Land of Legends: Maze the Snaffle Monster & the Darklicas
Short Summary: when a baby snaffle monster loses their family and home due to a property developer, the baby monster decides to adopt a nearby family. However, there are some rules and risks to looking after a snaffle monster because some of their special magic powers, their behaviour, their appearance and mood changes according to the foods they consume (i.e. sweet natural foods result in positive magical power and mood changes and bitter, artificial foods result in negative magical power and mood changes) and if they are given the wrong kind of foods this can result in the creation of Darklicas as well as mirroring the environment around them and attitudes towards them having the same kind of impact (i.e. pleasant attitudes towards them making them nicer and kinder and bad attitudes towards them make them become more gruesome.) So, when one of the children decides to break a food rule to enact an act of revenge justice on some school bullies, mayhem swiftly erupts and the two children must hide and protect Maze from the pound exterminator team, an evil human monster hunter and some angry adults on the hunt in their town/part of the city. Written by Jill Thrussell
The Story: When a baby snaffle monster loses their family and their home due to a property developer that demolishes a woodland area and then finds a human family that it decides will be a suitable family and home, the baby monster, who has some magical powers, has to convince the two human children to adopt him, but there are some risks in looking after a Snaffle Monster which the two young human children are about to stumble upon when very unusual things in their home go missing like their mum's earrings and their dad glasses and some rules. The rules of looking after Snaffle Monsters however, the two children quickly discover are quite simple because their appearance and behaviour adjusts according to what they consume, so they must only eat natural and sweet things and drink nectar or honey juice or they transform from a cute, funny monster into a destructive one that cannot be controlled for a period of time and if they eat certain bitter and artificial foods, they multiply to create other Snaffle dark replica creatures that are dark and mean but the level of darkness that the Snaffle darklica's untamed bad monster behaviour reaches, how long it lasts and the life span of the Snaffle darklica creatures depends on what the origin Snaffle Monster has eaten or drunk with more bitter and unnatural foods and liquids having worse outcomes (and dark behaviour outcomes that relate to the kind of food or drink consumed e.g. chili they can breathe flames and smoke, berries they can spew, squirt and drench with tangy juice and vice versa for sweet, natural foods) as well as longer durations. Another rule is that they mirror the environment around them and attitudes towards them having the same kind of impact as the food they consume (i.e. bad attitudes towards them make them become more gruesome and pleasant attitudes making them nicer and kinder.) In order to keep Maze the Snaffle Monster and their secret, the two children decide to try and convince their older sister to help them, who is just about to finish high school and has zero interest in a creature that no one knows anything about who they want to help because her friend runs a pet grooming salon and they want to disguise Maze as a household pet and they also have to seek guidance from an elderly neighbour that lives in their street who has a wealth of knowledge about monsters and creatures, who can provide the two children with some much needed sprinkles of knowledge and wisdom about Snaffle Monsters and their magical powers from legendary tales.
However, once their secret is discovered, they have to convince the adults around them that Maze the Snaffle Monster is a cute, friendly, tameable animal that that they found in the nearby woods on a camping trip so that they can keep him, because Snaffle Monsters look quite cute when in a friendly state (not their mean monster mood state which only happens when they eat bitter and artificial foods or drink bitter and artificial liquids.) Unfortunately, some things go wrong when their mother makes some sour cabbage soup and one of the two children decides to take Maze to school as well as some leftovers to play a revenge prank on some bullies that are bullying them and they feed Maze the leftover soup deliberately so that the Snaffle Monster transforms and multiplies. Due to the chaos that follows, the threat of extermination and possible capture, Maze then uses his magic powers to destroy the classroom and the teacher calls some animal pound officers, so Maze runs away to the nearby woods to hide, and as a group of adults gather armed with weapons and then embark on a hunt to track the Snaffle Monster down and an evil human monster hunter turns up that wants to capture and keep the Snaffle Monster in his monster dungeons to experiment on him, the children have to search the woods as they frantically try to save Maze and also try to catch the Snaffle darklicas that have been unleashed onto the human world. Meanwhile, Detective Ludowig (clumsy male wishdragon), the Forever After Lands detective and master case solver and three young trainees (a bot, a fairy and wishdragon) from the Golden Legends Relaunch and Rebranding Agency are on a missing monster case trip and are trying to track the baby Snaffle Monster down because a missing monster case has been opened and Snaffle Monsters are not considered to be human friendly monsters and in their youth can be very unpredictable, so they want to take Maze to the Land of Legends to live where he can grow up in safety until he arrives at an age where he can step into his legendary status, understand his family's Snaffle Monster legacy, learn how to use his magical powers responsibly and then live anywhere he wishes too. Written by Jill Thrussell
Themes: caring for nature & wildlife, healthy eating & bodily impact of consumption, healthy mind consumption & impact of negative consumption, researching pets & wildlife to understand implications of pet ownership & wildlife actions (aims to tackle complex issues via a simple approach)