The Genie's Curse

by Tom Percival

  ‘I’m not sure about getting the girls involved,’ said Rufaro.

  ‘Because?’ said Rapunzel, glaring at him.

  ‘Well . . . it’s just . . .’

  ‘Because we’re girls?’ said Ella, narrowing her eyes.

  ‘No!’ replied Rufaro.

  ‘I’d just be happier knowing you’re out of harm’s way.’

  ‘Seriously?’ asked Rapunzel, using her best I’m-a-princess-and-you’d-better-not-be-arguing-with-me voice. ‘You do remember how Ella and I met? When we rescued your sister from a wicked witch?’

  Rufaro shuffled uncomfortably.

  ‘Besides, have you seen the size of these guys?’ added Ella, pointing at the gorillas pulling the carriage. ‘They’ll be here if we need any muscle.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Alphege. ‘And while you’re waiting, they’re very good company, especially Dr Newton – she’s a laugh a minute! Although as you don’t speak ape, I guess it’ll all just sound like grunts.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘So, are we agreed?’

  Rufaro sighed again and nodded.

  ‘Excellent!’ cried Alphege as he picked something from Rapunzel’s hair and popped it into his mouth. ‘Let’s do this thing!’

  ‘Did . . . did you just take something out of my hair and . . . eat it?’ asked Rapunzel.

  ‘Sorry, I forgot myself for a minute,’ said Alphege. ‘Don’t worry, it was only a flea.’

  ‘I do NOT have fleas!’ shouted Rapunzel.

  ‘Oh, I know,’ said Alphege. ‘It was one of mine – I’d recognize them anywhere.’

  ‘Aarghh! Get off!’ shrieked Rapunzel, batting Alphege off her shoulder. ‘There is NO WAY that I’m getting fleas!’

  ‘Enough!’ interrupted Rufaro. ‘This is serious, OK?’

  They all nodded and fell silent.

  Ella tried not to smile as she noticed Alphege sneakily pick up the very end of Rapunzel’s plait, pick something off it, and pop it quickly into his mouth.

  ‘What’s happening?’ hissed Rapunzel. Ella was peering through a pair of Alphege’s homemade binoculars. They were high in a tree, overlooking the open-air market at Goatbridge. It was well over an hour since Rufaro, Cole and Alphege had gone in, and the sun was already hanging low in the sky.

  ‘I don’t know!’ replied Ella. ‘It’s really busy – I can’t see them anywhere. Wait. . . Over there!’

  ‘Where?’ asked Rapunzel, grabbing the binoculars. At first, all she could see was brightly coloured tents and trolls, until Ella guided the binoculars to the left and she saw Alphege dancing on the top of an upturned barrel, wearing a waistcoat and a little hat with a tassel on. He did not look happy.

  ‘What should we do?’ asked Ella.

  ‘Nothing . . . yet,’ replied Rapunzel. ‘If they need our help they’ll send Cole.’

  The early evening sun sliced across the market with a warm pink light. The sound of laughter and music rang out as hundreds of trolls wandered around, chatting and joking with each other.

  Alphege was hopping from foot to foot on his barrel, beating a little drum and occasionally trying (and failing) to ride a tiny blue unicycle. Before they’d entered the market, Rufaro had asked Cole to disguise himself, and although turning into a miniature unicycle had seemed a rather odd choice at first, it had come in very useful. Each time Alphege fell off, the trolls burst out laughing and Rufaro encouraged him to do it again.

  Despite the carnival atmosphere, Alphege was not having fun. He hated being laughed at, and was just about to storm off for a good sulk when a huge, mean-looking troll joined the audience. He grinned at Rufaro – with lots of jagged teeth, but no warmth at all.

  ‘What do we have here?’ exclaimed the troll. ‘Why, it’s a couple of dancing monkeys!’

  ‘OK, folks!’ bellowed Rufaro, grabbing Alphege by the scruff of his neck and swooping up the blue unicycle. ‘The show’s over now, thank you!’

  The mean-looking troll placed a muscular arm around Rufaro’s shoulders and steered him away from the crowd. ‘Interesting,’ he muttered. ‘It’s very convincing. Hardly anyone would be able to tell that you’re actually human.’

  He raised his voice on the word ‘human’ and Rufaro winced.

  ‘So, have you got what I asked for?’ asked the troll, smiling his cold smile.

  ‘Right here . . .’ said Rufaro, holding up a sack. The troll grinned and reached out, but Rufaro pulled the sack away. ‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘First you need to give me what I came for.’

  ‘Fine,’ rumbled the troll, looking at Alphege and licking his lips. ‘But I’m far too hungry to talk right now. You’ll get what you want – after I’ve eaten . . .’

  Rufaro looked around at the lengthening shadows and took a deep breath. ‘All right,’ he agreed, ‘but make it quick. I’m in a hurry.’

  ‘I know just the place,’ said the troll, staring unpleasantly at Alphege.

  Professor Hendricks, Dr Newton and the other gorillas had joined Ella and Rapunzel up in the treetops. The last of the afternoon light was fading and everyone was starting to feel nervous.

  ‘Where are they now?’ asked Ella.

  ‘In some sort of tent,’ replied Rapunzel, who was holding the binoculars. ‘That big troll led Rufaro in there, and now I can’t see anything!’

  ‘What should we do?’ asked Ella.

  Professor Hendricks grunted deeply, snorted, scraped the back of his hand across the side of his face and made a sound like ‘Ooooh-ooooh-oooooooh!’ He looked expectantly at Ella.

  ‘I’m really sorry, but I’ve got no idea what you’re saying,’ said Ella. Professor Hendricks rolled his eyes, then traced a few letters on to the branch in front of them:

  ‘Now is not the time for panicking!’ snapped Rapunzel. ‘I thought Alphege said you guys were smart?’

  Professor Hendricks blew a raspberry, then traced a few more letters out:

  ‘Let’s at least get the carriage ready,’ said Ella. ‘I’ve got a feeling we need it.’

  Inside the dimly lit tent, a large pot boiled away over an open fire. Although most of the smoke escaped through the top of the tent, the air was thick, humid and smelly. Alphege glanced over at Rufaro, whose face was shiny with sweat. They were running out of time.

  Slowly, very quietly and without any-body noticing, the small unicycle wheeled itself closer and closer to the door of the tent, and then rolled out into the market and back towards the forest.

  ‘Come on . . .’ pleaded Rufaro. ‘You can’t still be hungry!’

  Perhaps there’s room for one more treat?’ the troll said, staring at Alphege. ‘I’ve been thinking. It’s a long time since we made this deal, and the price has gone up. If you really want to hear what I have to say, it’ll cost you more monkey!’

  ‘More money?’ replied Rufaro, shaking his head. ‘That’s not what we agreed.’

  ‘Not money . . .’ sneered the troll, looking over at Alphege. ‘Monkey!’

  ‘Nope,’ replied Rufaro. ‘No way – never going to happen.’

  ‘Well, I suppose you don’t really want to know who cursed you, then?’ said the troll.

  ‘Surely there’s got to be something else?’ said Rufaro.

  ‘Show me the monkey!’ The troll cackled, laughing so hard that he started to cough uncontrollably.

  Alphege took the chance to scamper over to Rufaro and tap him on the leg. He winked, nodded and stuck his thumbs up.

  Rufaro looked puzzled. He pointed at the troll and mimed someone eating a monkey, but Alphege nodded again and tapped at his head: he had an idea.

  ‘OK then,’ Rufaro said out loud to the troll. ‘You can have the monkey. But you can’t eat it until after you give me the information I want.’ He pushed Alphege over to the troll and said, ‘Tell me what I came here for. Right now!’

  ‘Fair enough,’ said the troll with a shrug. ‘A deal’s a deal.’

  ‘Now listen up, troops!’ barked Rapunzel. ‘Here’s the drill!’ She was marching up and down with
her hands clasped behind her back, a look of fierce determination on her face. As soon as Cole had burst through the trees and explained the situation with the troll (which he claimed was all Rapunzel’s fault), Rapunzel had leaped into action.

  ‘We’ve got two good men in there,’ she continued, ‘and they need an evac – pronto!’

  Dr Newton slowly raised one huge hairy hand into the air, but Ella leaned in and whispered, ‘It’s army talk. It basically means we need to get them out – soon!’

  Dr Newton smiled gratefully and put her hand down.

  ‘We get this right,’ continued Rapunzel, ‘and we’re all on our way back to base for some shut-eye. We get this wrong, and it’s nighty-night, sleep tight . . . forever!’

  Professor Hendricks started to raise his arm but Ella kindly explained, ‘What she means is that we can’t mess this up, or we’ll all die. OK?’

  Professor Hendricks nodded, but didn’t look particularly reassured.

  Rapunzel grinned a rather terrifying grin and added, ‘OK! Let’s bring our boys home!’

  Back inside the tent, Rufaro was staring at the troll in front of him, with his mouth wide open in shock. ‘Did you just say “Hurrilan”?’ he asked eventually.

  ‘Yep,’ replied the troll. ‘It was him, all right. I heard from one of his followers that he’d cursed some humans to look like trolls. I remember being surprised. I mean, who wouldn’t want to look like a troll? Anyway, Hurrilan is a troll warlock who’s been gathering a lot of support in the North. You see, he’s got a mix of all the different kinds of troll magic: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. It means he has the power to cast really strong spells – and to unite the different troll clans. And that’s just the start of it!’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Rufaro.

  The troll sniggered. ‘That’s not part of the deal. Another monkey might loosen my tongue?’

  Rufaro peered out through the gap in the tent at the darkening sky.

  ‘No time . . .’ he muttered to himself. ‘I’ve got to go.’

  Rapunzel’s plan had sounded OK at first – although Ella had been surprised to hear that they were going to pretend to be goats. Especially as Rapunzel had complained so much about even being near Rufaro’s animal furs in the first place . . .

  Once she and Ella were disguised in the skins, they would sneak into the market and create a diversion. Then, in all the chaos, they’d find Rufaro and Alphege. Finally, Professor Hendricks and the apes would charge in with the carriage to get them out of there, and they’d all live happily ever after.

  Now that she was clinging desperately to the bottom of a cart that was rolling into the market, Ella decided it was an awful plan. Still, it was too late for regrets now.

  After what seemed like forever, the cart stopped and Ella dropped heavily to the ground, rubbing her aching arms. Rapunzel had tied herself in place with her hair and smiled at Ella as the knots magically untied themselves and she slid gently down.

  ‘I told you it would work,’ Rapunzel whispered with a grin. ‘Now for the fun part!’

  ‘Not staying for food?’ asked the troll, grabbing Alphege in one huge hand and striding over to the cooking pot. Rufaro watched helplessly. He had to do something . . . but what?

  The troll held Alphege just above the pot and grinned as he lowered the small green monkey towards the bubbling oil.

  A blinding flash of green light filled the tent. Instead of a small monkey being held over the pot, there was now a boy with green hair and a long curling tail! The boy kicked his legs out and knocked the pot over, splashing oil all over the floor.

  ‘Come on, let’s go!’ yelled the boy, as the troll slipped over in the oil and rolled around, trying and failing to heave himself up.

  ‘Alphege?’ spluttered Rufaro ‘But . . . how?’

  ‘Later!’ replied the boy. ‘Come on!’

  ‘What about Cole?’ cried Rufaro, looking frantically for the small blue unicycle. ‘He was here a minute ago!’

  ‘I’m pretty sure he went to tell the others we’re in trouble,’ said Alphege, ‘because we definitely are!’ He darted out of the tent, followed by a very confused Rufaro.

  It hadn’t taken Ella and Rapunzel long to realize that creating a distraction at a troll market wasn’t going to be easy – at least, not without getting discovered. They were already attracting quite a lot of attention in their goat disguises, especially when Rapunzel forgot to walk on all fours. Then Ella had spotted the goat pens – hundreds, possibly thousands of goats were crammed in there, bleating occasionally.

  ‘That looks like a better distraction than getting me to jump on a table and tap-dance,’ muttered Ella, glaring at Rapunzel.

  ‘What?’ protested Rapunzel. ‘I never said it was my best idea, just that it was an idea.’

  ‘And you couldn’t have done the tap-dancing?’

  ‘I can’t tap-dance.’

  ‘That’s NOT the point!’

  ‘Oh, come on!’ said Rapunzel. ‘Stop wasting time! We’re on a mission, remember?’

  Rapunzel and Ella quickly opened all the goat pens, and then darted for cover. Seconds later, thousands of goats were leaping, bucking and kicking their way to freedom. They burst through tents, pulling out guy ropes and knocking over tables. Soon the entire market was in complete chaos.

  As soon as Rufaro set foot outside the tent, he felt a familiar tingling. ‘Not yet!’ he groaned. He ran as fast as he could, grimacing as he looked up at the moon in the darkening sky. ‘Too . . . late!’ he muttered as, with a surge of magical energy, he turned back into a human.

  For a moment the trolls stood staring at Alphege and Rufaro as they ran through the crowd, then a few voices began to yell: ‘Humans!’ It wasn’t long before all Rufaro could hear was a deafening angry roar as trolls approached from all sides.

  ‘You know what?’ whispered Alphege as he and Rufaro ground to a halt, trapped by a circle of trolls. ‘I think I might be a teeny bit scared . . .’

  ‘Finding Rufaro in this is going to be impossible!’ hissed Rapunzel from her hiding place behind one of the tents. One goat was chewing her plait, while another stood next to her, casually dropping little brown pellets of goat poo. ‘There are goats literally everywhere!’

  ‘I know!’ whispered Ella, who was crouched next to her. ‘And trolls!’

  A confused yell rang out from across the field and they turned to see a giant blue rabbit in a top hat crashing through the tents, throwing rainbows, cartoon lightning bolts and pink clouds in all directions.

  ‘It’s Cole!’ shouted Ella. ‘It has to be!’

  From behind the rabbit appeared Alphege’s carriage, being pulled by the gorillas. Cole was in the driving seat, whipping his hands around as he cast any spell that popped into his head.

  ‘Cole!’ shouted Ella, leaping out from her hiding place. ‘Over here!’

  The rabbit and the carriage swerved towards them, scattering trolls and goats in its wake. ‘You look like you could do with a hand,’ said Cole as the carriage screeched to a halt.

  ‘We couldn’t find Rufaro and Alphege!’ gasped Ella as the girls scrambled in.

  ‘Don’t worry – the gorillas are on it!’ yelled Cole, casting a new spell which made glowing purple rain fall upward out of the ground. The carriage swung around and moments later Ella could see Rufaro’s relieved face as they sped closer. But the carriage wasn’t slowing down. In fact it was speeding up.

  Trolls, goats and tents shot past in a blur. Suddenly the carriage was thrown to one side as Rufaro leaped on board, landing half in and half out of the doorway. ‘Thanks for the lift!’ he said as he heaved himself in.

  ‘Where’s Alphege?’ yelled Rapunzel. ‘Is he OK?’

  ‘Oh, I’m fine!’ came Alphege’s voice from on top of the carriage, his green tail dangling through the window. ‘Takes more than a crowd of angry trolls to scare me!’

  The gorillas increased their speed as the carriage burst through a fence, scattering the last few goa
ts, and they didn’t slow down until they were safely back in the forest.

  A few hours later they were sitting around a crackling campfire, eating a hearty dinner of tinned pasta shapes. All apart from Cole, who had flitted back to the Fairy Folk Forest to attend to some very important business. His brother, Zak, had been interviewed in Fairy Dreamboat magazine, where he was quoted as saying:

  ‘Everything about being me is just totally amazing! Apart from my younger brother – he is soooo annoying!’

  Cole had, of course, blamed Zak’s words on Rapunzel, before vanishing with a magic marker and a plan to draw a moustache on every copy of the magazine that featured his brother’s silly, smug face.

  Alphege leaned back against a tree trunk, basking in the warm glow of the fire as he scooped up a massive spoonful of pasta shapes.

  ‘I thought you didn’t like spaghetti hoops?’ said Ella.

  ‘Can’t stand them!’ replied Alphege. ‘But spaghetti hoops and pasta shapes are completely different!’

  Professor Hendricks rolled his eyes.

  ‘So, is your curse lifted now?’ interrupted Rapunzel. ‘I mean, you’re not a monkey any more?’

  Alphege shook his head. ‘Here’s the deal,’ he said. ‘Basically I get to look human for one day every week.’

  Rapunzel glanced at the curly green tail that poked out from underneath his top.

  ‘Almost human,’ he added with a grin. ‘I can change back and forth as often as I like . . . so long as I’m not a boy for more than twenty-four hours every seven days.’ There was a green flash, and the small green monkey was sitting there. A moment later, Alphege turned back into a boy. It was all rather confusing.