Thomas Kindercook and the Pink Pyjamas

by Gerald Feather

  Tremors ran through her body as she read the last words of the last page. Her eyes grew bleary as tears welled up and spilled over her face. “You idiot.” Alanna said in a gentle voice. Putting down the journal pages she held Thomas' head on her lap and stared down at his helpless figure.

  “What do I do?” Alanna continued to stroke Thomas' hair. She tried to hold back her feelings, but the tears just welled up in greater force, and ran down her face in spite of her.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  CHAPTER 22

  SHADOW ON THE ROCKS

  Lightning arced across the sky. Rain was coming down in torrents. The Shadow was making its way up the mountainside. Of course it didn't mind the darkness, but the constant rain was beginning to bother it. It knew that its prey was close now. It had been following them for weeks, always a few steps behind. But now the one that he hunted for, was close by.

  Many people thought that the Shadow was just that. A shadow, nothing more. They didn't realize that this Shadow was an actual being. It had flesh just like any other being. It breathed, it ate, and it even slept. Very few had ever seen the Shadow for whom he actually was. It had been a human once, now twisted by the evil magic of the wizard Victor, he was forced to hunt other living beings for sustenance.

  Up ahead, the mountainside spilled over the path. A landslide, it thought to itself. If it could feel anything, the Shadow would have groaned, but since Victor's magic was absolute, it had no choice. One by one, the Shadows started to move the heavy rocks.

  * * * * *

  Alanna now held Thomas in her arms. She wept on his shoulder. She had no idea how to get out of this. Thomas was starting to burn up. Even the light from the crystal began to wane. For the longest time the only sound she heard was the sound of the rain falling, on the rocks outside. She was careful to put the pages that Thomas was hiding, back where she had found them. She didn't want him to know that she had been snooping through his stuff. Alanna had no idea how much time had passed. It seemed like hours since the landslide had trapped them against the mountainside. She could still hear the rain outside, but it was softer now.

  Suddenly she felt something. Thomas moved! A weak groan emitted from him. He was going to be all right!

  "Not the stuffies!" Thomas' voice shouted out.

  Thomas was waking up from a very bad dream. He was a little boy, home from school. He had caught a serious sickness, and his mother was caring for him. She had just told him that they were going to have to get rid of all his favorite stuffed animals when Thomas jolted awake. At first, everything was just a purple blur. Where was he? He was both boiling hot and ice cold all at the same time. Then he became aware of something warm and soft behind him.

  “Stay still. You've had quite a day.”

  Alanna! Then it all came crashing back to him. The flash flood. The avalanche. Somehow he was still alive. Thomas smiled weakly to himself, and so was Alanna.

  “Alanna. Are you alright?”

  “Shaken a little, but otherwise I'm alright. I am certainly doing better than you. I wasn't sure you were going to make it out of this mess.”

  Thomas allowed himself a weak laugh. “Me neither.”

  The water and rain had taken their toll on Thomas, he was shivering and feverish. Alanna held him closer, trying to keep him warm.

  “So how do we get out of here?” Thomas asked Alanna.

  “I'm not sure. I have looked around, but I see no obvious...”

  “Obvious?” Thomas asked, but Alanna shushed him.

  She thought she heard the sound of rocks grinding. At first it was faint, but then the sound grew. “Do you hear that?”

  Thomas strained to listen for whatever it was Alanna was listening to. At first he couldn't hear anything but the rain dripping, but then he heard it too. It sounded like something was digging them out!

  Slowly, but steadily, the noise grew closer.

  “We're over here!” cried Alanna.

  No one replied.

  “That's strange. They should be able to hear us. Unless.” Thomas felt it. The unmistakable fear and darkness creeping into his heart. “The Shadow!”

  “How do you know it's the Shadow? You never wrote...” and just like that, Alanna realized her mistake too late.

  Wrote? Thomas was in shock. Alanna had read his journal. Hastily he felt for the pouch stuffed in the front of his shirt. It was still there. Did that mean that she hadn't read those pages? At best, she knew that he wasn't a wizard. At worst, he didn't want to think about worst case scenarios. Luckily, or unluckily, he didn't have the time to think about much of anything.

  Daylight was starting to crack through where the rocks were disappearing, and he could make out the dark form of the Shadow, gliding back and forth, pulling the rocks away. This was the first time that Thomas had seen it in the daylight. It looked like a lanky human, surrounded by a dark cloud, however, there was nothing human about its movement. It tossed aside boulders with slow and steady ease that should have been impossible for a man of its size to even lift.

  The Shadow wasn't leaving any room for them to escape. It was very methodically cutting an area for it to come into.

  The fear was overwhelming now. Thomas turned to look at Alanna. She was frozen, staring directly into the face of the Shadow.

  “What do you want?” Thomas asked the Shadow in a shaky voice. The Shadow just ignored him and continued to dig the pathway out.

  “You don't have to do this!” Thomas desperately looked around for a way out.

  “Take me then, but leave her alone.”

  “No!” Alanna yelled behind Thomas.

  “It's not you the master is after.” came a cold voice. “He wants the girl.”

  Thomas pressed against Alanna as if his body would provide her protection. The fear was nearly paralyzing now. He had to snap out of it. There had to be some way to break through the fear. The oppresive atmosphere that the Shadow was surrounded in made an effective weapon. It would be hard for a person to protect himself if he couldn't even move. Suddenly he remembered something his public speaking teacher had told him. Imagine the audience in ridiculous outfits. However, the only thing that Thomas could think of at the moment was the pink pyjamas that he had come in, which were packed away in his travelling bag. Closing his eyes, Thomas did his best to imagine the Shadow dressed in pink pyjamas. Thomas laughed out loud.

  “T... Thomas?!” Alanna asked in disbelief.

  Thomas began laughing whole heartedly. This startled the Shadow. It stood before the opening it had made for a few moments trying to decide what was happening. Was someone actually laughing at him?

  The more Thomas thought of the Shadow running around terrorizing in pink pyjamas, the more it made him laugh.

  “Th... th... the Shadow! Wearing pink pyjamas!” Thomas pointed at the Shadow and doubled over in hysterics.

  “Thomas!” Alanna exclaimed.

  The arm that Thomas was pointing at the Shadow was starting to glow a pale blue. Thomas stared at disbelief at his own pointing arm. “All I did was think, of the Shadow dressed in pink!”

  A blue light arced off his arm and hit the Shadow square in the chest. Pink clothing erupted over its surface and the dark haze disappeared around it.

  The Shadow was clearly shaken. It backed away a few steps.

  Thomas was even more shaken than the Shadow was.

  What was THAT?

  He would have jumped backwards if there had been anywhere to go.

  “You cast a spell!” Alanna said in disbelief.

  The Shadow was no longer trying to advance on them, it seemed to be trying to analyze the situation.

  “Quickly Thomas! GET RID OF IT!”

  “HOW?!”

  Seeing the two humans arguing, the Shadow started to sweep forward again. It must act quickly if this boy was a wizard.

  Thomas was desperately trying to figure out what he had done. He had thought of the Shad
ow dressed in pink, and his arm had started to glow. Then bolts of blue light had shot out at it.

  Thomas tried to imagine the Shadow going back where ever it came from. He imagined it with all his might. He imagined it being forced away, flying away, dissappearing into thin air. Nothing. The Shadow swept inside of the alcove.

  He closed his eyes, kept thinking to himself, 'send it back' 'send it back'. He opened his eyes again. The Shadow was almost on them. Blue flames erupted from his arm again, much brighter. Now what? What else had he done last time?

  The only other thing he had done was tell Alanna why he had been laughing.

  “Don't worry, I'm going to send it away Alanna!”

  “Great!”

  Alanna and Thomas sat there. Alanna bathed in purple, Thomas in blue, the Shadow reaching out to Thomas.

  “Now would be good!”

  Why didn't it work? Last time, what exactly had he said? 'All I did was think, of the Shadow dressed in pink.' It rhymed! Thomas didn't have time to think about how cliche that was.

  “Return from where you came, dress your master in the same!”

  In a blink of an eye, the blue flames that licked over Thomas arm exploded into the Shadow, engulfing him. One moment he was there, the next he was gone.

  Alanna pushed her way up from Thomas, looking to where the Shadow had been only a moment ago. She shook her head.

  “What was that last part that you said?”

  Thomas had been desperately trying to think of a rhyme. He hadn't paid much attention as to whether or not it made sense.

  “Dress your master in the same?”

  Alanna and Thomas looked at each other for a moment, and then started laughing.

  *****

  The Shadow felt dizzy. It was disoriented. One thing it was sure of, it was no longer anywhere near its prey. The wizard boy had sent him away somewhere.

  It looked like it had materialized in the middle of its master's throne room. Victor, who was just sitting down with a meal tray, jumped, causing the tray and its contents to land on his lap.

  “DAMN IT! Announce yourself Shadow!”

  Victor then stood there staring at the Shadow in confusion. Was it wearing pink?

  The Shadow became aware that it was holding a nice set of cashmere pyjamas. Pink with white bunnies. He knew what he must do. The Shadow held the pyjamas out in front of itself. Like a zombie, it moved forward toward Victor. The Shadow had no control over its actions, but that was nothing new. The master's clothing was old and dingy, and now that it was soiled, he needed something new to wear anyway.

  In the distance, a traveller carrying wears from Westminster to BlueShift, heard an unearthly loud shrieking coming from the castle on the top of Mount Rift. Forevermore the traveller would tell of the night he heard something screaming “Pink Pyjamas!” from the dark castle.

  CHAPTER 23

  THE SEER

  Thomas and Alanna hobbled up the mountainside together. The two of them holding on to each other in an effort to keep from falling down. Alanna hadn't the energy to transform, and Thomas' legs were badly bruised. She had also noticed his fever was getting worse as time wore on.

  Thomas wasn't sure if it had been the fever, or the trauma of the situation, but he was pretty sure that Alanna mistakenly indicated that she had read his diary. As he felt more and more hot, images of journals with arms and feet danced around the path saying, “I told you so.” The worse he felt, the more bizarre the images became. The journals eventually morphed into little creatures dressed in green lining the path and cheering them on. He clearly needed to rest soon.

  Just as Thomas thought he wouldn't be able to go any further, the path levelled off. As they rounded another bend in the road, it opened up into a flat plain. They had made it. The top of Mount Trekken. He had heard of people wishing to live outside the bounds of society, but this would certainly give even the most ardent of hermits a run for their money.

  Sitting in the middle of the clearing was the most unlikely building that Thomas had ever seen. He must be more delusional than he thought. The building looked as much like a tavern as did any of the businesses down in BlueShift. It wasn't really what he had expected. A run down shack, or a majestic building, perhaps a spiralling tower to the heavens, or even a mighty fortress. Anything but this. All it was missing was a sign hanging from the front stating that it was open for business between the hours of five pm and two am.

  Alanna and Thomas looked at each other. This was it? Well, whatever it looked like, it was better than staying out in the rain. The door was as unremarkable as the rest of the building. It's only somewhat unique trait being a slat of wood for the owner to peer out of.

  Thomas knocked hard.

  Nothing.

  Alanna pounded on the door. “After all, the seer is supposed to be the oldest Dragon alive. Maybe he just can't hear us.”

  “Or doesn't want to hear us.” Thomas added.

  “I'm coming, I'm coming! Keep your clothes on!” came a voice from inside. The door flew open and an elderly man stood there, head cocked to the side, thinning hair in a mad mess on top of his head. His wild eyes regarding them as if he were squinting through a wine bottle to see them. His mouth hung half open. “Who the hell are you?”

  “Are you the Seer?” Thomas asked reluctantly. This certainly wasn't what he had expected. The man blinked in an exaggerated fashion and rolled his eyes to the left, and then to the right.

  “No. He stepped out to get a bottle of port.” The old man waited for a response that never came.

  “Do you see any other old men around here?”

  “Uh, no.”

  “Then I guess I must be him! Now if you don't mind, I was in the middle of a great book. The king was about to behead his best friend for lying to him... classic! Could you tell me exactly why the hell you are on my doorstep?”

  “We were sent here.”

  “I assumed as much. I mean, that's a pretty harsh wrong turn if you're lost. Who sent you Skippy?”

  “My name isn't...”

  “You want to talk?”

  “Yes?”

  “Your name's Skippy.”

  Thomas stared at this man in disbelief. What kind of a Seer was this?

  “Excuse me?” Alanna broke into the conversation.

  The old man's eyebrows crawled up over his forehead. He took in Alanna standing there in nothing but a long jacket. “Well now, that's a unique outfit you are wearing. Is that the current trend? Maybe it's time I moved back to civilization!”

  Alanna rolled her eyes. “My father sent us.”

  “Who's your father? Some sort of King?” The old man laughed.

  “As a matter of fact, yes.”

  The man frowned, “Oh.” The old man retreated back into his house. “As much as I don't like having people intrude on my privacy, I can't have you standing out there scaring the neighbours.”

  Thomas and Alanna really didn't know what to think of the old Seer, but chancing going into the house seemed to be better than standing in the wind and rain. She had to trust that her father wouldn't send her into danger knowingly. The inside was everything the outside had promised it would be and more. It didn't just look like a tavern. It was a tavern, which a crazy old hermit appeared to have turned into a home. There were clothes all over the place. Failed paintings stood here and there. There were half finished hobbies scattered across this table and that. The only finished objects in the room were the multiple bottles of alcohol.

  “How do you like it? Not bad huh?”

  “Excuse me?” Thomas replied.

  “The place! I have added a few personal touches here and there.” The man gestured to the half done paintings and crafts.

  “Uh, it's great!” If you were a rat Thomas supposed.

  “I know!” The old man's eyes opened wide and he grinned like a mad man from ear to ear. Dancing around with his arms outstretched he twirled in circles. When he finally came to a halt, he looked
at Thomas and Alanna as if he were trying to remember why it was they were there.

  “Well, I really would love to chat all night, but I'm more of a 'to the point' kind of guy.” The old man plumped himself down into a chair and kicked his feet up on a table. “The doctor, is in. What can I do for you?”

  Thomas opened his pack and pulled the sealed scroll from the king out. A wave of black struck him, his knees going weak as he stepped forward. He really was feeling quite hot.

  “You okay kid? You ain't looking so hot.”

  “I'll live.” Thomas replied flatly.

  “You sure? I don't want you collapsing on my toothpick tower. You better sit.”

  Thomas decided this was probably a good idea, even if it came from a crackpot Seer. Thomas looked for the least dirty chair in the place, which was next to a board game that looked quite similar to chess. Interestingly enough, it seemed that someone was playing with the old man, either that, or he was playing against himself. Thomas picked up one of the pieces to examine it.

  “HEY! DON'T TOUCH THAT!” yelled the old man. Suddenly regaining his composure he added, “I'm winning.”

  The old man stretched his back against the chair and examined the paper. “Ah. Let me see. What do we have here? Mmmm.” The old man feigned interest and nodded, “Alkamire Aqual eh? Callin' in his favour I guess.” Cracking the seal, the old man proceeded to read.

  “What should we call you? Seer?” Thomas asked, trying to relieve some of the awkwardness of the quiet that had fallen over the room.

  “How about Sir.” The old man glared over the paper at Thomas. “Ah very well. The name's Henry. I know, not very befitting of a 'Grand Seer', is it? Never the less, it's my name.”

  After a few moments the old man shook his head in disbelief. “What the heck does he think I am? A marriage councillor? Do I have a sign around my neck that reads, 'Hi, how can I help you?' Do I look like a people person?”

  Thomas hoped these questions were rhetorical. He wasn't sure that Henry would like the answers.

  “I mean, I live on a mountain for cryin' out loud. People might get the idea, that, Hey... maybe he doesn't like to deal with other peoples issues.” Henry threw the letter to the side, on top of a stack of books. “I mean, I don't even like to deal with my issues.”