The Story of the Blue Planet by Andri Snaer Magnason Page B

with a large tail of fire, sometimes twisting and turning as it drew glowing letters of fire in the sky.
    “It’s making letters in the air,” said Brimir.
    “L-E-T T-H-E-R-E B-E F-U-N,” spelled out Hulda.
    “Let there be fun? What kind of falling star is that?”
    The star suddenly stopped making circles in the air and now it was heading straight for the blue planet! A horrendous roar could be heard that became louder and louder. Brimir and Hulda clung to each other.
    “Oh, no, is it an asteroid or a comet?”
    “It’s a space rocket! And it’s going to crash!”
    The space rocket approached with increasing speed and everything around them became blindingly bright. The birds in the trees flew away shrieking. Squirrels crawled into rabbit holes. Fish hid in seaweed forests.
    Hulda shouted, “It’s heading straight for us! We’ll be crushed.”
    “Hold me tight,” whispered Brimir.
    Hulda held onto Brimir so tightly she almost crushed him. Then came a tremendous explosion.
    BAN G!
    The explosion echoed between the mountains, while sand and rocks rained all over the beach.
    Brimir and Hulda remained perfectly still with their ears ringing. A deep crater had been formed where the space rocket had crashed. They walked slowly to the crater’s edge and peeked over. Hardly anything could be seen because of the smoke, but they caught a glint of a glowing, battered, shapeless wreck at the bottom.

     
    “It’s just like an old vacuum cleaner,” said Hulda.
    “It’s a spaceship,” whispered Brimir.
    There was no sign of life in the spaceship, but then a low knocking sound could be heard—bang, wham, thump—as if someone was trying to break open the door of the rocket.
    “No one’s come here from outer space for ages,” said Hulda.
    The door continued to be struck, now much harder than before.
    BANG! WHAM! THUMP!
    “I hope it’s not a space monster,” whispered Brimir.
    Then a dreadful roar could be heard and the door was struck with full force. It fell open with a loud crash and a gigantic dark creature appeared in the doorway. It stared out into the darkness.

The Space Monster
     
    Brimir and Hulda ran through the night as fast as their legs could carry them to let their friends know about the space monster. Their only light was from the moon, which sometimes disappeared behind a cloud or a palm tree. They ran over meadows and through forests and along the river and over the desert. All the time they were shouting and calling:
    “Beware of the space monster! A space monster’s arrived!”
    The children woke up and shouted terrified out into the darkness:
    “Where’s the space monster?”
    “It’s down on the beach with the black sand. RUN! HIDE!”
    “What does the space monster look like?” some of them asked.
    “I think it was black,” shouted Hulda and she kept on running.
    “Yes, it was black and hairy with four heads and its teeth were sharper than knives!” cried Brimir.
    “Bread knives or meat knives?” called out Arnar the thinker.
    “We’re not sure, the space monster was really just black,” cried Hulda pulling Brimir on behind her.
    And before they were out of sight they shouted to the kids: “Don’t go near the black beach!”
    The news spread through the forest that night like wildfire and lit up fear in every heart. All the children had heard about the monster but few of them knew what it looked like. Some of them said that it was black and hairy and could swallow whole planets with forests and lakes and all the animals in one big mouthful. Others said it had ten heads and eighteen eyes with x-ray vision to see through mountains.
    They all imagined the horror of disappearing into the stomach of such a monster and being crushed in its smelly and slimy guts. Brimir and Hulda, exhausted after their running, fell asleep in a forest glade under a sweet-scented pine tree.
    Hulda was awoken by a terrified cry from Brimir.
    “Oh, I had such a horrible nightmare! The space