In the old castle of Darkstone lived three little monsters—Brumlik, Chrochlush, and Shuffla. Their greatest passion in life was scaring the castle’s visitors. The only problem was… they were absolutely terrible at it.
Brumlik looked like a giant blue furry ball with teeny-tiny legs. Above his big, kind eyes grew two sharp horns, just like a little devil’s. Whenever he wanted to scare someone, he hid behind a corner and waited for a group of tourists to walk by. Then he’d jump out and shout, “Mumli-bumli-BOO!”
But with his tiny legs, he always tripped over something. Instead of a deep, terrifying roar, what came out sounded more like a sleepy kitten trying to meow. The visitors would just giggle and whisper to each other about how adorable the little monster sounded. Brumlik would pick himself up off the floor, and his blue cheeks would turn bright red with embarrassment. That only made the visitors laugh even harder.
Chrochlush, a green monster who looked a bit like a frog, specialized in nighttime scares. One evening, he decided to frighten a group of kids who had come for a spooky night tour of the castle. He hid behind a long curtain that hung in the window of the tallest tower.
When the children arrived, he planned to leap out and scream at them in his famously raspy, growly voice. But his tiny claws got tangled in the curtain. The more he tried to jump out, the more wrapped up he became. Soon he was bouncing and wriggling inside the curtain, completely stuck.
Instead of sounding scary, he made noises just like a lovesick frog croaking to his sweetheart in the swamp below the castle. The kids laughed so hard that tears ran down their cheeks. They clutched their bellies and shouted for him to “Do it again!”
Shuffla—whom her older monster brothers sometimes called the Pink Princess—was the fastest of them all. Her special talent was racing up and down the castle hallways, shuffling her feet loudly across the wooden floors, scraping her sharp horns along the stone walls, and letting out long, wailing howls. Normally, that would have been truly spooky.
But sweet little Shuffla had a problem: every single time, her sharp horns got stuck in a wooden door. The door would swing open and shut… open and shut… with Shuffla dangling from it like she was riding a creaky old swing. People laughed so hard at the sight that they literally rolled on the floor of the hallway, wiping tears of laughter from their eyes.
Day after day, it went on like this. The three clumsy monsters tried their very best to be scary, but instead of spreading fear, they filled the castle with giggles and joy.
One evening, after yet another failed scare that ended in peals of laughter, the three of them sat together on the highest tower and watched the sunset.
“Maybe scaring people just isn’t for us,” Brumlik sighed.
Shuffla nodded, her pink fur ruffled by the wind. “But making people laugh… we’re really good at that,” she said softly.
Chrochlush blinked his big frog-like eyes and gave a crooked smile. “Yeah. Maybe we’re not monsters of fright. Maybe we’re monsters of fun.”
And so the three monsters finally understood: their true strength wasn’t in scaring people—it was in making them happy. From that day on, the castle became the funniest, most cheerful place around. Families, kids, and even grandparents came from far and wide just to meet the three monsters who never managed to frighten a single person…
…but always sent everyone home with cheeks that hurt from smiling and bellies that ached from laughing.
