'The Case of the Teddy Bear Killers' by Tom Bryson ( an extract from a proposed book for older children )

‘Run, run, they’re back,’ the frightened Snadger’s cry rang out down Lincoln Hill in Coalbrookdale.
Cadgermolewagger swept from his secret crevice deep in the limestone cave. He cried in fury as he saw the approaching Diggermen. He quickly rounded up his followers and they fled into the burrowed limestone rock.
It was the year 1789 when Snadgers fought to bury their thin forms deep in the limestone caverns of Coalbrookdale. It was not easy to hide from the Diggermen - miners who wielded their pickaxes with fury, sweat dripping from their chalk-white faces, coughing as their lungs accumulated the deadly dust. Primitive organisms, as the Snadgers were, they knew that if they didn’t escape the shovels that scooped the limestone into iron bogies, they were doomed. The laden bogies, and the trapped Snadgers would be hauled down the iron tracks to the Ironworks; where The Furnace waited.
But despite the never ending excavations all the way down Lincoln Hill, despite the flailing arms of the limestone miners, despite the inexorable attrition in their numbers as the gouged valley deepened – some Snadgers survived. They slunk away into the recesses of the woods, hid in the shelter of the great Atlas Cedar tree, clung to each other as the Coalbrookdale company workers passed along on their Sabbath Walks. In their clean shirts and tall hats they looked respectable God-fearing citizens on a Sunday outing; to the Snadgers they were those Monday to Saturday devils in disguise.
One such Snadger was Cadgermolewagger. As thin as a pencil but blessed with the magic skills of the shape-changer, he was able to escape their toiling hands by expanding, contracting, wriggling, twisting, hopping and flying; at times he became as a speck of dust, at others an unbreakable rock of limestone as hard as granite. But Cadgermolewagger was an exception – a once in a generation born Snadger. He was also a Leader.
‘Follow me,’ he cried. ‘We must organise, we can fight back, we can stop the Diggermen, the Fireburners and the Iron Horses.’ As one, the rest of the Snadgers moved in line behind Cadgermolewagger ;a column of white stick-like ants they moved up the steep hill. Some cowered in fear, others held their slender forms erect, unwilling to show how scared they were; some slumped, fell by the wayside, gave up the battle. But Cadgermolewagger pressed on until they came to a place of safety.
It is recorded in the Ledgers of Snadger history that it was in this day in 1790, in the woods alongside what is today known as the Lodge Field, a great Council of the Snadgers was held. Cadgermolewagger addressed the community of Snadgers and laid down the ‘Three Principles’ that were to be their watchword henceforth.
‘One – Ours is the Natural World. The Diggermen, Fireburners, and Iron Horses will one day be driven from the land that we will once again possess – we Snadgers are of Nature and Nature will always out.
‘Two – We must fight the Diggermen, Fireburners and Iron Horses - we Snadgers will use our great gift bestowed by the law of nature – flesh-burning.
‘Three – the followers and descendants of the Diggermen, Fireburners, and Iron Horses must be sought out and destroyed.’
Throughout the limestone caves of Coalbrookdale a great shout rang out, that hammered down the Severn Gorge, drowned the clanging hammers and roaring furnaces of the Iron Works, was heard as far away as Coalport. The Snadgers hailed Cadgermolewagger, joined forces and vowed to the God of Nature to defeat the usurpers who would tear them from the earth itself, destroy them in the Great Furnace.
Cadgermolewagger held high an effigy of the Fireburners, a figure made of straw, leaves and twigs bound with the bark of the Acer tree. He held it aloft and his shape changed, his body swelled to the size of a Fireburner, a face as pale as death sprouted up from his frame, bared teeth flashed and with a roar of roar of rage Cadgermolewagger bit off the head of the effigy.