Brody's idea worked like this, change the landscape around the house so a series of traps could be set up. The basic idea was to mess up the landscape around the house and fill every nook and cranny with booby traps. roughly fifteen or twenty yards from the house the land would dip down, make a trench and then go back up in a small hill before leveling out agian
"Ooooo!" The twins were getting some pretty good ideas about what they could contribute to this plan.
"I say we put those trap holes where the trenches are."
"Have some of them filled with snakes or spikes and the really deep ones don't have anything in them at all."
"Yes, yes! And when we cover the holes with grass or whatever we make them look like the danger spots are the safe spots."
"Huh?"
"You know, there has to be some space between the holes so we can go to and from the house right? Unless of course you have good confidence in your high jump. So the spaces between the real hole looks flat and even like no one has walked on it. At first glance the bad guys will think that's were the hole is so they don't walk on it…"
"And the spots with trodden grass is over the hole so it looks like that's where we've been walking so they think it's safe."
"And then," Brody finished. "They find that gravity always wins."
Luke did an overly casual walk until he purposely caught his foot on the carpet and dramatically fell flat on his face. Well, as dramatically as he could in the seven seconds it took him to fall. Lucus then sprung to his brothers side and tried to lift the limp body to a sitting up position.
"Come one buddy, you can't leave now, not like this. Remember all those things we promised to do together? Watch a shooting star, jump off a waterfall at least once…well, I guess that once is the only chance we'd get for waterfall jumping, depending on the height of the drop."
(believe it or not Luke was able to keep a straight face through that.)
"Brother? Hey brother is that you? I can hear you but everything has gone dark. Wait, I see this little pinprick of white light. It, it's getting bigger! It's so…pretty!"
"NO! No! Don't go toward the light!"
"But I can't help it, it's so beautiful!"
Just then Luke's body jolted as if he'd been electrocuted then went completely limp. Lucus did some fake blubbering and proceeded to cry on his brothers chest.
Anyone but brainless idiot with a heart of coal wouldn't have laughed, that's why Keith was the only one who was silent. Everyone else (save for the two pathetic actors) was almost in tears.
"So much…for…the…battle plans." Brody managed to say between gasps.
"Ah who needs battle plans?" Luke suddenly sprang back to life and jerked up, in the process bopping Lucus in the chin with his head. "We'll just make it up as we go." He looked around. "And we'll start as soon as everyone can breathe."
The breathing task took the good side of 5-10 minutes before everyone completely calmed down. Keith could only watch from the living room in disgust with his hands tied with grass snakes…literally. How can these people live like this? They're acting like their brains are made of jell-o.
For the rest of the day the team set up their traps to make their cozy home the ultimate death trap. Keith was left in a upstairs room, his hands held together with brick instead of woven grass. Since his escape was impossible nobody gave him another thought until the day was done.
Al used his alchemy to change the landscape as Brody described it. Each hill stood about four feet tall and each trench four feet deep and eight feet across. Edward circled the house and made a hole the width of the trench and six feet across. And just like the twins suggested, the trap holes what would have nothing in them were the deepest.
When the house was first approached you would come to a wall of grass and dirt. Evenly spaced in this circular mound a hole was dug into it, inside was one of Chanticleer's animal creations. (preferably monitor lizards or snakes) Each of these toothy monsters lay lifeless in their dug out that was covered with a blanket of grass to hide their existence.
Brody and Annie stuck small sticks and twigs into the dirt to mark off the safe spots, Dixie walked behind them and tied a white strip of cloth to each stick so it was more easily noticed.
Since nobody knew where to find a hoard of snakes Chanty's fake ones would have to do. Ren drew a picture of what the pattern of a poisonous snake looked like and a small piece of the paper was transmuted to each grass snake and the thorns of their teeth would be hollowed and then filled with poison. The thorn would be sharp enough to pierce skin but brittle enough to break apart and release the deadly liquid.
Lame, Clen and Mark sharpened the end of long wooden poles their alchemist friends had transmuted from an old chair to go in their trap holes.
The twins, Gox and Steve were acting upon an idea sparked by tweedle dee and tweedle dum. It all started when Goxlin flopped onto a feather pillow…but the fabric had been worn thin so when he flopped on it…it exploded. Feathers went FLOOF! Everywhere and that squeezed a good idea in the tiny space that the twins called their minds. They filled several dozen sacks (structure similar to a balloon) with dust collected from around the house or flour. With some trial and error the project was perfected so the sack was under intense pressure and any additional pressure applied too it made it explode. The trial and error part was so it didn't go 'POOF' at your feet instead it shot upward in your face. Even if the effect of the flour bombs being a distraction failed the bad guys would still look stupid with snow-white faces.
Since the pool couldn't be moved without destroying it-it was the only thing left untouched. But that still didn't make it safe. Dixie had come across a book of Scotland's Loch Ness monster and made it clear by vigorously pointing at the pictures that she wanted one in the pool. To make her happy (not like he could've resisted the puppy eyes she gave him) Chanty constructed another creature out of vines that looked like Nessie. With Al's help the eyes were golden with glittering ebony pupils shaped like slits that moved as though they were real. It obviously wasn't the size of a real plesiosaurus but it did fit comfortably in the deep end without being too visible. Lame insisted that one creature wasn't enough so squid was added; this way ten men could be grabbed at once if it was needed.
The trap setting took three days, counting the times things were checked and double-checked. The safe paths were all memorized but the sticks were kept in place just in case someone woke up and did something outside when they weren't fully awake. After everyone was one hundred percent positive that nothing more could be perfected or added to their now booby trapped backyard there was only one more thing left to do, find out how Keith and Ryan found them.
Chibi me – You're mean!
Me – yeah I know, now how could anyone get past all those traps unscathed?
Chibi me – No! I meant to me!
Me – (this comes as a surprise?) Explain.
Chibi me – That picture you drew was mean! First it starts out with you being nice to me and giving me something beautiful that I'd always wanted….
Me – Readers, just so we can get something straight, I was not on any drugs when the being-nice-to-Chibi idea came to my head.
Chibi me – And then it all turns out that I was dreaming and you're yelling at me to stop snoring! Which I don't!
Me – coughs yes she does coughs. Anyway, the reason Keith knew where to find them wasn't a mystery of the universe but it does satisfy the curiosity of those who were wondering. And by the sixth day Caradon and his siege of pawns does show up on Yoyo Manors doorstep and something really bad happens to somebody!