The Noble Mr. Prickles

CHAPTER ELEVEN

  That night Tabby again insisted that Advan sleep in her bed. After she followed through on her promise to braid the dwarf's matted brown hair (fortunately, she had not quite figured out what to do about his beard) she got ready for bed and then took him with her. The others went to the doll's house to wait for Advan's signal. He was going to wait until both Tabby and her killer puppy were asleep and then he would free himself from her grip, climb down the side of the bed to the dog's pillow, somehow distract the animal so that it would not eat him, and then drag the pillow to the table where the humans could jump down onto it.

  Tabby laid on the bed staring up at the ceiling for a long while. Advan was growing impatient waiting for the girl to fall asleep, but she did not look like she was going to doze off anytime soon. After nearly an hour, she sighed.

  "I can't sleep!" she moaned. "I don't know why, but I'm not tired!" She rolled onto her side and pulled Advan close to her gigantic face. "I know what will help me sleep! Sing to me!"

  "What?" Advan asked. He was anxious for her to drift off, but he was not much of a singer. Most of his repertoire consisted of bar songs and battle themes, and his voice was not exactly soothing. He may actually frighten the child by singing to her rather than lull her to sleep.

  "Sing me a lullaby, little hairy princess," she begged. "Or else I'll be up all night long."

  "I'm not a very good singer," he told her.

  "Please!" she said. "If you sing me to sleep tonight, I promise that tomorrow I'll go out and buy you the prettiest dress I can find!"

  "Oh, goody," Advan grumbled. The dress was by no means an incentive, but he had to do something to get the child to sleep. He took a deep breath and began to sing the first song that came to mind, the one about the ogre prince's bride. Even though he knew that his voice was no treat on the ears, Tabby smiled when he started. She giggled at the description of the freakishly ugly ogress, beautiful in the eyes of the ogre, and after the first stanza, she yawned. Soon, she was sleeping peacefully with a smile on her face. Advan had one more stanza to go, and he finished the song just to be sure. Then, he slowly squirmed out of her hand and moved to the edge of the bed.

  He looked down and saw the pillow thirty feet below him with the dog sleeping on it. He started the long climb, trying to be very quiet so as not to wake the child or the puppy. He reached the floor and looked up at the pillow and the giant beast on it. It had seemed so simple before, wake and distract the dog, move the pillow, and escape, but now the pillow looked so much bigger, and the puppy so much more dangerous.

  "I came this far, didn't I?" the dwarf told himself. He moved to the rear of the dog and braced himself for what would be the most dangerous part of the task. He climbed the pillow and then jumped onto the puppy's back, grabbing its tail with both arms and yelling out a loud cry. The dog woke instantly and began shaking its tail to rid it of the dwarf. Advan didn't let go. He had to get the puppy to the princess's door, which had been left open a crack, and get it to run down the hallway away from the room. It seemed a lot simpler when they were discussing it in the doll house.

  The puppy was not moving towards the door. It was just running in small circles trying to get at Advan. He had no choice but to jump from the dog's back and run towards the door himself. The puppy had been trying to get at one of the warriors for two days and the dwarf was going to use that to his advantage. The dog took the bait, and Advan led it to the door. Tabby had dropped a pencil on the floor nearby and he picked it up.

  "Fetch, you overgrown flea bag!" he shouted, and he threw the pencil into the hallway. The dog looked at the pencil, but then turned its gaze back on Advan. Barking loudly, it pounced at him. Advan rolled out of the way and ran towards the bed, hoping to hide in the folds of the blankets. The dog followed. He was sure that it would wake the princess or eat him or both. The plan hadn’t worked out as he had hoped.

  He reached the bed and wrapped himself in the blanket. The dog paused for a moment, and then began sniffing around with its huge wet nose. It caught his scent and soon had pulled the struggling dwarf free of his hiding place.

  "Of all the ways to die," Advan growled, "I have to get eaten alive by a puppy!"

  But it was not meant to happen that way. Just as the puppy was about to chomp down on the poor dwarf, Mr. Prickles emerged from under the bed on Lazarah's horse. The animals circled the dog twice, riling it up, and then headed to the door. Leaving Advan behind for more interesting prey, the puppy followed.

  Advan could not believe his ears when the monkey turned to him and yelled out in a very human voice, "Hurry! There isn't much time!"

  He did not stop to think about it. As Mr. Prickles led Tabby's pet down the hallway, the other two horses came out to the dwarf. Advan laughed aloud as he led the beasts to the pillow. Seconds later, he had tied their reins to the frills of the dog's bed and they were pulling it towards the table. A task that he had expected to take half the night was done in half an hour, thanks to that stupid monkey.

  The humans were standing at the edge of the table watching. Advan was supposed to whistle to them once the pillow was in position, but the dog's barking had alerted them, though it had not woken the giant child. They watched in amazement as Mr. Prickles rode out on the horse, and were very pleased to see the other horses pulling the pillow towards them. Once it was in place below them, Advan motioned for them to jump.

  Javan jumped first, landing in the center of the pillow and rolling to the floor. The other two came down after and soon the four warriors were standing together on the stone floor. While they did not have their own clothing, their weapons were in a bag on the back of Javan's horse. Once they had divided the weapons among themselves, they got on the horses, Jack and Lazarah on Jack's and Javan and Advan on Javan's, and they headed to the bedroom door.

  "Okay," Advan said when they reached the doorway. "We turn left here and go about a thousand feet in that direction." He paused and looked up at Tabby's bed.

  "Well, let's go," Javan said. "Advan, let's go!"

  "What's the matter with you?" Jack asked. Then they saw where he was looking. The dwarf looked almost sad.

  "I don't believe it," Javan said, "You're actually going to miss that child, aren't you?"

  "What?" Advan asked. "No, of course not! I'm just making sure she's not awake."

  "Come on, Advan," Jack said, smiling, "it's okay to admit it. You like her!"

  "I do not!" Advan insisted. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

  The others laughed as they drove the horses out of the bedroom. Advan took one look back at the room as they departed and sighed.

  After they had gone, Tabby closed her hand around a bunch of blanket and muttered, "Good night, my hairy little princess."