"The Return"
“We better get that restoring stuff, before Lived Neerg returns again,” stated Melissa.
“I agree,” smiled Bringle. He then ran (or I guess ‘scurried’ since he was still a mouse) over to the power pack that was lying on the floor. He held his arms out over the power pack and repeated the following:
“Zappity, Elevatos, Bosalm, Inserticus.”
We all looked at the power pack, but if refused to move.
“I wonder what went wrong,” pondered Bringle, “that incantation should have caused the power pack to fly up and reinsert itself.”
“Maybe it wasn’t loud enough due to the fact that we’re so small?” suggested Melissa.
“No, that wouldn’t have any affect it,” stated Bringle, “it should have worked. I’ve studied the workings of the Spell Book for over ten years now. Let me try an easier one.”
Bringle wiggled his fingers toward his feet and repeated: “Piedtra, Moshto, Elevatra.” Nothing appeared to happen.
“By the power of Voldotz,” Bringle swore, “why didn’t it work?” His calm disposition seemed to be wearing thin.
“My mouth is very dry,” I finally said, after many minutes of licking my lips and trying to activate my salivary glands.
“Have some apple,” offered Lisa, slyly.
“No thanks,” I smirked.
“Wait a minute,” interrupted Bringle, “did you say your mouth was dry?” I nodded.
“Repeat the following: Zappity, Elevatos, Bosalm, Inserticus” requested Bringle.
I did as Bringle said, but nothing happened.
“No,” he corrected, “hold your arms out and wiggle your fingers toward the power pack as I had done.”
As soon as I tried it, the power pack rose off the floor and flew directly to Rupert. It clicked itself into place and the robot began to flicker to life. After a few beeps and clicks, he was once again fully re-energized.
“It worked,” shouted Melissa.
“Yes it did,” stated Bringle, somewhat sadly.
“What just happened?” asked Lisa.
“It appears that when Larry pushed us to safety from that flying apple, the Grotog attached itself to him.”
“And that means...what?” I started hesitantly.
“Well,” began Bringle, “besides a very dry mouth—which should go away in a day or so—it means that you have acquired access to all of the powers of the universe.”
“Come again,” asked Melissa.
“Let’s get back to our normal selves and I’ll explain in more detail. I am so tired of being a little yellow mouse,” requested Bringle. “Larry, Rupert is all yours. It has to be you who asks him to get Restoring Factor X.”
“Rupert, find us Restoring Factor X.”
Rupert the robot rolled himself over toward one of the shelves and grabbed the appropriate bottle. Returning to our little group, I instructed him to pour a drop of the stuff on each of us and two drops on Bringle.
We all cringed a little bit, anticipating a very large drop of cold liquid to come plummeting down upon our heads. Instead of the frigid gush, we were pleasantly surprised to find the liquid to be a relaxing warm splash, which dissipated immediately—much like rubbing alcohol.
“Well,” started Lisa after a few seconds, “I don’t feel any different......”
With that we shot back up to our normal heights. Looking around at each other, we all got our first glimpse of the real, un-moused, Bringle Brand of Jingleland.
He was about our height, with elf‑like features. The far edges of his eyebrows turned up toward his temples and his chin came to a bit of a point. His skin tone was the same shade of yellow as his fur had been when he was a mouse.
“Thank you, my friends,” he said, warmly shaking our hands, “it feels good to be my normal self again.”
“Our pleasure,” I said, “but it’s us who should be thanking you. We’d all still be three inches tall if you hadn’t known about the Restoring Factor X.”
“Believe me, I owe you for releasing me from the mousetrap and saving me from that hurling apple. Besides, in my land, Neerg’s kind of magic is fairly common place.”
“Just where is this land of yours?” asked Cindy.
“Let’s just say that it is never that far away, but is always distant.”
“What the heck does that mean?” asked Lisa.
“I don’t know,” Bringle explained with a slight chuckle, “it’s what we are taught to say should the need arise. Since my mode of travel is multi-dimensional, I can’t actually explain it any better than that.”
“We’d love to visit your land someday,” I said.
“I’m afraid that would be most impossible. No outsider has ever been there,” he stated.
“Too bad,” I said.
“Here,” continued Bringle, handing me the large Spell Book of Androganine from the podium. “Guard this book as your most valued possession.”
“I thought you needed to return with it,” began Melissa, “isn't it your birthright?”
“It was, but until I figure out some way to get a Grotog bestowed upon me, the book is entirely useless to me. Besides, Lived Neerg will indeed come after you again, and there are things in here that will protect you”
“Thank you,” I said, looking at the great, dusty volume.
“Well, I guess I need to return home. I’ve been gone for far too long as it is.”
“One last question,” started Lisa, “how do we get out of here?”
“Ahhhh,” pondered our comrade, “I hadn’t thought about that. I guess until you learn how to use the book, I’ll have to take care of that, too.”
Waving his hands over each of us, we faintly heard him mumbling some words as everything began to blur. We looked at each other as thick, white smoke began to rise up around us.
“Take care, my friends,” came his voice from behind the smoke.
“Wait!” I urged, “I still have some major questions that need to be answered!”
“In time, you will understand,” came the fading voice from behind the smoke, “I will return you to precisely the spot where you left. Good-bye my friends, I wish you all well....” His voice then faded completely.
* * * *
“Hey, you kids! Get down off that roof this minute,” shouted Mr. Furlong, the school janitor. “And put those cigies out. Smoking’ll kill you.”
As the white smoke cleared, we found ourselves back where we started. We were standing on the roof of our school. Looking down at my watch, I noticed that it was the same time and same day as it was when this whole mess started.
“Right away!” I shouted, waving and smiling at him, “it’s just a science experiment.”
“Kids,” he mumbled, shaking his head as he walked away.
“Well, it looks like everything is back to normal,” Lisa stated
“How do we get down from here?” asked Cindy, “I don’t think we’re going to fit through the skylight again.”
“Well,” I started, “let’s see if we can still fly.”
I handed the large “Spell Book of Androganine” to Melissa, just in case this didn’t work. I then jumped up into the air, like I had when I was three inches tall. To my delight, I found that I was once again airborne.
“This is how we get off the roof,” I shouted down to them.
The others tried to follow my lead, but didn’t get any higher than about a foot or two.
“I guess that Grotog has more powers than we think.” sighed Melissa, looking up at me. “Too bad, I was looking forward to still being able to fly.”
“Not me,” added Lisa, “I don’t even like flying in airplanes.”
“This is fantastic!” I said as I landed back on the roof next to them, “I am sorry though we couldn’t all keep the ability to fly.”
“So, how are we going to get down from this roof?” asked Lisa.
“I guess I’ll have to fly you down, one at a time,” I offered.
Suddenly, next to Cindy, appeared another puff of white smoke.
“Ah, Larry,” she said hesitantly.
“What is it, Cin?” I asked, turning my head toward her.
“You may be able to carry us down, but how are you going to carry Rupert?”
“Rupert?” I asked, my jaw dropping as I gazed on my new metallic friend, “What am I going to do with a robot?”
“Don’t be an idiot,” chuckled Melissa, gently slapping the back of my head, “he can be your new science project. Mr. Dietz would just die.”
“You’re right. With a little bit of personalized programming this baby will really knock his socks off.”
“First thing, though,” started Lisa, “you’ve got to get rid of that stupid name of his.”
“What’s the matter? You don’t like Rupert the Robot?” I asked them sarcastically.
“No-I-do-not,” stated our metallic friend. The four of us just laughed.
THE END...for now.
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