Pester Storybook Notes

Chapter 1

This is Piñata Island. It's the most incredible place in the world, where living piñata roam wild. In the middle of the island is Piñata Central. It's the place where piñata packed with candy go so they can be sent to parties all over the world. Around Piñata central are lots of gardens. And the people who live on Piñata Island have learned how to care for the land so the wild piñata will stay in their gardens and fill up with candy. Candy-filled piñata can then be sent to Piñata Central, so each party receives the piñata that suits it best. Piñata love parties. When they break open it's like having 5 Birthdays all at once! After the party the piñata returns to Piñata Island to fill up with candy and go to the next party! This is an amazing island and my garden was the most amazing place on this island. I was famous here, but some PEST, Er... took a dislike to me. To make a long story short all my hard work was ruined! I often wish that I were still young and strong enough to put the garden back in order, but those days are gone... Now the garden is yours and you're facing a challenge that even I might not be able to best.

Chapter 3

Little Stardos grew quickly, just like the garden. I hired a helper called Lester to do some of the less skilled jobs in the garden. He was O.K. but he was always writing things down, drawing pictures and making "plans". I'd ask him to do something and he'd mess it up. I'd tell him how to do it properly and he'd write it all down. If he listened more and wrote less he might have been more useful. I also found him trying to make shortcuts, he'd miss out some important work just so he could pack an extra couple piñata into a crate to Piñata Central. Stardos was learning more and more everyday which was a good job because I found Lester messing around with sweets. One afternoon I was walking down past the Gooseberry bushes when I found Lester stirring a pot of sticky red and black liquid which smelled SOUR. The secret of happy piñata is good candy. It's one shortcut you can't afford to take, start messing with candy and who knows what effect it would have on a piñata! I sacked Lester on the spot and Little Stardos took over his job. Replaced by a little boy! Lester was quite angry about it, but I knew that Piñata Central only wanted the best piñata.

Chapter 7

You probably heard that I was the most successful gardener on Piñata Island, and that’s not a boast it’s a fact. Suddenly a rumor started that there was one piñata I hadn’t managed to capture. I laughed when people asked me about it but it was starting to bug me. Surely if anyone could lure a Dragonache into their garden it was me. I was lucky though. My old helper Lester showed up one day with an old map he said he’d found. The map showed a route over the sea to a little island where a wise man was supposed to live. Lester said that this man was the last known person to ever see a Dragonache and that he held the secrets to attracting one to a garden.

I immediately started planning a trip. Mother would captain the ship and take us to the old man’s island. Stardos was able to look after the garden with the help of Leafos. Storkos would keep an eye out for little Sidos until we returned. I was determined to prove once and for all that I was the greatest gardener that Piñata Island had ever seen!

Chapter 8

Mother was a brilliant captain. All her years at sea had made her able to navigate by the stars and read signs of the coming weather. She followed the course marked on the tatty little map until we found the island. As we approached Mother noticed the tell tale of shallow rocks. She tried to navigate through them but a freak wave smashed the boat against a huge jagged boulder. I fell overboard and Mother, clinging to the boat, was swept back out to sea. I’m a tough old boot though and I made it to safety, stranded on the beach of the strange island. I was sure Mother would be fine, she really is an expert Sailor!

Meanwhile back on Piñata Island things were taking a turn for the worse. Lester approached Stardos with an offer of help while I was away. Lester claimed he had made some new red and black sweets that were a shortcut to attracting piñata. He invited Stardos over to his lair in the jungle to try them for himself… 

Chapter 9

I was washed up on the beach, and when I tried to move, my legs wouldn’t do what they were told. I struggled to the middle of the island. There was a shabby hut with an old man sitting outside. “Welcome to my island,” he said. I could have survived on my own, but he looked like he needed help. I crawled over to him and told him about my incredible adventure to find a Dragonache. The old man scratched his chin and then said “I think you’ve been tricked.” I suddenly realized that I had abandoned the children to a crooked pest of a man. I demanded that the old man help me to get home! “It’s rather rude to rush off,” said the old man. “I’m 65 you know, and I still have all my own teeth. I don’t get much company these days, so why don’t you stop for a chat, and I’ll do my best to help you out.” I spent the afternoon drinking tea and listening to the old man. It turned out he was a Diggerling, and for years he had been digging strange and wonderful objects out of the ground. One object was a large egg, which as the old man put it “... was as close as he’d ever been to a Dragonache.”

Eventually, the Diggerling carried me down to the coast. He had a boat there that he used to visit his daughter, who lived on Piñata Island. The miner agreed to sail me home past the treacherous rocks and back to my family. 

Chapter 10

The old man dropped me off at the docks and I built myself this chair out of old scrap I found. I sped down to the garden. It was like my worst nightmare come true. Piñata homes were smashed, the plants had all dried up and the soil had been baked as hard as concrete. Leafos was hiding in the house. She explained that Stardos had gone into the jungle to meet Lester. As soon as he was out of sight a gang of Ruffians had arrived. They smashed up the garden, ripped my journal into pieces and put all the piñata in a crate and sent them to Lester… No, I can't call him Lester anymore. Pester is a better name for him! Storkos had stayed safe on Egg Mountain, and she had no choice but to keep on delivering eggs to other gardens. Little Sidos had run into the swamp with his Shellybeans. They were his only family for some time. This seems to have really affected him. Now he loves seeds (just like the Shellybeans do) and he calls himself Seedos. Stardos hasn’t been seen since he went into the jungle but a weird new character now hands around the garden. He’s known as Dastardos and he’s creepy, but sometimes he reminds me of someone I used to know. Mother hasn’t returned to Piñata Island. She must be having quite an adventure! And now we’re back to where you came in.