Larry the Lizard was a very smart fellow. He had green scales with red and blue dots. When he was in a very good mood, he could even change the colour, and become purple with yellow squiggles. Larry lived in Australia, and he was a very rare kind of lizard – you won’t find him in any nature books, because no human being had ever seen him. He lived deep in the Nullarbor Plain, a dry desert land (look it up on a map!) and he had a lovely house. He had found it one very hot day when the sky was white and the sand shimmered. He was walking along, holding each of his feet up one after the other for as long as he could, as the sand was burning them. Then he saw it – a little cave, just the right size for him. There were two black stones and across the top of them was a third one – a beautiful white stone that glittered in the sun. Larry forgot about his feet and ran in. It was cool, it was dark, it was safe – and at once he decided it was home! And so ever after that he lived there. Until one terrible day.
Occasionally, human beings would come into the desert, in large, dusty vans which roared and rocked from side to side. Larry hated the noise, the smell, and the rumblings , and so he hid in his stone house until it was gone, and the desert was quiet again, apart from the gentle whistle of the wind. Well, on this day, Larry heard the roaring and rumbling and ran to his house. But this time, the van came just too close and it caught the side of the beautiful white stone with the edge of its big black tyre, and threw it into the distance. Larry ran out, but the van was long gone, a cloud of yellow dust behind it. Larry didn’t know what to do. The sun was beating down on his head, the sand was hot, and he had no house! He saw the beautiful white stone and ran over to it. But it was much too heavy for him to lift, and much too far away from the other two stones. What could he do? Larry was broken hearted.
As he was worrying about this, along came Kenny the Kangaroo. Beyoing, beyoing, he bounced along.
“Help me, Kenny!” cried Larry. “My house is broken!” But Kenny, who was enjoying his morning bounce, just ignored him and bounced on, singing a bouncing song. (What do you think his song might have sounded like?)
Next, Karen the Koala came strolling along. She was grey and furry and looked very cuddly, but as lizards don’t like cuddles, this didn’t impress Larry.
“Help me, Karen!” cried Larry. “My house is broken!” But Karen only yawned and said “I really need to find a gum tree and go to sleep. I’ve only had 21 hours sleep today, and I’m just exhausted!!” And off she went. (Can you find out how long Koalas like to sleep every day?)
Poor Larry. He waited and watched, hoping someone else would come by. The sky grew red and the sun set over the horizon in a big, red ball. The sky became very black, and the stars glittered like diamonds. The moon was huge and silvery white. Suddenly, Larry heard a sound. It was Willie the Wombat, waddling slowly through the sand. (can you find out what sort of animal a wombat is?) Now Larry didn’t really like Willie very much. He thought he was rather stupid and slow, and not very good looking. He had a dark brown furry coat, four short legs and a snubby nose, tiny eyes and ears. So he didn’t say anything.
But Willie stopped beside him and said “Hallo, Larry. You out admiring this lovely night too?”
Larry said huffily “No. I’d rather be at home but I haven’t got a home anymore! The roof is over there and I can’t move it. So there”.
Willie looked over and saw the beautiful white stone glistening in the moonlight. He waddled over, turned round, and put his bottom against the stone and pushed. You see, wombats have very, very strong bottoms! Slowly, the stone rolled over and Willie pushed some more. Soon the stone was rolling quite fast. When Willie got it back to the two other stones, he gave one final push, grunting, and the stone plopped back into place! Larry was delighted! His home was mended!
From that day onwards, Larry and Willie were the best of friends and often talked and laughed during the long desert nights, as the moon shone brightly down, making the beautiful white stone shine like a star.
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