by Tom Hoffman
“That’s weird. Oh, well.” Orville picked up the red snackle and dropped it into the basket. “One down, nine to go.”
He was preparing to give the great cry of the Gnorli bird for the eighth time when he heard a noise coming from behind him. A mouse was clearing its throat. Orville whipped around to see the face of old Ebenezer Mouse peering over the fence. Orville groaned to himself. Ebenezer was their neighbor, a cranky old mouse who never had anything nice to say.
“What in creation is all the wild ruckus about? Have you gone loopy in the nutter? Practice your dang bird calls some other time, I’m trying to take a nap! One more crazy screech out of you and I’ll be over there talking to your papa and we’ll see what he has to say about it, you furry little mumkin!” Ebenezer’s face dropped down behind the tall wooden fence.
Orville gave a long sigh. Why was everything so difficult? Even picking vegetables for dinner had become a struggle. Seven red snackles would have to do. He took off his hat and tossed it down next to the vegetable basket.
“At least it’s nice out.” He raised his face toward the brilliant afternoon sun, basking in its warmth. “Mmm… so toasty. Feels good. Nothing like a warm sunny day.”
A minute later he opened his eyes, glancing back at the fence to make certain old Ebenezer Mouse wasn’t watching him. He eyed the basket of vegetables. As he was counting the red snackles an odd thing happened. Orville began to feel dizzy, off balance, as though the world had suddenly become crooked, lopsided.
“Whoa, why am I feeling like this? Maybe it was the green mist from the snackles. It could have been poisonous. Oh, no, maybe Proto didn’t–”
It was at that moment Orville realized the true reason for his peculiar unbalanced sensation. He squinted, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. This couldn’t be. It simply could not be. The shadow from his new adventurers hat and the shadow from the vegetable basket were going in opposite directions.
“That’s not possible. The sun is in the west, shining on the basket and forming a shadow that points east. The hat’s shadow is pointing west, toward the sun.” Orville felt sick. This was like the clockwork glowbirds, like his papa’s blue marble rolling uphill. It could not be, and yet it was. He could not deny what he was seeing.
He grabbed the adventurers hat, twirled it around and plopped it down on the ground again. The shadow was still pointing west. “Urrghh! This can’t be happening.”
He snatched up the hat and ran to the front yard, tossing it on the ground. The shadow was pointing toward the sun.
Orville flopped down next to the hat, his chin resting on one paw. He studied it closely, but no matter how hard he thought about it, he could not come up with a reasonable explanation for the shadow’s unruly behavior.
“That’s it. It’s time to tell Sophia about my scary castle dream and this crazy hat. I know she won’t believe there’s dark magic involved, but even Sophia doesn’t know everything. Wait, I never asked Proto what he learned about Mendacium!”
Orville grabbed the hat, jumped up and raced back to the garden for the basket of red snackles. He dashed into the house to find his papa and mama seated at the kitchen table. Proto took the basket from Orville, counting the red snackles.
“Seven will be perfect.” Proto chuckled to himself, giving Orville a wink.
“Wash your paws and have a seat. Proto has a delicious dinner for us. How was work today? I love your new hat. Where did you ever find an old style adventurers hat like that?”
“I found it on the way to work. Master Marloh said I could wear it until they find the owner.” Orville stepped over to the kitchen sink and began scrubbing his paws. His chat with Proto would have to wait.
Dinner seemed to last forever, although Orville did enjoy hearing about the old Metaphysical Adventurer journals his papa was organizing. The early adventurers had gone on some extraordinary missions, but Orville was anxious to find out what Proto had learned about Mendacium.
Orville helped with the dishes, but by the time he was done Proto had gone up to his room.
“I’m kind of tired, I think I’ll go to bed early tonight.”
“Okay, good night, sweetie. Pleasant dreams.”
Orville nodded, hoping his dreams would not include Mendacium, the great and terrible dark wizard of ages long lost. He ran up the stairs, but instead of going to his room he went up to the third floor. Years ago his papa had converted their attic into a spare bedroom, now Proto’s room. Orville was raising his paw to knock on the door when he heard a low growling, followed by curious slithery, scratching noises.
“What in the world is that?” Images of a long yellow scaly creature with venomous fangs popped into Orville’s head. He lowered his paw and crept silently back down the stairs. It didn’t seem like a good time for a chat with Proto. He’d talk to him at breakfast.
Orville tossed his hat onto the top shelf of his wardrobe and flopped down on his bed. “It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow. I’ll talk to Proto about Mendacium, tell Sophia about my scary castle dream and show her the weird hat shadows.” Five minutes later he was asleep.
Chapter 5
Orville’s Wardrobe
Orville had a restless night, tossing and turning in his sleep, visions of Mendacium’s burning yellow eyes flickering through his dreams. He finally sat up in his bed with a groan. “Why am I dreaming about that crazy wizard? What time is it? How can it be morning already?” Orville squinted at the rays of sunlight coming through his window, but was suddenly disoriented. The light was not from his window, it was coming from his wardrobe. Beams of sunlight were streaming through the cracks of the wardrobe door.
Orville froze, stunned by the eerie light, his mind scrambling for a logical explanation. “My wardrobe is on fire!”
He leapt out of bed and flung open the wardrobe door, a bucket of water appearing in his paw. The good news was his wardrobe was not on fire, the bad news was his adventurers hat was glowing brightly, the light flooding into his room.
“This is bad. It’s dark magic, I know it is.” Orville searched his room for movement, terrified of what he might find. He slammed the wardrobe door shut and jumped back into bed, pulling the covers over his head.
“Okay, it’s not that bad, the hat is just glowing. Maybe it’s made from some kind of special material that glows in the dark. Not so scary. It’s not like there are spectral demons with big claws crawling around trying to eat me. Drat, why did I think of that?”
Orville drifted off to sleep but woke with a start when he had another dream about Mendacium. He peeked out from under the covers, relieved to see the light from his wardrobe was gone. He lay his head down with a sigh, falling at last into peaceful slumber.
The following morning he awoke exhausted, but did manage a grin. “I’m feeling so lethargic today, I hope it’s not blustery out.” He crawled out of bed and pulled on his clothes, gingerly opening the wardrobe door.
“Whew, that’s good, still not glowing. I need to tell Sophia about this, but first I have to ask Proto about Mendacium.”
He ran downstairs, finding Proto in front of the stove flipping snapberry flapcakes on the heavy iron griddle.
“Proto, did you learn anything about Mendacium?”
“And a fine good morning to you. Tasty snapberry flapcakes with a hint of red snackles for breakfast today. As a matter of fact, I did glean some fascinating information about this Mendacium fellow. Quite interesting, indeed. Not at all what I was expecting.” Proto turned back to the griddle, humming softly as he flipped the flapcakes.
“Proto! What did you find out?”
“One moment, there’s nothing worse than an overcooked flapcake, I always say. Although, I suppose two overcooked flapcakes would be worse.” He chuckled to himself.
“I love overcooked flapcakes. What did you find out?”
“Very well, I discovered a character named Mendacium did indeed exist, but over three hundred years ago.”
Orville gave a low gasp.
“Three hundred years ago?”
Proto laughed. “You probably weren’t aware of it, but I made quite a clever little play on words when I called Mendacium a character. He was indeed a character, but a character in a book, a rather scary tale written for mouselings. The book was quite popular for a number of years, the author being a native of Lapinor.”
“He was a character in a book? Mendacium didn’t really exist?”
“Quite correct.”
“What was the story about?”
“He was a dreadful dark wizard from a distant realm, commanding a vast army of ferocious spectral demons. Even worse, he hatched a nefarious plan to destroy our world and every mouse in it. How terribly frightening! Mwa ha ha ha!”
Orville stared blankly at Proto. Why would he be dreaming about a character from a three hundred year old book he had never even heard of? Orville shook his head and took a seat at the kitchen table.
“Flapcakes are nice and crunchy, just the way you like them.”
“Thanks. Just a few, I’m not feeling very hungry.”
After breakfast Orville headed to the living room, flipping through the dictionary to select his word for the day.
“Today’s word is capricious. I’ve never heard of that one. It’s pronounced kuh-PREE-shuss. Not too hard, kuh-PREE-shuss. It means, ‘given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior’.” Orville grinned, hollering out to Proto, “Hey, Proto, quit being so capricious!”
“Oh dear, do you really think my behavior is capricious? I always think of myself as being quite steadfast and predictable.”
“Just kidding! I was trying out a new word. It’s capricious. I’m off to work. See you later!” Orville darted out the front door, slamming it behind him.
As he strolled along the narrow winding lane, Orville found himself hoping someone would stop and admire his adventuring hat. He imagined them calling out, “A marvelous hat, young sir! Quite dashing!” He adjusted the hat’s angle slightly, then stopped in his tracks, staring at his shadow, a shadow which did not include the hat perched on his head. He looked around, discovering the hat’s errant shadow on the opposite side of the road. A shiver ran through him. “I probably shouldn’t be wearing this. It might have dark magic in it.” Orville tucked the hat under one arm.
When he stepped through the door into the Book Emporium, Master Marloh was nowhere to be seen. Orville set the hat on the front counter and headed to the back of the shop where he had left the carts of new books to be shelved.
Four hours later he was placing three copies of The Invisible Mouse and the Rabbit Who Saw Him on an upper shelf when he felt the claws on his neck. A fearful shriek burst from his lips as he whirled around. Unfortunately, his leg collided with the cart of books and he tumbled backward into the shelf. The fearsome creature who grabbed his neck proved to be none other than Sophia Mouse, her silly grin vanishing when he collided with the book shelves and tumbled to the floor.
“Are you all right? I didn’t mean to scare you so badly. Sorry!”
“You’re not supposed to sneak up on a mouse like that! And you didn’t scare me, I was just surprised, I knew it wasn’t Mendacium.”
Sophia looked puzzled. “Mendacium? Who’s Mendacium?” She paused, furrowing her brow. “Wait, I’ve heard that name, and recently. I know, it was in a dream I had! You were in it, too. We were in that creepy dark castle you dreamed about on Varmoran. It was really scary, Mendacium said he was a dark wizard, and said something about darkness vanishing and taking a thousand worlds with it.”
Orville jumped up, trying to regain some semblance of dignity. “We need to talk. This is really serious, I discovered something very strange about my new adventurers hat.”
Chapter 6
The Experiment
“Show me.”
Orville set his hat on the ground in front of Sophia. “See? The shadow is going in the wrong direction. The sun is over there, but the shadow is going this way.”
“I thought you said the hat’s shadow pointed toward the sun? This shadow is going sideways, ninety degrees off from where it should be.”
“It was pointing at the sun before, but now it’s different.”
Sophia said nothing. Her eyes were focused on the hat and its errant shadow.
Orville could not stop himself. “I have no idea why the shadows are being so capricious.”
Sophia put her paw to her forehead and closed her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Is your word for today capricious?”
“What, I can’t use big words without you thinking it’s my word for the day? I know a lot of big words.”
“If you say capricious again, I will pound you.”
“Okay, you were right, it’s my word for the day, but just so you know, I was using it correctly. The shadows are being… that word you don’t want me to say.”
“I need to think.” Sophia leaned forward, putting both paws over her eyes. Orville sat silently. He could almost feel Sophia’s mind ratcheting and clicking and spinning, a hundred billion synaptic connections flashing simultaneously.
“What do you think it means?”
“Quiet.”
“Sorry.”
Four very long minutes later Sophia rose up from the wooden bench.
“I think I understand what is happening, but before I say anything we have to conduct an experiment, then pay a visit to Madam Molly, the Astromechanistic Deep Physics Scholar at the Symocan Institute. She’s the only one who can help us.”
“What do you mean conduct an experiment? What kind of experiment?”
“It will take both of us.”
“I’m not exactly a scientist, you know.”
“Do you know what a sundial is?”
“A sundial? Isn’t that something mice used a long time ago to tell time, kind of like a clock?”
“Exactly. Before they had clocks, mice needed some way to tell the time of day and the time of year. It works like this, if you poke a stick into the ground, the stick’s shadow will change as the sun moves across the sky. If the sun is directly overhead, the stick’s shadow will be really short, if the sun is low in the sky the shadow will be really long. The length and direction of the shadow changes throughout the day and also throughout the year. For a specific time on a specific day of the year, the shadow’s position is always the same. Mice used to mark the position of a shadow for special days, like the day they started planting their crops. When the shadow returned to that exact position the next year, they knew it was time for planting.”
“Clever, but I don’t get what it has to do with my hat?”
“The hat’s purple feather will be our sundial. I want you to put the hat in your backyard on a big flat board, then every fifteen minutes make a mark showing exactly where the tip of the feather’s shadow is.”
“Every fifteen minutes? For how long?”
“We need to do it for one complete day, or until the feather’s shadow returns to its original position. Start at midnight and measure the shadow for twelve hours. I’ll take over for the next twelve hours, or however long it takes. Write down the exact time you mark the shadow, and make sure to indicate which direction is north. You don’t work tomorrow, so you can start tonight. Whatever you do, don’t move the hat, not even an inch.”
“This sounds kind of tedious. You’re sure we have to do it?”
“Yes, I’m sure. This is really serious, and I mean really serious. I don’t want to say anything else until we meet with Madam Molly.”
“Okay, I’ll start tonight.”
“I’m sorry I snapped at you about your word for the day. Your hat has me kind of worried. I think it’s wonderful that you’re learning new words.”
“Thanks. Oh, I found out something about the spooky castle dream we had. Proto told me the only Mendacium he could find was a character in a three hundred year old book who was a dark wizard and had an army of demons from another planet and was trying to destroy our world. Wh
y do you think I’d have a dream about that? I’ve never even heard of the book.”
“Neither have I. I really don’t know why you’d dream about it. Papa always said we have to let a chain of events unfold at its own pace. That’s the only way to discover its deeper meaning.”
Orville hesitated to ask the next question. “Do you think it’s possible Mendacium might be real? That he might be alive and… be a dark wizard who uses dark magic?”
“You mean an evil dark wizard who could cast a spell and turn you into a big warty toad?”
“I didn’t say anything about turning me into a toad, Sophia. I was just concerned that–”
“There is no magic, dark or otherwise. There is only science. Magic is the word we use for scientific processes that we don’t understand yet. Before mice knew the science behind electricity, they thought lightning bolts were magical spears thrown by giants who lived in the sky. Whoever or whatever this Mendacium is, I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty he is not a dark wizard and is not using dark magic, because there is no such thing as either one.”
Orville nodded, now more certain than ever that Mendacium was an evil wizard using dark magic who was planning to destroy the world with his army of spectral demons. Despite his fears, he headed home after work and began preparations for Sophia’s sundial experiment.
During dinner Orville told his papa that he and Sophia were going to measure the length and direction of shadows over one full day.
“You mean like a sundial?”
“Exactly, but she wants me to measure it during the night, too.”
“There aren’t any shadows at night. It’s dark out.”
“Umm… well… if there’s a full moon there could be shadows.”
Orville’s papa gave him a curious look. “Did she say why she wants to measure shadows?”
“It’s just something she was interested in.”
“Probably for a class at the Institute. Well, Sophia knows what she’s doing. She’s smarter than both of us put together. Let me know if you need any help.”
