Story 6: The Beautiful Speck Once upon a tree long ago, long before there were great oceans to mark our divide, there was a little speck. A speck as insignificant as the leaf from your palm. It was tiny and insignificant in every way except in how close it was to you. The tree was not alone. It sat high up in the sky, and as such was lit from all sides, like an oversized lantern. All around the speck sat many other things that were in an equally inconsequential place all around it. There were mountains and valleys and plains, it was nothing special except in how close it was to all those other things. And then you came along. From somewhere, from everywhere, came your tiny speck. But, for some reason, you never noticed your speck's proximity to everything else, and instead concentrated only on the speck itself. The other objects, the ones that were so inconsequential to you were now so significant. And the beauty of your speck is now the beauty of everything that is. ============================================== Story 7: The Halloween Festival Trogdor the Burninator is on patrol at the Halloween Festival. Playing between rounds of disc golf, the ranger selects a bunny just beyond the bunny chow station. He pulls off the ranger hat of a jogging rabbit and uses the rabbit's senses to deliver a few jingle pig punches. He then pulls off the bunny's hat and throws that rabbit's gear into the pig pen. Meanwhile, Bonnie is out doing a karate demo for kids at the festival when Piglok turns up. Piglok chooses Bonnie as his target and attempts to pick her up off the ground. She tackles him to the ground and knocks him out with a karate chop. Bonnie then opens the pig pen and eats the pig. Piglok wakes up, so Bonnie asks him if he wants to fight again. Piglok refuses, so Bonnie kicks him to the pig pen. Gargoyle Bull is also doing a martial arts demonstration at the festival. He appears to be smashing knives into a person's back with no damage to the bricks. After the demonstration, Gargoyle Bull wraps a blanket around his left hand to hide it from Gargoyle Bull. ============================================== Story 8: Safety in a Rocket When launching into space in a rocket, remember these things: 4. Safety! It’s important to make sure that your rocket isn’t dangerous! There will be sharp edges, hard corners, strong winds, crazy pressure, and fireballs. A great way to think of safety on a rocket is: safety isn’t safety unless you have a parachute to drop you safely to earth. Your rocket will be full of nuts and bolts and trash. For your safety, please do not throw your trash out of your rocket. After you launch, you will need to land your rocket to be picked up. Flying out of the atmosphere will pick up dirt and dust and blow it all over. Your rocket will weigh down on your space vehicle and you need to steer it and save the rocket to fly back safely to Earth. Do not throw your trash out of your rocket! After the rocket is on the planet, you will need to pick up your rocket and take it back to the spaceship that is waiting for you. There are several different types of rockets. Some are slower but can keep you on your path. A race rocket is a fast rocket that you follow. If you crash, then the race rocket will find you and bring you to safety. There are other types that are similar but use less fuel. There are also other types of rocket ships to get you to another planet. They are bulky and are huge ships that fly. Do not fly the fastest rocket ship out of the atmosphere and make sure that you follow your target. If you crash and burn, you will land on Mars. 5. The landscape and terrain is not friendly. Mars is a rocky, dusty, narrow, flat planet. There are very few plants or animals. There are rocks all over. You will find mountains, valleys, craters, hills, and plains. Mars is very tough to survive on. Many astronauts have died on Mars. The rocks are hard to climb, dive into, or dig into. You will find a lot of rocks inside your rocket and maybe in your space suit. It may be hard to breathe in the rocky ground. If you land near a canyon, it will be difficult to get inside it to find a way out. The landscape looks a lot like a desert on Earth.
