by Jim Eldridge
‘Run, Jack!’ she called.
‘Not without you!’ he said, releasing Blaze from the net.
‘No problem!’ said Wendy, and she gave a sharp jerk of her arms, sending Crusher spinning around like a top before he crashed to the floor.
Jack and Bendy Wendy ran out of the shop, the Labrador bouncing along beside them. As they hit the road, Blaze turned back into a phoenix again, and then all three were heading back to where Big Rock was waiting.
They sat by the caravan and watched Basil mix the ingredients they’d brought back in a bowl. Big Rock still lay on the ground, unconscious, every now and then turning green and then back to his usual colour again.
‘I think he’s getting worse,’ said Ava, worried. ‘His tongue has been flashing yellow and black a lot more.’
‘Will this cure work?’ asked Milo.
Basil let out a sigh. ‘Not without all the ingredients,’ he said. ‘We’re still short of the sprouts.’
‘And the only place they’re found is in Lord Veto’s garden,’ said Taco.
‘Then that’s where we’re going to go!’ said Jack.
‘But Lord Veto has an army of vicious Wrestling Orcs there to protect him,’ said Basil. ‘And they say there are dangerous creatures that roam the grounds.’
Jack nodded. ‘They’re right,’ he said. ‘I used to work for him as a kitchen boy. But I know my way around Veto Castle. And I’m going to get in there and get those sprouts!’
‘And we’re all coming with you,’ said Milo. He looked at the unconscious figure of Big Rock on the ground, with his mouth open and his tongue turning yellow and black, and a spider’s web forming around his nose. ‘We’re going to save our friend if it’s the last thing we do!’
Chapter Seven
Jack stood on the roof of the caravan, looking towards Lord Veto’s castle through the telescope.
‘What can you see?’ asked Bendy Wendy.
‘Can you see the garden?’ asked Milo.
‘I can see the wall around it,’ said Jack.
‘I love gardens,’ sighed Basil.
‘You won’t like this garden,’ warned Jack, getting down from the caravan. ‘It’s got terrible things in it. Deadly things.’
‘What sort of things?’ asked Princess Ava.
Jack knelt down and began to draw with a stick in the dirt. He drew the outline of the garden’s jagged walls. ‘Here there are lots of human-trap plants,’ said Jack, dropping pebbles into one corner of the dirt map. ‘They’re like those plants that eat flies – Venus flytraps – but these eat people.’
‘So we stay away from them,’ said Milo. ‘We could go in from here.’ He pointed to the other side of the map.
‘On that side,’ said Jack, ‘I saw the Spider Plant, which draws people in with a web.’
‘I bet Spiderella planted that,’ scowled Princess Ava.
‘Over here,’ Jack pointed to the other corner, ‘is a plant that looks so beautiful that everyone who sees it falls in love with it, are drawn right up to it, and when they get there – snap! Gobbled up!’
‘Yuk!’ said Taco.
‘All along these walls are the Wait-a-whiles. Those are vines that burn and sting. Very painful.’
‘There aren’t any plants on these walls,’ said Milo, pointing the area out with his own stick.
‘It’s not just the plants,’ said Jack. He placed a row of pine cones where Milo was indicating. ‘These are the statues around the garden. They look harmless, but they’re really attacking machines, remote controlled by Lord Veto.’
Milo slumped back. ‘Is there anywhere we can get in?’
Jack kept going. ‘Here, it’s a pond filled with piranhas, and over there are strange creatures that, when you look at them, become whatever is your worst nightmare. But the most dangerous of all is the Wrouse.’
‘What’s a Wrouse?’ asked Taco. ‘Is it hot and spicy?’
‘It’s a cross between a worm, a rat and a mouse. It’s six metres long with a bodtail – a cross between a body and a tail. At first when you see it, it looks like a friendly, fluffy animal, all curled up. But once it uncurls, it’s a killing machine.’
‘How do you know all this?’ asked Meenu.
‘I told you – I used to work as a kitchen boy in Lord Veto’s castle,’ replied Jack.
‘What about the Brussels sprouts?’ asked Robin. ‘Where are they? We’ve got to get some to save Big Rock!’
‘I couldn’t see them through the telescope,’ Jack said. ‘And I never went in the gardens when I worked there, but I remember hearing that they’re in a greenhouse in the middle of the garden. To get to it, you have to find your way through a labyrinth, a maze. And if you get inside the greenhouse, the sprouts are protected by plants that give off a deadly gas. If you try and pull the sprouts off the plant, the sprout plants scream – just like a person – and the gas plants send out their deadly gas.’
‘Wow!’ said Taco, awed. ‘This is some deadly garden!’
‘But we have to do it,’ said Milo. He pointed at the unconscious Big Rock, who was still turning different colours. ‘Without those sprouts, Big Rock will get weaker and weaker, and may never wrestle again.’
Princess Ava gasped.
‘I’ve been watching him,’ added Basil gravely. ‘He’s getting worse.’
‘Okay,’ said Milo, taking charge. ‘Let’s not waste any more time talking about deadly plants and dangerous statues and killer Wrouses! Let’s get in there and get those sprouts!’
Milo, Jack, Taco, Princess Ava, Grit, Bendy Wendy and Basil stood outside the stone wall that surrounded Lord Veto’s garden. Blaze the phoenix had flown over the wall and was circling the garden, checking out the dangers. Robin and Meenu had stayed at the caravan, watching over the unconscious Big Rock.
‘I’ve got an idea,’ said Basil. ‘All these defences will be on the lookout for intruders, so we could fool them if we disguise ourselves as plants.’ He gestured at his own body, with flowers and weeds growing out of the crevices in his rocky skin, and the petals growing around his head. ‘Like me.’
‘That’s clever,’ nodded Taco. ‘Does anyone know what a taco plant looks like?’
The gang were covering themselves with earth and foliage and flowers, when there was a flapping of wings and Blaze appeared.
‘Well?’ asked Milo.
‘There’s one thing Jack didn’t mention,’ said Blaze. ‘There’s a whole army of gnomes in there, guarding the garden.’
Jack took a deep breath. ‘How many?’ he asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.
‘It looks like hundreds – tiny people with different coloured hats and clothes. And there’s a troll gardener there. He looks old, but he looks mean.’ Blaze turned to Basil. ‘He looks a lot like you: flowers growing out of his head, plants growing out of his body, but all his plants look dead and withered.’
Basil looked at the phoenix, shocked. ‘It can’t be!’
‘It can’t be what?’ asked Princess Ava.
‘I have a twin brother, another Wrestling Troll. His name is Green-Taker, because, like me, he loved plants. But then … we had an argument.’
‘What about?’ asked Jack.
‘About the way we wrestled. He said we should be sneakier; I said wrestlers should be fair and honest.’ Basil sighed. ‘The trouble was, he’d met Lord Veto, who poisoned his mind and brainwashed him. One day he disappeared and I haven’t seen him since.’
‘I’m sorry, Basil,’ said Princess Ava sympathetically.
Basil gave an unhappy sigh again. ‘It was Green-Taker’s decision,’ he said. ‘If it is him working in that garden, and I have to wrestle him to get to those Brussels sprouts, so be it.’
To get over the wall, the three trolls – Taco, Grit and Basil – formed a troll ladder, standing one on top of the other, and Bendy Wendy, Milo, Jack and Princess Ava climbed up them to the top of the wall.
Once there, Bendy Wendy let down her enormously long, rope-like arms and grabbed
the trolls one at a time, hauling them up to the top of the wall. Then they all dropped down into the garden.
‘There are the statues!’ whispered Jack. They looked at the large grey sculptures on their pedestals. Each one had a weapon of some kind: swords, bows and arrows, a scary-looking spiky chain and even a three-pronged fork – a trident.
‘Move slowly,’ hissed Basil. ‘They’ll think we’re just plants, blowing in the wind.’
They crept along, past the statues. Although the eyes of the statues moved, the figures themselves remained fixed, their weapons frozen in stone.
Just as they got past the statues, Jack’s arm brushed a little bush with no leaves.
Pop! Pop!
Two little twigs exploded.
‘Ssshhh!’ demanded Princess Ava and Jack stepped away from the exploding twigs.
‘Sorry,’ he whispered back. Stealing a quick glance at the statues, he was relieved to see that they didn’t seem to have noticed the sounds.
Past the exploding twig bushes was a wobbly bridge over a large pond into which a waterfall poured.
‘That bridge doesn’t look like it will take the weight of a troll,’ muttered Grit.
‘No problem,’ said Taco. ‘We can wade through the water.’
With that, he plunged into the pond, and as he did so they saw the water come alive with thrashing fish, which leapt out and began to attack Taco with their sharp teeth.
‘Piranhas!’ exclaimed Milo.
Taco pushed his head above the surface of the water and laughed.
‘They can’t hurt us!’ he laughed. ‘We’re trolls with rocky bodies!’
‘I was thinking about us humans,’ said Milo nervously. ‘This bridge looks pretty wobbly, and if we fall into that pond … ’
‘Don’t think about it!’ urged Jack. ‘Just run over it as fast as you can. And one at a time, otherwise it might break. You first, Wendy.’
Bendy Wendy nodded and darted across, but the others could see the wooden slats on the bridge starting to break up as she ran over them.
‘You next, Princess,’ said Milo.
Ava frowned and then took fifteen steps away from the bridge. She broke into a run, speeding towards it. As she reached the edge of the bridge she hurled herself into the air, somersaulted, and then landed on the other side.
‘Wow!’ said Jack. ‘That was cool!’ He turned to Milo. ‘Do you think you can do that?’
‘Never in a million years,’ said Milo. He looked at the far side of the bridge, where Basil, Grit and Taco were clambering out of the water and joining Wendy and Princess Ava on the other side. Taco pulled a wriggling piranha off his arm, where it was trying to eat him, and pushed it into his mouth and began chewing.
‘Hmm,’ he nodded. ‘Not as good as a taco, but not bad.’
‘Here I come!’ shouted Milo, and he began to run across the bridge. Even as he did so, the already broken slats of wood broke up further and tumbled into the water. Suddenly the wood around him began to crumble and he was about to tumble into the pond when Bendy Wendy’s arms reached out and grabbed him, pulling him to safety.
Jack began his run, leaping from broken piece of wood to broken piece of wood but, halfway across, the bridge suddenly tipped and collapsed beneath him, and Jack crashed down, feeling the water close over his head.
Immediately the piranhas began to attack him, their sharp teeth tearing painfully at his arms and body, the savage, vicious killer fish pulling him down beneath the water as they tore at him. He was drowning and being eaten alive at the same time!
And then suddenly the sharp teeth of the piranhas weren’t hurting him any more. And he wasn’t drowning. He was standing up with his head above the surface of the water – well above the surface of the water. He strode out of the pond, his heavy, rocky feet crashing on the ground.
‘Hello, Thud,’ grinned Milo, looking at the giant troll with relief.
Suddenly there was a cry of alarm from Princess Ava. ‘Gnome alert!’
Hundreds of small garden gnomes had burst out through the bushes and were rushing towards them, waving small axes and spades and trowels.
‘Time for trolls!’ yelled Taco.
And he fell down and rolled himself towards the oncoming gnomes at speed. Grit and Basil realised what his plan was, as did Thud, the giant troll that had once been Jack, and soon all four trolls were rolling over the army of garden gnomes, squishing them into the earth.
As the last garden gnome sank into the ground, the four trolls got to their feet. Or rather the three trolls – because Thud had already begun to shrink back to small Jack again.
‘We’ve beaten the statues and the gnomes,’ said Taco proudly.
‘Yes, but how do we get back?’ asked Princess Ava, looking at the shattered wood, floating on the surface of the piranha-filled pond.
‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,’ shrugged Milo.
‘That’s my point; there isn’t a bridge,’ said Princess Ava.
‘No,’ said Basil nervously. ‘But I think that’s a Wrouse!’
And they followed where he was pointing his finger and saw that a huge, long creature, part furry, part slimy, had slithered into view and was rearing up, ready to attack!
Chapter Eight
The Wrouse reared up higher, its vicious eyes fixed on them, and as its mouth opened they could see its sharp teeth, ready to tear at them.
‘Look out!’ yelled Jack.
They threw up their arms to try to protect themselves. Suddenly there was a blur as Blaze flew over their heads and straight into the Wrouse and turned into a multi-limbed octopus, which wrapped its legs around the hideous creature. The Wrouse crashed to the ground, with Blaze clinging to it. There was a blinding flash as the phoenix burst into flames, and the smell of burnt fur and skin came to their nostrils.
‘Quick!’ yelled Milo. ‘Run!’
They ran, heading for the maze made of high hedges that protected the greenhouse where the precious Brussels sprouts were growing.
‘We’re running out of time,’ called Princess Ava. ‘Only twenty minutes left to give Big Rock the sprouts, before he’ll never wrestle again!’
‘We can do it,’ said Grit.
There was a flap of wings and Blaze appeared, back in phoenix shape.
‘Thanks, Blaze,’ said Taco. He smiled. ‘But that smell of burning Wrouse … mmmmm! Makes me think of a hot taco!’
‘Do you ever think of anything else but eating tacos?’ demanded Bendy Wendy crossly.
‘What else is there?’ asked Taco. ‘Tacos and wrestling! Fantastic!’
As they reached the entrance to the maze, a strange figure blocked the opening in the hedge. His face looked just like Basil, but the rest of him was very different.
Where beautifully coloured flowers grew from Basil’s rocky troll body, this troll had dead and withered plants dropping from the earth in his body’s cracks, and sharp-thorned bramble draped him like a cloak. And in his hands he held a large garden spade.
‘You’re not getting any further!’ he grated menacingly.
‘Green-Taker, is that really you?’ asked Basil.
The bramble-draped troll peered at the flowery troll. ‘Basil?’ he asked.
‘Yes!’ cried Basil. And he ran towards to the troll, his arms outstretched in greeting.
‘Watch out!’ warned Grit as Green-Taker swung his garden spade up. But as Basil threw his arms around his long-lost twin brother in a hug, Green-Taker threw the spade aside and threw his own arms around Basil.
‘I wondered what had happened to you!’ said Basil.
‘It was Lord Veto,’ said Green-Taker. ‘He promised me everything if I came and worked for him: riches, luxury. He lied!’
‘Yes,’ said Jack grimly. ‘That’s Lord Veto for you.’
‘This reunion is very touching,’ said Princess Ava, ‘but we are on a mission and time is running out! We need to get hold of the sprouts.’
‘The Mediterranean Brussels
sprouts?’ asked Green-Taker.
‘Yes,’ said Jack. Quickly, they explained to Green-Taker about Big Rock being poisoned by Spiderella, and the final part of the antidote being the precious and rare sprouts.
‘Will you help us?’ asked Basil. ‘We have to save our friend!’
‘Yes,’ nodded Green-Taker.
‘Great! And then maybe you can join us in the Giant Rumble?’ suggested Milo.
‘There won’t be a Giant Rumble if we don’t save Big Rock!’ snapped Princess Ava.
‘How do we find our way through the maze?’ asked Bendy Wendy.
‘Follow me,’ said Green-Taker.
As they entered the maze and followed the troll through the twisting and turning lanes of high green hedges, Green-Taker said, ‘The maze isn’t the problem.’
‘Why?’ asked Taco.
‘Because once you’ve solved the maze, you’ll come up against Vinesse and Whiff. They’re the guardians of the greenhouse.’
‘The poison plants!’ said Jack.
‘Yes,’ nodded Green-Taker. ‘The poison gas they give off is lethal.’
Basil smiled. ‘To humans, maybe. But we’re trolls. We don’t have lungs that breathe air.’
‘Yes, but Vinesse and Whiff have been working on a new poison gas that attacks rocks,’ warned Green-Taker. ‘It breaks them up. It will kill trolls.’
They came out of the maze of hedges and there, in front of them, was the greenhouse. Inside, they could see the air was thick with some sort of purple smoke.
‘Poison gas,’ said Ava.
Basil had stopped smiling. ‘Have Vinesse and Whiff perfected that troll-killer gas?’ he asked, worried.
‘I don’t know,’ admitted Green-Taker.
‘Guess there’s only one way to find out,’ said Taco.
And then, before they could stop him, he had rushed to the greenhouse, pulled the doors open and plunged inside, disappearing in the clouds of purple smoke. The others stared, horrified. Just as Grit and Basil were about to rush in after him, they were stopped by a hideous screaming sound from inside the greenhouse.