Freiyon Fables: The Rochester Runes

While Lord Libertas and the remaining Freiyons, including Jasper and Jarryd, still continued their tough climb down the mountain, The Grabbers were being regrouped by their leader, along with any evil trees and other mysterious and powerful creatures that were under the control of The Grabbers’ Leader. And since this was taking quite some time, Lord Libertas and his group of Freiyons were able to get down the mountain side to the base of the mountain within a day just like Joe and Frebil had. And when Lord Libertas could see the light coming from the cave where the humans and other animals were, he was glad to know that they were in no danger during their abseiling expedition. As Lord Libertas’ group got closer to the cave quietly, the conversation was getting clearer, and the voices cheerier. Jasper recognized some of the voices, whispering to himself in excitement.

“That’s Charles, he must be exhausted after his journey. That’s Joe, of course, and Frebil as well. Cripes, that’s a voice I haven’t heard for a while. I wonder … no way, it couldn’t be, how could she be here?”

The group continued to walk in silence as they came to the bright glow of the camp-fire, totally unnoticed by anyone.

“If only Jasper, Jarryd and Lord Libertas were here, they’d see how well we’ve done.” Frebil announced.

“But we are here, my friends, and I congratulate you. Thank you all for including your part in this adventure. Right here and now, I consider myself the luckiest bear on earth.”

The whole camp stared at the bear in surprise.

“Lord Libertas, King Karel, Jasper, Jarryd, where did you come from?” Charles asked as the big group sat down by the fire with the people.

“The same place Joe and Frebil came from, but we took longer to come because young Jasper here had to have a small rest.” The Bear lord answered.

Every adult in the ground cave gasped, as did Christina. Never had they seen so many animals that they knew were fierce and strong, but probably the scariest thing of all was the fact that a huge, ferocious grizzly bear had just talked to them in proper human language, and calmly as well.

“Ok, you three, first it was the birds, then this young koala, now a whole bunch of animals appear and talk to us. What the heck is going on?” Martha exclaimed, trying to make sense of everything.

“I believe the only one able to answer that is Lord Libertas. My lord.” Charles said, allowing the bear to come forward.

The bear strolled pass each adult, nodding at them as he passed. Jay Witt was the only adult that didn’t shiver or jump when the bear walked past.

The Bear stopped at him, studying him.

“You aren’t scared of me?”

“No, sir. I am not scared because I feel something connecting us. I can’t explain it, but I feel like you will be helpful to us.” Jay replied, without blinking. His eyes weren’t full of fear, but understanding.

The Bear lord made a glance to Charles, seeing the same look in the boys’ eyes.

“What is your name, friend?”

“Chief Jay Witt, at your service. I came here to try and find murderous suspect and ended up uncovering this place.”

The bear nodded and took a glance at the officers behind Jay.

“And these offices, do they belong to you?”

“They are police officers like me, sir, and ready to protect others and arrest those who don’t obey the law.”

“Hmm. What do you think, Charles? Have they done a grand job to deserve something new?” The Bear lord turned Charles.

“These men risked their very lives to help us out lord, so I think we should give them something special in return.” Charles answered, not entirely sure what the lord had in mind.

Lord Libertas nodded firmly and looked to the squadron of police officers around them. “You have indeed all shown bravery and order through your actions, as I am to understand it. When we take to this final battle, you shall have uniforms that protect you from the arrow attacks, and you will also be able to command animals as long as you’re fair to them.” Lord Libertas grunted to a monkey maid and it disappeared quickly to inform its’ friends of the new outfits they would have to make. Then the bear lord gave another grunt towards King Karel. “Now we are all together, and we must prepare ourselves. The Battle for the Rune Stones is about to begin. I can sense it. Everyone! Start to prepare yourselves! King Karel, if you would do the honours of counting how many of us are here? We must be ready for anything.”

Lord Libertas had no idea that at that moment, about two hours south of them, The Grabbers and their group were doing the exact same thing. And when all were accounted for in both groups, they were even matched in numbers. Five hundred and seven precisely.

It was time to battle.

Two hours later, thunder crackled outside, wind rustled through the trees. Something was coming, Lord Libertas could feel it.

“Is it just me or did it just get colder?” Joe looked around, stunned at the sudden change in weather.

Charles took a glance outside the cave and saw the movement of the trees and what hid inside them.

“They’ve found us!” He exclaimed.

“But that’s not possible.” Jarryd replied.

“It is most certainly possible. After all, this WAS their hideout before we took over it.” Lord Libertas answered.

Christina hopped up and joined Charles at his position.

“There’s something coming, alright. Whatever it is, it’s coming this way and fast. They look very familiar.”

Robert joined them and saw it too, the whole army of robots.

“Oh, no! They’re back! The robots are back! They followed us! They’re gonna get us!”

“Is there any other way of killing them? It can’t just be their eyes.” Mary hoped.

The bear lord cleared his throat for attention. Everyone turned back to him and listened.

“There is another way, a for sure way of ensuring they never return.”

They all looked at each other in surprise and then back at the bear.

“What is it?”

“We drown them. Good-bye robots.”

The group stood in the pouring rain, the wind pushing against their fur and clothes like it wanted them to retreat. They watched the huge number of double-armoured robots marching towards them. The bridge stood behind the big group, the plan was in order and everyone knew what to do, all that they hoped on was that it would work. The plan was pretty simple, but would still be difficult during a battle. What they really hoped for was that the robots wouldn’t be smart enough to realise the groups’ plan.

“You ready?” Charles asked Christina, Jasper and Joe.

“I’m looking forward to this.” Christina replied.

“I’m ready.” Jasper said.

“Bring them on.” Joe replied, holding his bow just in case.

Frebil, Jarryd and Hero-glider stood behind Charles, ready for anything.

“Lord Libertas is right, the robots will rust from the water and die. This rain helps, too; it makes them slower and dim-witted.” Sarah explained to their mother.

“Still, all the same, we’ve got to keep an eye out for things.” Charles replied, hearing the conversation.

It was a surprise to the Freiyons when, from both the left and ride sides, two groups of very familiar faces appeared in big amounts at that very moment.

“Unbelievable!” Mary exclaimed.

“It’s Leopold and his otters! They’ve come to help!” Jarryd shouted in delight.

“Better watch it, here come those tribe-rats we got one of the stones off.” Robert mumbled, unsteadily.

From above, there came the rewarding noise of owl hoots, which made Robert smile. “Well, wouldn’t you know it! The owls are coming!”

The tribe-rats, a little unsettled because of the owls, started chanting their commanders’ name while stamping the ground fiercely. “Hoof Rat, hoof Rat, hoof Rat, HOOF RAT!”

The otters spun their arrows and shouted their own chant. “Fire-catchers, fire-fighters, fire-catchers, fire-fighters!”

And finally the owls hooted a warning call to The Grabbers. “Too Troo we will kill yoo! Too Troo yoo are throo! Too TROOOO!”

The moment the owls finished, everything went deadly quiet again. The wind howled past them, the rain pelted down so hard the animals and people could hear it bashing against the metal and iron of the robots. The numbers in the battle were now slightly against The Grabbers.

“KKAWW, KAKAWW!!” An awful cry echoed through the fields as the joined leagues of the grabbers birds closed in on the group quickly.

“Quick, everyone get over the bridge! Try to fight them off!” King Karel commanded.

And suddenly, the fight started.

Feeling that his promise should stay fulfilled, Robert transformed into an owl and flew away with some of the pigeons and swans to fend off the attacking vultures with the owls.

“Oh, no! The robots are going faster now!” Sarah exclaimed.

Giving up on their legs, the robots propelled themselves across the grass by using fire blasts coming from their feet.

“Cripes! I didn’t know they could fly!” Jay exclaimed.

“Groep het die boog!!” Robert heard the rats shout, which he knew meant ’group up, archers!”

“Everyone over the bridge, aim your arrows at those birds, we can’t have them foiling our plan.” Lord Libertas shouted.

Robert suddenly turned to Leopold during flight and shouted. “Foot-ball manoeuvre nine, Leopold!”

Nodding, Leopold got the otters to split up and fling up rocks with their rudders from the ground and kick them at the on-coming robots. The rocks skimmed over the river and when they hit the robots, it short-circuited them and made them collapse.

Frebil and Martha had to run quickly to get off the bridge because of the sudden rush of animals and people.

Charles spotted a huge vulture in the sky with a figure riding it and knew it was the Leader. He noticed it was heading straight for Robert and so he turned into an eagle to help Robert out. Sarah wanted to join him, but Jay and Lord Libertas held her back.

“No, leave him; we need all the help we can get. He’ll be fine, anyway,” Lord Libertas explained.

During all the fighting with the birds, Charles couldn’t be seen anymore and Sarah hoped he was ok.

“Alright! Ready police squad! On my mark!” Jay shouted.

The robots got closer, but their flame power ended and they had to resume walking this time, their rust getting worse from the rain. And the second good thing about rain and lightning is this, metal conducts electricity. Lightning struck several robots and they collapsed, dead to the world, but there were still some left. More lightning came, hitting birds as it went and killing a few.

“Well, that’s helped heaps!” Jarryd said, quite happy with the weather now.

“Ready! Here they come!” Lord Libertas called.

“Give those heartless machines a nasty surprise, boys.” Jay grunted, pointed guns at the ropes of the bridge.

Leopold took out two arrows and aimed for the furthest away posts of the bridge.

“Wait until they start crossing the bridge.” Lord Libertas warned.

Thirteen robots crowded onto the bridge and made their way over.

Leopold fired his first arrow and got the first rope tied to the left hand side post.

“Ready! FIRE!” Libertas shouted.

The timing was perfect, the same second Leopold’s second arrow hit the next post the police started firing at the ropes to make the come off and the bridge started to collapse, right on top of most of the robots. Libertas had been right in saying there would be some who wouldn’t cross the bridge, however there were a few that tried to jump over the river, but it was too wide for them. A few robots used their flame power to cross, but they were finished off by the rats, the otters, or anyone who had arrows or guns.

Up in the sky, victory was coming closer as well. Charles and his bird friends had killed most of the evil birds with some help from the occasional lightning strike. But then Charles saw the vulture approaching him.

‘This is it, my chance to prove myself once and for all. Let’s finish this!’ Charles thought with anger.

The leader pointed their sword at Charles, recognizing him straight away.

“You! You and your family will die tonight! I swear!” The leader bellowed.

“NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!” Charles shouted back.

The leader steered the vulture down towards Charles and Charles charged angrily upwards. Charles ducked as the leaders’ sword slashed at him, but he took a savage bite out of the vultures’ wing and spat out feathers. They both turned around and attacked again, bashing right into each other. The leader had a slight advantage over Charles, being the rider on the vulture he could attack from above. But Charles was aware of this and twisted the vulture around to make the leader lose control.

“You should be back home playing hide-and-seek, boy.” The leader sneered.

Charles bit savagely at the leaders’ arm as he replied.

“You can stop this! The stones were collected already! Their power used! You have no more purpose for them!” He tried to reason with the hooded figure, but the figure pushed away from Charles and forced the vulture to scratch at Charles’ body, wounding him and allowing the vulture to retreat a short distance away.

The vulture flew back to try another attack method to get Charles by surprise. The Leader pointed his sword at Charles again.

“Die now, you snivelling child!” They screeched.

The vulture was about to attack again when another form attacked it instead. The vulture and the leader panicked as Robert attacked them, quite out of nowhere.

Charles looked on in surprise at his brother and saw that he was losing the fight.

Robert was grabbed by the Leader and punched unconscious, and then thrown down towards the ground.

“ROBERT!” Charles shouted.

The owls heard Charles shout and sped off to save Robert. Charles turned to the Grabber’s leader and was filled with anger.

The pigeons came to him to help him but Charles grumbled angrily.

“Leave it to me now!”

Charles burst forward and, in a sharp attack of pure strength and anger, bit the vultures head right off, causing the Leader to start falling down through the air. In only a few moments the vulture collapsed to the ground, on top of the hooded figure. The vulture had been slain, but it was uncertain about the leader of the Grabbers. The group of animals and people stopped shooting at the robots in time to see the crash. As fortune would have it, the vulture had also landed right on top of the surviving robots. Charles landed next to the dead vulture and transformed back into a human. Pulling out his sword, he slashed angrily at the dead bird and pushed it away, revealing the winded leader underneath.

“You just fell five feet from the air! How are you still alive?!” Charles asked the leader, noticing they were still breathing but not moving much.

They didn’t answer because they were unconscious, but alive none the less.

Charles prodded the body just in case and then went to remove the cloak.

“Be careful, Charles, it could be a trap.” Christina warned.

“If it is, I’m not falling for it, whoever it is has been protected by something, but what? And who is it?”

He reached down and pulled the cloak away, making the figure stir a little.

Charles gasped.

“Who is it, Charles? Who’s behind it all? Who is The Grabber Leader?” Sarah asked, seeing the concern in her brothers’ eyes.

He stared at them as he replied.

“That man we saw hanging in the manor!”

Charles carried the figure to the other side of the river to prove who it was.

“Father?” Sarah exclaimed.

Charles looked up in shock at Sarah. “What?!? Our FATHER? You KNEW it was him? You KNEW who it was? You didn’t tell me our father was a murderer! Now he has killed Robert!”

“That will be enough shouting, thank you.” A woman’s voice announced.

Charles looked up and saw Great-grandmother Helen Rochester standing, alone, on the other side of the river, looking quite… smug and somehow… younger.

“Great-grandmother Helen Rochester? What are YOU doing here?!”

Helen looked at Charles’s father and sneered. “Worked like a charm. Did you all think you had it worked out?” She pulled out a remote control from her pocket and turned off a button that had been set to a walkie-talkie mode, and then threw it into the river, causing the remote to short-circuit and die.

“What do you mean?” Sarah asked.

“Sarah.” Lord Libertas warned.

Helen shook her head, amused. “And I tried SO hard to make it all look like it was some-one else’s fault. Frederick, Lex, your father, anyone just to get what I wanted.”

Charles gazed back down at the figure of his father and suddenly understood.

“Y-You’re the leader! This whole time, you’re the one who’s been after the stones!”

Helen chuckled and raised a gun from her pocket. She had stolen Lex’s gun!

“Yes, it was me! And I was so close too! I even had one of the stones, but I couldn’t use it except to keep myself alive for longer, and to in a way protect me. Why do you think Frederick looks so young? He’s been in and out of my capture for years. I knew it was a matter of time before some other idiot came across the secret, so naturally I had to set the curse up to stop anyone from getting what was rightfully mine.” Suddenly she appeared younger and far less fragile. It was the magic she had been storing somehow within her just for this occasion.

“But why? Why do all this to your family and people you didn’t know?” Jay asked.

“Family?! BAH! They were NEVER my family! That has been nothing but lies from the VERY beginning. I was around since Sybil Rochester made those stones, and when I found out about them I knew I had to have them for myself, so I started up my plan to assume the role of his lover. It was easy back then to make it look like I had his brat of a child, and it was just as easy to make Frederick believe I was his lover and the mother of HIS son too! That stone I was able to grab for myself granted me youth, but I knew all of them could grant me power and glory beyond my wildest dreams! That’s why I did it! Because I wanted power and glory, and the only thing that had stood in my way from achieving that had been the seven rune stones until you came. You, Charles Rochester, played right into my hands when you visited me and told me where the first rune stone was. And then you showed it to me, big mistake! I pretended to be scared to get you to take it back to the moving wall. Once it was back in its place, I could take it and find the rest. But it seemed something changed that plan.” All the time that Helen spoke, no-one knew that underneath them down in the river depths, the deceased robots had disturbed something that wanted fresh blood. Something which knew exactly where to go to find it.

“You can thank your evil tree companions for that, they were under your control and I tricked them into thinking the stones were in the house.” Sarah sneered.

Helen ignored her and continued on. “But I continued to try, and I knew you were still alive, therefore I knew you would be after the stones as well. I tried so hard to follow you wherever you went, but certain things stopped me, making it harder for me. I used your father as a decoy, to make you all suspect the wrong person so that I could get to you. Interesting, isn’t it, that I used some-one that had a previous record as being a thief? Oh yes, did your mother not tell you, boy? Your dear father left you for some-one else after becoming a thief. But that does not matter now, because I have you all where I want you, and now …”

Helen glided over the water, slowly towards them like a frightening storm.

“NOW YOU WILL ALL DIE!” Helen cackled with laughter.

The magic from the stone, after all the years of affecting her age, had given her the ability to fly right towards them just for this right moment. And her anger and power-hungry eyes were clear for everyone to see.

Charles shot at her legs, trying to bring her down, but only succeeded in making horrendous wounds in her legs. Blood poured out into the river, but Helen wasn’t worried in the least, she would finally get her wishes here and now.

The blood just spurred on the creature that was approaching the shore from the river.

“Say good-bye to all your friends, Charles Rochester, this is the era of the Grabbers! I will crush you, I will destroy you. I will burn you all!”

Frebil pulled out his sword and stood beside Charles, ready to help.

“ANY LAST WORDS, YOU SNIVELING, WORTHLESS CHILD?” She looked down at Charles, her eyes becoming pure red with power.

A loud rumble sounded beneath her and Charles heard a fierce growl of anger.

“Go fish!!” He replied, showing a small trace of a smile.

Helen, confused, looked down at the river… it was the last thing she would ever do.

The creature lunged out of the water and snatched Helen within its jaws.

Helen screamed, but it soon drowned out as the creature chomped down on her and slammed back into the water, taking the lifeless body of Helen Rochester with it.

That was the end of The Grabbers’ reign over Freiyon.

Everyone still stood there, staring at what had been a horrible end to an evil mastermind.

Christina was the first to speak, but her words could barely make sense.

“What was … is she … how did … where did …?” She looked at Charles and back at the water.

Charles was the only one who wasn’t surprised or horrified.

“That was a monster from within the river, a monster that had been under Helen’s control I believe, but she is dead because of its taste for blood. We won’t hear from her ever again.”

At that moment, the owls returned with Robert’s body, now as a human again, and placed it in front of Charles.

“Is he alive?” Charles’ mother asked, extremely concerned for her son.

The owls nodded. “He should be ok, too troo. He good at being owl. He risked his life for yoo, Charles, which takes troo owl courage. Yoo should be proud.”

Charles patted the owl fondly. “I am. Thank you so much.”

“There is one matter though. Robert promised the trees would all be good again, and we would like this too be possible.” The owls nodded in agreement.

Lord Libertas came over. “I will see what I can do. You may go now. Consider it done.”

With that, the owls left.

The tribe-rats came over and presented Charles with a velvet robe with his old initials on it. “Dankie, Charles. Onthou om broer Robert veilig.”

Charles looked around, hoping some-one could translate. Surprisingly, it was his mother that helped out. “They want you to keep Robert safe, Charles.”

Charles nodded and thanked the rats. Then he turned to his mother and said. “Tell them the Destructors have been destroyed and they can live in peace now.”

Confused, Mary translated and the rats cheered with delight, leaving the group to go back to where they came from.

“What is a Destructor, Charles?”

“Would you believe they were the rune stones?” He sighed with relief.

The rain cleared after a while, and the group wandered back to their cave to dry out. Surprisingly, the fire was still going when they got back.

“I still can’t believe it was my own grand-mother.” Mary cried, holding onto Jay tightly.

Lord Libertas knew how Mary felt; it was a tragic thing to have a family member suddenly become an all-time bad-guy/girl, it was even worse to see that same person get killed by a hideous monster.

“There are still a few questions going through my head, though.” Jay said, staring at the others.

“Such as?” Frebil asked.

All eyes turned to Jay as he answered.

“If Helen was looking for power and to be a ruler by seeking the seven stones, why didn’t she already achieve this with the strange powers she already had?”

For a few, uncomfortable seconds, no-one answered, until Lord Libertas answered with certainty.

“I think the power she had only lasted a while, whereas the magic from the stones is said to last forever. I think she might have created those powers through her learning of the Rochester History to use it against you.”

Charles looked at his sword, the blood from the vulture washing off from the rain.

“I was willing to kill her to stop this madness. I thought she was someone else, someone I wouldn’t know. I never realised any of this would happen because of her.” Charles said, throwing a stick into the fire.

“None of us knew who it really was; the clues certainly didn’t lead up to her.” Sarah replied.

Frebil softly strummed at his banjo, humming to himself sadly.

“We should rest. Tomorrow we will set forth and take back our land, and you can take back your home.”

“Thank you, Frebil, but I don’t think we want to return to that house now, even though the robots are destroyed. You see, there’s still traps and things set in there we’ll never discover unless we’re really unlucky. But you’re right about one thing, we have to go back to our world.” Charles replied.

Sarah, Joe, Jasper and Christina looked at him in surprise.

“WHY?” They all asked.

“Think about it, if it weren’t for us, none of these poor creatures would’ve died or been hurt. Even though we helped them out by doing all this, there was still animals that got killed by the Grabbers because of our help. We should go. We don’t belong here, even though we have gotten attached to this place, we don’t belong. It had always been animals living here, even when Helen and the Grabbers took over, it was mostly animals until we came.”

“I agree.” A weak voice answered. Everyone looked at Robert in happy surprise. He was going to be ok.

Lord Libertas nodded in agreement; sadly he knew Charles was right as well.

“You are right, Charles, but you must take all of your friends with you, Frebil included. The officers can stay, but you must find someone to replace them in their positions, I’m sure you can do that. I’m glad to have you stay for one more night, but after that you must go back to your world.”

Even though they were on a hard cave floor, everyone slept comfortably, with the occasional sniffle or crying from Mary or Martha. Charles stayed up, still thinking about everything that had happened, the lives they had changed, and how it had all happened simply because of someone who would stop at nothing for total power. It really made him think properly. Power could be a strong thing, and could go utterly wrong if used for the wrong reasons. Helen Rochester was affirmative proof of that now.

Eventually, however, Charles managed to get to sleep as well, happy that all was well for everyone. Morning arrived some hours later, the sunlight flowing across the now loving land. Lord Libertas had been out during the night, talking to the trees that had been on the Grabbers’ side. He was a fair bear, and gave the trees a chance: turn back into their old, happy non-evil selves or be chopped up by him and Charles as fire-wood. To prove he was serious, he had taken along the same axe Charles had used to kill Sarah’s kidnapper.

AS the morning arrived, Robert saw Lord Libertas return, unscathed and smiling, with several trees following behind him. Robert was about to attack when he realised that the trees were acting better, nicer, than before.

Robert had regained his strength now and Charles was grateful for it.

“Have I told you how utterly impossible you are lately, Robert?” He teased as the trees swayed around the cave waiting for orders.

“I’m sure the same goes for you too, Charley!” Robert joked harmlessly.

Lord Libertas came back from talking to the trees and looked at Charles after Robert hobbled back into the cave to sleep.

“You must go, my friend. These trees have organized to build a bridge for you, quite quickly if possible.”

Charles made a bow to the trees and thanked them for their help, watching them leave with a curious eye. “I wish we didn’t have to leave, this place has changed me so much, and I’m sure it’s changed everyone else, no matter how long they’ve been here for.”

“We shall meet again, Charles, sometime in the future. Of that I am certain.”

“You are one of a kind, Lord Libertas, and I will look forward to the day where we meet again.” Charles said, hugging the big bear gently.

Libertas returned the hug softly and cleared his throat as he pointed to the still sleeping forms of Charles’s family and friends.

“You should wake them, friend. Their toast will be getting cold.”

“Pardon?”

A faint click sounded somewhere in the distance, barely heard if it weren’t for the silence after Charles’s question.

“It’s time to wake up, Charles, we’ve gotta go today.” A faint, familiar voice called.

Charles blinked and looked around. Things were changing suddenly, loud snores could be heard, the wind no longer blew through the forest, and Charles’s vision seemed to be going fuzzy.

“Thank you so much, Charles. You have helped me get my land back and defeated the Grabbers. Now wake up, your toast is getting cold too.”

The world started to spin, Lord Libertas along with all the other animals in the group disappeared into the distance as Charles blinked and looked around the changing world. Then, suddenly, he woke up.

He was in his bed at home, his old home, not his grand-parents old manor. He could smell burning in the back-ground somewhere and figured out it was toast, it certainly smelled like it was really good.

Charles shook his head. Had it all been a dream? Had nothing actually happened to them? Charles sat up in his bed, realising that he no longer had a bunker bed. He looked at his clock and then at the calendar. Eight o’clock in the morning, Monday, a week after the day they were meant to be moving.

What had happened? It had all seemed so real, so true. The robots, the animals, the stones, the curse, the Grabbers … especially the Grabbers. He couldn’t understand it, was it something he had just thought up in his mind all along? An adventure he thought would be good to be part of? Getting into his normal clothes, Charles realised there was a bow and arrow set on his table that had been used for something a while ago, but what? Then Charles spotted the clothes, strange clothes that he would never have worn in public unless it was the Middle Ages. He shook his head, trying to remember what he had done the past few days, but his mind was blank.

“Mum, you burnt the toast again!” Robert called, running past Charles’ room at the smell of the burning toast. Another voice echoed through the house. A new voice.

“No, sorry kids, that was me this time. I haven’t quite got the knack of this toaster yet.” The voice said.

Charles was still sleepy, wondering who had answered the call.

“You didn’t run into Charles on your way down, did you Robert?” Charles heard his mum ask.

“I did, but I think he’s still a little tired. He might take a little longer coming down. What a strange dream. Pass the honey please Sarah.” Robert replied.

“I had a strange dream too. What was yours about, Robert?” Sarah asked.

“Something about mysteries and curses and magic, but funny thing is I woke up wearing the same clothes I was wearing in the dream.” Robert answered.

“Robert was solving mysteries in his pee-jays, hahahaha!” Sarah joked.

There was laughter around the table, including from the mystery voice.

“No, Sarah, nothing like that, although it would be very funny if I had. No, I woke up wearing olden day clothes and I saw a shield on my desk. Did you put that there, mum?”

Charles stopped at the door just before the kitchen to listen to the conversation. So he wasn’t the only one who had had a strange dream, eh?

“I don’t remember putting a shield in your room, or a bow and arrow in yours, Sarah. I’m sure you guys are just seeing things.” Their mum replied.

Charles gasped suddenly when he saw a gun in a special glass case supported on the wall by a very sturdy shelf. That gun, the bow and arrow, the clothes, it was a connection to something. Something that none of them seemed to remember, but something that had ACTUALLY happened. Charles ran back upstairs to his room and collected the thing he had seen, which was the axe he had used against that evil tree. He also grabbed Robert’s sword, and Sarah’s bow and arrow set. Then he took it all with him down to the kitchen.

“You want proof about it, it’s all right here,” Charles announced.

Mary and Chief Jay Witt, for that was who Charles had heard, rushed over and looked at the weapons, inspecting them carefully.

“They’re real, believe me. But where did they come from?”

Then he saw the initials on the axe handle, both his old and new initials. Near the top of the axe was the new initial and at the very bottom were his own initials. He picked the axe up and held it firmly.

Everything came rushing back to him like a wave. The curse, the animals, the Grabbers, the transformations, the adventures, it had all happened, all of it, and it was because of Charles’s final sleep before he woke up in their old house that triggered the disembarking from the other world. Chief Jay and Mary stood back as Robert and Sarah picked up their weapons with their initials on them as well. Everything was returning to them, all the happiness, sorrow, laughter, and anger, all of it returned so suddenly. Then, all at once, the three kids spoke the oath they had spoken the day they had finally left Lord Libertas’s group. “We will protect all the innocent, we will help all those in need, we will never give up, for we are the Rochester kids, and nothing stands in our way.”

The two adults were suddenly surrounded by things from the other world. The house was gone only for a few minutes, but long enough to see the scene that had happened before they had left the other world. Lord Libertas had laid a hand on them and their weapons before they left, saying that they would forget for as long as it took them to pick up their proper weapons.

Mary searched for her badge around the house and then ran back with it into the lounge-room. Right underneath the police officer emblem were her initials: M. D. R. She picked it up and attached it to her shirt proudly. She remembered now why Chief Jay had married her, and where. They had married in the Freiyon world, seeing how much they had spent time together and how much each one cared for the other.

“Well, look at us. Here we are, standing in the kitchen, all holding something that was special to us when we went on that very long, very tiring adventure. It makes you want to smile.” Mary said.

Charles couldn’t agree more, but there was something he had to do first.

“Oh man! My friends! We’ve got to make them remember as well.”

“Hold on there, Charles, if the others are as smart as you four are, then I’m sure they would remember. I’m sure you will be able to catch up with each other soon, but right now this is our time, we should celebrate in remembrance of that wonderful adventure. Who’s up for some hide-and-seek, eh?”

“Charles’s got to promise not to transform into a tree.” Sarah complained.

Their voices faded outside, leaving the house empty.

Except for one thing.

While Charles had managed to see the clothes and weapons, he hadn’t had enough time to see what was in the mirror. The vision of Lord Libertas appeared in it, looking around at the family and their laughter and smiles. The bear smiled to himself and chuckled. He was looking through the mirror from the other world in the new cave, finally able to have control over the land again.

“Yes, Charles, I believe we shall meet again. But for now, enjoy your life back in the human world, where you belong. Thank you, my friend, for helping me get my world back.”

Even though Charles was outside, he was certain he could hear the bears’ whisper and smiled fondly. “Thank you, Lord Libertas. Thank you for everything.”