The Lore of ZooKazoo -- Day 16

Day 16 -- Our band of champions has set off to stop the destruction of Jungaloo by the evil Elf, Silvercurst. It is a strange band, indeed: A Kazoobian Princess with suction cups on the ends of her fingers and toes, an enormous tiger that can change in an instant to a harmless kitten, an apple core with amazing powers, a true warrior monkey who is one of the King's fighting favorites, and the very mysterious Daywalker -- invisible by day and winged goddess by night. Does Silercurst even stand a chance?

Today, the group has moved as quickly as they can through a very dense jungle and climbed steadily upward on a path that takes the above the lake, higher and higher, out of the jungle, through a woods, and finally on a bald trail that approaches the great gate at the ancient and very old bridge that stretches over a very deep chasm. Below the bridge and far, far down, the Evan River flows out of the lake in a treacherous rapids.

The great gate is closed, but our merry band can hear hundreds, if not thousands of feet crossing the old bridge and approaching the gate from the other side.

Your job, dear readers, is to tell me who that pack of people are on the other side of the gate and what happens when the gate flies open. It's time for action, what do you imagine? If it's trouble, how do our heroes escape and go onto complete their quest? If it's an army of the evil Silvercurst's minions, what are they like? You have already met his swarms of Dragoon Flies. They were, seriously, bad, bad, bad -- poisoned darts and all.

Just click the "Comment" button and tell me what you think. Remember to only type about 4 lines of text in one comment. But you can send as many comments as you want. I would like to give you credit for your contributions to the "Lore of Zookazoo," so don't forget to sign your Zelf's name on your comments!

One of you wanted to send us your own story. Please, Please Do! I'd love to read it and maybe publish it in ZooKazoo. You can send a whole story to us by email at Story@ZooKazoo.com.

Thanks, gang. I can hardly wait to see what you come up with!

The Lore of ZooKazoo -- Day 15

Hi, readers of The Lore of ZooKazoo. I apologize for taking so long to get to Day 15. It was raining and gray this week and sometimes that makes it hard for me to work on the story. But here we go. After Day 15, I'm really going to need your help and advice, so please come back and be sure to see what I leave for Day 16 on Tuesday. Here we go. . . 

Day 15

"The thing was smiling!" grimaced Growler. "It was grinning its evil smirk at me! All I could feel was the terror and blistering heat of the flames that Silvercurst was spreading through the jungle. Nothing was stopping him and," Growler choked and caught himself holding back tears of dread, "and, and all I could do was run. Run? How am I ever going to stop Silvercurst?" He was embarrassed showing his fear and weakness to the others this way, but he could not hold back his emotions.

"This is always the way my dream ends. It begins with the beautiful tigress and I feel so happy to see her, but then I end up terrified when Silvercurst appears. I know I have to stop this from happening, but this dream is confusing. I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from it." Growler, the fiercest member of the party, sat shivering among his new friends, embarrassed, but truly terrified.

The smallest member of the party almost seemed the most calm. "Growler," Seeds said as he stepped forward, "we will all share this burden with you. Together, we will defeat him. We all had dreams of warning last night. If what you said about Daywalker is true, I think she was trying to tell all of us in our dreams that we faced great danger and have to be careful. We know we must stop Silvercrest, and we know it will take us all fighting him together to do it."

Kazooba shifted to see and remove whatever the uncomfortable thing was that she was sitting on. "Funny," she thought, "I would never have lied down on this to sleep last night. Where did it come from?" She picked up what looked like an old gnarled branch or small tree trunk. There was a knob on one end that honestly, she thought, "looks just like the head of an owl. But at the same time, it also looks like a beautiful woman with amazing and strange eyes."

She set the stout stick aside and then stood and emptied her pack. She reached for the old bottle, but changed her mind and picked up her dagger instead. "Today," she guessed, "it would be better to have this at my waist where I can draw it quickly." She then picked up the bottle and carefully removed the map. "My dream made it very clear where we are to go and what we are to do when we get there," she said to the rest. She spread the map on the dewy grass and smoothed its creases. 

"Here," she pointed at the map. "The Evan River flows from the great lake through the deep chasm. We must somehow cross the old bridge to get over it. While the map warns us to stay off it, my dream made it very clear that I was to attempt to walk on it alone. None of the rest of you are to put even one toe on it!" Kazooba was very serious and no one questioned her statement. "If that is the case, I am unclear how we are all going to get across the chasm and stay together, but I sense that we must stay together because that is how we are strong."

Precilla spoke next. "Perhaps the 'how' will become clear when we get there. We must hurry. My grandfather was very clear about that when he spoke to me in my dream last night. And, Kazooba, he was the maker of the map, so I know we can trust it. The old bridge is guarded on this side of the river by a large gate. We must get there, get through that gate, and then deal with the bridge." Pricilla held back another thought that made her very sad. As she looked closely at the map, she realized how old it must be and was puzzled because the dream she had of her grandfather made it seem like he might have just thrown the bottle into the  river outside his prison yesterday. "But then the parchment wouldn't be so yellow and fragile." The thought stuck hard, "Grandfather has been in prison a very long time." Her realization just made the urgency of their mission even more clear.

As she pushed the thought aside, Pricilla was already moving in the direction of the jungle trail and was buckling on her armor as she went. The others got a glimpse of the magnificent sword she carried in a scabbard strapped to her back. Its hilt was covered with deep red rubies. They matched the large one that sat atop her helmet. "Seeds, are you going to stand there all day, or are you going to climb up into my pack?" She reached down as she passed him and almost flung him into her bag. "Come on everyone, let's move!"

Growler had recovered, spurred on by Pricilla's strength and urgency. He leaped and passed her and took point: his eyes, ears, nose, and whiskers alert for the slightest sign of an enemy.

Kazooba turned to head down the trail, but at the last second, ran back to where the gnarly old staff lay and snatched it up, not knowing why exactly. She ran back to take up her place behind Growler. The staff was just the right size for a walking stick and fit her hand nicely. "Hmmm, lucky," she thought. Strength like she had never felt flowed into her arms and throughout her body.

Pricilla, with Seeds hanging on in her pack and peering over her shoulder, moved to follow and keep a sharp eye on Kazooba. From long practice, Pricilla also kept an eye on the trees above. the sun glinted off one of the rubies on the hilt of her sword and cast a red glow onto Seeds. He'd never looked so handsome. But then how handsome can an old apple core look? But he looked, yes, he looked handsome indeed.

While none seemed aware, small footprints from leather boots appeared one before the other in the dust, following them all closely down the trail. Daywalker, silent and invisible brought up and guarded the rear -- and sent off one last dream message as she went.

A light breeze danced through the windows of the tree palace and into the room where King Mo and Queen Marcy sat in despair. Several days had passed and there was no news of their daughter. As the breeze swirled around them and tickled their necks, both the king and queen seemed to share the same day dream. They both heard a very faint melody. Both of them sat up at the same time smiling. They somehow knew with certainty that their daughter was fine and with friends who would protect her. They were confused about how they knew this, but they were certain. 

"Kazooba's safe for now." they concluded. And then like parents everywhere, they began immediately worrying about the next thing: "If she's safe now, what is she doing? Who are these people she is traveling with? When will she get back home?" They both slumped back into their chairs and resumed their hapless stare.