The Chameleon Shop

Jett and Kaylee neared a deep gully that carved through the road and encircled the base of the mountain. A river ran through this gully and the only way to cross was an old worn-looking wooden bridge.

‘Is that safe to cross?’ Kaylee asked Jett dubiously.

‘Must be? The Fire Realm uses it all the time,’ he replied.

‘Well, that’s very reassuring, I must say,’ Kaylee answered sarcastically.

There were two butt-ugly trolls leaning lazily on the posts on either side of the bridge. They were around six feet tall with flabby bellies hanging over their trousers and very unintelligent faces; dull and slack, the goofy look one gets when waking up after having a tooth out at the dentist.

They reminded Kaylee of some of the council workers she had seen leaning on shovels on the roadside at home, directing cars around road works. At this moment they were blowing spitballs at each other through pieces of bamboo.

Kaylee moved her pony forward, intending to just go ahead and cross the bridge, without saying a word to them ─ and see what happens.

‘Four knuts, if you want to cross,’ the one on the left of her growled.

Kaylee felt quite brave with her key in her backpack and the huge Messenger Cat in her company. She didn’t see why she should feel threatened by these two wallies and so just laughed the comment off and kept riding past.

She said, ‘I’m not paying you anything. You can’t make me!’ She edged the pony forward but it began to jump around nervously at the edge. It resolutely did NOT want to cross for some reason. It was dancing about and hopping backwards. Kaylee almost found herself sliding off.

‘Ah, Kaylee, you might want to pay the, ah ahem ... gentlemen,’ Jett began but Kaylee was determined.

‘I can’t,’ she whispered to Jett, out of the corner of her mouth. She was about to explain when the other troll spoke.

’No, maybe we can’t make you,’ he said rather casually. Then he banged his gnarly old wooden staff on the bridge three times, like knocking on a door. They could hear the water below, bubbling and churning in the river. A massive pair of heads broke the surface of the water. Long muscular necks supported the two-headed beast which shared the same body. It rose up out of the river, hideously ugly, like a mutated rhinoceros that has run up the back end of a bus and squashed its horn almost flat against its skull. It had beady little eyes and huge sharp teeth, gnashing and slobbering saliva.

‘But he can!’ The troll said and smiled at Kaylee smugly.

At this Kaylee dropped the reigns giving the pony its freedom. It immediately backtracked smartly off the edge of the bridge and a lot further than that to where Jett was standing. All of them visibly frightened.

‘So,’ Kaylee said, her casual mask poorly hiding her fear, ‘how many knuts or whatever, did you say? Four was it?’ The trolls nodded, arms folded over their plump chests, bristly hairs poking out of their black tunics and gloating their unfortunate-looking faces off.

She groaned, climbed off the pony and gave it a pat to calm down. She paused to rub her aching backside. Unused to spending so long in a saddle it felt a bit bruised. She was frowning at the thought that now; she would have no choice but to traipse all the way back to the well. As she was standing there fuming, the monkey had been fiddling about in the tiny pockets of his tunic. He put his little hands out front of her. Four gold coins lay there sparkling.

‘Where did you? Wait … you took these out of the well back there, didn’t you?’ She plucked the coins from his tiny palms.

The monkey put his hands over his eyes, hiding from the telling off he thought he was about to receive.

‘Well, I’ll forgive you this time. You’re lucky,’ Kaylee grinned down at him.

She dumped the coins rudely in the gloating troll’s hand, giving him a filthy look as she did so and he banged the bridge with his wooden staff again. The gruesome two-headed beast growled low, likely disappointed at not having new bodies to tear to pieces for dinner. It sank slowly back to the cavernous depths of the deep waters, making it steam and boil like a kettle on the surface and the smell of stagnant swamps drifted up to them.

‘Now my wishes won’t come true,’ Kaylee worried.

Jett replied calmly, ‘I don’t know how things are done where you come from, but here in The Five Realms, we make our own luck?’ He stopped and sat looking at her.

‘Maybe you should tell that to Topaz,’ she replied.

‘Maybe I should,’ he said kindly. ’I am afraid this is where I must leave you Kaylee. Wilfrey may not recognise you in your ball-gown and mask but there is no mistaking the big black Messenger Cat.

He and I have a history, I will not go into just now, but I will not be a welcome guest in his castle. Have faith in yourself. You can do anything you believe in your heart and put your mind to.’

‘Will I see you again?’ she was incredibly sad at the thought of a final goodbye to her good friend.

‘You think I would abandon you in the final hour? Never! I will wait for you in the woods. Search for the dungeons and fire. That is where he will have the egg hidden, trying to get it to hatch in secret, away from prying eyes. Don’t forget though; keep out of sight of the Crone.’

‘Do you really think I can do this Jett?’

He put his paw on her leg, ‘Stranger things have happened in this place. Safe journey, Kaylee.’

He turned and headed back towards the forest. The pony edged on to the rickety bridge cautiously and tip-tapped across, each step fearing that it would crumble and fall into the abyss, into the mouths of the monster beneath.

The monkey clung to her head like a hat; she removed his stubbornly gripping hands from her eyes gently, to focus on her goal. The steep road to Wilfrey’s castle lay on the other side. She just hoped they would get to the other side.