Freiyon Fables: The Rochester Runes

Back in the World of Freiyon, morning was slowly coming over the mountains and inside the hidden otters’ den, Leopold decided to give the Rochester kids a typical otter awakening.

“Now would be a great time to wake up, you three! Come on, kids, no sleep-ins around here. Not when we have a whole day ahead of us.”

Leopold tapped his rudder three times on each of the kids’ heads, making the kids cough into waking land.

“Leopold, is that how you wake everyone up?” Charles asked, shaking his head slightly.

“I would if my otters slept in for as long as you three. The sun has already risen and we get up with the sun. Something which you will have to get used to,” Leopold tapped his feet impatiently. “Well, come on you three. We’ve got a lot of training to do.”

Charles hopped up and looked at his brother and sister as Leopold left the room.

“What part of this did I agree with? It’s just gone seven o’clock!” Robert complained.

Sarah didn’t waste time in getting up. Like Charles, she was looking forward to living an otter’s life for a while.

“If you don’t like it, Robert, you can go back to the manor by yourself and face all those knights in shining armour again. You won’t get our help though. We want to have some fun for a change.” Sarah huffed angrily.

Robert suddenly jumped up and grabbed his Swiss army knife from his bag and spun it around in his right hand cheekily.

“Bring on the teaching.”

They met up with Leopold and the clan on top of the dead log, with every otter standing to attention and watching the three come out of the log.

Leopold jumped down in front of them from the log, but noticed none of the kids were afraid. He smiled. “Well done. I see you are already getting used to being ready for surprises. Now, there are nineteen otters in my clan, including myself, but only one is a girl otter. The first prize, your very own bow, goes to the child out of you three that can guess which one is the girl. Here’s a clue: closely named to a human, the only otter that doesn’t have any of the letters in ‘otter’ except one. She stands proud and high, always ready to follow orders and teach new arrivals. With one eye slightly darker than the other, and one foot missing two toes, she is the fastest runner of all otters. Even when you are not looking at her, she will smile. Figure it out and you get my prize, fail and you have another harder test. You have four guesses each. Take your time, and study each otter that is here. When you are ready, point to the otter you think it is and then give their name. Clue to the name, it starts with ‘M’ and ends with ‘A’. Begin, whichever is oldest.”

Robert walked forward to the line of otters and immediately was met by nineteen smiling faces, all standing proud and high.

But Robert was no fool. He walked up to the first otter closest to the entrance to the log and asked. “Do you always follow Leopold’s orders?”

This otter, Jarryd, answered yes. Robert then asked if he wouldn’t mind teaching pupils if he had to.

“If it is Leopold’s wish.” Was Jarryd’s firm answer.

Moving down the line, Robert asked the same questions to each of the otters until they were all done. As he was doing each one, he studied their eyes carefully and tried to study their toes without looking down for too long.

When he got back to Leopold, he took his four guesses.

“The ninth one down?” was his first guess.

“And their name?” Leopold asked, sniggering slightly.

Robert faltered. “Martha?”

Leopold shook his head and Robert guessed again. “Well, what about the last one? I’ll guess her name is Madonna.”

“Two more chances.”

Robert was losing it now. The first failure had put him off concentration and he now almost forgot who he thought was the girl.

“Fifteen down, then? Umm ... Melissa?”

Before he saw Leopold shake his head he knew he had gotten it wrong. He decided to give up and let Sarah have a try.

Like Robert, Sarah inspected all otters, asking them questions and listening to their voices. Also like Robert, she was inspecting the bodies of the otters, but was looking for each described part in the clue aside from the obviously noticeable missing or added body parts. She got to twelve down when she noticed something. The previous otter had something that the other otters didn’t have. Sarah knew this was the case because she had it herself. Sometimes, when looking at a girl’s eyes, you could see if she was proud of herself or proud of something else. It was usually caused by a small sparkle that most boys missed when talking to a girl. Girl’s high-ranking thoughts could glisten in their eyes like a star, and Sarah was sure she had seen that same glisten in this otter’s eyes.

Being careful not to give false hope, she continued without delay and then went back to Leopold.

Now for the name. He had said it started with ‘M’ and ended with ‘A’ and Robert had guessed most of the names that had been in Sarah’s mind at the time.

Sarah pointed. “Eleven down.”

Leopold tried to not look surprised and asked what Sarah thought the otter’s name was.

This otter seemed to strike Sarah as a ‘Mary’ (she couldn’t figure out why), but that didn’t end with ‘A’.

“Maria?”

This answer got a big applause as Maria came forward, still smiling, and looked at the three kids proudly.

“Well done Sarah. I think I’ll enjoy teaching you archery. Here is your prize, and we may start our training now, if you like.”

Sarah nodded happily and the two of them left silently. Robert growled unhappily, knowing he was going to get something harder. Leopold turned to them.

“Charles and Robert. Brothers through birth, but would you risk your lives for each other if the opportunity came?”

Charles nodded straight away, but he wasn’t completely sure if he would or wouldn’t. He had helped Robert when he had the bad leg, but that wasn’t a life or death situation. Would he have what it took to save his brother’s life?

Robert, however, didn’t do anything. He was still feeling angry about having to be second best to Sarah again. Leopold noticed this and had an idea.

“Robert. Do you like planning?”

Robert looked up. “Well, I don’t like it, but I’m good at it.”

Charles sighed. “Robert, you wouldn’t know how to plan your own birthday party.”

“Shows what YOU know, Charley. I planned my 15th when you went to your friends’ birthday.”

“I’ve told you before, don’t call me Charley!” Charles went to hit Robert, upset about being put down again.

Robert stopped Charles and smiled. “Huh, and you were so full of fighting spirit earlier. Must’ve been possessed, you wouldn’t hurt a fly!”

“Alright, settle down, you two. Robert, this is your brother. Don’t you have anything in common? Something that you both enjoy?” Leopold intervened.

Robert thought for a second and then smiled. “Making fun of Sarah?”

Charles chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true.”

Leopold rolled his eyes. “Besides that.”

“We both like playing foot-ball.”

Leopold turned to Charles, intrigued. “What’s foot-ball?”

“Don’t know what Foot-ball is? Sport of champions, foot-ball. You otters should catch on easily, especially since you have good kicking feet and a rudder at your use.”

“Robert’s right, Leopold. We can teach you and your clan foot-ball and you can teach us how to be more like otters. Fair exchange, eh?”

The otters nodded, all interested in learning this new sport.

“Just one question, Charles. Would this Foot-ball be helpful during combat?”

Charles and Robert looked at each other and smiled.

“You never know, Leopold.” They replied.

So it was settled. While Sarah and Maria trained together with archery skills, the boys had to explain, teach and show off foot-ball tips to the rest of the otter clan. As a ball, Charles stitched together bark, leaves and sticks in the shape of a ball, and then covered it with padding from his bag so that if they hit it hard, it wouldn’t break and their feet wouldn’t get hurt by the twigs inside. While he was doing this, Robert was showing the way foot-ball fields were set out and how you could use things in the field to your advantage. Robert explained that there were usually two teams, one group against another, competing for points and trying not to get hurt too much.

“If you get hurt by the opposite team you can ask the referee for a penalty. This means that you or someone from your team gets a free shot at the goal. Now, remember, you get points only if you get a score in the goal you are facing. North goes for south, south for North. The most important thing you have to remember is that you are not allowed to pick up the ball unless you are protecting the goal or throwing the ball back into the field. I’m gonna let you choose your teams or captains and we can get started.”

“Well, I suppose I should be captain seeing as I’m otterchief.”

Robert shook his head. “Not necessarily, Leopold. How good are you at aiming at a target with your foot or rudder?”

Leopold started to say something, but realized the question hadn’t been about archery. Robert didn’t wait long for an answer. Instead, he grabbed a small, squishable ball from his bag and put it on the ground in front of Leopold.

“Kick that ball into ... the entrance to the dead log.”

Leopold lined up the target carefully and kicked the ball with his right foot.

The ball flew through the air and then bounced on the ground, twisting to the right and hitting Charles by mistake.

“Hey, watch it! I’m TRYING to make art here!”

Robert nodded. “Just as I thought. You’re all good at aiming with arrows, but not with your feet. Charles, could you pass that back please?”

Charles threw the ball back without even aiming and it landed right in Robert’s hands. Leopold was impressed.

“There’s a lot to this ‘foot-ball’, Robert. We couldn’t possibly learn it in one day. And we have to train you too, remember.”

“I think Charles and I have lots of time on our hands. We’ll get you guys in the know-how of the game soon enough. Tell you what. Two hours practice today for foot-ball, then you can teach us otter stuff. I think that’s fair.”

Charles popped up next to Robert, intending on scaring Robert but failing, and held the ‘foot-ball’ in his hands happily.

“Let’s play ball!”

Meanwhile, not far away from the boys, Sarah and Maria were getting along like closely joined sisters. They both shared a strong bond with each other, which was that they knew what it was like to be the only girl and be surrounded by annoying, rough, teasing boys.

Maria was talking to Sarah about how everything was going to change now that they had come into the world. She also told Sarah that Leopold’s clan wasn’t the only otter clan, that there was actually another clan of otters run by a kind otter named Oscar, which was currently off doing other things. “Your arrival has brought new hope to Freiyon and its’ occupants, Sarah.” Maria said as she shot her arrow and scored a perfect bulls-eye.

Sarah stood up and took her position to shoot. “You think that we’re going to save this world? But we’re only kids.”

Maria raised her eyes in small surprise as Sarah shot her arrow.

Not only was it a bulls-eye, but it managed to split Maria’s arrow in two, causing the pieces to fall onto the ground.

“You may only be kids, but you have a lot of talents you’re not aware of. That’s always a good thing, Sarah.” Maria bent down and got her unused arrows, placing them back in her quiver. “Well, I think it’s time for moving targets, don’t you?”

Sarah took a few seconds to reply, still surprised about her shot. “This should be interesting.”

Maria smiled. “Wait ’till you see what I plan as TARGETS.”

For Charles and Robert, it took them shorter time than expected to teach the otter clan how to play football. The otters got the hang of aiming with their feet and rudders quickly enough for them to have a proper game. Being the referees, Charles and Robert chose who was going to be on what team. Leopold’s side, they decided, were called ‘Freiyon fire-catchers’ (which they weren’t SO happy about, but Robert had argued they need a cool, catchy name that made them sound fierce), while Jarryd’s side went for ‘Jarryd’s Jokers’ (Which made Robert slightly worried, but he decided not to ruin their decision).

They had set aside a large enough area for playing and had made four almost in line, un-moving, non-living trees as the goal posts.

Robert placed the ball in the middle of the field and ran off field. He and Charles were on either side of the field, deciding they should ref the game when they knew they saw something against the rules. But this meant the two of them had to agree on things, which wasn’t something they did often.

Robert blew his whistle and the game started, with Leopold as the first otter to kick the ball.

The ball flew past the opposing team and ALMOST made it into the goal, but the opposing goalie picked it up and threw it back into the game.

A member from Jarryd’s side whacked it hard towards Jarryd’s opposing goal with his rudder. The goalie saw it coming and tried to catch it, but he had stayed in the same place. If he had jumped to the right, he would’ve caught it, but the speed of the ball had put him off.

“Don’t be afraid to jump after the ball, Goalies! You can move inside the goal-posts too.” Robert shouted.

The side changed again and Leopold’s team scored three points.

“Jarryd’s Jokers, try to remember you have your rudders to your use as well. And head-butts are useful. Did we teach them that, Robert?”

“Let’s just stick with what they know already, Charles. Leopold, look! Team-mates are open in front of you!”

“Oy, you’re not s’posed to tell them where to shoot.”

“Oh, right.”

The score was now four for the Jokers and seven for the Fire-catchers. An otter on Leopold’s side had the ball and just passed it towards Leopold when an arrow suddenly appeared in the ball, causing it to get stuck in the ground.

All the otters looked up in surprise at Sarah and Maria, who decided to make the foot-ball their moving target. Sarah had shot the arrow and was quite happy about getting a perfect shot first time, and Maria laughed at the otter’s annoyed faces.

“Please remember that we have teachings to do, boys. We don’t want to spend the whole day playing when the enemy could be right on top of us.” Maria announced.

“Robert and Charles, shame on you! You’re supposed to be the ones learning stuff, not teaching. What would Mum say about you two?” Sarah complained.

The two of them chuckled as they left the boys behind, all complaining about the girls ruining the fun.

“I think I know what Mum would say about you, Sarah Boss-chester.” Charles moaned.

Robert patted him on the back as brotherly comfort. “Good one, Bro, but she’s right unfortunately. Come on, let’s get this over with.”

Later, after the boys were taught more about otter ways, Charles joined Leopold on a private hunt through the forest, close to Leopold’s base of operations. Charles was inspecting some bushes and tree stumps when he suddenly disappeared from Leopold’s view and Leopold looked around, confused about what just happened.

“Charles? Where did you go Charles?”

“Don’t walk any further, Leopold! It’s a ruddy sand-bay! A secret underground tunnel somehow covered up by the sand and mud. I’ll try to find a proper way out, but there’s no way I’m going back up the way I came in!”

Charles’ voice came out from beneath Leopold.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Not unless you have a torch with you and non-slippery paws.” Charles groaned as he flicked his torch on and tried to make out his position.

“Will you be ok by yourself?” Leopold dared not move in case he fell down the hole as well.

“Just tell the others I might be a while getting back. I have to find the end of this sand bay before I can get out, and knowing sand bays I’ll probably end up at a beach or next to a lake. You go, Leopold. I think I’ll be ok.”

Crawling along slowly, he went down further into the sand-tunnel until he could slightly stand up properly. Every now and then he had to get on his knees to avoid roots and go over small up-hills in the tunnel, but eventually he came to a ‘T’ intersection.

‘Right, so which way now?’

At that moment, Charles noticed a small, slightly dazed crab walking towards the right hand tunnel. It got about five human steps into the tunnel when a claw belonging to something under the sand snapped out, grabbed the crab, pulled it into the sand, and then spat the protective shell out all in a matter of seconds.

“Talk about a quick dinner.” Charles mumbled half-heartedly.

He turned to the left and shrugged.

“Well, left is better than right.”

Charles continued down the left hand tunnel, unaware that something followed closely behind him. It didn’t take long before Charles noticed the rune stone light from the end of the tunnel shining vaguely in front of him, but to be on the safe side he kept his torch on and concentrated on where he stepped.

He heard the crunch of a stick from behind him and he froze, but only for a second.

He gripped his bow and arrow, ready for action.

‘Remember your lessons, Charles. Don’t ever let the enemy know you are wise to their presence. When you attack, that gives them the surprise you aim for.’

He continued to walk forward until he knew whatever was behind him was about to strike and then...

It all happened rather quickly. The moment Charles stepped aside, the moment his enemy struck. But at the same time something else attacked it. Charles had to press himself against the sandy wall to get a better view of what was going on.

The first attacker was an odd creature, sort of a mix between a bear and a snake. It had claws, which looked an awful lot like the same claw that swallowed the crab, but its belly was that of a snakes.

Its attacker, however, was a living, strong rope!

Charles watched in fear as the rope strangled the Snake-bear creature, the ‘Snare’ Charles had decided to name it for ironic reasons, until the creature slowly collapsed to the ground, dead.

Then the rope flung the dead body back through the tunnel into the right hand tunnel.

“How on earth am I going to get past that?”

As if to answer his question, the rope settled down and landed quietly back on the ground where it came from. Charles pointed his torch on the ground and saw what he had to do.

“Oh, you have got to be KIDDING me!”

The rest of the tunnel was covered by the rope, right up to the rune stone. The only way to get through it without being killed would be to step on the bits of sand where there wasn’t rope. Problem was if there was a gap for a short amount of time, it would be quickly filled up by the rope. It was, literally, a living maze. And certainly not a maze Charles wanted to get trapped in.

He had to hurry in his chosen path if he was to get to the rune stone without being harmed. It seemed that fate had a bad answer for him. Without warning, Charles heard the frightening sound of the sand-bay collapsing. With that, Charles jumped along the tunnel path quickly and carefully, knowing he had time and fate against him.

He found a big enough gap and jumped onto it, looking back to check on the collapsing sand-bay.

Breathing deeply, he started jumping again until finally...

Charles jumped at the last possible second and grabbed the rune stone from its’ holding place, landing behind the stone-holding pillar onto the soft, sandy ground.

Charles stood up quickly and realized he was trapped. In front of him the sand-bay was collapsing, but behind him there was the end of the tunnel.

Throwing the rune stone into his bag, he prepared himself to be flattened by the metres of sand.

Closing his eyes tight, he waited to be buried by the sand ... but it never came.

Charles opened his eyes carefully and looked around in surprise.

The collapsed sand-bay hadn’t continued over where Charles was standing.

Charles could hardly believe it. He shrugged and walked quite happily out from what remained of the tunnel and made his way back to the otter camp.

A few seconds later, the place where he had been standing collapsed.

A delayed reaction, but playing quite nicely in Charles’ favour.

When Charles got back to the camp, he told everyone of what he had found, and they were all quite releived.

“So how many does that mean we have now?” Robert asked.

“Well, not counting the one we found in the manor, because we’re certain now that it ISN’T one of the ones we’re looking for ... we have got three stones now.” Charles explained.

Leopold checked Charles’ bag and studied the FOUR rune stones carefully.

“How do you know that this one from your manor isn’t one to collect?”

Charles turned to Leopold. “Because when we found it, it wasn’t glowing, what we used it for wasn’t magical and it is heaps heavier than the other three.”

“Besides, Great Helen Rochester told us that this wasn’t one of the wishing stones. Still uncertain as to how she would know that, but that’s great-grandmothers for you.” Robert added.

Leopold put the ‘M’ labelled stone next to the other three stones.

“Well, if that one from your house was a stone, the four of them together wouldn’t make any sense. All I can get out of it is ‘D O M F’, ‘M O F D’, ‘F O M D’ or ‘O D F M’. And that’s only IF we include the ‘M’ stone.”

Charles shook his head. “They wouldn’t make sense yet. We haven’t got all the stones. I think once we have all seven, we’ll spell a word. Whatever that word is, we can’t work out yet.”

Sarah shrugged sadly. “We really should continue. But we can’t stay as otters forever.”

“You’re right. Well, I guess this is farewell for now, friends. I’m sure our paths will meet again. Just try your best to retrieve those stones, and help each other in the hardest of times. I’ll go and get the fish.”

Robert coughed innocently. “Uh ... Isn’t there a better way?”

Leopold smiled and left the kids to get their belongings.

“Well, let’s go. Those stones won’t find themselves.” Sarah pointed out as she stood up.

“I really hope Mum is ok.” Charles prayed.

After the quick transformation back to being humans, The Rochester kids bade farewell to the otters and thanked them for their generosity.

Had she put her hand on her half-heart necklace, Sarah would have felt the same warm glow from it showing the power of their mother’s prayer through the two necklaces right at that moment.

“Where will you go now, my friends?” Leopold asked kindly.

Charles pointed at the map and replied. “We’ll go along the river, south, until we get to the sea. Once there, we’ll just have to see.”

Leopold nodded, satisfied, and stood back with his group.

“What about you, Leopold?” Sarah asked.

“We’ll train, we’ll hide and collect information, we’ll play foot-ball (at which Charles and Robert smiled at each other) and when we have enough information, we’ll go to the top secret base of free Freiyon individuals everywhere.”

“Why?” Charles asked.

“There’s a ... helpful animal amongst them that we take our information to. I guess you could call them a lord. All information about the enemy goes to him.”

“But why? What if this Lord IS the enemy?” Robert asked.

“Robert, we KNOW what we are doing. Lord Li ... I mean, the lord of Freiyon is a kind and good friend of all animals, and humans if they mean good intentions. Anyway, in due course I am sure you three will meet the Lord as well. Farewell and good travels to all of you.”

Sarah and Robert turned to leave, but Charles stayed because Leopold beckoned him.

“Listen, Charles. You’re probably going to hate me for saying this, but be careful about who you tell about this. Your brother and sister you can trust, and me as well, but just bear in mind that not every animal, tree or human you may encounter is good at heart. Remember that, Charles, and keep your family safe.”

Charles nodded and thanked Leopold, running to catch up with his brother and sister.

Leopold sighed sadly. “I hope they travel safe.”

Mary stood at the side of the long stretch of high-way and shivered. Looking around carefully, she realized how close to death she had been.

A woman police officer came over and shook Mary’s hand.

“I just thought I’d congratulate you. After something like this, most people would probably faint and not want to come back. You’ve got moxie, Miss. I admire that.”

“Do you have kids, officer?” Mary sniffed.

“I do. Four boys, all teens and all major pains. But I still love them. If I may, what made you come back to this area where you almost got killed?” It wasn’t a very good question to ask in the circumstances, but Mary knew the officer was just doing her job.

“I want to make sure my children are safe. After we leave here, we’re going to my manor to check on them.”

“But ... what will you do if you cannot find them there?”

“I will look everywhere I know they like to go to, until I know they are safe. It’s my duty as a mother.” The officer nodded at this and walked away.

Mary held her half-heart necklace tightly and prayed silently. “Oh, please be safe my precious pearls.”

Even though there was no magic in the necklace, Mary could have sworn the necklace suddenly became warm and soft to touch.

Back in the Freiyon World, the three children were trying to continue their search for the rest of the Rune Stones, when Robert felt very grouchy and gave a mean comment to Charles.

“So, Charles, think you’ll have another spurt of bizarre fighting energy again?” Robert asked rudely as the three of them walked along the river.

“Leave him alone, Robert. Why do you have to be so mean?”

“Hey, it’s my job as an older brother. Until I see that these so-called rune stones ARE magical and really can grant wishes, I don’t believe any of what I see.”

Charles turned on Robert. “So, according to your eyes, my fight with that eucalyptus tree never happened?”

Robert snorted. “You were extremely and utterly lucky, that’s all. Anger does strange things to people.”