The Rightful Heir

by Jefferson Knapp

  “Yesss, Massster.” The others left as he disappeared through the bushes.

  He slithered a long way through the trees and grass, finally coming upon a small brook surrounded with limestone rock. A natural spring had filled up a small pool of water, where the trees above dropped their colored leaves. He stared into the calm water, watching for any movement. “Ribbit! Ribbit!” A large, fat, dark-green bullfrog with warts covering his whole body croaked from atop a patch of shadowy moss that floated along the side, camouflaging him. Two more bulbous sets of frog eyes stared out of the water behind their leader.

  “Hisssssss. I hope you have sssome… interesssting newsss for me?”

  “The heir never showed up last night. Ribbit. The Snapper is keeping an eye open for him. We’ll check back in a couple days to see if anything happened. Ribbit!”

  “A couple daysss? Hisssssss.” Siloam’s rattle shook. “We had an agreement, Fat Tony. You sssaid you would keep a continuousss watch on their kingdom.”

  “Ribbit. Do you realize how many workers I have on this project? I had to hire the Snapper, and he wasn’t cheap, not to mention the time spent finding tunnels that lead to their spring. Ribbit. That lazy, good-for-nothing Marlon’s been plundering the forest since all the competition is gone. Even Don Diego has backed away from the ‘coons! Ribbit.”

  “Hisssssssss. Remember how grateful you were when we killed the raccoon? You sssaid you would help me out!” The bullfrog’s bulbous eyes blinked in consideration and the snake smiled maliciously. “I guesss I could eat you inssstead.”

  A giant croak popped out of Fat Tony’s throat. “I’ll head back and see if anything new has happened. Ribbit.”

  “I will return at sssunssset. There had better be sssomething…” Siloam looked over the fat bullfrog and flicked his tongue. “Juicy.” He hissed and slithered into the grass.

  The bullfrog looked at the other two in the water. “…Snakes.”

  BENJAMIN PASSED THROUGH THE COLD TUNNEL that took him down into the earth. He heard no talking. They must still be asleep. When he reached the hall, in the pale light he saw masses of animals curled up, sleeping. He remembered when Paco scared the sleepwalking Roscoe and Clementine when he yelled ‘Farangis!’ and got a mischievous idea. He tiptoed through the animals. Clementine lay next to the natural spring pool. Benjamin put down his backpack and quietly approached the peaceful, sleeping pig.

  Hmmpph! With one great heave, Benjamin pushed the pig into the freezing water. Clementine’s eyes shot out. “What the—?! Oink! Oink! Oink! It’s freezing! Oink! Oink!” All the animals awoke instantly. They saw the pig thrashing in the pool and their king laughing hysterically. They laughed, too. “Your Majesty, help me! Please help me!” The pig started to dip under the water as his little legs kicked madly.

  Benjamin’s smile disappeared. “Oh no! Okay, just hold on, Clementine!”

  “To what?!”

  Benjamin leaned out to grab the frantic pig. The water was cold. He managed to grab a front porky leg. “Gotcha!”

  “Hold on tight, Your Majesty!”

  “I won’t let go!” Benjamin never saw the pig grin right before he twisted his fat body over, pulling the boy into the icy cold pool with him.

  “Whoaaaaaaaa!”

  The animals watched their king splash around awkwardly while the fat pig laughed his head off, bobbing up and down in the water. Clementine confidently swam to the ledge of the pool and heaved himself out. Roscoe stared the wet pig in the face.

  “Nice going, pig! You just got the king all wet!” he said in disgust.

  “Feel free to help, Matador,” Clementine smiled.

  The goat walked to the ledge and bowed his head. “Here, Your Majesty. Grab onto my horns.” Benjamin moved close to the ledge and grabbed onto his one full horn. It didn’t take much to yank Roscoe into the pool. “Baaaaaah! Baaaaah!” Clementine laughed hardest of all. Benjamin grabbed the hysterical goat with a free arm.

  “There, there, Roscoe. It’s not so cold once you get used to it!”

  “Yeah, Roscoe. You gotta stay in longer than that!” Clementine jeered. Loud splashing drowned out the goat’s reply…thankfully. Clementine roared at Roscoe’s long black ears drooping over his eyes.

  Benjamin helped Roscoe out of the pool and followed right behind. “Ahhh! Okay I’m definitely awake now.” He laughed as he stretched out on the floor, soaked head to toe.

  “Good morning, Sire! Good morning, Your Majesty!” They greeted the silly-looking king.

  “Good morning, everybody.” Benjamin coughed and sat up. “Well…I’ve got some good news.”

  “Tell us, Sire!” Clementine shook his fat body and the remaining drops flew off his black, bristly hair into Roscoe’s face.

  “Thanks.” The goat snapped.

  “I talked to the pug with the black foot last night.” His audience leaned in. “And…he is King Pugsly’s son!”

  “Hooray!” The animals jumped for joy and Benjamin smiled, just as excited about the meeting he’d had with Mac.

  JESSICA HOWELL OPENED THE FRONT DOOR and pushed the lock. It was Friday and she was looking forward to the Harvest Home Festival, now only two days away. “Come on, Mac. Get out here,” she called into the house. The pug ran happily past her, his curly tail wagging back and forth. She picked him up and he licked her nose. “I’ll see you when I get home.”

  The dog barked with excitement. Jessica didn’t know he was counting on being alone all day so he could go to his kingdom. She put him down and headed for the road as the loud hum of the school bus got nearer. Mac ran up to the fence and barked as she closed the gate. The muddy yellow bus stopped and opened its door. He watched the last of his owners leave for the day.

  “Perfect!” He ran to the other side of the yard and started barking, “Zeus! Hey, Zeus! Come here!” It was still foggy as the sun rose. He looked over toward Zeus’s house but could see only slow-moving stretches of fog and a pinkish glow from the yard lamp. He waited by the fence. Out of the fog the large, black Doberman Pincher charged him.

  “You called, Your Majesty?” Zeus teased.

  “Zeus, oh boy am I glad to see you!” The pug stood on his hind legs and rested against the chain link fence. “You gotta help me get out of here! The owners are gonna be gone for the whole day and I need your help in finding my kingdom.”

  The Doberman stared at him a moment. “Eh, what else do I have to do today?”

  “Good! Help me find a spot to dig where they won’t notice.” Mac ran to the corner of the fence along the far back side of the house and Zeus followed. “This looks far enough away.” He started to dig the soft, wet earth with his front paws, Zeus digging twice as much in seconds. In no time they completed the escape tunnel. Mac made sure the dirt was scattered and not in one pile, then slipped under the fence and out the other side.

  “Welcome to freedom, little friend.” Zeus smiled at the dirty-faced pug.

  “Ah, now let’s see here.” Mac looked down the foggy road. “That boy took off down that way, right?” His front foot pointed south.

  “Yes.”

  “So…I guess we head that way!”

  The two of them walked through the fog to find the kingdom that had been waiting to meet their fallen king’s son.

  “SO WHEN IS HE COMING, King Benjamin?” a bushy-tailed squirrel asked eagerly.

  “Sometime today, I hope. He did seem excited. And I told him where to find us.” Benjamin looked at the animals gathered ‘round. He loved being in their company. He loved being their king. Then Felix the fox said something that reminded him of the stressful part of his job.

  “Will we be able to get my friends in Persly’s Woods today? That thing is still out there!”

  Benjamin didn’t have much of a reply. “Hopefully Mac will show up soon, Felix.” The boy sat on the floor and rested his head against the seat of his throne. His jeans felt stiff and cold. They were taking a long time to dry. Then he remembered the school bus! He pulled his
cell phone out of his backpack and looked at the time. “Oh, no! The bus will be here any second!” He jumped up, grabbed the pack, and ran out of the cave. “Bye, guys!” he called over his shoulder, his water-soaked sneakers squeaking loudly.

  “Good-bye, Your Majesty!” Roscoe shouted.

  Benjamin ran through the dark tunnel and heard the hum of the bus getting closer. Oh, please wait for me!

  Al stopped the bus at Benjamin’s mailbox and waited a few seconds, staring at the Biggs’s front door, then honked twice. Benjamin heard the sound echo through the tunnel. As he neared the entrance a thought occurred to him. What if they see me pop out of the fox den? Al honked the horn a couple more times. “No! Wait!” Benjamin yelled, but it was too late. The engine roared and the bus rolled past his house. He finally reached the entrance and the sticks sprang up. He scrambled out of the hole and jumped onto the soggy road, glimpsing the tail end of the bus as it disappeared around a bend far down the road. He bent over to catch his breath. “Oh, great!”

  THE FOG ROLLED INTO THE IVY-COVERED BARN and over the rattlesnakes, nestled in the hay. Returning from his meeting, Siloam slithered through the entrance and past the ever-rotting corpse of Farangis. “Any sssign of the heir?”

  “No, My Lord, nothing,” a snake replied.

  “He’sss out there sssomewhere. He hasssn’t made it to the kingdom yet.”

  “My Lord, why not just attack the kingdom now?”

  Siloam rattled in anger. “How dare you quessstion my decisionsss!”

  “I’m sssorry, Massster. We jussst don’t underssstand why—”

  “Underssstand? You aren’t meant to underssstand! You will follow my ordersss and you will watch me become the ssstrongessst, mossst feared…”

  The fog stirred behind him and the snakes stopped listening, rattles falling lifeless, eyes growing wider. They could just make out what looked like the diamond head of a giant snake twice the size of their decaying former master. Siloam wasn’t aware of the monstrous presence behind him. “…and I will be ruler of all the—” Chomp! Siloam’s tail convulsed in the mouth of the gargantuan python.

  Every snake in the barn hissed in terror at the monster they had never seen nor imagined could exist. The mammoth creature swallowed the last of Siloam’s tail and surveyed them with no emotion. Dead black scales were stuck to its massive head, revealing shiny new ones underneath. Its cruel eyes were covered in a white, milky film.

  It had the frightened snakes in its vision then saw something unexpected. The rotting blue corpse of Farangis. In a swift motion the monster pulled back its massive neck as if to strike again. The rattlesnakes nearly fainted as its head rose to nearly the height of the barn. Then it emitted a tortured scream. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

  In the forest, all of the creatures trembled in their hiding places. In the old, ivy-covered barn, the rattlesnakes closed their eyes, knowing they could not escape this predator. They awaited a certain and horrible death, hoping it would be quick.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Forrest of the Forest

  DID YOU HEAR THAT?!” Jonah asked Malcolm nervously. “Is someone in trouble?”

  Malcolm gulped. “I hope it wasn’t trouble that made that scream.” The two looked about, frightened and confused. The sun’s rays reached over the treetops, brightening the red and yellow leaves that drifted to the ground. “Let’s keep moving.”

  “Hoo, hoo! Move to the place where you must race. Hoo hoo!” They looked up at a large, brown horned-owl staring straight ahead. “Hoo, hoo! Go and go slowly, for it’s coming fast! Hoo, hoo!”

  “Uh, look, my name’s Malcolm and this is Jonah.”

  “Hoo, hoo! Not the one you claim, not the one you believe! Hoo, hoo!”

  “Owl, do you know where the kingdom is?”

  “Hoo, hoo! Do you know where you are? Hoo, hoo! For you’re not standing on the forest floor! Hoo, hoo!”

  “What in the world is he talking about?”

  “Hoo, hoo! The travelers’ feet, the ground you don’t meet. Hoo, hoo!” The owl stretched and lightly flapped its wings.

  “Don’t ask me!” Jonah said. “I can’t understand a thing he’s saying.”

  The owl cleared his throat. “Ahem…Look below you!! Hoo, hoo!”

  Malcolm and Jonah slowly looked down. There was no grass under their feet, and no weeds or leaves—only a crispy, almost transparent black skin. Malcolm froze. To their left and right the long skin extended past the trees. He scurried up a sycamore and looked down. The pug stood on the shed skin of a nearly fifty-foot-long snake. Thunk! Jonah watched Malcolm faint and fall from the tree, dropping into a pile of leaves.

  “Malcolm!” The dog ran to him. “Are you alright?”

  The raccoon rubbed the back of his head, stunned. “Yeah…I’m okay. But the forest isn’t.”

  “Hoo, hoo! The forest is stirring, the monster’s about!”

  “Malcolm, what is it?” Jonah looked scared.

  “It…it’s a snake!” The two examined the enormously long skin on the ground.

  Jonah gasped. “Where—?”

  “Underneath you…”

  Jonah jumped in fright.

  “No, it’s just the skin. It shed its skin here.” Malcolm grabbed it with both hands.

  Jonah looked closely and suddenly it was obvious what it was. He looked at both ends of what seemed to be a snake skin with no head or tail, disappearing into the trees. “Whoa! Huh…How big is this thing?!”

  “I don’t know exactly, but—”

  “Hoo, hoo! The myth or the monster? Hoo, hoo!” Jonah reached for an itch behind his ear and the owl spotted his black foot. “It’s you! Hoo, hoo!” He jumped out of his nest and spread his large wings, soaring down to the dog and raccoon.

  Malcolm readied himself, thinking the owl was coming to attack. But the bird landed in front of them, kicking up a pile of fallen leaves. “You! You’re the…uh, I mean, Hoo, hoo! The one, they say, the one who…” The frustrated owl sighed. “Ah, who am I kiddin’? You’re King Pugsly’s son!” Jonah and Malcolm exchanged a glance. “Am I right?” The owl stared at them. “Oh, c’mon, you can’t hold out on me now!” His eyes opened wide.

  “Uh…y-yes, I am,” Jonah said hesitantly.

  “I knew it! Ha! Only the son of King Pugsly could have one black foot like yours.” The owl laughed.

  Malcolm was curious. “Hey, why are you talking, uh… normal to us now?”

  “Oh,” he snorted. “Ummmm…because this is how I talk.”

  Malcolm put his nose in the air. “Well then what was all that…” He flapped his arms against his sides and darted his head around. “Hoo, hoo, race to the place of the chase…with a face, hoo, hoo, hoo!”

  “Oh, tee-hee, yeah…” The owl blushed. “I don’t know. I guess I just get a kick out of making people think.”

  “Think about what–how dumb you sound?” Malcolm frowned.

  “Well, it works!” Jonah said.

  “Look, fellas, we shouldn’t be hanging around here too long. That scream wasn’t far away.”

  “Whose scream was it?” Jonah asked.

  The owl pointed at the giant snake skin with his wing. “That.”

  Jonah gasped. “That?”

  “Yeah… that.”

  Malcolm put two and two together. “And I guess that would be—”

  “It,” the owl finished.

  “Farangis?” Macolm gasped.

  “I’m not sure, but I don’t think so.”

  “I haven’t gone back to the barn since I left the others, so maybe he is still alive!”

  The owl stared at the shed skin. “No one has seen this monster and lived, but you can sure hear it move through the woods…and smell it! Boy you can smell it from far away! Even those of us in the trees aren’t safe.”

  Jonah cleared his throat. “My name is Jonah, and this is Malcolm.”

  “Forrest.” The owl nodded.

  “Forrest, we need to find the kingdom, and quickly
from the way it sounds. Can you help us?” Malcolm asked.

  “I can’t lead you there—it’s time for me to go to sleep. But head west through the pastures. Once the evergreen trees start to get scarce, look for a tall hedge tree standing all alone. If you reach the road then you’ve traveled too far. There will be a hole in the ground not far from that tree. That is where the kingdom is.”

  “Thank you, Forrest,” Malcolm bowed.

  “My pleasure. Oh, and if you don’t mind, let’s keep this little secret about me talking to you to ourselves.” He winked at the two.

  Jonah smiled. “We can do that.”

  “You’d better hurry and warn the others. If that was indeed it we heard screaming, it sounded mad! Hoo, hoo!” The owl flew over the trees. Jonah and Malcolm had a long journey ahead of them.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  A Kingly Introduction

  THE FOG WAS CLEARING as Mac and Zeus ran over the soft mud and gravel road.

  “So we’re supposed to be looking for a mailbox?” Zeus asked, panting a little.

  “He said it’d be on the right with a pond behind it and a fox den across from it.”

  “And will there be a fox there to let us in?”

  “I don’t know! Just keep moving.”

  “Yes…Your Majesty!” Zeus laughed at the thought.

  MALCOLM AND JONAH SOON REACHED the edge of Persly’s Woods. Jonah was back in the pasture he’d come from.

  “Oh, I’d almost forgotten how you can’t see anything in this grass!” The dog was annoyed as he pushed it down with his chest.

  “I don’t walk much around here,” Malcolm replied. “Nobody does, after hearing stories about the wild goats.”

  “What wild goats?”

  “You don’t know about Zebulon and his clan of wild goats? Oh, Jonah, they’re fierce…and crazy! They say the ground shakes when they come at you. Their horns are mighty and sharp! Just keep your eyes open for them, and if you hear anything, hide!”