Green Planet

by Anthony E. Southby

  ‘So do you think the boys have been roasted alive by now master?’ Zip asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable about asking such a terrible question.

  ‘I can’t say for sure my dear, but that certainly seems to be the case,’ he replied, hanging his head in sorrow. ‘We don’t know that for sure though, so let’s give this search all we’ve got. I promised to return them home as schoolboys and not in ash jars from a cremation. No matter what it takes, we have to find them!’

  ‘Don’t worry master, they are alive and we will find them!’ they squeaked in positive succession, sincerely hoping their statement was true.

  Chimzen gazed into the forest, deep in thought. He ordered the trio to search for any clues, especially other fallen arrows, allowing them to clearly establish the direction in which the Indian plant tribe had taken the boys. The wizard searched carefully between the trees, scattering dead leaves in all directions, while the trio flew ahead scanning the ground surface at an incredible speed.

  Shortly, two more of the sharp little arrows were found, as well as a loose little vine wreath used to gather the red petals of an Indian plant headdress. A clear pathway was established from the few fallen items and they hoped that the missing boys’ whereabouts would be discovered at the end of the uncertain trail.

  Chimzen walked to a large open space between the trees, with no nasty plants and creepers around to lash out and attack. The trees continued shaking their leaves in anger, unable to move a root. The wizard quite enjoyed the cool breeze they were generating during their temper tantrums and couldn’t help smiling as he passed them by. The Malcos floated slightly above the uneven soil and quickly transformed back into a triangular hovering flying machine. Chimzen stepped into position and ordered the trio to fly over the forest, in the direction of the established Indian plant pathway. The Malco board rose eagerly up between the overhanging rustling branches and gently accelerated in the direction of the path of scattered clues.

  The plant tribe had carried the boys off in a completely different direction to the one chosen for the wizard. The intelligent Floranion beings had done their absolute best to completely separate them, knowing how completely defenceless the boys were without the aid of their wizard friend, although none of the Floranion life ever expected him to escape and cause such terrible destruction.

  ‘And away!’ he roared, waving his staff above his head, with bright blue eyes flaring with determination.

  The Malco board increased its speed, cruising past endless bushes of leaves, in perfect alignment with the path of recovered Indian plant possessions. Chimzen stood firmly on the solid level platform with his legs wide apart, the wind blasting through his wispy white hair and crispy beard. He gazed over the platform as he passed the trees, looking out in anticipation for the next open field.

  ‘Slow down Malcos! Slow down!’ he bellowed, reaching the end of the forest. Gradually the trio decreased their speed, cruising slowly over an open stretch of green. The hoverboard dropped lower and Chimzen scanned the area below. With high expectations, he squinted in all directions, but there was no sign of them anywhere.

  ‘They must be further on, trio! Let’s keep searching!’

  The Malco board rose up into the air and continued across the next stretch of forest, flying accurately in a precise direction.

  The sun had risen and it was a beautifully warm day, with a gentle breeze blowing across from the east and a few scattered clouds in the light blue sky.

  They arrived at the next open stretch of green very soon and much to Chimzen’s dismay there was still no sign of the boys.

  ‘Maybe they weren’t attacked by the Indian plants; maybe the little plants had dropped their arrows along the pathway some time back already,’ he muttered, scratching his head with worry. ‘Well, if they weren’t captured by the Indian plants then at least they may still be alive, that would be a good thing.’

  ‘Keep flying Malcos!’ he yelled, not willing to give up hope, although he couldn’t help but feel a little despondent.

  Once again the Malco platform launched into the air and flew towards the next open area, arriving there shortly.

  ‘What’s that master?’ Zen squeaked, hovering high above the open field.

  ‘My goodness, Malcos! It looks like dozens of Indian plants basking in the sun! How very bizarre!’ he exclaimed, peering over the platform in astonishment. ‘Lower me down Malcos, so I can see what the blazes is going on!’

  ‘Oh yuck! They’re all dead, master!’ Zip squeaked in disgust, hovering very near to the ground surface.

  ‘They are indeed!’

  * * * * * * * *

  He stepped off the Malco board to investigate the sticky masses of scattered Indian plant remains. ‘It appears as though they were all crushed to death during some kind of stampede or something. How very strange.’

  Not really all that concerned with the dead Indian plants, he raised his head to investigate the large open green. He scanned the field carefully, hoping by some small miracle to spot the boys somewhere, but unfortunately there was no sign of them anywhere.

  The Malco trio disengaged, and hastily spun after their worried looking master. Chimzen had noticed a large burnt out fire to his left and was slowly heading towards it. He stood next to the large bed of ash and semi burnt chunks of wood, nervously poking at the burnt remains with his staff. His heart pounded rapidly as he fumbled between the charcoal remains, and a fresh layer of perspiration on his forehead glistened in the bright new day’s sun.

  After a few painful moments he turned to face the anxious trio and breathed a big sigh of relief. There was absolutely no trace of any scorched human remains in the fire, only piles of ash and burnt wood. Chimzen was greatly relieved and turned to investigate the scene further, followed by his faithful silver friends. He followed the trail of dead Indian plants to see if he could find any evidence that might possibly lead him to Frank and Philip’s whereabouts.

  Once he had reached the end of the scattered trail of death, he noticed another pile of burnt wood in the distance, lying scattered beneath a large overhanging branch. He paced forward nervously, yet eager to investigate the scene. Then suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks, noticing a thick length of vine dangling from the overhanging branch.

  ‘Oh no, it can’t be!’ he cried, dropping to his knees, groping his wispy white hair in horror. ‘I was too late; they’re dead, and it’s all my fault.’

  The trio looked down at their distressed master, a little startled by his sudden outburst.

  ‘Don’t worry master, I’m sure they are both fine!’ Zip squeaked, not believing anything she had just said, but still trying to comfort her master nonetheless. I must say, a dangling vine over a huge pile of burnt wood didn’t leave a person with much hope now, did it?

  Zen shot off to investigate the disturbing scene, not too keen on his sudden act of bravery.

  ‘This really gives me the heebie-jeebies,’ Zen squeaked to himself, rattling fearfully towards the dangling vine. After a minute or so of rolling in the ash and inspecting the scene, Zen returned to his unhappy master.

  ‘Master, master!’ he squeaked, hovering excitedly in front of him, completely black with ash.

  ‘What is it Zen?’

  ‘There’s absolutely no sign of any burnt remains master! In fact, the vine isn’t frayed either! Whoever was hanging there has been untied and released!’

  The wizard stood to his feet, dusting the leaves from his robe. He looked very serious and somewhat distant.

  ‘They may have escaped the fire, but they definitely haven’t been untied and released,’ he said, rubbing his cheek with an expression of worry. ‘This planet hates me and they know very well that those boys are my only weakness. I think I know exactly who has captured them; I only hope that I’m wrong.’

  In the meantime, Zet had been doing a bit of investigating of his own, flying around the open field to see what he could find.

  ‘Master, I found another dead fire on
the other side of the field!’ he squeaked, bobbing back and forth in the direction.

  ‘Well of course, there must have been two fires!’ Chimzen exclaimed, squinting after the excited ball. ‘And I suppose whoever was hanging there was also untied?’

  ‘Yes master!’

  ‘Any sign of human remains?’

  ‘No master!’

  ‘That’s good to hear! So there’s a good chance they may both still be alive. Now all we need to do is find them.’

  ‘Well, well, well, out of the frying pan and into the fire.’

  ‘First things first though, didn’t you balls see any respectable looking blue plums lying around anywhere by any chance?’ he asked, noticing several pieces of half-eaten blue fruit spread out in all directions. ‘I’m absolutely starving! No use trying to find those boys feeling the way I do now.’

  Zen shot off like a bullet towards the burnt out fire they had first stumbled across and bobbed excitedly over a large pile of untouched blue plums nearby.

  ‘Master! There are hundreds of fine looking untouched blue plums over here!’

  ‘Good show,’ he said, heading across the field towards the Indian plant chief’s stash of delightful fruit.

  The ravenous wizard took a seat next to the large pile, and began eagerly stuffing several quality plums into his mouth. They were absolutely delicious, fruit fit for a king.

  ‘That was superb, now I’m absolutely stuffed,’ he said, after consuming one blue plum too many. He made an effort to stand up and promptly fell down again, holding his aching, bulging belly.

  After a fair amount of huffing and puffing, the wizard forced himself back up on his feet, with the aid of his trusty staff. The trio had to keep their distance as he walked, so that he couldn’t overhear them laughing their balls off. Not only was his belly enormous, his lips were smudgy bright blue; it looked absolutely hilarious.

  ‘I must hurry now, I only wish I hadn’t eaten so much,’ he muttered, taking deep breaths to try and soothe his plum pregnant belly. ‘I just could not resist that blue fruit, it was quite simply irresistible.’

  Looking rather uncomfortable, he staggered to an overhanging branch from which one of the boys had been hung, and leaned over to examine the ash below. After a few moments of holding his belly, he leaned right forward aided by his staff, and picked at something with his fingers.

  ‘Ah ha! I knew I would find this here!’ he triumphed, and carefully placed a sample of ash into his pocket.

  ‘Do you think those plums have made him crazy?’ Zen whispered, wondering what his master was up to.

  ‘Ssshh Zen! You’re mad!’ Zip squeaked, in an effort to stand up for Chimzen’s strange antics.

  Then Chimzen walked slowly towards the edge of the forest, followed by the curious trio. When he reached the outer trees, he scattered the leaves to one side, exposing a patch of fertile soil below. The trees were shaking their leaves wildly, up in branches with the wizard’s threatening presence.

  ‘Malcos!’ he called, motioning the trio to hover in front. ‘Would you change the soil down here into a hard surface for me please?’

  The confused trio immediately spun into action, without even questioning his strange request. They hovered over the cleared patch in a perfectly straight line. Then they each fired an extremely intense laser beam at the loose soil below, spreading the power flow outwards like a garden sprinkler to evenly distribute the heat. The trio rolled forward distributing an incredible amount of heat through the surface soil. In a very short space of time the surface was transformed into a solid smooth sheet of glass.

  ‘Ah, thank you Malcos, good job,’ Chimzen said, displaying a bright blue smile while painstakingly kneeling next to the sheet of freshly manufactured glass. ‘Don’t go away now, my silver friends, I’ll need your help again in a minute.’

  ‘Yes sir! We are right here sir!’ they squeaked in succession, eagerly hovering over their master’s head, curious to find out what he was up to.

  He placed his hand into his pocket, fumbling between the seams with his fingers, gathering together some of the ash he had just collected, and placed it carefully on the smooth glass surface. Then he reached into his other pocket for something else.

  ‘No no, not the magic jumping ointment. I’ll blow the place up if I use that one,’ he mumbled, staring at the little bottle of red ointment he had mistakenly pulled out.

  ‘Ah, here we are, this is the one I was looking for,’ he muttered, holding a small bottle of blue liquid to the light and carefully examining it. ‘You just never know when you may need something like this.’

  He spread the ash out into a circular formation with his already grubby index finger and carefully unscrewed the cap off the little bottle.

  ‘That’s what he’s doing! He’s making a sand disc, or should I say ash…’

  Chimzen turned to face the alarmed ball with his index finger pressed firmly to his blue lips.

  ‘Sssshhh!’ he rapped sharply, cutting Zip short while he held the steaming little bottle to one side. ‘I’m trying to concentrate here! Do you mind?’

  Zip dropped to the ground behind her master, almost blushing with embarrassment. The wizard proceeded to pour a few drops of steaming liquid over the circular formation of ash and hastily replaced the cap while watching the bubbling mixture burst into flames.

  Just as before, the sticky remains formed a solid disc. Only this time it wasn’t a green sand disc; instead it was a bright purple ash disc with exactly the same magical capabilities.

  ‘As simple as it is, I can never remember that blasted spell!’ Chimzen rapped in frustration, reaching into his pocket for his little book of magic. Flipping hurriedly through the pages with his black and blue fingers, he scanned through the little book and stopped near the middle somewhere. He then held the purple ash disc up on edge on the smooth glass surface, and made it spin like a coin while he chanted from his little black book:

  ‘kurtle rataz geel das tortune,

  Purple ash disc tell us your fortune.’

  The purple ash disc kept spinning faster and eventually looked like a solid bright purple ball. Chimzen summoned the trio to take their positions and they immediately responded, spreading themselves out in a neat triangular formation around the spinning disc. Zip was a bit reluctant to respond at first; still feeling a bit hurt by her master’s rude outburst. She realized the importance of the whole procedure and spun her silver butt into position. The Malcos projected bright colourful beams towards each other, then upwards to a point, forming a transparent pyramid scope for reality television. The purple disc started glowing brightly, projecting its story with clarity onto the pyramid walls of light.

  The wizard anxiously held his hand up to his chin, unaware of the black ash he had smeared into his beard, and leaned over gazing through the Malco pyramid, almost too nervous to see what the ash disc would reveal.

  ‘Oh goodness no! Just as I suspected!’ he exclaimed, staring into the pyramid scope in horror, with blue plum lips, cheeks and nose smeared in black ash.

  Chapter 18

  Frank noticed two small creatures flying swiftly towards him across the open field, chattering softly to each other as they floated through the partial dawning light. A fine layer of dew had settled on his smelly creased school shirt and his short dark hair was wet, making him feel all sticky, damp and uncomfortable.

  ‘What the blazes is that?’ he muttered, not particularly in the mood for any more dangerous encounters. ‘Well, there’s not very much I can do right now, strung up here like a salami loaf.’

  Violet Paulina was a sweet-scented African flower fairy that spoke with a rough Nigerian accent. She had a very light brown coloured complexion with a petite nose, large hazel fairy eyes and tiny leafy ears. She had several clusters of single purple violet flowers with rounded petals sprouting from her perfect little head in place of hair, and circular deep green velvety leaves flopping out at the sides. Her arms were long and graceful with perfectly f
ormed hands, displaying tiny petite fingers with twiggy brown nails. Her legs were long and slender with dried leaves interwoven with thin vine to form a perfect pair of leafy shoes. Paulina had a large pair of flowery transparent purple fairy wings, which allowed her to fly with swiftness and accuracy. She was clothed with circular deep green velvety leaves sprouting from her chest and back, running in neat layers down to her waist. Pink and red violets sprouted below her waist, finishing her stunning appearance with a neatly arranged floral skirt.

  ‘Ah tink ah see him over dere mun, Lily Madonna ma sister. Is dat him, da ya tink?’ Violet asked in her stiff Nigerian accent, squinting her eyes through the mist to try and make something of the dark figure swaying in the distance.

  ‘It has to be my dear, it simply has to be!’ Lily replied in a distinct, pompous British accent. ‘They always tell us precisely where to find them, don’t they, Paulina dear?’

  ‘Af corse Madonna mun, af corse!’

  Lily Madonna was just as striking as her sister fairy flower with the same petite delicate features, only she had a pale green complexion with a splendid array of neatly tied bowl shaped trumpet lilies sprouting from her head in place of hair. Her eyes looked almost innocent, a stunning shade of intellectual radiant light blue. Her upper body was covered with a large round light green lily pad, sprouting from her tiny upper chest, and dropped down to form an elegant leafy canvas blouse, tied neatly at the waist with a small string of vine. A much larger white bowl shaped trumpet lily surrounded her elegant shapely waist, covering her slender pale green legs in the form of a sleek silky trumpet lily skirt. Other than that, her tiny shoes were made of finely stitched lily leaves and her wings were a splendid spread of transparent beauty just like Paulina’s, only pearl white in colour.

  Violet Paulina and Lily Madonna hovered elegantly in front of Frank, hoping to surprise the boy nicely with their sweet innocent smiles and gentle approach.

  ‘What do you want?’ Frank barked, looking almost disgusted at the sight of the two floating beauties. ‘Please don’t say that you’ve come to set us alight again. For goodness sake, don’t you guys ever give up?’