Chapter 1
Upon a time not long ago the world was full with witches
Yellow teeth, saggy skin and eyes as crook as stitches
This place of dark magic was called the Kingdom of Doom
Where the sun never shone and no flower dared bloom
There were dragons and ghouls that skulked in caves
And sea monsters of all types lurking beneath waves
In every crook and cranny a spook was fast asleep
Until darkness came when all at once they’d creep
The worst dude in the Kingdom and leader of all
Was a wizard with grey hair who was terribly small
The Grand Guardian was his name and his evil was fable
And when it came to magic there was no spirit more able
Doom was the top attraction for every ogre around
Not the kind of place where children should be found
But live on Doom they did, boys and girls of all age
Where they worked for Keepers without love or fair wage
Rumour had in that all mums and dads had been wished away
So that monsters of all types could do nothing but play
And the children of Doom were made to do all the work
So bogeymen could do mischief and generally go berserk
A boy called Troy with eyes of blue and curls of brown
Worked tirelessly on a farm and always wore a frown
He dreamt of running away to find his lost mum and dad
And if you lived for 200 years you’d find no boy more sad
His keeper snored like a walrus and liked to be called Crunch
A particularly lazy so and so who always scoffed down his lunch
When his enormous belly rumbled it sounded like crashing drums
And he liked eating custard so much he had two yellow thumbs
Surrounding the farm were bad-mannered trees
Who hated Troy and were impossible to please
They loved Crunch and kept vigilant guard
And screamed at Troy to keep working hard
Day after day at the crack of dawn
Crunch would wake with a ten minute yawn
He’d fill his mouth with a whole loaf of bread
Then scream at Troy until his face turned red
‘Wake up you lazy rascal!’ he would scream
And Troy would sigh and wish it was a dream
‘I want 20 slices of toast all dripping with toffee
Then sixteen fried eggs washed down with coffee!’
Feed the snakes and spiders, water all the weeds
Clean Crunch’s pants and a thousand other deeds
On and on the work would come, so little time to sleep
and when Troy did fall into bed his rest was rarely deep
Troy was small but also smart and brave
He didn’t want to spend his days as a slave
So he decided he would break out of his room
And take his chances in the Forest of Doom