Arrows and Riddles

Noople glanced up at Doughnut, who was doing loops in the rain. “What do you suppose the Naga is going to do with the moon rock?”

“Make it into a portal? That goes to Zinkadur?” Asked Doughnut.

“If you use a moon rock to make the portal, then that portal should go to the moon, correct? Not to Zinkadur?” Noople said.

Doughnut made a little loop in the air. “I guess so.” She floated in place. “But that’s the way the wizard does it… but maybe the Naga does it different. I don't know.”

“All I’ve ever known the Naga to do is construct dungeons.” Noople said.

“So then she’ll probably make a dungeon, I guess. But how does that get us to Sun-hop?” Doughnut turned and floated backwards.

Noople took a slow, deep breath. “Perhaps Sun-hop is at the end of the dungeon?”

They walked and floated actually, through the rain, smiling at the sound of the rain. Doughnut pointed to a squirrel hiding under a leaf.

“That reminds me! Who is taking care of Tomato?” Noople yelled.

“Why does a squirrel hiding under a leaf remind you of your dog?” Doughnut asked, but Noople was already running away. “I think she was last at Zoughnut’s house.”

They ran and flew as fast as they could. When they reached the house, the door was wide open. “Oh no!” Noople said. “Look! The flowers!”

There, on the ground, where Marigold and baby Marigold would normally be, were two freshly dug holes. They dashed inside. Noople closed the door behind them. The house was silent.

“Search around and see if she is hiding somewhere.” Noople said.

Doughnut began flying through all the rooms. “I don't see anyone in the bathroom.”

Noople sat down at the table. “Maybe Stylus has kidnapped Tomato and Marigold and baby Marigold.”

“No one in the kitchen.” Shouted Doughnut.

“Perhaps he already discovered that we gave him a fake moon rock.” Noople said.

“No one sleeping in the beds.” Shouted Doughnut.

“What do we do now? Do we turn around and try and find Stylus or do we keep going on and talk to the Naga?” Noople asked herself.

Doughnut came flying over. “There's nobody here. I checked all over.”

Noople put her head down on the table and began to cry. “Why? How is Stylus always one step ahead of us?”

There was a scratching at the front door. Noople and Doughnut froze. The only sound was the pattering of Noople’s tears on the table. Then, the scratch came again.

“Open up!” A voice called from behind the door.

“Who is that?” Noople asked, hiding behind the table.

“It’s Marigold, baby Marigold, and Tomato!” The voice said.

“That's got to be a trick.” Doughnut said. “Remember? They are flowers. Someone dug them up.”

There was another scratch at the door. “Come on. Open up. Tomato is hungry. Is that you, Noople? Sounds like you.”

“It’s impossible. That can’t be them. How could flowers be anywhere but the ground?” Noople asked while shrinking further behind the table. “What should we do?”

Doughnut quietly flew towards the bathroom and motioned for Noople to follow. They moved so quietly they could hear the light sprinkle of the rain coming down on the roof.

“Open up, guys! She's hungry.”

Noople slowly turned the doorknob. When she pulled open the door, the squawking honk of a bicycle horn erupted into the air. Noople and Doughnut both screamed. Noople fell to the floor and banged her knee. When she looked up she saw a bicycle horn attached to a string, which was in turn attached to the hinges of the door.

There was some giggling from behind the front door. “Looks like you found our booby trap! Are you guys okay? That is Noople and Doughnut in there, right?”

Noople rubbed her knee. There was definitely going to be a bruise. “How do they know who we are? That has to be Stylus out there, using his new magic powers to copy Marigold’s voice.”

Doughnut’s eyes widened. “We can't fight Stylus alone! And from the volume of the giggles, it sounds like he's got a couple of lizardmen with him. Quick, get inside.” She ducked into the bathroom.

There was a scratching at the door.

Noople went into the bathroom. Doughnut pointed to the window. “Out the window.”

Doughnut nodded and reached to open the window. She stopped. “I'm gonna look for another trap.” Sure enough, there was another string, this time tied up to a snare drum. She carefully untied the drum and then opened the window.

“Nice job.” Doughnut said.

Noople climbed out the window and the two of them ran into the woods.

“Maybe we should go see how many lizardmen are with Stylus?” Doughnut asked.

“Solid idea. Let's go see what is going on.” Noople replied.

They circled around quietly, hiding amongst the trees. When they could see the front of the house, the saw Tomato sitting on the porch, wearing a backpack. Inside the backpack were Marigold and baby Marigold.

“I forgot that we build that backpack.” Noople said, hitting her forehead with an open palm. “It makes it so you can take the flowers for a walk.”

Doughnut smiled. “Hey, let's sneak up on them and scare them.”

Noople grinned. The two friends crept up slowly behind the dog and the two flowers. When they were within inches of Tomato’s tail, they shouted. “Boo!”

Tomato jumped up into the air and barked loudly. The two flowers screamed in fear. As soon as they saw Noople and Doughnut they started laughing.

“Good one!” Said Marigold. “You really got us. Wow. How did you sneak up on us like that? And who the heck is inside the house?”

“We snuck out the bathroom window.” Noople said. “Nobody is in the house anymore. At least not anybody we know about. Did you hear anything?”

Marigold looked around. “Besides the bicycle horn? No.”

They all laughed.

Noople looked at baby Marigold. “And how are you doing, baby Marigold?”

“Good. My name is Marigold Two now. You can call me two.”

Noople laughed. “Wow. So many words! Way more than I remember you having.” She paused. “Okay, Two? Two. I like it. Do you need assistancegetting back in the dirt?”

Two shook her flower head. “No, watch this.”

As they watched, Tomato laid down on her belly, rolled over slightly and unstrapped the backpack by rocking back and forth. Then, the dog slid out from under the backpack and nudged the flowers back into the dirt. Slowly and carefully, Tomato pawed the dirt back into the ground and packed the flowers back into place. Finally, she used her teeth to pull the hose over, turned the spigot on with her nose, and gave the Marigolds some water.

Doughnut cheered. “Wow! That is some amazing work, Tomato!”

Marigold smiled. “Remember, she is hungry.”

“Right!” Noople tried opening the front door but it was locked. “I forgot, we exited through the window, didn't we?”

Doughnut looked around. “I don't remember locking the door though… just closing it.”

“Maybe I locked it. No big deal.” Noople said, walking around the house to the bathroom window. Doughnut and Tomato waited outside the front door.

She climbed inside, walked up to the front door, unlocked it, and let in Tomato and Doughnut. Tomato immediately ran to the kitchen. Noople opened her a can of tomato sauce and dumped it into a bowl.

“Well I guess…” Noople started to say but a crashing noise from the bathroom interrupted her.

“What the heck was that?” Noople asked.

Tomato barked, her muzzle covered in sauce.

Doughnut flew over to the bathroom. “Looks like the soap dish fell off the back of the toilet and onto the floor. Maybe you bumped it when you came through the window and it just took a while to fall.”

“Or maybe someone just snuck out the window.” Noople said.

“What? Who?” Doughnut asked.

“What if Stylus really is here? I know he didn't kidnap Tomato and Marigold and Two but maybe he’s spying on us, isn’t that possible? Didn't Marigold ask us who was inside the house?” Noople asked.

“Yeah but only because we were actually in the house.” Doughnut said.

Noople went outside. “Hey Marigold, after we snuck out of the house, did you hear anything inside of the house?”

“That's a tough question because I don't know when you snuck out, right? I mean you snuck out and scared us, remember? I definitely heard noises in the house and voices and I thought they were you two. I don't remember hearing any other voices.” Marigold said. “Why, is someone in there now?”

Noople sighed. “I’m not sure but I suspect someone is spying on us.”

Doughnut shrugged. “Alright. Well we should get moving to the Naga’s place. We gotta go find Sun-hop. Are you guys doing okay?”

Marigold smiled. “Of course.” She looked at two. “We take care of each other. And Tomato too. She helps.”

“Alright. Keep an eye out.” Doughnut said.

Noople and Doughnut hustled off into the forest, following the well travelled path to the Naga’s castle. After several hours, they arrived hungry.

Noople knocked politely on the giant wooden door. “Hello?”

The giant wooden door creaked open and the Naga’s beautiful black haired head appeared on top of her long, green snake body. “Ah. Yesss. Noople and Doughnut. But where isss your friend Poople?”

“She’s staying behind with the rest of the group.” Noople explained. “We’re here to get Sun-hop.”

“Sssun-hop. Yesss.” The Naga looked around. “He isss not here. He isss not in my cassstle. Perhapsss you mean sssomething elssse?”

“No. We’re here for our friend Sun-hop.” Doughnut showed the Naga the moon rock. “We have this.”

“Rocksss? Why doesss that matter? I have rocksss too but that bringsss me no closer to Sssun-hop.” The Naga frowned.

“This rock is special. It was taken from a dragon’s treasure horde.” Noople explained.

“Ssso? It isss ssstill just a rock.” The Naga flicked her forked tongue into the air. It was twice as long as a human tongue, and half as wide. “Maybe I go back to sssleep now, yesss? You go back and play with your friendsss?”

“This is a moon rock!” Doughnut yelled.

The Naga’s eyes widened, narrowed, and then widened again. Maybe they even changed color from green to blue. “Moon rocksss? Why you not sssay ssso before? Come inside, quickly. Peoplesss may be watching.” She swung the wooden door wide.

Doughnut flew upwards in a spiral and then through the door. Noople bowed slightly. As she did so, she felt something knock into her legs and brush by her. “What was that?”

The Naga frowned. “What? I sssaw nothing! Quickly. Inssside!”

Noople zipped inside and the Naga slammed the door behind them.

The entrance room was dazzling with lights and color. The hundreds of differently colored lanterns reflected rainbows off the perfectly smooth concrete walls and ceilings. The countless potted plants were lush, unidentifiable, and so plentiful as to make the place seem like a jungle had sprouted up inside the castle. Noople swore she even saw a furry woodland creature hiding behind one of the plants but when she looked again, she just saw leaves swaying back and forth gently.

“Pleassse ssset the rock on the floor.” The Naga said.

Doughnut dropped the rock on the ground. The Naga wrapped her snake body around it and squeezed. The rock exploded into powder.

“Hey! What the heck, Naga!” Doughnut yelled and balled her hands into fists.

Noople grabbed her ghostly friend. “Calm down. She knows what she’s doing.”

Doughnut strained to escape but Noople held her tight. “Yeah, well I know she just crushed the treasure that took us forever to find! Do you realize we almost died getting that thing?”

The Naga was drawing something with the moon powder. Circles. Letters in some strange language. She said something that made no sense but sounded like a giant burp in reverse. A glowing door appeared.

“Quickly! The portal will clossse in ten sssecondsss.” The Naga said.

“Where does it go?” Noople asked.

The Naga shoved her through. “Zinkadur!”

Something furry zipped out from behind a plant and ran through the portal.

“What the heck?” Doughnut screeched. “Who or what was that?”

“No time!” The Naga shoved Doughnut through the glowing door.

Doughnut and Noople found themselves standing on a cold, stone surface. Behind them was a dense forest, full of bird noises. In front of them was a cave entrance, full of monkey noises.

Doughnut swiveled her head left and right.

“Did you see some sort of furry creature run through the door?” Doughnut asked.

Noople shrugged. “No. Did you?”

“I think so. It moved so dang fast I couldn’t tell what it was and then the Naga shoved me through the door.” Doughnut dusted herself off. “Rude.”

A group of monkeys crept out of the cave. One with grey fur lifted his chin and grunted at them. “What you want?”

Noople bowed. “We are looking for our fine friend, Sun-hop.”

The grey monkey plunked himself down into a squat a little too close to Noople. “Sun-hop. What do you want with him?”

Noople scooted slightly away from the seated monkey. “We want him to help us fight a villain named Stylus.”

“Never heard of Stylus.” The monkey picked a bug out of his own fur and ate it. “Is Stylus a god?”

“I don’t believe so.” Noople said.

The grey haired monkey stood up. “Well then, it should be no problem. I mean, supposing he wants to help you.” He pointed up at the sky. “Sun-hop is up there.”

Doughnut looked up at the sky but didn’t see anything. “Where?”

The monkey and all his friends were yawning and retreating back into the cave. “In the cloud kingdom.”

Noople looked up at the clouds. Doughnut grabbed her underneath the arms and hoisted her into the air. They started to fly upwards. Noople started to whimper.

“It’s okay. I’ve got you.” Doughnut said confidently.

Soon they flew up between two huge clouds and saw that there was an apple orchard growing on top of one. Doughnut landed them next to one of the hundreds of trees.

Noople leaned against the trunk and took several long, deep breaths. “Well now I guess we look for Sun-hop.”

“Look no further!” The booming voice of their friend emerged from a nearby row of trees. “For I am here, pruning trees for the Empress!”

Noople and Doughnut screamed.

Sun-hop, his stone fur whipping in the wind, laughed. “Is that fear? Who dares to be afraid in my presence?”

Noople managed to calm down before Doughnut did. “You are employed by the Empress?”

Sun-hop snorted, pulled his magic staff out from his belt and began twirling it around in a circle. “It’s temporary. I really just want one of these apples. Or two.”

Doughnut finally stopped screaming. “What? The Empress is here?”

The stone monkey shrank his magic staff to the size of his thumb and put it back in his belt. “Not the one you are thinking of. At least I don’t think so.” He looked around the orchard and sighed. “Every land has its own host of royal pests.”

“So this Empress, this other Empress, won't give you an apple?” Noople asked.

“Right.” Said Sun-hop. “And me and my monkeys, we deserve a couple of apples. I mean, the gods get all the apples they want, right? Why can't a whole tribe of monkeys share two mesely apples? Sheesh.”

“Can we call this Empress something else? Because I am getting super confused with the other Empress, I mean the one we are friends with, not this cloud Empress.” Doughnut said.

Sun-hop shrugged. “Sure. We could call her the cloud Empress.”

“But what is her real name?” Doughnut asked.

Sun-hop flicked his tail side to side and scratched his head. “I don't know. Royal fancy types like kings and queens and emperors and duchesses don't let you know their real names. Then it'd be like regular folks are friends with the fancy folks and the fancy folks don't want you to think that's possible.”

Doughnut nodded. “So how are we gonna get an apple?”

“You mean how are we gonna get two apples?” Sun-hop smiled. “Well, we gotta convince a god to pick them for us. Or we gotta steal them once a god does pick them. Once their off the tree, the guards can't tell who is trying to take them anymore, I think.”

“You're not absolutely sure?” Noople asked. “It's difficult to plan if you're not positive about the nature of the obstacles you've got to overcome.”

Sun-hop pulled out a party invitation from his belt. “Yeah, well let’s go to this party and between us three geniuses, we’ll trick some god into picking us a couple of apples.”

“A celebration. Excellent.” Noople grinned. “How many gods are there in total?”

Sun-hop started to count on his fingers. “A lot. Hundreds. I don't know. They'll all be at this party, though. No god misses a party. At least not the cloud Empress’ party. Why do you need to know how many gods there are? You cooking up a tricky plan? You look like you're scheming, Noople. Don't keep any secrets from us. What's your plan?”

“Alright. Here is the plan: we dress us as gods and go to the party. Then, we challenge some other gods to a competition - an archery contest on which the winner gets two apples and the loser has to pick the apples for the winner. I'll go as the goddess of archery and Sun-hop you can go as the god of thieves.”

Sun-hop frowned. “Great idea, except there is already a goddess of archery and a god of thieves. And also, why would you make me the god of thieves? Do I look like a thief? Are you implying monkeys are thieves?”

“Monkeys? Thieves? Of course not. Let’s change the plan, I'll be the goddess of arrows and you be the god of riddles.” Noople offered.

Sun-hop smiled. “Oh! Riddles! I like that. I don't think I've ever met a god of riddles or arrows so that sounds brilliant.”

Doughnut raised her hand up high.

“Yes, Doughnut? Do you have a question?” Noople asked.

“Which goddess am I?”