The Shaddow

• Caleb Cisek, Grade 1, St Cecilia's Primary School
• Short Story
• 2018

Finalist in the 'Time To Write 2018/2019' competition

On the island in the Pacific Ocean, while a volcano grumbled and spat out lava, a boy was born to the movements of shadows on the walls of the room in which he was born. Within hours of the boy being born the volcano settled, ceasing the spitting of lava. Poh the mother of the boy named him Mountain, a strong and mighty name, after the volcano that erupted the night he was born.
From an early age Mountain would twist light into shadows on the walls within the family hut. On nights when the men would sit around a camp fire and tell stories, Mountain would listen and try to retell the stories later in the form of shadow puppets shows for his school friends.
Mountain could be regularly seen practicing by torchlight various shapes, from animals to trees to houses. One evening as he practiced his shadow stories on the wall in his room, extra shadows appeared on the wall, dancing around the one’s Mountain was making. Mountain paused looking behind him to see who was making the extra shadows, but no one was there, looking back at the wall only the rabbits he was making could be seen.
The following night the shadows appeared again, this time, Mountain watched the shadows, inquiringly as a triangle shape appears and every other shadow moves away from the triangle. What looked like lines come out of the triangle, they hit the other shadows causing them to fall over, then it’s just a lone triangle on his wall. This same scene plays out night after night for five nights. On the sixth morning after the shadows started, Mountain wakes to a grumbling, asking his mother what the sound is. Poh replies “It’s the volcano, it hasn’t erupted since the night you were born.” “When will it erupt and will much larva come out?” Asks Mountain. “Within the next three days, it will just spit and cough a bit” replied Poh.
That night while watching the shadows as the volcano grumbled, Mountain ran out of his room yelling to his mum “The volcano is going to erupt and lava will over run the village, we need to move to higher ground.” “Slow down Mountain,” said Poh. Mountain told his mum the story the shadows were showing him. Poh and Mountain packed a bag each and headed for Poh’s sisters, on their way advising all the other villages to do the same. Some listened and left, others stayed saying “It’s nonsense.”
Mid-afternoon the following day, the volcano erupted, waves of lava spewed out its mouth. Mountain and Poh prayed that the villagers had left, as wave after wave of lava was moving at great speed down the triangle and through the village.