The Three Thorns

by Michael Gibney

  “Cecil! Help me,” Sebastian beseeched as the unstable weeds snapped away from their weak roots. Cecil instantly sped, catching the boy by a thrust of his strong wings.

  The omnicorn had succeeded in rescuing its master a few feet from the swampy ground. Without deliberation, Lemis ordered his flying pet to turn around and soar after their targets.

  “They’re coming back again!” Sebastian cried out in panic as he kept his glasses from falling off his face.

  “We’re almost there, boy,” Cecil reassured, picking up the pace in a dangerous vertical ascent whilst playing his part in the risky game of tag.

  Lemis pointed his rusty black blade straight up at Sebastian, baring his twisted grin.

  “Where do you think you’re going, human?”

  A few more feet were all they had left to cover before they reached the top of the cliff, but the omnicorn was a faster and more agile flyer than Cecil Baskin, for the creature’s very wingspan and aerodynamic structure was designed for reaching tremendous velocity.

  “Faster Cecil! Faster!” Sebastian called to his protector.

  The omnicorn flew inches away from his feet. Its hellish jaws opened up to show its razor sharp teeth as it snapped at Sebastian’s shoes, missing each time the boy lifted his legs to avoid contact.

  “Hang on!” Cecil ordered.

  After several efforts of retaliation, Sebastian lifted his left leg and thrust it hard against the omnicorn’s face, wedging his shoe between its upper and lower jaw. The omnicorn shook its head violently from left to right in order to unlock its mouth from the child’s foot while the four ascended in a single chain.

  But it was to no avail. The omnicorn was stuck in a knotty position now, as was its prey. Lemis shuffled along the monster’s neck toward Sebastian, ready to separate the two of them using his rusted sword.

  “Cecil, get us out of here,” Sebastian pleaded, twisting and turning away from each swiping attack.

  By chance, Sebastian’s free leg managed a lucky kick to Lemis’s chest.

  The chief sea guard failed to grab the reins several times while he tumbled off his beastly pet. The dark creature neighed in pain when Lemis grasped onto its tail, saving himself from a second fall.

  Cecil ordered Sebastian to take the stick that was strapped to his side. With a free arm, the boy unbuttoned the pixie’s pouch and raised the stick as high as he could. The stick glowed bright red and felt alive with magic. Sebastian struck the omnicorn’s long and disfigured face. Fearful of the sudden blast of magic, the steed bit down hard, tearing the shoe straight off Sebastian’s foot while it trailed its rider into the fog-covered abyss.

  “You did it, lad!” The pixie laughed the instant they flew past the top of the massive cliff’s edge.

  “Woo hoo!” Sebastian yelled, ecstatic from his near-death experience and relieved that they’d both survived the terrifying battle to tell the tale.

  “We’re near the Stained Castle now, Sebastian, but first I need to rest these old wings,” Cecil panted, at the same time his speed had decreased rapidly.

  “And if they come back?” Sebastian asked.

  “Just let them try,” Cecil replied, gazing back down to a calm fog thousands of feet below them. “Best we rest further away from the edge, I think.”

  “That looks as good a spot as any,” Sebastian said, pointing down at a small patch of woodland nearby. In one swift halt, Cecil’s flight took an unplanned pivot, lightly crashing into a strange and unfamiliar grove. Cecil’s fairy dimmed its light and disappeared back inside his chest pocket.

  As Cecil rested to catch his breath, the one-shoed boy limped to the front of the grove, investigating his surroundings further. Walking into the gloomy patch, Sebastian noticed that it was made up of many strange and frightening-looking trees, with one in particular that immediately caught his eye.

  It was the largest of the grove and rested dead center amongst its neighbors. The tree revealed a large face from a distance that was made up of many bodily shapes. Its deep dishevelled crevices resembled large eyes that appeared to look straight at him. Multiple shoes hung immobile against the light breeze as Sebastian took a step further.

  “I sure hope there is one in my size,” he whispered to himself, staring down at his single bare foot.

  24

  March of the Troll

  Cecil dug through his pouch and guzzled a bottle of his trusty healing remedy. It was the perfect time to rest up. “Stay in sight,” he ordered from over his shoulder, wheezing heavily to get his strength back.

  Sebastian tried to run to his protector after the shoe tree fired out one of its closest shoes toward him.

  “Mr. Baskin, I really think we should…” Sebastian called out, his voice trailing off.

  “Boy?” Cecil called, irritated at the unfinished conversation. “Sebastian Cain!” he called again like a father would his son.

  The pixie struggled to get back on his feet then spun around to face the grove, groaning because of the painful state his overused wings were in. With each trailing step, Cecil dragged his tired feet toward the largest tree. He noticed something struggling in front of him the instant he entered the grove.

  “Sebastian?” he asked cautiously, flabbergasted at the sight of the knotted shoes and laces that enfolded the boy. “Let go of him!” Cecil bellowed, trying to take flight to avoid a sudden attack. It took only a few shoes to get the better of the stout pixie. Laces tightened and knotted themselves around his bruised wings and brought Cecil’s bumpy flight to an instant halt. The boy and his protector had now become two more unfortunate casualties of the ruthless shoe tree.

  In unison, the shoe tree finished wrapping its captives up by binding their arms and legs together so that they were unable to move an inch. Sensing danger, Cecil’s fairy instantly shot out of his breast pocket in time and sped through the web of laces in search of help.

  It had only been a few minutes since their capture when heavy stomping shook the ground. Trees rustled from afar in opposite waves, disturbing the creatures that lived in them as their nests cracked and fell. Each captive caught glimpses of a wide hairy creature that approached. It was terrifying, for only their eyes remained uncovered. They’d expected to see something enormous, but what emerged was surprisingly nothing of the sort.

  The troll lunged out of the woods and leaped directly within firing range of the slinging shoes.

  “Oh, I smell you,” he threatened. His humungous nose sniffed the different scents in the air. The shoes wasted no time in their persistent attack, but the hairy troll effortlessly brushed them away, dodging several more that attacked from both sides. He moved with elegance, reaching Tommy in seconds. In one flick of his razor sharp fingernail, he promptly cut the boy down before taking his first prize away from the shoe tree’s den.

  The troll leaped out of reach of the tackling shoes and unravelled the petrified boy, slicing off the smothering laces. Tommy was so glad to breathe normally again that he failed to focus on whom and what had freed him. When he finally studied the troll’s daunting features, Tommy scurried backwards, fleeing from the ugly sight. It was a miniature troll, just over a century in age, and had tiny pointed ears with no hair to cover them (unlike Ariel’s). His bright yellow eyes were his most distinguishing feature next to his large nose and his round, blunt teeth.

  “Where do you think you’re crawling to, little scamp?” the troll asked.

  “My goodness, does everything in this place talk?” asked the boy. It wasn’t the smartest of questions one could ask of a troll, especially a troll that had just met a human for the first time.

  “What are you? Stand before me,” growled the troll, stomping the ground while he marched over to the boy. Tommy scarpered along the dusty ground and withdrew toward the shoe tree. “Don’t go back in there,” the troll commanded, pounding his large hairy feet on the damp earth.

  “Better those things than being eaten up by…whatever it is y
ou are,” Tommy cried.

  “Ha! Be my guest. I don’t eat ignorant silly bodies anyway,” the troll sneered back. Tommy paused to look over his shoulder at the mass of shoes hanging lifelessly and almost in range of him. “If you go back in there, I won’t follow after you,” the troll warned.

  “Let me be,” Tommy snapped.

  “Relax, human. I’m not like the giant trolls from the Bothopolis Forest, I can tell you. They’d already have you cooked for breakfast by now. My name is Cackerin. Ban Pan Cackerin to you,” the troll snapped, spitting over the boy’s face and pushing his nose against Tommy’s.

  “Are you a villain?” the boy boldly asked, trying to get straight to the point.

  “That all depends from where you’re standing, chap. Do you see a villain?” the troll grunted, before marching back into the grove.

  It took the troll even less time to retrieve the others from the intertwining mess of laces. Ariel was the last to be rescued. Flapping her arms to break free, the delirious nymph accidently whacked the troll on his big nose, which wobbled back and forth. “Nice to see you too,” Ban Pan said sardonically, helping Ariel to her feet.

  “Oh Ban Pan, I’m so happy it’s you,” she sighed, hugging the troll.

  “Of course it’s me. What else has my smell?”

  “My old socks,” Cecil answered.

  “You don’t wear any socks, Mr. Baskin,” Sebastian sniggered as Cecil raised him out of the laced sheath.

  “Precisely the reason.” Cecil winked back holding his nose.

  Tommy and Sebastian laughed at Cecil’s remark before they noticed each other. Taking a deep breath in disbelief, Tommy gazed at the familiar face of the posh boy he had briefly met in Warwickshire and was overjoyed to be in company with someone human again.

  “Hey! Silver-spoon head!” he called to Sebastian and gave him a welcoming handshake.

  Sebastian smiled, fixing his large glasses with one hand while greeting Tommy with the other. “Thomas, right?”

  “What in heaven has happened to Peter?” Sebastian asked. A baffled look showed on his face, until Tommy explained the nymph’s real identity.

  “Extraordinary!” Sebastian circled Ariel, studying her face at every angle.

  “What is that thing?” Tommy asked, pointing to Sebastian’s appointed guardian. The tired pixie gave Tommy a grouchy stare, offended by the boy’s disrespectful tone.

  “That’s my protector, Cecil Baskin. He calls himself a knight but I’ve never seen one like him before.”

  “I thought for a while I was dreaming this whole thing. But now you’re here, it’s really real. I can’t believe it,” Tommy replied.

  “I can. I’ve seen this place in my dreams,” Sebastian whispered, staring out at the evening sky.

  “Let’s go talk to big stinky here,” Cecil joked, humoring the boys as they approached the troll.

  “Sir Cecil Baskin, I’m glad you made it,” Ariel smiled as she bowed her head to the knighted pixie.

  “We’re lucky to be alive after the attack we encountered,” Cecil went on, coughing as he told Ariel the story of his horrendous ordeal.

  “And Lemis? Is he dead?” Ariel asked.

  “I can only hope,” Cecil replied, hissing from the excruciating pain still throbbing at his tiny wings.

  “What about Benjamin?” Ariel asked.

  “Nothing yet,” frowned Cecil.

  “You are the first friendly faces we’ve seen since the Black Swamp,” Sebastian added.

  “Black Swamp?” asked Tommy, turning to Ariel for an answer.

  Cecil interrupted, pushing the boys away from the grove by a tap of his stick. “Never mind all that. Come on, less chatter boys and more wander. Legs forward and eyes front.”

  “This smell is rotten,” Tommy blurted out loud, holding his nose as he stepped away from the troll.

  “That’s right. Nothing smells as bad as us trolls. Not even the pixie’s footwear,” grinned Ban Pan proudly.

  “Tell that to the Nockwire,” Ariel mumbled, joking privately beside Cecil Baskin, who let out a strong and abrasive laugh.

  “You’re kind of grouchy, aren’t you?” Sebastian asked, sneering back at the brazen rescuer.

  “You’re lucky that’s all I am. Not all of us trolls are as tame as I,” Ban Pan warned.

  “How did you find us?” Ariel asked the troll, her excitement and wonder evident.

  “One of your fairies sought my help. When my nose perked up, I just knew it was you,” he said assuredly as Cecil’s fairy fluttered back into the pixie’s breast pocket.

  “I’m so glad to see you. I thought you had been killed in the battle at Bothopolis,” Ariel said smiling with relief.

  “Done for? Ban Pan Cackerin?” the troll said indignantly. “Don’t be ridiculous, why I’m the only one I know of who can make it through shoe trees without getting entangled,” he rambled. “By the way, I suggest you find another way to your destinations. There’s no way beyond that shoe tree even if you could get by it. Its forest is too thick and dangerous.”

  And with that, the troll simply turned his back on them and marched away without even so much as a goodbye.

  “Where are you going?” Cecil demanded.

  “To the Stained Castle, of course. The trolls have been summoned there for an emergency meeting.”

  “Everyone has,” Cecil added.

  “That’s where we’re going. We might as well go together,” Ariel called.

  “Ha! Travel with other kinds? Now that I do not do,” the troll scoffed, marching away.

  Ariel looked to Cecil for support. “Well, what do you want me to do? He doesn’t travel with other kinds,” he whispered back to the anxious nymph, holding out his hands. “No troll does.”

  “You’re the knight here,” Ariel said, encouraging the pixie to exercise his authority over the stubborn troll.

  “I’m just a protector, not a negotiator,” Cecil insisted.

  “Order him.”

  Giving out a long groan, Cecil rolled his eyes and fluttered his little wings, taking small flying leaps to catch up with the stomping beast.

  “Wait, Ban Pan, there is something I forgot to mention,” Cecil said finally.

  “You’re welcome, now quit pestering me,” Ban Pan muttered in reply.

  “No, not that,” Cecil insisted.

  “Ha! Talk about ungrateful. What is it then, ungrateful knight?”

  “This human is the reason we have all been summoned to this emergency meeting,” Cecil explained to the troll, pointing to Sebastian.

  “And Tommy, too,” Ariel added.

  “Let’s not forget Benjamin,” interrupted Tommy.

  The troll instantly paused in his march and turned his massive hairy feet back round to face the mixed group.

  “So, they do have names,” the troll scoffed, gesturing to the group to come closer. As the four approached him, Ban Pan bent down to face the guardians and whispered. “There is a better way to the Stained Castle than this one, but first you must give me something, something of reasonable value.”

  “I knew you were a villain. And a cheat at that,” Tommy accused.

  Cecil swiftly knocked Tommy on the head with his trusty stick to prevent the mouthy boy from insulting the troll further.

  “That’s enough lip from you, boy,” Cecil insisted while Sebastian covered his mouth to keep himself from laughing at his friend’s sudden chastisement.

  “Are we bargaining, Ban Pan?” asked the nymph.

  “Of course we are…I wouldn’t be much of a troll if I didn’t.”

  “We really don’t have time for this nonsense,” the pixie suggested, the flutter of his wings showing his exasperation at the troll’s stubbornness.

  “Zip it, Gramps,” Ban Pan mocked. Cecil screwed his face up at the annoying creature. “I cannot believe that the Council chose you two to protect the Children of Abasin. Good grief, of all the civilians the
y could have picked,” Ban Pan continued.

  “You know of the Children of Abasin?” Cecil gasped.

  “Every soul in Abasin knows about The Three That Are One. I don’t know of one who hasn’t heard of that prophecy,” sighed Ban Pan, frowning at Cecil and the two boys.

  “What is he talking about?” Tommy asked, looking between Ariel and Cecil for an answer.

  “You mean to tell me you boys don’t even know about your own future?” the troll began to tease Tommy, chortling to himself.

  “Why don’t you shut your trap, you big furry fungus, before I help you shut it,” Tommy barked. Cecil and Sebastian reached out simultaneously to hold the boisterous lad back.

  Ban Pan pointed at Tommy while laughing loudly. “You, my boy, are hilarious…look at the size of you and still you would dare take on a troll.” Ban Pan laughed a little longer until he shot back a serious look that frightened Tommy to his core.

  “You, scamp, are this world’s last hope,” he muttered slowly. “The prophecy foretold three human children would return from being cast out of Abasin and come of age to kill the False One and take over this kingdom. This makes you three the most important people in this entire world right now, as well as the most hunted. And you don’t even know it.” Ban Pan chortled again and shook his head.

  “Well, we weren’t told anything until now,” Tommy admitted, turning his blameful gaze toward Ariel and Cecil.

  “My dreams,” Sebastian whispered to her.

  “I told you they were true,” Ariel muttered.

  “You didn’t tell me about the killing part,” Sebastian snapped back.

  “That’s enough!” Cecil roared at the troll. “You’re scaring the boys.”

  “If they’re scared now, what use do you think they’ll be on the battlefield? The way you two are mollycoddling them, you would do better to hand them over to Saul while you can and pray for a quick death,” the troll replied.

  “I’m not scared,” Tommy declared, interrupting both creatures as he walked toward the troll with courage and conviction.