“I don’t have any,” I answered.
“What’s in the basket?” he poked it.
“Trout.” I offered it to him.
“Yech,” he winced. “Looks like you don’t pass.”
“Is there another way to the Ice Palace?” I implored.
“No way. If you want to stroll, you pay the troll,” he stomped his hairy foot.
“Fine. This whole world will end because you want two sugar cones.”
“I don’t care. I want it to end. I hate the world,” he grumpily growled.
I remembered Jamoca’s advice. I inhaled, exhaled and trusted the Ice Veil. Then I simply said, “Why are you so angry?”
“Because the world hates me,” he snapped.
“I don’t. Goose doesn’t.”
Goose shook her head and honked.
“We’re going to the Queen of Sorbet’s wedding. Won’t you come along?”
“I wasn’t invited,” he mumbled.
“We’re inviting you. This is Goose and I’m Cocovanilla.”
“I’m Crunch,” he shook my hand like a genuine gentleman.
Suddenly, the Giant boomed, “FEEFIEFOEFUM, MAKE THESE CHAINS COME UNDONE.”
Everything shook. I held my baskets tight as I could.
“Oh my Gorfs! I’m so frightened. Please show me the way,” I begged.
“All right,” he conceded.
And off we went toward the distant, gleaming Ice Palace.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Meanwhile, the King of Kones drove his gold konesmobile through the Black Cherry Forest, poisoning plants with pollution. He spied the bubblegum bush and screeched to a halt.
“Ah hah.” He seized Gooses’ feather and searched about, “Here, Goosey Goose. Come to Poppa. It’s not nice to run away.”
Pistachio appeared in a gust of green gas, “Pay day. Two golden eggs.” He pointed to his pail.
“Is it? I forgot with all the excitement of my wedding day,” the King lied.
“None of your stalling shenanigans, Kingy. Pay up or I’ll tell the Queen who you really are and what you did,” Pistachio threatened.
“After my wedding night, I‘ll give you three golden eggs,” the King connived.
“Four golden eggs,” Pistachio called his bluff.
“Rum Raisin! Rum Raisin!”
“The Queen of Sorbet,” the King recognized her voice. “What’s she doing here? Go, Pistachio. And I’ll give you five golden eggs.”
Pistachio split. The King shoved his car in the shrubbery and hid.
The Queen stopped her strawberry steed and called out, “Rum Raisin, appear.”
A purple cape swirled through the foliage and unfurled before her.
“My love,” she ran to him.
He stepped back. “Don’t you think it’s improper to be seen with your ex-love?”
“You’re my one and only true love. Now and forever,” she embraced him.
“Words are meaningless when actions prove opposite,” he pouted.
“I must put my country before my heart. Wouldn’t you do the same?” she asked.
Behind a tree, the King smirked in victory.
“Then let’s avoid a scandal,” Rum Raisin coldly concluded.
“If you wish,” she slowly returned to her steed.
But neither could resist. They ran to each other and embraced.
The King became infuriated.
“I have a plan,” Rum Raisin whispered. “Return to the Ice Palace. By dawn we’ll be together forever.”
After the Queen rode off, the King of Kones sprang from the sprigs. He thrust his sword and sneered, “By dawn your whole world will be gone.”
Rum Raisin accepted the challenge. They fought. Rum Raisin was graceful and elegant. The clumsy King was easily defeated. Rum Raisin pressed his sword to the Kings’ throat and declared, “I will spare your life and allow the law to decide your fate.”
“Pistachio, come hither hi ho,” the King cackled.
Splish! Splash! They were both engulfed in a gust of green gas.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The baskets pulled me faster and faster. I couldn’t keep up.
“Take a break,” Crunch suggested.
“I can’t. I have to deliver these baskets before three tolls,” I yawned.
“I haven’t heard one,” he spoke my thoughts.
“Maybe a minute,” I sat. I stood. “No. I have to go.” I collapsed.
“Don’t worry, Cocovanilla. We’ll make it in time.” Then Crunch played the most beautiful lullaby on his tofutti trumpet.
Notes flew out forming giant butterflies sparkling with brilliant colors. I dozed off in the balmy breeze of their fluttering wings. Goose and Crunch fell asleep too.
While we slept, Rocky Road crept into our clearing and dropped hundreds of baskets with red ribbons. Then he tiptoed toward me holding a blossom from the
Bermuda Bell, one containing a dizzy spell. On his way, he tripped over Goose. She awoke, chased him and snapped up the whole blossom. She became dizzy and left little goose bumps in all the baskets.
The first bell tolled. I instantly awoke.
“Baskets!” I cried. I’d never seen so many.
Crunch woke up and blinked in disbelief.
“Help me,” I desperately collected them.
“What’s wrong with Goose?” Crunch watched her bump back and forth between trees.
“She’s got the goose bumps. The baskets. Please!” I beseeched him.
A second toll struck loud and clear.
“Two tolls.” I was frantic. “Hurry! I need them all!”
“What for?” Crunch queried.
“One of them has the Ice Veil!”
His eyes widened with joy. “The dainty, delicate Ice Veil?”
I nodded.
“Why didn’t you say so?”
He helped gather them and off we ran, leaving the ribbon-less basket behind.
Rocky Road skated down a tree trunk to snatch it. But Goose waddled there first and poked her beak inside.
A bright light beamed out.
Rocky Road froze, stunned by the Ice Veil’s dazzling beauty.
CHAPTER NINE
Crunch and I ran all the way to the Ice Palace. Boy, were those baskets heavy!
“I have the Ice Veil,” I breathlessly blurted to Butter Pecan, the Palace guard.
“And you are?” he arrogantly asked.
“Cocovanilla, Jamoca’s’ daughter,” I instinctively responded.
He turned to Crunch. “And you?”
“I’m not going in,” Crunch mumbled.
“I can’t carry all these baskets,” I argued.
“Who’s out there?” the King of Kones boomed from the throne room.
“Jamoca’s’ daughter and a troll,” Butter Pecan announced.
“That does it!” Crunch stomped his hairy foot. “I’m going back to my bridge.” And he would have, but Pistachio appeared with the Royal Rum Raisin strapped in sticky molasses.
“Open the gates,” he ordered. “I’ve arrested a traitor.”
Butter Pecan obeyed.
Pistachio waved his wicked wand and sent Rum Raisin flying to the feet of the King of Kones and the Queen of Sorbet.
Crunch and I peeked through the licorice swirl gates and watched.
“What’s the meaning of this?” the Queen inquired.
“This man committed high treason. He tried to murder the King of Kones.” Pistachio elaborately lied. “T’was in the Black Cherry Forest. He challenged the King to a duel. The King fought valiantly and forced Rum Raisin to surrender.”
“Throw him in the Popsicle Freezer!” the King of Kones commanded.
“I’ll decree his sentence,” the Queen of Sorbet countered.
Pistachio rudely interrupted her by flicking his wand. Mean green crystallines flew forth and smacked her mouth shut with a wafer.
“Throw him in the Popsicle Freezer until the Queen
decides his sentence!” the King of Kones decreed.
Pistachio waved his wonky wand and more mean green crystallines carried Rum Raisin off to the Popsicle Freezer.
“Now let’s have the Ice Veil,” the King of Kones puffed his stinky cigar.
Crunch and I hurried in. “It’s in one of these baskets,” I explained. “I’m not sure which one. Not in here. Just a golden egg,” I said as I removed a golden egg. “Not in here,” I tossed out another golden egg. Crunch was doing the same. Suddenly we stopped.
“Golden eggs!” we said simultaneously.
“Thank you for your wedding gifts. Troll, bring them to me,” the King pointed at Crunch.
Crunch brought them before the King of Kones and bowed. When he looked up, the Queen of Sorbet stared at him as if she recognized him but couldn’t remember how.
“Girlie, bring me the Ice Veil,” the King rudely summoned me.
“It’s not here,” I stammered.
“What? More traitors! Guards, take them to the Popsicle Freezer!” he shouted.
“What a grouch. Paranoid too,” Crunch whispered.
“Please don’t send us to prison,” I begged.
“Since it’s my wedding day I’ll give you one chance to save yourselves,” the King pretended kindness. “Tell me where you found these golden eggs.”
“The Black Cherry Forest,” I quickly confessed.
“Where in the forest? It‘s a big forest.”
“I don’t know.” And I didn’t.
“Insolent child. To the Popsicle Freezer!” he mercilessly commanded.
“Allow me,” Pistachio waved his wretched wand. Those mean green crystallines swarmed us, grabbed our hair and clothes with sharp pincers. Next thing we knew, we flew out the window and across Ice Cream Mountains. When we reached the Popsicle Freezer, they dropped us through the chimney.
We slid down a winding water shoot, dropped into a sack which was hooked, hung and swung into a long row of frost-bitten Ice Dreamlanders.
“Oh Crunch, it’s ccccold,” my teeth chattered. Then I saw the Giant slumped against the wall wrapped in chains.
“FEEFIEFOEFUM MAKE THESE CHAINS COME UNDONE,” he rattled.
“Oh my Gorfs!” I shivered and quivered. Then I remembered Jamocas’ advice. I inhaled, exhaled and trusted the Ice Veil. Then I simply asked, “Why are you angry?”
“The King of Kones stole my pet Goosey and I want her back,” he roared.
“Oh, poor Giant. Poor Goose. Poor us. Crunch, what do we do?”
“Only one thing I can think of.” And he played his tofutti trumpet.
At first the notes were choppy ice chips. But once they warmed up, they melted into magnificent, magical butterflies. As they fluttered their balmy breeze around Giants’ head, his anger turned to sadness. He cried, “I miss my little pet Goose.”
Hot tears streamed down his cheeks like a waterfall. They melted the floors and the walls collapsed. The rainbow sun came shining through, awakening the Ice Dreamlanders from their icicle cocoons.
Liberated, they escaped to the countryside. Neighbors in nearby cone huts welcomed them. Wives, children and friends were reunited. Everyone was joyful.
Then the third bell tolled.
And everyone froze in fear once again.
CHAPTER TEN
“Marry me or the Giant is set free,” The King of Kones proposed to The Queen of Sorbet.
They stood in the Palace courtyard before throngs of Ice Dreamlanders.
“Set the Giant free! Set the Giant free!” we shouted.
Pistachio’s wafer still silenced the Queen.
“A simple nod will do,” the King gently coaxed.
She merely inhaled and exhaled.
“Shall I take that as a ‘yes?’” the King asked.
She turned to us and we understood her wish.
In unison, we all inhaled and exhaled. And in our hearts we trusted the Ice Veil.
“What’s going on?” the King of Kones fumed.
Then we all noticed a purple stingray swerving across the cotton candy clouds.
“Pistachio, destroy him!” the infuriated King shouted.
The wizard whipped out his wand. Lickety-split Crunch tooted his tofutti trumpet. The giant butterflies bonded, blocked Pistachio’s spell and sent those mean green crystallines right back at him. Boy, did Pistachio run. But not fast enough. They nibbled, gnawed, and clawed him. Pistachio withered away and the wafer fell from the Queen’s lips.
“Arrest the King of Kones,” she proclaimed.
“What did I do?” he innocently asked.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
The Giant was coming. Everything shook. Pillars toppled.
“Where’s my Golden Goose?” the Giant thundered.
“He stole her,” I pointed to the King of Kones.
The Giant reached down to crush the King. But at that moment, the purple stingray descended like a magic carpet carrying Rocky Road, the basket and Goose.
“My little Goosey,” Giant swooped her up and cuddled her against his grisly beard.
The King of Kones fled to his gold konesmobile, hit the ejector button and zoomed off. Like a rocket, he shot into space.
Giant wasn’t about to let him off so easy. He ripped another hole in the key lime sky, stepped into space and chased him.
Rocky Road sat atop a minaret and turned Jamocas’ basket upside down. The Ice Veil spiraled out. It gleamed, glistened, and glowed with ultra-bright lights. Like a cyclone of love, it embraced the Queen of Sorbet and the Royal Rum Raisin.
A second moon rose over Ice Dreamland. And everyone was swept up in a downpour of pure joy. We sang and danced in timeless bliss.
I wouldn’t be returning to my other life anytime soon.
The End of Book One
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Watch a Puppet Show of Book One
This book is also available in Print
~.~.*.*.~.~
The Ice Veils continue with “Chocolitz Invasion” Book II.
Read all 12 stories of The Ice Veil Tales, Vol. One
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