Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

Chapter 58: Turkey in the Tower

I felt a little bit of déjà vu as I crossed the marble stone bridge, because this was where the Noob exterminators (Madrey1 and Phantom) killed an innocent guard. I shuddered at the memory of the horrifying vision. I had no idea whatsoever where we were going.

We arrived at the other end of the bridge. Nearby us were two towering statues of knights. I walked past them, under the marble arch that led through the wall that blocked our vision of this place.

We were in a courtyard, and in front of us was one of the biggest castles I had ever seen. Possibly even bigger then the Varrock castle! The castle was made from shiny marble, like everything else in this glorious city.

The courtyard was made from stone bricks, with patches of grass, and a fountain in the shape of a knight spurting water. Knights in shining white armour with shining white swords marched around doing their business. With a jolt of realisation, I realised this was the infamous, glorious castle of the White Knights that Aubury was telling us about. This explained the statues and the knights marching around us.

A white knight in gold-trimmed white knight armour marched up to us. He held his sword to my neck.

"Halt! Intruders!" the white knight barked. He pulled up his visor, revealing a man with green eyes and brown hair glaring at us. "You will be escorted to Sir Amik Varze." I nodded nervously, afraid of annoying this obviously high-ranked white knight. Several white knights surrounded us, and we were ushered through a rather large oak-panelled door.

We were ushered through several corridors. White stone gleamed around us like suns. We passed pictures, decorations, statues, doors, and plenty of marble. Sooner or later we arrived at stairs spiralling upwards. I was poked in the back by a rather sharp sword. I hopped up the staircase.

After a while, and more pictures of the countryside, and portraits of famous white knights, we arrived at the obviously desired floor. This was apparent as I was poked again by a sword.

I'd walked into an office. Several bookshelves surrounded us, and golden or marble statues of white knights in battle stood, tall and proud. In front of us, a large yew desk, plated with gold, silver and white stone, stood. Sitting on a comfortable-looking chair, was a very powerful-looking man.

This man was tall, and muscled. He had jet black hair, and deep green eyes. His white armour was even more resplendent then the others, plus, there was a black metal name tag with the word 'commander' stamped into it in gold letters on his chest. His face was buoyant and full of life and colour.

"Greetings!" he laughed. "I am Sir Amik Varze, and who might you be?" he stopped smiling when he saw that we were surrounded by white knights holding swords to our necks. "What's wrong?" He asked, concerned. The white knight with gold-trimmed armour cleared his throat, and stepped forward.

"These people are intruders," he announced. "I'd like your permission to kill them." Sir Amik Varze gasped.

"Kill them?!!" he yelled. "We don't even know who they are yet, soldier!" he turned to us with a kinder expression on his face. "Please introduce yourself."

"Gladly, sir," I said, smiling back. "I am Mainiac97, and this is Osrie1, Capablanca, Amy11, Slinky, Aaron, and Mark."

His face registered comprehension at our names. "Aren't you that travelling bunch of kids who have been helping the Glory troopers that Aubury was telling me about?" he asked. I nodded, and his grin lit up the whole room.

"This is the ancient castle of the white knights," he explained seriously. "It was started by a very old ancestor, who wanted to protect the city of Falador from the black knights, a terrible enemy force that wanted to take over the town, and kill everyone in it. We are still here, protecting Falador from attack. Thanks for visiting. You are the perfect people who can help me!" He walked towards his window. "Look at that," he said, pointing out the window. I went next to him, and peered out.

I could see why he liked his office. The window overlooked several beautiful marble towers, shining like the sun. A stunning countryside was laid out below, like a colourful blanket.

Sir Amik Varze pointed towards a particular tower. "That's my private study," he explained. "I treasure it like it is my only son. I worked hard to build it. Downstairs, the castle chefs had caught several turkeys to turn into a huge dinner for tonight. But, the turkeys broke loose, and now they are on the run. They ran into my precious study and are wrecking it!" he looked close to tears. "I don't want to send in white knights, because it will result in blood and gore, which will cause a mess on the carpet. Could you and your friends dispose of it?" His eyes bore into mine, questioning. I thought hard. I didn't like the sound of killing wild turkeys. But, I didn't want to make enemies with the commander of a massive legion of knights.

"OK," I said at last. He grinned widely at me.

"Thank you," he said, giving me a small bow. "I will ask Cedric to guide you to the staircase that leads to my exquisite study." He gestured towards the white knight with gold-plated armour. Cedric glared at us, and walked off, gesturing for us to follow him. I followed uncertainly.

Cedric looked very angry.

"Look, just because my boss told me to take you to his study, it doesn't change my opinion of you," he hissed. "As far as I'm concerned, Glory troopers or not, you're still intruders on our territory and on my pride." I nodded sadly, realising I'd lost yet another potential friend.

After a few minutes of walking through several corridors, rooms and staircases, we arrived at the foot of stone spiral stairs. I peered up. I could hear strange noises coming from whatever was up there. I shivered anxiously.

"OK, up you go, you noble heroes," Cedric said sarcastically. "Go and slay horrific turkeys." I gave him a quick glare for his rudeness, and walked up, the others following nervously.

I walked up the staircase, and finally arrived at the tip. There was an oak-panelled door ahead of us. From behind it, I kept hearing the same strange sound. It was hard to describe. The best way I could describe it would be like someone drowning. I could hear repeated clucks, and a strange warble. I opened the door.

I was inside a beautiful room. Oak desks surrounded the area. Bookshelves lined the opposite walls, and the place was surrounded with red velvet rugs and comfortable couches. A large marble fireplace stood the other end, several logs lying inside, ready to be lit.

On the other hand, there were at least four turkeys running around like they were headless. They looked like overweight, brown-feathered chickens with red things hanging from their beaks. They were doing their strange sound repeatedly. They were in danger of smashing into something. I removed Silverlight from the pouch on my belt, when Osrie1 reached out an arm to stop me.

"Remember what Sir Amik Varze said? No gore," he whispered urgently. I sighed, nodded, and put the sword back into the pouch, thinking. How could I dispose of these turkeys without causing a mess?

I looked at the opposite end of the room, and saw the fireplace. I smiled to myself. I could handle cleaning up a fireplace. I pulled out my tinderbox, and ran towards it. I scratched the metal sharp bit against the sturdy wood logs lying in the fireplace. A spark lit up the whole thing. It crackled merrily, and didn't seem like it would be responsible for the deaths of several turkeys.

I grabbed a turkey-a big mistake. It went ballistic. It pecked at my head furiously, and painfully. I yelled, and endured the pain the writhing turkey was causing me. I lost a handful of hit points. I ran towards the fire, and threw the turkey inside.

The turkey didn't last very long. The flames surrounded and captured the turkey, and now all that remained was a pile of charred meat, bones, and feathers. I pulled the lump of burnt turkey out, and showed it to the others. I think I got the message across, as the other turkeys ran out of the room. I laughed, knowing the white knights would deal with them.

After extinguishing the flames and cleaning up the remains of the long-gone turkey, I went back downstairs. Cedric reluctantly took us back to Sir Amik Varze, who was delighted.

"We'll eat well tonight!" he practically squealed. "Thank you very, very much for getting those turkeys out! You are free to roam the castle. I'm sure you'll meet many new people and face many challenges in these halls! I can't give you much of a reward. I have cornucopias here."

"What are they?" I asked, as he gave us large hollow clay horns. He smiled back.

"It's an old Thanksgiving tradition," he explained. "If you put food in that, it will never rot. It will grow if you leave it overnight. It's very useful for my chefs. I also heard it makes you in one with your inner turkey." I stared at him, confused. He laughed at me. "Imagine a turkey. Will yourself inside that one turkey." I obliged, and the strangest thing happened-I turned into a turkey. I was shocked. I ran around for a minute, staring up at my friends angrily, who were howling with laughter at me. After a minute of laughter and clucking, I transformed back to normal.

"But that isn't it; here, I have some old magnifying glasses." He handed around several dusty magnifying glasses. "They aren't much, but they are very old, and they belonged to my father. If you look through at something, you may discover something you never noticed before." I thanked him profusely for everything. I left the room to explore. As I stared behind me, I was met with the cold glare of Cedric. I stared back, shocked, as I set out to explore the castle of the white knights.