A/N- I wrote this in an English lesson a few years ago after we studied some Rudyard Kipling stories. It is written in a style for very young children to understand, so it's not exactly my best work, heh heh. The story is actually meant to have some coloured words and lots of pictures, but of course they won't work on FictionPress. Hopefully you will like it in this plain black and white version! XxX

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A long, long time ago, when the world was fresh and new, there was a tangled jungle where a wise wizard lived. He had a small wooden hut with a really tall door. Inside there were shelves full of magic potions in glass bottles. He also had a big cauldron outside that bubbled and fizzed over a fire that burned with big blue flames.

This wizard, my dear, he loved all the animals and spoke with them every day.

One day, his dear friend Parrot came for a visit. Parrot had shiny, black feathers, a long, curvy yellow beak like a banana, and no pattern at all, but he was kind and good-natured.

In those days, my dear, all of the animals were black or brown and had no other colours. Parrot didn’t mind as he was a very humble and contented bird. His friends, on the other hand, always tried to paint themselves with berries, without success.

The Wizard gave Parrot a little cup of freshly brewed Vine Tea, and Parrot politely said, “Thank you.”

After their usual happy talk about the weather and the trees, Wizard took out a piece of paper from his pocket.

“Oh kind Parrot,” sighed Wizard to his friend, “I have to make a new potion today, but I do not know where to find some things. Please will you search for them?” Parrot agreed, and Wizard gave him a list of colours. “I need a fruit of each of these colours,” he said.

So Parrot took the list and flew away, looking for a RED fruit.

Parrot flew across the entire world. He flew high in the sky, and he whirled and twirled through the leaves of the trees, and along the blue snake rivers, until he found a large patch of plants growing.

Down he flew, and landed next to a large green leaf. Behind it, he could just about see something big and RED. He pushed it aside, and what do you think he found?

What kind of fruit do you know that’s RED?
A strawberry, my dear!

Parrot put the big juicy strawberry in a bag on his back, then flew back to Wizard.

“Thank you!” said Wizard. He then tapped the strawberry with his wand, which gave out a large POP! Then he dropped it into the bubbling cauldron.

The water started to fizz and crackle, and then stopped. The cauldron let out a small puff of RED smoke. Parrot was amazed.

“Oooh, wow!” he remarked to Wizard. “What is your potion for any way?”
“It makes the sun shine for a whole day,” said Wizard.

Once again, Parrot set off around the world. He flew high in the sky, and he whirled and he twirled through the leaves on the trees and along the blue snake rivers.

Finally, he found a big orchard of fruit trees. He could see that just behind the leaves were lots and lots of round fruits. What colour do you think they were, my dear? ORANGE.

Do you know a fruit that is round and ORANGE?
An orange!

He took one and put it in his backpack, then flew back to the jungle.

Wizard took the orange from Parrot, tapped it like he did with the strawberry, and dropped it in the cauldron. It fizzed and bubbled again, but this time gave of a small cloud of ORANGE smoke.

Though Parrot was tired, he flew out again and came back with the next fruit, which was YELLOW.

What fruit is YELLOW?
A lemon, my dear!

Parrot went away and collected another three fruits, a GREEN one, a BLUE one, and a PURPLE one. The GREEN fruit was a gooseberry, the BLUE one was a blueberry, and a PURPLE one called a blackberry.

At last, after a hard days work, Parrot brought the last fruit to Wizard.

“Thank you so much, Parrot, you are a very kind bird, and because you have done so much for me today, I am going to reward you.” He picked up his wand and gently tapped Parrot three times on the head. Parrot felt a funny jiggle inside, and then it stopped. He looked cautiously into the mirror Wizard held out for him. Do you know what he saw? Parrot was no longer plain black; he had bright and amazing colours all over his body! He had RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE and PURPLE feathers.

“I look like the rainbow in the sky!” said Parrot, very happily. “Oh, thank you SO much, Wizard. It’s beautiful!”
“You look lovely, Parrot!” said Wizard.
“Thank you,” laughed Parrot. Parrot waved goodbye, and flew home to his own special branch in the mighty gum tree.

Soon, a large group of his friends had gathered and they all sat and watched Parrot eating his dinner of crunchy, munchy nuts and seeds.
“Where did you get your wonderful colours?” asked Orang-utan.
“I did lots of hard work to earn them. I helped Wizard, so he rewarded me. If you were all as kind and helpful like I am, you would have colours too.
“I don’t want to work!” shouted Tapir. “I like having fun.”
“Then you’ll never have real colours.”

The next day, as the sun rose slowly over the horizon, the warm rays of light touched Parrot’s brightly coloured feathers and woke him. He stretched and looked around. There were hundreds of tiny and small, feathered and furred, young and old creatures around him.

“What do you want?” asked Parrot, who was very confused, my dear.
“We want to be helpful, but we don’t know how. Can you show us?” twittered a little robin by his side.
“Of course!” agreed Parrot.

So he showed all the creatures there how to be kind, how to help each other and how to generally be nicer creatures.

Wizard heard of this, and rewarded each animal, bird, insect and fish that changed, but all the creatures that just messed around and had fun all day kept their black or brown fur, and never got colours.

All the kind animals carried on being helpful to each other, and still are today, with Parrot as there role model. Because Parrot was the most helpful to Wizard, and worked the hardest, he always has the brightest colours. And that is how the Parrot got its colours.