Virginia dug and swept feverishly at the mound of land a few miles away from her back yard. She and Blake chose this spot to build their cozy home two months before they got married because Blake knew that Virginia would love digging for something ancient and, with luck, might able to find something. Norman was beside to help as Max was still grounded and locked up in his room. The poor boy wasn’t let out of his room yet, although he was regularly fed his 3 meals a day (and some snacks in between if Norman could slip him some). Virginia could be really obstinate and firm sometimes.
As she dug and dusted, she soon found something solid beneath the sandy soil. Quickly, she called for Norman to assist her in dusting and sweeping off the sand while she used a small spade to dig and pry out the thing that was hidden beneath it. After long hours of work (probably close to sundown), she and Norman had finally found what was hidden beneath the sand and dirt: a huge skeleton of a large dinosaur, probably 50 feet tall and more than 100 feet long starting from the head to the tail. She couldn’t see what kind of dinosaur was this, but one thing’s for sure: she had finally found something in this provincial village that could prove that she wasn’t a nutter after all.
“I found it! I’ve finally found something ancient beneath this earth! I knew there was something out here! I just had to persevere!” Virginia said with glee, wiping her sweaty brow, only to smudge it with more dirt.
“You did it, ma’am! You really did it!” Norman cheered with glee, feeling the same happiness she was feeling right now. Virginia jumped and hugged him. It took them about 5 to 10 seconds to realize that they were in each other’s embrace before they hastily let go of each other. Norman quickly cleared his throat.
“Blake would’ve been very proud if he knew you have finally succeeded.”
“Yes, yes, that’s right…” Virginia couldn’t help blushing. What was she doing? Has she…? She didn’t dare to think about it.
“You ought to get ready and send this to the site,” Norman muttered sheepishly. “Or do you want the people from the site come here and get them?”
“No. No, I want to deliver these bones personally to them. The last time I let them come to get one of my finds, they took all the credit. Not this time around. This babe is mine.”
“So, uh, are you gonna start packing?” Norman asked. “I can help.”
“Later,” Virginia said as she moved towards the house. “I need to meet someone first.”
WarMonger sat there alone, gazing down at the village as usual. Thor tried to make conversation with him but he seemed to be not on Earth. Feeling bored, WarMonger decided to go downstairs to check out and see if there was any new blood coming to join the church. As he moved slowly down, he was shocked to see that his saviour Virginia was in the church wearing a respectable dress and looking around as if looking for something or someone. He stood there stock and dazed. What was she doing here in the church? He had never seen her coming to church before and he had never seen her so pretty in that dress. The first time they met, she was wearing a shirt and an overall. With her blonde hair billowing at her wake, she looked magnificently beautiful. He couldn’t help feeling mesmerized and captivated by this sheer beauty.
Was he beginning to fall in love…?
“You there, bell-ringer! What are you doing down here again? Haven’t you caused enough trouble already?”
WarMonger was struck back into his senses when he heard the shout of the bishop. The old man still hasn’t had any liking for him and he certainly didn’t want to make him hate him even more. He immediately ran up the stairs out of sight before the people who come to pray in the church saw him and got scared. Virginia caught a glimpse of his red body and gave chase.
“Wait! I want to talk to you!”
WarMonger didn’t stop. He continued to run higher and higher into the bowels of his domain: the bell-tower. Thor heard the commotion and crawled quickly down to see. When he saw Virginia running and trying to catch up with the nimble-footed WarMonger, he tried to stop WarMonger from running, egging him on about her.
“Hey, you don’t get dames who would chase you wanting for you!” Thor said excitedly. “Go on, talk to her!”
“I can’t…I…” WarMonger wanted to get away but Virginia finally caught up with him. Thor turned into stone just in time.
“There you are. I though I’ve lost you. You’re a fast runner for someone as short and stout as you.”
“I, uh, I have loads of…chores to do…and, uh, I’m a very busy man…” WarMonger stuttered sheepishly, feeling his face burn. “It’s nice meeting you…again…”
How lame could he get?! He finally had a chance to talk to this beautiful young woman properly and yet he busted it by saying such a lame excuse as this! He groaned and ran back up to his ‘chambers’. Virginia followed suite.
“Wait! I’m sorry about yesterday, I mean, I didn’t know it was actually your face. If I knew, I wouldn’t have dragged you to sign up for the…contest…”
Her words stopped short when she finally came up to WarMonger’s ‘home’. It was a magnificent sight to behold, with old statues prepped up and arranged in a decorative order, stained glass hanging from the ceiling and clinking like wind chimes, the furniture (though little) placed in order and perfectly cleaned, and the most beautiful attraction of all was a whole mini version of the village and its people gathered around on his table. It was a fabulous place.
“What is this place?” Virginia asked in awe.
“This is where I live,” WarMonger replied, trying to hide in a darker corner as if his place was really an embarrassing sight. Virginia fingered the stained glass and the miniature village.
“Did you…make all these things yourself?”
“Most of them.”
“Wow! That’s my home! And that’s my son and his friends and their school and…oh my God, it’s the blacksmith and the baker! You are a wonderful person, WarMonger. If everyone were able to overlook your grotesque figure, they might be able to see how magnificent you are!”
“You’re just being kind,” WarMonger replied sheepishly.
“No, seriously! If you were my boyfriend I would be so proud.”
“Your boyfriend wouldn’t like it.”
Virginia blushed a little as she comprehended what he meant. She shook her hand and replied, “Oh no, you’ve mistaken. That’s not my boyfriend, that’s my butler. He was one of my late husband’s loyal crews and he works for me after he died.”
“I’m sorry about that,” WarMonger said apologetically.
“It’s no big. It was a long time ago,” Virginia said half-truthfully; her heart still ached at upon thinking of him and she really hated the sea for that fateful day she heard the news of Blake’s death.
“Come on, I’ll show you around, if you don’t mind,” WarMonger decided to embrace this chance to actually interact with her. He took her around the bell-tower, introducing her to all the bells he had to tow every hour by the hour. All of his bells have names, from Lucy and Suzy (“They’re twins”) to Ally, Carrie and Stacey (“Triplets”) and Big Marie, the biggest bell of all. Finally, he took her up to the top of the tower and they could see the sunset, its dimming rays shone majestically over the horizon. Virginia couldn’t help being awed by this astounding scene.
“This is so beautiful,” Virginia sighed. “I could stay up here forever.”
“You could, you know,” WarMonger said hopefully.
“Nah, I don’t do church life. Besides, I got a son to feed. A woman’s gotta do what a woman’s gotta do to keep the family alive, just like everybody else.”
“But you’re not like other people, they’re…evil.”
“Who told you that?” Virginia asked, taken aback by such comment.
“My master, SkullMaster. He raised me,” WarMonger replied timidly.
“He sounds like some cruel overlord from the underworld,” Virginia muttered, resulting from a shocked look on WarMonger’s face.
“Cruel?! No, he’s not cruel! He’s never that! He saved my life. He took me in when no one else would. I’m a monster, you know.”
“And he told you that?”
“Look at me.”
Virginia wrinkled her nose. Someone who saved his life and took him in would never ever tell him that he’s ugly. She stared intently back at WarMonger into his yellow devilish eyes for a full 5 minutes before saying, “I don’t see anything.”
“See what?” WarMonger asked.
“I don’t see anything that relates you to a monster. In fact, I don’t think you’re a monster at all. You’re just a regular teenage boy who needs some serious attitude adjustment, that’s all. Now you look at me, do you think I’m evil like the rest of the people?”
“No! No, no, no, of course not!” WarMonger replied, horrified and utterly taken aback by Virginia’s sudden comment about herself. “You’re kind and good and pure and beautiful and…”
“OK, OK, I get the idea,” Virginia chuckled at WarMonger’s attitude of taking things too seriously. “Look, I came here because I wanna explain myself and also to tell you that I’ll be leaving this village for the time being.”
“You’re leaving?” WarMonger cried. “Where? Where are you going? We just got to know each other!”
“I’ll be away for just a while. I dug a great artifact and I’m going to take it to my archaeology HQ. I’ll be back soon, don’t worry.”
WarMonger frowned; his face didn’t seem convinced at her words. Virginia smiled and dug her pocket. She took WarMonger’s hand and put something onto his palm. WarMonger opened his palm and saw that it was a locket. He opened the locket and saw that it was a tiny picture of her posing with Max and Norman near the jetty.
“If you ever start thinking of me, just look into this locket and always remember that I’m your friend and I’ll always be in your heart, no matter what,” Virginia said kindly, then looked at her watch and said, “Oh, I gotta get ready. As much as I dread taking the boat and loathe the sea, those bones have to be sent there immediately and I want it to get there before tomorrow afternoon. It’s a real long journey from here to there, you know.”
So saying, she leaned forward and gave WarMonger a peck on the forehead just like she always did when she wanted to kiss her son goodbye or goodnight before she left. WarMonger was dumbstruck for a moment and when he had finally got back to his senses, she has already stepped out of the cathedral and into the streets. He stared and stared until she disappeared soundlessly into her home.
“Way to go, lover boy! You’ve got her liking you!” Thor suddenly came from behind and butted him on the back with his head. WarMonger smiled sheepishly and scratched his chin for no particular reason.
“Lover boy? I…don’t really think so…”
“Oh, don’t be modest, WarMonger. She has the hicks for you!”
“Look,” WarMonger said as he walked towards his table of the miniature village. “I appreciate everything you’re trying to say, but I’m sure she has better things to do, like managing her son and such. And further more,” he pointed at his face, “winner of the horror face contest, remember? I don’t think I’m her type anyway.”
“Right…” Thor said slyly, not thoroughly convinced. WarMonger silently took out his materials and, with nimble hands, started carving a small new miniature model of Virginia, the one that he had missed out among all the miniature models he did. He painted her up and placed her near her home near her son. Thor admired the way he could do such things in such a short time without a single flaw. WarMonger took a look at the locket she gave him before walking up to the bells, ready to toll them.
As he tolled the bells, he smiled blissfully for the first time in his life.
Max sulked in his room, bored to death. He still wasn’t out of his grounded sentence yet and he had read his comics almost a dozen times. He didn’t want to beg Norman to let him out of the room because he didn’t want to cause Norman any trouble, but he couldn’t find a way out of his room. Most importantly, he was missing his Princess Phoebe terribly. How he wished he was under the sea, swimming around to his heart’s content and stare and stare at the beautiful mermaid princess like he had never stared at anyone before in his whole life. How he wished he could be in her arms and whisper sweet nothings to her and caress her skin and kiss her until the end of time, before the Prince Drakeb, his potential rival comes swimming along and take her away right under his nose.
“Max, you there?” his mother was heard knocking at his door.
“Yeah, I’m here. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”
A moment of silence wavered for a second or so. He knew that he had annoyed his mother. He couldn’t care less. If he couldn’t go out to sea, he might as well spite her for it. Soon, his mother’s voice was heard again, “I have finally discovered a fossil at our site. I’m gonna take it out to the HQ and I’m leaving tonight.”
“Yeah, swell,” Max said briefly.
“I gotta go now. You take care.”
“Whatever.”
Footsteps were heard. His mother has left the building. Well, good riddance for now. Judging from Norman’s habits, as soon as his mother has completely left, he was sure to let him out of the room as a treat…or would he? He had noticed that Norman had the hicks for his mother and was sure that he would do anything for her, and that means not letting him out of the room unless she says so. Max sighed. There’s always a 50-50 for everything.
“Poor child. Poor sweet child.”
“He has a very serious problem. What might that be?”
Max spun round and saw something dark and gloomy, like two black clouds hovering around his room. As the black billowing clouds came into focus, he noticed that it was like a couple of strikingly beautiful women floating around in spirit form, only that they were really black in colour, like smoke. They do smell a little bit like incense and every time they spoke, there was a hiss in the background, like they were surrounded by snakes or something.
“Who…Who the hell are you?” Max asked, backing away.
“Our master sends us. He sensed that you need his help,” one of them grinned cunningly.
“Who is your master? I don’t know anything about him and I didn’t ask for his help!”
“Oh, but you do! You have a wanting, a yearning to go out to the vast blue out there and meet your sweet, beautiful little sea creature now, haven’t you?” the other looked at Max in malice, all the while following her companion as they slipped and slid gracefully among the seams of his furniture.
“How did you know?”
“Our master has his ways of knowing things. He is the Great SkullMaster, the man that has been keeping this village alive and its welfare secured. And he knows that you yearn for that sea creature so much that you would be willing to do anything for her.”
“Think about it, little boy. The Great SkullMaster giving you all that you have been dreaming of for such a long, long time, for just a reasonable payment. You can be with your sea creature together forever in perfect harmony.”
Max was slowly tempted, but he couldn’t believe that this mysterious SkullMaster was making a living out of looking into people’s secrets and prying into people’s privacy. He frowned and said, “No, I don’t need your help. You two look evil enough to tell me that your master is up to no good! Go back and tell your master that! Get out of here, leave me alone!”
“Suit yourself,” one of the spirits said nonchalantly. “But I must say that is a very unwise decision.”
“Once in a lifetime, boy,” the other spirit said as she deliberately dropped something onto the carpet floor before leaving, passing through the door. Max turned to look and saw that the thing dropped on the floor was a fragment from Princess Phoebe’s statue and it was her face.
Her face so mesmerizing, so ultimately beautiful and so bewitching. The spirits spoke the truth—he would go to the ends of the earth just to be with her. Now that there’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for him to do so, why shouldn’t he be doing it? Why give it up? It was right there, served in a silver platter right before him, what has he got to lose? He had made his decision.
“Hey, girls, wait!”
“Yeeeeeeeesssssssssss~?” the spirits’ snake-like voices rang through the whole house and the door which was locked ever since he was grounded mysteriously opened.
Friday, May 5, 2017
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 6
WarMonger widened his eyes in awe at what he had seen around him. Everything looks perfectly different up close. He never thought that he had to look up to see the boats and ships in the jetty. He never thought that bread would smell so good at a close range. He never thought that the people he had observed from above looked so different when seen face to face. He never knew that there were more than just bibles to read out in the open road (obviously he has stumbled upon Max’s favourite haunt). He never knew that there were so many things out here he had never known before. It was like heaven just walking around among the people just like any other regular guy.
Of course, he had to keep himself cloaked and unnoticed. He didn’t want to risk scaring people with his looks for he knew he was ugly—he scared a girl once in church—and most importantly, he didn’t want to be found by his master.
He noticed that the whole town was looking lively and enthusiastic and they were walking about getting ready for a big occasion. He recognized the things they were carrying around the village were mostly coloured flags and balloons and all kinds of festivity stuff meant for the anniversary of the village. Looks like he came down just in time. He could see people shouting out to sell their things at half of the cost and the whole place was full of life and full of hustle and bustle of people. He was really enjoying the preparation for this festive day.
He was so engrossed with his surroundings that he didn’t notice Virginia Deanhart and her butler Norman walking from the opposite direction. He bumped into them and scattered all the groceries the two had bought. His cloak almost fell off but WarMonger immediately cloaked it back.
“Hey, watch where you’re going, boy!” Norman said as he ran around chasing the oranges that rolled out of the shopping bags.
“I’m sorry,” WarMonger replied, pulling his hood closer and lower to his face. “I’m really, really sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“Norman, it was an accident,” Virginia said while turning towards the cowering WarMonger. “You’re scaring the poor boy! You’re not hurt, are you, boy? Here, let me have a look.”
WarMonger was horrified. She was going to remove his hood and let her see his hideous face! What would happen if she does see his face? She might probably scream and her boyfriend would clobber him like a punching bag! Despite WarMonger’s “No! No!” protests, Virginia looked into his hood and saw his face. He was expecting her to scream, but weird enough, she just smiled.
“See? No harm done. I guess he’s alright,” Virginia said sweetly in spite of Norman’s screwed-up face of utter disgust.
WarMonger was quite at lost of words. She didn’t scream or back away in fright at all. She even smiled at him like he was just someone else, an ordinary someone else. And she was so pretty with her golden blonde hair and striking dark-blue eyes, like one of the angels in the stained glass of the cathedral. He had looked over the village from his bell-tower and he was sure that he had never seen anything as beautiful as her. Well, even if he did see her, she was about 10, 15 or maybe 20 feet below him to be seen clearly.
“Just try to be a little more careful, OK?” Virginia’s motherly voice brought him back to reality. Norman was looking at him like he had seen a decomposing corpse or something.
“I…I will. Thank you very much,” WarMonger almost stuttered. He was amazed that she didn’t even shudder at his raspy voice.
“By the way, are you joining in the Horror Face Contest?”
“What?” WarMonger was surprised at Virginia’s question.
Virginia pointed at the sign post a few feet away from where they were standing, just opposite the bakery shop. It bears the banner writing in bold ‘HORROR FACE CONTEST: REGISTER HERE’. She said cheerfully, “It’s our main attraction for tomorrow’s Fishermen’s Friend 25th Anniversary. That is why you’re wearing that great mask, right?”
“Err…yeah. Yeah, that’s right,” WarMonger lied, not knowing what else to say. “I’m opting for the contest and give them a great scare of their life. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll…”
“Let me go with you!” Virginia said enthusiastically, pulling WarMonger’s arm without caring if he wanted it or not. “I’ll help you register; the boy sitting there at the counter is my son’s best friend.”
Despite his kind refusal, Virginia dragged WarMonger all the way towards the counter where Felix and Bea were sitting and taking in contestants. They shrank a little when they saw Mrs. Deanhart coming—they have heard about her locking Max up in his room and not letting him out in case he had any bright ideas going down to the sea—but when they saw her dragging someone short and built along with her, they guessed that she was up to her hospitality moods again.
“Hey there, Mrs. Deanhart,” Bea greeted Virginia. “Who do we have here?”
“This boy here wants to participate in the contest,” Virginia said as she pointed at the cowering WarMonger. “Don’t be shy, boy. Go on and tell him your name.”
“W…WarMonger…” the bell-ringer said timidly and Felix scribbled it down, wrinkling his nose at this weird name.
“Mind if we have a premiere of what you’re going to present for tomorrow’s contest?”
“Show him, WarMonger,” Virginia coaxed. WarMonger hesitated before finally lowering his hood to reveal his face. Everyone present gasped at his appearance, except Virginia who looked more impressed as she continued staring at him. “Now that’s what I call a horror face!”
“Hey, dude,” Felix said with a half-impressed-half-shocked look on his face. “Would you mind taking that mask off so that I can get a closer look? This mask must be the work of an artist.”
“Um…err…I…I can’t…you don’t want to touch me…” WarMonger hesitated, inching his way from the counter but Virginia got him firmly.
“Don’t be silly, WarMonger. It’s just a mask, take it off and let me see how you really look like. You must be handsome beneath that grotesque mask of yours.”
Still, WarMonger shook his head. He wanted to run away before he caused more trouble but Virginia caught him firmly on the face. She pulled and tugged but the ‘mask’ won’t come off. Finally, when she realized that she was hurting the boy, she gasped and let go. Her sudden movement loosened the cloak he was putting on and it slid off his body, showing the rest of his red skin. Everyone else gasped too as they realized what was going on.
“That’s not a mask!” Norman said, quite horrified.
“It’s his face!” Bea joined in, shocked.
“Woah, hideous, man! Funky but hideous!” Felix agreed.
“It’s must the legendary bell-ringer of the cathedral!” someone else exclaimed. “I have got a glance of him before!”
Everyone began to mutter and give rude comments about him. As they were too engrossed in being grossed out by WarMonger’s appearance, they didn’t realize that their mysterious funding man of the village, SkullMaster, was walking around trying to check out the village and see if there were any outsiders to be of good use to him. He saw the crowd and he saw WarMonger cowering and trying to hide his face from them, wanting to look for a way out and back to the cathedral. His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits but he didn’t attempt to get him out of the situation. He just stood there and watched.
“Well, he’s not welcomed even if he has the most horror face in the contest! He’s to win for sure!” one of the men in the crowd yelled. “That’s not fair!”
“Yeah! I want to win! I’ve been waiting all year for this!”
“Get him out of here!”
“He’s scaring the children!”
In the midst of all the shouting and protests, someone flung an egg at the poor bell-ringer. The others followed suite, throwing tomatoes and fruits and other rotten stuff at him. WarMonger soon found himself showered with food of all kinds, and none of them want to let him go until they had satisfied themselves of making him a wretched fool. WarMonger caught a glimpse of his master in the middle of the crowd—he could recognize him even when he is in his long, billowing cloak and dark hood. He yelled out desperately.
“Master! Master, please help me! Master!”
SkullMaster just stood there watching, not wanting to help. He wanted to teach this disobedient boy of his a lesson.
Suddenly, all went quiet. Everyone stopped throwing their food halfway through. SkullMaster was surprised at the sudden silence and craned his neck to watch. In the middle of the crowd, shielding the bell-ringer was Virginia, drenched in sour milk and stained with tomato juice and egg yolks. Everyone was surprised; why did this archaeologist nutter, mother of the most handsome boy in the village, want to help a wretched being from hell like him? She stood up abruptly and yelled at the top of her lungs.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself! How could you mistreat this unfortunate person?! Sure, he may be hideous and he may be a joke, but he’s a human being, just like the rest of us! He just looks different than us, that’s all! Why are you doing this to him? Why aren’t you doing this to the miller’s son who’s a bit retarded or the beggar who had been begging in our village for the last couple of years? Why him? Why now? You care about those people but you are cruel to this being who needed most of our attention! I’m sure this is the first time he’s out in the world and you’re giving him a hard time! If I were to do this to your sons or daughters, how would you feel?! Shame on you all!!”
Everyone put down whatever they were holding timidly and looked away, feeling awkward. They had to admit that Virginia was right—they have been too harsh on WarMonger. Virginia turned slowly towards the red boy and offered him her hanky, whispering, “I’m sorry, boy. This isn’t supposed to happen.”
Soon, the sky darkened and it began to rain, as if it was a cue for everyone to leave and make a way for WarMonger to go back to his cathedral. The rain slowly washed away the dirt off WarMonger. He refused Virginia’s hanky and ran helter-skelter towards the direction of the cathedral. In the midway, he bumped into his master, who was glaring at him with his cold, unkind eyes. He lowered his head in shame and whispered, “I’m sorry, master. I will never disobey you again.”
SkullMaster kept quiet, but made way for the boy to go home where he belonged. WarMonger ran and ran and didn’t stop until he was standing in front of the church’s open door. He slipped into it and closed it quietly, not wanting to alarm the church members that he was out of the bell-tower. He was trained to keep out of sight as much as possible and he did a good job avoiding anyone who came in his way. But as he climbed up the stairs to his beloved bell-tower, he couldn’t avoid the archdeacon. They stared at each other as if they were speaking to each other with their eyes and not their mouth, and they seemed to comprehend each other’s meaning. The archdeacon nodded before letting WarMonger continue his way up the bell-tower.
WarMonger didn’t speak a word for the rest of the day, and Thor was wise not to talk to him until he felt like talking. He did everything in silence until the rain stopped and the moon rose up into the sky before he finally broke down and cried on Thor’s spiky back. It was a terrible day out in the real world and he admitted that his master was right all along.
Things couldn’t get any worse than this.
SkullMaster followed quietly behind as Virginia and Norman made their way home. He hid in an inconspicuous spot as the duo walked into the house which he hadn’t been in for a long, long while. He looked up and saw that Max, Blake’s son, was watching out of the window longingly at the vast sea beyond the jetty. He stood there for a moment or so and smiled an evil smile before he left the premises.
“We finally meet again.”
Of course, he had to keep himself cloaked and unnoticed. He didn’t want to risk scaring people with his looks for he knew he was ugly—he scared a girl once in church—and most importantly, he didn’t want to be found by his master.
He noticed that the whole town was looking lively and enthusiastic and they were walking about getting ready for a big occasion. He recognized the things they were carrying around the village were mostly coloured flags and balloons and all kinds of festivity stuff meant for the anniversary of the village. Looks like he came down just in time. He could see people shouting out to sell their things at half of the cost and the whole place was full of life and full of hustle and bustle of people. He was really enjoying the preparation for this festive day.
He was so engrossed with his surroundings that he didn’t notice Virginia Deanhart and her butler Norman walking from the opposite direction. He bumped into them and scattered all the groceries the two had bought. His cloak almost fell off but WarMonger immediately cloaked it back.
“Hey, watch where you’re going, boy!” Norman said as he ran around chasing the oranges that rolled out of the shopping bags.
“I’m sorry,” WarMonger replied, pulling his hood closer and lower to his face. “I’m really, really sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“Norman, it was an accident,” Virginia said while turning towards the cowering WarMonger. “You’re scaring the poor boy! You’re not hurt, are you, boy? Here, let me have a look.”
WarMonger was horrified. She was going to remove his hood and let her see his hideous face! What would happen if she does see his face? She might probably scream and her boyfriend would clobber him like a punching bag! Despite WarMonger’s “No! No!” protests, Virginia looked into his hood and saw his face. He was expecting her to scream, but weird enough, she just smiled.
“See? No harm done. I guess he’s alright,” Virginia said sweetly in spite of Norman’s screwed-up face of utter disgust.
WarMonger was quite at lost of words. She didn’t scream or back away in fright at all. She even smiled at him like he was just someone else, an ordinary someone else. And she was so pretty with her golden blonde hair and striking dark-blue eyes, like one of the angels in the stained glass of the cathedral. He had looked over the village from his bell-tower and he was sure that he had never seen anything as beautiful as her. Well, even if he did see her, she was about 10, 15 or maybe 20 feet below him to be seen clearly.
“Just try to be a little more careful, OK?” Virginia’s motherly voice brought him back to reality. Norman was looking at him like he had seen a decomposing corpse or something.
“I…I will. Thank you very much,” WarMonger almost stuttered. He was amazed that she didn’t even shudder at his raspy voice.
“By the way, are you joining in the Horror Face Contest?”
“What?” WarMonger was surprised at Virginia’s question.
Virginia pointed at the sign post a few feet away from where they were standing, just opposite the bakery shop. It bears the banner writing in bold ‘HORROR FACE CONTEST: REGISTER HERE’. She said cheerfully, “It’s our main attraction for tomorrow’s Fishermen’s Friend 25th Anniversary. That is why you’re wearing that great mask, right?”
“Err…yeah. Yeah, that’s right,” WarMonger lied, not knowing what else to say. “I’m opting for the contest and give them a great scare of their life. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll…”
“Let me go with you!” Virginia said enthusiastically, pulling WarMonger’s arm without caring if he wanted it or not. “I’ll help you register; the boy sitting there at the counter is my son’s best friend.”
Despite his kind refusal, Virginia dragged WarMonger all the way towards the counter where Felix and Bea were sitting and taking in contestants. They shrank a little when they saw Mrs. Deanhart coming—they have heard about her locking Max up in his room and not letting him out in case he had any bright ideas going down to the sea—but when they saw her dragging someone short and built along with her, they guessed that she was up to her hospitality moods again.
“Hey there, Mrs. Deanhart,” Bea greeted Virginia. “Who do we have here?”
“This boy here wants to participate in the contest,” Virginia said as she pointed at the cowering WarMonger. “Don’t be shy, boy. Go on and tell him your name.”
“W…WarMonger…” the bell-ringer said timidly and Felix scribbled it down, wrinkling his nose at this weird name.
“Mind if we have a premiere of what you’re going to present for tomorrow’s contest?”
“Show him, WarMonger,” Virginia coaxed. WarMonger hesitated before finally lowering his hood to reveal his face. Everyone present gasped at his appearance, except Virginia who looked more impressed as she continued staring at him. “Now that’s what I call a horror face!”
“Hey, dude,” Felix said with a half-impressed-half-shocked look on his face. “Would you mind taking that mask off so that I can get a closer look? This mask must be the work of an artist.”
“Um…err…I…I can’t…you don’t want to touch me…” WarMonger hesitated, inching his way from the counter but Virginia got him firmly.
“Don’t be silly, WarMonger. It’s just a mask, take it off and let me see how you really look like. You must be handsome beneath that grotesque mask of yours.”
Still, WarMonger shook his head. He wanted to run away before he caused more trouble but Virginia caught him firmly on the face. She pulled and tugged but the ‘mask’ won’t come off. Finally, when she realized that she was hurting the boy, she gasped and let go. Her sudden movement loosened the cloak he was putting on and it slid off his body, showing the rest of his red skin. Everyone else gasped too as they realized what was going on.
“That’s not a mask!” Norman said, quite horrified.
“It’s his face!” Bea joined in, shocked.
“Woah, hideous, man! Funky but hideous!” Felix agreed.
“It’s must the legendary bell-ringer of the cathedral!” someone else exclaimed. “I have got a glance of him before!”
Everyone began to mutter and give rude comments about him. As they were too engrossed in being grossed out by WarMonger’s appearance, they didn’t realize that their mysterious funding man of the village, SkullMaster, was walking around trying to check out the village and see if there were any outsiders to be of good use to him. He saw the crowd and he saw WarMonger cowering and trying to hide his face from them, wanting to look for a way out and back to the cathedral. His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits but he didn’t attempt to get him out of the situation. He just stood there and watched.
“Well, he’s not welcomed even if he has the most horror face in the contest! He’s to win for sure!” one of the men in the crowd yelled. “That’s not fair!”
“Yeah! I want to win! I’ve been waiting all year for this!”
“Get him out of here!”
“He’s scaring the children!”
In the midst of all the shouting and protests, someone flung an egg at the poor bell-ringer. The others followed suite, throwing tomatoes and fruits and other rotten stuff at him. WarMonger soon found himself showered with food of all kinds, and none of them want to let him go until they had satisfied themselves of making him a wretched fool. WarMonger caught a glimpse of his master in the middle of the crowd—he could recognize him even when he is in his long, billowing cloak and dark hood. He yelled out desperately.
“Master! Master, please help me! Master!”
SkullMaster just stood there watching, not wanting to help. He wanted to teach this disobedient boy of his a lesson.
Suddenly, all went quiet. Everyone stopped throwing their food halfway through. SkullMaster was surprised at the sudden silence and craned his neck to watch. In the middle of the crowd, shielding the bell-ringer was Virginia, drenched in sour milk and stained with tomato juice and egg yolks. Everyone was surprised; why did this archaeologist nutter, mother of the most handsome boy in the village, want to help a wretched being from hell like him? She stood up abruptly and yelled at the top of her lungs.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself! How could you mistreat this unfortunate person?! Sure, he may be hideous and he may be a joke, but he’s a human being, just like the rest of us! He just looks different than us, that’s all! Why are you doing this to him? Why aren’t you doing this to the miller’s son who’s a bit retarded or the beggar who had been begging in our village for the last couple of years? Why him? Why now? You care about those people but you are cruel to this being who needed most of our attention! I’m sure this is the first time he’s out in the world and you’re giving him a hard time! If I were to do this to your sons or daughters, how would you feel?! Shame on you all!!”
Everyone put down whatever they were holding timidly and looked away, feeling awkward. They had to admit that Virginia was right—they have been too harsh on WarMonger. Virginia turned slowly towards the red boy and offered him her hanky, whispering, “I’m sorry, boy. This isn’t supposed to happen.”
Soon, the sky darkened and it began to rain, as if it was a cue for everyone to leave and make a way for WarMonger to go back to his cathedral. The rain slowly washed away the dirt off WarMonger. He refused Virginia’s hanky and ran helter-skelter towards the direction of the cathedral. In the midway, he bumped into his master, who was glaring at him with his cold, unkind eyes. He lowered his head in shame and whispered, “I’m sorry, master. I will never disobey you again.”
SkullMaster kept quiet, but made way for the boy to go home where he belonged. WarMonger ran and ran and didn’t stop until he was standing in front of the church’s open door. He slipped into it and closed it quietly, not wanting to alarm the church members that he was out of the bell-tower. He was trained to keep out of sight as much as possible and he did a good job avoiding anyone who came in his way. But as he climbed up the stairs to his beloved bell-tower, he couldn’t avoid the archdeacon. They stared at each other as if they were speaking to each other with their eyes and not their mouth, and they seemed to comprehend each other’s meaning. The archdeacon nodded before letting WarMonger continue his way up the bell-tower.
WarMonger didn’t speak a word for the rest of the day, and Thor was wise not to talk to him until he felt like talking. He did everything in silence until the rain stopped and the moon rose up into the sky before he finally broke down and cried on Thor’s spiky back. It was a terrible day out in the real world and he admitted that his master was right all along.
Things couldn’t get any worse than this.
SkullMaster followed quietly behind as Virginia and Norman made their way home. He hid in an inconspicuous spot as the duo walked into the house which he hadn’t been in for a long, long while. He looked up and saw that Max, Blake’s son, was watching out of the window longingly at the vast sea beyond the jetty. He stood there for a moment or so and smiled an evil smile before he left the premises.
“We finally meet again.”
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 5
Meanwhile, far, far from provincial village, there stood a tall, quite old cathedral where the people often go to do there Sunday worships and prayers. The cathedral had been standing there for as long as the people could remember, and legend has it that in this cathedral, resides a mysterious bell-ringer who never seemed to come out in the light. He did wonders with the bells but no one has ever seen the bell-ringer before. Som even say that the bells rang themselves, which is, of course, a ludicrous idea. It was kept really well too, thanks to the funding from another mysterious man only the church members (as in the archdeacon, the bishop, the nuns, etc…you get the idea) knew as Scott or better known as SkullMaster.
His name didn’t go unparallel with his features: his head was bald and his face and skin was sallow and pale, going to purple. His skin was shriveled close to his own facial bones until it formed the shape of his skull. He had those cold, unkind yellow eyes that could pierce through your heart like a knife. He was tall and well-built, and he was as strong as an ox. He was the same Scott that went with Max’s father out to sea and was presumed dead, but he came back to shore with such a transformation and he came back secretly that no one except the church members knew of his existence. None of them knew what had happened to him or how he came about to become of such grotesque figure. He had told no one and no one dared to ask.
His return did not come empty-handed though. He had loads of riches which was still a mystery to all as from where he got them and he had been funding the village and the cathedral ever since, holding quite a power over it. No one (except the church) knew who had been supporting and controlling the village and the church for so long, and they—the easily contented—didn’t bother to find out, as long as their interests are well kept.
SkullMaster had a strange disliking for outsiders that come into the village to stay unless they prove to be of good interest to him. And that’s where the legend of the mysterious bell-ringer came about. For on one cold winter’s night, a group of gypsies wanted to find home in this village after many miles of moving. They heard about the rules of SkullMaster forbidding outsiders coming in and they decided to sneak in through the docks below the jetty that connected the village to the sea. Just when they thought they were safe, SkullMaster had the upper hand. He and his dark-hooded men came and arrested the gypsies, taking all their possessions with him. When a woman refused to hand in a bundle that was held protectively in her arms, SkullMaster assumed that it was stolen goods and ordered his men to take it away by force.
Without a doubt, the gypsy woman ran for her life. SkullMaster gave chase and caught up with her while she was begging for sanctuary at the cathedral he had funded. A tug-of-war between SkullMaster and the gypsy woman began and finally, he kicked the woman down the steps leading to the cathedral and it killed her instantly. It was then he realized that the bundle the gypsy woman was trying to protect was in fact a wailing baby. SkullMaster took a look and was shocked at what he saw.
It was a baby boy, with red skin all over and with two tiny slits for a nose and slightly protruding fangs for his first teeth. His eyes were a shocking yellow and his mop of hair was a dark-sea blue. On the side of his temples was a pair of little horns that shaped and curved like a bull’s horns. He had never seen such a horrible freak of nature.
“A monster!” he hissed as he took the baby towards the well nearby the church. As he was about to drop the baby into the deep well below, the archdeacon had came back just in time from his grocery shopping.
“STOP!!” the archdeacon cried, shocked at what he was seeing.
“This is, as you church people might call, an unholy demon,” SkullMaster said as he held the baby threateningly near the mouth of the well. “I’m doing you a favour and sending it back to hell where it belongs.”
“See there, my lord, the innocent blood you have spilt on the steps of our church! What have you done, my lord?” the archdeacon asked as he moved closer to the gypsy woman’s body in horror.
“I have done nothing wrong. She ran and I pursued. She died of her own accord.”
“Are you trying to add this child’s blood to your guilt? No matter what the child is, it is still a child!”
“Hey, my conscience is clear, old man! I said I have done nothing wrong!”
“You can lie to yourself and your minions, my lord. You may have funded our land, our village and our church, and you can claim that you haven’t a qualm,” the archdeacon said with utter disgust at SkullMaster’s indignant ways. “But you never can run from nor hide what you done from the very eyes of He who is Almighty!”
SkullMaster had no concerns for this hullabaloo religious talk (he’s not a very religious man), but he was afraid that there could be spies lurking around, waiting to catch him in the act for a murder, and that might bring down his influence to the village. He took a deep breath and said, “Then what must I do, old man?”
“Care for the child, and raise it as your own,” the archdeacon replied as he carried the gypsy woman into the back of the church to be buried properly.
“What?! I’m to be saddling with this misshapen…” SkullMaster look at the baby in disgust at first, but suddenly, an idea clicked. He smiled and said, “Very well, but I want it to live with you in your church.”
“Live here?” the archdeacon was surprised. “Where?”
“Anywhere, just so he’s kept locked away when no one else could see,” SkullMaster took a glance at the highest spot of the cathedral and said, “The bell tower perhaps. After all, as you might say, your Lord works in mysterious ways. Even this foul creature may yet prove one day to be…of use to me.”
And so the child had came to be a permanent resident to the cathedral, making friends with the bells and had his job tolling them. The loud noises didn’t seem to bother him as he got quite used to it. SkullMaster cared for him and he grew to be a quite strong and built man. Despite the fact that he was strong and built, he was a little hunched and his voice was a permanent rasp, and…well, he wasn’t too bright either (the brain a size of a pinhead). He was given the name WarMonger and he was only allowed to address SkullMaster as ‘Master’ and nothing else.
WarMonger longed to be with the people that he had seen down below from his high bell-tower but SkullMaster often warned him that he was a monster and if anyone were to catch sight of him would cause peril and shame, and, as the obliging little simpleton he was, he never dared to disobey his master.
“But, master, I see you go everyday and meet with the people down at the ground, and I never get to go anywhere…” WarMonger once tried to reason with him when SkullMaster brought him his lunch.
“Till now, my little simpleton, you do not comprehend,” SkullMaster said coldly. “I have told you many, many times that the world is cruel and wicked and it’s I alone who you can trust in this whole village. I am your only friend.”
“Yes, I understand that, master, but…”
“It is I who keep you, teach you, feed you and dress you. It is I who look upon you without fear. How can I protect you, boy, unless you always stay in here?”
“Yes, master. You are my one defender,” WarMonger sighed finally, tired of trying to reason with him.
“You are deformed and you are ugly. And these are crimes for which the world shows little pity, do you understand?” SkullMaster must’ve said this a dozen times a day. “Out there they’ll revile you as a monster, and they will hate and scorn and jeer. Why invite their calumny and consternation? Stay in here, boy, and be faithful and grateful to me.”
“I’m faithful, master, and I’m grateful,” WarMonger replied timidly.
“Do as I say, boy, and stay in here. Remember, WarMonger, this is your sanctuary,” SkullMaster said before he left, leaving some more tidbits for the little deformed red boy.
“You are kind to me, master, and I’m sorry if I ever had made you…”
“You are forgiven,” SkullMaster replied before he finally left. WarMonger stood there, staring until his master completely disappeared out of sight. He sighed. What was the use of being safe behind these windows and these parapets of stone when all he could do was just gazing at the people down below him all alone without being able to actually interact with them and talk to them face to face? The only people he had ever talked to face to face were the members of the church and he had definitely haven’t found favour in the eyes of the bishop and the nuns, only the kind, sweet archdeacon. All his life he had memorized the faces of everyone in the village and the ones who come and go to the church, knowing them as they will never know him, and all his life he wondered how it feels to pass a day not above them but part of them.
“Poor little guy, all cooped up here alone and stranded now, are we?”
WarMonger turned around to see Thor on his table, slurping on the flies that flew around the half-eaten grapes on WarMonger’s plate. He smiled; Thor has always been his best talking companion ever since he lived in this lonely bell-tower. Thor was an iguana rock statue which had a life of its own after being in the church for more than a hundred years. He didn’t know how he come about to become a walking, talking figurine or an immobile rock at will, but that’s how it goes. WarMonger discovered him when he was 5 years old and they have became friends ever since.
“Hello, Thor,” WarMonger said. “Glad you’re up and about.”
“I’m glad that ol’ bone head has finally left!” Thor replied, relieved. “He doesn’t know how to lighten up, does he?”
WarMonger smiled weakly and replied, “He has always been this way. I’m used to it.”
“Couldn’t talk him out again, could you?” Thor guessed that his attempt to persuade SkullMaster to let him out in the world was, yet again, fruitless.
“I just ask for one day to live among those people. I’d give anything, I’d dare anything just to live one day out there,” WarMonger said longingly as he gazed down at the people below again. “I can see the millers, the weavers and their wives, the sailors and merchants that come and go through the jetty. I mean they shout and scold and go about their lives, practically heedless of the gift it is to be them…”
“Well, humans are pretty ignorant about their nature when they’re supposed to know that they have the great talent in themselves.”
“If I was in their skin, I’d treasure dearly every instant out there. I want to stroll on the road, taste the morning like ordinary men who freely walk about there. If I could just have one day, just one day, I swear I’ll be content.”
“Why don’t you go right now? Just go down the stairs and march right out of the door and into the sunlight. It’s just that simple,” Thor said, which resulted to a horrified stare from WarMonger.
“I can’t go out there!! What if my master finds out?! He had forbid me to go out there, and if he knew, he’ll cane me!!”
“He doesn’t have to know,” Thor grinned mischievously.
“But…” WarMonger still was hesitant.
“No one wants to stay cooped up here forever.”
That hit WarMonger straight in the head. Thor’s right; why should he be cooped up here forever when his master and the people that live in the same village as he was walk free? Why should he be under his orders anymore? He’s already a grown man, for goodness sake. Well, he’s only about 15 or 16, but still he’s already grown! He’s not the small child who always cowers when SkullMaster snarled or scolded him anymore! He’s got his own rights!
After Thor and WarMonger exchange naughty winks, WarMonger grabbed a cloak and draped it over his body before, with agile arms and feet, slid down the banisters of the cathedral and set foot for the first time in the big open.
His name didn’t go unparallel with his features: his head was bald and his face and skin was sallow and pale, going to purple. His skin was shriveled close to his own facial bones until it formed the shape of his skull. He had those cold, unkind yellow eyes that could pierce through your heart like a knife. He was tall and well-built, and he was as strong as an ox. He was the same Scott that went with Max’s father out to sea and was presumed dead, but he came back to shore with such a transformation and he came back secretly that no one except the church members knew of his existence. None of them knew what had happened to him or how he came about to become of such grotesque figure. He had told no one and no one dared to ask.
His return did not come empty-handed though. He had loads of riches which was still a mystery to all as from where he got them and he had been funding the village and the cathedral ever since, holding quite a power over it. No one (except the church) knew who had been supporting and controlling the village and the church for so long, and they—the easily contented—didn’t bother to find out, as long as their interests are well kept.
SkullMaster had a strange disliking for outsiders that come into the village to stay unless they prove to be of good interest to him. And that’s where the legend of the mysterious bell-ringer came about. For on one cold winter’s night, a group of gypsies wanted to find home in this village after many miles of moving. They heard about the rules of SkullMaster forbidding outsiders coming in and they decided to sneak in through the docks below the jetty that connected the village to the sea. Just when they thought they were safe, SkullMaster had the upper hand. He and his dark-hooded men came and arrested the gypsies, taking all their possessions with him. When a woman refused to hand in a bundle that was held protectively in her arms, SkullMaster assumed that it was stolen goods and ordered his men to take it away by force.
Without a doubt, the gypsy woman ran for her life. SkullMaster gave chase and caught up with her while she was begging for sanctuary at the cathedral he had funded. A tug-of-war between SkullMaster and the gypsy woman began and finally, he kicked the woman down the steps leading to the cathedral and it killed her instantly. It was then he realized that the bundle the gypsy woman was trying to protect was in fact a wailing baby. SkullMaster took a look and was shocked at what he saw.
It was a baby boy, with red skin all over and with two tiny slits for a nose and slightly protruding fangs for his first teeth. His eyes were a shocking yellow and his mop of hair was a dark-sea blue. On the side of his temples was a pair of little horns that shaped and curved like a bull’s horns. He had never seen such a horrible freak of nature.
“A monster!” he hissed as he took the baby towards the well nearby the church. As he was about to drop the baby into the deep well below, the archdeacon had came back just in time from his grocery shopping.
“STOP!!” the archdeacon cried, shocked at what he was seeing.
“This is, as you church people might call, an unholy demon,” SkullMaster said as he held the baby threateningly near the mouth of the well. “I’m doing you a favour and sending it back to hell where it belongs.”
“See there, my lord, the innocent blood you have spilt on the steps of our church! What have you done, my lord?” the archdeacon asked as he moved closer to the gypsy woman’s body in horror.
“I have done nothing wrong. She ran and I pursued. She died of her own accord.”
“Are you trying to add this child’s blood to your guilt? No matter what the child is, it is still a child!”
“Hey, my conscience is clear, old man! I said I have done nothing wrong!”
“You can lie to yourself and your minions, my lord. You may have funded our land, our village and our church, and you can claim that you haven’t a qualm,” the archdeacon said with utter disgust at SkullMaster’s indignant ways. “But you never can run from nor hide what you done from the very eyes of He who is Almighty!”
SkullMaster had no concerns for this hullabaloo religious talk (he’s not a very religious man), but he was afraid that there could be spies lurking around, waiting to catch him in the act for a murder, and that might bring down his influence to the village. He took a deep breath and said, “Then what must I do, old man?”
“Care for the child, and raise it as your own,” the archdeacon replied as he carried the gypsy woman into the back of the church to be buried properly.
“What?! I’m to be saddling with this misshapen…” SkullMaster look at the baby in disgust at first, but suddenly, an idea clicked. He smiled and said, “Very well, but I want it to live with you in your church.”
“Live here?” the archdeacon was surprised. “Where?”
“Anywhere, just so he’s kept locked away when no one else could see,” SkullMaster took a glance at the highest spot of the cathedral and said, “The bell tower perhaps. After all, as you might say, your Lord works in mysterious ways. Even this foul creature may yet prove one day to be…of use to me.”
And so the child had came to be a permanent resident to the cathedral, making friends with the bells and had his job tolling them. The loud noises didn’t seem to bother him as he got quite used to it. SkullMaster cared for him and he grew to be a quite strong and built man. Despite the fact that he was strong and built, he was a little hunched and his voice was a permanent rasp, and…well, he wasn’t too bright either (the brain a size of a pinhead). He was given the name WarMonger and he was only allowed to address SkullMaster as ‘Master’ and nothing else.
WarMonger longed to be with the people that he had seen down below from his high bell-tower but SkullMaster often warned him that he was a monster and if anyone were to catch sight of him would cause peril and shame, and, as the obliging little simpleton he was, he never dared to disobey his master.
“But, master, I see you go everyday and meet with the people down at the ground, and I never get to go anywhere…” WarMonger once tried to reason with him when SkullMaster brought him his lunch.
“Till now, my little simpleton, you do not comprehend,” SkullMaster said coldly. “I have told you many, many times that the world is cruel and wicked and it’s I alone who you can trust in this whole village. I am your only friend.”
“Yes, I understand that, master, but…”
“It is I who keep you, teach you, feed you and dress you. It is I who look upon you without fear. How can I protect you, boy, unless you always stay in here?”
“Yes, master. You are my one defender,” WarMonger sighed finally, tired of trying to reason with him.
“You are deformed and you are ugly. And these are crimes for which the world shows little pity, do you understand?” SkullMaster must’ve said this a dozen times a day. “Out there they’ll revile you as a monster, and they will hate and scorn and jeer. Why invite their calumny and consternation? Stay in here, boy, and be faithful and grateful to me.”
“I’m faithful, master, and I’m grateful,” WarMonger replied timidly.
“Do as I say, boy, and stay in here. Remember, WarMonger, this is your sanctuary,” SkullMaster said before he left, leaving some more tidbits for the little deformed red boy.
“You are kind to me, master, and I’m sorry if I ever had made you…”
“You are forgiven,” SkullMaster replied before he finally left. WarMonger stood there, staring until his master completely disappeared out of sight. He sighed. What was the use of being safe behind these windows and these parapets of stone when all he could do was just gazing at the people down below him all alone without being able to actually interact with them and talk to them face to face? The only people he had ever talked to face to face were the members of the church and he had definitely haven’t found favour in the eyes of the bishop and the nuns, only the kind, sweet archdeacon. All his life he had memorized the faces of everyone in the village and the ones who come and go to the church, knowing them as they will never know him, and all his life he wondered how it feels to pass a day not above them but part of them.
“Poor little guy, all cooped up here alone and stranded now, are we?”
WarMonger turned around to see Thor on his table, slurping on the flies that flew around the half-eaten grapes on WarMonger’s plate. He smiled; Thor has always been his best talking companion ever since he lived in this lonely bell-tower. Thor was an iguana rock statue which had a life of its own after being in the church for more than a hundred years. He didn’t know how he come about to become a walking, talking figurine or an immobile rock at will, but that’s how it goes. WarMonger discovered him when he was 5 years old and they have became friends ever since.
“Hello, Thor,” WarMonger said. “Glad you’re up and about.”
“I’m glad that ol’ bone head has finally left!” Thor replied, relieved. “He doesn’t know how to lighten up, does he?”
WarMonger smiled weakly and replied, “He has always been this way. I’m used to it.”
“Couldn’t talk him out again, could you?” Thor guessed that his attempt to persuade SkullMaster to let him out in the world was, yet again, fruitless.
“I just ask for one day to live among those people. I’d give anything, I’d dare anything just to live one day out there,” WarMonger said longingly as he gazed down at the people below again. “I can see the millers, the weavers and their wives, the sailors and merchants that come and go through the jetty. I mean they shout and scold and go about their lives, practically heedless of the gift it is to be them…”
“Well, humans are pretty ignorant about their nature when they’re supposed to know that they have the great talent in themselves.”
“If I was in their skin, I’d treasure dearly every instant out there. I want to stroll on the road, taste the morning like ordinary men who freely walk about there. If I could just have one day, just one day, I swear I’ll be content.”
“Why don’t you go right now? Just go down the stairs and march right out of the door and into the sunlight. It’s just that simple,” Thor said, which resulted to a horrified stare from WarMonger.
“I can’t go out there!! What if my master finds out?! He had forbid me to go out there, and if he knew, he’ll cane me!!”
“He doesn’t have to know,” Thor grinned mischievously.
“But…” WarMonger still was hesitant.
“No one wants to stay cooped up here forever.”
That hit WarMonger straight in the head. Thor’s right; why should he be cooped up here forever when his master and the people that live in the same village as he was walk free? Why should he be under his orders anymore? He’s already a grown man, for goodness sake. Well, he’s only about 15 or 16, but still he’s already grown! He’s not the small child who always cowers when SkullMaster snarled or scolded him anymore! He’s got his own rights!
After Thor and WarMonger exchange naughty winks, WarMonger grabbed a cloak and draped it over his body before, with agile arms and feet, slid down the banisters of the cathedral and set foot for the first time in the big open.
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 4
When Max got back to shore, he crept quietly up to his secret attic, stashed his diving gear somewhere safe, dried and dressed himself up in warm, dry clothes he kept in an old trunk and slowly walked down into his room. But no sooner did he had a chance to go inside, his mother caught him.
“Young man, you certainly have some explaining to do!”
Max groaned. This was the umpteenth times this week he was caught red-handed going out to sea. She had no idea how her grudge on the sea could affect his increasing obsession towards it. As he slowly inched his way into the living room, he saw Mrs. Virginia Deanhart waiting for him with a scowl on her face and Norman standing guiltily behind her, his eyes apologizing profusely to him.
“Do you realize that you have embarrassed me in front of the whole village? What were you thinking?” Virginia asked, her temper rising. Max didn’t dare to look at her in the eye.
“Aww, Mom! I told you a hundred times,” Max tried to reason with her, “I am not interested in some stupid courting ceremony! I am not ready to get married yet!”
“And when, pray tell, will you be ready? You have missed 3 ceremonies 3 years in a row and you are now almost 21! You cannot let your youth slip away by some sick daydreams of princesses from yonder and becoming a knight in shining armour!” Virginia complained. She laid a hand on her son’s shoulder and said, “Max, I cannot stand seeing you with your head above the clouds and not getting settled down with a nice respectable family and have children of your own!”
“Yeah, right,” Max muttered a little too loud and within Virginia’s earshot, “as if having a family and kids is much fun than going out to sea and explore its wonders.”
“What did you say?” Virginia’s eyes widened, obviously hearing something she didn’t want to hear. Norman, at the background, was horrified that he would ever say such a thing in front of his sea-hating mother.
“Nothing. Nothing at all,” Max quickly denied, like he always did.
“You went down to the sea again, didn’t you? Didn’t you?” Virginia pressed. She always got her way. Max rolled his eyes and groaned.
“Nothing happened, Mom.”
“Max, how many times must we go through this?!” Virginia slapped her temple, exasperated at her son’s indignant attitude. “You are told not go to even set foot into the sea or you’ll end up being lured away to drown by one of those…sea devils…those mermaids!”
“Mom, they are not sea devils,” Max tried to make himself heard but Virginia cut him off.
“They’re dangerous! I don’t want you to fall or being dragged into the depths of the sea just like your father did when you were just a tiny child…”
“Well, like you said, I’m 21 years old, and I’m not a child anymore—”
“Don’t you give that tone, young man! As long as you live in this house, you are to obey my rules!”
“But if you would just listen—” Max tried desperately to talk but Virginia wouldn’t hear of it.
“Not another word! And I will never, never want to hear going down to the sea again, is that clear?!”
Max wanted to yell back at her and tell her that she’s a horrible mother and that she would never understand how wonderful the sea could be if she would just let go of the past and not blame the merpeople for something they didn’t do, but he knew that it was pointless and probably make things worse. So, with a loud, exasperated groan, he dashed off back into his room, slamming the door in frustration.
“Don’t you think you’re being a little too harsh on him, ma’am?” Norman asked tentatively as soon as Virginia sat back down on her sofa.
“I know, but I can’t risk him dying like Blake. You saw what happened. You were with Blake the night of his death. It’s those cursed mermaids! They did this to our family, and they will not take my son away!”
Norman sighed. Tried as he might in the past, he couldn’t convince Virginia that his late boss was killed by a wave. She was too influenced with the rumours that the mermaids killed Blake and that the sailors were trying to cover it up. True, he had seen those magical creatures swimming at a distance, but he was sure that it was a trick of the eyes. And if they were real out there, he didn’t hear them singing, for legend has it that mermaids usually sing to their victims and distract them from navigating properly, taking them down into the depths of the sea. And Virginia believed that legend instead of his truth.
‘Oh, Blake,’ he thought. ‘When will you ever got to let her see the light?’
Since that fateful day, Max’s visit to the sea became even more frequent. He would sneak off in the middle of his work (he helps her mother with her archeological research; everyone calls her a nutter and said she’ll never find any ancient creature’s bones in this provincial town) to check out his Princess Phoebe who was ever lovely wherever she goes or whatever she does. He gazed at her and followed her wherever she went and would never want to miss a second of her. Sometimes he spent so much time that he realized there was no more air in the tank and he had to frantically swim up to the surface for air.
Norman noticed his obsession with Phoebe and managed to catch a glimpse of her when he and Max went out on another of their secret diving expedition. He had to admit that she was very pretty and couldn’t blame Max for being so crazy about her all the time. So he decided to do him a favour.
One night, when everyone, including Max, was asleep in bed, Norman went to the attic to get his diving gear and checked to see whether his oxygen tank was full before he sneaked out of the house and dived into the sea. He swam all the way to the castle of King Benedict, the merman King through the secret passageway he and Max came to remember during their visits to see Phoebe and sneaked into the beautiful princess’s room. He swam silently towards the statue of the mermaid princess that was standing gracefully beside her bed. With a firm grip, he picked up the statue and swam back to the surface with it. On the way up, he passed by the King’s chamber and he could see him sleeping with the Queen.
A beautiful Queen she was, with chocolate-brown hair (he could see where Phoebe got hers from) and fair skin. If he hadn’t been slightly attracted to Virginia (yup, he has a small crush on her alright), he would have fallen for this Queen. Then he took a look at the King, gasped inwardly and quickly swam back up to the surface.
He had seen the King many times when he and Max did their secret visits and Max was convinced that King Benedict was not his late father, but he had seen something just now that told him otherwise.
On his chest was a tattoo of Venus, the Evening Star, which he got it from Peru before his death.
“Wake up, Max! Have you fallen asleep in the bathroom?”
Virginia called out to her son who was hogging the bathroom all day. He had promised Bea and Felix that they would go and help out the old man in run-down comic house to clear a few things in his shop, but since he went into the bathroom to get himself ready, he hadn’t come for the last half an hour.
“Maxwell Deanhart! Time to come out!” Bea decided to take things on her own and pounded at the bathroom door. “You’ve been in there all morning! You said yourself that you wouldn’t miss that old rag’s comic house for the world!”
Finally, Max came out, a dreamy look on his face, as he hummed the song that he had sang for the mermaid princess he had saved that fateful day. He practically drifted towards his bedroom as he went in to change. Bea and Felix, including Virginia, stared at him in awe and surprise.
“Woah, dude! He’s got it bad, baby,” Felix soon began to comprehend his oddity. Bea also had an idea.
“What? What’s wrong with him?” Virginia asked Max’s two best friends.
“Isn’t it obvious, Mrs. Deanhart?” Bea asked grudgingly. “Max is in love.”
“Max? In love?”
“Where are you taking me, Normie?” Max asked anxiously.
“To where we usually go,” Norman replied, trying to control a scoff as he led his little master up to the secret attic. His huge hands were covering his eyes and he was obviously trying to show Max, who had just came back from sorting the comic house of his old books and moth-eaten magazines, a surprise. As they carefully went upstairs, Norman said, “Promise you won’t scream the whole house down or your Mom’ll hear you.”
“OK, OK, I promise! Now what’s the big surprise?”
“Tadaa~!” Norman exclaimed as he let go of Max’s eyes. As his eyes tried to adjust to the light, he was, as expected, shocked with glee as he saw the beautiful statue of his sweetheart standing tall and proud in the middle of the attic. It took him time before he could actually register what was right in front of his eyes.
“Normie, you’re the best!!” Max hugged his big-sized butler before dashing towards the statue to ogle and admire—and probably drool—all over it. He barely had enough time to engross himself with the statue when he saw his mother Virginia standing right in front of him. He gasped in shock and horror—how did she find out about this secret attic he had kept hidden from her since he discovered it 16 years ago? His first instinct was Norman but he noticed that his butler was as surprised as he was.
“I was actually considering a reasonable woman,” Virginia muttered. She came into full view, her face filled with anger and disgust as she stared at Princess Phoebe’s statue. “I’ve set certain rules, and I expect those rules to be obeyed!”
“But, Mom, it’s not what you think…” Max tried to explain, although he knew whatever he said wasn’t going to improve anything.
“Is it true that you rescued a mermaid from shriveling on the surface?” Virginia didn’t wait for her son to answer. “Oh, don’t think that your mother is stupid, young man! I knew something was wrong when you didn’t turn up for that courting ceremony that night, and you have admitted that you went out to sea that night. Do you really think that I wouldn’t be suspicious if you sneaked off in the middle of helping me without me knowing? You have got some nerve! Just because I don’t know that you’ve been going up to this place doesn’t mean that I don’t know that it exists! What have I said about mermaids?”
“But she could die and I can’t just…”
“So what if she dies? It would be better off if there are lesser mermaids in this world! I told you that they are sea devils and are not to be trusted! Have you forgotten who killed your father? Have you forgotten who had caused us all this misery if it weren’t for them that caused your father’s death…”
“But, Mom, I LOVE HER!!!” Max blurted out desperately, only to realized that he had made the situation worse. He immediately hid behind the statue, refusing to face his mother’s horrified expression.
“No! Have you lost your senses completely? She’s a mermaid, you’re a human!”
“I don’t care!” Max replied indignantly. Norman wanted to calm Virginia down but she wasn’t in the right mind to be calmed down.
“Oh, help me, Max!” Virginia growled as her ring on her left ring finger began to glow. “I am going get it through you, and if this is the only way, so be it!!”
Virginia’s wedding ring was no ordinary ring. It was given by Blake when he proposed to her and it possessed magical destructive powers. She had never used the ring’s power before, that is, until now. She began to shoot rays out of her ring at all the things in the attic, crashing and wrecking them. All the treasures of the sea Max and Norman collected for 16 years went down to smoke and ashes. No matter how Max and Norman pleaded and protested, her mind was bent on destroying anything that was connected to the sea. Lastly, despite Max’s desperate wail, she shot at the statue, reducing it to rubble.
That struck Max real bad. Max fell onto his knees beside the rubble and cried like he had never cried before. Before he could mourn properly over the loss of his magnificent statue, Virginia grabbed his wrist and dragged out of the attic and into his room. She pushed him in and locked the door.
“What is this?! Let me out!! LET ME OUT!!!” Max pounded furiously at the door.
“You’re grounded, young man! And you’ll stay in there grounded until you get it into your head that mermaids are nothing but sea devils and until I get a really decent human girl for you!” Virginia scolded from the other side of the door before leaving. She warned Norman not to open the door except for meals and Norman nodded obligingly. Norman walked towards the door and called out to his young master.
“Max? You OK?”
Max’s first thought was to get out from the window but he realized that his window was barred. Even if he smashed the glass, he won’t be able to get out. He slumped onto his bed and whispered, “Just go away.”
Norman walked away from the door guiltily, leaving Max alone, sobbing bitterly.
“Young man, you certainly have some explaining to do!”
Max groaned. This was the umpteenth times this week he was caught red-handed going out to sea. She had no idea how her grudge on the sea could affect his increasing obsession towards it. As he slowly inched his way into the living room, he saw Mrs. Virginia Deanhart waiting for him with a scowl on her face and Norman standing guiltily behind her, his eyes apologizing profusely to him.
“Do you realize that you have embarrassed me in front of the whole village? What were you thinking?” Virginia asked, her temper rising. Max didn’t dare to look at her in the eye.
“Aww, Mom! I told you a hundred times,” Max tried to reason with her, “I am not interested in some stupid courting ceremony! I am not ready to get married yet!”
“And when, pray tell, will you be ready? You have missed 3 ceremonies 3 years in a row and you are now almost 21! You cannot let your youth slip away by some sick daydreams of princesses from yonder and becoming a knight in shining armour!” Virginia complained. She laid a hand on her son’s shoulder and said, “Max, I cannot stand seeing you with your head above the clouds and not getting settled down with a nice respectable family and have children of your own!”
“Yeah, right,” Max muttered a little too loud and within Virginia’s earshot, “as if having a family and kids is much fun than going out to sea and explore its wonders.”
“What did you say?” Virginia’s eyes widened, obviously hearing something she didn’t want to hear. Norman, at the background, was horrified that he would ever say such a thing in front of his sea-hating mother.
“Nothing. Nothing at all,” Max quickly denied, like he always did.
“You went down to the sea again, didn’t you? Didn’t you?” Virginia pressed. She always got her way. Max rolled his eyes and groaned.
“Nothing happened, Mom.”
“Max, how many times must we go through this?!” Virginia slapped her temple, exasperated at her son’s indignant attitude. “You are told not go to even set foot into the sea or you’ll end up being lured away to drown by one of those…sea devils…those mermaids!”
“Mom, they are not sea devils,” Max tried to make himself heard but Virginia cut him off.
“They’re dangerous! I don’t want you to fall or being dragged into the depths of the sea just like your father did when you were just a tiny child…”
“Well, like you said, I’m 21 years old, and I’m not a child anymore—”
“Don’t you give that tone, young man! As long as you live in this house, you are to obey my rules!”
“But if you would just listen—” Max tried desperately to talk but Virginia wouldn’t hear of it.
“Not another word! And I will never, never want to hear going down to the sea again, is that clear?!”
Max wanted to yell back at her and tell her that she’s a horrible mother and that she would never understand how wonderful the sea could be if she would just let go of the past and not blame the merpeople for something they didn’t do, but he knew that it was pointless and probably make things worse. So, with a loud, exasperated groan, he dashed off back into his room, slamming the door in frustration.
“Don’t you think you’re being a little too harsh on him, ma’am?” Norman asked tentatively as soon as Virginia sat back down on her sofa.
“I know, but I can’t risk him dying like Blake. You saw what happened. You were with Blake the night of his death. It’s those cursed mermaids! They did this to our family, and they will not take my son away!”
Norman sighed. Tried as he might in the past, he couldn’t convince Virginia that his late boss was killed by a wave. She was too influenced with the rumours that the mermaids killed Blake and that the sailors were trying to cover it up. True, he had seen those magical creatures swimming at a distance, but he was sure that it was a trick of the eyes. And if they were real out there, he didn’t hear them singing, for legend has it that mermaids usually sing to their victims and distract them from navigating properly, taking them down into the depths of the sea. And Virginia believed that legend instead of his truth.
‘Oh, Blake,’ he thought. ‘When will you ever got to let her see the light?’
Since that fateful day, Max’s visit to the sea became even more frequent. He would sneak off in the middle of his work (he helps her mother with her archeological research; everyone calls her a nutter and said she’ll never find any ancient creature’s bones in this provincial town) to check out his Princess Phoebe who was ever lovely wherever she goes or whatever she does. He gazed at her and followed her wherever she went and would never want to miss a second of her. Sometimes he spent so much time that he realized there was no more air in the tank and he had to frantically swim up to the surface for air.
Norman noticed his obsession with Phoebe and managed to catch a glimpse of her when he and Max went out on another of their secret diving expedition. He had to admit that she was very pretty and couldn’t blame Max for being so crazy about her all the time. So he decided to do him a favour.
One night, when everyone, including Max, was asleep in bed, Norman went to the attic to get his diving gear and checked to see whether his oxygen tank was full before he sneaked out of the house and dived into the sea. He swam all the way to the castle of King Benedict, the merman King through the secret passageway he and Max came to remember during their visits to see Phoebe and sneaked into the beautiful princess’s room. He swam silently towards the statue of the mermaid princess that was standing gracefully beside her bed. With a firm grip, he picked up the statue and swam back to the surface with it. On the way up, he passed by the King’s chamber and he could see him sleeping with the Queen.
A beautiful Queen she was, with chocolate-brown hair (he could see where Phoebe got hers from) and fair skin. If he hadn’t been slightly attracted to Virginia (yup, he has a small crush on her alright), he would have fallen for this Queen. Then he took a look at the King, gasped inwardly and quickly swam back up to the surface.
He had seen the King many times when he and Max did their secret visits and Max was convinced that King Benedict was not his late father, but he had seen something just now that told him otherwise.
On his chest was a tattoo of Venus, the Evening Star, which he got it from Peru before his death.
“Wake up, Max! Have you fallen asleep in the bathroom?”
Virginia called out to her son who was hogging the bathroom all day. He had promised Bea and Felix that they would go and help out the old man in run-down comic house to clear a few things in his shop, but since he went into the bathroom to get himself ready, he hadn’t come for the last half an hour.
“Maxwell Deanhart! Time to come out!” Bea decided to take things on her own and pounded at the bathroom door. “You’ve been in there all morning! You said yourself that you wouldn’t miss that old rag’s comic house for the world!”
Finally, Max came out, a dreamy look on his face, as he hummed the song that he had sang for the mermaid princess he had saved that fateful day. He practically drifted towards his bedroom as he went in to change. Bea and Felix, including Virginia, stared at him in awe and surprise.
“Woah, dude! He’s got it bad, baby,” Felix soon began to comprehend his oddity. Bea also had an idea.
“What? What’s wrong with him?” Virginia asked Max’s two best friends.
“Isn’t it obvious, Mrs. Deanhart?” Bea asked grudgingly. “Max is in love.”
“Max? In love?”
“Where are you taking me, Normie?” Max asked anxiously.
“To where we usually go,” Norman replied, trying to control a scoff as he led his little master up to the secret attic. His huge hands were covering his eyes and he was obviously trying to show Max, who had just came back from sorting the comic house of his old books and moth-eaten magazines, a surprise. As they carefully went upstairs, Norman said, “Promise you won’t scream the whole house down or your Mom’ll hear you.”
“OK, OK, I promise! Now what’s the big surprise?”
“Tadaa~!” Norman exclaimed as he let go of Max’s eyes. As his eyes tried to adjust to the light, he was, as expected, shocked with glee as he saw the beautiful statue of his sweetheart standing tall and proud in the middle of the attic. It took him time before he could actually register what was right in front of his eyes.
“Normie, you’re the best!!” Max hugged his big-sized butler before dashing towards the statue to ogle and admire—and probably drool—all over it. He barely had enough time to engross himself with the statue when he saw his mother Virginia standing right in front of him. He gasped in shock and horror—how did she find out about this secret attic he had kept hidden from her since he discovered it 16 years ago? His first instinct was Norman but he noticed that his butler was as surprised as he was.
“I was actually considering a reasonable woman,” Virginia muttered. She came into full view, her face filled with anger and disgust as she stared at Princess Phoebe’s statue. “I’ve set certain rules, and I expect those rules to be obeyed!”
“But, Mom, it’s not what you think…” Max tried to explain, although he knew whatever he said wasn’t going to improve anything.
“Is it true that you rescued a mermaid from shriveling on the surface?” Virginia didn’t wait for her son to answer. “Oh, don’t think that your mother is stupid, young man! I knew something was wrong when you didn’t turn up for that courting ceremony that night, and you have admitted that you went out to sea that night. Do you really think that I wouldn’t be suspicious if you sneaked off in the middle of helping me without me knowing? You have got some nerve! Just because I don’t know that you’ve been going up to this place doesn’t mean that I don’t know that it exists! What have I said about mermaids?”
“But she could die and I can’t just…”
“So what if she dies? It would be better off if there are lesser mermaids in this world! I told you that they are sea devils and are not to be trusted! Have you forgotten who killed your father? Have you forgotten who had caused us all this misery if it weren’t for them that caused your father’s death…”
“But, Mom, I LOVE HER!!!” Max blurted out desperately, only to realized that he had made the situation worse. He immediately hid behind the statue, refusing to face his mother’s horrified expression.
“No! Have you lost your senses completely? She’s a mermaid, you’re a human!”
“I don’t care!” Max replied indignantly. Norman wanted to calm Virginia down but she wasn’t in the right mind to be calmed down.
“Oh, help me, Max!” Virginia growled as her ring on her left ring finger began to glow. “I am going get it through you, and if this is the only way, so be it!!”
Virginia’s wedding ring was no ordinary ring. It was given by Blake when he proposed to her and it possessed magical destructive powers. She had never used the ring’s power before, that is, until now. She began to shoot rays out of her ring at all the things in the attic, crashing and wrecking them. All the treasures of the sea Max and Norman collected for 16 years went down to smoke and ashes. No matter how Max and Norman pleaded and protested, her mind was bent on destroying anything that was connected to the sea. Lastly, despite Max’s desperate wail, she shot at the statue, reducing it to rubble.
That struck Max real bad. Max fell onto his knees beside the rubble and cried like he had never cried before. Before he could mourn properly over the loss of his magnificent statue, Virginia grabbed his wrist and dragged out of the attic and into his room. She pushed him in and locked the door.
“What is this?! Let me out!! LET ME OUT!!!” Max pounded furiously at the door.
“You’re grounded, young man! And you’ll stay in there grounded until you get it into your head that mermaids are nothing but sea devils and until I get a really decent human girl for you!” Virginia scolded from the other side of the door before leaving. She warned Norman not to open the door except for meals and Norman nodded obligingly. Norman walked towards the door and called out to his young master.
“Max? You OK?”
Max’s first thought was to get out from the window but he realized that his window was barred. Even if he smashed the glass, he won’t be able to get out. He slumped onto his bed and whispered, “Just go away.”
Norman walked away from the door guiltily, leaving Max alone, sobbing bitterly.
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 3
Max was as ultimately terrified as the guests present in the hall when he saw the intruding visitor. It was a huge, REALLY huge Great White shark, with teeth bared as if ready to have a nice great meal made of merpeople sushi. Max gulped in horror at this monstrosity. He had never seen a Great White at this range, up close and personal. He only had seen them in books.
“So, King Benedict, Your Majesty,” the Great White said sarcastically. “I see that you have taken the initiative of not inviting me to this glorious royal birthday party. What’s the matter? Afraid that I won’t get a gift worthy enough for your daughter?”
“No, Tiger,” King Benedict faced the shark boldly. “I didn’t invite you because of your irregular appetite. Think of the horror that might happen if I let you come. You would’ve eaten up my people and my friends! Probably even my daughter!”
“Oh, that’s not right to treat a guest!” the Great White whose name was Tiger had his fins on his fishy chest dramatically. “Show a little respect.”
“Respect is definitely the last thing on your list you should deserve,” Drakeb muttered grudgingly.
“Since I’m going to be treated that way, I might as well crash the whole party and see how you like it!”
Without another word, Tiger swam around the huge castle great hall and smashed everything at its path. He used the tip of his nose to butt and hit everyone around, sending them flying at all directions. He chomped down the whole orchestra and gulped down everything that was on the coral table. He bit at the merpeople’s pets and banged himself on the walls of the castle, making a huge scene. He was uncontrollable. The King’s men weren’t able to stop him—he was too strong for them to tackle. Finally, he lunged towards the birthday princess and, like a bull, butted her and sent her flying high up onto the surface. His force was really strong and soon, Princess Phoebe could be seen disappearing into the surface and didn’t come down.
Max gasped. He knew lots on merpeople’s weaknesses. They cannot be off the water more than 30 minutes or they would shrivel and die. Leaving King Benedict’s men to fend Tiger away, Max quickly swam back up to the surface and tried to look for the princess. If the people were ever to see her up on shore, she would either be put in an exhibit or being poked and prodded by curious people, or worse, being cooked and eaten, for legend has it that eating a mermaid would grant you immortality. He saw her hanging loosely from one of the fishermen’s sails of a fishing boat. Her body got tangled in the sail ropes, bruised and unconscious. He quickly rushed up to the boat, taking care not to let anyone see them both, and took off his diving gear. With nimble hands and feet, he climbed swiftly up to the sails and cut her loose with his pocket knife given by Norman who got it from one of his past voyages. He then carried her down, put on his diving gear and propped her across his shoulders before diving back into the sea.
As he dived deeper and deeper down back to the mermen territory, Tiger was gone. The Great White was chased away by a large, over-sized squid, being squirted with black goo as he went. Max hid out of sight. He didn’t want to risk being caught and be accused for kidnapping the mermaid princess. He placed her a reasonable distance away from the castle and stared at her.
She was still unconscious and quite bruised, but nevertheless she was OK and not shriveled up like an old apple as he feared. She was still the angelic, most beautiful mermaid he first saw. Her eyes were closed gracefully, covering those jade-green eyes. Her dark chocolate-brown hair spread decoratively around her head, like a magnificent royal crown. Her chest rose and fell gently. She looked so majestic and pure even when she was unconscious, as if she did not faint, but only slept and having a great dream. Max wanted so much to lay his lips on her rosy ones but he realized that this would mean drowning or die due to the sea pressure for him. The only thing he could do was to sing for her to express his love.
What if I told you it was all meant to be
Would you believe me, would you agree
It's almost that feeling that we've met before
So tell me that you don't think I'm crazy
When I tell you love has come here and now
Chorus:
A moment like this
Some people wait a lifetime
For a moment like this
Some people search forever
For that one special kiss
I can't believe it's happening to me
Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this
Everything changes but beauty remains
Something’s so tender I can't explain
I may be dreaming but 'til I awake
Can't we make this dream last forever
And I'll cherish all the love we share
Chorus
Could this be the greatest love of all
I wanna know that you'll catch me when I fall
So let me tell you this...
Some people wait a life time for a moment like this…
Max’s singing did do Princess Phoebe a little good. She began to stir and open her jade-green eyes. She let out a small smile when she saw the singing Max staring back at her intently with full of love and passion. She held Max’s hand that was on her soft, silky cheek and wanted to hold out her other hand to ask about him when she suddenly saw him looking at another direction and then swam away from her. Her weak body was unable to give chase to this mysterious man that had saved her life.
“Your Highness! Your Highness! There you are!”
Princess Phoebe blinked and tried to steer herself up when she heard Drakeb’s voice calling her. She soon felt Drakeb’s strong hands picking her up and holding her close, saying, “Oh, thank the Sea Gods that you’re alright. Are you hurt? Anything broken?”
“A…A boy…he…he rescued me…” Phoebe found herself trying to search for Max absentmindedly. “He was…singing…He had the most…beautiful voice…!”
“I think you’ve taken in too much moon rays up on the surface. Off we go,” Drakeb said as he carried Phoebe into his arms. Phoebe let him; she was too weak to think clearly what had happened. Behind a huge rock, Max slowly popped his head out to stare at the disappearing royal mermaid and merman. He felt both jealous and relieved—relieved because someone had appeared just in the nick of time before he scared the mermaid princess if she saw that he was a human, yet jealous because it had to be his potential rival Drakeb to come. He also felt a little upset because his appearance had cut short his lovely time with her. He then noticed that the air in his oxygen tank was slowly going down. He had to go back to land before he drowned himself to death. Besides, he had to get back home quick and find a good excuse for not attending to the courting ceremony.
Before he left the scene to go back up the surface, he sang softly, “Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this…”
“So, King Benedict, Your Majesty,” the Great White said sarcastically. “I see that you have taken the initiative of not inviting me to this glorious royal birthday party. What’s the matter? Afraid that I won’t get a gift worthy enough for your daughter?”
“No, Tiger,” King Benedict faced the shark boldly. “I didn’t invite you because of your irregular appetite. Think of the horror that might happen if I let you come. You would’ve eaten up my people and my friends! Probably even my daughter!”
“Oh, that’s not right to treat a guest!” the Great White whose name was Tiger had his fins on his fishy chest dramatically. “Show a little respect.”
“Respect is definitely the last thing on your list you should deserve,” Drakeb muttered grudgingly.
“Since I’m going to be treated that way, I might as well crash the whole party and see how you like it!”
Without another word, Tiger swam around the huge castle great hall and smashed everything at its path. He used the tip of his nose to butt and hit everyone around, sending them flying at all directions. He chomped down the whole orchestra and gulped down everything that was on the coral table. He bit at the merpeople’s pets and banged himself on the walls of the castle, making a huge scene. He was uncontrollable. The King’s men weren’t able to stop him—he was too strong for them to tackle. Finally, he lunged towards the birthday princess and, like a bull, butted her and sent her flying high up onto the surface. His force was really strong and soon, Princess Phoebe could be seen disappearing into the surface and didn’t come down.
Max gasped. He knew lots on merpeople’s weaknesses. They cannot be off the water more than 30 minutes or they would shrivel and die. Leaving King Benedict’s men to fend Tiger away, Max quickly swam back up to the surface and tried to look for the princess. If the people were ever to see her up on shore, she would either be put in an exhibit or being poked and prodded by curious people, or worse, being cooked and eaten, for legend has it that eating a mermaid would grant you immortality. He saw her hanging loosely from one of the fishermen’s sails of a fishing boat. Her body got tangled in the sail ropes, bruised and unconscious. He quickly rushed up to the boat, taking care not to let anyone see them both, and took off his diving gear. With nimble hands and feet, he climbed swiftly up to the sails and cut her loose with his pocket knife given by Norman who got it from one of his past voyages. He then carried her down, put on his diving gear and propped her across his shoulders before diving back into the sea.
As he dived deeper and deeper down back to the mermen territory, Tiger was gone. The Great White was chased away by a large, over-sized squid, being squirted with black goo as he went. Max hid out of sight. He didn’t want to risk being caught and be accused for kidnapping the mermaid princess. He placed her a reasonable distance away from the castle and stared at her.
She was still unconscious and quite bruised, but nevertheless she was OK and not shriveled up like an old apple as he feared. She was still the angelic, most beautiful mermaid he first saw. Her eyes were closed gracefully, covering those jade-green eyes. Her dark chocolate-brown hair spread decoratively around her head, like a magnificent royal crown. Her chest rose and fell gently. She looked so majestic and pure even when she was unconscious, as if she did not faint, but only slept and having a great dream. Max wanted so much to lay his lips on her rosy ones but he realized that this would mean drowning or die due to the sea pressure for him. The only thing he could do was to sing for her to express his love.
What if I told you it was all meant to be
Would you believe me, would you agree
It's almost that feeling that we've met before
So tell me that you don't think I'm crazy
When I tell you love has come here and now
Chorus:
A moment like this
Some people wait a lifetime
For a moment like this
Some people search forever
For that one special kiss
I can't believe it's happening to me
Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this
Everything changes but beauty remains
Something’s so tender I can't explain
I may be dreaming but 'til I awake
Can't we make this dream last forever
And I'll cherish all the love we share
Chorus
Could this be the greatest love of all
I wanna know that you'll catch me when I fall
So let me tell you this...
Some people wait a life time for a moment like this…
Max’s singing did do Princess Phoebe a little good. She began to stir and open her jade-green eyes. She let out a small smile when she saw the singing Max staring back at her intently with full of love and passion. She held Max’s hand that was on her soft, silky cheek and wanted to hold out her other hand to ask about him when she suddenly saw him looking at another direction and then swam away from her. Her weak body was unable to give chase to this mysterious man that had saved her life.
“Your Highness! Your Highness! There you are!”
Princess Phoebe blinked and tried to steer herself up when she heard Drakeb’s voice calling her. She soon felt Drakeb’s strong hands picking her up and holding her close, saying, “Oh, thank the Sea Gods that you’re alright. Are you hurt? Anything broken?”
“A…A boy…he…he rescued me…” Phoebe found herself trying to search for Max absentmindedly. “He was…singing…He had the most…beautiful voice…!”
“I think you’ve taken in too much moon rays up on the surface. Off we go,” Drakeb said as he carried Phoebe into his arms. Phoebe let him; she was too weak to think clearly what had happened. Behind a huge rock, Max slowly popped his head out to stare at the disappearing royal mermaid and merman. He felt both jealous and relieved—relieved because someone had appeared just in the nick of time before he scared the mermaid princess if she saw that he was a human, yet jealous because it had to be his potential rival Drakeb to come. He also felt a little upset because his appearance had cut short his lovely time with her. He then noticed that the air in his oxygen tank was slowly going down. He had to go back to land before he drowned himself to death. Besides, he had to get back home quick and find a good excuse for not attending to the courting ceremony.
Before he left the scene to go back up the surface, he sang softly, “Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this…”
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 2
Max put on his oxygen mask and the oxygen tank onto his back. He ran towards the jetty dock and jumped into the sea. Within minutes, he was swimming down towards the bottom of the sea towards the shimmering kaleidoscope of lights. What he saw later was a lovely sight even for eyes that aren’t sore.
There was, as he suspected, a huge world of living, breathing merpeople, just like the ones in the legends. They were all almost just like regular people like you and I, only that they have shimmering, beautiful tails for legs and they breathe underwater. They were all moving towards a huge castle that was purely made out of corals and shells of different shapes and sizes that shine just like a kaleidoscope. It was so beautiful beyond words that Max found it hard not to gape at it.
He tried to blend in but seeing that he had no shimmering tails like the merpeople and wore clothes and shoes instead of being half-naked like them, he’d be such a conspicuous spectacle. He resolved to sneak and hide in corners as he slowly advanced into the castle. So far, so good. He was really surprised to see a pair of octopuses guarding the front gate of the castle and he was even surprised to see seahorses wearing tux checking invitation cards, but he was lucky that he was able to go past them. He had his way of avoiding these things: he’s learnt those tactics in comics.
When he finally entered the castle and sneaked into the great hall, he was in for more excitement and surprises.
“Where is Max?”
The courting ceremony has already begun an hour and a half ago and the crowd of dancing bachelors and bachelorettes were increasing. Some have already got who they wanted and were either dancing to the beat or sitting at the corner talking lovie-dovie stuff. Norman had to say something.
“Oh, he’ll be here soon. He probably ran into someone he knows, like Bea or Felix, maybe,” Norman was so used to covering up for Max, the words practically came out almost automatically.
“Well, Felix is here,” Virginia said, pointing at the little merchant’s son dancing in the crowd as he tried to court a girl or two. “So, maybe he could be with Bea. He’d better make it here quick. He’ll be performing later.”
“Performing?” Norman’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Hasn’t he or his pals told you? He’s going to perform on stage later for a song. I’ve already reminded him that this morning before he went to school. That’ll increase his chances of getting himself the right girl. Although I secretly think that Bea is quite OK…”
Her voice began to trail away as Norman began to fear Max. He didn’t expect this, and he was sure that Max has forgotten it as soon as Virginia mentioned about the performance. He knew that Max hated this ceremony as much as Virginia hated the sea.
“You better come back soon, or I can’t help you anymore.”
Max stared with awe at the wonders of the castle’s great hall. It was decorated with more seashells and corals that glimmered brighter than the brightest jewels in the world. When he looked closer at the built of the wall, he noticed that some part of the wall was really made out of real crystals and rubies, and other part were made of real jewels, gold and silver here and there. If Max’s mouth was flexible, he would’ve gaped until his jaws fell onto the sea bed.
More and more merpeople were coming into the hall, filling it up with laughter and chatter. Max quickly swam his way into somewhere inconspicuous before someone found him. He hated the idea of being caught by an octopus or a whale or a dolphin or somewhat. From his hiding place, he continued to watch as everyone settled in the hall with their chatter and fancy fans and all.
“Introducing the arrival of His Majesty King Benedict!!!”
Everyone clapped when a seahorse appeared announcing the arrival of the King of the Sea. Max almost had a heart attack when he saw that this King Benedict, who was coming out in a weird shell-shaped carriage pulled by a pair of dolphins, looked exactly like his late father Blake. He wanted to run out and hug him but when King Benedict descended on the bed of an oyster (his throne) and when he looked harder, he realized that it was not his father. His father, as far as he could remember, had brownish-red hair and the blue eyes which he inherited from, but this man wasn’t brownish-red haired or blue eyed. He had dark blue hair and green eyes. And although his face looked exactly like his dad, it’s impossible that he could be able to live and breathe underwater, like what King Benedict was doing. Max sighed at the disappointment and stayed where he was. But he soon cheered up when King Benedict, using his trident, sent a shower of beautiful and magnificent fireworks.
“And announcing King Benedict’s most trusted advisor…”
And the list went on, introducing the incoming royal or important guests. Then suddenly everyone clapped when the seahorse announced that King Benedict’s sons were going to perform on stage for their beloved sister, who was the birthday girl for today. It dawned to Max that this was a royal birthday party. This was something new and he definitely didn’t want to miss it for the world. He checked to see if the air in his oxygen tank was still enough. Luckily it was, so he sneaked himself into another inconspicuous spot to get a clearer view.
The orchestra started playing, funnily played by a huge octopus, a blowfish, a few salmons and a group of jellyfish, conducted by a lobster. The curtains, which were made purely out of seaweed, drew up, revealing 6 oysters. As the song began to be sung, the oysters opened one by one, revealing 6 mermen who looked much older than Max. Max heard the mermen sang out their names throughout the song, namely Peter, Pad, Pjer, Pac, Pince and Pablio. Max wrinkled his nose at all their names and thought, ‘What’s with the ‘P’?’
Finally, from below the stage, emerged another oyster which was bigger than all of them combined. While singing, the 6 mermen shifted their gaze towards the oyster and sang, “Here’s our birthday sister Phoebe!” The oyster opened, revealing the birthday girl, and boy, what a birthday girl she was, with dark chocolate-brown hair and the most beautiful jade-green eyes Max had ever seen. She was fairer than the fairest fairy in the world and Max had never seen any creature as beautiful as her.
He had finally found his princess from the far unknown destination of paradise.
Up on land, the courting ceremony was pretty warmed up. The bachelors and bachelorettes chit-chatted amongst themselves, seemingly pretty excited when the MC announced that there will be a performance soon, performed by the one and only Maxwell Deanhart and his band. Norman began to feel nervous when he heard the excited whispers from the girls.
“Oh, this is so great! Max is gonna perform!”
“Yeah! That’s a new thing we don’t see everyday!”
“For once, Max is being sensible instead of drowning himself in dreams!”
“Ooh, I wonder what he will perform!”
“I wonder where he is,” Norman muttered to himself nervously, praying hard that Max has come back from his ‘sea expedition’ and remembered his performance for tonight. Everyone waited anxiously, including Virginia. No one came out of the stage. No one stepped out to sing or act or do something on stage. Norman began to sense big trouble was coming afoot.
“Where is that young man?” Virginia asked in the midst of all the anxious, surprised and impatient whispers. “He has to go up now if he wants to get a bride.”
“Uh…I think maybe he got a little stage fright,” Norman said as he stepped further and further away from the widow. “I guess I’ll go and check on him for a while.”
Norman ran towards the backstage in a thrice. When he reached there, he saw Felix, Bea and a few more people standing there with their instruments, looking nervous and agitated.
“Psst! Where’s Max?” Norman hissed. Bea noticed him and ran towards him.
“You mean you didn’t see him too? Oh no, what are we going to do?”
“He sneaked out of the house and out to the sea again. I should’ve stopped him.”
“Out to the sea again?!” Felix exclaimed. “Oh man, this is so not good! Mrs. Deanhart told us beforehand to help out with Max’s performance and told us to keep an eye on him! I can’t believe he did this again!!”
“Norman! You better give me a good reason why Max is not here!!”
Norman winced. Needless to say, Virginia was standing right behind him, looking pretty fumed up and angry. Outside, the crowd was getting quite wild and pissed off, especially the girls. Felix and Bea gulped in fear.
“Uh-oh. Busted!”
Max stared dreamily as the birthday princess Phoebe was on stage performing a song for her fellow guests. Everyone present even forgot their food to listen to her song. She sang so beautifully, like a sea angel descended from heaven for all the creatures of the underwater world to see. He was ultimately sure that no one could match her beauty ever.
After her performance, she mingled with her friends to enjoy her birthday cake and food. She could be seen swimming around, laughing and talking with all her mermaid friends. She even danced with a few mermen and had a blast when her brothers came in one by one and gave a sort of teasing dance. Finally, King Benedict got off the throne to dance with his daughter. Max couldn’t help being mesmerized by them: one who looked so much like his late father whom he missed so much and the other who was truly beautiful and wonderful beyond compare. Max almost drooled when he heard her laughing; it sounded like spring has come into the sea and touched his heart.
“Hello, Phoebe!” Max heard someone calling the beautiful Phoebe. It was a merman, and quite charming at that. He looked a wee bit like Max, with dark black hair like a raven and a pair of deep violet eyes and very fair skin. He saw Phoebe blushed at upon seeing him and his heart couldn’t help feeling jealous.
“Why, hello, Prince Drakeb. You’re pretty late,” Pablio clapped the merman’s back.
“Sorry, but I’m here to bring my sweet princess a gift,” Drakeb replied and clapped his hands. A turtle swam in with a string of seaweed in his mouth. The seaweed was pulling along a shell. Drakeb excused the turtle and announced, “My dear princess, I give to you…”
He tapped the shell a few times before it cracked open to reveal a statue of Phoebe carved out of a huge coral. Everyone gasped and oohed at the sight. Phoebe was at lost of words. King Benedict clapped his hands with glee and admiration.
“My, my, my, what a pleasant gift! This must have cost quite a sum! I would be glad to have a son-in-law as generous as you!”
“It would be an honour if I am given the opportunity to dance with Princess Phoebe as a token of your gratitude,” Drakeb bowed gracefully as he took the blushing Phoebe’s hand, which was of more jealousy to Max. He was about to come out of his hiding place and rush over to give Drakeb a piece of his mind when he noticed a dark shadow coming towards the castle.
“It is pretty generous of him,” Pad stroked his chin thoughtfully, “but where are we actually going to place this statue?”
“How about on my sea bed?” An icy cold voice filled the whole hall which sent everyone into horrified screams and terror.
Max could see that this type of danger was no simple one to tackle.
There was, as he suspected, a huge world of living, breathing merpeople, just like the ones in the legends. They were all almost just like regular people like you and I, only that they have shimmering, beautiful tails for legs and they breathe underwater. They were all moving towards a huge castle that was purely made out of corals and shells of different shapes and sizes that shine just like a kaleidoscope. It was so beautiful beyond words that Max found it hard not to gape at it.
He tried to blend in but seeing that he had no shimmering tails like the merpeople and wore clothes and shoes instead of being half-naked like them, he’d be such a conspicuous spectacle. He resolved to sneak and hide in corners as he slowly advanced into the castle. So far, so good. He was really surprised to see a pair of octopuses guarding the front gate of the castle and he was even surprised to see seahorses wearing tux checking invitation cards, but he was lucky that he was able to go past them. He had his way of avoiding these things: he’s learnt those tactics in comics.
When he finally entered the castle and sneaked into the great hall, he was in for more excitement and surprises.
“Where is Max?”
The courting ceremony has already begun an hour and a half ago and the crowd of dancing bachelors and bachelorettes were increasing. Some have already got who they wanted and were either dancing to the beat or sitting at the corner talking lovie-dovie stuff. Norman had to say something.
“Oh, he’ll be here soon. He probably ran into someone he knows, like Bea or Felix, maybe,” Norman was so used to covering up for Max, the words practically came out almost automatically.
“Well, Felix is here,” Virginia said, pointing at the little merchant’s son dancing in the crowd as he tried to court a girl or two. “So, maybe he could be with Bea. He’d better make it here quick. He’ll be performing later.”
“Performing?” Norman’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Hasn’t he or his pals told you? He’s going to perform on stage later for a song. I’ve already reminded him that this morning before he went to school. That’ll increase his chances of getting himself the right girl. Although I secretly think that Bea is quite OK…”
Her voice began to trail away as Norman began to fear Max. He didn’t expect this, and he was sure that Max has forgotten it as soon as Virginia mentioned about the performance. He knew that Max hated this ceremony as much as Virginia hated the sea.
“You better come back soon, or I can’t help you anymore.”
Max stared with awe at the wonders of the castle’s great hall. It was decorated with more seashells and corals that glimmered brighter than the brightest jewels in the world. When he looked closer at the built of the wall, he noticed that some part of the wall was really made out of real crystals and rubies, and other part were made of real jewels, gold and silver here and there. If Max’s mouth was flexible, he would’ve gaped until his jaws fell onto the sea bed.
More and more merpeople were coming into the hall, filling it up with laughter and chatter. Max quickly swam his way into somewhere inconspicuous before someone found him. He hated the idea of being caught by an octopus or a whale or a dolphin or somewhat. From his hiding place, he continued to watch as everyone settled in the hall with their chatter and fancy fans and all.
“Introducing the arrival of His Majesty King Benedict!!!”
Everyone clapped when a seahorse appeared announcing the arrival of the King of the Sea. Max almost had a heart attack when he saw that this King Benedict, who was coming out in a weird shell-shaped carriage pulled by a pair of dolphins, looked exactly like his late father Blake. He wanted to run out and hug him but when King Benedict descended on the bed of an oyster (his throne) and when he looked harder, he realized that it was not his father. His father, as far as he could remember, had brownish-red hair and the blue eyes which he inherited from, but this man wasn’t brownish-red haired or blue eyed. He had dark blue hair and green eyes. And although his face looked exactly like his dad, it’s impossible that he could be able to live and breathe underwater, like what King Benedict was doing. Max sighed at the disappointment and stayed where he was. But he soon cheered up when King Benedict, using his trident, sent a shower of beautiful and magnificent fireworks.
“And announcing King Benedict’s most trusted advisor…”
And the list went on, introducing the incoming royal or important guests. Then suddenly everyone clapped when the seahorse announced that King Benedict’s sons were going to perform on stage for their beloved sister, who was the birthday girl for today. It dawned to Max that this was a royal birthday party. This was something new and he definitely didn’t want to miss it for the world. He checked to see if the air in his oxygen tank was still enough. Luckily it was, so he sneaked himself into another inconspicuous spot to get a clearer view.
The orchestra started playing, funnily played by a huge octopus, a blowfish, a few salmons and a group of jellyfish, conducted by a lobster. The curtains, which were made purely out of seaweed, drew up, revealing 6 oysters. As the song began to be sung, the oysters opened one by one, revealing 6 mermen who looked much older than Max. Max heard the mermen sang out their names throughout the song, namely Peter, Pad, Pjer, Pac, Pince and Pablio. Max wrinkled his nose at all their names and thought, ‘What’s with the ‘P’?’
Finally, from below the stage, emerged another oyster which was bigger than all of them combined. While singing, the 6 mermen shifted their gaze towards the oyster and sang, “Here’s our birthday sister Phoebe!” The oyster opened, revealing the birthday girl, and boy, what a birthday girl she was, with dark chocolate-brown hair and the most beautiful jade-green eyes Max had ever seen. She was fairer than the fairest fairy in the world and Max had never seen any creature as beautiful as her.
He had finally found his princess from the far unknown destination of paradise.
Up on land, the courting ceremony was pretty warmed up. The bachelors and bachelorettes chit-chatted amongst themselves, seemingly pretty excited when the MC announced that there will be a performance soon, performed by the one and only Maxwell Deanhart and his band. Norman began to feel nervous when he heard the excited whispers from the girls.
“Oh, this is so great! Max is gonna perform!”
“Yeah! That’s a new thing we don’t see everyday!”
“For once, Max is being sensible instead of drowning himself in dreams!”
“Ooh, I wonder what he will perform!”
“I wonder where he is,” Norman muttered to himself nervously, praying hard that Max has come back from his ‘sea expedition’ and remembered his performance for tonight. Everyone waited anxiously, including Virginia. No one came out of the stage. No one stepped out to sing or act or do something on stage. Norman began to sense big trouble was coming afoot.
“Where is that young man?” Virginia asked in the midst of all the anxious, surprised and impatient whispers. “He has to go up now if he wants to get a bride.”
“Uh…I think maybe he got a little stage fright,” Norman said as he stepped further and further away from the widow. “I guess I’ll go and check on him for a while.”
Norman ran towards the backstage in a thrice. When he reached there, he saw Felix, Bea and a few more people standing there with their instruments, looking nervous and agitated.
“Psst! Where’s Max?” Norman hissed. Bea noticed him and ran towards him.
“You mean you didn’t see him too? Oh no, what are we going to do?”
“He sneaked out of the house and out to the sea again. I should’ve stopped him.”
“Out to the sea again?!” Felix exclaimed. “Oh man, this is so not good! Mrs. Deanhart told us beforehand to help out with Max’s performance and told us to keep an eye on him! I can’t believe he did this again!!”
“Norman! You better give me a good reason why Max is not here!!”
Norman winced. Needless to say, Virginia was standing right behind him, looking pretty fumed up and angry. Outside, the crowd was getting quite wild and pissed off, especially the girls. Felix and Bea gulped in fear.
“Uh-oh. Busted!”
Max stared dreamily as the birthday princess Phoebe was on stage performing a song for her fellow guests. Everyone present even forgot their food to listen to her song. She sang so beautifully, like a sea angel descended from heaven for all the creatures of the underwater world to see. He was ultimately sure that no one could match her beauty ever.
After her performance, she mingled with her friends to enjoy her birthday cake and food. She could be seen swimming around, laughing and talking with all her mermaid friends. She even danced with a few mermen and had a blast when her brothers came in one by one and gave a sort of teasing dance. Finally, King Benedict got off the throne to dance with his daughter. Max couldn’t help being mesmerized by them: one who looked so much like his late father whom he missed so much and the other who was truly beautiful and wonderful beyond compare. Max almost drooled when he heard her laughing; it sounded like spring has come into the sea and touched his heart.
“Hello, Phoebe!” Max heard someone calling the beautiful Phoebe. It was a merman, and quite charming at that. He looked a wee bit like Max, with dark black hair like a raven and a pair of deep violet eyes and very fair skin. He saw Phoebe blushed at upon seeing him and his heart couldn’t help feeling jealous.
“Why, hello, Prince Drakeb. You’re pretty late,” Pablio clapped the merman’s back.
“Sorry, but I’m here to bring my sweet princess a gift,” Drakeb replied and clapped his hands. A turtle swam in with a string of seaweed in his mouth. The seaweed was pulling along a shell. Drakeb excused the turtle and announced, “My dear princess, I give to you…”
He tapped the shell a few times before it cracked open to reveal a statue of Phoebe carved out of a huge coral. Everyone gasped and oohed at the sight. Phoebe was at lost of words. King Benedict clapped his hands with glee and admiration.
“My, my, my, what a pleasant gift! This must have cost quite a sum! I would be glad to have a son-in-law as generous as you!”
“It would be an honour if I am given the opportunity to dance with Princess Phoebe as a token of your gratitude,” Drakeb bowed gracefully as he took the blushing Phoebe’s hand, which was of more jealousy to Max. He was about to come out of his hiding place and rush over to give Drakeb a piece of his mind when he noticed a dark shadow coming towards the castle.
“It is pretty generous of him,” Pad stroked his chin thoughtfully, “but where are we actually going to place this statue?”
“How about on my sea bed?” An icy cold voice filled the whole hall which sent everyone into horrified screams and terror.
Max could see that this type of danger was no simple one to tackle.
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 1
Started: 07-21-03 Completed: 04-04-05
A MIX OF FAIRY TALE COCKTAIL
Once upon a time (as all fairy tale stories go), there lived a boy named Maxwell Deanhart living in a nice, quaint and quiet village near the jetty where loads of ships go in and out of the sea. Max was well-known among the village people as the most handsome youngster among his peers. Many girls adore him, and he was an idol to females both young and old. He was the kind of boy all other boys want to be.There was one flaw in his really cute and handsome attire—he was way too adventurous to be living in a quiet village of people who were content with what they have right now. He loved to read comics about battles, good against evil and justice, and has a very vivid imagination, which was quite a problem. His looks didn’t go parallel with his attitude, and girls love and hate him at the same time. The village people thought of it as a shame for he was an upright lad and really right for marriage. The only place he would ever visit throughout this whole provincial village was a worn-out comic bookshop which had seen better days, but sells and rent the best collectors’ edition comic books and graphic novels about Max’s favourite superheroes and villains. The shopkeeper (who was a retiree and a great fan of comic books himself) was kind enough to open the shop just for him to hang out and read, rent or buy his comics, and I tell you, Max could hang out in there for hours when he was younger until his mother had to drag him home.
The only people who could ever tolerate his behaviour were his best friends Bea and Felix. Secretly, Bea had a crush on him and hoped very much for Max to woo her. But she wasn’t too hopeful because she was the daughter of a poor carpenter, and carpenters’ daughters don’t get to marry well-off people like Max, and an even well-off person like Felix (son of a wealthy merchant) would be an even far cry from that.
“You ought to pull yourself together, Max!” Bea complained one day when Max and the gang were hanging out at the jetty watching the ships coming in and out. “Tomorrow night’s the courting ceremony and you have to attend it so that you can find your suitable wife! It has been 3 years in a row and you’ve failed to grab any lucky girl because of your attitude!”
“I don’t exactly want to marry anyone of them,” Max sighed tiredly. “If I want to marry someone, I want to marry a…”
“A princess from a far unknown destination of paradise,” Bea and Felix said in unison before Felix groaned. “Come off it, Max! There is no way you’re gonna marry some mysterious princess out there! Even if there is that kind of princess, you’ll never fit in! You’re no son of a duchess or something, just a son of a famous and quite rich sailor cum merchant.”
“Anything can happen,” Max replied, his eyes full of hope.
“You are going to attend that courting ceremony whether you like it or not, young man!”
Max rolled his eyes when his mother, Virginia Deanhart, gave him a sound yelling. The courting ceremony, to this village, was a part and parcel of their tradition. All bachelors and bachelorettes can attend the ceremony and choose the woman or man of their dreams. Since the age of 18, Max had been dragged to that boring ceremony, only to slip away without a bride 3 years in a row. Now that he’s 21, his mother was worried.
“But, Mom, I told you, I’m not interested in anyone yet! None of the girls appealed to me. I don’t find them attractive at all…”
“That kind of attitude has made you single for the past 3 years, Max. You can’t go running away like that anymore! Now, I’ve got the suit ready for you. You have to go, and I don’t want to hear you wandering near the sea again, is that clear?”
Max sighed as he took the clean, pressed suit handed by his mother. Virginia had always had a grudge with the sea. The sea had killed his father, Blake, when he went on a voyage with his partners Norman and Scott. At that time, legends of mermaids abundant at sea were pretty famous, and his mother had heard a rumour about Blake being lured by mermaids to his death. But Norman told Max that it was a strong wave that swept him away. His other partner Scott was also lost at sea and presumed dead. Max had seen Scott during his younger years—he was a sinister-looking guy with the coldest and most unkind eyes he had ever seen, and he was often afraid of him. Now that Blake was long gone, Norman sold the business to Blake’s relatives and became Max’s butler.
Max took the suit up to his secret attic. In this attic was a collection of marvelous things from the sea, like corals, starfish, frames made out of all kinds of seashells, etc, etc. Unknown to Virginia, Max and Norman often go down to the depths of the sea to collect anything that might be a lead to the existence of merpeople. Despite Norman’s warnings about not to upset Virginia and regardless of Virginia’s forbiddance to go out to sea, nothing could really stop this handsome, hot-blooded young man. The sea instinct practically ran in Max’s blood, just like his old man. Only he and Norman knew of this secret attic. He practically spent his whole childhood in this attic. He viewed this place as his special domain.
Later that evening, as he got ready to wear the suit and go for the dreaded courting ceremony, he saw, at a distance, a kaleidoscope of colours shimmering in the sea. His attic window faced the vast sea, so he could see quite clearly through the horizon. The temptation was too great; he threw away the suit he was about to wear and grabbed his oxygen tanks and all. He threw them down the hedges below and climbed out of the window through his rope ladder and was soon out of the house.
When Norman came up to the attic to find him, he half-expected an empty attic with a suit thrown in a careless heap.
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