Thomas Kindercook and the Pink Pyjamas

by Gerald Feather

  Gatsby gaped. “You?! Your father will never agree to that! Anyway, I really think that it would better for both of us if you stayed here.”

  Alanna scoffed. “Surely you don't expect me to let you leave with my future husband on an adventure, leaving me alone again, do you?”

  Gatsby's eyes narrowed. “What are you up to Alanna?”

  “Me up to? Simply keeping my eyes on you and this Thomas. You don't believe that I would entrust you with my future again after the last time, do you?

  Gatsby sighed, “It sounds like you have made a decision.”

  “I still need to think about it a little Gatsby. It's a lot to digest. Give me time. Meanwhile, you are free to roam around BlueShift as you like, however, the gates have been notified and you are not to leave the city.” Gatsby turned to leave and Alanna added, “And don't try to fly out of here. A single red Dragon among a sea of blue will stick out.”

  Gatsby nodded, “Of course. I will leave you in peace. I have others to visit here I haven't seen in a very long time. Also I should check in on Thomas. He's a good kid. He talks a little too much but what child doesn't at his age?”

  “Just how old is he Gatsby?” Alanna was wondering just what sort of match she was being sold into.

  “Fourteen I believe. Human years. But they grow fast. Faster than weeds. He will catch up to you in the blink of an eye.”

  Alanna nodded slowly.

  Gatsby turned and let out a breath he had been holding since the beginning of their meeting. Things were turning around for him. Now all he had to do was figure out how to tell Thomas. Well... if Thomas expected help out of his mess, then he would have to agree to help Gatsby out of his own. Still, Gatsby did feel a little bad about doing this without Thomas' consent.

  As Gatsby left the palace, he felt the presence of a shadow. Not the kind that they had encountered earlier. The kind that was meant to keep track of him, and make sure that he didn't leave BlueShift without the princess' consent. Despite the presence of his unseen companion, he felt the stress of years of running starting to melt away. For the first time in nearly three hundred years he was going to be free. The Shadow really didn't bother him, he had no intention of abandoning his only chance to set his life straight.

  CHAPTER 9

  ESCAPE

  Thomas hung from the top branch of a really tall old tree, one arm outstretched toward the open window a few feet away, the other desperately hanging on to the reed-thin extremities of the ancient branches he was on. He didn't want to look down. He knew very well how far up he was. Far enough for those strolling along below to look significantly smaller. Luckily no one had noticed him scaling the tree. It was in behind the palace in an area that seemed to be fairly quiet.

  Summoning up all his courage and strength, Thomas sprang from the tree he was in and grappled the window sill. For a moment Thomas started to slide backwards toward the distant ground, but he managed to pulls his arm up over the sill, and grab the inside of the window ledge to pull himself into the hall of the outer castle wall. Now all that was left was to find Gatsby. He hoped that he was alright.

  Thomas looked back out the window and gulped. He hoped he could find another way back out.

  The passageway was fairly plain. There was the same beautiful stonework done in blues and grey that he had seen all around the palace wall, but there was little in the way of decoration or furniture. He couldn't help but wonder once again why bother to build the walls when nearly the entire city could fly.

  Thomas trekked down the hall for a while, looking for some way into the main Palace grounds. No guards, and not a sound. The quietness of this place was almost creepy. A voice then pierced the quiet of the halls. “THREE HUNDRED YEARS!” Thomas was so startled he almost backed out of an open window. Whoever belonged to that voice was not a happy person. He shivered and pressed on.

  After a time he found a passageway that seemed to lead in toward the centre of the castle. This might be what he was looking for. Being careful to keep quiet, he sneaked down the hall until he came to another junction where he could turn left or right. Thomas was about to go right when he heard a noise that told him someone was drawing nearer. The acoustics of the hall made it almost impossible to discern whether the noise was coming from the left or right. In a panic Thomas scanned the passage until he saw a door he could duck into. Dashing as quickly and quietly as possible across the hall, Thomas tried the door. Luck! The door was open! He slipped in and swiftly closed the door, holding the latch down to make sure it didn't click behind him. As Thomas waited for the footsteps to retreat, he turned around to take a look at the room he had hastily ducked into.

  Thomas' jaw nearly dropped to the ground. He was in a bedroom, but not like any bedroom he had ever seen in his life. It was incredible. The room was huge. On the walls were intricate tapestries of dragons engaged in battles . The dresser looked to be made of something similar to marble. The carving of it so fine and detailed, he couldn't imagine how long it would have taken to create. Various tables, display cabinets and furniture were adorned with all manner of sculptures made out of gold, jade, and lapis lazuli. What really drew Thomas' attention though, was the bed in the middle of the chamber. It looked like it was hand carved out of the largest tree to ever exist. Dragons twisted around the posts that led up to a canopy. The canopy looked like branches that were bending to the will of the bed, creating cover for the top. Thomas stood in awe of the masterpiece, taking in it's intricate details. He completely lost track of time examining the bed, running his hand over the ancient, smooth polished surface. He was so engaged that he almost didn't notice a pair of footsteps stop at the door.

  Thomas panicked. He knew if he got caught in a room with all these treasures that it could only end badly. As quickly as he could, he bounded across to the largest of the posts supporting the canopy, and scaled it to the top. Just as the door was opening, Thomas pulled himself up on top of the canopy. Closing his eyes, Thomas said a silent prayer, hoping that the canopy would hold. He was so nervous that he was having trouble regulating his breathing.

  *****

  Alanna was still a little stunned by her meeting with Gatsby. The enormity of what Gatsby had just suggested was just starting to sink in. She was so distracted that she fumbled with her keys for a couple of minutes before remembering that she had left the door open. Alanna rolled her eyes and stuffed the keys back into her satchel. She was going to have to think about how to approach the king with this. Even though she knew that he would have to go along with it, it wasn't going to make it any easier to discuss it with him. He was a wonderful father, but he could be quite moody.

  Sighing, Alanna opened the latch on the door and stepped into her room.

  *****

  Thomas tried his best to blend in with the top of the canopy. Meanwhile he prayed the branches would continue to hold him. He realized now that this wasn't real wood after all. The bed had been so masterfully crafted to look like wood that he hadn't noticed the distinctly hollow feel to the branches until he reached the top.

  Thomas peeked between the branches as he fought to keep a grip on sides of the bed. Into the room stepped the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen in his entire life. She was silhouetted against the light that poured in from the hall but the light coming down from some windows up high in the vaulted ceiling gave the room enough ambiance that he could make out the silky long dark brown hair flowing down the woman's back. She looked about seventeen or so in terms of human years. Given that she was probably a dragon, she would be quite a lot older he imagined. She wore a form fitting blue satin dress that cut off just above the knee. Her legs continued with blue tinged stockings. She was amazing.

  *****

  Alanna yawned, stretched, and laid down on the bed. It was true, she had known Gatsby since they were children. She was always a little older, but that had never bothered her. He had always treated her with the respect of a prince. But it was more than that. She sighed. She was doing t
hat quite often today. She certainly had her work cut out for her. Of course she had a plan. Two plans actually. Gatsby's plan was to use the human to get out of the relationship between them. Her plan was to use this time to seduce Gatsby. The only wild card was the human. Would he go along with it? She would have to pay special attention to him. Make him sympathize with her plight and hope that he had the honour to help her.

  *****

  The lady on the bed never looked up. Not exactly. She seemed distracted. If she had looked up, she would have seen a mess of branches with a pair of eyes staring down at her.

  Thomas gazed at the woman, The expression on her face was so distant. Thomas sighed quietly. Her eyes... were amazing. He had always thought it was corny when someone said they could get lost in another person's eyes, but that's exactly what was happening to him. Thomas was so engrossed that he didn't notice the branches starting to give. CRACK! “Oh crap!” exclaimed a startled Thomas.

  *****

  Alanna was lost in thought when her bed suddenly made a sharp crack. She looked up and her canopy seemed to exclaim “Oh crap!” Alanna didn't have the time to be confused as someone crashed down through the canopy and landed directly on top of her.

  *****

  The next thing Thomas heard after landing was a shrill scream. It was an odd juxtaposition of feeling sheer terror at what had and was going to happen, and the utter joy of being so close to such a gorgeous creature. Thomas fumbled for words as he broke out of his daydream. “I... I am so sorry...” he stammered as he tried to jump back off the bed and through the debris.

  The girl merely screamed again. Thomas stumbled back and into a large display case full of crystal dragon figurines. Luckily for Thomas the shelf stopped him from stumbling into a sword display, unluckily for him the display cabinet continued on in the direction he had been going, throwing all of the figurines onto the floor and utterly obliterating them.

  “You! How DARE you! My collection! Thief! Vandal! Vagrant!” The girl jumped out of the bed and grabbed what looked like, but was a little longer than, a standard wooden kendo stick, off the wall. Thomas didn't have time to appreciate the difference as she swung the heavy looking stick for his head. Thomas ducked just in time. The weapon continued on, wiping out another collection of what looked like Faberge eggs, or something similar. Either way, it looked expensive. The girl let a strangled scream rip from her throat.

  Thomas realized that sticking around at this point and trying to explain, probably wasn't going to work out in his favour. He dashed toward the door. As he did, the sword came crashing down on his back.

  Thwack!

  Thomas stumbled headlong into the solid wood door nearly knocking himself senseless. The girl moved on him, growling like a wild animal.

  “Please if I could....” but Thomas didn't get a chance to say anymore as the girl swung the heavy wooden shaft down on him again. He barely dodged in time to hear the sound of the weapon hitting the stone floor beside him. Then he noticed she was standing on an elegant looking carpet. As quickly as he could, he reached out to grab the carpet with both hands and hauled with all his might sending her stumbling backward, landing on her backside where shards of broken figurines lay all over the floor.

  Another piercing scream.

  Thomas took the moment to grab the door and yank it open. He dived down the hallway and started to run. Where didn't matter... as long as it was away. Behind him he could hear the girl screaming as he rounded a corner.

  “HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP! There's an intruder!!! Guards!!!”

  Great... just what he needed. Well? What did he expect? He would be lucky to get out of this in one piece. As Thomas bolted down another corridor he came to a sudden stop. Up ahead were some rather unfriendly looking men in full armour thundering down the hall toward him. Great. He changed direction and ran back the way he came. He wasn't sure which would be worse, running into those armoured Goliaths, or having to run into that girl again. He felt trapped. Then he noticed a small staircase that led off to the side. He hadn't noticed it the first time that he ran past. Quickly as he could, he darted to the side and ran down the staircase. He could hear the guards go lumbering past above him. It wouldn't take them long to figure out that he wasn't heading that direction anymore. Desperately Thomas looked around for a way out.

  He was in what appeared to be a kitchen. There were halls that led in and out, but what caught his eye was a large trap door on the side of the wall. Thomas bounded over to the door and lifted it up. The stench of centuries of refuse drifted up from the trench below. Obviously this was where the garbage from the kitchen was dumped. He was just about to rethink jumping in when he heard more sounds coming from above as well as from the passages leading to the kitchen. Great! They were getting organized. “Sorry Gatsby, you're on your own!” Thomas held his breath and jumped into the chute.

  To say what was in the chute was disgusting would be an understatement. To try to describe it would be futile as there were literally no words that could. The scraps of thousands of meals over centuries, and, as Thomas slid down the uniquely textured slide, he realized that it was joined by other chutes that, while carrying waste, were not carrying kitchen waste. Thomas wanted to cry.

  The chute finally opened up and Thomas shot out through the air and landed in a large cart, a long string of disgusting muck spewing out on top of him covering all but his head. Thomas now knew what it would be like to be a worm.

  He was just about to get up when the cart started to move. It seemed it was on its way to the dump, carrying Thomas away from his troubles at the palace. As disgusting as his current ride was, he decided it was a fair bit better than having to face that girl again. As the cart passed the gate and rolled down the streets, Thomas let out the breath he had been holding, and it had nothing to do with the smell.

  *****

  Alanna seethed. Limping over to the window she looked out over the courtyard. It appeared, somehow, the intruder had gotten away. More than Alanna's pride had been hurt. She didn't think she had gotten all of the pieces of crystal out from her fall. She didn't know if she would be able to sit down without grimacing for quite some time.

  This was the first time in hundreds of years that someone had dared break into the castle. Obviously, the thief had taken the news that Gatsby was meeting the princess as the ideal distraction to steal her precious collection of artifacts. Alanna hobbled over to her room's door and closed her eyes sadly at the sight of the destruction in her room. True, most of the damage had been her own doing, but at least the thief hadn't managed to get anything. Anger bubbled inside of her. She was going to find that boy, and make him wish he had never been born.

  CHAPTER 10

  AGREEMENT

  Gatsby walked with a spring in his step and a slight wobble to his walk. He had spent a little longer than he had expected the previous night out drinking with his friends. He had been feeling good about life. Gatsby suddenly sobered a little. He had not been thinking much about Thomas on his drinking binge, but the truth was starting to sink in now that he neared Glen's home. He started to feel a little worried. What if Thomas didn't go along with this? Hopefully Thomas would help him out of his fix. Once Thomas met Alanna, he was sure it would be alright. Alanna was really a stunning girl. Gatsby smiled to himself. Likely Thomas would be struck like a lovesick puppy. He was worrying too much. Picking up the spring in his step again, Gatsby came to the door of Glen's peculiar house. On the front door was a note with a round glob of wax that had been stamped by the royal seal, and addressed to Gatsby. Gatsby hastily opened the letter and read it.

  Gatsby,

  I have considered your offer. I will be there 10 marks after the moon.

  Alanna.

  Brief. But it was promising. Gatsby felt reassured. Opening the front door, Gatsby sauntered into Glen's abode.

  The first thing Gatsby noticed as he entered Glen's house was the smell. It smelled like death incarnate. Mud adorned the floors and led up the sta
irs. Glen obviously wasn't home. The man had such a cleaning fetish that should even the slightest speck of dust catch his eye, he would be ordering Tritton to get there on the double to clean up the ghastly mess. He must have been on night watch. Which left Gatsby to wonder how the mess had got there. Gatsby suddenly felt a little worried. He really shouldn't have left Thomas alone on his first night in BlueShift, but there was virtually no crime here, and he had been reasonably sure he would be safe.

  Gatsby swiftly made his way up the spiralling staircase to the tower. As he feared, the mud led directly to Thomas' sleeping quarters. Gatsby gingerly opened the door and peeked in. There on Thomas' bed slumbered a mass of mud that, Gatsby could only guess, was Thomas. Glen was going to kill him.

  “Thomas! What happened?!”

  A groan emitted from the mound of mud on the bed.

  “Thomas? Are you okay?”

  Another groan. A minute later the mound of mud moved. “G.... Gatsby?” cackled Thomas from beneath the slime and muck.

  Gatsby was at a loss for words. “Thomas... it may be okay to wander in to houses covered in mud where YOU come from... but here it's considered a little bit... rude.”

  “Please Gatsby, I've had the worst night of my life. Considering the nights I have been having lately, that's saying a lot.”

  “Well one thing is for sure, you are going to have to clean up before Glen get's back.” Gatsby added, “I have something important to discuss with you after you're done.”

  Thomas felt like an elderly man the day after finishing an iron man competition. Gatsby avoided asking him about the mud for the moment. He had something more important to focus on. He hoped Alanna didn't see Thomas like this. It was already 9 and a half marks after the moon. She could be here at any moment.

  “Thomas, I really don't mean to hurry you, but you are going to have to clean up fast. We are going to be having some rather important company.”

  “Mmm.” Was all Thomas could manage as he shuffled off to the bathing room.

  Gatsby worked hard to clean the mud off the floors. He noted it was quite resilient. Whatever Thomas had gotten himself into, wasn't interested in leaving Glen's floors. Between the viscosity, hue and dubious odour, he decided it was probably better not to know.