The Journey to Northumberland and the Rise of the Undertoads
Page 34
Here lays Robert Louis Parks
May he rest in peace
10 years old
Chug I'm twelve years old, so this is not my epitaph. I am not destined to die here after all."
"That's great news, but what about the rest of us?"
"Chug don't worry, I am Louis the Red, sometimes red hair does have its rewards, now remember what I say, pay attention and watch this. Tessie, Molly, Chug, Short Stack take a bite of a mushroom like before in Centerville. I forgot to tell you earlier."
"OK Louis whatever you say."
"Quickly, quickly swallow them down" pleaded Louis as he picked a handful, then handed a piece to each of his friends.
Each with some hesitation ingested a foul tasting mushroom.
"I feel queasy Louis" said Chug.
"Me and Tessie as well..."
"Me too..." said Short Stack.
"It's just the magic mushrooms taking a hold of your mind once again, they are psychedelic you know. Now listen up and do as I say! Start singing again but this time the right song."
"Which song is that Louis?" asked a partially spellbound Molly.
"Yeah which one...?"
"Take my lead, everyone sing, then Molly jump into the fairy circle again when I tell you to, then Tessie jump in after that."
"OK Louis..."
"OK..."
Widdershins, Widdershins, a Widdershins night
all the children dance and shout, circle left nine times yes we do
just so we can begin to raise you
Quagga-tail switch, abide and heed my callings
because tonight's blue moon is surely rising
Upon the rise in the next twilights new morning
Be an Astral Fairy nary a Sleagh Maith Hairy
Young is he the new crowned fairy tender
his youth should not be his profound undoing
Under my command you must wisely rise
be only Atamo the Astral Fairy, or the fairy tender faces his demise
Widdershins, Widdershins, a Widdershins night
all the children dance and shout!!
"Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine..."
"Molly now...now jump in...!"
"You are very amusing Louis the Red and your fairy circle looks very impressive, but your magic is no good here, for I am going to be the real magician here. Soon this little show of yours will be over and the real show will start" said the ever so boastful and prideful Spadefoot. As the Toad King rambled on, Molly began to disappear out of sight right before his eyes, inside of the lingering fogs within the circle of mushrooms.
"Now Tessie go in after her..!"
Tessie jumped into the enchanted circle as Molly screamed out. Tessie and Molly then went silent as both went absent inside of the thick fogs. Spadefoot, his armies, Trog the Beaver King and his colony of beavers could not believe their eyes. The ground next opened up and swallowed them both whole.
"I will stop this right now. No more of this tomfoolery, chicanery and disobedience" shrieked out Spadefoot as he hopped into the fairy circle, "where are those two girls?"
"I have vanquished them just as I am about to vanquish you!" shouted out the disgruntled and angry Louis.
"Louis do you need my help, my beaver army is ready!"
"No...no...don't move Trog, this is between me, my friends and this offender and loathsome fellow. Frank I've given you every chance to solve this. I apologized and so have my friends, but you offered nothing in return. All you do is rebuff, refute and reject all of our peace offerings and you disallow any offers of settling this like real men. Well no more! A fight is what you want and fight is what you'll get."
"Get him Louis! Remember he's been threatening you for over a year to pound you and blacken your eyeball, like he did Short Stack's. Get him!" screamed out Chug as he stepped into the fairy circle after Louis.
"Yeah he's right Frank Frankle you are a big bully and criminal. We are all tired of this bullying by you. You punched me in the eye and I will always hate you for that. I take back my apology. Your time has come! Go get him Louis!" cried out Short Stack as he as well stepped into the fairy circle. He now stood shoulder to shoulder with Chug.
"OK, the real truth, I am all you said am more! I am a bully! I am a criminal! I am a horrible person! And I don't care, and yes my name is Frank Frankle and Auntie Elphie did beat me, but she also toughened me up, and you know what I like my roll in life as "The Bully". I was born for this work! Also I like this new form of mine. All bullies above in the upper-world should be so lucky to be transformed into even a larger and nastier bully like I have. Don't you understand you can never change us, this is what bullies do! YOU WILL ALWAYS BE WEEK AND WEEK-MINDED AND I WILL ALWAYS CONTROL YOU!"
"NOT ANYMORE! NOT ON THIS DAY, FOR TODAY IS MY DAY! IT ALL STOPS TODAY!!" shouted out Louis at the top of his lungs for the rest of Northumberland, the Kingdom of Gwynedd and for Centerville Indiana to hear.
Slyly and effortlessly circling to the left like an un-caged shark in the wild, Louis began what would truly be the "first day of the rest of his life".
"I'm going to box you about the ears! I am going to be giving you so many rights, you'll be begging for a left! Then an upper-cut! Then a haymaker! Yeah, I get in trouble alright, and I daydream, and I am small for my age, so what. Today I will stand taller and bigger than any little red haired kid has before, or any kid for that matter!" bellowed out the little Fairy Circle Tender.
"Let's see what you've got you little, freckle-face, red-haired runt!" shot back Frank.
"There you go again. Anything but the red hair and freckles! Always making fun of the red hair and freckles, put up your dukes, you poor excuse for a kid!" shouted back Louis.
Louis defying all: logic, common-sense, good-judgment, good-reason, rational-thinking and obvious brains; Louis just picked the biggest fight of his life.
The fight was on.
Two quick jumps to the left and Louis shot up and over the M?jebro Runestone, jumping off the larger center area of the stone. Louis went airborne, flying directly towards Frank's back. Frank seeing the incoming little boy, he hopped to his right with more agility and nimbleness than Louis thought possible of one so large. Franks many layers of fat slapped together as he jumped away, thus making an odd sound that filled Louis's ears.
"You're quicker than you look, big boy. You better guard your eyeballs, because I am going to give you a black-eye for all the trouble you've caused me over the years."
"I've only hopped away from you to make the fight seem like it is fair, you know like I am really afraid of you. We do have an audience you know so let's give them a show."
"We'll give them a real show alright. I'm going to show them that you are really not so tough after all."
Spadefoot spun quickly back to his left shooting forth his forked tongue while in motion, it narrowly missed Louis as he dove to the right. The Toad King slowly licked at the air, in a mighty display of disgust.
Louis shuttered where he stood.
Spadefoot wiggled about in delight where he stood.
Being quick on his feet and quicker in thought, Louis's scientific mind now began to churn and brainstorm.
"Got brain freeze Ginger?"
"That's it...I've had enough, now with the Ginger talk!"
Mr. Spadefoot lurched once again at Louis with his claws extended, but Louis was just too quick, then another tongue strike by a hair's breadth it missed the agile Louis.
Louis flew back into action, he darted pass Frank, shot towards the ground, then rolled towards the outside edge of the fairy circle. Grabbing a large handful of spellbound mushrooms he rolled back the other direction away from his enemy with a new plan, literally in hand. Now circling about once again he crouched down low like a cat-burglar casing a jewelry store at midnight.
Anoth
er violent outward tongue strike finally hit its mark; it walloped Louis right below his left eye. Louis shrieked out in pain. With his free hand he felt the warmth of his own blood as his eye began to swell.
"Call me a Ginger will you? A little blood won't stop me. I've been waiting too long to confront you. Did that make you feel any better? I know your kind in reality you're lonely and miserable with not a true friend in the world. Being a bully is not that fun after all, is it?"
"What does your own blood taste like Ginger? Your words can't hurt me but my words can sure hurt you, they can cut you just like my tongue just did."
"Never again will your nasty words hurt me. Never...!"
Flying off of the M?jebro Runestone once again as Spadefoot turned to work the crowd of bystanders, Louis landed upon Spadefoot's broad, thick neck, thus surprising the Toad King to no end.
"That's it Louis...!" bawled out Short Stack.
"Show him who's the real boss...!" shouted out Chug.
T?ngarar was overly fatted, with short stubby arms. He frantically tried to reach the pesky Louis as the clever Ginger scratched and clawed at the rear of his ample neck. Louis now squeezed tightly with all his might with one arm around Spadefoot's neck, as he tried to reach around with the other. Pawing at the large mouth Louis tried to force the handful of the powerful magic mushrooms over Spadefoot's sizeable black lips. Spadefoot began to spin about like a windmill in a windstorm doing anything he could to stop the mugging.
"You are an irritant and most irritating. What are you trying to do?" called out the outsized toad.
"Being fat has its advantages when you want to fight someone but if you can't catch or grab me then what good does that do you in a fight Frank? Here take this."
Mimicking Digger the Blue Haired Rabbit at work, Louis kicked as hard as he could into Spadefoot's neck, two hard thrust was just the prodding the nasty toad needed to get him to open his mouth.
He screamed out in pain!
Louis seizing his moment, slammed the mushrooms over his black slimy lips and down into his bottomless throat. Frank Frankle coughed and tried to up-chuck the foreign objects as Louis kicked him once again, but this time as hard as he could in his ribcage. This knocked the air out of Spadefoot as Louis released his grip.
Both fell violently backwards towards the ground. Louis being now closer to the ground and more in control hit the bottom of the fairy circle first. He deftly rolled over to his left away from the three thousand five hundred pound man-child as he slammed face up upon the earth. As Spadefoot leveled everything below him, he swallowed the entire amount of the mushrooms.
"What...what was that horrible tasting stuff that you crammed into my throat?"
"You will find out soon enough. You see brains beats brawn every single time. Soon the playing field will be leveled, you will be seeing three of me or more soon enough. And that cannot be good for you or anybody ever."
Chug hearing a rustling of the wind and the flapping of wings high above him, looked upwards through the blue fogs hanging above their heads. Chug pointed aloft which caught everyone's attention. The Toad King struggled in thought and speech as the magic mushrooms took a hold of his craven mind.
"I see...see...reinforcements...have...er...have arrival, behold another one of my...gen...gen...generals..." stuttered out Spadefoot.
Dragon the Fire Breathing Dragon was spotted circling high overhead. He screeched out for the world to take notice. His breath was fire, his presence sent fear, shock and terror into the hearts of all below.
Scanning the horizon once more Spadefoot began to laugh uncontrollably, "The tides...the tides...are...are...turning in my favor, look to the...the north..."
While Louis caught his breath and took stock of the game-changer's arrival, he looked up, over and behind the ranks of undertoads surrounding them and the beaver army.
Trog the Beaver King spoke up, "Louis we are in trouble, the Toad King has called in his other generals without us knowing it. You need to think up something quick or we are all going to be toad-food shortly. Look its: Growlar the Cave Bear and his Brother Bear Broadfoot. And over there stands Nebuka the Terrible, he goes by the name of Nebuka the Orange Yeti a real man-eater that one, and over there are Raff the Red Wolf and his marauding wolf pack, and look once again, now on hand is Olle the Ogre, and Paragus the Minotaur."
Louis did not blink at the arrival of so many other beasts.
"It seems that you are not just a bully, but a real coward as well. You need help from these other degraded creatures to defeat me Toad King? I am not afraid. I am only afraid for you and what your future will soon be, because this fight has come to an ending. The mushrooms, the magic mushrooms that you have ingested have the power to knock a hundred men off their feet. I gave you a dosage that no one should ever ingest. Your eye-hand coordination is compromised, and your mighty strength will soon be gone. You will have no motor-skills soon, and most of all you are now done with your reign of terror. I will soon defeat you."
"It is too...er...ah...too...too...late for you Louis the Red..." implied Frank Frankle as he stumbled to his feet yet again. Wobbly, hobbled, tottering and staggering about inside of the fairy circle the drugged Undertoad King was now completely vulnerable, his ample defenses were down and out and Louis knew it. The little wizard moved into position once again with a determination he never knew he possessed, he contemplated each and every possible movement to come knowing that he would soon do what he never knew he could do in the past.
He would stand up for himself against a bully, for the first time in his life!
Louis focused his third-eye above his eyebrows as he narrowed his thoughts. A verdict was reached using real courage.
Louis began to run about wildly inside of the fairy circle...all the while yelling at the top of his voice... Louis freely released all of his emotions that had been pent up for so long. He had never been any happier in his entire young life. Now turning sharply toward Frank Frankle, Louis paused for a moment to enjoy the moment. He then quickly sprinted toward his young tormentor who now stood on unstable legs in front of the M?jebro Runestone. Jumping once again high up into the air with one last great "Leap of Courage" Louis clenched his left fist up as tightly as he could. It came raining down upon Frank Frankle, landing unswervingly, diametrically and straightforwardly right into his mammoth right eye-socket. The powerful haymaker sent Frank Frankle stumbling backwards off of his feet. He awkwardly smashed into the M?jebro Runestone, shattering Louis's gravestone in this world into a thousand pieces.
Mr. Frank Frankle was knocked out colder than a delicatessen turkey lying in a freezer.
"YEAH...! YEAH...!! LOUIS YOU DID IT!!!" screamed out Chug over and over again as Short Stack screamed aloud right along with him.
"YOU ARE A "REAL HERO" LOUIS...!! YOUR NEW NICKNAME IS... KING RED!!" shouted out the joyous Chug.
The Crown of ?thelfrith of Northumbria dissolved into emptiness leaving now only a blackened ring of burnt ashes around the top of Frank's head.
Little Louis landed squarely upon his feet in front of Frank, with a renewed and very prideful heart. He paused again for a moment as he looked at Frank, the kid who had tormented him for so long. He now felt sorry for the "King of all Bullies" as he laid there like a dead man in a cemetery. Louis felt that he really had had no choice in the matter, sometimes right makes might, and Louis never stood more mighty in the eyes of his friends and himself as he did right now, or ever before in his young lifetime.
"No time to celebrate now, there will time for that later. Chug like before in Centerville grab about Spadefoot's shoulders, Short Stack bite his right leg...quickly...quickly..."
Both shot for their positions as Louis pulled Mr. Beamer's qugga-tail switch out of his wizard robe.
"Trog it was a pleasure to meet you and thanks for all your help. You can visit me at the watering-hole in Centerville
anytime you like. Good luck in your new world. Great things are coming your way and for the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Tell Atamo the Astral Fairy, Broomstick the Unicorn, Governor Bregon and Thithor the Mayor, Glorandal the Porter and Tolthe the Wee Folk from the Tlannatar clan that I will miss them all. Now it's time for a little fanciful wizardry from the Great Wizard Louis the Red...er...ah...how about...Ginger the Great Wizard? Chug, Short Stack can you help me out?"
Widdershins, Widdershins, a Widdershins night
all the children dance and shout, circle left nine times yes we do
just so we can begin to raise you
Quagga-tail switch, abide and heed my callings
because tonight's blue moon is surely rising
Upon the rise in the next twilights new morning
Be an Astral Fairy nary a Sleagh Maith Hairy
Young is he the new crowned fairy tender
his youth should not be his profound undoing