Alpha Digs Up A Plant

The horses flew across the skies, with no light to guide them. All they knew, was that they had to get as far from the trolls as possible, and Mavis and Walter didn’t stop them.

They went on flying, till the sun began to slowly rise behind them. It let out streaks of light decorating the sky.

Walter looked delighted at this.

‘What is it?’ Mavis asked him.

‘Look,’ he said pointing at the half-risen sun. ‘It’s rising behind us. That means we’re going west–the right direction! We won’t have to change course.’

‘That’s good news,’ agreed Mavis. ‘Now we must be far away from the trolls. Why don’t we land? The horses must be exhausted.’

Walter agreed, so they swooped down and landed on the hard ground.

After Mavis and Walter hopped off their backs, the horses lay down for a nap.

The sun was steadily rising, and it was getting warmer and warmer. Mavis wanted to give the horses a little shelter from the sun, so she set up their tents.

The horses wouldn’t fit inside, though, so she quickly took them apart and hoisted up the cloth on four big dry sticks to make a shady place, under which the horses could rest to avoid the scorching sun.

‘I’m starving,’ groaned Walter.

‘Then the horses must be too,’ decided Mavis. ‘Walter, get the food ready for us. I’ll go see if I can find something for the horses.’

She marched away with Alpha so that in case she lost her way, he could sniff the way back.

They walked over the barren land for a while, finding no vegetation for miles.

Mavis suddenly noticed a small patch of thorny bushes. Their stems were a dry brown, and only a few leaves were green.

‘Alpha, help me dig these up,’ she told the dog.

He woofed and cocked his head to one side questioningly.

But when he saw Mavis digging up the plants, he knew what she wanted and gave a delighted bark, before starting to dig too.

After they managed to dig out the bushes, Mavis gathered them up in a bundle and hoisted them on her back.

‘Alpha, go find Star,’ she said wearily.

The dog gave a woof at the sound of his best friend’s name and trotted away to find the horse.

Mavis quickly ran after him.

Finally, Alpha brought her to the camp. Walter was there, with a loaf of bread and some nuts and berries.

Alpha gave a delighted bark at the sight of the bread and pounced onto it.

‘Alpha,’ complained Walter, and pulled him off. He cut off the piece that hadn’t been touched by him, and hid it away, leaving the dog to eat the rest.

Mavis put the bushes in a heap on the ground. ‘This is all I found,’ she told Walter.

She walked over to the horses and gently shook them awake. They whined at first, wanting to rest a bit more. But when they smelt the food brought for them, they leapt to their feet.

Although they weren’t keen on eating fibrous and dry bushes with hardly any moisture, they were starved and wolfed them up–before getting back to their nap. Mavis and Walter quickly had their meal too, and Alpha got his share.

After they’d eaten, Mavis wanted to continue their journey, but the horses were still exhausted, so they decided to spend the rest of the day in the Wasteland.

They set off again at night because that was the only time of the day in the Wasteland when it was cool and you wouldn’t sizzle in the heat.

They flew instead of galloping, because it was much faster, and the horses’ hooves got sore if they ran on the hard ground of the Wasteland for too long.

After a while, to rest, they landed on the ground again.

The horses rested for thirty minutes, then they recovered and continued their journey.

To relax their wings, they took to galloping from this point.

About an hour later, the horses began to slow down a bit. Not because they were tired, but because the vegetation was gradually increasing, and they repeatedly stopped to eat the juicy grass.

Soon, they found themselves in a humongous grassland, which, like the Wasteland, had no trees. (‘If I don’t see a tree in one day, I’m going to scream!’ said Mavis stomping her foot on the ground.)

‘What a gassy ground!’ cried Mavis.

‘It's grassy,’ corrected Walter.

They walked a very long distance. The grass seemed to be getting taller and taller as they walked. Finally, the grass was so tall that it was as tall as a three-story house.

‘Is this enough for you? ‘said Walter. ‘I mean, the grass is as tall as trees.’

‘Nearly,’ said Mavis importantly.

Suddenly they heard the rustle of the tall grass. Mavis assumed Walter had made the sound. Walter assumed Star made the sound. Star assumed Peanut Butter made the sound. Peanut Butter assumed Alpha made the sound. Alpha assumed Mavis had made the sound.

The grass around them started to rustle in all directions, so they had no idea where it was even coming from.

They wisely chose not to make any noise and stood warily.

Suddenly, a beast leapt out of the grass and ran right at them.

Mavis and Walter screamed in unison and jumped back. But it turned out that the ‘beast’ was just a rabbit.

Walter gave a sigh of relief, and Mavis lifted Alpha up so that he wouldn’t try and chase the rabbit.

The rabbit looked terrified–not at them, but something else. It ran around frantically to find room between them, to get away.

Mavis stepped back, and the rabbit dashed through the gap between her and Walter.

But midway, something caught it in its jaws.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a rabbit; it was a huge python. It was covered in thick black scales that glistened in the sunlight. If it wasn’t trying to kill them, it would have looked beautiful.

They stared at it petrified as it quietly slithered in their direction. It gave a low hiss and gently swayed its head from side to side.

Mavis slowly stepped forward, caught by the snake’s hypnotizing gaze. The horses and Alpha did the same. Only Walter was not affected by it. Since he wore glasses, he couldn’t look directly into the snake’s black eyes.

He was alarmed that everyone had suddenly started inching closer and closer to the snake. He had to think fast. If he was too late there was no telling what the python would do.

Then suddenly he jumped up. He had an idea. Pulling out the 1967 pocket diary he carried everywhere in his pocket, he tore four pages out. Then he taped one of them onto Mavis’ forehead with his bandages.

Immediately Mavis stopped walking to the snake. Now that there was a paper taped to her head, she couldn’t see the snake’s eyes, and that meant she was no longer hypnotised. She stumbled over a rock and fell over.

Walter stuck papers to Alpha and the horses’ heads and they all stopped walking towards the cobra.

The snake looked angry at being out-smarted. It snapped its jaws and slithered to Walter. Panic-stricken, Walter grabbed Mavis’ arm and fled.

Mavis grabbed Peanut Butter’s reins in fright. The poor horse gave a neigh and startled Star, who grabbed Peanut Butter’s tail with his jaws. Alpha, who was sitting on Star, was carried away by the horse when Walter dragged them away.

Walter dragged the company over the grasslands. Mavis was of no help; she kept screaming, ‘HELP, I’M BEING KIDNAPPED!’

Walter’s legs hurt as he ran and ran. He gulped down air with his mouth because he couldn’t catch his breath. His head throbbed in protest, but when he glanced behind, to see the python slithering towards them at top speed, he knew he couldn’t stop–not even to mount the horses. Even if they just stopped for a second, they would be in the snake’s belly. He couldn’t even yank the paper stuck to Mavis and their animals’ foreheads, so they had no idea what was going on.

After they had run for about an hour at top speed without a break, Walter was panting like crazy. He was drenched in sweat, and his face was red.

People always said that running made you fit and healthy, but Walter felt the opposite. He had the feeling he was about to collapse with exhaustion. He felt like Pheidippides, the dude who’d run all the way from Marathon to Athens because cars hadn’t been invented then.

Then he decided to drop the thought. It wasn’t really reassuring, because the poor guy had died just as he had reached Athens.

And Walter didn’t want to die.

He suddenly stopped for a split second. In front of him was a rocky wall that he needed to cross.

He hesitated for a moment, then leapt onto Peanut Butter. He hurriedly pushed Mavis onto Star.

Walter had never really thought it possible for someone to ride two horses at once. Now he got to experiment on it. Yay!

He tugged hard at Peanut Butter’s reins. The horse gave a confused neigh, not even knowing who was riding her, but obeyed and spread out her wings, flying into the air. Walter frantically bent backwards and tugged at Star’s, getting the horse to fly too.

Walter steered both the horses above the wall, tugging at their reins one by one. It was hard work, but he managed to land them with only two panic attacks.

He looked around. He was surrounded by a lush green forest, the shadows of the trees all over the ground, making it cool and dark. Walter somehow enjoyed the shady forest. He wondered if he was turning into a vampire for a moment, but then again, he’d been running in the sun for ages.

There was a hiss behind them, and Walter turned to see the python right there. It had slithered over the wall.

Walter leapt off Peanut Butter because he had decided that running was much easier than riding two horses together. He ran into the forest and dragged the others behind him.

He swerved to avoid trees and other stuff that were in his way, receiving only a scratch.

Mavis wasn’t so lucky. Every time Walter swerved, she crashed onto something and groaned in pain. Sometimes it was a tree, sometimes a rock, but Walter’s personal favourite was a rosebush, in which case she’d shriek as she got pricked.

All this while, they heard the rustle of dried leaves behind them to show that the snake was still behind them.

Suddenly it stopped, so Walter knew that they had lost it. He took this as a great time to collapse.

He fell onto his feet and clutched at the stitch on his sides. He rolled onto the ground, gulping down huge amounts of air.

Mavis collapsed too. She finally had time to rip off the paper that Walter had stuck on her forehead.

‘Oh my God,’ she gasped. ‘Where the heck are we?’

Walter was so exhausted that didn’t answer for a while. Finally, he told her the whole story.

The horses collapsed beside the two, but Alpha wasn’t at all tired, because he had been sitting on Star’s back the whole time. Instead of resting, he took to ripping the paper off his head. Then he ripped Star’s and Peanut Butter’s off so that he could have something to destroy.

After they had recovered, they drank so much water that their supply was completely over, but they decided to worry about it later.

‘Mavis,’ said Walter, ‘could you climb that tree and check where the sun is so that we’ll know which side is west?’

Mavis looked at the tree he was pointing to. It was a tall one, and its branches joined the ones of the other trees, joining the canopy.

‘Why do I have to climb it?’

‘Because you’re great at climbing trees!’

‘How smart,’ grumbled Mavis. ‘Getting people to do things for you with flattery.’

She hoisted herself up on one of the branches of the tree and then the next. Soon, she was at the top of the tree, peering above its branches.

She could see the whole forest–the canopy of trees–that stretched for miles and miles.

As far as she could see, there was only forest. She glanced up at the sun, its light blinding her. She made a mental note of its direction and climbed down briskly.

She told Walter its direction once she was down.

He thought hard for a moment. ‘Hmmm, if that’s the sun’s direction, then this must be . . .’

He turned to Mavis. ‘Okay, that direction is west,’ he said pointing.

They trotted on their horses, west for an hour or so, when they heard a hiss behind them.

They knew at once that it was the black python. They didn’t even turn behind and flew into the skies on their horses. They dodged the branches of the trees, till they were finally above the canopy. The snake couldn’t catch them now!

At least that’s what they thought.

Mavis and Walter couldn’t believe their eyes. Was that cobra really flying? No, it couldn’t be–it had no wings. It was simply wiggling and wobbling and slithering in the air. But that still counted as flying.

Mavis shook her head in disbelief. That snake was so annoying!

Star whizzed away like a jet. Peanut Butter followed.

The snake flew after them fast as lightning and was close at their heels.

The snake chased them for so long that soon the horses were exhausted and all they could do was flap their wings weakly to stay airborne.

But the snake seemed quite untouched and slithered through the air right behind them. It was so fast that Mavis and Walter tugged at their horses’ reins to make them go faster, even though they were panting like crazy.

Suddenly, it stopped in its tracks. It had been going very fast, so when it halted, its head jerked back. It hardly seemed to care. It looked relieved that it had chosen to stop.

‘It’s afraid of us!’ said Mavis proudly.

Walter turned pale. ‘Mavis,’ he whispered, staring at the air in front of him open-mouthed.

Following his gaze Mavis noticed a hundred dark shadows whizzing through the air towards them.

Without warning Star suddenly whizzed off in the direction of the cobra. Before it could attack, Star knocked it away and flew as fast as he could.

Mavis spun around to see what the black shadows were. To her horror, they were actually arrows. ‘Faster, Star!’ urged Mavis in panic, but it was too late.

One of the arrows hit Star’s left wing. The horse neighed in pain and started falling to the ground.

There wasn’t even a second for Mavis to realise what was happening. They crashed through the trees, the branches snapping below them. They hit the ground with such a force that the air was knocked out of her lungs.

‘Ow,’ Mavis gasped. Each breath was painful.

She struggled to her feet and saw Star groaning on the ground next to Alpha, who was shakily standing up. The only thing that had broken the horses’ fall was a pile of dried leaves, and that hadn’t done much.

Mavis’ eyes widened when she saw he was lifting up a wing. It had an arrow sticking through it and bled all over his feathers.

‘Oh, no,’ she said rushing to his side. She pulled out the arrow sticking out from Star’s wing. The horse neighed in pain.

She looked at the arrowhead. It was covered in blood, of course, but there was also some kind of symbol carved into it.

She wiped the blood away, and the symbol was clearer.

It was the carving of a bird.

Mavis felt a sense of relief to see this. The Mountain Elves had been friendly to her, and they went by this seal, so she had the feeling the dudes who had shot the arrows would be friendly. Sure, they’d attacked them, but they must have thought them enemies, and they could have been just aiming for the python.

Mavis looked at Star’s wound. He was whining in pain and lifting his wing up because folding it up was too painful.

Mavis thought desperately. She needed to help him, but how? She was no good at treating wounds. This was when Walter’s bandages would come in handy. She climbed up a tree and peered over the branches to see if she could spot him. But he was nowhere to be seen.

Just then, Alpha barked loudly.

Mavis climbed down the tree and to her horror, ten people wearing clothes made of leaves were holding Star’s reins. ‘Hey, that’s my horse!’ she cried, pushing them away.

Then two more people came running. They had tied up Walter’s hands. Peanut Butter was right behind them, trying to push them away.

‘Oh, and that’s my friend,’ Mavis added.

The dudes dressed in the leaves approached her. ‘Listen,’ they growled; ‘we won’t hurt you if you would just come with us. Don’t even try and put up a fight.’

Okay, let me get one thing straight–Mavis wasn’t great at following orders. So naturally, she paid no heed to their advice and pulled out Spark.

She whacked some random dude’s head. He yelped in pain and stumbled over. Mavis didn’t stop there–she went on whacking everyone’s head and they fell over.

But one of them–who must have been the leader, because he wore a crest made of colourful feathers–blocked the attack with his spear. ‘No more funny business, now. You’re coming with us.’

‘Mavis, just come with them,’ said Walter, anxious to avoid a fight.

Mavis reluctantly agreed and allowed her hands to be tied up.

The people dressed in leaves were merciful enough to not tie up their legs too, so they could walk freely rather than having to hop, which would have been exhausting.

The people were too busy making sure the two didn’t escape, so the horses and Alpha were released. They could have run away any time, but they faithfully walked after them.

The people led them deep into the forest. Noticing Star’s hurt wing, Walter fished about in his pocket with his tied-up hands and pulled out a pack of bandages.

‘What is that?’ demanded one of the dudes sharply.

‘Bandages,’ said Walter simply.

‘Bandages are forbidden here. They hurt a lot,’ said another. ‘Besides, you do not need them.’

‘We do need them!’ said Mavis, flaring up. ‘Because your people shot arrows at my horse!’

‘We wouldn’t have if you didn’t enter our land,’ said the mammal who looked like the leader of the clan.

‘How are we even supposed to know this is your land?’ Walter cried.

The clan leader looked proud. ‘Of course, no one knows we Tribes still exist–everyone thinks we’re extinct!’

‘Not that we care,’ said Mavis; ‘we just want to bandage Star’s wing.’

‘Bandages won’t work on the wounds caused by our arrows,’ said one of the Tribes with a nasty grin.

So Mavis punched him.

The clan leader ignored her. ‘What were you doing in our land, anyway?’

‘How do you care?’ snapped Mavis.

‘Because you may be of some threat to us,’ said the Tribe leader.

‘We’re going to the Land of giants,’ said Walter after a bit of hesitation.

The Tribes froze.

‘Why do you want to go there?’ whispered the Tribe leader.

Mavis and Walter exchanged glances. Was it safe to tell these people?

Then Mavis remembered the carving of the bird on the arrow shot by the Tribes. They could be allies of the Mountain Elves.

‘The Mountain Elves said nothing about a settlement here,’ said Mavis casually.

The Tribe leader looked taken aback by this sudden statement. ‘They wouldn’t,’ he said; ‘they aren’t supposed to–they have our trust!’

Mavis couldn’t understand what he meant by that, but she knew now for sure that the Tribes were allies of the Mountain Elves.

‘Well,’ she said slowly, deciding that she could trust them, ‘we need to steal something from the giants that’s rightfully the elves’.’

‘So, you’re on an errand for the elves?’ asked the Tribe leader.

‘Well, something like that,’ answered Mavis.

‘We Tribes are friends of the elves,’ said the Tribe leader as the others untied Mavis and Walter’s hands. ‘If you’re doing something for them, we can let you pass by our land.’

‘We’d pass by your land even if you didn’t let us,’ said Mavis. ‘But what you can do is heal Star’s wound–which you caused; I may add.’

The Tribes looked sheepish.

‘We’ll do that–once we get to our land,’ said the Tribe leader.

‘So, this isn’t even your land?’ cried Mavis in disbelief.

‘Not really, but we attack anyone who comes even near our land, to maintain the rumour that we’re extinct,’ said the Tribe leader casually.

Mavis and Walter exchanged glances.

‘That you’re extinct?’ asked Walter in amazement. ‘Why–'

‘The enemy,’ said the Tribe leader darkly, ‘is unforgiving. To escape the dangers, we Tribes created a rumour that we had been wiped out of existence by a disease. This way we wouldn’t be attacked, because, well, no one knows we still thrive.’

After they walked a bit more the Tribe leader suddenly raised a hand to tell them to stop. Everyone did so immediately–well, everyone except Walter. He stumbled over and fell. The Tribe leader caught him by the arm. If he hadn’t, Walter would have fallen off the edge of a ravine with steep slopes.

Mavis got onto her knees and peered down. She could make out a few huts at the bottom of the ravine. ‘Hey, what’s with the village?’ she asked.

‘Ah, you see, to protect ourselves from the giants, we built our village at the bottom of a ravine.’

‘That’s smart!’ said Mavis. ‘But, well, many people think it’s the trolls who are the villains.’

‘Well, not us,’ grinned the Tribe Leader. ‘We’ve got ears everywhere–and don’t mean spies, but birds. We can speak to them!’

‘It’s not really that smart,’ said Walter. He was still in shock of almost falling off the edge of the ravine. ‘I mean, there’s no way you can enter your own village.’

The Tribe leader smiled. ‘Actually, there is a way to enter our village–but only we know about it. Other people just topple over the ravine!’ (Walter shuddered.)

With a bit of effort, the Tribes pushed away a huge grey rock, with the same carving of a bird as their weapons. Under it was a large pit with a flat stone at the bottom. Everyone (including the animals) jumped down the pit.

The Tribe leader clapped his hands and the flat rock at the bottom rattled. Then with a whoosh, it shot down like a jet.

‘Did you attach mechanics to this?’ shouted Walter.

‘Nope! This thing runs on magic!’ shouted one of the Tribes back.

Then suddenly the flat rock stopped and everyone flew up in surprise.