Volume
VI – Stars Never Die, George Vîrtosu
The Flea and the Silk Worm are, yet again,
welcoming us in the beginning of the book with another one of their stories. As
they get in the full swing of exchanging tales, they find themselves under
siege with a big swarm of angry mosquitoes coming at them, attracted by Mother
Drop’s scent. Our resourceful Silk Worm acts on impulse and succeeds in
developing a defence strategy on the spot, thus deflecting danger from his
friends and himself. During the battle, a bat joins their side and their united
forces secures a resounding victory over the hungry mosquitoes.
The Flea burst out of his skin with pride
for this collective success story and becomes very interested in the knowledge
possessed by the Silk Worm, which has proven life-saving more than once. During
their conflict with the mosquitoes, the Silk Worm uses a certain type of weed
to fight them off. As the Flea is quite keen to find out more about its
presumed magic powers. In the manner we’ve already been used to, this sparks up
more story-telling and, together with the Flea, we get to find out about the
legend behind the special weed: the main characters are a hedgehog and a silk
worm. At the end of the story we know how the hedgehog got to be covered in
spikes. The genre employed is adventure
with streaks of romance, which could very likely accommodate the making
of a little film.
The Silk Worm is pleasantly surprised to
see that his friend, the Flea, has been mesmerised by the legend he told and
his confidence soars. He, therefore, takes the floor and starts recounting
memories from his own childhood. Everything surrounding the Silk Worm carries a
story of its own, including the little hat he never parts with. As we read on,
we come to know how the hats have a long-held tradition with the silk worm
species. It is a charming and delightful story, although not so action-packed
as the previous ones. The comic residing in the language and situations might
make it eligible, however, for a little film. You’ll have to see it, then
decide for yourself how/if that can be worked out into an animated episode.
Next, it is the Flea’s turn to bounce back
in the limelight with the legend of the swan which he knows from his granddad..
The grounds for the story are set up when the Flea rewinds the memory of a
night adventure in his granddad’s company: one summer night, they fly away on
the back of a butterfly and arrive on the bank of a beautiful lake on the
surface of which swans are floating up and down. The scenery is fairy-tale
like. Apart from the magnificent nature background, the story entices us, the
readers, by letting us into all sorts of nature secrets: why related species
(like swans and geese, goats and deer etc) have developed differences and what
they stand for. The starting point are a few animal drawings that come to life
and become self-sifficient entities. All in all, the sixth volume celebrates
love as a cosmic energy: love for family (the unbreakable connection between
children, parents, grandparents), for nature (fauna and flora) and love for
life in general. The overall tone of the book is calm and positive, as the
author succeeds in attaining a well-balanced serenity.
The
story strikes a melancholic and romantic chord as the Flea launches himself
into the love story between a fire-fly and a ladybird. The two tiny creatures
live a passionate, yet forbidden romance. As a result, the fire-fly loses his light
and the ladybird becomes very ill. The fire-fly goes against all the taboos
surrounding forbidden relationships in order to be near the love of his life in
illness, as well as in good health. His passionate commitment and love win over
the the favour of the fate; the ladybird gets over her illness, while he is
returned the gift of light and they both get to live together happily ever
after.
Despite his adventurous and fun-loving
nature, the Flea can’t help missing his family, so the story goes back to his
early childhood memories. The Flea picks up again on the unhappy event when one
of his younger siblings was injured and the Silk Worm resonates with his upset
and remorse, and tries to lift him up. The empathy between them strengthens
their friendship and encourages the Flea to dig deeper into his tale-bag and
come up with…another story, of course.
Thus, the lead character in the new
adventure plot is a mosquito, the next-door neighbour who offers to help heal
the injured child by using a miraculous ointment made with badger fat. One
thing leads to another, and the grateful parents invite the mosquito over for a
schmooze and are curious to know how their neighbour got hold of the miraculous
ointment.
On this occasion, the mosquito tells them
about his brother who became a very well sought after doctor in their native
town, the Dark Gorge. Under the guidance of a wise old mosquito, also known as
The Teacher in the Dark Gorge, the mosquito’s brother reaches fame for his
ability to heal and deal with other issues of well-being. Determined to make
the most of his newly-gained good name, and relying on the assistance of two
female mosquitoes, the brother sets up a scam: in front of an audience made up
entirely of female badgers, he puts out the idea of slimming their waste line
down to the size of a squirrel’s. With crowds of female badgers taking by storm
his offices, the mosquito is soon in the possession of bargain bags of badger
fat, which he turns into ointment and sells off for a lot of money.
The life in the Dark Gorge is colourfully depicted and the characters
add up to the spicy and dichotomist environment . The adventure carries on in
the next few volumes and offers food for thought (and for some entertaining
animation, we hope!) as life in the gorge unfolds with its drama, comedy and
parody.
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