The alarm clock made Romy and Oskar jump. Boy, were they still tired! What a night that had been! „Come on, get up,“ shouted the „alarm clock,“ also known as Mum, into the children’s room. Somehow, they were both feeling sleepier than usual. Romy looked sleepily at Oskar, he looked back at her. It took a while for both of them to start moving their legs. „I dreamed strange things,“ said Romy, looking at Oskar. „Me too,“ he scratched his head. They didn’t get out of bed immediately, but they managed to dangle their legs over the side. „Come on, you sleepyheads!“ The „alarm clock“ was annoying but there was no escape. „Ugh,“ Romy sighed, covering her cuddly toy cat with her blanket and gently laying her head back on the pillow. At least the cat was able to stay in bed.

This is a reading sample. If you like the story, the butterflies would be happy if you bought the book!

The ‚alarm clock‘ poked her head back into children’s bedroom. „Hurry up! Into the bathroom!“ The children sighed. Romy and Oskar tiredly stumbled into the bathroom, got dressed and made their way to the breakfast table. The TV was switched on. How unusual. A news channel was showing repeat coverage of a colourful beam of light coming from the sky. It looked like a straight rainbow. The footage was showing countless mobile phone videos from all over the world. JuTube was filled with clips of it all from various angles. “ … We don’t know from where the mysterious light beam originated,“ said the newsreader. At the bottom of the screen, the news ticker showed phrases like: „Have aliens sent a signal to Earth?“, „Unknown beam of light from the depths of the universe hits Earth!“, „Point of impact believed to be the Tumbawunda Valley.“, „Residents should continue their normal routines.“, „Experts are now arriving to investigate possible consequences.“ Oskar and Romy only vaguely took it in.

The children were sitting at the table, but they were both still much too tired. Besides, thoughts of the bees and of their strange dreams swirled around in their heads. They had to tell their friends about all of it. Then a voice suddenly interrupted their thoughts. „Last day today,“ said their mother while she was making their sandwiches. „Huh?“ „Then you’ve made it!“ Romy was dozing away, Oskar didn’t understand. „Huh?“ Their mother grinned. „Then it’s the weekend and the start of two weeks of holiday.“ Aaaaah. This news made them perk up like a grown-up who had just had his first cup of coffee that day. Romy and Oskar were immediately filled with joy and excitement. This was their last day of kindergarten and school this term. „Hee-hee,“ Romy giggled now. They had almost forgotten about last night. Hang on, were the three electric blue fireflies sitting on the windowsill again?

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And … um … was there a panda sitting there too, looking into their dining room? Oskar rubbed his eyes and the electric blue fireflies and the panda had disappeared. He rubbed his eyes again. But there really was nothing left. „Whoa!“ he looked stunned, but then something else happened. They now spotted a TV station van slowly driving down the street in front of their house. Strange. „Did either of you notice anything strange last night?“ their mother asked casually. Huh? She immediately recognised her children’s questioning looks. „No, apparently not,“ Mum giggled and gave them both a kiss on the head. „Ready?“ Romy shoved the last piece of bread into her mouth, then pushed her plate away. „I’m done!“ Oskar quickly gulped down the rest of his orange juice. „Me too.“ Their mother quickly lifted the plates and cups and went into the kitchen. None of them took any notice of the TV presenter in the background.

„In addition to the reports of the mysterious beam of light in the Tumbawunda Valley, another worrying piece of news has reached us. All over Germany, insects are dying. Between 30 and 80 percent of all insects have disappeared. About 80 percent of the plants growing in the wild are pollinated by insects. If there aren’t any insects, plants can no longer reproduce … “ Then it happened again. A panda climbed onto the outside of the windowsill and wiggled his bottom like in a traditional Hawaiian dance. This time, Romy saw him, too. Their eyes grew wide. Neither Romy nor Oskar knew how to react. They didn’t need to react as the panda waved to them, but then lost his balance and fell backwards off the windowsill, right into their garden. Immediately, Romy and Oskar jumped up, ran out of the front door and around the corner. But there was nothing there. „Are you still not ready to go?“

Totally surprised, they turned around and only then, did they notice the commotion in front of their house. In front of them, the brothers Noah and Nick with their friend Dominic were already waiting on their bikes. Steven and Kevin were waiting too. But they were not alone: each of them was accompanied by at least one parent. The grown-ups whispered, chatted, looked around in confusion, because all over the Tumbawunda Valley, the streets were filled with camera vans from major TV stations. Amongst them, there were government vehicles and men and women walking around in full body protective suits, wearing breathing masks and carrying strange gadgets with antennas. They were flashing and beeping. There were people walking around with placards saying, „We are not alone!“ „Take me with you!“ and „The end of the world is coming!“ Some of them even had homemade tin foil hats.

Others were undoubtedly hippies, dancing or meditating in their colourful clothes in the middle of the streets. Two of them had even built a shrine in front of Romy and Oskar’s house and were worshipping an alien toy. Oskar and Romy were really excited. What was going on? Noah and Nick saw the surprise on their faces. „Didn’t you notice anything during the night?“ Their mother answered for them, „No, they were sound asleep.“ She already had Oskar’s schoolbag and Romy’s kindergarten rucksack with her, whilst pushing their bikes at the same time and somehow managing to feed Maja the cat and holding puppy Ben on his lead. „Come on, let’s go,“ she signalled to Romy and Oskar. They tried to follow her straight away, but it was totally crazy. At the very last second, they were distracted by the panda waving. He winked at them happily! Gee whizz! What they didn’t see, what no one saw, was the three electric blue fireflies. Two of them crawled into Romy’s sheep rucksack, one of them into Oskar’s schoolbag. As they set off, Noah came flying over to Oskar. „Something happened here in Tumbawunda Valley,“ he whispered to Oskar. He nodded quickly. Oh yes, there was no doubt about that …