Today´s chapter is even more silly than usual - so if you like your stories to have a firm base in reality you should probably ... No! If you liked your stories to be based on reality you wouldn´t be reading my stuff, would you now -o* ?
... we better get started, I think *O*
Welcome back by the way *o* Today I haven´t got any food for you, my friends - we are to visit the market place on Avalon and there will be all kind of food to buy every where. And I´ll of course pay for anything you eat *O*
So please come along through this shimmering magical portal over here at the living room door and ... Johnny - could you be a sweet sweetie and come here with the little one? Good *o*
All set ... Here we go !!!
Tussy landed her space truck at the edge of the market. And we waved happily goodbye to her after she had thanked us both for our ideas about how to solve her problems.
Maybe you are thinking that she could have flown us all the way home. But she was on a rather tight schedule flying around with different kind of merchandise. After she had delivered what I've already mentioned she was suppose to fly fairy-dust, magic wands and other interesting thing to the magic school at Hogwarts and after that dried snakeskin and canned peaches - there must a wizard with a sweet tooth or two there - to the tower at Wayrath. So she was a rather busy space truck driver.
But I was not worried. I know a lot a people who either live on Avalon or comes back to visit rather frequently so I was sure we could find a friend or a friend´s friend to help us.
Unfortunately we could not very well approach queen Titania. She´s still mad at me because ..... You see - the little Indian boy Bill Shake - erm - the famous playwright William Shakespeare mentioned said fairy queen was so keen on keeping in a Midsummer Night´s Dream was actually not a little boy, but a gorgeous nineteen year old.
Hence Oberon´s jealousy, I guess.
And since Titania still have a penchants for young brown-eyed beauties of the male kind she more or less demanded at a party the fairies held in a wood near Athens last summer that I should hand Johnny over ... I only had to look once of those big scared eyes of his and I flat out denied to do so. Which she of course did not like to hear since fairy law says the woman decides in that kind of matter. But Johnny was happy *o*
He later said that he didn´t much like the idea of being the queen´s toy-boy. And not only because of the jealous Oberon ... She would probably not take no for an answer, he shuddered. And then smiled "You do, Meeps. You pout and try to persuade me to give in. But if you are convinced I mean it you do accept it"
... he does say the sweetest things at times *O*
Although - come to think of it - I am not nearly as good at pouting and persuading as my sweet cutie is himself when I say "Nope, sweetie" -o*
A shame really that we couldn´t ask Titania for help ... Since the bookwormhole from A Midsummer Night´s Dream and out into all the editions of the play is in the queen´s palace. So we could have just gone through that and right home through my edition of Shakespeare´s Collected Works on the book shelf in my living room.
Or rather I could have ...
Titania would probably have demand Johnny in toll and I didn´t feel up to discussing once more with Her Majesty why I wouldn´t just give her Johnny and then go out and find myself another boyfriend. Fairies doesn´t believe much in fidelity like we humans profess to do ... Especially not spoiled fairy queens *o*
So Yasmina, Johnny and I strolled leisurely along beneath the huge trees looking for other familiar faces.
The trees are so huge that some of them have houses for pixies and fairies and other small people between their branches. It was beginning to get dark and there were torches and oil lamps shining everywhere. And the place was teeming with people - that is, there were humans, pussilainiousses, trolls, kender, the odd banshee, water-spirits, dragons in different sizes, a very elegant vampire, two Chinese fox spirits and a half grown T. Rex with glasses.
Then the Headless Horseman hailed us. He of course has his head now a days so perhaps I should call him the Headed Horseman ... Tshee-hee *O* But he told us that Daredevil has left him for good to "find himself" So the "Headless" is riding a fearsome black mare called Butterfly.
... yes, I know it is a silly name for a warhorse. But her mother insisted she should be named that -o*
Johnny and I promised to tell Daredevil that his former rider said hello. And went on our way.
Passing a McDonald´s restaurant Johnny took a hold of my arm and drag me fast forward saying "Hurry! Before Thor sees us!!" The Norse thunder god were feeding his goat with the meet from the hamburgers outside the fast food place. And since same goats have been know to bite Johnny didn´t want to go near them.
Instead we went across the street to listen to two pixies and a wood troll - a medium sized troll with green hair -o* - singing old tunes in the most delightful way. They were just working themselves though Beach Boys´ "Barbra Ann" And Johnny and I hugged each other and smiled at our little djinn dancing around in front of us. "Rocking and reeling" like the best of them *O*
After the song we walked further down the street. Johnny had been absently fiddling with a small stick ever since we enter the market. And now he threw it about five yards ahead of him. Suddenly a noble looking gentleman in a black leather jacket and jeans got down on all four and went yapping after it. A moment later he straightened up without fetching the stick. Sending us an embarrassed smile before going into a nightclub.
"Well, that´s one way to detect a werewolf" Johnny said looking rather amazed. And then we both laughed out loud. You should have seen the man´s face when he realized what he had just done *O*
A adolescent green dragon came over and started to bully the younger and smaller T. Rex. Trying to hit the glasses off the dinosaur´s head.
Johnny mumbled something about stopping that before a fight started. Though neither of the "kids" were fully grown they were big enough to smash several stalls if they started really moving around.
But just as Johnny was about to move over and do something a short, fat woman came up beside the T. Rex and said firmly "Come along, Cedric - tea´s ready. And you better go home, Randolph" she added to the green bully "Your grandmother wants you. Something about you not having done your homework"
So everybody left. And peace once more reigned supreme on the busy marketplace.
"Do you know what that was all about?" Johnny asked me pointing after Cedric and the smallish woman. And I explained what I had heard about this witch named Penelope Trollope who had adopted the dinosaur.
The T. Rex´s real mother got killed by a mud slide before he was even hatched. So the witch took the T. Rex-egg home and kept it warm in a bath tub filled with sand. And since she was the first living being Cedric - the young T. Rex - had seen when being hatched the little critter firmly believed she was his mother. How that would work out later when he was fully grown was anybody´s guess ... I guess -o*
Johnny smiled a bit at that explanation. He would have done the same thing.
Then he made a face because a banshee was abusing an aria from the opera Aida. Hitting all the high notes just a little bit off. We hurried past her and next up hear a argument go on in front of us. A fashion conscious female ghost were arguing over the price of a beautiful green silk sheet.
She wouldn´t risk being caught dead it seemed in the paper clothes the undertaker had given her to wear because her own clothes got ruined in the accident that killed her. But since people don´t get money with them in the grave any more she offered to pay the vendor in kind. "With what" he scoffed. Then added hopefully "Would you consider haunting my mother-in-laws´ house?" The ghost started to accept but Johnny quietly gave the man our last money and the elated ghost her sheet.
After she had thanked Johnny profusely and we had moved on I asked smilingly "Can my sweet sweetie tell me what we are going to use for money now? We might not find our way home tonight and Yasmina could use a real bed to sleep in. I am so tired myself that my back has send in its divorce papers and my legs their three months notice - it has been a long day, my sweet ... And you look like you could use not having to carry the child for a while ... Here - let me take her a bit" BR>And so I did.
Johnny thought for a moment - then sighed "I saw the sign of a pawn-shop back there. I guess we could hawk one of my rings ... But which one? I can´t choose - which one would you pawn?" He held his hands up for my inspection. But then suddenly screamed something I couldn´t understand and just stood stared with open mouth on his long fingered beautiful hands.
"What - what is it, Baby?" I said slightly scared. Then had to comfort Yasmina because she had woken up and become frightened by Johnny exclamation. But suddenly the crazy man hugged us both crying and laughing at once.
"The ring is gone, Meepsie-kin!! That dragon-shaped ring Vivian tricked me into wearing is gone. She can´t force me do to her bidding again"
That was indeed wonderful news. But how could that be? One can not remove such a ring - it's the whole point that enchanted people can't just remove it themselves ...
Then Yasmina said sniffling "You want the little dragon back, Johnny? It´s so cute .... Can´t I keep it a bit longer and play it is my pet?" And there - in one grubby little hand (that girl needed a bath by that time) - was the ring in question??
No - "one" might not be able to remove such an enchanted ring - but djinns can do amazing things at times. Even when they don´t know what they are doing. Yasmina did not know what she had done right. Was just a very, very pleased little girl being hugged and kissed and petted and called all kind of sweet things by both her beloved Johnny and me.
"This is wonderful" Johnny finally sighed happily. "Couldn´t be better. Shouldn´t we pawn the enchanted ring, Meeps. Let Vivian and the princess pay for our lodgings?" he smiled mischievously.
I hesitated. That was surely tempting. But then I said, that I would rather have the ring out of circulation. Perhaps give it over to the wizard´s conclave in Wayrath and have them destroy the darn thing.
"Don´t we risk they´ll just keep it and use it" Johnny asked cynically.
And I nodded and said that was all too likely. But still - if we could bring it home with us we could then decided how to get rid of it in a leisurely fashion ...
"Beside" I said and kissed Johnny comforting "I promise you - as soon as I have my normal wand to do magic with and our Witch Gold Card to pay with we´ll come back here and get you your ring back. It will not have to be scared and alone out among strangers for long, baby"
And Johnny giggled a bit shyly and said "O.K. ... but it will probably be me who misses the ring most"
..... could we please leave the story there for to day, my dear friends? I am so hungry I could eat a horse!! Eh ... I mean - no ... Don´t cry, Gunpowder! I didn´t mean you - or ... I didn´t mean it, my good horsy, Please forgive me ...
Could we go and eat though, please? Then I´ll tell more tomorrow *o* ... if you can forgiven me for claiming I could eat one of Gunpowder´s relations, that is? I just meant, that I could eat a lot *O*
Come on, people !!!
There is both McDonald´s and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut we can go to - and also the locale pub The Cross Eyed Dragon *O* Ever been to that? They even serve absinth -o*
But I am STARVING - I´m out of here !!! ... come on, please *O*