The Lantern Village

The Karzen is a small village with iconic bell pepper street lanterns. A dozen families live there, including horses, rabbits, bats, spiders, and cows. At night, three street lights illuminate the entire town.

After wizard Jojo cast a spell on the different coloured bell peppers, they would magically light up in the dark. With the beautiful night bell pepper lantern on the streets, the night in the town became bustling and lively.

The spider woman would keep herself busy with weaving her web basket. Rabbits would play hide-and-seek within their burrow while the Bat Brothers would exhibit their flying skills.

Also, Mother Sheep would bring her three children to the streets to study under the street lamp. Many people gathered around the avenue to drink tea, sing and dance. No one was willing to miss out on the beautiful lights to sleep early.

However, when winter came, everyone in the village gave up outdoor activities, especially at night as it was freezing. The night in the town became quiet and bleak.

One winter night, Mr Horse had arrived in Karzen village to deliver carrots from the city. He came to Karzen village frequently and was familiar with the town. With the help of the street lantern, Mr Horse could find the correct place to deliver his carrots quickly.

After his delivery, he went over to visit his friends who stayed near the orange lantern. He knew he would have to pass by the red lantern first, before turning to the lane where the orange lantern was positioned. However, this time, he could not seem to find the red lantern. “This is strange. Where has the red lantern gone?” He thought.

As he was exhausted, he dismissed the thought and eventually managed to find the orange lantern to meet his friend. The following day, Mr Horse was about to return to the city when he noticed from a distance that the red lamp had returned to its original position! Feeling puzzled, Mr Horse casually mentioned the incident to Ms Spiderwoman to find out more. However, she did not know what happened.

That night, Ms Spiderwoman decided to investigate who took the lantern. Quietly, she sneaked in the corner of the street, hoping to find a suspicious figure. However, when she went over, she discovered that both red and yellow lantern was missing!

“Someone stole the village lantern!” She shrieked. Her screams woken many villagers up, and everyone started to search high and low for the lantern. However, the lanterns were gone.

Everyone was baffled by the lantern’s sudden disappearance. “Could there be thieves in the village?” They wondered. They decided that they would take turns to patrol the streets for the safety of everyone.

The next night, while the rabbit family was doing their patrol, they saw the lanterns had returned to the same place! They were so surprised and shouted, “the lanterns are back!” All the villagers came out to see and were happy to know the lanterns were back.

To prevent the lanterns from disappearing again, they decided to continue patrolling at night. However, the following night, the bat family squealed. “Two lanterns are gone!” For the next few nights, the same event happened. The lanterns would be gone, and the following day, it would always return to the same place.

Ms Spiderwoman was determined to get to the root of the mystery. She said, “The mysterious disappearance of the street lantern must be solved. Without the lanterns, our village will be vulnerable to evil wolves and foxes, which may harm us. We need to protect our village.”

She had heard of the Magical Red Mandrake, who helped solve many mysterious cases around villages. Ms Spiderwoman decided to visit Red Mandrake deep in the forest to invite him to solve the missing lantern mystery.

The Mandrake agreed to help and came to the village with Ms Spiderwoman. Many villagers who awaited the arrival of the famous magical Mandrake crowded around him. He began chanting a spell and cast it on the nearby water well. Everyone looked down into the well and saw images were playing like a movie.

They were surprised by what they saw. “That’s mother sheep!” someone broke the silence. All this while, mother sheep had been bringing the lantern to their dilapidated house so the children could read, while she mend their clothes for the winter. During daybreak, mother sheep would return the lanterns to the street quickly.

The villagers felt sympathetic toward Mother sheep. While they had soft beds and thick quilts, they saw that the mother sheep family was impoverished. There were no lights and no furnace or firewood in their house to warm them. If not for the lantern’s light and warmth, they would have been frozen. They decided to keep it to themselves first and not confront Mother sheep immediately.

The following day at daybreak, mother sheep stepped out of the house to return the lantern quickly as usual. Many times she felt terrible for taking the lanterns and wanted to apologise to the village. However, she knew that their family would suffer from the harsh cold winter if she had not done so. When she opened the door, she was stunned by the sight in front of her. All the residents of Karzen had been waiting for her in front of her house. Mother sheep stuttered and said, “I am sorry…”

Instead of being reprimanded, Ms Spiderwoman walked towards mother sheep, held her hand and said, “The school has been notified, and the children’s tuition and fees will be exempted. From now on, there will be no need to worry about this expenditure.”

Uncle Cow brought a cart of firewood and placed them at the corner of the house.

The magpie sisters brought a few duvets to keep them warm.

Mr Horse brought a stockpile of food for them.

The young rabbit couple brought books for little sheep.

Mother sheep was very touched. Tears rolled in her eyes as she thanked everyone for their help. Since then, the street lantern in Karzen village had never left their posts. Under their light, Karzen village became a better place with beautiful villagers who helped one another in times of need.

The End.