Hi:) Thanks for reading the first chapter!
A pillow flew across the shop and hit Howard in the face. The tall Northerner glared at Vince, and threw it back.
"Alright, careful, it has sequins on y'know!" Vince retorted.
"Sorry-"
Howard's apologies got cut short by the pillow hitting his face again.
"What do you want Vince!"
"I'm really bored," the electro poof whined.
"Same here. We haven't had any customers for 3 months; we just sit around this shop all day long."
"What can we do then?"
Howard shrugged in reply. A sneaky smile spread across Vince's face. "I have an idea."
After sharing his inspiration with Howard, the double act sneaked upstairs, and into Naboo's room.
"I don't know about this Vince. Naboo told us not to go in his room, and he'll be back in a minute," Howard fretted, cockerel eyes darting around, looking for signs of danger. Vince dismissed Howard's wariness, and slid a dusty book out of Naboo's bookshelf, collapsing on the floor with it.
"But look at the pretty pictures! They're just begging to be coloured in!" Vince exclaimed, flicking through the book, looking at original Tarot card illustrations.
Vince's enthusiasm was infectious, so Howard sat down next to Vince, and they picked a picture of a dancing man with a snake's head to colour in. Vince whipped out some felt tips from his glam rock jumpsuit, and they started colouring peacefully.
Just as Howard was pointing out to Vince that the man probably wasn't supposed to be luminous green with black stripes, Naboo trundled into the room with Bollo. The shaman caught sight of the two grown men on his floor and glared furiously at them, while Bollo crossed his arms authoritively.
"What are you two doing in here? Colourin' in my books? They're medieval! I'll never hear the end of it if Saboo finds out," Naboo exploded at them. He was well annoyed.
"Erm, sorry Naboo, I was just trying to tell Vince exactly that," Howard said, trying to keep on Naboo's good side.
"Then why are you holding a pink colouring pen?" Bollo asked accusingly.
Howard laughed nervously, and dropped the culprit felt tip, but it was too late. Naboo folded his arms over his robe.
"Look Naboo, we're sorry, we didn't know you'd be so annoyed. We're just so bored," Vince explained, as he unfolded himself from the floor. He looked sheepishly at his flat mate.
"Go do something then," replied Naboo distractedly. He was looking at the funky patterns they'd drawn in his books. He had to admit, the black and white was quite boring, and the colours reminded him of Woodstock '69.
"We have nothing to doooooooooo," Vince moaned, elongating his vowels, and childishly throwing his arms in the air.
The puma-faced shaman sighed, and gave in. He felt responsible for Vince and Howard. It was like Naboo was their mum, Bollo was the helpful, but a bit slow, older child, and Vince and Howard were his two, young naughty children, who should've gone to boarding school, but would've surely been bullied, with Vince looking like a pixie, and Howard's sleep scatting. Naboo sat down on his bed, and the others followed suite.
"Ok. Let me tell you the story of the Talking Sloth that found the Golden Star. The Sloth was casually slothing around his rainforest one day, when he found a golden star. He asked the star what it was doing, and it told him that it had fallen from the sky, and that it had magical, wish-granting powers. Other animals in the rainforest had been listening in on the conversation, and wanted to steal the star from the sloth. The sloth was way too lazy keep the star, but didn't want to give it to any of his rainforest friends, coz he was mean like that, so instead, he sent it in the post, the cheapest way possible, knowing it would get lost. Ever since then, people have been looking for it, but no-one has found it," Naboo concluded. The others had been completely drawn into the story, and now all leaned back, taking a breather from Naboo's awesome story telling abilities.
"So... how is that relevant?" asked Howard after a few seconds of silence.
"If you two are that bored, why don't you go on a hunt to find the star?" Naboo said, as if it was as obvious as a fish in a desert.
"Thanks Naboo!" cheered Vince. He shot downstairs, immediately immersed in the quest. Howard belatedly went down after his younger friend, to see how he planned to find the star. Bollo looked at Naboo.
"I never heard of this star," Bollo said questioningly.
Naboo smiled back at Bollo, "yeah, I made it up to keep them occupied."