Chapter four
The sandunes lead to a green and gravelled path. Its mossy surface hid tiny grey stones and shells that the sea and wind had swept over last night. All of the shells, round, square, scalley and thick sat amongst each other as if nothing had happened. Alongside the path were plenty of empty and over grown fields. Not a single human or dog could be seen for miles. The only things that looked human to the naked eye were red and white bungalows, and still they even looked dark.
Further along this path was a white bridge which curved over to the other side of the lake. Underneath the bridge swam out three grey and feathered baby swans with their mother and their father who looked completely white. It seemed as though they did not care who or what was looking at them and if someone stood near the bank where they rested they would waddle up to greet them.
The seagulls swerved down at the baby swans, they hovered back up and then they skidded into the lake. The baby swans waddled into the clear lake and all of them including their father began to swim toward the seagulls.
"Morning," they said.
"Moor-or-orning, Where can Master Krome live in?" both of the seagulls asked. The baby swans dipped their heads into the water to look for fish whilst their mother and father got closer to the intruders that invaded their lake.
"Try that old building, over the second bridge," the father swan snorted. The seagulls shook their watery wings over the swans making the babies cry.
"Ouch," cried the seagull with the black beak as the father swan nipped his right wing. He slid near the lonely baby who was swimming around his father.
"Get away from Chuckles,” the mother rushed up to her son and covered him with her large wings. "Go get your own place, now shoo, shoo away from my babies," she snapped her beak.
"We need some water to bathe in and we will share it with you," the seagull said.
"No! Now go, go before I," the male swan flapped his wing out ready to break the seagull's neck and then the sky lit up.
"We will share it with you as long as you keep the humans away from our master," the seagulls squawked. The mother looked down at her young ones; all of them were swimming up to her.
"We can help you fight the humans off our land, but you will come to harm if my little ones get hurt," she replied. The male swan furiously swung away from the seagulls; he dipped down into the water and bounced back onto the surface of the water with a small gold fish in his mouth.
Krome soon caught up with the swimming swans and floating seagulls that he had captured. He fluttered quite low over the baby swans who were following their father underneath a wooden white bridge shaped like a horseshoe. It's damp, wooden floor boards appeared to be full of tiny grains of sand and shells. Out from the other side of the bridge the lake formed into a large circle. Its bed were surrounded by large grey boulders that had sunk deep into the soft floor; and its tiny grass heads popped up near the lily pads where frogs had been living. The boulders stopped people from slipping into the clear lake and also gave sight seers if there were any around to take pictures of the landscape beyond the lake. This showed the most important feature for Krome, a row of odd looking terraced buildings. Each of the four slanted roofs along the terrace dazzled with more white seagulls and pigeons. These buildings turned out to be a single shop. Lower down where the roof had curved in, three dark and empty attic windows showed plenty of floor space and green walls.
"My poison making laboratory, I will call it P.O.I; he looked at the lower half of the middle shop covered in yellow sand. Its oval window revealed a small pinball machine that looked old and tired. The Scratched score board fell to the ground and the green flies began to fly around the room. The other pinball games had broken screens and the round poker table had been scribbled on in black ink.
"This will go and I will have a rest room, it will be full of visible and invisible furniture, oh and of course a safe where my Key will remain. If anyone comes near the safe the floors will rock. "The other shops will become my factory, but what about that odd one.” Krome spoke to himself. He leaned amongst the tall grass near the edge of the sandy path. He leapt up into the air to see the distant building.
The last shop was covered in blue and white stripes of metal, each one of these stripes contained a metal screw that held the place together. All of its doors and windows covered in thin brown boards kept the sand and wind out. Not even a soul or creature could get into it but then as he turned to his left to look at the open fields another building caught his attention. By the side of the main shop, this white round building had large clear windows. Next to the building was the small clean lake.
"The perfect place to keep Jezzabell" he said.
"Check out the fields, a sign post. I want to make sure that no one can stop me from getting the key" Krome ordered the Seagulls.
“There is civilization,” the seagulls swerved towards the other end of the lake.
He stepped away from the building and listened to the bunny rabbits hope into their holes. Miles and miles of long green grass and small hills lay out to the passing traffic. The bungalows and semidetached houses on the other side of the road looked small, thin, fat and tall.
"Old Frithy Firth," he read the rusty sign being held by two long poles. A white rabbit hopped over to him and patted his head. He stroked his antenna into the rabbits ear and listened to it cry. He Sat on top of the brown rabbit’s nose and suddenly it sneezed all over him.
"How dare you sneeze on me," he muttered flapping his ring. The rabbit sneezed on him again and he dug his antlers into the bunny’s nose.
"Mum!" the rabbit cried and ran towards his burrow.
Seconds later his small black tail grew into tiny feet. Around the size of adults 8, his orange and white trainers began to flip onto his feet. He did not realize that he was transforming into a human until another thing disturbed him. His long muscular legs covered in orange and gold trousers. A necklace with the letter M and his two ankle Bands appeared to glisten amongst the pebbles. His upper body drooped in two colourful robes, red and orange with a tint of black. His orange wings slid into his long robe and his black rubies attached themselves to the shades of black that lay round, across and behind his other robe. It formed into a black ruby belt that held his two robes together. More Black gems grew along his arms and in his bare hands were five white nails that clung onto the tips of his fingers. These nails reflected his green eyes that glowed like fire inside a mirror.
His antlers dispersed into two long, pink ears which of course reminded himself of a Human. His mouldy brown hair curled towards his chin and many strands of his hair appeared to be tied up into knots, knots of yellow, orange and red hair that lay over his shoulders and his back.
"I am going to make Old Frithy Firth into a Monarch base, others will join me and then we can create our poison," he excitedly yelled.
"Get off the land, Private land," spoke a voice from behind him. He turned round to watch the small round policeman pick up his radio control. "Control, Control we have a trespasser,"
"Take him away to the other custody suite. No need to take him to base, we cannot cope," another voice from the black radio spoke. The policeman clipped the radio onto his belt and grabbed hold of Krome’s left arm.
Krome starred into his blue eyes and the small radio shivered in the sea breeze, another voice chirped out a major incident along the highway and he let go of the arm.
"Go to your precious call," Krome snapped. The policeman pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket and slipped it onto Krome’s hand.
"I am arresting you for trespassing," the policeman replied. Krome stuck his long fingers out and the bunny that he had bitten jumped out of the burrow, it hopped towards him and gr
abbed the policeman’s radio.
"Oui, that my radio," the policeman spoke. Another rabbit jumped onto the policeman’s back making him stumble onto his knees.
"Ha, ha, ha," Krome laughed. He watched the man stand back up and limp over to the white shop. "Arrest me," Krome taunted the policeman. The policeman starred into Krome’s evil eyes. He limped towards the white shop. Krome followed him into the patio over the hard decking and the policeman pulled a key out of his front pocket to open the door. All of the grey shutters rolled up and he immediately walked into the dark room.
Their in the middle of the room stood three sturdy deck chairs with eight bottles of water. The rusty wooden window frames gathered bits of dust. Krome watched the policeman sit on the chair and take his black shoes off. There was no blood or sweat but a massive bruise on his feet.
"Give me the keys," Krome demanded.
“Stay back or I will stun you,” the policeman thumbled behind his back. “My Gun, you pinched it,” he accused Krome. Krome grabbed hold of the policeman’s hand.
“Give me the keys,” he demanded. The policeman threw the keys onto the cold floor. Krome picked them up and opened a couple of windows to let the cold air in. He moved away from the policeman and locked the door behind him.
"Help," cried the policeman whose foot was swelling up.
The Key and the Broken Wing Page 8