"Timeless" - Narnian Autumn Writing Challenge - Oneshot Collection

"Garden Of Scares"

Word count: 1539

Prompt: Scarecrow

Notes:

• Parapatrues is an OC created by myself🐀

• Thanks of course to both StorySnippets (the helpful helper of me when I can't come up with ideas) and SaharaCastine (the lovely best friend), you guys always support me and I love you💗💗

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He hated sunny days, he much preferred cool ones.

It was a cheerful day, which was nice, until it wasn't. When Puddleglum had stepped outside, the sun had felt nice on his face, but now it felt agonizingly hot and it practically burned him to a crisp. And his hat scarcely did a thing to keep the sun off his face.

Gardening, even though it was disgusting and dirty, had always been a pleasant hobby of his.

But unfortunately, something had been eating his vegetables— and it was awful. Always, he'd considered himself a kind Marsh-wiggle, sharing whatever he had, but then, no one cared and he wondered why he did any acts of kindness. Anyway, since he was at times kind, he tried to give whatever was stealing his vegetables a little bit of food.

Yet, the stealing had not ceased, and so Puddleglum had finally decided to do something about it, though it probably wouldn't really do anything.

Against his toes, the long grasses of the marsh squished down into the moistness of the dirt underneath them. Water trickled from endless mazes of tiny rivers, all interconnecting into a larger pond behind his hut.

As he walked, he scratched his head and sighed sadly, "No one really remembers me, until they realize they've forgotten."

It was true. No one visited him— not like he wanted them to. Then he would have to clean out his hut.

The only time he got visitors was when his sister Parapatrues and her daughter Lally came over from their marsh to his lonely marsh and hung out for a spell. It was good to laugh with them, but it was an awful endeavor— getting the food ready.

He readjusted the sack of supplies he had on his back, straws, twines, an old hat he despised, a potato sack, and finally a ratty brown apron.

All of these items would help him craft what he needed to build. A guard. A scarecrow. To help protect the garden he'd grown.

Puddleglum's foot hit the wood rim of his garden and he knew he'd arrived. With a loud huff, he pulled down the pack of things and watched as it fell into the marsh.

Then he muttered to himself; the stupid thing was getting soaked in the moist hills of the marsh.

He reached into his bag and pulled out the half-wet straw and the potato sack and stuffed the sack with the wet grasses.

Molding the shape of a scary-looking figure, he smiled triumphantly to himself, but then... he could've done a better job on the arms perhaps. He truly couldn't build scarecrows.

As he tied the apron around the sculpture, he put the hat on it as well. But then he liked that hat better than the one that was already on his head. He switched them out.

Once the scarecrow was finished, Puddleglum made his way back to his hut, his stomach was rumbling and so was the sky. A storm would be coming soon. Great. Or not so great.

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The next morning, Puddleglum began making himself breakfast, a stew of sorts, full of the vegetables he'd grown and some other special things.