Fellowship & Fairydust

“Please tell me you’re not feeling sorry for these kids, Gerling.” Acheson groaned. 

“What? I can’t help it. These kids just found a portal in their backyard leading to our world, and then they get captured to be used as bait to draw Gaspar Gold away from Golding. Pretty bad day if you ask me.” 

Greg sighed. “And not long after I found my lucky frog and gave him a name too.” 

Ace blinked as he glanced down at the boy. “Lucky frog?” 

Greg nodded and sighed again. “Yeah, there’s a legend that if you find a frog at this time of the year and give him a good name, he’ll bring you good luck.” 

Ace frowned. “And you’ve gotten nothing but bad luck, huh?” 

“Are you sure you gave him a good name?” asked Acheson. 

Ace shot him a look. “Weren’t you just complaining about me feeling sorry for them?” 

Acheson threw up his hands. “Alright, alright, getting a frog that should be lucky and getting stuck in a bunch of bad luck right after does suck, man. But you know Pankow’s not going to pass up an opportunity when he sees it.” 

Ace sighed. “I know, I know.” 

“But seriously, who is this Gaspar Gold fellow?” Bert asked. “And why does Pankow hate him so much?” 

Ace let out a breath as they led the kids around a bend in the trees, reaching a path that they began walking on. “Well, I mean, why wouldn’t he hate him? Gaspar Gold has foiled every one of Pankow’s plans since he came here. And I’m sure you’ll meet him here pretty soon. He spends a lot of time between Golding and Pottsville. ” 

“Why?” asked Bert. 

“Well, he lives not far from Pottsville, and he protects the royal family’s claim to the throne.”

 “Wait, what?” exclaimed the children. 

“The royal family’s claim to the throne?” said Bert. 

“You mean there’s no king or queen?” asked Betty. 

Greg gasped as his eyes widened. “Oh! Pankow wants to be king!” 

Ace chuckled. “That’s right, Pankow wants to be king. No, there is no king or queen ruling over us, and several heirs in line. We have so many laying claims to the throne, it’s taken judges months to get through a good deal of them. And they’re not done yet.” 

“Why didn’t the last king or queen name their heir?” asked Bert. 

“He died before he could do so,” Ace stated. 

“Oh,” chorused the children. 

Acheson nodded. “Yup, yup, and now Pankow is trying to get them to consider him as heir, though he’d much rather take the throne for himself. And he could too, but there’s a law among kisias that whosoever should take the throne by force be killed. It’s already happened to two others.” The children gasped. Acheson shrugged. “So, Pankow is using whatever means he can to convince them to add him to the list of heirs, and then go on from there.” 

“But how does releasing a bug that will destroy people’s houses prove that he would make a good king? Sounds like something a pretty horrid king would do,” quipped Betty. 

“My sister makes a good point, you know,” mumbled Bert. 

Ace and Acheson glanced at each other and shrugged before turning to the children. “The judges are pretty ornery and won’t listen,” said Ace. 

“Still not the right thing to do to get their attention,” quipped Bert. 

Ace shrugged and sighed. “Well, he’s the boss, not us. We just do what he tells us.” 

“But you don’t have to,” said Greg. The others glanced at him. “I don’t do what my parents do a lot, even when it is good for me.” 

Bert scoffed. “Maybe that’s the thing, Greg. It’s easier for us to do the wrong thing than the right thing.” He glanced at their guards. “Usually because we want things to go our way and we don’t like hearing the word no.” 

Acheson gave a soft growl. “I don’t need no moral preaching from you!” He turned to Ace. “Let’s hurry up and get this over with! These kids are getting on my nerves!” 

“Good job, Bert,” hissed Betty. “We’re in enough trouble as it is, and  you just had to make it worse!” 

“You keep quiet!” snapped Acheson. Ace shot them an apologetic smile before putting a finger to his lips. Bert grumbled and crossed his arms. Betty huffed and crossed her arms. Greg sighed. Jeremiah croaked. But they continued on in silence. The wind picked up leaves and swirled them around, like leading them on a dance through the forest. Late autumn insects chirped, providing a relaxing waltz. 

After a few minutes of walking on the path and being serenaded by both wind and insects, they came within sight of a little village. They paused for a brief moment. Betty and Bert gasped as they took in the sight before them. It was full of giant pumpkins with smoke rising out of their stems and patches of farmland surrounding them. 

“Welcome to Pottsville, children,” said Ace. 

“Now keep walking,” muttered Acheson as he pushed them forward. They kept walking towards the village. The twins glanced around, confusion growing on their faces. 

“Where is everybody?” whispered Betty. The streets were empty, the only sounds were of the wind rustling the leaves of the trees and creaking open and close a shutter or two. 

“Out in the fields,” stated Ace as they grabbed them. 

“Wait, weren’t there three of you?” asked Acheson. They glanced around. Greg and Jeremiah had disappeared! 

“Greg! Greg!” screamed the twins before hands were clamped over their mouths. 

“Be quiet! No use alerting the monai to our presence!” hissed Acheson. Their eyes widened as they turned to Ace for an answer. 

“Um, snake-like creatures that live in the trees,” replied Ace. The others glanced at him questioningly. “What? I studied some of the animals on Alixandria.” 

Acheson sighed and rolled his eyes. “Of course you did. Come on, the brat’s probably already eaten.” Bert and Betty tried to scream, but Acheseon and Ace kept their hands over their mouths and pulled them towards the center of town. They eventually came to an empty pumpkin that looked like a barn on the inside. Acheson and Ace shoved the twins in. 

Betty immediately turned. “You don’t know if he’s been eaten or not! He would have screamed!” 

“Monai live in trees, if he didn’t look up, he wouldn’t have seen one coming,” Ace said sadly. 

“And they are fast,” said Acheson. “But, it leaves one less for us to worry about.” He took a step back. “Ace, now!” 

“I’m terribly sorry about this,” said Ace as he began fumbling with the lock on the box. “But if you stay close to the center, they’ll leave you alone as they’ll be more focused on the pumpkin.” He cracked open the box just a bit and tossed it in. Betty and Bert jumped back as the lid flew open and insects that looked like black seeds and were the size of stag beetles came crawling out. “Best of luck to you!” shouted Ace before the two closed the doors. 

“No!” cried out Bert and Betty before they were enclosed in darkness with nothing but the scurrying of insects to give indication that this wasn’t a dream.

 

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