'One Giant Leap'

One bright and starry night, on a planet far, far away from here there sat a little alien called Graham.

He was the youngest Graham on the planet and a great weight was weighing down upon his bumpy, orange shoulder-like things.

"Oh dear," he sighed, "Whatever is to become of us all?" Graham glanced at the bare 'leap patch'. Not a single leap had grown there since Graham had been made 'Watcher of the Patch' and unless one grew very, very soon, the planet would die and that would be the end of the Grahams. He sighed again and lifted one of his heads, the green one, up towards the stars. "Stars, please hear me tonight," his green head said. "Without leaps in our tummies, nothing will live and the whole planet will die!" But the stars just shone. Except one. On the right. Which seemed to throb and then fall. Graham didn't notice though as he replaced the green head and rested his red one in his hand.

The next morning, as the stars shone brighter, Graham cautiously opened his eyes. "Wow!" he gasped. Then, getting up to his foot, he hopped over to where the other Grahams were still napping. "Wake up!" he shouted.

"What's all this young Graham?" questioned the elder Graham, as he too hobbled to his foot. "Look! Look at the leap patch!" They all followed Grahams gaze and with joint amazement, started swaying backwards and forwards on their feet. There, right in the middle of the patch there was a green shoot just surfacing above the pink soil.

The Grahams all leant forward, eyes widening as the shoot carried on growing!

By the end of the day, as the sky grew even darker, the leap covered the entire patch. Little Graham watched in wonderment as it stopped growing and became still. A leap. One giant leap. Big enough for all the Grahams on the whole planet to share. He looked up into the sky once more. "Ooo," he said. "What's that?" Up in the sky, to the right there was a new star. It was bigger and brighter than all the rest. A glow grew around it and moved towards the planet. "Could this be what helped the leap grow?" he thought. All of his eyes widened as the sky lightened. He felt warmer too and a smile spread across his green head.

And so the Grahams lived. The planet lived. All thanks to a massive, glowing star and one giant leap.

©Lisa Lee 2010, edited 2014. Sleeping in Elvegren Tales