Paws & Tales

Dave Carl: Winter is just around the corner.

Goose: Yes, it is. Even in Wildwood, the temperatures are starting to fall. Do you know what the biggest problem in the whole gigantic world is?

Dave Carl: I do not. What is it?

Goose: What to wear to school! I get so excited about going to school that I don't plan stuff out very well. I wore my shirt on backwards last week, don't you know!

Dave Carl: I've got a suggestion for you. Here is one of our newly made Paws & Tales T-shirts. It has the Paws & Tales logo on the front, so you'll never be confused and wear it backwards.

Goose: That is so clever! Did you think of that? Nice job there, Dave!

Dave Carl: Well, it's just normal.

Goose: It would be so great if people could just go onto pawsandtales.org and order them in various sizes and all, and get the shirt that will make going to school easier and not all backwards. It's a real problem, you know!

Dave Carl: Goose, I think you are a genius. Welcome to the world of Paws & Tales. Wild Mountain can be a pretty dangerous place. If you stay on the trails and stick with me, there are adventures to be had there, too.

Guest (Male): Come on, C.J., jump!

C.J.: It's too far!

Guest (Female): It wasn't too far for me!

Insight for Living: Insight for Living Ministries is proud to present Paws & Tales. Last time on Paws & Tales...

Papa Chuck: He's been beaten badly.

Theo: Bandits?

Mendel: Maybe we should leave now.

Papa Chuck: We're here to help.

Theo: He's choking! Around his neck, there's something choking him!

Papa Chuck: It's too tight to cut off with my knife.

Theo: Oh no, it's an amulet!

Papa Chuck: Heavenly Father, we need your help. How do we free him? Help us, Lord.

Theo: It just came off. The whole thing came off by itself!

Mendel: No, they don't do that. What are you talking about? How do you know anything about this? Thank you. My name is Mendel.

Papa Chuck: Where did you get that amulet? What terrible thing did you do?

Theo: Ned, what are you doing?

Ned: He's right. I came from Frontera with my friends. We were on a mission for my master, the one who gave me the amulet. I can't thank you enough. I would have died out here. They wanted me to die.

Papa Chuck: So what kind of friends want you dead? What is this all about?

Mendel: If I tell you, do you promise to help me anyway?

Papa Chuck: Of course we will. What happened?

Mendel: My master is pure evil. He hates everyone in Wildwood with a passion. He made me promise to carry a small barrel of poison and pour it into the Salmon River just before it flows into town.

Theo: That's our water source. We all drink from that water.

Mendel: I know. It was going to kill many people and the rest, well, they were going to wish they were dead. I couldn't do it. I snuck off last night and hid it, buried it so no one could find it. I just couldn't do it.

So they beat me nearly to death. After they left me in the dirt, the amulet began to get tighter and tighter, slowly killing me inches at a time. That was my punishment for disobeying my master.

Papa Chuck: Why would he want to poison a whole town? Why?

Mendel: He wanted to kill the one.

Papa Chuck: The one?

Mendel: We don't know who he is. So my master wanted to try to kill him by killing most of the town.

Papa Chuck: Insanity! This is insane. Okay Mendel, stop. Just rest.

Theo: You seem to know more about all this than I do. What's going on out there?

Papa Chuck: There's an awful lot to tell, but to make it short, there's a place called Shadow Valley.

Theo: I've heard the stories since I was a kid, but no one believes they're true. Thousands of people trapped there. It's the stuff of campfire stories.

Papa Chuck: I heard them too as a kid. But then I found myself trapped in there. It is sadly, terrifyingly all too real.

Guest (Male): Once the prisoners are captured and transported into Shadow Valley, what happens to them?

Minion: The longer they stay in the valley, the weaker their will become. They lose hope, and when that is completely drained from them, they will believe any lie I tell them.

When I am given permission to release them, they will swarm like locusts over these mountains, destroying and devouring everything they find. When it is all done, I will have a kingdom of my own!

Papa Chuck: I escaped Shadow Valley only by a miracle. I can't find it again, though I've tried. If I did get in again, I have no confidence that I could find my way out. There is a rumor, a prophecy, that the one will release them, save them from this terrible curse, if they are released before the swarm.

Theo: Then they can wander back to their homes and families. I heard that in third grade. So you're telling me now it's all true? It's all real?

Papa Chuck: I am.

Guest (Male): We've been building an army for years, sending them in every direction to find the one. We have been thwarted every time and everywhere. There are powerful forces protecting him.

They are called the Warriors. This is no band of stragglers. These Warriors wield power that is unimaginable. They seem to know where we all are and often where we're going. They protect Wildwood, encircling it so that only a rare few can enter. Yes, I am one of these few.

Minion: I'm recruiting only those who will not fail me in battle with the Warriors and anyone else in my way. I will grant those whom I choose great power. I am looking for a few who will never stop until victory is ours. The taking of this mountain will only be the beginning.

Guest (Male): I will find this one that stands in your way. I will do whatever it takes. If I have to burn this mountain to ashes, I will. I'll find the one and bring him to an early end. I promise you!

Papa Chuck: All the wicked people and evil things in these mountains desperately want to find the one and kill him. Stop him if they can't kill him. They'll do anything to keep him from releasing the prisoners.

The biggest problem for them is that they don't know who he is. So they keep looking, trying anything. Clearly, they would happily poison most of the town to kill him by chance if they can. They'll keep searching. It's been going on for decades that I know of.

Theo: Well, it's you, right? It's got to be you.

Papa Chuck: It's not me. In many ways, I wish it were. It would make things much simpler. But it's not me. Keep going. I've had my run-ins with this kind of evil many times in the past. Not for a long time now. Something seems to have changed. They seem stronger now. Makes me nervous.

Staci: You found a dagger?

Goose: On a bejeweled belt? You found a beautiful bejeweled belt with a dagger on it! Oh, let me see! Let me see!

Staci: Dagger with a belt. Dagger and with it a belt.

Goose: Belt with a dagger! Oh, I love it! Bejeweled!

Staci: Oh girls, that looks priceless. Put that back.

Guest (Female): It's fine. They're always very careful with those things. That is a very interesting piece, though.

Ned: Wow, Staci. You look so good and powerful in that. Looks like it was made for you.

Theo: What does this all mean, and what role am I going to have in it?

Papa Chuck: Theo, I'm pretty sure the one is C.J.

Dave Carl: Dave the Beaver here. Did you know that we have a big blank wall in the clubhouse that needs to get filled up? So how about this? Parents, take a photo of your child listening to Paws & Tales wherever they happen to listen.

It could be comfy places, funny places. You know we'd love to see them. And I will personally post these photos on that blank wall for all to see. I've got some tape right here! Just send them into pawsandtales.org. This is so fun!

Guest (Female): I'm Sammy from Camden. My favorite character is C.J. because sometimes he relates to me. Wait till you hear what happens next in today's episode.

Martha: Lunch was delightful, Daisy.

Daisy: I'm glad you enjoyed it. Girls, please rinse off the china and the crystalware. I'll finish it up later.

Goose: Yes, ma'am! I just love eating off of china. It makes me feel so fancy.

Martha: You have done some real magic getting the girls to be so responsible and polite.

Daisy: Well, I'm like a favorite aunt. I can ask things of them, and if I tell them that it's fun, they tend to believe me.

Goose: Whoa, what the? Nothing going on here! Well, you can believe me that no very nice china almost hit the floor. No siree, Bob!

Staci: Get back in the kitchen, Goose!

Goose: Everything is zippy-skippy and well under control, if you thought it wasn't before!

Staci: Coming!

Martha: They still have a ways to go. Daisy, you were telling me about your little prayer group.

Daisy: Yes. I guess we got distracted a bit. A few of us gather weekly to study some and to pray a lot.

Martha: How lovely. I would be so pleased to join you. I pray on my own, but there does seem to be something powerful when several gather for prayer.

Daisy: I couldn't agree more. We pray for protection of the children and the town, that evil will be held back from our town. I know it's silly, but some time back, a bit as a joke, someone started calling us—well, we call ourselves the Warriors.

Insight for Living: Well, as Minion continued to plan on just how they could find the one, the raggediest wolf you ever did see came running into the cave. He had been running for a very, very long time.

Slink: Minion, my lord!

Minion: Slink! How did it go? I've been anxious to hear of the death toll Mendel dropped.

Slink: He didn't do it.

Minion: What do you mean?

Slink: He betrayed you! He didn't poison the creek and he had the barrel somewhere. We couldn't find it. The attack didn't happen. Wildwood is safe!

Minion: How could he betray me? The amulet will finish him off soon enough. Who did I charge with finding the Warriors? This smells of their work!

Guest (Male): Your Highness, you gave those orders to Mendel. He was supposed to find them. You're going to want to step back a bit and overall cover your—

Minion: My goodness, Your Highness, there's just a smidge of spittle in the corner of your—

Guest (Male): Now it's on my shirt. Slink, can I borrow your hanky? Thanks ever so much.

Insight for Living: The stretcher was completed, and Papa Chuck carried the front of it while Theo held the back up. There were a few miles of trail ahead, so the boys lagged behind, kicking stones, pretending to discover and arrest bandits, and just all the sorts of things boys do at the end of a great adventure.

Theo: So I've been thinking about the bandits. Are there people who steal from the bandits? What do you call them? Bandit-bandits? Double-bandit? Reverse-bandit?

Guest (Male): No, that just means that they rob from the poor and give to the rich.

Theo: Nicely done, my friend. Nicely done. So if all of this is really true...

Papa Chuck: It is.

Theo: What do I do? What does C.J. do? How can a third-grader be the one?

Mendel: Minion, my former master, is looking for a full-grown someone. I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear.

Theo: That'll be very helpful. Can we trust you?

Mendel: I owe you my life. Minion tried to kill me. I'm up for anything to help you. I've been with him, and he is pure evil. I'll tell you everything I know.

Papa Chuck: If that's true, C.J. and the others are protected right now because they are young. Also, this gives us time to get them ready. A bunch of us need to pull together and get those kids ready.

I've seen C.J., noticed things in a spiritual way that is really something. He has a significant gift. All of those kids do, really. I pray over them and for them all the time. I have a feeling all of the club is going to be a part in all of this somehow. I've been working with them, watching. Pretty remarkable kids.

Theo: No argument there.

Papa Chuck: I'll keep on with teaching and training them spiritually.

Mendel: Sorry!

Papa Chuck: That's fine. I'm fine. How much longer?

Theo: About an hour, I'd say. If we go too fast, it'll get worse for you. The trail is pretty rough.

Mendel: It's fine. I'm grateful for your help. Just grateful to be alive.

Theo: I'll start working with them on strategy. We can play games where they'll need to plan an attack and get back safely. It'd teach them to think.

Papa Chuck: That would be great. At some point, they will need to train to fight. I guess I can start them off with that.

Theo: This is all so overwhelming. C.J. and the others are going to one day battle dark forces?

C.J.: Hey Dad, look at us! These little pinecones fit right into our nostrils!

Theo: That's great, C.J. Nostrils. That's great. Nostrils is nearly 27 percent funny in the nostrils. Nicely done.

C.J.: Ow, ow, ow! Hey Dad!

Theo: What can I do for you, son?

C.J.: These two little pinecones, they don't want to come out of your nostrils. Ow, ow, ow! Never put pinecones in your nose, Dad. Oh, this is so miserable! Ow, oh, oh, ow!

Theo: Well, they both have a ways to go. I know it seems a lifetime away, but this is like a storm that is coming at us. It may be years out, but it'll be on us one day, and we better be ready.

Guest (Male): I guess this is the future for all of us whether we like it or not.

Papa Chuck: There are forces at work here. We will need you and me, maybe some others, to prepare, to pray, to fight, and eventually to rescue the lost of Shadow Valley.

Dave Carl: Hello, Dave Carl here. Where does your kid listen to Paws & Tales? We'd love to know! You can upload a photo of your kids listening to Paws & Tales in the car, half-buried in pillows while coloring, or doing a puzzle.

So many ways to listen! We will be posting a bunch of these photos on pawsandtales.org. Just think, your kid's photo could be on the wall of the clubhouse in Wildwood!

Guest (Female): Hi, I'm Beth from Frisco, Texas. My favorite Paws & Tales character is Goose because she is so silly. Wait till you hear what happens next on today's episode.

Insight for Living: Well, they did finally get Mendel into town safely, and Doc Lowe is doing his best to get him back on his feet. The next day after church, Papa Chuck was in his rocker and had the club playing around him on the front porch of his fixture shop.

C.J.: Bet you can't do that again!

Guest (Female): Bet she can! Go, Staci! Do it again, do it again!

Ned: Now you've got to call it first. What are you going to hit?

Staci: The knot below the lowest branch.

Ned: Dead center?

Staci: Sure, dead center. But this is too light. I need a bigger—

Goose: How about this one? It's round and smaller than a baseball, but—

Staci: Perfect! Toss it here.

Ned: Ouch! Martha, really?

Martha: Sorry, not very good at throwing.

Staci: Yeah, this one is just right. Okay, and— That's remarkable, Staci!

Ned: Thanks. I don't think it hit the knot dead center.

Goose: Dead center, Ned Cleaver! It was dead center!

Ned: Okay, okay.

Papa Chuck: So when did this all start? We could have used this kind of throwing last baseball season.

Goose: Yeah, C.J. was all over the map.

C.J.: Hey!

Ned: All over the county! Remember when he hit the snack lady in the shoulder-thingy?

Goose: Guys, guys, there is no need to—

Ned: The clavicle! Right in the clavicle! Ended her snack season right then and there!

Staci: It was bad. She's back though, right as rain though.

Ned: Clavicle is a funny word.

Goose: It is a funny word. I don't know where it came from. It just kind of started some time back, but it seems to have changed lately.

Staci: She's even better if she does it the flippy way.

Papa Chuck: What is the flippy way?

Staci: We found some old chipped dishes that they threw out behind the diner. I started flipping them kind of backhand into the dumpster.

Ned: It was crazy. They flew wherever she wanted them to go! It was amazing.

Papa Chuck: Quite a gift. Hmm. Okay guys, game for the day.

Goose: I just love game for the day!

Staci: Goose, you crack me up.

Papa Chuck: I've hidden a small wooden box for each of you somewhere on the other side of the garden. Nana Cindy is weeding her tomatoes today. You need to move silently, get the box with your name on it, and get back here without her even knowing you went by.

Goose: First one back is king for the day!

Staci: Nothing you have to worry about, slowpoke.

Ned: When do we start?

Papa Chuck: Now. Go!

Insight for Living: Those kids scattered like marbles and disappeared in an instant. They thought they were just playing a fun game, but well, we know what Papa Chuck is up to now.

Guest (Female): Oh, hey Ned! Good to see you this afternoon.

Ned: Oh, nuts.

Guest (Female): Hey Nana Cindy! Hey Martha, what are you both up to?

Martha: Hi there, Nana Cindy. Just playing.

Guest (Female): Anyone interested in a garden-fresh slice of perfectly ripe tomato? Oh, help me!

Insight for Living: The other kids crawled, slithered, and basically moved like smoke all the way to the boxes and back to Papa Chuck in practically no time at all.

Ned: I'm back first! I'm first!

Papa Chuck: Good job. This is Ned's box. Why didn't you get yours?

Ned: It wasn't there. You didn't have one.

Staci: Because I grabbed it first! Slowpoke. I present my box and C.J.'s box.

Ned: Oh, you make me so mad sometimes.

Papa Chuck: Okay you two, go get some of Nana Cindy's tomatoes. They are truly amazing.

Staci: I'll get there first!

Ned: Oh brother.

Papa Chuck: Okay Goose, you can come out now.

Goose: How'd you know I was here?

Papa Chuck: I watched you the whole way.

Goose: That was really fun.

Papa Chuck: I saw you let C.J. and Staci come in first.

Goose: Oh, that. Well, they just love to be first, don't you know? It was real fun. I'm going for a tomato. See ya! These kids really are very special. I just pray they are up for the battles that are coming. Heavenly Father, protect us all.

Insight for Living: The Warriors was written and directed by David Carl. The song, I'm a Warrior, was written by Sandy Howell and Nick Brown. Music was by Tim Hosman, and our sound designer was Eric Basil. Paws & Tales is an Insight for Living Ministries production.