Littlenose Collection The Magician Read online

  More adventures of

  Littlenose Collection: The Explorer

  The collection first published in Great Britain in 2014 by Simon and Schuster UK Ltd

  A CBS COMPANY

  Two-Eyes’ Friends was first published in 1969

  Littlenose the Hunter was first published in 1972

  Littlenose the Fisherman was first published in 1974

  Littlenose the Magician was first published in 1975

  Two-Eyes’ Revenge, Littlenose’s Holiday and Bigfoot were first published in 1976

  The Old Man’s Spear and Squeaky were first published in 1977

  Littlenose’s Cousins was first published in 1979

  Littlenose the Joker and The Fox Fur Robe were first published in 1983

  Littlenose and Two-Eyes, The Amber Pendant and Roch-a-Bye Littlenose were first published in 1986 in Great Britain by The British Broadcasting Corporation

  Text copyright © John Grant, 1969, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1983, 1986, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2014

  Illustrations copyright © Ross Collins, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2014

  This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

  No reproduction without permission.

  All rights reserved.

  The right of John Grant and Ross Collins to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

  1st Floor, 222 Gray’s Inn Road

  London

  WC1X 8HB

  Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney

  Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978-1-47112-137-1

  eBook 978-1-47112-138-8

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

  www.simonandschuster.co.uk

  www.simonandschuster.com.au

  Contents

  1 Littlenose the Magician

  2 Littlenose the Hunter

  3 Littlenose the Joker

  Contents

  1 Littlenose the Magician

  2 The Old Man’s Spear

  3 Littlenose and Two-Eyes

  4 The Amber Pendant

  5 Rock-a-Bye Littlenose

  Littlenose the Magician

  In the days when Littlenose lived, the most important person in the tribe was the Old Man. But, only a little less important was the Doctor. He looked after the sick, as you might expect, but he had other important duties as well.

  For instance, he foretold the future. This he did by watching pictures in the fire, or by observing the flight of birds. But his favourite method was to take out a pack of white birch bark squares with strange markings on them. He spread them out on a flat rock, then turned them up one at a time, muttering as he did so. The people would crowd round his cave saying: “He is going to make a prediction.” Then a meeting would be called later in the day at which the Doctor would raise his arms and pronounce in a solemn voice something like: “There is going to be a hard winter!” And considering this was the Ice Age, he had never been wrong!

  Littlenose didn’t think much of either the Doctor’s nasty-tasting medicines or his fortunetelling, but he was filled with awe at the Doctor’s other job, that of Tribal Magician. He had only the vaguest idea what magic was, and he had never seen the Doctor actually perform any, but he heard a lot about it. He knew, for instance, that he could make a coloured pebble vanish and produce it from someone’s ear; he had heard that, with the right magic words, a handful of old bones could become a bouquet of flowers; and there was the story of a rabbit which the doctor had produced from an empty fur hood.

  Someone had once asked why he didn’t use his magic to help in useful things like hunting and rain-making as the Straight-noses did. The Doctor was horrified. “It’s not for us to meddle with the powers of darkness,” he said warningly. “Look what it’s done for the Straightnoses. You wouldn’t want to end up like them, would you?” And as that was the last thing anyone wanted, it was never mentioned again.

  There had been a lot of talk lately about the Doctor and magic, but Littlenose was more concerned with the preparations for the Sun Dance. This was the great mid-winter festival, like a huge party, with singing and dancing and feasting. Presents were given, and everyone had a marvellous time far into the night, even past bed-time for grownups. This year there was to be an extra treat. Occasionally, the Doctor had been persuaded to give a demonstration of magic as part of the entertainment. His last appearance had been before Littlenose was old enough to attend the Sun Dance. In the few days left, the Doctor was very busy, and was quite huffy if anyone arrived at his cave with a sore stomach or toothache. All they got were some dried herbs or a quick drink of something discouraging from the Doctor’s wife.

  She was his assistant and nurse, and she spent most of her time out of sight at home. Littlenose thought that she was probably ashamed of being so ugly. She was tall and skinny, by Neanderthal standards, with a nose not much bigger than Littlenose’s own. She might have been called Littlenose too, but her hair was long, straight and yellow, so she was called Goldie.

  It was rumoured that she came from a distant tribe and it was she who had taught the Doctor all he knew.

  The Sun Dance came at last and, as usual, it was even better than Littlenose remembered. When they had danced and sung themselves hoarse, and even Littlenose had eaten himself to a standstill, the Old Man stepped forward and announced: “And now, for your delight and delectation, a fabulous feast of mystery and merriment proudly presented by the great. . .DOCTOR!”

  The doctor swept into the circle with a flourish. He wore a cloak of some smooth, black fur, and a hood over his head. The hood covered his face so that his eyes shone out from a pair of holes. He looked mysterious and rather frightening. As the applause began to die away, the Old Man threw out an arm and shouted, “Assisted by the glamorous Goldie!”

  The glamorous Goldie ran on to even louder applause. She wore two rabbit ears in her hair, while the rest consisted of all that was left of the rabbit . . . including the tail.

  The magic show was everything Littlenose expected and more. Coloured pebbles appeared and reappeared. Old bones became bunches of flowers and, not one but two rabbits were pulled mysteriously from a fur hood. The audience cheered and clapped while Littlenose’s eyes grew wider and wider at the wonder of it all. Then the Doctor and the glamorous Goldie carried forward what looked like the trunk of a tree. But as they set it up in front of the audience, Littlenose saw that the log had been hollowed out so that it was really only a shell of very thin wood and bark. As it was laid on the ground, he could also see that it had been split down the centre with the top half forming a sort of lid.

  The Doctor held up his hand for silence. “I shall now attempt, with the assistance of the glamorous Goldie, one of the most hazardous feats of magic known. I must ask for complete silence. Thank you.”

  With a flourish, he lifted the lid of the hollow log and held the glamorous Goldie by the hand while she climbed inside. She smiled prettily, waved, and lay down so that her head stuck out at one end and her feet at the other. The Doctor stooped down and picked up the biggest axe Littlenose had ever seen. The audience gasped as the Doctor swung it up without effort, and held their breath as he stood in the circle of torchlight, which sparkled alon
g the axe’s sharp edge. Then, with a crash, the axe hurtled down on to the tree trunk and the glamorous Goldie!

  Splinters flew in all directions as the blade buried itself in the ground. People screamed. Some fainted. Littlenose felt sick. But the Doctor was not finished yet. He quickly removed the axe and pulled the two halves of the log apart. There was a clear gap where the glamorous Goldie’s middle should have been. Which wasn’t surprising . . . and hardly magic!

  What was surprising, and could only be magic, was her nodding head and smiling face sticking out of one half, and her wriggling toes sticking out of the other. The audience was again silent as the Doctor quickly pushed the halves together. He waved his arm, shouted a magic word and raised the lid. The glamorous Goldie stood up and waved. There wasn’t a mark on her. She bowed to the audience, and Littlenose expected her top half to fall off. But it didn’t, and the Doctor and the glamorous Goldie went off to thunderous applause.

  In the weeks following the Sun Dance, Littlenose could think of nothing else but magic. He even tried some, but without success. Things just refused to disappear, and Dad almost split his sides laughing as Littlenose frantically waved an old bone in the air, trying to turn it into a bunch of flowers. “Come on, Littlenose,” he said, “you must do better than that. How about cutting a lady in half? I’m sure Mum would help. That is, if you could get her inside a hollow log. Ha! Ha! Ha!” Mum said, “That’s not funny.”

  “Just you wait,” said Littlenose. “When I’ve learned to do a piece of magic, you’ll get the biggest surprise of your lives!”

  After a few days, Littlenose decided that his magic was getting nowhere. But he had an idea. He would find out how the Doctor did his. He couldn’t very well ask him straight out, but if he could creep close enough to his cave, he might see him at work. It was risky. He had once heard the story of a boy who had tried just this and had been turned into a frog!

  Next morning, Littlenose set off for the Doctor’s cave. As he approached, he could hear voices from inside. He tip-toed to the entrance. The Doctor and his wife were seated with their backs to him, busy at some task . . . probably more magic. Littlenose edged closer but, whatever their task was, they were keeping it well hidden from intruders. He was about to leave, when something caught his attention.

  Lying on a rocky ledge just inside the cave entrance was a stick, thick as a finger and about half the length of Littlenose’s arm.

  It was stained with strange patterns and Littlenose remembered that he had last seen it at the Sun Dance, when the Doctor had used it to wave or point at things he wanted to change into something else or to disappear. In a moment, Littlenose had made up his mind. He would borrow the stick. He wouldn’t ask for the loan of it. Just borrow it. In a flash the stick was under his hunting robe. Then Littlenose hurried home as fast as he could.

  Slipping to the back of the cave, he tried out the magic stick. He waved it, tapped it and shook it, but nothing disappeared. And nothing changed into anything else. But Littlenose wasn’t downhearted. “Practice,” he said to himself. “That’s what I need.” But before he could get any practice, he heard Dad calling him.

  “A herd of bison has been seen nearby,” said Dad, “and we’re going out with a party to hunt them. Get your things. We’re leaving immediately.”

  Littlenose put on his hunting robe and picked up his boy-size spear. He wondered about the magic stick for a moment, then decided to bind it along the shaft of the spear. This made it easy to carry and was unlikely to be noticed.

  The hunters had barely left the caves before they realised that something odd was happening. The air was strangely mild and there was a slight thaw, very unusual for this time of year. They trudged on through the wood, Littlenose and Two-Eyes bringing up the rear of the column. They stopped to rest for a moment and Littlenose whispered to Two-Eyes, “Look, there’s a robin,” and pointed up into a tree. And at that second a great lump of melting snow slid from the tree and fell on one of the hunters with a thump. The man struggled to his feet and shook his fist at Littlenose. “That you up to your tricks?” he shouted. “Throwing things?”

  “I didn’t throw anything,” said Littlenose. “I just pointed. Like that.” He did it just as a pine branch, weakened by the weight of snow it was carrying, snapped with a loud crack and tumbled to the ground. The hunters all looked at Littlenose. They looked at the spear he was still pointing. He looked at the stick tied to the spear and began to wonder. However, after a bit of muttering among themselves, the hunters went on their way, but kept a watchful eye on Littlenose.

  At length, they reached a small valley with a frozen stream at the bottom. Nosey, the chief stalker, was warily inching his way across but he didn’t feel at all safe. Littlenose stood with Two-Eyes some way back from the stream and watched. “I think you’re too heavy to cross there, Two-Eyes,” he said, and pointed with his spear. There was a loud crack, then a wild yell from Nosey as the ice broke under him and he vanished into the freezing water. Littlenose dropped the spear as if it were red hot.

  While the hunters hauled a shivering Nosey on to the bank, Littlenose untied the stick and wondered what to do with it. He had a feeling that just throwing it away would be no good. He should never have taken it without asking. He tucked it out of sight in his furs and planned to give it back to its rightful owner just as soon as he reached home. And it looked as if that would be sooner than he’d expected. The bison had gone, leaving no trace, and Nosey was sneezing and shivering from his ducking.

  The hunters decided to stop for the night and made a rough shelter out of tree branches and hunting robes. The air had turned heavy and clammy, while inky, black clouds began to pile up in the sky. They had a cold supper and, while there was still some light left, Littlenose wandered off for a stroll before turning in. He carried the magic stick under his robe and had decided to try once more to make it work for him. After all, the disasters of earlier in the day could have been chance. Perhaps.

  When he was out of sight of the camp, he picked up a handful of twigs and waved the stick over them. They were meant to turn into a bunch of flowers. Nothing happened, except that a large spot of rain fell on his nose. And that wasn’t magic. He tried it on pebbles but they remained obstinately unchanged. He even tapped himself on the head, and was relieved that he didn’t turn into a frog. He gave up. The rain was beginning to fall heavily now and the snow grew wet and mushy under his feet.

  Littlenose shouted angrily at the stick and shook it hard. “Call yourself magic? You’re just an old bit of firewood. I dare you to do something magic!”

  There was a blinding flash and a deafening bang. A solitary pine tree high on the hill in front of him was split from top to bottom by a jagged bolt of lightning. Littlenose fell to the ground in terror and watched the smouldering remains of the tree, as the rain poured down about him and the thunder crashed and boomed about the sky.

  Littlenose lay awake all night, quaking with terror. Dad and the other hunters were not sympathetic. “Fancy a big boy like you afraid of thunder,” they laughed.

  As soon as the hunting party reached home, Littlenose lost no time in returning the stick. He tried to sneak it back the way he had got it but, just as he was creeping up to the cave entrance, a voice said:“What do you think you’re playing at?” it was the Doctor.

  Littlenose was trapped. “This is it,” he thought. “I’ll be a frog any minute.”

  He stood up and held out the stick. “I was bringing this back. You see, it’s like this. I was—–”

  But the Doctor cut him short. “Oh thanks. Didn’t know I’d dropped it. Didn’t really matter.” And he casually broke the stick into pieces and threw them in the fire.

  Littlenose was aghast. The Doctor spoke again. “Here’s something for your trouble.” And he tossed a coloured pebble at Littlenose. He caught it . . . and it was an apple! “Now, off you go and don’t bother me, Sonny. I’ve got a lot to do.”

  “Thank you,” said Littlenose, thoroughly
perplexed. He looked at the apple. Was it magic? He suddenly didn’t care about magic any more. He knew he managed to get into enough trouble without the aid of magic.

  He started to run towards the cave, shouting, “Come on, Two-Eyes. I’ve got an apple. You can have half.”

  The Old Man’s Spear

  The Old Man was leader of the tribe because he was not only the oldest member but the wisest. No one knew how old he was, and they had even less idea of the extent of his wisdom. As a young man he had been handsome, strong, swift, and a famous hunter. But now he was bald, fat and a bit short of wind. It was years since he last hunted but he didn’t need to, as he was given a share of all the tribe’s food. The Old Man’s job was to organise everyone else; and he did it very well.

  Yet one spring day when the sun shone, the trees were beginning to turn green and the snow had vanished, the Old Man summoned the hunters to a meeting.

  Dad and Littlenose (he was an apprentice hunter), hurried along wondering what calamity was about to strike this time. For the Old Man’s meetings usually spelled trouble. When they were all assembled, the Old Man climbed onto a boulder and addressed them. “I intend,” he said, “to go hunting. I want you to arrange everything. Make it a week today. Any questions? No? That’s it, then. Thank you.” And he turned away into his cave.

  The hunters were astonished and there was a lot of muttering as the meeting broke up. “Hunting! At his age! He’s daft!” Dad said much the same thing. “You can’t say things like that,” said Mum, aghast. “He is, after all, the Leader!”

  Littlenose saw nothing odd in the Old Man’s wanting a bit of fun. He thought it must be very dull with nothing to do all day but make speeches, study the Time Sticks, and tell people what to do. And although Dad and the rest of the grown-up hunters still thought the whole idea ridiculous, the other members of the tribe began to think like Littlenose. They got more and more enthusiastic until, instead of the hunters planning an official hunt for the Old Man, it had become a grand day out and picnic for the whole tribe. Of course, there would still be some hunting, because that, after all, was what the Old Man wanted.