Rocky the Rock Monster was hungry. He had spent all night working at the mountain, where Rock Monsters are born out of stones and earth and a little magic. And when the baby Rock Monsters emerged out of the ground, already as big as houses, Rocky taught each one how to walk and told them the two things every Rock Monster needs to know. One, never tread on a human, because they leak a strange red sauce and make a terrible noise. Two, always chew your food, otherwise some of it, especially trees, can get stuck in your throat.

Rocky watched the baby Rock Monsters stumble down the mountainside towards the cities and towns and villages below. He put his hands on his mile-wide hips and watched with satisfaction as the young Rock Monsters tucked into their first meals of old, disused factories and ugly, condemned tower blocks. Rocky was very happy. But he was also very tired and hungry after giving all that advice. He reached down and nibbled on a couple of abandoned cars from his snack pile. His tummy gurgled. It was no good; he was still hungry. He needed to eat something more substantial.

The first light of the morning was just breaking above the horizon. Rocky watched as the sun slipped into the sky like a giant egg yolk slipping across a frying pan. It made him think about an early breakfast. His tummy gurgled again. Really, he was very hungry. So he picked the sun out of the sky with a gigantic hand and popped it in his mouth.

Rocky felt energised as the sun slipped down his throat. It tasted of lemon and honey, and left a lovely warm tingly feeling on his tongue. But when the sun got down to his tummy, the greedy Rock Monster began to look unhappy.

‘Nunggghhh!’ said Rocky, and he grasped his rocky stomach with his huge rocky hands, as if he was about to explode. Soon the fire in Rocky’s tummy was so hot, there was steam coming out of his ears and nose.

‘I need some water to cool me down,’ said Rocky, and steam came out of his mouth. The Rock Monster looked around. In the distance he saw a village, and behind the village was a large lake.

‘That’s a lot of water,’ said Rocky in a cloud of steam, and he crunched towards the lake, shaking all the trees and buildings around.

By this time, the villagers in Rocky’s path were awake. They looked out of their windows at the moon and the stars in the sky. They looked at the confused rooster chickens in their yards. The villagers looked at their clocks and watches and scratched their heads. “Where is the sun?” they clucked. “What is going on?”

Then everyone felt the ground shake and tremble and suddenly there was a tremendous splash. All the villagers got out of bed and ran outside their homes.

‘Look out! It’s a Rock Monster!’ shouted the villagers. ‘He’s drinking up the lake. Run everybody!’

The villagers ran in all directions at once.

‘Stop!’ said wise, old Granny Smith, bent over her walking stick, her wrinkly face scrunched up in deep thought. ’The Rock Monster is unwell.’

The villagers stopped running. They looked at the Rock Monster who, even when knelt at the lake, filled the whole sky with this body.

‘Nunggghhh!’ said Rocky, and he collapsed, causing a great wave to wet the villagers’ bed slippers. Then he said ‘Ungghh,’ in a quiet voice, which made all the villagers feel quite sorry for him.

As Rocky lay in the lake with his eyes shut against the pain, a bright yellow light suddenly flared up in his tummy. Everyone gasped and put on their sunglasses.
‘So that’s where the sun has gone!’ they cried.

Granny Smith took charge. ‘We must rescue the sun from inside the Rock Monster,’ she said.

‘But how?’ cried the villagers.

The Rock Monster opened his gigantic mouth. ‘Arggghhh!’ he howled, and his hot and steamy breath blew out over the village, shrivelling the flowers and making the whole place smell really different.

‘That’s how,’ said Granny Smith, and she pointed at the three nearest boys.

‘Quick! Jump inside the Rock Monster’s mouth before it closes,’ said Granny Smith.

They all looked up at the Rock Monster’s enormous mouth and smelt his terrible smelly breath.

’Do what?” said Big Tom.

’You must be joking,” said Slim Tim.

’Come on you weeds, we’ve got to do it,’ said Little Titch, who was the smallest but bravest boy in the village.

So the boys gathered their courage, packed up their bags, and jumped into the Rock Monster’s mouth.

’If you need any help, just shout my name!” said Granny Smith.

The Rock Monster’s mouth closed shut with an enormous crash. The villagers wondered if they would ever see the boys again.

It was dark and hot inside the Rock Monster’s mouth. Huge teeth towered over the three boys like spooky gravestones in a churchyard. The Rock Monster’s tongue was a slippery serpent-like thing that twitched around their feet. The funny thing that hangs down at the back of your throat hung at the back of the cave like a giant vampire bat waiting to bite your neck.

The boys were afraid.

So Slim Tim switched on his torch.

And Big Tom took some bread rolls from his bag.

And Little Titch cooked some sausages on the hot floor of the Rock Monster’s mouth.

Everyone ate their hot dogs and felt much braver.

Someone even remembered the ketchup.

Then the Rock Monster’s mouth began to shake, and stones fell on the boys’ heads, and they were quite certain that the serpent-tongue thing and the hanging bat-thing and the scary gravestones were all waking up.

‘Time to move on,’ said Slim Tim

‘Before we get squashed!’ said Big Tom

‘Let’s rock!’ said Little Titch.

The three boys ran to the dark hole at the far end of the Rock Monster’s mouth. They looked down a long, dark, tunnel and saw a faint light below.

Suddenly, the huge bat-thing hanging above them moved a little.

There was only one way to go.

They all sat on their bags and slid down the smooth rocky tunnel towards the bright light.

‘Yippee,’ shouted the boys as they slid towards the Rock Monster’s tummy. They slid downward for a long time, the rocks getting hotter and the air getting smellier all the time.

They came out of the tunnel at the edge of a large lake of steaming, black water and gasped at the sight ahead of them. Sitting in the water were half-chewed trees, and houses with giant bite marks in their walls, and cars carefully folded in half and nibbled at the edges.
They almost looked past the sun floating in the middle of the lake.

The three boys were shocked. The sun was only the size of a football and the light coming from it was weaker than Tim’s torch.

‘The sun is going out. What are we going to do?’ said Big Tom.

‘I’ll jump in and save it!’ said Slim Tim.

But Little Titch pulled him back from the lake.

‘That’s not water,’ said Little Titch. ‘That’s acid!”

Slim Tim moved back and kicked in a stone that fizzled and popped across the surface until it exploded into nothing.

‘What are we going to do now?’ asked Big Tom.
‘We need a boat,’ said Slim Tim.

The three boys looked around. The Rock Monster had not eaten any boats.

Suddenly, Little Titch remembered something. He shouted: ‘Hey, Granny Smith, please send us a boat!’

There was a flash of light and a rowing boat appeared on the lakeside. The three boys jumped in the boat. Big Tom grabbed the oars and rowed towards the sun.

Suddenly, a strong wind blew through the cave. White-foaming waves appeared on the lake. The light in the sun blinked and then went out. It became very dark and very scary.

But Slim Tim remembered his torch and pointed the way to the sun.

‘Row faster!’ shouted Little Titch to Big Tom.

Big Tom rowed with all his might.

When they reached the sun, it was the size of a tennis
ball and very black, with only a small flame left deep inside. Little Titch touched it once and then picked it up.

‘Oh no!’ said Little Titch. ‘The sun is very cold.’

The three boys were afraid.

Suddenly, the Rock Monster woke up. The boat nearly turned upside down as Rocky the Rock Monster thought about being sick.

‘Get us out of here!’ shouted Slim Tim.

‘How are we going to get out?’ shouted Big Tom.

They looked around, following the light of Slim Tim’s torch. Where they had arrived at the entrance to the cave, a sign said ‘Back To Mouth. Emergency Use Only.’

On the opposite side of the cave, about half an hour by boat, even with Big Tom rowing, was another tunnel. The sign above it said: ‘Down To Bottom.’

‘Yuck!’ said the boys. ‘There must be another way.’

Suddenly Little Titch spotted the way out. ‘Over there,’ he shouted, pointing to a sign above a wooden door in the side of the cavern. The sign said: ‘Belly Button. Open With Care. Do Not Admit Fluff.’

Big Tom rowed the boat up to the door and Slim Tim pulled it open. Little Titch closed his hand around the cold sun.

Rocky the Rock Monster turned over in his sleep and the boat tipped up towards the door.

The boat shot out of the Rock Monster’s tummy on a steaming waterfall of black water. The boys gasped as they fell towards earth. Surely the black acid would poison the land!

But something magical was happening inside the boat.

There was a glow inside Little Titch’s hand and it was growing bigger. The three boys put on their sunglasses.
The sun flew out of Little Titch’s hand and up into the sky, getting brighter and hotter as it expanded back up to the size of a tennis ball, then a football, and then up to its true size. Down below, in the village, the rooster chickens finally crowed.

A rainbow appeared.

The black waterfall became a cascade of clear water. The boys in the boat slid gently down the waterfall to the ground.

The villagers cheered. The boys were safe. The sun had been saved.

Then, with a great heaving and rumbling, and sloshing of water in the lake, Rocky the Rock Monster stood up.

All the villagers stood quite still and waited for the Rock Monster to step on them.

But all Rocky did was close the door in his belly and turn back towards the mountain.

‘What a funny dream I’ve had,’ said Rocky as he walked along, rubbing his belly. ‘I must have been working too hard.’

He looked up at the sun in the sky and thought about lunch.

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