by Rachael Long
The Quite Unusual Tale of
Reginald, Prince of Baboons
A tale from the Lost Forest
By Rachael Long
Copyright 2012 Rachael Long
All rights reserved
What is the Lost Forest?
Once, on the African savannah
a group of trees decided to join together and form a wood.
Over many years the wood grew into a forest and even got itself a name...
However, the forest’s name soon became forgotten
and instead everyone called the forest,
The Lost Forest.
Inside the forest lived many different animals ~
this is the quite unusual tale of just one..
.
The Quite Unusual Tale of
Reginald, Prince of Baboons
Contents
Part One
Being a beginning
In which, on a Wednesday or a Tuesday,
Reginald, Prince of Baboons sets off
for the moon...in a hot air balloon.
Part Two
The bit that arrives before the middle bit
Involving a crash landing, a camel
and a walk in the desert:
Part Three
Being the part sometime before
The Ending
In which Reginald and his companion are
rescued from being eaten by a vulture
and returned to the Lost Forest
Part Four
Being the part that comes
Just before, and leads onto
The End
While the tree monkeys look on,
Reginald has a discussion
about a myth
Reginald, Prince of Baboons
Some time ago, perhaps many, many years...although some say it was really only past the weekend that has just ended. So, probably last week maybe around lunchtime on Wednesday or even Tuesday; across the African Savannah, over, around or through the Lost Forest and straight up a high rocky outcrop, Reginald, Prince of Baboons was sitting in the dining room of his hilltop palace. Lunch had just been served, although Reginald couldn't really remember having had breakfast. Perhaps, he mused to himself, breakfast had been a light affair... Studying his lunch, this too looked to be a light affair also - grilled bananas on crispy or was it burnt banana bread, he wasn't really sure? Suddenly a speeding swallow sped in through an open window and hit, beak first, Reginald’s breakfast table so fast so hard, it went TWANG! Much like the sound a ruler makes when held half off a desk and plucked. Reginald, Prince of Baboons was stunned as indeed was the swallow...
However, before he could utter a word or even a grunt of surprise, five more swallows flew in and landed around the first one. They quickly set about freeing its beak from the table. The freed swallow shook its head and said, “Tell me, tell me. What was my velocity? How fast do you think I hit the table?” One of the other swallows pulled out a notebook and began scribbling. After a moment it showed its workings-out to the first swallow. “Gosh. That is fast! But is that African or European?” asked the first. “Oh, African, naturally,” came the reply. Feeling very pleased the group cheered and flew off back through the window.
Reginald, Prince of Baboons stared at the table and then at the window. Confused, he picked up a small bell and gave it a shake to summon his butler. Almost immediately a hippo came charging into the room, grinned wildly, shouted BUNGEE! and jumped through the window at the end of the room. Reginald sprang to his feet and ran to the window. He was just in time to see the hippo hit the ground some 20 or 30 feet below. A large cloud of dust rose into the air and moments later he watched the hippo stagger and limp away. “Next time,” shouted Reginald, leaning out the window, “you need to tie on a bungee rope!” He turned away from the window to see two white-coated rats enter the room, deep in conversation.
Reginald gave a little cough, “I don't suppose by any chance that hippo was anything to do with you two lab rats?” The rats stopped talking and looked at Reginald, Prince of Baboons or RPB as they called him. One, Eva, took her glasses off and cleaned them. The other, Adele, smiled and stroked her bald head. “Yes, an experiment in hypnosis,” she twitched and felt in her pocket for a pill. Eva added, “She, the Hippo, had a fear of heights”...
“But hippos spend most of their time in water. They don't need to climb or be afraid of heights,” said RPB. The lab rats smiled, “Yes but with global warming the sea level will rise. Hippos will have to get used to being higher up,” smiled Eva chewing her pill and still twitching.
RPB scratched his head. He wasn't quite sure why he had let the lab rats set up a laboratory in his palace. Although they had agreed with him, that it was in theory possible to fly to the moon...Setting foot on the moon was RPB's one and only real ambition. He' d failed and crashed into the Lost Forest on his first attempt but the lab rats insisted, yes, in theory it really was possible. However, it may take time to find the right theory...Reginald was now going to try and fly to the moon using a hot air balloon. At that moment a rhino wearing a bow tie and waistcoat entered the room. “You rang, your Highness?”
“Ah yes, Carson,” said RPB. “Is everything set?” The rhino, RPB's butler, nodded, “Yes, your Highness. I have packed a case of breakfasts, a case of lunches, a case of dinners and a case of assorted snacks. Plus a case of emergency snacks, just in case…”
RPB clapped his hands together and looked at the lab rats, “Shall we proceed?” The rats nodded and followed Carson the rhino and RPB out of the dining room and into a room full of twisting corridors. The palace wasn't big enough to have long, endless winding corridors full of surprises and forgotten rooms so Reginald had filled the palace's biggest room with a maze of corridors. Eventually Reginald, Carson, Eva and Adele emerged into a dusty yard. Realising it was the wrong dusty yard they went back through the room of corridors, back into the dining room, climbed out through a window, different to the one the bungee hippo had leapt from, and used a ladder to climb a wall and jump into the right dusty yard.
In the middle of the right dusty yard sat a hot air balloon. It had stood but grew tired of waiting so now sat. Reginald, Prince of Baboons climbed into the balloon's basket and posed while Carson the rhino took some photos. He then cleared his throat to make a little speech, however, Carson had already untied the rope securing the balloon to the ground and the balloon slowly began to rise into the air.
As it rose higher Reginald leaned over the side and waved. He continued waving until he could no longer make out the figures of Carson or Eva and Adele and his hilltop palace was just a blur, the nearby Lost Forest a smudge of green... He sat down and opened his snack case. He was not sure how long it would take to reach the moon but was hopeful he would be there in time for tea.
On the ground Eva and Adele got out a map of the hilltop palace; unfortunately they had forgotten to pull the ladder over the wall when they had jumped into the right dusty yard. Unable to climb back out and there being no doors or windows in the right dusty yard, Carson the rhino set about bashing a hole through the wall...
Meanwhile in the hot air balloon, Reginald finished his snack and curled up under a blanket for a little snooze. Slowly minute by minute and foot-by-foot, the balloon rose ever higher and as it rose higher it passed Night gently falling.
“Hello,” said Night as it quietly slipped past but the balloon said nothing, it just glowed. Night smiled and said, “don't let Sun see you rising and glowing like that. He gets awfully funny you know, if he thinks someone is after his job.”
Eventually the balloon hissed and began to sink down. Not because it didn't want to upset the sun, no...a sunbird who h
ad just been doing a celebratory dance on top of the balloon, because it thought it had flown all the way to the sun (someone had told it to go at night because the sun was cooler then) had overheard Night talking and realised it had actually landed on a balloon and not the sun! In a burst of frustration, it pecked its beak into the balloon, making a hole, before flying off in a huff.
Reginald, Prince of Baboons was unaware his balloon was now falling back to earth. Not only was he snuggled tight under a blanket but he had also put on his blacked-out-glasses – a bit like sunglasses but with painted black lenses. He couldn't see a thing and only wore them at night. Reginald, Prince of Baboons did not like the dark and if he couldn't see it, well, it wasn't there!
Somewhere around Dawn, the posher sister of Night, Reginald, Prince of Baboons and his balloon landed, that is to say crash-landed, back on earth...it is hard to say if it was a loud crash or a quiet one as at the time no one was listening...
Dazed and shaken, Reginald peered over the top of the balloon's basket – nothing! Then he realised he still had his blacked-out-glasses on! Removing them with a flourish Reginald looked around. In the distance he could make out tall pointy mountains...reaching down into the basket he picked up a notebook.
“Dawn is only just breaking on