Jurassic Carp

by Mo O'Hara

  We backed away with the hat still covered until we found Mrs Richards. ‘Miss, is it OK if we go and wash this out?’ I asked.

  ‘Of course!’ she cried, trying not to go anywhere near the hat. ‘Then come and join us in the courtyard for the next tournament challenge.’

  Once we were outside we uncovered the hat.

  ‘Frankie, are you OK?’ I asked.

  He nodded.

  ‘Do you know what’s up with the Night Knight?’ added Pradeep. ‘Is he part of an evil plan?’

  Frankie nodded again, then started stiffly marching through the water in the hat.

  ‘The Night Knight is a soldier?’ Pradeep guessed.

  Frankie shook his head. He put his arms out and walked stiffly without marching.

  ‘He’s a mummy?’ I said.

  Both Frankie and Pradeep gave me a look that said, ‘Really, that’s your guess?’

  Frankie shook his head. Then he started blowing water bubbles to spell ‘Beep, beep, beep!’

  ‘The Night Knight is a car?’ I asked.

  Frankie hung his head.

  ‘Oh, no!’ Pradeep shouted. Then he said in a lower voice, ‘I think Frankie’s saying . . . he thinks Night Knight is a robot!’

  Frankie nodded and his eyes flashed green.

  ‘The Night Knight is a robot!’ I cried. ‘That explains the sparks we saw.’

  ‘And the not eating and the jerky movements,’ Pradeep added.

  ‘And his amazing archery shooting,’ I said. ‘Are you sure, Frankie?’

  Frankie shrugged.

  ‘Then we’ve got to find out,’ Pradeep said.

  We poured Frankie from Pradeep’s hat back into the flagon just as our class approached.

  ‘Ah, I see you’ve cleaned your hat then,’ said Mrs Richards to Pradeep. ‘Now come along, boys, or you’ll be late for the boulder-lift challenge.’

  We made our way back to the tournament area in the courtyard, where there was a large boulder in the centre of the grassy competitors’ arena.

  The knights stood around it, and bowed as the Lords and Ladies slowly took their seats on the platform. This time, each knight had his horse tethered close by – ready for the final event – the joust. The horses all had the emblems of their knights on their saddles, except for the large black horse with a black saddle and head cover. Sebastian was standing near the edge of the arena by a white mare. He patted her nose and gave her a sugar lump from his palm. That must be Guinevere.

  Motley Fool jingled his stick. ‘Lords and Ladies, shall we maketh ready for the second challenge of the tournament?’ He paused. ‘The test of strength?’

  The crowd cheered. We could see Sanj and Mark sitting at opposite ends of the stands with their schools. Mark had his hat positioned as before – as if he was hiding something, while Sanj had his wand pointed at the Night Knight.

  ‘I’ll go and check out what Mark’s up to,’ I whispered to Pradeep, handing him the flagon with Frankie inside. ‘You keep an eye on Sanj and see if you can get Frankie closer to the Night Knight.’

  The Knight of the Crown stepped up to the boulder. He bent down and with both hands managed to lift it off the ground and up to his knees before he dropped it again.

  Everyone applauded.

  By the time the Knight of the Rose had taken his place, I had made my way underneath the stands and was hiding just below Mark’s row of seats. I couldn’t see Fang anywhere, but I knew she must be close by.

  Through the gap between the seats, I saw the Knight of the Rose lift the boulder up as high as his waist. Then he started shaking and let it go. Mark put his hat down on the floor by his feet while he clapped. ‘Hah! Loser,’ he cackled. ‘You are going down like the rest of them.’

  In total stealth mode, I silently reached up and tilted back the edge of Mark’s hat. Hidden inside was a small digital camera! Mark was videoing the challenges. But why? We were told not to bring any phones or cameras today. I ducked back down and snuck away while Sebastian was taking his place.

  ‘The Night-Mare!’ Motley Fool announced as I got back to Pradeep’s side.

  Sebastian picked up the stone and lifted it to his waist. He lifted it a little higher, then a little more. I noticed Sanj shoot Mark a look, then Mark reached in his pocket and pulled out a slingshot and a water balloon.

  ‘Look!’ shouted Sanj suddenly. ‘A crow . . . wearing a hat!’ When everyone turned to see where he was pointing, Mark fired the water balloon at Guinevere.

  The horse whinnied and reared up. Sebastian immediately turned to her and dropped the boulder. ‘Arggggghhhhh!’ he screamed, hopping on one foot! ‘My toe!’

  Pradeep and I ran up to the fence around the arena.

  ‘Are you OK?’ I called to Sebastian.

  ‘I think I’ve broken my toe,’ the knight shouted back. ‘Is Guinevere all right? I heard her whinny like she was hurt.’

  ‘I think she was just startled by something. We’ll check on her,’ Pradeep cried.

  ‘I know what startled Guinevere,’ I whispered to Pradeep. ‘It was Mark! He fired a water balloon at her. He’s also secretly filming the tournament.’

  While Sebastian was carried off to the medical tent, Pradeep and I rushed over to where Guinevere was tethered at the side of the arena to try and calm her down.

  ‘There, girl,’ I said, trying to pat her side through the fence, but she wouldn’t stop stomping and I couldn’t get close.

  Frankie popped up out of the flagon of water in Pradeep’s hands. He jumped over the fence and on to Guinevere’s nose, his eyes glowing a bright zombie green. In a moment she was whinnying quietly, with one eye staring at the fence and her other staring up Pradeep’s left nostril. I quickly scooped Frankie back into the flagon before anyone could see him.

  ‘Thanks, Frankie,’ I whispered.

  ‘So,’ said Pradeep. ‘Mark and Sanj must really want the Night Knight – who may or may not be an evil robot – to win this competition. And they need evidence of this on video. The question is, why?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I replied. ‘But now we have a zombified horse to deal with too! What else could possibly go wrong?’

  As the word ‘wrong’ left my mouth, Fang shot across the courtyard, scrambled over a wall near the stands and headed for the stairs to one of the castle’s turrets.

  ‘You have got to stop saying things like that!’ Pradeep grumbled.

  ‘Never mind,’ I whispered back. ‘Something tells me if we follow Fang we’ll find out more about the Night Knight.’

  ‘There’s nothing we can do while Guinevere is hypnotized and Sebastian is being treated in the medical tent,’ Pradeep replied. ‘Let’s go.’

  As we took a shortcut under the stands, I saw that Mark had put his slingshot and water balloons down by his feet. I reached up and took them. At least I could make sure that he couldn’t shoot at any of the horses again.

  I shoved them down the back of my tights and ran to catch up with Pradeep. There is a basic design flaw in peasant costumes with them not having pockets. Peasants must have had stuff to carry, right? I just don’t believe they just carried everything in their tights.

  As we got to the doorway at the bottom of the turret steps, Pradeep held a finger to his lips to mean ‘Shhhhh’. Then he made a sign for ‘cat’ with his hands and pointed up the stairs.

  I nodded and we began to climb.

  When we got to the top we found ourselves in the doorway of a circular room. It had tall narrow windows with no glass in them and a couple of wooden chairs and a table in the middle. Frankie’s eyes shone a bright green, giving the room a creepy glow.

  ‘Mark and Sanj must have been using this as their evil medieval lair,’ Pradeep whispered.

  Their stuff was on the table and on the floor. Backpacks, computer stuff, wires, tools, and blueprints for something . . . we both stepped forward to take a closer look.

  BOOM! The door to the room slammed shut behind us and we heard an evil purr and the sound of
a key turning in the lock.

  ‘Fang!’ we both cried. Pradeep ran to the door and jiggled the handle but it was no good. We were trapped.

  By now Frankie had wriggled out of his flagon and was flinging himself at the crack under the door, trying to squeeze himself through.

  ‘It’s no good, Frankie, you’re too big,’ I said. ‘That evil kitten tricked us.’

  ‘Again,’ added Pradeep gloomily. He held out the flagon for Frankie to jump back in.

  Suddenly a small piece of parchment was pushed under the door. Pradeep picked it up and we started to read.

  As you’ll have guessed by now the kitten has tricked you and you are our prisoners in the tower. (Insert evil laugh here.) For this part of the plan to have been enacted you must have:

  * Realized that the Night Knight is an incredibly intricately designed, hyper-strong and accurate robot warrior.

  * Suspected that we are the creators and operators of this amazing, potentially ground-breaking creation in the world of Evil Science, which we like to think of as the Mona Lisa of robotics

  Then the writing changed to more of a Mark-like scrawl . . .

  * Or brought the moron fish with you, which would totally have wrecked things so you all had to be taken out of the picture.

  Regardless, you are now trapped, with no means of escape until the end of the day, when the parents come to see the final joust and take their kids home afterwards. I suppose then someone might go looking for you up there.

  Oh, yes and to deter you from shouting for help, Fang will now switch on a loud recording of crows ‘cawwwwing’ that will mask any screams or shouts from the tower.

  We heard a click of a button from outside the door and then some speakers on the walls by the tower windows stared blaring out loud crow sounds.

  See, we really have thought of everything. (Insert second evil laugh here.) Enjoy your stay in the tower . . .

  Then the writing changed again.

  Yeah, morons. Have fun staring at these four walls while we are winning the whole tournament! Result!

  Actually there is only one wall as it is a circular room. Just to be accurate.

  Who cares about that? It was just meant to sound scary, dude.

  It doesn’t take any more time to be both scary and accurate.

  Then there are just scribbles that look like they were fighting over the pen.

  Pradeep scrunched up the piece of paper and threw it at the floor. Then he picked it up again and put it on the table. It hurts Pradeep to litter, even in anger.

  ‘I’m not even going to say that I can’t believe that we fell for the old “follow-the-kitten-into-the-isolated-turret trick”, because I totally can believe we fell for it,’ Pradeep said.

  I went to the window to see what was happening in the courtyard below.

  I could see Sebastian outside the medical tent having his foot bandaged. Guinevere still looked pretty zombified and the Night Knight was in the centre of the arena standing by the boulder.

  Pradeep started looking through Sanj and Mark’s stuff.

  ‘Hey, look at this!’ he called over the sound of crows. ‘I think I found something.’

  Pradeep held up some blueprints of a robot knight. And there was a blueprint for a magic wand-shaped remote control too. Then he held up a flyer advertising a contest from Evil Scientist Magazine for ‘Most Evil Robot’ and read it out:

  ‘The winner of the best design will gain automatic membership to the Society of Evil Robot Makers and the chance to see their design mass-produced in our evil robot factory.’ There was some small print too. Pradeep squinted and read on. ‘. . . All robots must be in good working order, with accompanying plans and all powers and abilities documented by video image.’

  ‘So the Night Knight is an evil robot!’ I gasped. ‘And that’s why Mark has been filming the tournament! To document its powers!’

  ‘I guess that’s why they entered him in the contest,’ Pradeep added. ‘When else could you have a robot openly firing arrows, lifting boulders or riding horses? This medieval reconstruction day is the perfect cover.’

  I looked out the window again and held up Frankie in his flagon so he could see too. The Night Knight was starting to lift the boulder. He already had it at his waist. ‘He’ll beat Sebastian easily,’ I said. ‘Then it will all be over . . . they’ll win the Evil Scientist competition and there’s nothing we can do to stop them.’

  We both thought about what Mark and Sanj would be like with an army of evil Night Knights at their command. It was not a good thought.

  I went to slump down on the floor and then remembered the slingshot and water balloons in my tights. Now, you might be thinking, ‘How could you forget there is a slingshot and two water balloons in your tights?’ but I’d had a lot to think about in the last few minutes. I pulled them out and showed them to Pradeep. ‘Maybe we can’t stop the Night Knight, but we might be able to slow him down . . .’

  I loaded up the first balloon and took aim.

  Pradeep scanned the blueprints, looking for a weak spot where the water could get through.

  ‘Shoot for the Night Knight’s visor or hands,’ he said. ‘There are gaps to allow movement and the water might get through.’

  I aimed for the visor first. The water balloon flew from the slingshot and just clipped the head of the knight. I thought I saw a couple of sparks but it didn’t make the robot drop the boulder. He had it at chest height now and was still lifting. I aimed for its hand next. I only had one balloon left, so I had to make it count. This time I got a direct hit! The Night Knight’s left hand started to shake and then went still.

  Mark and Sanj started jumping up and down, and Sanj bashed the wand against his own hand.

  The Night Knight had stopped.

  ‘We did it!’ I shouted and went to high-fin Frankie, but he nodded towards the Night Knight and shook his head. I couldn’t believe it! The Night Knight had moved the boulder to his right hand and was now lifting it over his head.

  The crowd gasped and oooohed.

  Finally he stepped back and let the boulder thud to the floor!

  ‘I thinketh we have a clear victor!’ Motley Fool’s voice echoed up over the cawing of crows from the tower. ‘We shall now taketh a short break to prepareth the noble steeds and ready ourselves for the final challenge – the joust!’

  He directed his next speech to the crowd of people just arriving at the drawbridge gate.

  ‘Welcome, kin of the castle young folk. Thou shalt be escorted to the viewing stands on the castle side of the jousting area. You may findeth your child’s class and accompany them should you wisheth.’

  ‘I know your mum couldn’t come, but my mum will be here any minute with Sami,’ Pradeep said. ‘We’ve got to get down there.’

  ‘And we have to see if Sebastian can still joust!’ I added. ‘Someone has to stop the Night Knight and Mark and Sanj!’

  Pradeep was looking at the windows and the door and pacing out how many steps were between them. Then he started doing some maths on a sheet of paper that Sanj had marked ‘Evil To Do List’.

  ‘I think I may have figured out a way to get Frankie to the other side of the door.’ Pradeep peered through the keyhole. ‘It looks like Fang left the key in the lock.’

  ‘But Frankie’s too big to fit under the door?’ I said.

  ‘But he’s not too big to go through the window – and neither is the slingshot,’ Pradeep answered.

  Pradeep drew a picture to explain his plan. We were going to shoot Frankie out of the slit window with the slingshot and fire him over the top of the turret. Then he would parachute down, steering himself through the window on the stairs. Then all Frankie had to do was pull the key out of the lock with his mouth and push it through the gap under the door so we could unlock ourselves and be free.

  Frankie peered up out of the flagon and nodded.

  ‘We don’t exactly have a goldfish parachute lying around though,’ I said.

  �
��Yes we do.’ Pradeep smiled and took a neatly folded handkerchief out from his pocket. ‘See, all we have to do is attach—’

  ‘Hang on,’ I interrupted Pradeep. ‘You have pockets in your peasant costume?’

  ‘Oh, yeah, Mum sewed them in,’ Pradeep answered. ‘I know it’s not historically accurate but who wants to go around without pockets?’

  I shrugged.

  ‘All we need to do is attach some thread to the ends to make it a parachute. It will definitely support Frankie’s weight,’ Pradeep explained.

  ‘We just need some thread,’ I said and started to pull out the stitching from around the edge of my tunic. ‘This should do.’

  We tied the edges of the handkerchief to the thread and then gave the knotted ends to Frankie to clamp down on with his jaw. Then we gently scooped him up and put him in the cradle of the slingshot.

  ‘Are you ready, Frankie?’ I asked.

  ‘Just steer your parachute towards the stairway window and you’ll be fine,’ Pradeep said.

  I leaned both arms out the window and aimed directly upward.

  ‘A little bit to the right, now up a bit, a bit more, there . . .’ Pradeep said. ‘Now fire!’

  ‘Be careful, Frankie!’ I whispered. I pulled back on the slingshot and sent Frankie soaring.

  We ran to the opposite window to see if we could see Frankie’s parachute hanky.

  Sure enough, a few seconds later a white parachute with a delicately embroidered ‘PK’ on one corner sailed past the window carrying one very wind-blown-looking goldfish.

  Frankie disappeared from view, but we heard the gentle flutter of a handkerchief and the thwap of a goldfish hitting the floor as Frankie landed on the other side of the door.