Here's Chapter 16. Chapter 17 should be up by tomorrow. Thank you for your reviews, keep them coming. It's good to know that people are reading my story. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter 16
There was a knock at Wendell's door. He groaned and put the pillow over his head. There was another knock followed by a "Your Majesty?" Wendell rolled over and opened his eyes. It was still dark out.
He sat up as there was another knock.
"I'm up. I'm up." Wendell said and went over to the door. He opened it to find the innkeeper. "Thank you, now could you go and make sure everyone else is woken up? Thank you."
"Would your Majesty want anything to eat?" The innkeeper asked. He wanted to make a good impression on his King.
"Yes, we'll be leaving shortly, so not too much. Just something quick. Thank you." The innkeeper turned to hurry down the hall to wake the others. Wendell shut the door and warily found something to wear.
Fifteen minutes later, Wendell met Virginia and Tony in the hallway. Both were having trouble trying not to fall asleep standing.
"Where are the trolls?" Tony yawned. Just as he said this, they came out of their rooms. They were yawning and rubbing their eyes. As they made their way over to them, Bluebell tripped over a lump in the carpet and lay sprawled on the floor. Virginia stifled a laugh. He didn't even try to get back up again. In fact, it looked as though he was going to go right back to sleep. Burly kicked him in the side.
"Get up Bluebell!" Bluebell just groaned. Finally, Blabberwort and Burly bent down and helped him up.
"Suck an Elf! Why did we have to choose the morning?" Blabberwort complained.
The six of them slowly made their way downstairs to the small dining hall. There were only a few tables and none of them had more than four seats at each. So Tony, Virginia, and Wendell sat at one table, while Burly, Blabberwort, and Bluebell sat at another.
The innkeeper came in about five minutes later with a platter of toast, bacon, and a bowl of fruit. His wife followed carrying a pot of coffee and a pitcher of orange juice.
They thanked them and began serving themselves. Tony poured himself a cup of coffee and Wendell and Virginia had some orange juice. The each piled some fruit, bacon, and a couple pieces of toast. The trolls just ate bacon and drank some orange juice.
There was very little conversation as they ate. They were all still half asleep.
As they were eating, the innkeeper came back in followed by a man in a navy and gold uniform. Virginia didn't recognize the man, but she did recognize his Fourth Kingdom uniform.
Wendell stood up and the man in the uniform bowed. He handed over a letter that was sealed with gold wax.
"Your Majesty, a letter from the Chancellor."
"Thank you." The messenger bowed again and turned to leave. "Oh, could you please wait here? I may need to send back a reply.
"Yes Your Majesty." The innkeeper left the room again, and the messenger stood standing there. Wendell sat down to open the letter. The others watched him intently while he read it. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he put the letter down. His face showed no emotion at all so they couldn't tell if the letter was good or bad.
"Well?" Tony asked. He was very curious in spite of himself.
"Well, you know the two guards, Francis and Jacob? The ones who were supposed to be guarding the mirror room? It seems as though my men found them and arrested them. Francis had been found packing all his belongings into his cart and had been about to leave when he was caught. Jacob was still at home. Right now they are both in the dungeon up at the castle."
"Oh, that's great Wendell! I'm relieved that they didn't get away but I want to know what happened." Virginia was confused as to why the guards would want to assist in a kidnapping and was even more confused why the kidnappers didn't just take the mirror with them. This whole ordeal made her very uncomfortable, but she didn't know why. She had a bad feeling that there was more to this than just Wolf getting kidnapped.
"Yes, me too. When we get back up to the castle, I plan on interrogating them."
"Ooh! Are you going to torture them? Nicey-Nice!" Burly grinned. He hadn't had himself a good torture in awhile. He was way overdo.
Wendell, Tony, and Virginia looked at him as if he was crazy. Wendell coughed and turned back to the messenger.
"Did you come alone?"
"Yes Your Majesty."
"Hmm." Wendell pulled a piece of parchment out of his traveling bag and a quill with a bottle of ink. He wrote a short letter and signed it on the bottom. He folded it up and handed it to the messenger. "I need you to return to the castle and give this to my Chancellor." The messenger bowed and turned around and left.
"I told my Chancellor to send three or four guards to this village as quickly as they can. They should be here by tomorrow. If everything goes according to plan, we should have the three Peeps in custody by today. We can bring them back here and place them in this jail until the guards arrive. Then we can have them escort the Peeps to Snow White Memorial Prison."
Tony shuddered as he heard the name. He almost felt sorry for them. Almost. They deserved it though. He just wouldn't want to be them. He didn't know how Wolf had survived in there all those years. He had barely survived two days.
"Well, we should probably be on our way. It will be dawn soon."
Wendell paid the innkeeper and they all grabbed their things and made their way over to the stables. They paid the stable boy and packed up their horses. By the time they were completely ready to leave the village, the sun still had not come up yet.
There was nobody on the streets as they slowly rode out of town. It seemed everybody was still asleep. Even the farmers wouldn't wake up for another hour. They followed Barbara's directions and left the town the opposite side they came in at. They passed the Magic Wishing Well and Tony was surprised to see that the village idiot was not out there. He had figured that he slept there to, or else he would already be up. The only time he had ever seen him was at the well. Just as well, he thought, I don't really want to deal with him this early in the morning anyway.
They traveled silently until the sun came up. By then they had been riding for a little over an hour. They had just entered another small forest. Just as Barbara Peep said, there was a path that led to the left. Under a mile away sat the cottage, barely visible from the main road because of all the trees.
They pulled the horses to a stop. A great fury grew in Virginia. She wanted to run up to the cottage right then and tear apart anyone who got in her way. She wanted her Wolf. If anything happened to him, she would personally go after those Peeps. But she stayed where she was.
Wendell got off of his horse and silently beckoned the others to do so also. They followed his example and got off their horses and tied them up to the trees just off the main road.
As silently as they could, they made their way over to the cottage. They stayed just off the path so the trees would hide them. When they were just outside of the cottage, they all halted and stood silently, listening for any noises. It sounded as if everyone was still asleep.
"Ok," Wendell whispered. Everyone had to lean close to him to understand everything he said. "Bluebell, you go around back and see if there are any other doors. If so, stay there and stand guard in case they try to escape. Virginia, I want you to stay right here, and if something goes wrong, you run back to the horses and ride back into the village to get help. Do you understand?" Virginia nodded. If it weren't for the fact that she was pregnant, she would not have agreed at all. But she did have a baby to look after now.
"Alright, Blabberwort and Burly, you go up to the door. Antony and I will be right behind you. You shouldn't need to do anything other than knock on the door and throw the troll dust at them. Bluebell, you get going to around the back." Bluebell nodded and ran off silently to the other side of the house. As soon as he was at the back door, Wendell drew his sword and Burly brought out the pouch of Troll dust. Blabberwort also pulled out a really long knife. Tony didn't have a weapon. So he stood there feeling a bit foolish.
The four of them silently made their way over to the front door. Virginia hid herself in some bushes and watched them knock on the door. Burly and Blabberwort stood in front. Wendell and Tony were a few feet in back of them ready to fight if needed.
They waited for about two minutes before knocking again. Still, there was no answer. After knocking a third time, Burly finally began to hear some noises inside. He opened up the pouch and grabbed a handful of the pink dust. He gave the pouch to Blabberwort who also took out a handful. Trolls are immune to Troll dust. That is why they were able to handle it in their hands without it affecting them.
"Prepare yourself." Burly grinned. This was the kind of stuff he was good at. Fighting. Well, most of the time. They heard a set of footsteps coming to the door. A second later, a tall man with dark hair opened up the door. The door was barely opened for more than two seconds before Burly let loose a handful of the Troll dust. The man, Fairfax, was unconscious as he hit the floor. He didn't even have time to utter a word.
"Fairfax, who is it?" Another man walked into the front room, this one with lighter hair. Blabberwort threw her handful of dust at him quickly before he could yell for help. He too was unconscious right away. The two Trolls paused long enough to get some more pink dust out before cautiously making their way inside. Wendell went in next with his sword ready. Tony followed last, seeing as though he had no weapon.
Unfortunately Wilfred had heard all the commotion and quickly headed for the back door. He ran as fast as he could and flung open the door. He didn't make it more than two feet outside before he was hit over the head with a long piece of wood. Bluebell grinned. That was too easy. He made sure that the old man was unconscious before dragging him inside. Burly saw him and went to help. Blabberwort and Wendell checked the rest of the house making sure that there was no one else. Tony went to the front door and beckoned for Virginia to come inside.
Wendell found some chains and with Tony's help, they chained the three Peeps together and left them by the door. Burly had found the door leading into Wolf's cell. A quick glance inside and he determined the room to be empty. They all gathered in there and looked around.
It was evident that someone had been in there recently. The water bowl still had a bit of water in it. Virginia went over to where the broken chains hung from the wall. She knelt besides them and started crying.
She had come so close. So close to getting Wolf back. Now he was missing again. And there was no way of finding him with the Peeps unconscious. They wouldn't come to for hours yet and it could already be too late. Tony came over to her and knelt beside her. He wrapped his arms around her as she cried.
Tony felt the hope he had felt earlier when Barbara had told them where Wolf was and who had him, leave. He had never been to fond of Wolf when they first met, but he had proved himself to Tony again and again by saving both Virginia's life and Tony's. Plus, his daughter loved him, and if his daughter was miserable, he would be to.
Wendell put his sword back into its holder. He began pacing back and forth, trying to think of what to do. The trolls just stood there, not sure what they should be doing now. The fighting was over, so they were bored again. Not that it had been much of a fight anyway.
Tony felt a boiling anger grow inside of him. He stood up and walked over to the trolls.
"This is all your fault! If you hadn't knocked them all unconscious, they would be able to tell us where Wolf is. But No! You had to go and give them some of the Troll dust, so now they won't wake up until probably tomorrow!" Tony knew that it wasn't really their fault but he had to vent his frustration somewhere.
Burly, Blabberwort, and Bluebell looked surprised at the sudden outburst. Their surprise soon turned to anger however.
"It's not our fault!" Bluebell yelled.
"You want to start something?" Burly drew his axe. Blabberwort followed and drew her dagger. Bluebell pulled out his knife. The three of them stood ready to fight. Wendell ran over in between them.
"Antony! Knock it off. All of you! We must not start blaming each other."
"You stay out of this Your Royal Dogness!" Burly yelled.
Wendell, who was more than a little bit touchy about his time spent as a dog, drew his sword. Tony, still with no weapon, picked up a chair that had been by the door.
"You don't talk to him like that!" Tony held up the chair, ready to smash it on one of their heads.
"I am King Wendell, ruler of this kingdom. I can have you thrown in jail!"
"Yeah? I'd like to see you try." Burly said and brought his axe up ready to swing. "Us three could take on the two of you!"
"STOP!" Virginia ran out in between them. Her eyes were wet and swollen from crying. "None of this is helping! Wolf is still gone and you are all fighting like a bunch of children. Wolf is still missing..." She broke off and started crying again. Wendell and Tony immediately dropped their weapons and ran over to her. They helped her out into the front room and set her on the couch.
The trolls followed, having already put their weapons away. Wendell and Tony both sat there with Virginia as she cried. She had buried her face into Tony's shoulder and was sobbing loudly. Tony patted her back and Wendell tried calming her.
"It's okay Virginia. We'll find him. I promised you that I would not stop at anything until he's found. I don't intent to break that promise either."
Blabberwort, figuring they should give them some time to themselves, pushed her two brothers out the door. The three of them walked back to the main road and untied all the horses. They brought them back to the cottage and tied them up next to the porch.
Wendell left Virginia and Tony and went over to the trolls.
"Here, can you help me load them onto the extra horse? We'll take them back to the village and put them in the jail there." The trolls nodded. The four of them were able to put the three Peeps onto the spare black horse. They tied them up better so they would not fall off. By the time they were done, the Peeps were on their stomachs with their legs and feet dangling on one side of the horse and their heads on the other side.
Wendell went back into the cottage and with Tony's help, gently led Virginia outside. They helped her get onto her horse and making sure that she wasn't going to fall back off they all got onto their horses.
They all made their way back to the main road. Wendell was in front, followed by Tony and Virginia. Tony made sure he kept his horse next to Virginia's to make sure that she stayed on. Behind them, were Burly and the horse with the unconscious Peeps. Bringing up the rear was Blabberwort and Bluebell.
There were no conversations at all on the way back to Little Lamb Village. Virginia was no longer crying, she had cried until she didn't have the energy left to keep going. She just sat there in a daze. Tony felt helpless. He kept looking over to make sure she was okay, but she was always staring off to the side with a distant look on her face. Wendell and him shared a nervous glance. The trolls were amazingly quite through the whole trip. They didn't argue, or sing, or play any games. Just rode in silence.
Things were looking bad. And for once, Wendell didn't have the slightest clue as to what to do.