"Galapagos & Koleapus"
King Theodore Salvador Clavidor Ant had informed us that his ants had been unable to locate our cart. Thumbing through the great Spell Book of Androganine, I searched for some sort of transportation spell. The girls plopped themselves against the tall stalks of grass to rest and Woba wandered around for some more grass to chomp on. It was interesting to note that for all of our adventures, none of us were actually tired. Looking at the sky, we decided that—based on the positions of the three suns—there had been some form of night which must have occurred while we were underground.
“Melissa,” I started, baffled by the lack of appropriate looking spells, “what’s another word for ‘transportation’?”
“How about...?” she pondered for a few moments.
Standing up, she walked over toward me. She put her chin on my shoulder and gazed at the book.
“How about ‘mobility’?”
“No, nothing there either” I said, turning my head slightly to meet her glance. She smiled and after a little gulp of apprehension, I kissed her softly.
“It’s about time,” she said, smiling again.
“About time!” I chuckled, “I’ve been waiting to do that for most of my life. I just never thought you had much time for such trivial things.”
“Well I do,” she responded, spinning me around.
She grabbed both of my shoulders and we kissed.
“Ah, excuse me?” interrupted Lisa, “can we please get on with the transportation problem?”
“Yeh,” added Cindy, “I want to finish this adventure and get out of here.”
“Oh, and by the way,” added Lisa with a big grin, “it is about time.”
“We thought you’d never kiss her,” said Cindy.
“All right, enough,” I said, in my mock grumpy voice, “let’s get back to the book. The three of them just laughed.
“Rob, sensor readings,” giggled Melissa.
“Once again, sensors are detecting galloping paws.”
“Where?” asked Lisa.
“I am at the Purple Palace, 25,347,890 Galapagos Drive,” stated Cindy, in a monotone with a blank look on her face. Her eyes gazed outward.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she started, a little puzzled and shaking the confusion from her head, “I didn’t say anything, did I?”
“You sure did,” said Melissa, “you gave us some sort of address.”
“Telepathy!” shouted Woba, pouncing back toward our little group, “that’s one of the koleapus’ magic powers. My best friend was a koleapus,” he said proudly, “now what was his name?”
“Well, somehow, it must have made contact with Cindy,” explained Melissa.
“Woba, do koleapus’ have paws?” asked Lisa.
“Why, yes they do. Four of them to be exact.”
“That must be the ‘galloping paws’ that Rob’s sensing,” I deduced. “Let’s find some form of transport and head for—where was it, Cin?”
“The Purple Palace, 25,347,890 Galapagos Drive,” stated Rob.
“Here it is,” exclaimed Melissa, pointing at the Spell Book, “Conveyance Spell: Establishment of...”
“Great,” I said, “what’s it say?”
“It says to wiggle your fingers at your feet and repeat the following incantation: Piedtra, Moshto, Elevatra.”
“All right, here goes,” I said, wiggling my fingers:
“Piedtra, Moshto, Elevatra.”
Immediately, there was a small puff of red smoke and I felt myself elevate off the ground about six inches.
I walked around a little bit. It felt very odd, not actually touching the ground, but the air felt soft, yet solid. I tried sitting and that worked too.
“Here’s more,” she added, reading from the book again, “it says ‘...to activate, use the following commands: forward, reverse, halt. Variable Speed Levels: 1 through 4.”
“Forward,” I said, standing upright, “Wow!”
My feet suddenly darted forward, out from under me. They dragged me on the air, like a water skier who had fallen down.
“Try slowing down!” yelled Melissa, chasing after me. The others followed as I zipped ahead.
“What Speed Level am I at? I haven’t designated one yet.” Melissa shrugged and Woba started darting around me as if I wasn’t moving at all.
“Woba, stop that,” I scolded, just barely regaining some semblance of balance.
“Hey, this isn’t too hard after all,” I commented, “Speed Level 3.”
Unfortunately, I learned very quickly that Speed Level 3 was not one speed faster than slow—on the assumption that Speed Level 1 was the top speed—but that Speed Level 3 was just one speed slower than fast. My feet took off like a shot, my body flopping around behind them. The tall grasses slapped at my face and body. The six inch elevation only kept me from hitting things on the ground.
“HALT!” I yelled. My feet came to a dead stop and my body flipped over, literally head over heels.
“Larry, you OK?” asked Lisa, running up to me.
“Yeh, I guess so,” I said, pushing myself upward. “Get me down from here.”
“Showoff,” chuckled Melissa, “try the Standard Spell Reversal.”
“Elevatra, Moshto, Piedtra,” I said, reversing the Conveyance Spell. I immediately dropping to the ground, face first.
“I guess you should have stood up first,” noted Lisa, slyly.
“Well, we now know how that spell works,” said Cindy. Then suddenly, “don’t pull my mane,” she repeated in the monotone voice.
“What was that?” asked Lisa.
“I didn’t say anything,” said Cindy, returning to normal.
“You said ‘...don’t pull my mane...’“ said Melissa.
“My main what?”
“How are we supposed to know?” interrupted Lisa.
“Woba,” I asked, “do koleapus’ have manes?”
“Why yes they do,” he said, “You know, one of my best friends was...”
“...a koleapus’,” finished Lisa, “we know.”
“Now what was his name?” pondered our confused cubed friend.
“All right, all right. This ‘mane thing’ must be more telepathy from the koleapus. Why it picked Cindy, we’ll never know, but it has,” I said, “let’s activate this Conveyance Spell and head for Galapagos Drive.”
“25,347,890 Galapagos Drive,” corrected Woba, “I’ll just run alongside; wombas like to run.”
“Rob, can you keep up?” asked Lisa.
“Affirmative. Calculations indicate variable speed levels during Conveyance Spell are equivalent to 10, 40, 70 and 100-kilometers per hour. My speed surpasses.”
“What are those speeds in non-metric?” I asked.
“About 20, 60, 100 and 140-miles per hour,” blurted out Cindy. Sometimes she just absolutely amazed us.
“All right then, let’s do it,” I said.
I performed the Conveyance Spell on the four of us. Once we were all elevated off the ground, we proceeded at Speed Level 1 or about 20-mph. After a few minutes of this unusual hydroplaning-like sensation, we tried squatting down, for more comfort. As long as our feet remained parallel with the ground, we continued to move steadily onward.
Following Rob’s sensor readings, we headed toward the ‘galloping paws’. Woba pranced around and seemed to be eating constantly. Rob engaged his flight sequence and was also elevated about six inches from the ground. Cindy frequently blurted out non-sequiturs of varying degrees. Most of them indicated that the koleapus was being annoyed and bothered in one manner or another.
Soon, we what would turn out to be a giant sign off in the distance. A sign that was the size of an enormous wall. It read:
GIANTSYLVANIABERGENDOM
POPULATION: 18
“That’s an awfully long name for such a sparsely populated town,” noted Lisa.
When we finally reached the sign, it was far to large for us to comprehend it’s size, for each letter of the sign was the equivalent of hundreds of feet tall!
“I forgot how dreadful being one centimeter tall was,” moaned Cindy.
Melissa and I had been chatting the entire distance. We were going through “The Spell Book of Androganine,” looking for interesting and possibly useful incantations. As we found them, Melissa wrote them down for me on a little ‘cheat sheet’ that I could whip out of my pocket at a moment’s notice. I also worked on committing some of the more important ones to memory.
The view in front of us was breathtaking. Six mansions of indescribable size lay before us; each being a different color—light red, sky blue, orange, yellow, rich green and purple—vivid, bright, deep colors. The architecture reminded one of the palaces of Europe; towers, spires, moats and all other manifests of royalty. If it wasn’t for our diminutive size, we would have been excited about approaching such splendor, instead of very hesitant.
“Finding the Purple Palace is certainly easy,” said Lisa.
“Galloping paws have ceased,” reported Rob.
“No! Not again!” yelled Cindy.
“Cin, what’s wrong,” I asked, grabbing her.
“Larger, larger....”
“Cindy!” yelled Lisa.
Cindy looked down toward the ground. After a few moments, she looked back up at us, a tear rolling down her cheek. She just shook her head.
“Pain. Humiliation,” she said, most sadly in her own voice.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she responded, “the koleapus is tired; exhausted—but still his torment continues. I don’t know anymore than that.”
“Damn,” I said, “if we only had the Enlargement Spell.”
“But we don’t,” reminded Lisa.
“Well, let’s proceed up to the house,” said Melissa.
We instructed our feet to go forward and headed toward the Purple Palace. This time, we tried Speed Level 2 and found it to be quite comfortable. Being the adventurous one, Lisa tried Speed Level 4 but quickly reduced herself back to Speed Level 2. 60-mph was fast enough.
We zipped up to an enormous gate. Slipping through an opening, we found ourselves in a vast courtyard. There were enormous flowers, the size of swimming pools, full of water.
Suddenly, we heard a loud crackling-type sound that seemed to be rapidly over taking us. Almost instantly, torrents of rain began flooding the ground.
“Seek cover, quick!” I shouted.
Then, as quickly as the shower came, it was gone. Looking up to the sky, we found no hint of sudden downpour.
The four of us just stood there, looking like drowned rats. Woba, on the other hand, was as dry as can be, since the water merely ran off his rubber hide. I don’t know why Rob didn’t get wet. He explained something about an anti-humidity field that naturally deflected water, but it certainly wasn’t something I configured.
“Rob, kindly inform us of any future changes in the weather,” sighed Lisa, shaking the droplets of water from her hands.
“Affirmative, but that was not a weather pattern.”
“Then what was it?” I asked.
“It was an automatic water delivery system for vegetation irrigation.”
“A what?” asked Cindy.
“A sprinkler,” translated Melissa.
“Oh.”
I quickly performed a handy-dandy Drying Spell that I had found. Before you knew it, we were continuing once again through the garden.
We came upon a particularly lovely hedge of light blue flowers. Gazing through the shrub, we saw what we had come for. The legendary—and supposedly mythological— koleapus.
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