This book belongs to

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 The Ancient Button

The Ancient Button

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 The Ancient Button

The Ancient Button

by

Jemma Castle

Illustrated by …………..

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 The Ancient Button

For my girls

Written in the Deepest, Darkest Africa

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 The Ancient Button

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my family who tolerate my constant tapping

away at the keyboard at all times of the day and night and
for listening to the fruits of my labours with gleams on
their faces, and for their encouragement.

&ote: This story is an amateur children’s story and is not

meant to be geographically and tribally correct.

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 The Ancient Button

CONTENTS

Out Walking............................................................... 1

A trick of the moonlight? ........................................... 3

Inside a Cave.............................................................. 4

Lazy, Annoying Old Man .......................................... 6

The Jersey .................................................................. 8

A quick peck on the cheek ....................................... 10

Once in a lifetime..................................................... 12

The Return ............................................................... 14

A Huge Jolt .............................................................. 15

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 The Ancient Button

Out Walking

young girl was out walking in a field, far below her family

A cottage.

She tripped on a stub of rough grass and as she fell to

her knees. As she clambered up, her fingers coming across an
ancient looking button, half buried in the hard, sandy soil.

Not looking closely at it, she put it in her pocket. Then she
dusted off her scuffed knees.

“I should pay more attention”, she sternly reprimanded herself.

She had, as usual, been admiring the mass of wild flowers,

searching for butterflies and beetles. She had not been paying
attention to the lie of the land. This is how she had tripped.

She was sharply brought back to her senses near a small

stream that ran past the wood, at the bottom of their land.
This was where she found the button.

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 The Ancient Button

That night in bed, she had found herself unable to sleep. She
had climbed out of bed and sneaked across the room, (where
her family all slept together).

She tiptoed across the room to fetch the now remembered

button, from her pocket of the jacket. She had carelessly
tossed it on the floor, by the window, as was her want.

She sat next to the window now, where she could gaze at it, by
the light of the moon. It was shining particularly full and bright
that night.

She could make out a raised picture on the buttons’ metallic

surface and had never seen a button like it anywhere. The
button was crusty with soil and looked like it had lain there for
a long, long time. This was curious as no one but her family
had ever lived on this acreage.

She absent mindedly scratched at the dirty surface of the

button trying to expose the embossed surface

“What is on this button,” she said to herself.

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 The Ancient Button

A trick of the moonlight?

he more she cleaned the ancient button, the more it

T seemed to shine. Perhaps it was a trick of the moonlight?

She brought it close to her eyes and squinted heavily to

make out the face that was appearing and it did really look like
an ancient button.

It was of a person head and shoulders and the person looked

quite regal with old fashioned clothes.

Not minding her manners she spat on the button, lazy to walk
to the outside bucket, to get water, to wash it off. She was
quite comfortable there perched at the window and intrigued by
the mysterious artefact she had discovered that afternoon.

Pulling her sleeve over her hand she pointed her finger and
polished away at the now damp button, further exposing the
raised surface.

Suddenly the button glowed really bright and when she

reopened her eyes, she was in unfamiliar surroundings.

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 The Ancient Button

Inside a Cave

he was inside a cave and she could smell the sea air.

S There was an old, old man in the cave who smelt of too
much whisky. She wrinkled her nose in disapproval as he
spoke to her. He did not seem the slightest bit surprised at her
sudden appearance.

He told her in strange, old language and somehow she

understood the charade he acted out.

She was to sew the button on to a fisherman’s jersey which had

one button missing. How strange.

Well she was not going to sew. She did not sew. She was a
tom girl and was not going to have any of these domestic tasks
pressed on her.

If he had been so careless as to lose his button then he could

just sew it on himself. She had better things to do. She
glanced out behind her towards the opening of the cave and
could see the waves crashing loudly on the shore. It was a
beautiful day out and the gulls were crying out.

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 The Ancient Button

She would go exploring. How she loved to be at the seaside.

Not disturbed in the least that she had somehow space and
time travelled to a different place and thinking perhaps that it
was some kind of dream.

She was not going to lose another minute with this stinky old
man who grabbed so hard on her arm. She tried to pry his
fingers off her arm and half dragged him with her in her haste
to get outside. He clung onto with a death grip and despite his
frail look and his awfully long white beard he was surpassingly
heavy and strong.

She was astounded at how fiercely he held onto her.

He blethered away at her in his strange tongue and refused to

let her go.

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 The Ancient Button

Lazy, Annoying Old Man

ell damn it” she thought, “I will just do this task and

“W then I will be off. Lazy, annoying old man!”

There was such an adventure awaiting her outside

she could feel it!

The inside of the cave was dank and musty. She could see
some trunks lined up against the far wall and some animal skins
on the floor.

What kind of a person would live in a cave anyway? It was

clear that he lived here.

Then she realized that she was in fact awake and she was not
at all in the time frame she knew. Things were very, very
different here.

The furnishes about the room definitely came from some

unwritten history book as did the ancient smell that pervaded
her nostrils.

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 The Ancient Button

An odd awl of a needle was thrust into her hand and she took
the button and the garment from him and tying a knot in the
tread she pulled her arm roughly from his grip.

She surprised him and he lost hold of her. She moved away
quickly and then seeing the fire in his eyes became afraid. She
sat down on an upturned wooden crate. Nervously glancing at
him from time to time she set down to sew the bloody button
on his bloody jersey.

She pricked her finger and worried at the unhygienic

circumstances she had found herself in. If only her mother was
there with fresh lavender to rub in the bleeding wound she had
created in her finger. The fresh drops welled up and slipped
quickly off onto the button and then vanished. She jumped up
and dropped the awl, thread and jersey. She had just finished
sewing the button loosely on in her careless way when she had
injured herself with the harsh prick.

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 The Ancient Button

The Jersey

he glanced up to see a kindness in his face and a look of

S hope and he gestured to her to bring the jersey to him.

Reluctantly she did, determined to dash away before he
took hold of her again.

As he took the jersey from her, his now warm hand took hold of
hers and he held the jersey. Together they pressed the button
into a matching shape on a large key that lay on the table next
to them.

She was astounded. Strangely enough, now that the odd little
man was closer to her, he did not appear so repulsive and
suddenly did not look so old or dirty.

She caught the smell of smoked salmon and smoldering peat

from the fireplace behind him and sure enough he had a store
of salmon drying on a rack above the fire.

She looked into his now kind, thoughtful eyes and was
entranced with what she saw reflected in his eyes.

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 The Ancient Button

For a moment it was as if his eyes were a movie screen and she
had seen him galloping across the meadows below his castle. A
wicked witch had caused him to fall from his steed (horse - old
fashioned speech). In the fall his button had broken off his
clothes and she had snatched it. Finally having obtained a
piece of his personal effects and thereby having control over
him and his life.

She had cacklingly thrown the button into the future stating
that to free him from his cave dungeon a young maiden of pure
heart must find the button and free him. But that this was
unlikely to ever happen and so he was doomed to spend the
rest of his extended existence a prisoner in her cave mansion.

“Kiss him on the forehead and he would return into the

handsome prince” the witch whispered in her dream trance.

This same ugly witch had put a curse on him a hundred of years
ago, to punish his own father for not marrying her years before.

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 The Ancient Button

A quick peck on the cheek

quick peck on the cheek was all the young girl could

A possibly think of mustering, after much nagging, by the

old man.

Then after more nagging pressing the button into the molded
“keyhole” at the cave entrance.

Again and again she questioned repeatedly how he came to be

prisoner and finding out that his name was Lochlann from what
she could make out, some 500 years ago.

She than feeling sorry for him but firmly denying that she would
be his queen as she was not in the slightest bit interested in
very old men. She pecked his forehead.

A shimmering filled the dank air of the cave prison.

A handsome prince took the place of the ancient man and he

was really handsome so she kissed him again. A better kiss
this time, but she still declined his offer to take her as his
queen to be.

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 The Ancient Button

“This is not how it is supposed to be” he stated. “How can you

refuse me?” He begged her again and again that she must
please accompany him.

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 The Ancient Button

Once in a lifetime

fter discussing the matter endlessly, she finally agreed to

A accompany him. He promised that when her life with him

was over, she would return to the very same minute in
which she had left her own time, her task completed.

She agreed to go only to be his friend though and again stated

that she had no intentions of marrying him. He gathered her up
in his arms with glee at hearing her agreement to accompany
him.

Again that shimmering glow and suddenly they were before a

huge and strangely beautiful castle. Lochlann shouted up to
the guards to bring him his steed and open the drawbridge and
they did so, not knowing of his adventures.

Due to the curse he had only been gone an afternoon and they
did not know the anguish and torment he had suffered at the
hands of the evil witch for 5 hundred years.

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 The Ancient Button

He placed her on his steed and took her to meet his parents,
the King and Queen. After telling them the story, she was
shown to the most beautiful rooms in the castle for her stay.

Time passed and after many gifts of a dashing horse, regular

pink roses, moonlight strolls, wonderful hospitality - he finally
won her over and they were indeed married.

She missed her family very much in the beginning but Lochlann
and his kingdom took up more and more her time and when his
father died and he was coronated on a huge stone called
“Destiny”.

She had finally became his queen and together they ruled a
mighty and rich kingdom fairly and justly and were greatly
loved by their people.

In time they had children and grandchildren but she missed her
family and her time. Not being able to share any news with
them or be with them in times she needed them but could not
have them was sometimes unbearable. But Lochlann was good
to her and treated her well and she loved her life and her
family.

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 The Ancient Button

The Return

ime passed and Lochlann died. She continued to rule the

T Kingdom until her son was old enough to be coronated

and some years later, an old lady now, she called her
ancient family together to tell them she would be passing-
on that night and she spend special time together.

She passed the button to them, having kept it all those years
on a chain, close to her heart. She told them to guard it from
the evil witch and if ever they needed her she would try to find
a way to return to help them.

She passed on that night and in the same moment returned to

her waiting body in her own time.

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 The Ancient Button

A Huge Jolt

A
huge jolt awoke her as she landed and she cried out
for her mother.

“Don’t worry it’s just a dream” he mother said cuddling her.

She fell asleep in her mother’s arms and the next morning she
could hardly remember the ‘dream’.

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 The Ancient Button

Time passed and one day, through a disturbing

nightmare, she became aware of someone needing

her very urgently. She felt drawn to help them…

but that is another story in another time.

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