Changing the Prophecy Chapter 13

Chapter 13 Change of Plan

After escaping from the garbage labyrinth, Denzel, Maia, and their fellow travelers mounted their tigers and made a mad dash to the Whispering Pond, where they set up camp in a thicket of trees and shrubs that concealed them from prying eyes. The tree canopy overhead offered protection from Compost’s skeeters. Honeydew picked sweet pears from a tree familiar to her. While growing up at Big House City, she had often visited the Whispering Pond. She knew where to find tasty mushrooms and a yellow root-plant that resembled a potato. She said she had often gone mushrooming with her father near the Whispering Pond as a little girl. Denzel made a campfire and Honeydew wrapped the mushrooms and potato-like roots in thick rubbery leaves that she had picked from a nearby tree. She placed the wrapped vegetables in the coals and they tasted delicious and satisfying once roasted. While waiting for the vegetables to roast, they dipped into the pond to wash off the grime from the journey and the garbage labyrinth. The tigers grazed on the surrounding vegetation while Bisc disappeared to hunt for his dinner. Honeydew did not need to summon water because they found a spring that bubbled from a cluster of gray-blue rocks.

After they had eaten, Guhblorin paddled happily around the pond and Honeydew sat in front of Maia, who unbraided and rebraided Honeydew’s hair in one long braid. Bisc placed his enormous head in Honeydew’s lap and she stroked his ears gently. Elena stood in a pool of amber light, caught in the rays of the late-day sun as it descended. She had taken her cell phone out of her backpack and appeared transfixed as she punched the buttons.

“I’m guessing Compost’s troops are camped on the plain outside the main gate to Big House City,” Denzel told the others. He peered through a pair of binoculars in the direction of the city. “I can’t see from here. Too many trees.” He bit his lower lip distractedly as he strategized in his head.

“Good,” Maia muttered. “If you can’t see them then they can’t see us.”

“We’ll have a look tomorrow,” Honeydew told Denzel. “I, for one, could use a good night’s sleep before taking on Compost’s army.”

“Maybe, instead of risking another encounter with Compost, we should sneak inside the city and consult with Cardamom and the high chief and chieftess. I know a secret passage into the city that Crumpet showed us last year. It originates in the garden over there.” Denzel waved his hand in the direction of the garden. “I doubt anyone else knows about it. We found it from an enchanted map given to us by Clover. I’m willing to bet that no one inside the city realizes that they can sneak out through that passage just as easily as we can sneak in. We could even bring a lot of people out of the city through that passage, given time.”

“If we go inside the city, we won’t get stuck there, will we?” Elena asked anxiously, without looking up from her phone.

“We could come back out the same way we go in,” Denzel reassured her.

“I like that idea,” Maia said.

“Me too,” Honeydew concurred. “I would feel better if I could consult with my parents. I don’t want to give Compost a chance to capture us again.”

“What in the heck are you doing with that phone?” Denzel asked Elena, irritably.

Elena shrugged. She had tried texting her big sister with whom she shared her bedroom at home, just to see what would happen. The phone said “no service” and no signal bars appeared on the screen. She considered playing one of the games that she had downloaded to it, but she decided not to use up the phone’s charge. Even though she couldn’t call anyone, she didn’t want the phone to go dead. It represented her last communication link to her family and the world that she had unwittingly left behind when she impulsively jumped on Maia’s cushion.

Denzel took the travel crystal that Goldenrod had given him out of his backpack and walked over to Elena. From where she stood, if he stood next to her, he could catch a few golden rays of the setting sun through the trees. The travel crystal sparkled in a shaft of fading light. He asked Honeydew, “Do you think I should try to contact Goldenrod to let him know we’re going inside?”

Honeydew replied, “I think we should wait until we get in and contact him after we have talked to my parents and Cardamom. Then we’ll have more to report. My dad and mom might want to speak to him too.”

Denzel nodded in agreement. He took a step out of the sunlight.

“Hold on, come back here,” Elena said to Denzel.

“What?” Denzel asked.

“Come back here and look at this.” She did not lift her eyes from the display on her phone for a second.

“Puleez. I don’t want to see a baby laughing or a cat flushing a toilet or some other stupid video that you downloaded to your phone. I’m trying to think about ...” Elena interrupted him by grabbing his arm and pulling him beside her. She pointed at her cell phone display screen.

“What!?” Denzel exploded in exasperation.

“Look at the signal bars. I have service,” Elena replied. “But only when you stand right next to me with that crystal thingy. Stay there. Don’t move.” Elena punched her phone keypad and put the phone to her ear.

“Dosh? It’s me! Elena!” she shouted excitedly into the phone. Elena could hear the sound of people shouting in the background. Doshmisi did not seem happy to hear her at all. “Coptorons? Jaspo? Clover?” Elena repeated in bewilderment.

Denzel rudely snatched the phone from Elena’s ear.

“Dosh?” Denzel yelled into the phone. But Dosh had hung up. He hit redial but he got her voicemail.

“She said she couldn’t talk. She was in the middle of something,” Elena stated flatly, as she folded her arms across her chest. “Now can I have my phone back?”

Denzel rounded on Elena. “What else did she say?”

“How about, ‘thanks for figuring out how to call Dosh’ or ‘that was a great idea, Elena’ or ‘wow, I guess you didn’t need a cell tower after all’ or some acknowledgement that I can solve problems too?” Elena hollered at him.

Denzel found himself pinned in the gaze of three glaring girls. He wished more than ever that Jasper or Sonjay was there to provide him with some back-up, but it was just him and the girls. The geebaching offered no help; he was obliviously gargling pond water and flapping his ears. Denzel admitted to himself that he had acted kind of mean to Elena ever since they had arrived in Faracadar. He knew he could stop if he made an effort. And he had to give her credit for discovering that the cell phone worked when she held it next to the crystal. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“What did you say?” Honeydew asked pointedly. “I didn’t quite hear that.”

“I said I’m sorry. To Elena. That was good that you figured out how to call Dosh,” Denzel said clearly, swallowing his pride.

“Apology accepted,” Elena told him. “Gracias.”

“Elena, please. What did Dosh say?” Maia asked urgently, to Denzel’s relief. It saved him from having to ask again.

“She said that the trees said go to Clover. And that she and Jaspo will meet us at Clover. And Coptorons are, no, um, Corportons. I think it was Corportons, that they’re in the ocean on the North Coast. And she said she has a mole with her.” As she relayed Doshmisi’s message, Elena realized that she had forgotten some of it because she had gotten angry at Denzel and had not repeated the message to him right away.

“She must be with Jasper,” Denzel said.

“Sí,” Elena confirmed, relieved, “that’s who’s with her. Jasper.”

“Mole must be with them too. What’s he doing at the North Coast?” Maia wondered.

“What’s a Coptoron?” Honeydew asked.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Elena replied.

“Coptoron or Corporton? What did she say?” Denzel demanded.

Elena no longer felt sure of the word, but she repeated “Corporton,” afraid to confess that she might have gotten it wrong.

“You’re sure?” Maia cross-examined Elena.

“Pretty sure,” Elena replied uncertainly.

Denzel made an effort to hold his tongue. Elena had mangled the message. He wondered if Doshmisi had said something important that Elena had forgotten. Getting mad at her wouldn’t do any good so he kept his mouth shut. But he hoped that if there was more to Doshmisi’s message that Elena would remember it soon.

They divided up the hours of the night for each person to take a shift at guard duty and then they settled down to sleep. Guhblorin took the first watch. He hummed a dreadfully off-key tune to himself happily as he gazed at the stars. Even though it was in his nature to make his human friends laugh themselves to death, he could feel his nature changing. It was hard work but he was doing it and that made him feel better than he had ever felt in his whole life.

In the morning, with the sun shining brightly, Denzel held the crystal next to Elena’s cell phone and Elena tried to call Doshmisi again. The phone worked but Doshmisi didn’t answer so Elena left a voice message. Denzel grilled her about what she had heard in the background while talking to Doshmisi the night before and Elena recalled only that she heard people shouting indistinctly in the distance.

“She insisted that we should go to Clover’s,” Elena reminded the others. “Should we go to Clover’s instead of sneaking into this city? Doshmisi definitely said she would meet us at Clover’s.” Elena felt reluctant to enter a city under siege. What if they got stuck in there?

“I wonder why she didn’t come straight to Big House City,” Maia said.

“What’s at the North Coast?” Elena asked.

“I don’t know. We’ve never been there,” Denzel answered. He had resolved to try to be nicer to Elena.

“I’ve gone there,” Honeydew piped up. “There’s not much at the North Coast. No one lives there. People go there on vacation sometimes. They camp out on the beach. It’s beautiful; you know, peaceful, and far away from everything.”

“So why do you think Doshmisi went there?” Elena asked. “She’s obviously not looking for a vacation.”

“She definitely said the North Coast?” Denzel demanded of Elena, a bit more sharply than he had intended.

“Well, yes. I told you that yesterday, Paco,” Elena replied impatiently.

“Paco? What’s with the Paco?” Denzel muttered in annoyance. He did not remember her saying anything about Doshmisi being at the North Coast. He remembered her saying that Corportons were in the ocean at the North Coast, but not that Doshmisi was there with them.

“It’s a Spanish nickname,” Maia told him. “An affectionate one,” she added, to smooth his ruffled feathers.

“For what?” he demanded.

“It’s nothing bad, just a nickname for Francisco,” Elena said, tossing her blue-black hair over her shoulder so that it shimmered in the sunlight.

“My name is not Francisco,” Denzel replied.

“Well, you don’t think there’s a Spanish nickname for Denzel, do you?” Elena giggled. Guhblorin’s eyes twinkled and he suppressed a grin.

“You spend too much time with that geebaching,” Maia told Elena with amusement. Denzel was not similarly amused.

A heated discussion ensued about whether the group should sneak into Big House City or go straight to Clover’s. In the course of the discussion, Elena remembered that Doshmisi had asked her if Sonjay was with them, an important piece of information, since it meant that Sonjay was not with Doshmisi. Denzel struggled to keep his temper when he learned of this critical omission.

Honeydew and Denzel thought they should go into the city, Maia and Elena wanted to go to Clover’s, and Guhblorin suggested they go to the North Coast. It took the better part of the morning for Denzel and Honeydew to convince the others that the best plan, since they were already right at Big House City, was to sneak inside and consult with Cardamom and Honeydew’s parents. By the time they had carefully made their way to the garden, avoiding skeeters and Compost’s soldiers in the process, the sun stood directly overhead and Elena had begun to think about lunch, which they did not have.

Denzel found the statue that marked the entrance he sought and with help from the others he moved the large, flat stone that concealed the secret passageway into Big House City. If he could remember which way to go once he got underground, Denzel felt confident he could follow the passageway directly into the Big House where High Chief Hyacinth and Chieftess Saffron lived.

Just as Denzel placed his foot on the first step leading down to the secret passage, Sonjay suddenly appeared out of thin air, standing beside the statue that guarded the staircase leading under the ground.

“Hey you guys,” Sonjay spoke up from behind the group huddled at the entrance. “I’m gonna have to veto this plan.” Everyone whirled around to face him.

A smile spread across Denzel’s face and Maia rushed over to Sonjay to give him a hug. Denzel’s smile vanished an instant later as Maia’s arms swept straight through Sonjay and crashed into each other in the near vicinity of Sonjay’s chest. Astonished, Princess Honeydew attempted to pat Sonjay’s face but her hand went right through his cheek and her fingers wiggled inside his head. Denzel thought it looked as if Honeydew had touched a hologram.

“What in the heck?!” Denzel exclaimed.

Maia burst into tears. “Did you die? Are you a ghost?” she sputtered. Elena put a comforting arm around Maia.

“It’s OK,” Sonjay reassured everyone. “I’m alive. Just not here. I’m locomotaporting.”

“No fair. How did you learn to do that? I can’t even throw my voice yet,” Honeydew complained.

“How do we know it’s really you and not Sissrath impersonating you or something?” Denzel asked suspiciously. “If it’s really you, then tell me how many stair steps I can jump on my skateboard.”

“Six,” Sonjay answered instantly. “You did seven once, but you almost broke your wrist and you can’t do it again.”

“Maybe I can. How do you know? So what is your least favorite activity?” Denzel asked.

“Flossing,” Sonjay replied.

“What do you call Bayard when he’s naughty?”

“A heap of feathers,” Sonjay replied. Just at that moment, the bird in question appeared and landed on Denzel’s shoulder. “And here’s the heap of feathers now,” he said with a chuckle.

“Is he locomotaporting too?” Maia asked.

Bayard happily pecked Denzel on the head. “Ouch!” Denzel exclaimed. “Nope, he’s for real.”

“Tough luck,” Sonjay told his brother. “He can’t peck me at the moment so it’s gonna be you.”

“How can you locomotaport?” Honeydew demanded. “No one can do that anymore.”

“I came into my power as an enchanter and Crumpet and Buttercup are training me. I’m not that good at enchantment yet. But when we discovered that I can locomotaport, and that no one else can do it, I started practicing.”

“No one has done it since Hazamon. I can’t believe you can do it. Is locomotaporting the first thing you learned how to do as an enchanter?” Honeydew asked.

“Impressive,” Denzel complimented his brother. “What’d you do with the rest of you? The blood and guts, I mean.”

“It’s a long story and I have to work quickly here so I can get back to the rest of me as soon as possible. Otherwise, disembodied impairment.” Sonjay wondered whether or not to tell Denzel and Maia that he had found their father. He decided against it. For one thing, he selfishly wanted to keep Reggie all to himself for a little longer. He also didn’t know how things might turn out for everyone and he didn’t want to tell Denzel and Maia about Reggie only to have him die or get captured again before they could see him. He decided to keep it a secret; and he also decided not to worry them by telling them that he had left his body in the dungeon at the Final Fortress. He would provide as little information about his situation as possible.

“I came to take care of some business here at the siege and then, after I get back to my body, I’ll try to meet up with you somewhere,” Sonjay told the others.

“At least tell us where you wound up after the passage,” Maia demanded.

“You seriously don’t want to know,” Sonjay said, sidestepping her question. Then he noticed Elena. “Whoa. Elena? What are you doing here?”

“She crashed the party,” Denzel said.

“Oh yeah,” Sonjay said as he remembered, “you jumped on Maia’s cushion at the last minute. I bet you were tripping when you found yourself in Faracadar.”

“That’s an understatement. I’m getting used to it, though,” Elena said.

“Weren’t you wearing pajamas?”

“Just a pajama top. I got a shirt at the Wolf Circle,” she replied, blushing.

“You went to the Wolf Circle?”

“We arrived in the Amber Mountains instead of Debbie’s Circle,” Denzel explained.

“Lucky you. Listen, I don’t want to stay here in this locomotaport any longer than necessary because I’m still learning how to control it, so let’s go to the siege.”

“We’re at the siege,” Denzel told him. “And we were just about to sneak into the city to consult with Cardamom when you appeared.”

“Yes, well that’s why I had to risk locomotaporting over here when I don’t totally get how to do it yet. I came to prevent you from sneaking into the city. It’s a bad idea,” Sonjay informed him.

“What makes it a bad idea?” Denzel asked defensively. Why did he have to convince everyone that this plan, which seemed like a no-brainer to him, was the most sensible? “Wait what? How did you know about our plan?”

“I left my body with Crumpet and Buttercup and we found the Prophet of the Khoum and he has these visions and he could foresee that you would try to sneak into the city and he says this plan will not turn out well,” Sonjay tried to explain, all in a jumbled rush.

“Prophet of the Khoum?” Honeydew cried out with excitement.

“You lost me at Crumpet,” Elena muttered. Guhblorin patted her hand sympathetically and asked, “What’s flossing?”

“Trust me on this one, man. No time to explain. Don’t go in there. We have to convince Compost and his troops to leave,” Sonjay said.

“You make it sound so simple. I suppose I could have politely asked Compost to free us when he captured us and imprisoned us in a garbage labyrinth,” Denzel responded sarcastically.

“Garbage labyrinth? That sounds nasty,” Sonjay said.

Denzel continued, “Maybe if I ask nicely then Compost and his army will pack up and head for the hills.”

“Remember to say please with a cherry on top,” Guhblorin suggested.

Sonjay squinted at Guhblorin, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. “Is that a geebaching?”

“No, no geebaching,” Guhblorin replied, looking behind him as if Sonjay might have referred to someone else. “I’m a wolf. A white wolf. Sissrath turned me into the appearance of a geebaching to punish me for biting his elbow. Look. See my wolf teeth?” Guhblorin opened his mouth to show his tiny crooked teeth.

“Those don’t look like wolf teeth,” Sonjay said suspiciously.

Guhblorin attempted to roar, but it sounded so feeble that Elena and Honeydew giggled. Sonjay cracked a smile. Guhblorin roared again. He sounded like a creaky gate.

Maia shot Guhblorin a stern look and warned, “That’s enough. You stop right now, you hear?”

Guhblorin bowed his head sheepishly and mumbled an incoherent apology.

“It is a geebaching,” Sonjay said incredulously.

“He’s OK,” Maia assured her brother. “His name is Guhblorin.”

“Is he tame?” Sonjay asked.

“Almost,” Denzel replied. “He’s a Dud.”

“Well, wow, that explains everything,” Sonjay responded in exasperation.

“Long story,” Denzel said.

“You’ll get used to him,” Honeydew promised. “So do you have some kind of a plan to convince Compost and his troops to go home?”

“Food,” Sonjay replied cryptically. “Show me their camp.”

“Let’s roll,” Denzel said as he shoved the flat rock back over the secret passageway.