As I had expected, Sapphire’s residence was much more glamorous than her brother Uno’s rock face home. From a distance it did not appear that large, but, as everything in this land, it was massive on arrival. There were two entrances each guarded by a woman soldier and, as in Ari’s home, a Bengal tiger that could be Apollo’s twins such was the size of them. Like Uno’s home, the castle-like residence backed on to a stone cliff which would be virtually impossible to penetrate if an enemy attacked.
Once inside you could see there was a woman’s touch around the place. Whereas in Ari’s home there were no women, Sapphire’s house was full of them. I had the feeling this was run along military lines so I presumed that there was more danger there than in Uno’s land.
Again, Sapphire was a big unicorn just like her brother; it followed the trend about everything being bigger than usual. But at least she was different with her minder she had a lioness called Aisha.
Aisha got up strolled over to me and gave a good sniff and then walked around me half frightening me to death, she gave me a good look and then gave me a sloppy kiss with her long rough tongue, much to the merriment of all who were watching and it didn’t do my complexion any good either. Wow, that’s a first though, kissed by a lion how wonderful and that’s another friend to add to all these beautiful people and animals.
As they say in the Bible “the land of milk and honey”, and that is not far wrong for this land, there was of course fish, mushrooms, berries, and apples but I think everyone was vegetarian. How the big cats survived without meat is a mystery, but everything is different in this world, so the saying “what you don’t know about you don’t miss”, comes into mind, and I had not got a clue how all this magic worked.
It was two days before Red returned and you could tell by his body language his visit with his parents went very well, he looked amazing his coat was like never before, I grinned as one does at the thought of Red having another boost of magic which would last another thousand years, and that he was brand new again, (I am silly I know but I love to dream because dreams are my life, and at the moment most of them are coming true).
On Red’s arrival you could tell he had itchy feet, and was raring to go on the next part of our journey, we would stop by here on the return trip, but now we would find out what lays ahead for our little army because that was what it was becoming. At Queen Sapphire’s insistence Princess Diana travelled with us, as she knew the land around her kingdom and would be a great help. The big cats set off at a great pace; I suppose as they had been lazing about for the last couple of days, they wanted to stretch their legs, but it was no problem to the horses and Kee. I had noticed Red had not bothered about using his magic skills while we had been there. Lets face it, we could have flown everywhere and seen everything in a twinkling of an eye, but this adventure was so much different, this was for both of us to enjoy, and therefore most things were done in a leisurely pace.
At all times I could feel the spectre of trouble rearing its ugly head, and I half wanted something to happen. After the excitement of our encounter with Zu, I suppose that was the nearest I had been to finishing my young life before its time, but what with a dragon blowing fire and Ari and Apollo countering with their own display of pyrotechnics I could not wait for the excitement to begin again.
My big mouth and me! There confronting us was the most evil of them all, the High Priest Minos. I did not think he looked that scary, just a tall man dressed in black clothes and a long cape, but I had heard so many tales about his wickedness. Straight away the cats formed a shield between me and Minos but you could see they were on edge by the way they were growling, and I could feel Red was rather put off by his presence, I presume we were in for trouble of some kind.
The conversation started off rather amicably Minos gave a slight grin and said, “Hello Red, long time no see, I see you have a little friend with you who is Victoria I presume?” Red moved around uneasily before answering, “That’s correct Minos, why all the niceties you are never like this unless you want something”.
“Correct Red I am looking for my little helper who has gone missing this is so unusual as he always returns so quickly as a rule, he is a flying giant bee with large pincers have you seen him?” Red nodded in his usual way “No sorry we have not seen it, but it must be wicked if he is anything to do with you, or have you changed since I have been away?”.
“Now try not to be silly Red, by the way who gave you that silly name? The last time I saw you it was Pandoer the name you were given at birth; oh and of course I still have my wicked ways whenever they are needed, if fact I need answers now or else my skills might not be very far away”.
Red answered quick as a flash “don’t start here Minos we have an army of talent at our disposal plus the necklace of Xavier for any protection we need, even your power is not enough to frighten us”. “Well that old fool is getting in my way again is he, I beg to differ Red my skills have always been greater than his, this is my land and don’t forget it”.
Just to show his power Minos pointed to a very large oak tree, and in the blink of an eye it disintegrated into a pile of timber, he roared with laughter. “Tell Xavier the power he is up against, and be very frightened all of you”. With that laughing he clicked his fingers and two terrifyingly wicked looking animals stood beside him. “These are my hounds Vicky, they would love to have you for dinner; but plenty of time for that, I can find you easily enough when they are hungry. He,He,He see you soon my dear my hounds are something to dream about while you sleep, if you dare close your eyes now, I think the best thing is to go back to your home while you can He, He, He”.
What a wicked piece of work this Minos was, as he walked away he said in the most frightening voice I have ever heard, “we will see you soon Victoria, pleasant dreams my dear, you may not have many more to come”. He glanced over his shoulder and his pupils of his eyes turned a deep orange, his wicked laugh could be heard echoing all around the immediate area.
I put my hands over my ears this was too much for me, I had been frightened before but nothing remotely as bad as this, tears started to form until one dropped onto my cheek, and I felt very babyish, and said, “Sorry Red, I will be alright its because I have never been threatened like that before”.
Red was fuming, he understood my dilemma; Minos had frightened bigger people than me in the past and I presume I would not be the last. Ari came over to me and said, “Come my child nothing will happen to you while we are around, he is all hot air he is just trying to scare you”.
I never answered but I can assure you I was scared to death, its all right Ari saying nice things, but with all our power put together we were going to struggle to contain the wicked Minos, and it looked like I was his number one target, why I don’t know but I guess like all bullies he picked on the weakest, plus he knew it would upset everyone as I was their guest, and he seemed to thrive on making people unhappy.
The rest of the day was completely spoiled by our confrontation with Minos, everyone was on their guard for further trouble, but of course Minos was clever, he would let us worry ourselves sick before he tried anything to upset us again.
That night we stopped by a beautiful small lake, we were in the open but it was better that way, we needed to see anything coming in our direction, what a shame Minos had spoilt our journey. Mind you Red said lets just forget it and deal with it if anything happens. Deep down he knew Minos was too clever not take anyone on who was as strong or nearly as strong as him, he would wait until we had split up, so while we were together we felt there was safety in numbers.
Throughout the night the howl of wolves or it might even have been Minos’s hounds trying to wind us up. Well if it was the hounds I had news for him, they had succeeded. It was so eerie at the dead of night I could just imagine the hound’s fangs sinking into my bare flesh, I just shuddered to think of it.
What a relief when dawn crept up over the horizon and a large orange sun popped its head up as though it was a giant balloon, I was still so tired Minos’s words had done the trick which of course he had hoped for; If I had slept for two hours it would be a miracle, at last I shut my eyes and managed another hour knowing my bodyguards were awake, and were ready to guard me at all costs.
That extra hour was a like a miracle to me, I felt so much better and when breakfast greeted me, for the time I was on top of the world, That is, for the first time since our brush with Minos, usually I am a happy soul but that was a little off putting.
It was such a pleasure starting out on the next leg of our adventure everyone seemed relaxed and I started to hum a tune, much to the disgust of Red who had told me before that I was tone deaf. What he knew about music I don’t know, he was supposed to be a horse, mind you he liked the sixties concert he went to as Jack in our adventure to the swinging sixties, so that makes him an expert I expect or so he thinks.
Just as everything seemed to be going nicely that dreaded drone was heard again, and sure enough one off those wicked looking bee things came into view, this time Ari used his brains and took no notice, Minos knew we were here so this was just testing us to see if we would destroy it, and then he would be nearly certain it was us, and it would give him the ideal excuse to start a war with us was the last thing on our minds. We may come out of it all right, but the element of doubt greatly outweighed what we would gain out of a confrontation with him.
The bee thing droned around for a couple of minutes then went off leaving us in peace again. No harm was done for now, but I expected that was not the last we would hear or see from Minos, his hounds and his gadgets of destruction.
Wherever Red was heading for it was certainly a long way. We had been journeying for over four days, and then it all became clear we were approaching the lands of the Dinosaur, which Red had spoken of.