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  1. Jack Ramsay
  2. Ms. Sherman
  3. Creative Writing
  4. 18 December 2019
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  6. Tom the Toad
  7. By Jack Ramsay
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  10. Through the green woods, under the cool waterfall, down a long long river, there was a pool. In that pool lived a family of toads. The toads splished and they splashed. But above all, they protected their eggs with their lives. Everyone was content.
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  12. But one day everything changed. The waterfall that used to gush from the top of the cliff had become a trickle. It was only a matter of time until the river that filled the pond would dry up. “What is going on?!!” exclaimed Tom the Toad.
  13. The Elder Toad sighed. “It’s those beavers… they’ve built a dam on the falls! Our family’s beautiful eggs are going to dry up and never hatch! What will we do!?!” Panic rose up throughout the Toad family.
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  18. The Elder Toad hopped up to Tom, with worry in his eyes.
  19. “Tom, you’re our only hope. You’re the only toad who is old enough and fit enough to go. Will you hop to the top of the great big dam, and ask those beavers what’s going on?” This request made Tom very worried. He wasn’t sure he could do what The Elder Toad asked. But despite his fear, he agreed.
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  22. And so Tom began the journey up the bank of the slowly flowing river, trying to ignore his fear. “Can I really do this? I’ve never been much of a talker… what if this doesn’t work out? What if a bird comes and picks me straight off the ground?” He could see the waterfall in the distance. Or what remained of it. It was nothing but a small drip off the cliff. Tom had thoughts about turning around but stayed the course to protect his family.
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  25. Tom the Toad heard a splashing noise from the shallow river. He looked over and there was Steve the Salmon, flopping around the shallow water.
  26. “Help help! I can’t get up the river! There’s not enough water! My kids were playing up stream and now I can’t get them!
  27. Tom the Toad couldn’t do anything but watch Steve’s helpless flopping.
  28. “I’m sorry, Steve… I don’t know how to help you. This is hopeless! Why don’t I just turn around?”
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  31. Steve took a deep breath in the water, and looked Tom dead in the eye.
  32. He said to Tom, “ You’re the river’s only hope. You can’t turn around. We depend on you! I believe in you, kid.”
  33. Tom smiled at the worried fish. On the outside, he looked brave. But on the inside, he couldn’t stop wondering if he could really live up to his expectations. He nodded at Steve and hopped onward.
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  39. Next, Tom the Toad passed by a baby deer on the side of the river bank. Wait a second! Tom recognized Faith the Fawn who was struggling to stand up. Faith was crying out for help so Tom rushed over.
  40. “Help help! My secret drinking spot dried up, and now I’m stuck in the mud that got left behind!” Faith cried.
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  43. Tom the Toad struggled to move her. She was completely locked in place. “I’m sorry Faith… I can’t help you… I’m too small. But I’m going to try and get the water running again, okay? I hope so, at least,” sighed Tom.
  44. Faith suddenly stopped struggling.
  45. “Tom, we all believe in you. I believe in you. Don’t worry about me, the silt will wash away when the river runs again. You can do this. I know you can.”
  46. Her soft voice slightly eased Tom’s worry. He nodded at Faith and hopped onward.
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  49. Steve and Faith’s words of support echoed in Tom’s ears. Tom’s hops were now confident springs forward. With every jump, the waterfall seemed closer and closer. He COULD do this.
  50. As Tom approached the cliff that was once covered by cascading water, he began to hop up the rocks. He began to think about what he was going to say to the beavers and how they would react when he asked them to remove their dam. But suddenly, he lost his footing and came crashing down the cliff into the riverbank below. When Tom got up, he was face to face with his worst fear: a Crane.
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  53. “What are you doing so far up the river from home?” asked Carl the Crane. Tom looked up at the cliff he had just fallen from and sighed. He felt the tears coming.
  54. “You know what, Mr. Crane?” Tom sobbed, “I’ve been through it all today. I’m too small to climb up the cliff. I’m too small to save Faith the Fawn. I’m too small to get Steve the Salmon’s kids back. I’m too small to do anything so just leave me alone, okay?”
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  57. The Crane looked down at the sad toad and much to Tom’s surprise, picked Tom up and cradled him in his arms.
  58. “Save the river? Are you saying you want those beavers to take down the dam? I’m sure they have no idea what harm they caused,” the Crane said soothingly. Tom the Toad’s tears suddenly stopped. “Listen,” continued the Crane, “my name is Carl. It’ll be okay. I’m not gonna eat you. How about I take you up the cliff, okay? Hop into my beak, you can have a word with the beavers, and it’ll save you the climb.”
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  61. It was at this moment that Tom the Toad knew that he had to face his fears if he wanted to save the river. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and climbed into the beak of the Crane. The bird soared to the top of the cliff. Tom was as terrified as he was gleeful. They flew higher and higher and higher into the sky.
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  64. When the Crane landed, Tom gingerly climbed out of his beak and hopped to the ground. He was dizzy with relief and overjoyed by the support of his fellow woodland creatures, which included, much to his surprise, the Crane! He gave himself a pat on the back, and thought to himself: “Maybe it’s a good thing I’m so small.”
  65. He looked up and saw three fat beavers staring at him in surprise. He recognized Ben the Beaver and took a deep breath.
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  68. “Excuse me, Mr Beaver.” said Tom to the beaver. “You may not realize this, but your dam is drying up the river! Could you please oh please build your dam somewhere else? There’s not enough water for Steve the Salmon to swim upstream to his family, the muddy riverbank has trapped Faith the Fawn and she can’t move, and soon my family’s pond will dry up and we will have nowhere to live!”
  69. Ben the Beaver was shocked! “I am so sorry, Tom the Toad! We had no idea that we caused this much damage by building a dam on the waterfall! Our lake was big enough before. We’ll take down the dam in two shakes of a beaver’s tail!”
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  72. The three beavers jumped into the water and gnawed and gnawed and gnawed at the branches of wood that made up their dam. Streams of water starting sailing down the cliff. Tom and the Crane watched from the top of the rocky cliff as the dam became smaller and smaller and then, suddenly... CRASH!
  73. The water came thundering down the cliff. The waterfall was back! But just as Tom and Ben were about to give each other a big thumbs up - oh no! The gushing water nearly swept Tom straight off the rocks and into the waterfall! “Look out!” cried Ben the Beaver.
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  77. But there was Carl the Crane, swooping down at the last moment to pick Tom up in his beak and soar away.
  78. “Thank you beavers!” yelled Tom the Toad. The beavers looked up in amazement that a toad was safely in the beak of a crane, and they waved and smiled.
  79. “Thank you Carl, I really owe you one” said Tom.
  80. “No kid, you did it. You saved your friends and your family. That was a big job!” replied Carl.
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  85. As Tom soared over the river in Carl’s mouth, he passed by Faith moving freely along the riverbank and saw Steve cuddling his baby salmon. He smiled.
  86. Carl the Cane gently dropped Tom off at his little family pool. As soon he got home, he saw the eggs resting peacefully in the water, which flowed softly into the family pond once again. The Elder Toad hopped up to Tom and said “What you did today was no small task.”
  87. Tom smiled. “Yeah, you could say that,” and he hopped into the pond and swam around. He was back home.
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