Chapter Three
As the afternoon sun had set in. It shone brightly down on the mountain, far away in the distant island was another butterfly. The dark orange wings laced with eight black rubies showed his cunning eyelets that lay against his two front wings. Each one of them had two small red and yellow streaks of fire to warn the night clouds not to disturb his flight pattern. His long thin legs stretched out towards the sun behind him. However his oval floppy ears looked like tiny antlers; which twitched to signal something coming near him. His pointed face smothered in brown dust, choked the cold air into claps of thunder. This butterfly' name was Krome Monarch.
Krome could see the big, bright, blue sea full of fine ripples. On the edge of the sea, lay a small island of green and yellow sand dunes, mini brown straw huts and white long vans that stretched along the grey paths led a safe route to the beach. To him they looked like mobile huts but to us humans these long, cream vans are caravans. The small street lamps, looked like they had been nailed to the ground. The paths looked dull and empty. There was no sign of humans. The moon shone bright over the hills and the moons grisly face began to smile at him. He counted the caravans that hardly had any life.
Another clap of thunder struck with small stripes of lightning that shone through the empty cars. Small white, brown and black people emerged into the caravan park and into their cars. Many looking up at the dark clouds, claps of thunder and then the cars drove into a line. The engines roared and children ran into the vans, each door clicked and the white windows shut with a loud bang. As he hovered down toward the park he could see many green flies dancing around the bright hedges, Blackbirds hopped around the small rose tree that lay next to a small lawn and in the middle of the car park, where a small light brown shed stood. Next to the shed lay a round circle of cut grass. Inside this small circle lay a mixture of blue and white flowers. In-between the flowers were a small chipped path covered with dust with a large green bench that had tiny letters engraved on the arc of the arm rest. These letters formed two words of a famous family name he once knew. This was the 'Peacock family',
His eyes began to widen and his white cheeks began to glow like the moon. He picked up a tiny piece of rose and licked it up with his small green tongue. The petals colour slowly disintegrated onto the lawn and his antlers pointed upwards.
"The thunders gone, can we go and play at the beach," spoke an excited girl. She had a long brown top with blue jeans that covered her white flip flops, her long ears pointed at her father’s black beard. He wore the same clothes as her and looked much taller and rounder, his right brown index finger held a gold ring with the initials. ILYF (I Love you forever) in his other hand was a can of pop; he lifted the lid and sipped the drink into his mouth. One eye was on his daughter and the other on the dark clouds, he really looked like an honest person.
"If the bad weather stays off, we can go to the beach later," her father replied.
"Mm, a butterfly," the young girl said. Before she could cover Krome with her medium sized hands, he flew onto the first bench that she could not reach. She ran over to him and grabbed his wings; he flew into her hands and lay on his side. The young girl poked his left wing and he lay still, she stroked his black rubies. Still he would not move.
"Dad, the butterfly is dead!" she screamed.
A bolt of lightning struck the butterfly and he flew around her head , she walked round and round in a circle smiling at him, her hands clapped together to try to get him and then as the rain hit down she ran back to her father.
"Dad the butterfly’s made me dizzy" she said.
"Come on in," her father sighed.
The rain came down faster and faster for he needed somewhere to dry out before his next flight, he jumped onto the round green bin which lay on its side and glanced at the creak in the shed door. It was too small for his colourful wings to get into, he looked down and up, over and round and back at the creak. He flew right up to the shed door and examined the wooden panels which had been stuck together. At last there appeared to be a large black hole which would be small to the human eye. Next to the lock on the door that stopped others from getting in there was a hole. The hole sat along the join of the brown plank of wood that lay underneath the lock and he carefully squeezed his wings into the hole.
The rain began to patter against the caravan roofs and the park itself became black and deserted. A small but dim light shone into the tiny hole where Krome had got in. This revealed a large green lawnmower with three spikes that stood next to the old wooden rake, the rake itself looked old and rusty but its next-door neighbour a broom lay with spots of brown mud and its plastic green handle looked larger than the old one. In the other corner where Krome was resting, he was lying on top of a small rose that was being held in a black pot of soil and odd streaks of moss covered the rim of the plant pot. Around the plant pot sat three empty pots inside each other. On the floor lay a ruffled up blanket that had not been used for years. He settled down into the middle of the pink rose.
Once the rain had died down and the late sun began to emerge in to the clouds. Krome popped out of the shed and flew away from the caravan park, past the small yellow barrier and over to the street. A few colourful cars and white vans drove along the busy road leading into a busy town. Behind him was a little corner shop filled with food, water, magazines and also an iron crate which held buckets and spades. A red car pulled up near him and he fluttered onto the grass verge at the end of the path. A black man walked out of the dark shop, he then locked the glass panelled door and ran straight toward the car. As the passenger door opened, a packet of loose crisp fell out of his pocket. Before he could pick it up a seagull swooped down to the ground and snatched it away from his hand. The seagull then blinked at Krome and flew high up into the sky.
"That was my snack," the man moaned and got into the car.
"Good day," said another man’s voice. The engine roared and the car drove up the road.
Krome knew that the grass verge on the side of road was so dangerous that he thought about hiding back in the same shed, but he couldn't make any of his plans work because it would be too small for him; and then he saw the very same seagull that had pinched the man’s crisp standing on the shop roof with another bird. Both of them looked very identical to one another apart from their beaks. The one that was standing on the right hand side of the roof had a streak of black running along the tip of his beak and the other looked perfectly normal. Their red eyes moved down at him, they looked over at the passing traffic and muttered to each other.
"Is that a bird?",
"It is a fly or a moth,"
"That is one big moth,"
"Let’s get him," the other seagull cried.
Krome picked one of the stars that he had collected from last night’s sky and he chanted the old time words. "Remember, remember, all birds and flying objects. Remember,” These words helped him to remember his spells. He wanted to get rid of these noisy seagulls. Both like mates they hung around like vultures. He threw the star into the air and the white bubbles floated down from the night cloud and, and headed straight for the seagulls who were trying to catch him. He flew past the oncoming green van, up over the high lorry and across the pelican crossing. They followed him through the busy shrubs and trees. He swerved toward the sand dunes and then stopped in mid air over the calm sea. As each white bubble, touched the seagulls beak, it began to expand over the bird’s body. Krome could not hear the seagulls squawk and he began to laugh at the entrapped seagulls.
"Go away or become my team", he said. His eyes grew long with black dots and the tiny star he had thrown away made the sea ripples splash against the large concrete walls; as he ducked down to retrieve the star the seagulls followed him. Four more seagulls varying in size came to the rescue,
as they pecked the bubbles; they quickly fell into the watery sea. They floated like ducks toward the flags that were blowing gently in the wind.
The three young seagulls watched the others fall into the sea, they hid amongst the sand dune that covered the green fence and then they rushed towards the butterfly. The star bounced them away from him. As they came back to grab him with their beaks, all three of them looked down at the swimming ducks. They soon absconded from him and the two trapped seagulls.
The two rebellious seagulls that were still trapped were well known troublemakers. They would Pinch food from other humans, making the men duck as they swooped down towards the human’s nose. They always got what they wanted but now, they had been caught by a butterfly that was supposed to have been their dinner. What else could they do but help him in order to get their friends and family free from being ducks in the watery sea.
"Thank you. Find me a big building to hide in", Krome ordered them.
"Over the sand dunes, to Frith Le Firth," the seagulls replied.
"Take me to the Frith and I will reward you as my guards. You will be given plenty of sea food and lots of chips," Krome said and he flew up the sandy trail between the two sandunes. The seagulls swerve back up into the sky, they flapped their wings as fast they could and the bubbles took them to their destination.
The Key and the Broken Wing Page 6
