The Knight’s Club - Part 3

     “Hmmm?” The great Turtum groaned a noise of confusion. It had not expected to have company, but yet, it didn't seem to pay Boris much attention. It was more focused on the berries, rather than the golden-coloured knight.

     “Yaaaah!” Boris gave a half-hearted yell to try and convince the Turtum that he was more important than the berry trees, but alas, the Turtum was very focused on his prize. It reared up to get closer to the berries, and it ended up breaking a few tree limbs off the orchard trees. This left the lumbering Turtum a little disappointed.

     “Come on Boris! You gotta mean it!” Morris said, as he rushed in to try and strike the Turtum with the sword. He came down with a mighty swing, but the blade just bounced off the Turtum’s shell with a ‘bwoing’!

     The Turtum, which had ignored Boris, surely felt Morris’s attack, and it didn't quite like being thwacked, and let out a mighty grumble. It turned around quite quickly for its size, and even faster for a Turtum. When Morris's eyes met with the angry creature’s, he let out a yelp in fear. Without a warning, the angry Turtum started rushing towards Morris.

     “Morris!” Boris cried out as he watched his friend run away. Boris immediately gave chase, and tried to keep up with both of them.

     Morris however, was entirely focused on keeping away from the angry Turtum. He was quite thankful to not have the heavy armour on him at the moment as he didn't think he could be quite this agile otherwise. He ducked behind a tree, but didn't have much time to rest, as the Turtum easily rammed the berry tree, and nearly cracked it in half. Morris made another break for it.

     “Over here, you giant meanie!” Boris cried out in vain, trying to distract the Turtum. Realising he was low on options, he bounced as fast as he could to catch up with Morris, even though he did not have a plan once he did catch up to him.

     “What do we do?” Morris asked Boris as they ran alongside each other.

     “Dodge!” Boris pointed out that they were about to run into another tree. They both ran to the right to avoid a collision, but the Turtum was not nimble enough, and crashed into the tree, nearly uprooting it completely. Still, it was not enough, and the two kids were still only a moment away from being trampled.

     As they kept running, Morris noticed the Gelert farmer’s cottage sitting peacefully in the night on the other side of the farm.

     “Boris! The farmer’s gonna be so mad at us if this thing ruins all the berry trees!” Morris pointed out.

     “Wait! Not if we lure it away from the crops!” Boris suggested.

     Morris let out a gasp of inspiration. “That’s right! Here, let’s try to get it to charge between-” Morris was interrupted by the sound of another tree being smashed in half. “- Between the trees...” he finished his sentence with a groan. Morris looked over his shoulder to see the new damage all three of them had caused.

     “Right! Let’s turn here!” Boris took a hard left, and Morris followed. They found a wide space between trees in the orchard where berry-picker platforms would normally go and took advantage of it to get the Turtum to squeeze through an area where it wouldn't do as much damage. Then, Boris took another left once they reached the next row. They were now leading the Turtum back the way they came in!

     “We’re doing it!” Morris cried out in excitement.

     “Let’s lead it back into the woods!” Boris said, leading the charge.

     * * * * * * *

     The four knights continued creeping down the path, knowing that at any moment, a powerful wizard might show themselves in ambush. All four of them were worried that the two squires were in way over their heads. Even if the squires outnumbered them, both of them would be no match for even a novice wizard from the Red Erisim.

      “Captain Borodere, What’s the plan?” Tormund asked. Jeran could tell how seriously the Yellow Lupe was taking the situation because he very rarely called him by that title.

      “Our best bet is to keep rushing in. We can only hope to either catch the squires before anything happens, or we rush to catch up to whatever threat is out there and take it by enough surprise that we get away. But judging from this destruction, I think the former is unlikely to happen.”

      “I’m thinking the Callagan Maneuver. What do you think.” Brynn offered her idea as she vaulted over a tree in their path.

      “That, or the modified Barrow Technique.” Jeran confirmed with her.

      “Wait, what are you talking about? Y’all know I don't know those things. I didn't go to knight school like you. Simpler, please.” Rohane grumbled.

      “Oh, sorry, Rohane. Essentially once we find them, we surround them, grab what we need, and scatter. We will meet up as we head back to the roads. That should prevent them from-“ Jeran was in the middle of his explanation when Tormund suddenly stopped and held up a hand sign for silence. He pointed at a figure weaving in and out of the trees ahead. They had finally caught up to a pointy-hatted Tonu who was walking in the same direction along the trail as them. Now that they saw him and were not talking amongst themselves, they could hear him muttering to himself.

      “That dang beast is so hungry! I can’t keep chasing him down like this! It’s going to blow my cover... but yet if it keeps eating, it will keep getting bigger, and the bigger it is, the better it will do its job better....” the Tonu continued to mutter.

      Jeran nodded, and they all initiated their new plan. They tried their best to stealth ahead into the woods. Not having their armour on them this time came in handy. They were able to surround the distracted and muttering mage without a hitch.

     “Now!” Jeran commanded from the North side as the mage. On cue, all four knights surrounded the Tonu. Rohane did a flying tackle to knock him prone, while Tormund grabbed his legs, and Jeran kept him pinned to the ground while Brynn grabbed his hat, and looked for any tricks up the Tonu’s sleeve.

     The Tonu nearly wiggled out from under them, but quickly gave up after realising that he was thoroughly outnumbered.

     “Okay I yield! Get off me!” He laid still, prone on the ground. However, none of the knights moved out of caution.

     “What are you doing? Where’s Morris and Boris?” Jeran demanded.

     “Who? I don't know anyone named Morris, let alone a Boris. Some people just have the nerve to start demanding things outta the blue, and I-” The Tonu continued his muttering before Rohane interrupted him.

     “Squires, two of them, young boys, a Quiggle and Blumaroo. Surely you would remember them, having seen them wearing my armour!” He got up off of the Tonu, and yanked him off the ground, holding him by the scruff of his robes.

     “I have no clue what you’re talking about, I even told you a moment ago I don't know any-” The Tonu was once again cut off by the sounds of approaching screams, and the crack of a branch. All five of them stood silently in the forest clearing.

     “That’s them! I hear them.” Tormund exclaimed, rushing off to go figure out why they were yelling. He didn’t get very far before they all could see Morris and Boris running as fast as they could, yelling.

     “Morris! Boris! Where have you been!?” Tormund demanded from them.

     “Run!!” They both shouted in unison.

     As Morris and Boris approached, all of the adults were confused as to why they were telling them to run, but as soon as they saw the giant Turtum emerge from the trees behind them, they understood.

     “I’ve got Mr. Magic. You guys get the kids.” Tormund announced, yanking the Tonu mage from Rohane’s grip. Tormund headed off to the side of what they now knew to be a giant Turtum trail.

     “Right. Now I just have to... handle a giant Turtum.” Rohane was unsure how to approach this. But he did see Morris running straight towards him carrying his trusty sword. Getting that would at least be a step in the right direction. Just his sword, though. Shields were for chumps.

     “Morris! Toss me my sword!” Rohane called out as he ran towards them. “Gently!” He clarified as he saw the Quiggle winding up for a big throw.

     Morris gave the sword a proper toss, and Rohane caught it as he rushed past. “AAAAAAUGH” Rohan did a deep and rough war cry at the Turtum, hoping to intimidate the large beast.

     Jeran saw what Rohane was up to, and called out. “Shield!” Jeran called for Morris to toss him Rohane’s shield. Morris did as he was told, and passed off the shield to Jeran as he ran past.

     “Morris, Boris, this way!” Brynn called to them, pointing them into the woods to meet up with Tormund.

     Everyone was rushing around. Tormund, the mysterious wizard, Brynn, Morris, and Boris were all now a safe distance into the woods, giving Tormund a chance to extract information. Jeran ran in with Rohane’s shield up to catch up to and help Rohane, who was rushing in, sword held above his head, ready to strike. The Turtum barreled down the path, unflinching as the knight charged at him.

     With a worrying clunk, Rohane and the Turtum collided, and Rohane bounced off of the Turtum’s shiny shell. The Turtum, however, did not escape unscathed, despite Rohane’s sword bouncing off its armour, it still had been taken aback by Rohane’s intimidating and brazen attack. Rohane landed against Jeran’s ready shield as the Turtum came to a stop.

     Jeran lifted his comrade up immediately. “You okay? That was a hard hit!” Jeran asked, worried.

     “Nothing Velm can’t fix on our way back to the castle.” Rohane brushed it off.

     “It’s the middle of the night, He’s probabl- Nevermind.” Jeran refocused on the Turtum, eyeing them both down. They could both tell it was still temperamental.

     Over on the sidelines, Tormund, who had been listening to the wizard's mild mumblings, started to integrate him. “What’s with this giant Turtum? Kayla’s potions during the war didn't last more than a week. What did you do? Make it stop trampling everything!”

     “Oh, it doesn't listen to me. That big boy never listens to anyone, it just wants to eat, eat, and eat! I’ve gotten fed up with him myself, if you’ll pardon the pun, but I digress-” The wizard explained before Tormund tried to refocus the wizard’s thoughts.

     “No, make it calm down.” Tormund reprimanded the wizard.

     “Calm? I’ve always just fed it snacks or sang it to sleep.” The wizard explained.

     “Sing it to sleep!” Tormund called out to the others.

     “What?!” Both Jeran and Rohane called back in disbelief. “No! That’d make it worse! He can’t sing at all,” They said in choral unison, pointing at each other.

     “Just sing to it!” Brynn snapped, hoping that the two knights would get over themselves.

     As Rohane stared down the Turtum, Jeran tried to think of a song that would be calming, but drew blanks. He never sang! “I’m drawing a blank, how about you?”

     “It’s best if I don't,” Rohane admitted.

     Out of panic, Jeran simply started humming a random assortment of notes until it settled into being a Month of Giving carol that he had been forced to sing as a squire.

     Upon hearing the song, both the Turtum and Rohane gave Jeran a confused look, until Rohane joined in. Their harmony, however, was completely lacking, and Rohane’s rough voice did not combine well with Jeran’s flat pitch. The Turtum grew more and more annoyed and threatened a charge. Upon seeing the large Turtum lurch forward, they both ceased their attempts to sing it into submission. The Turtum was at least now content to continue to stare down the two silent knights.

     “It didn't work. What else can we try?” Brynn told Tormund and the wizard.

     “Oh, well, then probably just feed it this” The Tonu produced a very cool-looking Negg from his robe. “I hate these things myself. I’d get rid of them entirely from the whole of Neopia if I could, but-” Without even letting the Tonu finish, Brynn yoinked the Negg out of his hands, and tossed it perfectly like a football over to Rohane. Rohane caught it in midair by spearing it with the tip of his sword. With the extra distance afforded by his sword, he could offer the Turtum the Neggy snack without having to get any closer.

     The Turtum’s whole gaze was fixated on the fruit, and happily bit it off the offering from the sword. The Turtum’s whole demeanour changed, and it was finally calm, collected, and cool. It laid down on the ground to relax after its exhausting chase.

     * * * * * * *

     It was well past midnight by the time they all arrived back at the castle with the wizard, and his giant Turtum in tow. After a little interrogating, they found that his name was actually Belisarius, and he had not been plotting anything nearly as evil as Morguss could have managed. He was just testing potions out on Petpets to see if he could make a potion to turn Petpets into useful grunt workers. Still, the knights were thankful that they had rushed out to help. The Turtum could have done some real damage. The Turtum, now placated with its favourite Negg, was happily following along, hoping for more Neggs, along the wide open roads of Meridell, where it wouldn’t do any damage.

     “Once we get inside, you are going straight to bed. We will deal with you in the morning.” Jeran scolded the two squires. They had doffed the armour and were carrying it in their arms.

     “Yes, sir.” They said glumly, knowing that they had done wrong.

     “And you bet Farmer Gilbert is going to need your help replanting berry trees in his orchard.” Tormund clarified.

     Morris nodded.

     “Glad we did our best to have it destroy as few as possible!” Boris commented. “We really did strategise taking collateral damage into account!”

     Jeran gave a small chuckle. He had definitely picked up the phrase ‘collateral damage’ from the sheer number of times Jeran used it to describe the two squires. But he was glad that they were finally learning something about how to deal with it.

     “Oh, did you? That’s at least a sign of progress!” Brynn commended them. “But it still shouldn’t have happened. Now, pip pip. Off to bed.” She said as they reached the barracks door. They handed off the armour to Rohane and scurried off to bed.

     “As for you...” Rohane turned to the robe bound Tonu. “I’m sure King Skarl will have you working kitchen duty for at least a month for messing with a wild Turtum. Surely you know that all Turtum’s are property of King Skarl...” Rohane warned the wizard.

     “Just be glad nobody got hurt. Had that been that case, it likely would have been the Dungeons.” Jeran warned him.

     “Nobody respects my art...” Belisarius muttered.

     Tormund flagged down an idle guard. “I need your help taking this... big guy... to the stables. I will leave Kayla a note about it for the morning. Maybe she can help return the Turtum to its original size.” He asked the guard, “I will meet up with you guys in the hall later”, Tormund said as he and the guard took the trotting Turtum away by a leash.

     “I will bring Belisarius to Danner. He’ll process him in the dungeon for the night.” Jeran said, leading him all. “We will meet you in the Great Hall.” Jeran continued, leaving Brynn and Rohane to wander back to the hall.

     They walked up to where the armour had been on display. “There. I’m guessing that the problem has been dealt with. Hopefully, I shouldn't need this again. I will check in with Gramelda tomorrow after a long rest. She’ll know if things have gone back to normal.”

     “Let’s hope.” Brynn said, helping to reassemble the armour on its stand. “Let’s also hope that this Belisarius figure was also the mischievous one causing the issues between King Skarl and King Hagan. It would make our jobs a lot easier if it was. “ Brynn didn't sound completely convinced.

     They both took their time putting the armour, sword and shield back just right, so it was back on ceremonious display. As they sat back down, Jeran and Tormund walked in the door, carrying mugs.

     “Figured everyone would like a nice mug of chamomile tea.” Jeran placed the hot mugs of tea. “It’s been a long day.”

     “Hear, hear.” Rohane agreed, taking the tea.

     “To another F.A.N. club adventure.” Tormund raised his glass.

     “And to more adventures that don’t involve the fate of Neopia.” Brynn agreed.

     “Cheers!” They all clinked in unison.

     The End.