Greetings!

I wrote a short story for @TheChainPickAxe, of which I was inspired by @DeadQueen234 to base the main character Waddle upon a duckling.

This is a tale of two unexpected friends and their adventure together in a world that is based partly on MineVerse, IRL, and a heavy dose of fantasy.

I accidentally ventured in to the realm of the macabre and inadvertently found myself grave digging... Sorry! :( Part 1 was then killed by a mod to prevent it from becoming a zombie and eating random brains. Or something like that. I think? ;) So here is where I'll let it live and hopefully I'll add more more chapters soon.

This story was the result of just one evening's work. I only had the opportunity to write it with no proofing. Hope it is coherent and the story line flows well.

Update: I've added more chapters... please follow this thread to read them.

Enjoy!
Blue (RoyalBlueRanger)


The Adventures of Waddle
Part 1 - Chapters 1 - 4 (click this link)
Part 2 - Chapters 5 - 8 (click this link)
Part 3- Chapters 9 - 11 (click this link)
Part 4 - Chapter 12 (click this link)

Part 1

Chapter 1 – The Fall

Once upon a time, in a distant enchanted land, lived a young duckling that dreamed dreams that little ducklings normally do not dream.

One evening, as the sun was setting over the lake that Waddle called home, he was caught up in one of his daydreams. His daydream that evening was about going on an adventure of a life time where he was saving other animals from monsters and indescribable creatures and where magic and mysteries were always to be found. He was dreaming about being a hero instead of the newborn duckling that he was.

Suddenly his heroic dreams came to a sudden end when he fell down a small hole in the ground. Gone, suddenly, was the twilight sun casting reflections of reds, golds, and yellows on the glassy smooth surface of the lake. Gone were the long shadows from the trees, the sugar canes, and the tall grass from around the lake. Gone were the sounds of crickets, the frogs, the birds, and most eerily were the sounds of his brothers and sisters and cousins quacking, waddling, and playing around the lake. Gone was the ground under his feet and gone too was the knowledge of where the ground should be since he was tumbling, as he fell, fell down and down. Gone was Waddle, from the face of the earth.

Although he was still a very young duckling that has yet to learn about flying, without giving it too much thought, he started to instinctively flap his wing as if his life depended upon them. As he started to take in the sudden cool darkness of the bottomless hole in which he fell, he quickly realized that he actually did need his wings and how he wished he knew how to fly. Little Waddle wished he even knew which way was up and where he was going. A wave of panic started to take him over as he started to realize his world was suddenly gone.

Thump!

Waddle was no longer falling. Nor was he breathing. He could not move for what felt like the longest time. He laid in total darkness for what felt like forever. He was in shock, partially from the sudden fall, but also from hitting the ground so hard. His mind was totally blank, until he started to feel his lungs starting to burn for air. He tried to take a breath but could not since the sudden landing knocked the air out of him and he was starting to go in to a full panic thinking he was about to suffocate when finally, he took his first deep breath of the moist cave air.

Waddle jumped up breathing deeply, quacking, honking, squeaking, and crying out. He was running in to the walls and tripping over unseen rocks. He was in a full panic now. He did not know where he was, he did not even know what was around him. He missed his brothers and sisters, and especially his mother and father. Waddle slowly calmed down and stopped moving so he stopped tripping, stopped bumping, and stopped making noises. Waddle slowly started to cry for the dark did not stop; the dark was all around him. The dark did not stop.

Waddle was lost. Eventually Waddle cried himself to sleep.

Chapter 2 – The Bad Dream

It was now morning and Waddle found himself starting to slowly wake. The anticipation of another day playing with his brothers and sisters and cousins was stirring him awake. His hunger was waking him too, and he looked forward to something yummy to eat. Every morning his mother was showing him, his bothers and his sisters all these wonderful things in the lake and fields that were tasty and yummy morsels to eat. He also was thinking of all the fun adventures he has had over the last few days. So much to wakeup for! Oh he was so very much ready to get up and see what the new day has waiting for him.

Right as he was about to open his eyes, he remembered that bad dream. First the falling. He clinched his eyes shut hard; he did not even dare to open them as that horrible dream started to creep through his mind. Then he remembered the landing, or at least the end of the fall. Followed by the horrible panic that followed. That scared him the most and he snapped out of his sleep with hopes of finding his mother by his side so she could comfort him.

He tried to open his eyes, but they did not work. It was still dark. He tried again. Still dark. He was puzzled as to why his eyes were not working. Being a little duckling this did scare him a bit, but it also fascinated him too. He wondered, why is that I can open my eyes, or at least think I’m opening them, but nothing happens? He saw nothing.

The he started to realize that he heard nothing too.

Oh how dreadful. He started to realize that there was no bad dream, but instead he did fall. He fell in to the darkness. He fell out of his world. He fell in to this. This. What was this? He did not know. All he knew about this, was that it was dark. Very dark. And in to this, is where he fell, in to the darkness.

The little lonely and scared duckling was all alone and was about to start crying again.

But then Waddle started to think.

And he thought.

And he thought some more.

Waddle was no longer scared and he was surely no longer crying. Instead Waddle was now excited, because he realized that instead of daydreaming about going on an adventure, he was on a real adventure!

Maybe just as well that Waddle was too young to realize how dangerous of a situation that he was in. If an older brother or sister was there to tell him, then, well, um… let’s just say perhaps it was best he did not realize how dangerous his situation was. At least for now, perhaps it was good that little Waddle did not fully comprehend the seriousness of the situation.



Chapter 3 – Underground and Hungry

"Adventure! I’m going on an adventure today! No wait, I’m on an adventure!"

Waddle was excited. His first real adventure. All his and only his!

The darkness. He was thinking he had to do something about the darkness since it would do him no good to have an adventure and not be able to see it.

So he thought. "What can I do to fix this darkness? If only there were some light."

Almost like magic, Waddle noticed that ever so slowly, it was steadily getting ever so slightly brighter. It was still dark, but just not quite so dark. Yeah, he still could not see where he was, but he was sure there was some light. There was none just a few minutes ago. But now when he tried to close his eyes, he could tell when he opened them that there was some light.

Waddle let out a little quackle (a duckish kind of a laugh) and thought, wow I wished for light and I got light. He quackled a little louder and stronger since he realized at that moment that he just woke up before the sun.

He was a little duckling, but he knew magic was just make believe. He knew that because his older brothers and sisters were always telling him there is no such thing as magic. Therefore he did not wish the light in to existence.

And still, the light grew brighter and Waddle’s sense of adventure grew with it. And so did his hunger grow too.

With the growl of his stomach and finally being able to see dark outlines of shapes around him, Waddle took the first step of his new adventure.



Chapter 4 – The Hunt for Food

As the light grew stronger, Waddle realized that he must have fallen in to a large cave system. There were a few cracks way up high, well beyond his reach since he could not yet fly, but there were enough of them to provide enough light to see rough shapes and outlines. Waddle realized that the more he focused on the shapes in front of him, the easier it was to see them. So that is where he focused his attention; in front of him. And that is where he headed. Forward. In search for food for his hungry stomach.

He was so excited with his adventure, that he did not notice, or really care for that matter, that the cave was winding and twisting itself deeper in to the earth. It was taking Waddle farther, and farther away from his former home and family. Nor did he know that with every turn and every dip, he was becoming more and more lost. Perhaps it was a good thing that he did not realize he could not back track to return to the spot where he fell out of his world since that kind of realization could ruin a perfectly good adventure.

After waddling for what felt like a very long time, Waddle noticed that light no longer came through cracks in the ceiling of the cave, but instead the light appeared to come from some strange glowing rocks and some slimy gooey stuff that was growing throughout the cave. The cave was taking on a rather magical look and feel.

Waddle’s stomach was really hungry now. He pecked at the glowing slime to see if it was something yummy. Qa-yuuck! He spits it out. It was not food.

Oh the horrible flavor of that glowing slime! It was getting worse and he was all out of spit!

He started to waddle faster. There must be some water. He waddled faster. There must be some food. He waddled even faster. The horrible flavor was getting worse and he was not finding anything to get rid of it.

Waddle suddenly stopped waddling. He opened his beak as wide as he could. Stuck out his tongue as far as it could reach. Then he licked the ground. A few times. It was an awful flavor but it was not as bad as the slime.

And he was still hungry. More hungry than any other time in his whole life. And Waddle let out a sigh.

As Waddle was starting to refill his lungs after that deep sigh, he heard something that sounded like laughter. As faint as it was, it sounded like someone was quacking up over something and it was uncontrollable. Waddle realized that someone was laughing at him.

He started to turn his head this way and that to try to figure out where the laughter was coming from. Then he saw something move about 10 feet away from him. The shadow was smaller than him, and all he could think about was that if maybe food. So he ran as fast as he could to grab it, pecking at the ground and any shadow that he thought might possibly be food. Waddle got so worked up on chasing down his food that he was quacking, yelling out “food” and other words and sounds as he kept missing the shadow and kept tripping over rocks.



-- Continued --

 

The Adventures of Waddle - Part 2

Chapter 5 – The Chase

He thought he saw the shadow dodge and duck, but he was not sure where it was going. But he did not give up and he kept following it the best he could. Not surprisingly, that shadowy figure was no longer laughing. Instead the shadow was yelling for him to stop. Waddle did not stop. What little he could see of the shadowy thing is that it looked like some kind of an insect and he loved to eat bugs.

“Would you please stop it! I am not food! So please stop chasing me!” said Heather almost in tears.

Waddle stopped waddling around chasing Heather. “What? Who are you? You look like food, from what little I’ve seen of you.”

“I’m not food. My name is Heather and I’m actually a princess. One of these days, I may become queen of my kingdom. I’m important down here and the last thing you would want to do is to eat the princess who will become the queen.”

“Wow a real princess…” said Waddle in a half daze at the idea he was in the presence of royalty. “I’m so sorry your royalness I did not know you were not food.”

“I’ll forgive you this time,” said Heather, “as long as you promise you will not eat me.”

“I think I won’t eat you,” said Waddle, thinking carefully. “Show yourself first before I make up my mind for sure.”

“No. I need you to first promise that you will not eat me.” Heather’s voice started to tremble. “I do not trust you. You look hungry to me. I mean if you’re hungry enough to try to eat the glowing slime and then try to eat the ground, then you may try to eat even a future queen.”

“Well, maybe I will eat you. What can you offer me in return if I chose not to eat you here and now?” If Waddle had lips instead of a beak, then he would have smiled. He had a plan.

“You mean give you something to prevent you from eating me?” wimpered Heather, who did not trust this hungry creature. “I have nothing to give you.”

“You mean to tell me that you will be queen one day and you have nothing now to save your life?”

“I’m but a young one and I have nothing of my own,” said Heather.

“Oh so am I” said Waddle. “I’m a duckling and I’m lost and hungry.”

Heather walked out from the shadows. “I’m a rare kind of a cave spider. Hi. My name is Heather.”

“My name is Waddle. I never met a rare cave spider before. Matter of fact I’ve never met a regular cave spider before. What makes you rare?”

“Will you still try to eat me?”

“No, I cannot, I’ve never had any food that had a name. Everyone who has a name are either my friends or family.” Waddle paused and thought. “I don’t think I’m related to spiders so that means you are not my family so I think that means you must be a friend.”

“Well,” started Heather, not so trusting of Waddle’s logic, “I guess we could be friends. Assuming you don’t go around eating friends.”

“I promise. I will not eat you.” Said Waddle as solemnly as he possibly could. Again, if ducks had lips, Waddle would have been smiling because he found his first friend on this new adventure.




Chapter 6 – New Friends

“I’m glad we are friends,” said Waddle. “But you know, I’m growing hungrier and hungrier. I’ve never been this hungry before and this is just the beginning of my adventure.”

“You’re on an adventure?” asked Heather.

Waddle explained to Heather what happened. While he was telling Heather all about this, he started to realize how lost he was and started to cry a little since he missed his family so much.

Heather said “Waddle, waddle you want to do? Find your family or go on an adventure?”

Waddle quackled a little over her pun. He thought for a moment. “Both.” He Paused. Thinking. “I want to return to my family, but I want to see what’s out there.” Thinking a little more. “Heather?”

“Yes?” answered Heather.

“Would you want to come with me on my adventure? And what makes you so rare?”

“Yes! I would love to join you on your adventure!”

“But,” persisted Waddle, “what makes you so rare?”



Chapter 7 – Heather’s Story

Well, after a bit of convincing, Heather finally told Waddle about her family.

Her parents actually started their lives not as spiders, but as villagers. They were the King and Queen of their kingdom and one day an enemy of the land invaded and laid waste to their village and castle. There were hundreds of invaders and one high ranking officer of the invaders happened to be a witch. When the King and Queen were captured, the witch turned them in to spiders. Many of their villagers were killed and mortally wounded so the fact that the King and Queen were not killed was fortunate for them. Perhaps. The witch then took the two spiders, the former King and Queen, and placed them in a glass bottle. The witch placed the bottle in an old bag and gave the bag to a soldier and told him to run in any direction for one week then throw the glass bottle and bag in to the deepest ravine he could find at the end of that week.

“Wow,” said Waddle. “And that’s how your parents found themselves in this cave?” Waddle was carefully going over all that he heard and asked Heather, “what are villagers? What do villagers do?”

“I’ve always been a spider, unlike my parents, but they described villagers as having only two legs and things called arms, two of them too.” Heather was dreamily trying to envision what villager looked like. “I’ve never seen one myself, but they have these things on their arms called fingers and the fingers had hands. No wait, I’m always getting them confused. They have hands on their arms and the hands have fingers. Villagers do different things. My parents called them jobs and trades. Some may grow things to eat. Some may build houses, roads, walls, for the village. Some even made magical stuff. That’s what my parents and my family would do; make magical tools, weapons, and armor.”

“Wow!” was all that Waddle could think to say. “Magic? I thought magic was not real.”

“It is real. At least for some. My parents worked with magic and made magical items. It was magic that turned them in to spiders. They were attacked and turned in to spiders while they were wearing their magic armor and using their magic items to fight the invaders. They were in their shop when it happened. Something happened to them and with all that magic in that room. As spiders, they both still have magic powers, powers that infused in them from their shop and items, plus some of that evil magic that was from the witch.”

“Wait… What?” said Waddle, slowly considering the possibilities. “What does that make you?”

“It makes me magical,” said Heather, in a rather embarrassed and ashamed voice. “I’m my parents first and only child. Spider usually have hundreds of children, if not thousands. That’s one thing that makes me so rare. My parents only have me.”

“You’re kidding? You can do magic?! You have to show me! Show me! Show me now!” Pestered an overly excited and happy duckling who was suddenly realizing that magic does exist and his new friend was possibly magical.

“Well, how can I show you? What can I do to prove I have magic powers?” asked Heather.



Chapter 8 – Food, Finally

“You can start by making me some food.” Smiled Waddle, or at least if ducks had lips. “I’m beyond hungry and magical food would be a great way to fix that.”

“Oh ok. I know how to do that. But since you are my friend I will give you the magical powers to summon food on your own. That way you will never go hungry again.” Heather paused and thought about what her parents would say and then added “but my parents would not be happy with me even telling you about our magical powers and they would be simply furious to if they knew I gave you some of that magic to use for yourself. So promise me, never tell anyone you have this new magical power. Never!”

“I promise!” Waddle repeated with more enthusiasm and glee since he will not only get to do some magic soon, but also eat. “I promise!! No one will ever know I know.” Food was good.

“Ok” Began Heather hesitantly but with great determination in her voice she proceeded: “Do not move. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and try not to move. You cannot see how I do this, some things must not be revealed.”

Waddle closed his eyes and held his breath with anticipation. He heard odd noises and heard Heather say some words that he did not understand nor could he hear clearly. He felt this odd sensation overcome him and he felt different in a non-different kind of a way. He smelt something in the air and thought that has got to be what magic smells like.

There was silence. Then Heather sighed. “You can open your eyes now.”

As Waddle opened his eyes, he thought he saw Heather trying to hide a slivery wand. Something that almost looked soft and silky, but he was not sure. Waddle still felt hungry. Waddle did not know what to do. He just looked puzzled.

Heather laughed a little and said, “I guess it would help if I tell you how to use the magic.”

“Yeah, my stomach would really love that.” Smiled Waddle, if he could.

Heather said “it's easy, you just need to say the magic words and you will be given food. Now you can get an unlimited amount of food, but you must wait three minutes between saying the magic words or it will not work.”

“Unlimited food!? Really? Wow….” Waddle was impressed. But still hungry. And he was looking at Heather with rather hungry eyes.

“Oh yeah… the words. Remember these are powerful magic words so use them carefully and wisely. Magic is magic and if misused can be dangerous…” Heather’s words trailed off as she recalled the horrific magic that was used against her parents.

“So repeat these words carefully to get food: /kit food”. Said Heather. “Say /kit food and you will get some food.”

Waddle could not believe it. He was about to use magic.

“Kid foob” Waddle messed up.

“No Waddle, you must carefully say it. It’s /kit food. You must pronounce both words clearly including the leading slash. Try it again /kit food.”

“Kit food.” Failed Waddle. But he was determined and tried extra hard to get that slash pronounced correctly.

“/kit food!” Boldly and clearly said Waddle.

It worked! Waddle found he had 5 cooked porkchops in his hot bar!

“What? 5 Cooked porkchops? Ducks are omnivores but they don’t eat pork. And what’s a hot bar?” Exclaimed an amused and hungry duckling.

“Oh yeah, sorry,” said Heather. “Please close your eyes once more and hold still”.

As Waddle was closing his eyes, he saw Heather reaching for that shiny soft wandy thing again. With a few more words and odd things, she told Waddle to try again.

“/kit food!” said Waddle. Now he got some seeds, nuts, fruit, some bugs, and worms. “Awesome!! Now this is food fit for a king!”

Waddle gobble down his food and in a few minutes he summoned more food and ate it down. He repeated a few more times beyond what he could shove in his belly because he was not only amazed that he was finally full, but that he was making magic.

Chapter 9 – The adventure continues?

That’s all for now… The continuing adventure will have to wait.

I have ideas on how I will proceed with the story line for at least the next few chapters.

Hope you enjoyed my story about the little duckling named Waddle… I ‘waddle’ what will happen next? ;)

Blue (RoyalBlueRanger)

 

You should like totally put this masterpiece on Wattpad

 

Good job.

 

Thanks Alana... I've never heard of that site before. I'll have to look it up. I'll be adding more soon so its obviously not done. I have some idea on where to go with the story line and what will happen in the near future.

I've been reading a lot of science fiction and fantasy books such as Wings of Fire (The Dragonet Prophecy and etc...), The Owls of Ga'hoole, Spirit Animals, Harry Potter (of course!), The Menagerie, and been trying to get started on Warriors. Yeah a lot of Tui Sutherland there. lol I would have to say she is one of my favorite authors, especially of recent years. Years ago I used to do read a ton of Steven King and collected many of his books (but gave up... he was releasing them too quickly). ;) Steven would fascinate me with his ability to find enough words to fill 60 to 80 page to describe something that would happen in the tic-tock of a clock (a few seconds).

If you just look around you will find a ton of good books.

The last one I just read was Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Has anyone read that book?

Next on my list? I have a few more Owls of Ga'hoole to finish up, plus I've been encouraged to read (and received as a gift) Wonder by R. J. Placio. Should be an awesome read.

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!

 

You can also download the Wattpad app if that makes it any easier. But good luck with your story! If you do create a Wattpad account, let me know and I will like so follow you ;D

And thanks for the book suggestions! Ill defiantly look into a few of them.

 

when u have no homework and no friends and the whole day to yourself

 

lol! For me, its more like no school, no homework, no sleep, and morning coming around the corner. Could anyone ask for more?

 

The Adventures of Waddle - Part 3

Chapter 9 – The Adventure Starts
The two new friends were silently taking in all that they both have experienced so far this morning. Both woke up alone, sad, and with no idea what would happen today. In less than about thirty minutes they both had something more than just a new friendship. They had an adventure with a new friend!

Waddle, being overly stuffed with the best magical meal ever, found it somewhat difficult to walk. His waddle had a little extra waddle to it. He waddled over to Heather and asked “so how are we supposed to start our adventure? I’m a little lost right now.”

Waddle was hamming it up, at first he wasn’t, but when his extra helping of waddle caused him to crash in to the wall, he started to pretend that he had to parkour over and around obstacles to get to the most spectacular and the most wealthiest treasures of all times. When he finally parkoured to the “treasure room”, he proclaimed “You’ve got to be kidding!? I risked wing and tail to be the first duckling to find the world’s richest treasure and it turns out to be what I just ate for breakfast?!” The mighty adventurous duckling just “discovered” his leftover breakfast. He fell over since he was quackeling so hard.

Heather was laughing. “I think the first thing I need to do is to introduce you to my parents. After all, I need to let them know what our plans are,” said Heather. After a slight pause, being somewhat distracted by how silly Waddle was acting, especially when he fell over quackeling, she continued: “I think we can also find a few supplies for our journey back at my home.”

Abruptly Waddle stopped horsing around. “You mean I will get to meet your parents? I mean the King and Queen?” Excitement was building in his eyes. “I’ve never met a King or Queen before. Do I need to bring them a gift? Am I allowed to look at them or will the guards arrest me if I do something wrong?” Waddles excitement was slowly turning in to a worry.

“No,” giggled Heather. “They are not like that. You may not even realize they are more than just spiders.” Heather climb over a few rocks that were between the two of them and places a comforting leg on Waddle’s upper right wing. “You will be fine. Just be yourself and you will see they will trust and love you too.”

Waddle appreciated the comforting reassurance and tries to standup, but stumbles a bit due to the fullness of his belly. He starts to preen his feathers with his beak and between fluffing his downy belly feathers and straightening out his wings and tail feathers, he says “Well, let’s go. I’m ready. Please lead the way.”

Heather starts to lead Waddle to her home, deep in the cave. She realizes she must take the long way, for even though Waddle is a small and very young duckling, there is no way he would fit through the cracks and crevices that constitutes the main path that she always uses to get back home.



Chapter 10 – Deeper They Go
As the two friends wind and crawl their way deeper in to the cave, Waddle finds himself needing to rely more on Heather’s voice as a beacon since it is frequently too dark to see her or the path. At times Waddle doubts that a path exists and spends more time tripping over rocks or bouncing into and off the walls. But it’s an adventure, and not once did Waddle complain or ask Heather to slow down.

“Slow down!” Exclaimed Heather, after Waddle stepped on one of her legs for the tenth time! “I’m glad you’re excited about meeting my parents, but we cannot rush through this cave. There are many dangerous pits, caverns, monsters, and spawners in this cave. If we are not careful one of those monsters may eat us both for breakfast or we may fall down a ‘deadly’ hole!”

“Are you serious?” Said Waddle, with an eerie combination of excitement and fear in his voice. “You mean we may be eaten by a monster?”

“Yeah, you got me.” Heather’s voice was full of sarcasm and sounded almost like she was leading up to a punchline. “They would not eat us for breakfast. They are probably still full from their midnight feast on those other adventuring young ones who passed this way yesterday.” She starts laughing. “The monsters can be rather boring in the mornings since they will only tear us limb-from-limb and won’t stop until they get in trouble.”

“Get in trouble? By who? And for what?”

“Their monster parents. For playing with their food!” Heather is now laughing so hard over the idea of monsters getting in trouble from their mommies that she rolls off the rock she was climbing over.

“Yeah, that’s one way to ruin an adventure.” Laughs Waddle. “And an adventure that has yet to even get fully started.”

As they start to calm down, Waddle asks Heather. “Why do you want to leave your parents? Do you think they will let you join me on this adventure?”

“Yes, I think they will let me join you.” Heather answered after a few moments of silence.

Waddle thought it sounded like Heather was about to cry. “Do they love you? Won’t they try to stop you? I mean this may be dangerous. Adventures always are dangerous, aren’t they?”

“Yes. Yes, they do love me. I love them too.” Heather sniffles slightly. They both had resumed walking, crawling, and bumping in to hidden rocks. “I’ve never been out of this cave before, and the idea of leaving my parents for more than a few hours or overnight has me scared.”

“I totally understand. I’ve never been away from my family before. I’ve never slept by myself before. I’ve never done so much of what I’ve done today before, by myself, or even met a new friend on my own before.” Waddle is now fighting back the sniffles himself. “I’ve never been so afraid and at the same time so excited before.”

“Yeah, it must be difficult suddenly losing your friends and family. I’m glad we ran in to each other.” Heather meant every word too.

“I know without you, right now I would be back in that cave crying. Curled up in a ball, tucked away in a corner, crying like you would not believe” said Waddles, as if he was about to breakdown in to tears.

“Because you miss your family so much and you may never see them again?” Asked Heather.

“No.” Sniffed Waddle. “Because that…” Taking a few quick breaths, as if he was about to breakdown in to sobbing tears. “because that… that…” Takes a deep breath twice and tries to say it again. “Because that slime tasted so awful!” With that Waddle breaks out in to the biggest quackel that Heather has ever seen, catching her off guard. Waddle trips over a rock and they both roll down a gentle slope.

Still laughing, Waddle stands up and pointing with his wing “hey what is that? It looks like light is coming from that direction and it looks very bright.”

“That’s where we live” said Heather. “We are approaching the outer perimeter.”



Chapter 11 – Heather’s Home
As they rounded the corner, Waddle did not believe what he saw. There were many trees growing out of the cave walls, but instead of having leaves, they had magical dancing creature what was so bright it was glowing and filling the cave with light. There was also dark whispy things rising up from them. And piles of black pointy stuff on the ground under each one. “What are these? They are the strangest looking tree-things that I have ever seen. Are they some kind of magic?”

“In a way they have magic in them.” Explained Heather.

“Did your parents summon them?”

“No. From what we can tell, they were here many years before my parents came to this cave. They believe that humans, a very long time ago, ventured down in to this area and built a fortress or some kind of a base here. These things are called torches and are made with a special combination of wooden sticks and coal. They are then lit on fire. That’s the ‘dancing things’, as you call them.” Heather giggles over the cuteness of what Waddle called them. “Fire is very dangerous and can kill and cause a lot of hurt and pain. You must be careful with fire. But normally, the fire would burn the coal and wood within about an hour, but that’s where the magic comes in to play. Magic keeps these from burning out so their light is eternal. We think. The dark whispy things are smoke. And the piles of stuff below them are ash. Ashes are very dirty and YOU SHOULD STAY OUT OF THEM!”

Too late. Before Heather could finished warning Waddles to stay out of the ashes, he was in the ashes. It wasn’t because he did not hear her, she yelled pretty loudly at him. But as they say, opposites attract. He “was” clean. They were “dirty”. Now that area of the cave was a mess.

“Um…” Started Heather, in a slightly ‘you are about to be sorry’ kind of voice. “You are about to be introduced to a King and Queen and you decided to first roll, flutter your wings, scoop up huge beak-fulls of ash and then blow them in the air as if you were some half-crazed fire breathing dragon roasting your mortal enemies!?”

“Ooooo!!!” Dreamily repeated Waddle… “some half-crazed fire breathing dragon!” He quickly waddles over to an undisturbed pile of soot and scoops it up in his beak and then blows it in to the air while he tries to make his best dragon scream, which actually sounded like a sick whoopee cushion on a trampoline. “Tell me! Tell me! Did that really look like a dragon? A dragon breathing fire? Was that cool or what?” He starts running/waddling to a fresh pile of soot and starts to reach for it with his beak.

“Wait!! What?!” In horror Waddle stops what he is doing and turns to face Heather. “What did you say I was about to do?”

“Be introduced to a King and a Queen.” Heather says in a dull monotone voice. She might as well have added “yeah, that was a brilliant thing to do right before you meet the King and Queen” but she didn’t. It was well understood by everyone that playing in ash piles was not a great idea.

“Oh oh… I goofed.” Smiled Waddle, again, if he could smile.

“Good thing there is a small stream around the corner where you can clean up,” reassured Heather.

In no time, Waddle was playing in the water, and cleaning up. It felt good to be splashing around again. It felt even better to be clean again too.

Heather started to lead Waddle again. This time it was no longer dark and the cave opened up to a few huge tunnels leading in various directions including sharply up and downwards. Heather explained how these creatures, called humans, dug out these caves to make them bigger so they could fit in them. She tried to explain how big humans were, but Waddle did not understand too well. She also explained that the bright lights helped to keep the monsters from spawning and in turn they stay away so the torches were a form of defense. The tunnels were very long and every once in a while there were rooms dug out of the rock. Most of the rooms were rough and did not look interesting. But a few looked like they served a purpose and had some kind of a decoration either carved in the stone, or added as ornate stone work, carved wood, or even a few items abandoned here and there. Heather made it a point to show Waddle the more interested of these artifacts, especially the art work.

“So this was the human’s fortress?” asked Waddle.

“No, not here.” Answered Heather. “These are just a few of the tunnels and mine shafts they created to protect their bases and fortress. I suspect many of these tunnels were created to confuse invaders as much as to allow them a quicker escape if they had to abandon their base in a hurry. When we get to the main base, or fortress you will know it when you see it.”

After waddling a little farther. Turning a few corners. Going up. Going down. Going around one last corner, Waddle stopped and was in awe.


-- Continued --

 

The Adventures of Waddle - Part 4


Chapter 12 – The Fortress
“Wow! That must be the fortress!”

“Yup. This is home.” Said Heather. “Told you would know it when you saw it.” If spiders had lips, she would have been smiling too. Well actually, I think she was smiling.

“This is beyond my wildest dreams. I thought it would be all rock and stone like what we saw back in the tunnels. This is beautiful beyond belief!” Waddle’s eyes were darting here and there, rapidly trying to soak in as much as he possibly could. For being underground almost a full day now, this was nothing like what he experienced so far.

The cave, or mine shaft, that they were following ended in a large, very large chamber that was dug out of the bedrock. It was as large as the fields back on the surface of the old world that Waddle called home. There were stones in the walls, ceiling, and ground that were giving off a lot of light so it was bright as daytime down here. Heather explained that they used glowstone here to provide light instead of the torches. There was even grass and trees growing in this room, with some trees disappearing in to large gaping holes in the ceiling with vines and moss growing on them just as one would expect back in the above ground world. There were some other animals that he recognized such as bunnies, birds, chipmunks, and others. There were a few animals that he did not see before that surprised him with their enormity such as an all-white horse that was playing with smaller paint horse on the other side of the room. Heather explained that this large room continues in both directions (pointing to left and right with a few legs) for a pretty good distance. She mentions that there are more animals including a cow like creature that gives not only milk, but mushroom stew! Waddle had no idea what a cow was, nor milk, but that did not stop him from being impressed. Running down the center of the room was a stream and there were even fish in there too! It was like a whole different world, just deep under the ground.

On the other side of this huge room was a wall. An amazing wall that was by far the most impressive object in this room. The room was a showcase of nature; the wall was an amazing work of art by humans. It did not look natural, since it was built out of obsidian, as Heather called it. It was both shiny and somewhat glowing, but it did not give off any light of its own. Within the design of the wall were placed other kind of stones and rocks that were used to create patterns and designs that made the sheer size of this structure look inviting just as much as it looked intimidating. Along the ground, in the center of the wall, were two wooden doors. The doors and their frames were made from an ornate dark wood with inlays of a lot of iron work with other shiny metals that were golden to bright silver to even greens and blues in color. The designs had a motif that represented various kinds of plants and animals found in the room from which they were currently standing. There were also valuable gems, some small and many very large, worked in to the designs. There were emeralds, diamonds, and other colored sapphires, and they were cleverly used for parts of flowers or the eyes of the forest animals. There was even a snake that had some long slender fangs made from long, slightly curving diamonds in a very lifelike relief that create an eerily lifelike feeling that the snake could strike at any time.

“This door is unbelievable.” Waddle was amazed. He was unable to even speak since he was so busy discovering all the intricate details, many of which were intermixed and hidden amongst all the other items. “There must be magic in this.”

“Funny you should say that,” said Heather. “Take a look at this.” She picked up an iron chisel that was in a nearby chest and started to use it to pry out one of the largest diamonds which was an eye of a very life-like fawn.

“No! Don’t destroy that!” Waddle started to cry as Heather was digging the chisel in to the fawn’s eye. “They look like they are alive! Don’t! Stop!”

“It’s OK.” Heather said in a very caring voice, pausing only long enough to comfort him, then she returned to her efforts to remove the diamond. With a few more tries the huge diamond popped out and the surround wood and inlaid metal shattered in hundreds of pieces. “Now watch carefully.”

Waddle could not believe his eyes. Almost like magic, which it was, the damaged door healed itself. The debris on the ground disappeared and the huge diamond that Heather was holding also disappeared. All of those items magically reappeared in their original locations and there was no trace that anything had ever happened.

“We were always mystified as to why this fortress was abandoned, even with signs of being raided at various times, but yet this door is perfectly intact. The iron won’t even rust or the silver won’t tarnish.” Said Heather, kind of sheepishly she added, “when I was very young I wanted one of those diamonds and tried to take one. It was in an obscure location and I figured nobody would ever miss it. Imagine my surprise when I finally popped it out. My parents were fascinated when I shared this discovery with them. But imagine my bigger surprise when they punished me for even trying to deface the door.” Heather started to laugh and Waddle join her.

Today, or at least right now, is a good day thought both Waddle and Heather.

“Let’s go in.” Heather whispered. She softly said a few words that Waddle could not understand, but they were so rhythmic he knew they must have been magical. In a few seconds there was a low, deep, and growling noise that gradually grew in volume and intensity to the point he felt immense vibrations coming from the floor. He was about to jump and look down at his feet when he noticed the huge doors were slowly opening and he caught his first glimpse of inside.

-- Continued --