The Wonderful Roundabout

by Mandy Olina

  Part IV

  The siege lasted for seven nights and days. Save for the children, no one in the castle had slept at all. The mothers boiled tar, kept the fires burning for the fire blowers and prepared food and bandages for the soldiers. Boys who were too young to fight made bombs of tar and flint and carried them up the walls.

  The prince had been up on the wall for every moment of the assault. With his spider web bow he had shot down over four hundred locusts, sometimes five at a time. The fire blowers looked at him with a form of respect he had yet to encounter in his own life. He recognized it from when he visited the barracks with his father. It was not mere obedience or the homage of royalty. It was the admiration of strength and valor, the sense that made soldiers follow a commander blindly into battle, knowing that he, in turn, would die for each and every one of them. This had kept him fighting along his men, without pause. Only on the seventh day, at noon, as he stopped for a drink of water, he laid his forehead on a sack of arrows. He’d barely touched the cloth when his eyes closed and he fell into a deep sleep.

  He dreamt that he had left the castle through a secret passageway that led into the forest. He ran for hours until the web of trees was so thick that the sunlight barely shone through. He could only see three feet in front of him, yet he ran guided by the voice in his head: ‘Go meet the Spider Queen!’ it said. ‘Go and she will save you.’ So he pressed on, until a beam of white light shot straight by him.

  He stopped shaking on his feet and called: ‘I am the son of King Atlas! I have come to see the Queen!’ and hoped with all his might that he would live to see sunlight again. In a moment, the leaves above him started to move, twitching and squirming. As another beam of light shone through, he noticed with horror that he couldn’t see one tree branch, only layers and layers of web and the countless legs of black spiders. He almost lost his breath when thread started to fall around him but, as he struggled to keep from fainting, he saw that the spiders were building a ladder. Descending upon it, straight from the roof of the forest, came a single, white spider.

  ‘What message does the King send us?’

  ‘I come on my own behalf. As the King of the tree frogs.’

  ‘I see. So I imagine you want my army to defend you from the locust invasion. Which I will consider if… you can tell me why we, forest spiders, do not have any allies.’

  The prince felt his heart pounding in his head. In his desperation, he had not asked himself about the very thing known of spiders. They had never waged a war and they had never been attacked. When the peoples of the valley were fighting for freedom, it was as if they never existed.

  ‘You look confused. The King’s son should have come better prepared. But let me tell you, since you are here. It is because everyone fears us. Not one locust has ever set foot in our forest, so why should we care who lives or dies in your petty wars?’

  ‘So it would all end,’ the prince thought. He’d left his soldiers on the walls for nothing. He was ready to bow his eyes when the voice in his head called: ‘A king does not bow his head! Look into her eyes and give her what she wants!’

  ‘But I don’t know… I…’

  ‘Your army is starving!’ the prince suddenly called. ‘Without this war you die. The locusts would not come here but you have to attack them. There is nothing left near this forest but us and them, and there are too few of us to keep you alive!’

  ‘So you are your father’s son. Very well. My army and I will come with you. We will travel above the trees. Artax will take you on his back. We leave now.’

  The prince felt himself being sucked into a whirlwind again and opened his eyes to see the sack of arrows under his head. He jumped to his feet and called out his men. He would be missing for a few hours, he said, and urged them to fight onward. He donned his cloak and ran to the secret passageway. It was there, just as he had dreamt. It would not be long until he returned with a new army.

  THE LIZARD PRINCE AND THE FIRE FROG

  PPart V

  The spiders stormed the field with such fury that the locusts, completely unprepared, were defeated before nightfall. Most fell prisoner, trapped under the sticky layers of web. The spiders wrapped them in giant cocoons and dragged them slowly to the forest. The sight of it sent shivers down the prince’s spine. On the other side of the city, the tree frogs had started to clean up the remnants of the siege.

  The prince was sitting in front of his window, as if waiting for something to happen, when the floor started to shake. A cold wind blew the windows open and the moonlight cast a familiar shadow on his wall.

  ‘It’s my father, isn’t it? I just realized it now. My father made you like this. That’s why you came to me. You need me to undo my father’s work. So you’re turning me into him!’

  ‘How unexpected of you, young prince. It is your father, yes. And only you or he can save me.’

  ‘Why not him? Why would I save you if he made you like this?’

  ‘Because I changed. But he won’t see me. He hasn’t seen me since it happened. We used to be friends, you see. I promised to be his ally in the great war. Only my army never came. I left him to fight alone. So he placed a curse on me, in anger. And here I stand.’

  ‘Why did you not do as you had promised?’

  ‘My council forbade it. I was young then, a new king on an old throne that I did not deserve. Just like you felt before we met. They didn’t listen to me so I could not take the army.’

  ‘So why not tell my father?’

  ‘I was too ashamed. So I chose to fulfill my promise now. With you. So that maybe then he would forgive me. Will you help me prince? Will you speak to your father? Will you be my ally?’

  ‘I… You saved my people. I have been here for merely weeks, but these have become my people. So yes, I will speak to my father. He is a good man.’

  ‘Thank you.’ the frog barely said, and disappeared as if into thin air.

  The prince sat in front of his window, gazing at the field. For the first time in his life, he felt like a king.

  THE PIRATE’S TALE

  PPart I

  ‘Saaandy! Saaaandy!’ Tommy yelled at the top of his lungs, right in front of Sandy’s gate.

  ‘She’s not here, Tommy, she went fishing with Martha!’ her mother said out of an open window. She was wearing the orange apron she always wore when she baked cookies. Tommy thought Sandy’s mother looked like a princess. A princess who made the most delicious cookies in the world.

  ‘Thank you, Mrs. Watsooon!’ he yelled and ran off towards the meadow. ‘I am going fishing! I am going fishing! I am going fishing!’ Tommy merrily repeated as he skipped along the way. Passing by Mr. Brown’s house he imagined, as always, that his wooden fence used to be a war barricade. Maybe even Mr. Brown used to be a warrior before he became a fisherman. That’s when he realized... He didn’t have a fishing rod! Where could he find one?

  ‘Mr. Brooooown! Mr. Brooooooooown! Mr. Broooooown!’

  ‘What?! Who’s calling? Who is there? I can’t see you. The gate is open, just come in.’

  ‘Hello Mr. Brown! Could I borrow a fishing rod?’

  ‘Well… yes, you could. Why do you need it?’

  ‘To go fishing, Mr. Brown!’

  ‘Yes, Tommy, I know that. But why from me and why now?’

  ‘Sandy’s by the river with Martha and they’re fishing. And I want to go but I have no rod and I was near your house. So I need a rod to go fishing.’

  ‘Ok, Tommy. But we have to go get one from my fishing cabin, in the meadow. We can go right now.’

  ‘Great! Thank you, Mr. Brown!’

  ‘Did your dad teach you how to fish, Tommy?’

  ‘No, sir. My grandpa did. My daddy doesn’t know how to fish. He’s an engineer. He works on engines.’

  ‘Well that’s curious. I thought everyone around these parts knew how to fish. Maybe you should take your dad out fishing sometime.’

  ‘I want to, sir, but daddy usually doesn’t want to g
o with me. He stays at home with mommy. Mommy cooks and daddy stays in the kitchen where he has this big board and table that he draws on. He does figures and strange numbers and things. I think he must be really smart. Sometimes he explains to me how things work, and then I feel like I’m smart like he is too.’

  ‘How old are you, Tommy?’

  ‘8, sir. I’m going to be 9 in September. I’m a big boy now and I have to help my mommy and grandpa out in the yard and garden and such.’

  ‘That’s good thinking, Tommy.’

  ‘Mr. Brown, why don’t you have any kids?’

  ‘Well, Tommy, that’s a good question. I hope I’ll have my own soon. I’m to be married this summer.’

  ‘Really?!’

  ‘Yes, Tommy, I’ll be marrying a girl from the city.’

  ‘Wow, a city girl! I see a few of the college girls from town when I go to school. They’re almost as pretty as Sandy’s mother.’

  ‘I think this one is just about as pretty as Sandy’s mother if you ask me.’

  ‘Congratulations, Mr. Brown! But aren’t you too old to get married?’

  ‘I was engaged once before. But my sweetheart’s parents wouldn’t let her marry a young pirate. They thought I’d die or go to jail before I got to offer their little girl a proper life. They were probably right at the time too.’

  ‘What, Mr. Brown?!’ Tommy said with amazement. ‘You used to be a pirate?!’

  ‘Indeed I did, Tommy. Indeed, I did. Let’s sit down by the river bank and I’ll tell you all about it.’

  THE PIRATE’S TALE

  PPart