Free The Story of the Blue Planet by Andri Snaer Magnason

can.”
    “Hooray! Let’s cheer up the children in the darkness,” shouted the children in one voice.
    Jolly-Goodday rolled a barrel out of his spaceship, emptying some candy wrappers out of it first. He stood it up on the beach.
    “When we’ve filled this barrel, we’ll roll it out into the sea and it will float over to the pale hungry children.”
    The children hovered above the barrel.
    “I don’t need these shoes when I’m always flying,” said Magni, throwing his old shoes into the barrel.
    “And I don’t need a blanket as there’s always sunshine,” said Elva, throwing her blanket into the barrel.
    “And I can’t finish this apple,” said Woody, and he threw the remains of the apple into the barrel.
    Then they all ate as much as they could stuff themselves with. But at the height of the party some strange objects appeared on the horizon.
    “What are they?” asked the children, staring out to sea.
    Jolly-Goodday picked up his telescope and looked out over the ocean.
    “They’re crates and rafts. They must be coming out of the darkness on the other side of the planet!”
    Jolly-Goodday looked at the children and frowned.
    “I’ve traveled far and wide and seen many things, but I’ve never seen anything as serious as this. This is clearly an invading army. WAR has been declared!”
    “ WAR? What’s that?”
    “War is when someone gets into such a bad temper that he turns the smell of the volcanoes and the iron in the mountains into bombs, which he then throws at everyone he doesn’t like.”

    “Are the children on the other side now angry with us?”
    “They’ve found out who stole the sun and the butterflies from them and sent them darkness and clouds instead.”
    “So are the children in the darkness going to kill us?”
    “That’s how it goes when there’s a war,” said Jolly-Goodday, shrugging his shoulders.
    The waves carried the crates with the invading force closer and closer to Black Beach. The children dashed to and fro in confusion.
    “We must drive the invaders back!”
    “Quick, Jolly-Goodday, make some bombs from the smell of volcanoes and the iron in the mountains.”
    “Yes, quickly!” shouted the children. “We must blow them up before it’s too late!”
    Jolly-Goodday thought it over. The first crates had almost reached the shoreline.
    “It’s a little bit expensive,” said Jolly-Goodday calmly.
    “How much does a bomb cost?” shouted the children.
    “It will cost one heart per person to throw a bomb,” said Jolly-Goodday.
    “One heart?”
    “It’s impossible to throw bombs if you have a normal child’s heart in your breast. As soon as you throw a bomb it becomes either a stone heart or a steel heart.”
    “And how would that change us?”
    “You won’t grow any bigger and you won’t get any smaller, but if you get a stone heart your life will be much easier, you won’t even need to have friends.”
    “What about a steel heart?”
    “Then you’ll never be bored and never be happy and won’t need to have feelings anymore. Men with steel hearts never cry.”
    “Quick, Jolly-Goodday, save us. Make the bombs!”
    Jolly-Goodday transformed the smell of volcanoes and the iron in the mountains into bombs, which he handed out to the children. He then took cover behind a rock and hunched down with the loudspeaker. The children took their places on the shoreline and aimed at the invading army on the sea.
    Ready, aim, and BOMBS AWAY!” bellowed Jolly-Goodday.

    But there was no explosion. The children held onto their bombs as no one wanted to be the first to throw one. No one liked the idea of getting a stone heart or a steel heart. Jolly-Goodday picked up his loudspeaker and shouted at the children:
    “Are you complete wimps? You’ll be utterly defeated in this war if you don’t throw the bombs! Hurry up before it’s too late!”
    The invading rafts had come right up to the land and at last a wave caught hold of one of them and smashed it to pieces,