The Finders Keepers

by R.G. Strike

  It was not excitement that broke through the perfect serenity of their sleep; it was fear and eagerness to finish the massive challenge that Alfrendo had willingly stated. A figment of certain triumph was their only hopeful afterthought since last night. An adequate confidence had been surging and plunging as they stood up from their bedstead.

  Mr. Luciens had entered the tent when they woke up, apparent evidence that he had been widely awake hours ago. As he stood there on the entrance, his vague figure was highlighted by a little amount of morning sunlight. He muttered audibly, “Get up! Get up! You don’t estimate hiking a mountain for fewer hours. . . .”

  Godfrey scratched his eyes and looked around; Mr. Luciens had dashed on the corner, taking out something from a strange rucksack. Mrs. Luciens was recognizing things around her newly-woken eyes and she was distinguishingly wrinkling her white snout. Alex was yawning as he was gazing at his wand.

  The sun had inched higher in the sky and the tent bloomed more yellowing. Mr. Luciens had started dropping off sermonic sentences again. Mrs. Luciens spat her own defense, but Mr. Luciens would not give up his side because he believed that it would be highly safer to follow him.

  Mrs. Luciens stomped her feet and shot him an eye.

  “Couldn’t we just use the travelling notebook ‘cause that’s exactly why Nolfavrel’s given it?” she spat over at Mr. Luciens’s face.

  “No!” Mr. Luciens denied. “It will draw a lot of nasty suspicion as it will get if you use it.”

  She scowled at him. “Are there people outside? Are there trolls or bears or even a lot of them? As I see, we’re in a forest, Robert!”

  “It’s – it’s not kind of beasts that are out there,” said Mr. Luciens uneasily. “I saw a lot of ambling Look Outs in between the trees.”

  “Looks Outs,” said Alex curiously. “How come there are lots of them?”

  “They sense danger,” Mr. Luciens embarked. “But they won’t be here for so long as I’m sure they’d suck out after they verified that there are no dangers at all.”

  Mr. Luciens scouted the corner once again and searched the khaki rucksack that was not there previously. He turned it upside down and a few crumpled shirts and scruffy pants, two or three tainted bottles of poison, broken monocles, and everyday objects fell on the floor with a tingling noise. Mr. Luciens sniffed on it and puffed out with the total disgust.

  “Bloody bilge!” he cursed.

  “And who owns that, I am curious, Robert,” Mrs. Luciens asked.

  Mr. Luciens kicked the rucksack, pinching his nose as the stink swelled around. Mrs. Luciens shrieked upon smelling, and she and Alex and Godfrey complained together in total distaste. Mr. Luciens scanned the heap that had just fallen on the floor.

  “That’s – goodness, disgusting! And if –” said Mrs. Luciens, but she stopped and bolted outside; Alex, Godfrey, and Mr. Luciens came following on her back.

  “That – was – disgusting!” said Godfrey, coughing.

  Alex leapt from a laden branch and breathed in the freshest air he could get.

  “Where did you get that, well, it’s just – VANISH!”

  The tent blinked and disappeared after a few seconds.

  “Where did you get that?”

  Mr. Luciens hesitated. “The Look Out’s left it . . . had been curious what they’ve got so I took it. It’s best if we know what they’ve got had they turned against us.”

  “Robert, you rummaged what’s not yours?”

  “Well, that’s curiosity, Sylvana. You can’t just always stay there if you’re about to die. I have to know what they’ve got to use against us!”

  The bickering sharpened callously. Godfrey, stern and disappointed, stepped in front of them.

  “Will you stop it!” he barked. Mr. and Mrs. Luciens stared at him. “Haven’t you learned that Look Outs could burst out of those trees and capture us?”

  “Ah, yes,” said Mr. Luciens, looking away. His wife did not speak but rather digested her own private thoughts as she ambled around.

  “Shall we go on, then?” said Godfrey curtly. He looked over at Mrs. Luciens as he continued, “. . . if you don’t mind using the travelling notebook. . . .”

  Mr. Luciens rolled on his feet to follow them as they rumbled on the higher slope of the mountain. The sun was gradually streaking its brilliant yellow rays through the diminishing morning air. No one had talked, as usual, as they progressed further up; the summit was not anywhere near.

  “Are we there yet?” Alex said after an hour of continuous mortal silence.

  “No, shut up!” Godfrey told his shortly.

  He clutched tightly the meter-long wand, and for days now he was angry that it was not responding to any form of command, spell, or magic he tried to perform. Often, he had practiced muttering sincere and authoritative words at the back of his company’s attention. And luckily they were not good enough to notice he was not achieving any progress at all. All that the wand was capable of was to turn into the same silver sword.

  His eyes fell upon the Luciens. At some point, he was worried of what Eliezer had said. How could he be so cruel with them if they were the ones who had saved him and his sister from the intensive hands of the three Cyclops? He wished, deeply, the chance that they would not get punished by his father.

  Eliezer could probably have explained it if she – and where is she by the way?

  “I seemed to be hallucinating,” he whispered to himself; Alex had heard him from his side but he did not interrupt. “It’s impossible . . . really impossible. . . . How could she have screamed from the top of the mountain yesterday?”

  Alex shot him a sudden glance.

  “You heard it too?” he surprisingly breathed. “You heard Eliezer?”

  Godfrey turned to look at him in return. He opened his mouth to speak, but someone did first before him.

  “So, it has occurred to you?” Mr. and Mrs. Luciens said.

  “What – you heard her too, then?” Godfrey blustered. “It’s not important if you heard her – but you recognized it was her voice?”

  “Er, yes, but we let it pass, dear, thinking she’s already in the Palace,” said Mrs. Luciens.

  “She couldn’t be in the Palace if we heard her all at the same time,” said Alex. “And, by the way, isn’t it that she appeared to be like in the woods when she last talked to us?”

  “Yes, it could be,” said Mr. Luciens. “Unless we did not find any further and accurate proofs that –”

  “Her scream was a proof enough!” barked Godfrey. “What else are you looking for?”

  “We’re not sure –”

  “Oh, then complement your uncertainty!” Godfrey snapped angrily. “IF YOU DON’T MIND, I’LL DO IT MYSELF NOW!”

  “But the odd lord –”

  “I’LL FINISH HIM!”

  “We can’t stand to be lured into another trap!” Mr. Luciens bellowed, but Godfrey was not listening to him anymore. He trekked higher up the mountain yet Mr. Luciens was still shouting. “We’re not letting you go –”

  “WELL, THEN LEAVE BEHIND – THAT’S NOT MY PROBLEM!”

  “We’re coming with you! Nolfavrel’s order was to finish everything as one!”

  Godfrey halted and bellowed, “WELL, IF YOU’RE ONLY HELPING ME BECAUSE IT’S NOLFAVREL’S ORDER – THEN FORGET IT!”

  “We didn’t mean it that way, dear,” Mrs. Luciens complemented. “Honestly, it’s my privilege to help you ever since!”

  “THEN CLANK UP HERE AND STOP SHOUTING LIKE MAD!”

  They immediately hasted their steps as they jumped up the steep trail to meet Godfrey, who had appeared to have somehow abated his high tension. Together as four, they climbed up higher and higher, and a dark shape had glided from the woods ten minutes after.

  It was Millicent, his hairs had overgrown in the dousing light, and he was smiling malevolently as he was playing his cane round on his right hand with less effort. His eyes were glued on them as they halted at once in front.
/>   “You again?’ Godfrey yelled.

  “Didn’t I tell you to go away?” Alex bellowed. Millicent smiled unaffected. “Go away!”

  “Yes, I will after I finish my warning,” said Millicent in a slow, casual tone. “You go away!”

  “You’re turning my words back to me!” Alex exclaimed.

  “Well, I’m not only referring to you, for your excellent information. As I’ve said, I am here to shoo you. There is a danger anticipated to build by the high noon. . . . The sun will burn ruby! I have already done my part; if you don’t want to listen, I will have no responsibility upon any one of you who will be maimed. . . .”

  He cackled out the same laugh he made the last time they saw him. As he had promised, he winked at them and disappeared into pure nothingness with a knock on his cane on the ground. His laugh still seemed to be echoing around their ears even though he was totally gone.

  “He has foreseen the battle!” said Alex, astonished to his core.

  “Yes, obviously,” said Godfrey dully, walking up the steep trail as though Millicent had just dropped by and said a reasonably senseless warning. The rest of them gaped at him as he climbed higher. “Are you coming or not?”

  They exchanged unsure looks, and then decided that they could not argue further because even Mr. Luciens had sensed the sudden change in Godfrey. He was, in his opinion, minute by minute turning to possess the same attitude as Eliezer’s.

  Over half an hour had passed and all four of them had noticed immediate increase of gigantic acacia and cotton trees in the vicinity. Mrs. Luciens even jumped in slight mirth, giggled and covered her snout with her filthy bare hands.

  “I remember when I was about five or six,” she said.

  “You mean when you were still a human?” Alex cleared, rounding a mossy dog-size boulder.

  “Yes, when I was still a human, I suppose,” she agreed anxiously. “Mother or father used to suggest that people on servitude would break out cotton shells to make pillows for the royal –”

  “I thought factories were the ones tasked to produce pillows?” said Alex suspiciously. “And I thought the royal people would resist raw pillows from faulty factories. . . .”

  “Oh, boy, dear,” she said softly. “Is it factory you say – like windmills or screened fish cages? As I’m aware, there is nothing yet devised –”

  “Shut up!” Godfrey threatened, desiccated.

  Mrs. Luciens looked disappointedly and frustratingly at him.

  “Well, I just recall when I was five –”

  “Don’t remember them!” he interjected. “Remember we’re on a battle and – shhh!”

  Godfrey led the run to hide behind a rather large boulder on the left. Everyone inched closer, gagged, carefully listening to the trail of sound coming some distances beyond them. Alfrendo was raging as he was, as they could hear, grimacing and taunting malediction to some innocently mistaken followers.

  Screeching of barely a flock of unknowable creatures mixed up his evil curses and scathing actions; hissing of countless snakes followed to burgeon the trace of misunderstanding that neither Alfrendo nor his most loyal, groaning assistant could manage to control.

  All four of them were hidden drowned in the hilarity of Alfrendo’s band of followers. They signaled each other for a soft, sudden talk, and Godfrey was the first one to speak in his audible, commanding tone.

  “He’s got really huge back-ups,” he said matter-of-factly. “Let’s remove in our minds that they could trudge up to get us flatly defeated. I’m sure Nolfavrel’s anticipated this one and I’m glad we’re on one side to evade them no matter what it takes.”

  “Uncle’s right,” Alex mumbled. “We can do this. Nolfavrel has given us just the right things we need, and I wonder if he could have done any better than this.”

  “Yes, that’s right, nephew,” said Godfrey, still silently. “What have we got against those hideous monsters? Wand, travelling notebook, dragon’s egg that was left in the manor house, and Concealator. . . . Wow – those are really fantastic items.”

  “Are you joking?” said Mr. Luciens stuffily. We couldn’t even kill on Cyclops using all those stuffs.”

  Godfrey puffed a little crazy, silent snigger.

  “We’ll use the wand to poke them teasingly ‘round the head and run away with invisibility provided by that pebble.” He chuckled childishly; the noise from Alfrendo’s troop seemed to be dying now. “Or else we’ll really need good talent so we could end up faking we’re dead.”

  “Godfrey, stop it!” Mr. Luciens whimpered.

  “Oh, well, what do you want me to do?” Godfrey said, returning back to normality. “What else have we got? Pretend that we have loads of metal armors and soldiers to fight with us? Mr. Luciens, it is hopeless . . . it’s hopeless. . . .”

  “I thought you want to rescue your sister here?” Mr. Luciens asked quickly.

  “Oh, because I thought my wand is working – Flynt’s wand!”

  “That’s not the only way – there are others if we just know how to use or rack our minds – because that’s what I think Nolfavrel wanted us to do! He never wanted to spoil us!”

  “Nolfavrel here – Nolfavrel there! Right, let’s just talk about him all day long!”

  “Uncle –” said Alex.

  “To tell you the truth, we’ll be dead before we even reach any of them!”

  Godfrey threw his eyes around at them, failing to notice that there was no noise apart from them.

  “You think there is a way –?”

  “Shhh!” said Mrs. Luciens kindly and gently. Godfrey had his eyes misty when he stopped; Mrs. Luciens leaned close to him and breathed, “Yes, Godfrey, there is a way. Don’t just let anger live there” – she pushed her tiny paw against Godfrey’s chest – “and don’t be pessimistic. Everything will be all right.”

  Beads of tear began flowing from both ends of Godfrey’s eyes. Alex patted his shoulder and all three of them smiled at him. He somehow felt relieved and elated staring at each of their promising faces; he wiped his tears for a moment.

  “We noticed you’ve been living with dread and hopelessness during the last days,” Alex mumbled beside him. “We just let it pass because we understand you, uncle.”

  Godfrey swallowed.

  “There are greater things if think what we can do with little stuffs,” Mr. Luciens said, smiling as though he had perceived a very brilliant idea.

  “Tell us what you mean,” Godfrey said finally.

  “Alex will duplicate the Concealator so that each of us will have one source of invisibility while we work out with the monsters.”

  “Do it, nephew,” said Godfrey.

  “Do it, Mr. Luciens,” Alex passed.

  Mr. Luciens looked at him, his smiling face frozen.

  “I can’t do magic,” he said, “nor could Sylvana.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Luciens nodded as they suppressed an emotion trying to surge on their faces.

  “Why?”

  “We were bound to –” said Mr. Luciens, but his wife interrupted.

  “Because Masefield cursed us. That way, we can’t avenge the unexpected disappearance of our son, dear.”

  “How come you were able to freeze Eliezer the first time we were in your lair?” Godfrey asked.

  “Er,” Mrs. Luciens croaked. “That was just a slight exemption to the limits of the curse and, besides, we’re on the boundaries of our home at that time with gives such an inadequate benefit.”

  “How did that happen?”

  “Flynt,” she answered quickly. “It was his deed to enchant our home to be temporarily curse-free so we could, even just at some point, take life easier.”

  “Oh, sorry for my misconception earlier,” Alex joined. He took out his own wand and tapped it on the glowing Concealator of Mr. Luciens. “Duplicate!”

  A small bulge popped on top of the Concealator like a splitting atom, and multiplied into seven all at once, heaped like candies in front of them. The original one was di
stinguished through its prominent glow on the rest of faint-green.

  All of them stared at those for a moment.

  “Take one, put it in your mouth, don’t swallow, and don’t talk –” said Mr. Luciens.

  “. . . some people’s been chatting down there!” hissed a female gorgon from Alfrendo’s troop. “I can see them. . . . Hearts pulsing . . . hearts pulsing . . . hearts pulsing. . . .”

  They tucked their Concealator beneath their tongue and heard Alfrendo grunt angrily and irritatingly on the same spot that the female gorgon probably has been standing. The subsequent sound was heard: Alfrendo was gritting his teeth and the gorgon seemed to hiss back in fear.

  “Go and find them. . . . Bring them to me. . . .” Alfrendo’s voice had echoed one or two times thereafter.

  The female gorgon prowled the spaces around them and, as though she wanted to brag her hard-work, continued hissing. She ambled stealthily, the sharp eyes of the thin vipers on her head rotated in complete revolution, spitting their fork-like tongues in and out of their mouth slit.

  Godfrey, Alex, and Mr. and Mrs. Luciens held hands for a second but pulled up shortly.

  “We need to go separate ways,” Mr. Luciens suggested in a fading whisper. “That way, we could. . . .”

  Mrs. Luciens started crawling away, though they could not see that she had already gone to give the three Allimans’ Concealators. Godfrey and Mr. Luciens had separated next at opposite sides, as solemn and as traceless they could manage.

  “. . . hearts pulsing . . . hearts pulsing . . . hearts pulsing. . . .”

  Alex had ducked flat against the itchy carabao grass, and rolled up as he noticed how far he advanced from the spot they had –

  BOOM – WHAM!

  A chicken-size plinth was whipped on his back. The Concealator jumped from his lips onto the green grass as he stumbled and fell on his face, still managing to look over at his shoulder for what had just happened: The large boulder exploded into splinters and smithereens; a roar of jubilant taunts chorused from the countless gorgons, griffins, and Cyclops who were jumping up and down in mirth; a small collation of monstrous blokes stood scratching their heads and beards, apparently lost in curiosity.

  The female gorgon guffawed loudly among the rest, her sharp set of thin teeth visibly glinting. Alex looked at her.

  The gorgon looked back, suppressing her ludicrously scary face.

  “YOU!” she screamed at Alex, pointing at him and all those hyperactive vipers sordidly turned to him quickly.

  Alex scrambled himself flat on the ground. The muscle at which the piece of rock had hit was still searing in pain. He was groping helplessly for the Concealator on the grass, but it had camouflaged with its green reflections. He kept running his hands perchance. . . .

  The gorgon walked over to him. . . . He had to find the Concealator immediately. . . . The gorgon was nearing. . . . It was nowhere to be caught even as he extended his hands to reach with speed. . . . Three steps . . . two steps. . . . Kept searching. . . . One step –

  “There it is!” he triumphed, his heart skipping a beat. He tightly wrapped it on his right palms and felt his body vanish.

  The gorgon snarled outraging –

  “GRAAARH!!!” she shrieked, followed by a crunching sound as her left elbow separated from its joint, sands pouring out instead of bloods.

  “They are invisible!” Alfrendo growled angrily. “Fire . . . it is fire that I need to see them – you,” he looked over at the dreamily standing man, “– fire up! Fire up – we need as much fire!”

  “Alex, stand!” Godfrey bellowed from beside him. “Fight out!”

  The previous gorgon’s shriek had developed to louder hissings as more vipers grew out of her broken joint. Godfrey pointed his wand at her, lost in countless thoughts; he seemed to be swimming with a lot of useful words.

  “MAIM!” he shouted clearly.

  The gorgon’s body stiffened, and she shrieked out loudly; her skin was scraping out by itself and the vipers on her head were immobile like unlighted candelabra. Alfrendo had heard her a moment later and jolted in rage as he taunted sonorously.

  “AMY!” he yelled deafeningly. “FIGHT BACK!”

  The gorgon turned sideways to look at him, whimpering out of extreme injuries. Her skin was starting to peel off on her feet, and hindered her for a moment before she exclaimed back, “Invisible – they are invisible!”

  “I KNOW! YOU FIGHT BACK!”

  But it was already too late. Amy’s skin had totally gone from her body, which collapsed down, turning into ashes.

  Bloke after bloke were marching towards the nearby area, groaning as they fiercely stroke flashes of fire on anything in the mountain woods that could burn. Godfrey geared towards them, stabbing out heads before heads of pitifully moaning rebels of the empire. Many of those headless had still dared to grope for Godfrey for some seconds before finally dying.

  Fires were instantly growing on the trees now; the extreme heat of the sun was piercing through their skin. Bubbling smokes rushed from the corners of the flaming trees, shrieks pummeling out deafening in their eardrums.

  Godfrey could barely see a thing yet he was determined to his deepest core as he swung and vaulted at unseen enemies that he was not sure whether they were gorgons or blokes who were gabbling sinister maledictions. Alfrendo was again roaring his disgust as he impatiently instructed the other ones.

  “WHY CAN’T I STILL SEE THEM?” he raged, and a giant tree exploded in the distant portion. “MORE EFFORT, YOU EFF – CAPTU–”

  BANG – BANG – BANG!

  Large stones dropped from above: Alfrendo shouted in anger even more; another tree burned to ashes. Some of the marching man collapsed as more stones rained, cracking their skulls. The clamor grew complicatedly as the griffins began screeching.

  “Uncle!”

  Alex grabbed him towards the edge of the mountaintop, where the view was somehow clearer. He was panting and hardly breathing in the breezing cold and less suffocated air. He could not see his nephew anywhere near him, but he could feel that he had drawn his wand out for protection.

  “Uncle, are you all right?” asked Alex, lowering himself as Godfrey fell on his knees, dropping the silver sword beside him.

  “Who did it?” was his response, proven by the fact that he was breathing rapidly after he had said it.

  “The three Allimans – they did it,” said Alex.

  “I CAN SEE ‘EM!” a low, rasping voice blustered.

  Godfrey quickly shot his eyes upon the battlefield. Hugo the Cyclops was grinning at them, Alfrendo beside him.

  “’ERE ’EY ARE!” he shouted. “’ERE – SEE ‘EM –”

  “FOOL – CAPTURE THEM IF YOU COULD SEE THEM!” Alfrendo snapped, trees upon trees exploding like firecrackers in the daylight.

  Hugo triumphantly signaled the rest of the grotesque Cyclops, so big that it was hopeless running from them. They stepped slowly, the ground a bit shaking, with their hands parallel before their eyes like platoons of zombies. They were smiling and sniggering softly as they advanced forward.

  “They can see us – run!” said Godfrey as he and Alex dashed to the right. “We can’t fight them! I hope the three Allimans would drop larger stones!”

  The band of Cyclops, in fact, were unaffected by the continuous dropping of stones from above, as though they were just walking under the rain. Minutes later, the shower of stones seemed to abate, smokes growing larger and thicker around.

  Godfrey and Alex went separate ways to divide the attention of the progressing Cyclops. More of them had skived Alex and rushed to tail Godfrey, who was now running in circles around the peak of the summit. He could hear Alfrendo whirring in the Alliman language amidst the furious cacophony.

  Godfrey tripped his toe accidentally on an embedded tree branch and rolled on a second landing, his sword had been buried in the depths of the flaming branches. Though vague and airless, Godfrey saw large flocks of Alliman (surely Gornophine) flying away
from the treetops, battling and pecking the invisible Worf, Meow, and Tweet.

  There was a teensy scream and something fell, thumping a few meters from Godfrey. Mrs. Luciens materialized as she belched out her own Concealator. She was full of bruises and scratches, some of the pearly furs on her chest and back had been plucked out.

  “Mrs. Luciens!” Godfrey wailed.

  The Cyclopes were now striding down the landing, branches cracked and crunched beneath their large, bare feet. Each thumping sounded like a pounding heart. Hugo, who was leading, was making the roundest, most terrifying fist among the rest.

  Godfrey hurriedly scrambled to face the now smoldering pile of burned woods. The hilt of his silver sword was the only thing that glinted; the rest of it was still buried in the ashes. He did not hesitate upon seeing it, and whipped his hands over and grabbed it.

  Drawing out a mouthful of air through his nostrils, Godfrey pulled the sword forcefully, neither cold nor hot, and swiveled it around his shoulder. To his surprise, it quickly sagged back into its wand form. The strange symbols along the shaft were glowing once again: The wand had just worked. He gaped at it, and a new rush of excitement and happiness surged around his body as he ran restlessly towards Mrs. Luciens.

  The Cyclopes cackled out as they came meters before –

  “STAB!” Godfrey yelled, helping Mrs. Luciens with the Concealator to her mouth.

  Hugo vaulted, and the other two Cyclopes behind him snapped in half instead. The remaining was not traumatized by their companies’ death. Nevertheless, they kept marching forward with Hugo, as though nothing had happened.

  “Chil’ren flesh!” Hugo moaned. “Escapes han’s of Hugo. . . . Twitchin’, snappin’ like fish bones and –”

  “STAB!”

  Hugo’s right hand was blown away; green liquids coming out like tap water. He groaned loudly but he was walking still with his band of followers –

  “MAIM!” Godfrey shouted. “KILL!”

  Hugo was blasted in the air, and for a moment’s thought, Godfrey did not pay attention to where his shattered body parts might have landed. He looked at Mrs. Luciens and said, “Mrs. Luciens, you’ll need this.” He flicked the wand in the air and muttered, “Bow!”

  The bow fell on Mrs. Luciens’s hands. Thanking Godfrey with a faint whisper, she scuttled away with Mr. Luciens, who already had his own bow and was striking the griffins guarding Alfrendo in layered circles.

  He looked around. Someone was yelling in the distant elevation.

  “COW!” Alex was shouting, standing beside a gigantic cubed cage with thick metal bars. A cow had popped inside, lowing.

  Almost instantly, the Gornophines pecking the three invisible Allimans dove in the air and aggressively gobbled the cow to bones. Alex did something and the lid above at which they had just entered shut close; the single bars making out the cages were double-crossed, and all the Gornophines were stuck inside, squealing hopelessly.

  Having done it successfully, Alex rolled on the ground and stepped to help Mr. and Mrs. Luciens who were striking the gorgons as fast as they could. Alex was aiming at countless foes dilapidating to their best to injure them.

  The three Allimans were hissing at each other as they were piecing together three triangles, but nothing was happening with the Frisbee. Mr. Luciens’s right foot was numb now, his ears bleeding, yet he was still struggling to fight by the side of his likewise scathed wife. Alex, however, was quavering because he was now lacking energy for shouts; his throat was sore for hours of continuous bellowing.

  As he was busily firing words, he caught sight of griffins gnawing the cross bars of the cage from the corner of his eyes. He jumped, startled, and averted his arm replenishing the snapped bars as strong as his energy would permit.

  Godfrey saw Alex pummeling the griffins devastatingly. He took advantage of Alfrendo’s solitude with only one griffin. But when he arrived there, there were still three or four Cyclopes standing effortlessly around him.

  Godfrey jumped and aimed its stomach, but before the Cyclopes died, he whipped his hands and hit the back of Godfrey’s head. The searing pain swelled and the Concealator leapt out of his mouth once again, exposing him. Alfrendo seemed not to have noticed the sudden clamor around him.

  Now the three remaining Cyclopes looked at him arrogantly, hopped from their current location and attempted to smash Godfrey, but he jumped to the left. They veered their attention back to him, as though they would not rest unless they killed him. They barricaded him and –

  A rough, scaly hand clutched Godfrey’s neck, followed by a loud cackling of what sounded like scraped metal. Alfrendo beamed his red pupils at him sarcastically, and then with a sudden movement, strangled him upward, his wings flapping happily.

  “You –” he said in a down, rumbling voice, “– wrecked my plan – STOP!”

  His last word rang on everyone’s ear, totally killing the vigorous shouting and screaming: Everyone stopped from their locomotion at his words, immobile as if petrified; every eye focused on Alfrendo. Godfrey choke as Alfrendo tightened his constriction on his neck; Godfrey could feel his sharp claws etching on his skin.

  “At last,” said Alfrendo, “we have met again. . . . I will not let you escape this time after, yes, after what you’ve done to me on my own sanctuary.”

  “Get – off!” said Godfrey in a vague, whistling tone.

  Alfrendo ignored this and went on. “You see, your father was an assuming, pretending, mediocre. . . . He thought he could attack me?”

  He laughed louder, Godfrey breathing hardly. “He underestimated the power of the Gornophines. Well, if he’s talking about the cruelty and everything that defines me, he shouldn’t have included the – STOP TALKING!”

  Some of the griffins’ throat exploded, collapsing down on the gnawed cage bars.

  “Vulto – Dante!” he called out, anger and satisfaction mixing on his voice. “Hang his companions – toast them! I don’t see any tastier desert after this.”

  Vulto came forward with another Cyclops at his height, his nose large like pumpkins and his hands were massive like he had worn driving gloves. He was trembling as he opened his mouth and was about to speak, but no words came out for a moment of fear.

  “Master, we couldn’t track them since they’re invisible,” he said in s husky tone.

  Alfrendo outraged at this and taunted, “YOU CANNOT SEE INVISIBLE THINGS!” He eyes Godfrey angrily. “SHOW YOURSELVES OR I WILL KILL THIS SMUDGE OF FLESH!”

  Alfrendo’s rough hand was pounding with Godfrey’s Adam’s apple. He gulped and looked at the battlefield, his face pale and was drained with blood.

  “Drop him – drop him and we’ll attend to you!” Mr. Luciens said from somewhere in the woods.

  Alfrendo gritted his sharp teeth as he frustratingly removed his hands from Godfrey’s neck. Godfrey floppily fell on the ground; the corners of his jaw were painfully bleeding through the fresh scars from Alfrendo’s razor-sharp claws. For a moment, bloods hurriedly rushed to his white face.

  He inclined his head uneasily, and there from the floating white smokes of the burning trees, Alex and Mr. and Mrs. Luciens stepped slowly, revealing themselves in state of stringent injuries under the weakening afternoon sun.

  “Mr. Luciens – no!” he yelled, but the nearest Cyclops kicked him to shut up. Godfrey’s cheeks were now swelling in pain. “P-please – it’s pointless. T-tell dad –”

  “SILENCE!” Alfrendo thundered at once. “IT’S NONSENSE – WHAT ARE YOU WAITING – TIE THEM!”

  “No – Mr. Luciens, Alex, run! There’s still time!”

  But Vulto and his crony had already knotted them and was carrying their useless immobile bodies against the dry billowing air of the afternoon. None of them seemed to resist the condemnation of Alfrendo as the two monstrous Cyclopes finally hooked them upside down on a stiff tree branch, fire starting to ignite on the parched green grasses below them.

  Godfrey’s inside seemed to surge severely: His sens
es had been triggered, but part of his mind was ignoring it, as though convincing Godfrey that death was his last straw, which was true. They had suffered countless damages, and then he came to realize what Mrs. Luciens had said.

  Only us four and it’s not enough. . . .

  The words echoed. She was just being realistic; they had come to fight by themselves. Maybe Nolfavrel had overestimated their capacity. . . . Maybe they should just die. . . .

  “Now,” Alfrendo hissed softly, everyone was paying attention to him. “No need for further defenses my dearest servants. I am about to kill this boy – yes, I’m going to kill you. . . . Probably not through the easy way. . . . You are . . . the child mentioned in the Sacred Prophecy . . . and your death must be painful.”

  There was a mortal silence that engulfed at his pause. Alfrendo turned aback to face the group of standing gorgons, and nodded, his wings spread out motionlessly.

  “Dominic,” he called out, “give me the Leviota. . . .”

  From the last row came a strange gorgon with hairs of slim, brilliant yellow vipers. His eyes met Alfrendo’s, and there seemed to be a silent interaction, then he inclined it down.

  “Master,” he said growlingly, “the boy took it from me –”

  Without listening to the rest of his sentence, Alfrendo turned around and ducked to face Godfrey’s numb face. Alfrendo was controlling his anger as he stared at him.

  “Where is the Leviota?” he asked.

  Godfrey stirred.

  “Come on, where is it?” Alfrendo asked again, feigning patient. “Give me and I’ll reward your death.”

  “I d-didn’t t-take it!” Godfrey bellowed. Alfrendo was startled. “There’s no –”

  “I’M NOT PLAYING GAMES – GIVE ME!”

  Alfrendo spanked Godfrey and gripped his filthy blond hairs. “DON’T BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO HIDE IT!”

  “I t-told you I didn’t g-get it!”

  “LIAR!” he shouted, spanking Godfrey once again; the griffin standing beside Alfrendo trembled.

  “If I have it, I won’t give it to you either!” Godfrey yelled though croaking and quavering.

  Alfrendo burst into another outrageous roar; trees after trees exploding in the distance. Some of the fearful followers were gagged now as Alfrendo cursed loudly, they were not brave enough to twitch a finger. He started naming his believers to attend to him, displacing his anger and frustration when the nearest griffin beside him fell on the ground lifelessly; the side of its neck was feathered out and a shallow bite mart hollowed.

  Alfrendo faced the dead griffin on the ground.

  “MCDANE!” he cried ruefully.

  Standing behind the dead body of McDane the griffin was Mrs. Hagaire with her bloody lips and prominent white fangs. Then she turned on licking her lips tiredly as her hands balled to rock-hard fists.

  “Frey!” someone had said excitingly.

  Eliezer had appeared from the back of Mrs. Hagaire, her hairs were strangely ponytailed up, and there was something peculiar on the way she looked. Godfrey could not recognize her for the first few seconds, but did so when she spoke.

  And her voice: It seemed to have changed slightly too. Now, she beamed her face happily, Mrs. Hagaire still standing beside her. Not so long, the three Allimans dove from the sky to meet her – that’s where they had gone after they were pecked.

  Alfrendo, on the other hand, was having an eye-to-eye contact with Mrs. Hagaire. Taking advantage of his unawareness, Eliezer hugged the Allimans, but pulled up short as she brought out her own triangle and clutched it on their own assembled ones.

  The Frisbee levitated a few meters in the air before spinning with incredible speed after it was lost in the afternoon sky. Witnessing what had just happened, there was a sudden stream of energy and Godfrey felt it moments after his sister smiled at him.

  He grabbed the wand within reach above his head on the ground just as Alfrendo leapt in the air in a swift movement, then landed smashingly beside Mrs. Hagaire. She ran fast around him and lured his vision, but Alfrendo fought back and swerved. To her astonishment, she had not seen Alfrendo’s powerful hand –

  WHAM!

  Mrs. Hagaire’s head was savagely separated from her neck and it spun continuously until it was thrown and buried in the crackling flames.

  Godfrey saw what had happened. Alfrendo was shrilling and dusting his charred palms as he looked over to him as if to boast his strength. Godfrey veered his eyes and hit Alex and Mr. and Mrs. Luciens with untying spell. They dropped on the ground, Alfrendo looking at them.

  “HOW DARE YOU!” he wailed harshly.

  Mr. and Mrs. Luciens pulled their bow and began striking every Cyclops’s eyes as fast as they could. Godfrey stood triumphantly and grabbed Eliezer on the wrist. Alfrendo took hold of him.

  “Run!” Godfrey yelled to Eliezer. “Run, El! Go – RICOCHET!”

  Alfrendo uncontrollably flew in the air and was shook out, his face soot as he was bouncing in mid-air. Another griffin caught him and brought him down. Godfrey repeated the spell, but did not get Alfrendo.

  He flicked his wand and it grew to the sword form. But before he could wheel off to stab Alfrendo, there was a loud, slithering noise coming out of the woods; trees snapping and falling down as something glided behind the billowing smokes.

  Millicent Igono stormed from above, but when he fell, Alfrendo pierced the sharp edge of his large wings onto his stomach. He whipped the body of Millicent against the hard earth; his eyes wide open and his mouth was frozen from attempting to speak. Moments later, his black cane dropped from above and Alfrendo caught it with his left hand. He did not hesitate upon holding it, and snapped it into two barely usable woods, then fed it to the growing fire.

  “SUCH NO USE!” he shouted. “SURRENDER YOURSELVES NOW!”

  But Godfrey ran with his sister, still fighting and slashing foes along the way. Eliezer was now panicking but it was still visible on her features that she had something incredible. She jumped and tumbled, kicking the aggressive griffins that were still cutting the cage bars; the Gornophines squealing inside.

  The griffins fled and she was expecting them to return, but they did not; they were lost at once behind the tree leaves. Godfrey arrived beside her, checking if she was okay. And then he looked up and directed the tip of his sword upward.

  “FALL!” he shouted as loud as he could.

  All the leaves from the trees were combed out of their branches and hovered and swept across the continuous growing fires, killing them. At once, there was a brighter view and the smokes exhausted away.

  Stone griffins shattered into pieces as they fell after blindfolding the scarlet bandana around the eyes of a huge, lake green snake taller than the trees and wider than a tower. Still, it hissed angrily, twitching its tail so that more leafless trees fell.

  Gorgons and Cyclopes began laughing once again as the basilisk slithered with his most powerful tool blindfolded. They set off to attack once again, and Godfrey’s defenses were not enough. Alex had rolled down the mountain after being smacked by a Cyclops. Mr. and Mrs. Luciens’s bow were split and chewed by the griffins. Godfrey’s wand would not word again.

  They fell and inched together in the defeated battlefield, defenseless. The band of Cyclops, griffins, and gorgons circled around them, no form of escape now. Alfrendo appeared with his usual scrawny features and smiled.

  “This is the end,” he said. “I will kill you all even without the Leviota. The finder will keep it for me. I do not trust anymore the other helpers as I am aware of my own strength and, of course, power.”

  Just as he was about to retort, the platoon of blokes who had died popped out of the ground and were made out of pure hardened earth. They turned to face Alfrendo and the rest of his followers.

  “You – must – pay – for – us!” they chorused like soldiers, and uniformly marched forward in an expanding circle form, then attacked all of the other griffins and Cyclopes who fought poorly back. The gorgons were the first ones
who were finished. Alfrendo roared and the earth-men dissolved to mud.

  Alex stood and aimed at the bandana. It immediately responded to his request and it untied itself then fell like ragged slivers on the ground. The basilisk groaned triumphantly.

  “Close your eyes!” said Alex, and all did at once.

  Alfrendo looked up to check what it was, and as soon as he had an eye contact with its sharp, diamond, amber pupils, his toes began freezing and turning powder gray . . . extending to his hips . . . it was turning solid and unmoving. . . .

  “You cannot defeat me!” he shouted, and his last words were drowned as his body totally bricked to gray stone; the rays of the ruby sunset streaked on one side of his body, as though he was a statue standing on top of a water fountain.

  Godfrey walked forward, each thumping of his footstep was audible in the silent battlefield. The basilisk had gone. He raised the silver sword and smashed it down on Alfrendo, who shattered to pieces on the parched ground grass.

  They could see from the summit of that mountain the apple-red sun stretched across the horizon, spreading its rays over the gray sky. They exchanged exhausted looks for a moment as an overwhelming cold breeze swept.

  “The Finders Keepers had the Leviota,” Eliezer said.

  “Who are they?” Godfrey asked.

  “Ah – sort of organization you contact to find lost things. In return, you don’t get it back. It’s theirs. Dad thought that by contacting the Finders Keepers, the Leviota is in safe hands, and not with Alfrendo anymore. No one will ever use it for power abuse once more. It’s locked.”

  Mrs. Luciens removed her scarlet ribbon from the travelling notebook and propped it open.

  “I have learned something,” said Godfrey. “Alex, do it.”

  Alex pointed his wand on the blank page and muttered, “Palace Dungeon.”

  EPILOGUE:

  ALL TOO WELL