by Jim Eldridge
‘Oh no!’ said Wendy, horrified. ‘That’s Taco!’
The next second the figure of Taco burst out of the greenhouse. In his hand he was holding a Brussels sprout plant.
‘No,’ he grinned. ‘This is Taco!’ He held up the sprout plant, which was giving off the loud screaming sound, and winced. ‘You didn’t warn me they screamed so loud when you picked them!’
‘Put those sprouts back!’ shouted a muffled voice.
They turned and saw that two figures had come from round the corner of the greenhouse, a man and a woman. Both were wearing gas masks and holding gas canisters in their hands.
‘Vinesse and Whiff!’ exclaimed Green-Taker in horror.
Vinesse pointed her gas canister at them.
‘One squirt of this and you will all die,’ she snarled. ‘Human and troll alike!’
‘She means it,’ said Green-Taker.
A shadow fell over the greenhouse, and they all looked up and saw that Blaze had turned into a huge green dragon and was descending, his mouth open wide.
WOOOSHHHH!
A burst of flame from Blaze hit Vinesse and Whiff and then … BOOM!! The gas canisters they’d been holding blew up in a cloud of thick black smoke and red fire.
When the cloud cleared, they saw the pair lying on the ground, smouldering.
‘Blaze! You are the hero today!’ said Jack.
‘Quick! We don’t have long left!’ said Ava.
‘Follow me!’ shouted Green-Taker, and he led the way back through the maze, the others following, and Taco holding onto the precious Brussels sprout plant. By now it had stopped screaming.
They burst out of the maze and ran to the pond and the remains of the bridge.
‘How are we going to get across?’ asked Taco.
‘Blaze,’ said Jack, ‘can you carry us over? You could fly us straight to Big Rock!’
Blaze huffed and puffed. ‘I can’t. Too tired. Done … too … much … changing.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Jack, stroking his friend. ‘You’ve been such a big help already.’
‘I can make a bridge,’ said Wendy. ‘If I stretch my arms across the pond, the lightest ones can climb over them.’
‘Jack, that’s you and me,’ said Princess Ava. ‘Taco, give me the plant.’
‘Don’t drop it in the pond!’ warned Jack. ‘The piranhas will gobble up the sprouts.’
‘I won’t,’ said Ava determinedly. She stood poised as Wendy stretched her arms over the broken bridge. Just as Ava was about to make her way across this new makeshift bridge, they heard a hissing sound and saw the Wrouse coming at them again. Its fur and skin were singed and blackened, with smoke still coming from it, but there was no mistaking that the Wrouse was still alive, and still very dangerous.
‘No!’ yelled Green-Taker. He rushed forwards, grabbed hold of the Wrouse and threw the creature into the pond. Immediately, the water came alive as the piranhas leapt upon the singed creature.
‘Go for it!’ yelled Milo to Ava.
Ava began to clamber along the remains of the broken bridge, using Wendy’s arms as rails in the places where there were gaps, all the time making sure the precious Brussels sprout plant was kept well away from the water. Just as she jumped off on the other side, a familiar and nasty voice spoke from behind them. ‘Well, look what we have here!’
Lord Veto was smiling nastily at them. ‘Fancy seeing you!’ he sneered. ‘So, you weren’t scared off by my special weapon – Mr Belly and his brother.’
‘Those two idiots!’ said Milo scornfully. ‘Is that the best you can throw at us, Veto?’
Lord Veto smiled. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I have something much better!’ Then he called out, ‘Gnomes, to your master!’
With a shock, Jack and the others saw the ground around them begin to shake and heave, and the small garden gnomes they thought had been crushed appeared, bursting up out of the ground.
‘Gnomes, attack!’ shouted Lord Veto.
But instead of attacking, the gnomes just stood there, shaking, and Jack realised that they were actually laughing.
‘Gnomes attack!’ repeated Lord Veto, louder and angrier this time.
‘Yes, Sir, we will,’ nodded the leader of the gnomes. ‘But … ’ and he began to laugh even harder, pointing at Lord Veto’s bottom. ‘You’ve got toilet paper stuck to your trousers!’
And all the gnomes began to laugh.
Lord Veto scowled and glared at the gang as he took the piece of toilet paper off his bottom.
‘Silence!’ he shouted at the gnomes.
The gnomes stopped laughing at once.
‘You did this!’ he hissed in menacing tones at the gang.
Taco Twister shrugged. ‘Hey, I thought it was funny!’ he said. ‘I had this toilet roll on me and I thought –’
‘You humiliated me in front of my gnomes,’ roared Lord Veto. ‘This will lead to some serious consequences in the wrestling ring!’ And then he smiled again, an evil, nasty smile. ‘Oh wait, you won’t be there to fight, will you?’ He raised his hands up. ‘Gnome King! I summon you!’
All the little gnomes stopped giggling as the ground began to shake. Up from the middle of the miniature army rose an enormous, gnarled gnome, with hideously bad breath.
‘Don’t breathe in!’ shouted Green-Taker. ‘His breath will kill humans.’
‘Get Jack and Milo out of here, Wendy!’ shouted Taco Twister.
Lord Veto pointed a bony finger at them. ‘Gnome King, capture them!’
Immediately, the army of gnomes and the Gnome King rushed at the gang.
‘Quick!’ shouted Bendy Wendy. ‘Grab on!’ Jack and Milo clung to Wendy as she grabbed hold of the branch of a tree on the other side of the pond and pulled herself across, next to Princess Ava.
Wendy hit the ground and rolled, then bounced to her feet.
Milo, Jack, Ava and Blaze looked across to the far side of the pond, where the four trolls – Taco, Basil, Green-Taker and Grit – were disappearing under the weight of a mass of multicoloured garden gnomes.
‘We’ve got to help them,’ said Jack. The trolls had now completely disappeared beneath the army of gnomes.
‘We haven’t got time!’ said Milo. ‘We have to get the sprouts to Big Rock right now!’
As Milo, Bendy Wendy and Ava ran for the garden wall, Jack looked at the mass of moving gnomes. A second later the four trolls surfaced. Grit, Taco, Basil and Green-Taker had all been firmly tied up and lifted up on the backs of the gnomes.
‘We’ll come back for you!’ yelled Jack. ‘We’ll find you!’
‘You won’t find them,’ cackled Lord Veto. ‘And with no trolls for the Giant Rumble, that fool Milo’s career in wrestling is over! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!’ Then he turned to the army of gnomes and ordered, ‘Take them to the Dungeon of Doom!’
Chapter Nine
Milo, Jack, Princess Ava, Bendy Wendy and Meenu sat on the steps of the caravan and watched Big Rock as he ran around. He jumped up into the air, did a series of punches and kicks and finished with a roll that landed him right in front of Princess Ava with a grin on his face.
‘You seem to be fully recovered,’ said Robin the old horse.
‘All better now!’ said the troll, giving Princess Ava a little hug. ‘Thanks to you guys.’
‘But we’ve still got a problem,’ said Milo. ‘Two, in fact. In just over an hour the Giant Rumble is supposed to start: ten of our wrestlers against ten of Lord Veto’s. And four of our team, Taco Twister, Grit, Basil and Green-Taker, are locked up in Lord Veto’s Dungeon of Doom. And if we don’t turn up with a full team … ’
‘We’ll be disqualified and lose,’ said Meenu.
‘It’s more than just losing this Giant Rumble,’ cried Milo. ‘If we lose, I’ll have to quit wrestling forever! It’ll be all over! No more Waldo’s Wrestling Trolls!’
‘I said you were a fool to bet with Lord Veto,’ snorted Robin. ‘He cheats!’
‘Arguing about it won’t help,’
said Princess Ava. ‘We have to get the others out of this Dungeon of Doom.’
‘The trouble is, we don’t even know where it is,’ sighed Bendy Wendy.
‘You used to work for Lord Veto, Jack,’ appealed Milo. ‘You must have some idea where the Dungeon of Doom is.’
‘I knew about some of the terrible things at Veto Castle, but I never heard of the Dungeon of Doom.’
‘The Dungeon of Doom,’ said Robin thoughtfully. ‘It sounds old.’
‘That doesn’t help,’ groaned Jack. ‘The castle is old. The garden is old. Everything about Lord Veto’s place is old!’
‘Except for the new wrestling stadium,’ pointed out Meenu. ‘That’s brand new. I hear it cost a million pounds to build!’
‘Yes, but even that’s built on somewhere that’s old … ’ said Jack in frustration. Then he stopped and his mouth dropped open and his eyes grew very wide.
‘What’s happened to him?’ asked Princess Ava.
‘Is he turning into Thud?’ asked Bendy Wendy, worried.
‘No,’ said Milo, shaking his head. ‘He’s just remembered something very important.’
‘Well I wish he’d share it with us,’ grumbled Robin.
‘The brand new stadium!’ burst out Jack excitedly. ‘It’s built on the place where there used to be an old torture chamber and dungeon!’
‘The Dungeon of Doom?’ asked Ava.
‘It has to be!’ cried Jack.
‘Are you sure?’ asked Milo doubtfully. He looked at his watch. ‘Time is running out, and if we spend a lot of time looking for this place under the stadium and you’re wrong … ’
‘I’m sure I’m right!’ said Jack.
‘Okay,’ nodded Milo. ‘So, how do we get in?’
The dungeon was dark and smelly. It smelled of mould and sewage and dead rats and cheese. The only light came from glow-worms crawling over the walls.
In the gloom, Grit, Basil and Green-Taker watched as Taco Twister paced around, stopping every now and then to punch his fist against a wall.
‘Punching the walls won’t help,’ said Basil. ‘All you’ll do is hurt yourself.’
‘I’m thinking I can punch our way out of here,’ growled Taco.
Grit shook her head. ‘No chance,’ she said. ‘These walls look too thick.’
‘She’s right, they are,’ said a new voice.
They turned to see where the voice had come from, and out of a gloomy corner stepped a garden gnome.
‘Grrrr!’ yelled Taco angrily, and he threw himself at the gnome. It was Lord Veto’s gnomes that had tied them up and dumped them in this dungeon.
The gnome dodged to one side. ‘Wait!’ he appealed. ‘I’m a prisoner in here, just like you!’
Taco stopped, puzzled. ‘A prisoner?’ he repeated.
The gnome nodded. ‘My name’s George, and I was made by Lord Veto, just like all the rest of the gnomes. But Lord Veto decided I was a Wrong Gnome, so he put me in here.’
‘What’s that mean?’ asked Grit. ‘A Wrong Gnome?’
‘Well, all the other gnomes are … um, vicious and nasty. But I like pretty things. Especially flowers and butterflies and beautiful things in the garden.’
‘That is so nice!’ said Basil. He gestured at Green-Taker, his twin. ‘My brother and I are Garden Trolls.’
‘So, how do we get out of here?’ said Taco.
‘You don’t,’ sighed George. ‘This place is underground. No one ever comes here.’
‘Oh dear,’ said Basil.
Black rats and cockroaches scuttled around and hid in the dark corners. Bats detached themselves from the ceiling and flew past the prisoners from wall to wall, while spiders of all kinds scuttled across the floor and up the walls.
‘At least we’re safe here,’ said George.
‘Safe?’ echoed Grit.
‘Yes,’ said George. He pointed at a door in one wall. ‘That’s the only way out, and it leads to the torture chambers. Terrible things go on in there.’
‘He’s right,’ said Green-Taker sadly. ‘All the time I worked for Lord Veto, everyone was afraid of upsetting him, in case they were taken to the torture chambers. There’s one that’s a pit, and inside it is a Wrouse. But the worst one is the Laughing Room.’
‘That doesn’t sound so bad,’ said Basil. ‘Laughing is good.’
‘Not in that room,’ shuddered Green-Taker. ‘The things in there make people laugh to death. There are tickling feathers, laughing gas, a book of terrible jokes and, the most fearful of all, a tickling machine which has loads of arms and hands with feathery gloves on.’
‘Okay, so we don’t go through that door,’ said Grit.
Suddenly they were aware of the ghostly shape of a woman coming through the wall and floating towards them. She was dressed in rags, and her face was the most agonised they’d ever seen. She looked at them, gave a moan, and then floated upwards and disappeared through the ceiling.
‘Who was that?’ asked Basil, awed.
‘That’s one of the ghosts,’ said George. ‘This dungeon is guarded by the spirits of people who died here. If anyone tries to get out, they fly off and warn Lord Veto’s guards.’
‘So we really are trapped,’ said Grit unhappily.
‘Hey, it’s not all bad!’ exclaimed Taco.
They turned, and saw that he was examining what appeared to be a splodge of blood on the wall. He put his nose against it and sniffed. And then, to their shock, he stuck out his tongue and licked it.
‘Yuk!’ exclaimed Grit.
‘Now that is gross!’ said Green-Taker.
‘No.’ Taco smiled. ‘It’s ketchup. Great!’
Milo pulled Robin and the caravan to a halt in the caravan park by the brand-new wrestling stadium.
‘We’re here!’ he called out. ‘What next?’
‘I don’t know,’ called back Jack. ‘I have no idea how he built the stadium over the dungeon. Maybe we look for an underground entrance?’
Milo, Jack, Wendy, Ava and Meenu together with Big Rock, Robin and Blaze, looked at the huge new stadium. The whole building was lit up with coloured lights. All around it were huge ice sculptures.
‘Great stadium!’ said Big Rock in admiration.
There were long queues of people waiting to get in, many with placards and foam fingers.
Milo looked anxiously at his watch. ‘Half an hour to go,’ he said gloomily. ‘We’re never going to find them in time. We’ve lost!’
A sudden commotion of shouting made them look. A door in the side of the building had been thrown open and a load of gnomes were throwing out a large troll, who was trying to fight them off. It was no use.
As the troll got to his feet, Lord Veto appeared in the doorway.
‘If I ever see you here again, I shall have my gnomes put you in the Dungeon of Doom!’ shouted Lord Veto. Then he spotted the gang standing there, and his face lit up in an evil smile. He strode over and leered at them.
‘Well, well!’ he said. ‘Milo – and what remains of his crew. So you made it to my stadium just in time for the Giant Rumble. What a pity you haven’t got all your wrestlers with you! I wonder why that is?’ And with that he threw back his head and laughed. Then he turned on his heel and stomped back inside the stadium, his gnomes following him, and slammed the door shut.
‘I hate him!’ growled Milo. ‘He’s a cheat.’
‘Yes he is,’ agreed the troll. ‘I worked on building this stadium for him, and when I went to get my pay, he had his gnomes throw me out.’
‘You helped build this?’ asked Jack.
The troll nodded.
‘My name’s Bricks,’ he said. ‘I’m a troll builder, and also a wrestler. That’s why I wanted to work on this place. It’s a fantastic wrestling stadium! It’s even got a revolving ring so that everyone in the audience can see what’s happening. It’s operated by orcs working cogs and pulleys and things.’ He shook his head angrily. ‘I was so looking forward to seeing tonight’s opening event: the Gian
t Rumble!’
‘We were looking forward to taking part in it,’ sighed Princess Ava.
Bricks looked at them and frowned, puzzled. Then his face cleared.
‘Wait! If you’re Milo, then the rest of you must be Waldo’s Wrestling Trolls.’ He grinned at Big Rock. ‘I certainly recognise Big Rock, the most famous Wrestling Troll of all. Wow! This is going to be fantastic! Have you seen who Lord Veto has got lined up against you?’ And Bricks began to tick the names off excitedly on his fingers. ‘Spiderella, Mr Belly, Lightning Rawr, Professor Broccoli, Hardcore, Princess Snuggle, Squarehead, the One-Eyed Gangster, Time-Master, and Footballio!’ Then Bricks frowned as he looked at the small crew. ‘So, where’s the rest of your team?’ he asked, looking around.
‘In the Dungeon of Doom,’ groaned Milo.
Bricks looked at him, shocked. ‘What!’ he said.
‘As you helped build this place, do you know where the Dungeon of Doom is, and how we get to it?’ asked Jack.
‘Yes,’ said Bricks. ‘It’s in the middle of the stadium, right beneath the wrestling ring. But there’s only one way in.’ He shuddered. ‘And that’s to get thrown in as a prisoner. And if that happens, you’ll never get out again, ever.’
‘Maybe, maybe not,’ said Jack thoughtfully. Then he smiled. ‘But I have a plan!’
Chapter Ten
‘There’s no way out of this place,’ said Green-Taker. ‘We’re trapped here forever.’
‘Our friends will find a way,’ Grit assured him confidently. ‘Trust me.’
Suddenly, the door burst open and Big Rock crashed onto the dungeon floor, followed by Milo, Jack, Princess Ava, Bricks, Bendy Wendy, Meenu and Blaze. A big group of gnomes appeared, carrying Robin the old horse, and throwing him in as well.
‘You can all stay here and rot!’ shouted the Chief Gnome. With that, the door slammed.
Green-Taker sighed. ‘I thought you said they were going to rescue us?’
‘We are!’ said Meenu as she got to her feet and dusted herself off. ‘This is Jack’s plan.’