by J.A. Sprouls
Chapter 31
Pill snuggled up against Zephyr in order to help keep the horny toad warm. She figured if the orb was supposed to be so good at keeping a person warm then it should work just as well with a horny toad. Lark decided to do just what Pill was doing so she got her blanket and settled down next to Ketzial. The two horny toads purred a little at the warmth the orb and the body heat was providing them. The girls both looked at the other two horny toads and then patted the ground on the other side of them. So Spring and Valiant got up and went over to the girls to sleep next to them. The warmth of the orbs seemed to encircle the little group of sleepers and glowed so much that Wicket and Tally had to sleep with their pillows over their eyes.
By the next morning the girls had gotten over the uneasiness of the orbs' connection with them. After all, the orbs did manage to keep them warm all night long. The horny toads had gotten up when the girls did and they went outside to settle themselves down in a spot where the rising sun was hitting and warming the rocks.
The girls decided to try and use the power they had with the orbs to make breakfast. It took a few tries and a number of broken eggs before they got the hang of it and that was only after Pill got an idea as to what to do..
"Maybe we're thinking too fast. I mean, I don't know about you. But I think I want an egg in the skillet and then 'zoom' the egg goes crashing into the skillet and the wall. Maybe if I think of moving the egg slowly then that would make the egg move slower," Pill suggested. She gave it a try and sure enough it worked. They started to think in slow motion terms after that.
"You know, I really wished that these orbs were more like Tally had said, about being pocket sized. They would be a heck of a lot easier to manage," Pill told Lark. And as if the orb was listening to Pill it began to shrink down until it fit snuggly into the palm of her hand.
Lark, impressed with what Pill had done immediately thought the same thing and her orb also shrank down to palm size.
"Neato!" Pill exclaimed, "I wonder what else we can do?" They spent the rest of time they had while the others slept trying out different things. By the time the adults had gotten up the breakfast was ready, the ship had been loaded with all the gold it could hold and the rest of the gold had been buried in a very neat and deep hole dug out by the orbs power.
No one had noticed that the gold was gone or that the ship's wheels were sagging a little. They all just sat there quietly eating and enjoying their breakfast. Tally was having his breakfast in the hide out's entrance. He still wasn't over the closed in feeling that the tunnels had given him. He sat there and ate and took in deep breaths of good, clean, fresh air.
It wasn't until Wicket was getting the plates and cups to wash that he thought to himself, the gold plates might be easier to clean so they should eat off of them. But when he looked over to get a better look at them he realized the gold was gone.
"Hey, where's the gold? It's gone! Daggum it, those stinking Flugs snuck in here in the middle of the night and stole it! Those thieving, good for nothing robbers!"
Pigtail and the others all looked at where the gold had been and jumped to their feet when they saw it was gone.
The Knarls, who had been sipping their honey quietly as they sat on the end of the table were also on their feet.
"No way, those Flugs wouldn't come into the Bermuda Square. Not if they didn't absolutely have to." Arbordale exclaimed.
"Yeah, but they came into it before when they blew up the cave, now didn't they?" Tally retorted. "Besides the Wind Hag would make them whether they wanted to or not."
"He's got a point, I just didn't think they could get that organized that quickly," Pigtail said in a defeated voice.
It was about that time that the girls, who could no longer keep it to themselves, burst out laughing. Everyone turned to them and stared at their cavalier attitude towards the missing gold, not to mention the the fact that the Flugs had invaded their hide out.
Lark was the first one to stop laughing long enough to explain, "The Flugs didn't do anything with the gold, we did" She had this big old grin on her face and was just beaming at the others.
She and Pill both held up the orbs, now palm sized, to show the other pirates what they had done.
"Pill thought the orbs were too big to handle as they were and just as soon as she thought it the orbs shrunk down to a manageable size. So I thought the same thing and my shrunk too. It took a good part of the morning before we figured out that we needed to think in slow motion to make things move at a reasonable speed and not lightning fast the way we did last night. Once we got that down then the rest was easy. We loaded the ship with all the gold it could hold and then we dug a hole and put the rest of the gold in there," Lark finished rather breathlessly.
Pill was holding a map in her hands and was grinning as big as Lark was at the others. "We even had time to make maps for everyone so that we all know where the treasure is, seeing as to how we are all part owners of the gold." She handed a map to each of the pirates. Then she looked at the Knarls and then at Pigtail in a questioning way.
"The Knarls risked just as much as we did so they deserve a portion of the treasure too," Pigtail told Pill. "Unless the others think otherwise, it is a democracy here. I mean, I pretty much admitted last night that I didn't make a good pirate captain. So I shouldn't be making all the decisions by myself, now should I?" He added as looked around at the others.
"Well then, all those in favor of the Knarls getting a portion of the treasure raise your hands," Jethro called for a vote. The vote was unanimous and so Pill and Lark sat down to draw maps for the Knarls.
But before they could get started Arbordale stood up and said, "Thanks for offering but let's face it, gold means nothing to us Knarls. So y'all might as well keep it all for yourselves. Nope, all we ask for is honey. Honey, now that's gold to us. If you keep us supplied with that then we will be as happy as a Flug in a mud bath."
"I'll tell you what; I'll go over to the trading post in Tree, and make a deal with him to give you a jar of honey, once a week.
"The problem with that - it would mean telling the owner about us. Not too many people know about us and we would like to keep it that way. Who knows what those humans may do to us if they found out we existed. You only knew about us by accident and you never abused it. Not once, not any member of your wagon. They always respected us and our lives. But you can't be sure other humans will be as nice," Orida said, a little frightened at the thought of other humans finding out about them.
"What if I pay the owner to put the honey in a specific place? You'll need to go and find the exact spot you want the honey put and then I'll pay him enough gold that he will do that from here on out, okay?" Jethro offered. "I'll also make it clear that if he ever stops, then he will bring bad luck on to him and his trading post. So if he stops leaving the honey there, then you and your family need to pull some tricks make him think he's got bad luck. Then he'll go back to leaving you the honey just to make the bad luck disappear. How's that sound?"
Arbordale, BJ and BB all laughed at the thought of pulling pranks on the owner and they agreed to the conditions that Jethro offered.
Once that was all settled, Jethro got on his horse and the Knarls climbed on after him and they headed for the trading post. Jethro had decided to stay within the Bermuda Square as much as possible to avoid any Flugs who reside up top.
While they were gone the girls were stationed as lookouts to make sure there weren't any Flugs coming to get them or the power sources. Wicket and Tally started to get lunch all prepared and Pigtail got his telescope out and helped the girls scan the horizon for any movement.
It wasn't until midafternoon that Jethro and the Knarls came back. The Knarls figured they had helped as much as they could so they bid the pirates goodbye and headed home.
Tally whispered to Wicket, "I think they just want to make darn sure they aren't around when the Flugs and the Wind Hag come after us." Wicket had to admit that Tally had a point.
He kinda wished he could go off with the Knarls.
They traded off time as lookouts with Tally and Wicket's turn coming just before supper time. The girls, using their orbs, helped prepare the meal. They had finally gotten it down and had stopped sending things flying uncontrollably when moving an item. As they were about to settle down for supper Wicket raised the alarm.
"Hey, there's this big old mass moving towards us," he hollered.
They all ran to the entrance and stood there staring at the horizon. Pigtail had the telescope to his eye and Tally had grabbed the binoculars.
"Yeah, there is certainly something moving this way. As to just what it is I'm not sure," Pigtail said.
"Hey, maybe we could send one of the horny toads out to go and see what it is," Tally suggested.
"Yeah, right and when they come back then just how the heck are we supposed to understand what they are saying? I don't know about you but I left my 'Horny Toad Translation' book back on the dock in Galveston," Wicket said in a sarcastic tone as he rolled his eyes.
"Oh, well, maybe they could mime it. You know, act it out so that we figure out just what they saw," Tally offered.
"Naw, no one likes mimes and no one really understands them. Mainly, mimes just irritate people. And I'm pretty sure the horny toads like us so they probably wouldn't want to irritate us," Wicket explained to Tally.
Pill and Lark had huddled together and had talked things through as to just what they could do with the orbs. Finally, Pill asked the captain if she could see the telescope. Pigtail handed it over to her and she held it up to her eye and held the orb in her other hand. She thought about making the telescope more powerful and sure enough, it worked. She was able to see all the way over to the horizon and she could see an army of Flugs headed across the land.
"I don't think the Flugs know where they are going. They knew about the cave but I don't think they are sure just where we are," Pill told the others.
"We could use that to our advantage. We could go over to that out cropping over there," Jethro pointed to a group of rocks to the south of their hideout. "Then we could make them think that it's our hide out. That way we could protect our true hideout."
"That's an idea but in the end what good would it do? They would probably find this hideout at some point," Pigtail countered.
"Yeah, but if the girls use the orbs and make the Flugs think that the Bermuda Square is haunted, it just might scare them enough to make them scatter and run home. If they do that then we could well be on our way back to the Gulf. The girls could create a wind to drive the land ship back home. All they would need to know is the proper direction. You have a compass so you could tell them which way to make the wind blow," Jethro explained.
"Yeah, I suppose that could work, but what if they don't scatter and run home but stick it out. Then how are we gonna get past them?" Pigtail wanted to make sure that all the bases were covered before they decided to act.
"Oh, I think the girls can produce some very convincing 'ghosts.' All they need are some sheets and a bowl underneath it to give it a 'head' shape. Then all they would have to do is make it go flying towards the Flugs and that should scare them properly.
"We could do that easy enough," Lark told them. "But I'm not too sure if we can get a strong enough breeze to move the land ship now that it's weighed down with the gold."
"Sure we can, as long as we do it together. I don't think that would too much of a problem. We would have to take rest stops here and there though. If y'all don't think that would be a problem then that would be a good plan," Pill told the others.
Jethro looked to the others and then said, "Okay, let's do that. Wicket, Tally, go fetch us some sheets to use and a couple of bowls."
As Wicket and Tally took off to get the supplies, Pill looked through the telescope again. It was then that she saw the Wind Hag being carried on a sedan chair.
The Flugs were holding the Wind Hag up high so that the humans would be sure to see her. They weren't sure just where the humans were but the Flugs figured they would show themselves to fight back. Then the Wind Hag would let them have it. The Flugs were unaware that the humans now had the power sources and were able to use them and that the Wind Hag had no power over anything. If they had known that they never would have ventured into the Bermuda Square. They were counting on her to protect them from all the evil creatures that lurk inside the Square.
The pirates got the sheets all fixed up and the girls tested them out by having them fly around the hide out. Once they were certain they could make them fly and float in a menacing manner they directed the 'ghosts' towards the approaching mass of Flugs.
The Flugs were going at a slow pace waiting for the humans to reveal themselves. They were looking in all directions hoping to spot them before the humans realized they were coming. The Wind Hag was barking orders to turn this way and that. The Flugs were really wishing she would keep her voice down. They would lose all elements of surprise if the humans heard her yelling at them. They followed her orders because they figured she knew where the humans were. After all, her power was stronger than anything they had ever known. That's why they had vowed their allegiance to her. The Flugs figured it was better to go with the strongest individual than to have that individual go against them. So they followed her orders and hoped for the best. Too bad she didn't still have her power sources.
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