His shocked companions all stand around marvelling at this wonderful sight unfolding in front of their eyes as the most beautiful green and yellow butterflies gently flap around their heads and the plant life thrives for the first time in what must be an age. They all then come back to looking at their triumphant compatriot and his prize.
Arnie lifts the glorious sword from his side which magically re-sizes itself to fit his frame perfectly as his friends all audibly gasp with wonder.
“Whoa! What was it?” asks Loui.
“What happened in there?” ask Gwyneth and Vera in unison.
“It was a gh….a gh…..a ghost…..a water ghost.” replies Arnie as he pants heavily like his four legged friend might.
“A water ghost? Oh god, oh god, oh god……” says Vera as she starts panicking again.
“Oh, that’s just the white lady, the spirit of the lake. Don’t worry about her.” interjects Mervin casually;
“You know the magical properties I told you about at the other pool in Tintagel? Well those are all down to her. She is the presence I spoke of. She hasn’t appeared in that form in a very long time though. I thought she had become so weak over the centuries that she couldn’t do it anymore. Did she say anything to you?” he continues.
“Yeah, she said ‘protect her’ or something in a really weird voice.” replies Arnie.
“Protect her eh?” says Mervin contemplatively;
“No riddles or conundrums or anything?”
“Er,….no, no I don’t think so!” replies Arnie as he shakes his head.
“Oh. Ok. It’s just it’s not like her to be so direct! Protect her clearly refers to Gaia doesn’t it? It’s like saying ‘you are on the right path’ or ‘you know what you must do’ etc. Right?” says Mervin as he looks around for confirmation.
“Yeah, I guess so…..” says a perplexed looking Arnie.
Mervin shrugs his shoulders and then turns his attention to the magnificent piece of weaponry in Arnie’s hand.
“So it’s still a sword then?” says Mervin disappointedly as he looks the soggy boy up and down and at the sword he is holding.
Arnie looks down at the sword he’s holding and replies;
“Yep. Still a sword.”
“Well that’s disappointing.” says Mervin.
“Yeah, I was kinda hoping for the sub-machine gun initially, or a flame thrower or something – but now I’ve seen it and held it I wouldn’t swap it for anything. It’s amazing! Beautiful…”
“Deadly!” Interjects Mervin;
“As you can see, it is capable of giving life when in your hands, but as I mentioned it is still a sword, a weapon - meaning it is also capable of taking life! It’s not a toy. You’d do well to remember that and show it the proper respect.”
“Yeah….I know. I will.” replies Arnie genuinely.
“May I see it?” asks Loui sheepishly, unable to take his eyes off of it also.
“Er……” says Arnie indecisively as he looks to Mervin for permission.
“Yeah, sure go ahead, fill your boots. See what happens.” replies Mervin despairingly.
Arnie hands the sword to Loui and as soon as he lets go, the sword quickly returns to its full size (forcing Loui to drop it) and the regenerated plant life around them starts to wither and die again. Arnie quickly picks it back up and as he does so, life returns to the cave, only this time more so! Suddenly a creature that resembles a Rabbit except with three ears, three eyes and blue fur pokes its head out from behind a rock and approaches Arnie, closely followed by a smaller lighter blue one who’s then followed by three even smaller ones. Lady is of course the first to notice and she makes sure she greets them first in her own special way. All five of the creatures line up in front of Lady with their little noses twitching curiously as Arnie and the others look on with interest. Lady sniffs at them cautiously before giving them all a good slobbery licking which they all seem to enjoy. Everybody laughs at Lady’s manners as the creatures all happily hop around.
“Awwww, Space Bunnies! They’re so cool.” says Mervin as he and the others all bend down to pet them.
“Space Bunnies?” asks Arnie.
“Well what would you call them? I haven’t seen the David Attenborough special on the native wildlife of the Ethereal Plane yet, have you?” replies Mervin facetiously.
“Alright, don’t get your knickers in a twist. Space Bunnies it is. And they are very cute….” concedes Arnie as he kneels down to greet and pet the biggest one who has taken a special interest in him.
Both Gwyneth and Vera are happily squealing away while petting and gently playing with the baby space bunnies as a few more start to appear from various corners of the cave, subsequently making them squeal even more.
“Aww look Gwyn, this one must be the runt of the litter. Poor little guy.” says Vera as she picks up the smallest of the baby space bunnies which is no bigger than her hand, and gently strokes it’s forehead with her index finger.
Even Loui is enjoying playing with them before Mervin decides it’s time to move them all on;
“Come on you lot, we’ve got work to do! These guys are cute I grant you but there are other creatures around that may not be so……”
As Mervin is mid-sentence a loud deep sounding growl reverberates around the cave causing everyone to stop what they’re doing and look around worriedly.
“Ssssshhh, see. I don’t even know what that was, but it sounded big!” exclaims Mervin cautiously.
“I do.” whispers Arnie as he covertly sidles up next to Mervin.
“You do? What?” asks the intrigued wizard.
“It was Lady’s belly. She’s hungry! She hasn’t eaten in a while and neither have I thinking about it. I’ve just been too preoccupied and downright nervous to even think about food.” he replies.
“Oh! Yeah I knew that. I wasn’t scared. Come on then, let’s go get you lot a sandwich or a pasty or something.”
Lady barks disapprovingly;
“…or Dog food. Whatever floats your boat.” continues Mervin compromisingly.
Arnie is the first to follow and as he does so he calls to Lady who is saying goodbye to the Space Bunnies;
“Lady. Lady! Come on girl. LADY!”
For the first time in a long time Lady disobeys a command from her master and even though it was out of character it annoys Arnie somewhat, so he picks up a small loose rock and throws it to get her attention.
“Lady! Come!” he says as he throws the rock which hits the wall and knocks something that resembles a bee hive loose from it.
As the ‘hive’ hits the ground it breaks apart and hundreds of beautiful bright yellow flying creatures that resemble large Dragonfly’s escape and start erratically flying around in every which way, creating something of a panic in the process and causing all of the Space Bunnies to scarper.
“Oooh! Pretty birds!” says Vera who is the only one of the children currently not quietly panicking.
“Oh no! Star Wasps!” says Mervin as the others all take a split second away from panicking to collectively roll their eyes at him.
“Wasps?” says Vera, changing her tune as she quickly ducks down behind Loui for protection.
“Quickly, quickly. They’re not aggressive but they will still sting you if they think you’re a threat,…or are taking the mickey out of them, VERA! And you don’t want a sting from one of these things let me tell you.”
Mervin ushers them all back under the standing stones and into the ‘elevator’ whilst shoeing off a number of Star Wasps with a hankie he had in his jacket pocket, before taking his position on the end again. He produces the Scrying stone from his pocket, places it at the side of the standing stone and says:
“Right you lot, hold on and prepare for the jump to light speed!”
“Light speed?” exclaims everyone at once as they all disappear again in the familiar golden shimmer.
Chapter Eleven: Get by with a little help…..
“Yeah, we did tha
t in less than twelve parsecs I think. What do you reckon Arnie?” says Mervin as they all re-appear under the standing stones at Stonehenge.
“Definitely!” says Arnie knowingly and with a wry smile;
“Oh, it is another Star Wars reference.” says Loui casually.
They all stroll away from Stonehenge behind the backs of two puzzled paramedics and a police officer who have been called to assist a passed out, but very happy looking security guard that a family of tourists had found passed out on the grass.
As they creep past they hear the policeman talking to one of the tourists……;
“So, you’re saying that an old man that looked like a skinny Father Christmas in a pin-stripe suit, appeared with three teenagers and a Staffie in a levitating green truck that looks like a big Lizard? And who then disappeared into the ground under Stonehenge after the skinny Father Christmas lookalike had knocked out this security guard with his finger! Is that about right sir?”
Graham McDonald looks at his wife Sheila who is looking very sheepish and embarrassed and then at his three children (and Pug) who are all nodding profusely. The policeman then walks over to the paramedics and the still passed out Security guard and says;
“I think I’m going to need to take this lot in for questioning. Its clear hallucinogenic drugs are involved, and it looks like the kids are on it too. Bloody hippies…….”
The policeman feels something tugging on his trousers and looks down to Ben, the McDonald’s youngest boy, just standing there with Wally the Pug in tow;
“What is it little man? Are you ok? You’re not freaking out are you?” asks the Policeman condescendingly;
“No.” says Ben quietly as he clutches his bag of sweets tightly.
Being the kind hearted boy he is he does what comes naturally and innocently offers the sweet he is already holding in his hand to the policeman;
“Do you want a Jelly Bean?” he asks as the policeman smiles and takes the sweet and Wally the Pug backs away from the offending bean nervously…..
As Mervin and the others arrive back at the Dragon and proceed to climb back in through the sunroof, Mervin stops to look skyward as some birds fly overhead.
“It’s ok right Mervin? They’re Magpie’s right, not Crows?” asks Arnie.
“Have you ever seen Magpies flying in formation before?” Mervin replies.
Arnie shakes his head indicating he hasn’t.
“No I thought not. Magpies are morally ambiguous to say the least. They don’t generally take sides exactly but as long as they get something shiny at the end of it they will literally do anyone’s bidding, especially when turned into a Drone. They are the bounty hunters of the sky, kinda like Boba-Fett except nowhere near as cool. I don’t like them personally. They’re just greedy bullies on the main part. I’m assuming they’ve been summoned by Morgan as she looks to add more weight to her army. Crows are the muscle, Magpies are the ‘Black Op’s so to speak. Sneaky, treacherous and very effective.”
“This is not good!” says Loui.
“No. Totally gnarly!” reiterates Vera, who gets some scornful looks from Mervin for her choice of words;
“What?” she says defensively as everyone else just shakes their respective heads disapprovingly.
Mervin turns his attention to Vera once the Magpies have disappeared into the distance;
“Gnarly?” he asks irritably.
As Mervin addresses Vera he notices her strangely wiggling about as if she has an itch she can’t reach. Then, as she climbs up onto the back of the truck, Mervin also notices that she doesn’t give herself a hand up and in fact isn’t using her arms at all and is acting very strangely indeed. He then spots a pair of long blue ears poking out from the buttons on her top and it all becomes clear;
“Vera, what’s that in your top there? Please tell me you didn’t…..”
“You took a Space Bunny didn’t you?” interrupts Gwyneth.
“What? Who me? I never…” says Vera even more defensively as everybody goes from shaking their heads in a disapproving manner to taking part in a mass face-palming session;
“We’ll talk about this later Vera. Right now we need to move. Get in the truck!.” says Mervin firmly;
“Let it go Vera!” implores Gwyneth.
“What? A three eared, three eyed, bright blue Rabbit? Yeah I’ll just put it down here shall I and let it run over to the road to meet its end under the wheels of Ford Fiesta! No thanks, I think it’s safer with me.” says Vera sarcastically as the clutches the Space Bunny close to her chest.
“Alright, alright. Keep your knickers on!” says Gwyneth defensively;
“Oi, you two – do I need to use my finger on you?” says Mervin as he waves his index finger menacingly in front of their faces again.
Both girls look at each other and get in the Dragon in almost record speed. Loui, Lady, Arnie and finally Mervin then quickly follow. When they are all in the truck Mervin doesn’t mess around at all and quickly starts the engine, spins over the control panel on the dashboard and flips the inconspicuous silver switch again to send them back into the ether.
The policeman, Ben McDonald and Wally the Pug all spot the magnificent green behemoth that is the Dragon and watch from afar as it shakes violently and disappears again into a puff of golden smoke. The policeman takes out the half chewed jelly bean from his mouth, sniffs it and examines it with a disgusted look on his face as he discreetly spits the rest of it onto the ground. The policeman kneels down and pulls Ben closer to him……
“Did your parents put something in this before they gave them to you Ben? You can tell me, I’m a Policeman.” he asks as Graham, Sheila and the rest of his family are occupied elsewhere.
Ben looks around shiftily and then leans in toward the Policeman and whispers;
“No. It wasn’t them. It was Wally! He put something on it.”
Ben and the policeman both slowly turn and look suspiciously at Wally the pug as Wally slowly backs away - looking more nervous than ever.
On the ethereal plane, Vera and Gwyneth are both cooing over the new small blue addition to the group as Mervin ineffectively fiddles with the controls.
“I’m going to call him Simon. Simon the Space Bunny.” says Vera excitedly.
“What about Sam or Steve or Sid…..?” replies Gwyneth.
“It doesn’t have to begin with an S you know. It’s probably already got a name anyway seeing as it seemed to already have a family that you violently SNATCHED him from! That’s a point, how about Snatch?” says Arnie aggressively.
Lady barks loudly just to reiterate Arnie’s annoyance at the bunny-napping situation they currently find themselves in which startles the Space Bunny into bouncing around the Dragons interior like a super-bunny.
“Sir! This begins with an ‘S’ right? How’s Sir Jumper or Jumpy or something similar?” suggests Loui.
“Yeah, it has to be related to his super-duper jumps because he clearly loves doing it. He sure does jump a lot.” replies Gwyneth.
“Ooh, Jumpalot! Sir Jumpalot!” exclaims Loui in an uncharacteristically excited manner.
“Sir Jumpalot, I love it.” replies Vera softly as Sir Jumpalot calms down and he and Vera sneakily cosy up to Loui who smiles to himself proudly.
Arnie and Gwyneth roll their eyes at each other as does Mervin before re-focusing his troupe back to the task at hand;
“Sir Jumpalot? Really? Where did you get that from? You know what, nevermind, it doesn’t matter - just keep him safe will you? The last thing we need is for him to get himself and us on the 6 o’clock News!” says Mervin before continuing;
“Anyway, listen up - this is the plan. Now that the Gravity Drive is back up and running, we’re going to head back to H.Q, pick up Archie and Alfie and grab something to eat. Then we’ll need to come up with a strategy for getting rid of Morgan and the rest of her horrible mob. Arnie, this is what you were born for. Right now you probably think you have some idea of what awaits you but I can assure y
ou don’t. But you will, and you’ll have more of an understanding than your friends here. You three *Mervin points at Loui Gwyneth and Vera* are all very brave but you don’t need to be here if you don’t want to be. You have your families to think of and this path you are currently on is uncertain to say the least. One thing that is certain is that this path is fraught with danger, and I simply can’t ask you to risk your lives for our cause. I realise now, after bringing you this far that it’s just too much to ask.”
“Er,….I think this is all of our cause no?” replies Loui quickly.
“Yeah! You say that the Earth is in danger and that this Morgan character needs to be stopped or we will all be plunged into chaos and darkness filled with horrid, bad teethy beasts and things, but that we can just go home and just sit down in front of Eastenders and forget about it all if we want! Sorry, but although I am admittedly petrified right now, that aint gonna happen!” says Gwyneth sternly.
“Amen to that!” says Vera as she and Loui both pet Sir Jumpalot who has stopped jumping around finally and has taken up a comfortable residence on her lap.
“Guys. It’s ok really. I wouldn’t want to see any of you get hurt.” interjects Arnie as he places a hand on Gwyneth’s without thinking, who squeezes it reassuringly tightly in reciprocation.
“I……I don’t want to lose you.” he says nervously while looking at Gwyneth.
“You won’t. I’m right here. We’re all right here!” replies Gwyneth as she gazes back at Arnie tenderly;
Everyone smiles in unison at this and as Loui, Vera [and Jumpalot] cuddle up to each other Lady places her paw on top of Arnie and Gwyneth’s hands in a gesture of camaraderie that also serves to lighten the mood. Everyone laughs nervously before Arnie turns back to Mervin and says;
Arnie, Mervin, & The Blood of Kings Page 18