Joshua and Helena

You have enemies? Good.

That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. Winston Churchill

Just a little bit further, Helena encouraged her horse, they were both tired but Helena was desperately keen to meet up with her cousin, she had not seen him in years and missed him terribly. In the month of her birth, baby Helena was given the usual gifts and a Sunny personality as her name means “Light”. Her parents, Beth and Samuel were thankful to The Fairies, inviting them to stay for supper and giving to them hugs and presents. Not long after the ceremony, her cousin was orphaned and came to live with her family- he'd been like a brother to her ever since. Helena had been concerned when Jacoba tried to marry him and her cousin went off to join the pirates to avoid her, because she just refused to take "no" as an answer.

Helena thought about for him every night, asking The Fairies to keep him safe, she nearly lost hope but last March, she received a letter from Leandros telling her that he was not a pirate anymore and he was working aboard the De Colores. She was thrilled reading about his adventures, fighting sea-serpents, rescuing beached whales, fighting all sorts of dragons and telling other pirates about promoting justice and living harmoniously; but most of all it thrilled her that he finally seemed happy. In fact he did not even seem to worry about the main reason he‟d left; avoiding Jacoba (you may or may not know that Jacoba had become more determined to marry him, when she finally realised marrying Jacques was impossible).

Leandros wrote as often as he could, and eventually Helena received the happiest news that he would be coming home soon and that his ship would be docking in Calais mid-September. He was attending the wedding of Jacques and Chérie and couldn‟t wait to see her.

Helena was thrilled and made plans to surprise her cousin by meeting him at the Marina in Calais two weeks before the wedding. She set out with Valorous (her chestnut flying-horse), a week ahead of her parents she rode fast for long hours and both she and Valorous were tired from traveling. Letting him walk a while rather than fly, her mind began to wander again as her fatigue and excitement took over; she didn't notice what looked like a log beside the road. Her horse got a fright, as he realised it was a nasty snake and bolted to get Helena and himself out of harm‟s way. In his haste, he hurt himself on a sharp rock. Valorous would be fine in a day or so, but though he could walk, Helena couldn't ride him and she was nowhere near the place she was to stay for the night. Not to be deterred, she set out on foot, walking beside her horse, looking for somewhere closer to sleep.

It was almost dark, and there were still no houses in sight when an old lady driving a donkey and wagon arrived beside her with the offer of ride. Helena knew that you should NEVER go with strangers, and there was something about the lady's eyes that reminded her of danger, so she refused, firmly but politely. Of course Helena was right to be sceptical about accepting help from a stranger, however, this lady was not a stranger – she was in fact Jacoba, who promptly turned her into a kitten and put her into a wooden box.

Helena spent two days as a kitten, she was relieved that Valorous escaped though Jacoba kept her boxed in for most of that time. She didn't want any dragon-fighters or a set of "nosey" parents rescuing Helena before she got to Calais. Now she had the perfect way to make Leandros marry her this time, that's if she failed to get Gabe to the altar.

Helena was stiff but too worked up to sleep, there was too much noise outside her box. Through a knot-hole in the box she could see a man she recognised as a Dragon-Fighter arguing with Jacoba in a language she did not understand. Jacoba was dressed in a beautiful green dress with long blonde hair „It must be a wig‟ thought Helena, „she looks a lot like Dominique, I cannot let her fool this man!‟ she decided.

Helena had been pretending to be asleep when Jacoba tried to feed her chicken-liver, even as a cat, she hated it. In Jacoba‟s haste to get ready for Gabe, the hero, she forgot to close the lid properly. Helena saw her chance for freedom and as she began climbing to the top of the box it tipped over. She was free! 

Ouch! Jacoba gave her a sharp kick.

The language which Jacoba and the man were speaking was French, though Helena didn't understand it, but she could tell by the tones that he was not fooled for long.

Suddenly, the wig was off. Jacoba was a pig and Helena could speak, but Gabe didn't understand her. Picking her up, carefully so she wouldn't be hurt, he placed her in his coat and tied a rope around Jacoba-the-pig's neck after removing a golden key on a chain around her fat piggy neck, he walked her to the farm down the road and gave Jacoba-the-pig to the owner.

Helena was passed to a captain on her way from the farm, the man holding her seemed to know him, they started talking and the other man started to pat her. When Gabe had gone, Helena decided to test her vocal chords once again, this time trying Portuguese first.

The man was surprised but he didn’t drop her.

“How is it that you can speak?” he asked

Helena told him of being tricked by Jacoba Piggy, who is now the pig he just saw,then described in detail how she became a pig.

“How can you be a human again?”

“If a dragon-fighter hero gives me a kiss.”

“I‟m Joshua Glimmer-Sword; nephew of Hayden and Shaina of, Portugal at your service” he said with a bow, pulling out Nasi-Ella his dragon-fighting saber- a Fairy-gift; which had a handle of white gold, flecked to look like salt, that shone bright in the sunlight, “May I have the honour?” Whenever there was a dragon around to fight, Joshua’s sword would become warm in the hero’s hands and help the fighter to be alert and on guard, avoiding danger and getting a quick advantage over the dragon- which usually evolved back into an egg.

“Sim”

The captain lifted her paw and gave her a kiss and soon she was a lady again.

“Aubrigato Senor”

"Denatha; That's Ok. Do you like Chorizos?"

"Sim. Spanish or Portuguese?"

“Let's get both, with plenty of Avocado and Mayonnaise and then I‟m heading to Paris for a wedding, would you like to come as my date? Or can I drop you anywhere on the way?”

“Jacques and Chérie’s wedding?” she queried

“Sim”

“That is where I am heading too” she said with a grin.

As they were munching on Chorizos, Joshua told Helena of a frog he met who could speak French, Spanish, English and who learnt some basic Portuguese too.

But that was not the end for Jacoba Piggy either, for as soon as the farmer put her in the pig pen another pig came over to give her a kiss …

Activities

1. The other language that was spoken by Heléna and Joshua in this story is Portuguese, write down what you think the words mean and google it or get a Portuguese/English dictionary to see if you are correct.

2. Try some food from another country

3. Look up in a dictionary any colourful words you found and write their meanings in the margins of the story; use them in a sentence.

4. Unattainable, Sunny Disposition,