Boz woke up in an awkward position. He sat down, though it felt more like someone had placed him against the tree and didn't care to put him in a comfortable position. He leaned against a tree and sat on top of one of its roots, which had a bump that Boz directly sat on. He was tied to the tree with a lot of rope, making it hard to move. That might be best – his head throbbed and for a split second, Boz was confused.
It all came back not much later. Brady and Boomer ran into the jungle and Boz and Mikayla followed. Somehow, Boomer managed to stay out of the Tarantula's hands, but Brady and Mikayla were captured, as was Boz. He sat between Brady and Mikayla in what must be the worst position to be tied to the tree.
"Did I miss anything?" Boz asked.
Brady yelped like a little girl, causing a spike in pain in Boz's headache. This was going to be a long day.
"Oh, it's just you," Brady said when he realized that was Boz talking. Boz took a breath – they had to find a way to get out of this situation.
From the tree, they had a great look at a Tarantula outpost, with some huts, a rudimentary lookout tower, and a large bonfire in the middle. Weapons were scattered around and Tarantulas patrolled their grounds, making regular rounds. One of these rounds came close to the tree they were tied to – too close for comfort for Brady.
"This is scary!" he squealed. "I'm glad we're holding hands!"
"We're tied to the same tree," Mikayla said. So they were tied in such a way that they were holding hands. But something was going wrong up there, as someone – probably Brady – pulled Boz's hair to get closer to Mikayla's probably withdrawn hand.
"Stop pulling my hair!" Boz exclaimed and Brady promptly let go of the strawberry blond hair. That already felt better.
Two Tarantulas met near the bonfire. They were quite loud while they spoke. Boz wasn't a fluent speaker of Tarantulan, but he did hear Kaita's name, as well as the words 'medallion' and 'saliva'. This was not good at all.
"Quiet," Mikala said, "they're saying something."
"You think they're talking about what a cute couple we make?"
Every time Brady opened his mouth, Boz lost a little respect for the king. This was not the time nor place for romantic remarks. The situation was dire enough that this was an unwanted distraction.
"You may not understand what they're saying," Mikayla said with some annoyance in her voice, "but I do."
"I do, too," Boz said. He did not say too much, as his head still hurt, and paying attention to what the Tarantulas discussed somehow made it worse. It was best to let his head rest and let everything come over him.
"Beautiful and you know multiple languages?" Brady continued his inappropriate remarks. "You know, that's two out of three qualities I need in a woman. You wanna know the third?"
"Breathing?"
"You wanna know the fourth?"
"Just shut up and let Mikayla listen," Boz said.
For one sweet minute, it was quiet at the tree. None of them spoke as Mikayla followed the conversation between the two Tarantulas.
"Okay," Mikayla eventually said, "here's what they said: the medallion brought the mummy back to life, but he needs your saliva to make him indestructible."
Boz nodded. It sounded reasonable – he learned that bit of information first-hand. Except Kaita didn't become quite indestructible. It seems the younger Tarantula didn't know what was going on yet, as did Brady.
"What is this saliva you speak of?" Brady asked.
"It's spit," Boz told him.
"A hundred years ago, a king defeated the mummy in battle," Mikayla filled Brady in, "so I'm guessing he needs king spit to bring him back to his full power."
"So don't spit on him," Boz warned the king.
"Ha, the joke's on them!" Brady called out. "Among my many awesome qualities, I have a few flaws. One is the inability to create spit when I get scared."
"Cottonmouth," Mikayla said. Even that could not help, really. When Boz had cottonmouth, facing the mummy, his sneeze still brought Kaita back. Brady needed to be really careful to avoid making the same mistake Boz had made years later.
The conversation died down, the headache became less intense. Another problem arose – his leg, with the cast, wasn't really lying in a good position. Boz couldn't immediately move it into a better position, either. Every position hurt, and Boz had to put up with it until he was freed.
Something else was rather odd – one of the Tarantulas was approaching them, whereas his buddies a little further ahead did not pay attention to their prisoners at all. But this one came closer and closer, and Boz got a weird feeling.
"Psst, guys," the Tarantula whispered, "it's me, Boomer."
"I'm sorry, Tarantula dude," Brady said in a whiny, scared voice. Boz could imagine he'd closed his eyes, too. "I don't understand you, she's the smart one."
Boz looked at Boomer. It clearly was him.
"Brady, that's your brother," Boz said. There came a small pause, during which Boomer looked at Brady. The king tied to the tree gasped audibly.
"You've become one of them, you traitor!"
Boz quickly looked around – nobody seemed to notice the conversation between the so-called Tarantula and the prisoners. He only half-paid attention to the conversation, until Boomer dropped the bomb. He indicated that they needed to get the bat medallion back, and Mikayla inferred from the conversation what was going on.
To say she was pissed was an understatement.
"Thanks to your bromise," Mikayla raged at the kings, "my dad's being shamed, the kingdom is about to be taken over by a mummy, and I've had to hold his sweaty hand for over three hours!"
"It could always get worse," Boz commented. He didn't know what exactly was coming, but he believed it would get even worse in the future. With these two airheads as kings, what else was to be expected?
"Have they been complaining like this the whole time?" Boomer wondered. Before Brady or anyone else could answer, a Tarantula appeared behind Boomer. As not to give up his cover, Boomer punched Brady in the stomach and the Tarantula laughed. Boomer laughed along to save his hide. Boz was lucky Boomer didn't kick Boz in his leg.
The Tarantula leader pointed at the prisoner and spoke. Boz kind of understood what he was saying, but let Mikayla translate.
"He said: untie the funny-looking king," Mikayla said. "His words, not mine."
Boz was sure the Tarantula didn't say 'funny-looking'. Then again, his command of Tarantulan wasn't that great, so he couldn't verify whether this was actually true or just a jab from Mikayla.
"Whatever you do," she continued, "do not spit on the mummy, even if they torture you."
Brady squeaked. "They torture people here?"
Nobody really paid attention to Brady – Boomer just untied his brother without commenting. Maybe he hadn't thought the Tarantulas actually tortured people.
"Hey, untie us too!" Mikayla said.
Boomer shook his head. "I'm sorry, there's no time. Plus, you guys seem really mad at us right now. But here!" He gave Mikayla something Boz couldn't see. "Use this soup can lit to signal passing airplane for help. But be careful, it's really sharp."
Boomer escorted Brady to the mummy while Boz and Mikayla took a moment to reflect on Boomer's intelligence. Boz didn't even have anything to say. Mikayla did not waste any time and started to cut the rope, slowly freeing them round by round.
The mummy intimidated Brady, demanding his saliva. Boz wondered what would happen next when all the rope fell to the ground – Mikayla had worked faster than he had expected. She extended her hand to him, which he gratefully took to stand up next to her.
"Thanks," Boz said. Not a second later, the mummy attacked Brady.
Boz wished he was more useful. He could only watch the fight unfold, how Brady and the mummy fought each other and, eventually, how a bunch of Tarantula piled onto Brady, Boomer, and the mummy, who had fallen over.
"I have the medallion!" Boomer's voice said from under the pile. Boz and Mikayla sighed in relief – this could have gone terribly wrong. Then again, now he knew why Kaita seemed to dislike Boomer more than Boz.
"That's great," Brady said. "Can you tell them to get off of us?"
Calmly, the Tarantulas crawled away, off of them, and stood up. They did not look happy with their predicament, and Boz could even hear one of them mutter expletives under their breath. It must not be fun, to be controlled by two foolish kings who had no idea about their rich culture. But Brady and Boomer would, for the longest time, only see them as Dark Side brutes. Such a shame, really – without the mummy commandeering them, these people were pretty chill.
Brady seemed to be under the impression that the Tarantulas were closing in again. He raised his hands in a semi-threatening way.
"Hey!" he yelled. "We have the medallion, and I really didn't appreciate the wandering hands! Yeah, I'm talking to you!"
He singled out one Tarantula, who reacted to the accusation with a glare.
"So you guys stay here on your Dark Side," Boomer added, "we'll go back to our sunny side and forget any of this ever happened!"
Brady and Boomer turned around and Mikayla, who was standing behind them, took her chance. She took the bat medallion from them and looked at them with a scolding gaze.
"I told you two: in the wrong hands a century of darkness." Her irritation was unparalleled. "I'll be keeping this."
Boz quickly grabbed his crutches, thanking the Tarantula that begrudgingly handed them over in her own language, and Boz joined Brady, Boomer, and Mikayla in their journey back to the Light Side.
This was too close for comfort. On one hand, he envied Brady for only having seen the mummy once and not in his ultimate form. On the other, he was glad that Brady never had the chance to meet Kaita. Either way, Boz was happy this nightmare was over and hoped he wouldn't see the mummy soon again.
It was a real delight to watch the relief on Mason's face as they presented the bat medallion to the crowd. Mikayla announced it was Brady and Boomer who lost them, and Mason immediately called for another Ceremony of Shame this evening. Whether it was revenge or his duty to host, Boz didn't know.
Everyone watched the kings, but Boz watched Lanny. The boy who relished in making Mason suffer now faded to the background. Boz had expected to see a glare in his eyes, maybe to see him mutter under his breath, but that didn't happen. Lanny shook his head, but he was sad. With a relaxed stance, a disappointed gaze in his eyes. If he was mad at the kings for taking away his thunder, the disappointment of not being able to take the spotlight anymore was apparently worse.
Boz hadn't seen Lanny like that since Lanada got destroyed. That boy was hurt – not physically, but even emotional hurt still left a mark and took time to heal. He was still hurting.
Boz realized he'd never given a second thought about Lanny and his quest for revenge. When he first learned what Lanny had been trying to do, he did not really care about his cousin's evil side, because by then, he'd become kind of a good person. Boz never cared to learn what happened exactly to make Lanny feel so hurt and lash out, or even how to help him.
Lanny wanted to kill the kings to take their throne. Of course. But why?
Boz should look into that. After the Ceremony of Shame.
Brady, Boomer, and Boz got up the stairs, to their room, to prepare for their Ceremony of Shame. But the Makoolas hadn't decided on the outfit for the kings' ceremony yet, so Boz had a brief moment with them before they had to put on their costumes.
"Before you get dressed," Boz started the conversation, "can I tell you something?"
"Yeah, sure," Brady said. He spoke for both Boomer and himself, and they gave half of their attention to Boz – that is all the guard in training needed.
"Please don't ever touch something you're not supposed to touch," Boz told them. "We were lucky this ended well and I don't want to keep worrying about the fate of the island every other week." Boz took a breath. "That being said, I trust you and all, but if you do plan to do something stupid again, please involve me."
Boomer and Brady frowned.
"Why?" Boomer asked.
"Because at least Mikayla will worry less," Boz said, and he turned specifically to Brady. "You'd like Mikayla to worry less, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do." Brady nodded. Boz knew he'd have success if he threw Mikayla's name in the mix. If he stayed with them – whenever he could, with his training – he could keep them under control more. With a bit of luck, their stupidity wouldn't lead to disasters.
Boomer gasped as if he came up with the best idea. "Does that mean you're gonna sleep with us?"
"That's true," Brady said, sharing the same excitement with his brother. "You should sleep here!"
"What?" Boz reacted. That is not where he was going at all. But in their enthusiasm and Boz being frozen in place in confusion about the offer, Boz could not immediately shoot down the idea or even argue that this might not be their best idea. Would they expect him to sleep on the couch?
"Yeah, it's perfect!" Boomer said.
Boz shook his head. "I'm not—"
One of the servant girls walked into the room, two plastic bags in her hands. She smiled at the kings. She placed the bags on their beds.
"Here are your costumes, your majesties!" she said cheerfully, and she quickly left the room. Boz looked at the bags and before he knew it, Brady and Boomer were both digging into them, to see their costumes. Boz had lost their attention.
"Well, good luck with the ceremony," Boz said. He wasn't even sure they heard it before he left the room and started the stilted descent down the stairs. Though he got better at walking up and down the stairs with crutches every day, it was still very stilted.
Not even half an hour later, the kings were ready for the Ceremony of Shame. Mason beamed – finally, the true culprits were going to be punished and humiliated. It was weird to think Mason was going to enjoy the show, especially as he might normally not have enjoyed it as much. Then again, he had gone through the Ceremony of Shame, and maybe being openly happy with it was his way of taking revenge on the kings for their dishonesty.
"Come on out, Kings!" Mikayla called out. "You let down the kingdom, and now you're gonna pay!"
For the occasion, red curtains were hung before the double doors of the castle. Two guards pulled these curtains aside and revealed Brady and Boomer in their Shame costumes. They were dressed as babies, complete with pants that looked like diapers. Like many others in the courtyard, Boz laughed. It was a pretty funny sight.
And somehow, the kings did not even seem to mind. They walked closer with utter confidence, such as Boz had not expected to see.
"The joke's on them," Brady said with a cocky smile, "these are so comfortable!"
Boomer nodded in agreement. "Yeah, these diapers come in handy, too."
Brady's smile faded. There were no diapers included in the costumes. It was just made to look that way. Which had gotten completely over Boomer's head while he put on the costume, but which Brady had noticed.
Boomer was horrified, and the crowd laughed louder when they realized what had happened. Now they reached the point where both brothers were ashamed, as they should be.
"I guess the Ceremony of Shame has begun," Boomer said.