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Once there was a caterpillar named Juno. He was out plodding along one day, and he saw a squirrel fall from a tree ahead of him! He hurried over, and the poor squirrel moaned and looked up. With his last breath, the squirrel gave Juno an acorn.

"This is a magic acorn." He muttered. "Believe in it, keep it safe." Then he died.

Juno carried the acorn back to his home, and set in on a stool by the fire, looking at it. Then he said...

"What a stupid squirrel." He proceeded to throw the acorn in the fire.
But the acorn really must have been magic, because it popped right back out and hit him in the face. "Ouch!" Juno complained. Then...

somebody knocked on the door.
Juno flinched at the noise and stood up a little too quickly. The acorn rolled back toward the fire, and then rolled back towards him. It stopped at one of his sets of feet. He stared at it in wonder. It was glowing! And a weird humming was coming from it.
The knocking continued. Juno grabbed the acorn and sat on it, then he shouted, "Come in!"
In walked...

his older sister Helena, who was already a butterfly. It took a minute to get her wings through the door without breaking them. She went over to Juno. "Hello, little brother," she said cheerily. Taking a good look at his face, she noticed that he didn't look very comfortable. "Are you sitting on a bee, Juno?" Juno said...

"Uh...no." Juno shifted uncomfortably. "Er...your wings look very nice today."

"Oh, thanks. I couldn't do a thing with them..." Helena stopped examining herself and stared at Juno. "Is that an acorn you're sitting on?"

"Well..." Juno swallowed, looking down. "Look at that! How did that get there..." He...

quickly shoved the acorn under the rug while Helena was looking for 'that'. "I don't see anything," Helena complained, frowning at her brother.

"Oh," said Juno, laughing nervously. "Must've been my imagination." Helena shook her head.

"Well..."

"I came by to remind you that the county fair is tomorrow. You know how you forgot last year, and poor Luna waited for hours by the gate. Then Herod came along and snatched her up..." Helena sighed and shook her head. "Anyway, it's tomorrow at two."

"I don't have anyone to go with." Juno declared, watching the acorn under the rug nervously. A strange glow was coming from it.

"You could always go with...

"Winifred," Helena encouraged. "She's sweet and she loves to talk, so you wouldn't have to worry about..." Suddenly, she caught sight of something glowing. "Gerry Glowbug!" she exclaimed, "are you hiding in Juno's house again?" She took a few steps towards the rug.
"No," said Juno, quickly moving to block her way. He tried to think of an explanation. "It's, uh..."

"Hello!?" At that exact moment, Winifred stuck her head in the door. She was a tall beetle, with bright eyes. Helena's leg/arm froze inches from the edge of the rug as she turned around, a smile on her face.

"Winifred! We were just talking about you!"

Juno's heart sunk. His sister was always going about making a match for him. The truth was, he couldn't stand Winifred.

"Juno was hoping you'd go with him to the fair!" Helena continued.

Wini looked at Juno, who said...

"Um, er, uh, yes, I was dearly hoping you would go to the fair with me, but...but... I suddenly feel dreadfully ill." Juno raced to his bedroom and shut the door. When they left, he would go back and get the acorn. He just hoped he hadn't offended Winifred. He didn't like her, but that didn't mean he wanted to be rude.
"That was strange," said Helena, staring after her brother in bewilderment.
"Well, I hope he feels better," Winifred shrugged, really not caring. Actually, she was already going to the fair with Larry the Ladybug. As she was about to leave, she caught sight of something glowing under the rug. "Hey! What's that?"

"Hm?" Helena twisted to get a view of herself at an angle in the mirror by the door. "What Wini?"

"There's some weird light..." Winie leaned down and lifted up the edge of the rug, peering underneath. "Huh."

"What?"

"There's nothing here. Weird, I could've sworn..." Wini shrugged and dropped the carpet back down. There was still a lump and a weird glow coming from the lump. "Must be a crease in the rug. And, I guess he spilled beetle juice."

"Well, that's Juno for you. He's a bit sloppy with housekeeping." Helena sighed and called goodbye to her brother, who was watching them under the crack in his door. Then she and Winifred left.

Juno....

(hehe...you'd think Wini would be offended by the fact that Juno drinks BEETLE juice...)

Juno breathed a sigh of relief. He stuck his head out of his bedroom door, just to be sure they were gone, before rushing out and lifting up the rug. There lay the acorn. He held it, confused. How had Winifred not seen it? What WAS this? As he was puzzling over the whole thing, the acorn suddenly...

cracked open and out popped a little earth worm, who wore glasses. Juno looked at him, and the earthworm looked at Juno. Juno shrugged, then tossed the earthworm into the fire. The earthworm emerged mere seconds later and glared up at Juno. Then he said....

"What do you mean, sir, by tossing me about in such a rude manner?" The earthworm had a very, very, small voice, and Juno couldn't hear him at first.
"Um...excuse me?" He put his ear close to the earthworm and asked him to repeat what he'd said. "Oh," he said sheepishly when he could understand. "Sorry. Um...you startled me, is all. Hello. I'm Juno. What's your name?"
"I'm Jinx," the tiny worm said in his tiny voice. "I came from the magic acorn."
Juno's eyes popped open wide, and he said...

"From the magic acorn?"
"Yeah."
"You were inside the acorn?"
"Yeah."
Juno hurried to the door, glanced outside and slammed it shut. He hurried back over to Jinx who was watching him with beady black eyes. "You wanna tell me what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" Jinx asked, cocking his head.
"The acorn, I don't understand what's going on!"
"It's a magic acorn, believe in it, keep it safe."
"Yes I know!" Juno sighed exasperatedly. "This doesn't make any sense! Who are you?"
"I'm Jinx, remember?"
"I don't understand!"
"Believe in the acorn and keep it safe." Jinx repeated, curling up by the fire. Juno....

...paced around the living room, wringing his many sets of hands. "Magic acorn," he muttered to himself. "Keep it safe... believe in it... Are you just gonna stay there?" he asked, looking at Jinx.
"Is that a problem?" the worm yawned.
"Uh, well, no. But...is something going to happen? Do I just have to keep the acorn safe forever? I don't understand!"
Jinx...

blinked at him with one of those annoying, "I know something you don't know and you'll soon find out" looks. Juno groaned and sat down by the dying fire as the sun set outside. Nobody spoke.
"What's to eat around here?" Said Jinx suddenly as crickets started chirping outside.
Juno groaned. "What do you eat?" He asked.
"Well...

Jinx wrinkled his snout in thought. (Now, in real life, worms don't really have snouts. But in real life they don't have eyes or big glasses either. In our story, Jinx is allowed to have whatever features he pleases.) "Well, I do enjoy a good dirt clod." (Worms DO eat dirt in real life.) Juno blinked.
"Ah..." He looked at the potted plant he kept on his table. It was not for decoration; it was his dinner. Normally, he would eat the plant and throw the dirt out. But today... Juno walked over to the table and brought the potted plant over to Jinx. He pulled the plant out and began to eat it, whilst setting the pot of dirt in front of the worm. "Here is some dirt."
"Oh, thank you!" said Jinx, and he began eating hungrily.
Juno...

watched him thoughtfully. In truth, he got lonely living by himself. His sister would drop by sometimes, but in truth, his life was very...alone-ish.

"So this acorn," Juno began, chewing slowly. "It's magic?"

"Do you believe it is?" Jinx asked, chewing away happily.
"Well," Juno guffawed and admitted, "Not really."
"Well, then." Jinx replied, still eating.
"Well then what?"
"What do you mean?"
"Never mind." Juno scrunched up his face in confusion and took another bite. "So," He began again, his mouth full. "You lived in the acorn."

"Haven't we been though this?" Jinx asked in a high voice. "I'm trying to eat, ask me later. Or maybe you could figure it out yourself and let me sleep before the fair tomorrow."
"How do you know about the fair?"
"Acorns are not sound proof." Jinx pointed out. "Now, I'm eating."
Juno shrugged and finished his supper. When they were both done...

Jinx curled up on Juno's bed and fell asleep immediately. He walked over to the table where he had left the acorn when Jinx had hatched out of it, and he was rather surprised to see that it was whole.
"Oh," he said out loud. "I thought it broke."
"COuld you try to be a little quieter, for Pete's sake?" asked the grumpy earthworm, who was a light sleeper and had been awakened by Juno's outburst.
"Who's Pete?" asked Juno.
"My cousin," replied Jinx. "He lives in the acorn too."
Jinx went to sleep again. Juno...

Juno held the acorn closer to his face and studied it. There was another worm living in there? Named Pete? Juno shook his head and put the acorn back on the table. "I don't believe this," he muttered. He glanced apprehensively at the acorn, as if afraid Pete would pop out of it. Nothing happened. With a sigh, Juno went and sat on his couch. This made no sense. He needed to talk to someone... someone wise. Immediately Juno thought of...

Luna. But then he thought of how he'd accidently snubbed her last year at the fair. He sighed. He still loved her, but they hadn't spoken since, except a curt "hello" when it was necessary. She would know just what to do though....
"No, absolutely not." Juno told himself, "Absolutely not, I'm done with her." He cleared his throat and went over to Jinx who was watching through his half closed eyelids since he was making so much noise.
"Jinx," He began, speaking confidently and holding the acorn in one hand, "........

His voice faltered. What did he want to ask the worm? "Um..." Juno swallowed, trying to collect his thoughts. "Uh... do you have a girlfriend?"
Jinx looked at him strangely. "Didn't I tell you I wanted to sleep?" he grumbled, then was quiet for a long time. Juno thought he'd indeed gone to sleep, when he spoke again. "I had a wife," Jinx said. "She was eaten by a bird. That was..." He wrinkled his snout in though. "Fifty years ago."
Bless me! Juno thought. How old IS this worm? "Well," Juno swallowed, "did you ever...do something to hurt her feelings?"
"What strange questions you ask!" Jinx exclaimed. "Yes, once we had a disagreement. Before we were married, there was this other fellow at the fair, and I didn't like how friendly she was being towards him, so I started ignoring her and talking to this other lady..." He sighed. "After that night, we almost never spoke again." He seemed about to continue, then frowned. "Why are you asking me these things? I don't like to relive the past."
"Sorry," Juno muttered. He...

shuffled his many sets of feet uncomfortably. "It's just..."

"You have a girlfriend whom you've snubbed at the fair last year." Jinx finished.

"She's not really-"

"Your girlfriend, I know. But listen carefully. This magic acorn? Only you and I can see it. Oh, and by the way, only you can see me. Only the person to whom the acorn belongs can see it and its contents. So don't even think about telling somebody, you'll come off looking like a bigger fool then normal."

"What!? Nobody but-" Juno groaned and sat on the bed next to Jinx. "What am I supposed to do with this magical acorn?"

"Believe in it and take care of it. Stop asking." Jinx made a face and then rested his head down again.

Juno waited a few minutes. Jinx didn't stir again.
"I'll sleep on the couch then..." He suggested, leaving the acorn on the bed and going back to the dying fire. What a day, maybe he'd wake up tomorrow and this would all be gone.
"Jinx?" He whispered after a few moments. To his surprise the little worm was still awake. He grunted.
"Did you and your wife ever make up?"

"Yes silly, we got married. Go to bed. Big day tomorrow." Jinx spoke no more that night. Juno rolled over and stared at the fire thoughtfully. The next thing he knew it was morning! Somebody was pounding on the door, and Jinx and the acorn were gone. Had he been dreaming? What a dream! What a relief! Juno......

Juno rushed to the door and opened it. No one was there!
"FINALLY!" a small voice complained from somewhere below him. Juno looked down, but Jinx was already going past him into the house. Juno sighed and closed the door. It HADN'T been a dream.
"Where have you been?" Juno asked. "Where's the Magic Acorn?" Jinx spun around.
"WHAT!" he exclaimed. "You've LOST it already?"
"What? You mean... you didn't take it with you?"
"Of course not! I told you to keep it safe! Now look what you've gone and done!"
"How was I supposed to guard it in my sleep?" Juno asked irritably.
Jinx...