“What are you talking about, Charlie?” his brother asked.
Midnight was also bewildered by the young man’s proclamation. “Exactly what safe are you talking about, lad? And please, sit down before you fall off the boat.”
“I…I’m not exactly sure? But Featherwink is right. I mean, it all makes sense. Doesn’t it?”
“What makes sense, lad?”
“The two rhymes, silly,” Valerie said. “Can’t you see? They’re both tied to one another. And the common link…is the gold.”
Everyone turned back towards Valerie.
“She’s right,” Michael said.
Midnight turned back around to face Michael.
“Yep, she’s definitely right,” Michael said again.
Finally grasping the concept, the cat sat up tall, cleared his throat, and announced, “Very well then, let’s keep our eyes open for this magic safe. And Charlie, I’d keep a special eye on that watch of yours, if I were you.”
As they approached the magic elixir wagon, where a city slicker was working hard to sell his bottled up lies, Charlie’s watch began to glow softly and Mickey’s hands started to slowly spin.
To everyone else, these actions went unnoticed. But to Charlie, the slow movement of the hands and the subtle glow of the face were obviously different than what he was used to.
Next came a cowboy firing off his twin six shooters to the dismay of a Native American. As their boat passed under the wooden bridge, where the two animatronic figures stood, and around the bend towards the gunfight scene, something terribly unexpected found them.
The river suddenly split and a mysterious storm front with strong winds began to build.
Instead of banking right to continue through the attraction, their boat turned left and was blown towards a massive whirlpool.
“I…I don’t know what’s happening!” Valerie yelled out from the back seat.
The boat plunged violently downward towards the whirlpool and began to follow the current round and round, getting closer to the center with each passing rotation.
The front end of the ride vehicle tipped forward, throwing Valerie out of the boat and onto a nearby rocky bank.
Charlie, was holding on tight to the boat rail with one hand, while his other arm protected Midnight, who’s claws were fully dug into the seat.
Michael was now next to Midnight, his hands wrapped around the railing. Featherwink was clinging tightly to Michael’s shirt sleeve.
Everyone in the boat screamed out in fear, as they continued spiraling downward towards the unknown abyss of the whirlpool—all the while, holding on for dear life.
“I’m sorry, Charlie, I don’t know what to do! I’ll see if I can get help!” Valerie shouted, as she stood braced against the rocky wall on the left side of the waterway, trying to avoid the violent storm winds and the possibility of being blown into the whirlpool.
Charlie could not see nor hear her.
The boat carrying the four helpless passengers reached the core of the whirlpool and disappeared.
Hidden within the conceptual realities of WONDER—in shadow, high up in the tallest tower of the full-to-scale Beast castle of Fantasyland, the first step towards capturing the watch had just been successfully executed.
“There, that should make it easy for our villainous friends,” Dark Thorn Elontra said with an evil laugh. She turned and walked away from her magic fire pit, a tool of dark magic that allowed her to see, and control, anything within WONDER’s Magic Kingdom—the realm she ruled. “We should have no trouble getting the watch, now.”
“I agree,” Captain Plank replied. “So what do we do next?”
“What do we do? I’ll tell you what we do, Mr. Plank. You go tell your captain friend, Mr. Fibs, and his blithering sidekicks, they are cleared to enter our realm of WONDER and guard the safe until we get the watch from that pesky little boy and his friends.”
“Where…uh, and where is that again, master of darkness?”
Elontra turned and stared through the captain’s soul with her lifeless eyes.
“Oh. Oh yeah. I plum forgot. It’s in the Western River Expedition over there in Fronteirland,” Plank replied—nervously rubbing his sweaty forehead.
Elontra remained perfectly still and quiet, making the captain even more unsettled.
“And what…what about me and my crew?”
“Ohhh…I guess it wouldn’t hurt for you and a few of your men to help guard the safe as well,” Elontra said, rolling her eyes. “You never know who else the Patrons may send after the crystal. But one thing is certain. It WON’T be anyone who was on that boat.”
Dark Thorn Elontra exploded into a bone-chilling fit of laughter, which echoed down the winding staircase of WONDER’s abandoned Beast castle tower.
Chapter Sixteen
Their boat continued spiraling downward through darkness, deep into a place Charlie, Michael, Midnight and Featherwink were likely to never return from. Though now, instead of water, it felt like they were falling through air.
Click…click-click-click-SMASH-CRUNCH-BUMP-BUMP, THUD!
Darkness surrounded them. Above sat a pale moon, skirted by unruly clouds. A gust of wind danced through the trees—rustling the partially dead leaves. The sounds of owls, crickets, howling wolves, and other creatures of the night, surrounded their senses. Below them sat a leaf-covered terrain. They had not yet reached the ground.
“Oh my, I can honestly say, I have never been here before,” Midnight proclaimed.
“Nor…nor have I,” the frog added—snuggling close to the cat for protection.
“If neither of you know where we’re at, how are we supposed to get back?” Charlie questioned. He looked at his watch, which had stopped moving.
Michael leaned over to peak at the watch. “It doesn’t look like Mickey is going to do us any good.”
“Never mind the watch,” Charlie replied, looking down over the side of the boat. “The first thing we need to do is get out of this tree.”
No longer had Charlie spoken, when a pack of wolves approached the base of the trunk—their red eyes staring intently at the boat passengers. First one, then three, then six of the wolves stood up on their hind legs—jumping upwards, clawing, growling, snarling and drooling for a taste of Patron meat.
SNAP! The crack of a whip scattered the wolves below, and turned the tree to gold.
Mr. Jollysnaps emerged from the shadows of the woods and into the clearing—his lean figure highlighted by the pale moon beams.
“I don’t suppose you want to come down from there and give us the watch, like a good boy, now do you?” the coachman said, glaring up at the stranded passengers in the boat.
There was a pause of silence…nobody knew how to respond to the coachman’s request. Tthey did know, however, not to give up the Watch of WONDER to such evil filth.
Jollysnaps let out a creepy chuckle, as he turned his attention away from the boat. “I guess not.” he said, signaling towards the edge of the woods.
From the dark shadows of the forest, the sound of thunderous footsteps erupted, growing louder with each step—shaking the tree their boat was nested in. Branches cracked, snapped and popped. A ginormous man stepped into the moonlit clearing, revealing his identity. Large, burly and staring right at them, their worst fears became reality. It was Flamario.
Charlie felt his heart drop into his stomach as a barrage of panic-like thoughts rushed through his mind—we’ll never make it back to find the crystal, which means we’ll never find Ben, and what about our parents, Frank, or even, our new friend, Valerie? Is she still alive? How will we get out of here alive? Why won’t this stupid watch work? What are we supposed to do?
“Now I bring you down from tree,” Flamario said in a thunderous tone. “Mr. Fox, bring me the fire.”
“Coming right up,” a voice called from the woods.
Featherwink and Michael spun their heads around, searching for the unidentified voice.
Click, click, click—the sound o
f two rocks being struck together echoed from the woods.
“I tried to tell him, really, I did. I said, look big guy, this kid is smart. And the last thing he wants to do is see his friends, or his brother, get hurt.”
Click-click-click.
“Then I said, why don’t you let me talk to him. I’m sure he would gladly hand over the watch once he weighs his options.”
Click-click-click.
“I mean, who wants to get cooked like a roasted marshmallow? I know I don’t.”
Click-click-POOF! The torch caught flame.
“But then, old fire breath made a good point,” the silver fox said, as he came walking out of the woods carrying a lit torch in his right paw. “Patrons DO NOT bargain.”
The light of the torch cast a shadow across the fox’s face, as he stared upwards at the boat, giving the passengers a toothy grin.
“Quick, think of something,” Featherwink frantically whispered to Midnight.
“I am, I am. Don’t rush me.”
The fox continued to stare at Charlie and the others, giving them one last chance to surrender the watch.
“Hurry up, we’re about to be roasted like ducks,” Michael barked.
“Almost there,” Midnight said.
“Almost? Almost isn’t gonna get us anywhere but cooked,” Featherwink insisted.
“Hmm? As you wish. I thought you were smarter than that, young fellow,” the silver fox said.
“Aha! I got it!” the cat proclaimed. Jumping to the front of the boat, he spun around, faced the boys and frog, then curled his tail over his back so that is was aimed towards Featherwink.
“Enough chit chat,” Flamario shouted. “Give me the torch.”
“Farewell Patrons of WONDER,” the fox announced, as he spread his arms apart, gracefully bowed, then handed the torch to his enormous friend.
“And now it is my turn,” Flamario shouted. The giant of a man inhaled a flame from the torch, his chest puffed out like a rooster about to crow. With one mighty exhale, he unleashed a furious stream of fire towards the trunk of the tree.
Charlie and the others frantically scrambled, the tree of gold began to melt like butter.
As the tree continued melting, the boat shifted amongst the branches, causing Midnight to temporarily lose his footing.
With cat-like reflexes, the Patron feline gathered his balance, dug his claws into the boat, and with the flick of his tail, said,“Little winged frog of purple delight, grow much bigger and take to flight!” A sparkling stream of magical light shot out from Midnight’s tail and struck the frog, who instantly grew to the size of an elephant.
Without hesitation, the giant, winged frog, grabbed hold of the boat and took to the air—carrying his friends away from their attackers.
“Huh? What? Get back here you big purple frog!” Flamario shouted. He took another deep breath, then shot multiple bursts of flames from his mouth, attempting to knock the flying frog, and the boat he was carrying, out of the sky.
“Jolly, get your coach. We’ve got a flying frog to catch!” the crafty fox hollered.
The coachman put two fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly.
From out of the woods came a golden coach, glistening in the moonlight. The eight, winged mules, all white in coat, nervously pranced in place, for they knew it was time to get crack’n—as in Mr. Jollysnaps crack’n their hind quarters with his magic whip. Not a good thing, as far as they were concerned.
“Alright then, climb aboard gents. We got a frog to fetch,” the coachman said to his villainous friends. He climbed atop the coach, pulled the whip from his jacket, grabbed the reigns, then cast out—giving his whip a mighty CRACK! Magic sparks, followed by glittery, gold and silver sparks exploded off the tip of the whip in all directions. “Hee-yah!” the coachman shouted.
The mules shot off into the air, throwing the skinny man back into his seat, as he held onto the reigns.
“Make haste, you hairy herd of critters.” CRACK! “It’s time to earn your keep,” the coachman yelled, as he pulled hard on the right reign—putting them directly on line to intercept Featherwink and the others. CRACK! Mr. Jollysnaps struck the lead mule on the left, a female named Hinny. Short tempered and ill mannered, she did not deal well with taking orders from others. As the whip struck her, she let out a loud, whinny-like “hee-haw,” then flew even harder out of frustration. Frustrated that she had gotten herself into such a predicament as this. And frustrated she could not chew up and spit out the coachman’s golden whip, which she hated.
The fox stuck his head out the side window of the flying coach and hollered, “We’re really moving, Jolly.”
Flamario followed suite from the other side window, though it was a tight fit for such a large head. His long black beard flapped in the wind, as he shouted, “Yes, we will catch the big frog and his friends in little time.”
“Not a very friendly looking place is it?” Midnight said from the boat, as Featherwink continued on through the night sky, his arms and legs weakening each passing minute from the strain of carrying the boat.
“I need to land soon, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up,” the frog replied.
Below lay nothing but dark forest, full of partially leafed, old twisted trees, thorny bushes and other unwelcoming terrain. Populating the forest were scores of unfriendly wildlife and unusual creatures, found only within the dark shadows of WONDER.
Suddenly, a noise rang out in the distant sky.
Charlie turned to his left. A small shiny dot was dancing through the sky, highlighted by moon rays. It was graceful and soothing. And more importantly, it kept the chosen outsider’s mind off their current situation, as he continued to follow its path.
The tiny dot began to grow larger, when Charlie realized it was much more than a soothing spec in the sky. A bright ball of orange and yellow shot out from the growing spec, approaching their boat at a rapid rate. Was it a ball of fire? It is. The boy thought to himself. “Featherwink, head towards the ground. Quickly!”
What had been beautiful seconds ago, was now threatening their very existence. The small, sparkling dot was the coachman’s wagon, and the yellow and orange ball was definitely no ball at all, but rather, bursts of flames shooting out from the mouth of Flamario.
The first burst of fire shot past the right side of the boat.
“They’re moving too fast. I can’t outfly them. We’re going to have to land,” the frog shouted.
“Watch out!” Michael yelled. Another meteor-like burst shot past the left side.
“OK, that’s it, we’re going down! I can’t keep this up any longer.” The frog hugged the boat tightly, sheltering his friends, as they went into a dive.
Charlie, Michael and Midnight braced themselves for impact.
“Hang on EVERYBOOOOOODYYYYYY!”
“Now they will feel the wrath of the shadow villains,” Flamario proclaimed, as they closed in on Charlie and the others.
“Looks like they’re going to crash into the woods,” Mr. Jollysnaps said.
“Perfect, they’ll have nowhere to run once they’re down,” the fox added. “Jolly, drop the big guy off on the east side of our friends, me on the north side, and you take the west.”
“What about the south side?” Flamario asked.
“The trees, vines and bushes will take care of that,” the fox replied with a sneer.
“But how? I do not understand,” Flamario asked.
“And that’s why our old friend, Mr. Jollysnaps is going to take care of it, right Jolly?”
“Indeed, my furry friend.” CRACK! “He-yah you furry critters. The mules continued to fly hard, as the coachman turned and cast his whip towards the rear of the coach, striking a hidden hatch, which opened and released a stream of magically cursed dust—coating the entire south side of the forest.
The fox let out a loud, bellowing laugh then said, “Wonderful my friend. Simply wonderful.”
The secret hatch slammed closed as the
coachman tugged hard on the reigns—the mules banked right, then straightened out.
“OK, we’re nearing your drop point, be ready to jump,” Mr. Jollynsaps said to Flamario.
Charlie opened his eyes, temporarily knocked out from the crash landing. Rubbing his head, he looked around. “Everybody here? Michael? You here?”
“Over here, in the bushes. “Ow! Could someone please, ouch, help me get out of here? I feel like a human, ouch!, pin cushion.”
Charlie stood up and staggered over to the group of thorn bushes Michael had fallen into. “Give me your hand so I can pull you out. Ow!”
Michael chuckled. “See, I told you.”
“OK, quit complaining and give me your, ouch!, hand,” Charlie said, attempting, unsuccessfully, to reach into the bushes and pull Michael out.
“Maybe I can be of some assistance,” Midnight said, slowly regaining his composure from the crash. “Please, Charlie if you would kindly step aside, I may be able to improve the situation.”
The young boy stepped back and gave the cat room to work his magic. Aiming just above the bushes, Midnight shot from his tail, a miniature storm cloud which soaked the dry, thorny bushes. Instantly they turned into green, plush shrubs with giant pink and white flowers.
Amazed by what he saw, Charlie dove right into the bushes, without fear, and pulled his brother out. “Well, that wasn’t so bad.”
“Sure, that’s easy for you to say. You weren’t the one getting poked every time you tried to move,” Michael said in a cranky tone.
Switching the subject to avoid further bickering, Midnight asked,“Has anyone seen Featherwink?”
“No, but it shouldn’t be hard to spot a giant purple frog with wings,” Charlie said.
“I’m down here,” a voice echoed nearby.
“Where?” Midnight asked.
“Over here, down in a hole.”
Midnight and the boys walked over to investigate.
As they made their way around three large boulders, a giant, roughly-shaped hole in the ground came into view.
“Featherwink? You down there?” Midnight hesitantly asked.
“Yes, but it’s so dark I can’t see a thing.”
The Watchmaker's Gift Page 26