"Who are you, lady?" Brady shouted with an angry voice. Nancy did not take that well and was pissed, but luckily Mikayla has had an excuse ready since she learned angry amnesia was coming up.
"That's island talk for 'hello'," Mikayla said. "We used to say 'aloha', but some other island took it over."
While she spoke, Boomer and Boz were trying desperately to get Brady to come upstairs to change into tea robes and get him and his angry amnesia away from his family. As he was dealing with Brady, he did wish that he could be out there, fighting the Tarantulas instead – somehow, that seemed the least dangerous option. He'd take ay tarantula army any day over having to confront Nancy.
"Yo, why is this freak eyeballing me?" Brady exclaimed, eyes on Bill. His uncle looked offended, but Mikayla saved the day again by claiming that was island talk for goodbye.
At long last, they were away from Bill and Nancy and out of earshot. Now came the hardest part: getting Brady up the stairs to his room. He did not recognize Boomer, Boz, or Mikayla. He worked against them and fought their decision every step of the way. At long last, they dragged Brady into his bedroom, where he at least could be in a safe environment.
"Where am I?" Brady asked. "And why are you such a babe?"
This was the thirty-first time Brady asked that specific question. Not even angry amnesia could completely wipe his infatuation with the guard girl. Boz didn't know how she could answer the question again and again with such patience.
"I'm Mikayla, this is your room and you can't remember any of this 'cause you were stung by a Waka Waka bug." This time, she started to sound annoyed. If they weren't stung, they could at least handle the Tarantulas while Brady and Boomer could convince Nancy and Bill.
"Waka waka bug?" Brady sounded scared and angry as he turned his head to Boomer and then back to Mikayla. "What is that? And why are you such a babe?"
That question was getting on everyone's nerves. In the past, Boz might have liked this symptom the most in others, but now it was just annoying. How much longer would this take?
"Easy, bro," Boomer said. "Why don't you lie down?"
Brady pushed his brother's hand off of his shoulder.
"Would you zip it, bossy?" Brady sneered at him. "I'm gonna lie down."
Brady lay down on the bed. This rest only lasted seconds before his memory was wiped again and he sat up in angry confusion, his eyes on Boomer. He hadn't caught Mikayla yet, so no babe-question so far.
"Why am I laying down?" Brady asked. "Who are you?"
"I'm Boomer, your twin brother," Boomer answered as Brady looked at him with angry curiosity.
"You and me? Twins?" Brady said. He nodded. "Finally something makes sense."
"Don't worry, the symptoms will be over any second," Mikayla said. Finally! Boz would not be able to put up with his for much longer. "But the next one is bug eyes and we need to hide that during tea."
Brady frowned. "Bug eyes? What is that? And why are you such a babe?"
Boz shook his head. that crush ran so deep… sometimes it worried Boz just how infatuated Brady was with Mikayla. It almost made him glad that Mikayla didn't end up falling for him and marrying someone else in the future.
Then, Brady stood up from the bed. The anger had faded away, leaving only the confusion that came with the 'amnesia' part of this symptom.
"Whoa!" he said. "What happened. How did I end up here?" The questions were calmer – spoken with true confusion, without any hint of rage. Is hand shot to his ear and was glad to find it was normal-sized again. "Awesome, the elephant ear's gone."
"It's been gone for ten minutes," Boz told him. "You've been brought here because of the angry amnesia."
Brady frowned. "Was it bad?"
"Mostly annoying," Boz answered. Brady didn't understand what made it so annoying; maybe it was best that he didn't remember what he asked and how often he asked Mikayla that babe question. At least they were now halfway through and only needed to conceal three more symptoms.
"Now, get ready for tea," Mikayla told the kings. "Change into these clothes. We'll take care of the next symptom when it shows up."
As Boz couldn't really do anything in the kings' bedroom anymore, he and Mikayla decided he was going downstairs, to either help Mason cover for the kings or help Mahuma with the Tarantulas. From the kings' balcony, the situation did not look so good. He could just feel his priorities shift – the kings would be fine, Mason and Mikayla would help them. The Tarantulas, on the other hand, were a real threat. More real than Nancy, anyway, and Boz was itching to be out there and help out in the fight.
Once he entered the throne room, he noticed the couches were taken away. A round table was put in its place, with eight seats for each of them. Bill, Nancy, Lanny, and Mason already sat at the table, awaiting the arrival of the kings in their tea robes.
All in all, it was impressive they managed to get this table out here on such short notice.
Then Bill and Nancy noticed him.
"Hi," Boz said with a smile. "The kings are almost ready to join us. There are just a few more things they gotta take care of."
That answer satisfied Nancy, who turned to Mason again.
"In all fairness," she said. "Tarantula people and giant bugs… You told us this island would be safe for their return!"
"It was," Lanny said. "But then they showed up."
Maybe Boz shouldn't have allowed Lanny to be able to roam free after all. Still, there was little harm he could do, but it was annoying. Especially with everything that was going on.
"Scone, Lanny?" mason offered, pushing the scone in Lanny's mouth to silence him. Boz nodded approvingly. That was about right.
Someone crashed into the room from the side entrance. Boz turned his head and along with everyone, was looking at Mahuma. He looked roughened up; a barrage of arrows was lodged in the shield he was holding, leaving little space. Boz turned to Nancy, who was not happy.
"Somebody wanna explain that?" Nancy asked, pointing at Mahuma. Mason stood up from his chair, smiling nervously.
"That's just the guards playing a friendly game of arrow tag!" Mason said.
"It's a good training exercise, too," Boz added. He immediately turned to Mason. "Would you mind if I joined?"
Mason nodded. "Of course. Mahuma, get him a shield."
Boz walked over to Mahuma and they turned around the corner. The guards tasked with keeping the castle safe during the visit all had a load of arrows in their shields. Some pulled the arrows out of there, others were sharpening their machetes. It seemed they had just pushed back a wave of Tarantulas, and everyone was taking this reprieve to restock and recharge.
"Normally you'd have stayed with the kings," Mahuma told him. "But you can see the circumstances are less than ideal."
Mahuma handed Boz a shield and a machete. "Don't worry bout the arrows, just block them. we have archers, you don't need to shoot back. You just need to hit everything that tries to cross the courtyard."
Boz nodded. That was easy enough – let the archers puncture them with arrows, catch Tarantula arrows with the shield, and stop Tarantulas from advancing too far into the courtyard. He wished they could be more proactive in the fight, but as Mahuma had said, the circumstances were less than ideal. The less Nancy knew what was going on, the better. Therefore the archers, which were inferior compared to the machete-wielding forces of the castle. Therefore the more defensive stance, rather than the aggressive stance they would usually take. Therefore the silence, as it had to look like they were playing a game of arrow tag and not fighting a war.
Hopefully, Boz could help them out, even in a small way.
They had waited a long time, to the point that Boz wondered whether the Tarantulas had decided to withdraw from the fight. When Boz wanted to make a remark, the first of many Tarantula heads peeked over the wall again. They blew a horn – a sign to the other Tarantulas to start the fighting again. Mason would probably give it a proper explanation, so Bill and Nancy were none the wiser.
Boz gripped the machete a little tighter and looked ahead. He was ready to attack, but not to kill. Their pain was valid, but their bloodthirsty ways weren't the way to fix this little problem. They weren't killing the Tarantulas, but would not shy away from using enough violence to keep them out of the castle.
In the heat of the moment, Boz forgot all meaning of time and space as he struck the Tarantulas down who came too close to their line. Next to him, the other guards were doing the same thing, often raising their shields to protect from the barrage of arrows from the Tarantula archers. So far, nobody had faltered and the line withstood the relentless Tarantula attacks. But that could change at any time, and there were no more guards to hold back the wave of Tarantulas pushing against their line.
From the corner of his eye, Boz caught how about six Tarantulas snuck past the line and headed towards the castle. Boz quickly decided someone should go after them. He hold his neighbors to hold the line and then left, running after the Tarantulas. How had nobody else noticed this yet? It would be a disaster if they managed to get into the castle.
Boz quickly caught up with the group. He swung his machete and hit the Tarantula at the end of the group – he fell down with a short scream. The Tarantulas ahead heard him fall and turned around, standing face to face with Boz. Two of them stayed behind; the other three continued their route to the castle.
Boz attacked the two right as Mahuma joined him. Boz took care of one of them, while Mahuma kicked the other Tarantula's butt. The two fell on the ground almost at the same time and Boz and Mahuma looked at each other.
"You broke the line," Mahuma said.
"So did you," Boz said. He had gone away from the line as well.
"To help you," Mahuma said and he sighed. "Go back in line. I'll go after the others."
Boz almost protested – he wanted to go as well, to protect the kings. It's just three Tarantulas, he could take it. But he knew better than to argue with Mahuma, so he nodded and returned to his place, where he was almost immediately hit with an enemy arrow.
The fighting was winding down. The Tarantulas started to retreat again, trying to catch any eager guard stupid enough to run towards the retreating enemy. None of the guards in the line were that stupid, though, and the Tarantulas just retreated back again, to rest a little, discuss battle plans for the next wave, and it gave the guards themselves a bit of a respite.
A woman screamed loudly from behind. The guards, including Boz, turned around and stared at the castle. Boz's face paled. He was certain that scream belonged to Nancy, and his heart dropped. The Tarantulas had found her. They had found her and the worst possible scenario had happened. Mahuma had been too slow.
Instinct kicked in Boz and a couple of others ran back to the castle, to Nancy and the three Tarantulas that held Nancy. They were ready to attack, but the Tarantulas dropped the woman and they screamed. The trio ran past the guards without hesitation.
Then came the monstrosity that had scared the Tarantulas away. Some of the guards let out a yelp, one of them laughed and Boz almost dropped his machete. Brady had come and scared the Tarantulas away with his pumpkin head. Which was very creepy, or funny according to the one guard who was trying not to laugh at the king in his face Boz leaned more to the 'creepy' side and could barely watch it for more than a few seconds.
"Yeah, that's right," Brady said. "Spider boys can't handle the king Brady!" He seemed oblivious to the fact that his head was a giant pumpkin. Behind him came Mikayla and Mason, Boomer and Lanny, for some reason. Mikayla approached Brady.
"You mean you showed up not knowing what you look like?"
Brady frowned in confusion. "Why? What do I look like?"
The strange looks on his friends and family's faces was enough to worry him. He tried to look for a mirror and to run his hand through his hair. But his hair was gone, so it hit the pumpkin interior instead. He had to touch it a few more times to realize what had happened and Brady screamed. His scream drew the attention of his aunt and uncle, who finally noticed that something was very wrong with Brady today.
Boomer immediately approached his aunt and uncle with a defensive stance. In the meantime, the guards around Boz decided to leave them be, to rest with the other guards, waiting for the next wave of Tarantulas. That threat was still real enough. But Boz stuck around for a while; he wanted to know how this ended.
"Okay," Boomer said, "We know this looks bad, but please just let us explain."
"The boy is a pumpkin!" Nancy shouted. Boz didn't want to leave her clueless, so he stepped in.
"It's only temporary," Boz tried to calm her, "it'll wear off eventually. Just give it a few more minutes."
Nancy and Bill were not too happy with that answer, though, still in shock. Boz stepped back again and gave Mason the space to talk to Nancy and Bill. He was better at explaining the situation than Boz could ever be. He talked about the island being dangerous, but that the Kings were capable of handling these dangers. And even then, the Makoolas would be there to help them out and look after them.
Still, Nancy and Bill – more so Nancy than Bill – had their thoughts.
"No one can protect you like your family!" Nancy said. Boz thought the way she was protective of Brady and Boomer was admirable, but she should also learn to let go of them.
"But aunt Nancy," Brady said, "this is our new family! Like little Lanny over here! He's our new little cousin. He's just so cute you wanna squeeze the life out of him!"
Brady had pulled Lanny closer to him, which Lanny did not appreciate.
"Feeling's mutual," Lanny muttered disinterestedly.
"And Mason and Boz!" Boomer continued showcasing their new family on Kinkow. Boz smiled, proud that it was Boomer who mentioned him. "They're like the big brothers who always watch out for us, one of them lifting weights all day, and the other one shadowing us constantly."
"Then there's Mikayla," Brady said, looking at her. "Sweet Mikayla, who could be a part of our family if she plays her cards right."
"Just stop talking," Mikayla whispered at him, and Brady nodded. That was very weird, and Boz wondered how that would come across to Bill and Nancy – maybe Nancy was glad one of her boys found a girl.
"With that said," Boomer said, "can we stay?"
For a while, Nancy remained silent, which unnerved everyone.
"Look, boys," she said. "All I wanted to do was make sure you're safe. That's what I promised your mother. But with the bravery I've seen and the new family, I think you'll be fine."
The kings jumped in happiness and hugged each other. Then they pulled Bill and Nancy into the embrace, too, and Boz could only watch with a smile on his face. He wanted to be part of the hug, too, but Boz knew better than to join in. This was Brady and Boomer's moment, not his.
That was one problem solved, and soon Nancy and Bill were put back on a balloon to the mainland. Somehow, they hadn't noticed the full-out war at the castle's gates. As far as they knew, the Tarantulas had been stragglers that were taken care of. Mason went out to negotiate peace, and made the promise that Brady and Boomer would be present to rebuild the gravestones. The kings protested when they learned this, but they were hoisted into their official robes and sent to the gravestones they knocked over. They were bored throughout, but they were respectful and fearful of the Tarantulas and at the end of the day, there was peace between the Tarantulas and Kinkow again. It was frail, but there was peace. And that was all that mattered.
Until the kings messed up again. But still, peace was peace.