How a Singing Elephant, an Extremely Speedy Chicken and a Flying Lynx Save the World. A Story for Children between 6 and 102, and for Cats of Any Age: A Zoe and Bliss Adventure, #1

By Susanne Skye

How a Singing Elephant, an Extremely Speedy Chicken and a Flying Lynx Save the World. A Zoe and Bliss Adventure. Volume 1

takes the reader to fantasy worlds on alien planets, as well as on Earth. Mysterious creatures make miracles happen. Swiftsnow, a powerful flying lynx, is a most reliable rescuer in any emergency. Daisy, an airy elephant, is as free from the laws of gravity as from self-consciousness, and happily entertains the space travelers with her odd songs and impossible dances. Zoe, aged nine, solves unsolvable problems and creates new worlds. Her wise and most authentic cat Bliss, a disoriented chicken of enormous speed named Eleven, and an invisible voice support them on their adventures. Traveling through space on a sled with the comforts of a living room, Zoe finds the right planet for her constantly complaining grandmother. Making her and all complainers migrate from Earth to the planet Growlquake, Zoe lays the ground for great changes on Earth and in space. In the course of the story, she chooses new secret family members from different worlds.

This story invites appreciation, respect, and understanding for other species and their needs. It may kindle sensitivity for the interdependence of humans and animals. It celebrates independent ways of thinking, the powers of creativity, as well as the reconciliation of apparent paradoxes.

85 pages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susanne Skye
• Release date: Jan 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393557524

Susanne Skye

Living on a steep learning curve, Susanne’s deeply grateful for the oases offered by inspired writers such as Rex Stout, Astrid Lindgren, Jane Austen, P. D. James, Loriot, A. A. Milne, Jacqueline Winspear, P. L. Travers, and George Eliot. Susanne loves big trees, quietude, the sounds of rain and storm, animals, organic food, white clouds, kindness, creeks, the quest for consciousness, and starful skies.  Humor helps her stay on this planet, when she’s not venturing towards alien ones, on Zoe’s flying carpet.   Her love of space, nature and a passionate cat have inspired her ambition to give birth to characters that may kindle something beautiful in young and adult children's hearts and minds.   Susanne has an advanced degree in English and German language and literature, as well as linguistics. She’s written stories, speeches, and poems in both languages. She's happy to work at a  university with friends, loves to putter around in her life-full garden, and writes books with immense fun and deep joy. She warmly invites you to join Zoe and Bliss’s journeys towards alien planets and distant solar systems, and to share their  joyful adventures.

Book preview

To the survival of each and every species.

With love and gratitude.

1. The Adventure in the Snow

When the snow started , Zoe and her cat Bliss were far away from home. A storm was directing the flakes right into their faces on that cold, cold Thursday in January. It was a powerful torrent of snow, as if thousands of tons were being emptied in the sky. The friends needed all their strength to walk on. What with all the flakes around her, Zoe lost track of the way towards home.

Since you know how much cats hate to be cold and wet, you’ll guess that Bliss was in a rotten mood. Getting one black-and-white paw wet in the warm bathtub, when she’d hunt for Zoe’s toes, was one thing. Being covered all over with cold snow, was something completely different.

Usually, Zoe would enjoy snow, with its sparkling softness and creative quietude. But this kind of massive snow was too much for her. It had such a suffocating quality! How she longed for the fireplace at home! She was trembling, and feeling so very cold and scared that she and Bliss might get lost in that white frosty desert and not make it home at all. Have you ever felt like that? Isn’t it terrible?

Just when Zoe was feeling overwhelmed by despair, a big, almost white animal passed by, then stopped all of a sudden. It was a beautiful tall lynx, with some brown spots and eyes like a warm fire.

Hello, he said. Would you perhaps like to get out of this snow?

Zoe tried to say, we’d love to, but her lips were half-frozen, so she couldn’t speak. Yet the lynx seemed to understand her, since he invited her and Bliss to jump onto his back.

That’s what they did. It was lovely to feel the big cat’s warm coat, and Bliss made sure to press her belly into it, and her paws as well. The lynx galloped through the deep snow, easily and on powerful legs. They were heading toward a wall of snow looking very massive and hard.

The big cat sprinted for it at such speed that Zoe cried out, take care, there’s a wall! We’re going to crash into it!

Relax, and enjoy the ride, answered the lynx, unimpressed. That’s what Bliss had been doing anyway, since her feline wisdom had recognized the lynx.

Now they were facing the wall. How fast Zoe’s heart was beating! How she needed to remember all the adventures she’d already survived!

Woooooooooooosh – their new friend jumped right through the snow wall. What was that? Suddenly, Zoe felt warm all over. Sunshine was tickling her closed eyes. Did she really hear birds twitter? Very slowly, she opened her eyes. The snow was gone! The lynx was resting on a wide meadow. Yellow dandelions, white snowdrops, and wild chamomile flowers were in full bloom. Blackbirds and robins were singing in the pine trees that surrounded the meadow. It was warm, too!

Gently, Zoe and Bliss slid onto the grass. Bliss turned onto her back, to give her white-and-black belly a good bath in the sunshine.

Thank you so much, dear lynx, Zoe said. You’ve saved us from freezing! I’m Zoe, and this is Bliss. Zoe’s long blonde hair and green eyes were a good contrast to her cat’s coat which was mostly black, with fiery red and cream-colored patches, a red blaze on her forehead, and a white star on her chest.

You’re welcome. I’m Swiftsnow. I felt you needed help, so I came as fast as I could.

You’re almost as fast as the snow, I think.

Well, I’m actually faster than the snow, or I wouldn’t have come in time to warm you up again.

Zoe felt very grateful. Bliss, as usual, took her rescue for granted. She knew that, after all, it would be such a waste to let any cat freeze to death, let alone her.

Swiftsnow invited Zoe to put her head onto his white belly. She loved feeling its warm softness, and his muscles underneath. She knew this animal was perfectly safe to be with – no surprise there for her, who loved animals with all her heart, and cats most of all.

Do you love animals? Which ones are your favorites?

Bliss climbed onto Zoe’s belly, You’ll easily imagine how content the three of them were looking – like a little hill of comfort. Zoe’s private name for it was Mount of Togetherness.

After a while, Zoe asked how the lynx had known that they needed his help.

The snowflakes formed a chain and let me know, the lynx answered. You see, they’re family, he added.

A while ago, Zoe would’ve been surprised. Now, after her adventures involving alien planets – some of which you may’ve read about – nothing much seemed strange to her.

I prefer family to be warm and dry, Bliss let them know. Well, since they helped with our rescue, I guess they’re all right.

Zoe wondered where the snow had gone. Swiftsnow explained that it was still there.  They’d jumped through the snowfall, and were now behind it.

So springtime is behind the snowfall?

Sure. Once you leave the snow behind, springtime begins.

Do you miss the flakes, I mean your family, when you’re here?

I can see them whenever I like, and there’s even more family in this place. Do you see the pond over there, with the glistening water? The water drops are family, too. They may’ve been snowflakes before.

Zoe felt a little envious. She had her mother and father, a nerve-wrecking grandmother, and several cousins she didn’t see much of. Then Bliss and the frogs in her yard were great family, yet hers seemed much smaller than Swiftsnow’s, and certainly a lot louder.

No need to compare, an invisible voice, well-known to her, said, just enjoy what you’ve got.

You’ve just found a new friend, and he’s faster than the snowflakes, Bliss pointed out. Speaking of fast, I’m starving.

That was no problem for Zoe, who said out loud: I wish for a bowl of raw wild salmon, with organic pureed spinach, and a little brown organic rice.

The bowl came right out of the sky, and landed gently right in front of Bliss – who lost no time at all in devouring its contents. Adventures always made her very hungry.

Zoe wondered where Swiftsnow’s home was. Was it in the snow, or in their present world of springtime? The lynx explained that it was all the same to him. He was now resting on the meadow, and at the same time running through the snow.

Springtime or winter, I am a sprinter,

warm or cold, I don’t grow old,

run or rest, I don’t need a nest,

just turn around, and I won’t be found.

2. A Chicken Named Eleven

Zoe suddenly found that the lynx had gone. She had no clue where. All she