Potlendh Page 15

  The Engineers again conversed in their own language for several minutes. E then turned to address the Group. “Your proposal has merit, and we are inclined to accept it. Such a trip to Big City will be very dangerous if not arduous. You will not be able to walk to the Big City. You will not be able to climb over the mountains that bar your way, nor will you be able to traverse the Prehistoric Forest filled with monstrous creatures that time has forgot.”

  “We recommend that you travel to the FOB and ask them for help,” C continued.

  “Never!” Cassandra suddenly interjected. “Those horrible creatures invaded my land and caused my parents to be enslaved by the Lord of Power. I will never make peace with them until my parents are released and restored to their castle.”

  “Uh, Cassandra,” Carl spoke up in a soft kind of voice, “to get to the Mountain of Power, we have to cross the plains of FOB anyway.”

  “Well, we can cross their land, and we can conquer it as we do so!” Cassandra declared defiantly. “I’ll make them pay for what they did to my family!”

  “And the Rabbits,” the trio chorused.

  “Uniqua?” Karen turned to the Unicorn for help.

  Uniqua sighed and shook her head somewhat sadly. “When will it ever end?” she muttered. Then, taking charge of the Group, she told Cassandra to be quiet and inquired of C how the people of FOB could help them.

  “The FOB possess a unique kind of flying boat,” C explained. “If you can convince them to let you use their flying boat, then you will be able to travel to Big City, get the spare parts we need, and then we can return you to Big City through the fixed portal. That way, you will save much time on your way to the Mountain of Power.”

  “There is no portal that could take us directly to the Lord of Power, is there?” Carl asked hopefully.

  “No,” M answered succinctly. “If you want to meet with the Lord of Power, you must pass the tests of the mountain first.”

  “Tests?” the twins cried out together.

  “There is no choice,” Uniqua said in finality. “We travel to FOB.”

  “I won’t go!” Cassandra declared firmly.

  “Fine! Then stay here,” Uniqua told her. To the Engineers she added, “If you will tell us the direction, we will begin at once.”

  “How about we start after eating?” the Rabbits chimed in.

  “Yes,” Karen agreed. “I’m feeling a little hungry myself. And, I think we’ll all feel better after we’ve had something in our stomachs.”

  “Oh, very well,” Uniqua gave in.

  “You’re hungry, too, aren’t you?” Carl asked her.

  Uniqua cleared her throat. “Well, to tell you the truth, I was kind of bored waiting to see if you all would help rescue me, so I spent the time eating several bananas that the Guerillas had left behind. Sorry about not thinking that you all had not yet eaten.”

  So while the Rabbits busied themselves in making supper (or lunch or dinner, however you prefer, for even I do not know what time of the day it was in Portaland), I can tell you a little about the Federation of Brothers. I could start out by writing “Once upon a time,” for that would be about as accurate as writing “A hundred years ago” or any other introduction I could think of. For remember that time is very different on the Island, and it is not always the same everywhere on the Island.

  Anyway, before there was an FOB, there was a single king who ruled over that part of the Island that stretched from the sea in the north to the river moat that separates the Mountain of Power Island from the rest of the Island in the south and from Portaland in the east to the mountain wall in the west. His name? In all honesty, no one remembers the name. People usually remember a person’s name because that person did something famous (or infamous), and as this king did nothing important or unusual his name is forgotten in the remembered history of the Island.

  Where did he come from? Well, there are several different histories that have been written about this king, but none have yet been proven as fact without a shadow of a doubt. For the king was human while all of his subjects were very short in stature and looked more like (behaved, too) the classic images of Dwarfs found in fairy tales and the like.

  He did have three sons, however, and since he loved his sons equally, the last thing he wanted was for his sons to start fighting with each other to be the next king. So, he divided up his kingdom into three long and narrow partitions, from north to south, and made each of his sons king of one of the partitions. Then, he made the boys promise to form a kind of federation, which is a union where all parties are equal, and not try to be superior over the others.

  The brothers were a bit strange and different from each other. They did not fight and argue with each other like some families I know, but they did agree to rule the Federation in harmony and peace, pledging each other that should someone pick on one brother the other two would all come to help that brother. Otherwise, each brother was allowed to rule his partition without interference from the other brothers.

  Bart the Heart was the middle brother, and he ruled the eastern part along the coast. He earned his name because of his great love for his people, and together they built a very thriving fishing industry that fed much of the inhabitants of the Island.

  Crane the Brain was the eldest brother, and he ruled the middle third. He was known to be a very learned or wise person, and he excelled in both business and the arts. He made his partition a famous center for cultural and commercial endeavors.

  The youngest brother was called Kurt the Hurt, and he naturally ruled the western third of the old kingdom. We have already learned much about his campaign against Cassandra’s parents, and the reason he was called “Hurt” was because his body was badly burned, and it would not heal. Also, he was a fighter and loved those kinds of games where people usually got hurt, so he had trained his people into a warlike nation. His people were among the best-known warriors, and for that reason Kurt had a reputation for going off and starting fights with other states and peoples on the Island.

  So, after having satisfied their hunger, the Group was ready to travel and brave a new adventure. The Engineers agreed to transport them in their carts and deposit our friends close to the FOB border, as far as their rails would allow them, at the base of a small rise in the land. Before leaving the Group, since the sun was already setting and night was almost upon them, E made a small campfire (from dead wood gathered by the Rabbits near Submarine Lake) to keep them warm and provide some light against the growing darkness. Then they all bade their goodbyes and wishes of good luck and hoping to see each other soon, and the Group was again on its own.

  While the Rabbits prepared a small supper, Carl and Karen explored their immediate surroundings and found several small caves, just big enough to allow the children to crawl into, bored into the rocky hillside. Uniqua thought it best that they use one particular cave to sleep in, as it was just large enough for both of them to lie down in, to keep out of the wind, and be much warmer. The animals would sleep around the campfire and keep watch, being much more accustomed to the Island’s weather.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  INSIDE THE FEDERATION OF BROTHERS

  While the children slept cozily inside their den like two bear cubs enjoying a bit of hibernation, Uniqua and Cassandra carried on a conversation, sitting on opposite sides of the fire with Cassandra glowering in the direction of the FOB. The Rabbits occasionally fed the fire with additional fuel, just to keep it burning low and not go completely out. This gave Uniqua a chance to briefly explain the adventure with the Submarians and the need to enter FOB.

  “I am not going,” Cassandra repeated for the nth time, which means that no one remembered how many times she had repeated this refrain.

  “If Cassandra does not go, we do not go!” the Rabbits chorused in support of their mistress.

  Uniqua sighed in frustration. “You realize that if you do not go, Cassandra, and if the Rabbits do not go, then the children will not go either. We’ll all just
sit here and wait. You also realize that if we do not keep our promise to the Submarians the children will die. They ate the magic pearls, and they have very little time. In fact, we are not even sure how much time they have. But we know this: every minute we waste in foolish discussion or inaction takes one more minute off their lives that we cannot replace.”

  “You go,” Cassandra said. Turning to the Rabbits she commanded, “You will go with Uniqua and the children. I will stay here, or I will go back to my castle.”

  “Oh, be reasonable, Cassandra,” Uniqua shot back. “You will cling to your stubborn pride and not have the chance to save your parents? And how will you get back to your castle in the first place? You won’t fly—”

  “I can’t fly,” Cassandra protested. “Can I help it if I’m too small and my wings are too small to support my weight?”

  “You don’t want to fly,” Uniqua corrected then turned back to her original point. “You plan to swim the Submarine Lake? Then, if you can find your way back through the Guerrilla forest, how will you return to Derkesthai when the mirror portal is broken? You know in your own heart that the only way to return home is to go through FOB and continue the long trek to Dragon’s Bridge.”

  “Then I will stay here and wait until you get back—if you get back,” Cassandra insisted. “I will not go!”

  This discussion could have gone on all night except for one very important thing that happened. The borders of any country are often patrolled by guards or sentries who are always on the lookout for anything that might want to cause mischief or mayhem. And so, too, the FOB had parties of Dwarf scouts that patrolled the borderland between the Federation and Portaland, and they had seen the glow of the campfire from far away. Stealthily, they had crept up towards our friends in a coordinated fashion until they had completely surrounded the camp, and in one quickly executed motion captured the animals without a fight. (I would suggest here that Uniqua, being a magical creature, probably knew of the Dwarfs’ presence and could have warned Cassandra and the Rabbits. But since I know the outcome of the story—and you will too soon—I suspect that she wanted them all to be captured so that Cassandra would be forced to go to the FOB, which would end the argument as well as her unreasonable stubbornness.)

  Now, while the capture of the animals was quick, it was also noisy. It awoke the twins (who were dreaming about their home on the oceanographic platform), and they carefully looked out through the entrance of their den to see about twenty small men armed with short weapons that looked like clubs but were hollow to suggest some sort of shooting weapon. Each Dwarf was clad in heavy leather that served as body armor and wore strange helmets with a metal fin that sprouted from the crown of the helmet and traversed the length of the helmet to the nape of the neck. Lastly, they noted that these warriors wore very long beards that were tucked inside wide leather belts than not only encircled their broad waists but also served as a means to attach several pouches.

  Carl started to inch forward as if he wanted to help his friends, but Karen laid her hand on his arm, meaning that there was nothing that they could do but wait. In the morning they would venture out of their hole and follow the men. In the daylight, they could plan a way to rescue their friends. But here in the dark and surrounded by a powerful enemy, they would only be putting themselves in harm’s way and most likely also be captured. Then, no one could help anyone. Besides, Uniqua happened to glance in their direction and shook her head ever so slightly as if to tell them to stay put.

  “Check the caves,” the leader of the Dwarfs told the others. His name, by the way, was Helf. (We will be seeing a lot of Helf in the future.)

  The children retreated away from the entrance and tried to squeeze themselves into the smallest packages just inside the cave. Since the Dwarfs were slightly bigger than the twins, the best the warriors could do was shove a lighted torch partway into the entrance of the cave and decide that it was empty. (By the way, have you ever tried to put a lighted match into a small opening and then see if there is anything beyond your match? Usually, all you see is the light of the fire and nothing much more, and this fact also helped hide the children from the searching Dwarfs.)

  “Move out,” Helf commanded, and when the children dared to peek out of their entrance, they dismally realized that their friends had all been tied up together and were being led out of the campsite and towards the direction of the middle partition of FOB. “Base, Rover One,” they heard Helf speak, using some sort of wireless communicator, which we in the “real” world would call a walkie-talkie. “Intruders captured. Estimate arrival in fifteen minutes.” And then the captors and captives alike were gone out of earshot.

  “What do we do now?” Carl asked his sister in a shaky whisper.

  “Sleep,” she suggested. “We can’t do anything until morning anyway. And, we’re gonna need to be rested if we’re gonna try and rescue them.”

  Good words but unfortunately the twins could not get any sleep from then on because they were too worried about their friends. They also wondered how just the two of them, without any weapons at all, were going to fight a whole troop of armed men and free their companions. Would they have to use one of their precious wishes?

  Morning finally dawned, and two very tired and dispirited children crawled out from their den.

  “Man,” Carl grumbled as he stretched his muscles and ended up stumbling to the sandy ground, “I could use some breakfast. But most of all, I wished we—”

  “Stop!” Karen cried out. “Don’t even think that word!”

  “I was just going to say that it would be nice if we could get a bath,” he responded in a longing way.

  “You remember what happened the first time you said ‘I wish.’ We just have to be careful with what we say.”

  “I know. I know,” Carl sighed, not wanting to have an argument. Besides, he was too tired and had no energy for it. Plus the fact that there would be no breakfast this morning.

  “Look!” Karen announced, digging around the area where the Dragon and her Rabbits had been sitting. She uncovered two flasks of water. “The Rabbits must have hidden these just before they were tied up!”

  “I’ll never say another bad word about them,” Carl promised as he took one of the flasks and began to drink lustily.

  “Careful,” his sister admonished him. “Don’t drink it all. We might need some before we reach the FOB, and then who knows when we’ll be able to find more water. We don’t know how far this desert extends.”

  “You’re right again,” Carl sighed. “I just wished—” He stopped himself again. “I mean, it would have been nice if the Rabbits had left behind some food.”

  “Well, we’ll just have to do without,” Karen advised him. “If we don’t get a move on, the Rabbits might end up as being food, and then our goose will really be cooked.”

  Carl gave his sister a strange look, as he was not all that fond of puns. But he kept his remarks to himself and started to climb the rise of the hill that was supposed to have protected them. Karen quickly caught up with him and together they crossed the rocky desert that separated them from the Federation. The only thing that helped them this day was that although the sun was bright with no clouds to block it, a pleasant breeze cooled them as they walked. And after they had traveled for about an hour and a half (remember that time is relevant here and can only be measured by how one feels), they suddenly came to a standing halt at the edge of where the desert ended and scrub grass began to take hold and gazed with amazement at what stood before them.

  A towering wall rose high up into air, and it stretched to the left and to the right as far as the eye could see. In actuality, it covered the entire distance from the moat that separated the Mountain of Power islet from the Island all the way to the sea. What they did not realize yet was that this was not just a wall standing before them but one of four walls that comprised the largest building on Earth, for the entire land of the FOB had been enclosed by four walls and a perforated roof that allowed a
little sunshine and rain to fall upon the earth within.

  Huge doors faced them, and they were currently closed. Many footprints could still be seen where the Federation patrol had forced their prisoners up and out of the desert towards these doors, so the twins knew that their friends were locked up inside. But in front of the doors stood two sentries, armed with their mysterious weapons, motionless but wary as they surveyed the empty land in front of them.

  “Now what?” Karen asked, but her answer came not from her brother but from something very hard hitting the ground next to her feet followed by a high-pitched whistle.

  “Down!” Carl yelled, dragging his sister to a prone position on the ground.

  “What was that?” Karen stammered, her body shaking with a fear she had never known before.

  “They were shooting at us with some kind of gun,” her brother answered.

  “So what can we do?”

  Carl poked his head up just enough to see that the two sentries were walking steadily towards them with their weapons pointed forward. Then he started looking around him to see if there was anything he could use as a weapon. “We fight back.”

  “How?”

  “With these.” He picked up several small stones that were lying beside him.

  “You’ve got to be out of your mind!” Karen’s hoarse whisper was near hysterical.

  “You got a better idea?” And he, in one smooth execution, raised himself up off the ground and threw a stone at the soldier on his left and lay quickly down again. Then, he aimed a second stone at the soldier on the right. Now whether he was very lucky or not, his missiles were both right on target. They hit the Dwarfs right in the middle of their foreheads and felled them.

  Karen raised herself up on her hands and knees and looked astonished. “I guess all that pitching practice in the gymnasium finally paid off.”

  “Come on!” Carl cried as he picked himself up and raced over to the prostrate men. “They might only be stunned!” A quick examination, however, showed that the stones had completely knocked the soldiers unconscious.