The Cult of Kishpu

by J. J. Shetland

  “Or least some help to get us back down to Earth,” added Stu Pot.

  The king sighed. “I will need to think about it.”

  “We don’t have time to think, Father,” Louise said in Danish.

  “Fine!” the king snapped in Danish. “Why don’t you escort them back to Earth yourself and, if you think they need our desperate help, we will come, but only if it is desperate. Understand?”

  “Yes, Father,” Louise said, bowing to him. She knew the war that Sarah helped to start was still far over and not a second was to be wasted, but the real reason she wanted to go with G.C.A. because she thought fighting would take her mind off how she was feeling about her sister’s death. Then she turned to a couple of soldiers. “Get four jetpacks ready for my friends.”

  The soldiers saluted and flew away.

  “Princess,” said Rustom, who was holding his T.M.D. “Could you take us to the Everglades?”

  “Why would we want to go there?” asked Stu Pot.

  “I’ve found one of our friends,” said Rustom. “Alive.”

  * * *

  Heavy smoke was still blocking the dark red skies over the Everglades. The surface of the water was popping with bubbles, followed by a small penguin that was coughing and spluttering.

  Larissa breathed in the air. That’s a new record. I can hold my breath underwater for twenty three minutes. Hope that goes in the Guinness World Records.

  She looked around and saw the airboat that had Petunia and Rachael with Kathy as their prisoner was gone. She didn’t know where to start looking for them, but she knew that it was dangerous to wait where she was.

  Despite the enemies being gone and no other pests around, Larissa still felt very unsecure. She was all on her own in the middle of the burnt Everglades with the dark red sky hanging over her. She never minded being on her own and she was grateful she didn’t need to rely on anyone, especially her thick brother. Not to mention that she had just avoided an explosion and she owned thanks to a great big hole under a rock which she could squeeze under. She had been in many battles before and knew how to avoid many explosions, but this was the first time she had called the closest thing she ever had to a near-death explosion. Because she always had someone to help her through like Kathy and Mengy, but now she was on her own and she felt pleased that she avoided that explosion by herself. The explosion didn’t even hit the feathers around her tail; she had to pluck herself as false evidence for Rachael to give Petunia to fake her death.

  After swimming for so long, Larissa found the nearest land her eyes first laid on. She swam to it and climbed out of the water. As she sat to let herself dry, she analysed the situation she was in. First, she had no weapons to defend herself with, not even a rock she could pick up by herself. Second, she had no friends to help her out of here now that Kathy was gone. And third, she had no maps or vehicles or Mengy to get here out of this giant ash tray. But, looking on the bright side, she couldn’t see wendigos or crocodiles coming after her. Before she would make any plans to rescue Kathy and find the rest of her friends, she decided to take a deep breath and exhale.

  “ROAR!”

  Larissa screamed and fell back into the water. As she reached the surface again, she immediately knew who scared her and glared at him.

  “Sorry!” laughed Pedro, who was wearing a jetpack. “I couldn’t resist!”

  “And I can’t resist this either!” yelled Larissa, as she climbed back out of the water. Then she charged for Pedro. Even though she couldn’t catch him due to him flying away above her, she never gave up.

  “Hey, hey, calm down, lass.”

  Larissa got picked off the ground. “Let me go, Stu Pot! Can’t you see I’m trying to –” Then she stopped and realised who she was talking to. “Stu Pot!” she cried, happily hugging him. “I’ve missed you.” After being put back on the ground, she looked at Lukeson and happily saluted. “Sergeant Lukeson!”

  Lukeson proudly saluted back. “Well done for making it out alive, Larissa.”

  “Hi, Rustom,” Larissa said to the rhino.

  Rustom gave her a quick wave back.

  “And who is this lady?” Larissa saw a beautiful blonde lady with wings.

  “Larissa, may I introduce Louise, Princess of the Skies?” said Stu Pot.

  “Your Highness,” said Larissa, bowing. “But how did you guys find me?”

  “This beauty here,” replied Rustom, holding his TMD device.

  “Larissa, do you where your aunt, Meng and Toronto are?” Lukeson asked.

  “Not Aunt Paula or Mengy,” Larissa told him. After being away from her for two days, she started to realise that she still loved her aunt deeply, even though she didn’t have the best aunt-niece relationship with Paula and never talked a lot about her. She hoped Mengy was all right as well.

  Then the young penguin told everyone the whole story about how she and Kathy woke up on Cocoa Beach after the fight with the colossal squids and found Petunia Clockson and Rachael Rhodes who not only to be alive but the ringleaders of this war, why they wanted to wipe out the humans, tricked them into entering into a space shuttle and crashing it to wipe out the whole of the USA, got attacked by an army of wendigos created by Petunia, whose real name is Anne Dunbury and is a very old English sorceress, and tried to kill them in the Everglades.

  “A war based on revenge,” Rustom said. “Not a one-of-a-kind war, is it?”

  “How many wars have you seen on Earth that’s not just been about human beings?” Stu Pot asked him.

  “There has been a few,” Lukeson said. “We know they’re real, but the rest of the human race have taken them as mere myths and legends. Now, Rustom, can you find Toronto, Guzman and Meng?”

  “Only Toronto, I’m afraid, Sergeant,” said Rustom. “And here she is.” He showed everyone what his T.M.D. said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  The third gang of headaches and blurry visions for Kathy had been worse than the ones she woke up with at Seacrest Beach and after the Florida shuttle crash put together. Her head felt like it had received too many sledgehammer hits. She could barely remember what happened and she could hardly see where she was. All she could see at the moment was cool air. Then she could just see she was still trapped in the same chains she was on the airboat in the Everglades and she discovered she was not alone. She turned but barely saw what it was that joined her in the chains. She thought it was a Giant Sequoia.

  Loud hissing made Kathy jump and wake up fully. She looked up in the sky to see cobra sphinxes flying around. Now that her eyes felt fresh as a daisy, she looked down to see that she was in some sort of wildlife area full of tall beautiful trees, bushes and flowers. That would have been a pretty sight if not for the army of wendigos, cobra sphinxes, mothmen, kongamatos and impundulus birds running wild. They were roaring and screeching, but not fighting each other. Kathy assumed that they were dancing and celebrating as if they had just won the war of Planet Earth. And if they have won, what would they do to her? Eat her or make her one of Petunia’s minions? All she knew it wasn’t going to be good for her.

  Rachael arrived in front of Kathy and samba-danced. She awaited feedback from her prisoner but only got a hard glare. “God, you were always so hard to please.”

  “Is this why you’ve pretended to be my friend all these years?” Kathy asked. “So you could use me as a pawn in your mission?”

  “No, no. If I didn’t want to be your friend, I would have let you die along with the other orphans that Petunia killed.”

  That really struck Kathy. Even though she was never really close to the other adorable orphans, hearing about what happened to them made her heart feel like it had been stabbed multiple times. She didn’t know how much more bad news she could take. “Petunia killed the other orphans? WHY!”

  “Well, we were running short of soldiers,” Rachael replied. “But they refused to join us because they didn’t believe what Petunia was doing was the right or smart thing to do. That was the last choice the
y made and I never thought meat tasted so good.” She rubbed her tummy and licked her lips mockingly.

  Kathy felt like eating Rachael herself.

  “Anyway, once Petunia rules the world,” the croc went on, “she will reward us with the ultimate power: riches, order and immortally. How could you not want any of those?”

  Kathy scoffed. “From what I’ve learnt, in my point of view, power is the ultimate addition. It takes over your mind and you never want to stop, even if it kills you.”

  “But now there are less than one billion humans on the planet.” Petunia popped around behind the Sequoia and faced her former student. “It will be a lot easier to rule and there will nothing to compete against my regency.”

  Kathy chuckled sarcastically. “I guess you never met Albert Einstein while he was alive. When he said there will be wars as long as people have different ideas and beliefs, I’m sure he included us talking animals and you magical folk as well.”

  “But Einstein didn’t have magical powers, did he?” Petunia mockingly waved her hands in front of her.

  Despite her future looking so grim, Kathy still wasn’t up for surrendering to them. “I never thought I wasn’t worth a damn to you.”

  “Of course you meant everything to me,” Petunia said. “Raising you and Rachael were the happiest years in all of my centuries.”

  “How old are you exactly?”

  “Why do you ask? You don’t think witches are immortal?”

  “I just didn’t know it took a powerful witch like you so long to create your army of monsters.” Kathy was glad she had not lost all her self esteem.

  “They are not the monsters of the Earth,” said Petunia. “All those humans, merfolk and wingpeople who are destroying the planet are the monsters. My armies of heroes will save the Earth like no one ever has in its history. I would have seized it in my grasp much earlier if I had at least ten Kishpu rings.” She showed Kathy two Kishpu rings on her middle right hand fingers. “See the problem? And I gave one to Akins and another to Sarah.”

  “What about the rest of the stones?” Rachael asked.

  “Lost and destroyed centuries ago is my best guess,” Petunia said.

  “Centuries later and you’re still holding your grudge against a deceased human king,” Kathy said. “Human beings have changed so much since then. They’re not as violent and they have more freedom so they are happier than they were in those days. Haven’t you noticed?”

  “Have you also noticed that humans are still going to war?” asked Petunia. “Have you noticed that they have always compared themselves to others? Some are rich, some are poor, some are healthy, some are ill, some can afford luxury, some can afford nothing. Doesn’t seem like life has gotten fairer at all.”

  “Ma’am,” said Rachael. A member of each monster species was behind her; Kathy assumed that they were the captains of their species.

  “They all say their armies are good to go ahead with the final wipe-out of those who will not surrender,” the croc told Petunia.

  “Well, no time like the present,” said the sorceress. “All right, move out.”

  “Why don’t you start with me?” asked Kathy.

  “Because I don’t want to kill you,” said Petunia. “I have something special for you.”

  Kathy knew whatever it was that would be sent would only be something worse than putting her out of her own misery. “Just who are you?”

  “We, Kathy, are the Earth’s future,” Petunia told her. “And everyone who is with us will be the future. Those who fight us will do nothing but push up daisies. Why suffer fools gladly when you can eliminate them?”

  “A choice? Is that the something special you giving me?”

  “A choice to live or die. You have fifteen minutes to make your mind and you better make a decision by then or what I’ll send will decide for you.” Then the sorceress marched to her armies. “Let us go and save the world!”

  All Kathy could do was watch Rachael and the monster armies cheer as they proudly followed Petunia out of her sight. Soon, there was nothing for her to do except make her mind up about Petunia’s offer.

  * * *

  The young zebra was still depressed. She still could not get over about her best friends were actually her enemies all along and she regretted not being very grateful for Lukeson taking her in for G.C.A. Even though she was a very bright and loyal soldier and Lukeson usually spoke very fondly of her, she felt like Lukeson was no Petunia and he could not be up to her standards, let alone exceed them.

  Kathy was beating herself up about the fact she relied heavily on Rachael and ignored the other members of Squad J. Even though she was a good team worker and she was fond of the young penguins and had a secret crush on Stu Pot, she thought no one could be take Rachael’s place of being her best friend. She had never been so wrong in her life. She would do anything to see one of her friends again. Even the difficult Rustom.

  Then something fell down from a branch. Kathy didn’t know what it was, but it looked like a small dark purple cloud flying slowly towards her. She thought this was the thing that Petunia had sent to kill her if she wouldn’t join her cult.

  She made her mind up. “No, I refuse to join you, Petunia! After what you have done to me all these years, I will not join you! Come on, do your worst!”

  She closed her eyes and awaited her death. Then she felt she had more room to move around. She quickly opened her eyes to find her arms and feet free from the chains. Then she noticed a patrol of wendigos that saw her free. They started to run to her.

  Realising she had no gun, Kathy looked for something to defend herself with. There was nothing, not so much a small stick. She got her arms ready in a karate position. Then she was pushed to the ground. She looked up to see Rustom waving her broken chains above him like a lasso and wrapped the wendigos in them. Then he threw them into the purple cloud. Their legs hung down from the cloud like hung up washing. It started to grow brighter and then finally exploded into thin air. The dust remains rained to the ground.

  “What have you been up to, lass?”

  Kathy turned to see Stu Pot holding his hand out for her. She immediately took it and was pulled up. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Then she hugged him. She was so delighted to see him.

  “Hey, Katherine,” said Rustom.

  Kathy turned around to see the solar panel machine gun was tossed to her which she caught. “Could you also warn me before you slam me to the ground?” she snapped. “A simple ‘Get Down!’ will suffocate.”

  “You’re welcome for saving your life,” said Rustom.

  Then lightning struck the tree near them. Rustom and the zebras ran out of the way before the second bolt hit them. They looked up to see impundulus birds above them.

  “Let’s go!” yelled Stu Pot. As he and his friends ran, he wondered where Mengy could be. She’s never around when you need her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  “So where are we?” asked Kathy, noticing she and the boys were running through a massive land full of fruit trees. “And where are we running to?”

  “We’re in Canada,” Rustom said. “We’re in the Vancouver Horticultural Gardens. The Organic Fruit Orchards to be precise and we’re trying to meet up with Lukeson in the Chinese Gardens.”

  “Lukeson? You mean everyone is here?” That was the most delightful news Kathy had heard for days.

  “Well, there is still no contact from either Mengy or Paula yet,” said Stu Pot.

  She was disappointed to hear that. All she could do was hope they were alive and well wherever they were.

  “Sphinxes at nine o’clock,” said Rustom.

  The three soldiers turned around to see the cobra sphinxes charging towards them. They aimed their guns at the throats of the flying monsters. They waited patiently for them to come near enough to them.

  Then Kathy found herself in the air. She looked up to see it was a kongamato that picked her up. She found out that she didn’t have her weapon
with her anymore and could do nothing except try to wiggle free from the feet.

  Rustom and Stu Pot fired everything they could at it, but both the dinosaur-like creature and Kathy were soon out of their reach. They tried to catch up to her, but they got blocked off by a group of wendigos.

  * * *

  Kathy was struggling to hold onto the kongamato’s feet. She felt as if she was about to slip away, which is what the creature was probably planning to do.

  The feet finally released her, but she quickly grabbed onto third little claw on the right foot. Then judging the distance from the claw she was hanging from to the creature’s back gave her a risky idea. She swung forward on the little claw and let go, flipping backwards to the back of the kongamato. She successfully landed. She wasted no time grabbing its neck before it could twist and turn.

  Kathy’s plan had worked and she was now as safe as she could be. But she remembered that she still had no weapon to kill it. What could she do now? She doubted she could crash land the kongamato to death.

  “Hey!” cried a Danish accent.

  Kathy was amazed to see what she thought was a blonde female human but with flying giant wings on her back.

  “Catch this!” She threw something to her.

  Kathy caught it and saw it was a wooden piece with a golden button on the top. She quickly pressed it and was surprised when she saw a shiny metal dagger piece appeared below the wooden piece like a pen knife. She wasted no time sticking it into the back of the kongamato’s head. The monster screamed and headed down towards a large area of grass.

  Kathy quickly jumped and rolled away from the crashing kongamato. As she panted while watching the beast finished crashing into the great stone statue of Dame Julia Salt, the entrepreneur that created these gardens centuries ago, she turned around to see Sergeant Lukeson approaching her. She got up and saluted. “Sergeant Lukeson, sir,” she said.

  Lukeson saluted back. “It’s good to see you alive and in one piece, Private Toronto.”