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Author’s Note: If you’ve read my short series, “Sibling Rivalry”,
then you may remember Taggert, the harried son of motel-keeper Madame Mavinnia.
Well, since I liked him so much, here is a story from his childhood….
Just on the outskirts of the main village center of Meridell
squatted a homely, two-story, run-down little inn. It wasn’t really much to
look at, and although the tourists seemed to like it for some strange reason,
the local buildings, much like the local people, appeared to keep their distance
and even to lean slightly away from it at times. In the center of the bottom
floor of this hotel was a large window made up of a patchwork of small, bright
and variously-colored stained glass panes, each with a single letter in it so
that when looked at all together (which was difficult on the eyes), it spelled
out the name of this infamous establishment: Madame Mavinnia’s Magical Meridell
Motel.
On this particular evening, as the last of the
sun’s rays were being pulled reluctantly down behind Meridell’s green hills
and the moon already hung large and low over the land, two young Ixi stood looking
at this glass tableaux. But Cor and Brim were not admiring the rainbow of colors
that the candlelight flickering behind the window threw onto the grass below,
nor were they pondering the oddity of such a very long name for such a very
small motel. Their minds were on one thing, and one thing only— mischief.
“Hey Brim,” Cor said, a sly grin spreading across
his crimson face as he scooped a pebble up from the ground with one hoof, “whaddaya
say we make that sign a little more accurate?”
Brim grinned back, excited just at the tone in
his friend’s voice that he knew meant some fun was soon to be had, but not quite
understanding. “Whatcha mean?” the yellow Ixi asked.
“Oh, I was just thinking we could take the ‘A-M-E’
out of Madame.” Cor raised an eyebrow. “Bet I can take the ‘A’ out with
one throw!”
Brim chuckled in understanding. “Heh, yeah, that’d
be good.” Then he smirked. “But I bet you my best Mortog you miss by a mile!”
“You’re on, Brim, get ready to hand over that
Mortog!” Cor flung his arm back, and then threw the pebble forward with all
his might. The tiny projectile whizzed through the air, missing the ‘A’ and
crashing through the ‘D’ instead. Brim giggled and pointed a taunting hoof at
his friend. Cor scowled. “At least I hit something— like to see you —“
He was cut short by a screech from the room above
the one that the pebble had just flown into. “Taggert! We be under siege, my
lad! Pull up the drawbridge, hide the maidens, prepare the weaponry…” As the
tirade continued, Cor and Brim scrambled behind some nearby bushes, desperate
not to be seen by old Madame Mavinnia.
“Yes, mother!” answered a tired, young voice.
Madame Mavinnia’s battle speech came to an abrupt
halt. “What was that?”
“I mean, uh— Yes, milady?”
“That’s better! Now, guard the battlements, find
the….”
The motel’s old wooden front door creaked open,
and a small green Ixi stepped slowly and quietly out into the evening shadows.
Ignoring his mother’s instructions, he had come to investigate the source of
the “siege” for himself. Closing the door in order to somewhat muffle his mother’s
continuing tirade, he stood under the awning and peered out into the night,
his small ears standing at attention. “Who’s out there?”
Cor and Brim had no intention of answering, but
apparently Brim’s nose had other ideas, for at that very moment, it let out
a loud, “Achoo!” Taggert’s eyes instantly swung over to the rustling bush, where
he caught a glimpse of red and yellow fur glancing out from between the leaves.
“Hey!” he cried, trotting over, “Cor, Brim, is that you?”
“Ugh, now look what you did, Sniffles!” Cor growled,
hitting Brim over the head with one hoof. “It’s Tagalong Taggert!”
Brim rubbed his head ruefully. “Don’t blame me!
I told you we shouldn’t have come here!”
“Like you had any better ideas, Boring-brain!”
“Well, anyone could have thought up something
better to do on Halloween night than knocking out a few silly window panes and
getting stuck with Tagalong!”
Much like the strange building that he lived
in, poor Taggert was not very popular with the other young pets of Meridell,
although, also like the building, he himself was not terribly conscious of this
fact. Most of the youth did their best to avoid him. He was, after all, Madame
Mavinnia’s son, and by virtue of that fact alone, undesirable company. But,
to make matters worse, the more that they tried to avoid him, the more that
he, lonely and isolated living with his batty mother, sought out their companionship.
And thus, he gained a reputation for being an annoyance on top of the son of
one of Meridell’s most notorious citizens.
Cor and Brim, conceding defeat, gave up on crouching
behind the bushes. With twin sighs, they stood to their full heights and watched
as Taggert, who was a bit smaller than either of them, ambled up. He was wearing
a ridiculous-looking shirt with a ruffled white collar. According to his mother,
this was supposed to make him look like an authentic Meridellian, but in fact,
no one in Meridell could recall such attire ever having been the fashion. Cor
snickered. “Nice outfit, Tagalong!”
“It’s Taggert,” the little ixi said back helpfully,
oblivious to the fact that it hadn’t been a mistake. He tugged at the funny
collar, removing it and tossing it sheepishly to the ground. “What’re you guys
doing?”
“What are we doing?” Cor said. “Don’t you know
it’s Halloween? We’re out doing… Halloween-ish stuff, of course!”
“Oh…. can I come?” Excitement at the idea of
being included in “Halloween-ish stuff” practically illuminated Taggert’s face.
“What?” Brim said with disgust. “No, you can’t
come, now get lo—”
“Hey now, wait a minute there, Brim. Don’t be
so rude to our little friend!” Cor suddenly interrupted him.
The red Ixi looked to Brim, whose jaw fell open
in confusion. Cor winked and whispered to him, “I think I’ve just thought of
a way for us to have some fun tonight, after all.” Understanding began to dawn
on Brim’s face, twisting itself finally into a wicked grin as he followed his
friend’s lead.
Cor turned back to Taggert with a forced friendly
smile. “Yeah, I bet ol’ Taggert here would be a great help! Come on, this way,
Tagg.” He put one hoof around Taggert’s shoulders and steered the younger Ixi
toward the edge of the forest that stood nearby.
Brim trotted after them. “Oh yeah, a great help…
er, what are we doing again, Cor?”
“Why, we’re looking for El ChupaIxi, of course!”
“Oh, right, El ChupaIxi.” Just behind Taggert’s
line of sight, Brim rubbed his hooves together with glee.
“E-el Chupa… Ixi?” Taggert asked uncertainly
as Cor practically shoved him into the forest, where the branches overhead seemed
to stretch and move just to block out the safe, comfortable light of the moon.
“What’s that?”
“You’ve never heard of El ChupaIxi?” Cor gasped
in mock disbelief as Taggert shook his head. “Well, he’s only the most horrible--"
"The most terrible--" Brim continued.
The most frightening monster in all of Meridell!"
Taggert’s eyes widened a little as they continued
walking. "W-why's that?"
"Well," Cor said, lowering his voice to a raspy
whisper, "it's because he... eats... IXIs!"
Taggert gasped. “Oh…” he said with a shudder,
beginning to drag his hooves a bit more as Cor continued pulling him through
the forest. “But… if El ChupaIxi’s sooo scary… why are you looking for him?”
Cor stopped in his tracks and turned on Taggert.
“Why!? Why not? What, are you scared?”
Taggert immediately gave the expected defensive
response. “No, no, I’m not scared! Really! Let’s go find him!”
“That’s the ticket! Now, we’ve just got to find
his cave….”
The trio trampled through the underbrush for
a while, Cor and Brim exchanging winks over Taggert’s head as he searched diligently
for El ChupaIxi’s cave. “Hey guys, look! Maybe that’s it over there.”
Both turned to look at where Taggert’s tiny hoof
was pointing. A cavern opened up in the side of a nearby rocky hill. “Ah, perfect!”
Cor said, casting a glance at Brim, who nodded with a grin and fell back a bit.
“Come on, Taggert, let’s go take a look inside.”
For all of his earlier enthusiasm, Taggert looked suddenly uncertain, but he
swallowed this fear in the hopes of impressing his “friends” and followed Cor
toward the cave’s entrance, so caught up in holding back his nervousness that
he didn’t notice that Brim was no longer with them.
Cor led Taggert into the cave opening, and then
they halted for a moment. The red Ixi stared up at the moon with a thoughtful
expression. “Hmmm… at this time of night, El ChupaIxi should just be coming
back from his nightly hunting session.”
“H-hunting session?”
“Yep, so we should just wait here for him to
come back. Hopefully he was successful in his hunting tonight, or….”
“Or what?” Taggert shivered.
Cor narrowed his eyes at the green Ixi. “Not
scared now, are you, Tagg?”
“O-oh n-n-no,” Taggert stammered. “I’m not scared,
Cor!”
“Right, well, we should head a little further
in then, so we can catch him by surprise when he comes back. Come on.”
At that moment, Cor waved his hoof behind his
back, signaling to Brim, who came tip-hoofing up behind them, ready to give
poor Taggert the scare of his life. But just as he came up right behind Taggert,
with Cor looking over his shoulder at him in anticipation of the moment of torturous
triumph, Brim stopped, looked up, and screamed out in fear, “AHHHH!”
Taggert jumped and spun around, but it wasn’t
quite the awful scare that Cor had had in mind. “What are you doing, lunkhead?”
he scowled.
But Brim, for once, was oblivious to his friend’s
insults. Instead, he stood wide-eyed, pointing his hoof in horror at the wall
of the cave in front of him. Cor and Taggert slowly turned to see what he was
looking at. There on the wall was cast a flickering light, and against that
light, a monstrous shadow was thrown. The shadow opened wide jaws and sharp,
shadowy teeth were revealed. Then, a huge clawed hand threw something into the
air, and for one horrible moment, the three Ixi saw this new, smaller shadow
as if in slow motion— it was the figure of an ixi, limp and frail. They watched
the shadows in terror as the ixi flew into the open mouth of the creature, and
then, from inside the cave, they heard a deep, booming growl, “Mmm… stringy,”
and the sound of enthusiastic chewing.
“AHHHHHH!” Cor and Brim went streaking out of
the cave in a panic, bowling over Taggert in the process. They ran off into
the forest, still screaming and too wrapped up in their own horrible visions
of being eaten alive by El ChupaIxi to worry about leaving the intended victim
of their failed prank behind.
Taggert lay trembling on the cave floor where
he’d been knocked over, unable through his own fear to pull himself to his feet
and make a similar escape.
“What’s all that racket?” the monster’s gravelly
voice boomed again, echoing off of the curved cave walls. Thunderous footsteps
came stomping slowly through the cave, louder and louder, closer and closer.
Taggert covered his eyes and gulped, preparing
himself for life as El ChupaIxi’s dessert. He heard the footsteps stop and felt
hot breath blowing across his neck. “Hey, what’s all this then, little mate?”
a voice suddenly asked.
Taggert was somewhat confused by the question
and the fact that it sounded a bit un-monsterlike, but he kept his eyes covered,
and his voice still shook as he said, “P-p-please don’t eat me, Mr. ChupaIxi.”
“Eat you? Ha! Now why would I go and do a thing
like that, eh?”
Taggert took a chance and uncovered one eye.
He looked up to see not a monster, but a Skeith— a rather large Skeith, even
for a Skeith, but not a monster even so. “B-but… I just saw you eat an Ixi—
the shadows!”
The Skeith looked at the wall for a moment, scratching
at his fat chin with one claw as he tried to understand what was going on. Then
he chuckled. “Oh, you mean one of these?” he asked, holding up an object that
he clutched in one claw. Taggert looked at it and suddenly gave a sigh of relief.
It was a little blue ixi plushie. “I must admit, mate,” the Skeith said with
a grin, tossing the plushie into his mouth and chewing it up, “they are my favorite.”
Taggert couldn’t help but laugh.
“But what are you doing out here in the middle
of the night, sir?” Taggert asked.
“Oh, I live out here by meself,” the Skeith replied,
“so where else would I be? I know it’s a bit odd, really….” Taggert just shook
his head and smiled. He knew all about being “odd.” He thought he liked this
monster.
“Now,” the Skeith said, “Why don’t you come sit
by me fire and we’ll find out just what you’re doing out here in the middle
of the night, eh mate?” Taggert nodded at the Skeith’s friendly invitation and
followed him deeper into the cave to find a cozy if somewhat simplistic home.
It consisted of little more than the fire that had cast the spooky light onto
the cave wall and a pile of plushies waiting to be eaten, but it seemed to suit
the Skeith just fine. Taggert took a seat beside the fire and began to tell
the Skeith his story.
The Skeith nibbled thoughtfully on a plushie
ixi ear as Taggert finished his tale. “Hmmm… methinks you were being tricked,
mate. El ChupaIxi indeed, heh.” Taggert’s green ears drooped as he realized
that his new friend was right, and the Skeith immediately seemed to regret his
laugh. “Hey, no worries there, Taggert. I’ve got an idea to give those two bullies
what’s coming to them. What do you say?”
***
The next morning, Cor and Brim stood outside
the front door of Madame Mavinnia’s Magical Meridell Motel, wringing their hooves.
They’d been so frightened the night before that they’d made the mistake of telling
their parents what had happened, and their parents, although they did not think
much more of Madame Mavinnia than their children did, still thought it only
fair and responsible that she be informed that her son was lost in the woods
and possibly eaten. Of course, it was only fair and responsible for them to
leave this task to their wayward sons as well.
Just as Cor had finally gotten up the courage
to knock on the door, it swung open, and there stood Taggert, looking none the
worse for wear. “Taggert!” Cor and Brim exclaimed together.
“Hi, guys!”
“B-but, El ChupaIxi!” Brim sputtered. “Didn’t
he eat you? How’d you get away?”
“Oh, him,” Taggert said with a nonchalant wave
of his hoof. “We’re friends, you know— he said he didn’t dare eat me.”
“Friends?!”
“Oh yes,” Taggert said, looking them both straight
in the eye, a mischievous gleam shining in his own. “And he said that if anyone
were to ever treat me badly, or trick me, or try to scare me— you know, anything
like that— that I should tell him, and he’d, well… 'take care of it.'” He gave
a satisfied smile. “That is what friends do, after all.”
“Oh yes,” Cor said, as he and Brim backed slowly
away from the tiny Ixi, who suddenly seemed much more intimidating than his
size indicated. “Of course, well… glad to see you’re okay then, Tagg. We came
to find out right away, of course, and really sorry, you know, about accidentally
leaving you back there and all, and you will say hi to El ChupaIxi for us, right,
and tell him… uh, just tell him not to…. Okay, bye, Tagg!” By the time this
nervous rant was finished, Cor and Brim were already almost out of ear shot,
and once Cor had run out of words, they both gave up the pretence and went running
off into the distance.
Taggert was beaming… that is, until he heard
his mother’s familiar screech from inside the motel, “Taggert, you still be
on punishment for wanderin’ off last night, lad! Now stop fraternizing with
those peasants and take that rubbish out!”
Taggert sighed and dragged the sack of trash
outside. But as he headed toward the Rubbish Dump, a smile began to spread across
his young face again. He wondered to himself whether his mother had ever heard
of El ChupaIxi…
The End
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