A Toad Ride
The surge of Effluvians stopped just short of the three friends. They stared at the hairskins in silence when they realised they didn’t know what to do. Normally somebody would be barking orders at them telling them how to behave. A rumble of frightened whispers rippled through the mob.
“We mustful be heedawared” a purple salamander piped up, “his Kingliness has allever awarned us that hairskins can’t be trustified!” That was all it took for the citizens to become a gang of mindless hooligans. Their fear and hatred of hairskins was stronger than their disgust at a ruler who had deceived them.
“Yipyo!” shouted a one-eyed tortoise, “we must defendiate our kinglydom against the hairskins!”
“Yesly soly! King Maximus foralarmed us about the lieceitful hairskins. And look what they’ve done. They nearmost destructicated him,” someone hollered from the back.
“Yeah” said his mate, looking at him with the four eyes at the back of her head. “And I’m seemsurest King Maximus didn’t ameaned what he utterated about us.”
Old habits die hard, and the Effluvians were having difficulty believing that their king had lied to them, even if they had heard it with their own ears. Blind patriotism kills common sense, it seems.
“Think of a way out of this mess Ty!” Chilli cried as a few of the braver members of the crowd inched towards them. A small blue slug sniffed at Chilli’s sneakers.
“I’m thinking! I’m thinking!” Ty answered, trying to stop Oubaas from squashing the slug.
Then a squabble broke out amongst the crowd. A three-headed snail shoved a five-legged lizard out of his way; making a repulsive purple and green striped millipede climb over a frog to avoid getting crushed. The pushing and shoving turned into fists, feelers and feet flying in all directions. They wanted revenge for the loss of their king, and now they were taking it out on each other.
However, some Effluvians still wanted to get back at the children for destroying a monarch they thought they could believe in. “Clutch ahold of the hairskins!” croaked a gruff voice.
“Yeh! Let’s take them apiece!” yelled another.
“No! Kraaak! Lingerstay! Allow us gap-out!” a familiar voice shouted above the scuffle.
“We‘re half-friends with the hairskins!” shouted another.
“Oika! Allow us gap-out, you iditwits!”
It was Ty who first recognised the voices. “It looks like this isn’t our day to end up as swamp slime. Our two-headed toad friend is about to save us” he sighed with reflief.
The front ranks of the mob separated, and Murkslime and Wormrot squeezed their way through. The Effluvians watched in astonishment as one of their own started talking to the hairskins.
“Murkslime, Wormrot, our slimy old friends. Are we glad to see you! We didn’t think we’d ever see you again. You weren’t happy with us the last time we saw each other,” greeted Ty.
“Er, goodgreet hairskins. We’re... we’re embarrashamed how we beducted oneselves. Specialticular now that we’re knoware what King Maximus infactually is. And then we brainworked that you couldbe needful of unhinderance.” The spots on their belly glowed a pale pink. They were ashamed of themselves. Chilli felt sorry for the large creature. She patted its leg in sympathy.
“Eeewwww!” The crowd screwed their faces up in revulsion. The idea of being touched by a hairskin disgusted them. And they smelt bad! A bit like the air down in the stadirenium. A four-eyed bullfrog with a head far too big for his body sniffed the air near Chilli’s head.
“Braaak” he whispered to a friend, “the red-topped hairskin sniffbreath is polluminated. I’m fleescaping oncefore I’m pollusoiled. We may all get unwelled.” The bullfrog pushed his way back through the crowd towards the door.
“What’s evidenting?” asked someone.
“Largebrain Foureyes said that the hairskins are polluminated. We’re all going to be pollusoiled and be eradhilated.”
“Eradhilated? The hairskins are polluminating us and we’re going to be eradhilated? Let me gap-out!” The voice rose to a hysterical pitch.
“We’re all going to be eradhilated! Run! The hairskins are polluminated! Run!”
Shouts and screams of panic ensued as the crowd stampeded towards the exit. Anyone who fell was squashed underfoot. It was every Effluvian for himself. It didn’t take long before the last of the terrified Effluvians scampered out of the building screaming at the top of their voices.
“Krrrraak. We sorrywish for the perforactions of the companizens of Effluvia. They are ignorstupicated about hairskins. But we underforstand why you did not befaith King Maximus.” Murkslime shook his head slowly at the betrayal of his once-beloved king.
“Yes, indoodly. My sibalingading and I are regrethappy that we...”
“It’s okay” Chilli reassured them, “we’re safe, and Morbidius is gone.”
“We are greatly thrillighted by your sympassion,” the two heads answered together. “And now we fondamently want to unhinder you in some modement of gratitudiation. How can we unhinder you?”
Chilli and Ty looked at one another. The same thing was on both of their minds. “The Ivory Bow!” they exclaimed together.
“Whatbe the Ivory Bow?” asked Wormrot.
“We need the Ivory Bow to get rid of Morbi... uhm... King Maximus before he kills all of us. You, your friends, your family, everyone. You see...” Ty gave the toad a quick rundown as to why he and Chilli were in Effluvia.
“Where did you remainder the Ivory Bow?” asked Murkslime after Ty had finished his story.
“In the stadium,” answered Ty.
“Uhsy-ohsy. We have a hitchback” said Wormrot, with a worried expression on both their faces.
“What’s that?” asked Ty.
“The stadirenium is totalmently shutclosed after our National Exaltatation Day Festivalling eachall year. It’s unhopeworth to seekstrive to breech-in. Not even the miniest dronebug could squeeze in.”
“Now what do we do? We can’t get hold of the Bow... and we still don’t know where to find Morbidius’s heart” Chilli sighed, disappointed at the bad news. She plonked down on a bench, and put her head in her hands.
“We can’t give up now!” exclaimed a frustrated Ty. “Especially now that we’re so close.”
“Oh, oh, oh, we enplead you not to snovel” Murkslime pleaded with Chilli. “We just brainworked that we remindered onething that King Maximus oncely entold us. It may unhinder you. He was frettering that the Effluvia Power Station would be instormed by endangering killtroopers so he announciated that he was putting his sourcepower some elsewhere where no-onebody would enfound it.”
“Soooo, if his heart isn’t in the Power Station, where is it?” wondered Ty.
At this news, Chilli up perked and she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
“You can always trust an egotist to blab. They can’t help themselves. Secrets are only secret if you keep your mouth shut. Aren’t we lucky he’s a twit?” grinned Ty. “Murkslime, Wormrot, please tell us what the king said about the Pit and the Power.”
“The king, uhm... Morbidius did said that his powersource is bynear the Power Station.”
“So what we’re looking for must be close. But maybe we can find a clue in the Power Station,” Ty suggested.
“Starting with that” said Chilli, pointing at the bubbling Pit.
Chilli and Ty examined the mangle of sinewy pipes snaking their way out of the ground.
“See anything?” asked Chilli.
“Weellll... those black pipes over there are feeding sludge into the Pit. But that pipe over there leads out of the Pit” Ty observed, pointing at a thick red pipe.
“Do you know where that pipe leads to?” asked Ty, turning to Murkslime and Wormrot.
“We brainwork that that pipetube unfulls into Effluvia’s powerator,” they answered together.
“Powerator?” asked Ty, puzzled at the word.
“I think they mean Effluvia’s generator” said Chilli.
“That’s it! The generator! That must be the place! Think about it: Morbidius said that he’d given his heart to Effluvia. Literally. And that... that its energy comes from the Bottomless Pit of Despair. That’s why Morbidius was so weak when the liquid in the Pit was purified!”
“And that pipe” Chilli continued for him “leading from the Pit, feeds into Effluvia’s generator!”
BOOM!
A vibration shook the building, sending ripples across the Pit’s surface.
Skree-skree-skree! Oubaas shrieked, thinking it was a clap of thunder. Murkslime and Wormrot dived under a bench.
“Oh, oh, oh” they croaked together, “the finishment is bynear!” Their spots flashed bright red with alarm.
“What was that?” cried Chilli.
BOOM!
“Look what’s happening!” cried Ty. Pipes feeding the Pit started to shake and shudder as double the amount of sludge gushed out of them.
BOOM!
“The sound is happening at equal intervals. It started when the pipes started feeding more stuff into the Pit. What’s going on?” cried Ty.
BOOM!
“You know what? This sounds crazy. But it reminds me of a heartbeat!” Chilli reasoned.
BOOM!
“That’s exactly what it is” agreed Ty. “Morbidius’s heart must be becoming more powerful because more negative matter’s being fed into the Pit. Something must be happening on earth that’s increased the flow. Look how the red pipe leading from the Pit is sucking up more toxic fluid.” As he said that, the pipe swelled and its red paint cracked and flaked off.
“Vida must be getting weaker” said Chilli, “that’s why there’s more negativity on earth. We’ve got to destroy Morbidius’s heart before Vida dies.”
BOOM!
“And whatly else about Effluvia?” croaked Wormrot and Murkslime.
“Effluvia too, my toady friends! Everything will be destroyed! We have find a way to destroy the Morbidius’s heart,” said Ty.
“But how? We haven’t got the Ivory Bow. Besides, we don’t even know where Morbidius’s heart is,” Chilli reminded him.
“I don’t know how. But we’ve got to try. Even if it means using our bare hands. We’re going to be toast anyway.”
BOOM!
“Murkslime, Wormrot, tell us where the generator is” Ty demanded urgently.
“Oh-oh-oh, we’re all going to be destructicated!” they wailed.
“Pull yourselves together!” Ty demanded. “Where’s the generator?” he asked again.
BOOM!
“Oh-Oh-Oh!” they wailed again. “Who shall proshield us?”
“Hey!” Chilli shouted at them with irritation. “You don’t have a king to think for you anymore. We’re going to do this for ourselves, and you’re going to help us and yourselves. Now, where is that generator?”
BOOM!
“Uuuh... uuh, j... j... just followon the pipetube until you reach Black Ice Mountain. Our malajesty oncement besaid that noone body is permissioned to vistiment that place. So we brainwork that what you’re lookseeking for is... is underlow the mountain.”
“How far is Black Ice Mountain?” asked Chilli. Time was running out.
“It’s about sixty clockticks for hairskins to perambulate,” replied the two heads nodding at one another.
“That’ll take too long” reasoned Ty. “You guys will have to take us there. Wormrot, Murkslime, please kneel down so we can get on your back.”
BOOM!
“N... n... no. We... we’re muchly ascared” stammered the toadheads. Their spots started to glow a dingey yellow. One or two of the pustules on their belly began oozing as fear started leaking out of their body.
“Get over yourselves! Don’t always leave everything up to somebody else. Now, crouch down” ordered Chilli, peeved by the toad’s cowardice.
The two heads opened their mouths to argue, thought better of it and shut them again. The toad sank to its haunches.
“C’mon you two” Ty said to Chilli and Oubaas, “this taxi leaves in one minute.” He leapt onto the toad’s back and helped Chilli and Oubaas clamber up.
“This is going to be a bumpy ride, so we’d better hang on tight. Chilli, grab a neck and Oubaas and I will hold onto the other one. Okay, let’s hit the road!” Ty ordered the toad. Reluctantly, the toad waddled out into the Effluvian countryside.
Chilli and Ty were closer than they had ever been to completing their mission. But without the Ivory Bow, they had no real hope of getting rid of Morbidius.
It was no wonder that, the closer they got to Black Ice Mountain, the more they wished they were nowhere near Effluvia.