Jack Attack (Soft c)
Practice Words
Words where the letter 'c' makes the soft /s/ sound, typically before e, i, or y.
One morning, Zom notices something strange when he goes out in the yard to start on his chores. Sometimes there are pests in the crops. Sometimes an animal is running loose. But today, he has a truly odd start.
There is cake absolutely all over the place! Zom doesn't think that he planted any cake seeds. In fact, he doesn't even think that you can grow cake from seed. No, something else must have happened here.
He brings Skel and Jack out into the yard to see what has happened. They each have a very different look on their face. Skel groans while thinking of the extra work that they are going to have to do. Jack bursts out laughing.
They each have a slice of cake before they start shipping it all off to town. It might be a lot of work, but at least they are in the villagers' good books for giving them so much free cake. The farm is close to normal by nightfall.
Zom has no idea why the cake situation happened, but he certainly is not expecting it twice. The next morning, the whole farm is full of coal! It is all through the grass, crops and pens.
They store a little for crafting, but there is no way that they are going to use that much. As they pack up all of the coal to send off to the village, Jack is crying from laughter. Zom wonders if he might have had a hand in it. He does like to spice things up with pranks.
Zom is not in the mood to be at the mercy of Jack's pranks again the next day. Jack swears that he has nothing to do with it. He just thinks that it is an excellent joke to play on somebody. Zom still isn't sure.
He stands guard all night at Jack’s door. He doesn’t see a trace of him. Maybe Jack knows that Zom is out there and isn’t coming out to play pranks so that he does not get caught. At least Zom will not have any extra work to do the next day.
But no! The next morning, there are eggs all over. They are under every fence. Filling every garden bed. Zom tells Skel that he stood guard all night. It could not have been Jack. There is something else afoot on the farm.
All the same, Jack is about to die with laughter. He places the eggs into boxes and races them into town. By now, the villagers are almost expecting a shipment. They see him coming and happily take the free eggs.
Skel has had enough. Since it has to cease, he is going to stand guard in the paddock to see just what is happening. They have spent the last three days picking up cake, coal and eggs. None of their normal chores are done.
He knows that Jack is in his room, but Skel sees an outline advance over the hill. It looks a lot like Jack! And then there are more, as a whole group of grinning Jacks storm the farm. Skel braces himself and draws his bow at the glowing faces. 'Oh no,' Skel whispers to the dark. 'There is more of him now.'