The Noble Mr. Prickles

CHAPTER SEVEN

  Tabby made them play out a few more scenarios before finally getting bored and putting them inside her doll house until later. After the ensuing wedding between the princess and Thelor, choosing Advan for the blushing bride, and a tea party, among other things, the giant princess's new toys were retired for the night.

  The doll house was huge, larger than any normal person's house back in the human kingdoms, and each one of the warriors was given their own room. The furniture all looked very comfortable, but it was made for show, not for use, and thus was hard and uninviting. Advan and Lazarah were each placed in frilly, girlish surroundings. Lazarah had never felt so feminine in her life, and she hated it. For some reason Tabby had gotten it into her mind that Advan was female, and so she kept treating him as such, which was even more embarrassing for him.

  After Tabby had left her bedroom, taking the annoying, human-hungry puppy with her, the four of them met in the doll house's family room to discuss their situation. There were two large couches there, which felt more like thinly cushioned rocks, and they sat on these as they ate what few crumbs they managed to keep with them and tried to figure out what to do.

  "What good would escape do if we don't have our weapons?" Jack said. "I know that they aren't much good against the giants anyway, but heading back to Dargod completely unarmed would be suicide."

  "I don't care what happens to us after we escape," Lazarah said, "as long as we get away from that crazy little giantess!"

  "Agreed," rumbled Advan, who was sitting as far away from Javan as possible.

  "Lazarah's right," Javan said. "We need to get away from Princess Tabby before she makes us do something really dangerous. We can figure out what to do after that."

  "Our horses should still be in the kitchen," Advan said. "If we could make it back there..."

  "They might not be there," Jack said. "Three miniature horses tied to a giant fork wouldn't be that hard to miss, even for giants. They did see Mr. Prickles, remember."

  "Mr. Prickles," Advan spat. "That blasted ape got us into this mess! We should have left him with the Mad Forester!"

  "Kanaro said we couldn't complete our mission without him," Lazarah reminded him.

  "Well we certainly can't complete our mission if we're trapped inside a giant doll house in a giantess's bedroom," Javan said.

  "At least she took that dog with her," Jack said. "We might have a chance of getting out of here with him gone."

  Javan got up and moved to the window of the doll house. The edge of the table was about a hundred feet away and after that, a thirty-five foot drop to a hard stone floor. There were no table legs in reach and no way to get down besides a free fall that would surely cripple them, if not kill them. Then, if they survived that, they had about a hundred yards to go to the door. It would take them a while to figure out how to get there and by then Tabby could be back, making them pretend to be a bunch of fairies or something.

  "We've agreed that we have to get out of here as soon as possible," he began, turning back to the others. "But the question remains: how?"

  "Of course we have to do it when that blasted child is gone," Advan said. "We've no chance at all with her forcing us to play out her little games."

  "Wait a minute," Lazarah said. "What if we used those games?"

  "What do you mean, lass?" Advan asked.

  "We could convince her that we need to be on the floor instead of on this table," she said. "Maybe even out in the hallway."

  "Or the throne room," Jack said. "It's a long shot, I admit, but if she really is the princess, maybe she can get us to the throne room and save us a lot of time."

  "Or maybe we ask her to let us off the table or take us to the throne room and she gets angry and tears us into pieces," Javan said. "She is very unpredictable."

  "I'll say," agreed Advan.

  "It's worth a try," Lazarah said. "And it beats sitting around this doll house trying to figure out what to do."

  "So how do we convince her that we need to be off this table?" Advan asked.

  Because they were so engrossed in their discussion, and the distance was so great, none of them noticed when Mr. Prickles rode in on Lazarah's horse. The ape looked around the room and saw the glint of the human's weapons on the end table in the distance. He steered the horse towards the table.

  The end table had a carved design in the wood and Mr. Prickles knew that he would have no trouble climbing it. He got off of the horse, tied it to the table leg, and began climbing. Soon, he was at the top where the giant princess had put the weapons. In addition to an official pink and yellow army uniform, he had been issued a large pink duffle bag which was tied over his shoulder. He took it off and put all of the weapons inside. Four swords, four daggers, an axe, and two sets of bows and arrows fit perfectly inside. Once he had the weapons, he climbed back down.

  He could hear Javan and the others talking in the distance. He looked and saw the doll house and knew that his companions were inside it. He also knew that he could not possibly climb the table and free them. If there was a way to signal them, he would have, but there was none. Instead, he decided to go back to the kitchen, retrieve the other horses, and go find the throne room to wait for the proper time.

  He did not understand most of what he was feeling, thinking, or doing for that fact, but he was operating on more than mere instinct for the first time in his life and it exhilarated him. He felt important and proud and could not wait to prove himself to the humans.

  He dug his heels into the horse and went for the door. The horse let out a loud whinny as the two animals left.

  Back in the doll house, Javan said, "Did you hear that?"

  "Hear what?" Advan asked.

  "It sounded like a horse," Javan said. He went back to the window and looked out at the room. He could not see any horse. The others joined him.

  "I don't see anything," Jack said. "Are you sure you heard a horse."

  "Pretty sure," Javan said.

  "It can't be one of ours," Lazarah said. "They're still tied up in the kitchen."

  "Unless..." Javan trailed off, thinking.

  "Unless what?" Advan asked him.

  "Never mind," Javan said. "It's impossible. Let's get back to our plans."

  But was it impossible? Could that stupid monkey actually be doing something right? Javan didn't think so, but stranger things had happened on this quest. Well, Kanaro did say that Mr. Prickles was essential. Maybe that monkey could serve a purpose after all.