Potlendh

by David J. Wallis

  His light bulb flashed furiously. “What are you?” he asked the children. But then his televised face disappeared, only to be replaced by old TV programs and movies of the 1950s and 1960s. He only played snippets or scenes from programs that were mostly about people. The children watched with fascination as the creature displayed some monster movies, then a couple of Westerns, and finally programs like Leave It to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, and Father Knows Best.

  (Yes, yes. I know you probably have never heard of these shows. You might want to look them up on the Internet some day. Then you’ll understand the kind of shows your grandparents grew up with. They will seem pretty silly, but your grandparents never missed an episode, just like you hate missing out on your favorite shows and cartoon programs.)

  “Ah-ha!” the creature finally concluded, and the TV screen returned to his preferred face. “You are human children.”

  “And you are, please?” Uniqua asked again.

  “Why, it was only yesterday I stepped into the portal, but it looks like I came tomorrow!” He turned around in a complete circle. “What a mess! I hope I haven’t come too late.”

  He turned back to Uniqua and the children and bowed slightly. “I am the Repairman. In fact, that is my name.”

  “Repairman?” Karen repeated.

  “Of course,” Repairman replied. “I was just on my way here to repair the Engineers. There are still Engineers, I hope. Yes, yes, of course. Who else could have fixed the portals?”

  “There are two left,” Uniqua told the machine (for that was what he was) pleasantly.

  “My, my, my,” the machine sighed. “So much work to do. I’m gonna have to call for help. This is going to take forever to clear up.”

  “Excuse me,” Carl called down. “Did you make the Engineers?”

  “Not I, but—yes—my people built them. They couldn’t have made themselves, now could they?” Apparently he thought this was a joke, for the TV displayed a lot of people laughing.

  “Things are beginning to make a little more sense,” Uniqua said her thoughts aloud.

  The children looked at her blankly.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  RETURN TO BIG HEAD CITY

  While Repairman talked to Engineer C and Chief E to learn how bad things were in Portaland, Uniqua held a meeting with the Group and the Dwarf Captains.

  “All right,” the Unicorn began. “We have to make a big decision. All of our adventures so far have been dangerous. We have helped several people already, and maybe we have done enough. I want you all to think about whether we should go on or quit.”

  “I vote for going on,” Carl said.

  “Me, too,” Karen agreed.

  “You children almost died!” Uniqua exclaimed.

  “But we didn’t,” Carl corrected her. “Thanks to you and Cassandra.”

  “Don’t mention me,” the Dragon murmured. “I got you into all of this mess.”

  “And, we can’t go home until we finish this thing,” Karen reminded everyone.

  “It is going to be even more dangerous from here on,” Uniqua tried to reason with the children. “Except from what I was able to see as we passed over, I don’t know anything about the Islet of the Mountain of Power. Once we pass over the bridge, we won’t have any idea of the dangers we’ll face.”

  “What do you say, Cassandra?” Karen asked.

  “Don’t ask me,” Cassandra pouted. “I’ve caused enough trouble already.”

  “Cassandra!” Uniqua turned on her threateningly. The Bunnies immediately stepped in front of the Dragon and took up protective stances. “Will you stop this whining!” But then the Unicorn changed her tune. She could tell that yelling at the Dragon was not going to help.

  “You want to see your parents again, don’t you?”

  Cassandra lifted one bleary eye at Uniqua. “Yes.”

  “When we started, you also wanted to help the children. And,” she added, “the children wanted to help you.”

  “I didn’t think it would be so difficult,” the Dragon sighed.

  “Nothing in life is easy, Child. Especially when you want to get the things you really want.”

  “I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Cassandra said.

  “If we stick together,” Carl stated, “then no one is going to get hurt.”

  “Yeah,” Karen chimed in. “We just won’t eat any more poison pearls.” To Carl she added, “Right?”

  “Right!” Carl agreed quickly. “But we all have to stick together. We can’t be fighting among ourselves. Otherwise, we are never going to get home, and you’ll never see your parents, and—and the Bunnies may never get to repair their farms.”

  “Wise words, Carl,” Uniqua praised. “We cannot give up our goals because someone will get hurt. But at the same time, we must consider the dangers ahead of us. If there is another way to get to the Mountain of Power, we must also think about trying that.”

  “So, Cassandra,” Karen addressed her. “What are we going to do?”

  “We move on,” the Dragon announced after a moment of thought. “Let’s finish this adventure.”

  “Good. It’s settled,” Uniqua finalized. “No more complaining. No more taking chances. No more bickering among ourselves. Like Carl said, we all have to stick together.”

  She then turned to the Dwarf Captains. “Our dearest friends, words are not enough to thank you. What are your plans?”

  “I’d love to go with you guys,” Captain Helf admitted. “But I feel like I’ve been away from home forever. Besides, I have so many new ideas in my head. I want to try them out.”

  “We’ll go back to the FOB,” Captain Lump told the Group. “Then we’ll get a work party together and haul the flying ship back to where it belongs. You know, it’ll be more famous than before. We’ll all be famous: the first to fly in it, and the first to cross the mountain barriers.”

  “Please thank your Kings and Queen for the use of the boat,” Uniqua told the Dwarf Captains. “If ever we can repay them—”

  “No, no,” Captain Helf interrupted. “You have done more for us than you know.”

  The goodbyes were tearful. The twins already missed their good friends even as the Dwarf company walked away.

  “Well,” Repairman said as he strode up to them. “Good news and bad news, I’m afraid.”

  “The bad news first, if you please,” Uniqua responded.

  “Everything here is a disaster,” he reported. “To fix all that needs to be fixed is going to be a great undertaking. The good news is we can rebuild the all the Engineers back to as good as new.”

  “I might suggest you rebuild the Chief first,” Uniqua said. “Also, I would like to discuss with you changing their Rules and Regulations a bit to keep this ‘disaster’ from happening again.”

  “Now that the portals are working again, I can have a work crew here by the end of the day.”

  “Speaking of portals, could you please show us how to use the portal to Big Head?” the Unicorn asked.

  “Oh, sure. It’s easy. Just follow me.” He led the Group over to the row of telephone booths. “Now you can see that each booth is clearly marked. There is an entrance and an exit for each set of portals. You just go into the one marked ‘Enter’ and wait ten seconds. Then, ‘poof’ you’re transported to your new destination. Oh, and be sure only one person uses the portal at a time. Well, goodbye. Maybe I’ll see you again in Machines.”

  “What happens if two people try to go at the same time?” Carl called out.

  The display on the Machine’s TV screen turned into an ugly face. “You don’t really want to know.” Then Repairman entered the booth marked “Machines—Enter,” and ten seconds later he disappeared.

  Each member of the Group looked at the booths apprehensively. None of them were sure they wanted to try using the portal. It was, admittedly, kind of scary.

  Finally, Carl said, “I’ll go first.”

  “Oh, no you won’t!” Cassandra contradicted. “I star
ted this expedition. It’s high time I started to lead. I’m going first.” Without another word she entered the correct booth. Then ten seconds later she disappeared just like the Repairman.

  “Bunnies,” Uniqua addressed them, “you had better go next. One at a time, though.”

  After the triplets had disappeared, Karen said to her brother, “Ladies first.” And then she was gone.

  “Go ahead, Carl,” Uniqua told him. “I’ll bring up the rear.”

  Now, it was very difficult for the twins to describe their journey through the portal. Both agreed that “everything” became “black,” meaning that they could not see anything. Carl said that his body felt tingly all over, like a small current of electricity was playing on his skin. Karen complained—not too much—that she felt hot one moment and cold the next. Both claimed that they felt like they were flying on a cushion of air.

  The time to travel from Portaland to Big Head did not seem to take very long. Suddenly, each twin found himself or herself exiting the telephone booth standing just outside the Main Hall. Cassandra and the Bunnies were waiting for them a few steps away. And, Tiny was with them.

  “Well, that was an experience,” Uniqua remarked as she stepped out of the booth. She checked herself over to make sure nothing was missing. “Everyone all right?” She then proceeded to check everyone else out, especially the children.

  “Fantastic!” Tiny congratulated the Group. “You all made it!”

  “And thank you!” Uniqua responded. “Without your help, we wouldn’t have.”

  “Ah,” Tiny said, sounding a little embarrassed. “‘T’weren’t nuttin’.”

  “No,” Carl interjected. “You saved the day!”

  “Well, come on,” Tiny beckoned. “I wanna take you to my home. We can have something to eat and talk a bit.”

  To describe Tiny’s house, I would have to use all of those superlatives again. So, let’s just say that it was very, very big, and everything inside was also very, very big. Fortunately, it was very close to the Main Hall, so the Group did not have to walk very far.

  “I thought you guys would come back, so I made some tiny furniture for you. Oh, and I snuck some plates and eating utensils out of the Main Hall.”

  “That was very thoughtful of you, Tiny,” Uniqua praised.

  Sure enough, when the Group was invited into Tiny’s reception room, a table had been set up and chairs placed around it to fit everyone of the Group comfortably. The most impressive part of the room, however, had to be the fireplace at the end of the room. You could put a whole apartment building in it!

  “Let’s sit, and then we can talk,” Tiny suggested, indicating the food had already been prepared. There was so much food that the Group thought an army would be happy, but for a Giant it would have made a mere midday snack.

  Once everyone had his or her fill, Tiny lounged on the floor so he could talk to his friends more or less on a eyeball-to-eyeball level.

  “So, what are your plans?” he asked.

  “We have to get to the Mountain of Power Islet,” Uniqua began.

  “To do that, you’ll have to cross Dragon’s Bridge,” Tiny told them. “To get there, we’ll have to go west and cross into Machines. Um, maybe. We might be able to just skirt around the southwestern edge of the mountains and then get behind them. It’s too bad you couldn’t bring your flying boat.”

  “It’s kind of damaged,” Carl said.

  “Oh, that’s too bad,” the Giant said sadly. “One thing, though, we don’t want to get to close to Dearth Desert. There, everything comes to a bad end. I think ‘die’ is a good word for it.

  “It’s not going to be an easy journey. There are tales of monsters living in the deserted lands in front of the Dragon’s Bridge,” he added.

  “How long do you think it’ll take us?” Carl asked.

  Tiny laughed, his voice echoing in the great hallways of his home. “I don’t know how long it’ll take you little ones. For me, it’s just a step and a jump.”

  The friends talked well into the night until Uniqua suggested that they all go to sleep. A long journey waited for them at daybreak. Tiny built a small fire, according to his standards, in the fireplace. As he said, the floor could get a little cold in these mountains. Then he went to his room where he not only fell asleep but began to snore very loudly, which made it difficult for the Group to get any sleep at all.

  Just before sunup, the twins were aroused from their dozing by a strange noise. It sounded like it was coming from the fireplace. Getting up cautiously, they crawled as close as they dared to the front of the fire to see if they could figure out what was making the noise.

  To their surprise, Sparky hopped out of the flames and onto the stone floor. “Greetings!” he said happily.

  “Sparky!” Carl exclaimed. “How did you—”

  “A fire is a fire,” he explained. “Fire is kind of like portals for us.” From somewhere on his body he withdrew a black object and set it on the floor in front of him. When it cooled, the object became a beautiful, glittery fire opal. (A fire opal is so named because of the many sparkly colors inside, appearing as if fire itself has been captured within the rock.) “This is our gift to you for helping us.”

  “We couldn’t possibly take it,” Karen told the little Flame.

  “You must!” Sparky became very serious. “You must give it to the Lord of Power. Whatever you do, you must not lose it either.”

  “Just give it to the Lord of Power?” Carl repeated.

  “Yes. When you see him. Now, I must go. May the Eternal Flame that watches all take care of you. Goodbye.” Sparky stepped back into the fire, and the twins did not see him again in this adventure.

  The sun finally came up. The Group slowly roused themselves. The only person who felt refreshed and chipper was Tiny. But then his snoring did not keep him awake.

  “Do you have it?” Karen asked her brother.

  “Safe and sound,” he replied, patting his front right pocket. It felt kind of heavy. He thought he would always feel it and not lose track of it.

  “We all ready to go?” Tiny asked. “I asked Q to meet us here, ‘cause I didn’t think you’d want to walk all the way.”

  “No breakfast?” Carl questioned under his breath.

  “Breakfast?” Tiny repeated. “No problem. I packed breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We can eat on the way.”

  And they were off on an adventure again. Tiny was not kidding when he said that he could cover the distance in a step and a jump. Q could only go so fast with his load, so Tiny took four small steps to reach the grassy plain. But when he did so, something terrible happened.

  “Oh, no! Help me!” Tiny cried out in alarm.

  When Q rolled up to the grassy plain, several things happened, actually.

  The first thing everyone noticed was that Tiny was—well—tiny. For a Giant, that is. He had diminished to the size of a normal person. (Although I am not sure what a normal person’s size is, to be truthful.) None of the members of the Group had changed size—yet, he still looked pretty big to them.

  That is until they joined him on the grassy plain. All of a sudden, every member of the Group was normal size. (There I go again with that word “normal.”) Only, Tiny stood about as tall as the twins!

  “Weird!” Carl breathed.

  “Tiny,” Uniqua suggested, “would you be so kind as to step back into Big Head?”

  The Giant shrugged his shoulders and moved off the grassy plain. No sooner had he done this than he was a full grown Giant again.

  “Interesting,” Uniqua noted. “I have heard of time and space being altered. But this puts a whole new meaning on the word ‘space.’”

  “You mean that things are big in Big Head because the land makes them big?” asked Karen.

  “Not necessarily,” the Unicorn observed. “Big Head does not affect everyone or everything the same way. Do you remember Carl’s triceratops? When Carl found it, it was small. You twins were giants in the dinosaur’s
forest. The dinosaur was supposed to be big, and it became big when we entered Big Head.

  “And, we were supposed to be small. So, we became smaller, I think, when we went to Big Head.”

  “I don’t know if I like this size,” Tiny remarked, examining his body. He had crossed back into the grassy plain again. “I’m afraid of being small. What would happen to me if I become so small that no one could see me?”

  “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” Uniqua tried to assure him. But then, like she told the twins before, she did not know anything about this part of the Island. “Are we ready to move on?”

  “You ready, Tiny?” Karen asked the Giant.

  He shuddered a little. “I guess so. But I think I’d like to change my name. I don’t like to be tiny.”

  The twins tried to hide their smiles.

  They walked only a few steps across the plain when a sign suddenly sprung up in front of them. Everyone jumped back quickly in fright.

  “A talking sign?” Carl wondered aloud. Karen jabbed him in the ribs. “Well, you never know,” he defended himself. “Everything else on this Island seems alive.”

  “No. It is not alive,” the Bunnies chorused. “Hmm-hmm. It says: ‘Beware of Dying.’ Hmm-hmm.”

  “Now what’s that supposed to mean,” Karen asked, stepping closer to the sign. “I’ve heard of ‘Beware of Dogs.’ Is ‘Dying’ supposed to be a creature or something that happens to you?”

  “You don’t understand signs?” a husky female voice inquired. “Or is it that you do not know how to read?”

  The Group whirled as one to their left and saw a strange woman addressing them. She was a stranger—yes—but that did not make her strange. Her clothing made her strange. She was dressed all in black, from head to toe. Her dress opened up like flowers at her hands and feet. What the Group could see of her hands, though, was not attractive. Her fingers were long, made even longer by her nails, which were cut to points. Her hair was deep black and long, almost down to her feet. It hid most of her white face. Speaking of her face, it was not cruel: kind of comely in a dark way. Her lips were painted black. Black eye shadow made her eyes kind of sunk back into her head.