Lark's End Read online

  Missy looked down at her chocolaty paws. “I don’t understand, my dear, you are home.” The cat turned to Jerry, “Why doesn’t the princess know this is her home? Doesn’t she remember? I thought she remembered me!”

  Tahmi tried to swallow but there was a big lump in her throat. Was the cat going to cry? How’d Missy expect her to remember anything? She turned and stared at Jerry. He offered her his hand. She took it, letting him pull her up.

  He held back his grin. She had confetti stuck to her bottom.

  “I wanna go home.” Tahmi’s lip trembled. Jerry placed his hand on her shoulder.

  “You’ll go home soon.” He promised. “Don’t ask questions till you see my Uncle. He’ll be able to tell you anything you want to know. He knows everything.”

  Tahmi nodded; sounded reasonable enough. The sailor was the one who brought her to this strange world. He ought to have all the answers.

  “Missy, we need to take Tahmi to the Queen.”

  The cat shook her head. “Nope!”

  “Why not?” Andy questioned, “Is she mean?”

  No one answered him.

  “I’m taking her to Mr. Owl. I wanna make him jealous.” Missy tugged on Tahmi’s arm. “C’mon, Princess!”

  “I’m not a Princess,” Tahmi said. “I come from Florida, okay and live in a place called Earth.”

  “What’s that noise?” Andy asked. He cocked his head. It sounded like a fiddle playing in the distance.

  “Follow me.” Missy called over her shoulder. She raced ahead through the confetti field making it fly all around her. She disappeared inside a thick wood of pine trees.

  Tahmi and Andy stood just outside; hesitant.

  “What are you afraid of?” Jerry smirked. “Pine needles?”

  They took a deep breath and peeked in between the trees.

  COUNTRY TOWN

  Before their eyes, a crowd of loonies with yellow faces, flannel shirts and hammer hands danced on a round wooden floor located in the middle of a bunch of tall pine trees. Two had pliers for hands and one actually appeared to have a drill for one hand and a Flathead screwdriver for the other.

  “Welcome to Country Town.” Jerry raised his hands. “The Home of Mr. Owl and the Worker Loonies.”

  Tahmi bit her lip. When Jerry smiled he had this little dimple in his left cheek.

  “Oh, goodie! Let’s dance!” Missy grabbed a hold of Andy and twirled him around. She slapped her knees and dunked him.

  “Hey, stop that, you crazy cat,” Andy bellyached. He resisted but the cat wrapped her paws around his waist and hopped around the dance floor.

  “Yippee!” She hollered. “Swing your partner round and round then toss him to the ground!” Missy hurled Andy across the room. He slid on his jeans and went head first into a speaker. The others tumbled down on top of him. The music stopped and all the loonies looked.

  A dark shadow crept up, looming over Andy’s body. What in the world was it?

  “Why, I oughta eat whoever ruined my party!” The angry shadow screeched.

  Andy tried to push the speaker off his body. It was heavy and made out of wood, not cheap Formica like the ones back home, but thick cedar.

  A short Owl in trousers jumped off the stage. The owl grabbed Andy by the collar. “What’s the meaning of this, you ignorant fool?”

  “I—”

  The owl held Andy up so their faces were parallel. Andy’s feet dangled half a foot off the ground. “The next time you slide into the speakers knock ‘em all down! You left one standing!”

  He dropped Andy who fell into a ball on the dance floor. The owl hopped back on the stage and whooped, “Yeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaw!”

  Tahmi ran over, skidding in her socks. (She’d lost her shoes on the bridge. They’d fallen into the grayness below.)

  “Are you all right?” She asked.

  Andy’s face was beet red. “I thought he was going to eat me.”

  Jerry and Missy laughed.

  “Oh, baby doll, that freak doesn’t even have any teeth. He’s so old he has to mash up his food,” Missy explained.

  “Tahmi, this is a really weird place,” Andy said.

  She nodded her head. “We need to get out of here.”

  “And fast.”

  “Hey, bird brain! You lose your eyes or what?” Missy shouted at the Owl. “Look who I found.”

  The owl’s head turned nearly all the way around. It sent shivers down Tahmi’s back. His eyes met hers. They danced and sparkled. It was as if fireworks were going off inside his brain.

  “Hey, Tahmi!” He yelled. His wing waved at her and she couldn’t help but grin.

  Something deep inside her hinted that maybe she and the owl had history together.

  The owl pointed his wing. “Go to the Palace, kiddo.”

  Tahmi nodded. She’d do whatever he said. Why?

  “C’mon, the purple path is over here.” Jerry pointed.

  They headed down the path together. Tahmi noticed something interesting. The longer she was in Gadaie or whatever it was—this place—the less she remembered about her real life. Is that what happened to the cat? Was she once a human too just like Trusty? Did she remember anything about her past?

  “Oh! Butterflies!” Missy chased one through the confetti field. She disappeared, answering Tahmi’s thoughts.

  “One down.” Jerry smiled.

  Tahmi grinned. He made things easier somehow.

  “That’s one down,” Andy mimicked, rolling his eyes. Jerry glared at the back of his head.

  “You’re very annoying,” he told Andy. “I hope Queen Maryanne throws you in the dungeon.”

  Jerry looped his arm with Tahmi’s. This made her heart palpitate.

  “In the dungeon?” Andy stammered. “What is she mean or something?”

  “Oh, man. You just don’t know what that woman can do,” he continued, “But you will in about thirty seconds.”

  “Wait!” A loonie with a purple head and rotating, mechanical shoulders shouted. “Princess Tahmelia!” His feet were roller skates and they thumped across the cookie bridge. “Maya made me promise!”

  “Maya?” Tahmi scrunched her nose. “My mom’s kid sister? She’s been missing since before I was born.”

  The loonie skidded to a stop on the purple path. Purple shavings fluttered in the air around him. “My name’s Louie. I’m Queen Maryanne’s right-hand servant.”

  “Where’s Maya?”

  “Trapped here,” Louie grabbed Tahmi by the arm and tossed her onto his back. “I have something for Donna! You must take it to her!”

  “What’s it with this place? I can walk, Louie, put me down.”

  “Can’t do that!” Louie’s skates sped down the purple path, taking her further and further from the Silver Castle—her destination, “Must get back to Donna. Maya is trapped; needs your help.”

  “Wait!” Jerry screamed, racing behind them. Andy’s face, flushed, jogged even further behind, nearly invisible to her.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To my house.” Louie’s skates sped along the purple path, passing Candy Lane and suddenly, with a sharp turn of his wheels, he skipped over a chocolaty pothole and landed on a paved road. A tall sign said “Loonyville”.

  Tall pencils stood alongside the road with green construction paper taped to the tips. “Looks like a funky tree.” Tahmi wanted to vomit. Louie jumped over overgrown roots from the pencil trees that cracked the cement path. Round egg-shaped homes appeared.

  “Could I walk now? I’m gonna be sick.”

  Louie dropped Tahmi. A shrill scream came from underneath her. She jumped up and gasped. A long snakelike creature slithered away, disappearing inside a heart shaped lake. There was a pink waterfall that splashed into the water. She looked closely. The water really was tinted pink. It wasn’t just a mirage or algae like on Earth. “This is insane.”

  “Hurry Princess!” Louie skipped over stones that lay in a low tide stream of the pink water. “Before
the others catch up.”

  Large roots climbed high up to the sky almost like legs. Louie grabbed a branch and swung himself higher and higher. Sitting on top of the roots about a hundred feet, was a community of small wooden shacks. Tahmi spotted what looked to be a winding root stair case. She ran as fast as she could, her legs burning, to the top. Louie disappeared inside a run down, nearly sideways shack. Hundreds of loonies stood outside, eyes wide. “The princess is here in the servants’ tree,” someone whispered.

  “I’m just Tahmi; not this princess everyone keeps talking about.”

  “She’s demented, too; doesn’t remember who she is.”

  “I don’t have dementia, okay?!”

  “Yep, a little loony—she is.”

  “Princess!” Louie waved her inside. He sat in a circular nest. Was he a bird? The loonie creature didn’t have a beak or wings.

  “They think I’m crazy!”

  “Nonsense; they’re crazy. They have mental problems. This is loonyville remember? Here, this you must give back to Donna.”

  Tahmi blinked. A golden shaped locket fell into her hand. She opened the heart and burst into tears. A picture of her mom—real young with the missing Maya was inside. She knew this picture. It was enlarged and sat on the mantle above the fireplace ever since she could remember.

  “Where is she? I must find Maya and bring her home.”

  “Trapped; Mary has her forever—you can never have her back. She’s gone.”

  “You’re not helping!” Tahmi’s face burned. “How do I get her back home?”

  “Remember who you are.” Louie laughed, his voice skipping, “re-re-re-memmmm-buuuur!” The roller-skating animal grinned from ear to ear. “If—and that’s a big fat if—if—you remember then maybe you could save Maya. She’s gone to us all now; poor, poor soul.” Louie’s big, round eyes watered. “Maya loved Donna; cried for days—till she forgot.”

  “How is it you remember Maya?” Tahmi clasped the locket around her neck.

  “The mist doesn’t touch me. All the crazies remember; can’t help it. Wish I could forget.”

  “Tahmi!” Jerry wheezed, tumbling inside the little shack. “What were you thinking, Louie? I’ve got to get her to the Queen. Mr. Owl says that’s where she needs to go.”

  “Silly boy,” Louie shook his head, “I could’ve brought her there. I work with Queen Maryanne.”

  “You work with my mother?” Tahmi swallowed. “What’s she like?”

  Louie’s square, metallic face seemed soft somehow. Tahmi wasn’t sure how a robotic creature could seem like that. None of the others shared his compassionate appearance. “You must learn on your own.”

  “What is it with this place?” She stormed out of the tiny house, brushing past Jerry. “Let’s find Andy and get the heck out of here.”

  “Crazy girl is back!” Loonies bounced around her. Some very small childlike loonies with pogo sticks for feet encircled her while two with tires for feet zoomed around her. “Mr. Owl dropped her on the head—we thought she was dead. Mr. Owl dropped the baby now she’s gone craaa-zeeee!” Without thinking, Tahmi grabbed onto an extended branch and slid down a crevice in the overgrown roots. She slipped into pink water that gushed winding in a circle around the tree. Her bottom hit knotted roots and finally she tumbled into the pink stream, face first. Andy hung above her about five feet.

  “What are you doing up there?”

  He groaned, struggling. “I was trying to find you. Jerry ran so fast.”

  “There’s a stair case right there.” Tahmi pointed, splashing water at him. He lost his grip, slipped in the water and floated towards the heart shaped lake.

  Five merloonies stood on their multicolored fishtails and pointed spears at him. Andy backed up, screaming like a girl.

  Jerry tumbled down the water slide, knocking into Tahmi. “It’s okay! He doesn’t know the rules!”

  “Who is this intruder?” A yellow merloonie snapped, poking Andy in the shoe. “He isn’t from our world.”

  Tahmi narrowed her eyes. The fish had sparkling scales with long frilly fins similar to a beta fish back home. She used to have one—or so she thought. Did she? She shook her head. Her mind clouded so easily here. The merloonie’s black almond shaped eyes set on Tahmi. His face didn’t display a typical nose. There was a small lump where his nostrils should be but that was it. His mouth was small and pouty and his arms strong. His golden hair-fins stuck up like Andy’s.

  “Who are you?”

  “This is Princess Tahmelia,” Jerry said.

  The merloonies lowered their spears instantly. They bowed. Tahmi struggled to stand. “I don’t want you doing that.” She stammered. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Nerio,” answered the yellow merloonie. “This,” he pointed to a large red male with gray eyes and huge muscles, “this is Wiley and that is my twin sister, Neria.” He pointed to a female with long flowing golden hair. “We are King Aaron’s royal guard. These two here are his advisors.” Nerio pointed at a blue and white speckled female and a male with bright green fins. His hair, face and chest were white and his tail went from green to orange. “She’s Ren and he’s Quan.”

  Have you come to visit with him?” Ren, the blue and white speckled merloonie asked. Her eyes sparkled like the pink water and her hair was in thick green braids that hung down her back and floated around her in the water.

  “I can’t breathe under water,” Tahmi said. “There’s a king down there?”

  “Yes.” Ren frowned. “He’s been waiting a long time for you. Are you finally ready to fix what was broken?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Mary’s getting stronger. Our world is experiencing earth-shakes and weird noises. The villainess will escape soon and King Aaron shall be no more.”

  Tahmi turned away.

  “Princess?” The merloonie trembled. Her tail wrapped around Tahmi’s leg. She jumped back.

  “Stop that!”

  “Let us go.”

  “I can’t.”

  “But, you must.”

  “She has to see her mom,” Jerry said, jerking Tahmi away. The merloonies swam after them jumping high in the air.

  “Why doesn’t she care?” Neria cried, her yellow hair flowing behind her. “Do we mean nothing?”

  “That’s not—” Tahmi stopped, leaning over the water. “It’s just—”

  “She’s forgotten.” Quan determined. His purple eyes drooped. “We mustn’t tell the king. If we do, he’ll be crushed. He’ll feel as if his wife’s life was in vain. Merworld will become as sad as it is in Gadaie.”

  Tahmi glanced up at his green fins. They were dark and as he spoke, the color left them. She reached out and touched him. His eyes widened.

  “What did you do that for?”

  Tahmi shrugged, racing away as fast as she could.

  She closed her eyes as the merloonies squeals filled the air around her. Where in the world was she? And why did they all want her to save them?

  THE SILVER PALACE

  They stood in front of the castle. It was grandiose, and to Tahmi’s dismay, did not have a moat. But she did notice something else. The silver walls sparkled and there was a drawbridge.

  As if someone knew they were there—the drawbridge lowered clamoring down into the ground with a mechanical groan. Tahmi, Andy and Jerry stood inches away.

  “Here goes nothing,” Tahmi whispered.

  Jerry’s green eyes penetrated through her. She didn’t understand why her heart beat when he looked at her. “You’ll be okay.”

  His words softened her fears. “Well, you’re our guide.”

  “Yeah, guide to our deaths in the dungeon,” Andy grumbled, grabbing hold of Tahmi’s shirt. “I don’t like that guy,” He whispered into her ear.

  Tahmi rolled her eyes.

  “C’mon.” Jerry guided them up a long, wide spiral staircase. At the top, two glass doors opened into a long corridor. Pictures of babies and portraits of what lo
oked to be different kings and queens hung on the walls. Some of the paintings were cracked. Had these been the ones in her dream? Were these the same paintings that fell in the strange earthquake?

  They turned the corner.

  Tahmi’s heart hammered inside her chest. There, right in front of her was a book case. A strange image flooded her mind.

  “Get it out of my head!” She screamed, doubling over. A memory invaded her brain, bringing her back to a past she didn’t want to remember.

  ***

  Missy, a tall, human size Persian cat in a pink polka dot apron held the hands of two girls in her paws. One was about ten years old and the other six years old. A toddler hung to her back like a monkey. “Why do you look like a cat now, huh Missy?” One child questioned. They ran down a corridor full of portraits belonging to old kings and queens.

  “Because Queen Mary of The Monsters is playing bad tricks on the humans,” Missy answered. She looked behind her nervously. “Teri?” One child was missing.

  The walls shook. Missy looked around. “Teri?” She called. “Where is that child?” She stood in front of a mahogany book shelf. Missy lifted a book and the shelf opened revealing a secret room. “Go inside, girls. You have to hide, he’s coming.”

  ***

  Jerry shook Tahmi as hard as he could. She kept muttering to herself, flailing her arms about. What in the world was going on inside her mind?

  Andy shoved him out of the way. “Tahmi, wake up!” He smacked her cheeks with both hands.

  Tahmi screamed, collapsing on the ground. She’d remembered something. Who took away the children? Who was this villain? Wasn’t Mary the bad guy? Did someone else turn Mary into a murdering monster? Who was this he?

  “That’s where Missy and the kids hid.” Tahmi pointed to the books. “In there.”

  “Are you okay?” Jerry ran his fingers through her hair. Her head was burning up—almost as if it were on fire.

  Andy narrowed his eyes. “Of course she’s fine.”

  Tahmi’s attention turned to an opened doorway. The solid silver doors were latched into the wall. She studied the great detail in the handles. The Crystal handles held rubies sporadically placed in circular patterns along the edges.