Prince Oliver and the Green-Striped Zebra , livre ebook

Austin Macauley Publishers - Steve Pretlove

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64 pages

English

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The story of a young prince who makes not a sound when happy or sad, goes on an unexpected journey and along the way, encounters many a strange animal, mountain ogres and a watery escape from the mountains. Having found the jewelled tiger, they reach their final destination; upon seeing the green striped zebra, Oliver finally finds his voice.

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Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)

Fantasy

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Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers
Date de parution	28 février 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781528948104
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Extrait

Prince Oliver and the Green-Striped Zebra
Steve Pretlove
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-02-28
Prince Oliver and the Green-Striped Zebra About the Author Dedication Copyright Information Chapter 1: The Birthday Party Chapter 2: The Journey Begins Chapter 3: The Gypsies Chapter 4: My Name Is Ossirus Chapter 5: The Mountains Chapter 6: The Princesses Chapter 7: Strange Animals
About the Author
Born in February 1960, third oldest of five children, lifelong Chelsea fan, with a six-year-old German shepherd called Frank, Steve keeps a marine tank, tropical fish tank and has a koi carp pond. He has lived in the same house for 55 years, having bought it with his parents.
Dedication
I would like to thank my mum for her belief in me and all her support. Love, Steve
Copyright Information
Copyright © Steve Pretlove (2019)
The right of Steve Pretlove to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528904025 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528948104 (E-Book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Chapter 1: The Birthday Party
With its severed head spinning across the floor, the suit of armour lay strewn down the hallway; the deafening sound of it crashing onto the stone floor had echoed through the castle. The three princesses and prince knew they were in trouble yet again. This was not the first time they had knocked over one of their parents’ prized possessions. They had been playing hide and seek; Oliver, the young prince, had used one of the secret passageways to surprise his sisters; they were hiding behind a green velvet curtain, the suit of armour stood in front of this curtain, so when he quietly crept up behind them and made them jump, well, that’s when they bumped up against the suit of armour. They all dashed back into the dimly lit secret passageway that Oliver had used to find them. Sitting in the dark huddled together, they could hear footsteps approach on the stone floor. Good grief, it was one of their nannies who was first to arrive on the scene. “You may as well come out and face your parents,” she said. “You cannot stay hidden forever.”
Whispering among themselves and holding hands, they decided to come out. They opened the door of the secret passage and stepped out of a giant blue and gold painted vase. “We’re sorry,” they said.
“Well, you can tell your parents how sorry you are.”
Just then, two of the castle servants arrived and started to gather up the pieces of armour. This was not the first time this had happened, and although they were not happy, looking at the remorseful expressions on the faces of the three princesses and young prince, well, they could not stay angry for long, so they continued to pick everything up and start reassembling the armour. The king was not here; he was on a hunt in the forest and would not be back until the afternoon. But the queen was here. She was in the castle gardens when the accident had occurred; another of the castle servants had been sent into the garden to let Her Majesty know what had happened. Searching the grounds, the servant found Queen Elizabeth down by the lake. The sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm for the time of year. She was painting a picture of two white swans as they gracefully floated across the shimmering water. As he approached, he coughed loudly; this startled the swans who spread their enormous wings and started to run on the surface of the water and took flight. The queen, also startled by the sudden intrusion, had made a sweeping stroke of black paint right across the centre of the painting. The servant approached, “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, for the interruption, but thought you would like to know the prince and princesses have knocked over one of the suits of armour.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Bring all that back inside, please,” she indicated to all the paints and canvases. She walked up the grass bank that took her away from the lake, back towards the castle. She went to find her children. The nanny who had first arrived on the scene had taken them to their chambers. The queen entered the room; her four children sat quietly and nervously, waiting to be told off.
“How many times have we told you to be careful when playing indoors?”
“Sorry, Mummy,” said the little girls, and the little prince just smiled. His mother’s heart melted in an instant. She loved her children dearly and could not stay angry, and she knew it had been an accident, but once more, she explained why they had to be more careful.
“You could easily get hurt if that suit of armour had fallen on you,” she said.
“We promise not to do it again, Mummy.”
The king arrived back at the castle after a very successful hunt, dismounted his black horse and passed the reins to one of the guards; the guard led the horse into the stables. “Two wild boars and one stag, not bad for one afternoon,” he said to Elizabeth as she came into the courtyard to greet him.
“And I need to tell you that once again, the children have knocked over one of the suits of armour.”
“They will hurt themselves one of these days,” she said.
Richard just laughed, “Have you any idea how many times I knocked over one of those suits of armour when I was a child?” and he laughed again. He was always jovial and had a way of finding the funny side of everything. Elizabeth sometimes wished he would be more serious; she was concerned for her children’s safety.
The three princesses and prince all shared the same birthday. Today was their fifth, 2nd April. The nanny had got them dressed for the party; all three little girls were dressed alike in white dresses that were embroidered with coloured butterflies, and they each wore black shoes and white socks. The prince had on a white shirt and black trousers, white socks and black shoes. They waited for their parents in the bedroom the three princesses shared. It was a huge room with large windows and pink curtains, a fireplace, with a roaring fire lit to keep the room warm in winter; they each had a four-poster bed that was surrounded by pink curtains and had pink pillows on each bed, a room fit for a princess. They also had a rocking horse each, a beautiful dapple grey, with a bright red saddle and reins. There was a large toy box in one corner and a book shelf with lots of books of fairy tales. They loved it when their mother read to them at night before going to sleep. Oliver’s room had a connecting door to his sisters; as he was the only boy his room, it was smaller. He had one large window which stood from floor to ceiling and had a heavy blue velvet curtain to help keep out the winter chill; his four-poster bed had blue curtains and blue pillows on the bed. Again, there was a large fireplace which was lit to keep the room warm, for early April could still be extremely cold at night. He had his own rocking horse—it was as black as night, with a brown saddle and reins. He also had a wooden sword and shield, the shield was decorated with the picture of a knight fighting a red dragon, the shield was resting against the rocking horse, and the sword lay on the floor next to it. There was a second door to Oliver’s bedroom which opened onto a long hallway that was decorated with the heads of bears, wild boars and a stag with magnificent antlers; he loved to play in the hallway with his sword, fighting the wild beasts on the walls. If he wasn’t outside in the castle grounds, then this was the most likely place to find him.
The king and queen entered the room, and in their excitement, the little princesses ran across the room to their parents. With arms opened wide, the king and queen embraced their three daughters with lots of excitement and happy smiling faces. The room was filled with joy, but then the king noticed someone was missing, “Where’s Oliver?”
One of the nannies sheepishly stepped forward to face the king and queen, “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but we don’t know where he is, and he was here a moment ago.”
The queen was most upset to think that three nannies could not keep an eye on her four children without losing one; the king, on the other hand, once more thought it was quite hilarious, “That’s the fourth time in the last ten days Oliver has managed to slip away unnoticed, rather clever I would say. He knows the secret passageways better than I ever did.” He laughed. The queen was not amused.
The king called for the guards, “The prince has gone missing; search the castle and the gardens. He must be found.”
After a quick search of the castle and the gardens, the little prince was found and brought to his parents. “Oh my goodness,” exclaimed the queen, “Where did you find him?”
“Same place as last time, Your Majesty, down by the lake.” Once more, King Richard could not stop himself from laughing at the sight of his young son, dripping wet and covered in mud from head to toe; the queen, however, still not amused, gave her husband a disapproving look. He choked as he tried to stop laughing, composed himself and told the oldest and more experienced of the nannies that from this day, she was responsible for the young prince and no one else and if she would please take him away and clean him up. The three little princesses sat with their mother and father while they waited for their brother’s return. They were all chattering away excitedly; they knew today was the day they had been wait