The Origin of the Werts

Chipplewake was only ten years old when the storm hit. He'd been playing outside in the sun with his friends when the sun suddenly darkened and a fierce wind picked up. The Wert parents had all rushed to call and gather up their children, but Chipplewake knew almost immediately that this was no ordinary storm. It was sudden and dangerous and as he struggled against the wind, he felt himself being picked up and tossed around in the air helplessly. It spun him around and around, and as he looked down, he saw his Wert cloud going further and further away. He had been blown off his cloud! As quickly as the wind had picked up, it started to die down. Chipplewake was no longer being blown about, tossed and turned. Now, he felt himself starting to fall down….down…down… As he fell, he felt something peculiar. He was becoming wetter and wetter. Chipplewake was now inside a raindrop! This of course was rather alarming. However, he could still breathe quite well as the rain drop wasn’t quite full. Chipplewake felt a sob rising up in his throat as he struggled inside the rain drop. He was trying to break it open so he could get out and all the while, he was still falling closer and closer to earth. "Don't struggle!” a voice called out. "The raindrop will help break your fall!” Chipplewake looked around. Who had said that? He saw nothing in the rain, only the earth coming closer and closer. “Don't struggle!” the voice said again. Again, he looked hard through the rain and finally, not far from him, he saw a little Wert inside a raindrop falling at the same rate as himself. “Don't struggle!” the Wert shouted. “The rain drop will break your fall when we hit land!” Chipplewake had no idea who this Wert was because he couldn't see clearly enough. But he decided to take the advice and not struggle against the rain drop. Perhaps the Wert was right, maybe it would stop him from getting hurt when he hit the ground. Chipplewake held his breath and closed his eyes as he fell the last few remaining feet. And then two seconds later, he hit the ground at a terrible speed. The fall was hard enough to break open Chipplewake's rain drop, but instead of getting up and running away from it, he just lay there on the soggy wet ground. For a moment he didn't know what had happened. The fall had winded him and he felt as though he couldn't breathe. He couldn't move, he couldn't think. He just lay there in the dark and in the rain, all alone.