Early the following morning, inside the Frosty Mug Tavern, Mr. Oubladew stood behind the tall end of his counter serving breakfast to a full room of hungry customers. He peeked over the top of the counter at the famished Mr. Pitts, who was comfortably sitting on a stool gulping down spiced sausages and scrambled eggs.
“I almost got my apprentices killed,” moaned Mr. Pitts, seeing the top of Mr. Oubladew’s head pop up from behind the counter. He shook his head wiggling a thread of stringy egg that dangled from his lower lip. “No sentinel should ever endanger his apprentices like I did! I really messed up big time!”
Mr. Oubladew stopped what he was doing and climbed up a short stepladder carrying a full pitcher of freshly squeezed purple fairy berry juice. He leaned on the counter top and poured a tall glass of the beverage. “Now that dooesn’t sound like thee wild enn’ adventurous Mr. Pitts we all know enn’ lub,” he said, sliding the glass forward in front of Mr. Pitts’ plate.
“Yes, but this isn’t about me,” replied Mr. Pitts, lifting the glass and taking a sip. A dark purple streak stained his upper lip. “For myself I suppose I rather enjoy adventurous risk taking. But this is about two young apprentices, who are both of royal blood and entrusted to my personal care. Because of my bungling the Dark King must realize that the prince is alive. I have put him in a very dangerous position.”
“So, twhat do ye intend ta doo aboot it?”
“One thing for sure,” said Mr. Pitts, soberly shaking his fork in front of Mr. Oubladew’s nose, “from now on we’re going to stick very close to Sentinel Village and avoid any and all risks.”
Unknowingly a blob of egg flicked off of Mr. Pitts’s fork straight into Mr. Oubladew’s eye. Mr. Pitts glanced down and swiftly poked his fork into another sausage stuffing it straight into his mouth. With only one eye open Mr. Oubladew slowly sank down his stepladder, while frantically groping for a rag under the counter. “I can’t imagine how ye twould eber put anybody en danger,” he mumbled, wiping his watery eye.
Meanwhile back at the boarding house Jacob and Emalynn, along with the loudmouth Lynex, were also enjoying their delicious breakfast.
“I think you and I should search for the Book of Galeeky and find it before that spy does,” suggested Jacob, hoping to solicit Emalynn’s support for another new and big adventure. “We need the book for our training, and if it falls into the wrong hands then all knowledge of the sentinels will be revealed to the Dark King.”
“No I disagree with you,” said Emalynn curtly as she reached out for her glass of juice. “I think we need to catch that spy first. Like Mr. Pitts said, you’ve been revealed to the dark king and he’ll use his spy against you now. After all, what good will the Book of Galeeky do if you’re dead?”
“But we have the Phoenix now, he can easily locate the Book of Galeeky for us. Recovering it will be a cinch, but catching a hidden spy in a place that we’re both unfamiliar with is next to impossible.”
Emalynn sipped her juice and shook her head at the same time. A red streak trickled down her chin. She reached for a napkin and quickly placed her glass back down onto the table. “No Jacob, your wrong!” she exclaimed, wiping off her chin. “Finding the Book of Galeeky will be hard; it could be in almost any dimension. Your phoenix can’t help you between dimensions, but with my skill in planning, trapping the spy will be as easy as pie!”
“Oh really!” snapped Jacob, feeling hurt that Emalynn could not see any merit in his great idea. There was no way she would ever be able to catch the spy, and he knew it. Yet she still arrogantly boasted that she could, and this made him even angrier. “Well I’ll bet you I could find the Book of Galeeky before you could ever come close to finding that dumb spy,” he challenged, staging another chance to even his score. “After all,” he added, self validating his cause, “who knows how much longer we will be allowed to continue our apprenticeship without the Book of Galeeky, and without it I can never experience the same sentinel training that my father did!”
“I’ll take that bet,” replied Emalynn, narrowing her eyes, “and I’ll find that spy before you ever even come close to finding the Book of Galeeky. Face it Jacob, if the sentinels can’t find the book, then how could you ever hope to find it?”
They glared at each other, while the Lynex, sensing an oncoming chance to brag, glanced back and forth in between their intense faces excitedly leaking drool out the corners of his mouth.
“Okay you’re on!” finally snapped Jacob. “You look for the spy and I’ll look for the Book of Galeeky.”
“Agreed, but on one condition,” responded Emalynn, giving Jacob a serious look. “When you have your delusive adventures searching for the Book of Galeeky, no matter how risky or dangerous they are, you have to promise not to leave me out of them. I want to be there to see your every blunder!”
Jacob smiled. He knew that with the phoenix’s help that this would Lickety-split be the world’s shortest wager. For sure it was a sucker’s bet, and finally he would put her in her in her place. “I promise, and the same goes for me,” he replied. “I don’t want to miss out on any of your mistakes. And the more dangerous it is, the better it is for me!”
“Agreed!” exclaimed Emalynn, nodding with a grin as she held out her hand. “We’ll work together to help each other out, and may the best apprentice win!”
They shook hands and the Lynex gleefully jumped to his feet holding out his chest. “Danger is the only adventure the greatest lynex ever has!” he excitedly cried. “So if you want to experience true adventure, hang around me and help me out with my big adventures too! I’ll show you what real adventures are all about!”
Without delay, after finishing their breakfast, Jacob and Emalynn met up with Mr. Pitts in front of the castle, eager to start in on their first day of training. Meanwhile the Lynex bravely set off to explore the village to find his own big adventure that he could gleefully share with the apprentices. They walked past the gatekeepers into the castle, following behind Mr. Pitts as he led them through the main foyer and down a long wide hallway. At last stopping in front of a narrow doorway, they entered into a small room with bare white walls, no windows, and several small brown desks and chairs scattered unevenly throughout, reminding Jacob of the insufferable red schoolhouse he had left behind. Mr. Pitts sluggishly stepped to the front of the room and stood in back of a small table. He lifted his arm removing from under his arm pit a brown smashed paper bag. Tenderly he placed it on the table, acting as if it were a very precious and fragile treasure. “Grab yourself a chair and then take a seat,” he moaned, “we may be here for quite some time.”
Curious as to why the long face, Jacob slid a chair out from under a desk and sat down in front of Mr. Pitts; feeling quite anxious to hear the details of his difficulty. Lagging only slightly behind Jacob, Emalynn sat in a chair next to him. Mr. Pitts then sluggishly leaned forward pressing both of his hands on the table top with his head lowered. After a few seconds of silence, he slowly raised his face showing them a miserable frown. “I met with the Magistrate early this morning,” he began, “and despite my firmest testimony, he refuses to believe that there’s a spy among the sentinels. He has refused to initiate any kind of investigation whatsoever.”
“I knew it!” exclaimed Emalynn. “He’s the spy! That’s why he doesn’t want an investigation, because the sentinels would find him out!”
An impression burst in Jacob’s mind, and he realized why Emalynn was so suddenly eager to take on their bet. She believed that the magistrate was the scoundrel and thought she could easily win by swiftly exposing the culprit. But if she was right, she still had to prove it, and that could be next to impossible. Nobody would ever believe an apprentice over the Magistrate of Dimensional Keeping. He smiled, now feeling more confident than ever. Since he knew her plan, he could relax with certainty, knowing full well that his bet was a sure thing. Almost impulsively he began to imagine himself after his big win. He could see it all now, Emalynn with her tears pooling up in her eyes while penitently confessing and openly weeping, “I’m so sorry I ever doubted you Jacob. You were right all along!” Seeing her in such a sorry state, even if it was only in his imagination, filled his heart with compassion and he decided in a noble sort of way that when he won, he would be kind and gentle with her, content to just watch her squirm before him like a half stepped on worm.
“Good attitude Emalynn. A sentinel is always ready for the unexpected,” replied Mr. Pitts, pulling Jacob back into their reality. “For all we know he could very well be the culprit, along with anyone else.” Mr. Pitts’ eyes darted downward for a fleeting second as he continued on in a quieter voice. “I hate to disappoint you further, but we missed the group orientation yesterday and the magistrate insisted that we go through his dull dissertation today. He refused to present it again, since he embarrassed himself yesterday by openly falling asleep during his own presentation. Now he’s forcing me to read his six-hour discourse and we’re stuck here all day long bored out of our gourd, while everyone else is out having good clean fun in the sun with their sentinel training. Frankly speaking, I’m miffed! I’m not much for lectures and I’ve always leaned one-hundred percent toward fun filled field training.” Abruptly Mr. Pitts stepped around the table moving closer to the apprentices. He looked toward the door, as if worried about their privacy, and then gave them a quick wink while whispering, “But if you play along with me this morning and follow my lead, I think I can get us out of this lesson so we don’t have to waste the whole day.”
Jacob and Emalynn both smiled, quickly nodding in agreement.
“Righteoo then, oooh I almost forgot,” said Mr. Pitts, reaching into his pocket. “Here are your meal cards, good for eating at the various dining establishment listed on the back of the card. It also unfolds to a handy dandy map of Sentinel Village. Since I often get lost when I’m hungry, I never leave home without it. All the eateries listed are a connoisseur’s delight, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy them as much as I do. My favorite place to dine is of course the Frosty Mug Tavern; their stuffed fish surprise is so good that it never fails to curl my toenails back every time I take a bite. Off course it’s not painful and the bill is paid for by the sentinels’ general accounting office; so as far as we’re concerned the food here is free. Just stuff yourselves silly every time like I do and don’t worry about the cost. Also there’s spending money that I’ll have Mum give you for your monthly allowance, all wonderfully paid for by the sentinels. Any questions so far?”
Emalynn pointed at her lower lip.
“Yes Emalynn, have you got another exceptional question?”
“Uhmmnn, Mr. Pitts did you know that you have a glob of food right there on your lip, and that your upper lip is purple.”
“Oh by-golly thank you,” he said, turning slightly red. He pulled a hanky out from his back pocket and licked his upper lip, quickly wiping his mouth.
“But I really do have a question,” said Emalynn, raising her hand again. “I heard my parents talk about the apprentice ball, do they still have it?”
“Do we still have it? Well of course we do,” answered Mr. Pitts, as he placed his hanky on the table and neatly folded it. After inserting it back into his pocket he continued, “Righteoo, the apprentice ball, one of my favorite events. We would never call off such a wonderful extravaganza and not give the apprentices a chance to meet and mingle with each other. That event will be coming up soon, and for your information Jacob, it is a very formal event, no farm jeans allowed. Your Uncle will be getting you a nice suit, which I’ll be picking up. And Emalynn, there was a message from your parents waiting for me when we returned yesterday, they’ve already purchased your dress and have also asked me to drop by and pick it up. I’ll take care of all these arrangements, so don’t you worry about it.”
Jacob yawned not showing any interest while Emalynn leaned forward, tilting her desk. “Awesome, a new dress and a ball!” she exclaimed. “What color is my dress? Did they say anything about it?”
“I’m sorry they didn’t say, but I’ll be picking it up soon, I promise,” replied Mr. Pitts. He took a deep long breath and turned walking toward the corner of the room where he bent over and lifted from the ground a black bulky notebook. With a grunt he stood up slightly crooked and walked to the table where, “WHAM!” he slammed it down in the center.
“Now then, to make this unpleasantry as painless as possible, I will act like I’m reading from this pile of nonsense in case the magistrate pops in, but in reality I will be giving you my very own condensed version to soften the doldrums. Are you ready to be bored?”
They nodded as Mr. Pitts opened the book.
“Righteoo, shall we start then,” he said, patting the paper bag with his hand. “I brought us a little snack just in case we get hungry along the way; some mouth watering dwarf puhn cheese with delicious walnut crackers.” Mr. Pitts then leaned across the table, resting his hands on its surface, and wide eyed he stared straight at Jacob and Emalynn. “Fifty percent of all matter and energy is dark and the other fifty percent of all matter and energy is light. We of course are light matter beings and exist in, around, and through light. Now I’m sure that you’re inquisitive minds are probably asking yourselves right now, ‘What in world is light energy?’ Well I’ll tell you what it is so you won’t have any unsatisfied curiosity building up to emotionally scar yourselves, because that would ruin your wonderful receptivity. And an ill receptive mind-set is not healthy for young apprentices, so here’s your answer; energy is made up of tiny charged particles that are mutually drawn to each other. And as you probably don’t know, energy can take on thousands of unique forms, with each form defined by their own dissimilar wavelength. Oh yes, I know exactly what your thinking now, your thinking that that’s impossible, that he’s just making this up to fool us, but that’s only because your eyes can only see a teeny-tiny sliver of the whole light spectrum. Just like we can’t hear high pitch sounds that drive a dog wild, we also can’t see most light, because it’s way beyond our own eye’s ability to discern it. Yes indeedeedoo now were cooking! The real kicker here is that in each dimension the visible light that is discernable always matches the wave length that is equivalent to that dimension’s nature, and it will not be visible to those outside that nature in other dimensions because they don’t match. Now as you probably have already guessed from my brilliant oration, similar to light, matter is also refined in varying spectrums and each dimension has its own tangible matter that matches that dimensions nature. So what makes up the five dimensions, light energy with light matter and dark energy with dark matter, grouped together among its own.”
Mr. Pitts abruptly stopped and stared at the bag of food, hungrily licking his lips. “I don’t know about you, but all this leaning has just given me a ferocious appetite.” Eagerly he reached over and opened the paper bag, pulling out a smashed box of crackers and a festering flat moldy cheese rind, along with an old tarnished kitchen butter knife.
“Mr. Pitts?” asked Jacob, as he stared at the horrid condition of the moldy cheese rind. “Are you sure that cheese hasn’t gone bad? You’ll get sick for sure if you eat that!”
“Nonsense Jacob,” responded Mr. Pitts, licking his lips. “There isn’t any such thing as bad cheese.”
He smacked his lips together twice, picked up the knife, and began cutting the cheese taking quick and even strokes. A white fluid oozed out of each slice of the rind, and instantly a horrific stench hit Jacob’s nose, almost falling him off his chair. The stench penetrated every nook of the room, leaving them no possible means of escape. He had never experienced anything so incredibly pungent before, it was one of the worst smells he had ever encountered. “Euuugh! This smells bad enough to gag a dog on a gut wagon,” he complained, covering his nose in a desperate attempt to mask the odor of the toxic fumes.
“Would you like to try some,” asked Mr. Pitts politely, seeming eager to share his precious delicacy.
Both apprentices instantly shook their heads.
“No way!” exclaimed Jacob.
“Definitely, no thank you,” added Emalynn straight away.
Mr. Pitts pitifully nodded back, showing a dejected expression. Cheerlessly he sniffed the foul air as he hastily spread a glob of cheese across a cracker. The white substance oozed over the cracker’s sides dripping onto the table. Then acting similar to a gourmet connoisseur enjoying a rare delicacy, he placed his treat into his moist mouth and leisurely began chewing his tangy delight. Mmnnnnn, Mmnnnnn!” he moaned with his eyes closed.
Staring in disbelief, Jacob could feel his stomach turn. “How in the world can he stick something so slimy and foul smelling into his mouth and act like its delicious?” he puzzled.
Gradually Mr. Pitts opened his eyes and happily patted his stomach. “Ahhhh! That really hit the spot! Righteoo, I’m ready to move on now,” he said, pushing the cheese to the side as he glanced down at the book’s open page. “Dark matter is exactly the opposite of light matter, it coexists together with light matter and they are perfectly in balance constantly countering each other. But if the balance between dark matter and light matter is ever undone, then whoa boy you’d better get out of the way because the heavier dark matter will consume the remaining light energy like a sponge sucking up a spill, destroying every living thing in its path. And as you both know this has happened in the Enchanted Realm, and it is the very reason why we also now call it the Dark Realm.”
With cheerless eyes inferring disappointed for his solitary indulgence, he picked up the stinky cheese rind, leaned over the table, and held the rind out directly in front of their noses.
“Are you really sure you won’t try some of this? It’s awfully delicious,” he invited.
Instantly Jacob turned his head away, but not before catching a good whiff of the cheese. As he gagged he caught out of the corner of his eye Emalynn bent over clutching her mouth with both hands. He took a deep breath, held it to lock out the smell, and turned to see if she was alright. Her facial color had changed to purple, and she was gasping for breath between short dry heaves. “For sure she’s gonna lose her breakfast,” he thought, but to his surprise she bore through the ordeal without a puke, ending her sickly gasps teary eyed with hands over her mouth and nose. Together they shook their heads, refusing Mr. Pitts’ offer.
Mr. Pitts licked his lips, retracted the cheese from his apprentices’ faces, and scooped up another glob with his finger, eagerly wiping it onto his tongue. He swallowed his precious treat with a content smile, and continued, “Well suit yourselves, but you don’t know what you’re missing. If you happen to change your minds feel free to help yourselves at anytime. So the question now is how does dark matter spread? The answer of course is by the wicked dark king Lacsar! It is our job as Sentinels to stop the spread of any dark matter. It’s an ongoing and continual fight that we Sentinels must endure. However, one young Sentinel did turn to the darkness succumbing to all its evil influences. That traitor is now known as Lord Tardab, a powerful adversary who now dwells in the Dark Realm. And I’m sure you’ll be hearing plenty of ridiculous under breath about him, as everybody in the village is now blaming him for the missing Book of Galeeky. The rumor mill has it that Buckburne Scurvey joined in with Lord Tardab to pull off the heist, but don’t you believe it for an instance! Buckburne is true blue and loyal all the way through to us sentinels. He could never do such a dirty thing! From our sources we know that Lord Tardab is one of the dark king’s tyrants. It was the dark king along with his tyrants that overthrew your dimension and brought in the dreadful dark matter. It is the dark king that seeks to expand dark matter to all dimensions, and it is him and his followers that we must now fight.”
Mr. Pitts slammed his fist onto the table emphasizing his point just as Dr. Verdimyer entered into the room. “Oh! Be careful Mr. Pitts, don’t smash it!” he cried, hurriedly strutting toward the table to stop at its edge and stare down at the moldy cheese rind. “That’s dwarf puhn cheese I smell—isn’t it!” he exclaimed excitedly, rubbing his hands together and delicately bending over to sniff the cheese with flaring nostrils. “Mmnnn the delicious aroma of unimaginable robust flavors,” he cried. “The taste that one never forgets!”
Unable to forget the last time they had met, Jacob angrily glared at him.
“Why yes it is,” responded Mr. Pitts, proudly flittering his head. “And I would never smash anything this tasty. Would you like to try some?”
“Would I? Dwarf puhn cheese is my favorite!” eagerly replied Dr. Verdimyer, scooping up a big glob of the cheesy slime onto a cracker and disgustingly scoffing it down.
Mr. Pitts followed suit, and soon both men were groaning in ecstasy, “MMMnnnnnnnnn!”
“This is the finest batch of puhn cheese I’ve ever tasted!” cried Dr. Verdimyer, as he grabbed another cracker and plunged it into the slimy cheese for a second helping.
By now Emalynn’s face had turned green, and Jacob was beginning to feel awfully queasy. He cupped both hands pressing them hard against his mouth, and frantically scanned the room for a clear spot to throw up on.
“Where did you get this excellent cheese?” questioned Dr. Verdimyer, loudly smacking his lips.
“This comes from a special Frosty Mug Tavern batch, expertly aged with a hint of dragon nasal mucus to give it that extra kick.”
“Well definitely I’ll have to get some then,” replied Dr. Verdimyer, as he scooped up another glob onto a cracker and turned to leave with his precious treat in hand.
“By the way,” said Mr. Pitts, “we’ll be finishing up here in a few moments and then we’ll be heading to Galgithia Falls. If you want I can leave the left overs here in case you care to indulge in some of this tasty snack later.”
Upon hearing Mr. Pitts’ offer, Jacob felt a sudden ray of hope shine through his overcast billows of torment. “The lecture will soon be over,” he anxiously thought, “maybe I can make it to fresh air before throwing up!” Each breath for him was now a painful endeavor, as he struggled to hold back his approaching vomit.
“Oh yes! Definitely I’ll enjoy that very, very much,” replied Dr. Verdimyer, happily departing out the door with a huge grin on his face.
Mr. Pitts waited giving the Magistrate enough time to leave, and then with a chuckle he placed his hand to the side of his mouth and whispered, “My clever cheese ploy worked. Dr. Verdimyer without thinking has just approved our early finish. The greedy man wants to get at this scrumptious cheese and is now anxiously waiting for us to leave.” Grinning from ear to ear, Mr. Pitts closed the book and said, “Frankly speaking the first time I heard this discourse I couldn’t keep awake and I was quite worried that you two would also struggle. Yes indeedee I’m impressed that you’re both still wide eyed and conscious.”
“I couldn’t sleep even if I wanted to,” moaned Emalynn through her cupped hands.
“Well I have to agree with you there,” said Mr. Pitts, taking another long whiff of the disgusting odor. “How could anyone sleep with this delightful smell? Well we’re officially finished here, I may have left most of it out but it wasn’t important anyway, and we brilliantly finished the required orientation in less than five minutes. Yesterday it took them all day to cover this same material. So let’s skedaddle. I thought we could spend the day at Galgithia Falls as it has quite the sentinel history behind it, and…”
Before Mr. Pitts could finish his sentence Jacob and Emalynn were already outside the classroom door gasping. But as the stench had ominously penetrated into the corridor, they were forced to continue their mad dash down the hall in pursuit of fresh air. With desperate faces they ran past Dr. Verdimyer, who was still lingering in the hallway.
“ANY MORE CHEESE LEFT?” he shouted as they ran by.
……
Several minutes had passed before Mr. Pitts exited the castle to join with his apprentices, who were patiently waiting sitting on the castle steps.
“I see you’re both anxious to start our field trip,” he said merrily. “But first we’ll be stopping by the Frosty Mug Tavern to pick up picnic lunches that I had special ordered for us.”
“What’s at Galgitihia Falls?” asked Emalynn.
“Ah yes Galgithia Falls, that’s a place you’ll certainly find extremely interesting. Over ten years ago the sentinels trained and lived in small cottages near the falls. And after we received a grant to use the castle we moved the training up here. Galgithia Falls is rich in sentinel history.”
“I can see why the sentinels moved here from unprotected cottages,” said Emalynn, nodding her head. “With the gobzards and the castle as their base it must have secured up the sentinel operations.”
“Good thought Emalynn, but that isn’t the reason. The sentinels moved here for the cheap rent and rumored treasure. You see legend has it that there is a treasure along with spell books and a storehouse of enchanted gizmos hidden somewhere inside the Castle. And we Sentinels hope to find it someday and exploit its secrets.”
“A storehouse full of enchantment and treasure!” squealed Emalynn. “Oh Mr. Pitts, can we search the castle for the lost storehouse?”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible,” replied Mr. Pitts. “Searching the castle has been prohibited by Dr. Verdimyer.”
“That figures! It’s prohibited because he wants it all to himself!” exclaimed Emalynn, with a frown.
“Dr. Verdimyer is relatively new to the sentinels,” explained Mr. Pitts. “He holds a doctorate in archeology specializing in ancient castles, which is the main reason why we hired him in as our magistrate to shed some light on rumors about hidden treasure. In addition he has administrative skills as well that we had hoped to use running our organization. Unfortunately over our objections he has sealed off a good portion of the castle from us and fired all the paid help to bring in the kolbalds and the gobzards to, as he says, ‘Preserve the integrity of this historical site.’ But you two beware of the gobzards, and stay clear of them. They are unpredictable and dangerous and have a reputation for being murderous thieving mercenaries. The villagers, along with many of us sentinels, are completely terrified of them. The townsfolk now totally avoid the castle, so I suppose the magistrate’s plan is working as he has sealed up the castle tighter than a drum. Well, righteoo! Let’s head on out.”
Side by side they started towards the Frosty Mug Tavern, when suddenly Jacob caught an unpleasant whiff of Mr. Pitt’s breath. Without hesitation he dashed ahead to distance himself from the putrid odor. Within moments Emalynn was fanning her nose and running forward to join Jacob. “Whew, his breath is the worst,” she whispered, as she caught up with him.
“Boy am I glad we got out early, that dodgy trick of his almost made me barf,” complained Jacob.
“Me too,” agreed Emalynn, holding up a piece of her Cranium Changer candy. “But just you wait and see, I’ll get even with him for that!