Nomi Nivag and the Kingdom of Poopoola

by Bruno Bernier

have been preying on our fair land for some time,” continued the King.

  “Uh, maybe. I am not sure,” replied Nomi.

  “We need to bring you to our kingdom in order to be able to talk to us. My scientific advisor, QuintoGweeto will take care of the problem at hand,” said the king.

  The front vehicle left and disappeared from view and another vehicle buzzed its way in front of Nomi.

  The scientist looked at the situation from the deck of the strange vehicle.

  “We have to bring you down to size. It should not be too complicated,” said the weird-looking creature inside the vehicle on the loud speakerphone of his vehicle.

  “Shamoose, come here! Get me my oscillator transmodifier,” said the scientist.

  Shamoose disappeared and then came back a bit later, wheeling in a huge ray gun that was mounted on a tripod.

  “That will do,” said QuintoGweeto.

  He reached behind what seemed to be some sort of trigger on the ray gun and shot a strange ray at Nomi, who had barely time to say, “Wait!”

  Nomi fainted. She was out for several minutes and then she opened her eyes and there she was, on the bridge of the vehicle.

  “Where am I? What has happened to me?” she said, feeling a haze all around her.

  QuintoGweeto started to speak to the poor disoriented girl.

  “I have shrunk you and your companion to the proper size to go talk to the King. He has left and he is on his way to the castle to prepare a battle plan that you will be part of in order to fight the Dragon Crows,” said QuintoGweeto.

  Nomi looked around her. She could see all kinds of characters dressed in strange attires and uniforms. Most of them were wearing soldier uniforms like those worn by the wooden soldier decorations in those Christmas tales or cartoons. They stood at attention with big huge lollipops in their hands.

  She got up as fast as she could and started to walk around but she was wobbling. Mister Chiffon also had the same faith served to him as he was sitting on her shoulder trying to hang on as best he could.

  “This is weird!” she said as she wobbled around.

  “Let us go to our King with haste. We do have to hurry to stop the invasion,” said QuintoGweeto.

  And so Nomi sat on a seat and waited as QuintoGweeto ordered to a pilot to set course for the capital and the Kings’ palace.

  They flew for a while. Nomi who was up to scale now and properly oriented to the city could see all of its beauty now. Details started to pop up for her. She could see the buildings, the people and other amazing things go by in front of her eyes. Things started to make more sense to her.

  They traveled for an hour and then were guided in a part of the city. There stood the Scarlett Castle. It was a huge building with many towers reaching for the sky. All the exterior of the castle was dark red. The ship landed in front of the castle on a landing pad. The group got out and they were escorted to the front door of the castle that was several hundred feet high.

  After crossing the doors, Nomi was asked to step on a platform that floated above the floor. The platform was operated by some sort of strange-looking creature that resembled a long neck dinosaur. He was dressed in a taxi cab driver outfit just like in the old movies Nomi loved to watch on her computer.

  The strange platform started to move forward. The strange group of people traveled for a bit taking many turns in the strange corridors of the palace.

  The walls were decorated with many paintings of all kinds. Scenery paintings, paintings of people that looked like royalty amongst other portraits.

  They finally got to another door that had a crown symbol above its frame.

  It opened and there was King Poopoola sitting on his throne, people whispering to him.

  “She has arrived Your Majesty,” said QuintoGweeto who had arrived a few minutes just before Nomi.

  The King was sitting there. A strange looking fellow.

  He had the form of a man, but instead of a humanoid head Nomi could see that the king had a big round fishbowl in its place. He was dressed in some sort of royal garb that had intricate designs on the chest and legs. He wore dark-red leather boots that went way up his legs. He also wore velvet gloves and had had epaulettes of gold with a golden aiguillette going down and buttoning on his chest.

  In the fishbowl was a bullfrog dressed pretty much the same way as the figure he was on top of and sitting on a throne, holding a scepter in his hand like the bigger figure was.

  The bigger figure turned the fishbowl towards QuintoGweeto and the King in the fishbowl whispered to him.

  Then the figure turned its fishbowl head towards the young girl who was looking at the strange sight.

  “Don’t be afraid of me child,” said the figure.

  “I am King Poopoola, master of this Kingdom,” he continued.

  “Nice to meet you king Poopoola, but this is all strange to me,” replied Nomi.

  “Why am I here?” she continued.

  “You are here because we need you to vanquish the Dragon Crows for us young miss,” replied the king.

  “I don’t understand?” replied Nomi.

  “Let me explain,” said the king.

  “The Dragon Crows are wild beasts that have started to attack our Kingdom recently. They destroy everything in their paths when they come,” continued the King.

  “Why do you need me to help you? I don’t know anything about these creatures. I can’t do anything to help you,” said Nomi.

  “Rest assured my child that you can do something about all of this,” said the King.

  “We have fought these creatures to a standstill, but our fighting resources are depleted. These vile creatures attack us for our supplies of jelly beans. We have asked Lord Zarara to help us in our fight against these creatures and he said he would seek out your help,” continued the King.

  “Who is this lord Zarara that everyone is talking about?” asked Nomi.

  “Lord Zarara is the supreme Lord of this universe. He oversees everything and runs most of everything. Ultimately, we all answer to him in one way or another,” said the King.

  “Then why did he not get rid of those creatures for you then?” said Nomi.

  “Lord Zarara does not interfere with these sorts of things. He created this universe and appointed people to run the two hundred and fifty kingdoms. Lord Zarara has told us that we must learn to deal with our own issues, but he also said that he would help us if dire need be,” said the King.

  “That’s understandable,” said Nomi.

  “We are at the end of the rope. We can’t fight any more. We need your help in this grave matter. Every living thing in the Kingdom depends on you to save them,” said the King.

  “What am I to do?” Nomi replied.

  “You have great powers within you. You can conjure things up,” continued the King.

  “You mean like making things out of nothing?” asked Nomi.

  “Yes, indeed. You can make things up as you see fit,” said the King.

  “I can’t do that,” replied Nomi.

  “Sure you do. Maybe not now, but you can. Trust me on that,” replied the King.

  Nomi turned to Mister Chiffon in disbelief.

  “This is very weird,” she said to the little turtle.

  “Yes, it is, but he is speaking the truth,” replied the turtle.

  “You have been given a power for this adventure. A specific power that you can use as you see fit. You can make things appear. They could be good things or really bad things. It all depends on you and how you want to use your power,” continued Mister Chiffon.

  “This is really unbelievable,” Nomi said.

  King Poopoola bent over a bit.

  “Dear child, millions of people are counting on you for help. Please don’t abandon us. Lord Zarara has sent you to us in hopes of resolving this war peacefully. I am sure you can find a way to save us,” said the King.

  Elsewhere, in another Kingdom that was close to Poopoola.

  It was a dark
night with a full moon. A strange-looking creature landed on a platform near a very old and derelict castle. It resembled a crow and walked down a path that went into the building. The creature went up to some stairs and arrived in a large room. There, at a long table was sitting a bunch of his kin.

  “What is your report Flamboo?” said one of the Dragon Crows who apparently was the leader of the group.

  “The King of Poopoola has received some help from what we can gather from our spies,” said Flamboo.

  “Really?” asked the Dragon-Crow leader.

  “Yes, my lord,” Flamboo replied.

  “A girl child from some sort of parallel world has arrived. The King as sought her help in order to defeat us,” continued the dark crow.

  “And what kind of threat could she be to us?” asked the leader.

  “She will not stand a chance. She is nothing that we can’t easily handle my lord,” replied Flamboo.

  “Then their jelly beans will be ours. There is nothing they can do to stop us. King Poopoola will lose his stockpile of jelly beans. It shall be ours and we will make them our slaves,” said the leader who looked at the crowd gathered around the table.

  “We shall plunder Poopoola until every piece of jelly beans is ours!”

  The crows around the table started to laugh and started to eat in bowls full of the precious jelly beans.

  The leader gestured to a mouse close by.

  “Bring me some more of those jelly beans. I need more. They are so good!” said the leader.

  The mouse brought a kettle full of it and poured the candy in the bowl of the Dragon Crows who let out a mad laugh and burped fire just in front of the mouse who barely escaped the fiery bowel movement.

  “They won’t know what hit them. We will attack