The Land of Make Believe

by Michael Arnold

  Whisk-pey ran back down the step, anticipating Gilma’s landing. The Canine-people were grouped together as Gilma prepared to land with Camden, Ento on his shoulders and Olen attached to Gilma’s legs.

  “Okay, Olen, get ready to jump, we are close enough to the ground now,” Gilma said. Olen jumped off and rolled against one of the huge rocks.

  “Olen, are you okay?” Whisk-pey shouted, running to him. And as soon as she reached his side, she kissed him on his lips.

  Olen sat up, adjusted his glasses and stared in awe as everyone else did at that moment.

  “If it would help; I’m sorry?” Whisk-pey said.

  “Oh, no I think the kiss was pretty damn cool actually, so no need for an apology.”

  Whisk-pey couldn’t hold back her smile or her extraordinary like for Olen openly. “How did you get here and how did you know I was here?” Whisk-pey replied as they stood up to a quiet and staring crowd. “This is Olen and Camden, they are from a place called Earth very far from here, I met Olen first and Camden just a while ago,” Whisk-pey said, hearing the whispers of: they look so weird, what kind of outfit does that kid have on. Did Whisk-pey just kiss that weird creature?

  Nevertheless she hugged Camden then gave him a kiss on his cheek.

  “Hi, Whisk-pey, good to see you again. I like Camden. He is cool, I am going to stay on his shoulder,” Ento said.

  “Okay,” Whisk-pey replied.

  “I went to earth thanks to some good friends. Although I am back here, how I got back was a mistake. I mean when Gilma told me how our people had been turned into slaves, I wanted to come back, but there was no way back until what Olen here calls “blue rain” opened up a portal for me.”

  The Canine-people still weren’t sold on Whisk-pey’s idea that the blue rain got her back to the Land of Make Believe but because she was the daughter of the leader or was the daughter of the king of their land and she was loved so much, they didn’t have much of a choice but to believe her. Most of them did anyway. “What do you call yourselves, like what are you?” One of the Canine-people directed his question to Olen.

  “Camden and I are called human,” Olen replied.

  “Are you going to be living here with us?” another of the Canine person asked.

  “Not sure if I am going to be living here,” Olen said, looking at Whisk-pey, who was standing right beside him. She gazed at him with a little more intent and with a grin then looked up at the skies before speaking again.

  “Olen, what are you thinking about? What is it?”

  Olen turned his gaze to her. Then he looked at the Canine-people then the skies. The clouds were moving. The faces that he had seen in the fog were the same faces he saw in the clouds.

  “There is a cold that comes here once a year that last for a very long time. In my land we call it a cold front, but here it is something more than just a cold front it’s more of a freezing front.”

  The Canine people didn’t say anything, their faces showed their curiosity.

  “I guess to put it in simpler terms; the cold front which is coming here very soon will kill all of you. Your bodies aren’t strong enough to endure it.”

  Then as it had been since the Canine-people had arrived in the mountains the Mountaineers came out to look on. Olen gave Camden a half smile; he smiled back then shrugged his shoulders.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “What do you know about anything here in Make Believe? You’re from Earth,” One of the Canine-men said, shouting from the crowd.

  Scionna who walked from the crowd with her hand reaching from her sword, spoke: “You don’t begin to know what we been through as Canine-people. Who gives you the right to speak things you are wrong about?”

  Whisk-pey stepped between the two of them. “You will not lay a hand to him, Scionna. As I said before, just in case you weren’t paying any attention, Olen is my friend.”

  “Thee human is right, and I apologizeth to thee, Whisk-pey, and to all of thou Canine people,” Hidar said from middle ways down the steps. “I kneweth the cold, and the danger thereof.”

  “If you knew of this cold why didn’t you tell us? You were going to just let us die out here? You are no better than those who have killed our people,” Scionna said loudly.

  “Thou showeth weakness in the sight of oppression and hostility amongst thine own people. In thine heart there is fear. It cometh forth out of thine mouth. If thou wanted to die I was going to maketh suitable before thee and thine people.”

  Scionna was pricked with anger but the more she dwelled on what she had been told the more she realized that her and her people, if anything, were fearful.

  “I foundeth one amongst thine people, fearless, bold, and a solider at heart. She is strong among the tallest of warrior, and the humans even thee smallest among thee is brave.”

  When he said “thee smallest among thee is brave” Hidar directed his attention to Camden. “Fear doesth not stayeth in a house where there is boldness, this day thou have thee power to changeth. Thy land is occupied by the enemy today, but tomorrow it can be changeth to be thine land again.”

  It took that speech to spark a fire under all the Canine-people and another three days for the Mountaineers to create weapons, such as swords, knives, and armors built from their stone mountains.

  For Whisk-pey the Mountaineers created a bigger and stronger sling-shot that could reach its target from a greater distance.

  “The sling-shot I can get use to, but this skin-tight armor, I’m not sure about,” Whisk-pey said.

  “It’s a better suit according to them and you will be better protected,” Olen said. Whisk-pey didn’t dispute it, not one bit; she looked at him and gave him a hug. “I am a little nervous, Olen. What if we don’t…?”

  “Don’t you even say it, Whisk-pey. There isn’t any ‘don’t’ in I can. Let’s keep it with ‘I can’, okay?”

  Early the next morning, the Canine-people were up and active. Many wondered how they were going to get from the mountains to Canine-land. Before any of them could express their thoughts, Gilma, with Camden riding shotgun and Ento on his shoulder, arrived in a fury with thirty-five birds that were different in color but were part owl and part eagle just as Gilma was.

  “As you all know Canine-land is many miles from here. Walking would only make the journey tiring and weakening for everyone. When we get to the gates, with a little convincing, my people thought it would be only right that they lend me a helping hand, so, in return, I can help you all. They will be our transportation to Canine-land,” Gilma said.

  Olen and Whisk-pey stepped aside to talk. “I am really excited to be going back to my home, Olen, and to have you come with me.”

  Olen sort of smile but held his excitement in. “Ummm, why do you say that, Whisk-pey?” he asked.

  “You done a lot for me and you save my people; we knew nothing about this cold front!”

  “I knew nothing about it either. But thanks to this place here, it has given me this knowledge.”

  Whisk-pey couldn’t hold her excitement. It showed through a perfect white smile.

  “Look what they made me, Olen,” Camden yelped as he came running toward them.

  Olen and Whisk-pey eyes widen, their mouth dropped open when they saw the blue and red helmet with the light tinted front.

  “Wow, Camden, you really look like Iron man now,” Olen said.

  “Kind of, but I rather be called Stone man.”

  “Stone man? That is kind of cheesy!” Olen told him.

  “Iron man?” Whisk-pey questioned.

  Then before he could answer, one of the Canine-people, a woman, came over to the three and said: “Are we ready to go now to regain our land, sir?”

  Her attention was directed to Olen.

  Olen quickly relinquished that attention and turned to Whisk-pey. Then he looked down at Camden. “I think she is talking to you,” Camden said.

  “Ugh, I am not quite…”

  “Everyone is re
ady to go, since you are the one who made them aware of the coming cold front. They trust you to lead all of us,” Ento said from Camden’s shoulder.

  Olen walked out from amongst the part of the huge rock that shielded the three of them and stepped into the area where everyone’s eyes were on him from their birds.

  “We believe in you just as we believe in getting our land back,” the Canine man with the white hair yelled. “Our destination was death but the skies showed fit to send you and your young friend to help us. We want our land back, and we want it back now.”

  The thirty cheered. Bodolf didn’t have a cheer or any expression while he sat on his black and green bird. Olen stepped out from Whisk-pey and Camden’s side to where they had gathered.

  “We will get not only your land back, but it is my land as well. I am not only a friend of Whisk-pey but Camden and I are friends of all of the Canine-people as well. Now let’s go get our land back,” Olen yelled.

  The cheers now were louder than ever as he, Whisk-pey and Camden (along with Ento on his shoulder) loaded up on their bird, Gilma.

  Chapter 21

  A cold breath of wind shot through the City of Stone and through the front gates and out in the flat of the land. The air was fresh, and cool but not without the smell of death strong and vibrant within that cold breath of wind. The thirty could smell it and so did Whisk-pey. From a distance, they saw the changes made to the outside of their city. The wooden beam with the faces in them that not only held up the walls of their city but also served as a defensive system against the enemy was gone and replaced by a green stone door twenty feet high, to which walls that went all around the city, were attached as far as the Canine eyes could see.

  “What is this? Our defense is down. What have they done to our city?” Scionna yelled. The anger in her voice ignited a rant among the others and soon the rants became louder and more furious.

  “Hey, we can’t lose our heads, there is an enemy in there and the only way we can defeat them is working together,” Olen said.

  As they heeded Olen’s advice, there was a loud scream emanating from one of the Canine people, right behind the door.

  “Come on, Gilma, they need us!” Gilma flew toward the city.

  “Camden, no! Come back!” Olen yelled.

  “Just let him go! He will cause problems for the rest of us!” Bodolf said.

  Olen turned to the wolf-man along with the bird on which he was riding and said: “Not because he is my friend, but because he has a father who loves him with all of his heart that has gone missing two years’ ago, I won’t be responsible for his son going missing or killed. I must go after him!”

  “I’m thinking that you’re actually thinking someone is going to help you, or is that just a habit you people have when you know that you are going to be eaten alive?” One of the two guards remarked as he escorted the Canine-man down the brick walk. “I never knew a man who could cry so much and beg for his life,” said the second guard.

  The bound Wolf-man who looked to have been beaten from the blood that poured out from the top of his head and down his matted hair didn’t fight. He hung his head as the two guards walked on each side of him, gripping each of his upper arms.

  One of the guards let loose of the arm and unlocked the gate that led into the arena. The wild beast, from the bloody mouth and fleshy bones that still hung out of it, obviously was still working on his latest meal.

  The guard only got the key out when he felt pieces of stone, small pieces fall from above his head.

  The two guards tried to figure out what was causing pebbles like stones to fall from the roof of the arena. Their wonder turned into certainty when the huge stone door into the city made a cow-boom sound. Surprised, the two guards hurried to the door, leaving the bond man unattended.

  They marveled at the hole but what came through the hole astonished the two Wolf guards even more.

  “You are the bad guys, right?” Camden asked them.

  The two guards looked at each other, dumbfounded and bewildered and then took another look at an extremely short and lanky kid, wearing a metal suit and a matching red and blue head gear.

  “What is that?” one of the guards asked.

  The second one replied with the drawing of his sword.

  “He has a sword, Camden. Punch his light out,” Ento said from a pocket just above Camden’s belt buckle.

  Camden heeded Ento’s words. “Yeah, you are the bad guys!” Camden yelled.

  Ento cheered Camden as his white steel fist met with the second guard’s face. The sword dropped and so did the guard. Camden went after the second guard, who scrambled to get up, when he was suddenly hit from behind and taken to the ground.

  In his hand was a knife smaller than a sword but bigger than any knife that Camden had seen in his mother’s kitchen or anywhere on his planet.

  “I don’t know who you are or what you are but I’m not waiting to find out.” Camden’s eyes grew the size of silver dollars when he saw the hairy hand hold the knife up ready to stab him.

  “Oh, man, this is so cool! This is just like the movies or something like that,” Camden shouted. Before the knife could plunge down into Camden’s body, he witnessed a spear come out of the second guard’s forehead, the guard rolled over onto the ground dead. Camden got to his feet with ease, standing in front of him with a bow and arrow in her hand was Scionna along with Olen and a few of the Canine people.

  “Olen, did you see that man? He was…”

  “Thanks for putting the hole in the door and getting us in but we have to work as a team you and me, remember?” Olen said. “If there is no you then there is no me.”

  “And if there is no me then there is no you,” Camden said, completing Olen sentence.

  “That’s right!” Olen said while Scionna not only made quick work of the second guard, she made quick work of the first guard and the two beasts inside of the arena.

  Gilma came from the skies and scooped Camden up to join Olen and the thirty. The bound man came out of hiding to see the thirty gathered in the front entrance of what was formally known as Canine-Land. He stared at Olen and Camden with great concern and curiosity.

  “There is no time to explain,” Whisk-pey said, “except they are our friends. Where is the leader here that has our people in oppression?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure where he is but this place is swarming with these Wolf-people. We are out numbered. If any of you go against them, you will be taken to the arena,” the bonded Canine-man said.

  Whisk-pey and Olen exchanged glances.

  Then as if he heard something, Olen looked straight ahead through the stone city. He placed both hands using his thumb and index finger on the lens of his glasses. “He is right; there are a lot of them. They heard the blast Camden made and they are on their way here,” Olen said. “I think if we work together we could take some of them out before we get to the tyrant.”

  “Can you see him from here?” Bodolf asked.

  Olen paused then looked back at Bodolf. “Yes, I have a clear view of him and of his assistants. Just address him as King Fenris.”

  “Yes, that’s him! I have some unfinished business with him; he killed one of my own and your people. Let me do to him what he has done to your people. Let me kill him!”

  Olen hesitated. Bodolf saw it in his eyes. “Once the head is destroyed then there is no body, they will run like the cowards they are. They will be out of your city when I cut off the head and show it before the Wolf-people.”

  Olen wasn’t used to these kinds of words or his role as leader but he would and he did adjust fast. “Okay, okay, Bodolf, that sounds like a good idea. Take the head, it will weaken the people, I mean, well, you get the picture,” Olen agreed.

  Whisk-pey and Bodolf exchanged glances.

  “Thank you!” Bodolf read those words across her lips. Olen gave him a clear path to King Fenris’s location. Without saying goodbye, Bodolf was gone.

  “You’ve been a real
help, but I will take it from here!” Bodolf said to the bird he was riding when he saw the King’s fortress. Below him there were his own people and the wild beasts.

  “Good luck, Bodolf,” the bird said.

  The sword clean and spotless and the black steel helmet that the Mountaineers created for Bodolf stayed without blemish long enough for him to jump off the bird and onto level ground.

  By himself with the help of a double-edged sword and a small steel black shield, Bodolf slew over fifty of his used-to-be friends and wild beasts. Blood cover his helmet, shield, sword and garments. As he stepped to the outer courts of this stone monument with two statues of King Fenris in the courtyard, more beasts came at Bodolf. Without any trouble he killed them, blood splattering over the grass and onto one of the statues.

  “I have slain fifty of your men and beasts, and I won’t hesitate to slay more if it means I will raise my hand, with your head in it, in victory and the Canine-people have their land back. Come out here or I will come in there,” Bodolf yelled from the outer courts.

  It wasn’t until Bodolf took the double-edged sword and chopped down the bronze sculpture in the outer courts, expending a lot of strength to demolish it, that the doors opened to give way to his former right hand man and now King Fenris.

  “Bodolf, what a surprise!” King Fenris said.

  “Did you think I was going to stand by and watch you humiliate me in front of my own people?” Bodolf asked.

  “Humiliate? Is that what you called it? I call it reassigning position. I dethroned you and therefore you had been reduced down to a peon.”

  Bodolf growled behind closed tight lips. “I may be dethroned but as far as the sky is from the ground so will your head when I detach it from your immoral body!”

  “How quickly you forgot, Bodolf, when you were in control and I was nothing more than your do-guard, immoral wasn’t a problem. But now, since your control and reign is over, immorality is erroneous. I should have killed you before you came here to my city and kill my people. But this very day I will not allow my past decision to cripple my city and my people. This day I will take the air that you breathe, Bodolf.”