had drowned her children. Would Guillermo love
her now?
But when she saw their bodies, she understood what she had done.
‘I am a monster!’ she cried. ‘I cannot live like this.’
Inmaculada wanted to drown with her children, but she was afraid. So she took a knife and cut
herself. Her blood went into the river. It ran over her body, and it ran over the bodies of her
children.
That night, Guillermo came home, but Inmaculada wasn’t there. His children weren’t there.
‘How strange,’ he said. But really, he was happy. He didn’t love Inmaculada anymore. Did that
make him a monster?
The next day, he took Blanca to the river. Blanca was the Spanish girl he was in love with. She was
more beautiful than Inmaculada, and he could tell everyone that he loved her.
‘Guillermo,’ she said, ‘I am afraid. I cannot swim.’
Guillermo laughed. ‘Then be careful. I am going to get a bottle of wine. Take off your shoes and
put your feet in the water. It feels good.’
So Blanca took off her shoes and put her feet in the water. It did feel good. But then she heard a
strange sound.
Someone was crying. She looked around, but she saw nobody. Then she looked in the water.
In the bottom of the river, there was a woman in a white dress. She was looking for something.
‘Oh, my children, where are you?’ she cried.
‘Who is that woman at the bottom of the river?’ said Blanca.
She looked closer, and then she fell in the water. The river was fast, and the water was deep.
‘Help, help!’ she cried. ‘Guillermo!’
But Guillermo did not come to help her. She felt a cold, wet hand on her foot. The hand pulled her
down.
When Guillermo came back, Blanca had drowned.
‘Oh my God,’ he said. ‘She is dead.’
He looked in the river, but he did not touch the body. He thought he saw something white, like a
white dress. But when he looked again, there was nothing there.
‘I must return to Spain,’ he said. ‘Nothing good comes from this place.’
So Guillermo left. He went back to Spain, and Inmaculada stayed in the river. The people in the
village called her the Crying Woman, La Llorona, and from that day, people were always careful
when they went near the river.
THE END
A statue of La Llorona in Mexico (KatyaMSL CC BY-SA 4.0)

I hope you enjoyed today’s story. You might know the story already. It is called, originally, La
Llorona, and it is a popular story in Latin American cultures. The details are different in different
countries, but generally, it’s a story about a woman who drowns her children in a river and then she
regrets it, she feels bad, and kills herself.
This is a folk tale more than a fairy tale. So fairy tales—we have a lot of fairy tales on the podcast.
Fairy tales are usually about kings and princesses and knights and things like that. And they’re
more magical.
Folk tales are more stories from different cultures that represent the culture. Folk tales often are
more serious than fairy tales and often they’re shorter. A lot of cultures have very scary folk tales,
like horror stories, and many films are made based on these folk tales.
These folk tales are really interesting, because they show what fears are common in that culture.
They show what people are afraid of in that culture.
Many popular horror stories and monsters come from indigenous cultures. And, really, this isn’t so
surprising because of the history of colonialism.
So colonialism was when mostly white Europeans went to North America, South America, Africa
and Asia and killed many people and took control of the country, because they were looking for
gold and metals and slaves, things like that.
Obviously, colonialism is a terrible thing and it is really important that we talk about colonialism
today because it still has a very big effect on our culture. After all, the United Kingdom was the
biggest colonial empire in the world, and a lot of the nice things we enjoy in the UK, a lot of the nice
buildings we have, the nice food we have, the healthcare system we have. The money for those
things mostly came from colonialism.
Spanish conquistadores in the Grand Canyon (Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Nieto CC BY-SA 4.0)
So, anyway, many cultures which were colonised, such as Mexico, uh, Native American cultures
and so on. These cultures have very strong folk tales that are frightening, that are scary, because
these tales show the fear of colonialism. They show how the people were very afraid of death from
the European colonisers.
In particular, La Llorona shows the fear of indigenous people in South America when Spanish
colonisers, also known as conquistadores, came over and killed and enslaved many, many people.
This story with a Spanish person falling in love with an indigenous woman, it’s not so realistic.
Actually, in reality, it was probably much more violent. They probably didn’t really fall in love. But I
didn’t want this story to be too sad, because obviously this is a very painful topic. Also, I don’t think
it’s my place to write a really sad serious story about La Llorona because I am not indigenous to
that part of the world. So it’s not really my culture.
I know we have quite a lot of listeners in South America, so I would be interested to hear, how is La
Llorona told in your country and what do you think of my version? Is it OK? Did I get some things
wrong? Do you think it was maybe, I don’t know, offensive or insensitive? Please give me very
honest comments because I really want to know if these stories from different cultures are good.
Obviously, I want to show the diversity of our listeners. We have listeners everywhere in the world,
pretty much, so I want to have stories from lots of different cultures. But I want to make sure that
the stories are accurate and that they represent these cultures well. So please let me know if you
think this story was OK in that sense specifically.
You can leave a comment at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Crying.
Anyway, this is the seventh story in a row with a sad ending. So we have had seven stories, seven
weeks of sad endings. I’m really sorry! I don’t know how this happened.
But I promise, I promise, next week will be a happy story with a happy ending. After all, it is
Halloween on Sunday [actually, Saturday!], so after Halloween we really should have a happy
ending. But I did want to do a scary Halloween story for today’s episode.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
Just a warning: today’s story involves a wolf eating a boy.
A wolf (Daniel Mott CC BY-SA 2.0)
A wolf is a big animal like a dog. But wolves are much more dangerous than dogs. They live in
groups called packs. Wolves like to sit under the moon and howl. They go awoo. Ooh, that was a
good wolf howl!
A shepherd is a person who looks after sheep. Shepherds often use dogs to help them move
sheep. Shepherds carry big sticks and walk a lot with the sheep, moving from one place to
another. They have to keep the sheep safe from wolves.
A hunter is a person who hunts, someone who chases and kills animals. In the past, hunters rode
on horses and used bows and arrows to kill animals. Now hunters usually walk and use guns to
shoot animals. But these days, people hunt for fun. In the past, people hunted for food.
Boxing is one type of fighting

When you want to hurt someone, you might fight them, and the past tense is fought. You might
fight them with a weapon, like a sword or a gun, or you can just use your hands. You might even
fight them with words—an argument. Children sometimes throw food at each other—a food fight.
A war is basically a big fight.
Stupid means not intelligent, not clever. It is not nice to call someone stupid. Sometimes, we call
ourselves stupid, because we can’t do something easy. But of course, nobody listening to this
podcast is stupid! You are all very clever.
When you annoy someone, you say or do things to make them angry. You bother them. Children
often like to annoy their parents. For example, they might say, ‘Mum, Mum, Mum! Talk to me! Play
with me!’ Children often annoy each other as well. For example, they hit each other, or steal things
from each other.
Shut up means to stop talking. It is usually used as an insult. If someone is being loud and
annoying you, you might say, ‘Shut up!’ It is not very nice to do this, but children often tell each
other to shut up.
When you are in a place that you don’t want to be, you might run away, run to another place. For
example, if your mother is very angry at you, you could run away, but she might run after you. If you
see a wolf or a bear, you should probably run away.
When you lie, you say something that isn’t true. For example, if I tell you, ‘Hi, I’m Queen Elizabeth,’
that’s a lie, because it’s not true. I am not Queen Elizabeth. Children often lie when they don’t want
their parents to get angry at them. Sometimes people lie because it is very hard to say the truth.
When you are looking at one thing and you want to look behind you, you turn around. You turn your
body to face the other way. In horror films like The Ring, you often see something behind the
character in the film. You scream, ‘Turn around, turn around!’ but when the character turns around,
it’s too late. The monster gets them!
about starving students, all kinds of games, and the difficulties of writing. You can support the
show and get all the extra content at Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, Nathalie J.A., Jan Ullman, Bitkids and Emma Sofia. Thank you
so much. Your support really means a lot to me.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Once there was a young boy called Lyman. He worked in the field and looked after the sheep. He
was a shepherd. His father was a shepherd, and his grandfather was a shepherd and his
grandfather’s father was a shepherd. Everyone told Lyman, ‘One day, you will be a great shepherd.’
But Lyman didn’t want to be a shepherd. He wanted to be a hunter. Hunters fought wolves, and
they were big and strong. Shepherds weren’t big and strong.
Every day, Lyman stood in the field and looked after the sheep. It was very boring, and he had
nobody to talk to. But then, George started coming to the field.
Lyman hated George. He thought he was stupid. George’s family had a lot of money, and he didn’t
have to work. And he loved to annoy Lyman.
‘Oh look, it’s Lyman,’ said George. ‘Stupid Lyman with his stupid sheep. Are you going to get
married to a sheep, Lyman? Then all your children will be sheep, and you can look after them, too!’
‘Shut up, George.’
But George did not shut up. George called Lyman stupid every day, and ran after the sheep so that
the sheep were afraid of him.
So one day, when George came to the field, Lyman said, ‘Look, there’s a wolf! Wolf, wolf!’
George screamed and ran to the town. He told everyone that there was a wolf in the field. All the
hunters in the town came to the field.
‘Where is the wolf, Lyman?!’ they cried.
‘Ah, he ran away,’ said Lyman. ‘But there was a wolf here, oh yes!’
The next day, George came to the field again to annoy Lyman. So again, Lyman shouted, ‘Wolf,
wolf! There’s another wolf!’
George ran to the town and told the hunters, and again they came.
‘Another wolf?!’ they said. ‘Where is it?’
‘Oh, it just ran away!’ said Lyman. ‘But it was horrible. It was a really big one, bigger than the one
yesterday.’
‘Hmm,’ said the hunters. ‘Lyman, are you lying? You know, very bad things happen to boys who lie.’
‘Me, lying? No way! There really was a wolf.’
George didn’t come to the field for a week after that. But then he came again, saying, ‘There you
are, Lyman! You need me here. The wolf will come and eat you if I’m not here.’
‘Shut up, I don’t need you!’ said Lyman. But actually, he was happy to see George. When he didn’t
come to the field, he had nobody to talk to. George was stupid, but he was Lyman’s… friend?
But George soon started annoying Lyman again. He said that he was stupid like a sheep, and that
he had a face like a sheep, and that the sheep knew more than him.
So again, Lyman cried, ‘Oh no, George, there’s a wolf! Wolf, wolf!’
‘I don’t believe you!’ said George. Then he screamed and ran away.
‘Funny,’ said Lyman. ‘If he didn’t believe me, why did he run away?’
Then Lyman saw why. He heard a pant pant and he turned around. There, in the field, was a big
strong wolf!
Lyman screamed. ‘A wolf, a wolf! It’s a real wolf this time! Please come and help!’
The wolf started eating sheep. Lyman ran away into the forest.
George ran into town and cried, ‘There’s a wolf! A real wolf!’
But the hunters didn’t believe him. ‘George!’ they said. ‘Lyman lied to you again. There are no
wolves. He just wanted you to leave.’
‘No, this time it wasn’t a lie! There really is a wolf! I saw it with my own eyes.’
But still, the hunters didn’t believe him.
‘Please come! The wolf is going to eat Lyman!’
‘Fine, fine,’ said one of the hunters. ‘I’ll go with him.’
This hunter was called Tristan. George didn’t like him. He drank a lot and called Lyman a bad boy.
George wanted to run to the field, but Tristan walked very slowly.
‘I think you’re lying, George,’ he said. ‘I think Lyman told you to lie. He’s a bad boy, and he wants
you to be bad as well.’
‘I’m not lying!’
When they got there, there was no wolf and no Lyman. But there were lots of dead sheep.
‘See!’ said George. ‘I told you, there was a wolf!’
‘He went into the forest,’ said the hunter.

So they ran into the forest to find the wolf and Lyman.
But they only found the wolf. He was very fat and happy, and he was sleeping by a tree.
‘Turn around,’ said the hunter quietly. ‘You don’t want to see this.’
George turned around. He didn’t see what the hunter did, but he heard it. It sounded horrible.
George started crying.
‘George,’ said the hunter. ‘You did very well. Thank you for telling us about the wolf. You’re a good
boy. But now, I have to ask you something.’
‘What?’ said George. ‘I want to go home.’
‘We will go home. Soon. When we get back, we’ll tell them that we heard Lyman. We ran as fast as
we could. I fought the wolf, but he was too strong, and he ate Lyman.’
‘But… that’s a lie.’
‘It’s not a lie,’ said Tristan. ‘If we tell Lyman’s mother what happened, she’ll be so sad. She’ll cry
and cry. Do you want her to cry?’
‘No!’ said George.
‘So we’ll tell her that I fought the wolf and he was too strong. OK?’
‘OK.’
So George and the hunter went back into town. They told Tristan’s story. They lied. Lyman’s
mother cried, but she said, ‘Oh, Tristan. You did everything you could. Thank you.’
After that day, George never went back to the field again, but he did lie many times in his life.
THE END
I hope you enjoyed today’s story. You probably know this story already. The Boy Who Cried Wolf is
a very famous story. But, of course, my version is a bit different!
It’s more sad! The problem is, often I want to extend these stories, I want to make them a bit
longer, but it’s hard to make them longer and have a really happy ending. It’s often easier to just
make a sad ending. Or at least, I find it easier!
Anyway, we have a phrase in English, “cry wolf”, and it comes from the story. So if someone cries
wolf, it means that they act like Lyman in the story. They pretend that there is something there that
there isn’t and other people don’t want to believe them.
For example, maybe you like to tease your friend by saying, ‘Look, there’s a bear outside!’ and then
your friend turns and looks, but there is no bear. So if you keep doing that, your friend will say, ‘Ugh,
you’re just crying wolf! There’s no bear.’ But maybe one day, there will be a bear and the bear will
eat your friend, and then you will be very sad. So, don’t cry wolf! Tell the truth. Eh, sometimes. You
don’t always have to tell the truth.
Anyway, I want to remind you about the Halloween live stream that I mentioned at the beginning of
the episode.
Today, I bought my costume online. It’s nothing special, just a mask and some fangs, some teeth,
but I think it will be fun.
I honestly don’t have a great history with Halloween. I’ve always had bad experiences on
Halloween and I’ve never really enjoyed it very much. So hopefully this year will be different
because I’m celebrating with my favourite people, all of you! Aww!
But really, it’s just going to be a fun party and it won’t involve going to any stressful parties where
the costume gets really uncomfortable and sweaty and I have to drink alcohol and I get really tired.
I do like parties but they’re so tiring, you know? So let’s just do a fun internet party, yay!
Anyway, I would love to know if you like Halloween and what are your experiences with Halloween.
Of course, many of you are in different parts of the world. Halloween is very popular in Europe and
America, but I know that it’s not so popular all around the world. Or Halloween traditions are
different in different parts of the world.
So do leave a comment at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Cried and tell me, what do you think of

Halloween? And do you have any fun Halloween stories? I would love to hear them.
Zzzzzzzzzzzz
Stone Soup. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Soup.

That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Soup. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
after it.
Just a warning: today’s story contains death by suffocation.
Stonehenge is a very famous collection of stones in the UK (garethwiscombe CC BY 2.0)
A stone is a big grey thing that you find on the ground. Stones are used to build certain things, like
houses or walls. You can throw stones at someone if you want to hurt them. There is a famous
story called Stone Soup about using a stone to make soup. Oh, that’s this story!
A pot is a big round thing that you cook food in. You can cook sauces, stews and soups in pots. A
saucepan is a special kind of pot.
An ingredient is a piece of food that you use to cook something else. For example, the ingredients
to make cake are eggs, flour, sugar, butter and so on. Some food needs lots of ingredients, and
some food only needs a few ingredients. Food is always better when you cook with fresh
ingredients.
Taste is how food feels in your mouth. Basically, it is whether it is good food or not. For example, I
think McDonald’s tastes good, but some people think it tastes bad. I think dark chocolate tastes
better than milk chocolate, but you might think the opposite.
Delicious food is food that tastes really good. Often, expensive food is delicious, and cheap food
is not so delicious, but you can make delicious food at home with inexpensive ingredients if you’re
good at cooking. I am not!
A pile of nails
A nail is a small, sharp metal thing that you use to connect two pieces of wood. For example, when
you are making a bookcase, you need to nail the shelves together. You can also use nails to hang
things up. For example, you can put a nail in the wall and hang a picture on it.
Axes (タクナワン CC BY-SA 3.0)
An axe is a big tool that you use to cut down trees. It has a long handle and a large blade.
Nowadays, we don’t use axes so much because we have machines to cut trees for us. Axes can
also be used as weapons. For example, Gimli in Lord of the Rings uses axes, and so does Jack
Torrance in the film The Shining.
When something gets stuck, it stops and cannot move anymore. For example, if you are driving
and there is a lot of mud, dirt, your car might get stuck, and then you can’t drive anymore. Or
maybe you are doing really difficult maths homework and you can’t solve a problem. You get
stuck, and can’t move on.
When you cannot get air into your body, you suffocate, like [suffocates]. You might suffocate
because some food got caught in your throat, or because something is stopping you from getting
any air. Suffocating is a horrible way to die, I think!
The owner of something is the person who owns, who has, something. For example, if you buy a
dog, it is your dog. You are the owner. If you buy a house, then you are the owner of the house. You
can also own a restaurant, a computer and so on.
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Stone Soup
Once, a man was travelling across the country. He was very poor. One day he arrived in a town,
and he had no more food. He asked the people for food, but nobody wanted to talk to him.
So he went into the centre of town with a big cooking pot. He made a fire, put a stone in the pot,
and filled it with water.
An old woman walked past and saw the pot. ‘What are you making?’ she said.
‘Why, I’m making stone soup! Don’t tell me you have never eaten stone soup? It is delicious! But I
think it needs some more ingredients. Then it will taste really good.’
‘I think I have some carrots,’ said the old woman. She went and brought some carrots and put
them in the pot.
Then an old man came and saw the pot. ‘What are you making?’ he said.
‘It’s stone soup. Another person who doesn’t know stone soup! I cannot believe it. It is the most
delicious soup in the world. But I think it needs some more ingredients. Then it will
taste really good.’
‘I have some onions, I think,’ said the old man. He went and brought the onions and put them in the
pot.
Next a young woman arrived and saw the pot.
‘What soup is this?’ she said. ‘There is a stone in it!’
‘Of course!’ said the man. ‘It is stone soup. You don’t know what it is, do you? This town is so
strange! It is the best soup in the world. But I think it needs some more ingredients. Then it will
taste really good.’
‘Well then, let me go and get some chicken. All good soups have chicken.’ So she went and
brought some chicken and put it in the pot.
Then came a young boy, and a strong man, and a sick woman. They all saw the stone soup, and
they all brought ingredients to add to it: eggs, potatoes, salt, pepper and so on.
Finally, the poor man said, ‘The stone soup is done!’
He took the stone out of the pot, and they all took a bowl of soup. It was delicious, and everyone in
the town enjoyed it.
The next day, the man wanted to leave the town, but the people said, ‘Please, tell us how to make
stone soup! We want to make it every day.’
The man said, ‘Ah, well you cannot use any stone. It has to be a special stone. Hmm… I know! I will
sell you my stone. Then you can make stone soup forever!’
So the people all gave him some money, and he left the town with lots of money.
Next, he went to another town. There, he bought a nail, and he made nail soup in a big pot. Again,
he told the people that nail soup was the best soup in the world, and they all helped him make it.
The next day, they asked him to tell them how to make nail soup.
‘Ah, well you cannot use any nail. It has to be a special nail. Hmm… I know! I will sell you my nail.
Then you can make nail soup forever!’
This time, they gave him more money than the first town. Now he was very rich. But he wanted
more money.
So the man went to a third town, and this time he used an axe and made axe soup in a big pot.
Again, he told the people that axe soup was the best soup in the world, and they all helped him
make it. The next day, they asked him to tell them how to make axe soup.
‘Ah, well you cannot use any axe. It has to be a special axe. Hmm… I know! I will sell you my axe.
Then you can make axe soup forever!’
This time, they gave him even more money. Now he was very rich.
He went to a big city and lived in a hotel. He did not need to make stone soup anymore. He paid
men to make soup for him.
One day, he was eating a big bowl of soup, but there was a stone in it. He ate the stone and it got
stuck, and he suffocated.
‘What are you doing?!’ said the owner of the hotel to the chef. ‘There was a stone in that man’s
soup! Now he is suffocating! Help him!’
The chef hit the man in the back, but the stone was still stuck. It was a big stone, like the stone the
man used to make stone soup. The chef hit him again, but the stone was still stuck, so the man
suffocated and died.
Hold On, Little Pot!
Chamber pots – not for cooking! (CC BY-SA 2.0 FR)

saucepan is a special kind of pot. In the old days, people used chamberpots. Chamberpots are
pots that you put under your bed and use like a toilet. Eww!
A builder is a person who builds things. Builders build houses, museums, offices, restaurants and
so on.
A brick wall (Oula Lehtinen CC BY-SA 3.0)
A brick is a small, hard piece of clay that is used in building houses. Bricks are usually red. You
stick bricks together to build a wall, and you put walls together to build a house. Bricks are very
heavy, and can also be used as weapons to hurt people.
Hide, and the past tense is hid, is when you make it so people can’t see something. For example,
maybe you are eating chocolate, but you don’t want other people to see it, because then they will
want to eat the chocolate. So you hide the chocolate in the cupboard so that they won’t see it. You
can also hide yourself. Maybe you don’t want your teacher to see you, because you forgot to do
the homework, so you hide behind a door.
People digging in the sand
When you want to put something underground, you need to dig. The past tense is dug. You dig
using a wide tool called a shovel, but you can also dig with your hands. When you dig, you make
a hole, an empty space in the ground. Dogs often dig with their hands and hide bones in the hole.
In crime films, people often dig holes and hide dead bodies in them.
Someone pouring a drink (Anthony Carriuolo CC BY-SA 4.0)
When you have water in a bottle, but you want to have it in a glass, you pour it. I am very bad at
pouring drinks. Usually, half of the drink goes into the glass, and half goes onto the floor! When
you pour beer, you have to be careful so that the beer does not all turn into white stuff called foam,
because the foam then goes away and you have less beer to drink.
When you are right next to something and can feel it, you are touching it. Usually, you touch things
or people with your hands. Right now, with coronavirus, people are not touching each other very
much. If you go outside and touch lots of things, you should wash your hands when you come
home. Generally, if you touch something dirty, you should wash your hands.
A sword (MathKnight CC BY 4.0)
A sword is a long, sharp weapon. We don’t use swords now, but they were used about five hundred
years ago. In the TV series Game of Thrones, most of the characters fight with swords. For
example, Arya Stark is very good at fighting with a sword. In Harry Potter, Harry Potter uses the
Sword of Gryffindor to kill the basilisk in the second book.
You can also use glue to stick something to something else
When you stick to something, you are touching that thing and it won’t stop touching you. For
example, if you lick an envelope, you put your tongue on it, it will stick together when you close it,
and it is hard to open afterwards. If it is very hot and you are sweating a lot, lots of water is coming
out of your body, then your clothes will stick to you. If you wear a hat for a long time, your hair will
stick to your head.
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Hold On, Little Pot!

Once, there was a builder. He worked very hard, but he was happy. He had a good home and a
beautiful wife.
One day, the King came to him and said, ‘Dear builder! I have heard that you are the best builder in
the country. I want to see your work. Build a house for my son.’
The builder was very surprised. He did not think he was so good at his job, but he was very happy
to work for the King. So he went and built the house, and then he came home.
‘My lovely wife,’ he said. ‘Did you miss me?’
‘Hmm? Oh yes, of course. You finished that house very quickly.’
‘I finished it quickly because I wanted to come home to you!’
‘Well, I’m afraid the King has another job for you. He wants you to build a bigger house for his
daughter.’
So the builder went and worked, and he thought about his wife the whole time. He didn’t like being
away from home.
When he came back, his wife said, ‘Oh, you’re back. You know, the King has another job for you.’
‘I don’t believe it!’ he said. ‘I cannot say no to the King, but this is too much. What must I build this
time?’
‘The King wants a new castle. It must be beautiful, and you have five days to finish it.’
‘Five days?! I can’t build a castle in five days!’
His wife sighed. ‘Well, you have to try. If you do not do it, the King will kill you.’
That night, the builder went into the forest. He could not sleep. The King would kill him, and then
his wife would be alone.
He sat by a river and cried.
‘What is wrong?’
He saw a woman next to him. She was very old, and she had red eyes.
‘Who are you?’ he said.
‘I am just an old woman. Tell me what’s wrong. You’re crying.’
‘Oh, it’s just… The King has asked me to build a castle for him in five days. I cannot do it, and he will
kill me.’
‘Ah,’ said the old woman. ‘I can help with that.’
She gave him a piece of her hair.
‘Put this under the first brick you put down.’
The builder thought she was crazy, but he did what she said. He put the hair under the first brick of
the castle and started building. He worked and worked, but the day went very slowly. When night
came, he had finished the castle.
‘I don’t believe it!’ he said. The hair he put under the brick had changed time. It was magic!
When he came home, his wife was very surprised. ‘You finished it?’
‘Yes! I was so excited to see you that I worked all day.’

‘How wonderful,’ she said.
But when the King saw the new castle the next day, he was not happy.
‘Hmm, this castle needs something. I know! It needs a lake. Every good castle has a lake.’
‘A lake? But I am a builder. I cannot make a lake.’
‘You are such a good builder. You must know how to make a lake! You finished the castle so
quickly, so I think you will only need three days this time.’
To make the lake, he would have to dig a hole and fill the hole with water. It was too much work for
three days!
The builder went back into the forest that night and cried. The old woman came again and said,
‘Well, well, well. He wants you to make a lake, does he? You know, I think this king really hates you.’
‘I don’t understand why. I have always worked hard for him!’
‘It is very strange. But don’t worry. I will help you again.’
This time, she gave him a bowl of water.
‘Dig the hole and pour this water in.’
So the builder did that. He dug all day, and made a big hole. Then he poured the bowl of water in.
The water grew and grew, and the lake filled with water, and it was beautiful and blue.
But of course, his wife and the King were not happy to see it.
‘You are quite an amazing builder!’ said the King, very angry. ‘But I want to see something really
special now! Tomorrow morning, I will come to your house. I want to see a himphamp. If you do
not make me a himphamp, I will kill you myself!’
The builder did not understand. What was a himphamp? He had never heard of it.
Again, he went to the old woman in the forest and told her about the himphamp.
‘This will be more difficult. Do exactly what I say. Take this pot.’ She gave him a pot. ‘Put it under
your bed, and hide in your room tonight. When someone touches the pot, say, “Hold on, little pot!”
Then you will be safe.’
The builder did not understand, but he said thank you to the old woman.
When he came home, the King was there. He was in his bed, with his wife. And they were kissing.
‘Oh, my King, my King!’ she cried. ‘I love you so much!’
The builder couldn’t believe it. His wife was sleeping with the King! Now he understood. All this
time, the King wanted him to build big houses and castles, so that he was away and the King could
sleep with his wife.
The builder wanted to kill the King, but the King had his sword next to the bed. So the builder
waited until they went to sleep. Then he put the pot under the bed and hid.
In the morning, the King said, ‘Oh, that was a good night. And your husband is busy looking for a
himphamp. But of course, himphamps aren’t real!’
‘I know,’ said the wife.
‘I know you know. Anyway, I’m going to the toilet,’ said the King.
‘There’s a pot under the bed,’ said the wife.
So the King took out the pot, and when he touched it, the builder said, ‘Hold on, little pot!’
The pot stuck to the King’s hand, and he could not move away from it.
‘The pot is stuck to my hand!’ he cried.
‘Let me help you,’ said the wife.
When she touched the pot, the builder said, ‘Hold on, little pot!’
And his wife stuck to the pot as well.
‘I can’t believe this!’ said the King. ‘What is happening?’
‘Good morning, my King,’ said the builder.
‘Oh, no,’ said the King and the builder’s wife.
The builder stood there. He was very angry. ‘I can’t believe you. You,’ he said to his wife, ‘you slept
with another man. And you,’ he said to the King, ‘you made me build castles and lakes, because
you wanted to sleep with my wife.’
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’ said his wife. ‘Please help us.’
‘No!’ The builder took the King’s sword and said, ‘Out! Get out!’
The King and the wife ran outside with the pot stuck to them. It was heavy, and they could not run
fast. In the garden, a cat saw them, and thought there was food in the pot. She tried to eat the
food, but when she touched the pot, the builder cried, ‘Hold on, little pot!’ and the cat stuck to the
pot.
The King, the wife and the cat ran. In town, a dog saw them, and wanted to eat the cat. But when
the dog touched the pot, the builder cried, ‘Hold on, little pot!’ and the dog stuck to the pot.
The King, the wife, the cat and the dog ran. They ran to the castle that the builder had built. The
King’s horse saw them. He ran to them, because he thought the King was in danger. When he
touched the pot, the builder cried, ‘Hold on, little pot!’ and the horse stuck to the pot.
‘Look,’ said the builder. ‘It’s a himphamp! I made a himphamp, my King. Aren’t you happy?’
‘Please stop!’ said the wife. ‘I’m sorry! We’re sorry!’
‘I will give you gold!’ said the King. ‘All my gold!’
The builder held the sword and said, ‘I don’t want your gold. I want you to build me a castle, and
you have, hmm, ten minutes! Can’t you do that, my King? Can’t you build a castle in ten minutes?’
‘I will kill you, you—’
The King walked back and fell into the lake. The wife, the cat, the dog and the horse were all stuck
to the pot, so the pot pulled them down into the water.
‘No!’ cried the King.
‘Yes!’ cried the builder.
And that was it. The himphamp was dead. The little pot had killed them all. The builder went inside
the castle he had built and made a new home.
The Wolf and the Fox.
A wolf (Daniel Mott CC BY-SA 2.0)
groups called packs. Wolves like to sit under the moon and howl. They go awoo.
A fox (John Leffmann CC BY 3.0)
A fox is a small, red animal. It’s a bit like a dog or a wolf, but it is red all over, and it has a big tail.
Foxes can be quite dangerous, but you don’t see them very often. However, foxes are more
common now in big cities. They go into bins in the night and steal food.
Ugly means not beautiful, something that looks bad. Many people think they are ugly, even if they
are not. In the UK, there was an art movement in the 1970s called brutalism. Because of this
movement, many ugly buildings were built. But some people say that they are not ugly—they’re
beautiful! Personally, I think brutalist buildings are ugly.
Someone who is greedy wants to have lots of food, or lots of money. Often, children are greedy,
and always want to eat more food and sweets. Maybe they steal food from other children because
they are so greedy. Usually, when adults are greedy, it means that they want more and more
money.
When you beat someone, you hit them again and again, so that they hurt a lot. Hitting is just once,
but beating is hitting many times. Usually, when we say ‘beat’, it means using a stick or some other
thing to hit the person. In the past, people used to beat children and beat animals, but usually
people think this is bad now.
When you smile, you move the sides of your mouth up. It is like a laugh, but smaller. You want to
show that you are happy. If you like someone, you smile at them. In some countries, people smile
a lot more than in other countries. Sometimes, Thailand is called “the land of smiles”.
Pancakes
Pancakes are thin, flat cakes that you make in a frying pan, and people eat them for breakfast. You
mix together flour, eggs and milk in a bowl, and then you cook it in a frying pan. Halfway through
cooking, you have to flip the pancake—turn it upside down. This part is hard, and if you are not
careful, you can drop the pancake on the floor! Afterwards, you can put fruit, sugar, lemon juice,
peanut butter, Nutella, maple syrup… You can put many things on it! American pancakes are small
and thick, but British pancakes are bigger and thinner. In many countries, the thin type of pancake
is called a crêpe.
A wine cellar (Lukas Stavek CC BY-SA 3.0)
A cellar is a room underground in a house. So you enter the house on the ground level, and go
downstairs to the cellar. People often store old things, wine or food in cellars. You have to be
careful, because cellars can flood easily. In America, they call cellars ‘basements’. To be honest,
cellars are very rare in the UK. Most people don’t have one.
When you are in prison, or someone has you captured, you will want to escape, run away. There
are many films about prisoners who want to escape, for example Shawshank Redemption. But it’s
not always that dramatic. Maybe you are at a family dinner and your parents start asking when you
are going to get married and have children. You might escape to the toilet!
The entrance to a road tunnel (Guissisaurio CC BY-SA 3.0)
A tunnel is a road that goes underground, between two places. Let’s say you’re building a road, but
there’s a mountain in the way. You can build the road around the mountain, or you can make a
tunnel through the mountain. The longest tunnel in the world is the Gotthard Base Tunnel in
Switzerland, which is 57km long. The longest tunnel that goes under the sea is the Channel Tunnel
between England and France. 37.9km of the tunnel are underwater. You can ride through the
tunnel on a train called the Eurostar. It’s quite exciting! Unfortunately, you can’t see the ocean
through the tunnel.
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The Wolf and the Fox

Once, there were a wolf and a fox. The fox worked for the wolf, and he hated him. The wolf was
very bad, and made the fox do everything for him. The wolf was ugly and greedy, but he was
stronger than the fox, so the fox had to do what he said.
One day, they were walking through the forest and the wolf said, ‘Oh, fox! I am so hungry. If I do not
have something to eat, I will have to eat you!’
‘Then I will go and get you something to eat,’ said the fox. ‘There is a farm near here, and there are
two sheep there.’
The fox went and took one of the sheep, and the wolf ate it very quickly.
‘Ah, lovely!’ he said. ‘But I am still hungry. I want the second sheep!’
‘Then go and get it yourself,’ said the fox.
So the wolf went into the farm to take the second sheep. But he was not fast and clever like the
fox, and the sheep cried out loudly. The farmer heard the sheep, saw the wolf, and came and beat
him in the face.
The wolf was very angry when he came back. The farmer had beat his face very hard, and now he
was uglier than before.
‘I don’t believe it!’ said the wolf. ‘The farmer saw me and beat me in the face.’
The fox smiled. ‘How strange. He did not see me and beat me in the face! Maybe you are too
greedy.’
The next day, they were walking through a city and the wolf said, ‘Oh, fox! I am so hungry. If I do
not have something to eat, I will have to eat you!’
‘Then I will go and get you something to eat,’ said the fox. He sniffed. ‘A woman is making
pancakes in that house there. I will go and take some pancakes.’
So the fox went and took six pancakes and brought them to the wolf. The wolf ate the pancakes
very quickly and said, ‘Mmm, yum! But I am still hungry. I want twelve more pancakes!’
‘Then go and get them yourself,’ said the fox.
So the wolf went to take more pancakes, but he was not fast and clever like the fox. He broke the
plate on the floor, and the woman came and saw him. She beat his legs for a long time, and the
wolf came back very slowly.
‘I don’t believe it!’ said the wolf. ‘The woman saw me and beat me in the legs. Now I can’t walk
well!’
The fox smiled. ‘How strange. She did not see me and beat me in the legs! Maybe you are too
greedy.’
The day after that, they were walking next to a castle. The wolf could only walk very slowly, so they
went slowly.
‘Oh, fox!’ said the wolf. ‘I am so hungry. If I do not have something to eat, I will have to eat you!’
‘Then let us go and get you something to eat,’ said the fox. ‘In the cellar of the castle, there are
many boxes of salted meat. I cannot carry them to you because they are heavy. So we will go there
together.’
‘Alright,’ said the wolf, ‘but I can only walk slowly. So if the King comes, you must help me escape.’
‘Of course!’ said the fox.
They went through a tunnel to get into the cellar. The tunnel was not very wide.
Inside the cellar, there were many boxes of salted meat. The wolf was very happy, and ate and ate
and ate. But the fox ate, then looked through the tunnel, then ate, then looked through the tunnel.
Finally, the wolf said, ‘Fox! What are you doing? I want to enjoy my food, but you are running here
and there. Why are you looking through the tunnel so much?’
‘I want to see if anyone is coming. Don’t eat too much!’
But when the fox said to do something, the wolf never did it. So he ate a whole box of salted meat.
The King heard strange noises in the cellar, so he came to look at it. The fox heard him, and ran
through the tunnel, escaping easily. But the wolf was very slow, and when he came to the tunnel,
he could not get through. He was too fat from the meat, and he could not escape!
‘Fox! Fox!’ shouted the wolf.
But the fox had escaped, and he didn’t go back for the wolf.
‘Well, well, well,’ said the King. ‘There is an ugly wolf in the castle, and he has eaten my meat! That
cannot be.’
And the King beat the wolf for a very long time, and finally the wolf died.
The fox escaped, and he was very happy. He didn’t have to do what the wolf said anymore. He
smiled.
‘Oh, wolf,’ he said. ‘You were too greedy!’
THE END
I hope you enjoyed today’s story. I have to say, I am quite greedy like the wolf. So hopefully, no king
will come and kill me! We will see.
Anyway, recently I have been writing like crazy. I have been writing so much. At the moment, I
wake up every day and I immediately think about the book I’m reading or the book I’m writing. I
think I mentioned before that I realised that I love romance. I love romance novels, books about
love. So I’m reading loads of romance novels and I’m working on a romance novel.
What I realised recently is that my writing process, my way of writing, involves a lot of thinking.
And that’s OK. Before, I thought I just needed to sit down and write and write and write, and then,
even if the writing is bad, I can make it better later. But actually, I realised that, if I stop and go
slowly and take a long time when I’m writing it down the first time, I write a lot better, and often I
don’t have to change the scenes very much after I write them. Before, I would write, you know,
20,000 words and I would have to throw them away because they were all bad. So that really was a
waste of time.
But it’s a problem because I wake up and I think about writing, I have a shower and I think about
writing, I eat lunch and I think about writing. So yeah.
The novel I’m writing at the moment is also very difficult, because I’m writing a kind of book that
doesn’t really exist. I’m writing a transgender romance, so a romance novel with a transgender
character.
But the thing is, yes, there are romance novels with transgender characters, but this isn’t just any
romance novel. This is paranormal romance.
So paranormal romance is romance books about vampires, werewolves, maybe zombies, I don’t
know. Basically, falling in love with paranormal, supernatural, creatures. Although in my story, it’s a
dragon, and not a werewolf.
Oh, by the way, a werewolf is a human who can transform, who can change, into a wolf. So this
combination of paranormal romance with a transgender character, it’s very new, and so it’s very
difficult to write because I can’t look to other books for help. But I also feel like this is a book from
my heart, it’s a book I really want to write and that I need to write, because it’s helping me
understand a lot of my own feelings to do with gender and sexuality and all of those things.
Anyway, it’s the ideas that scare us the most, the ideas that are the most difficult, that we need to
write about. I think before, I shied away, I hid, from the ideas I most wanted to write, or I tried to
say, ‘Well, it’s a transgender romance, but really it’s more of a fantasy novel,’ and I tried to focus on
the action.
But no, now I know what I need to write. It’s scary. It’s hard. But I have to do it.
If any of you are artists, and I know many of you are artists, I’m sure you understand this.
Oh, and by the way, you may know that I teach classes on italki, and you can take a class with me
there. So you can get all the information at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Classes. Now, for a few
weeks, I was not accepting new students, and one or two people messaged me and asked when I
will accept new students, and I said, ‘Well, not now, but when I do accept new students, I will
announce it on the podcast.’
And here I am announcing it! So I am taking on new students for English, Esperanto and Spanish
classes online. You can find all the details at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Classes, and I really look
forward to teaching you.
Put the Lid Back On!

A lid is the top part of something, that you use to close it. For example, if you open a bottle of Coca
Cola, you turn the lid and pull it off. If you want to drink it later, you can put the lid back on.
Sometimes, when you open the lid of your rubbish bin, it can smell very bad. Also, it’s very
annoying if you lose the lid to a box, because then you can’t use the box anymore.
A coin is a small, round metal piece of money. There is paper money, and there are coins. In some
countries, like America, coins are not used very much. Coins are used a lot in the UK, though.
Some people collect coins from around the world.
A graveyard (Alan Burnett CC BY-SA 2.0)
A grave is the place you put a body when someone dies. Graves are usually a hole in the ground,
and you put a gravestone on top to show that the dead person is buried there. The place where
graves are is a graveyard. Graveyards are usually next to churches. Some people like walking in
graveyards a lot, because it is very quiet and pretty.
Someone who is brave is not afraid of anything. Superheroes, like Spiderman, are very brave. They
are never afraid, and they always do the right thing.
A gun (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Guns are metal weapons, things that you can use to hurt or kill someone. When you fire a gun, it
makes a sound like [shooting sound]. To shoot a gun, you put a small thing called a bullet in it.
When you shoot, the bullet goes out of the gun very quickly. In the UK, it is very hard to get a gun,
but in America, it is very easy to buy a gun. Guns are very dangerous.
If someone is dead, you might want to bring them back to life, to make them alive again. You can’t
do this in real life. When someone is dead, they are dead. But in stories, people can use magic to
bring people back to life. Sometimes, if you bring someone back to life badly, they will come back
as a zombie.
A big stone broken in two (D. J. Bergsma CC BY-SA 4.0)
houses or walls. You can throw stones at someone if you want to hurt them. There is a famous
story called Stone Soup about using a stone to make soup.
saucepan is a special kind of pot.
Sunlight is the light that comes from the sun. Sunlight feels really good on your skin, and it is
important to get sunlight, because it contains vitamin D. In the UK, we don’t get a lot of sunlight.
about my mental health break, furry creatures, who’s responsible for coronavirus, laundry and the
Ultimate Routine. You can support the show and get all the extra content
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Mak and
Francesco Cantile. Thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to me. You know what, I’m
going to start saying “me”, not “us”, because sometimes people think I have a team. I don’t! I am
the only one who works on the podcast. For now…
Put the Lid Back On!

Once, a poor man was coming home at night. All he had was a gun and a single silver coin. He was
riding a horse, but both he and the horse were very tired. They saw a graveyard, and the grass
there was very long. So they stopped, the horse ate the grass, and the man lay down on one of the
graves. He tried to sleep, but he could not sleep at all.
A few hours later, the grave under him began to move! He fell off it, and the grave opened. A
horrible man came out. He was all white and old—he was dead, but he was moving!
The dead man climbed out of the grave and took off the lid. Then he put the grave lid next to the
church and ran away to the village.
“What will happen if I take the lid to the grave?” thought the poor man.
So he took the lid and put it behind the church. When the dead man came back, he went to find the
lid, but it wasn’t there!
‘Argh, who has done this to me?!’ he shouted. ‘I will kill the man who did this!’
‘I don’t know about that.’
The dead man turned around and saw the poor man, who was holding a gun.
‘Give me the lid, or I’ll drink your blood!’ said the dead man.
‘Uh, I have a gun,’ said the poor man. ‘I can kill you easily.’
The dead man laughed. ‘No, you can’t! Bullets can’t hurt me. I’m already dead.’
‘Ah, but there is a special bullet in here. It is made of silver.’ He had taken his silver coin and put it
in the gun.
The dead man hissed. ‘Oh please, please give me my lid! I won’t hurt you if you give it to me.’
‘First, tell me where you went and what you did.’
‘Oh, well if that’s all you want to know, I went into the village and killed two young boys. Is that a
problem?’
‘Yes, it is a problem! You can’t just kill young boys. Can I bring them back to life? Tell me how!’
‘Ugh, fine. Yes, you can bring them back to life.’ He took a stone out of his pocket. ‘Take this to the
house where the young boys were killed. Put it in a pot and make a fire, then close the door. The
fire will bring the boys back to life. But I don’t know why it matters. They’re not your children!
Children die every day.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ said the poor man. ‘I won’t kill you.’
But secretly, he thought, “I won’t kill you now…”
He went and got the grave lid. The dead man took the lid and jumped into the grave.
‘You know, you think you are brave, but you aren’t,’ said the dead man.
‘And you are brave?’ the poor man asked.
‘No! I am clever.’
And then he put the lid back on. The sun came up, and the poor man got on his horse and went to
the village.
In the village, everyone was crying for the two dead boys.
‘Don’t worry!’ said the poor man. ‘I can bring them back to life!’
‘Do it, oh please!’ said the people in the village. ‘We will give you all our money!’
So the poor man went and did what the dead man had said. He put the stone in a pot, made a fire
and closed the door. Then he heard the boys yawn. ‘How long did we sleep?’
The boys had come back to life! The people cried and danced. ‘Oh, they are not dead! We are so
happy!’
‘And where is my money?’ said the poor man.
But the people did not give him any money. They took his gun and said, ‘No money for you! You
knew how to bring the boys back to life, so we think you killed him!’
‘No, it wasn’t me!’ said the poor man. ‘Please, believe me! Let us go to the graveyard. I will show
you who killed the boy!’
So they went to the graveyard and the man took the lid off the grave. They found the dead man
inside, but in the sunlight, he could not move.
‘Put the lid back on!’ he shouted, but they didn’t listen to him.
They took the gun and put the silver bullet in his heart, and he shouted, ‘Hey, that hurts!’ So they
took another silver coin and put it in the gun, and this time the dead man really died.
‘Thank you, kind man!’ said the people of the village. ‘You are brave and strong and clever!’
They gave the poor man half of their money, and he took his horse and left the village. During his
journey, he met more dead men who walked in the night, but he always knew what to do with
them.
THE END
Well, I hope you enjoyed today’s story! Today’s story comes from Russia. It is actually a vampire
story, but this vampire is very different to modern vampires. With modern vampires, if they see the
sun, they burn and die. But with these vampires, in these Russian stories, the sun means they can’t
move, but they don’t die. And in modern stories, vampires aren’t always dead. Sometimes it’s a
virus, like coronavirus, but in this story the vampire is definitely dead.
Actually, it’s kind of like half-vampire, half-zombie. It’s kind like a ghost. But of course, when this
story was told, zombies didn’t exist. The idea of zombies comes from Haitian culture, I believe. So
before people from Europe went to Haiti, there was no idea of zombies. There were vampires and
ghosts and monsters, but they were a bit different to our modern ideas.
Anyway, this was a very hard story for me to write! Because I don’t like writing about vampires
dying. I like writing about vampires kissing! Aww… Some of my favourite books are The Vampire
Chronicles by Anne Rice, and they’re all about soft, sensitive vampires who kiss a lot, but also they
do kill people a lot, so it’s complicated!
Anyway, on Saturday I went to the dentist and I went to the optician’s to get an eye test. And the
dentist joked that I was getting an MOT for my body.
So MOT stands for “Ministry of Transport”. Basically, in the UK, if you own a car, I think it’s every
three months or every six months, you have to get the car tested, and these tests are to see if the
car is safe, if it is safe to drive on the road. If you have a problem and it is not safe, then you have
to repair the car, but sometimes there are so many problems with the car that you just buy a new
one. I think! I don’t have a car, so I don’t know.
But anyway, because I did my dentist and optician appointments in the same day, it was kind of
like an MOT test for my body.
I’m happy to say that I did well, I passed the test. Actually, with the dentist’s I had the opposite
problem that I thought. I thought they would say, ‘Oh, you are brushing not enough and you are not
flossing enough!’
Dental floss (Stan Zurek CC BY-SA 3.0)
So flossing is when you take a special string and move it between your teeth to clean dirt from
between the teeth, but actually, I had the opposite problem. I was cleaning too much!
Gums (Ramu coolhimesh CC BY-SA 3.0)
So above your teeth there are the soft, pink things called gums. And your gums are very sensitive. I
was brushing some of my teeth too hard and now the gums are moving back.
So the solution is, I brush most of my teeth with my electric toothbrush and then I have a baby
toothbrush to brush the other teeth where my gums are moving back! So it’s literally a toothbrush
for babies. It’s tiny. It cost one pound, and it’s actually really cute. So I feel very cute brushing my
teeth with the baby toothbrush, and I certainly am not damaging them, which is good.
My eye test also went really well. Mainly I was just hoping I would not need new glasses, because
new glasses are expensive and I’m cheap! But luckily, my prescription, my level of eyesight, has
stayed pretty much the same. So I’m feeling very happy about that!
Actually, in general I’m feeling really, really healthy. At the moment, I’m sleeping well, I’m eating
healthily, I’m exercising every day, I’m doing yoga, I’m meditating, I’m reading lots. I’m just looking
after myself really well, and I’ve been a very unhealthy person in the past, so I just, I just feel really
happy to be healthy.
I’m sorry if maybe you are not feeling healthy right now. Obviously with coronavirus it’s something
that a lot of us are worrying about. But also, it’s always really hard when you don’t feel healthy.
Sometimes there are things you can control, and sometimes there are things you can’t control,
about your health. In last week’s episode, I talked about my mental health, and how I had a lot of
problems, and in some ways, I can’t control that as much. But I am controlling my physical health,
the health of my body, as much as I can.
Anyway, after these positive appointments, I decided to reward myself, I decided to give myself a
present, and I went and got bubble tea. And if you don’t know what bubble tea is, you can listen
to Elevenses with Ariel on the Patreon, where I talk all about the history and the lifestyle of bubble
tea.
Wwwwwwwwwwww
The Three Feathers. You can find a transcript of the episode

at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Feathers. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Feathers. This contains
the full story, as well as my conversation after it.
A feather
A feather is a part of a bird. Birds have hundreds of feathers on their body, which keep them warm.
When we want to eat a bird, we have to take all the feathers out first. We can use feathers to write
—this is what people did before we had pens. You can also put feathers inside pillows or coats to
make them warmer.
Handsome means beautiful, but for men. So we say that women are beautiful and men are
handsome.
A hop is a small jump. So rabbits and frogs don’t jump, they hop, because they are very small. If
you hurt one of your feet, you might hop up and down on the other leg.
A toad (Martin Squarra CC BY-SA 4.0)
A toad is a small, green animal. Toads are like frogs, but bigger. They have lots of little bumps on
their skin, but frogs have smooth skin. Toads make a sound like croak croak. They live in wet
places, like rivers and trees, but also dry places like grass. Toads eat flies and other insects. They
have very long tongues, and they use them to catch flies.
A bride is a woman who is going to get married. Brides wear beautiful white dresses called
wedding dresses. Some brides take weddings very seriously, and if something goes wrong they
get very angry.
When you smile, you move the sides of your mouth up. It is like a laugh, but smaller. You want to
show that you are happy. If you like someone, you smile at them. In some countries, people smile
a lot more than in other countries. Sometimes Thailand is called “the land of smiles”.
A carriage pulled by a horse
A carriage is a vehicle, a way of getting around, like a car. Cars use petrol or electricity to move,
but carriages are pulled by something. Usually, carriages are pulled by horses, and someone sits
on top of the carriage and tells the horses to move. Before cars existed, carriages were the main
way of travelling. Now they are used just for fun. For example, you can take a carriage ride with
horses in Central Park in New York.
A peasant is a person who lives in the countryside and works on a farm. Peasants are usually
poor, and they have to make food to survive. In modern Europe, peasants don’t exist anymore, but
there are some parts of the world where there are still peasants. Usually, peasants can’t easily go
to school or get good jobs.
The circus is a group of performers and entertainers who travel around and do shows. Usually,
circuses do shows in big circus tents. In the past, circuses used animals like lions and elephants,
but now they just use humans. They have humans who can do amazing things with their bodies—
gymnasts—and people who can do tricks, like jugglers. Nowadays, circuses aren’t as popular as in
the past. There is a popular film The Greatest Showman about P. T. Barnum, the man who made
circuses very popular in America.
can get exercises with each episode, and for $5, you get Elevenses with Ariel, a daily
conversational podcast for intermediate learners, as well as an extra story every month. You can
support us at Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish. That’s Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Leo Rivas,
Buyanjargal Chuluunbaatar, ilepilov, Joanna, Juanfe, Markéta and A Myanmar Lat Thi. Thank you
so much. Your support really means a lot to us.
The Three Feathers
Once there was an old king. He knew that he would die soon, and he had to decide who to give his
kingdom to. He had three sons. The older two sons were tall, clever and strong, and the youngest
son, Stu, was short and stupid. They all called him Stupid Stu.
The King knew he wanted to give the kingdom to one of his older sons, but he didn’t know which
he wanted to give it to. He decided to have a competition. He would let Stupid Stu play, because he
knew that he would not win.
‘My three sons,’ said the King to them. ‘I must decide who I will give my kingdom to, and you are all
clever and strong.’
The older two sons tried not to laugh. Stupid Stu was not clever or strong.
‘Here I have three feathers,’ said the King, taking out three feathers. ‘I will throw them all out of the
window. Each one of you will follow one feather. Where the feather goes, you must find the most
beautiful carpet in the world. The son who brings me the most beautiful carpet will have the
kingdom.’
So the King threw the feathers out of the window. The older brothers’ feathers flew to the east and
the west, but Stu’s feather fell straight down.
‘Good luck, Stupid Stu!’ said his brothers, and they left.
Stu went down to the feather. He knew the castle well, but in front of the feather there was a door
he didn’t know.
‘I don’t remember this door…’
Stu went through the door and went down some stairs. There was another door, and he knocked at
it. Then he heard a beautiful girl singing.
‘The handsome man here
all green with no hair
will hop to the door
and see who is there.’
The door opened, but nobody was there. Then Stu looked down and saw a small toad, who had
opened the door. Behind the small toad was a big, fat toad.
‘What do you want, boy?’ said the fat toad.
‘Oh!’ said Stu, very surprised. The beautiful girl was actually a fat toad! ‘I’m looking for the most
beautiful carpet in the world. Maybe you have one?’
The fat toad turned to the small toad and sang again,
will hop to the box
and give it to the man there.’
The smaller toad hopped to a box and carried it over. He was very small, but he carried the box
easily.
Stu opened it and said, ‘Wow!’
Inside there was a beautiful carpet. It had thirty different colours, and a beautiful picture of a forest
on it.
‘Thank you, oh, thank you!’ said Stu, carrying the carpet upstairs.
Stu’s brothers, however, did not find such a nice carpet. They thought that Stupid Stu would find a
very bad carpet, so they did not need to find a good one. They walked for a while, found a house,
and asked the people inside for an old carpet that they didn’t want anymore.
When the King saw the three carpets he was very surprised. ‘Well, that was the competition… So
Stu will have the kingdom.’
‘No!’ cried the older brothers. ‘That cannot be!’
They complained and complained all day, and finally the King said, ‘Fine! We will have another
competition. I will throw out the feathers again. This time, you must find the most beautiful ring in
the world. Now go.’
Again, the older brothers’ feathers flew east and west, while Stu’s flew straight down. So he went
back to the strange door and knocked again.
will hop to the door
and see who is there.’
The small toad opened the door again. He looked happy to see Stu.
‘Back again?’ said the fat toad, surprised. ‘What do you want this time?
‘I am so sorry to bother you… I’m looking for the most beautiful ring in the world.’
The fat toad sighed and sang again,
will hop to the box
and give it to the man there.’
This time, there was a beautiful red ring inside the box. It was bright like the sun, and Stu thanked
the toads very much and went back to his father.
Once again, the other brothers thought that Stu would not find a real ring.
‘A carpet is easy to find, but a beautiful ring? No! We do not need to try hard.’
So again, they just went to a house and asked for any old ring they had.
The King was very surprised to see Stu’s ring. He was angry, not at Stu, but at his older sons.
Couldn’t they see how important this was?
But the King had said that the son who found the most beautiful ring would be king, so he sighed
and said, ‘Stu will have the kingdom.’
‘No way, Father!’ said the older sons.
They complained for two whole days, and finally the King said, ‘Enough! We will have one more
competition. This time, you must find the most beautiful bride in the world.’
Again, the older brothers’ feathers flew east and west, and Stu’s flew straight down. So he returned
to the strange door and knocked again.
‘The handsome man here—oh, forget it! Just go and open the door, Eric.’
The small toad came and opened the door again, and today he was very happy, hopping up and
down.
‘What is it this time?’ asked the fat toad.
‘This time I need the most beautiful bride in the world.’
Stu looked around the room. He didn’t think there could be a bride in the box, and there was
nobody else in the room. Maybe this time his brothers would win.
The fat toad laughed. ‘You need a bride, eh? I can help you. Oh, handsome man,’ she said to the
other toad, ‘go and get the potato and those mice.’
The smaller toad came back with a big potato and two mice. Someone had cut the potato open.
‘What can I do with this?’ said Stu. Now he felt very stupid.
The fat toad smiled.
will hop into the potato

and a bride will be there.’
The smaller toad jumped into the potato. Suddenly, the potato changed! It was now a carriage, and
the two mice were beautiful horses.
But more importantly, the toad had changed, too. He was not a toad now, but a very handsome
man, and he was wearing the dress of a beautiful bride.
The toad man, who was called Eric, got out of the carriage and said, ‘Is this good enough?’
Stu smiled. ‘I think you are the most beautiful bride in the world!’
Eric just went red. Now they had to get the carriage up the stairs, and that took a long time.
While they did that, the older brothers laughed. They were not worried about this competition. ‘Stu
is terrible with women! He will probably bring a toad to our father. No, we do not need to try hard.’
So they walked to the first house they saw.
‘Say, do you have a daughter who is not married? Does she want to get married to me?’
So the two brothers came back with strong, simple peasant girls, and Stu came back with a
beautiful man.
‘We are going to be queens!’ said the two peasant women.
Eric did not say anything, but just smiled. The King was very angry.
‘You stupid boys!’ he shouted. ‘Do you really want to get married to these peasant women?’
‘No!’ said the older sons. ‘But, Father, you just said to bring a bride!’
‘Oh, my dear sons. I cannot do this anymore. Stu’s bride is the most beautiful. He will have the
kingdom.’
‘No!’ said the two brothers. ‘He is a man! Stupid Stu can’t win!’
The King was now thinking that Stu would be a better king than his two other sons, but they
complained for three days, and finally the King said, ‘Fine! Do you see that ring up there?’
On the ceiling, there was a big wooden ring. The King liked the circus very much, and they used the
ring in the circus.
‘Take down that ring!’ the King said to his men. ‘The bride who can jump through it will win! We will
see who has the kingdom.’
‘But, Father!’ said the older sons. ‘That’s stupid! Stu’s bride is a man! He will win easily!’
‘Quiet!’ said the King. ‘Your brides are strong peasant women. They will be much better. Stu’s bride
looks very thin. He is not strong enough to jump through the ring. Believe me.’
So they watched as the three brides jumped through the circus ring. The older sons’ brides were
too big, and they fell over. They could not jump through the ring.
However, when Eric came, he jumped through the ring easily, just like a toad hops.
‘Fine then!’ said the King. ‘Clearly, the gods want you to have the kingdom, Stu. Congratulations.
You are now king.’
Stu’s brothers cried, and Stu was very surprised. He did not know if he wanted to be king, but his
father said he was king, so he supposed that he was now king.
‘Now I have to find a queen…’ he said.
‘Maybe I can help with that,’ said Eric. And he began to sing.
found a carpet and a ring.
Now he will kiss me
and he will be king.’
And so Stu and Eric kissed, and that day they got married. They lived happily ever after, and
nobody called Stu stupid ever again.
THE END
I hope you enjoyed today’s story! I certainly had a lot of fun writing it. Thank you all for your kind
comments on the last story, To Be a Hero. Some of you left really lovely comments and they
warmed my heart, they made me feel really, really good. So, thank you again!
Recently here, we have had some really hot weather. Actually, I talked about this on the podcast
last week. It was 32 degrees, it was very humid, it was very sunny. Every day I just drank cold
drinks, ate ice lollies and put on my fan. But finally it is cool again! Because after a week or so of
really hot weather, all of the pressure built up, all of the clouds came together, and we had a big
dramatic thunderstorm! [thunder noises].
And I love storms. I think they’re so exciting, and we don’t have a lot of storms in the summer here,
so they really do, you know, change things up a bit. They add a new atmosphere, and I really love
that.
Unfortunately, recently I have hurt myself a bit. I decided to start exercising more. So every
morning I have been doing yoga, just for ten minutes, and also lifting weights. And, well, I am not a
very flexible person! My arms and legs do not stretch and bend very easily. So the yoga was
hurting me, but also I did too many weights, I lifted weights too much.
So a few days ago, I got quite bad back pain, so I have been taking it easy. I have been relaxing for
a few days and using my electric back massager to sort out my problems, and today, as I record
this, I feel much better. But I want to start lifting weights again. Actually, today I already started
doing yoga and lifting weights again.
Also today, I went into town for the first time in a long time, probably months, because I had to
return some clothes that I bought online. And then I decided to walk around and see what it was
like. It’s still very strange because, OK, the weather is bad but it is a Saturday, and still there are not
a lot of people around. You’re supposed to wear masks inside all shops but not everyone is
wearing masks in shops, but also, I saw more masks than I was expecting, so I am happy about
that. And of course, when I went into the shop I did wear a mask.
I bought some delicious bread and a delicious pastry at my favourite bakery in Bath. Bath is the
town I live in, by the way. In a very early episode of the podcast, I mentioned it, but I guess a lot of
you have started listening since then, because recently several people have asked where I live. So I
live in Bath, in the south-west of England, and right now, with the rain, it really is quite like a bath!
Wwwwwwwwwwwww
Puss in Boots. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Boots.

That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Boots. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
Normally I would have conversation at the end of the story. But today, I’m very tired, so there will
be no conversation. I am sorry for that. But don’t worry, I am fine, just a bit tired. Thank you for
understanding.
Puss is an old word meaning ‘cat’. Just be careful, because puss sounds like another word which
is quite rude. I have used the word ‘puss’ here because this story is always called Puss in Boots.
When you trust someone, you think that they are telling the truth. Usually, you trust your friends
and family, but you might not trust a person who you just met. If you do not trust someone, you
might think they are lying.
Land is the thing below you. So when you walk outside, you are walking on the land. Plants and
trees grow on the land. Land can also mean country. For example, England is a land. Some people
own land, for example a house or a business.
A guard is a person who protects a building. If you have a really big bank, you do not want people
to steal money. So you have guards there, and if someone comes to steal the money, the guards
throw them out, or call the police.
A count is a type of noble. Between kings and common people, there are many ranks of nobility,
such as earls, marquises, barons and so on. Count is one of these ranks. So a count is not as
powerful as a king, but they own a county. In the UK, there are many different counties—they are a
bit like states. The most famous count is Count Dracula, the first vampire.
A feather is a part of a bird. Birds have hundreds of feathers on their body, which keep them warm.
When we want to eat a bird, we have to take all the feathers out first. We can use feathers to write
—this is what people did before we had pens. You can also put feathers inside pillows or coats to
make them warmer.
A sorcerer is a man who uses magic. Sorcerers are like wizards or magicians, but sorcerers are
usually bad. They use bad magic. The first Harry Potter book in English is called Harry Potter and
the Philosopher’s Stone, but in America they changed the name to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone, because they thought children would not know what a philosopher was.
Wheat, by Bluemoose CC BY-SA 3.0
Wheat is a type of cereal or grain. Wheat is used very often in food. We use wheat to make flour,
which we can use to make bread and pasta. Wheat grows in fields and is very long. Many British
breakfast cereals have wheat in them, for example Shredded Wheat and Weetabix.
When something turns into something else, it changes and becomes something else. For
example, if you warm up ice, it turns into water. If you warm up water, it turns into steam. If you put
water in a cold place, it turns into ice. And if you take away my chocolate, I turn into an animal—I
get very angry!
When you make a decision, you decide something. For example, when you wake up in the morning
and go to eat breakfast, you have to make a decision. What will you eat? Will you eat healthy fruit
or chocolate cereal? It’s a difficult decision! Personally, I am very bad at making decisions.
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means a lot to us.
Puss in Boots
Once there was a young man called Jack. He lived on a farm with his two older brothers and his
father. His father made all the decisions on the farm, and as he got older, the farm got smaller.
The boys did not like to work, and so many of the animals died or left. Finally, the father died, and
he gave his things to his sons.
To the oldest son he gave the house, to the middle son he gave his horse, and to Jack, the
youngest son, he gave his cat.
‘That’s not OK!’ said Jack. ‘What can I do with this cat?’
‘Sorry, brother!’ said the other two.
The oldest brother left for the north, and Jack left for the south. He found a small house to live in,
but he had very little money.
‘Hmm,’ he said. ‘Maybe I can kill this cat and make a pair of gloves out of him…’
‘Don’t do that!’ said the cat.
‘Wow, you can talk!’
‘Oh yes. You got the best present of all! Now, I think I would make a bad pair of gloves. But I can
make you rich!’
‘How?’ said Jack.
‘Trust me. But first, I need a pair of boots.’
‘Boots? Why?’ said Jack.
‘If I have boots, people will think, “Oh, that is a rich cat!” Trust me, it is important.’
So Jack went and spent all his money on a good pair of boots. The cat put them on and started
walking around like a person.
‘Give me your hat,’ said the cat.
‘Fine,’ said Jack.
He gave the cat the hat, and now he really did look rich, with his hat and boots.
‘What’s your name?’ he asked the cat. They had never given him a name before.
‘Puss in Boots!’ said the cat. ‘Yes, that will make a nice name. Now, I am going to go and make you
rich!’
And the cat left the house. Jack didn’t know what he was going to do. He hoped that Puss in Boots
would not run away.
Actually, the cat went to the forest. He had heard that the King liked partridges, a kind of bird.
‘If the King likes partridges, I will bring him the best partridges in the land!’ said Puss.
He went into the forest with a bag. In the bag, he put a piece of cheese. Then he left the bag and
went into the trees. Some partridges came and went to eat the cheese. When the bag was full of
partridges, Puss in Boots jumped out and closed the bag.
‘Hehe! Now I have a lovely bag of fat partridges.’
He went to the castle and said, ‘I want to see the King!’
The King’s guards said, ‘Huh? But you’re just a cat! Cats can’t go to see the King.’
‘I am not just a cat!’ said Puss in Boots. ‘Look at my lovely boots. I work for the Count of
Cattenborough, and I have some partridges for the King.’
So the guards let him in. When the King saw the partridges he was very happy.
‘I have never seen such fat birds!’ he said. The King took the birds out of the bag and filled the bag
with gold. ‘Give this to the count.’
So Puss in Boots came home with a big bag full of gold.
‘Wow!’ said Jack. ‘How did you get that? Did you steal it?’
‘Don’t worry, Jack! I am going to make you rich. Trust me. Tomorrow, I will come back with more
gold!’
The next day, the cat went into the forest again. He had heard that the King’s daughter, the
Princess, wanted a beautiful dress. So again, he put cheese into a bag and waited. Lots of
different birds came, and he took one feather from each of them. Then he made a beautiful dress
out of the feathers.
Puss in Boots walked to the castle and said, ‘Hello!’
‘You’re here again,’ said the guards. ‘What do you have today?’
‘I have a beautiful dress for the King’s daughter! There are a hundred different kinds of feathers on
it.’
So they let Puss inside, and he gave the dress to the King. The Princess was very happy when she
saw it. She loved all the different feathers. So she filled up Puss in Boots’s bag with gold.
‘I must meet this Count of Cattenborough,’ said the King.
‘Ah,’ said Puss in Boots. ‘I will tell him that you want to meet him.’
When Puss came home with the money, Jack was very happy. ‘You are the best cat in the world!’
‘Just wait, my boy,’ said the cat. ‘Tomorrow, I will really turn you into a count! I heard the guards
say that tomorrow evening they are taking the King to the sea to swim. We will go as well.’
‘But I do not have the clothes of a count!’ said Jack. ‘They will know that I am not a count.’
The cat laughed. ‘Trust me! Just do what I say. I will make all the decisions.’
So the next evening they went down to the sea. Jack went swimming, and Puss in Boots took his
clothes away.
When the King arrived, Puss said, ‘Oh, my King, I am so happy you are here! The Count of
Cattenborough is swimming, and a man came and took all his clothes. Can you help?’
‘Of course!’ said the King.

He went to the castle and brought some of his clothes. Jack came out of the water and put on the
King’s clothes, and he looked very nice.
‘So you are the famous Count of Cattenborough!’ said the King. ‘It is wonderful to finally meet you.’
‘Uh, yes,’ said Jack.
‘And where is your castle?’ said the King.
Jack didn’t know what to say, but Puss in Boots quickly said, ‘To the south, my King.’
‘I suppose a young man like you has a wife?’
‘No, my King!’ said Puss in Boots.
‘Wonderful. Then you should meet my daughter!’
‘He would be very happy to meet your daughter, my King,’ said Puss in Boots.
The King was surprised. The Count of Cattenborough did not talk, and the cat did all his talking for
him. He thought that this was a very good idea.
‘Come tomorrow to meet my daughter.’
So the next day, Jack and Puss went to the castle.
‘This is crazy!’ said Jack. ‘I don’t know what to say. I’m not a count!’
‘Just be quiet and I’ll do the speaking. Remember, I make the decisions!’
They ate dinner with the King and Princess, and every time they spoke to Jack, Puss in Boots
answered.
‘Yes, the Count would love some potatoes, my King.’
‘Yes, the Count thinks you look very beautiful, my Princess.’
‘Yes, the Count thinks the food is lovely, my King.’
The Princess liked the Count, but she wanted to know more about him.
‘I would like to get married to you,’ she said. ‘But first, I want to see your castle.’
Jack went red, but Puss in Boots said, ‘Of course! We will go there tomorrow.’
The next day, Jack was very afraid.
‘The Princess wants to get married to me! But I am just a normal man. I don’t have a castle! You
are a very clever cat, but you cannot make a castle from nothing!’
‘Trust me! Remember, I make the decisions. You go with the King and the Princess. Say very little. I
will go and make the castle.’
So Jack went to ride to the castle with the King and the Princess. At the same time, Puss in Boots
ran to the south. First he came to a field of grass, where some people were sitting.
‘Hey, you people! Who does this field belong to?’
‘It belongs to the sorcerer!’ said a man.
‘Not anymore! When the King comes here, tell him that the field belongs to the Count of
Cattenborough. If you do not, then the King’s men will kill you all!’
Then he ran south, and came to a field of wheat. Some men were working there.
‘Hey, you workers! Who does this wheat belong to?’
‘The sorcerer, of course!’
‘Not anymore! When the King comes here, tell him that the wheat belongs to the Count of
Then he ran south, and came to a forest. Some women were eating lunch there.
‘Hey, you women! Who does this forest belong to?’
‘It belongs to the sorcerer. Everyone knows that!’
‘Not anymore! When the King comes here, tell him that the forest belongs to the Count of
Then Puss in Boots ran south, and came to the castle of the sorcerer. It was a beautiful castle, but
the sorcerer was a very bad man. But Puss in Boots was not afraid.
There were no guards, so he went inside and said, ‘Hey! Does a sorcerer live here?’
There was a POOF and the sorcerer was suddenly there.
‘What do you want, you horrible little cat?’ said the sorcerer.
‘I have heard that you are an amazing sorcerer. I wanted to see your magic. I hear that you can turn
into animals: you can turn into dogs, cats, horses… But those are all normal animals. I want to see
a big animal! Can you turn into an elephant?’
‘Hah!’ said the sorcerer. ‘Of course I can.’
And he snapped his fingers and turned into an elephant.
‘Wow!’ said the cat. ‘That really is amazing. But I think it is harder to turn into something small. Can
you turn into a mouse?’
‘Hah!’ said the sorcerer. ‘Of course I can.’
He snapped his fingers and turned into a mouse. Then Puss in Boots jumped on him and ate him
up.
‘Mmm, I love mice!’ he said.
While he did all this, the King, the Princess and Jack travelled south. First they came to the field of
grass, and the men said that it belonged to the Count of Cattenborough. Then they came to the
field of wheat, and the workers also said that it belonged to the Count of Cattenborough. Finally,
they came to the forest, and the women also said that it belonged to the Count.
‘My, my!’ said the King. ‘I did not know that you had so much land, Count.’
Jack also didn’t know he had so much land!
Then they came to the castle, and they found Puss in Boots waiting there.
‘Come in, come in!’ said the cat. ‘I made a fire. What would you like to eat?’
The King and the Princess liked the castle very much. The Princess said, ‘I think I will get married
to you today!’
So Jack and the Princess got married, and he became the King of Cattenborough. He was a good
king, but really, Puss in Boots made all the decisions for him.
They lived happily ever after, and when Jack died, Puss in Boots became king.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwww
he Musicians of Bremen. You can find a transcript of the episode

at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Bremen. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Bremen. This contains the
full story, as well as my conversation before it.
Remember, this is a beginner story, so I will have some conversation after the story. So make sure
to listen after the story, OK?
A musician is someone who plays music. So guitarists, piano players and singers are all
musicians.
A donkey is an animal like a horse. Donkeys go HEE-HAW! Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh is a donkey.
You can ride donkeys, and they often work on farms.
The master of an animal is the person who owns it. So if you have a dog, you are its master. For
example, in Scooby Doo, the master of Scooby Doo is Shaggy.
A thief, and the plural is thieves, is a person who steals. They might steal bread, money or
computers. Aladdin is a famous thief from fairy tales.
A very old monster
werewolves, mummies and zombies are all monsters. Monsters often eat people.
A leader is the person who leads, who is the head of, something. For example, the teacher is the
leader of the classroom. The mayor is the leader of a town. The prime minister, or president, is the
leader of the country.
Scream is when you go [screams]. It is a very loud sound. People scream when they are scared or
very angry.
Bite, and the past tense is “bit”, is when you put your teeth in something and hurt it. When you eat
food, you bite it first. Dogs might bite someone if they are dangerous. Insects also bite people and
they can be very annoying.
Scratch is when you do this: [makes scratching sound]. Basically, you rub your nails against
someone. You might scratch yourself because you are itchy. Maybe an insect bit you and you
scratch the place it bit you. Or maybe you don’t like someone and you scratch them. Cats like to
scratch things a lot.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Igor
Deynega, So Fast, Cherry Blossoms and Vila He. Thank you so much. Your support really means a
lot to us.
The Musicians of Bremen
Once there was a donkey who lived with a farmer. The donkey was very old. Before, he had worked
every day in the fields and carried many heavy things. Now he was old, and he found it hard to
carry heavy things. One day, the donkey was carrying a very heavy bag of food and fell down.
‘Now this is bad,’ said the farmer. ‘I need a strong animal who can work for me. If the donkey can’t
carry things, I don’t need him. I will have to kill him tonight.’
The donkey heard this and was very afraid. He didn’t want to die! But what could he do? If he went
to another farm, they would not want him, because he could not work.
But the donkey had heard of a city called Bremen. In Bremen, there were lots of musicians, and if
you played good music, you lived well.
‘I have always wanted to learn to play the guitar,’ said the donkey. ‘I think I would play it very well.’
He did not have a guitar, but that did not matter. So the donkey left his master and started going to
Bremen.
The road to Bremen was long. After walking for an hour, the donkey saw a dog on the road. The
dog looked old and sad, and had lots of grey hairs.
‘Why are you so sad, old boy?’ said the donkey.
‘My master wants to kill me! Before, I ran through the forest and killed pigs, but now I am old, and
the pigs are too fast for me.’
‘Don’t worry, old boy!’ said the donkey. ‘I’m going to Bremen to become a musician. I’m going to
play the guitar. Come with me!’
‘Wow!’ said the dog. ‘I have always wanted to learn to play the drum. Yes, I’ll go with you to
Bremen!’
So the donkey and the dog started going to Bremen.
The road to Bremen was long. After walking for two hours, they saw a cat on the road. The cat
looked old and sad, and had lots of grey hairs.
‘Why are you so sad, you old cat?’ said the donkey.
‘My master wants to kill me! Before, I killed all the mice in the house, but now I am old, and the
mice are too fast for me.’
‘Don’t worry, you old cat!’ said the donkey. ‘We’re going to Bremen to become musicians. I’m going
to play the guitar, and the dog is going to play the drum. Come with us!’
‘Wow!’ said the cat. ‘I have always wanted to learn to play the violin. Yes, I’ll go with you to
Bremen!’
So the donkey, the dog and the cat started going to Bremen.
The road to Bremen was long. After walking for three hours, they saw a chicken on the road. The
chicken looked old and sad.
‘Why are you so sad, Mr. Chicken?’ said the donkey.
‘My master wants to kill me! Before, I cried every morning at the same time. But now I am old, and
some days, I forget to cry in the morning.’
‘Don’t worry, Mr. Chicken!’ said the donkey. ‘We’re going to Bremen to become musicians. I’m
going to play the guitar, the dog is going to play the drum, and the cat is going to play the violin.
Come with us!’
‘Wow!’ said the chicken. ‘I love singing! Yes, I’ll go with you to Bremen.’
So the donkey, the dog, the cat and the chicken started going to Bremen.
The road to Bremen was long, so night came, and they decided to sleep inside a forest. The
donkey, dog and cat lay down by a tree, and the chicken flew into the tree. They had no food, and
they were very hungry, and it was cold.
‘I see something!’ said the chicken. ‘There is a house in the forest, and there is light inside. Do you
think they have comfortable beds and food?’
‘I think they might!’ said the donkey. ‘Let’s go.’
So they went to the house and looked inside. Inside, there were five men. These men were very
bad men—they were thieves. They liked to steal from people. But the musicians were not
interested in the thieves, because in the house there was a table, and on the table there was lots of
food and drink: bread, cheese, nuts, cake, wine and beer. And in the corner, there were comfortable
beds.
‘Wow!’ said the donkey. ‘We must get inside and eat all that lovely food and sleep in those
comfortable beds.’
‘But what can we do?’ said the cat.
‘Hmm,’ said the dog. ‘Usually, if you play music, people give you money and food, right?’
‘Right!’ said the chicken. ‘Let’s give them a show.’
So the dog jumped on the donkey’s back, the cat jumped on the dog’s back, and the chicken flew
onto the cat’s back.
‘Ready?’ said the donkey. ‘One, two, three!’
The animals jumped through the window. The donkey ‘played the guitar’, the dog ‘played the drum’,
the cat ‘played the violin’, and the chicken ‘sang’. But really, the donkey brayed, the dog barked, the
cat meowed, and the chicken cried.
The thieves were very afraid, and thought it was a monster. They ran outside and through the
forest.
‘Hooray!’ said the donkey. ‘Our first show went very well!’
They ate all the lovely food and drank all of the beer and wine, and then went to sleep in the
comfortable beds.
The thieves ran and ran, but then the leader of the thieves said, ‘Stop! That was no monster. I don’t
believe that monsters exist. And that is our house! I will go back and kill them.’
So the leader of the thieves went back to the house and very quietly went inside. It was dark, and
the musicians were all sleeping. But then the leader of the thieves put his foot on the cat.
‘MEOW!’ screamed the cat. She jumped up and scratched the thief’s leg.
‘OW!’ screamed the thief. He fell on the dog.
‘WOOF WOOF!’ cried the dog. He bit the thief on the leg.
‘Augh!’ screamed the thief. He ran outside and ran into the donkey.
‘HEE-HAW!’ cried the donkey, and kicked the thief in the stomach.
Finally, the chicken woke up and flew onto the thief’s head. ‘Buck-caw!’
The leader of the thieves screamed and ran away. ‘It is a monster, it is a monster!’ he cried. ‘I will
never come back to this forest again!’
So the musicians went back to their home and slept. In the morning, they spoke.
‘Shall we go to Bremen, then?’ said the dog.
‘I don’t know,’ said the cat. ‘It is such a long way, and we have no musical instruments.’
‘I don’t need a musical instrument,’ said the chicken. ‘I can sing.’
‘Maybe we don’t need to go to Bremen,’ said the donkey. ‘We have a nice little house here, and we
can probably find food in the forest.’
And it was true. They were very happy in their little house, and they found nuts and fruits in the
forest to eat. So in the end, the musicians of Bremen never actually went to Bremen, but that does
not matter, because they were the best of friends.
THE END
The musicians of Bremen
I hope you enjoyed today’s story. You probably know it already. It is a very famous story around the
world. Bremen is a real city in Germany, and if you go to Bremen, you can see a statue of the
musicians of Bremen: the donkey with the dog, the cat and the chicken on his back. I will put a
picture of that at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Bremen.
Last week, I talked about the Black Lives Matter protests in America, the protests about police
brutality. These protests are still happening. They are not showing so much on the news, but I
want to remind you, you can find links and information about giving money
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/RedMountain. And remember, if you do give money to one of these
organisations, I will give you all of the bonus episodes for Easy Stories in English for free. So that’s
seven free episodes!
At the moment, there is a lot of protests happening everywhere, and one thing that has been
happening specifically is moving and removing statues. So, many statues are coming down in the
United Kingdom and in America because they are statues of people who did very bad things;
statues of people like Christopher Columbus, Edward Colston and so on—people who sold slaves,
who had a big power in people’s lives and caused the death of millions of people, actually.
Edward Colston being thrown into the river
The plinth (place of the statue) afterwards, by Caitlin Hobbs under CC BY 3.0
One statue in the centre of Bristol was Edward Colston. I just mentioned him. He sold many slaves
throughout hundreds of years, I believe. And his statue was pulled down during a protest, and the
protesters threw it in the river.
I think this is a fantastic thing because what happens with these statues is, people say, ‘No, we
can’t remove it! It’s part of history, it’s so important, we can learn from it.’ Or they say, ‘Oh, we need
to discuss it!’ So people talk about removing the statue for ten years and they never remove it.
Finally, when people remove it themselves, it’s a very powerful moment and I think it shows what
people really want.
Anyway, are there any statues of historical people in your country that you think are bad? Maybe
statues that should come down, or statues that have come down. I would love to know. Go and
leave a comment at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Bremen.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Dear listeners, today I am going to talk about a difficult thing. I have tried to make this language
beginner-level, but it is very hard. There are many hard words here. But it is an important thing to
talk about, so I hope you will listen.
You have probably heard about the protests happening in America. A protest is when many people
go to one place and talk about a political problem. For example, maybe there is corruption, there
are people in the government, politicians, who are taking money from the people. That’s
corruption, and people often go to protests to talk about corruption, to say no to corruption.
People protesting in the American capital, Washington DC
Well, the protests right now in America are a bit different. They are not about corruption. They are
about police brutality. Brutality means killing people, hurting people. In America, the police are
killing, and they have killed in the past, many, many black people. People are protesting against
police brutality, but also people are protesting because there is coronavirus and the government is
not giving them food or money. They have nothing to eat, nowhere to live, no job. The government
is not helping them, but killing them.
So why is there so much police brutality in America? Well, it is not just in America. Around the
world, the police kill and arrest, put in prison, many black people and immigrants. Immigrants are
people who move from one country to another.
The news in many countries, for example, the BBC in the UK, are only showing one part of the
protests. They are showing the stealing, but they are not showing all the times that the police
are attacking people, hurting people, killing people. If you go on Twitter or other social media, you
can see pictures and videos of the police attacking people, and it is horrible. These protests are
very serious, but the news doesn’t want to show them to us.
Many people protested in London as well
It is very easy to say, ‘Well, this is happening in America, but it is not important for me. It is not my
problem.’ But police brutality is a problem around the world. Actually, the problem around the world
is racism, hate against black people and people of colour, non-white people. Many people in the
UK are saying, ‘Oh, there is so much racism in America, but in the UK things are better.’ There is
less police brutality in the UK, but that does not mean that there is not racism.
So why is there racism and police brutality? It is not something natural. In 1767, a Swedish man
called Carl Linnaeus wrote a theory, an idea, about the different types of people, the different
races. He said that white people, Europeans, were the best race, the race with the best culture, and
that black people, Africans, were the worst race. After Carl Linnaeus, there were many people who
made similar theories. These ideas and theories were accepted in Europe, and because of this,
white people in Europe decided that black people would be good slaves.
Slaves are people who belong to other people, people who are not free. They have to work all their
life, and they never get money, and they are often hurt or killed if they do something bad. Many
Africans were taken to Europe and America and became slaves. Today people say, ‘Oh, slavery is
over, there are no slaves anymore.’
But slavery didn’t happen very long ago. There are not slaves in America now, but many black
people are in prison, and they have to work like slaves. And white people and the police still have
these very old ideas from Carl Linnaeus about race. Anti-blackness, the idea that black people are
worse than other races, is still believed around the world. People say that they are not racist, but if
there is racism in your culture, then you will grow up racist. It is long and difficult to change how
you think. So when people say, ‘These protests are bad. People are just stealing things,’ they are
being racist but they don’t know it.
So why am I talking about this? Well, as I said before, the news is not talking very much about the
protests. They don’t want people to change how the governments work. They don’t want to think
about racism. In this way, I could just say, ‘Well, Easy Stories in English isn’t a podcast about
politics, so I won’t talk about the protests.’
But everything is political. Why are you all learning English? Because hundreds of years ago, the
British Empire existed, and it controlled most of the world. Many people spoke different languages,
but the British Empire made them learn English. English was a language of brutality, and the British
Empire killed millions and millions of people. America came out of the British Empire. Many British
people think that we are better than Americans, but really, we are the same. We both have a long
history of racism and colonialism, of controlling other countries.
So I have to talk about these protests in America. These protests are very important. I think they
are going to change history. But many people are dying in the protests. It is very sad to watch the
pictures and videos, and because I am not there, I felt like I could not do anything. But I can do
something.
So every day, I give some money to help people protesting. Some people need money because the
police arrested them, put them in prison. They need bail money, money to get out of prison. Some
people need money because they have nowhere to live, no home, and they have no food. Some
people need money so that they can have funerals for friends and family who died, who the police
killed.
If you can give some money to help, I would be very happy. I know a lot of you don’t have a lot of
money. So please don’t give if you cannot. But if you have just 5 or 10 dollars to give, that is
enough. I have put links to where you can give money in the transcript,
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/RedMountain.
I want to also give you something to say thank you for supporting the protests. So if you give
money to any of the funds, any of the places to give, I will send you ALL the bonus episodes
of Easy Stories in English for free. These are the episodes that are on Patreon for $5 a month.
There are 3 beginner stories, 3 pre-intermediate stories and 1 intermediate story. Just email me
at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com with a screenshot, a picture, showing that you gave money to
one of the funds. If you are already supporting on Patreon at the $5 level, I will give you a free
one-hour English class instead.
To find links to give money, go to the transcript at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/RedMountain.

That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/RedMountain. Thank you for listening, and #BlackLivesMatter.
Links – where to give money

If you do not know where to give, I recommend this fund. It is a bail fund (money to help people get
out of prison) for all of America.
Here is a list of all the places where you can give money internationally.
Here you can get news about what is happening from Black Lives Matter.
Here you can find links to resources to educate yourself on racism.
[introduction music]
Welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good, and
from Good to Great.
I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s story is for beginners. The name of the story
is The Red Mountain. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/RedMountain. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/RedMountain. This
contains the full story, as well as my conversation before it.
Thank you to Beatrice Valleferro for sending this story in. It is a legend from Italy about a
mountain. There is another episode that Beatrice Valleferro wrote the story for called The Mirror of
Misurina. So, Beatrice also sent me that story. You can listen to that story, The Mirror of Misurina,
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Mirror.
A weapon is a thing you use to hurt or kill someone. Swords, knives, guns and bows and arrows
are all weapons. Now, people usually use guns and knives, but most people don’t have a weapon. I
don’t have any! In the United Kingdom, it is illegal, against the law, to have certain weapons, for
example, guns and certain knives.
When you want to hurt someone, you might fight them. You might fight them with a weapon, or
you can just use your hands. You might even fight them with words—an argument. Children
sometimes throw food at each other—a food fight. A war is basically a big fight.
Someone who is heartless does not have a heart. Basically, they are very cold and not kind, and
you do not want to be friends with a heartless person.
Marry means to get married to someone. So when you want to get married to someone, you might
go down on one knee and ask them, ‘Will you marry me?’ In the old days, mothers often wanted to
marry their daughters to rich men.
The son of a king is the prince. It is very important who a prince gets married to. The daughter of a
king is the princess. It is also very important who she gets married to.
Weak means not strong. So you might be weak because you are ill, because you never do exercise,
or because you don’t eat enough food.
A tower in Worcestershire, UK, by Saffron Blaze under CC BY-SA 3.0
A tower is a tall, round building. Sometimes it is part of a building. For example, castles have round
towers on the sides. Sometimes a tower is the whole building. For example, the Eiffel Tower in
Paris is very famous. It is nice to go on the top of a tower because you can see very far.
A knight on a horse
A knight is a person from the Middle Ages who worked for a lord or a king. Knights wear heavy
armour, clothes that protect them, they ride horses, and they fight for their lord or king. Knights
fight using swords and shields. Sometimes, there are big competitions called jousts where knights
ride horses and fight with long weapons called lances. In fairy tales, a knight often comes and
rescues princesses.
When someone is fearless, they have no fear. They are afraid of nothing. Maybe you watch a
horror film with your friends and they are all afraid but you aren’t—then you’re the fearless friend.
When you look like something, you look the same as something. When I was a child, I had thick
brown hair and black glasses, and everyone said that I looked like Harry Potter. Now I have long
hair and nice glasses, and I don’t look like Harry Potter—I look much better.
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to us.
The Red Mountain

Once, there was a horrible king. He loved killing people. If someone bothered him, he said,
‘Fight me!’ and made the person fight him. He always won the fight, and the floors of the castle
always had blood on them. Everyone was afraid of him. His family was afraid of him, his friends
were afraid of him, and the people of his country were afraid of him. When the King was not there,
they called him King Heartless, but if someone said that name when the King was there, he fought
them and killed them.
King Heartless had become king after his brother died. His brother’s wife, the Queen, was alone,
and the man came and spoke to her.
‘You will marry me,’ he said.
‘My husband has just died. How can I marry you?’
‘If you do not marry me, I will kill you.’
‘But then the country will have no queen! My daughter is not ready to be queen.’
‘So, marry me!’
Finally, she agreed to marry King Heartless. She was afraid of being killed, but really, it was the
only thing she could do. She loved her daughter too much, and she knew that King Heartless would
be horrible to her if she was not there. So they got married.
The Queen’s daughter, who she had with her first husband, was called Moonlight, and she was as
beautiful as the light of the moon. All the princes of the all the other countries wanted to marry her.
Everyone spoke about how beautiful she was, and they wanted her to be happy.
But King Heartless did not want Moonlight to be happy. Over the years, he started hating the girl.
Everyone was afraid of him, but everyone loved her. Because people were so afraid of him, nobody
said bad things to the King anymore. He could never fight and kill people, because everyone did
what he said. So over time he grew weak, and his hate of Moonlight grew bigger and bigger.
King Heartless began to be afraid of Princess Moonlight. She was an adult now, and she was
ready to get married. If she married a strong man and had a child, he could come and kill the King.
He had to make sure that no prince would come and take away his country.
So King Heartless sent Moonlight and her mother on a ‘holiday’. But really, it was not a holiday. As
they travelled, the King’s men jumped on them, and they took the Princess and the Queen to a
tall tower in the forest. They threw them in the tower and shut the door.
‘Help, help!’ said the Queen. They hit the door again and again. But it did not matter. There was
only one key to open the door, and King Heartless always carried it with him. The door was too
hard to break, and there was only one window in the tower, at the top. If they jumped out, they
would die.
‘Now they cannot fight me,’ said the King.
Over the years, the King thought about killing the Queen and the Princess, but they were not
making problems, so he decided not to. In the tower, they had food and books, and wasn’t that
enough for anyone? He left them there, and told the people of his country that they had died. He
paid men to stand outside the tower, but it was boring work, so the men left their job and didn’t tell
the King. It didn’t matter, because nobody went into that part of the forest.
So the King sat alone in his castle. Nobody wanted to speak to him, because they were afraid of
him, and nobody wanted to marry him, because he was heartless. He grew old and sad.
One day, a knight was travelling through the forest. He was lost, and he came to a tall tower. He
heard two women talking inside.
‘Don’t cry again, Mother, please. One day, the King will die. Someone will find us, and we will be
free.’
‘I don’t believe it… How long have we lived here? We will die in this tower, my love.’
‘You have to believe, Mother. Someone will find us!’
The knight knocked on the door of the tower. ‘Hello?’
The two women stopped talking. For a minute, there was no sound. Then the younger woman
spoke.
‘Who is there?’
‘I am a knight. I got lost in the woods. Who are you?’
The two women spoke quietly to each other, and then the younger answered. ‘I am Princess
Moonlight, and I am here with my mother.’
‘Princess Moonlight! But the King said you were both dead!’
‘No!’ said the older woman. The two women moved to the window . ‘He is a horrible man. He was
afraid that my daughter would marry a prince and that he would kill him. He put us in this tower so
that we cannot do anything.’
‘I will free you!’ said the knight.
‘You cannot!’ said Princess Moonlight. ‘The door is too strong. We have tried, but it will not break.’
‘There is no door that does not break,’ said the knight.
He tried breaking the door with his weapon, but it was too hard. They were right.
‘Can you jump down?’ he said.
‘It is too far!’ said the Princess. ‘We have thought about it, but we would die.’
‘Hmm. I have an idea!’
The knight went and found a tree. He pulled it out and took it to the tower.
‘Climb down the tree!’ he said.
So the Queen and the Princess climbed down the tree and out of the tower.
‘Oh, thank you, thank you!’ said the Queen, crying.
Princess Moonlight jumped up and kissed the knight. Then she went red.
‘Sorry! I have been up there a long time.’
‘No, I liked it. I am not a prince, but I am strong, as you can see, and I am afraid of nobody. I will
look after you always. Princess Moonlight, will you marry me?’
The Princess laughed. ‘Yes, yes, you are the man of my dreams!’
So the Princess, the Queen and the Fearless Knight went and found a place to live. They went to
the home of the Queen’s mother, an old castle. They lived quietly there, and for many years, King
Heartless did not know what had happened.
But one day, one of his men came with news from the forest: the Princess and Queen were not in
the tower.
‘What?! Are they dead?’

‘No, they live! They are in the castle of the Queen’s family, near the mountain to the south. The
Princess has married a “Fearless Knight”.’
The King was very angry. ‘Is he a king?’
‘No, but he is the strongest knight in the country, and he is afraid of nobody. I hear that the
Princess and the knight have just had a child.’
‘No!’ shouted the King. ‘I will not have this!’
King Heartless did not sleep that night. He thought and thought about what to do. The next day, he
spoke to his men.
‘Take a message to the castle of this “Fearless Knight”. Tell them I am sorry about what I did to the
Princess and the Queen. Tell them I want to be friends with them again. Tell them I want to meet
my grandson.’
So the King’s man went and took his message to the old castle. Princess Moonlight did not believe
it.
‘It cannot be true! He never loved me or you. He says that he wants to be friends “again”. We were
never friends before!’
‘My love, what if he has changed? It has been such a long time.’
‘How can you say that, Mother? You never wanted to marry him.’
‘I know, but in that tower I learned something. We cannot always think about the past and the
future. He is saying sorry. We must listen.’
‘Fine, Mother, I will do it for you. But he cannot bring any weapons.’
So they sent a message to the King, asking him to come to the castle. The King did as they asked,
coming without weapons and only a few men. But he did bring lots of presents, for Moonlight and
for his grandson.
It looked like the message was real. The King was kind, and it looked like he had really changed.
Princess Moonlight could not believe it, but she was happy to see that he had really changed.
Finally, the Fearless Knight and Princess Moonlight said, ‘We want you to live here with us. You are
all alone in that old castle. Come and live with your family!’
The King said, ‘Ah, yes! It will be so lovely. I can play with my grandson every day.’
So they lived together happily, and every day the King played games with his grandson. It looked
like the King had really changed, and everyone was happy.
But one night, when everyone was sleeping, the King went into the room of the little Prince.
‘Wake up!’ he said quietly.
‘Huh? Grandpa? What’s happening?’
‘Shh! Don’t wake up the others. Be quiet and come with me.’
‘Where are we going, Grandpa?’ asked the child, following the King.
‘I said be quiet! We are going to play a new game. It’s going to be really fun, OK? It will be a
surprise for your mother and father.’
‘What kind of surprise?’
‘Oh, you will see. Now, close your eyes and follow me. Don’t open your eyes until I say you can.’
So the little Prince closed his eyes and followed his grandfather. They walked and walked and
walked. They walked out of the castle and into the forest. The Prince didn’t know where they were
going, but his grandfather had told him to not open his eyes, so he did as he was told.
‘Why are we in the forest?’ he said.
‘It is a game! We are going to go somewhere, and then your mother and father will have to find you.
It will be very fun, believe me.’
‘But how will she find me?’
‘Don’t worry, my child.’
But it was hard to walk with his eyes closed, and the Prince fell down. He opened his eyes, and
saw that they were on the top of a high mountain. He had never been so high up before.
‘Grandpa, I’m afraid! Why are we climbing this mountain? We could fall off.’
‘I know!’ shouted the King, and laughed. ‘That’s the game!’
Then he picked up the Prince and threw him off the mountain. The Prince screamed and fell down.
THUMP.
The King looked down at the Prince. He sniffed. ‘Ah, blood! I love blood. Now nobody will take my
country away from me! Good night, Little Prince!’ And he laughed and laughed and laughed.
In the morning, the knight and the Princess woke up and saw that the sky was red, and that there
was a strange light coming from the mountain near the castle.
‘What’s happening?’ said Princess Moonlight. ‘Where is my son?’
They went together to the mountain. The whole mountain was red, red like blood.
‘What is happening?!’ said the Princess. ‘This is all so strange!’
And then they looked down and saw their son.
Princess Moonlight screamed.
‘My son!’
She knew immediately who had done this: King Heartless. They went and took their son’s body
back to the castle.
‘The King,’ said Princess Moonlight. ‘He is probably already running back to his castle. My love—’
‘I know what I need to do,’ said the Fearless Knight.
He took a horse and went into the forest. It did not take long to find the King. King Heartless
laughed when he saw the knight.
‘How fearless are you now, oh Fearless Knight? Your son is dead!’
‘And soon you will be, too!’
The two fought, but King Heartless was old and weak. The knight quickly won the fight, and he
stood ready to kill the King.
‘Please, please don’t kill me!’ said the King. ‘I am just an old man!’
‘How many people have you killed? You have killed old men and young women. You took their
lives, and now I will take yours.’
So the knight killed King Heartless and came home.
After that day, the mountain was always red, red with the blood of the little Prince who had died
there. Even now, people call it Croda Rossa, which means Red Mountain in Italian.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
The Curse of the Clock. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Clock. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Clock. This contains the full
story, as well as my conversation before it.
So remember, after the story there will be some conversation. So keep listening after the story,
OK? I’m going to talk about where the story comes from.
A curse is bad magic. When you curse something, you change it. To make the thing normal again
you have to break the curse. For example, a prince might get cursed and he will die on his
eighteenth birthday. To break the curse, he has to kiss a woman he loves.
The astronomical clock in Prague, by Godot13 under CC BY-SA 4.0
Astronomy is a science. It is the science of space, stars and planets. An astronomical clock is a
special clock that looks at the stars, sun, moon and planets. They are not very popular now, but in
the Middle Ages, around the year 1500, there were lots of astronomical clocks in Europe. There is
a famous astronomical clock in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic.
Mysterious means something has a lot of mystery, people don’t know much about it. For example,
Stonehenge in the UK is a mysterious place, because we don’t know why it was made. Many
people have theories about why Stonehenge was made, but it is still mysterious.
Mechanics, and the adjective is mechanical, is the science of machines. A mechanic is a person
who works with this science. For example, mechanics look at cars, televisions and clocks and
learn about how they all work, so that they can make better machines.
When you take something apart, you put it into lots of different pieces. For example, if you finish a
puzzle and you want to do it again, you will take it apart. If you drop your phone in water, you might
have to take it apart to repair it.
After you take something apart, you will probably put it back together. For example, if you took
your phone apart to repair one part, then you have to put it back together. This can be very hard to
do. You have to be careful when you take it apart so you remember how to put it back together.
A master is someone who is the best, or one of the best, in their field, in their area. For example,
Yo-Yo Ma is a master cello player. Master Chef is a TV show about people who want to become
master chefs, master cooks.
An apprentice is someone who is learning to do a specific job. They learn from someone very
good at that job, a master, and they help them work. For example, a chef, a cook, might have an
apprentice who they teach to cook. Usually, an apprentice makes less money until they have
learned to do the job well.
The mayor of a town or city is the person who makes big decisions about it. They are the leader,
the “president”, of the town or city.
Someone who is blind cannot see. Some people are blind from birth, and never see the world.
Some people become blind because of an accident or disease. Some people are partially blind,
and some people are fully blind. Blind people usually wear black glasses to show that they are
blind, and some use sticks to walk around. You can also be colourblind, which is when you can’t
see certain colours.
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supporting but raised the amount, but still, I am SO grateful, so thankful, for all of you. Thank you
so much.
The Curse of the Clock

Today in Prague there is the astronomical clock, a great and mysterious clock. It brings in tourists
from around the world. But many do not know that the clock has a dark history. It happened over
500 years ago…
In the town of Kadaň lived a man called Mikuláš. Mikuláš was always interested
in mechanical things. He looked at clocks and other mechanical things, and he thought about how
they worked. He asked his father many questions about mechanics, but his father did not know
the answer.
So when Mikuláš was thirteen, his father gave him a watch for his birthday. But Mikuláš did not
wear the watch like a normal child. The first thing he did was to take the watch apart. He looked at
all the pieces, learned how they worked. There was a beautiful little world inside there.
Mikuláš’s father was not happy when he saw the watch.
‘You horrible boy!’ he shouted. ‘I bought you that watch and you took it apart!’
‘Don’t worry, Father!’ said the boy. ‘I will put it back together.’
And he did. That same day he put the watch back together, and it worked well again.
Things went this way for many years. Every year, Mikuláš’s father got him a new mechanical thing
—a new clock, a music box, even mechanical toys. Every time Mikuláš took the thing apart and put
it back together again. Often he did it several times.
It was no surprise that when Mikuláš was old enough, he decided to become a clock maker. He
worked as an apprentice under a clock maker in Kadaň, and he quickly learned everything
his master knew.
Mikuláš made great clocks. They were beautiful and never broke, and all the people in Kadaň
wanted to buy one. It was great for Mikuláš. He loved making clocks.
But one day his master said to him, ‘Mikuláš, you are too good for this small town. You are very
special. Go to Prague. There you can work with the best masters, and make the best clocks.’
So Mikuláš went to the big city. He had never seen so many people before. There were so many
strange things. But he quickly found a master who took him as an apprentice, and began his work.
A few years later, the mayor of Prague came to Mikuláš with an idea.
‘We will make the greatest astronomical clock in the world! It will tell the time, the date, when the
sun comes up and goes down, where the moon is… It will not be just a clock, it will be art! I will
have the greatest artists make people out of wood, to put on the clock. As the day passes, the
wooden people will move, and they will give a play every day. Would it not be wonderful?’
Mikuláš knew what his answer was as soon as the mayor started talking. ‘Yes. I’ll do it.’
So he began work on the clock. It was the biggest project of his life, and he worked day and night
on it. Finally, after years of work, the clock was completed.
The clock was put in the Old Town, and the first day it moved many people came to watch it. The
crowds gasped as they saw the wooden people moving, and they clapped every hour for the whole
day. The people of Prague, as well as travellers, loved it, and everyone spoke of Mikuláš’s great
clock. The mayor gave him a house in a nice part of the city and money for the rest of his life.
Soon, the astronomical clock became famous in Europe. People sent letters to Mikuláš, asking
him to come and build a clock in their town, and some people even came to visit him.
At first, Mikuláš said no. He was tired, and he had already done his biggest work. But as time
passed, he thought more and more about it. The Prague clock was not perfect, and he wanted to
make something better. Could he make a bigger, more interesting clock?
When the mayor heard about this, he was not happy. The astronomical clock made Prague special,
and it brought in many tourists from around the world. If Mikuláš built a better clock somewhere
else, then people would go there.
‘Do not listen to them, Mikuláš,’ said the mayor. ‘You have already completed your greatest work.
And if you feel like you want to do more… you can always build something in Prague.’
But Mikuláš did not listen. He loved the city, because it had made him famous, but he wanted to
work somewhere else. He had heard amazing stories about mechanics in China and the Middle
East, and he wanted to go there.
So the mayor decided to do something about Mikuláš. There was a man who worked for the mayor
called Řehoř. Řehoř was a bad man. He used to steal from people and kill people for fun. Now he
worked for the mayor, and if the mayor wanted someone dead, Řehoř did the work for him.
Late one night, Mikuláš was coming home from the pub. He had drunk a lot of beer, and the
streets were dark and mysterious. Řehoř followed Mikuláš, and when nobody was around, he
jumped on him.
Řehoř pulled out a knife and did his work, and then went away into the night.
Luckily, someone found Mikuláš a few hours later and took him to a doctor. Řehoř had cut his
eyes, and a lot of blood was coming out. The doctor saved his life, but he could not save his eyes.
‘You will be blind for the rest of your life,’ said the doctor.
‘No! If I am blind, how will I see the pieces of the clock?’
The doctor sighed. ‘You will not.’
Mikuláš never found out who the mysterious man in the night was, but he didn’t have to think hard
to guess. He moved back to Kadaň and lived with his parents. He tried to learn to make clocks
again, using his fingers to feel the pieces. But he often broke the clocks as he made them. It was
no good. He would never work like he had before.
Mikuláš was angry. If he couldn’t make beautiful clocks, what was the point?
He travelled to Prague with his father. ‘I want to hear the astronomical clock again,’ he said.
But when they were in the Old Town he ran away from his father, and went into the building of the
clock.
‘Where are you going, my son?’ his father shouted.
Mikuláš ran up the stairs to the top of the clock. His father and several of the mayor’s men
followed him. But they were too slow. Mikuláš came to the top, where the inside of the clock was.
The clock moaned and clicked as it worked. Mikuláš was blind, but he remembered where

everything was, and he knew just where the most important part was.
‘Mikuláš, what are you doing?!’ shouted his father.
Mikuláš threw himself into the clock. The clock ate up his body, and he screamed. Blood went
everywhere, and in seconds, Mikuláš was dead.
That day, for the first time ever, the Prague clock stopped.
Of course, it did not take long for them to repair the clock. They took away Mikuláš’s body, cleaned
it all, and soon it started working again. Mikuláš’s father cried for him, and the people of Prague
cried for him.
But a few weeks later, strange things started happening. The men who had repaired the clock all
died. One jumped out of a window, one fell into the river, and one killed himself with a knife.
Nobody understood why they had done it. They were all happy, healthy men until that day.
The people of Prague began to speak about it: it was Mikuláš. He had put a curse on the clock.
Anyone who repaired it would go mad and die.
Of course, the clock has been repaired many times since then. Not everyone who repaired it died.
But the curse of the clock could still be there. Anyone who tries to repair it now could die…
THE END
So today’s story is from Prague, which is the capital of Czechia, or the Czech Republic. We had a
previous story that was also from Prague, a very famous story about the golem of Prague. You can
listen to that story at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Golem.
I’m actually learning Czech, the language Czech, at the moment. And I read a book of legends from
Prague. I have also read some legends from Brno, the other big city in the Czech Republic. I have
to say, all of the legends about Prague and Brno are really sad. They’re all about dying and ghosts
and monsters and stuff like that. Luckily, I like sad stories. I like stories where people die at the
end. You might know this if you listen to the podcast.
Another thing I’m learning at the moment is singing. I started learning to sing a few weeks ago,
maybe a week and a half. I think I mentioned this last week, but it’s now hard to find time to learn
to sing and to learn Czech. I’m also quite busy because I’m teaching Spanish to a student online,
and from September, I will be teaching German to one of my friends.
Just, I have too many languages, too many hobbies, and not enough time! I’m sure many people
understand this problem. I have so many different things I want to do, but it’s hard to find the time
for everything…
Wwwwwwwwwwwwwww
The Paper Man. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Paper.
That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Paper. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
So before the main story today, we have a personal story from a listener. Last week we had a
personal story from Sudha Saravanan and today we have a personal story from Nguyễn Ngọc
Tiến. I hope I pronounced your name correct, Nguyễn!
This is a really motivating story. If you feel like it is really hard to study, you are losing energy,
hopefully this story will give you some motivation, some energy, to continue. Nguyễn emailed me
this story and I really wanted to share it because it is very personal and I think you will enjoy it.
So I’ll just explain a few words that are in Nguyễn’s story.
Someone who is disabled has something that makes it harder for them to live. For example, some
disabled people cannot walk and use a wheelchair, a chair with wheels. Some disabled people are
blind, they cannot see. Some disabled people have a disability to do with their brain, how they see
the world. Unfortunately, disabled people are often treated badly in society.
When you insult someone, you say something mean, something unkind to them. For example, if
you say ‘You’re ugly!’ that’s an insult. You hurt someone with words.
If someone is jealous of you, they want something that you have but they don’t have. For example,
maybe you have a Playstation, and your friend wants a Playstation as well. They see you playing it
and they feel really jealous. Why can’t they have a Playstation, too?
OK, let’s get into Nguyễn’s story.
Most people are born into this world with a healthy body, but I am not like most people. I was
born blind.
Growing up, I asked myself many questions. Will I be OK? Will people make fun of me? Can I go to
school? I was so different to everyone else.
My parents sent me to school, but things went badly, and I don’t like to remember that time. In the
end, I left elementary school at age 9.
Instead, I went to a school for disabled and non-disabled students. Bit by bit, I opened up.
The insults stopped, and I made friends, and I grew closer to the non-disabled students.
After 9 years of school, I learned something: when people say something bad behind your back, it’s
because they are jealous of what you are doing.
I am studying English so that one day I can study in another country. I know it will be difficult for me,
but if I try my best, then even if I fail, it will be a great experience for me.
I also use my English knowledge to teach those less lucky than me, because I strongly believe that
nobody should be left behind.
That’s the kind of person I am. I never give up.
Thank you again, Nguyễn, for your lovely story. And thank you for listening to the podcast!
Today’s main story I wrote with one of my students, Lina. Lina is a young writer with some brilliant
ideas and I think she is going to become a really good writer. So thanks again, Lina, I really enjoyed
writing this story with you.
By the way, there will be some more conversation, some more talk, but after the story, because
now, for the beginner episodes, I am doing the conversation after the story. So when the story
finishes, keep listening!
A human is a person. A human is not an animal, insect or alien. Another name for human is “homo
sapiens”.
Keep away means to stay away, to not go near. For example, if you are sick and you don’t want to
make other people sick, you might say, ‘Keep away!’
When you burn something, you put fire on it. If you put your hand on the cooker and the cooker is
on, you will burn your hand and it will go red. If you burn wood, it goes black. If you leave food in
the oven for too long, it will also go black.
When the wind blows, it goes whoosh whoosh. If the wind is blowing very strongly, it can be hard to
walk around.
Scrunched up paper
When you scrunch up a piece of paper, you crush it, you destroy it in your hand. It sounds like this:
[scrunches up piece of paper]. Usually, you scrunch it into a ball. If you are drawing and you make
a big mistake, you might scrunch up the paper into a ball and throw it in the bin.
If you then decide that you actually want that drawing, you will have to take the paper out of the bin
and flatten it out—that’s flatten out. When you flatten out something, you make it flat.
A cardboard box
Cardboard is like paper, but harder. When you order something online, or buy something in a shop,
it often comes in a cardboard box. If you are very creative, you can cut up cardboard to make art
with it.
A giant is a magical creature that is very, very big. Basically, a giant is a very big person. In Harry
Potter, Hagrid is half-giant. In fairy tales, giants are very scary, and they sometimes eat humans.
If you attack someone, you are trying to hurt them. You might attack them with a weapon, like a
knife or a gun. Or you might attack someone with words, and say that they are ugly or stupid.
When you save someone, you take them out of danger. For example, if a cat is in a tree and can’t
get down, you can climb up and take it out, and you are saving it. If you save someone’s life, they
will like you very much, usually. At least, that’s what happens in films!
can get exercises with each episode, and for $5 you get an extra story every month. You can
A big thank-you to our new patrons: Amneriz, Dima Bodarenko, Serhii Kosarenko and Gigliola
Marini. Thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to us.
The Paper Man

Once there was a man made of paper. He was called the Paper Man. He lived in a town called Dull.
In Dull, the people hated anyone strange. They hated clowns, they hated magic people and they
hated anyone who didn’t do what they did. Of course, they hated the Paper Man as well,
because humans are not made of paper!
Because of this, the Paper Man hated himself. It was a hard life being made of paper. Every time
someone made fire he had to keep away, or he would be burnt. Every time the wind blew, he went
flying down the street. Every time it rained, he got wet and it took him hours to dry out. When he
had an accident, he got scrunched up and had to flatten himself out again. Sometimes, when he
sat in a café or an office, people came and tried to write on his arm. He had a very hard life, and he
just wanted to be a human like everyone else.
So one day the Paper Man decided to change how he looked. He went out and bought some paint.
He painted a human body over himself. He painted a normal-looking man, and he hoped that
people would see him and think he was real. He went outside to show his new body to everyone.
First, when people saw him walking down the street, they thought he was a normal person just like
them. But when he came closer, his pages moved in the wind. But his hair did not move, and his
eyes didn’t move, and when he spoke his mouth didn’t move. He was clearly not a human. Then it
rained, and all the paint came off, and he was just a Paper Man again. Everyone laughed at him,
and he ran home crying.
Next, he tried using cardboard boxes to make a human body. Then he painted a body on the
cardboard, and put some clothes on it. Finally, he made eyes and a mouth out of cardboard. He
had a human suit! He could move the eyes and mouth from inside the suit. He practised a lot with
his human suit, and finally he went into the world.
This time, people thought it really was a human. But the Paper Man couldn’t see where he was
going, and it was hard to walk and move the mouth and eyes at the same time. One day, he was
walking down the street and he fell over. The cardboard broke, and it looked like he had had a
horrible accident. The people around him screamed.
‘This man is hurt! Call an ambulance!’
The Paper Man got up and ran home, and after that day he never went outside again.
But one day, a giant came and attacked the city. He picked up houses and ate all the people inside.
He broke everything he saw, and all the townspeople screamed and ran away.
The Paper Man did not run away, however. He did not have anything to live for. He would never be
a real human, and there was no need for him to live. So he walked out to meet the giant.
‘Come on, you big horrible thing!’ said the Paper Man. ‘Kill me!’
The giant turned around and laughed. ‘Hah, OK then!’ he said, and stood on the Paper Man.
But the Paper Man did not die. Because he was made of paper, he was just scrunched up. When
the giant moved his foot, he quickly flattened himself out.
‘What is this little thing?’ said the giant. ‘I stood on it and it didn’t die!’
‘Come on, you horrible giant! Kill me!’
So the giant stood on the Paper Man again and again, but every time the Paper Man was just
scrunched up, and he flattened himself out again. The Paper Man was not hurt at all.
But the giant’s foot was not so lucky. It had lots of small paper cuts on it, and blood was coming
out of them.
‘Ow, ow, ow! How is this horrible man hurting me?! Owwww!’
The Paper Man was tired of this. If the giant couldn’t kill him, he wanted to go back home.
‘Go away!’ shouted the Paper Man. ‘Go eat some other city! Or I’ll cut your whole body!’
‘Eep! No, thank you!’
The giant ran away and all the people came back and cheered.
‘You saved us! You saved us!’ cried the people.
‘Did I?’ said the Paper Man. He had not thought about it, but it was true. The city was safe
because he made the giant leave.
The people lifted the Paper Man up and carried him through the town. It was easy because paper
is light. They had a big party, and sang songs about the Paper Man and the giant.
Everyone loved him. Sure, he wasn’t human like the others, but it didn’t matter. He had saved the
town!
After that day, the people of Dull did not hate strange things anymore. Now they loved everything
strange. Every time a new person came to town, it did not matter if they were a clown, a magic
person or even a man made of paper. The people of Dull welcomed them all.
THE END
I hope you liked the story. This story was inspired by Dixit cards.
Inspired means I got the ideas for this story, or rather, we, because I wrote the story with Lina, so
we got the ideas for this story from Dixit, which is a game.
People playing Dixit, by Yoppy under CC BY 2.0
So Dixit is a fantastic game. If you go the Easy Stories in English live stream, you will know Dixit. So
it is a collection of cards and the cards have beautiful pictures on them. The pictures are very
interesting. Sometimes they are strange, sometimes they are funny, sometimes they are scary. But
they are all very different.
Normally, when you play Dixit, you have three-to-six people and everyone takes a few cards. Then
each person has a turn. So your turn is when you play.
When it is your turn you choose a card in your hand and you say a sentence or a word that
described it. It could be a very clear sentence, or it could be a very unclear sentence. Basically, you
are trying to tell a little story with the card.
Then everyone else chooses a card from their hand that they think is similar, that also works with
that word or sentence.
After that, all the cards are mixed and then they are put in the centre of the table. Then comes the
really interesting part. Everyone has to choose a card. They choose the card they think is
the original card, so the card that the first person chose. If everyone chooses the original card,
then that person does not get any points. But if nobody chooses that card, then they don’t get any
points. So you want to choose a word or sentence which is clearly linked, clearly related, to the
card but not really, really obvious. So it is a really difficult game and it is very creative, very fun.
But I use the cards when I teach in a slightly different way. I use the cards to inspire stories. So we
used three Dixit cards to get ideas for today’s story.
Cards from the Illuminated Tarot, the deck that I have
Recently, I also got a tarot deck. Tarot is a kind of card, well, a collection of cards that is often
used for fortune telling, for reading the future. But these tarot cards that I got are really beautiful,
they all have interesting pictures, so I also use those to help think of ideas for stories. Really, when
you write, the more you write, the more ideas you have, but it’s nice to have some help sometimes.
A lot of people use writing prompts. So a prompt is an idea, a piece of writing that helps you. So
maybe you don’t know what you want to write so you have a writing prompt, and the
writing prompt says, ‘Imagine you live in a castle but the castle is made of glass,’ for example. And
then you write a story about that.
Writing prompts can be really good but I think sometimes they are too much, they give you too
much ideas. I mean, they give you a very specific idea, and so you will not produce a very
interesting story. But I find pictures are really great because pictures, you can come up with lots of
different ideas from just one picture, and they can be good just to help you start and then once you
start writing, the ideas will come more easily.
A lot of people think that when it comes to writing stories, you just have to wait for the good ideas
to come. That doesn’t really work. Actually, often the ideas that come are OK ideas, but to have
really good ideas you have to think about it a lot and write a lot. So ideas are not
something passive, something you just receive, you have to also be a bit active, you have to help
ideas grow.
I think of it like a garden. You put an idea in the ground, you plant an idea, and you water it, and
some ideas grow into beautiful plants and some do not.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story. By the way, you may have noticed that today I am talking
very slowly and very clearly. I know in the beginning of the podcast I talked really slowly and
clearly, and I think recently I have been talking more quickly, and that is not good because I want
everyone to understand my stories and understand what I am saying.
But maybe for you it’s too slow. So if you could comment and tell me, I would really like that.
Please comment and say what your level is, are you beginner, intermediate or advanced in English,
and is this speed a good speed? Am I talking slowly, too slowly, too quickly? Please let me know,
OK? Because I want the podcast to be useful and understandable for everyone.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
The Elephant and the Hare. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Elephant. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Elephant. This contains
the full story, as well as my conversation before it.
So today’s episode actually has two stories. One of the listeners emailed in. A 16-year-old French
guy called Leo Gigon emailed a personal story to me, and it’s quite short so I decided to put the
story before today’s main story. So we will first have Leo Gigon’s personal story and then we will
have The Elephant and the Hare.
So thank you so much for sending in your story, Leo!

A referee blowing her whistle, by Liondartois under CC BY-SA 4.0
Before I tell Leo’s story, I just want to explain one word in it, and that word is referee. A referee is a
person who helps in sports games to make decisions. They usually wear black and white stripes.
When a referee sees that a player breaks a rule, they blow their whistle and tell off the player. In
football, referees can give yellow or red cards to the player. If a player gets two yellow cards or one
red card, they cannot play anymore. Sometimes, people watching get very angry at referees
because they think they are making very bad decisions.
OK, and now onto Leo’s story.
My name is Leo Gigon. I am 16 years old and I come from France. I am in high school and I do a lot
of sports, but I mainly play football. To play in competitions, our team needed a referee, so the
coach asked me to be the referee for the team. I accepted, and we managed to get to the French
Futsal Championship. Futsal is a type of indoor football. This competition was the highest in the
country.
We went to the championship in Brittany, a region of France. My team went through the qualifying
round with me as the referee, and then we won three times, reaching the final of the championship.
We played against the title holders, the team that won last year, and beat them! Of course, we were
so happy. We qualified for the World Championship of Futsal, which took place in Tel Aviv.
Without my help, they couldn’t have gone to the French championship, so they took me along with
them, and I was so excited.
One month later, we took the flight from Paris to Tel Aviv. After landing, we went to the hotel, and it
was amazing—five stars!
The championship was organized into four groups of four countries, making sixteen in total. There
were people from all over the world, like China and Brazil, and some countries even had two teams.
The competition was difficult, but we kept winning, and made it to the semi-final. We went against
Croatia, but unfortunately they beat us. So we finished 4th in the world championship. Still, Croatia
went into the final against Brazil, but Brazil beat them. They were an amazing team. In the end, they
were more than 10 goals ahead of Croatia. It was an amazing match to watch.
During our time there, we also visited Jerusalem, which is an amazing city. Overall, it was a great
time and a fantastic experience.
Thanks again for sending in the story, Leo! Remember, if you want to send in a story, and it can be
a personal story or a fictional story, email me at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com.
Today’s main story comes from the Maasai people. The Maasai people live in central and southern
Kenya, and northern Tanzania, two African countries. Basically, we’ve had a lot of European and
some Asian stories, so I thought today we would do something a bit different.
Maasai dancers, by K15photos under CC BY-SA 4.0
A hare is like a rabbit, but it is bigger than a rabbit. It has much longer legs than a rabbit as well.
Smell is when you go sniff sniff. You use your nose to smell something. Usually, you smell without
having to try. It is automatic. But my sense of smell is quite bad, so sometimes I don’t notice a
smell when other people do.
houses. You can also throw stones at someone if you want to hurt them.
Drop is when you have something in your hands and you let it fall to the ground, you stop holding
it. For example, when I am teaching I always drop my pen on the floor. If you are eating ice cream
and you drop it on the floor it is very sad because you cannot finish it.
Rip off is when you pull something off something else very quickly. For example, you might rip off
a sticker or a plaster. If it’s really, really hot, you might rip off your shirt. Usually, when you rip
something it hurts or can cause damage. One of the worst things that can happen is when your
trousers rip and you have to buy new ones.
Skin is the outside part of the body. Humans can have dark skin or light skin. Some people have
lots of hair on their skin, but others don’t. If your skin is hard or rough, you can use moisturiser to
make it nice and smooth. Personally, I have quite dry skin and I often have to put cream on my
hands.
Catch up to, and the past tense is caught up to, is when you are running after someone and you
finally get to them. In a race, one person might be faster than all the other runners, and they are
trying to catch up to the fastest runner.
An antelope, by Charles J Sharp under CC BY-SA 4.0
An antelope is an animal that lives mainly in Africa and Asia. Antelopes look like deer, but they
have white stomachs and long horns. Lions and cheetahs eat antelopes.
When you play a trick on someone, you tell them something that isn’t true but make them believe
it. For example, maybe you tell someone that you have a cake for them, but when they ask for it,
you throw the cake in their face. The idea is to make fun of someone else.
A big thank-you to our new patrons: Phanasol Yolpak, Hidalgo, Queen Ikhlaas, Ümit Öztop and
Eskil Forsberg. Thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to us.
The Elephant and the Hare

Once there was a group of elephants. They were going to visit their family, and they wanted to
bring them honey. So they went and collected honey, and started walking.
On the road, they came across a hare. The hare wanted to go across a river, but the water was too
deep.
‘Oh, Mr. Elephant,’ said the hare. ‘You look very big. Can you carry me across the water?’
The elephant said, ‘Yes, of course. You can jump on my back.’
So the hare sat on the elephant’s back and they went across the river. The
hare sniffed and smelled the honey. It smelled so good! The elephant was carrying two bags of
honey. Slowly, the hare went down and ate one of the bags.
When she finished, she said, ‘Mr. Elephant, I am quite bored up here. Can you give me a stone to
play with?’
So the elephant gave her a stone. She put the stone in the now empty bag of honey. Then she ate
from the second bag of honey.
When she finished, she said, ‘Mr. Elephant, I dropped my stone. Could you give me another stone? I
want to throw it at the birds.’
So the elephant gave her another stone. Then she asked for another, and another. Finally, she filled
up both bags with stones.
‘Well, Mr. Elephant,’ said the hare, ‘I will be going now. Goodbye!’
And the hare jumped off the elephant’s back and ran away.
When the elephants arrived, they saw that the bags were full of stones.
‘Oh no!’ cried the elephant. ‘That hare stole my honey! I must catch her!’
So the elephant ran after the hare. The hare saw too late that the elephant was coming, and he
took her tail and pulled on it hard. He ripped off the skin of the hare’s tail, but the hare ran away.
‘Not so fast!’ cried the elephant. ‘I will get you!’
As the hare ran, she saw some farmers. She said, ‘Hey, you farmers! Do you see that elephant over
there? You should run away, because he is running after you.’
So the farmers ran away. When the elephant saw them running, he thought that they were running
after the hare. Finally, he caught up to them.
‘Hey, you farmers. Have you seen a hare with a skinned tail around here?’
The farmers said, ‘She went that way.’
So the elephant ran after the hare.

Next, the hare saw some women cooking outside. ‘Hey you, women who are cooking! Do you see
that elephant over there? You should run away, because he is running after you.’
So the women ran inside their houses. The elephant caught up to them and said, ‘Hey you, lovely
women. Have you seen a hare with a skinned tail around here?’
The women answered, ‘She ran over there.’
The hare ran until she saw some antelopes who were eating grass. She said, ‘Hey, you antelopes.
Do you see that elephant over there? You should run away, because he is running after you.’
The antelopes ran far away, but the elephant finally caught up to them. He said, ‘Hey, you
antelopes. Have you seen a hare with a skinned tail around here?’
So the antelopes showed him where the hare went.
Finally, the hare came to a group of hares. She said, ‘Hey, other hares. Do you see that elephant
over there? You should all rip the skin off your tails, because he is looking for a hare without skin
on its tail.’
So all the hares quickly ripped the skin off their tails. The elephant caught up to them and said,
‘Hey, you hares. Have you seen a hare with a skinned tail around here?’
The hares said, ‘Don’t you see that all our tails are skinned?’
And they all showed their tails to the elephant. The elephant did not know what to do. He could not
find the hare who stole the honey, because all the hares looked the same. The hare had played a
trick on him!
So in the end, the elephant did not catch the hare. And from that day onwards, he never helped a
hare again.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Today the order of the episode will be a bit different. Normally, I talk a bit first and then we have
the story, but now, for beginner stories, the story will be first and then after the story I will talk
about who wrote it and about my life.
Basically, someone told me that in the earlier beginner episodes, the conversation is sometimes
too difficult. It’s actually really hard to talk about some topics with very simple language, so to
make sure that you can understand and that you don’t get bored, I will put the conversation at the
end. So if you find the conversation hard to understand, you can just stop listening after the story.
This will only be for the beginner level, and I will see how it goes. Let me know what you think. Go
and leave a comment at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/City. Maybe you think this new order is better
for all the episodes. Please let me know what you think.
Towards means in the direction of. So maybe you are walking and you see a building far away, and
you walk towards it. When you get there, you have walked to it.
Land is the thing below you. So when you walk outside, you are walking on the land. You are not on
the sea or in the air. Plants and trees grow on the land. Land can also mean country. For example,
England is a land.
Respect is when you think someone is really good. For example, teachers usually want children to
respect them. They want the children to be good in class and look up to the teachers. Parents also
want respect from their children. You might respect someone because they are very talented, or
because they are a good person, or just because they are very strong.
When you are confused, you are trying to understand something difficult but you cannot. You feel
very stupid, and you don’t know why. Maybe you are confused because someone is speaking
English very fast to you, or maybe you are confused because you are studying a hard subject, like
physics.
A strait is a thin piece of water between two large pieces of water. So you basically have two lakes,
and a thin bit of water connecting them, and that is the strait.
A thief, and the plural is thieves, is a person who steals. They might steal bread, money or
computers. Aladdin is a famous thief from fairy tales.
Drunk means you have drunk alcohol, like beer or wine, and you feel strange. Actually, most people
like getting drunk. In the UK, beer and cider, which is made with apples, are popular types of
alcohol to get drunk. British people, mostly, like getting drunk very much. Personally, I drink very
rarely, because I don’t like how you feel afterwards.
Hungover is how you feel after you get very drunk. So the day after you drink a lot of alcohol, you
have a hangover; you are hungover. Basically, you are still a bit drunk, and you can have a
headache, dry mouth, a stomach ache and so on. There are many ways people try to “cure” a
hangover, for example by eating greasy food. But really, you just have to go through feeling
horrible for a day or two.
Hopeless means you have lost all hope. You might feel hopeless because you failed an exam, or
because a family member died. Hopeless can also mean you are really bad at doing something.
For example, I am hopeless at sports.
A big thank-you to our new patron Jean Santos. Thank you so much, Jean. Your support really
means a lot to us.
Towards the City
Once upon a time, in Ancient Greece, there was a man called Byzas. Byzas was the son of Nisos,
the King of Megara, a city in Greece.
‘My son,’ said King Nisos one day. ‘It is time for you to go out and make your way in the world. Find
your own land and build a city there.’
‘I will make you happy, father,’ said Byzas.
So Byzas went out with his men and looked for land. But wherever they looked, there were
problems. In the first place, there were thieves, men who stole from travellers. In the next place,
there was bad weather: baking sun and ice-cold rain; that meant they could not plant food. In the
third place, there were monsters that ate children alive.
‘I need help!’ said Byzas. ‘We have travelled for months and months, and we have found no place
to build a city.’
So Byzas travelled to Delphi. There, there was the Oracle of Apollo. The Oracle of Apollo was a
woman who spoke with the god Apollo and saw the future. She gave advice to men from all over
Greece, and her advice was always good. But if you did not follow her advice well, or if you did
not respect the gods, you could end up worse than before. Still, Byzas had to go, because he had
no other ideas.
‘Oh, great Oracle of Apollo! I have come all the way from Megara to speak to you. My father, King
Nisos, has told me to go out and build a city. But wherever I go, there are thieves, bad weather and
monsters. Please tell me, where should I go to build my city?’
The Oracle closed her eyes and said nothing for several minutes. Byzas worried that he had said
something wrong. But finally, she opened her eyes and spoke.
‘I have asked Apollo what to do. The message is clear: you will build your city on the land opposite
to the Land of the Blind.’
Byzas left Delphi confused. He did not understand the Oracle’s message. ‘The Land of the Blind’?
What did it mean? He asked his men, and they gave him many ideas. One said that it might mean
window blinds, a kind of curtain. But that was too easy. Another said that it might mean a foreign
land. But why would Apollo want Byzas to build his city in a foreign land?
For months, Byzas and his men travelled around, looking for the Land of the Blind. Everywhere they
went, they asked people about it, but nobody knew where it could be.
One day, they came to the Bosporus, a strait. They took their ship to Chalcedon, a city on one side
of the strait, and rested there. It was a horrible place. The streets were dirty and full
of thieves and drunk people. That night, Byzas drank and drank and drank. He felt hopeless,
because he had no idea where the Land of the Blind was. He could not go home to his father
empty-handed, and he did not know what to do.
The next day, feeling hungover and sad, he walked up a big hill on the side of the city. From the top
of the hill, he could look out over all the houses and across the strait to the other side.
Byzas gasped. ‘How can it be?’
On the other side of the strait, opposite Chalcedon, was a magical land. The land was green, with
many beautiful flowers and trees holding beautiful fruit. Wild sheep, pigs, cows and horses walked
around, fat and healthy. There were rivers and lakes with beautiful clear water.
‘How can these people live in Chalcedon, when such a magical land sits opposite them? They
must be blind!’
Suddenly, Byzas remembered the words of the Oracle of Apollo: You will build your city on the land
opposite to the Land of the Blind.
Byzas started laughing. ‘I’ve found it! I’ve finally found it!’
He ran down the hill and shouted to his men, ‘Get on the ship! We’re crossing the strait.’
The men, confused, did what he said. When they arrived at the magical land they laughed
and cheered.
There, Byzas built the city of Byzantium. It was a place of riches and magic. Over the years, the city
grew in size and importance. Today, it is called Istanbul, which means towards the city, because
men from all around the world come there still.
THE END
So today’s story was written and sent in by a listener. The person who wrote the story is Ferhat
Uzuner. So, thank you so much again, Ferhat. I really liked this story.
And remember, if you have a story and you want to put the story on the podcast, you can email me.
Send me your story at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com. I would love to read it.
Actually, I already have a few stories from listeners, so it might take some time before I can put
your story on the podcast. You might have to wait a few months before your story goes on the
podcast. Just so you know.
So today’s story is from Ancient Greece. Greece is a country in Europe and Greece is a very
famous country because, throughout history, Greece has given us many things. We have from
Greece democracy, philosophy and lots of beautiful art. All of these things started in Ancient
Greece.
Ancient Greece is also famous for the Greek gods. So the Greeks had many gods. The main god
was Zeus. There is actually another story in the podcast from Ancient Greece. The story is
called Arachne, the Spider Woman. You can listen to it at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/SpiderWoman.
I really love that story. Actually, all of the stories from Ancient Greece are really interesting, so
definitely go and listen to that episode if you have not listened to it before.
Of course, today, Istanbul is not in Greece, it is the capital city of Turkey. The old names of the city
Byzantium and Constantinople. Istanbul is now a very big city. It actually has a population of 15
million. When I learned that so many people live in Istanbul, I was really surprised, because almost
twice as many people live in Istanbul than in London, and London is such a big city. So Istanbul is
really, really big. I have never gone to Istanbul, but I really want to and this story has helped me
learn a bit about the history of the city.
Anyway, I also want to talk about the live stream. So on Saturday there was another live stream
for Easy Stories in English. It was our second live stream, and it was really fun. I had a lot of fun. On
the live stream, I talked about a videogame I am playing called Animal Crossing, and I showed
some pictures from my game, and we wrote a really beautiful story together about a man who
dreams of an island in a raindrop. I really recommend going and watching the stream on YouTube.
Even if you didn’t come on Saturday, you can watch the replay, the video version, on YouTube.
I have decided to make the streams regular because it is really fun and I think, right now, we need
something relaxing. So the streams will be every Saturday at 13:00 British Summer Time and the
streams are on my YouTube channel, on the Easy Stories in English YouTube channel. I will put
a link in the transcript of this episode to the YouTube channel at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/City.
And if you want to know when the stream is happening, you can join the email newsletter. Go
to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com and type your details into the box. If you join the email newsletter, I
will email you with useful advice on how to learn languages, and I will email you an hour before the
Saturday streams starts, so that you can come along as well.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwww
So at the moment there is only one thing that everyone is talking about. That is coronavirus or,
more specifically, COVID-1. So coronavirus is everywhere in the world now and it is having a very
big effect.
Here, in the United Kingdom, the situation has gotten very serious in the last week. Now, at the
time I’m recording this, all the schools, pubs and restaurants in the country have been closed. Not
all the businesses are closed. There are still some shops and places open but most places are
closed, and the government is saying that you should not go outside unless you need to. So you
should keep social contact down. Don’t go out and have a party with your friends, basically!
Because people are starting to worry about the coronavirus, many people are panic buying. So
panic buying is when you are in a panic, you are very anxious, very worried, so you go and buy lots
of food. Specifically, people are worried that supermarkets will not have all the products or that
they will be in their homes for a very long time. So they are going to the supermarkets and buying
all the toilet paper, all the dry pasta, all of the canned food.
This is very annoying because, you know, I just want to buy food and it’s very to get food right now!
There is a lot of food missing in the supermarkets. So hopefully, within a few weeks it will be
normal again. But it won’t really be normal because right now, effectively, we are all under
quarantine.
So quarantine is when you have to stay inside because of a disease, an illness. So because of the
coronavirus, many people are staying inside. Technically, a quarantine is only when they stop you
from leaving. So right now in the UK you can actually travel around, so it’s not a real quarantine.
But in Wuhan, in China—I’m not sure if there still is a quarantine, but there definitely was a
quarantine for a long time.
Anyway, I have been pretty nervous, pretty anxious and worried because of the coronavirus. Every
day, even every hour, the news has been changing. They have announced new things. Nobody
knows how long we will be in quarantine, how much of an effect the virus will have. We really just
don’t know. So, for now, we just have to stay calm, or as calm as we can be.
So at the moment I am doing all of my work online. Because the schools are closed, I am doing all
of my classes online. And if you are interested in online classes with me, go
to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Classes. Actually, I have quite a lot classes, I’m quite busy. So you
might have to wait a bit before we have a class, but I love teaching listeners of the podcast.
So anyway, I was very anxious and worried but now I have said, ‘Enough! I am going to just try and
be positive and focus my energy on the podcast.’ Because I really do love making the podcast and,
as I will tell you in a bit, I have some new things that I will be doing with the podcast.
But first, I just want to tell you a bit about today’s story. So today’s story is based on Little Red
Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood is probably the most famous fairy tale ever. If you don’t
recognise it from the name, I will explain it.
So it’s about a little girl who goes into the forest to go to her grandmother’s house, but a wolf
comes and eats her grandmother, and then the little girl goes inside and she sees the
grandmother, but actually it’s the wolf, and she says, ‘Oh, Grandmother, what big ears you have!
What big eyes you have! What big teeth you have!’ and then the wolf attacks her and she gets help
from a wood-cutter. So a man comes with an axe to attack the wolf.
If you didn’t understand some of the words I just used, don’t worry! I’m going to explain them in a
bit. But hopefully, you recognise the story from my description.
Anyway, today’s story is not exactly Little Red Riding Hood. I have changed it because, as you
know, I like to make the stories my own. And actually, today’s story is really about the coronavirus.
So it’s a version of Little Red Riding Hood about the coronavirus. So if you don’t want to hear any
more about the coronavirus, you are sick of hearing about it, maybe don’t listen to this episode. At
least for now!
Oh, and by the way, a riding hood is kind of an old-fashioned word. It basically means a kind of
coat that has a hood. So a hood is the part of a coat that goes over your head so that you don’t get
rain in your hair. So it’s kind of like a coat, really.
So, because many people are under quarantine, many people are anxious at this time, and it is
hard to go out and talk to friends, I have decided to do a live stream.
So a live stream is like a video, but with a video you wait and then the video goes online and it’s
completely there. With a live stream, you go and watch the video as I make it, and you can
comment and interact with me.
So the live stream will be on YouTube, and the idea is so I can talk to you listeners and hopefully
together, we can feel a bit less lonely with this virus going around. In the live stream, I will talk
about my life, I will do a little puppet show, tell you a little story, and there will be questions and
answers. So you can ask me all the questions you have about my life, about the podcast, about
whatever, anything! The live stream will be on YouTube on the 28th of March, so this coming
Saturday, at 1pm, that’s 13:00, Greenwich Mean Time, GMT. So that’s British time. And that is +0
hours if you are looking at time zones.
But probably, you’re thinking, “Urgh, time zones are confusing!” and I agree! So if you go to the
transcript at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Red, I will put a link to the stream on my YouTube channel
at the top. And the YouTube channel for the live stream is Easy Stories in English, but probably just
go to the transcript and click the link there.
Also, I have decided I want to talk to you more about, well, my life, but also about language
learning tips. So I quite enjoy learning languages myself. Actually, I speak seven languages. And I
have a lot of techniques and methods that I use to study other languages. So I thought, “Hmm,
why don’t I share my tips and help with you?”
So if you are interested in reading about my language learning advice, you can sign up to my email
newsletter. So once a week I will send you an email where I talk about language learning tips and
maybe about my life, as well. Also, if you sign up to the email newsletter, I will email you an hour or
two before the live stream starts so you can make sure that you don’t miss the live stream.
So to sign up to the email list, just go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com and you will find the box to sign
up on the front page.
If you can’t come to the live stream on Saturday, don’t worry! You can still send me a question and
I will answer it on the live stream. So if you have any questions you want me to answer on the live
stream, please email them to me at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com. I am actually really looking
forward to answering your questions and also to the live stream. I think it will be a lot of fun!
An illness is when you are ill, or sick. So a cold is an illness, influenza is an illness and cancer is an
illness. At the moment, the most important illness is coronavirus, or COVID-19.
Weak means not strong. So you might be weak because you are ill, because you never do exercise,
or because you don’t eat enough food.
Fear is when you are scared, or afraid. When you are afraid, you feel fear. For example, I have a
fear of heights. I am afraid of heights.
Your voice is the thing you use to speak. So right now, I am using my voice to speak. You can have
a high voice or a low voice. You can have a LOUD VOICE or a quiet voice. I like to sing with my
voice. [vocalises]. And so on.
Hoarse is when your voice sounds like this. Usually, your voice is hoarse because you are ill, or
maybe because you are very old, or have not drunk enough water.
Smile is when you move the sides of your mouth up. You want to show that you are happy. If you
like someone, you smile at them. It is like a laugh, but smaller. In some countries, people smile a
lot more than in other countries. Sometimes Thailand is called “the land of smiles”.
Attack is when you try to hurt someone. You might attack someone with a weapon, like a knife or a
gun. Or you might attack someone with words, and say that they are ugly or stupid.
groups called packs. Wolves like to sit under the moon and howl. They go awoo.
Hide, and the past tense is “hid”, is when you make it so people can’t see something. For example,
maybe you are eating chocolate, but you don’t want other people to see it, because then they will
want to eat the chocolate. So you hide the chocolate in the cupboard so that they won’t see it. You
can also hide yourself. Maybe you don’t want your teacher to see you, because you forgot to do
the homework, so you hide behind a door.
An axe is a big tool that you use to cut down trees. It has a long handle and a large blade.
Nowadays, we don’t use axes so much because we have machines to cut trees for us. Axes can
also be used as weapons. For example, Gimli in Lord of the Rings uses axes, and so does Jack
Torrance in the film The Shining.
A frying pan is a tool you use for cooking. It is low and wide, and you fry food in a frying pan. For
example, you can fry onion and garlic in a frying pan. You can also hit someone on the head with a
frying pan and hurt them a lot!
A big thank-you to our new patrons: Daniel Rabina, Durelle Lizregbel and Massimiliano Ghiso. I
hope I pronounced those correctly. Thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to us.
Little Red Riding Hood

There was an illness in the world. It went everywhere. It went into cities, towns and villages. It went
inside houses, inside factories, inside people’s thoughts. The people could not see it, but they felt
it. At first, it felt like a light wind. But days passed, and then weeks, and the illness started working.
It hit men and women, and made them sick for weeks. It took the old and the weak. Everywhere,
people were afraid, and cold.
The worst illness of all is fear. The illness killed people, but it was fear that took away their life.
Everyone was afraid of everyone else, because anyone could have the illness. No place was safe.
Nobody was safe. So people hid inside their houses and waited.
Strangely, children did not get the illness. They were safe and healthy. But the fear was all around
them, and they became sick in their hearts.
Little Red Riding Hood lived alone with her mother. Her real name was Martha, but everyone called
her Little Red Riding Hood, because she wore a long red coat. She was “Red” for short.
‘Red,’ said her mother to her one day. ‘You love your grandmother, don’t you?’
‘Of course!’ said Red.
‘Can you bring her the food this week? I cannot go outside. I might get sick.’
Red’s grandmother lived alone in the forest. Once a week, her mother took bread and fruit to her.
Red’s mother gave her a bag of food.
‘I’m afraid, Mother,’ said Red. ‘There are no people outside, and there is the illness…’
‘You are a child. The illness does not hurt children.’
‘But there are many scary animals in the forest, like dogs and wolves…’
‘You are friends with all the animals!’ said her mother. ‘Please, Red. Go for me. I must go and sleep,
now. I am very tired.’
Red’s mother went to bed. The girl sat and thought. She did not want to go outside at all. There
were no people out in the town, and everything felt cold and dark. And it was a long walk to her
grandmother’s house—several hours. The forest was dangerous.
TAP TAP. Red jumped. There was a sound at the window. It was a small bird. She went and
opened the window.
‘Hello, Red!’ said the bird.
‘Hello, Chirpy,’ said Red.
‘I am sorry. I heard you talking to your mother. She wants you to take food to your grandmother.’
‘Yes…’
‘Well, you can’t go!’ said Chirpy. ‘There is the illness.’
‘But Mother said that children can’t get the illness.’
‘Oh no, you can get it. Simply, when you get it, you don’t get sick.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Red.
‘Hmm, let me explain… Let’s say that you are wearing a black dress, and your friend is wearing a
white dress. You both eat spaghetti with tomato sauce for dinner, and you both get food on your
dress. Your friend with the white dress, her dress would be all red from the sauce. But your dress,
because it is black, would look clean. But really, it also has sauce on it. That is what the illness is
like. You might not feel bad, but you still have the illness inside you, and you could give it to
someone else.’
‘Oh no!’ said Red. ‘Do you mean that I could have the illness already?’
‘Yes, but don’t worry. If you stay inside, you will not give it to anyone. So, you cannot take the food
to your grandmother, because she could get sick and die.’
‘But what can we do?’ said Red. ‘If I do not take her food, she will die as well!’
‘Ah, don’t worry about that!’

Chirpy called, and five more birds flew to the window.
‘We will take the bag for you,’ said Chirpy.
So Red handed the birds the bag of food and told them where to go.
That evening, Red made soup and brought it to her mother in bed.
‘How are you feeling, Mother?’ said Red.
‘Fine,’ she said. But her voice was hoarse. ‘Did you bring the food to your grandmother? I didn’t
hear you going out.’
Red smiled. ‘Do not worry. I did not want to bring the illness to Grandmother, so I gave the bag to
my friends. They took it to her.’
‘Your “friends”?’
‘The birds!’
‘Oh, Red, don’t play games! You know that birds cannot talk, and they certainly cannot bring a
heavy bag of food into the forest. What did you really do with the food?’
‘I’m telling you! The birds took it to her.’
‘Red, you can’t play games at a time like this!’ Her mother looked very red and angry. She sat up in
bed, and she sounded very tired.
‘I’m sorry, Mother. But the birds told me that I can carry the illness. Even if I do not get ill myself, I
could give it to Grandmother.’
‘That’s not true! Oh, you are a bad little girl! If your grandmother dies…’
Red started crying, and ran to her bed. She didn’t want her grandmother to die. Of course she
didn’t! That was why she had sent the birds. But her mother didn’t want to believe her!
The next day, Red went to make food for her and her mother. Her mother was still in bed, and now
she looked very red. Red thought she had the illness, but her mother didn’t want to talk about it.
When Red went to the cupboard, there was no food there.
‘Mother,’ she said. ‘We have no bread, no cheese and no vegetables. What can we do?’
‘Here,’ her mother said. She went under the bed and found some money. ‘Go out and buy food. No,
wait.’
Slowly, she got out of bed, huffing and puffing. ‘I don’t know if you will actually do it. I will go and
get the food myself.’
‘No, Mother, you are too sick!’
‘I am just fine!’ said her mother. ‘Stay here and be good, and don’t go and talk to any of your animal
friends.’
So Red sat downstairs and waited while her mother went and bought food. Her mother was very
weak, and she could make other people sick… But Red couldn’t do anything, so she just sat and
waited.
TAP TAP. There was a sound at the window. Red ran to it. She thought she would see all six birds,
but there was just Chirpy there. Chirpy had a big cut on his body—he was hurt!
‘Chirpy, what happened?’ asked Red, opening the window.
‘We took the food to your grandmother, but we were attacked. There is a Big Bad Wolf in the
forest. He waited, and after we left the food, he attacked us. He took the food and ate it all up! I
watched him for a while. Red, it is terrible! He waits outside your grandmother’s house. He knocks
on the door and says, “Hello, Granny! It is Little Red Riding Hood. I have food for you!” ’
‘Oh no!’ said Red. ‘The wolf wants to eat her.’
‘Yes,’ said the bird. ‘But there is a wood-cutter, in the forest. He can help you. He can kill the wolf.
Oh, I feel so tired. I am just going to sleep for a while…’
Chirpy closed his eyes, and he did not wake up.
‘Chirpy, Chirpy!’
Red started crying. She cried and cried. She ran into her bed and cried even more. She cried for
hours, but her mother did not come home.
‘Oh, what am I going to do? Chirpy is dead, and the Big Bad Wolf wants to eat my grandmother.
And Mother is gone! What can I do?’
She wanted to go out and find the wood-cutter, but she was afraid. The Big Bad Wolf might find her
and eat her up! And she probably had the illness. She could give the wood-cutter the illness, and he
would die before he killed the wolf!
But she could not do anything else. So she got out of bed and pulled on her red coat.
‘Red, let’s go and save your grandmother,’ she said to herself.

Carefully, she opened the door of the house. She looked around, but she saw no people. Everyone
was hiding in their houses. So she walked out, and went into the forest.
It was dark and cold there. She had walked through the forest many times, and she always thought
that it was beautiful. But now, the flowers and the trees all looked horrible. She did not want to be
there. The Big Bad Wolf could be hiding anywhere.
She didn’t know where the wood-cutter lived, so she looked all around, very carefully. Finally, she
saw a wooden house, far away.
‘He must live there!’ she said.
She ran to the house, but then she heard a growling noise. She stopped and hid behind a tree.
Then she saw him. The Big Bad Wolf. He was twice as big as a normal wolf, and his teeth were
twice as long. His eyes were red, and he was horribly hairy. He was walking around the wood-
cutter’s house, banging on the walls.
‘Open up, open up, Mr. Wood-Cutter! It’s the Big Bad Wolf. You want to kill me, don’t you? So do it!
I’m here. I’m waiting.’
‘Go away!’ shouted the wood-cutter from inside.
The Big Bad Wolf laughed. ‘You are a weak little man. But don’t worry. I will eat you in the end.
Even if the illness kills you first, I will eat your body. Yum yum.’
And the wolf ran away into the forest.
Red felt sick, but she had to keep going. The wolf was probably going to her grandmother’s house.
Red ran to the wood-cutter’s house and knocked on the door.
‘I’m sorry, Mr. Wood-Cutter? I’m Red. My grandmother lives in the forest, and the Big Bad Wolf
wants to eat her. My friend told me you could kill him.’
‘Do you think I’m stupid?’ said the wood-cutter.
‘What? No!’
‘I know it’s you. You’re the wolf again. You can change your voice, but I know it’s you.’
‘I’m not the wolf! I’m just a little girl!’
The wood-cutter came up to the window and looked out. He was a tall man, but he looked weak.
His face was all red, and his eyes looked very tired.
‘What are you doing here? The wolf will eat you!’
‘Please help me! I know you are strong. You can kill him!’
‘I’m not strong,’ said the wood-cutter. ‘Nobody is strong. This illness is killing us all. Now go home,
little girl.’
And the wood-cutter closed the curtains.
Red didn’t know what to do. If the wood-cutter couldn’t help her, who could? She walked around
the house, and almost started crying, but she stopped herself.
‘Be strong.’
And then she saw something. Behind the house there was lots of wood that the wood-cutter had
been cutting. And in one of the pieces of wood was his axe.
‘Well, he doesn’t need this.’
She took the axe. It was heavy, but she could carry it with both arms. She ran away from the
house.
‘Hey, that’s my axe!’ shouted the wood-cutter, but Red didn’t listen to him.
She ran to her grandmother’s house as fast as she could. She looked around the house, but she
did not see the wolf. So she went and knocked on the door.
‘Grandmother, Grandmother, it’s me, Red! Please open the door!’
Her grandmother’s voice came from inside. It was low and hoarse. ‘How do I know it is you, Red?’
“Oh no,” thought Red. “Her voice is so hoarse. She must have the illness!”
‘Come to the window and look,’ said Red.
So her grandmother looked out and saw that it was her. She opened the door.
Red’s grandmother looked very strange. She was wearing a long white dress and white gloves. She
had a big hat on, and it was hard to see her face.
‘My dear, what a big axe you have,’ said her grandmother. ‘Come inside and put it down. Did you
run here? You look very tired.’
Red was so happy to see her grandmother. For a moment, she thought that everything was going
to be OK. She came and sat down, and she put the axe on the table. Her grandmother made her a
cup of tea, and they sat and talked.
‘Oh, Grandmother, you must be so afraid. That wolf wants to eat you! Where is he now?’
Her grandmother laughed. ‘He is just a little dog, really. I shouted at him and told him to go away.
He will not come back.’
‘Really?’ said Red.
Her grandmother was so strong. Of course she was fine. Red had worried and worried, but
Grandmother had stopped the wolf on her own.
‘I’m so happy to see you,’ said Red. ‘Oh, I was so worried. Mother went to go and find food, and she
didn’t come back. And Chirpy came to see you, but the wolf attacked him, and he died.’
Grandmother was putting on white makeup. That was strange. Normally she didn’t wear makeup.
‘Who is Chirpy?’ she said. ‘That is a strange name.’
‘Oh, you know Chirpy! My friend who is a bird.’
‘A bird?!’ said Grandmother.
‘Yes, Grandmother. You know I can talk to animals.’
‘Oh yes, of course… Drink your tea, dear. It will get cold.’
Red drank her tea, but she felt strange. Her grandmother was being… strange.
‘Grandmother, your voice sounds hoarse. Are you sick?’
‘Oh no, dear. I am just a little tired.’
Red looked more carefully at her.
‘But Grandmother, what big ears you have!’
‘All the better to hear you with, my dear.’
‘But Grandmother, what big eyes you have!’
‘All the better to see you with, my dear.’

Her grandmother smiled.
‘But Grandmother, what big teeth you have!’
Her grandmother laughed. ‘All the better to eat you with, my dear!’
Her grandmother jumped up, and her hat fell off. In fact, it was not her grandmother at all, but the
wolf! He was wearing her clothes, and had white makeup on his face, but it was the Big Bad Wolf!
Red took the axe off the table and attacked the wolf. But she was not strong enough, and all she
did was cut her grandmother’s dress.
The wolf laughed, and picked her up. ‘Stupid little girl! You cannot kill me. Mmm, I think you will be
much nicer than your grandmother! She was too sick. I don’t like my food to be sick!’
‘Grandmother is alive?’ said Red.
‘Yes, but you will not live to see her!’
The wolf went to eat her up, but Red said, ‘Wait!’
‘What?!’
‘I am friends with all the animals. You like to eat cats and dogs, don’t you? And birds and fish? I
can give you all the animals. They will not be sick. You could eat and eat and eat!’
‘Hrmm,’ said the wolf. ‘But I will still eat you in the end, you know?’
‘I know. But please. I just want to see my grandmother before you—’
BANG! The wolf let go of Red and fell to the floor. Behind him was Red’s grandmother, holding a
big frying pan. She had hit the wolf on the head, and now he was sleeping on the floor.
‘Grandmother!’ said Red, and she went to kiss her.
‘No, no!’ said her grandmother. ‘You could make me sick.’
‘Oh, of course!’ said Red. ‘So you are not sick already?’
‘No.’ Her face was red, but she put some water on it, and it came off. ‘I just put on some makeup
and talked in a hoarse voice. I knew the wolf would not want to eat me if I was sick. He came in
and put me in a cupboard, but I got out. Oh, my lovely Red! Let us drink some tea. But first, we need
to do something with this wolf.’
So they put the wolf in a cupboard, and then they sat down and drank tea, and Red told her
everything that had happened.
‘That wood-cutter is a very stupid man,’ said Grandmother. ‘He always says he is so strong, but
really he is very weak.’
‘Grandmother, what can I do? I think Mother is dead. I can’t go and live alone.’
‘Well, if she is dead, then you will come and live here.’
‘But I might make you sick!’
‘Of course you won’t! I will put you in a room for two weeks, with lots of food and drink. When we
are sure that you are not sick, you can come and talk with me, and play games.’
‘But how will we get food?’
Grandmother laughed. ‘You are the friend of all animals, aren’t you? You can go and get food from
them. They will not make you sick. This illness is for people, only. I live in the forest, and I have not
seen a single sick animal.’
So Red went home the next day. Her mother was not there. But Red did not cry. She had already
cried enough. She took her things, said goodbye to the house, and went and lived with her
grandmother.
And no wolf, big or bad, came to hurt them ever again.
Pre-intermediate learners
Ffff
talking is For Girls, Too. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Girls.
That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Girls. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
Let me just start by explaining what stalking is.
Stalk means to follow someone without them knowing it. For example, when a hunter wants to
catch an animal, they usually stalk it through the forest. But humans can also stalk each other.
Unfortunately, people usually want to do bad things or hurt someone when they stalk them. In
particular, many people stalk celebrities because they are in love with them. They try to find their
address, follow them in public, take pictures, send them letters and so on. In most countries,
stalking people is illegal, but it often still happens.
So, based on the title of the story, you can probably tell that this story isn’t so kid-friendly. It’s
maybe not a great story for children. But don’t worry, there’s nothing too bad in this story. There’s
not actual dangerous stalking in the story, because this is a comedy story, it’s a funny story. So
don’t worry, there’s no danger and there’s no sex or anything. There’s just talk of dating and maybe
unhealthy relationships, but hopefully you’ll find it funny.
I wrote this story as part of a challenge with one of my students. I challenged my student to write a
piece of flash fiction, and I would write a piece of flash fiction as well, and then we discussed our
flash fiction.
So, what is flash fiction? Flash fiction is very, very short fiction. So fiction is stories, novels and so
on. Usually, flash fiction means a story that is 1000 words or less. In this case, I challenged my
student to write a story in 500 words or less. So today’s story was originally 500 words or less, but
now it’s more like 700 words, because I had to change the story for the podcast. I made it a bit
longer so that I could make things clearer and easier to understand.
So why write flash fiction? Well, one, it’s always fun to have a challenge, and when you’re a writer,
it’s really good to try and challenge yourself every now and then. Sometimes you need to do
something a bit different and see what happens.
Usually, when I sit down to write a short story, I don’t know how long it’s going to be, and
sometimes it ends up really long. So it can be really useful to sit down and say, ‘OK, I’m going to
write a story that is 500 words or less.’ Or, ‘1000 words or less.’ It’s difficult to fit a story into 500
words, but it means that you don’t add too many details. You already know that it has to be a
simple story.
So I think, in future, when I write a new short story, I will tell myself, ‘OK, Ariel, this story is going to
be 1000 words.’ Or 2000 words, or however long it is. Probably, it will be longer, but it’s always
good to start with an intention, an idea of what you’re going to do.
So, as I said, today’s story is a comedy story. It’s also kind of a romance story, a love story.
Although, technically, for a story to be a romance story, it has to have a happy ending and, well,
this story doesn’t have so much of a happy ending! But it does have a twist.
The famous scene from Star Wars
So a twist is when something unexpected happens in a story. For example, in the film Star Wars, or
—I don’t know which Star Wars film. In the Star Wars series, there is a famous scene where Darth
Vader—the guy in the black outfit with the red lightsaber—says, ‘Luke, I am your father.’ And that’s
a big twist, because before then, you don’t know that Darth Vader is Luke’s father! It’s a big
surprise. So that’s an example of a twist, and today’s story has a twist in it. But I won’t spoil the
twist, I won’t tell you what the twist is!
In this story, a book called Watership Down is mentioned. Watership Down is a novel about rabbits,
but it’s not a happy fun story for children! Actually, it’s a very serious novel and it’s really more for
adults. But it was also popular with children, but it has a lot of death and fighting and violence in it.
It was made into a cartoon film in the ’80s, I think, and it was really popular in the UK. But it was a
bit dangerous, because many parents thought it was OK to show to young children, but like I
said, Watership Down has lots of death and fighting in it. So lots of children saw this film and found
it really, really scary! I think I saw it when I was quite young and I have horrible memories of a
rabbit with red eyes. Ugh!
[If you’re feeling brave, you can watch this video will all the deaths in the film, but it is VERY
bloody!]
So, I haven’t seen the film for a long time. I think I would still find it scary today!
When you are trapped, you are in a trap, you are stuck somewhere and can’t leave. For example, if
you go into a room and the door is locked from the inside, and you don’t have the key, then you’re
trapped. We also use ‘trapped’ to refer to being trapped emotionally. For example, if your parents
are fighting and they ask who you love more, you could feel trapped. You love them both, and you
don’t want to choose one of them.
When you don’t want someone to hear or see you, you sneak, and the past tense
is snuck or sneaked. For example, if you want to steal something from your brother’s room, you
might wait until he is sleeping and sneak inside. You walk very slowly and quietly, and you try to
stay in the dark so that people don’t see you. Thieves are usually very good at sneaking. I am very
bad at sneaking—I don’t know how to move quietly.
When you have an idea to do something, but you’re not very enthusiastic about it, but still, there’s
no reason not to do it, you can say ‘I might as well do it’. For example, if someone asks you if you
want to go see a film, and there aren’t any good films at the moment, but you’re feeling bored, you
could say, ‘Might as well. There’s nothing better to do.’ We also say this when we’re in the right
place to do something, so it makes sense to do it while we have the chance. For example, if you
are in Paris on holiday, and someone asks you if you want a French crêpe, you could say, ‘Might as
well—we are in Paris, after all.’
Lean, and the past tense is leant or leaned, means to move in a direction but without moving your
feet. For example, if you want to see something better you will lean towards it. You won’t walk, but
the rest of your body will move towards it. If you like someone, you often lean towards them while
they are speaking, and if you don’t like someone, or they smell, you would lean away. If you can’t
find a chair to sit down, you could lean against the wall or lean on a table.
When you have a really bad situation in life and you want to complain about it, you vent. You
complain and talk a lot about the bad situation to make yourself feel better. Many people have bad
situations at work, for example they argue with their boss, and they vent to their friends to feel
better. Or you might have a loud neighbour and you vent to your housemate about it. You pour out
all your feelings because then you won’t be keeping them all inside you, which isn’t very healthy.
Personally, I LOVE venting! I always tell my friends that they can come vent to me whenever they
need to.
When you invent or create a story or a plan, you make it up. For example, maybe someone asks
you what you’re doing this weekend. Actually, you have no plans, but you don’t want to tell them
that, so you make something up: you say you’re going to a restaurant with your husband. Maybe
you don’t have a husband—you also made that up. Making things up can be a form of lying.
When you hold your breath, you go [holds breath]. You take a breath in, you take air into your
mouth, then you close your mouth and nose and hold the air inside. Usually, you hold your breath
without thinking about it. Swimmers hold their breath underwater. If you are really scared or
surprised, you might hold your breath. If you don’t want someone to hear you breathing, you can
also hold your breath.
Impatient means not patient, that you don’t like waiting. Children are often impatient. They want to
do everything now, and they don’t like boring, slow things like going to church, long films or boring
classes at school. Personally, I can be very impatient, especially with people who talk very slowly.
I’m always patient with students, of course!
A man getting down on one knee to propose (Victorgrigas CC BY-SA 3.0)
When you get down on one knee, you fold one leg and go down, so that you are standing on your
foot and your knee. When people propose, when they ask someone ‘Will you marry me?’, they
traditionally get down on one knee in many parts of the world. So now, when someone gets down
on one knee, you usually know they are going to take out a box with a ring in it and propose.
The ancient Greeks believed in three gods called the Fates

Fate is the idea that everything in the world has been planned to happen. Usually, when people
believe in fate it is because they believe there is a god, or many gods, who know everything that
will happen in the future. However, many people nowadays don’t believe in fate. They think that we
have control over what happens. People still often believe in fate with love, though. If they meet
someone they completely love, they might think it’s fate, they are supposed to be together.
Personally, I don’t really believe in fate, but I like the idea.
about being tired, a whale that saved a train, camping in France, my first boyfriend and my first
Esperanto event. You can support the show and get all the extra content
A big thank-you to our new patron: Fredy Hofmann. Thank you so much, Fredy. Your support really
means a lot to me.
Stalking is For Girls, Too

CLANG! The gate to the car park closed behind Bella. She was trapped.
Uh-oh.
She had gone past the apartment building on her day off work. She had had one date with the man,
but she was impatient. She just wanted to look at him through the window, because she couldn’t
stop thinking about him. But his curtains had been closed, so she decided to sneak into the car
park so she could do… something? Break into his car and leave him a love letter? She didn’t
know what she was doing.
And now the gate had closed and she was trapped. And she didn’t even have paper and a pen to
write a love letter.
But she had made it here, so she might as well try and get inside. The back door to the building
was locked, so she took a packet of chewing gum from her purse and threw it at one of the
windows.
A minute later, a heavy Polish man leaned out of the window.
‘What do you want?’
‘Come smoke with me? I ran out of cigarettes and I need to vent before work. I’m from Flat 14.’
She smiled sweetly at him.
The man said, ‘Sure,’ and came to meet her. She thought he probably didn’t have a job, just like her,
if he had such free time.
While they smoked, she vented about her made-up job. This time, she made up a big company, and
said she worked there as a secretary. Usually, she told people she worked in a sex shop, because
that always interested people, but she didn’t want this man to be too interested in her. She already
had her man. As she smoked, this guy leaned towards her and told her she was pretty, and she
leaned away from him and laughed.
‘Oh, I just need something from inside,’ she said, after they finished.
He opened the back door and she followed behind him, and then said, ‘See you, Bartek!’
She waited for him to leave, and then snuck up to Flat 3.
His flat. The flat of the man she was in love with.
Her heart beat fast. What now? She always got herself into these situations but was too scared to
do something.
But not this time. She had seen the hunger in his eyes when they went to the restaurant, as his
teeth bit into the chicken leg.
She imagined it was her leg.
Feeling very excited, she knocked on the door. She held her breath and listened out, but she heard
nothing.
She tried opening the door. To her surprise, it was unlocked.
She listened again. Still, she heard nothing.
So she stopped holding her breath and walked into her future husband’s apartment.
It was clean. Everything was tidied away onto shelves and into cupboards. Now that she was here,
she decided she might as well look around. She went straight to the bed.
‘He has a single bed,’ she said. ‘That will have to change.’
She found an old book in his drawer. It was Watership Down. Her heart sang. What a lovely book!
She imagined him lying there, when he was sad, and reading this book again and again. She had
never read it herself, but she knew it was about soft rabbits. What a perfect man!
Then she saw a black diary and threw the book on the floor.
His diary. Oh, what deep, personal thoughts would she find inside?
She turned the pages with great excitement. She looked for the date when they first met, but she
was impatient, so she turned to the newest diary entry.
It was from that morning.
I cannot wait any longer. I must see her. I found her address on Google. I’m going to drive there,
knock on her door. I’m going to get down on one knee and ask her to marry me. Oh, I must marry her!
This is fate!
Bella shrieked and dropped the diary. He wanted to get down on one knee and ask her to marry
him?! They had had just one date! And he thought it was fate.
Feeling sick, she put the book and the diary back in the drawer, closed the door to his apartment
and snuck out of the building.
She simply couldn’t handle men. They were terrible.
Wwwwwwwwwwwww
The Adventures of Lucky the Elephant. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Lucky. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Lucky. This contains the full
So today I am so, so, so excited and let me tell you why! So as I record this, it’s Saturday, and today
I’m going to see my friends and have lunch for the first time in months! We’re all very cautious
people, there’s gonna be three of us, maybe four of us, I don’t know. And we have all been social
distancing quite carefully, so we haven’t seen each other yet, because one of my friends lives in
Bristol, and not Bath, where I live, so she would have to get the bus to see us or we would have to
get the bus to see her.
So it really has been such a long time since I’ve seen them and I’m so excited to go out to eat with
them. We’re going to our favourite restaurant, which is a lovely Asian restaurant in Bath. It’s called
Hondo. If you’re ever in Bath, I seriously recommend going to Hondo. They have the best sushi,
ramen, bibimbap… They just have everything you need and it’s all really high-quality. I love the food
there so much!
But much more important than the food is of course the social contact. And really, lately I have
been struggling a lot. I’ve been feeling very lonely. I think a lot of people probably have had this
experience with coronavirus. You know, the first few months of quarantine you adapt, but at a
certain point you start to go a bit crazy, and I was really really careful at the beginning, so I’m just
slowly trying to increase my social sphere at the moment, start to socialise more.
So it’s a bit of a strange time because my housemate, who works at a cinema, has just gone back
to work, because the cinema has just reopened. So it feels like, OK, a few months ago we were
saying, ‘Ooh, well, you know, normality is returning, normal life is coming back,’ but for me it really
didn’t. I, I went much more slowly, I didn’t go to a lot of shops, but now it really feels like normal life
is returning, especially with September coming up, because September is the start of the
academic year in the UK. So all the schoolkids will be going back to school and, theoretically, lots
of students will be going to university, although I think a lot of universities are not starting in
person in September. They may be just starting virtually, online. To be honest, I don’t really know.
I was working at two schools, so a further education college for adults and a sixth form—so that’s
16 to 18—before coronavirus, but since quarantine I’ve moved all of my work online, and I’ve done,
like, 70% teaching online, 30% making some income off the podcast, and to be honest… I’m not
going back. I’m not going back to the schools. One of them has asked if I want to teach. I don’t
think the other actually has, but I probably get work there if I asked. But I just decided, “You know
what? I’m really enjoying the freedom of working at home. I’m enjoying working on the podcast.
I’m enjoying online teaching.” So for now, I’m staying online. Also, the idea of working in schools
with social distancing, ugh! It just sounds really stressful.
So yeah, that’s kind of where my life is at the moment.
Today’s story was written and sent in by Lord Frog, which I think is a fantastic name, and his
English teacher Madelaine. So they are both from Poland, I believe, or at least, Lord Frog is from
Poland. So thank you again, Lord Frog, for sending in this story. I really enjoyed it. It’s a really, really
cute story.
If you have written a story or maybe you want to adapt a story from your culture, I would love for
you to send it in so I can read it and put it on the podcast. So if you want to send in your own story,
you can send it to Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com. I really look forward to reading it!
A herd is a group of animals: a herd of sheep, a herd of pigs, a herd of cows and so on.
A black rhino (Alex Tschentscher CC BY-SA 4.0)
A rhinoceros, or rhino for short, is a very large, strong animal that lives in Africa and south Asia.
Rhinoceroses have hard, grey skin and two big horns on their head. They are very dangerous.
Unfortunately, most rhinos have died out now—they are an endangered species.
Elephants on a savannah (Cosal CC BY-SA 4.0)
A savannah is a type of land that you find in hot countries, many in Africa. Savannahs are very big,
flat areas of land with grass on them. They have very few trees. Animals such as zebras,
elephants, rhinos, lions and gazelles live on savannahs.
Bathe means to have a bath, to wash yourself. Most people in the UK bathe or shower once a day.
In hotter countries, people often bathe twice a day.
When you smile bitterly, you are smiling but you are sad at the same time. For example, maybe
you have to say something really sad to someone, but they make a joke. So you feel happy and sad
at the same time, and you smile bitterly.
Pat means to touch something quickly and softly with the flat part of your hand. If you like your
dog, you will pat him on the head. You might also pat a small child on the head. If someone did a
really good job on something, or they’re sad and you want to make them feel better, you can pat
them on the back. If you want to tell someone they did something really well, you can say, ‘Give
yourself a pat on the back.’
Elephants have long noses, and these are called trunks. Elephants can move their trunks in every
direction, and they use them to pick things up and pat each other. They also can blow their trunks,
which makes a sound like [trumpeting].
A swamp (Ina Hensel CC BY-SA 4.0)
A swamp is a type of land that is very low down and has lots of water in it. There are lots of
swamps in Florida, in America, and crocodiles live there. You have to wear boots when you walk
through a swamp, or your feet get very wet. Swamps can be very dangerous places.
Separate means to move two things apart. For example, when you wash your clothes, you should
separate the coloured clothes from the white clothes, so that the colour doesn’t go from the
coloured clothes. When you are cooking vegetables and they are a bit old, you should separate the
bad vegetables from the good ones before cooking them.
Buzz means to make a sound like bzzzz. Bees, flies and other insects make buzzing sounds. Some
pieces of technology, like old televisions, also buzz.
Nod means to move your head up and down. In western culture, nodding your head is a way of
saying, ‘Yes.’ You might also nod your head along to music, or nod in a conversation to show
you’re listening.
A big thank-you to our new patron, Martin Hawiger. Thank you so much, Martin! Your support really
means a lot to us.
The Adventures of Lucky the Elephant

One sunny day Lucky the Elephant was born. He was a beautiful little elephant, and he quickly
became the favourite of the herd. He was cute and funny, and he could even make the saddest
elephant laugh. His mother, Madeleine, always gave him what he wanted, and his grandmother,
Sophia, was the proud and strong leader of the elephants.
Every day, the elephants travelled together in search of food. Although elephants are the largest
land animals in the world, they never attack others. They live in peace, travelling the wide
savannahs and eating whatever they can find: fruit, grass and leaves.
Lucky quickly learned the ways of the herd. He helped out as much as he could, and always did
what his mother and grandmother said. It was Sophia, Lucky’s grandmother, who decided where
the elephants would go. She knew the savannahs well, and remembered where to find clean water
and fresh food, as well as how to avoid humans. All Lucky knew about those strange creatures
was that they were dangerous.
So Lucky lived a cheerful life. In the evenings, he bathed with the other elephants and they threw
dirt and sand at each other. In this way, they protected themselves from insects, as well as having
a lot of fun. Lucky loved his life in the herd, and he wished it could always stay that way. But the
day Lucky turned ten, his mother asked to speak to him.
‘I have something very important to tell you, my son,’ she said.

Lucky was worried. His mother had looked sad all day, and whenever he asked her, she wouldn’t
say why.
‘Yes, Mum?’ He hoped she was not sick.
‘It is time you learned the way of our kind, Lucky. You are a big elephant now, and it is time you left
the herd.’
‘Why?’ said Lucky. He felt like for the first time in his life he would cry.
‘This is just our way. All the mothers and daughters stay in the herd, but you are a man. You must
find your own way.’
Lucky had never realised it before, but it was true. He was the only boy in the herd.
‘But, Mum, I don’t want to leave!’ he cried. ‘What will happen to you, and what about granny? I want
to be here to look after you!’
His mother smiled bitterly. ‘Don’t worry, my son. We can look after ourselves. But now we must say
goodbye.’
And now the tears flowed. Lucky asked to stay again and again, but it did not matter. The old ways
could not be changed. Lucky’s friends were crying, just like him. So the little elephant said goodbye
to everyone, and then he watched the herd leave. They passed into the distance, and as they got
further away, his mother waved her trunk in the air to say goodbye.
Lucky sat there for a long time, feeling more sad and alone than he ever had. But then he dried his
eyes with his trunk.
‘I can’t be sad forever!’ he said. ‘I need to find my own herd.’
For many days, Lucky walked alone in the savannah. He didn’t meet a single friendly creature, and
he soon felt depressed.
But one day, he heard a loud cry from far away.
‘Help! Help!’
Lucky came closer and saw a little rhino. The poor animal was stuck in a swamp, half of his body
already covered up. He was too deep to get out on his own, and the swamp made horrible gurgle
gurgle noises as he sank deeper.
Lucky jumped into action. He ran to a nearby tree, pulled down some branches with his trunk, and
threw them onto the swamp.
‘Don’t move! I’m coming to help you!’ he cried.
Then he stepped carefully on the branches, wrapped his trunk around the rhino, and slowly, ever so
slowly, pulled him out of the swamp.
The elephant and the rhino fell onto the ground, safe but exhausted.
‘What’s your name?’ asked Lucky, after he’d caught his breath.
‘I’m C-Charles,’ said the rhino. He was shaking with fear.
‘Were you separated from your herd?’ asked the little elephant. He thought maybe rhinos had the
same ways as the elephants.
‘No,’ said Charles, tears in his eyes. ‘I’ve been alone for a long time.’
Lucky sat up and patted him on the back with his trunk.
‘Well, don’t worry. You’re not alone anymore. We were meant to meet!’
So Lucky and Charles became good friends. Every day they travelled together, searching for food,
and in the evening they chatted about their past. Charles’ mother had died when he was young,
and he never knew his father. Rhinoceroses didn’t live in herds like elephants, so he had grown up
completely alone. But he was kind and funny, and Lucky liked him very much.
One afternoon, as they walked past a huge tree, Lucky heard a sad buzzing sound.
Bzzzzzz, bzzzzzzz.
The little elephant looked up and saw a small black-and-yellow insect on a tree. She was trying to
fly, but she couldn’t get off the ground.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Lucky.
‘Bzzzzzz… I went onto this tree, and now for some reason I can’t get away.’ The poor creature’s
voice shook with fear.
Charles and Lucky took a closer look and saw that the insect had fallen into a spider’s web. As
much as she tried, she could not get away from the web. And then they saw the spider, walking
slowly towards the insect, ready to eat her.
Lucky and Charles looked at each other.
‘We have to help her!’ said Charles.

Lucky nodded. He lifted his trunk and carefully pulled the insect out of the web.
‘Oh thank you, thank you!’ she said, climbing onto his head. ‘My name is Ann. I’m a bee.’
‘A bee?’ said Charles, looking at Lucky. They had never heard of such an animal. They knew very
little about insects in general.
‘Yes, I’m a bee! I go bzzz bzzz and I make honey. And you’re an elephant and a rhinoceros, correct?’
‘Pff, obviously!’ said Charles. ‘I’m Charles and this is Lucky.’
‘Oh, I am so happy you saved me. Elephants are usually afraid of bees.’
Lucky laughed. ‘Why should I be afraid of such a little creature? You don’t look dangerous at all.
And now that I’ve talked to you, I know you’re really very nice. Do you have a bee family to get back
to?’
Ann made a sad little buzzing sound. ‘No, I lost them… Bees move around a lot, you see, and I was
asleep. When I woke up, they were gone! And then I got caught in that tree…’
‘That’s OK!’ said Charles. ‘You can come with us!’
‘Oh, really? I would love to!’
So from that day on the three friends travelled together. Ann flew ahead of Charles and Lucky to
find food and water, and when she was tired, she travelled on their backs. They had no worries or
troubles, and they made very good friends.
But one day, something extraordinary happened. Ann returned from her morning flight very
excited.
‘What is it?’ Lucky asked.
‘You’re never this excited!’ said Charles. ‘What happened?’
‘Shh, listen! There are people nearby.’
They listened, and sure enough, they could hear the sound of people talking in the distance.
‘People? Oh, this is bad,’ said Lucky. His mother had always told him to stay away from people.
‘Yes, I’ve heard that they are very dangerous,’ said Charles.
‘But that’s not why I’m excited!’ said Ann. ‘They have an elephant with them!’
The elephant and the rhino’s eyes went wide. People and elephants together?
That evening, when they could not be seen in the dark, Ann led them to the camp where the people
were.
The view was frightening. The people sat around a big fire, and they had set up tents. In the middle
of the camp was a huge cage, and some people stood outside it with long sticks. They looked very
scary.
‘What’s inside that cage?’ said Charles. It was hard to see in the dark.
Lucky looked again and gasped. ‘It’s the elephant!’
They went back and discussed what they saw.
‘We have to save the elephant,’ said Lucky.
‘But there are only three of us,’ said Charles, looking at Ann, not sure whether to count her. ‘And
there are lots of them.’
‘I don’t care!’ said Lucky. ‘They might kill the elephant if we do nothing.’
Charles nodded. ‘They’re dangerous. I heard that hunters like to catch animals like us, to show
them to people.’
‘But why?’ said Lucky. ‘Can’t they just go and find an elephant, a rhino or a bee to look at?’
‘I have an idea!’ said Ann. She was very excited. ‘It’s a great idea! Just listen…’
So they made their plan, and in the morning light, everything was ready.
Lucky started the attack. He blew his trunk and ran into the camp. All the humans shouted and ran
away. He ran over tents and knocked over the fire. Then Charles charged in. He ran towards the
cage, ready to break it.
Some humans stayed to fight, using their sticks to attack Lucky and Charles, but this was a
mistake. A loud, angry BZZZZZZZ came from the distance, and Ann arrived with her friends: a
group of dangerous African bees. The humans could not handle the horrible bees, who made them
go red all over, and they quickly ran away. Some fell over and covered their heads with their hands.
Finally, Charles and Lucky broke the cage.
‘Quick, follow us!’ said Lucky.
The two elephants, the rhino and the bees ran away into the night.
‘Is everyone OK?!’ said Lucky.
‘All fine!’ said Ann.
When they stopped and Lucky looked at the elephant, he gasped. It wasn’t just any elephant…
‘M-Mum!’
And there she was, his wonderful mother Madeleine! The hunters had caught her and were going
to take her to the zoo. Now Madeleine stood looking at her son with tears in her eyes. The two
elephants hugged each other and patted each other with their trunks.
‘It’s so good to see you again, Lucky,’ said his mother. ‘Will you help me find the herd?’
‘I will, but…’ Lucky’s heart sank. ‘Then I’ll have to leave again, won’t I?’
Madeleine did not answer.
Two days later, the group of friends found the herd. Sophia had led them to a safe place away
from the people. When they saw Madeleine was back, the elephants blew their trunks happily and
sang songs, and when they saw Lucky was with her, they were even happier.
Lucky introduced them to his brave friends, Charles the rhino and Ann the bee.
‘It has been so nice to see you all again,’ said Lucky. ‘But I suppose our little herd should leave…’
‘Wait,’ said Sophia. ‘You have travelled alone, and you have become a man. Lucky, you and your
friends can join our herd.’
Lucky was so happy he started crying. He was home again! And he was there with all his friends.
‘Oh, I’m so glad to be back!’ he said, laughing.
They were the strangest herd in the savannah. They had elephants, including an adult male, a
rhinoceros and a bee. But they were happy, and the humans never bothered them again.
Wwwwwwwwww
Luck and Reason. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Luck.
That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Luck. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
I’m back, baby! So if you’ve been listening to recent podcast episodes or Elevenses with Ariel, or if
you’re in the group chat on Telegram, you will know that I’ve been a bit exhausted recently, a bit
tired. The last few weeks I’ve really had to rest a lot because when quarantine started, I was very
anxious, and my solution to deal with that was just to work loads? So, you know, I started to do the,
uh, live streams and two videos a week and I started doing all of this extra stuff. And I’ve had to
cut down some of this over the last few weeks so I stopped the live stream, I’m just doing one
YouTube video a week, and I have my weekends back! And I have to say, I’m doing fantastically
now. I am sleeping better, I’m relaxing more, and I’m reading more.
And that was the thing before, I was always trying to read more but I just couldn’t motivate myself,
or when I did read in the evening I just started falling asleep, and I think I just needed more free
time in general to give my brain the space to be able to focus on a book. And reading is really
important for me, because it’s the main way I study languages, but also I really strongly believe
that reading is one of the most powerful things we can do for ourselves. I believe that reading
really makes us into better people. There’s a lot of research that shows that the amount of access
a child has to books growing up, the amount of books in their environment and the amount they
can then read, has a huge effect on pretty much everything: on their education achievement, on
how they view the world, and how likely they are to be successful later in life. And while I don’t
necessarily agree with the idea of “you have to be successful,” I think it’s important to give
ourselves the power of reading because through reading we can really change our world.
Sorry this is sounding so cheesy, so, like, emotional and overly sincere, but I really do believe it,
and I hope you believe the same. I think if you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be listening to this
podcast! I have to say, though, I’m not elitist when it comes to reading. You can read anything. You
can read comics, you can read children’s books. I really don’t care. I actually think… Well, actually
it’s proven by a lot of research that it’s best to start with really easy stuff and then you gradually
increase the difficulty when it feels right, and that’s the whole idea of this podcast as well, right?
And I like reading trashy vampire romance books, so I cannot cast a stone. I cannot be the first
one to cast a stone. So that means I have sinned, like in the Bible, so I cannot throw stones, I
cannot criticise other people about reading bad books.
They’re not “bad books”, they’re just books that are not very very intellectual. Because, who cares?
Sometimes you just wanna read a book about kissing vampires. Or at least I do!
So I wanna say thank you for all of your understanding. I know a lot of you really enjoyed the live
streams and enjoyed all of the content I was making, but you’ve all been really helpful and
supportive. So many of you have said, ‘Don’t worry about it, you know? Look after your health.’ I
actually reduced Elevenses with Ariel so I don’t do it on the weekend, and I did that because some
of you suggested, right? Some of the Patreon supporters said, ‘You should do this!’ So thank you
for being such a lovely audience! Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve you, cause you’re like the
loveliest people in the world.
And if you want to hang out with the other lovely listeners, I seriously recommend you join the
group chat. At the time I’m recording this, we have almost 400 people in the group chat. Can you
believe that? 400! And people are just chatting every day, sharing photos, encouraging each other.
Uh, it’s just lovely. It’s a really positive atmosphere.
So I really recommend going to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Chat to join the chat.

Unfortunately, if you are in Iran, you won’t be able to join the chat. This is something that many
Iranian listeners have told me. They tried to join the chat but the government in Iran has blocked
Telegram groups. I’m so sorry about this. Unfortunately, there are basically no chat programs
which can be easily accessed from everywhere, and the advantage with Telegram is that it is
secure, uh, it’s safe. Of course, the disadvantage of that is then, some governments ban it because
of political reasons. So I’m really sorry about that. I really feel for all my listeners in Iran. Um, I’m
thinking of ways around it, you know, maybe having some kind of other groups, maybe like a
Facebook group or something, but of course Facebook is also not available in all countries. It’s a
difficult topic.
Anyway, today’s story comes from Katherine from the Czech Republic. So it’s a Czech fairy tale. I
did a bit of research and it looks like it’s a folk tale that was collected by Karel Jaromír Erben.
Similar to how the Grimm Brothers travelled around collecting fairy tales, I believe this was
collected in the same way. I have to say, though, I’m very lazy when it comes to research, so I
might be wrong! But it’s certainly, um, well-known in Czechia, or the Czech Republic.
Um, we have so many stories from the Czech Republic on here. It’s getting a bit much, maybe? And
it’s not a bad thing, but I should probably balance it out with some stories from other parts of the
world. So if you have suggestions for stories that could go on the podcast, please email me
at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com. I will say, I am really bad at checking emails, so it will probably
take me, like, two weeks to read your email. I still have, I have like hundreds of emails to deal with
as I record this. I’m so bad with emails, ugh! I hate it.
I did actually change the ending to today’s story a bit. Cause I, I liked the original ending, but I
thought I could make a better one that’s more, kind of, my viewpoint. It’s kind of a philosophical
fairy tale, kind of like a fable, yeah? Where it has a meaning, a message about life, a moral
message. So I kind of changed it to suit my own morals.
I also gave the main character a West Country accent. So the main character is a farmer, and the
West Country is a region in the south-west of England. It’s kind of like the south-west part of
England. I actually live in the West Country.
The West Country is well-known for cider, farming, but most importantly, the West Country accent.
Now the West Country accent is very strong. It might be a bit difficult to understand, but I think it’s
lovely in its own way, so I’m going to put it on in this episode and hopefully you can follow me. Of
course, you can always read the transcript at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Luck.
As well as farmers, this accent is associated with pirates. Maybe you’ve seen some films and TV
shows with pirates. This is in English, I don’t know how much in other languages, but pirates talk
like, Yarr! It’s time for you to walk the plank! Yeah? They have this very distinctive accent.
Now, the reason this accent is like that is because the first people to play pirates on television
mostly came from the West Country, I believe. I was doing a bit of research and it’s actually kind of
hard to tell, but it seems like it’s to do with West Country actors being the first big television and
film pirates, which I think is really cool because the West Country accent is now kind of global and
universal because of pirates. I think that’s really cool.
If you want to get a good idea of this kind of country, cider-drinking culture, there is a really really
funny band called The Wurzels or [West Country accent] The Wurzels, who do kind of like West
Country music? I guess. I don’t know what to call the genre, but um, it’s very funny and very cheesy,
very silly. So if you wanna hear a song by The Wurzels, you can go to the transcript
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Luck and I’ll post the videos there.
Reason is the power of thinking in our minds. If you make decisions based just on your emotions,
you are not using reason, but if you carefully think about the situation before making a decision,
you are using reason, you are being reasonable.
Get down on your knees means to kneel down, to bend your knees and sit on them. You get down
on your knees when you pray, or if you want to show respect for someone.
A gardener is someone who works in a garden. A gardener plants flowers and trees, waters them,
plans where things go in the garden and so on.
Royal means related to the King, the Queen, the Prince or Princess etc. So a royal family is a family
who lives in a castle. In the UK, we have a very famous royal family.
Carve means to use a knife in wood to make shapes out of it. So you might carve a pipe, a bird or a
toy out of wood. You can also carve your name into a tree, for example. Some people like to carve
the name of themselves and their lover into a tree and carve a heart around it. On Halloween,
people carve faces into pumpkins, and on Thanksgiving or at Christmas, people carve turkeys and
eat them.
A tailor is a person who makes clothes. Nowadays, we don’t have tailors very often, but in the past,
people went to tailors if they had a hole in their clothes. Tailors repair clothes, fix them, and also
make new ones.
A commoner is a person who is not a royal. They are just a normal person, and they do not have an
important family. Generally, commoners cannot marry people from the royal family, although
sometimes this changes. For example, Meghan Markle is a commoner, but she married into the
British royal family.
Execute means to kill someone, because they did something very bad. In the past, if you stole
something, you would be executed. Nowadays, people don’t get executed very often, but if you
attack the Queen of England, you might be executed.
Chop off means to cut off. Basically, it is when you use a knife to remove something. For example,
if you are cooking and you are not paying attention, you might chop off your finger. In the past, the
King and Queen often chopped off people’s heads.
A sword is a long, sharp weapon. We don’t use swords now but they were used in the Middle Ages,
about five hundred years ago. In the TV series Game of Thrones, most of the characters fight with
swords. For example, Arya Stark is very good at fighting with a sword. In Harry Potter, Harry Potter
uses the Sword of Gryffindor to kill the basilisk in the second book.
A big thank-you to our new patron, Martina Tardivo. Your support really means a lot to us.
Luck and Reason
Once upon a time, Luck met with Reason.
‘Get down on your knees!’ said Luck.
‘Why?’
‘Because you must respect me!’
Reason was still young, and didn’t understand what Luck was saying. ‘Why should I get
on my knees? You aren’t any better than me.’
‘Wrong! I am better, and I will show you. Do you see that young farmer down there, working in the
field? Let’s have a contest. Go and enter his mind, and do everything you can to make him
successful. Then I will do the same, and the winner will have to respect the other.’
‘Alright then,’ said Reason, and flew down into the farmer’s ear.
The farmer felt Reason fill his mind, and he quickly walked home.
‘Father!’ he said. ‘Do I really have to work in the field all my life? I can go somewhere else and live
much better! I don’t want to work like that anymore. I want to be a gardener!’
His father said, ‘My son, where has your reason gone? Fine, do whatever you want, but your brother
will get the house when I die.’
The farmer lost the house but he didn’t care. He went to the castle and found the royal gardener.
He studied under him, and at first he knew very little, but as the years passed he became better
and better. Finally, he could work on his own, and he created amazing ideas for flower
arrangements. At first, his teacher was angry at him, but slowly he saw that the farmer did it even
better than he did.
‘You have much more reason than me,’ he said. ‘Your flower arrangements are much neater than
mine. I think you can look after the whole garden yourself.’
And sure enough, when the farmer finished his projects in the garden, the King loved it, and often
went for walks in it with his wife and daughter.
The Princess was very beautiful, but since the age of 12 she had not said a single word. Nobody
knew why this was, but it made the King very sad, so every year he said to the people, ‘The man
who can make my daughter speak will be her husband.’
When the farmer heard this, he thought, “I should try it!” He told the King he had a way to make her
speak, and his men took the farmer to the Princess’s bedroom, where she was playing with her pet
dog.
But instead of speaking to her, the farmer talked to the dog, like the Princess wasn’t there. He sat
down on the floor, looked seriously at the dog, and spoke.
‘Little doggie, I have heard that you are very clever, so I need your help to solve a puzzle. There
were three workers: a carver, a tailor and myself. One day, we were walking through a forest and
stopped there to stay the night. To stop animals from eating us, we made a fire and stood guard.
‘First, the carver stood guard, and took a piece of wood and carved a girl into it. When he was
done, he woke up the tailor and went to sleep.
‘The tailor saw the wooden girl and said, “What a pretty face! I must make her some clothes.” So
he got to work and made her a nice little dress. Then, when he was done, he woke me up and went
to sleep.
‘I saw the wooden girl in her pretty dress and said, “What a lovely girl! I must teach her to speak.”
And so through the night, I taught the girl to speak.
‘When the other workers woke up, the girl said, “Hello!” and they were all amazed by her. She
danced around and talked to us, and it was a wonderful morning. But the other men quickly
became jealous, and wanted to have her for themselves.
‘ “I carved her,” said the carver, “so she must be mine.” “I dressed her,” said the tailor, “so she must
be mine.” “I taught her to speak,” said I, “so she must be mine.”
‘So here is the question, my little doggie: which man does the girl belong to?’
The dog was quiet, and clearly didn’t understand the question, so the Princess answered instead.
‘You gave her the best gift of all: you taught her to speak. She belongs to you.’
‘Exactly!’ said the farmer. ‘And you have just spoken about yourself. I taught you to speak, and now
I must ask you: will you marry me?’
The Princess looked very surprised, but the King’s men ran forward and said, ‘No! You are just a
commoner. You cannot marry the Princess! The King will give you a different reward.’
They brought the farmer before the King, but he refused all the rewards offered to him.
‘All I want is to marry your daughter! You promised that. You said that the man who could make
your daughter speak would be her husband. That’s the royal word!’
The King got angry at this. ‘Take him away! I am tired of this commoner. Execute him! Chop off his
head!’
So the King’s men took the farmer away to be executed in the town square. When they got there,
Luck came and spoke to Reason.
‘Well, well, our little farmer has done very well with you! Let’s see how he does with Luck instead of
Reason. My turn!’
So Reason left the farmer’s head and Luck entered it. The King’s men came to chop off the
farmer’s head, but when they tried to do so, the sword broke in half.
‘It is like someone cut the sword in half!’ the people said.
Just then, the King arrived and shouted, ‘Stop!’
Everyone held their breath. The farmer looked up at the King.
‘I acted without reason before. I have changed my mind, thanks to my daughter.’
The Princess stood beside him, smiling.
‘She told me that this man is a great man, and it is true! Only he could make my daughter speak.
He is a commoner, but I am King! I can break the rules, can’t I? I will allow them to get married.’
So the farmer was not executed, and he was allowed to marry the Princess.
At the wedding, Luck came to Reason and laughed.
‘You see? Without my brilliant luck, the farmer would have died!’
But Reason just smiled. ‘Who do you think gave the Princess that idea, and who do you think made
the King listen to her? It was me! Yes, you broke the sword in two, but without reason, they would
have used another sword. We are both important.’
Luck was not happy with this, and flew away angrily.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwwww
The Mirror of Misurina. You can find a transcript of the episode

at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Mirror. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Mirror. This contains the
So today’s story is a legend about the origin, the beginning, of a lake and a mountain. This is quite
a common idea, I think. In many countries there are beautiful lakes and mountains and the people
who live there come up with legends and stories to explain how the lakes and mountains got there.
There was a previous episode, The Legend of Lake Toba, that was about a lake in Indonesia. So
you can listen to that episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Lake.
Today’s story actually comes from Italy. So it is about the origin of a lake and some mountains in
Italy. And today’s story was written and sent in Beatrice Valleferro. So thank you so much,
Beatrice. I really enjoyed reading your story and adapting it for the podcast.
And remember that you can send in a story to put on the podcast by emailing me
at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com. It can be a personal story or it can be a legend, a story from
your country, or just a story you wrote yourself. I would love to read it and put it on the podcast.
So last week was my birthday. It was my birthday on the fifth of May, and I had a lovely birthday-
themed live stream on Saturday, and many of you came, so thank you so much. I had a lot of fun. I
ate cake. And if you want to watch the live stream, even though you weren’t there, you can still
watch the recording. You can go to the Easy Stories in English YouTube channel. Go
to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/YouTube.
You will find there that there is not only live streams but also videos. So I have started making
videos. As I said before, I asked for some equipment for my birthday to make videos, so now I
have some lovely lights, a whiteboard and I can record lovely videos in my room.
So what is the difference between the podcast and the YouTube channel? Well, I have had several
people say they love the podcast, but they are complete beginners, or maybe they are a teacher
and they have students who are complete beginners. So the beginner stories in the podcast are
too difficult for them.
So the main idea of the YouTube channel is to bridge the gap, to solve the problem, the difference,
between the beginner level of the podcast and people who are just starting with English. Basically,
the videos are mainly for people who are below the beginner level on the podcast.
I am doing that on YouTube rather than the podcast, because if I make a video I can use gestures, I
can move my hands, and I can draw pictures to explain the meanings of words, so it is much
easier to make very beginner-level podcasts with videos rather than audio.
However, it’s not just going to be videos for beginners. There will also be some videos about my
life, some puppet shows, some improvisations, and also some videos on the scientific theory of
how we learn languages.
I think it is useful, very useful, to know a bit of the science because then it can help you know how
best to study language. And unfortunately, there is a lot of wrong information. A lot of teachers, a
lot of books, a lot of websites say things about language which simply aren’t true based on very
old scientific evidence, and the modern evidence is actually quite different. We have a very
different understanding of language than what it actually is. But anyway, that’s a topic I will cover
on a video! I won’t go into it here.
So, to go to the YouTube channel and subscribe, go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/YouTube. Or you

can go to YouTube and search “Easy Stories in English”.
Today, before the main story, we have a personal story from a listener, Sudha Saravanan. Sudha is
a very faithful listener, she has been listening for a long time, and she always comes to the live
streams, and I have talked to her quite a bit through email. Sudha sent a very personal story about
her English-learning journey, and I found it very moving, but also very motivating. So I wanted to
share it on the podcast. Hopefully, if you are feeling like studying English is really hard, you are
losing motivation, this story will give you the energy to continue.
So I will just introduce some words before her story, and then get into it.
NHS stands for, it means, the National Health Service. In the UK, we have a free healthcare system
that anyone can use, and this is the NHS. You never have to pay to use it, and they will cover all
kinds of problems. Well, in theory. In reality, there are some parts of the NHS you have to pay for,
for example dentistry, getting your teeth fixed. The NHS is in a very bad situation at the moment as
the government is trying to privatise it, to sell it off to private companies, and so there are many
problems with the NHS right now. You have to wait a long time to book an appointment, and
sometimes you have to pay to get treatment.
A state is a part of a country. The United States of America is made up of lots of states, e.g.
California, Texas and New York. Usually, states only exist in large countries, like America and India.
In some countries, states are called prefectures, e.g. China and Japan. In the UK, we do not have
states, but we do have counties, although they are not very important. Often when a country has
states, they have some independence and can make some decisions on their own.
When someone is humble, it means that they do not boast a lot, they do not talk about how great
they are. Even if someone is very clever, very strong or very skilled, if they are humble they will not
talk about these things unless someone asks them about it.
“I don’t have a clue” is a phrase that means “I have no idea” or “I don’t know anything about that”.
For example, I can say “I don’t have a clue when it comes to mathematics,” because I really don’t
know very much about it.
OK, let’s start Sudha’s story.
I am Sudha, 26 years old, nurse by profession and from the southern part of India. I got my nursing
licence in the middle of 2016 and by the end of the same year I started working as a nurse. When I
was younger I dreamed of going abroad to earn money and travelling around the world, and
therefore I chose a profession in medicine.
I have been practising for two-and-a-half years. While I was working I had an opportunity to attend
an interview to work for NHS London and I was selected. I had the qualifications and the experience
but I didn’t have the required level of English language. So I decided to quit my job and work on my
language skills.
In the middle of March 2019 I left home, moving about 800km away to the state of Kerala to take
classes for the Occupational English Test (OET). Kerala is a wonderful place, as it has lovely nature
spots and is famous for its schools. India is one country, but has 30 different states and many
different cultures and languages, which change across the different regions.
I found a nice place to live and started going to classes at the school. At first, things went well and I
was excited, but I was very bad at writing sentences and speaking English. I began to feel worried
and sad. I had left my job and spent every last penny of my savings to go there. Then one of my new
friends suggested I go to another school, where they give individual attention to weak students.
So I changed to this school. They held a basic English test and I got 36%—not enough to pass my
OET exams. One of the English-teaching experts suggested I take part in basic English classes for a
month. I felt depressed because of my poor English and because I was alone and away from my
family, but I decided to join the basic class anyway.
I still remember my first class. It was the second of April, an amazing day, and in my class were
about 25 students. I was wearing a gray shirt and sky-blue jeans. Most importantly, our teacher was
a kind and humble man called Mr. Meharsha.
To be honest, I didn’t have a clue when it came to English, and I thought the class would consist of
boring grammar explanations, and that the teacher would not be a very good English speaker.
I couldn’t have been more wrong! His pronunciation was excellent and his teaching methods were
special and interesting. He was not only a good teacher but also a great motivator. He didn’t give us
boring lectures, but rather made us take part in dramas, speeches, read a lot of books, watch videos,
listen to podcasts and songs etc.
By the end of the April I felt much better. I could speak in a basic way, read and write English. But I
still lacked the confidence to take the IELTS or OET exams. So I returned home and spent another
month studying.
At the beginning of June I went back to the same school and started three months of IELTS
preparation. Since I left, my confidence had gone down, but when I met Mr. Meharsha he suggested
lots of helpful tips and techniques which I carefully followed.
After a lot of work, I finally took my exams. I got very stressed waiting for my results. In the end, I got
a band 5.5 in IELTS, when I needed a band 7.0. I felt awful about it. I had tried so hard! I spent a few
days at my friend’s house and two weeks later I returned home and started working in Rela Hospital.
After a lot of thinking, I realised that it’s not the end of my English-learning journey, but rather the
beginning. Every day I practise my reading, listening, speaking and writing. I especially enjoy your
podcasts, Ariel!
As Mr. Meharsha always said to us, if you want to succeed in your journey you can’t make any
excuses. He also said that practice makes perfect.
I will definitely clear my way and pass my IELTS so I can go and work in the NHS!
Thank you, Sudha, for sending in the story, and thank you for the work you do.
Obviously, at this time, nurses and doctors are doing very important work. In many countries
including the UK, on certain days, people go outside and clap, applaud, for nurses and doctors.
This is lovely, because it shows appreciation, it shows that people care about nurses and doctors,
but I think it’s not perfect, right? Because you can’t eat applause, you can’t eat claps, and you can’t
buy food with it. It’s not money.
And really, in this time of coronavirus, we are realising what jobs are really important for society:
nurses, doctors, food sellers and the people who collect and empty bins. Without these people, we
would have no cities, no peaceful society. They are so important and in many countries they are
paid very badly. I know recently in the UK, a few years ago, they lowered the pay of doctors, and
nurses don’t really get paid enough for the work they do.
So I really, really hope now, as we are perhaps starting to leave quarantine, we can remember how
important these jobs are and push for better pay and better working conditions.
Anyway, thank you again, Sudha, and if you want to send in your own story, you can email me
at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com.
A giant in a story
A giant is a magical creature that is very, very big. Basically, a giant is a very big person. In Harry
Potter, Hagrid is half-giant. In fairy tales, giants are very scary, and they sometimes eat humans.
When you play a joke on someone, you are trying to make them feel embarrassed so that you can
laugh at them. For example, a classic joke is to put a whoopee cushion, a little toy, on someone’s
chair, and when they sit on it it goes [fart noise]. Then everyone will think that they farted. Another
classic joke to play on someone is to put a bucket, a container, of water or paint on a door, so that
when they open the door the water falls on them. The first of April, April Fool’s Day, is a holiday
based around playing jokes on people. Personally, I don’t like playing jokes on people.
A whoopee cushion, by Grombo under CC BY-SA 3.0
Spoiled, or spoilt, means that someone always gets what they want and they become a horrible
person because of it. If you give your child videogames, chocolate, sweets and toys whenever they
want, your child might become spoiled. They will say, ‘I want that!’ and ‘That’s not fair!’ a lot.
When you throw a tantrum, you get very angry and start crying and screaming. Children throw
tantrums when they do not get what they want. They start crying, screaming, ‘That’s not fair!’, and
maybe even rolling around on the ground. If a child throws a tantrum in public, it can be very
embarrassing for the parents.
When you tell off someone, you tell them they did something wrong. Usually, parents tell off
children. For example, if a child steals a biscuit the parent might say, ‘No! Those biscuits aren’t
yours. Give it back.’ If a child throws a tantrum, they might get told off.
Curiosity is the feeling when you want to know something. Some children have a big curiosity, and
are always asking, ‘Why? Why? Why?’. It is good to be curious about the world, I think. If adults
keep their curiosity, then they can learn all kinds of interesting things.
A fairy
A fairy is a magical creature. Fairies have wings and can fly around, and fairies can do magic.
Sometimes, fairies are very small, like the size of your hand. But sometimes fairies are as big as
people.
Throughout means in every part of something. So “throughout the world” means all around the
world. If you lose something important, like your wedding ring, you might search throughout the
house. In England, the weather is unpredictable throughout the year, all year round.
Smack means to hit something, but with your hand open. If I smack my arm, it sounds like
this: smack. It is like a slap. Sometimes, parents smack their children on the bottom, on the behind,
to punish them. I think this is horrible, and is a very bad way to tell children off. In some parts of
the UK, smacking is still legal, but in many countries it is illegal to smack children. Don’t worry,
there is no smacking in this story, just talk of smacking.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, Luisa Mejia and Ste Mariani. Thank you so much. Your support
really means a lot to us.
The Mirror of Misurina

Once upon a time there was a father and his daughter. The father was called Sorapis, while his
daughter’s name was Misurina. Misurina’s parents were the King and Queen of the land, and they
were both giants. Misurina, however, was a tiny little girl. She could comfortably sit in her father’s
jacket pocket and ride around. She often did this, and she made many jokes about her father, who
was slow and heavy.
Sorapis’s wife often told him off. ‘You are too nice to that girl! She rides around all day, and she
never does any work.’
‘But she is so nice! She is so much smaller than us. I cannot be mean to her.’
‘Just because she is small does not mean she can do as she wants! If you do not tell her off, she
will become spoilt.’
But still, even when Misurina played jokes on Sorapis, he could never tell her off.
So as the years went by, Misurina became even more spoiled. She started playing jokes on all the
other people in the castle, because she knew her father would never tell her off. Whenever people
saw her, they ran away, because she played jokes on everyone she met.
‘My King, Misurina has stolen my pig!’

‘My King, she has hidden my knife!’
‘My King, she put ink in my coffee!’
Sorapis listened to all these stories and then said, ‘Hmph! Well that does sound very bad. I think
we will have to do something, indeed. As for my daughter, please remember how small she is. She
probably didn’t know what she was doing!’
But as Misurina grew older, her jokes got worse.
‘My King, she stole my child’s homework and said it was hers!’
‘My King, she put a bucket of paint on my door, so that it fell on me when I opened it!’
‘My King, she threw salt in my horse’s eyes, so he can’t see!’
Sorapis tried telling her off, but every time, Misurina threw a tantrum, and afterwards her jokes
were worse than before. Even the ladies in the castle, who did not like jokes at all, started
complaining.
‘My King, Misurina replaced my perfume with old milk!’
‘My King, she cut up my dress!’
‘My King, she put a frog in my bed!’
‘Well, it’s good to have a bit of fun in the castle, isn’t it?’ said the King. ‘Otherwise it is so boring
here.’
Not only this, Misurina made huge requests. She would ask her father to bring her the moon, and
when he did she said, ‘That’s all? I deserve the sun and stars, too!’
Worst of all, she had an enormous curiosity. She asked about everything, even things that nobody
knew the answer to, or things that were better not to know.
‘I want to look inside a person’s soul!’ she said. ‘I wonder what it looks like? I want to know!’
One day, Misurina was having class with her teacher. As usual, he was very angry at her, and finally
he said, ‘For a princess like you, the Magic Mirror would be perfect.’
Misurina sat up. ‘The Magic Mirror? What’s that? What does it do?’
‘It allows you to look inside your own soul. Perhaps if you did that, you would realise how awful
you are.’
‘Wow! I want it!’
She ran out of the room and went to her father.
‘Dad, Dad!’ she shouted up at him. ‘Will you give me a present?’
The King laughed and picked her up in his hand. ‘Of course, my love. What do you want?’
‘First you have to promise you’ll give it to me!’
‘Oh, my love. I can’t promise you if I don’t know what it is you want.’
Misurina burst into tears and cried like a baby. It didn’t take long for the King to give in.
‘Alright, alright. I promise. What do you want?’
Misurina stopped crying immediately. ‘The Magic Mirror!’
Sorapis’s face went pale. ‘My love, you don’t know what you are asking me. Don’t you know that
the Magic Mirror belongs to the fairy of Mount Cristallo? He is a horrible creature.’
‘Yes, yes, I have heard of him. No problem! You can buy it with all your gold, or maybe steal it.’
‘Misurina, please, listen to me.’
The girl saw that her father wasn’t going to do it, so she started crying again, shouting, ‘But, but,
but you promised! Oh Father, if you don’t bring me the Magic Mirror I’ll kill myself!’
If any normal child had said such a thing, it would only be a joke, and they would soon forget about
it. But King Sorapis knew that his daughter would do it.
The King put the girl down. ‘Alright. I will go.’
Sorapis put on his coat, walked out of the castle and went through the forest to Mount Cristallo.
He knocked on the door and a low voice came from inside.
‘Who are you and what do you want?’
‘I am King Sorapis of the neighbouring land. I would like to have the Magic Mirror.’
The fairy laughed, opening the door. He was much smaller than the giant, but he had a powerful
energy.
‘Oh, fairy. Please don’t laugh at me. If you do not give me the mirror, my daughter will die.’
‘Who is your daughter?’
‘Her name is Misurina.’
The fairy laughed, even harder this time. ‘Oh, you poor man! I have heard of your daughter. She is
hated throughout your land and mine. I can hear her screams every time she throws a tantrum.
“Father, give me this! Father, I want that!” And now she wants you to get her the Magic Mirror. Fine
then, I will give you the mirror.’
‘Oh, thank you!’
‘Under one condition. Every day the sun shines on my fields. I think sunlight is far too happy for a
place like this. I want some shadow. You are big and strong, and I think you would make a perfect
mountain. It’s simple magic. You become my mountain, and I give Misurina the mirror.’
‘A mountain? But I won’t be able to speak to my wife, or help my people…’
‘Hmm… Fine then, I will give you another option. Go to your daughter and tell her this: she will get
the mirror, as long as she is a good girl for one whole year. No jokes and no tantrums.’
‘Thank you! Oh, you are a kind fairy.’
‘No I am not. If I were you, I would simply smack the girl on the bottom and tell her to grow up. But
that is why I am not a parent… Now go, before I change my mind.’
The King ran home and told his daughter what the fairy had said.
‘It’s simple! If you are good for a year, you will have the mirror.’
‘A whole year? That’s not fair! And I am a good girl, aren’t I, Father? That fairy is playing a mean
joke on us. No, I will not do it! You love me, don’t you? Become a mountain for me. It will be fun!
You won’t have to eat anymore, and you will have beautiful woods on your back that I can play in! I
can climb you every day. Won’t that be fun?’
The King went pale. He thought that this would convince Misurina. After all, she cared about him,
surely? She would not want her father to turn into stone, would she?
‘Misurina, you know I can’t do that. I have a kingdom and people to look after.’
Misurina burst into tears again. ‘Why do you hate me, Father? I just want a mountain to play on and
a magic mirror. It’s not that much! I, I, I’m going to kill myself!’
Sorapis realised now, too late, that his daughter was too spoilt. She was a horrible little child, and
yet, he could not see her die.
‘Alright, my love. I will do it for you. I will become a mountain.’
The fairy heard the King’s words and used his magic. The Magic Mirror appeared in Misurina’s
hands.
‘I have it! The Magic Mirror! Oh, my soul is so pretty…’
But as she looked into it, Sorapis grew bigger and bigger. He broke through the castle walls and
into the sky, turning into stone as he went. Forests grew on his back like hairs, and he became
almost as tall as Mount Cristallo. Misurina was lifted up on his back, but the whole time she
looked into the mirror.
‘So pretty…’
Only when the mountain had fully grown did Misurina look up. She was stood on the peak, and she
was so surprised that she screamed and fell over.
Down and down she fell, hitting into sharp rocks and finally landing in a bloody mess on the
ground. The Magic Mirror landed beside her, breaking into a thousand pieces.
Unable to do anything, Sorapis watched his daughter die before him. He had been a bad father,
and now he had lost everything because of it. He cried and cried, and his tears rained down onto
the ground. They drank up Misurina’s body and the Magic Mirror. As the mirror had broken, its
magic flew all around, and Sorapis’s tears began to form into a huge lake.
That lake still stands there today, Lake Misurina, and standing over it is the great Mount Sorapis.
Every day, the King looks down, crying for his dead daughter who he loved so much. Those who
visit the lake often say that the surface is so clear it is like a mirror, reflecting the sad mountain
above it.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Rumplestiltskin. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Gold.

That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Gold. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
So, a very important date is coming up soon. On the fifth of May is my birthday and, I don’t know
about you, but I really like birthdays. I know some people don’t like celebrating, they don’t like
having a party, they don’t like getting presents, but I love all those things! I don’t have big
expensive parties, but I really like to gather with all my friends, I like to get together with my
friends.
But of course, right now, we can’t do that because of coronavirus. So I have decided that on
Saturday the ninth I will do a special birthday party stream.
This stream will be on YouTube like the other ones, and in this stream I will celebrate, I will have
some cake, I will open presents, and I will tell you about traditional British children’s birthday party
things. Because we have a lot of games and habits that we do for children’s birthday parties here,
and as you know, I am just a big child, so I would love to share those traditions with you, OK? And
of course, you can celebrate as well at home if it is your birthday as well, or if you just want to.
On that note, I have decided to start making YouTube videos. I have talked about it before, but I am
really interested right now in making more YouTube videos. The problem is, I need some more
equipment, I need some more tools, like a whiteboard, pens, some good lights and so on.
So, I have made a wishlist on Amazon. So a wishlist is where you put things that you want people
to buy for you, and then people can go and buy them for you if they want.
So, you don’t have to buy me anything, of course! You already support me so well by listening, by
sharing the podcast, and some of you by supporting on Patreon, but if you do feel like getting me a
little birthday present and also helping me get the equipment to make YouTube videos, you can go
to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/HappyBirthday. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/HappyBirthday.
And that will take you to my Amazon wishlist. You can see the things I want and you can buy me
one, if you feel like it.
Of course, I want to emphasise again, don’t feel like you have to buy anything! I would really
appreciate it if anyone bought anything. To be honest, I just really like presents so I thought it was
a good idea to put it on the podcast because it will be useful for the YouTube videos, and of
course, you will all enjoy the YouTube videos, I am sure.
Spin is something that most people never do nowadays. It was a way of changing materials like
wool into thread so that they can be used to make clothes. You take long, thin bits of material, like
wool, and wind it around a wooden stick called a spindle. In the end, you get yarn, which is a kind
of thick thread. You can spin by hand with a spindle, or use a machine or a wooden tool called a
spinning wheel.
Evil means a very, very bad person. For example, Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter is very evil.
Usually, it is witches and monsters who are evil.
A beggar is a person who has no money, so they go onto the street and ask for money, they beg
for money.
Stride means to walk with very big steps. If you want to go somewhere quickly, or you have a lot of
energy, you stride instead of walking.
Straw is dried grain that is used on farms. It looks like long pieces of grass, but dry and hard.
Straw is yellow, and lots of straw is put together to make squares. Straw is used to feed animals,
like horses and pigs.
A nail is the hard thing on the end of your fingers and toes. Nails grow and you have to cut them,
although some people like having long nails. Some people paint their nails, and some people even
put on plastic nails. If you are very nervous, you might bite your nails.
Pointy means something has a point, a sharp spike, at the end. Knives and swords are pointy, so
they can hurt you a lot. A tower might have a pointy roof. You can have a pointy nose or a flat
nose.
Hopeless means you have lost all hope. You might feel hopeless because you failed an exam, or
because a family member died. Hopeless can also mean you are really bad at doing something.
For example, I am hopeless at sports.
Cheat is when you are playing a game but you do not follow the rules. For example, if you are
playing Monopoly and you steal money from the bank, that is cheating. You can also cheat a
person. For example, maybe you tell a teenager that if they give you money, you will buy them
alcohol, but really you just take the money for yourself. That’s cheating. Hopefully, none of the
listeners are out there cheating people!
A big thank-you to our new patrons: Malika, Vladimir Kalina and D. Degruge. Thank you so much.
Your support really means a lot to us.
Rumplestiltskin
Molly had always been a clever girl. As a child, whenever her mother asked her to do work, she
always found some way to get out of it. Either she got someone else to do the work for her, or she
made it look like she had done it when really she hadn’t. And whenever her mother found out what
she had done, Molly was nowhere to be found.
But nothing could prepare Molly for her old mother’s death. She had suffered from a disease for
many years, and Molly did not think it serious, so she had continued her games and tricks. But her
mother grew weaker and weaker, and her last words to Molly were these.
‘You are a miserable little girl. You have brought me nothing but trouble. I would have been better
off if I had never given birth to you. You think you can spin straw into gold, but all you really spin is
lies and evil.’
And with that, she fell back and died.
Unsurprisingly, Molly’s father was not happy with her. He had never loved her very much, letting
her mother deal with her tricks, but now he had no choice but to look after her.
So he did what every man did, when he had to look after someone he didn’t want to. He threw her
out.
‘You have been so awful to us all these years, child. Go and find your own way in the world, and
don’t even think of coming back.’
Still, Molly did not cry even for a minute. She had never liked her father much, anyway.
For several weeks, she travelled without aim. In every town she went to, she offered her services
as a working girl, but after so many years of lying and tricking her mother, she was unable to do a
single day’s work.
Finally, tired and her clothes torn, she arrived at a castle. As soon as she came inside the doors,
the guards stopped her.
‘We don’t want beggars here. Get out.’
‘I am no beggar,’ said Molly. ‘I have powers which this kingdom has never seen. I can spin straw
into gold! If your king takes me in, he will be the richest man in the world.’
‘Hah! You’re lying.’
Molly laughed. ‘Fine! Wait and see. I will join the king of the neighbouring country, and give him
riches you cannot even imagine. He will build an army and destroy this little castle.’
She strode off, head held high. A moment later, the guard spoke.
‘Wait! I will take you to see the King.’
She smiled to herself. They were even easier to trick than Mother.
The King, however, was a bit more doubtful.
‘If you have such power, here.’ He handed her a piece of straw and a spindle. ‘Spin this straw into
gold.’
Molly made a face. ‘Have you no respect for my art? It takes a long time, and is very difficult. I
work through day and night, and I will need much more straw than this for even a finger of gold.’
The King looked at her doubtfully. ‘Fine then. Lock her up in the West Tower. Give her a lot of straw
and a spinning wheel. Tomorrow morning I will come and see your work.’
So they took Molly to the tower, gave her some food, and locked her inside. The girl was so hungry
that she ate the food within seconds, and it was only when she was finished that she realised how
bad her situation was.
She had gotten herself the food, and now she had to get out of there. But the door was locked
tight, and the only windows in the tower were high up. The only things in the room were the straw,
the spinning wheel, and a sad little bed in the corner. There was nothing she could use to climb.
So Molly began to lose hope. She cried and cried, and it felt like all the feelings from her mother’s
death and her being thrown out came all at once.
‘There, there, little girl,’ came a voice.
Molly jumped. She looked up and saw a tiny man standing in the corner. He was bald, and had
no nails. He wore a hat and an ugly shirt that covered his whole body. He had a tiny, pointy nose,
and a horrible smile.
‘Who are you? Or rather, what are you?’
‘Not important,’ said the “man”. ‘What is important is what you are: a lying girl. You told the King
you could spin straw into gold, and now you are here…’
‘Did you come to make fun of me?’ She stood up. ‘I could kill you, you know.’
‘Oh, believe me, you could not. But I am not here to fight. I am here to help you. You see, I can spin
straw into gold.’
Molly looked at him doubtfully. ‘And what do you want in return?’
The little man laughed a horrible little laugh. ‘Clever girl. I only want something small. Hmm…’ He
ran up to her and took her hands. ‘Your nails are very pretty. I’ll have those.’
Molly felt sick. She had always had nice nails, given that she never did any work. She didn’t want to
give the man her nails, but she needed his help.
‘Fine, but only after you spin the gold.’
The man sighed. ‘Yes, yes, of course. You go to sleep.’
So Molly climbed into the bed and slept, and the man got to work. When she woke up, the sun was
rising, and all around her in the room were piles of gold.
‘Amazing!’ she said, holding it in her hands.
‘Uh-uh!’ said the man, hitting her hand. ‘Not for you. For the King, remember? Now, time for my
payment.’
He waved his hand over hers, and she felt a sharp pain. She looked down and saw that her nails
were gone.
‘Don’t worry, they will grow back.’
The man admired his own nails—Molly’s nails—which were clean and beautiful.
‘I’ll see you later,’ he said, and clicked his fingers. He disappeared into air.
There was a knock at the door, and then the sound of the key going into the lock. The King himself
came in, and his mouth fell wide open.
‘My word… you actually did it!’
‘Of course,’ she said, smiling.
‘My dear, but what happened to your hands? Your nails are almost completely gone… you must
have been working very hard.’
‘Of course, my king.’
The King clicked his fingers, and two guards came into the room. ‘Take this gold away, and tell the
cooks to make a great meal. I want to talk to this girl.’
So while they ate chicken, pork and potatoes, the King asked the girl all about her power.
‘How did you do it? Where did you learn?’
But Molly refused to say, just smiling politely and saying, ‘My little secret.’ She was enjoying this
life very much.
But that evening, the King sent her back to the tower and locked the door once more.
‘Happy working, my little treasure,’ he said, before leaving her.
Once again, she was faced with the same problem: a huge pile of straw that she somehow had to
turn into gold.
‘Well, well, well.’
She turned around, and the horrible little man was there again.
‘This is familiar,’ he said, smiling. ‘Want my services again?’
The girl paused. ‘What will you take?’
He ran up to her and touched her hair. ‘Your hair is so beautiful and long… I don’t have a single hair
on my head. I think that will make a nice present.’
Molly felt sick. She never had to cut it or put it up, because she never worked, so it was long and
beautiful. But what choice did she have?
‘Fine.’
So once again, Molly went to bed, but this time she did not sleep. She watched the man do his
work. He did not spin himself, but waved his hands in the air. The spinning wheel danced around
as he did so. He was using magic, just as she had thought. As he spun, he sang a song to himself.
‘I spin the straw to make the gold
so lovely for the King to hold
and then the girl will have a shave
and I’ll escape into my cave!’
But as the girl listened, she felt sleepy, and she couldn’t stop herself from closing her eyes.
When she woke up, the man was already gone. Slowly, she reached her hand up to her head. Her
hair was almost completely gone. There was only a short bit left. But just as the man had
promised, the room was full of gold.
Once again, the King had dinner with her, but this time the girl did not enjoy it at all.
Once the meal was finished, the King said, ‘You have worked so hard, my dear. I can see how tired
you are. You cut your hair because it was in the way, yes? Such a hard-working girl! I will only ask
you to spin for one more night. And if you work so well again, you can marry me!’
At first, Molly felt nothing. But slowly she realised what the King had said.
If she married him, she would be rich! The gold would all be hers, too, and she would eat duck and
pork every day, and have men who dressed her…
So she smiled and said, ‘Tonight I will make the biggest pile of gold yet!’
That evening, she explained to the horrible little man that this would be the last night, and that he
had to do his best work.
‘Pretty little girl likes to ask for a lot, doesn’t she? Very well, I will work for you… but tonight, I want
a good reward.’ He looked up at her face and smiled. ‘You have such beautiful green eyes…’
‘No!’ shouted Molly. ‘You can’t take my eyes.’
‘You will be a queen. Queens do not need eyes to be beautiful.’

She shook her head. ‘No. Anything but that.’
He scowled. ‘Fine then. You must make a promise. When you have your first child, you will give it
to me.’
‘My child?’ She wondered why this horrid man wanted a baby.
‘Don’t have evil thoughts. Many people want to be mothers. You want to be a mother, too, don’t
you?’
Actually, she had never wanted a child, but she said, ‘Oh yes! To lose my child… Well, it will be a big
price to pay, but I suppose I have no choice…’
Really, she would do everything she could to not have a child, but if she did have one, she could
always give it to him.
‘I promise. Now get to work.’
So she climbed into bed and slept happily, dreaming of being queen, while the little man spun gold.
When she woke up, almost the whole tower was filled with gold. When the King saw it, his mouth
fell open wider than it ever had before.
‘I love you!’ he said, taking Molly’s hands. ‘Let us get married today!’
So Molly and the King got married, and she became Queen Molly. The three nights of pain were
worth it, because now she had beautiful clothes, delicious food and many, many pieces of
jewellery. Her lovely hair and nails grew back, and she never saw the strange little man again.
But a few years later, the Queen got pregnant.
‘This cannot be!’ she said. Promise or no promise, she was very happy living her life in the castle,
and the last thing she needed was for a baby to ruin it. At the same time, she didn’t particularly
want to see that awful little man again, or explain to her husband that he had taken their child. ‘I
must get rid of this child before I have it.’
She called on the best medicine women in the country, and asked them to kill the baby inside her,
but they refused.
‘If the King finds out… No, it is too dangerous.’
So, against her wishes, the Queen had the child. It was a baby boy, and despite how painful the
birth was, the moment she saw him her heart changed.
He was beautiful. He had golden blond hair and a charming little smile. She fell in love straight
away, and she knew that she had been wrong before. She was so happy that she forgot her
promise completely.
But that night, the strange man came to visit. He looked very pretty now: he had Molly’s nails and
long hair, and a beautiful dress on. Even his nose looked better. He must have tricked many other
people after her.
‘Beautiful little boy, isn’t he? Well, say goodbye. I’m taking him.’
‘No!’ shouted Molly, holding the child in her arms. ‘There must be another way. Please. I will give
you all the money we have.’
‘I don’t care about money. I can spin straw into gold, remember? No, the only thing I want is that
child.’
Molly started crying, and so did her son.
‘Oh, alright!’ he groaned. ‘I will give you a chance. If you can guess my name in three days, I will
give you the child. But if you cannot, I will take the child and much more.’
‘Your name?’ She thought as hard as she could, but the man had never told her his name. ‘You’re…
Satan?’
The man laughed. ‘I’m not that powerful.’
She thought again. It had to be an evil name, no doubt. ‘Grellemor? Faust?’
‘No and no. That’s all your guesses for today. You have two more days, and three guesses each
day. Don’t waste them like today. I’ll come back in the evening.’
He clicked his fingers and disappeared.
That night, Molly got no sleep. She slept with the baby, and she felt like the horrible man was
hiding in the darkness, watching them. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw him laughing.
The next day, she went to the library, and searched through all the books on magic and monsters.
She thought he had to be a monster, but none of the pictures looked like him.
When he returned that evening, she tried her guesses.
‘Iblis.’
‘No.’
‘Alastor.’
‘Nope.’
‘Mammon.’
‘Bzzt. Wrong. Try again tomorrow.’
All night, Molly tried to think of what his name could be. It had been years since he spun the straw,
and she couldn’t remember it well. But as the sun was rising, she suddenly remembered the song
he had sung.
‘ “… and I’ll escape into my cave.” A cave… he must live in the mountains.’
She took a horse and rode into the mountains. She searched all day, but she could not find him.
The sun was starting to set, and she felt hopeless, until she heard a horrible laugh.
‘Tonight, tonight, my plans I make
tomorrow, tomorrow, the baby I’ll take!
The kindest mother in all the land
No more will I work and hurt my hands
The Queen will never win the game
if Rumplestiltskin is my name!’
She looked around, and found the horrible man dancing around a fire, singing to himself.
‘Tonight, tonight, my plans I make
tomorrow, tomorrow, the baby I’ll take!
The kindest mother in all the land
No more will I work and hurt my hands
The Queen will never win the game
if Rumplestiltskin is my name!
And it is. It is my name.’

‘Rumplestiltskin,’ she whispered. Then she got on her horse and rode home.
When, that night, the horrible man appeared before her, he smiled.
‘You’ll never guess my name. You should give up now.’
The Queen sighed. ‘You’re right, but I have to try. How about… Geoffrey?’
Rumplestiltskin laughed. ‘A common name!’
‘Oh, then Maximillian!’
‘An ugly name!’
‘Hmm… Wait, I have an idea!’ She smiled. ‘Rumplestiltskin.’
Rumplestiltskin hissed. ‘You, you, you cheated!’
‘No, I did not. Now, leave me alone, you horrible little thing. Goodbye, Rumplestiltskin.’
The man bit his nails and pulled his hair. ‘You nasty little thing! All you do is lie and trick people.
The King, he doesn’t even know how evil you really are.’
‘Evil? I’m not the evil one. You stole my beautiful nails and hair, and now you want my child!’
The baby started crying, and Molly picked it up, saying, ‘Shh, shh, it’s OK.’
‘I stole nothing. I worked for all those things, something you have never done in your life. You think
you deserve the world, when really all you deserve is a quick kick in the behind.’
‘Leave this place. You’re making the baby cry.’
‘Fine, I will leave. But first, I will pay you back for everything.’
And Rumplestiltskin waved his hands in the air.
The next morning, the King woke up to a strange silence. He did not hear the cries of his son, and
he did not hear the beautiful voice of his wife. Something was wrong.
He searched around the castle, and finally, thinking that she must still be asleep, he went to his
wife’s bedroom.
And there, he found the strangest thing of all.
‘A pile of gold?’
And no sign of the baby. The King sent his men out to search, but no matter where they looked,
they never found Queen Molly or the Prince.
Days passed, and then months, and then years, but the two of them never appeared again, and the
King never found out where the gold had come from.
Meanwhile, far away in a forest, a mother looked after her child. She was not the most beautiful of
mothers, but she was kind. She taught her son to work hard and to never, ever lie or trick others.
She even taught him how to use magic, and together they built a lovely little house, planted
vegetables and sang songs, and whenever they needed money, they simply spun straw into gold.
Every night, the boy asked, ‘Mother Rumple, will you spin me a story?’
And every night, she replied, ‘Of course, my son. What story shall I spin tonight?’
But one night, the son asked, ‘Mother Rumple, who is my father?’
For a moment, a look of pain passed over his mother’s face. Then she said, ‘Some stories are too
difficult to spin, even for someone as clever as me. But I can tell you the story with the soldiers.
That one’s your favourite.’
He looked disappointed, but said, ‘Well, go on then.’
‘Once upon a time there was a group of evil soldiers. They travelled around stealing, attacking
women and drinking everything they could find. Really, they were looking for someone to teach
them a lesson, and that’s just when your mother came along…’
Wwwwwwwwwwww
The Singing Bone. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Bone.
That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Bone. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
So, a few weeks ago on the podcast, I mentioned that I had an interview for a PGCE. So a PGCE is
a qualification, a degree, in the UK to train as a teacher, so I can go and teach in schools here. And
we did the interview online and it went very well! I actually forgot to tell you before because of
everything happening with coronavirus, but yes, the interview went well and I got a place at the
university. So possibly this September, I will be studying in London to train as a teacher, and that
will be teaching French, Spanish and maybe some German at secondary schools in the UK. So
secondary school is kind of like high school. It’s between 11 and 16 here.
In other news, the live streams on our YouTube channel have been doing really well. We had the
last stream on Saturday the 12th and I had so much fun. Actually, the stream was over two hours
long because I just enjoyed talking to you all so much. So, really do come along to the stream. It’s
really fun and we talk a lot and write together. It’s really good.
So the next stream is on Saturday the 18th at 1pm British Summer Time, GMT+1.
In the last stream, I also answered many questions from all of you, such as: What films and TV
shows do I recommend? Should you use subtitles when watching a film in English? And can you
study three languages at the same time? So if you want to hear the answers to these questions
and many more, go and watch the replay of the stream. So the stream is on the YouTube channel
and you can watch it as a video. And I will put a link to that in the transcript
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Bone. I look forward to seeing you at the next stream on Saturday!
A spear is a weapon, like a sword or a gun. You use a spear to hurt people or animals. Spears are
long sticks, and they have a sharp bit at the end. You can stab someone with a spear or throw it.
A paw is a hand, but an animal’s hand. Animals don’t have fingers like us, so they have paws. Cat
paws are really cute.
A claw is a long, sharp nail that animals have. So instead of nails, bears, tigers, cats and so on
have claws. They can really hurt you! So these animals have claws on their paws.
Spin around is when you move around in a circle. If you spin around a lot, you will be dizzy—you
might feel a bit sick. Washing machines spin clothes around to wash them. The Earth spins
around very slowly.
Drunk means you have drunk alcohol, like beer or wine, and you feel strange. Actually, most people
like getting drunk. In the UK, beer and cider, which is made with apples, are popular types of
alcohol to get drunk. British people, mostly, like getting drunk very much. Personally, I drink very
rarely, because I don’t like how you feel afterwards.
Wipe off is when you clean something off something else. So maybe you dropped orange juice on
the floor, so you wipe it off with a cloth. Or maybe there is dirt on your face, so you wipe it off to
make your face clean. You wipe with a cloth or a sponge.
Swirl means to move around in a fast spinning movement. So basically, when your sink is full of
water and you let the water out, it swirls away. Or maybe you are making soup and you stir it, you
turn it, really fast, and it swirls around the pot.
A coward is someone who is scared of everything. This word was specifically used during the
World Wars to mean someone who chose not to fight, but it also generally means anyone who is
scared a lot and not brave.
A grave is the place you put a body when someone dies. Graves are usually a hole in the ground,
and you put a gravestone on top to show that the dead person is buried there.
A big thank-you to our new patrons: Blas Alvarez, Vera Kaufmann, Apple Chan and Oscar Caluzzi.
Thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to us.
The Singing Bone

Once there were two brothers. The older brother, Brian, was very clever, but also very proud. The
younger brother, Frederick, was not so clever, but he was kind, and everyone liked him. The
brothers lived in peace in the countryside, but one day, a villager ran into town. He was covered
with blood.
‘A bear! There is a bear in the forest! It attacked me. I was just able to run away.’
The man fell down on the ground. Some villagers quickly picked him up and took him to the
doctor. Brian and Frederick saw this, and were very surprised.
‘A bear, brother?’ said Frederick. ‘I have never heard of a bear in this region.’
‘There used to be many bears,’ said Brian. ‘We killed them, many years ago, but maybe the bears
are coming back.’
Over the next few weeks, nobody could stop talking about the bear. Nobody wanted to go into the
forest, but they needed firewood, as well as mushrooms. They sent a message to the King, asking
him to send soldiers. But all the soldiers were fighting in a war, so the King could send nobody.
‘Whoever kills the bear can marry my daughter and have a thousand gold pieces,’ said the King, in
a letter to the town.
When Brian heard this, he said, ‘I will go and fight the bear!’
Frederick was surprised. ‘But brother, it is so dangerous! I will go and fight the bear, instead of you.
You are older than me, so you are more important.’
Brian was proud, though, and he did not want his brother to be better than him. So he said, ‘Fine
then, we will both go into the forest. It will be a competition.’
Frederick did not want to compete, but he wanted to get rid of the bear before anything else. It was
attacking the townspeople, and he wanted to protect them.
So, a few days later, the two brothers set off into the forest. Brian entered from the eastern side
and Frederick entered from the west. That way, they had an equal chance of finding the bear, and
they would find it more quickly. They both had their knives, but they did not seem very big
compared to a bear.
Frederick walked through the forest for several hours. At first, he moved slowly, and every time he
heard a sound he jumped. Finally, he relaxed, but the bear was nowhere to be found.
‘Good afternoon.’
Frederick jumped. He looked down and saw a very small man standing in front of him. The man
had a big beard, and had a long, black spear over his shoulder.
‘What are you doing in here?’ said Frederick. ‘There is a bear in the forest. You must leave.’
‘I know. I came to the forest to fight the bear. But I was injured.’
The man had his hand on his stomach, but he pulled his hand away and Frederick saw that he was
bleeding.
‘This spear is magic. If you have a pure heart, and think no bad thoughts, then you will never be
hurt. My heart was once pure, but times have changed…’
‘Are you OK? Quick, I will take you to the doctor.’
‘No, no,’ said the man. ‘I am old and have fought in many battles. This will be my last. Take the
spear. You are pure of heart. I know it. Fight the bear and kill it.’
The man handed Frederick the spear. It was heavy, and it shone in the light. Frederick tried to
thank the man, but suddenly he was gone.
So he kept walking through the forest. It was not long before he met the bear. It was catching fish
in a river.
The bear heard him and turned around. Its eyes were a bloody red, and its claws were as sharp as
knives. The bear ran at Frederick, fast as lightning, and he held out the spear. Before the bear
could stop, it ran straight into the spear. The spear cut into the bear, going through its heart and
killing it straight away.
Frederick let go of the spear and the bear fell to the ground. His heart was beating fast and he was
shaking all over. He had never killed a living creature before.
‘It is done,’ he said. ‘I must go home.’
He pulled the spear out of the bear. He cut off its paw to prove that he had killed it, and left the
woods. As he was coming back to the village, he heard a voice.
‘That bear can’t beat me. I’m too strong. Too strong!’
It was Brian. Frederick looked, and saw him sitting by a tree. He had a bottle of something in his
hand.
‘Brother, what are you doing here? Are you hurt?’
Brian saw him and looked embarrassed. His eyes were all red, even in the dark.
‘Well, if it isn’t my good little brother Frederick. What’s that you have there? A spear? You have
blood on your face. Did you cut yourself?’
Frederick was surprised. His brother never talked like this usually.
‘No. I went and fought the bear. It is over, brother.’
Frederick showed him the paw. He smiled, but his older brother did not look so happy.
‘You know, dear brother, it is the older brother’s job to be the hero.’ For a moment, Frederick wasn’t
sure if he was serious or not, but then he smiled. ‘Come on. Sit with me.’
Frederick put the spear down and sat down by the tree. He realised then just how tired he was. His
brother handed him the bottle. It was whisky. He took a drink.
‘More. We need to celebrate!’ Brian shouted. ‘Keep drinking.’
So they sat and drank and talked. It had been a long time since they drank together, but Frederick
felt a bit uncomfortable. He was exhausted from the fight with the bear, and he just wanted to go
home.
Finally, Brian stood up and said, ‘Right. We’re going back.’
Frederick got up, but everything span around him. He was really quite drunk, while Brian looked
fine now. The spear felt heavy, and he could hardly stand up straight.
‘Let me carry your spear for you, brother,’ said Brian.
So Frederick gave his spear to Brian, and they walked home. But the bear’s paw felt heavy in
Brian’s hand, and he kept dropping it.
‘Let me carry that paw for you, brother,’ said Brian.
So Frederick gave the bear’s paw to Brian, and they continued on. As they walked, Frederick felt
the bear’s blood on his face. Suddenly, it smelled very strong, and he felt sick.
‘Let me clean you up, brother,’ said Brian.
So Brian wiped the blood off Frederick’s face and put it on his own face. Frederick thought that
was strange, but he was too drunk to say anything.
Finally, they came to a bridge that went into the village. The bridge was very narrow, so Brian said,
‘You go first, brother. The hero should go first.’
But when Frederick was standing on the middle of the bridge, Brian ran up behind him and hit him
on the head with a big stone. Frederick shouted and fell down, and everything went dark.
Many years later, a farmer was passing through the village. The small village was famous now,
because a great hero came from there: Brian the Bear Killer. He had travelled into the woods and
killed the monster bear with his spear, and now he was famous in the village. He married the
King’s daughter, and now Brian the Bear Killer had his own kingdom far away.
But stories of heroes were not important to the farmer. He was more worried about his sheep.
There were at least fifty of them, and he had to take them over the narrow bridge that went out of
the village.
‘Easy, easy. Come on now, don’t fall in!’
It took over an hour to get all the sheep to cross, but finally they were safely on the other side.
Then the old farmer saw something small and white on the bridge. He went over and saw that it
was a bone.
‘Why, this bone is a perfect size! I could make it into an instrument.’
The farmer liked to make musical instruments out of wood and bone, so he put it in his pocket and
took it home. That night, he cut a hole into the bone and tried playing it.
To his surprise, the bone jumped into the air, danced around, and started to sing:
‘Hello, dear friend, you have blown on my bone!
I was killed, you see, with a heavy stone,

For many years I’ve laid underwater,
While my brother went to get the King’s daughter,
Because, you know, I killed the bear,
But instead of me, my brother was there,
He took the gold and married the girl,
And now I sit by the waters that swirl,
So I ask you, please, to go to the King,
And show him this bone, which dances and sings.’
‘What a wonderful bone!’ said the farmer. ‘It dances and sings by itself. It is magic! I will listen
again.’
So the farmer blew into the bone, and once again it sang:
‘Hello, dear friend, you have blown on my bone!
I was killed, you see, with a heavy stone,
For many years I’ve laid by the water,
While my brother went to get the King’s daughter,
Because, you know, I killed the bear,
But instead of me, my brother was there,
He took the gold and married the girl,
And now I sit by the waters that swirl,
So I ask you, please, to go to the King,
And show him this bone, which dances and sings.’
The farmer listened closely, and he began to understand the message. He remembered the story
of Brian the Bear Killer. He jumped up and said, ‘I must go to the King at once!’
The farmer rode through the night and the day and came to the King’s castle. He played the bone
and the song was sang to the King. The King listened in silence, thought for a long time, and finally
spoke.
‘We must dig around this bridge and see if this is true.’
So they went and dug up the ground next to the bridge. Sure enough, they found Frederick’s bones.
His brother, Brian, had killed him on that night many years ago and buried his body there.
‘What can we do?’ said the farmer. ‘Brian is a king now. He has power.’
The King shook his head. ‘He has no power. He is a coward. He took his brother’s work as his
own.’
The King took out the singing bone and tried to play it, but it did not sing or dance.
‘You seem to play this bone very well,’ said the King. ‘Go around the land and play the song for
people. They will decide what to do.’
And so the farmer travelled around, telling the true story of Frederick the Bear Killer. The news
came to Brian’s kingdom, and the people were very angry. They threw Brian into a bag, sewed it up,
and threw it into the river. Brian died, and everywhere people spoke and sang of Frederick the True
Hero.
Meanwhile, the King took Frederick’s bones to the largest church in the country, and he was buried
in a big grave. People from all over came to visit Frederick’s grave and thank him for his brave
work.
Intermediate
Eeee
The Musical Forest. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Forest.
That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Forest. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
Today’s story was one that I wrote with people in a live stream. So, up until very recently, I was
doing live streams every Saturday on YouTube. Many of you came along, had a lot of fun. You can
watch them at the YouTube channel, of course.
But, um, I stopped! Uh, if you are part of my email newsletter, or if you are in the group chat, you
will know that I have stopped doing the live streams. I actually started them originally just as a
coronavirus thing because it was lockdown. I noticed a lot of places were doing live streams. It’s a
nice place to get together and socialise while social distancing. But, at a certain point, I think
because lockdown is slowing down or ending in many places, it feels less relevant, but also I just
needed more time to myself.
Because I record and edit the episodes usually on Sunday, and I was doing the stream on
Saturday, I kind of ended up not having weekends? And I love what I do, and I enjoy it, but I need
time off, and I realised that I really wasn’t taking enough care of my health, I wasn’t relaxing as
much as I needed to. So I decided to stop doing the stream, but this is one of the stories that we
actually wrote together during the stream, and which I decided to adapt into a full episode.
Don’t worry, by the way, I am still releasing a YouTube video every Thursday, and I am still
doing Elevenses with Ariel every weekday, so it really isn’t the end of everything. I’ve just decided to
take a chance to kind of reevaluate a lot of aspects of Easy Stories in English and take out the
things that I think are the least important, or the things that I think are maybe the least essential.
Right? That I can take out without, you know, ruining the content and without disappointing too
many of you, and while remaining confident in the quality of the podcast.
And it’s really nice to have more time to relax, I have to say. Yesterday, I had a good proper clean
of the house, and I hadn’t done that for a long time, and I think, because I was so busy with the
podcast and the stream and everything, I kind of didn’t take time out to do those very basic
important things. So I’ve been feeling a lot more healthy and happy recently, and I recommend to
all of you, um…
Well, actually I don’t recommend to most people to relax more cause it seems like everyone else is
much better at this than I am! I think, for me, ‘relax’ is a very complicated word because there’s a
lot of things I do in my free time, quote unquote “for fun”, that wouldn’t be considered traditionally
relaxing, right? Like, I used to make videoblogs in Esperanto, and for a lot of people making a video
is kind of like, it’s not relaxing, but recently I’ve just felt a real surge of interest in that again, so I
made a few new videos in Esperanto for that, and that was really exciting and fun. And so although
it’s taking up energy, it’s giving me energy at the same time. [One of the new videos in Esperanto]:
Of course, I also do actually relaxing things like going for walks and reading books, and I’ve been
finding I’ve been reading much better recently. I kind of had a few months, maybe a year, where I
was just really struggling to read books in general, and I actually came off some anti-depressants I
was on, and I realised that they were making me really tired in the evening which was making it
impossible to actually stay awake and focus on a book.
Anyway, I don’t want to go into a lot of detail about it here, because it’s kind of a bit personal, but if
you wanna hear more about my mental health, the reason I was taking anti-depressants and why I
came off them. I do talk about it in a lot of detail on Elevenses with Ariel, which you can get access
to for just $5 a month on Patreon.
On that note, I have decided to remove two of the tiers from Patreon, the $15 level and the $40
level. So the $15 level, I was offering classes every month, and on the $40 level I was offering
coaching as well. Nobody took up the $40 level and the classes, I mentioned them on here before,
I really enjoy doing them and I think they were fantastic, but it was really hard to coordinate
between the people and finding a time that worked for people, and instead of being group classes
they just kind of ended up being one-on-one classes most of the time, and I decided that I’m not
sure if I’m going to do classes…
This is the thing, is sometimes I think I should do online Zoom classes, like group classes, with
people who listen to the podcast, but I’ve kind of floated the idea, I’ve suggested the idea, a few
times, maybe on the group chat, and people haven’t seemed very interested? So I’m gonna
mention it again here. If you are interested in doing group classes on Zoom, and, and this would be
maybe, you know, once or twice a week, and you would pay for, kind of, a term of classes and then
you would get all the class recordings. There would be lots of materials. I would tell stories. We
would write together. It would kind of be similar to the live streams but with more material and
more contact.
If that sounds interesting to you and you would be interested in paying for that, please do leave a
comment on the transcript at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Forest.
I’ll be honest, I really like the idea of doing group classes because you get a great atmosphere
working with a group of people rather than just one-on-one, and also financially it means that the
classes can be pretty cheap. If I have 20 people in a class and everyone pays like $5 then I still
make a pretty good amount off that, but you don’t have to pay loads of money. So it’s a great idea
for me and I love doing group classes when I teach in person. It’s a bit different online, but I’ve
found ways of adapting and I’m confident that I can make it a really fun and useful experience. Of
course, the tricky thing is finding a time zone that works for a variety of people.
Anyway, leave a comment at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Forest and tell me if you are interested in

group classes or if it just does nothing for you. I would love to know.
A horn is a sharp bone that some animals have on their heads. For example, bulls, goats and
rhinoceroses all have horns. Usually, horns are used to fight.
A stag is a male deer. A deer is an animal that lives in the forest. Male deer, stags, have
complicated horns, and they use the horns to fight each other. The most famous film about deer is
the Disney film Bambi.
A note is a single sound in music. For example, [sings one note]. Notes can be long or short. They
can be high or low. In the UK, the seven main notes are called CDEFGAB. When it comes to the
names for different lengths of notes, it gets a bit more complicated. In American English, they use
a very simple system: whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note etc. But in the UK, we like to
suffer, so we call them: semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, demisemiquaver and
hemidemisemiquaver. Anyway, when I found out that the much simpler American system existed I
was quite angry!
A melody is several notes put together, for example, [sings Happy Birthday to You]. In a song, the
melody is the main part, the part that the singer sings.
A puppet is a small toy of a person or animal. With some puppets, you can put your hand inside
them and move their mouth. With other puppets, you pull strings to move their arms and
legs. Pinocchio is a famous story about a puppet who wants to become a real boy.
Make a racket means to make lots of noise. If you hear a lot of noise somewhere and you want to
know what’s happening, you might ask, ‘What’s all this racket about?’
A wizard is a man who does magic. Some famous wizards are Gandalf from Lord of the Rings,
Dumbledore from Harry Potter and Merlin from English legends. Wizards usually wear long purple
clothes with stars on them, they have big white beards and pointy hats, and they are very old.
When you frown, you push your eyebrows together. When you are confused or angry, you frown.
You shouldn’t frown too much, though, because then you’ll get wrinkles, lines on your forehead.
A harp is a big wooden instrument with long strings. You sit down and run your fingers over the
strings. It sounds like this: [sound of harp playing].
Cast a spell means to use magic. You wave your hand, or a magic wand, and say magic words like
‘Abracadabra!’ or ‘Expecto patronum!’. Wizards and witches cast spells.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Maria das
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really means a lot to us.
The Musical Forest

Once upon a time, there was a forest far away from the rest of humankind. In this forest, there
lived mice, birds, rabbits and so on, but this was no ordinary forest.
The King of the Forest was a stag, who had wandered there after being thrown out from his family.
Growing up, he was a weak, sad child, and when his horns emerged they were bent and broken.
His family rejected him, sending him away from their home to find his own way in life. So he found
a forest where the animals appreciated him, and soon he was so popular that they made him king.
The King was truly happy there, but in the night he heard strange noises. It was music, but not
sweet melodies played by loving hands, but the sad, twisted notes of misery. He could not figure
out where the music was coming from, so one night he decided to follow it, and came across a
trumpet thrown outside in the dirt.
‘Why are you crying?’ said the King, because such a sad melody could only mean tears.
‘My musician abandoned me, after twenty years of playing. He bought a newer model. Now I will
be taken away and melted down, or given to some horrible child who won’t play me properly.’
The stag smiled. ‘I know a place where you can live happily.’
And so began the stag’s mission: to rescue the abandoned instruments of humankind. For many
decades, he gave them a home in the forest, and they found a family in each other. But something
was still missing: people to play them; and the animals of the forest could not do this. So the King
of the Forest travelled far and wide, until he found a lonely old man who made wooden puppets.
He loved his puppets so much that they came to life. But the old man was sad, because with his
death the puppets would have nowhere to go.
‘I know a place for your puppets,’ said the King of the Forest, ‘where they will have a purpose and
joy in life.’
And so the old man died happy, and the puppets all came to the forest. They made homes in the
trees, and every day they danced around and played music on the instruments. At first, it was a
horrible racket of untrained hands and ugly notes, but over time they became skilled in playing
them, and eventually they formed a lively orchestra.
The forest became known as the Musical Forest, and its melodies could be heard for miles
around. The animals gathered around every evening to hear the orchestra play, and the air was
filled with joy and beauty.
But one day, something broke the magic.
On a certain morning, the stag woke up to find a magnificent house beside the forest, where there
had been only fields before. None of the animals or puppets knew where it had come from, so the
King of the Forest went to find out.
He went and knocked on the door with his horns, and it opened to reveal an angry man with a thick
white beard and long green clothes.
‘What do you want?’ snapped the man.
‘I am the King of the Musical Forest. I welcome you in peace. I must say, I did not know humans
could build so quickly.’
The man smiled cruelly. ‘I am no ordinary human. I am a wizard. I brought my house here with
magic. Was it you making all that racket last night?’
The King of the Forest felt a strong dislike of this wizard. ‘The forest is the home of many
musicians. We have an orchestra. But tell me, what are you doing here?’
‘I’m on holiday. Although with all that racket it’s not going to be very relaxing!’
‘You brought your house with you on holiday?’
‘I’m a wizard!’ he snapped. ‘It’s very easy for me. Now, I am very busy relaxing. Good day.’
And the wizard slammed the door in the King’s face.
The King went back to the forest and tried to forget about the wizard, but the strange man stayed
in his mind. Throughout the day, huge clouds of smoke came out of the chimney of the wizard’s
house, changing from grey to green to blue to purple. When the puppets started practising, loud
explosions and sounds came from the house, making it hard to concentrate. But not once did the
strange man go outside, not even into the garden.
That night, all the animals in the forest came together for a concert. The puppets played a range of
mysterious, romantic music, and for a while, the King managed to forget about the wizard.
But just when the concert was reaching the end, the man in green appeared from the trees. The
King tensed up, but the wizard merely leant against a tree and observed the orchestra quietly.
Then, without warning, he frowned and waved his hands in the air. Suddenly, the puppets all froze
and the music stopped.
All the animals cried out in fear.
‘What do you want?!’ shouted the King.
‘I want…’ But the wizard stopped. He was staring at a particular puppet holding a harp, and he
seemed so full of rage that he could not speak.
The King could not allow this man to put the Musical Forest in danger. While the wizard was
distracted, he ran at him with his twisted horns. But just before he reached him, the harp jumped
out of the puppet’s hands and flew towards the wizard.
The King was shocked, and came to a stop. The wizard hadn’t moved a muscle, so the harp must
have moved on her own.
‘No!’ said the wizard, shaking his head. ‘Leave me alone!’
And with that, he ran away into the forest. The puppets and instruments remained frozen, apart
from the harp.
‘He was my first owner,’ she said quietly. ‘He was a terrible musician. He dreamed and dreamed
about becoming a world-class player and playing in a huge concert hall. He loved music, but he
hated making mistakes. Whenever he made one, he got mad at himself. Eventually, it was too
much for him, and one day he put me in a cupboard…’
‘I remember,’ said the King. He had come to rescue her, but the harp had never talked about what
had happened. ‘Was he so angry back then?’
‘No. But it does not surprise me. He was always much better at magic than music, but magic is
dangerous. He controlled the music, but the magic always controlled him. I should think he is a
very different person now.’
The King frowned. ‘And now he has cast this spell on all our musicians. Without them, the forest
will be quiet and sad.’
‘I have an idea of what we can do.’
The next day, the King went to the wizard’s house. He knocked on the door, and the wizard cried
out, ‘Go away!’ His throat was dry, as if he had been crying or drinking.
‘Please come out!’ said the King. ‘I want to show you something.’
‘No!’
So the King hit the door with his horns until it broke open. Then he ran inside and dragged the
wizard out by his coat. The man kicked and screamed. He waved his hand at the stag and said
twisted words in languages unknown to the King, but they had no effect. His magic had left him.
‘Where are you taking me? I’ll put a spell on you, you horrible creature!’
‘No you won’t,’ said the King, ‘or you’ll never see your harp again.’
The wizard went quiet, but he stood up and started walking. The King took him to a clearing in the
forest. There, the harp was waiting.
Suddenly, the wizard’s calm disappeared.
‘Are you just here to criticise me? I know I should have looked after you better, but it was no use! I
was the worst musician in the world.’
‘It doesn’t matter if you were the worst musician in the world or the best,’ replied the harp. ‘You
played me with love. Don’t you want to play our song again?’
‘No!’ he cried out.
‘Then why are you here?’ said the stag. ‘You could have left last night.’
The wizard went bright red. ‘I’ll burn this whole forest down! I’ll put a spell so deep on this land that
NOBODY will play music on it ever again!’
‘No, you won’t,’ said the harp. ‘Now sit down and play me.’
The wizard bit his lip, as if weighing up the two options, and then sat down and picked up the harp.
But the moment he put his hands to it, they started to shake.
‘Easy now. You can do it,’ said the harp.

Slowly, the wizard began to play. It was clearly a melody he knew well, so well that he still
remembered it even after all these years. But after just a few notes, he made a mistake, and
dropped the harp as if it had burned him.
‘I can’t do this!’
The King smiled and said, ‘Every wrong note is an opportunity. Do you think it was easy for the
puppets, when they first came here? They don’t have fingers like you do. Do you think it was easy
for the instruments, who were so used to being played by humans? We all had to learn, but you
have heard how beautiful the result is.’
The wizard didn’t seem convinced by this. He started walking away.
‘Hey!’ said the harp. ‘Every note I make is perfect. Don’t you remember? You used to play all my
strings one by one, just to hear the different sounds. You loved all of them equally.’
The wizard stopped. He moved his fingers, and it looked like he was about to cast a spell, but then
the stag realised what he was doing: he was remembering playing the strings.
Without a word, the wizard went and sat down again to play. It took him a while to get into it, and
with every mistake he almost gave up, but when he finally did, he transformed. His frown turned
into the happy smile of a lover. His hands turned from hard old trees to beautiful silk dancers. His
eyes shone brighter than all the stars in the night, and indeed, by the time he finished playing it was
dark.
The music wasn’t spectacular. How could it be, after so many years out of practice? In fact, it was
pretty awful. But it didn’t matter, because the wizard’s heart was in it.
‘Oh!’ he said, looking up at the sky. ‘How long was I playing?’
The King laughed. ‘Just long enough. Now, would you like to come and play with the others?’
‘You would let me? But I can’t play like them…’
‘Time will tell.’
They walked through the forest to where all the puppets were frozen. The wizard went red again,
clearly having forgotten about his spell. He clicked his fingers and undid it, and all the puppets
started moving again.
‘I’m sorry, everyone,’ said the wizard. ‘I acted in anger last night. No, not anger. Fear. I was afraid of
all your beautiful music, because it reminded me of how I abandoned mine. Would it… be OK if I
played with you?’
‘Of course!’
‘Why not?’
‘Join us!’
So the wizard sat down with them and they started to play. The next day, the wizard came back to
play again, and the next, and the next. At first, he went red every time he made a mistake, and
stopped playing, but with the encouragement of the puppets and the instruments, he grew more
and more confident. Eventually, they were able to put on a concert together, and the forest had
never heard such beautiful music.
At the end of the concert, the King said to him, ‘And how long do you think your holiday will last?’
The wizard laughed and said, ‘Life is a holiday!’
And so the Musical Forest sang once more. And if any monsters, wizards or instrument-sellers
came to try and disrupt its harmony, the wizard cast a spell on them and sent them away.
So they lived happily, and musically, ever after.
Wwwwwwwwwwww
Golden Horses. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Golden.

That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Golden. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
Today’s story was written and sent in by a listener, Maxim Ostapenko. Thank you so much, Maxim.
Maxim is from Ukraine, and he originally wrote this story in Ukrainian. It’s part of a book of short
stories all about horses and mythology.
An illustration from Maxim’s book
Uh, I have to admit, I’m scared of horses myself. My mum’s violently allergic to horses. I mean, if
she goes near a horse she might end up in hospital, so as a child we were never allowed to go
around horses, because if we went on a horse and then came home, you know, our mum could
have an allergic reaction. So we really had to keep away from horses. And horses are one of those
animals that, if you’re not used to them, they are very scary. They’re very big, they’re very muscular,
they have big eyes, they have big mouths, they make loud noises, they smell—there’s just lots of
things to not love about horses. I understand that a lot of people grow up with horses and they ride
horses, so it’s kind of second nature, it’s natural, for them, but for me it’s really just, oof, the idea of
being near a horse… The idea of being on a horse is terrifying! Really, really.
An illustration from Maxim’s book
Um, but this is a lovely story from Maxim and it even comes with some beautiful illustrations from
the book. So I’m gonna put one or two of the illustrations at the transcript
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Golden. They are these beautiful black-and-white ink, uh, paintings,
and they’re really worth seeing, so do come over to the transcript and see them. So thanks again,
Maxim. I really appreciate you sending in the story.
Today’s story is a legend from the Scythian people. So the Scythians were a nomadic group of
people. So a nomadic group of people is people who don’t just live in one place, they move around
throughout the year. The Scythians lived in Central Asia about 2000 years ago, in the time of the
Greeks and the Romans. There’s also mentioned the Sarmatians, who were the enemies of the
Scythians, and the River Danube. So the River Danube is a big river in Europe. So the Scythians
lived to the east of the Danube on the steppes. And if you don’t know what steppes are, I will tell
you in a bit.
So recently it’s been raining a lot. Uh, not so much today and yesterday, but the past few days
before that it was just raining non-stop. Which, you know, we’ve had a few months of warm cloudy
weather without any rain, and then we had a big rainstorm that broke it all up and that was quite
exciting cause I got to hear thunder and stuff. Um, what was not so exciting was our gutter
overflowing.
A gutter with a cat in it
So the gutter is the plastic tube that goes around the top of a house, and when it rains it collects
the water and stops the water from, you know, going into the house or damaging the house. Now
the problem is, uh, you might remember a few months ago we had a problem with our gutter where
it got blocked and, um, all of the water overflowed and poured down the side of the building and
we had leaks inside, there was water dripping from the ceiling. Um, we had water coming through
the light in the kitchen, that was awful.
In the end, they fixed it and they actually replaced the windows as well, cause the windows were
part of what was letting all the water in, so that was fantastic, but apparently the gutter has got full
up again. It wasn’t quite overflowing to the extent it was last time, but when it was raining hard it
was pouring down the side of the building. I didn’t get any wet patches in my room, but my
housemate did get loads, unfortunately, and like, the paint was peeling off the walls and we got
quite a lot in the kitchen.
So, hopefully, we’ve told the letting agent and we sent them pictures, so hopefully they’ll send
someone over next week. So as I’m recording this, it’s a Sunday, so hopefully they’ll send someone
over in the week to, um, come and fix it because I’m really tired of the anxiety, because… I don’t
know, for me, with this kind of thing I get big anxiety and I start imagining, like, “My God, what if the
house collapses in? What if it starts leaking while I’m away and it, like, breaks my computer?” It’s
like, all of these things which are not really very rational, especially because, you know, cause of
coronavirus I’m in the house all the time, so it’s not likely that it will leak all over my belongings
while I’m away, anyway! Um, but just very, very bad for my anxiety so, um, hopefully by the time you
listen to this, they will have fixed the problem.
Since this is an intermediate episode, I would like to take the opportunity to remind you all
about Elevenses with Ariel. So what is Elevenses with Ariel? Elevenses with Ariel is a 5-to-10 minute
daily conversational podcast for intermediate learners. Basically, it’s something you can listen to
while you wait for the bus, while you wash the dishes, or even if you’re in work in a really boring
meeting and you want to secretly listen to something and hope that people don’t notice! Uh, I’m
not saying that’s something one of my students said they did, but it might be, mightn’t it?
[You can listen to the first episode of Elevenses with Ariel for free here]
So, the idea with Elevenses with Ariel is, I talk about pretty much anything. I’ve talked about, um…
Goodness, I’ve talked about Japanese TV shows I like about card games, I’ve talked about my past
hobbies: making YouTube videos, making video games, vocal synthesiser software; I’ve talked
about what happens at Esperanto events, I’ve talked about my acting experience when I used to do
theatre, and I’ve talked about my favourite TV shows, and I’m gonna talk about my favourite books,
my favourite musicals, I’m gonna talk about the news, I talk about my feelings. Actually, yesterday I
just recorded an episode where I just talked about my feelings.
So basically, it’s very, very personal, and I talk about things there that I normally don’t talk about on
here. So if you want to know a bit more about my personal life, and if you want to hear some hot
gossip from my past, it’s the perfect place for that! I was literally recording an episode and I was
saying all this stuff, and I was like, ‘Ooh, can I talk about this?’ Because it was like, you know,
people I knew 5 or 10 years ago who I don’t really talk to anymore, and then I was like, ‘You’re
paying me $5 a month, I’ll tell you everything!’
So there are 28 episodes of Elevenses so far, and like I said, there’s a new episode every day. So,
really, it’s a lot of content. That’s 30 episodes a month. That’s a way of practising your English in a
short, fun way, every day. And there’s loads of new vocabulary that I introduce there, kind of more
conversational vocabulary than, than on here, on the, the main podcast. So if you really wanna
improve your conversational skills, I would say it’s a fantastic thing to do, and clearly, some of you
agree with me, because 33 people are already supporting me and getting these episodes. It’s also
very interactive—people are leaving comments, people are talking about the new words they
learned, people are talking about what they thought about the topic.
If you want the real, unfiltered Ariel Goodbody, this is the place to go, and it can be yours for just $5
a month. So if you go to Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish, you can support me for $5 a month
and you will get exercises for every episode of the podcast, as well as Elevenses with Ariel. So it’s
a great deal, it’s really, really good. Everyone seems very happy with it.
So again, that’s Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish. I look forward to reading your comments

there!
A horse rider on a steppe in Mongolia
A steppe is a large area of flat grassland with no forests. You find steppes in south-eastern Europe
or Siberia, part of Russia. Steppes are very flat and rarely have hills, so you can see for miles
around. When I think of steppes, I think of Mongolian warriors riding on horses, or the Dothraki
from Game of Thrones.
Mighty means big and strong. If a person is mighty, they probably are very tall and have lots of
muscles. Or they might be a mighty king, who is not physically strong but still has lots of power.
Medieval armour
Armour is a set of hard clothes, made of iron, steel or leather. Armour is there to protect you in
battle. In the Middle Ages, knights and warriors wore very complicated metal armour and it took a
long time to put it on and take it off. Nowadays, usually only the police and soldiers wear armour,
and the armour is much lighter.
A feast is a very big meal that you have to celebrate something. You might have a feast at
Christmas, although usually it is only kings who have feasts. It is also a verb, for example, I love to
feast on chocolate and crisps, although it is not very healthy!
When we say “disaster strikes” or “disaster struck”, it means that something very bad suddenly
happened and changed everything. For example, maybe it’s a beautiful sunny day and you go out
for a picnic, but then disaster strikes! It pours down with rain and you get soaking wet.
Realm means a kingdom or a land. We don’t use it very often anymore, and it is usually used to
mean a magical or metaphorical place. For example, many TV shows such as Lost take place in a
realm of mystery, where you are not certain of many things. In this story, it is the Realm of Death
that is mentioned, where people go when they die.
A magician is a man who uses magic. Usually, magicians are young, and they are not so
experienced. Someone in the modern age who does magic tricks on a stage is a stage magician.
A wizard is a special kind of magician, a man who does magic. Some famous wizards are Gandalf
from Lord of the Rings, Dumbledore from Harry Potter and Merlin from English legends. Wizards
usually wear long purple clothes with stars on them, they have big white beards and pointy hats,
and they are very old.
A coffin is the box that you go in when you die. A dead person is put into a coffin and buried
underground. Often, people throw dirt on a coffin before it is buried. Before the burial, some people
leave the coffin open so that people can see their loved one one last time.
A herd is a group of animals: a herd of sheep, a herd of pigs, a herd of cows and so on.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Андрей
Клименко, Ottorino Lolini, and Ivan Saner. Thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to
us.
Golden Horses
Today I will tell you the tale of a time when the world lived in harmony and justice, when the gods
rarely interfered in human affairs.
In the faraway, endless steppe to the east of the Danube lived many warring tribes. Among these,
the most powerful was the royal family of Scythia. All other nations feared and respected them, as
they were undefeated in battle. It was thought that everything they touched turned to gold, and that
they even gave golden tools to their farmers.
Once a year, the Scythian royals gathered together. The mighty summer sun shone over their party,
sending light dancing over their golden weapons and armour. Everything they owned was
decorated with gold, even the fine clothes and armour of their horses.
It is said that, as a reward for the courage and character of the Scythian royals, the gods gave
them a golden horse, from which all Scythian horses descended. No other animal could run as fast
or for as long as these creatures. Their children were born white, but instead of the blue eyes that
white horses usually had, they had a dark yellow colour. Gradually, the light in their eyes turned
dark and melted into a pure gold.
‘If you look closely into the eyes of such a horse, you can see the world before its creation,’ said
the ancient wise men of these horses.
The gods gave these animals incredible beauty and speed. When a man rode on such a horse, it
seemed that the creature’s feet flew over the ground without touching it. It could walk effortlessly
in a circle, as if drawing a planet in the night sky. When it ran, the horse bent its neck so smoothly
that it seemed as if the new moon was shining from it. The royals bred a powerful herd of these
golden horses, and nobody could defeat them.
One year, the King of Scythia, to show the strength of his family, called for a great feast with the
leaders of the neighbouring tribes. Many guests came with wonderful gifts to show their respect.
After several days of feasting and drinking, everyone was invited to the hunt. On that day, many
animals of various kinds were killed for sport in the surrounding steppes and forests. The eldest
Prince, who wanted to show off his skills, chased after a powerful bull. But disaster struck: the
angry animal knocked the rider off his horse and stabbed him with its huge horns.
The grief of the Prince’s father was without end. He promised that whoever brought his son back
from the Realm of the Dead would receive whatever prize they desired. Priests
and magicians came from all over to help the King, but none of their magic worked. Just when it
seemed like it was all for nothing, an old wizard arrived from the far north.
‘Only you can bring back your son from the Realm of the Dead and hear his voice again,’ said the
magician.
‘But how? I don’t know any magic that would work,’ the King whispered in despair.
‘Your servants must kill the forty most handsome boys and just as many of your finest horses.
Once their bodies are placed around the coffin, the Prince will return to life.’
‘What must I pay for this?’ the Scythian King asked in fear.
‘Your son himself will tell you,’ said the old magician, lowering his head before the mighty ruler.
So, by order of the King, the forty most handsome boys of the tribe and the forty finest horses of
the royal herd were killed. At sunset, the horses and boys, shining in their gold armour, were placed
in a circle around the Prince’s coffin. The King stood and waited in silence. At first, not a soul
moved, but then, in the last flashes of the evening sun, his son’s eyes began to open! The King ran
forward, lifted him by his shoulders and pulled him into a hug.
‘Oh, my son!’ he cried. ‘I am so happy you are back! But how must I pay for your life?’
The Prince’s cold hands reached out and grabbed his father with incredible force. From the lips of
his dead son, Death himself spoke to the King.
‘I have been around since before you were born, but you have not mentioned me once! Your guests
of honour killed animals on the hunt, and you did not appreciate my work! Throughout your
celebrations you feasted and drank, wishing each other rich and happy lives, but not once did you
respect me! Thus, as was my right, I took your darling son from you.’
‘What do you want in return for my son?!’ shouted the King.
‘Your life!’ screamed the Prince, and those were the last words the King ever heard.
In the morning, the servants found the dead bodies of their masters. They buried them together on
a high hill among the endless fields of the steppe. Forty guards riding forty golden horses
accompanied the King and Prince in their coffins to the Realm of the Dead.
When the gods heard that the King had given the golden horses up to Death, the mighty Scythians
lost their favour forever. Horror and suffering gripped the land, and the Sarmatians, once
considered the slaves of the Scythians, invaded from the east and destroyed the rich and powerful
nation. Along with its incredible jewels, the Sarmatians took their huge herds of horses.
But the golden horses were gone! All that was left were their children, whose eyes had not yet
turned to gold. No matter how hard they tried to raise and breed the animals, not a single golden
horse came of them.
Legend has it that the golden horses did not disappear completely. It is said that during the final
battle between the Scythians and Sarmatians, the last few golden horses ran away to an island
surrounded by the rough waters of the river Dana. Since then, the horses have stayed hidden and
live in peace, feasting on the green grasses for many centuries.
Wwwwwwwwwww
The Other Mermaid. You can find a transcript of the episode

at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Mermaid. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Mermaid. This contains
the full story, as well as my conversation before it.
So today’s story is kind of a sequel to a previous episode, The Little Mermaid. You can listen to the
previous episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Little. The Little Mermaid is a famous fairy tale
written by Hans Christian Andersen and the most famous version is the Disney film. However, I like
to think that my version of the story was quite as well, and you seemed to all enjoy it as well.
So today’s story references The Little Mermaid a lot. You don’t have to listen to The Little
Mermaid to understand it, to enjoy it, because really it’s a completely separate story, but it might be
good to at least know a bit about The Little Mermaid before we start. So, just in case you haven’t
read the story or you haven’t watched the film, I will just summarise it, OK?
So in The Little Mermaid there is a mermaid, a woman who is a fish, who lives under the sea with
her family, and secretly she really wants to go to the human world because she falls in love with a
prince. So she makes a deal with a witch, a woman who does magic, to turn her into a human, but
she has to give up her voice. If she can make the man fall in love with her, she will be a human
forever, but if she does not, then she will turn into seawater.
And unfortunately, in the original story and in my version of The Little Mermaid, she does not get
the man to fall in love with her, and she ends up turning back into seawater.
In the Disney film, there’s a much happier ending, but um, I like sad endings as you know. So in my
version she has a sad ending.
Fortunately, this story is kind of the opposite of the The Little Mermaid. It starts off very sad and
then gets very happy at the end. So if you prefer happy endings, you’ll definitely like today’s story, I
think.
Actually, I wrote this story originally during one of the live streams. By the way, remember that
there is a live stream, a special birthday live stream for me, uh, on the eighth of May. That’s
Saturday at 1pm British time. Go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Stream to find out when that is and
to set a reminder.
So I wrote the story during one of the live streams and of course I had the help of all of the people
watching, because they gave me ideas and we worked together to make the story. I think it came
out a very nice story. So thank you all for coming to the stream! And thank you for contributing to
the story if you did. I think it was a lot of fun.
And it just goes to show you that sometimes weird ideas can actually make a great story, because
one of the people listening suggested that the main character likes juggling, and at first I thought
that was stupid, but then I put it in the story and it ended up being a really good detail that came up
again later. If you don’t know what juggling is, I’m going to explain it a bit later, so don’t worry.
Anyway, thanks again to everyone for watching the stream! You can go
to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Stream to find out when the next one is at any time.
A mermaid is a magical creature. It is a woman who is half-fish. The top half of her body is human,
and the bottom half is fish. She has a big fish tail instead of legs. There is a famous Disney film
called The Little Mermaid about a mermaid called Ariel.
‘Abracadabra!’ or ‘Expecto patronum!’. Wizards and witches cast spells.
A curse is an evil spell, evil magic. When you curse something, you change something about it, and
the curse must be broken to get it back to normal. For example, a witch or wizard might curse a
prince so that he dies on his eighteenth birthday. To break the curse, the prince has to have true
love’s kiss.
Juggling is when you throw three balls into the air and catch them. You keep throwing them so
that one or more balls is always in the air. You can also juggle with bottles or swords, for example.
It is difficult to juggle, and you have to practise a long time to juggle well. If you go to the circus,
you might see a clown juggle.
Wallow in self-pity is when you are feeling really bad about yourself. You think you have done
something really stupid, so you have lots of self-pity, you pity yourself. You pity yourself so much
that you are wallowing, rolling around, in it. For example, maybe you lost your job and you spend all
day crying and saying, ‘I’m so useless! I can’t do anything!’ That’s wallowing in your self-pity.
A shipwreck is a ship that hit a rock, or an iceberg, and sank under the sea. In stories, shipwrecks
are often at the bottom of the sea and have lots of treasure and gold inside.
An octopus is an animal that lives in the sea. It has eight arms, called tentacles, and these
tentacles are very sticky, they stick to things easily. When an octopus is in danger, it sprays ink,
throws ink, at its enemy.
Spin, and the past tense is spun, is when you move something around in a circle. When you drive a
car, the wheels spin. When you put clothes in a washing machine, it spins them around to clean
them. There are some office chairs which you can spin around on, and it’s very fun to do so.
A big thank-you to our new patron, Silvia Polo-Rieser. I’m assuming that’s a German name. Thank
you so much, Silvia. Your support really means a lot to us.
The Other Mermaid
You have probably heard of a certain mermaid, who came from Denmark and fell in love with a
human prince. She made a deal with a witch, turned into a human and tried to win his heart, but
she was unable to. So she turned into sea water and disappeared.
Well, I’m sorry to say that the mermaid in this story does not fall in love with any evil prince living in
a fancy castle, nor does she turn into water. If you’re looking for a sad ending, you’ll have to go
elsewhere.
But this story can promise a sad beginning, that much is certain. For our mermaid, the Other
Mermaid, did not live in a castle under the water, surrounded by her loving family, but in the park of
a large city.
For, you see, she was a statue. Every night, when nobody was looking—and the park could hardly
be considered popular—she transformed, breaking the stony shell of her statue and swimming
around the pond in the park. As long as the moonlight touched her, she could remain in this form,
but once it disappeared, she would turn back into stone.
Her name was Alejandrita. She had long, purple-red hair, and she loved nothing more than to swim
around the pond and dive down deep into its waters. Still, the water did not go deep enough to
satisfy her desire, and she wished with all her heart to return to the ocean.
For although she did not have such wonderful beginnings as the Danish mermaid, she had
originally lived in the deep blue sea, like all the others of her kind. It was through a series of bad
decisions, and even worse men, that she had arrived here, cursed to live the daylight hours as a
statue.
Just like the more famous mermaid, she had fallen in love with a man, though this was no prince,
but instead a builder. A kind, earthy man who surely would hurt no woman on purpose. She made a
deal with a sea wizard to turn herself into a human, but every night she had to turn back into a
mermaid, swim back into the sea and live in the wizard’s house, cooking and cleaning for him.
She was a talented girl, skilled at both singing and juggling, but it was her beauty and charms
which made the human builder fall in love with her. Nevertheless, true love’s kiss had no magic in
her case; she still had to return to the sea every evening. And one day, the builder found out about
her secret and flew into a rage. He would never hurt a woman, but before him he did not see a
woman but a monster. He beat her and locked her up in the basement in a pool of water. Then he
called all the world to come and look at her, like a zoo animal. In particular, they loved to watch her
painful transformation as the sun set each day.
The wizard, furious that his slave had disappeared, came to the human world to find her. Seeing
that she was trapped, he offered another deal to her, so that she could escape.
‘You must come and live with me. Day and night. You will cook and clean, and teach me to sing
and juggle as beautifully as you do.’
‘And what then?’
‘You will be allowed to leave.’
So Alejandrita accepted his offer, spending several painful years passing on her skills to him.
Every day, she turned back into a human, and had to crawl back onto the beach, sleeping in the sun
until her tail grew back and she could go to teach her student. He liked her that way, tired and
inflexible, as it meant she couldn’t escape.
After five years of this setup, Alejandrita spoke to him.
‘Now you sing as beautifully as a songbird and juggle like a master. Can I leave now?’
The wizard paused, as if he was seriously considering whether to set her free or not. Then he said,
‘Yes, but you must promise to never sing or juggle again.’
‘That wasn’t part of our deal!’
‘A talent is only as worthwhile as it is unique. I can’t have people hearing me and thinking that I did
not create it myself! Anyway, if you do not obey me I will find out.’
‘Aren’t you at least going to turn me back into a full mermaid again?’
‘Only if you promise to not use your talents.’
Feeling sick, Alejandrita swam away. She could not accept the deal. She went to a human city, and
at night, she swam in the river and hid from human eyes. She belonged to neither world entirely,
and with no other choice, she turned to her singing and juggling skills to make money. Every day,
she wandered from street to street, performing for coins, but she never escaped from poverty
while she was there.
One night, when she dove into a pool at a certain park, she saw a familiar face staring up at her
from the darkness.
‘You broke the deal,’ hissed the wizard.
‘I never agreed to it!’
She tried to climb out of the water and get away, but he grabbed her tail, dragging her down.
‘I should kill you for your rudeness. But I am a kind master. I will give you one last chance. I will
turn you fully into a mermaid, and you will come and be my wife.’
Alejandrita felt sick. ‘Or…?’
‘Or you will be cursed to remain here forever.’
‘I would rather die than marry you.’
She slapped him in the face with her tail and jumped out of the water. She only made it a few
metres before he reached out his hand and cast a spell on her. She fell to the ground, and a
strange sensation passed through her body.
‘What did you do?’
‘You will see soon enough,’ the wizard said, chuckling. ‘Good night, you nasty little creature.’
Soon, the sun began to rise, and Alejandrita learned that there are some punishments far worse
than death, as her whole body turned to stone.
Nobody could tolerate such an existence for long. Alejandrita wallowed in self-pity for several
months, living on food the humans threw away, before she decided she had to get out of there.
She had tried swimming down into the pond, and it connected to some tunnels, but as soon as she
went away from the moonlight she began to turn to stone. If she turned to stone down there in the
dark, she would be trapped forever.
So the poor mermaid did the only thing she could do during the daytime: she watched. She
watched the people passing by, the parents and children, the businessmen, the homeless and the
police. She searched for someone remarkable, someone who could help her, and eventually she
noticed a certain man.
At first glance, he looked just like the others. He wore a suit and tie, and he walked with his head
down. But after several days of observing him, she noticed that his beard was quite large, much
thicker than was fashionable at that time. And his tie was a deep purple colour, standing out
compared to the blacks and greys around him. One day, when the street was quiet, she watched
him wave his hand over a leaf and send it flying in the air.
He was a wizard, no doubt about it. He hid it well, but wizards were never fully able to hide their
natures from the rest of the world. She didn’t particularly want to ask for help from another of his
kind, but what choice did she have? She would make another deal and get out of here before he
could curse her.
So she waited patiently. At night, she tried to make interesting shapes with her body, so that when
she turned into stone she might catch his eye. After several weeks of this, apparently completely
failing to capture his interest, he stopped in the park one afternoon and sat on the bench in front of
her statue, deeply absorbed in a book.
He was so fascinated by it that he didn’t even notice it getting dark, and as soon as the moon
appeared she fell onto the ground beside him.
‘You have to help me,’ she said, dipping her tail into the water.
‘Hmm? Oh! You are a mermaid.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But I am trapped here. Another wizard cursed me, and I can only remain in my true
form under the moonlight. By day, I turn to stone.’
‘ “Another” wizard?’ He blinked. ‘How did you know?’
‘You don’t hide it that well, you know. Now, I know that this pond connects to some underground
tunnels, and I think they lead to the sea. But if I try and swim through there, I will lose sight of the
moon and turn back into a statue. I need help getting through.’
‘Hmm,’ said the wizard, smiling. He seemed to be enjoying this. ‘I could put the moon in a jar.’
‘Perfect!’ she said.
‘But I want something in return. It’s not an easy spell.’
Alejandrita’s heart began to beat fast. Here it was, the moment of truth.
‘Deep under the sea there is a pot. I want you to get it.’
‘A pot? That’s it?’

‘Not just any pot! It is a magic pot, covered with eyes, eyes which see into a person’s future and
past.’
‘Oh, I see.’ As far as Alejandrita was concerned, thinking about the future was a waste of time. ‘You
know, seeing into your future won’t make you any happier.’
‘Who said I was thinking of looking into my future? Anyway, it doesn’t matter what I’m going to do
with it, I just need you to go and get it for me. I’ll even undo the other wizard’s curse so you don’t
have to turn into a statue anymore. So, is it a deal?’
‘Fine.’
They shook hands and the wizard cast his spell. He pointed at the moon and muttered to himself.
The moon grew bigger and bigger, filling up the night sky, and soon Alejandrita realised it was
coming down to them. Just as it seemed the moon would crash into the Earth, destroying
everything in its path, it began to shrink, and, holding out a jar that had appeared out of nowhere,
the wizard caught the moon and closed it in the jar.
He handed the shining jar to Alejandrita with a self-satisfied smile.
‘I’ll meet you at the beach. See you soon!’
Alejandrita dove down into the pond and swam faster than she ever had in her life. It was dark in
the tunnels, and she hit herself many times, but she was determined. As she went, she began to
smell the salt of the ocean, and within a few hours she was outside.
She burst out of the water. Now that she was out of the city, the sky shone with thousands of
stars, although it looked odd without the moon. She laughed and dove back into the water. She
waved at the fishes, ran her hands through the seaweed, and fell back in love with the smell and
taste of the sea.
When she finally returned to the beach, the wizard was waiting. He was sitting on the sand,
dressed in modest black wizard clothes and the traditional pointed hat.
She handed him the jar, and he opened it up. The moon flew into the sky, so small that she quickly
lost sight of it, and then suddenly it ballooned back to its normal size.
‘You look like you’ve just run a marathon,’ said the wizard.
‘Where is this pot?’ She was free now. She had no intention of wasting time here joking around
with a wizard.
‘It is hidden in a shipwreck a few hours from here. Quite amazing luck that you showed up like that,
really. Anyway, I will remove the curse now.’
He clicked his fingers.

‘That’s it? I can move around in the day now?’ She couldn’t believe it was that easy. ‘You know I
could just leave you here? Why do you trust me?’
The wizard smiled. ‘Yes, you could just run away. It’s really up to you. But equally, I could hunt you
down and curse you again.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Alejandrita. ‘I’ll meet you back here.’
‘Don’t you want to rest first?’
‘I want to get this over with and get back to living my life.’
She swam down to the shipwreck. Her tail ached, given that she hadn’t swum so much in months,
but she was driven by a strong desire. She would get this pot and then return home. Oh, how her
family must have missed her! She went red thinking about how her mother would shout at her.
Could she really go back? She wasn’t sure if they knew everything that had happened to her, and
all sorts of rumours could have started since she left…
These thoughts swam around in her head as she swam down, and before she knew it she saw the
shipwreck in the distance. It was a small, modest boat, but she could sense the power of the
treasure inside.
‘This will be a piece of cake.’
But as she approached, something dark appeared from behind the ship, waving
ghostly tentacles in the air. It was a giant octopus, as black as the night, with frightening red eyes.
‘Of course it’s guarded by a monster. Just my luck.’
She stopped swimming, and the horrible creature gradually revealed its full body. It had thirty long,
powerful tentacles, each holding a rusty sword which must have been rescued from various
shipwrecks. It waved its tentacles about, and it took her a moment to realise that it
was juggling the swords! From inside the ship, she saw the shine of the pot.
But the monster had seen her, and was glaring at her, daring her to come closer.
“Hmm,” she thought. “If he juggles, maybe I can speak to him…”
It was unlikely to work, but she didn’t particularly want to get her arm chopped off trying to steal
the pot.
So cautiously she swam forward and called, ‘Hello!’
A deep, dark groan came from the octopus as it spoke. ‘Do you seek my treasure?’
‘Oh, no!’ she said. ‘I just saw you juggling and, well, I love juggling, too.’
‘Oh?’ The octopus threw five swords towards her. She jumped out of the way, and then realised
that he did not intend to hurt her. They flew slowly through the water, and spun around so that their
handles faced towards her. ‘Show me.’
Alejandrita picked up the swords. They were covered with seaweed, which made them slimy and
difficult to hold. She was used to juggling with balls, but she would have to do her best.
She held her breath and threw the swords into the water. At first, she made some mistakes, but
gradually her skill came back to her. It was different with swords—she had to be more careful, and
their weight was more varied—but after a while she was throwing the swords upwards and
catching them like it was nothing.
Oh, it felt good to juggle again! She started laughing, and then, unable to control herself, she sang
as well.
‘Oh, what a wonderful day to be singing
and sending all these swords a-swinging!’
She made up the words as she went, and she started doing tricks with the swords, sending
them spinning in impressive circles.
‘Wow!’ said the octopus, his eyes sticking out at her. ‘I’ve never met anyone who juggles as well as
you. Do you have any advice?’
Alejandrita put down the swords and took on a serious expression. ‘Yes. When you juggle, it’s
really important for your mind and body to be free. You can’t have any unnecessary things
distracting you.’ She tapped her chin as if she was deep in thought, and then said, ‘Ah! Take that
pot, for example.’ She pointed at the shipwreck. ‘I bet it’s so distracting, all those eyes looking at
you. If you got rid of it, you could juggle much better.’
‘Of course!’ said the octopus. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!’
‘I would be more than happy to take it from you.’
The octopus stuck its head into the ship and pulled out the pot, throwing it in her direction. She
caught it and smiled.
‘Well, enjoy your juggling!’
Laughing to herself, she swam back up to the beach. It was daytime, and the sun shone brilliantly,
warming her skin.
The wizard was waiting on the beach, watching the clouds calmly.
‘Here!’ she said, throwing the pot onto the sand. She hadn’t taken a good look at it before, but now
in the sun it looked horrible. It was covered with big, blood-red eyes, looking in every direction, and
some of them even stared directly at her.
‘Careful, you’ll get sand in its eyes!’ he said, brushing it off. ‘Thank you. Was it easy?’
‘Oh, I just had to fight a big, black octopus with a bunch of swords. No big deal.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know there was anything down there.’
‘It’s fine. Am I free now?’
‘Of course,’ said the wizard. He stared happily at the pot. ‘I wish you all the best.’
But there was one thing she wanted to ask him before she left.
‘Maybe it’s none of my business, but… why did you want this pot in the first place? Most people
who want to look into the future have evil plans, but you don’t seem like the kind of guy.’
The wizard sighed. For a moment, he said nothing, and then he spoke. ‘Long ago, in my past, I
made a big mistake and hurt someone. I’ve always doubted myself and what really happened. I
was young and I fell into dark magic. I don’t remember that period very well, if I’m being honest. I
want to look into my past and find out what really happened.’
‘Oh,’ said Alejandrita. That was a much more serious answer than she’d been expecting. ‘You
know, you can’t think about the past too much. Believe me, I made some stupid mistakes, but I’m
free now. That’s all that matters.’
The wizard looked very surprised, and then laughed. ‘I think you’re right. I need to focus on the
present.’
Carefully, he put the pot down and waved his hands in the air. The pot shrank down and
transformed into a ring. He picked it up and held it out to her.
‘Would you like this?’
Her eyes went as wide as the ones on the pot. ‘Are you asking me to marry you?’
‘Yes!’ he said, as if it was obvious.
Alejandrita stared at the ring and then said, ‘Look, you’re nice, but I barely know you.’
‘Oh,’ said the wizard, and he went bright red. He looked down at the ring. ‘This was a stupid idea,
wasn’t it?’
‘A bit much for some mermaid you just met. Why don’t we start with something a bit more simple?
I don’t even know your name.’
‘I’m Juan.’
‘Lovely to meet you, Juan. I’m Alejandrita. Why don’t we meet here tomorrow night, for dinner?’
‘Perfect,’ he said. ‘I love cooking.’
‘Great. But no seafood!’
So the mermaid and the wizard met on the beach night after night. Gradually, they came to know
each other very well, and they fell deeply in love with each other, as deep as the ocean.
Juan never turned the ring back into the pot. He never found out what really happened in the past,
because it did not matter. His present was much happier. And one day, when they were both ready,
Alejandrita accepted his ring.
And they lived happily ever after.
Wwwwwwwwwwwww
A Letter from God. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/God.
That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/God. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
So today’s story is another listener-submitted story. One of our listeners, Hubert Lenartowicz, sent
in the story. So thank you so much again, Hubert, for your wonderful story. It’s a really interesting
personal story. It’s a real story. So it’s a bit different. We’ve never had a real-life story on the
podcast before, except perhaps the episode about Ludowik Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto.
That’s at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hope if you are interested. But anyway, today’s story is a very
personal story, so I really appreciate Hubert sending it in.
Hubert’s father’s funeral

Hubert is from Poland and the story takes place in the capital of Poland, Warsaw, or, as it’s known
in Polish, Warszawa. Poland is a lovely country. I have been there quite a few times for Esperanto
events, mainly. Uh, I haven’t been around Warsaw very much but, uh, Polish food is delicious! And
Polish people are very nice. Actually, there is a very large population of Polish people in the UK,
especially in London.
Hubert’s grandmother, Bronisława Włodkowska
So today’s story is about Hubert’s grandparents and his experience with God and religion,
specifically, Christianity. Hubert has collected some wonderful pictures of his grandparents when
they were young, so pictures from the 40s and 50s and 60s, and I’m going to post some of these
pictures on the transcript at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/God. So thanks again, Hubert, and
remember, if you want to send in a story that you have written, write me an email
at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com. I would love to read your work.
Since today’s story is related to religion, I thought I might as well talk about my own experience
with religion. So, both my parents are Christian. I think that’s the right word? I’ll be honest, even
though my parents are religious and I went to a religious school, I really don’t understand the
differences between the denominations very well. So the denominations are the difference
between Christian, catholic, Roman catholic, protestant, Church of England and so on.
Anyway, I went to a catholic school and I used to go to church every week but I don’t think I ever
really believed in God. I found church and religion very boring, to be honest, especially when I was
young, and when I became a teenager I started looking up stuff online and I formally decided that I
was an athiest.
So an athiest is a non-believer, someone who does not believe in the existence of God. And I
became an athiest officially maybe around 12 or 13, and I was a really annoying, obnoxious athiest,
actually. I read a lot of forums online about athiesm and how “religion is stupid” and all of those
things. Luckily, I never got angry at anyone. I never really told anyone these views apart from my
friends at school. I think now there are a lot athiests online who are incredibly annoying and very
obnoxious and loud about their beliefs or lack of beliefs.
I still consider myself an athiest, or maybe agnostic. Agnostic means that you are not an athiest
but you don’t strongly believe in God, that you’re open to the idea of religion or open to the idea of
God existing. I would still say I am an athiest but it’s not important for me. It really isn’t a big deal.
I think my problem is actually more with Christianity specifically. I have considered both Judaism
and Buddhism before for converting and, I don’t know, at the moment I don’t have enough time to
really convert to another religion, you know? I want to do the research and really figure out if it’s
right for me. The part of Judaism that interests me is the discussion, the debate and the
interpretation of texts such as the Torah. I really get the feeling that in Judaism there’s a lot of
interpretation rather than just being told what to believe, and I really like the practices and
language that are used in Buddhism.
Obviously, there are many different branches or denominations of Buddhism but generally the
incorporation of meditation into the religion really, I appreciate. Actually, I was going to a Buddhist
group for a while in my city, in Bath, uh, where we did meditation together, but I don’t know if I
could convert to Buddhism, ’cause when you convert to Buddhism you have to say you will never
kill… OK, I will never kill… a person, at least! Maybe I’ll kill a fly, I don’t know. Uh, you have to say you
will become a vegetarian and that you will never steal and, OK the vegetarian part I could probably
do, but like sometimes I steal pens from work, and I don’t think that’s such a big deal! So, I don’t
know if I could formally convert to Buddhism, but I’ve definitely considered it. So for now, I’m not
religious but we will see what happens with that.
Recently, the podcast hit an important milestone. So a milestone is a way of marking progress,
and the milestone that we hit was 500,000 listens. So the episodes of the podcast have been
listened to over 500,000 times, which is crazy! It’s so big. I cannot believe it’s grown so quickly. I
appreciate all of you listening so much and I need to figure out what to do when we hit a million,
because obviously a million is a really special number so I should find some way to celebrate. But
thank you so much for listening, and I really am enjoying doing the podcast.
Communism is an ideology, a belief system, and a system of government. Communism is based

on the writings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg and so on. The goal of
communism is to achieve a society with complete economic equality, meaning that all arms of
production—factories, farms, workshops—will be owned and run by the workers themselves.
Basically, there will be no CEOs who make money from other people’s work. In addition to this,
communist societies would have free access to healthcare, public transport, education and so on.
However, the transition to communism would take a long time, so before communism is achieved,
a stage of socialism is required. There is sometimes confusion because countries such as China
and Cuba are “communist countries” but have socialism as their current system. Based on the
theory of marxism, communist countries such as China are trying to move gradually from
socialism to communism.
In today’s story, there is reference to the “communist era” in Poland. Along with many countries,
Poland used to be a communist state. It was part of the Soviet Union, a union of many communist
countries, along with Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan etc.
An urn is a big pot that you put a dead person’s ashes in. So when someone dies, you can choose
to bury them, put them in the ground, or have them cremated, burnt. When you cremate a dead
person, you take their ashes, their remains, and keep them in an urn. Some people keep urns of
dead relatives in their house.
A wake is a kind of party that happens after a funeral. At the wake, people eat food and talk about
the person who has died. It is sometimes called a ‘reception’ as well. Sometimes, wakes are very
quiet and sad, but some people have happy wakes, to try and celebrate the life of the person who
died.
Carefree is when you have no worries. You are not at all anxious. You are literally free of cares. I
wish I was carefree. Usually, I worry too much about things, and I am not so carefree.
A baptism is a ceremony for new babies. When a baby is baptised, a priest pours water over their
head and gives the baby a name. In Christianity, all children are baptised.
A wreath is a decoration made from leaves and flowers. You make a ring of green leaves, and then
attach flowers, ribbons and bells to make it look nice. Wreaths are usually made for Christmas,
and you put it on your front door. In this story, a wreath is made to put on a grave instead.
Intimate is when you know someone very well, you are very close. For example, I am intimate with
my close friends and I can talk to them about everything. Intimate can also mean a private matter.
For example, I don’t want to talk about my romantic life on the podcast, because it is something
intimate
On Saturday, I had the first $15 Patreon level class. So at the $15 level on Patreon I do a two-hour
online class once a month and I record the class so that you can watch it again later. So I did a
class with Sinan, just one student, and it was very fun. I told a story with puppets, we chatted, we
played a game and we wrote a little story together. So if that sounds like fun for you, go to the
Patreon and subscribe at the $15 level.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, szymon, Danko Ljubic, Jairo Andres Ballen Mosquera and
André Gama. Your support really means a lot to us. Thank you.
A Letter from God

My name is Hubert Lenartowicz, and this is my story. All the details in it are true. I hope you will
believe me.
I’m 57 and I grew up in a family of athiests. My father in particular did not believe in God. In
addition, he was a police officer in a school for traffic police, as well as a history teacher. In the
communist era in Poland it was forbidden for police officers to believe in God or have any
connections to the Church. It might not mean losing your job but it would be the end of your
professional career. Even as a retired man, my father was critical of the Church.
My wife, on the other hand, is deeply religious, and tells me religious stories regularly. I don’t care
much for them. I told her that I am not an enemy of the Church, I simply am not a believer.
‘Maybe one day I’ll see a sign and change my mind. I’m open to believing. But for now, I’m not
interested.’
I always saw her when she came back from church, or other religious meetings. She always
looked so happy. But I didn’t see myself as part of it.
My father died at 86-years-old on the second of April 2018. On the ninth was his funeral. The day
before, I went to see our family grave. I wanted to see if they had changed it. I also visited the hall
where my father’s urn was, and checked the restaurant for the wake after the funeral, as well as
the parking facilities. Everything seemed in order.
I also went to visit my grandmother’s grave. She passed away in 1982, and she was my guiding
light. Her grave looked the same as ever. There was a stone cross coming out of it, with her
picture placed on it. I stared at the picture for a long time. Then I covered it with my hand and
looked up the sky and thought.
“You were the most important person in the world. I think about you a lot, you know. You are
always close to my heart.”
I went home, and a few hours later, my mother came to me.
‘Look. I found this while cleaning out Dad’s drawers. It’s an old letter. I didn’t know we had it. My
mother wrote it in 1964, when you were just two years old.’
The letter was written by my maternal grandmother, my mother’s mother, to my paternal

grandmother, my father’s mother. My maternal grandmother talked about me in a way that only a
grandmother can. She called me “Peter”, the name I used as a child. The letter was cheerful and
carefree, but there were two sentences that were very serious.
It is time for the child to be shown to God. I know Peter’s father does not want to baptise him, but it
must happen. We will do it in secret.
Suddenly I understood. Those words were not written to my paternal grandmother, but to me,
reading the letter now 54 years later. It was a letter from God: a sign. It was clear, as clear as
daylight. I had tears in my eyes. It could not be a coincidence. I had just visited her grave and
thought about her, and suddenly this letter appeared. It had waited 54 years to be read by me.
My father’s mother had given my father the letter. My father knew that I was baptised, but he said
nothing. Still, he kept the letter in his house, so that he could prove to his employer that he was
against his son’s baptism, if he needed to. The two sentences about my baptism were underlined
in red pencil. And God, in his wisdom, used my grandmother to lead me to Him.
But this is not the end of the story. The day after the funeral, I went back to the family grave to say
my last goodbye to my father. I was moving away from Warsaw, so I wouldn’t see him for a long
time. While I was there, I checked that the flowers and wreaths were in good condition.
“Hmm, if I put these two wreaths on the cross it’ll look much better.”
While I put up the wreaths, I hit my head twice on the cross. It felt like a message from God: ‘You
understood the message in your grandmother’s letter, but that is not all. Now you must take
action.’
Over the next weeks and months, I told this story to some close friends. They were just as amazed
as I was. I started to wonder, is it OK to tell other people? Or is it an intimate matter between me
and God? Is it our secret that I should not be boasting about?
But as the months passed, my fear of telling the story disappeared. I felt like God was on my side.
And in the last two years, my life has been full of happiness. So now I tell you this story not with
fear, but with joy.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Heart of Iron. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Iron.

That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Iron. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
So today’s story is an adaptation of The Princess and the Frog. The Princess and the Frog is a
famous Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tale about a prince who turns into a frog and is then turned back
into a human by a princess who kisses him.
At least, that’s the modern version of the tale. So when I went to read the original version to make
this episode, I was quite surprised to find it very different from what I remembered. In the original
fairy tale, the princess does not kiss the frog. Actually, she’s quite violent towards it. She throws it
against the wall in a fit of rage and because of this, somehow, the frog turns back into a human.
Although, I guess that’s probably a nicer ending than the frog exploding into slime and guts! Uh,
sorry, I have a bit of a weird sense of humour.
There is also a part in the original story that is often left out of adaptations, about Iron Henry. So
Iron Henry is one of the servants of the prince, and he is so sad when the prince is turned into a
frog that he has three bands of iron wrapped around his heart to stop him from feeling things.
However, when the prince comes back as a human, and they are riding to the prince and the
princess’s wedding, the three bands around the servant’s heart gradually break, and the prince
thinks that the sound of the iron breaking is the carriage breaking, but actually it is Iron Henry’s
heart, because he is so happy to see his prince come back to life and get married. Aww, how cute!
Well, I thought that was a very nice ending, but I wanted to make it a bit darker. So this is my
version of the story, based on the frog prince and Iron Henry, but it’s quite a bit darker than the
original. So if you like happy endings, sorry! You’re not going to get one today. For some reason, I
seem only capable of writing very light, romantic fairy tales, or miserable dark ones where most of
the people die. But I hope you enjoy this one, anyway! I certainly enjoyed writing it.
OK, so I’ll just go through some words that are in today’s story.
Armour is a type of hard clothing made from iron, steel or leather. You wear armour to protect
yourself, and in the medieval times armour was very complicated. You needed someone to help
you put on your suit of armour, and knights wore armour when they rode into battle. Now, we don’t
need armour so much because we don’t fight with swords. However, you can still get body armour
which protects you from bullets, although it still really hurts to get shot, even if you have body
armour on, so I don’t recommend it!
A page is a knight’s servant, so a knight in training. So again, this comes from the medieval times. I
believe pages trained from the time they were eleven or twelve, and then they were made into a
knight after many years of service, and it was your page who usually helped you put your armour
on.
A witch. If you’ve listened to previous episodes, you will definitely know this word because I love
witches. But if you don’t know it, a witch is an evil woman who does magic. She rides on a broom
and she laughs like this: [cackles]. And witches often have black cats as pets.
A sarcastic smile is a smile when you don’t really mean it. You’re smiling but in a way that it’s clear
that you’re not really happy. Usually, if someone makes a very bad joke you will give them a
sarcastic smile, like, “Haha, very funny. Mm-hmm.” In the UK, we love sarcasm. We use
sarcasm all the time, which is basically when you are pretending to do one emotion but you’re
pretending in a very obvious way, so people know you are pretending. Like when you say, ‘Oh, wow,
that sounds really fun!’ That’s obviously sarcastic. Or I say ‘obviously’… It is obvious to me as a
British person but I think, in some other cultures, sarcasm isn’t as big, it isn’t as popular. So just be
careful when you come to the UK, ’cause we use a lot of sarcasm. Much more than Americans do,
for example.
The next one is a phrase that comes up a lot, I guess, in films, which is: I like girls with a bit of
spunk in them. So “spunk” means like a kind of energy, rebelliousness. Basically, when you like
girls that don’t act like typical princesses running and screaming and hiding. No, they like to fight
back a bit. Those are girls with a bit of spunk in them.
A noble is a member of the highest level of society. It’s not really a big thing now but in the
medieval times, the nobles were a complete class of society, and they held all the power and had
very big houses.
A roar is a sound that a lion makes, like [roar]. That’s my best roar. We can also say a fire roars,
when it gets nice and big, and it kind of goes [whoosh], like that kind of sound. That’s a roar as
well.
A chaotic blaze. So “chaotic” means out of control, full of chaos, and a blaze is a big fire that you
can’t control. So if there is a chaotic blaze, there’s no sense to anything, it’s confused, it’s a huge
fire and it’s probably destroying everything in its way.
Finally, “charred” means completely burned. So burned that it’s completely black and usually falls
into a powder. So if you char your saucepan while cooking, it will be very difficult to clean it
because all of the bottom will be burnt and black.
By the way, I’m speaking a bit faster today than I normally do, because someone commented that
for the intermediate stories, they would like me to speak a bit faster. So if this speed is good for
you, if you are at an intermediate level and you can understand everything well, that’s fantastic. But
it may be that it’s too fast for you or I’m using too many new words. Anyway, if you have any
thoughts about this, either positive or negative, do leave a
comment EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Iron. I would love to hear about it.
Thank you so much to our new patrons: Sebastián González Henao and Andrea Agnes.
Heart of Iron
Henry’s heart was too big. That was always his problem. He knew that he could never be with the
prince, but still, he watched him lovingly every day. He watched him eat, he watched him dance,
and he watched him sword fight. Every action Prince Brandle took was beautiful, and Henry loved
watching him.
Henry was happy to live this way, watching the prince secretly. He was only a servant, after all. He
did not dare speak to the man, and when the prince looked in his direction, he made sure to look
away.
But one day, the prince noticed him. He was sword fighting with his trainer, a great knight. He
looked amazing in his armour, bright like the sun itself. Henry was so focussed on Prince Brandle,
that he did not even notice when the trainer struck his arm, sending the prince’s wooden sword
flying through the air and onto the ground next to him.
‘You there!’ shouted the prince, and Henry woke up. He was talking to him. ‘Bring me my sword,
would you?’
Henry hurriedly picked up the sword, almost tripping on the way to the prince. They were taking a
break, and the prince started to pull off his armour, wiping sweat from his forehead. Gods, he was
beautiful. Henry had always envied the page who got to help him remove his armour.
‘Here you are, my prince,’ Henry said, trembling as he held up the sword.
‘Thank you. I don’t think I know your name.’
Henry stared at the ground. ‘Henry,’ he said, almost whispering.
‘I’d like to see your face, Henry.’
But Henry couldn’t look up. He felt like Prince Brandle would read his mind, and would think he was
disgusting. After a moment, the prince grabbed Henry’s chin, and pulled him up to look at him.
‘Aren’t you pretty?’ the prince said, smiling.
Henry didn’t know if he was making fun of him, so he laughed nervously.
‘Come on,’ said the trainer. ‘Let’s get back to it.’
The prince went back to training, but from that day on Henry was no longer invisible. The prince
saw him. They even spoke, every now and then, when nobody was around. Henry couldn’t
understand it. Why was this man, this amazing man, interested in him?
But things did not stay this way. One day, happy news spread around the castle: the King and
Queen had found a beautiful princess for the prince to marry. Henry felt his heart split in two. He
knew this day was coming, but he still felt awful.
So Henry went to the witch. She lived far away from the castle, in a dark forest, and it took all of
Henry’s day off to get there and back.
Henry knew that the prince was stubborn. That was part of why Henry liked him so much. He
would not marry a woman he did not have feelings for. But the princess was supposed to be very
beautiful, so he needed to make sure the prince didn’t fall for her.
‘I need you to stop their love,’ said Henry. ‘Do whatever you can so that they will not fall in love with
each other.’
The witch smiled, and worked her magic, waving her bony hands through the air as she said
strange words. She then gave him a folded-up piece of paper. ‘Read this when you return.’
When Henry got back to the castle, there was chaos. Everyone was running around. Finally,
someone told Henry what had happened: the prince had disappeared, and in his place was a
horrible frog.
Henry couldn’t believe it. He had asked the witch to stop the prince from falling in love, but he
hadn’t expected this!
He unfolded the paper she gave him, which had some writing on it. But he did not know how to
read. Several days passed, with Henry too afraid to ask anyone to read him the paper. What if it
revealed what he’d done? The castle had fallen into a deep despair about the prince, and the
wedding was about to be cancelled.
The guilt built up, and Henry had to do something. So he found a servant who knew how to read
and asked her to read him the note.
‘It says, True love will make him human again. What is this, poetry?’
Henry just laughed nervously and thanked her.
True love. His heart beat fast thinking about it. He thought back to the look the prince gave him,
the day when they first talked. Wasn’t that true love…?
So Henry sent a message to the King and Queen: he knew a way to make the prince human again.
‘It’s a magic word. I need to whisper it in his ear.’
It was a terrible plan, but the King and Queen had tried everything, so they let him in.
The prince looked miserable. It was hard to recognise him as a frog, but his eyes were just the
same as before, only now they were heavy with sadness. He sat in a small pond that they had put
in his room, lying on his side in the water.
Henry went to the frog prince, but instead of whispering the word, he kissed him on the cheek. It
was wet and slimy, but Henry still felt a great excitement. This was how it happened in the stories.
True love’s kiss would bring him back!
But nothing happened. The frog stared at him and gave a sarcastic smile, and Henry felt his heart
break again. He was not Brandle’s true love.
‘How is it going?’ said the Queen, standing by the door.
‘It didn’t work,’ Henry muttered, leaving the room and the prince behind.
Henry tried to forget about him, but now it was even worse than before. Before he had enjoyed the
fantasy of uncertainty, but now he knew, he truly knew, that the prince did not love him. And worse
than that, the prince was a frog because of him.
Henry couldn’t stand the pain. He went back to the witch and asked her to make Prince Brandle
human again, but she shook her head.
‘Only true love can reverse the spell. But I can do something for you… I can take away your pain.’
‘Please,’ said Henry. ‘Do it.’
‘But first you must do something for me.’
‘I will do anything.’
The witch smiled, and worked her magic.
Ten Years Later

Princess Simone hated everyone. She liked nothing more than to be alone. But there were always
new dresses to wear, new food to eat, new people to meet. Her mother and father forced it all on
her, and she had to run away from the castle to get any peace.
That morning, she had been arguing with her father, and ran away when he started shouting at her.
Apparently, having a mud fight in her newest, prettiest dress was not princess-like behaviour.
Never mind that all they gave her were pretty, impractical dresses.
Now she sat in the forest, by a pool of water, and played with a golden ball. It was the only gift
from her parents that she actually liked. She threw the ball in the air and caught it, while whistling
to herself.
As she threw the ball up and down, she looked around, and saw a fat bird. It was the fattest bird
she had ever seen, and she was so interested in it, that she dropped the ball and it fell right into the
pond.
‘Damn!’
The pond looked deep, and she couldn’t swim very well. Just at that moment, a frog jumped out of
the water.
‘Oh frog,’ she said, sounding like a fairytale princess. ‘Please go and get my ball for me!’
She said it as a joke. Frogs couldn’t understand people. But the frog jumped into the water, and a
minute later, came back with the ball in its mouth. Amazed, she tried to take the ball, but the frog
dropped it back into the water.
‘You don’t get anything for free, my dear.’
She fell backwards. The frog could talk!
‘I’ll give you your ball back if you promise to marry me.’
Simone felt sick. It had been a bad day already, and now this frog was asking her to marry it.
But she wanted that ball back, and it had to all be a joke, didn’t it?
‘Yes, yes. I’ll marry you.’
The frog gave her the ball, and she went back to the castle. But the frog followed her.
She thought it was quite funny. Her father would probably kill the sad little thing and have it for
supper. There was no way the beautiful Princess Simone could marry a frog!
But when she told him what had happened, her father was happy.
‘Simone, you don’t know what you’ve done! There was a legend, many years ago, about a prince
who turned into a frog after a witch cast a spell on him. The only way he can turn back into a
human is through true love. And his family is very rich.’
It was no secret that Simone’s family was not doing well. Their castle was falling apart, and they
were the weakest of all the kingdoms around. Nobody wanted to marry Simone, because they
would not get much from her family, aside from a badly-behaved girl with too many dresses.
‘Father, are you mad? We can’t be in such a bad situation that you want me to marry a frog, surely?’
‘You don’t have to marry him, not yet. Let’s just see if this legend is true. Take the frog with you to
bed tonight, and be nice to him. You did make a promise, after all. I always told you to keep your
promises.’
So after dinner, Princess Simone went up to her room, and a servant followed behind, carrying the
frog on a silver tray. She felt dead. She couldn’t believe what was happening. Everyone would
laugh at her for the rest of her life!
Over supper, the frog had been charming and polite. Well, as much as a frog could be. He
maintained that the legend was true, and that he was some “Prince Brandle”, caught by a jealous
witch’s curse.
They arrived in her room, and the frog hopped onto the floor and said, ‘Fancy! I mean, not as nice
as my old place, but this will do for now. Got any chocolate?’
‘Shut up,’ Simone muttered. ‘And look away while I get undressed.’
When she turned back around to get into bed, she found the frog was already buried in the sheets.
‘Oh no. You’re not sleeping with me.’
‘I don’t know. Your father seemed to think I should. You can’t make me sleep on my own. I’ll be
cold!’
Simone felt a sudden anger. ‘You’re mad if you think I’m going to sleep with you!’ She grabbed the
frog and threw him against the wall.
The frog slammed into the wall and landed with a plop on the floor. And then, he started to grow.
‘Err, I was only joking…’
The frog grew big and tall, and his skin went from green to white, until he turned into a beautiful—
and naked—prince.
Prince Brandle jumped onto the bed and laughed. ‘I just love girls with a bit of spunk in them.
You are my true love!’
Simone screamed and ran to the door, but it was locked. The prince pulled her onto the bed and
showered her with kisses.
Henry couldn’t believe it. It had been ten years. Ten years of loneliness, ten years of magic, ten
years of hate. And now, Prince Brandle had returned, and he was going to marry his true love.
Henry felt so angry that he almost avoided the wedding. But he could not stop himself from
wondering. What was this Princess Simone like? Was she beautiful? Mysterious?
Deep down in his heart, there still burned a small fire of love for the prince. But Henry could not
feel it anymore, because anger had taken him over. The witch, his master, had sealed his heart in
iron chains, all those years ago. Now he could not feel love or joy, because witches did not need
love or joy.
So Henry went to the wedding. Brandle was as beautiful as before, as if no time had passed, but he
still acted in a slightly frog-like way. He blinked a lot, and his hair looked like it was always wet.
But when Henry saw the princess, he was truly surprised. She was indeed beautiful, but she was
also evidently miserable. She did not smile once during the whole ceremony. When Brandle kissed
her, she looked like a helpless dog.
And there, Henry saw opportunity. He did not seek Brandle’s love anymore. Instead, he sought
revenge.
After the ceremony there was a dance. Henry used magic to make himself look like a noble, and
slipped into the rows of cheerful guests. Princess Simone and Prince Brandle danced first, after
which many noblemen went and asked to be her partner. Henry waited for the right moment, when
Brandle was occupied on the other side of the room, and then asked the princess to dance.
‘You know, you don’t seem very happy.’
‘I am happy,’ she said, forcing a smile.
‘You hate him.’
‘I do not!’ But she did not sound convincing at all.
Henry moved forward and whispered in her ear. ‘You know, I can kill him for you.’
The princess laughed, as if he had just told her a witty joke. ‘How?’
‘Magic.’
She pushed him away, looking disgusted. ‘You are a witch!’
‘Henry!’
Henry turned around to see Prince Brandle walking towards him, smiling with his arms wide open.
‘You have made yourself into a noble. How lovely! My love,’ he said, turning to Simone. ‘This is an
old friend of mine. Let us talk in peace.’
Simone looked very happy to leave them, only throwing a quick glance at Henry.
‘Will you dance?’ said Brandle.
‘Yes,’ Henry said, smiling politely.
For a while, they danced. Henry was unsure what the prince wanted, but now that he was close to
him, he felt his hate growing. The flames of love burned in his heart, but all they fuelled were the
iron chains of hate.
‘You know,’ said the prince, ‘my new wife really is very beautiful.’
‘She is magnificent,’ said Henry dryly.
‘On the inside and outside. I mean that in a literal way.’ He smiled. Henry realised he was making a
sexual joke, but he did not award it a smile. Brandle continued. ‘You won’t believe how good it
feels. Ten years being a frog, and then going to bed with a young girl like that… I could almost
thank you.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Oh, don’t play that game,’ said the prince, still smiling. Always smiling. ‘I’ve asked around. I know
you’re no noble. You’re a witch. And you were the one who made me into a frog.’
Henry tried to move away, but Brandle held his hands tightly. Gods, he was strong.
‘Don’t worry! We’re old friends, Henry. I won’t tell anyone about your little secret. I like having you
around too much.’
The prince leaned in and kissed Henry on the cheek. The flames roared, and just for a moment,
they broke through the iron. Henry remembered his love for the prince, when he was a young fool,
how he followed the man around and watched everything he did.
‘Truly?’ said Henry. ‘You truly love me?’
The prince smiled sweetly. ‘Of course.’
The fires of love wrapped around the chains of hate. And then the prince laughed.
‘Of course I don’t love you. Oh, but your face! You were always so much fun to play with. Simone,
she is fun in another kind of way, but I need the emotional side, too. And you’re just full of feelings.’
At that very moment, the fires in Henry’s heart exploded into a chaotic blaze. They fought against
the cold iron, the emotionless monster he had become, and the iron began to break. Henry fell
back, holding his chest, gasping for air.
He remembered the witch’s words, when she had bound his heart all those years ago.
‘It will lock your emotions away, but there is no lock that cannot be broken. If the iron breaks, then
you will break with it.’
Henry was dying. His heart was splitting in two. And as it happened, Prince Brandle, his one true
love, was laughing at him. Noble faces surrounded him, with the prince’s face in the middle,
floating like a ghost.
Just as Henry was about to give up and let himself break, Princess Simone appeared. He had
never seen such an expression of pain, of such complete regret.
So Henry did one last thing. He reached forward and grabbed the prince’s head, pulling him into a
kiss. The prince fought back, banged Henry’s chest, but the strength of Henry’s love tied the prince
to him. From the charred remains of his heart flowed a poison, travelling up his chest, onto his lips,
and into Prince Brandle’s mouth. The poison of hate filled the prince’s body, and as Henry’s heart
stopped beating, so did Prince Brandle’s.
His heart of iron had broken, but at least he could break Simone’s chains.
The witch was not at the celebrations. Parties had never been her thing. But she felt Henry’s death,
as she had felt them all. She no longer felt sad when it happened. Only disappointed.
‘He was a good one, but nothing could hold that heart. And what about the girl? A pretty young
princess abandoned on her wedding day. She might make a good servant…’
The witch smiled, and worked her magic.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwww
The Very Hungry Dragon. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dragon. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dragon. This contains the
Today’s story is completely original. It is one that I wrote myself, and it’s been quite a long time
since I’ve written something myself for the podcast. I’ll be honest, after I got back from holiday this
summer I had a period of intense writing, where I wrote lots of stories over several weeks,
including today’s story, but after that things got quite busy. In a few weeks, I’m doing a Spanish
exam. It’s a very high-level Spanish exam. So I’ve been very busy preparing for that. Of course, I
have my usual work. Uh, I’m going on holiday in December to Spain.
Oh yeah! I’m going on holiday to Seville, Sevilla, in the south of Spain, so if any of my listeners
happen to come from that part of Spain, if you happen to live in Seville, please do send me a
message and let’s meet up. That would be fun. We could go for a coffee or something and, I don’t
know, maybe you can tell me some interesting stories about Seville.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, I’ve been quite busy, so I haven’t been writing as much as I want.
I’ve mainly been adapting fairy tales. But this story I am very proud of. It’s very fun. It’s very
amusing, kind of childish, but also, I think, interesting for adults.
Basically, I’ve realised recently that I really enjoy writing fairy tales and children’s stories that are
also interesting for adults. If you’ve listened to a previous set of episodes, The Beetle and the Boy,
you’ll understand what I mean. It’s very much appropriate for children but it’s also interesting for
adults, and I think this story definitely fits within that category. The main character may be a
playful, childish dragon, but, as a parent, if you’re listening, you might identify with the mother who
has to deal with her, as well.
I’m also very happy about this story because I love dragons. I think dragons are so cool. So
dragons are big, mythical creatures that have been found in all cultures of the world. Unfortunately,
they are not real, which is maybe actually a good thing, because they’re very scary! They’re big,
powerful monsters that can fly and breathe fire, and traditionally dragons collect treasures like
gold and jewels and silver, and they hoard these treasures, they pile them all up and sleep on them.
If you watched the TV show Game of Thrones, Daenerys was a dragon rider. She owned dragons.
She was called The Mother of Dragons. She actually had a dragon called Drogon, which is kind of a
stupid name for a dragon, if you ask me.
I generally have a lot of stuffed animals, like teddy bears, uh, but I especially have recently
acquired a few dragons. So across the road from my house, near where I live, there is a charity
shop. So a charity shop is a shop run by a charitable organisation such as Unicef, Oxfam, Dorothy
House, and so on. And people bring their old clothes, their old books and toys to the charity shop,
and the charity shop sells them at a cheaper price, and all of the money goes to the charity. So it’s
a really great system. They’re very popular here in the UK. There are lots of charity shops around,
and the charity shops in my city, in Bath, are pretty good ones generally.
So the other day I was walking past this charity shop near my house and in the window I saw a big,
purple dragon with eyes, and I thought, “Ooh, I really want that!” But I told myself, ‘Look, you always
buy stuffed animals and then they just sit in your room. You can’t buy this. It’s very big. You need
to make sure this is the right decision.’ So I kept walking. I went all around town and I thought
about it, and I said, ‘If you come back and the dragon is still there, you can buy him.’
So I came back the next day and he was gone from the window! And I was so sad. I thought I had
missed my chance. But I went inside and, uh, it turned out they had just moved him from the
window. So he was still there. And he only cost me four pounds! Considering he was a big, lovely,
fluffy dragon, it was a fantastic price. And not only that, but I went back to the same shop a few
weeks later and I found a big, red dragon that’s actually a puppet. So you can put your hands in its
head and move its mouth around, which I love using on my online classes.
My unnamed dragon and Alejandro
So if you want to see my dragons, you can book an online class with me on italki, or, of course, you
can just go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dragon, the transcript for this episode, where I will post
the pictures. The purple dragon is called Alejandro, but I haven’t named the red dragon yet. So
maybe you could also comment and suggest the name. I would love that.
Today’s story is also all about food, which is another thing I love. So I’m really following that idea
of “write what you love”. Recently, with all the cold weather, I’ve been feeling very, very hungry, and
I’ve been eating a lot of chocolate. I’m sure I’m not the only one. But it is really a problem because,
you know how sometimes people say, ‘You should listen to your body and eat when you feel
hungry and your body will tell you what’s right to eat’? And mostly I agree with that. The only
problem is, apparently what my body wants to eat is bars of chocolate and bags of sweets, so I
can’t listen to it all the time, unfortunately.
Anyway, I would love to hear what you think about this story. Basically, what I’m saying is, I want
you to send me compliments. So you can go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dragon and leave a
comment. But only postive comments! I won’t accept any negative comments. No, I’m joking. You
can comment whatever you want. It is a free, open space, and I really appreciate ALL of your
comments, even if I might disagree with them…
OK, so I’ll just explain some words that are in today’s story.
Spit out, and the past tense is “spat out”, is when you go [spitting noise]. Or [spitting noise]. Or
[spitting noise]. Those are all horrible, horrible spitting noises. I apologise. Anyway, you spit out
bad food. Maybe you try some food and it’s disgusting, so you spit it out. Or maybe it’s mouldy.
Maybe it’s gone bad and you can’t eat it anymore. You might also spit out chewing gum, although
you shouldn’t. You should always wrap it up in a piece of paper and throw it in the bin, or do what I
do, and just swallow it. In some cultures around the world, spitting has traditionally been
something accepted. So, a few hundred years ago in America, many people chewed tobacco and
spat it into jars, and people would see how far they could spit. In the UK, at least, it’s kind of not
accepted now, culturally. It’s seen as very rude to spit, and actually I think this is true in most parts
of the world now. It’s not very hygienic, and I think that’s the main reason people don’t like it
anymore.
Some jewels by Vinícius Magalhães, under CC BY 3.0
Jewels are precious stones, fancy rocks, nice rocks that you take out of the earth that shine and
are pretty colours. For examples, rubies are red, emeralds are green, and amethysts are purple.
These are all examples of jewels. Also, in some cultures, I don’t know if this is a universal thing,
certain jewels are associated with the different months. So the month you are born in determines
your birthstone, just like it determines your zodiac sign. So I was born in May, and my birthstone is
emerald, but I looked this up on Wikipedia and apparently the birthstones are different in different
countries. Even it’s different between America and the UK, so I guess it’s maybe not that popular.
Anyway, I certainly don’t own any emeralds… yet.
Creep, and the past tense is “crept”, means to go very, very slowly. So you’re moving across the
floor like a beetle or an ant, and you’re trying to be as quiet as possible, so that nobody can hear
you. For example, if you wake up in the middle of the night and you really want to eat that
doughnut in the kitchen, but you don’t want to wake up anyone else because you don’t want them
to know that you ate the dougnut, you’re going to creep out of your room and creep along as
slowly as possible. Spiders also creep, and an unpleasant person who moves around in the
shadows is a creep.
When your stomach rumbles, it means you are hungry. So your stomach rumbling is a sound kind
of like— Oh! You probably couldn’t hear that. My stomach rumbled quietly then. It’s a sound like
[stomach rumbling sound]. OK, that was a bad, uh, impersonation, but I hopefully think you get the
idea. Basically when you are very hungry, your stomach makes an angry noise and unfortunately
my stomach rumbles very loudly. Sometimes I have to rerecord parts of the podcast because my
stomach is rumbling too loudly, but don’t worry, I ate a big breakfast today.
Munch is when you eat like this [munching noises]. Basically, you’re eating very happily. You’re
taking big bites. And you’re probably eating something crunchy, something that’s a big hard. So
you munch on a chocolate bar, you munch on cereal, you munch on crisps, and so on. There is
actually a very popular type of crisps in the UK called Monster Munch, and when I was a child
Monster Munch only cost 15p a bag, but now they cost, uh, maybe 30p or 40p. By “P” I mean
“pence”, by the way, like cents. So, like, wait… I’m not very good at maths. Give me a moment. 20p
is a fifth of a pound… I think… I’m not good at maths!
A merchant road. So a merchant is something that doesn’t really exist now. They’re basically
people who went and sold things in different places. You find this a lot in stories from the Middle
Ages: travelling merchants, they took goods from one place and sold them in another, and so a
merchant is a road that merchants travel on. For example, the Silk Road was a big merchants’ road
in ancient China.
A caravan is like a little mobile home on wheels and you attach it to the back of your car. So
people with caravans usually drive and go on holiday somewhere, and stay in their caravan. It will
have a tiny kitchen, a tiny bathroom, uh, a tiny living room. It’s going to be very small, but you can
theoretically live there. In the old days, caravans were just ways of transporting goods. So as I said
before, merchants would travel around and they carried all of their goods and belongings in
caravans, which usually horses or donkeys or mules pulled along.
NEW PATRONS THANK YOU: Martyna Lachowska, Katarína Purkertová.
The Very Hungry Dragon

Once there was a very hungry dragon called Grella. Every day she ate five meals. For breakfast she
had ten bananas, five fried eggs, and three slices of toast. For her mid-morning snack she had
twenty chocolate biscuits and three cups of tea. For lunch she had twenty bowls of soup and thirty
loaves of bread. After lunch, she was very tired, so she slept for an hour, and when she woke up
she had a jar of pickles, because she loved the salty taste. Finally, for supper she had a roast pig
covered with honey and herbs.
This was all very well and good. After all, Grella was a dragon, and dragons are almost always
hungry. But it was strange, because Grella never ate jewels.
‘I don’t understand!’ said Grella’s mother. ‘Soup and pickles and pig are all good, but you need
some jewels! Jewels have important vitamins in them.’
But Grella hated jewels. They were hard, and they didn’t taste of anything. At every meal, her
mother gave her a plate of jewels, but she never ate them. When her mother tried to make her eat
them, she hid them in her cheeks and spat them out later. Her mother even tried disguising the
jewels. She made a tomato out of rubies. She made a cucumber out of emeralds. She made an
aubergine out of amethysts. But Grella smelled each of them, and knew they were not the right
food, and threw them on the floor.
One day, Grella’s refusal to eat jewels became too much for her mother.
‘Grella, if you don’t eat your jewels, then you can’t eat anything else.’
She took away the bananas, and the eggs, and the bread and the biscuits and the pickles from the
house. She filled every cupboard with fresh, shiny jewels, and for every meal the family would have
nothing but jewels.
‘Now, eat your dinner, Grella.’
Grella stared at the plate of emeralds in front of her.
‘If I can’t have what I want, I won’t eat,’ she said. She flew to her room and slammed the door
behind her.
For a few days, she continued in this way, and avoided her family at meal time. But eventually, she
got too hungry, and in the middle of the night she crept out to the kitchen.
Grella picked up an emerald and stared at it. It just looked so strange. It looked like something you
would put on your tail, or decorate your house with. Not something you would eat. But all the other
dragons in the world ate them…
Grella’s stomach rumbled. She put the emerald in her mouth and bit down. She munched and
munched, until the emerald had turned into dust. Then she swallowed it and went, ‘Eugh!’ It tasted
awful, but it dealt with her hunger, so she ate another, and then another.
By the next morning, Grella had eaten all the jewels in the house. Her mother was overjoyed.
‘Wonderful, just wonderful! Wait here, Grella. I’ll go out and fetch some more jewels for breakfast.’
Her mother brought three baskets of jewels back with her, stolen from some king’s castle. It was
enough to feed a whole family for a week, but while Grella’s mother went to wake up the rest of the
family, she ate up all three baskets, and licked her lips, waiting for more.
‘Grella!’ said her mother when she came back. ‘You can’t have eaten all those jewels…?’
‘I did,’ said Grella. ‘And I want more. Where’s dessert?’
‘Those were all the jewels I got!’ said her mother. ‘Look, I can go and make some toast if you want.’
But all Grella could think about was eating jewels. She needed more, she needed bigger, shinier
ones. And most importantly, she needed them now.
Grella ran to the window and jumped off the balcony, spreading her wings and taking flight.
‘Grella, where are you going?!’ shouted her mother. ‘It’s a school day!’
But Grella didn’t hear her. She flew through the air, and in the distance she smelled jewels. She
followed her nose, passing over the rough, sharp mountains where they lived, until she came
across a merchant road. There, down below, was a caravan from a faraway land.
And it was heavy with jewels.
Grella was a well-educated dragon. She knew that it was bad to kill humans, because then they
would come and get revenge, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a bit of fun. She flew down
and ripped the roof off the caravan. The human merchants saw her and screamed, running away
and abandoning their goods. Grella laughed, and picked up the caravan in her hand. She emptied it
into her mouth, letting all the jewels pile up before she munched and crunched them all into a
delicious mixture and swallowed it all in one go.
Grella understood now. Her mother had been right. Jewels were amazing. They made her feel
wonderful inside, like there was a party going on inside her stomach.
Grella took a big, loud burp, and flew off to find more food.
***
Grella went wild for a whole week, flying round the entire world and stealing all kinds of jewels.
Word quickly spread of her behaviour. Of course, all the adult dragons disapproved. She was
giving them a bad reputation and putting herself in danger. Besides, she should really be in school!
Eventually, after eating so many jewels, she grew fat and heavy, and feeling satisfied, she flew
home to take a nice, long sleep.
But her mother had different ideas.
‘Grella, HOW DARE YOU?’
Grella blinked at her mother. ‘Didn’t you want me to eat jewels?’
‘I— I— Not like this! I’ve been so worried about you, and besides, now everyone is talking about our
family and saying nasty things. It was very unthoughtful of you!’
Grella’s mother kept shouting and telling her off, but Grella ignored her. She felt a deep tiredness
pass over her, and she couldn’t stop herself from falling asleep…
When she woke up, it was night. She had no idea how long she had been asleep, but she was sure
it had been a very long time. She knew this because her stomach was rumbling, which meant it
was time to go and eat some jewels.
Grella crawled to the kitchen, yawning loudly as she went. She opened the fridge.
No jewels there.
So she went and opened the cupboards.
No jewels there, either.
She looked in the freezer.
No jewels there!
She searched the entire house, and even crept into her parents’ bedroom to look around while they
were asleep, but she couldn’t find a single jewel anywhere!
She did find something in her brother’s room, though. Under the bed he had a secret collection. He
hated the all-jewel diet their mother had put them on, and he had hidden away all kinds of food:
pickles and biscuits and chocolate and bread and tins of all kinds of soup. Grella pulled it out, piled
it up on the kitchen table and just stared at it.
They didn’t shine like jewels. They had funny smells. Some were hard, but some were really soft.
Cautiously, she picked up a biscuit and licked it.
Oh, how she had missed that taste!
Grella started to eat, and by the time her parents woke up, she had eaten pretty much everything.
She lay down on the floor and gave a big, happy burp.
‘Oh, my daughter!’ cried her mother. ‘My daughter is back!’
She went and hugged Grella, which made the young dragon feel a bit sick.
‘I don’t understand you!’ she said in annoyance. ‘First you want me to eat jewels, then you shout at
me for it, and now you’re happy that I’m eating other food!’
‘I know, I know. Please forgive me. I should’ve never forced you to change.’
She started crying, and hugged Grella even tighter. Honestly, mothers were so confusing!
‘My food!’ cried Grella’s brother when he saw the remains of her meal. ‘Grella, how could you?!’
‘Don’t worry,’ said their mother, standing up and wiping her eyes dry. ‘From now on, we will
have all kinds of food in this house. There will be jewels for those who want them, but I’ll make
sure you have all kinds of human food to enjoy as well.’
And so everything went back to normal. Every day Grella ate five meals. For breakfast she had ten
bananas, five fried eggs, and three slices of toast. For her mid-morning snack she had twenty
chocolate biscuits and three cups of tea. For lunch she had twenty bowls of soup and thirty loaves
of bread. After lunch, she was very tired, so she slept for an hour, and when she woke up she had a
jar of pickles, because she loved the salty taste. Finally, for supper she had a roast pig covered
with honey and herbs.
Oh, and she still ate the occasional jewel, just for variety.
Advanced learners
Ee
Billy and Dim. This is chapters 2 and 3. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dim2. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dim2. This contains the full
So, hello again, everyone! You probably noticed, if you didn’t listen to the announcement last week,
that I took a break. So there was no new episode last week.
So why did I take a break? Well, it was a break for my mental health. I think I mentioned that I
wasn’t feeling so good. I don’t remember what I said. But basically, I had a bit of a breakdown last
week. I had a big panic attack and, um, I was having a lot of emotions all at once and it was too
much to deal with. So I decided to take a week off the podcast, I took a few days off work, and I
went to stay with my parents, and my parents live in the countryside and they have a big, beautiful
garden, so it was very peaceful and I had a nice recovery.
Um, it wasn’t so dramatic. I mean, it didn’t take me, like, ages. I mean, as you know, right? ’Cause
I’m back here again, like, a week later. But it was a pretty big, um, psychological event, let’s say. I
don’t know, I think everything kind of came together at once. Anyway, I talk about this more
on Elevenses with Ariel, which you can get by pledging $5 a month on the Patreon. I’ll talk a bit
more about that later. So if you want to hear all about the details of my mental breakdown, you can
get that for just $5 a month!
Also, a few weeks ago, I was interviewed and I love being interviewed. I was a guest on the Clark
and Miller Podcast, and I was interviewed by Gabriel. So Clark and Miller is a website for English
learners, and it’s mainly designed for, like, advanced learners. So they do advanced classes with a
focus on communication skills, and they’re very professional. They have a really professional
website. They have a book. It’s much more professional than what I do!
But it was really, really, really fun to go on Gabriel’s podcast and we talked about all kinds of
things. We talked about Easy Stories in English, why I started it and my experience with it, we
talked about the teaching method that I use that involves storytelling called TPRS, we talked about
learning through play, reading and storytelling in general.
So it really was a fantastic interview. If you want to go and listen to the interview, you can look up
the Clark and Miller Podcast, or go to the transcript at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dim2 and I will
put a link to the podcast. It was a really fun chat. Thank you so much again, Gabriel, I really
enjoyed it.
The Clark and Miller English Podcast · 14 – Teaching English Through Storytelling – An Interview With Ariel Goodbody
And if any of you listening have podcasts and you want to interview me, I love being interviewed!
So do send me a message at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com.
So I’m doing things a bit differently with this episode because I’m not releasing the entire story on
the main podcast. The reason this is, is because this story has turned out a lot longer than I
expected it. I only finished it a few days ago and it’s actually eight chapters in total. Normally, if I
do a story with several chapters on the podcast, the most I do is three or four. So eight chapters… I
don’t know. Even if I release two episodes a week, like with this one, I feel like it would just be too
much, because this is an advanced story, and I know a lot of you prefer listening to the lower
levels.
So here’s how it’s going to work. I’m going to release this episode with chapters 2 and 3, and then
if you go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/BillyAndDim, you will be able to read the rest of the
chapters without audio.
Now, if you go there now as this episode is released, you probably won’t find anything, because
I’ve written all eight chapters, but I haven’t adapted them, I haven’t levelled them for the podcast.
So I’ve written the chapters at a native-speaker level, which is kind of too difficult to put on the
podcast. So at some point in the coming weeks, I will work through the remaining chapters and put
them up there. And hopefully, it won’t take me too long, but I am quite lazy, so it might take me a
while.
And then after that, I will record and release audio of these chapters, but I’m going to release it
on Patreon. So if you want to hear all of the episodes in audio form, you will have to support us
at Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish. I’ll explain more about that later. Just because, you know, I
have the Patreon, and this is the kind of thing that it makes sense to put on there. I’m not sure
which level it will be at right now, probably $5 a month.
But don’t worry, I am going to do a readthrough of the whole thing at some point in future. Thanks
to one of my listeners who always give great ideas, I’m considering doing a special Halloween live
stream where I read through the whole story because, although it’s not a scary story, it has
werewolves and witches, so it’s kind of Halloween-themed. And then, you know, by that point I
should have all of the episodes in an appropriate format, and then you can come and listen to the
live stream, and then if you want the professional version of the story, it will be available
on Patreon.
In theory. This is what I’ve decided now. Who knows what I’ll change my mind to? I’m very fickle.
I’m always changing my mind.
I want to remind you that today’s story is a romance story and, obviously, I’m not gonna put any
pornography or sex on the podcast because that would be weird and uncomfortable. It’s
something I write, but not on Easy Stories in English. However, this story does get quite sensual.
There is a lot of touching and kissing and thinking about kissing.
So, while it’s technically not really sexual, for some listeners it might be a bit too sensual, a bit too
steamy. So just be careful! Obviously, probably don’t listen to this with your children, ’cause I know
some of you listen to the episodes with your children! This is maybe one to skip. And of course,
everyone’s levels with this differ. I think for a lot of people this won’t be a problem, but if you don’t
like that kind of story, maybe don’t listen today!
Also, today’s story has a lot of fantasy swearing. So not real-life swearwords, but swear words that
I made up or adapted from real swearwords because it’s in a fantasy setting. So they say things
like ‘Gods!’ and ‘Damn it!’ and ‘Gods be damned!’, ‘Curses!’, ‘Oh, Hell!’ and so on.
So I haven’t explained the meanings of all of these, but hopefully from the context it should be
clear that it’s swearing, OK? So if you hear a lot of these words and you’re not sure of the meaning,
it’s probably just fantasy swearing.
A charm is a type of magic. I apologise, I meant to explain this word in the last episode but forgot!
Many people have lucky charms, special objects that they believe give them good luck. For
example, one of my friends at school brought a pair of spoons into exams and put them on his
desk because he believed they were a good luck charm. In fantasy stories, charms are just one
type of magic.
Your ex, which is short for ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend, ex-husband or ex-wife, is the person you used
to be in a relationship with but are no longer. It is very common to think back on your time with
your ex, either positively or negatively. Some people have ‘exes from hell’, an ex-partner who was
really awful and they are happy to have out of their life.
When you shudder, you shake. You can shudder because you’re scared, excited or cold. It’s quite a
violent shake—your body’s really shaking a lot, and you can’t control it.
If someone makes a scene, they get into a big disagreement in public, and it is embarrassing for
the others involved. For example, one time when I went out to eat with my parents in Paris, my Dad
got given cold food, and he complained and asked them to reheat it twice. As British people
usually don’t complain in restaurants, me and Mum kept saying, ‘Don’t make a scene!’ Sorry, Dad!
A pack is a group of animals who live and hunt together. Usually, we only talk about packs of dogs
and packs of wolves, as these animals are very social. In this story, it’s a werewolf pack.
When you overhear something, you hear something someone said without them realising it. For
example, if you go down to the kitchen and your mum is on the phone, you might overhear what
she’s saying before you enter the room. She doesn’t know that you’re listening, but you can hear
her talking—you’re overhearing her.
When you spit, and the past tense is spat, you throw water or saliva out of your mouth, like this:
[spits]. In the UK, it is very rude to spit outside, but in the past, people used to chew tobacco and
spit it out. If you eat some very bad food, you might spit it out. If you talk very angrily, you spit your
words out: like this!
When you seduce someone, you flirt with them, you say nice things to them, until they want to get
into bed with you. In the past, it was more common for men to seduce women. In fact, it was seen
as normal and important. But these days, women have more bodily autonomy, more control over
their body, and this idea of seducing someone can feel a bit old fashioned. Some people still like
to be seduced, though.
“You’re toast” is a conversational expression meaning, “It’s over” or “You’re dead”. For example, if
you’re playing a videogame with your friend and you’re beating them, and you’re just about to kill
their character, you can say, ‘You’re toast!’ The idea is that, like a piece of toast, they are going to
be cooked and defeated.
Five o’ clock shadow is a type of facial hair. Some people’s facial hair, their beard, grows very
quickly, so even if they shave in the morning, by five o’ clock a bit of hair has grown back, and they
have kind of a blue-y shade to their face. This is five o’ clock shadow.
When you pin something down, you hold it to the ground so that it can’t move. So if someone
attacks you to try and rob you, you might fight back and pin them down so that you can get help.
Or if you’re trying to give an injection to an animal, you might have to pin them down.
as Elevenses with Ariel, a daily conversational podcast for intermediate learners. The week before
last, I talked about my hatred of autumn, how exams were handled during coronavirus in the UK,
self love and my sugary addiction. You can support the show and get all the extra content
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Nikita
Vologdins, Victoria Romero, Giusy D’Agosto, Akemanee Pattanapipitpaisarn, Kemal Mandacı and
郁茹邱 (Yùrú Qiū). Thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to us.
Billy and Dim Chapter 2

BILLY
Gods, Billy could’ve done without the memory of Cracktooth. It had been at least four years now,
but the scars burned like they were formed yesterday, especially after so long being charmed
away.
‘My feet hurt,’ Red muttered.
Usually, this was where Billy jumped up, full of energy, and encouraged Red along. But even he was
exhausted. The charmed flowers had worn him out more than he’d revealed. The memory of his
ex’s words were like a knife in his side.
‘Just stop the magic stuff for one day. It makes me uneasy.’
Billy shuddered. Red raised an eyebrow at him.
‘You, cold?’
‘There’s a first for everything.’
Eventually, after hours of walking along the dark path in near silence, the lights of Noren shone in
the distance. Billy had been there once before, many years ago, and to his memory the only
famous thing about the village was that they had a horse who had played a decisive role in an
attack on a nearby family of vampires. Billy grinned at that. If only they knew who would be staying
there tonight.
Thankfully, there had been no sign of their ‘hunter’ since that afternoon, and no more traps. As they
approached The Beggar’s Hand, the smell of freshly-baked pie came towards them and Billy’s
stomach growled like, well, a wolf.
‘About time,’ he groaned.
When they opened the door, a wave of noise, sights and smells hit them. It looked like the whole
village was packed in there, which made sense, since there was no other entertainment around
apart from the famous horse. Many eyes turned to look at them, and Billy noticed a few looks of
interest from both guys and girls, but for the most part they quickly returned to their drinking and
dancing, cards and kissing.
‘Room for two and dinner for three,’ Billy said to the barwoman.
The girl gave a little jump when she saw him, which was odd. He didn’t think he looked particularly
threatening after a whole day of trekking through the forest.
‘O-of course. Please.’
She pointed to the single empty table, which was pushed into the corner of the room.
‘Can we put our things in our room first?’ said Red.
‘Oh, right!’ said the girl, blinking like a surprised rabbit. ‘I’ll carry those up.’
She took their packs and struggled under the weight, but she bravely marched up the stairs
without a look behind her.
‘How odd,’ said Billy as they sat down. ‘You think she liked you?’
Red snorted. ‘I think you’re seeing things again.’
They had just sat down when a plate with three steaks was carried over to them by an old woman
who looked even tougher than the meat she was carrying.
Billy licked his lips. ‘That was quick!’
Red made a face. ‘We smelled pie when we came in. Do you have any left?’
The woman grunted. She looked far too old to be a barwoman, and Billy had a faint memory of her
being the owner, from his last visit. Must’ve been a busy night for her to carry food around like a
young girl.
‘This is all we have.’
Red sighed and smiled. ‘Well, thank you then.’
‘You’re too polite,’ said Billy, taking a big bite out of his steak. It took considerable self-control not
to pick it up with his hands. ‘One would think you’ve been travelling around with your noble uncle,
not a horrible hairy werewolf.’
‘Wait,’ said Red, holding up a hand. ‘There’s a hair on my food.’ She lifted the thick blond hair with
her fork. ‘I’m just going to see if they have anything else.’
Billy grabbed her arm as she stood up. ‘Come on, don’t start making a scene here,’ he said, bits of
meat flying out of his mouth. ‘We have to discuss our plans for tomorrow.’
‘I’ll only be a minute,’ she said, brushing him off.
Billy hated eating alone. Despite the fact that he’d run away from his pack long ago, he was still a
social creature. Red was his pack, and without her the dry, tough meat tasted awful. But at the very
least, it filled up his stomach and relaxed his mind.
But seriously, had they heard of spices here?

Red returned a few minutes later with her face the colour of her riding hood, carrying her hair-
covered steak.
‘No luck?’
Red shook her head. ‘I overheard the owner talking to someone. A man—I didn’t see him properly.
He was asking her for a key, and she was complaining… Then he went quiet, and I looked through
the door and saw something on his arm.’
‘Probably just some desperate night with a lonely traveller,’ said Billy, although he couldn’t imagine
being lonely enough to want to sleep with her. ‘What was it, a golden bracelet or something?’
‘A tattoo of a six-pointed star.’
Billy spat out the piece of meat he was chewing, sending it flying into Red’s hair. The girl didn’t
even react strongly, just picked it out with her fork.
He blinked furiously, forcing his brain to work.
‘What?’ said Red.
‘A six-pointed star!’ He realised he was shouting, so he leant in close and brought his voice down
to a whisper. ‘That’s the sign of Strictus.’
‘Never heard of it.’
Right. Of course she wouldn’t know.
‘They’re an organisation wrapped in secret, but what I do know is that they hate free werewolves.
And vampires, and all things of that nature. They want magic to be controlled.’ Billy stared down at
his food. ‘Curses. I shouldn’t be eating this.’ He pushed his plate away.
Red’s eyes widened. ‘So the flowers, and now the food is… Do you feel OK?’
‘I’m fine,’ said Billy, rubbing his eyes. ‘No, I’m tired. Gods be damned.’
He pushed the plate away and dug his nails into his hands. He needed to stay awake.
‘So the room will be trapped as well,’ said Red.
Oh, right. Billy couldn’t think straight.
‘We can’t move on,’ he muttered. ‘We’re too weak. And the agent will follow us.’
Red glanced around the room, and Billy’s eyes followed. But it all mixed into a vague mess.
‘Can’t seduce anyone like this,’ said Billy, resting his chin on his hand. ‘So we can’t get into another
room.’ For a brief second, his eyes fell closed, but then his hand slipped and he jumped awake.
‘What are we going to do?’ said Red, panic in her voice.
‘Stay calm. We’re going to…’ Come on, Billy, think. ‘When the staff aren’t looking, we’ll throw these
steaks out to the dogs. Then we’ll go to our room.’
Red gave him a look of alarm.
‘If he’s waiting there to attack us, we’ll be ready. And if not, well, we’ll prepare to attack him.’
It was a weak plan, but it was all his drugged mind could come up with. He had eaten about half of
the first steak, but the drug had clearly been strong. It would be hours before he was himself again.
Hopefully, he had the energy to break some Strictus bones. If not, he supposed he would find out
just how well he had trained Red.
Thankfully, the bar was busy enough that it wasn’t tricky to dispose of the food. They pretended
they were going out to use the bathroom, hiding the steaks into their packs and throwing them to
the dogs fighting outside. Then they brought their plates up to the bar.
‘Delicious,’ Billy said, giving a theatrical yawn. ‘We’d like to go to our room now.’
The woman nodded and silently led them up the stairs. She showed them to the last door at the
end of a dark corridor and, in a weak attempt at hospitality, said, ‘Sweet dreams.’
They waited for her to leave and Billy slowly turned the knob.
But when they entered the room, it looked entirely normal, with a small double bed and some
damaged closets.
Billy sniffed, and caught the scent of magic.
‘Red, check there aren’t any bugs in the walls. You know how they keep me awake.’
Billy went and lit all the candles in the room. Then he fell onto the bed, but thought better of it and
sat on the edge. The drugs were starting to wear off, but he was still dangerously close to falling
asleep.
Red quietly went and ran a hand over the walls, knitting her eyebrows together as she spell-
searched them. Red threw Billy a few looks, uncertain if she should continue, but he nodded each
time.
When she reached a section next to the closet she jumped, and the hairs on her arms stood up.
Billy jumped up and placed his hand on the wall.
‘Reveal yourself!’ he barked.
A rectangular outline of sharp white light spread out around his hand and the two of them stepped
back. A worn door faded out of the wall. For a second, there was silence, and then the knob turned,
and Billy got ready to fight.
The door swung open and a figure in black jumped out, holding a blade, but Billy knocked it aside
and tackled the man to the floor.
Red swore loudly as Billy pinned the man to the ground, pulled up his arm and ripped back the
wool fabric to reveal the six-pointed star.
‘Why are you here?’ grunted Billy.
The Strictus agent said nothing and reached with his free hand, grabbing Billy’s thigh. The
werewolf felt the bite of electricity and quickly removed the hand, trapping both of them under his
knees.
‘You’re outnumbered two-to-one,’ Billy said, leaning down by his neck. ‘If you try a single spell
you’re toast.’
Still, silence. The man’s breathing came slow and steady beneath him. Moonlight spilled onto both
of them through the window—the moon was almost full.
Billy drew on its power. His nails and teeth grew sharp. He let out a deep growl.
‘Do you know what happens when a werewolf bites a human’s neck?’ he said, making sure his
breath was hot and strong in the man’s ear.
This was the part where the human started sweating, at the very least. But the man remained
unnaturally calm. Billy pushed into his neck, rubbing his teeth ever so gently against the man’s pale
skin. He shuddered, and Billy breathed in deeply through his nose.
‘Mmm, smells like…’
He was going to say “tasty human”, but that wasn’t true. The man’s scent was heavily masked,
under layers of lemon and roses, but Billy had a strong nose, and it was certainly not the smell of a
human.
‘You’re a—’
Taking advantage of Billy’s surprise, the Strictus agent freed his hands, gripped Billy’s waist, and
sent electricity through him. Billy shuddered and fell to the floor.
The man’s face went red with anger as he pulled out a thin, silvery rope, but just as he was about
to tie him up, Red ran forward, grabbing his head in her hands.
‘Forget about me?’ she said. ‘Time to sleep.’
The agent hit her in the stomach, but she maintained her grip, and her spell soon took effect. The
man passed out.
Billy shook the remains of the spell off him and stood up.
‘This rope…’ said Red, examining it.
‘Stops magic. Use it on him.’
Red tied up their prisoner’s wrists and Billy pulled him onto the bed. Now he could get a proper
look at him. He was dressed in some strange woollen suit covered with trousers and a thin white
shirt.
He was young, easily less than 30, and if he hadn’t just sent electricity through him, Billy might’ve
even thought he had a kind of naïve beauty to him, with his smooth face and blond hair.
Far too smooth a face for what he was.
‘He’s a werewolf.’
‘What?!’ said Red.
Billy leant over and examined the sleeping man’s face. A five o’ clock shadow was pushing through
his boyish cheeks. ‘Probably full of self-hatred.’
‘Are we going to kill him?’ said Red.
There was a storm going on in Billy’s stomach. He had just been threatening to bite him and turn
him into a werewolf, which for most humans was basically death, but this guy wasn’t a human.
‘Not before we question him. Besides, peaceful methods are probably best. If Strictus thinks we’re
a real threat, they’ll send more force after us.’
‘Then it’s a memory charm and we throw him in the river, right?’ said Red eagerly.
‘We’ll see. By the way,’ he said, putting on his teacher voice, ‘the reason I asked you to search the
room is because he placed a charm on his hiding place. Only someone unaware of the spell can
find what’s hidden.’
‘So you used my inexperience against me?’ said Red, pretending to be offended.
‘That’s what students are for,’ he said, grinning.
The man on their bed moved, and his eyes started to open.
Billy grabbed his chin, forcing him to look him in the eyes.
‘Tell me your name, dog,’ he spat. ‘Or I’ll break your pretty little neck.’
For the first time, the agent looked genuinely scared. He had bright blue eyes, like fresh rain.
‘Demetrius,’ he croaked, then bit his lip.
‘What a ridiculous name,’ said Billy, giving a cruel grin. ‘From now on, you’re Dim. And let me make
one thing clear, Dim: if you try any more tricks or traps, I won’t hesitate to kill you. Understood?’
Dim gulped. ‘You don’t know what you’re dealing with.’
‘Oh, believe me, I do.’
Another memory of Cracktooth came to his mind: his lover leaving that morning, the last time Billy
had seen him.
‘Goodbye, Billy. For your sake, I hope we never meet again.’
‘I’m the Big Bad Wolf. You’re the one who should be worried about running into me.’
Billy came back to the present. He couldn’t get lost in those thoughts.
‘Alright, wolfie—yes, I know you’re one of us, don’t look so surprised. Perfumes and razors can only
cover so much. Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to ask questions, and you’re going to
answer them truthfully, or else you’ll find out just how powerful the Big Bad Wolf really is.’
END OF CHAPTER 2
OK, I’ll just explain some words that are in chapter 3.
Someone who is hulking is very large and strong. You might know the superhero The Hulk. He is
called that because he is very large and muscular—he is hulking.
When someone says very confusing or very embarrassing things to you, you can get flustered. For
example, someone tells you that your hair looks nice, and you totally weren’t expecting a
compliment, so you wave your arms in the air and go bright red—you are flustered. You can also
get flustered, for example, if you drop all your things in public, or bump into someone. You lose
control for a short period of time.
A beast is a large, ugly, dangerous animal. For example, the Disney film Beauty and the Beast is
about a beautiful girl who falls in love with a horrible monster, the Beast.
Torture is when you hurt someone to get information. It’s illegal in many places, but unfortunately
it still happens. People are usually tortured by armies, by the police or by spies.
Bind, and the past tense is bound, means to tie something very tightly so that it doesn’t move or
fall off. If you have a prisoner and you don’t want them to escape, you bind their wrists.
Sprout means to start growing. When you plant a tree or a plant, the first stage is when little green
things come out of the ground. The tree or plant starts to sprout, and it still needs lots of water
and time to grow fully. If your beard grows very quickly, you can also say that the hairs sprout from
your face.
Tame means to train an animal so that it can live with humans and do what humans say. For
example, many people have to tame their dog so that it doesn’t eat the furniture. In the circus, they
used to tame lions to jump through rings and tame elephants to dance on balls, but they don’t do
this anymore.
When you track a person or an animal, you follow marks they left on the ground to find out where
they are. Hunters look at an animal’s footprints to track them, so that they can follow them and
shoot them. These days, you can track people using phone signals as well.

DEMETRIUS
Demetrius should’ve been angry. He should’ve felt scared, at the very least. But as the hulking
werewolf stared down at him, his hands pressing into Demetrius’ jaw, he felt something different.
Something that he had long pushed down.
‘Tell me your name, dog,’ spat the Big Bad Wolf. ‘Or I’ll break your pretty little neck.’
A deep, dark part of Demetrius’ mind thought, “Maybe I’d like that,” a thought which he quickly
silenced.
‘Demetrius.’
Wait, no, he hadn’t intended to give him his name! A sweat broke out on him—the wolf had
him flustered, and suddenly all his training had disappeared.
Focus, Demetrius. He’d already failed spectacularly in his plan that evening. He didn’t need to
make it worse by revealing all his secrets.
‘What a ridiculous name,’ said Billy, giving a cruel grin. ‘From now on, you’re Dim. And let me make
one thing clear, Dim: if you try any more tricks or traps, I won’t hesitate to kill you. Understood?’
Demetrius gulped. The name should’ve made him feel stupid, but somehow he… liked it?
‘You don’t know what you’re dealing with,’ he said, trying to sound threatening.
‘Oh, believe me, I do.’
A glassy look passed over the wolf’s eyes, and for a while he said nothing. Then he spoke again.
‘Alright, wolfie—yes, I know you’re one of us, don’t look so surprised. Perfumes and razors can only
cover so much.’
Demetrius couldn’t stop himself from going red. There was nothing more he hated than being
reminded of his disgusting nature.
‘Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to ask questions, and you’re going to answer them
truthfully, or else you’ll find out just how powerful the Big Bad Wolf really is.’
Demetrius said nothing. What could he do? His wrists were tightly bound, and even if they weren’t,
there was a hulking beast leaning over him, pushing him into the bed, with his magical student to
the side, ready to help if necessary.
That had been his mistake. He’d underestimated the girl.
‘Why are Strictus after us?’
Demetrius was surprised. Most targets of Strictus weren’t even aware of its name. This wolf was
more clever than he seemed.
‘I’ll never tell you,’ said Demetrius, attempting to use some of his training again.
The wolf sighed. ‘Alright then. We’re going to do this the hard way. Red, go close off the room,
make sure no sound can escape.’
Demetrius practically laughed. He may have been terrible at laying traps and keeping his mouth
shut, but torture was one thing that every member of Strictus was well prepared for. With his
magic bound, he wouldn’t be able to heal himself so easily, but still, he wouldn’t let out a single cry
of pain.
A strange smile passed over the Big Bad Wolf’s lips. He placed his hands on Demetrius’ cheeks.
They were warm and solid, and Demetrius felt a strange feeling in his chest, along with the smooth
touch of magic.
What was he doing?
‘I do quite like blond beards,’ murmured the wolf.
A few seconds later, Demetrius understood. Hair sprouted from his cheeks, pushing against the
hands that held them.
Demetrius’ heart beat hard in his chest. What kind of torture was this? But it was effective—it had
shaken him up. He couldn’t stand how he looked with a beard.
‘Oh, how pretty,’ said the wolf, once the beard had grown to a decent size. And then he
started stroking it. Demetrius felt disgusted.
But suddenly, he stopped. Demetrius felt a pain in his chest. Why had he stopped?
Next, the wolf slipped a hand under his woollen suit and placed it on his chest. Demetrius
shuddered, bringing out an even bigger smile from the werewolf.
Thick hairs sprouted from Demetrius’ chest, wrapping around the wolf’s fingers. In his stomach he
felt a sickness, but it met with another feeling, one he didn’t fully understand. As much as he
wanted every reminder that he was a werewolf taken from his body, there was a certain
strange… joy in having the hairs grown like this.
‘How long has it been since you grew your hair?’ said the wolf.
‘Why do you care?’
‘Oh, are you not enjoying this, Dim?’ He pulled his hand away suddenly.
Demetrius was hit by a wave of cold.
‘Of c-course I’m not!’
‘Sounds like you were,’ said the Big Bad Wolf, placing his hand on Demetrius’ neck, his expression
casual. ‘Want me to continue, Dim?’
All that came out was a weak sound: ‘Nggh.’

Gods, how did this beast have such a hold over Demetrius? He was sweating and sweating, even
though the night was cold, and his Strictus training felt like a distant dream.
‘I’ll take that as a yes.’
Slowly, ever so slowly, he slid his hand down his neck and back to his chest. When his magic
flowed into Demetrius again, he exploded with desire.
‘So tell me, Dim. Why are your group after us?’
Every hair that grew felt like a nail stabbing into his skin, and yet, the push of Billy’s hand on his
chest felt…
‘You’ll never tame your wolf if you continue like this,’ snapped Professor Banner in his head. His old
teacher had never had patience for Dim’s—no, he was Demetrius, damn it!—Demetrius’ poor
concentration.
‘Ethel,’ he said.
Red walked over from her spot guarding the door and leant over the bed.
‘What do you know about my grandmother?’
Demetrius had forgotten she was there, so focussed he was on Billy.
‘We know you killed her. One of you.’
Oh damn. He was supposed to not be answering their questions. But Billy had him completely
flustered.
‘How did you find out?’ shouted Red.
Clearly, this was a difficult subject for her. Maybe this was something Demetrius could use.
‘I won’t tell you,’ he grunted.
‘I’ve got this,’ said Billy, looking at Red. The sweet, honey-like tone from their private conversations
was back.
Reluctantly, Red returned to the door, and the Big Bad Wolf leaned back over Demetrius, his legs
pushing into his waist.
‘Why do you wear this awful thing?’ he said, slipping a finger under Demetrius’ woollen suit.
Demetrius bit the insides of his mouth. That was a secret he would never reveal.
Billy leant even closer, pressing his face to Demetrius’ chest and sniffing. The agent shivered,
smelling Billy’s own scent. And gods, it smelt sweet. Like wildflowers.
‘It’s charmed,’ Billy said plainly.
‘Just some magic defence.’
Billy shook his head. ‘The perfume, the shaving, now this… They don’t let you shift, do they?’
Demetrius felt like the wolf had cut open his stomach, reached inside and pulled everything out.
‘So I can turn into a wild beast like you? I would never do such a thing. It’s called self-control.’
Billy gave a questioning expression, his hands still resting on Demetrius’ chest.
‘You’re such an expert at self-control that you need a charmed bodysuit to control yourself?’
Oh, curses, he knew. How was this wolf so damn clever?
‘It’s just a precaution,’ Demetrius stammered.
‘You’re a terrible liar, Dim.’
The nickname cut into him.
‘I wonder… What would happen if I took off your suit, tied you up and left you out in the full moon?’
The idea of having his clothes taken off by Billy excited Demetrius—there was no point in denying
it now—but then he realised what he was actually saying.
‘You wouldn’t dare!’
‘Try me, little wolf. You’d undo all those hours of shaving in just a few minutes, and I bet you it
would feel good.’
‘Shut up!’ cried Demetrius, sounding more childish than he’d intended. ‘I’ve been trained. I wouldn’t
transform. Some of us can actually control our magic.’
Billy chuckled. ‘Right now, you can’t even control your desire towards me.’
Demetrius’ cheeks burned red. It was bad enough that he was attracted to this beast, but was it
that obvious?
‘I’m going to ask you one last time, Dim. Tell us everything you know about Ethel, and why exactly
Strictus want us. If you don’t, we’ll work a memory charm on you so strong you’ll forget you were
born, and throw you on a boat going down the river. Oh, and you’ll never get to kiss me, which I’m
sure you’re dying to do.’
‘It doesn’t matter! They’ll find out.’
‘Hmm?’ said Billy, raising an eyebrow. ‘So they’re tracking you?’
Curses and hellfire, this wolf was clever. He pulled up Demetrius’ wrist and sniffed his star tattoo,
making an unpleasant expression.
‘I thought this was for more than just show. Red!’
The girl came over, apparently unbothered by the whole situation. Demetrius couldn’t stand to look
at her, so embarrassed he was by his failure.
‘Mask the magic on this while I get the rest of the information from our friend here.’
Red placed a soft hand over Demetrius’ tattoo and started mumbling magic words. She would
have a tough time masking the spell, but if she had even a quarter of the power Ethel had…
‘How did you defeat her, anyway?’ said Demetrius, desperate to fight back.
‘Nuh uh uh, I’m asking the questions here. Tell me: how did you find out that we killed Ethel and
lived to tell the tale?’
Demetrius gulped. That was a question he didn’t know the answer to, but he didn’t dare admit it to
the wolf.
‘Just kill me. Don’t bother with the memory charm.’
‘Nice try, Dim. But if we kill you this tattoo’s going to sound an alarm, isn’t it? One that can’t be
masked.’
‘Done,’ said Red, sighing deeply and moving back. ‘Want me to start working on the memory
charm?’
Billy stared at Demetrius and said nothing. He was making some kind of plan.
‘I’ve got a better idea,’ he murmured. ‘You’re gonna call me crazy, Red.’
Then, without warning, he gripped Demetrius’ woollen suit and ripped it open.
‘What are you doing?!’ shrieked the agent.
Billy ignored him, ripping his shirt and the wool apart with his claws.
‘You wearing anything under here?’ he grunted.
‘N-no.’
‘Then I’ll close my eyes.’
Within minutes he had removed Demetrius’ clothes and completely destroyed the woollen suit.
Demetrius could only sit there like a rabbit in the jaws of a fox, unable to stop him. But true to his
word, the werewolf did not look at his naked body. Once he was done, he threw the bedsheets over
him to make him look decent.
‘What in the Hell are you doing?’ hissed Red.
‘I changed my mind. No memory charm. He needs our help.’
‘Our help?!’
‘This werewolf is full of self-hate. I intend to change that.’
Billy placed his rough hand on Demetrius’ forehead in an oddly gentle way. Demetrius had given up
on understanding his intentions.
‘If you’re trying to seduce me… Just do it, you wild beast.’
Billy shook his head, suddenly serious. ‘I would never do such a thing. Good night, Dim.’
The sleeping spell passed through Demetrius’ hair and his eyes slipped shut. The last thing he saw
before falling asleep was a strange look on Billy’s face.
It almost looked like pity.
Wwwwwwwwww
Billy and Dim. This is chapter one. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dim1. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dim1. This contains the full
So recently I’ve been doing the very narcissistic thing of reading my own writing. This is something
very strange about being a writer. You write something and then you pretty much immediately
forget about it. I wrote stuff even two or three years ago where I honestly can only tell you
extremely vague things about the story. I can’t remember the character names, I can’t remember
locations, because it all just kind of leaves your head once you put it on the page.
The reason I’ve been rereading stuff is because one of my friends actually has been reading some
of my old work. So I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here before, but I used to write gay romance
novels and publish them online, and I’m not going to put the pen name here because, um, I want to
keep it separate from the podcast because the romance is very sexual. But if you’re really
desperate to know what the pen name was and you want to read the romance, you can always
send me an email at Ariel@EasyStoriesInEnglish.com.
Anyway, one of my friends, in a very lovely way, has decided to read through these old books I
wrote, and I wrote all these books about three or four years ago. So I’ve honestly forgotten most of
the things about them, but he had really positive comments to give on the one that he read first,
and, you know, obviously it fed my ego hugely. There’s nothing better than when you’re a writer
and people compliment you on your writing and you know they’re not just being nice, you know
they really mean it. That’s like, ugh, it’s balm to our soul, it’s like, the best thing we can receive.
So he gave me these positive comments and I started thinking, “Well, maybe I should try rereading
these books,” you know? I just opened up the document on my computer, just out of curiosity. One
in particular was a trilogy of books about, uh, dragon shifters. So, people who can transform into
dragons, falling in love. And I started reading, and I ended up sitting there and reading through the
whole book in a few hours. And then I started reading through the sequel, and I read the whole of
that that evening. And then, as I record this on Sunday, the morning I woke up, I got up and I
immediately went to read the third book, and I read the entire thing over the morning. So I read the
entire trilogy of books that I wrote over maybe 12 hours, even less… Maybe 14 hours? Yeah, I slept
in between. But um, I read it very quickly.
This helped me realise several things.
One, I wrote those books better than I thought. At that time I really didn’t have a lot of self-
confidence as a writer, and whenever people gave me positive feedback on my writing, I just
thought, like, “Oh, but they’re just being nice,” like, I really felt like I was rushing these books
because I was trying to keep up with the speed of other romance writers, and I felt like I was just,
kind of, making stuff up and it wasn’t working very well, but I realised reading that trilogy, I could
see a huge amount of growth in craft, in writing talent, from the first book to the third book, but
even so, the first book was still very readable even though it wasn’t the most polished.
Another thing it helped me realise is how the planning method I used really made a difference. For
the first two books, I just kind of used a very loose planning method, but after that I read a lot of
books about, like, writing theory and story structure, and for the third book I used a planning
method from a book called Story Genius, which is all about approaching the story from the
character’s viewpoint and focussing on their emotional journey and writing a lot of, uh, background
work on their childhood and their past before the story even starts.
So you write all these scenes that don’t actually even go into the story, but they have a huge
influence on it, and I really felt like the character arc in the third book was really good. I don’t
wanna boast too much, but I was like, “Wow, this is a coherent, developed character arc!” And it’s
funny because that book was the same length as the first two, but it felt much longer, it felt much
deeper and richer because the story was richer.
So that was really fun to see and it kind of confirmed that, OK, funnily enough when I wrote the
third book I thought it was the worst. Um, and it took so much more work than the first two, and it
was the one I struggled with the most, and I really struggled with, like, the political messaging
because it was kind of more of a political story, which of course made it harder to write. But,
looking back, even though it was more challenging overall, the end product was far better.
So I’ve decided, if I do write a novel again, I’m going back to that method, because it takes longer, it
requires a lot of work, but I think the end result is really fantastic.
The other thing I realised is, I love writing romance, and I love reading romance. And this is kind of
a surprising thing, because I started writing romance in my last year of university, and it was
honestly because I was really depressed and I needed a goal in my life. I didn’t think I would be
able to get a normal job and fit into that, so I wanted to make a living as a writer and I decided that
the best way to do that was to write and self-publish romance because it’s the most lucrative, it’s
the most profitable, genre at the moment, and probably will always be because everyone loves
love, you know? We’re humans, we love love. But not everyone loves crime or fantasy or whatever.
So I started it purely as, you know, a kind of a financial thing and I had to of course research this
genre ’cause I hadn’t read it much before, so I read loads of gay romance books, and I kind of fell
in love with it, and I forgot this because I worked myself too hard. In the space of about two years I
think I wrote eight novellas, so they were, you know, about half the length of a normal novel, but
still it was a lot of work because I was trying, not very successfully, but I was trying to publish a
book every month, because that’s the rate a lot of romance authors write nowadays.
Anyway, after several years of doing this I burned out. It was too much. I pushed myself too far
and I got to the point where I just hated writing romance. For a time, anyway. I got a bit sick of it.
And I kind of convinced myself that it wasn’t what I wanted. And then I started teaching, and then I
started this podcast which, of course, I love in a completely different way. But it’s been really
rewarding to go back to these books and realise, “I love writing this. I love this world, I love love! I
love romance. I love those feelings. I love exploring it.”
And it’s really annoying because romance still has a stigma around it. People still look down upon
it, especially a lot of romance that has sex in it, and that’s the main reason, you know, I don’t
wanna share my romance pen name on here, is because it has a lot of sex and I don’t want to push
people away, you know?
If I do write more romance novels, I don’t know, I would love to also do simplified versions for
English learners, just like on the podcast, but um, well, if it has sex then it’s a bit more complicated.
I guess I could just remove the sex parts, but often they’re very important within the story, so it’s
tricky. I’ll have to think about that one.
But incidentally, and this is purely coincidental because I started writing today’s episode before I
revisited these old books, today’s episode is the start of a romance story. It’s actually, funnily
enough, a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood is probably the most famous
fairy tale, about a little girl who wears a red coat and she goes to visit her grandmother, but a wolf
eats the grandmother and tries to eat the girl. But I decided, of course, to do my own twist on it, so
everything is different.
Actually, I already did one retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, which was coronavirus themed, which
you can read at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Red. But today’s episode, today’s story, is a much less
literal interpretation. Basically, Red is not the main character and it’s a romance. Um, I don’t really
wanna spoil it, but it’s certainly very different from my other retelling.
Oh and, by the way, “riding hood” is just like an old-fashioned word for a raincoat, a red cloak,
because I guess in the past people wore these hoods, these coats to go hunting. So they were
riding on horses.
Anyway, today’s story is a bit experimental because, possibly for the first time on the podcast,
actually, it has multiple perspectives. So you’re going to jump between characters. We’ll see the
perspective of one character and then the perspective of another character, because, you know,
with romance, that’s kind of the classic thing now. You have some from the perspective of the
protagonist, the hero, and then some from the perspective of the love interest.
Anyway, there’s not just romance in this story. There’s also magic and action and monsters and all
of those fun things that you’ve come to expect from the podcast. So if you’re not a big romance
person, don’t worry! There’s going to be other fun things as well. In fact, this first chapter has
basically no romance in it.
A sorceress is a woman who uses magic. Sorceresses are like wizards or magicians, but
sorceresses usually use evil magic. The male version of a sorceress is a sorcerer. The first Harry
Potter book in English is called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but in America they
changed the name to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, because they thought children wouldn’t
know what a philosopher was.
‘Abracadabra!’ or ‘Expecto patronum!’. Sorceresses and sorcerers cast spells.
Wicked means evil, very very bad. So witches are wicked, in fairy tales, stepmothers are usually
wicked, and so on. You might know The Wicked Witch of the West, a green witch from The Wizard
of Oz. There is also a famous musical called Wicked based on this character.
Reminisce means to think back on the past fondly. When you reminisce, you think happily back on
things that happened to you in the past. When you’re older, it’s easy to get lost in happy
reminiscing.
Pollen is a yellow powder that plants produce. For plants to reproduce, the pollen must travel from
one flower to another. Bees, wasps and other insects see the colourful flower and fly inside to
drink its nectar. The pollen transfers onto their legs, and when they fly to another flower, it falls off,
and the flowers can reproduce. Many people are allergic to pollen, they have hay fever, and they
get very sick in spring.
A grin is a broad smile. If something is funny and unexpected, you might grin at it.
A werewolf
A werewolf is a type of monster. Werewolves are humans who transform into wolves when the full
moon appears, so about once a month. They get very hairy, their teeth and claws grow sharp, and
they go crazy and eat people. In some stories, werewolves can control their powers and transform
when they want. In Harry Potter, Remus Lupin is a werewolf.
A fountain shaped like a waterskin in Iran (Mahdi Kalhor CC BY 3.0)
A waterskin is a leather bag that is used to carry water. Before bottles were invented, people used
waterskins to carry water on journeys.
A rogue is a person or animal who lives apart from others and is dangerous in some way. For
example, a rogue agent is a spy or assassin who works for no-one and does as they please. A
rogue elephant is an elephant that lives away from the herd and can be quite violent.
When a room or object is bugged, it means some technology has been hidden in it that allows
another person, far away, to listen in to what the people there are saying. In spy films, hotel rooms
are often bugged so that people can listen in to conversations that the people in the room are
having. Usually, a microphone is hidden inside a wall or an object to bug a room. In the case of this
story, magic is used to bug an object.
An inn is a pub that also has rooms that you can stay in. In the old days, before hotels, people went
to stay in inns, where they also ate dinner.
Wrist tattoos (Basile Morin CC BY-SA 4.0)
A tattoo is a piece of art that is made with ink that is injected into someone’s skin. People usually
get black tattoos, but coloured tattoos are also possible. Tattoos are very painful to get, and they
take a long time to heal. Tattoos fade and get wrinkled with age, but some people get their whole
body covered in tattoos. Roses, hearts, names of loved ones and skulls are all common choices
for tattoos.
conversational podcast for intermediate learners, as well as an extra story every month. Last week
on Elevenses with Ariel I talked about crying, author woes, bubble tea, British culture and
competitions that I’ve been in. To listen to these episodes and others, you can support us
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Adam
Kolek and Agnieszka. Thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to us.

RED
Little Red Riding Hood wasn’t so little anymore. In fact, she was a full-grown woman, and not only
that, but a powerful sorceress, too. The only remains of her past were the red riding hood she
always wore, whatever the weather, and her nickname: Red.
Billy, for his part, had changed very little. He was the Big Bad Wolf, or at least, that was what the
wanted posters and frightened villagers called him, but in reality it couldn’t be further from the
truth. Behind his thick muscles, woolly beard and rough shirt lay a soft heart. He was a great
teacher to Red and he knew exactly who he was.
The two were an unconventional pair, but they liked it that way. They wandered from forest to
mountain, town to village, begging and charming their way into room and board, and discovering
the deep dark secrets of magic. It had been a long time since Billy had taught Red her first spell, in
the ruins of her wicked grandmother’s home all those years ago, and yet Red felt like she would
never learn all the possibilities of magic, for the world held countless mysteries.
‘Do you think they’re still looking for you?’ said Billy in his stony voice as they walked downhill.
Red gave him a questioning look. ‘And I thought I was the one lost in reminiscing. Have you been
thinking back to that day?’ Just the mention of it brought a smell of burnt skin to her nose.
‘Yes, which is odd. There are far more exciting battles to reminisce about.’
‘I was thinking of… something important, when we started climbing this hill, but it was swept from
my mind.’ Red blinked. ‘What was I thinking about?’
‘Hmm,’ said Billy. He sniffed. ‘There’s something in the air here. Look.’ He put his arm out and
pointed. Gradually, she noticed what he was pointing to—a thin kind of pollen, almost invisible in
the breeze.
The grin of discovery spread over the werewolf’s lips. ‘Perhaps our reminiscing is not as innocent
as we thought. Have you heard of environmental magic altering thoughts?’
She loved the way he did that, always asking questions he already knew the answer to. Of course
she hadn’t heard of it. Everything she knew about magic she knew from him. And yet, he always
asked, as if he had as much to learn from her as she did from him.
‘No,’ she said, grinning. ‘That sounds like something worth investigating.’
They figured out which way the pollen was coming from and ran in that direction, jumping over
logs and pushing through branches. Billy went ahead, as always, his werewolf strength allowing
him to easily clear a path, with Red following behind him.
As the pollen in the air grew thicker, Red’s mind was flooded with ever more vivid images: the soup
her mother had made for her when she was sick, her first kiss, the sight of her grandmother’s dead
body, empty of magic.
She tried to erase the last one from her mind, but there was no use—it was immediately replaced
by another image, and then another. Meals, smiles, tears and scenery flashed before her wildly.
Finally they reached the source of the pollen, a group of fat, heavy flowers similar to sunflowers in
shape, although it was hard to see them through the fog of images in her mind.
‘Funny, I’ve never seen a flower like this,’ said Billy, kneeling towards it.
‘Is it dangerous?’
‘Dangerous?’ Billy said, staring into the flower. ‘Why should it be?’
Red’s first night with Billy played before her, the shine of the moon melting into the sunny forest.
She bit the inside of her cheeks to try and focus herself. ‘It’s just like that spell…’
‘Spell?’ Billy muttered. He moved ever closer to the flower.
‘You know, that… Ah, where are we again?’
She was standing on a cliff by the sea, watching the fishing boats bring in their prize.
‘In Cracktooth’s arms,’ whispered Billy.
‘N-no. Who’s that?’
Red blinked. She was lying naked in bed, but she felt clothes rub against her. And why were there
birds singing in her bedroom?
‘This must be a dream.’
‘No!’ shouted a familiar voice.
Red heard a ripping sound. The moon burst into stardust. The fishing boats sank into the sea. The
familiar walls of her bedroom cracked away. She saw a friend standing in front of her, but what
was his name?
‘Red!’ cried the man, shaking her shoulders. ‘We have to… Oh, curses!’
His arms swept under her, and he carried her through the forest—when had they gotten there?
Some strange yellow dots flew all around her, getting thinner as they moved. Her stomach shook
with every step.
‘Why are you running so fast? Granny, I still have a fever!’

‘No, you don’t,’ growled the man holding her. Billy, was that his name? ‘You’re in the Captian Forest
with Billy, your handsome, strong, intelligent werewolf friend, who’s far better at spotting wicked
magic than you.’
‘No more fairy tales,’ Red groaned. ‘Can’t I just sleep?’
‘Absolutely not.’
They arrived at a river, where Billy threw her onto the ground.
‘Ouch!’ she cried.
The man pulled a waterskin out of his pack, filling it up and pushing it towards her.
‘Drink.’
‘No!’ groaned Red, crawling away. Her stomach felt warm, soft, comfortable, like the bed she lay
on. No, was that grass?
‘Fine then. We’ll do this the hard way. Open your mouth.’
Red pressed her lips together and tried to crawl away, but Billy held her down with strong arms. He
forced her jaw open, and she thought he was going to pour the water in, but instead he stuck two
fingers down her throat.
Red sat up and threw up onto the grass. It felt like throwing up the remains of a fire, and when she
saw the thick orange mess before her, she wondered what the Hell she’d eaten.
The images faded gently away. She wasn’t at home. She was in the Captian Forest, just like Billy
had said.
‘But what about the ocean…?’ she muttered. She had smelt it.
‘Looks like you need another go,’ Billy said seriously, moving towards her.
‘No!’ said Red, holding her arms up. ‘I’m back, I promise. It’ll go, whatever it was…’
Billy nodded, threw her the waterskin, and got to work throwing up himself. He was more thorough
than her, throwing up three times, until he was only coughing up air. Then he drank greedily from
the river. Red sipped on water and looked at what had come out of them. The bright orange colour
came from the bits of pollen, she realised, which had stuck together.
‘Just what was that stuff?’ she asked.
‘Nothing natural to here. It was planted, and perhaps enhanced by magic.’

‘You mean… a trap?’
Billy nodded. ‘I’m almost impressed, but it was obvious from the roots that the plants had been
taken from somewhere else.’
Red looked around, but she could not see or hear anyone aside from birds and insects.
‘Do you think someone in the last town found out about us?’
‘No,’ said Billy, shaking his head. ‘This is a professional. Could have any number of reasons for
coming after me. Us.’
‘And those reasons are?’
Billy chuckled. ‘We’ll save those stories for the road. I realised what it was the moment I started
thinking about my ex. I have a strong charm placed on myself, to prevent such thoughts. Anything
that can break that charm is powerful magic.’
Red raised an eyebrow. Billy had never talked much about his romantic past, and she desperately
wanted to find out the details, but if he had charmed the memories away, it had to be unpleasant.
She was brought back to reality by the grumbling of her stomach.
‘Ugh, well there goes our delicious breakfast. And it took me so long to convince that bird to give
up its eggs.’
Anxiously, she looked up at the sky. The sun was far lower than she would have liked. They were
hungry, exhausted, and being followed by someone, and evening was approaching.
‘We have two options,’ Billy said, his voice low and soft. ‘We find food and set up camp here
tonight, or we walk until we arrive in town, however late it is. What do you think, chief?’
‘I think it would be stupid to set up camp in a forest that might be entirely charmed against us.’
‘Exactly. Let’s get moving.’
Red drank from the river and stood up, groaning at the way her muscles ached. It was going to be
a long walk.
‘When’s the full moon?’
‘Night after next. But don’t worry, I have enough supplies. Or maybe we could get rid of this hunter
the old-fashioned way.’
DEMETRIUS
So the rogue wolf was smarter than he looked. Demetrius was quietly impressed. Judging from his
appearance, he had thought ‘Billy’ nothing more than a charming idiot with powerful uncontrolled
magic, but actually the werewolf held a remarkable control over it.
As for the girl, he couldn’t quite decide about her. He had thought her a prisoner of the wolf, but
she was far more independent than expected. Still, there was no doubt that the wolf would rip her
apart if she tried to escape, assuming he hadn’t already forced her loyalty with a magical contract.
Still, he couldn’t feel sorry for her. She was dangerous, too, and from the report he’d been given
about the incident with the girl’s grandmother, it was unclear who had committed the murder.
Demetrius’s first thought—that the pair would be unable to resist the temptation of unknown
magic—had been correct, but he had underestimated their ability to handle it. Well, he wouldn’t
make that mistake again. He made himself comfortable in the tree he was hiding in and listened in
to their waterskin, which he had bugged with magic.
‘…find an inn to stay the night, and leave early tomorrow. Get as far away as we can.’ If the
werewolf felt under pressure, he hid it well.
‘No time to stop for a little fun?’ Red teased.
‘That’s what got us into trouble last time!’ Demetrius could hear the grin on the werewolf’s voice,
even through the gurgle gurgle of the waterskin. The werewolf’s voice sounded different through it,
in a way that made Demetrius’ ears feel funny.
‘The potential for trouble’s never stopped you from doing something before.’
‘True, true. But I can’t stand the way you just sit and watch. Don’t you ever want to find some girl of
your own?’
Demetrius forced himself to back away from the conversation. He had the information he needed:
they were stopping at the inn in the next village.
Demetrius jumped out of the tree and climbed onto his horse. She complained as he did so. The
old horse still seemed to hate him, though he could never tell why. Perhaps she smelt a bit of wolf
on him?
‘No, that’s been long erased,’ he muttered to himself.
He adjusted his black wool coat, boiling hot in this warm weather. But he couldn’t take it off. He
had promised.
He kicked the horse into action—he couldn’t even remember the animal’s name—and rode through
the forest to the village of Noren. There, he put up his horse at the inn, The Beggar’s Hand, and
marched inside to talk to the owner.
‘Demetrius Olomew,’ he declared, casually lifting up his sleeve to reveal his six-pointed star tattoo.
‘I require your assistance.’
The heavy woman did not look happy at the sight of the symbol, but she grunted and said, ‘What
do you need me to do?’
‘I’ll need to prepare a meal and a room for some particular guests tonight. Would you show me to
the latter now?’
‘Right this way, oh great one,’ she said, waving a hand.
Demetrius ignored her rudeness and followed her up the stairs. He couldn’t prevent a smile from
pushing its way onto his lips.
Oh, he’d wipe the grin off that handsome face. The werewolf and his student were going to have a
lot of trouble tonight, indeed.
Wwwwwwwww
To Be a Hero. This is chapter three of three. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hero3. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hero3. This contains the
It’s too darn hot, it’s too darn hot. Damn, it’s hot!
Right now, in the UK, it is about 30 degrees, at least where I live. In London, it’s more like 37
degrees. Now, I know for a lot of you in India or Saudi Arabia or Vietnam, 30 degrees is not that
much. You have it regularly. But here it is a big deal because we really usually only get this kind of
weather…
We used to not even get it once a year. We maybe got it every few years. Now with climate change,
it’s becoming more common. But we don’t really know how to handle this weather very well. One,
because most houses in the UK don’t have air conditioning. And two, because people here just, we
don’t drink enough water, we don’t put on enough sun cream. We’re not used to dealing with this
kind of hot weather. And I’m realising as I say this, I think I probably had exactly the same
conversation in an episode last year, so I don’t want to ramble on about the same topic forever.
But rest assured, it’s, um, difficult, especially in our house, where I live.
When the sun shines in the window it gets so hot. There’s something about the way the house is
built that means it takes in a lot of heat, and my room has two big windows that look out directly
into the sun, so it gets really hot. So I have to open the windows, but if I open the windows, I get a
lot of noise from the road, and I didn’t wanna record the podcast with all of that noise in the
background. I like it to sound good, as good as possible.
Normally, I would record the episode in the morning, before the sun rises. However, today I did not
manage to do that because I was having a relaxed Sunday morning, because it’s a Sunday as I
record this, which of course is great, but now it’s, like, 3pm and I’m recording this, and I have
closed the windows and I’ve also closed the curtains, because if I block out the light then it’s not
too bad. But it means I’m sitting in the dark, in the afternoon, and it is, um, let’s just say it’s warm
inside. It’s, it’s pretty warm. According to the thermometer I have on my desk, it’s 31 degrees. I
don’t know if that’s accurate. But, yeah. I suffer for all of you!
Now, I do have a fan here beside me. If it gets too hot during the episode, I might switch the fan on,
so if you start hearing a brrrrrrr in the background, that’s what it is.
Anyway, today we have the final chapter of this story and I’m really excited about it! I was feeling,
mmm, not so confident with it as I went through the first and second chapters, but that’s a process
that always happens when writing long stories, and as usually happens, it all kind of came together
in the end, and I’m satisfied with the end. But some of you have left some really nice comments
about the story, anyway, which gave me more hope and motivation to finish it off.
Anyway, so I’m really interested in hearing your thoughts on the whole story now that it’s finished,
so do go leave a comment at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hero3. I would love to know everything
that you think, even if it’s negative! Well, maybe not if it’s negative. Give me compliments, damn it!
Anyway, in other news the Easy Stories in English Telegram group—yes, we have a group chat. It’s
fantastic. People are chatting there all the time. And you can join it
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Chat.
In the group chat, we recently hit 500 members. Hey! That’s a lot of people. And people in the chat
are just so lovely. There’s such a great atmosphere there, and some of the listeners even used a
website to make a world map where you can put a pin where you live.
Look at all the places we are!

So you can see the whole world and you can see where all of the listeners of the podcast are,
which is really great for me because I can see that, oh there’s lots of people in the north of Italy!
Which is making me think maybe I’ll plan a live event in the north of Italy? Mmm, mmm? Obviously
right now with coronavirus that’s not a possibility, but perhaps next year? Easy Stories in English
weekend in Milan? It could happen! I’m just saying, it could happen.
Anyway, if you wanna join the chat and put your pin on the map, go
to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Chat, or just go to the normal website and click ‘GROUP CHAT’ at the
top.
I also want to give a little apology today because I have been so rubbish with emails recently! And
when I say ‘recently’ I mean for like, weeks and weeks I did not check my emails and I had, like, 50
unread emails from Easy Stories in English listeners. Unfortunately, I couldn’t respond to them all
because it would have taken hours and if I did that I would never answer my emails, so I decided to
say, ‘OK, I’m going to check my emails every day from now on.’ Ten minutes a day. But a lot of the
emails I didn’t respond to.
So if you sent me a lovely message within the last month and I didn’t respond, I’m really sorry,
I did see it, and if you have something important you want to ask me, or tell me, or show me, don’t
be afraid, send me another email, OK? I should be able to respond to it better this time.
I think I had that classic problem that most people have before, where I checked my emails too
often, yeah? I used to check them whenever they came in. And then I went too far in the opposite
direction and barely ever checked my emails. And now I’m trying to find a healthy balance, cause
you know, checking it once a day? I think that’s enough, but it also allows me to actually respond
to people on time.
have claws. They can really hurt you!
Curl up means to move into a ball shape. Some people curl up into a ball while they sleep,
although this is bad for your back. You might also curl on the sofa with a good book, or curl up on
the floor when you are sad.
A fit of rage is a short, strong period of anger. A fit is basically when you have such a strong
emotion that you can’t control yourself, and rage is a high level of anger.
Someone pathetic is someone so weak and helpless that you either feel sorry for them, or you feel
sick when you look at them. For example, a dog with one leg would be very pathetic. You have to
feel sorry for it! Dobby in Harry Potter and Gollum in Lord of the Rings are examples of pathetic
characters.
A sneer
A sneer is a smile that you make when you are making fun of someone. Usually, when you sneer,
you raise one side of your upper lip and show your teeth, and you might move your head back as
well. It’s very rude to sneer!
Reappropriate means to take something that is used for one thing and use it for another purpose.
For example, you might take money that your dad spends on beer and use it to buy a new sofa for
the house. You are reappropriating his money for a better purpose!
Sniff means to go sniff sniff. You sniff when you want to smell something, or when you have been
crying.
A quest is a journey or mission that a hero undertakes. For example, in Harry Potter, Harry Potter’s
quest is to defeat Lord Voldemort. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo’s quest is to throw the ring into
Mount Doom.
A grin is a broad smile. If something is funny and unexpected, you might grin at it.
Overthrow means to remove a person or government from power with force, to do a coup d’état.
For example, Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the government of France in 1804. Voldemort and his
death eaters overthrow the Ministry of Magic in the seventh Harry Potter book.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Darya
911, Azima Khamidova, Helena Duvall and Di Costanzo. Thank you so much. Your support really
means a lot to us.
To Be a Hero Chapter 3
When we last saw our heroes, and I do use that term lightly, they were hiding in the bushes, waiting
outside the lair of the dragon, the ground covered in smelly snake guts designed to wake the
monster’s rage.
They spent many long, tedious, hours waiting. Norm looked around and found some mushrooms,
which Elric encouraged him to try, but Kvok was convinced they were deadly poisonous, and this
lead into an endless debate which made Norm regret finding the mushrooms in the first place.
Eventually, though, just as Elric was explaining his detailed encounters with mushrooms during his
“heroic journeys”, the dragon came out of the cave and Norm told them to shut up.
It was a fearsome creature, or at least, it would’ve been, if it was the correct size. It had skin as
black as the night, razor-sharp claws and teeth, its wings spreading out like city walls, or at the
very least, like very threatening bedsheets. But the dragon was small, far smaller than any of them
had expected, and as it walked outside, yawning, Norm found it hard to believe that this little thing
had threatened any town.
As soon as the dragon saw the snakes it gave a cry and jumped backwards, its eyes wide at the
sight before it. It started shaking, its hands curling up by its sides.
‘Yes, here it comes!’ said Elric. ‘Get ready, boy!’
Quietly, Norm started to climb onto Kvok. But the dragon did not burst into a fit of rage, breathe fire
or scream into the sky.
It cried.
The sound was loud and sharp like a knife, forcing Norm to cover his ears. It made the acid in his
stomach shake like a drum, but there was nothing frightening about the dragon’s reaction. Big fat
tears rolled down its cheeks as it made an expression of complete misery and bit at its claws.
‘W-w-w-w-who would do this?!’
The dragon fell to the ground and curled up into a ball. It seemed he was trying to squeeze every
last bit of water from his body, and just when they thought he had finished, he opened his eyes
again, saw the snakes, and began crying once more.
‘This is the fearsome dragon that is attacking the people of Orfever?!’ said Elric, alarmed. ‘I’ve
fought kittens more threatening!’
Norm stared at the dragon, frozen by the scene. Kvok pushed him with his nose.
‘Go on, boy. Now’s our chance.’
Norm shook his head. ‘No.’

He dropped his sword to the ground and walked through the bushes.
‘Hello there!’
The dragon didn’t hear him, so loud was his crying.
‘I said hey!’
The dragon rolled around on the ground, a pool of water forming beneath him, but he still did not
hear Norm.
‘HEY!’ screamed the boy.
The dragon stopped, opened his eyes red with tears, and looked up.
‘W-what do you want? Do you know who did this?’
Norm sighed heavily. He was about to take a risk. As pathetic as this dragon was, he was probably
still dangerous. But he couldn’t hide the truth from him.
‘We did.’
‘ “We”?’
Reluctantly, Elric and Kvok approached from the bushes. The dragon had sat up now, sniffing and
rubbing his face dry.
‘We were trying to be heroes,’ said Norm quietly. ‘We heard you were stealing from the city and,
well…’
‘I don’t understand,’ said the dragon, shaking his head. ‘Why didn’t you come and attack me like all
the others?’
‘You have defeated others?’ said Kvok, practically sneering.
‘Not myself, no. They walk into my traps and then I tie them up, fly them somewhere else, and
leave them there. Sometimes the same ones come back several times, but they never get through.’
Elric snorted. ‘It’s like someone throwing a spider out of their home. Personally, I always crush
them.’
‘You what?!’ said the dragon, shocked. ‘You kill poor innocent spiders?’
The dragon looked like he might burst into tears again just at the thought of it.
‘We wanted to launch a psychological attack,’ said Norm, staring at the ground. ‘Clearly it was a
mistake.’
‘If you care this much about killing me…’ The dragon rolled over, revealing his stomach. ‘Then do it,
human.’ The sad, pathetic creature was gone, replaced by a cold determination. ‘Spill out my guts
onto the ground. If you’ll kill others in my name, then I’d rather you ended me directly. I’ll just ask
one thing of you: look me in the eyes while you do it.’
‘Uh…’ said Norm, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, ‘I’ve decided that we don’t want to kill you
anymore.’
‘Hmph!’ said Elric, folding his arms. ‘It would be shameful to kill such a strange thing.’
‘There’s no joy in fighting an enemy who doesn’t strike back,’ muttered Kvok. ‘Secretly, I was
hoping you would give the boy a serious injury and he would end up bleeding to death in a manner
truly appropriate of a hero.’
Elric and Norm stared at the pegasus.
‘What? I was joking. Obviously.’
The dragon rolled back onto his feet. ‘Well, if you’re not going to kill me, then move aside. I’ve got
work to do.’
Apparently, he had gotten over his emotional reaction rather quickly.
‘Where are you going?’ said Elric. ‘To steal?’
‘ “Steal” is an ugly word. I prefer… “reappropriate”.’
‘Taking gold to your lair isn’t reappropriation,’ said Kvok, sneering.
‘Who said I was taking it to my lair? Have you seen the west side of Orfever? They don’t like to
show it to visitors. It’s where all the poor live: the homeless, the children without parents, the
diseased. I bring the gold to them. I’m just… redistributing the city’s wealth. I could murder those
people and the mayor wouldn’t care, but because I’m helping them, I’m public enemy number one.’
The dragon spread his wings and prepared to take flight. ‘I’m Sniveli, by the way. If you cross me
again, I will tear out your guts like you did to those poor snakes.’
Norm gulped. Sniveli was unpredictable, but there was no doubt that he was dangerous.
‘If you don’t want to kill me, the least you could do is clean up the mess you made, and hold a
funeral for each of them.’
And with that, Sniveli flew away, to do his work as Robin Hood.
Norm scratched his head. ‘You know, I’m starting to think this hero business isn’t all that great.
Come on, let’s clean this up.’
‘What about the funerals?’ said Elric. ‘It would take weeks to do them all!’
‘We’ll just hold one big one,’ said Norm, hoping that that wouldn’t anger the dragon.
Kvok sneered. ‘I should’ve stayed in my cave and read more books. I wouldn’t have to bury snakes
and give them funerals there.’
They got to work, digging a hole in the forest and dumping the snake bodies inside. Elric held the
funeral, as he claimed he had attended the deaths of many brave heroes, but it soon became
apparent that he was just making things up.
‘And, uh, I am sure that these snakes were very, very loved. If only cruel fate had not taken them
away so soon! They could be going sssssss and shedding their skin and doing… whatever else it is
that snakes do.’
Of the three of them, Norm was the most sorry for their actions. Elric couldn’t take things
seriously, but he did at least regret what they did. Kvok was quiet and grumpy, but Norm was sure
he would understand eventually.
Later that evening, Sniveli returned to his cave and, seeing the clean ground, smiled broadly.
‘I didn’t think you’d actually do it,’ he said, sniffing and wiping his cheek. ‘Sorry, I’ve been crying
again. One of the kids showed me his drawing, and it was so impressive! He drew a perfect little
spider… or maybe it was a kangaroo. I’m not sure. Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?’
With nowhere else to go, they happily agreed. Sniveli lead them through a complicated series of
tunnels, undoing his traps to let them past, until they arrived in a cosy little home, complete with a
well-stocked kitchen.
They sat down and got to chatting, telling the dragon all about their adventures so far. Or at least,
Norm and Sniveli chatted, while Kvok and Elric exchanged dark looks and whispered to each other.
‘… And what’s the point of being king if you’re not even going to use your magical pear? He let it go
rotten! … stupid man, really. I mean, what king abuses his own horse? It made me feel sick … And
don’t get me started on that mayor. He made you sound so awful! If I see him again …’
‘… Oh, I completely agree! Why do you think I started this in the first place? … Mmm, mmm. You
would make a great dragon, you know … You’re so right! I should eat him just for that …’
Eventually, Elric and Kvok’s whispers got too much for Norm, and he turned around and said,
‘What? You two have been whispering all evening. What are you talking about?’
‘We were just discussing your quest, my boy,’ said Elric. ‘Or rather, the lack of it.’
‘Norm,’ said Kvok, slapping a hoof on the table. ‘Do you actually want to be a hero?’
Norm’s lip shook. ‘Of course I do! How could you ask such a thing?’
‘It’s only that… Well, I did tell you that heroes don’t really exist anymore. But you convinced me for a
while that they did, with that endless enthusiasm you have. But heroes don’t go around helping
ghosts, freeing pegasi and making friends with dragons, and they certainly don’t speak badly of
the kings they serve.’
‘Are you calling me a bad hero?’ said Norm, going red. ‘You know it’s my dream!’
‘No,’ said Sniveli, putting his claw on the boy’s hand. ‘What they’re saying is that you’re far too good
to waste your time trying to become some idea of a fairytale hero. You can just be you.’
Norm looked between the three of them. They all seemed to know him so well, far better than he’d
ever known himself. He couldn’t understand it.
‘But if I can’t be a hero… what will I do? And what will you two do?’
Sniveli grinned, wrapping his wings around the three of them. ‘You can come live here! There’s
plenty of space, and it’s completely safe. Maybe then the people of Orfever will start to see that I’m
not all bad, and overthrow their mayor or something revolutionary like that.’
‘Hmph!’ said Kvok, raising his nose proudly. ‘I’ll consider it.’
‘I suppose it’s better than living in that dusty old tower,’ Elric muttered. ‘And I wouldn’t be having to
save Norm’s life every five minutes. What do you say, boy? Shall we settle down here?’
Norm stared into his tea, and then said, ‘It’s a wonderful idea. But first, I have something I have to
do. Alone.’
The next day, Norm set off for his stepmother’s house. He took some of Sniveli’s ‘reappropriated’
wealth and bought a set of warm clothes from Orfever, as well as a magic log that burned forever.
She had always complained about being cold, but with good clothes and a neverending fire, she
would be more than warm enough.
When Norm finally arrived, however, he did not find the house loud with his stepmother’s
complaints. He found the vegetables in the garden dead, the roof collapsed, and the animals run
away.
The place was empty, apart from his stepmother’s bones lying on her bed.
She had never been a good mother, or even very nice, and yet he found himself shedding tears for
her. She didn’t deserve to die alone, abandoned by her only child. It made him think of his
companions. If he hadn’t rescued Elric from the tower, would the ghost have gone mad with
loneliness? If he hadn’t freed Kvok, would he have died under the hands of a cruel king? If he had
fought Sniveli, would he have killed a kind soul, as well as the hope of all the poor in Orfever?
He had abandoned her, and she had already faced so much loss: her husband leaving her, and her
daughter dying. She had been nasty, but not wicked. If it wasn’t for the stories she told him, he
would have never left on his adventure in the first place.
‘I’m sorry, Mother,’ he said, touching her bones. ‘But there is one last thing I can do for you.’
He packed up her remains, got on his horse, and rode to Sniveli’s lair. He buried the bones outside
it.
‘You’ll never be cold here. It’s warmed by dragon fire.’
From that day on, Norm, Elric and Kvok lived happily with Sniveli the dragon. They couldn’t have
been more different, and yet, they somehow got along, although they still had plenty of arguments.
They all helped out with Sniveli’s missions into Orfever, and sure enough, with their help the
abused masses of the city rose up and overthrew their mayor, founding an independent city state
based on equality. Kvok got to brutally kill the mayor, which he greatly enjoyed, Elric taught the
new generation of children to read, and Norm flew on Sniveli’s back to other cities and countries,
to spread the word of the dragon, and to redistribute the happiness and wealth that the four
friends owned.
Norm never dreamed of becoming a brave hero again, because in reality, he had been one all
along.
Wwwwwwwwww
To Be a Hero. This is chapter two. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hero2. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hero2. This contains the
So in last week’s episode, the first chapter of the story, I said there would be two chapters. Mmm, I
lied! Actually, this is not the last chapter. There is probably going to be three chapters? I don’t
know, we’ll see. Maybe even four.
I made a plan for the story and I thought it would be two chapters long, but as I was writing this it
got a bit longer and so I decided to stop at a certain point and do another chapter next week. So,
because I’m still writing this story as I publish it, that’s why it’s a bit all over the place. It was kinda
hard to cut it into chapters as well, I had to do it in slightly weird places, but you know what? It’s all
an experiment. I’m trying to write more of my own stuff. These things happen.
Hopefully, you’ll still enjoy it. But if you haven’t listened to the first chapter yet, then I really
recommend doing that first! So go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hero to hear chapter one of
today’s story.
And do leave your comments and let me know what you think of this story and of this chapter
because I love reading your comments, and it really helps me to get an idea of which stories you
like, and which you don’t like so much. So you can go and leave a comment
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hero2.
Speaking of getting back to writing original work again, I’ve been back working on my novel
because I’ve decided, you know what, I’m on draft four of this novel, I’ve done so much work on it,
I’ve made up a whole plan for how I’m gonna rewrite the story. I’m really proud of what I rewrote so
far. I just need to get over this kind of like perfectionism I have about it being the most amazing
perfect story ever. It’s not going to be. Also, I was kind of unsure, I thought maybe it would be the
second book in a trilogy, and then I’ll have to write the prequel, and that was confusing me, and I’ve
decided, “Don’t think about that now. Just finish the story and then you can decide what to do.”
So if you’re interested, it is a, um, a fantasy novel about a reclusive lesbian vampire who has been
exiled from a vampire clan and has to get back in touch with it in order to defeat an evil vampire
who’s going around and murdering vampires and drinking their blood. So it’s all very mysterious.
It’s like a murder mystery adventure kind of thing.
I mainly really want to work on original novels because, you know, I really love doing the stories
and the podcast, but sometimes I want to express myself using the full range of language that I
have as a native speaker and as a writer, but also I really want to publish these novels and then do
editions for learners, so with more simplified language like on the podcast.
The reason being is, you know, I provide all of these short stories that I think are a really great
resource, but also I think it’s great to have full-length novels that are good for learners, so you have
something a bit, um, deeper, a bit more detailed to “sink your teeth into”, we say. A very fitting
metaphor given we’re talking about a vampire story!
What’s actually really been helping me to focus on my novel and work more determinedly—is that
a word? Hmm, I dunno—work more determinedly on it has been meditating. So I’ve been getting
back into meditation. I talk about this a lot on my other podcast, Elevenses with Ariel, which is a
short conversational podcast for intermediate and advanced learners. So if you want to hear all
about my meditation, as well as, you know, what’s going on in my life, TV shows and books that I
like, and the novel I’m working on, then you can go to Patreon.com/EasyStoriesInEnglish and for
just $5 a month you can get access to the, I think it’s like, 50 episodes at this point? Of Elevenses
with Ariel. So there’s lots to listen to!
A foal is a baby horse.
Instincts are those feelings that help you make decisions or figure out a situation. For example,
when I’m teaching, I sometimes feel that students don’t understand me. I know this just through
instinct. It’s hard to explain how I know, but I just do. Athletes and musicians often rely on instinct
for their performances. They don’t think about what they’re doing. They just do it.
“Bob’s your uncle” is a very funny and very British expression that means, “and there you have it”
or “and there it is”. For example, you go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com, you click on a story, you read
it and Bob’s your uncle! Now you’re fluent in English. Not really. I wish!
Horse hooves (Pete Markham CC BY-SA 2.0)
A hoof, and the plural is hooves, is the foot of a cow, a pig, a goat, and so on. Basically, these
animals don’t have feet like us. Their feet are very hard, and when they walk it sounds like clop
clop. To protect horse’s hooves, people put horseshoes on them.
A suit of armour (Moira Burke CC BY-SA 2.0)
Armour is a set of hard clothes, made of iron, steel or leather. Armour is there to protect you in
battle. In the Middle Ages, knights and warriors wore very complicated metal armour and it took a
long time to put it on and take it off. Nowadays, usually only the police and soldiers wear armour,
and the armour is much lighter.
When you crush something, you squash it, make it completely flat. You usually crush things with
your hand or your foot. For example, after you finish drinking a can of Coke, you might crush it for
fun. Or if you are very cruel, you might enjoy crushing insects. When cooking, you often need to
crush garlic with a knife.
A cliché is a phrase or an idea that is overused, that is used so much that it stops meaning very
much. For example, in the UK many football commentators, people who comment professionally
on football matches, say things like, ‘At the end of the day, it’s a game of two sides.’ Which is a
cliché because, well, of course it’s a game of two sides! It’s football! An example of a cliché in film
is when there’s a clock ticking down to an explosion or something dramatic, and the hero always
manages to stop the clock with one second left.
“Speak of the devil, and he shall appear”, often just shortened to “Speak of the devil”, is a phrase
that you use when you are talking about someone and then they appear. Basically, in the Middle
Ages they believed that it was bad to say the name of the Devil, Satan, because it would make him
appear. So now, if you are talking about your friend Maria, and then suddenly Maria arrives, it is like
magic, and you can say, ‘Speak of the devil!’
A lair is the home of a monster. Lairs are usually caves, and they are usually very dark and full of
treasure. If you want to go and slay a terrifying monster, you will have to go to their lair to do it.
Awe is a feeling that is a mix of fear and wonder at something. For example, you might feel a
sense of awe when you see something beautiful in nature, like a huge mountain or a waterfall, or a
dangerous animal.
Guts are your insides, the organs around your stomach. So your stomach, your intestines, your
liver and so on are all your guts. Hopefully, you’ll never get to see your guts, because if you can see
your guts then something horrible has happened!
A big thank-you to our new patrons: Chris and Sima. Thank you so much. Your support really
means a lot to us.
To Be a Hero Chapter 2
When we last saw our hero-in-training, Norm, and his ghostly teacher, Elric, they were walking at a
sensible pace through the forest to recover the King’s lost pegasus. After several hours of walking,
filled with Elric insisting they (quietly) play a variety of childish word games, they arrived at the
cave where the creature was hiding.
Norm gasped when he saw the magnificent animal. Its wings were long and elegant, as if taken
from an angel, and it had skin as pure and white as snow.
But far from wandering elegantly through the trees, the creature was sitting on the floor of the
cave reading a book.
‘I didn’t know horses could read,’ muttered Elric.

‘He’s not a horse!’ said Norm. ‘Now, wait here while I go and talk to him. I don’t want you to scare
him off.’
‘No!’ hissed the ghost. ‘You’re no good at this, even if you can talk to animals. Let’s do it my way.
We’ll capture a foal and trap it. The pegasus will see it and its animal instincts will kick in. And then
you’ll throw a net over it, and Bob’s your uncle. We’ll be back at the castle in no time with the
pegasus.’
‘Bob’s not my uncle. I don’t have an uncle. Bob was the name of that bird.’
Norm paused and thought over Elric’s plan. He didn’t like it for several reasons. For one, how were
they going to get hold of a foal and a net? But more importantly, it didn’t seem like the heroic thing
to do. And yet, what did Norm know of heroism? All his attempts at it so far had failed.
But he couldn’t deny his heart. No creature that magnificent deserved to be caught in a net and
dragged to its master.
So Norm stood up and said, ‘Hello there.’
The pegasus jumped, ripping a page out of the book with his hoof.
‘Don’t be scared! I’m not going to hurt you. What book are you reading?’
For a long moment, the pegasus didn’t move a muscle, and just stared at him in silence. Then he
said, ‘How can you talk to me?’
‘I ate a magic pear.’
‘Hmm, I thought they stopped growing those years ago. Well, if you must know, I’m reading The
Almanac of Dragons.’
‘Fancy!’ said Norm. ‘What’s it about?’
‘…Dragons.’
‘Oh, I probably could’ve guessed that from the title.’
‘What do you want?’ said the pegasus. Despite his overwhelming beauty, he spoke in a cold,
practical manner.
‘I, uh…’ He couldn’t just say he wanted to take him to the King, could he? ‘I heard you ran away from
the King. Why is that?’
‘And why would I tell you? You’re just looking for a reward. Is he offering “endless riches” this time,
or did he say he would be “forever thankful”?’
‘The first one! But no, I’m not here to help the King.’
‘True. You don’t look like one of those mercenaries the King hires. You’re not even wearing armour.
I could crush you with one hoof.’
Norm gulped. ‘Yeah, you could.’
The pegasus sighed. ‘I suppose there’s no harm in telling you why I ran away. Perhaps you can
pass the message on to the King for me, and he can leave me alone.’
The pegasus stepped out of the cave and walked around, never taking his eye off Norm.
‘I never liked that fighting business. I’m a scholar, really. I’ve fought in many battles—’ here he
moved his neck to point at his scar-covered back, ‘—and I’ve killed many men, but for what? So that
a drunk man can fill his pockets and continue to crush the people under his boot?’
‘Did the King… hurt you?’
The pegasus turned round and stared at Norm. ‘Yes, he did.’
‘I’m sorry. I know what that’s like. I’m not a warrior, at least, not yet. I want to be a hero. But my
stepmother…’
‘…is wicked and beats you every day?’
‘Almost! She never hit me. Just said mean words.’
‘We’ve got almost all the clichés in the book between us. A drunken king and a wicked stepmother.
Next you’ll tell me you’re being accompanied by the ghost of a great hero who’s teaching you how
to become one yourself.’
‘I’m no cliché!’ bellowed Elric, floating out of the bushes.
‘Speak of the devil,’ said the pegasus.
‘This is Elric. It’s kind of a long story…’
‘I have a vivid imagination. I can figure it out. But really, what are you looking for, boy? Most people
wouldn’t track down a killer pegasus without a good reason to do so.’
‘I admit… I was looking to get the King’s reward. That is, until I saw you. You’re beautiful,’ he
whispered.
‘Oh, so if I was ugly you would’ve sent me back to the King? I can tell you don’t read books. You’re
just full of incorrect assumptions.’
‘Hey, leave the boy alone!’ cried Elric. ‘He’s just a kid doing his best to become a hero! He may be
stupid, but he’s, uh… very brave?’ He said this last part in a very doubtful tone.
‘Thank you, Elric.’
The pegasus smiled. ‘My apologies. I haven’t been able to talk to anyone apart from old war
horses for many years now. My manners have deteriorated. And now I must ask you a favour: will
you go back to the King and tell him that I died? Spare no details, tell him that I was cut apart and
that my body parts are being eaten by birds.’
‘Eugh!’ said Norm. ‘I mean… I can.’
‘I think that’s the only way he’ll leave me alone. All I want is to read my books in peace.’ But there
was a hint of loneliness in the beautiful creature’s voice.
‘Alright,’ said Norm. ‘I’ll tell him.’
‘Thank you. I am aware that the temptation of gold can conquer even the strongest men, so if you
do this for me, I will give you a reward myself. Meet me on that hill at sunset.’ He gestured into the
distance, where a low hill rose up out of the forest.
‘Why, is it a magical hill?’
‘No, it just means I’ll be able to see if you’re coming with the King’s men to betray me. And believe
me, you don’t want to betray me.’
So Norm went to deliver the message to the King, which was considerably difficult on his part, as
acting was not one of his strongest skills. But with Elric’s coaching—the ex-hero seemed to be
exceptionally skilled at lying—they made it out of the castle and headed for the hill, where the
pegasus was waiting for them.
‘I realised I didn’t tell you my name,’ said the creature. ‘I’m trying to become more polite, but it’s a
difficult process. I am Kvok.’
‘Uh, that’s a beautiful name,’ said Norm.
‘Don’t lie to me. It’s ugly. Anyway, here is your reward.’
Norm blinked and looked around. ‘Uh, is it an… invisible sword?’
Kvok snorted. ‘You need to get over your obsession with magical objects. No, it is me.’
‘Huh?’
‘I know I said before that I just wanted a quiet life of reading, but a pegasus does get lonely… As
foolish as it seems, I’d like to accompany you on your journey.’
‘Fantastic!’ said Norm, his mind filling with romantic images of him riding Kvok dressed in a
shining suit of armour.
‘Don’t get any ideas, though,’ said Kvok. ‘I won’t let you ride me unless it’s strictly necessary.’
‘Oh,’ said Norm, trying, and failing, to hide his disappointment.
‘Now, I had a fly around and collected information,’ said Kvok, ‘and I heard about a dragon who’s
been attacking the city of Orfever to the east, stealing jewels and gold from the people. I couldn’t
believe that sort of thing still happens, but it makes a perfect task for a young hero-in-training,
don’t you think?’
‘Yes!’ cried Norm, jumping into the air and punching it.
‘Just one problem, my boy,’ said Elric. ‘You don’t have a sword, a shield, or even a piece of armour.
Besides, you’re completely untrained!’
Kvok smiled devilishly. ‘Don’t worry. I have a plan.’
So as they travelled to the city on foot, the pegasus explained his plan to them. Clearly, those
books he had been reading—Norm was forced to drag the heavy chest full of them—contained
some awful stuff, as the plan was the work of someone with a truly sick mind.
‘I thought you didn’t like violence?’ said Norm.
‘I never said that! I just like applying it strategically.’
When they arrived at the city of Orfever, it was clear to see why the dragon had chosen it. It was
covered in wealth, the streets made of elegant stones with romantic lamps and imposing statues
on either side, down which paraded finely-dressed citizens with noses almost as high as their
expensive hats. The mayor even lived in a tower of gold.
‘Ah, you have come to deal with our dragon problem, yes?’ he said, eyeing their odd appearance
with a frown. ‘Fantastic. You’ll find its lair an hour north of here, in the caves.’
‘Aren’t you going to help us, perhaps with some legendary armour or magical objects?’ said Norm
hopefully. If he couldn’t live out his dream of fighting a dragon, he could at least get some free
equipment.
The mayor scoffed. ‘Do heroes not equip themselves these days? You should consider yourself
lucky I even allowed you into my home with such dirty clothes. Now go and do your job, boy.’
So the three adventurers carried out their plan. First, they had to acquire a sword. Kvok told Elric
and Norm to go relax at a pub, giving them some coin to buy drinks with, while the pegasus went
off to ‘find’ a sword. Norm was sure that he was in fact stealing it, but he didn’t dare challenge the
creature. He was still in awe of him, and the more he talked to Kvok, the more that awe turned to
fear. He did not want to get on his wrong side.
Once they had the sword, they went into the grasslands surrounding the city and found every
snake they could, breaking their necks and collecting them in a bag. It made Norm feel a bit sick,
but Kvok insisted that they follow his plan, so he kept quiet. Elric flew around, finding the animals,
but it was Norm who actually had to kill them, and he got more than one bite on his arm.
Thankfully, they weren’t the poisonous kind.
Once they had collected a heavy bag of snakes, they went to the dragon’s lair, poured the dead
creatures onto the ground, and got to work. Each one they sliced open, spilling its guts out onto
the earth.
‘Dragons, although they view themselves as far superior, feel a great connection to snakes,
because they believe that is their biological origin,’ Kvok had said on their way to Orfever. ‘If we
launch a psychological attack, we can make it angry, and when dragons are angry, they’re stupid.
They have very strong biological instincts, you see. During my information-gathering I discovered
this one has a weak spot on its stomach. So we’ll get it angry and then you’ll fly in, Norm—yes, I’ll
let you ride me just this once—and cut it open with the sword.’
Norm was frightened but terribly excited at the same time. Elric, too, became enthusiastic,
coaching Norm on sword techniques during every spare moment.
Once they had finished their reptilian murder session, they ran into the bushes nearby and hid,
waiting for the dragon to come out.
And you too must wait, dear reader, because this story has yet another chapter to go. But do not
worry, friends, soon you will find out the thrilling tale of the battle with the dragon! You simply must
be patient like a snake in the long grass… Although hopefully your guts will remain in place!
Wwwwwwwwwwww
To Be a Hero. This is chapter one of two. You can find a transcript of the episode
at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hero. That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Hero. This contains the full
Today’s story is another original story. So last week we had Three Dragons, which was a story I
wrote myself, and I wrote this story myself as well. Although, to be honest, at the time of recording
this, I haven’t actually finished the story. I’ve done the first chapter and a bit of the second one
because, um, writing my own stories always takes longer, but it’s a really rewarding process.
Whenever I hear the word “hero”, the first thing that comes to mind is the Bonnie Tyler
song Holding Out For a Hero. [singing] I need a hero! I’m holding out for a hero till the morning light!
And he’s gotta be strong and he’s gotta be cool and he’s gotta be faster than light! Out where the
mountains meet the heavens above, out where the lightning splits the sea… And so on. I cannot sing
like Bonnie Tyler. Anyway, that’s the first thing I think of.
And the second thing I think of is the version of that song from the film Shrek 2. You probably
know Shrek 2. It was a very, very, very popular, uh, cartoon film. And it’s kind of like a parody of
fairy tales. Anyway, in the film there’s a bit where the fairy godmother sings this song and there’s
this amazing sequence.
So it’s like, the fairy godmother is singing this, like, powerful ballad version of Holding Out For a
Hero, and then Fiona is dancing with the man she thinks is the human version of Shrek, but
actually it’s Prince Charming, which is, like, the son of the fairy godmother, and then the real Shrek
is coming to attack the castle, and he’s riding on the giant gingerbread man and like, all of the
fighting is like synchronised to the music, and it’s like a dramatic death, like… There’s just so much
going on! I really do think this scene is the pinnacle, the peak of cinema, it is probably the best
scene that has ever happened in any film ever. Maybe that sounds really hyperbolic, maybe that
sounds really exaggerated, and certainly, um, it’s not a very serious film or a serious scene, but
like, ugh, it’s just so satisfying to watch. It’s just brilliant. It’s pure art.
Anyway, like that film, this story I wrote is also a parody of fairy tales. This is kind of something
that I think is, is difficult because, you know, everyone knows fairy tales so everyone thinks they
can write a parody, but to make a good fairy tale parody is quite hard. I don’t know if I have. It’s, it’s
a fine line to walk, you know? You could very easily just become annoying and cliché
but hopefully this story is good and you enjoy it! It’s much more comedic than the last week’s
story, anyway. It seems like I’m only capable of writing horrible tragedies or silly comedies and not
much in between!
Wicked means evil, very very bad. So witches are wicked, in fairy tales stepmothers are usually
wicked, and so on. You might know The Wicked Witch of the West, a green witch from The Wizard
of Oz. There is also a famous musical called Wicked based on this character.
A knight riding a horse
rescues princesses.
Fearsome means very, very scary. You might have a fearsome beast, a fearsome monster or a
fearsome wizard.
The flag of Wales has a dragon on it
A dragon is a mythical creature that is found in most cultures around the world. Dragons are big
monsters with horns and claws that can breathe fire and eat people. Dragons like to collect
treasure and hide it in their lair, and knights come to try and slay the dragon, although most of
them just get eaten. Dragons have scales, like snakes, and they can fly.
A man frowning
When you frown, you push your eyebrows together. When you are confused or angry, you frown.
You shouldn’t frown too much, though, because then you’ll get wrinkles, lines on your forehead.
A man sweeping with a broom (by Serenity CC BY-SA 3.0)
A broom is a brush with a long handle. You use a broom to sweep the floor, to push all the dust on
the floor together, so that you can then clean it up. Brooms can be used on hard floors, like wood
or tile, but not on carpets. Witches can fly on broomsticks.
A mercenary is a soldier who is paid to work. In the Middle Ages, mercenaries travelled around
and worked for whoever paid them. Mercenaries don’t care about if the fight is ‘right’, they just
care about making money. Nowadays, we don’t really have mercenaries.
Pat means to touch something quickly and gently with the flat part of your hand. If you want to
show you like your dog, you’ll pat him on the head. You might also pat a small child on the head. If
someone did a really good job on something, or they’re sad and you want to make them feel better,
you can pat them on the back. If you want to tell someone they did something really well, you can
say, ‘Give yourself a pat on the back.’
If you feel like death warmed over, you feel really, really sick. The idea is that you feel like you’re
dead, but not only are you dead, you’ve been warmed up! You feel like death warmed over.
An illustration of Pegasus
A pegasus, and the plural is ‘pegasi’, is a mythical creature from Ancient Greece. Pegasi are
basically just horses with wings that can fly. Actually, there was only originally one Pegasus, but
now in stories we often have many pegasi. In the Disney film Hercules, Hercules is given Pegasus
and they become friends.
An urge is a strong desire, a want, for something that you feel very suddenly. For example, you
might get an urge to go to a certain restaurant, and you can’t stop thinking about it all day. You
don’t know where the urge came from, but now you can’t get rid of it. Well, I get lots of food-related
urges, but maybe you don’t!
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Хорунжий, Paolo Tolomei, Ekaterina Sushko and Cristofer Amezquita Torres. Thank you so much.
Your support really means a lot to us.
To Be a Hero
Once there was a boy called Norm who lived with his stepmother. Like all stepmothers, she was
wicked, and she spent all day shouting at Norm.
‘It’s freezing in here! Where’s the firewood? Oh, if only Sabrina were here!’
Sabrina was her own daughter, who had died the day Norm was born, the same day that Norm’s
father abandoned them in the dirty little hut where they lived. So Norm grew up under the thumb of
his cruel stepmother, never allowed to play with other children, go too far away from the house or
even to have time to himself.
Despite all the misery that surrounded him, Norm was a happy boy. He cheerfully prayed for his
stepmother’s death every night, and he was sure that it would eventually come. But it seemed his
prayers were insufficient, as she continued to complain and shout at him with just as much
energy, until he grew up into a young man.
Unlike his stepmother, Norm changed a great deal. He grew tall and strong, and tired of shivering
inside their hut, unable to sleep from hunger, he started planting fruit trees and vegetables, and
gradually made friends with some farm animals so he could steal them away to the house. He
even rebuilt the little hut, making it strong and waterproof.
One day, Norm looked at his stepmother in her dirty clothes and said, ‘Mother, I’m leaving home.’
‘What?!’ she spat. ‘Where will you go? Who will look after me?’
‘You have animals, fruit trees and a good roof over your head. I think you can look after yourself
well enough. As for me, I am going out to become a hero.’
‘A hero?’ She laughed wickedly in his face. ‘Oh, my sweet child, you know so little of the world!’
‘Then it is time I went out and learned. Goodbye, Mother.’
And with that, Norm headed out into the world. While he had grown up sheltered and lonely, his
stepmother had at least done one good thing for him, and told him stories every night. So rarely
did he leave home that Norm was convinced that the world was just like in the stories, full of noble
knights and fearsome dragons, talking snakes and kind wizards, and he intended to find all of it.
After wandering for several days, Norm came to a small castle. Following the stories he knew so
well, he went to introduce himself to the King.
‘Well, you are a strong young man, aren’t you?’ said the King. ‘Perhaps you would like to join my
army.’
‘No, I want to become a hero.’
‘But, my boy! Soldiers are heroes.’
Norm frowned. That wasn’t in the stories.
‘Don’t you have some important task to give me? A dragon to kill, maybe?’
‘Hmm,’ said the King, stroking his bushy beard. ‘No dragons, but I do have a task…’
Norm’s ears went up. ‘Yes?’
‘You see that tower over there?’

The King pointed out of the window to a tower on the far side of the castle. It looked cold and
unwelcoming, the stones worn by time. It had to contain some kind of mysterious treasure, or
perhaps a fearsome monster. Norm’s heart started to beat fast.
‘I want you to clean it and fix the stones.’
‘Oh,’ said Norm, disappointed. ‘That’s all?’
‘Well, it is haunted, you see. Nobody else in the castle is brave enough to do it.’ Saying this, the
King stared at some of his men, who pretended not to be seen.
‘Ghosts?’ Norm said with excitement. ‘Fantastic! And what will my reward be?’
‘Oh, I don’t know… I have some magical pear that my brother gave me. He said it would allow the
eater to talk to animals. A waste of time, in my opinion. I severely doubt cows have anything useful
to say.’
‘And will I be allowed three objects to take with me to the haunted tower?’
The King frowned. ‘What on Earth gave you that idea? The only three things I’ll be giving you are a
cloth, a bucket of water and a broom. Now hurry up and go.’
So Norm went to the tower and got to work. He was used to gardening and cleaning the yard, so
he tidied up the tower in no time, and as he repaired the stone, he started to worry that the ghosts
might not appear at all.
But just as the sun was setting, he heard a voice behind him.
‘Well, well, well, if it isn’t my next victim!’
Norm turned around to see a silvery figure standing in front of him, shining in the evening sun. He
was a wide man in every way—his stomach stretched out over his belt, his beard spread out like a
picnic blanket and his smile looked like it could hold a plate. He was dressed like a knight, a sword
at his hips.
‘You’re the ghost of the tower!’ Norm said in excitement. ‘I bet you want to eat me!’
‘My word!’ said the ghost, visibly disgusted. ‘I want no such thing. No, you’re going to be the victim
of my conversation, dear boy. Do you know how lonely it gets in here?’
‘What, you don’t even want to scare me?’
‘Of course not. Then you’d just run away.’
‘If you’re so bored, why don’t you leave?’

The ghost said, ‘Hmph!’ and crossed his arms. ‘Nobody seems to know how being a ghost works! I
can only leave a place if I am wanted by someone. Otherwise, I must haunt the last place
I was wanted. Of course, I wasn’t aware of that myself during my adventuring days, but since then
—’
‘Adventuring? Were you a hero?’
The ghost’s face lit up like a candle. ‘Why yes, I was! It’s a pleasure to meet someone who still
believes in such things. Tell me, boy, do you dream of saving beautiful princesses and killing
powerful dragons?’
‘Yes, yes!’ said Norm, dropping his broom in excitement.
‘Well then, prepare to be disappointed. That sort of heroism hasn’t been around since long
before my time, let alone yours.’
Norm felt his heart break in two. ‘Then… what kind of heroic things did you do?’
‘Oh, you know, I rescued an escaped farm animal here, fought in a battle there. I trained young
knights and found evil criminals.’
‘You’re just a mercenary.’
‘Hey!’ said the ghost, turning a deep shade of red. ‘I am NOT one of those stupid little mercenaries,
thank you very MUCH! It wouldn’t hurt to pay some respect to your elders, boy!’
Norm lowered his head. ‘I’m sorry. It’s just… it’s the first time I’ve met another hero.’
‘That’s alright,’ said the ghost, floating over and patting him on the back. But Norm couldn’t feel the
pats, and the ghost’s hand just flew through him. ‘Tell you what, if you take me out of here, I’ll give
you advice on how to be the best hero you can be. Or at least on how to get people to buy you
drinks in bars.’
‘Wonderful!’ said Norm. ‘Now, I just have to finish this work. What’s your name, by the way?’
‘Elric.’
‘Can I call you El?’
‘Absolutely not!’ said Elric, but he couldn’t quite stop himself from smiling.
The ghost sat in the corner and impatiently waited while Norm fixed up the wall, chatting the whole
time. Then Norm told the ghost to wait there while he went to get his reward.
‘My my, you made quick work of that,’ said the King. ‘You could be a royal cleaner, you know.’
‘No thanks,’ said Norm. ‘I have an adventure to go on.’
‘Yes, yes, well I’m sure this will help you. Sorry, it got a bit damaged.’
The King handed him the pear wrapped in a handkerchief. Clearly, its magical qualities hadn’t done
much to preserve it, as it was black and soft and leaking juices.
‘How long have you had this?’
‘I don’t know,’ said the King. ‘I just threw it onto the pile of magical objects. There are so many
these days.’
Norm waited until he and Elric were safely out of the castle and in the forest before he unwrapped
the pear.
‘I wouldn’t eat that if I were you,’ said the ghost, eyeing the rotten pear suspiciously.
‘Heroes have no fear!’
‘There are many more reasons besides fear to not eat rotten food. But don’t let me stop you. It
would be rather amusing if we were both ghosts.’
Norm ignored him. Just think of what he could do if he could talk to animals! It was too great an
opportunity to ignore.
So he held his nose, took a deep breath and forced the pear into his mouth.
‘My word, I didn’t think you were actually going to do it!’
Norm wanted to throw up, but forced himself to swallow the pear whole, and then, just to make
sure the magic worked, licked the remaining juices off the handkerchief.
‘Ugh!’ he cried. His eyes watered, his nose ran, and he coughed helplessly.
But eventually, he recovered, and he jumped up and said, ‘Let’s go find an animal friend to talk to!’
Much to his surprise, however, every time they approached a bird or a fox, the animal just ran
away.
‘Wait! Come back!’ cried the boy.
‘You need to be more careful,’ said Elric disapprovingly. ‘Don’t just run at them. Listen.’
So Norm crawled into the bushes and waited until some birds landed overhead, and then listened
in on their conversation. His heart sped up. He had always wondered what animals were talking
about. What magical secrets might they hold?
‘Horrible weather today, Sharon,’ said one of the birds.
‘Just horrible,’ said the other. ‘Say, Bob, ate any good worms recently?’
‘No, Sharon! The worms just aren’t juicy at the moment. I blame the horrible weather.’
‘Oh, it is horrible weather, isn’t it, Bob? Absolutely disgusting.’
‘I know, I know. I heard from Harry that the worms aren’t so good at the moment.’
‘Oh, that’ll be the weather.’
‘Hey, Sharon, do you wanna sing for a bit?’
‘I can’t, Bob. The weather’s too bad.’
Norm stared up in shock. This was what birds talked about?!
‘Hey!’ he said, standing up. ‘Have you heard about any princesses that need rescuing around here?’
Bob and Sharon exploded into the air, flying around and screaming wildly.
‘A human is talking to us! A human is talking to us!’
‘It must be the bad weather, Bob!’
‘Let’s fly away!’
So the birds flew away, and once again Norm was alone with Elric.
‘Well?’ asked the ghost. ‘Any juicy gossip?’
‘Never mind,’ mumbled Norm, defeated. ‘Let’s find somewhere to sleep for the night.’
‘Sleep? You know I don’t sleep, my boy. I’m a ghost!’
That night was the worst in Norm’s life. Not only was Elric unable to keep his mouth shut, waking
Norm up with his endless chatting, but Norm had to go to the toilet many times, the rotten pear
having taken effect. And on top of that, just like the birds had said, it rained heavily throughout the
night.
In the morning, Norm felt like death warmed over, but he insisted they march until the next big city.
‘You look just miserable, my boy,’ said Elric, sounding almost sorry for him. ‘I would carry you if I
could.’
When they arrived in the city, Norm went straight to the King, and asked him if there were any
heroic things he could do.
‘Hmm? Well, my pegasus has run away, you see.’
‘A flying horse!’ Norm said, gasping.
‘Yes, that is what a pegasus is. Thank you. He was a fearsome warrior, but he disappeared a few
weeks ago. Whoever can find him will get an endless supply of riches. Well, not endless—’
But by that point Norm had already been filled with a heroic urge so deep that he ceased to
understand the King’s words.
‘I’ll find you that pegasus!’ he said, before running off into the forest.
‘What are you doing?!’ said Elric. ‘You should’ve asked where he might be!’
‘Doesn’t matter! I’ll search every inch of the kingdom!’
Elric sighed in annoyance. ‘Sit down, boy, and wait a minute!’
Norm reluctantly sat down on a rock and watched Elric. The ghost flew into the air, higher and
higher, until his transparent body disappeared into the blue sky. After several minutes, he returned
with a big smile on his face.
‘Found it! Follow me. But be quiet! I don’t want you to scare it away.’
So Norm and Elric ran through the forest, but then Norm got tired, and Elric told him off for being
so loud, so they walked instead.
Would they catch the pegasus? Would the King give Norm a reward suitable for a hero? Ah, well to
find that out, you’ll have to wait for the next chapter…
Wwwwwwwwwww
Three Dragons. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dragons.

That’s EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Dragons. This contains the full story, as well as my conversation
before it.
I’m going to keep today’s introduction short because this is a long story. It’s another original one,
so another one I wrote myself, because I was just feeling like, “Argh, recently I haven’t written any
stories myself!” You know? I wanted to, to flex my writing skills a bit, write something original. I
don’t think this is my best work but I’m happy with it and, I don’t know, everything I write now
seems to, uh, involve dragons? I dunno, we’ll see.
But um, I do wanna write more original stories for the podcast and especially, I think I’ve kind of
figured out a good format for doing that, in which I do it as advanced stories, because if I write my
own stories I naturally tend to use higher-level language, I naturally tend to have slightly more
complicated plotlines, which then are much easier to adapt to an advanced level. Sometimes I get
comments and emails saying, ‘Please do more advanced stories.’ I don’t want it to take over
because, you know, I think there’s more of that level of material online, but I do want to make sure
that there’s enough advanced stories for people who do want to read them, so I’m gonna try and
write more of my original stories in the advanced level.
So I hope you enjoy today’s story! It’s a cute story with dragons, but actually it’s not a cute story—
it’s a tragedy! [wails]. Hopefully, today’s story won’t make you cry too much! Oh, I’m starting to cry
now! Oh dear.
Also, I’m really sorry if you are on my email list and you didn’t get an email this [last week]. Um,
that’s because I didn’t send an email. Um, I’ve had a busy week. So, I went to a protest last Sunday,
and then on Thursday and Friday, so… Ugh, it’s a long story.
So I was taking part in Esperanto event that finished on Friday, and I was one of three judges in a
talent competition that we were doing so people could send in videos of them singing or dancing
or juggling or reading a poem or whatever, and then we judged it and we picked the best winner.
So it was kind of like Eurovision but within this Esperanto event. And, as well as judging—so I had
to sit with the other judges and record the whole thing which was like two hours—I had to edit the
whole video and it got very stressful, the editing, I wasn’t sure how long it was gonna take, and I
was running out of time, and then uploading it was stressful… In the end, I figured it out and it was
OK, but it was a lot of work and that was all on Thursday and Friday, so I didn’t really have the
energy to write the usual weekly email, unfortunately.
Um, I’m sorry about that! But also, I didn’t want to push myself and force myself to write it because
I think that would be, it would read as, you know, not, um, not fun on my part? Like, it wouldn’t read
as genuine and I wanna make sure that I can continue to do this work in future. Uh, my levels of
motivation and also my levels of energy vary a lot, as I’ve said before on the podcast, so I think in
many instances it’s much healthier for me to maybe miss a week or two than to try and force it. A
few of you did reach out to me and ask if everything was OK, so that’s why I’m mentioning it here.
But thank you for your concern, and there should be an email next week. We’ll see.
Slay, and the past participle is ‘slain’, means to kill, but specifically to kill a very big creature or a
monster. So you might slay a dragon, a giant boar and so on. You also slay vampires, although I
love vampires, so please don’t slay them!
A lair is the home of a monster. Lairs are usually caves, and they are usually very dark and full of
treasure. If you want to go and slay a terrifying monster, you will have to go to their lair to do it.
The flag of Wales has a dragon on it
A dragon is a mythical creature that is found in most cultures around the world. Dragons are big
monsters with horns and claws that can breathe fire and eat people. Dragons like to collect
treasure and hide it in their lair, and knights come to try and slay the dragon, although most of
them just get eaten. Dragons have scales, like snakes, and they can fly.
A knight riding a horse
rescues princesses.
When you spit, and the past tense is ‘spat’, you go [spits], you throw water or saliva out of your
mouth. In the UK, it is very rude to spit outside, but in the past, people used to chew tobacco and
spit it out. If you eat some very bad food, you might spit it out. Dragons can spit fire.
Belligerent means hostile and unfriendly. If someone is belligerent, they always want to fight. If a
country is belligerent, they always want to go to war.
have claws. They can really hurt you!
An assassin is someone whose job it is to kill. They are a professional murderer. These days,
assassins wear suits and use guns to kill people, but in the past, assassins wore dark cloaks,
sneaked around and poured poison into people’s drinks to kill them.
In some places, dungeons have been converted into tourist attractions (by Kjetilbjørnsrud CC BY-SA 3.0)
A dungeon is an old-fashioned form of a prison. Dungeons were dark, horrible places that were
built underneath castles. If someone broke the law or was a spy, they were thrown into the
dungeon.
Petals are the small, thin parts on the top of a flower. Flowers usually have about five to ten petals,
and they are arranged in a circle. Petals can have all sorts of colours, and they are usually the
most beautiful part of the flower. Petals can be used to make jam, e.g. rose petal jam, to make
perfume, to use as decorations and so on.
Pink carnations (Andy Mabbett CC BY-SA 4.0)
A carnation is a type of flower. Carnations can be red or pink, and their colours change at the end
of their petals. They are native to the Mediterranean, and they have a slightly spicy smell.
A boulder is a very big rock. It is very hard to pick up a boulder on your own, unless you are very
strong.
A catapult (ChrisO CC BY-SA 3.0)
A catapult is a machine from the Middle Ages that was used to throw large rocks, or boulders, at
buildings. Catapults were very big and required several men to use them. They were used to attack
castles and break down the walls. Nowadays, we don’t use catapults.
A big thank-you to our new patrons, as well as patrons who have increased their pledge: Ray
House, Paweł Ciechera, Pirada Chaichanacharoensri, Tereza Plevelkova and Adam Kolek. Thank
you so much. Your support really means a lot to us.
Three Dragons
Once upon a time, there lived three dragons on three mountains. They were brothers, and each
ruled over their own mountain. One was black, called Ba, one was red, called Ra, and one was
green, called Ga. In the middle of the three mountains lay a small kingdom, ruled over by a human
king, but the dragons paid little attention to this.
Within the kingdom, however, the dragons caused much anxiety.
‘They will come any day and murder us all!’ cried the townspeople.
‘They are a threat and must be destroyed!’ cried the knights.
‘They fly over the city as if they own it!’ complained the King.
And fly they did, although the dragons had no interest in ruling over humans. They flew over the
kingdom and around the mountains like skilled athletes, spitting flames at each other and trying to
knock each other out of the sky. To the humans, this looked like fighting, but in reality they were
only playing.
So life between the three mountains continued in this way for many decades, and although the
people complained endlessly about the three creatures, all were content to leave the problem
alone as long as the dragons did not harm them.
But as the King got older, his anxiety and greed grew. He wished to rule over the kingdom with an
iron hand, and the terrifying creatures represented a threat to his authority. But as much as he
campaigned to send an army out to each peak, the soldiers and knights of his kingdom refused,
coming up with various excuses to leave the situation alone.
So when a wandering knight came from far away with a proposal to slay the dragons, the King
listened.
‘I have climbed into their lairs and listened to their whisperings, my King,’ said the knight. ‘The red
dragon, Ra, is belligerent, but ultimately foolish. The green dragon, Ga, has an iron will, but uses it
for peace. And the black dragon, Ba, is weak-hearted and artistic.’
‘Peace!’ said the King. ‘I am sure that is just a lie. All monsters’ true natures come out eventually.
Excellent work. And you wish to slay them all?’
The knight smiled. ‘For the right price, of course.’
‘Very well, but let’s be patient. You will go out and slay just one of them first. Then we will discuss
the rest.’
‘I would not advise that, my King,’ said the knight. ‘It would be much safer to kill them all in one go.’
‘Hmph!’ said the King. ‘I am the one who makes the orders around here, and I do not know if I can
trust you yet. I think Ba would be the best to start with. If, as you say, he is weak-hearted, then you
should have no difficulty in defeating him. Bring me his head as proof.’
The knight lowered his head. ‘Of course, my King. I will bring glory to your kingdom.’
So in the dead of the night, the knight climbed the mountain and entered Ba’s lair. While the dragon
slept, dreaming of paintings and sculptures, the knight poured a poison into his nose. The dragon’s
breathing went deeper and deeper until it finally stopped, and the knight began the difficult task of
cutting off the dragon’s head.
When the King saw the head, he was thrilled. He placed it on the outside of the castle, and loudly
declared to the people that the threat of the dragons was coming to an end.
The townspeople were not happy, though, as now the dragons threatened them even more. Surely
they would come for revenge? But the King waved away their concerns, saying that their little
problem would be “dealt with soon enough”.
Unfortunately for the King, the dragons acted faster. Furious at his brother’s death, Ra the
belligerent dragon swept over the kingdom, and roared into the sky, ‘Who is responsible for this?!’
Then he saw the King down below, standing proudly by Ba’s head. Without hestitating, the dragon
dived down and grabbed the head in his claws, before raining fire on the castle.
‘Help! Help!’ cried the King.
The knights and servants ran screaming out of the castle, all courage gone, as Ra flew down again
and tore apart the stone with his claws. Within minutes, the entire castle had been reduced to a
flaming mess.
‘You’re lucky I don’t kill you all!’ roared Ra, before flying away to his mountain.
Once the remains of the castle had been cleared and the panic had died down, the King spoke with
his men.
‘You see?! They are a threat that we should have gotten rid of long ago!’
‘My King, I have a different perspective,’ said his advisor. ‘I must say, I was very surprised that you
did not ask for my advice when planning this action. I could have saved us all from disaster. But
anyway, do you not think this was planned by our enemies? This strange knight appeared from
nowhere and offered shining dreams of peace, and what has he brought us? Death and
destruction. He must be imprisoned at once.’
‘Perhaps you are right…’ said the King. Having seen the dragon in action, he felt far less confident
about killing the remaining two now. ‘He is an assassin, and he could kill any one of us! Guards,
seize him!’
The foreign knight, who had been drinking himself blind at one of the expensive drinking houses in
the city, was dragged out by his neck, insulted by the people and locked up in the deepest, darkest
dungeon of the castle.
‘Hey, you can’t leave me here!’ said the knight. ‘I told you, it would’ve been safer to kill them all at
once!’
‘Quiet, spy!’ hissed the King. ‘You should consider yourself lucky that I am letting you live!’
But the King wished to take no risks, so when nobody else was looking, he stole the poison the
knight had used to kill the dragon.
The assassin’s imprisonment calmed the people, who were always eager to blame enemies from
abroad, and when Ra did not show up for a week, they assumed they were safe again. That was,
until one day an unexpected visitor showed up outside the city gates.
Ga, his scales shining green like morning grass, stood outside the city, a piece of white cloth
hanging from his mouth. His eyes were red from the tears of his brother, but he did not look angry
like Ra. People were throwing rocks and spitting at him, but he ignored them completely.
‘What does that dragon want?!’ said the King.
‘It appears he wishes to make peace with us,’ said the King’s advisor. ‘He has an offer.’
‘An offer…’ mumbled the King. ‘Damn, I hate negotiations! But fine, bring him in. Perhaps we can
get him to turn against his brother.’
But what Ga sought was not war, but to help.
‘I feel so bad for what my brother did. We do not know what killed Ba, but I cannot imagine that it
was anyone from your kingdom. For decades we have lived in peace. No, someone must have
come from outside to kill him, although I do not know why.’
The King and his men kept entirely silent on the matter of Ba’s death.
‘I want to show how sorry I am for Ra’s actions. I will help you rebuild the castle. I can bring in
strong stone from far away, that will resist even the hottest dragon’s fire. I promise that this land
will see peace once more.’
The King had not been expecting such a proposal, but he was in no position to refuse. Without a
castle, they would be defenceless against further attacks.
‘We accept your kind offer,’ said the King.
So over the next few weeks, a rush of activity began to rebuild the castle. Ra, in the meantime, was
occupied with other matters: crying over his brother’s death and trying to find the cause of it.
Dragon skin was hard as diamonds, so it would take an incredible strength to kill a dragon by
cutting its head off. That must have happened afterwards, and there were no other visible signs of
struggle on Ba’s body.
The only hint was a strange smell coming from Ba’s nose: a faint spicy smell—that of carnations.
So Ra sought the help of a medicine dragon, who inspected the body for many hours, before finally
concluding, ‘He was poisoned.’
‘Poisoned?’
‘To make a poison this powerful… only a human is capable of it.’
So Ra had been right all along. Filled once again with anger, he flew out to the human’s land, and
saw Ga working alongside them, building the new castle.
‘Brother! What are you doing?’ he shrieked.
‘Do not hurt them, Ra!’ said Ga, covering the castle with his wings. ‘They did not do it, I am sure.’
‘You are wrong! They poisoned him, and displayed his head on their castle.’
Ga hesitated, and then said, ‘I have seen no such thing.’
The people of the kingdom watched the skies anxiously. Their fate hung in the balance between
these two great creatures.
‘What are they saying?’ hissed the King. ‘I cannot understand their language.’
‘It is the language of the dragons,’ said his advisor. ‘A foul tongue.’
‘You did not see his head there because I took it from them!’ cried Ra. ‘And I know how they killed
him. They used poison smelling of sweet carnations!’
For a moment, Ga was shocked and had nothing to say, but eventually he shook his head.
‘What will you get by hurting them? We lived in peace for almost a hundred years. We can have
peace again!’
Ra spat out a huge column of flame, which just missed Ga. ‘I don’t believe you!’
‘This is what Ba would have wanted!’ replied Ga.
Ra shook his head. ‘Ba might’ve been soft-hearted like you, but even he understood that peace
cannot come when there is a boot on our neck!’
And without warning, the dragon threw himself forward and grabbed Ga by the neck. Ga hit Ra with
his tail and pushed him off, before flying high up into the clouds. Ra followed, and the two
monsters disappeared into the veil of clouds. The people watched, but all they could see were red
and green outlines pushing occasionally through. They heard everything, though: the gnashing of
teeth, the clanging of claws, and the horrible roars that shook every building of the city.
The King stared up at the sky, practically unable to breathe. This was all the fault of that knight,
and at any moment one of those dragons could come crashing down and destroy the entire city.
‘My King!’ said the advisor. ‘We have prepared the catapults. Which dragon should we attack?’
The King woke up from his dream and saw a row of ten catapults standing ready outside the new
castle.
‘Fire at the red dragon.’
The captains cried their commands and the catapults launched, sending the stones flying into the
skies above. For a moment, it looked like they would miss, but then there was a great THUD, and
the huge body of the red dragon fell out of the clouds, twisting wildly in the air. The catapults had
broken Ra’s leg, and thick purple blood poured from the wound onto the buildings below. The
people screamed, as it looked like he might fall onto the city and squash it, but Ra regained his
balance and stared down at the city.
‘I’ll destroy you all!’
‘No you won’t!’ cried Ga, bursting out of the clouds and slamming into Ra. ‘Leave them alone!’
Ga pushed Ra away from the city and kept him there, and as they continued to fight, the King’s
men prepared the catapults to fire again.
‘This time, aim for the green one,’ he said, ‘but wait until my word.’
‘You know that they killed Ba, and yet you defend them!’ cried Ra. ‘Brother, what has happened to
you?!’
‘If we kill them, we will be no better than them!’ said Ga, fire shooting out of his mouth with every
word.
‘You’re a disgrace!’ screamed Ra.
But he couldn’t keep fighting. His leg was losing lots of blood, and Ga was pushing him back again
and again. Weakened and defenceless, Ra had no choice but to give up.
‘I’ll be back!’ he cried, before disappearing towards his mountain.
The people cheered, the King told his men to hold their fire, and Ga slowly came down to rest by
the castle. He was beaten and bruised, but nowhere near as hurt as Ra had been.
‘I am so sorry,’ said the dragon. ‘He has always been so wrapped up in rage. I wish he would
understand.’
‘Do not worry,’ said the King. ‘We are lucky to have you to protect us. With your help, the kingdom is
safe, and our new castle is almost finished! We must have a celebration tomorrow, after the last
stone is put in place. You will be our guest of honour.’
The rest of the King’s men looked surprised and uneasy about this development, but they did not
dare speak against their king.
Ga smiled broadly and said, ‘I would love it! But now, I must go and sleep, for it has been a long
day.’
‘Of course, my friend.’
Ga flew back to his mountain to rest, and while he slept, the King made plans.
The next day, the construction was finished in record time, and a huge feast was held, throughout
the new castle and the entire city. Despite the remaining fear from the day before, the people
gathered in the streets, pulling out tables and piling them up with food, to say thanks to their great
defender, Ga the dragon.
Ga, so used to the rough ways of his own kind, was happy that the humans appreciated him so
much, and ate and drank until he could hardly stand up. He had gone that morning to speak to his
brother, but Ra had placed a huge boulder over the entrance to his lair, shutting Ga out. It would
only be a matter of time, thought Ga, so he tried to forget about their fight while he ate and drank.
But while the celebrations went on, one of the King’s men slipped away and went to Ra’s lair. He
slipped through a crack between the boulder and the rock wall, and hid in a dark corner. The
dragon raged about the cave, smashing whatever he could find.
‘We can’t forgive them!’ he screamed. ‘They’ve been planning this the whole time!’
As the assassin listened, he became more and more convinced of his duty. This dragon was a
threat to them all. Eventually, Ra tired himself out and fell down onto the floor to sleep, and the
assassin did his work, using the same poison that the knight had previously.
The next day, still sleepy from the celebrations, Ga went back to Ra’s mountain.
‘Brother, let me in!’ he cried. ‘We must make peace, for Ba’s sake.’
But there was no response. Tired of waiting, Ga pushed the boulder aside and entered into the lair.
‘Brother, wake up! Let us talk.’
But Ra did not move an inch. Ga leant down close to him and shook him, but the dragon’s eyes did
not open. And then Ga smelled something coming from the body. Carnations.
Ga felt a boiling in the bottom of his stomach, an anger which he had never experienced before. He
had been wrong, oh so wrong, and now he had lost both of his brothers because of it.
He cried bitter tears. His brother looked so weak and defeated, lying there on the stone floor. They
had left his head in place, but what good was that?
Ga knew what he needed to do. Quiet as a snake, he flew down towards the kingdom, where the
sun was just starting to rise, and most of the city still slept. With the careful precision of a trained
artist, he breathed a wave of flame over the buildings. The fire waved out like the petals of a
carnation, setting everything on fire. The people inside screamed and ran, jumping out of windows,
but the flowers of fire poured over every roof and down every street, claiming more and more
sections of the city as the great creature headed towards the castle.
‘My King!’ cried the advisor, running into his bedroom. ‘Ga is coming for us! He is setting the city on
fire! What should we do?’
‘What?! That monster has betrayed us! Prepare the catapults and keep everyone important inside.
This stone cannot be harmed by dragon fire, remember?’ The King smiled. ‘He built it himself.’
The catapults rained boulders down on the dragon, but he quickly flew from side to side, avoiding
them. One or two struck him, but they only slowed his descent. Ga did not waste a single drop of
fire on the building, instead landing on top of it and gripping it with his claws.
The King and all his men felt the castle shake from within. When they looked out of the windows,
they saw the green leathery skin of the dragon, and they knew their time was at its end.
Just as he had built it, Ga tore the castle apart brick by brick, throwing them aside like the torn-off
petals of a flower. The royal family, their advisors and soldiers panicked, fleeing into the burning
remains of the city—anything to get away from the cold hard stare of the dragon with his razor-
sharp teeth, leaning just metres above them.
The King did not escape, however. Despite his overwhelming fear, he stood proudly in front of the
creature.
‘You broke your promise.’
‘You killed my brothers.’
‘No!’ said the King. ‘It was a knight, a knight from abroad!’
‘Do you really think I am so stupid to believe that? You could have had peace. We had peace. And
you destroyed it, for what? To be remembered a few more decades by your people? Now you will
be remembered forever, as the king who brought his people to ruin.’
And without another word, Ga tore off the King’s head and flew back to his lair. The city burned,
and the kingdom between the three mountains was soon forgotten.
But not everyone died in the fire. A few hundred survived, fleeing from the burning city into the
surrounding fields. And one man, no matter how much he tried, was unable to escape.
Deep beneath the ruins of the castle, in the darkest dungeon, sat the foreign knight, Ba’s murderer.
‘Hello? What’s going on up there?!’
The fire-proof stones prevented the flames from coming down and killing him, but foul smoke
filled the darkness. He felt like Death himself was coming to take his breath away.
But the knight was denied such a kind fate. The smoke did not kill him, and although he screamed
and shouted, nobody came to help. He was truly alone, and he died alone, just as the two slain
dragons had.
For glory comes with a high price.

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The Land of Youth.

The two countries in Ireland (Jonto CC BY-SA 3.0)

A witch casting a spell (Wellcome Images CC BY 4.0)

An English hunter from the 20th century

Masks can be a form of disguise (Andreas Praefcke CC BY 3.0)

OK, so listen and enjoy!

The Land of Youth

‘Do it,’ said the King.

‘Hah!’ said Niamh. ‘I will never get married.’

So Niamh came out of the trees.

‘Who are you?!’ said Oisín.

‘I don’t believe you!’ said Oisín.

‘Can I see you again?’ said Oisín.

Then, one day, Oisín told Niamh about his father.

‘Oisín!’ she said. ‘We have to get married!’

‘Oh no!’ said Niamh. ‘I am so sorry, Oisín, I did not know…’

Oisín laughed. ‘Do you still like me?’

‘Of course I do!’

‘You will run in the game,’ said Niamh.

‘And I am queen!’ said Niamh.

‘No!’ said Niamh’s father. ‘There can be no queen in Tír na nÓg!’

So first, what does it mean to “please” someone?

OK, so listen and enjoy!

The Man, the Boy and the Donkey

While they walked, another man came past on a horse.

‘Oh no!’ said the son.

‘Quick!’ said the man.

So you see, you cannot please everyone.

The Man and His Two Wives

‘Now you look more young!’ she said.

‘Now you look more mature!’ she said.

So again you see, you cannot please everyone.

Why the Sea is Salty.

The Devil hurting people in Hell

Old millstones (Colin Park CC BY-SA 2.0)

OK, so listen and enjoy!

Why the Sea is Salty

‘Thank you, dear brother!’ said the poor brother.

‘Is this Hell?’ asked the poor man.

‘No, I will have the millstone.’

‘Fine,’ said the Devil.

‘Amazing!’ said the man. ‘Thank you, dear millstone.’

When he said the words, the millstone stopped making food.

But when he saw all the food, he was very surprised.

‘Fine then,’ he said.

‘Now, make me salt!’ he said.

He started grinding wheat, and the millstone made salt.

‘Perfect!’ said the man. ‘That is lots of salt.’

‘Stop, stop!’ said the man.

‘I hate my brother!’ said the rich man.

The Crying Woman.

Frankenstein’s monster is a famous monster

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The Crying Woman

‘You’re working so late,’ he said.

‘Oh!’ She wanted to run away.

‘Please, stay. Do not worry. I won’t hurt you.’

Guillermo thought she was beautiful? She couldn’t believe it.

‘I will show you you are beautiful,’ he said.

‘It is for you,’ he said.

‘Then you will wear it only inside my house.’

‘Inside your house?’

‘Come home with me, Inma,’ he said.