SHOUTOUTS:
Chibi Rose Angel: Wow. Someone should give you a prize for longest review. I appreciate it greatly dudette! Of course I gotta love Mikey, how can you not love Mikey? As for Coen…well, you'll have to read on, now won't you?
Lady-Of-The-Rings: Why is everyone so surprised Mikey has a plan? He's really not as dumb as he looks. Anywho, glad ya liked the chapter, read onwards!
Pacphys: Bugs? What are these bugs you speak of? As for the stable boy…(grins evilly) Wouldn't you like to know?
The REAL Cheese Monkey: There's nothing wrong with sleeping on stairs, except that it's uncomfortable. I had to do it in an airport once. As for Mikey's plan…you'll just have to keep reading.
Lunar-Ninja: Well, glad I made you giggle at least!
A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed. I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. It was one of those times when I knew what I wanted to say, but couldn't figure out how to say it. Don't you hate that?
Just as I had predicted, I found myself on the floor. I didn't mind too much, since I wasn't really tired anymore.
My head shot up as the door handle started to rattle. Someone was coming in. Maybe if I close my eyes they won't see me…No! I told myself, What a stupid idea! Where'd that come from, anyway? Blinking at my own stupidity, I dove under the couch I had been sleeping on just in time.
Good thing, too, because as soon as that door opened, none other than Coen stepped in.
I watched him closely. What was he doing in here? Trying to kill the king in his sleep? But Coen made no move to go to the staircase that led to the king's bedroom. Instead, he went to the picture window and looked out. Nodding to himself about something, he turned and left the room.
That was weird…I thought, crawling out from under the couch. Suddenly I was looking at a pair of boots. Following them upwards to legs, and finally a face.
"What are you doing?" Henry asked me curiously. I realized I probably looked really retarded crawling around under his couch.
"Um…looking for…dust bunnies! Yeah! You have to get them before they multiply, you know."
Henry looked at me strangely for a moment, but shrugged. I stood up so I was now facing him, and not his boots. My eyes wandered over to the picture window. My mind raced, and after a few minutes, I came up with an idea.
"Henry…" I said. He looked over at me. "Do you…I mean, would you mind terribly if I took one of your horses and uh…looked at all the…um…grass!" Grass? I don't know what I was thinking, but Henry didn't seem to care.
"Of course, Michelangelo, have fun…" He seemed distracted, and I let him know this.
"You're one distracted dude."
Henry blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Uh…you're distracted."
"Oh…yes, I suppose I am." Henry sighed. "Coen has told me of a revolt among the people against me. It is supposed to take place tomorrow night." I frowned. This was a new piece to the puzzle. And I'm not good at puzzles! "Anyway, you may go now." The king said, waving a hand at me.
Shrugging, and thinking hard, I made my way back to the stables for the third time in two days.
Collin was happy to see me. "Good marnin' to ye, Mikey." Finally someone was calling me Mikey in this crazy place!
"Morning, Collin. Um…can I ask you a favor?" He nodded. "Which horse here do you think I could ride that wouldn't immediately try to kill me?"
"Hmm…" Collin looked around at all the stabled horses. Finally he pulled a white mare out. "Sugar here's gentle…we use her to teach people to ride. Here-" He said, seeing my totally blank look, "I'll show ya how to saddle her and all that."
An hour later, after saddling, unsaddling, and saddling again, learning how to do it correctly, I was on my way. Problem was, I had no clue where I was going. It wasn't like this place was on a grid system or anything. After riding around in circles for an hour, I decided to check out the moor. After all, that is where I crash-landed in the first place, and where the boy had supposedly gone missing. Maybe I could get a grasp on what was really going on here.
I turned my horse around, feeling more confident than before, and less like a missing puzzle piece that someone dropped on the floor. I pulled the mare up to the fence that separated the moor from the rest of the village. I stared out over it, wondering over and over again why people were so darn scared of it! It didn't look scary – just kinda gray and misty. Then again, the Shredder doesn't look scary either. Until he puts on the metal suit, that is.
I continued to stare at the gray misty football field, (Well that's what it looked like!), wondering what it was hiding for it to be so scary. Shrugging, I decided no time was better than now to start checking things out. Sooner I figured out what the heck was going on and what Coen was up to, sooner I could go home!
Tying my horse to the fence, I gave her a quick pat, then jumped over the fence, not quite sure what I was looking for. I couldn't help but wonder if the stable boy hadn't simply run away. But Collin had said that he didn't think that the boy had run off. Weird. I looked down at my feet, as if all the answers were going to be burned into the grass. Nope. Actually, the only thing hidden in the grass was a rather large cow pie.
I plopped down right there in the grass, thinking hard. I needed to get home somehow. If Coen wouldn't help me, who would? I bit my lip. I'd just have to do it myself. I got here, didn't I? There had to be a way out. While I thought, I began fiddling with my belt. Suddenly I felt something hard under my fingertips. Curious, I pulled the hard thing out. It was Henry's ring – the one that had brought me here in the first place. I looked at it with surprise. I really thought I had given it back to Henry. Guess not. Turning it in my hands and watching the blood red stone sparkle, I wished I had just followed Leo in the museum when he asked me to, and not leaned against the stupid ring case. Although…
I looked at the ring. It was the thing that pulled me here, right? So maybe it could get me home! Exhilarated, I stood up, clutching the ring firmly in my hand. "I command you to bring me home, ring!" I commanded. Nothing happened. "Okay…" I said to myself. "There has to be a way to get it to bring me home!"
I raised the ring high into the air. "Kazaam!" Still nothing. I was still standing in the same place in the stupid moor. Discouraged now, I decided one last try. "Wonder ring powers, activate!" Still in the moor. "DARN IT!" I yelled at the top of my voice, trying to get rid of some of my disappointment. "WHY WON'T YOU WORK?"
The sound of five or six horse hooves beating on the earth broke me from my staring daggers at the stupid ring act. Someone was coming, and I had to hide. There is one bad thing about moors. They're open, which meant there was nowhere for me to hide. I frantically looked around as the horse sounds got louder, and I started to hear men's voices, shouting and talking to one another. There was open space, and a scraggly tree. I climbed the tree.
I hid behind some branches, hoping against hope they wouldn't see me. They didn't – they stopped their horses right under my tree and began to dismount. That is one advantage to being green. Camouflage! I squinted through the branches, trying to see if I knew any of them. I frowned when I realized I did know a few of them, none of them I liked very much.
Coen was the first I recognized, the evil slimeball. Next was James. My frown increased; I had really been hoping James was on our side. His buddy George was with him as well. No matter, I never liked him anyway. The other two I didn't know.
One of the ones I was unacquainted with – a tall man with dark red hair and beard – slid off his horse and began to dig in his pack. He brought out food. Bread, cheese, and water, along with some fruit. My stomach rumbled, and I glared at it, although the last time I had eaten had been at that strange banquet. He passed the food out among Coen, James, George, and a short, bald man; the other man I hadn't recognized.
"So," George asked between bites, "Why are we back out here again?"
Coen and James gave him an exasperated look, and I gathered he wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box.
"Because," James said with an air of extreme patience, "We need to be sure our plan is going accordingly. We're almost there, anyway." I leaned forwards more. Almost where? James was talking again. "Coen, did you make sure it can't be seen from the king's window?"
"Yes," Coen said confidently. "I did it this morning. The king will never suspect a thing. Besides," he chuckled, "He'll be busy with all his…people." The other two laughed. It seemed to be some sort of inside joke. I didn't get it. And what was it they didn't want the king to see?
"What about the turtle demon?" The red headed man asked. "Are you sure he won't get in the way?"
"Trust me, he'll be too busy trying to figure out what we're up to. Then we'll launch the attack on the palace…it will be over before he even knew what hit him."
The five of them shared a laugh at my expense. I didn't care. I was getting closer to figuring out what the heck was going on. I would figure it out before they could hurt anyone, and I would get home. That I was sure of. Coen was speaking again.
"-Besides, he seems to think I can get him home, wherever he came from. He wouldn't dare hurt me. I'm too valuable. Hah!" The five of them laughed again.
I already knew he wouldn't get me home. I would do it on my own. My gut feeling was telling me that once I figured everything out, the way to home would become clear. Or at least, that's what I was hoping. Coen was saying something once more, and I leaned forward more to catch what he was saying. Unfortunately for me, this place evidently hadn't had a good rain in a while. The dry branch could no longer support my weight, and it snapped, sending me hurtling into the middle of the circle of my enemies.
Dazed, and looking into the sneering faces of these so called men, only two words were going through my head.
Oh, SHELL!
