| “Tis a good question.” the little red-haired man replied. “But one I must consider on another day. Right now I have to concentrate on Magicland. Those little monsters are dressed to appear as little kids dressed up in goth, but they are in fact the little monsters they appear. The difference being the little monsters they dress as are probably much less evil than the corporate-salaried tomb raiders they will prove to be.” The leprechaun took off his green bowlers hat and wiped away some sweat from his forehead. The sunlight reflected off his bald spot into Splash’s eyes, causing him to glint, as much as a pony is capable of glinting. Anna took notice and moved so that her body helped shield the shine from hitting Splash’s eyes. They shared a look while the little guy was still wiping his forehead. She said in a curious and sincere voice, “So we should watch for any rainbows, and when we see one we should fly to the end of it and make sure nobody else is able to find it. If they do we should make sure they do not take the gold there. Is that right?” “Well lassy it’s seldom that simple isn’t it?” The little fellow said smiling. He placed his hat back on his head and continued. “The thing is: we must honor the legend. If someone finds the end of the rainbow they deserve to get to keep the gold. Tis only fair, lassy.” He adjusted his green suit so that he looked what he would consider to be presentable. Then he said, “So what you must do is to allow them to search for the end of the rainbow. And if they find it they get to keep the gold. So if they get close you must find it first! Claim the gold for yourselves, then return it so it can be used as was meant to be.” “Why should we bother with them at all?” Anna asked. “Why don’t we just go claim it now and be done with it?” “Where would ye hide it that sort of treasure that it is safer than it is now?” The leprechaun asked. “If there were a better place, twood be there now. What other location can you name that is considered fictional to most, is constantly on the move, if you can find it at all? And that is accessible to the leprechaun clan, and only them, most the time? Yes it is slightly susceptible but what other place is safer?” “So if we claimed it we would just be moving it to a less secure facility?” Anna asked. The leprechaun shook his head in agreement. “That’s right because the thieves chasing it are not the kind that can be kept out of the ordinary banking facility. No matter how much security and armed guards. These are the kind of thieves that travel between worlds, in search of their treasures. Fort Knox would be a waste of their perceived time in their minds. That said, there is little to no gold in Fort Knox anyway. The politicians stole all of it long ago. That is a real world problem however. We’re here to protect the gold for all the worlds.” “Where do the Geese Police figure into this mess?” Anna asked. “I’ve little experience with the organization.” The leprechaun answered. “I know they have a long, proven history of doing evil things. Perhaps they are involved as muscle, perhaps they are more invested. I cannot say. They are involved however. I guess you saw that from your viewpoint while hovering nearly overhead.” “Yes we did see that. We were planning on following them until we saw you down below.” Anna said. “No worries. You haven’t lost any ground on them. The little monsters need to wait for the next rainbow to appear. Then they will come out where we can spot them because they will be using their new technology to find the way to the end of the rainbow.” The leprechaun said. Suddenly they heard voices getting louder and clearer. The owners of the voices were coming into view just as what they were saying became clear. “… is why your average dam duck is far superior to say, the wood duck, or the mud duck. aka the mud puddle duck. Those are not the ducks that are going to lead you to water when the chips are down. Look for the green head. That’s how you’ll always know you have a dam duck and not some wanna be.” “Dan, do you ever talk about anything other than ducks? Dam ducks in particular?” Buzzy Buzzard asked his long-time friend and partner. Then he did a sort of stutter-step stop in mid-flight and said, “Hey! There they are! I see the princess!” Dan also did a stutter-step come to a stop hover in mid-flight and looked down. “By george for a buzzard blessed with average intelligence, at best, you have done an outstanding job of spotting the princess. See if she had been a body of water I would have spotted her much faster than yourself or anyone else would have done. Since she is not a body of water it is clearly understandable why you would have spotted her first. You probably just pretended she was a dead body. Then you were able to spot her right away. Easily. Eh?” Buzzy looked a combination of offended and annoyed as the two came drifting down to join Anna talking with the leprechaun. He said to Dan in a half-whisper, “How dare you insinuate I would ever imagine the princess as being dead. If you say one thing to her I will wait until you fall asleep, perhaps after a few too many drinks, and then I will pluck you down to the down feathers and scatter the parts I plucked throughout the kingdom. You’ll be walking around trying to hide your naked bottom while picking up feathers in an attempt to put yourself back together. But you know what? You won’t be able to find all your feathers, and if I know you, the ones you do find, you won’t put back in the right places. What a sorry, missing half your feathers with the other half in the wrong spots, bird you are going to be! Dan said nothing in response at first. He seemed to be contemplating what his friend had claimed. Then he said, “Hello princess! How nice to see you’re alive and well.” Then he gave Buzzy a sideways glance. “Yes, yes indeed!” Buzzy joined in, rushing to shake hands with Anna and then to give Splash a pat on the neck. “How are you boys?” Anna asked. They were family. She loved them. Every silly, complaining, often ridiculous thing about the two feathered-friends. She knew they would do anything for her. Sadly it often resulted in a bigger mess that she had to get them out of; after saving herself and Splash, or with Splash, however you cared to word it. The two started talking at the same time. Ironically they even said the same words, though they meant it about the other, instead of themselves. “Oh just out flying with the moron.” |   |
| They both stopped talking and looked at each other. Anna quickly acted so to keep things from escalating. “I sure do appreciate you big, strong friends keeping an eye on me and little Splash. I know you guys have come in handly and have saved the day many times in the past.” Both answered at the same time, each one taking their turn being the shy guy that turns his head away from the praise for helping out. “Oh that’s okay. It was nothing …” and also “It was my honor to be there to help”, and of course, “couldn’t have done it without you.” and finally, “no need to thank us …”. Anna waited until the two were finished patting themselves on the back. When they were done she said, “So did you boys come out to relieve us of duty watching the Geese Police? Because we could do with a hot meal, some sleep and maybe a shower.” “Yes! We can do that.” They both answered in unison. The leprechaun said, “I bid thee farewell for now.” and then he seemed to dissolve in front of them. When the leprechaun had completely dissolved, the group turned their attention back to each other. “So we will go in and get some food and rest and then come back out to take your place in about seven or eight hours.” Anna said. “Try to stay out of sight and out of trouble. Any luck and we will be able to keep the leprechaun’s gold safe and keep the world headed in the right direction.” She gave Buzzy and Dan a wave and climbed onto Splash and then they were flying through the sky headed for Castle Candi. “Suppose we’ll see anything exciting while watching the Geese Police?” Buzzy asked Dan. “You can see something exciting because yo can watch me, watching them.” Dan replied. “I’m what you might call the perfect observer due to my keen eyes and ability to stay focused on the target. Where as if you were in charge, well if the subject was dead, then I admit. you would be the better one to watch. Otherwise it should be me.” “Why is that Dan?” Buzzy asked. “Because if the subject is living and they see a buzzard flying in circles over their head they tend to get nervous. They start asking questions like, why is that buzzard flying over me? Am I dying? That tends to put them off from doing whatever it is we’re here to catch them doing. Understand?” Dan asked. “So you don’t want me flying over the Geese Police because they might think they are dying? How is it going to be okay for a duck, even if it is a dam duck, to be flying over an area where there isn’t any water? Which one of us is going to look more out of place? Buzzy pondered. Dan let out a sigh. “Okay. We will split our time watching the Geese Police. I’ll do a flyover followed by a flyback, and then I’ll keep going like I just remembered the water is somewhere else. Then you can do a fly around, do your circle flying that you like to do. I suppose if you get caught by the Geese Police and they question you about what you are doing? You can say you heard there was a duck that had flown out here and you figured he probably got killed so you were just trying to do the thankless job that you do in service to every other living animal.” “Now you’re talking!” Buzzy answered happily. “I like how you’re speaking about how important us buzzards are to the whole big picture of nature.” “Yeah.” Dan replied. “And because buzzards don’t taste good. When’s the last time you heard of anybody, anywhere, any species of creature … have you ever heard of them eating buzzard? Why you would probably find an equal number of creatures that eat deep fried poopy. I can’t fathom you tasting like anything else.” Buzzy’s feathers fluffed up. He was clearly insulted. “How dare you talk about my people in such a disrespected manner. You know what happens if my kind stop doing their job? Disease, pests, horrible stench everywhere you go. Now what happens of the dam duck stops doing his job? Oh yeah, a bunch more web-footed, quacking bug-eaters have to sleep some place besides floating in the water. Boo hoo!” Dan let go another sigh and said, “I’ll go up first. Take a flyover. You stay here and try to keep from getting caught.’ “Aye aye cap’n.” Buzzy replied while giving Dan a salute. It wasn’t a very sincere salute. “Hmm.” Dan muttered and then he began running to get his take-off. Soon he was up in the air, climbing in elevation. The two friends spent their time taking turns flying over the Geese Police stakeout, or hideout, whichever you prefer. “Ask me, its a hideout.” Dan noted. “Ask them, I’m sure they would tell you it is a stakeout.” Buzzy said. “They’re staking out the sky, waiting for it to commit a rainbow.” “Is that a felony or a misdemeanor?” Dan asked, while searching the sky for the arrival of Anna and Splash. “By the way, you know the only way to find the end of a rainbow?” “Fly to the end of it?” Buzzy answered. “Well, uh, yeah, that would work too. But the old legend has it that the only way to find the end of a rainbow is to have a unicorn. That’s why they were created. Did you know that?” Dan asked. “Or you could just fly to the end of it.” Buzzy said. “Actually the legend says that the end of the rainbow will keep moving on anyone searching to find it except the unicorn. They can find it.” Dan stated. Suddenly there was a roar of thunder across the land. The two friends looked over their shoulders and saw there was a thunderstorm heading their way. “We’ll soon be finding out if we can find the end of a rainbow.” Buzzy said, pointing to the dark rain clouds moving toward them, far up in the sky. “We should think about getting inside.” “Yep. Looks like we will have to spy on the Geese Police another day. Perhaps after the rain has gone.” Dan said. “Yeah, lets get back to the castle and wait out the storm.” Buzzy said. The two friends started running to get a good takeoff and then they were both flying toward the incoming storm. Somewhere between them and the storm, was Castle Candi. The wind picked up but the two were strong flyers. They headed for home. ————– Chapter ———————————– The rain was a slow soaker that hung around all the rest of that day and part of the following night. Anna and Splash were able to find a family that they could do a good deed, so they got that out of the way. Later they joined Buzzy and Dan for a nice dinner while the rain pitter-patted against the glass window of the eating establishment. There were several in the castle that the four enjoyed visiting. After they finished eating they hung out at the place for some conversation about the upcoming days. “Well if what you say is true and the leprechaun is wanting us to keep his gold safe we will need a way to find the end of the rainbow.” Buzzy said. “We were just talking about this very subject, Dan and I, and he mentioned that we would need a unicorn to find the end of a rainbow.” “As a dam duck, I can verify he is correct. I did in fact mention a unicorn was needed, and yes, I was the one who mentioned it.” Dan stated. “I believe there is one … no, not there, let me think.” He put his wing up to his head and scratched it. “You know, I am not sure i ever knew where there was a unicorn. Now if you needed the tooth fairy, or perhaps one of Santa’s elves, … and of course, i could put you in touch with a bigfoot, although he has a bad tooth and I wouldn’t recommend him at this time..” “Dan!! That’s okay. We can find the unicorn.” Anna said smiling. “.. I could probably find you Frosty the Snowman, although he’s half melted by this time of the year. You know he gets a little testy when he’s half-melted. I think it has to do with the fact that he tends to melt from the top down, which causes all that moisture to gather in his undies. You ever try walking with wet undies? Not pleasant. Let me tell you.” Next Page |  |