Cricket, Chun-So slipped forward, raising his spear to slap the branch and
scare Cricket into silence. Because his eyes were fixed on Cricket’s branch,
he didn’t see a vine stretching across his path. Near this vine was the royal
pond filled with pink lily pads and sleeping royal bullfrogs.
But for the pesky vine, Cricket’s song would have been silenced.
Unfortunately, the bodyguard tripped and lost his balance. Dropping
his spear and windmilling his arms fiercely, he fell into the pond, shat-
tering its glassy surface. The mighty splash awoke the slumbering frogs,
who hopped in all directions, croaking up a storm. The loud splash and
croaking frogs startled Owl from its treetop perch. Owl winged a hooting,
angry retreat. Gecko squeaked at Owl’s hoots and scuttled off to garden
shadows below. On the venerable gingko tree, the leaves rattled like jingles
on a tambourine from all the fuss.
But on one low branch, Cricket continued its merry song to the moon.
Queen Minbe couldn’t help herself. She laughed and laughed at the
palace guard, who sat in the pond frowning as frogs hopped on his head.
“And I came here to find some peace and quiet,” she chuckled. Queen
Minbe stretched and flapped her ears. “All this merriment has chased my
headache away. If I can stand this much noise, I guess I won’t be needing
cotton for my headaches anymore.”
Walking back to the palace, with her soggy bodyguard
sneezing and splashing behind, Queen Minbe hummed a
happy little tune to the moon, like Cricket.32