Peter was from a hardworking, modest family of prune harvesters. They
worked under Lord Constipatio, who owned the land on which they, and the
other families of prune harvesters, worked on. Lord Constipatio was a tyrant
and all of his subjects were forced to pay their dues in prunes. Not only was Lord Constipatio a ruthless
tyrant, constantly demanding more and more prunes from his poor subjects,
but he was also a giant. A giant with large-scale digestive problems.
This demanded only the biggest prunes in the land -- prunes as big as a person!
Back to Peter, the hero of this story. Peter was a spunky little boy,
full of energy. He was happy to harvest prunes all day, but he saw the toll it took on his father and mother who had been working for cruel Lord
Constipatio all of their lives. So, he would try to do as much as he could to make their lives easier. Along
with harvesting the giant prunes, he had the responsibility of delivering
them to the Lord. Each prune was so big that Peter could only carry one
at a time.
Day after day, Peter would deliver the prunes to Lord Constipatio and
receive a few crumbs of bread to eat and share with his family (if he was
lucky). Lord Constipatio was so greedy for his prunes that he forbade his
subjects to grow anything but prunes, so the bread that the lord provided was their only means of food.
Although Peter was generally a kind boy, his anger towards the merciless Lord
Constipatio was mounting.
As it turns out, this kind little boy became the hero of the town. How
could a tiny little boy save everyone from a tyrannical giant? well, it's
all thanks to the prunes. One day, Peter's resolve to free his parents
and his neighbors from Lord Constipatio was especially strong. He concocted a plan in his head as he walked
the 10 miles to the castle.
When Peter reached the iron gates of Lord Constipatio's house, he
hollowed out the prune and jumped inside. He then proceeded to walk stealthily,
with the giant prune on his back, to where Lord Constipatio stayed. When
he reached the luxurious room where he had been many times before, he carefully slid himself, and the
prune, onto the Lord's prune plate. As usual, Lord Constipatio was reclining,
casually eating his prunes. Luckily, he was so lazy that his eyes were
always half closed and he didn't see Peter climb onto his plate.
The Prune Copyright 2001, Carol
The Prune Copyright 2001, FableVision |
