That might have happened except for two things.
Technically, destroying the Garden is not against the Law. Every time you pick a flower or fruit or vegetable, or even dig up roots out of the ground, you are destroying parts of the plant. The idea is that in destroying something, you are actually causing new growth. So, since the Law was not broken, our friends could not be punished for tearing up the Garden looking for the Seed.
Second, the Bunnies finally found the Seed of Fruit and Vegetables. It was the size of a small walnut. It was also the ugliest thing you probably would not ever want to see. Its color was almost black, spotted with tiny red and green dots. It was not round but very irregular in shape, with tiny but sharp spikes sticking out of it.
Hunny held it gingerly and reverently in her paws.
“What is that disgusting thing?” asked one of the Centaurs.
“Is that the cause of all our problems?” asked another.
“Destroy that ugly thing before it cause more problems,” said a third.
“This is the last hope of the Island, Centaurs,” the Bunnies countered the angry Centaurs. “This is the last chance to save our Island.”
“Well, do something with it!” the Centaur demanded. “And quickly!”
Uniqua, who had shed herself from her plow, approached the Seed and bowed her horn towards it. Suddenly, her horn glowed white.
“I now understand,” she said quietly. “While it was buried, it slept. Now that it has been unburied, it is awake. To bury it again, it will die only to give new life.”
“So, bury it quickly!” another Centaur ordered.
Uniqua shook her head sadly. “This Seed will die, but it will not produce new life. There is something missing on this Island to make it give rebirth to our Island. The magic ingredient is love. You Centaurs must change your hearts from devotion to Law and more to love this Island and the peoples who live here.”
“Impossible,” the first Centaur who had spoken snorted. “You would ask us to change our shape. We love the Lord of Power. It is he who gave us the Law. We love the Law. It is the highest word above all other words. We were made to obey the Law and in turn to enforce the Law. You will soon learn this meaning and come to embrace this truth. Or, the ground you till will become your final resting place.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
THE GATES OF THE LORD OF POWER’S CASTLE
In the meantime . . . .
I kind of like those words, even just the single word “meanwhile.” So much is conveyed with these simple words. You see, in real life, many things happen at the same time. Dad could be outside cutting the grass. Mom could be chatting on the phone with her friends. Brother is playing an online video game. Sister is at the mall, “shopping,” which means gossiping about everyone in school. And then there is you, doing your thing.
You cannot tell a story and show everything that is happening at the same time. If you tried, your sentence might look like this: Dad uses Mom talks outside a phone inside a lawn mower video game always Brother is frustrated Sister passes runs out of gas shocked by the news dirty secrets and wins!
Whew! This sentence makes no sense!!! Confusing, huh? No, we must tell each individual story by itself. Then, the next story. But to make the listener (or reader) know that each individual story is happening at the same time, we have to use my favorite words: “in the meantime” or “meanwhile.”
So, while the Bunnies were searching for the Seed of Fruits and Vegetables, and while the Centaurs were very upset at the destruction of the Delightful Garden, the children and Prince Bot had been left all alone in their low building prison.
“I’m bored,” Carl said with growing frustration.
Karen knew that when her brother had nothing to occupy his mind, he would look to get into trouble. “Me, too,” she agreed. Her first thought was to try and keep Carl from doing something dangerous or silly. But the more she thought about their situation, what might be dangerous or silly just might be the right thing to do. “So, what do you want to do about it?” she asked.
“Get out of here,” Carl answered quickly. But as he looked into his sister’s eyes in the dim light, he realized she was thinking the same thing. “Got any ideas?”
Karen stood up from her sitting position and went to the single door. She pushed it open a crack, expecting one of the Centaurs on guard to quickly slam it shut. No one did, in fact. She pushed the door open wider and looked around. No one seemed to be on guard. The few Centaurs she could see were far away. It was as if the three of them could just easily walk out of the building and be free. Ah, but then a shadow moved, and Karen quickly and quietly closed the door again.
“No luck there,” she told her brother.
“Let’s sneak out the back,” Carl suggested.
“I thought that was the only door,” Karen pointed out.
“Prince Bot,” Carl turned to their companion. “Any suggestions?”
The Robot rotated its body to face the rear. “Make a door,” It replied.
“Really?” Karen felt excited and skipped over next to the Robot and her brother.
“The construction would allow for a small penetration that may go undetected for some time,” Prince Bot answered her. “In other words, not too big nor too small. You children can squeeze through and make your escape.”
“What about you?” Karen asked anxiously.
“I am of no consequence,” the Robot told her without any emotion. “I am simply a tool. My function is to facilitate. And now, I will facilitate a prison break.”
As I wrote before, the building that imprisoned them was made of stone walls. Prince Bot carefully mapped out how the stones were laid out or constructed. When stones are piled up on top of each other, gravity helps to keep them standing on each other. That and mortar, of course, which is a kind of cement. By taking out the right stones, the Robot could change the stress points, where the stones touched each other, and make a hole in the wall without the wall falling down. It was kind of like that game where you have to take out one wooden piece from a tower without the tower falling down.
Within a few hours, a hole had been created in the wall just big enough for the children to squeeze through and just small enough not to be readily noticed.
“The Gates are in front of you and just off to the left,” the Robot briefed them. “You can use this building as cover until you reach the Mountain. Then, you risk exposure and can be seen. Stay low. Move safely: not too slow or too fast.”
“What about you?” Karen asked again, worriedly.
“Uniqua was correct. This trek is about you two. You are important, not us. It is imperative that you interface with the Lord of Power.”
Karen hugged the Robot, which looked kind of awkward because the Prince was a machine and his body was very irregular. But her meaning was clear.
“Good luck,” the Robot wished them uncharacteristically. Karen’s display of emotion was not lost on his memory circuits.
When the children emerged from the hole in the wall, they were in the building’s shadow. Looking quickly around to get their bearings, they saw the Mountain of Power straight ahead. It towered high up into the cloudless sky. Its size made it look a lot closer than it actually was. The twins would have to cross a huge expanse of open ground to reach it. Like the Robot said, the building would hid them for a while. But the closer they approached the Mountain, the more visible they would become.
Suppose you were standing at the corner of a big box. When you look around, the box sides block your line of sight. Line of sight means the straight line you can see and how far you can see. You can look straight down the two sides of the box, but you cannot see what is on the other side of the box.
Now, if you step away from the corner of the box, moving in a straight line from the corner, you will see that your field of vision gets wider. Field of vision, then, is the arc of area you can see, from one side of your head to the other without being blocked. At the corner, you could not se
e anything past the side. But the further you move away from the corner, the more area you can see “behind” each side.
This is why the children were becoming more and more exposed as they neared the Mountain. They entered a wider field of vision for the Centaurs—if they were looking in their direction—and lost the protection of the building to hide them.
All was proceeding well. The Centaurs were busy elsewhere. Faint shouts of anger could be heard in the Delightful Garden as the Centaurs started yelling at the Bunnies. In the distance, the twins just caught a glimpse of Tiny being led in chains by a company of Centaurs. And, in front of them finally stood the very Gates of the Lord of Power’s castle.
The Mountain looked pretty much like rock. Rocks, of course, come in all kinds of colors. I, personally, have a lot of trouble distinguishing one kind of rock from another. They all kind of look alike to me. Even the colors of rocks run together so that they all look more or less brown with a little bit of white here, a little bit of red there, and a dash of another color mixed in. The twins described this part of the Mountain as being more yellowish in color—and I am not sure if that was important.
The Gates, however, were very important. And, they were imposing: they were just about the tallest and widest Gates you could ever imagine. They stood in contrast to the Mountain’s color: they were gunmetal gray, which is not a pretty color at all.
The twins carefully approached the massive Gates. They were terribly exposed now. If any of the Centaurs even looked in their direction, they would be spotted. And then, the game would be up.
You could also say that the huge Gates were intimidating. Not only did the children feel very tiny standing before them, they began to wonder how they were going to open them. Such huge metal doors had to be very, very heavy. And the twins thought it might take the strength of all the Centaurs just to move one of the Gates.
As Carl tentatively reached out with his right hand to touch the Gates, a hoarse voice stopped him.
“Hoy! Wha’ you ‘oin’?”
The children quickly turned around. Chills of fear went up and down their spines. They thought they had been caught doing something very bad and were in big trouble. Their bodies were suddenly filled with adrenaline, that special enzyme in our bodies that tells our brain to fight or flight. It gives us a sudden burst of energy. We start breathing a lot faster. And sometimes, we have this funny feeling in our stomachs that can make us feel sick.
Confronting the children stood a really odd-looking old man. I write “old man” because he was mostly human in form. He wore almost no clothes and his skin color matched the color of the Mountain’s rocks. His feet, however, were not human but exhibited talons like those of an eagle. After careful scrutiny, the twins could see a pair of thin, transparent wings folded across his back. This creature had no teeth in his otherwise humanlike mouth (which made it impossible for him to pronounce a “t” or “b” or even a “d” sound), but its tongue was very long. This tongue squirted out of its mouth often, like that of a snake. He was also pointing a long, thin, wooden cane at them.
“Please don’t tell the Centaurs,” Karen pleaded in a rush.
“The s-s-sen’aurs? Wha’ ‘ey go’ ‘o ‘o wi’ you?” the creature asked. (“The Centaurs? What they got to do with you?”)
“They arrested us for breaking some silly law,” Carl added quickly.
“Hoo. “Ey a’ways ha’e a waw on e’ery’ing. S-s-siwy cre’weres. Wha’ you ‘o?” (Pshaw. They always have a law on everything. Silly creatures. What you do?”)
“We were trying to see the Lord of Power,” Karen explained.
“Ward o’ ‘Ower? You nee’ key,” the old man tole them. “An’ a “asswar’.” (“Lord of Power. You need a key. And a password.”)
“A key?” Karen repeated. She looked at Carl who shrugged his shoulders. “What does it look like?”
“I ‘on’ remem’er. Use’ ‘o kee’ i’ here.” He pointed at his loincloth. There used to be a pocket sewn into the loincloth. But the bottom of the pocket was now undone and open. Whatever was in the pocket had fallen out a long time ago.
Rather than trying to read and understand what the old man was saying, I should tell you his story in readable English. (Then, I will not have to translate each of the old man’s sentences. Ha-ha.)
When I described the creature as “old,” I really have no idea how old he really was when the twins met him. Also, remember that time operates very strangely on this Island. We know that Mr. Who is really old, and this creature might have been much older than Mr. Who. If that was possible, and the twins think it was.
Anyway, the old man had only one job: to hold onto the key that unlocked the castle Gates. Apparently, the Gates had a self-locking function. When they closed, they locked by themselves. And, the creature always kept the key in his loincloth pocket. His fault was that he did not attach a chain on the key, like many janitors I know. The chain is also attached to a belt loop or directly onto their belts. This way, if a key falls out of a pocket, it will still be attached to the person.
Again, we go back to the great war. I am glad the twins were not on the Island at that time. Terrible things had happened during the war, and it had not been a pleasant time for anyone. Everyone had suffered in one way or another. Because so many bad things were happening at the time, the old man had become very curious, and he decided to check things out. So, using his wings, he flew all over the Island. While he was soaring over Submarine Lake, something, possibly a bird, bumped into him, ripping his pocket open. The key naturally fell out and disappeared into the depths of the Lake below him.
When the creature arrived back at his station, he was full of different emotions. First, he was shocked. How could this have happened? Then he was scared. The Lord of Power had given him just one job. And he had failed in his responsibilities. Certainly, the Lord of Power was going to be very angry with him and probably punish him, too, when he eventually found out. He thought about running away, but where could he go? There was no place to go off this Island.
He thought of telling the Lord of Power what had happened. But you know, it is really hard to tell your parents or teachers bad news, especially when you feel it is your fault to begin with. So, he decided not to and keep quiet about the matter. After all, he reasoned, no one ever came to see the Lord of Power any more. So, he felt safe by keeping the lost key a secret.
Now, however, here were the two children. After they had told their story—briefly because they were still in danger of being found out—the creature felt very sad. He could not help them even if he wanted to.
Carl put his hands in his pockets. He felt the opal, of course, and something else that he had forgotten about.
“What does this key look like?” he asked the creature.
In response, the old man pointed his cane at a section of rock to the right of the giant Gates. Almost immediately, runes appeared silvery against the rock. (Runes often look like picture words. You might recall the hieroglyphics the Egyptians used in their writing. The Chinese used runes before they developed the characters we are very familiar with today.)
Carl walked up to the runes and looked carefully at each one. Each was kind of hollow, so that a key shaped like one of the runes could fit inside. As he fingered the strange object in his pocket, he had an idea: the object felt like it could be rune-shaped and—maybe—the missing key!
“Could this be the key?” he asked, producing the object from his pocket. It was the very metallic object he accidentally found on the bottom of Submarine Lake.
The creature could hardly constrain himself.
“You ‘oun’ i’!” (“You found it!”) The creature took the key and placed it gently, almost reverently, into one of the rune slots. A loud click boomed across the Islet like a cannon had just gone off, and the small slab of rock with the runes opened a crack.
“Hurry!” the creature urged. His urgency was correct, for all the Centaurs suddenly turned towards the Mount
ain. Then, they all saw the children standing outside the jail and began yelling and screaming and charging towards the Mountain to recapture the twins. “An’ remem’er the ‘asswar’,” the old man reminded them.
It was too late for the Centaurs. The children slipped in through the narrow opening and into the Mountain. The old man closed the slab and took the rune key out of its slot. With a leap into the air, he flew high up into the sky and away from the angry Centaurs.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
LORD OF POWER
It seems to me rather interesting that the imposing Gates were just a ruse. A ruse is something used to fool people or animals. Like, if I want to catch ducks, a fake duck floating in a pond would fool other ducks into thinking the pond is safe. They will then land on the pond only to be captured. Also, the true Gate (or door) to the Lord of Power’s castle was hidden in plain sight. This made it extremely difficult to find. You might say that it was well camouflaged.
But let’s get back to the twins, for we are almost at the end of our story.
When the children passed through the slab portal, they found themselves in complete darkness. Something—and the children did not think it was magic but more mechanical in nature—sensed their presence. Slowly, the darkness dissipated in a growing glow of light. The twins soon could see very clearly.
They stood in a tunnel hallway. The floor of the hallway was covered in beautiful marble, very highly polished. The walls were covered in sheets of gold, silver, and very precious and rare platinum. Gems (like diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and the like) the size of your fists were embedded in the walls, and they probably would not have been very difficult to remove.
A treasure hunter would have wet his pants with so much treasure and wealth around him. He could pick a fortune and live in luxury for the rest of his life. (Personally, I believe this was a trap. If the twins had picked up any of the treasure or precious things, they would have been in great trouble. What would have happened to them? We cannot even guess. We are just glad that they passed this particular test.) The treasure was very tempting, but the twins were not here to find or even take treasures. They just wanted to see the Lord of Power and hopefully come home.
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