Ch10 A New Friend
As they walked on Daniel seemed content to repeat his new name over and over making Cara smile at him *He's like a big kid* she thought.
"Daniel do you think we're going the right way?" she asked.
"I think so," he said still smiling before his face became serious and he looked at the ground "Cara?"
"Yes? What is it?" she replied slightly worried about his sudden change.
"Why did you give me a name?" he asked "And why do you not seem to mind me around you?"
Cara was surprised, she had always felt that way when around people, "Because I wanted to and I like being around you, you're my friend." Daniel looked at her in surprise and with a look almost as if he was going to cry, "What's wrong?" Cara asked kneeling so she could get down to his level.
"No ones… ever called me that… a friend. Never had them… just had to watch the door," his head was down as he spoke as if it was stupid for him to be telling her this.
Cara looked as if she was the one to cry now, she gently hugged the poor creature, she felt him tense slightly not used to contact from others. "Daniel I know what it's like to be alone, believe me but it's alright you don't have to be anymore. I'm your friend now and I always will be."
"Thank you," Daniel said barely above a whisper as he stood there not really knowing what to do but a warm smile on his face.
Cara let him go after a moment and stood up "Alright let's find our way through this place, what do you say?" she asked with a smile.
"Right" he responded as the continued to walk.
They hadn't gone far when they heard an enormous blood-curdling roar from somewhere nearby froze the two of them in their tracks. Daniel's hair stood up as one would normally see on a frightened cat and without thinking spun around and dashed off in the opposite direction from the roaring and vanished into the maze. "Daniel!" Cara called but he was gone. She heard another frightful roar, but stayed where she was. The monster, whatever it was, did not seem to be getting any closer to her. "Well," she said, speaking out loud to reassure herself, "I'm not going to be afraid. Things are not always what they seem in this
place." The sound came again, like a pride of starving lions roaring in unison. "It could be some tiny creature," Cara told herself, "perfectly harmless ... that just
happens to have a very loud voice ..." After all, by far the loudest person she knew at home was one of the babies she babysat, and he couldn't do you any harm. "Besides I can't just stop here if I do I'll never get Niki back." As she was not going to run away, the only alternative was to proceed in the direction they had been going, with some shred of faith that forward meant onward she moved tentatively along the hedge alley.
When she reached a gap in the hedge and peered cautiously through it, she saw that things were indeed not always what they seemed. The roar was coming from a terrifyingly huge beast, but the animal was upside down, suspended by one leg lashed to a tree. It was roaring with pain, because four goblins were tormenting it with nipper sticks, long poles with small, fierce creatures on the end of them that bit like piranhas whenever they were given the chance. The great beast, who was covered with shaggy, ginger hair, flailed out haplessly at the goblins, but the only result was that its body swung to and fro. That improved the game for the goblins, giving each of them the opportunity to dart in ahead of the others and get in a cruel thrust with the nipper stick before the bellowing, frantically swatting beast had completed its swing back. They were clearly having the time of their lives. They vied with each other in how soft a part
of the beast's body they could reach, and how long they could hold the nipping teeth in there before they had to jump out of the way of its desperate arms. So absorbed were they that she was able to leave the hedge and come closer without any risk of their noticing her.
Cara was appalled by the scene. "The little beasts!" she muttered to herself then she noticed someone in another gap in the hedge. *Sarah!* she thought, she was surprised but relieved to see her *Thank goodness she's alright.* Sarah was looking at the scene and seemed to be equally appalled then she noticed her, Sarah looked as if she'd cry out to her but Cara quickly placed a finger over her lips to let her know not to. Sarah understood and kept quiet but mouthed the words "What do we do?"
Cara looked around for a weapon to help the set the poor beast free and found some small rocks. "I have an idea," Cara mouthed back and pointed to the ground making Sarah very confused. She picked one up showing it to Sarah, took careful aim and threw it at the nearest goblin. It hit him on the head, knocking the visor of his helmet down over his eyes.
"Hey," the goblin exclaimed. "Who turned out the lights?"
He lurched around sightlessly, still swinging and thrusting out his nipper stick. The vicious creature on the end of the stick was glad to bite anything within its reach. When it made contact with another goblin, its teeth sank in.
"Ouch! Ouch!" the bitten goblin shrieked. "Hey, stop that, you."
"Stop what?" asked the first goblin, still prodding out unseeingly.
The second goblin was now under furious assault. "Aargh. Dog weed! Rat's meal!" Spitefully he retaliated by deliberately using his nipper stick.
Now it was the blinded goblin's turn to wail. "Help! Who's attacking me? Where are the lights?"
The other two goblins had paused in their tormenting of the beast. This was even better fun. They nudged each other and snickered as they watched the fight.
"Go to it!" one of them shouted.
"Get him!" yelled the other, hopping up and down in his excitement.
Sarah, who now understood, had armed herself with another little rock, and now she threw it. They were both was astonished at how accurate their aim was today. The rock hit one of the other goblins on the helmet, knocking down his visor. He staggered into his companion, and that one's visor slammed down, too, with the impact.
"Help," cried one.
"It's gone dark," squealed the other.
"What's happened?"
"Lights! Where are the lights?"
Meanwhile the first goblin, still visored and unable to see who was nipping him, decided that his only recourse was to take to his heels. Running blind, he crunched straight into the two others, who were both staggering now. His nipper stick seized its opportunity.
Cara shook her head but smiled and Sarah watched with tears of laughter in her eyes as three goblins dueled with each other, helmets over their faces, while the fourth went on cursing his wounds.
"Ouch! I'm being nipped."
"Help! Lights!"
"Ow. Stop it!"
"Worm rot! Teazel rash!"
The uproar faded as the pack of them pursued each other, yelling and yelping, crashing into hedges, falling over roots.
Sarah wiped her eyes, and her face became serious as she gazed at the great dangling beast. Having delivered it from its tormentors, she had half a mind to leave well enough alone, get Cara, and steal away. But she never had a chance for she saw Cara come out of her hiding place and approach the beast cautiously. Worrying for her Sarah left hers as well and walked up toward her. What the shaggy brute saw was more tormentors coming. It let out a terrible roar and aimed a great blow at them. Cara was careful to remain just out of reach and make sure Sarah was too. All the same, even to stand there and face the gigantic, inverted creature took more courage than she thought she had. She remembered having read somewhere that you have to speak firmly and with confidence to wild animals, she had always thought it was almost like with children when they needed to do something but wouldn't.
So, in her most perfect schoolteacher voice which she had practiced while babysitting, she told it, "Now, stop that."
Another great roar was on its way from the depths of the monster's
body, but the beast stopped in mid-roar when it heard itself thus
addressed. "Murh?" it said.
"Is that any way to treat someone who's
trying to help you?" asked Cara. "Don't you want me to get you down from that tree?"
The monster hung in there for a bit, reflecting on what its options
were. It craned its neck to look up at its tethered ankle, reflected again, and then turned its face to the girls before him. "Ludo -- down," it said. Its voice had become almost deferential. Its face was still fearsome, though -- ox like horns on its head, sunken eyes, an enormous jaw with a fang protruding at each end, and a broad gaping mouth that looked grim.
"Are you sure about this Cara?" Sarah asked as they approached.
Cara nodded; she felt its warm breath on her face as she stood beside the beast and twisted herself down from the waist to get a look at it the right way up. What she saw made her smile "Sarah take a look," Cara instructed.
Sarah was a but confused but proceeded to make herself get into the same position and, much to her own surprise, saw what had made Cara smile. The great mouth that had looked so grim, with its turned-down corners, had actually been, of course, smiling sweetly at her.
Not only was the monster grinning at her, it now blinked in a goofy
sort of way, which just could mean, I-am-in-a-pickle-aren't-I-but-
all-the-same-how-d'you-do-and-thanks-for-being-nice-to-me. Cara kept her warm smile that only seemed to grow as she looked at the creature, Sarah
returned a cautious smile. She was not going to credit this monster with being, uniquely in this place, what it seemed to be.
"Ludo -- down," it repeated.
"Ludo," Cara asked, "is that your name?"
"Ludo -- friend."
"Nice to meet you Ludo," Cara said as she ruffled Ludo's ginger head, between his horns.
He smiled, and sighed.
"Uh-uh." Sarah said as she straightened, sounding not completely convinced "I've had people say that to me before. So I'm not taking anything for granted. But ..." She shook her head and, more to herself than to Ludo, concluded, "Your eyes are just like Merlin's."
Cara straightened up and looked at the knot tethering Ludo's leg to
the branch. It was a simple bowline, which one could release with one
tug. As Cara reached for it Ludo suddenly sounded was another roar that made the rocks tremble.
Sarah leaped back. "I knew it! We can't trust anyone in this place. He's going to turn back into a raging monster the moment we let him down from here."
"No he's not, look." Cara pointed, "He's hurt."
Sarah then saw that Ludo, far from aiming a blow at them, was using his paws to rub one or two of the tenderest places where the goblins had bitten him with their nipper sticks.
"Ludo -- hurt," he moaned.
Sarah looked more closely at him. He was covered with little bleeding wounds, under his fur. "Oh," she cried, "you poor thing!"
"I noticed them when I was looking at him," Cara said "Now can you help me get him down?"
Sarah quickly went over, reached up, tugged at the rope, and released him. He would have hit the ground with a mighty thump but Cara made sure they both had a hold on the rope before Sarah released it so, through straining a bit, they lowered him to the ground gently. With deep little groans, he sat himself up, and began to rub his wounded head and the sores inflicted upon him. Cara went to check on him while Sarah watched him, even now uncertain whether she should expect him to thank them or eat them.
"Goblins -- mean to Ludo," he grimaced.
"Oh, I know." Cara spoke gently with reassurance. "They were terribly mean to you," she told Ludo. She moved closer to him and patted his arm. "But it's all right now."
He sniffled, still rubbing. Then his face broke into the most endearing big dumb smile they had ever seen, bigger and dumber even than in any cartoon, "Friend!" Ludo declared.
"That's right, Ludo. I'm Cara and that's Sarah."
"Cawa—friend. Sawah -- friend."
"Yes, I am." Cara smiled.
"Me too" said Sarah.
They couldn't smile big and dumb like that, but they gave him the best they could do. "And," she added, "I want to ask a favor of you, Ludo."
"Huh?"
"We have to get to the castle at the center of the Labyrinth. Do you know the way there?"
Ludo shook his great head, still beaming at them.
*He's like a big puppy,* Cara thought still smiling at him.
Sarah sighed, and her shoulders sagged. "You don't know the way either?"
Again, he shook his head, with a small frown of apology.
"I wonder if anyone knows how to get through the Labyrinth." Sarah sighed and rested her chin in her hand.
"Well we'll just find out own way then," Cara said hoping to lift Sarah's spirits, "We should get going I'm not sure how much time we have left."
Sarah nodded and stood up. Ludo stood with them, massively towering over the both of them. %He may be no guide, % Sarah thought, %but it's nice to have him on our side. % Then turning to Cara she asked "By the way Cara what happened to you? It had to have been better then what happened to me."
"Well," Cara started, "I was wondering around…"
