The Jungle Ride, Chapter Three

Girl-formed no longer but wearing the furious yellow fuzz of a fighting-mad duckling, Miss Ugly flew at the brute, testing his gilded helm with the broadsword she bore in her stubby wingtip. Gachna staggered, his concentration broken so that Maureen’s chains fell slack and she gratefully exhaled, but nor was he slow to parry with his gauntlets Miss Ugly’s sounding ivory blade. Then in a dreadful metallic cacophony new links of lead burst afresh from the shadows, striking like snakes at the warlike waterfowl even as she drove down her frenzied thrusts and passes.

“He controls them, Miss Ugly!” wailed Mini-Flash Juniper, too late.

For only by these means had Gachna been able to subdue Juniper from a distance, negating the effectiveness of the oilseed in her knickers. Seconds later Miss Ugly was trussed and sprawling on the stone-flagged floor, but no sooner had Gachna opened his massive mouth to gloat than a low rumbling of pulleys interrupted him.

Flashsatsumas had raced to the lever which controlled the gate. Now that same dungeon wall was on its way upwards, disclosing the hall of harnessed children beyond.

“Calvin!” Flashsatsumas cried.

And Calvin felt it, coursing through his pint-sized physique.

The powers that had landed those poor boys and girls in this loathsome lair were now at his command, one and all, with the added bonus that he wasn’t powerless to shift himself.

Sprinting forth Calvin grabbed a fallen chunk of ceiling-beam, smote it on the ground to charge it with resonant kinetic energy, then took the pulsating club to Gachna with force enough to propel him from this realm to the next. Though hard-pressed to recover, the writhing ghoul finally disarmed Calvin and swatted him back, but landing nimbly on flat rubber soles the latter threw his arms apart in the motion of a bowman and commenced a bombardment of energy-bolts, nocking one sizzling shot after the other on an imaginary string. Gachna, cursing, shielded himself as best he could and retaliated with his trademark line of defence. The ginger-haired girl could turn invisible, so Calvin held fire and did, confusing the chains.

“You are not invulnerable with it, puny one!” Gachna warned him vengefully, while lashing out with destructive pot-shots which left few points in the room safe.

Invisible Calvin, though he strove to stay on his toes, couldn’t have dodged for long.

Luckily he didn’t have to, because Gachna had been so diverted by his efforts that Mini-Flash Juniper’s shackles were loose enough now for her to slip free. Calvin only noticed this after her school shoes were firmly planted on the dungeon slabs, and at once was overjoyed she’d escaped, and quite emphatic with himself that it didn’t matter in the least if he’d missed the sight of her skirt getting ruched up while she was wriggling her way down.

Gachna for his part assessed the state of affairs far more speedily and far less partially, which was just as well for him, since the oilseed wasn’t about to start striding for Calvin.

His hinged section of the third wall had seldom served him so well.

No sooner had he swivelled out of sight than the chains flopped as one, banging and clattering lifeless on the stones. Miss Ugly rose and found her webbed feet again.

Calvin too, panting with exhaustion, reverted to visibility and likewise let his borrowed capacities flit back to their rightful owners. Pat and Maureen had by now alighted safe and sound from the wall, and as had the counter-Juniper. When Calvin’s distracted gaze fell on her she was just finishing smoothing down her pleats.

Which was fine, because the day was saved, and that was what mattered. Calvin in a rather short temper asked himself what other reason there might have been for doing this.

It took some puzzling over the control-board to figure out how to release the captured children, but once this was done the rescuers made no delay in leading them out from underground. They rejoined the jungle ride as the cars were passing on a quiet late-afternoon circuit, all but empty, and so it was that the attendant goggled when these rolled back to him all but full.

“I know, I’m barred,” Mini-Flash Juniper anticipated as she strolled by, at the head of a large party consisting of some who’d embarked earlier that day and hadn’t hitherto reappeared, together with multifarious smaller youngsters who the attendant couldn’t recall ever having seen before in his life.

A subsequent trek through the camp reached its end on the beach, with the daytime swelter starting to let up at last, and another journey about to begin.

“The candy-sticks do something to the minds of parents too,” explained the blond boy who could fire energy-arrows. “Ours forgot all about us and left when their weeks were over, long ago. But we haven’t forgotten them. Now, thanks to you, we can go home.”

There were tears in the ginger girl’s eyes. Mini-Flash Juniper and friends waved goodbye as the procession struck off, and received in return gladsome acknowledgment until the last figure had faded into shading summer haze.

Flashsatsumas gave Mini-Flash Juniper a smile. “Not our turn yet,” he said to her. “I know.”

“We’re not going to be trapped in this realm forever, Flashsatsumas,” she assured him. “But I guess it was a good thing we chose to stay that little bit longer.”

Contentedly the pair of them turned to look out on the light lapping sea, and most of their companions including Pat, Maureen, Miss Ugly and the counter-Juniper joined them.

Calvin however had opted to sit by the breakwater, somewhat apart from everybody else.

The last thing he wanted was to be petulant or horrid. Smiles and praise from Mini-Flash Juniper for coming to her rescue ought to have been lovely, and still Calvin railed at himself for accepting these in a contrary spirit. In fact he didn’t even know what was wrong with him today, except he did.

The counter-Piloshiki was sitting with her back to the adjacent side of the piling. Despite the nearness of this spot to Calvin, he hadn’t hitherto been aware of her.

“I bet you like cartoons,” she accused him murmurously.

“I watch them,” Calvin retorted, for if truth be told he wasn’t absolutely in the mood for girls.

“Many are aimed at the likes of you,” concurred the counter-Piloshiki, not scoffing exactly although Calvin might have preferred a slightly different tone of voice. “And the makers know what keeps you tuned in. If the cartoon didn’t deliver, you’d soon change channels, but you might also do that if shown what you wanted within the first five minutes. So, studios have to strike a balance. One which requires a little patience on your part.”

Her almond-shaped eyes flicked almost imperceptibly in the direction of the shoreline, and Calvin turned that way wondering.

As soon as he did so, the air moved for the first time that long oppressive day, breaking into a full-blown early evening breeze. The powdery patina of beach sand danced up a dozen little whirlwinds for joy, and what was lifted from the landscape wasn’t all that underwent a graceful elevation and fall. The Junipers themselves, still staring out, were never to know that that was the moment Calvin learned neither of them leaned towards light blue.

It was happiness like no other. Happiness that refused to let you be anything but happy. Happiness from which there would be no respite until around the middle of the next day.

The best sort of happiness.

A rapturous Calvin turned to breathe his thanks, but the counter-Piloshiki was already gone.

END OF CHAPTER THREE