The Chameleon Shop

Enthusiastically waving, Kaylee bid Captain Riordan and the other pirates a fond farewell. She turned to follow Pearl along the short dirt road to the cave entrance.

After an hour or so, they stood outside the cave. A giant dragonfly swooped low in front of them, distracting the black and brown tabby Messenger Cat. The dragonfly had purple-blue iridescent wings, which glinted in the sunlight.

Unable to resist, Pearl leapt into the sky like an Olympic gymnast, trying to catch it. She barely missed, landing with grace on all fours.

‘Good luck, Kaylee, maybe we shall meet again one day,’ she said and tore off into the woods after the dragonfly.

In her naive foolishness it did not occur to Kaylee that this time on entering the cave she no longer had the rattle to summon Ruby. She had left it in Ruby’s lair that night. She crept in looking for her fluffy friend and timidly calling, ‘Ruby? Are you here?’

Wicked eyes that had observed her from afar, unable to make their moves until now, crept closer. She did not see the large arachnid looming up behind her until it was almost too late.

She heard a tiny sound, just a few pebbles rolling, disturbed by movement. Kaylee spun around just in time to jump aside as the giant spider landed where she had been standing, barely milliseconds ago. It was as big as a horse! And had way too many legs, in Kaylee’s opinion.

Kaylee screamed. It echoed through the roof of the cavern, startling bats that took flight and flapped around in panic. Before she could move, it had sprung directly over her glaring at her with all those beady black eyes and threatening her with its pinchers.

She had seen how spiders wrap up their prey with those spinnerets at their rear end. She had thought them rather clever, at the time.

However, just now, she didn’t fancy being rolled up tight like a sushi-roll and slowly digested at the creature’s leisure. She screamed again, covering her face with her arms, wishing desperately that she had something sharp to poke it with.

She rolled to the side, just as it nipped at her and felt the sharp pinchers hit her backpack. The bag hummed. It must be the key, she thought and was surprised when the spider squealed and jumped back as though burned.

Kaylee tried to crawl away as fast as possible, hoping the pack would give her some cover and saw the hairy legs of the beast plant themselves either side of her. She cried out in pain at the sting of the spider’s fangs piercing the skin on her arm.

‘Ruby, HELP!’

Ruby was outside the caves for once, enjoying some sunlight near the gnomes quaint little turf houses. She was rolling in ecstasy on her back, enjoying the warm pebbles on the road that led away from the mountain, when she heard a scream pierce the air, echoing from within the caves. Ruby knew at once that it was Kaylee.

She leapt up and went tearing through the open door of one of the tiny gnome houses. Dishes and chairs went flying as she bolted through. The resident gnome-wife, who had been holding a tray of baking, fumbled and lost her tray then glared in Ruby’s direction. Ruby barged straight through the ‘closed’ back door, blasting it off its hinges, into the tunnels where a terrified little girl was in grave peril.

Arriving just in time to see the giant spider perched above Kaylee, Ruby flew through the air and pounced on the spiders back, rolling with it squealing in her mouth as she crunched it just behind its head, in a death grip. She held it still in her mouth, kicking the hell out of it occasionally with her back legs, until it gave up the fight and died. In a fit of horrid screeching its legs curled up tight with finality.

When it was still, she abandoned it and came over to Kaylee who she found sitting, stunned, on the dirt floor of the dark cavern. She was clutching her slightly wounded arm and had tears on her cheeks.

‘How did you know I was here?’ Kaylee asked, wonderfully relieved to see the huge fluffy Messenger Cat.

‘I licked you,’ Ruby noticed the frightened girl’s cut and sighed, then laughed, ‘which I’ll have to do again!’ It was not a deep cut, more a scratch really, lucky for Kaylee.

Kaylee flung her arms around Ruby’s leg and cried with relief. ‘God, I really thought I was a goner that time.’ Ruby patted her with her other paw until the tears ebbed.

When she was calm again Kaylee told her how she had ended up in the polluted bay and her narrow escape from Lolita, as well as how the pirate-ferrymen helped bring her back, along with Pearl.

Ruby agreed, again, to take her to Ricky. Even so, she suggested, ‘Are you sure you don’t just want me to eat him for you? It would be no trouble. King Mossbreath would probably thank me for it, to be honest?’

‘Tempting,’ Kaylee laughed. ‘But, no thanks, Ruby. I’ll deal with the little garden ornament myself.’

By the time Ruby and Kaylee emerged from the cave entrance, the sun was high in the blue sky. It must have been getting on towards lunchtime and Ruby politely acquired a basket of berries, bread and cheese from the gnomes.

They ate out on a garden bench in front of one of the turf houses. Kaylee needed a bit of sustenance, not to mention time to regroup and gather up her courage again before heading back into the tunnels.

She was biting into a crunchy roll when she spied the traitorous gnome Ricky, outside the cave near a vegetable plot. She handed the roll to Ruby without looking and stomped towards him, fists clenched and face set hard.

Ricky saw the angry look on her face as she approached and tried to make a run for it. Instead, he turned and stepped on the forked end of a rake carelessly left on the ground. The rake stood up as he set his shoe on it and smacked him solidly in the nose, knocking him silly for a bit. Well, sillier than he usually was, that is.

Kaylee picked up the stunned gnome by the front of his vest and gave him a little shake to get his attention.

He pulled his hands up in front of his face in defense, ’Don’t ‘urt me, please.’

‘Take ... me ... to ... the ... Dragon!’ Kaylee threatened, ‘and any more tricks and I’ll feed you to her myself!’

He apologised profusely as he led Kaylee through his own gnome house.

’ ‘ello love’ he said casually as he passed his surprised little dumpling of a wife, who was carrying a basket of laundry. Then he continued to grovel to Kaylee. ‘I’m sorry. So, very, very sorry, really I am. It wasn’t my decision it was the ─’

Kaylee could not take any more grovelling and finally said, ‘Ok, ok! You can stop sucking up to me; you know I actually liked you until you did that.’

He looked ashamed, ‘I liked you too. Was just followin’ orders from above, nothin’ personal. The King ...’ He explained about the wasps and Wilfrey. He said they were sorry but worried that Wilfrey would destroy them and their realm, if they helped her. Ricky pleaded, ’We ‘ad to do it.’

Kaylee was determined. She just pointed in the direction of the caves and stared at him intensely.

‘She will eat you up you know?’ he said in one final attempt to stop her as they reached the point of no return.

‘Then you won’t have to worry about Wilfrey, will you?’ She put her hands on her hips, defiant. She was frightened, but not about to stop her quest here.

Ricky handed Kaylee the green cloak. It had floated up through the doorway like a departing spirit after she had fallen down the oubliette.

‘Thank you,’ Kaylee said and stroked the soft velvet; feeling touched that he had kept it safe for her. He must have been hopeful of seeing her return again, alive.

Ricky then took her out the back door of his little turf home. As she had guessed, the back door led into a large corridor within the tunnels of the cave. It would take them directly to the King’s Halls. With an uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu, Kaylee trekked through the tunnels following her gnome guide.

From there they went through the familiar Royal Hall, empty apart from a few gnomes who were asleep, their heads on the tables. They continued out into the main tunnels again, crossing bridges, climbing up and down steps, until after another couple of hours they came to the two doors with the biker gnomes on them.

The same toad saw her angry face. Wisely it turned and hopped away quickly, croaking as it went, ’To ‘ell wiz zis! I’d ra-zer face za Crone’s wrath, zen you again.’

Kaylee couldn’t help yelling, ‘Yeah buddy! You better keep running! Or … hopping!’ She took a few deep breaths.

Ok, which door do I use this time?

They were both locked. Her mother had told her, if you keep doing things the same way, you will keep getting the same results. So, Kaylee decided to try something new and pulled the magic key from the bottom of her bag. When she held it before the left door, nothing happened. However, when she held it in front of the right door, the key glowed bright green. ‘Right door again, huh? Not too sure about this?’ She said.

She snapped her fingers at the reluctant Ricky, to follow her. He sighed, frowned and shrugged his little shoulders but followed obediently. They travelled the tunnels that led to the next fork in the road where she had been misled by Ricky the first time round, ending up on a slippery ride to Stinkville!

The long tunnel split in two again, but this time Kaylee knew which road to take. She took the up cavern ramp – bidding Ricky a bittersweet farewell. He blew her a kiss and smiled sadly, ‘You’re a brave wee thing. Good luck Kaylee.’

She started climbing up and up and farther up the trail, doubting with each step that it was going the right way. It was very dark as the lanterns were spaced out farther and farther apart. She was beginning to brace herself for the next misfortune when she screamed as her feet slid out from beneath her in the dark. Before she could stop herself she was on a scary slide again. This time when she finally came to the end, she dropped into a pile of half chewed bones ... possibly from the dragon’s dinner.

‘Nice!’ she muttered. She wiped her hands on her pants and adjusted her backpack, which was rubbing on her aching shoulders beneath the cloak. ‘This must be the place.’