Welcome to Story Quest, a weekly podcast where we bring your stories to life!

In this episode we bring Charlotte’s story – The Magical Creatures of Pancake Peak- to life.

If you have a story idea, you could be like Teddy and have it turned into a Story Quest. All you have to do is send us your story idea here. We know you have the best imaginations and together we can create the most brilliant stories!

That’s just what Charlotte did. You can watch the story they suggested come to life below, plus they tell us all about the inspiration behind the story at the end.

Listen out for brand new Story Quest episodes every Thursday!

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Stories for kids and families, perfect for all ages! New episodes every week.

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Read along to Magical Creatures of Pancake Peak here!

You can read along to the story while you listen. Just follow the text below. Don’t worry if you find a word tricky – you can pause the video whenever to give yourself more time

The Magical Creatures of Pancake Peak

“BUNNIES EVEYWHERE!”  

There were indeed bunnies everywhere.  They had fallen softly from the sky like a lovely fluffy snowstorm.  “Get these blasted bunnies out of here this minute!” the wizard shouted, going quite pink in the face.

So you’re probably wondering what’s going on with all the bunnies and who’s doing all the shouting and we’ll find out in a bit – it all starts in a place you might have heard of – Pancake Peak.

You haven’t heard of Pancake Peak?  Well, I suppose it is a long way away on the magical planet of Confectionaria.  The most magical place on the planet was Pancake Peak.  Made from pure toffee it was home to the Sugar Sprites, the creatures who lived on the peak.  They weren’t exactly fairies (they weren’t floaty enough) and they weren’t exactly goblins (they weren’t bad tempered enough), they did have an impish sense of humour as we will see – and like most magical creatures they could perform spells to make things happen and they did this rather a lot although their magical powers were mostly limited to making one kind of thing appear.  Sweets.  Or rather sweets, puddings, cakes, chocolates, pastries, flapjacks, cookies and yes pancakes – you get the idea. 

They could make cookies rain from the sky, make pancakes grew from the tall trees and the bushes were dotted with chocolate drops, cast by their spells.

As you can imagine it was an amazing place to visit and people would come from all over the galaxy to taste the delicious treats and the magical creatures didn’t mind too much as long as no one was too greedy.

Sounds like a pretty cool place right?  I mean, my stomach’s rumbling just thinking about it.

Now news of this amazing place reached the farthest outskirts of the Shadowgulch galaxy.  Rex Shadowwalker was the grand high wizard of this realm and let’s just say, he wasn’t very nice.  He was so evil and mean that the whole population of his planet had actually built spaceships and left, so he was now stuck on his own being miserable and terrorising the remaining small furry animals that were left.  Even the plants seem to have uprooted themselves and gone away, and so all he was left with were bitter herbs to chew on.  He had seen the Pancake Peak in a vision, swirled above his cauldron and his mouth began to water in anticipation.

Of course any normal person would just think “I’ll pay a visit and try some of thoe delicious looking treats for myself and then leave the Sugar Sprites in peace”  But your average evil wizard thinks a bit bigger than that don’t they?  And Rex Shadowwalker was particularly evil.

“I know what I shall do…. I shall invade the peaks and take charge for myself!  Those silly sugar sprites can spend all their time making delicious treats just for me!”  Then he did the evil wizard laugh.  You can join in on this bit if you like – ready?  “Bawahhahahahah!!!”  Good evil laugh, well done.

And with that he began eagerly thumbing through his spell books to find a way to teleport to Confectionaria.  He would need to craft a magical staff with a special incantation on the shaft, which when spoken would open the space realm wormholes. He was better at being evil than being good at spells so this is going to take a bit of time.  

So let’s check out what’s going on back in the Pancake Peaks.  A new leader of the Sugar Sprites had been chosen – a wise old sprite called Sprinklebottom – she waved at the applauding crowds and conjured candyfloss to spring from all the trees in celebration.

“I vow to keep Pancake Peaks the sweetest planet of all – where any may safely visit and try our wares!” And there was more applause then banqueting – yes you guessed it on a whole bunch of more sweet treats.  Basically instead of having a starter, main and desert it was desert, desert, and then desert.

Just as everyone was settling back in their chairs after the third course (Flapjack Cake with Syrup Icing) there was a rumbling sound and a looming cloud appeared in the sky.  Then with a crash and a bang who should appear right in the centre of the banqueting table than Rex Shadowwalker himself.  He’d taken a few wrong turns, including ending up in a bog on Unguent Minor which was full of space fleas.  He did not like that ONE BIT. But now he gave a triumphant cry and casting his hand around made all the Sugar Sprites freeze on the spot.  Again he gave a triumphant cry, last time he’d tried this particular spell (on an irritating goblin) all that had happened was the goblin’s trousers fell down.

“I am REX SHADOWWALKER and I declare PANCAKE PEAKS to belong to ME!

Sprinklebottom, even though frozen to the spot shouted back defiantly “we shall never surrender to you!”

“Well if you don’t do as I say I will take all your subjects back to the ShadowGulch realm and they will be my slaves – the pancake peak will become desolate and bare!”

Sprinklebottom was alarmed at this – she could see the terror on the Sugar Sprite’s frozen faces and knew that it was her job to keep them safe.

She thought quickly.  A tiny spark of an idea came to her.  

“Alright!  Just let my people go! I’ll personally do whatever you want!”

Rex Shadowwalker looked smug and waved his hand around.  Then he waved it again as nothing happened.  The Sprites waited, frozen, very patiently given the circumstances and finally he managed to unfreeze them.  Then his attention turned to Sprinklebottom.

So you will do whatever I say?  Command any of my most favourite treats to appear?”

“If you say so.”

“In that case I demand CAKE the finest biggest CAKE – make it enormous!”

“Snake?” said Sprinklbottom. “Well if you must” and with a wiggle of her ears the most enormous snake you’d ever seen landed with a plop in the banqueting hall.  He looked as surprised as everyone else but then remembered he was a massive snake and started hissing and snapping at the wizard who yelped in terror

“What have you done I said enormous CAKE not an enormous SNAKE you idiot! Geddit out of here!”

“Oh I’m so sorry – we Sugar Sprites can be a little hard of hearing – you’ll have to speak up.”  Did I mention sugar sprites were well known for their sense of humour? And with another wiggle of her ears the snake disappeared with another plop!

“Alright.  I’d like some delicious buns. Make buns RAIN from the sky! I demand you do as I say!” he said, shouting very loudly in Sprinklebottom’s face.  She leant back.  His breath was TERRIBLE.

“As you wish” – and she wiggled her ears.

And… then you guessed it what should start falling from the sky but BUNNIES – big fluffy bunnies falling softly like a fluffy snowstorm, gently landing on the carpets where they began to nibble at the tassles on the rugs.

“I said BUNS not BUNNY RABBITS!” he blustered, in a fit of rage.  This was not going as well as he had hoped and to make things worse it turned out he was allergic to bunnies so he began to sneeze and sneeze and sneeze.

“I’m so sorry!  You’ll really need to speak up – let’s try one more time” said Sprinklebottom in a soothing voice.  The other sprites were beginning to snigger at Sprinklebottoms’s antics, but Rex Shaddowwalker didn’t seem to hear the chortles and whispering, not least as he was sneezing too much.

“Alright… ACHOO… I’d like… ACHOO… A hundred chocolate logs – no actually I demand – ACHOO you get me a THOUSAND chocolate logs RIGHT NOW!”

“OBSTINATE DOGS?  Well that’s not something I’ve ever had to conjure before but whatever makes you happy…”

And before the Wizard could interrupt there was a crack and a bang and yes the room was filled with not a hundred – but a thousand dogs, all barking and growling in an obstinate way and looking for something to chomp, preferably something wizard shaped.  

The wizard gave a shout and began to run.  The dogs gave chase and snapped and snarled making the wizard dance so much he dropped his staff.  

“Get them away!  Get them away from me!” he yelled.

Sprinklebottom grabbed the staff and quickly looked at the inscriptions.  

Then standing up defiantly she glared at the Wizard.

“I’ve got a better idea – YOU get away from US!” she yelled and reading the incantation on the staff she pointed it at the Wizard and in a flash he’d been sent back to The Shadow Gulches in a puff of smoke.

Well actually it wasn’t JUST the wizard who’d been teleported back to the miserable grotty planet. He was accompanied on his travels by… yep, one thousand grumpy dogs.

Without his staff wouldn’t be able to travel again and so the Pancake Peaks – and the rest of the galaxy were safe from the evil wizard’s schemes, not just now but forever.

And don’t worry too much about the dogs stuck on the Shadowy planet.  It might have been a yucky place for human beings – or sugar sprites – but it was heaven for a grumpy dog with lots of small furry things to terrorise and dark damp forests to explore.  Oh and an evil wizard to chase if he ever thought about setting foot outside his castle gate.  Which he did not.

And on the Pancake Peaks the cookies once more rained from the skies and the trees hung heavy with toffee apples and custard slices.  And Sprinklebottom could go back to conjuring treats instead of snakes and bunnies and obstinate dogs, and everyone really did live happily (and deliciously) ever after.  And that’s the story of the Magical Creatures of Pancake Peak.