Chapter 03 Church
Quanktumspirit: "Enjoy."
After the Diablos had calmed down from the fright over meeting a fully-fledged dragon, everyone had to climb on her.
Donkey sat in the front, his children took flight, Puss behind him, then came the three Diablos and then Kitty, and last the Oger kids, Shrek and Fiona.
With a mighty Whoosh, Dragon sent herself into the air and flew as fast as she could towards the nearest church, which takes a while seeing as Shrek's swamp is surrounded by a huge forest.
The Diablos were still shaking, but after Puss stroked them a bit he smiled down at the kids.
"Just look to your side kids. We are now above Far Far away's forest." Puss smiles, "And look, there is the Poisoned Apple were you had your dinner last night."
The Diablos only reluctantly looked over Dragon's side. Dragon smirks and flew a few rounds over the establishment, before continuing her journey onwards.
"Its a lot faster than by horse dad." Timmy smiles. "It's also a wonderful feeling."
"I agree." Kitty beames.
The cats let the winter winds whoosh around their furs, Puss points out some more aspects, like Dulock's small kingdom, some lovely rivers underneath them and after long last, Dragon reaches Far Far Away.
Carefully landing in front of the church on this winters morning, everyone clambered off her and the Diablos beam.
"Wow, that is truly a lot faster than by horse. Thank you, Mrs Dragon." Perla smiles.
Dragon just snickers, "Your welcome dears. I'll see you in a few hours."
Because the Church was far too small for Dragon, without actually destroying it, Dragon just headed to a patch of grass at the side of the Church to lay down and go to sleep. Hers and Donkey's children flew underneath her wing and remained at the side of their mother, seeing as they weren't interested in the Church either.
Donkey smiles at his beloved, before everyone headed to the front door of the church. Once more Puss pulled the Diablos back and looks down at his children.
"Kids, we have to remove our hats when entering the Church, then find a place to sit down and listen to the church service. It will take about three hours, plus a lot of Christmas songs will be sung by the church choir ok?" Puss explained.
Timmy blinked, "Despite the fact we weren't christened, we are still welcomed?"
"Everyone is welcomed in the Church and by the lords hand my dear child." a deep male voice suddenly spoke up,
Puss smiles, "Merry Christmas Priest John Atemburg."
The Diablos now saw a Priest standing before them, dressed in his clothes and a soft smile on his face. He motioned them inside and Puss leads the Diablos round the church explaining a few things about the Christian belief.
Just then, more humans appeared, as well as King Arthur and Queen Guinevere dressed in their royal clothes.
"Diablos, I'm sure you are familiar with the King and Queen of the nation." Puss smiles at the kids.
King Arthur smiles, "Merry Christmas Mr Puss in Boots and everyone."
"Merry Christmas King Arthur and Queen Guinevere." The Diablos smile back before bowing down to them.
"Aw Puss, are these the Diablos and Kitty Softpaws?" Queen Guinevere asks.
Kitty smiles, "An honour to meet you two in person your highnesses. And yes we are."
The four cats bowed to them before the King and Queen took their places in the church. Puss smiles and they, the Shrek family all sat down as well.
The service was being held for a really long time. The Diablos sighed and almost fell asleep, as Perla suddenly straightened her ears out over Priest John's explanation over a tragedy that has befallen this wonderful church.
"And as we all know and still mourn, the great old church bell, Bella, hasn't rung a single note in over three years. I'm afraid the servicemen still haven't found the cure to help our old church chime once more." Priest John sighed.
Perla turns to her brother, "No chirming? Despite the fact, it's such a huge bell? Maybe we can fix it?"
Timmy nods his head and secretly, the three Diablos leave their paces and run to the side room, where the stairs to the bell tower lead.
Despite the fact there was a: Do not enter, sign hung up, the Diablos just jump over it and race up a winding and small staircase up to the bell tower.
Once there they found Bella easily, it's the only bell hanging in the old church. Carefully the Diablos push against the Bell together, and it seems to be still working. Timmy found a control panel and turned the bell on. It is indeed still moving, but as the big pendant was to strike the metal, no sound came from the bell, just a soft thud.
Quickly turning the bell off again, the three Diablos creep under the bell and look at it from the inside of the bell.
"There guy's." Perla smiled.
They found a bird has made its nest right around the old pedal inside the bell and was stopping it from ringing with billions of twigs, mud, leaves ect. The Diablos hiss and snap as they drove the bird out of the bell and away from the nest.
Next, they jumped each up at the pedal and started tearing the nest to shreds. Debry of leaves, twigs and feathers came crashing down, as well as freeing the pedal inside the old bell.
Back at the service, Puss just noticed how a birds feather came falling from the top of the church on his head.
"Hu? A feather?" Puss asked looking upwards towards the bell tower.
His eyes widen and he carefully nudges Kitty's side. "Dear, look up."
"What is-" Kitty asked as a few twigs fell on her head.
Looking upwards, the two cats saw movements in the upper bell tower. Looking around, Puss and Kitty quietly left the service and saw the back door to the bell tower wasn't closes. Silently they walked up the staircase and came across the Diablos, up to their usual tricks in the tower.
"there that should do it." Timmy smiles at their handy work.
"Diablos, what are you doing? This is all privately owned, we are not allowed to be up here." Puss snapps a bit disappointed.
"You three are supposed to follow the church service like everyone else," Kitty said equally upset.
Gonzalo sighs, "Sorry mother and father. But as the priest mentioned their main bell wasn't working anymore, we wanted to find out why. So we climbed the bell tower up and examined the problem."
"It turns out a bird has made its nest inside the bell and right round the pedal." Perla explains, "So we just came up, and started ripping the bird's nest to shreds as well as driving the bird away. So it should work now, we think."
Puss blinks and turns to Priest John. He looks at the kittens fairly surprised that no one of the repair services noticed that one detail.
Timmy hands him the bell string and he nods his head, Puss quickly runs with everyone back downstairs as they look up to Priest John.
"We are safe now," Puss calls up.
"Right." John calls back down.
With a mighty pull of the string the bell begins moving, John pulled harder and harder and before long came a mighty: Gong, gong, gong repeatedly.
Steadily, he lets the bell gong itself out, which took about 20 to 30 hits of the pendant before it shut itself back up again.
Overly joy John raced back down to the service, where all the church visitors looked at him in complete amazement.
"Oh John, you fixed it. A blessing has fallen upon your church, my dear." An elderly lady said smiling at him in complete amazement.
"Not me Mrs Lune." John smiled, beckoning the Diablos forward, "It was the help of these three clever individuals. The church thanks, you dear children."
Everyone cheers and applauds for the Diablos. As an extra thank you, one of the lady's that runs a gift shop close to the church got three snow globes representing the church the Dialos just helped.
"Here for you three as a started present for this Christmas." She smiles.
Perla blinks, "Oh, thank you, ma'am..."
"Um... what do we do with them?" Timmy asks her, looking at it confused.
Mrs Lune chuckles, "Shake it a bit, there you go. And hundreds of small birds begin flying around the church inside the snow globe."
The Diablos did as she asked and beam at the beautiful sighs, "Wow, thank you so much."
Everyone smiles at the kids, Puss beams and everyone then focused back on the service. But just as Puss was about to read in the church prayer book like the others, his mind freezes over.
'A starter present? Were the Diablos now expecting to get various presents from Santa too?' Puss knew from a young age that- never mind. But he knew for a fact that Shrek and Fiona have only bought gifts for themselves, their kids, Dragon, Donkey, the Dronkey's and himself.
There was not one single present for his beloved Diablos or Kitty Softpaws for that matter. Well, Puss has to sort that problem out fast. Looking at his clock, he saw it was only 12 noon now. Good so the toy shop should still be open.
Puss quickly moves in his seat to be right between Shrek and Fiona. Making them lose focus on the service and looking down at the orange cat in black boots.
"Puss, what is it?" Fiona asks.
Puss sighs, "Priest John has now told the Diablos about Santa and that they should expect presents from him this December evening. Yet I didn't go shopping for any toys or such just yet. I didn't even expect them or Kitty to be here this Christmas."
Shrek blinks, "Oh, your right Puss."
"So I got to go and buy for them whatever I can find. I think the Toy shop of Pinocchio and Geppetto is still open. I can quickly pop over there and see what hasn't been sold out yet to get for them." Puss offered. "But I will need some time."
"The service will last about another hour Puss, what should we then do afterwards?" Fiona asks.
Pus gives it a bit of thought, "I got it. Go over to the Ginger Bread man's home and bake with Gingy and everyone else some Christmas cookies. Just tell Kitty and the Diablos it's a Christmas treat that your kids love doing every Christmas and you promised them. Then once its done, return home. I should have everything then sorted out."
Shrek agrees and Puss thanks him. In a flash, Puss left the church and headed out into the snow to get to Geppetos home. Hopefully, it was still open.
Quanktumspirit: "Well all I can say is: Good luck Puss. Thanks for reading the tale, everyone. Please leave a comment before you leave the story."