THE DIAMOND AND THE PEARL

A novella by Nicole Peats, Jackson

3.

Lolly

"Good-bye!" said April.

"Good-bye!" said Martha.

"Bye," grumbled Mitch.

"Bye, father," said Carl, as he hugged his father and mounted Morjen, his white mare.

"Good-bye!" said the king (with a wave of his hand). "I wish I could go with you."

"Don't worry, father," Carl said. "We'll be back before you even know we're gone. And we'll have Neleger with us."

And with that they turned their horses and started off.

"Well," said Mitch (as they started out) I hope Carl knows where Joler--en lives."

Without looking at Mitch, Carl replied, "On the island of Melou."

"And where in the world is that?" Mitch said.

Still without looking at him, Carl replied, "If we keep heading north we should get there in about three or four days."

After that the party was rather quiet for a while. The day before had been bright and beautiful, but today storm clouds crept into the sky, and a heavy fog seemed to fall down upon the valley and push the little party back.

Then in the midst of the silence a sound reached Martha's ears, and she reined up quickly.

"What was that?" she said, her voice quivering a little. "I heard something. Wait, there it is again."

Carl's head jerked up like a doe on guard as they heard the sound again.

GRRRR!

"Awk, Awk!"

GRRRR!

Carl quickly spurred Morjen into a run, and the others did likewise.

After about 30 seconds, they came upon a clearing. In the middle of the clearing, a dragon passed back and forth in front of a parrot who was bound.

Carl leapt from his saddle and ran to the rescue.

"Untie, Lolly!" he yelled.

April, who guessed that Lolly was the parrot, ran and freed him; then, she ran back with the others to watch.

"Oh, I do hope he doesn't get hurt," Martha said.

"Or killed," added April.

"He won't! He won't! He won't!" Lolly squawked. "Charlie never dies! Charlie never dies! Charlie win! Win! Win!"

"His name's Carl, not Charlie," April corrected the parrot. But Lolly didn't listen; instead, he kept squawking and saying, "Go, Charlie! Go, Charlie! Go, Charlie!" and jumping up and down, as if he was a cheerleader in a football game.

"Would someone please stop that bird from making that awful racket!" Mitch said.

IV

Just then something caught Mitch's eye. On the far left hand side of the cave there was a big pile of weeds.

"Come on," he whispered to the others. "I have a plan."

"What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do?" squawked Lolly.

"Well," Mitch said, "first, you can be quiet."

"I don't want to be quiet!" Lolly complained.

"You will be quiet," Mitch said, "or I'll send you away. Now, be quiet, and when I wave to you I want you to distract the dragon, and try to make it go into the cave."

"I'm not going to do that!" Lolly said, eyes growing big.

"Then, I'll find someone who will," Mitch stated.

"No! No! NO! I will! I will! I will!" Lolly agreed, looking very upset.

"Okay," Mitch said, "now be very quiet.,,

"Okay! Okay! Okay!" Lolly squawked.

"Shhhhhh!" Mitch scolded, and Lolly didn't say another word.

While Mitch and Lolly were arguing, Carl had been fighting the dragon with all of his might. Through the whole battle, the dragon had been pushing Carl farther and farther toward the cave. At this point Carl swung his sword, and the dragon's mighty claws came down breaking the blade in half. Carl was weaponless, and in a few more yards he would be corned inside the cave.

"We have to do something quick," April said.

"Come on," said Mitch.

Then quickly Mitch, Martha, and April, made their way to the weeds. Mitch went over to test the weeds to make sure that they didn't break easily.

"We're in luck," he said, when he saw that the weeds were as tough as rope. "Okay, we need to find some big rocks."

Back in the trees, Lolly flapped his wings excitedly, as he watched the children anchor the weeds to the top of the cave. Then he saw Mitch wave to him.

"Here I come! Here I come! Here I come!" he squawked.

Screeching and squawking Lolly flew around and around the dragon's head, luring it into the cave.

"What are you doing, Lolly?" yelled Carl.

But Lolly kept screeching and squawking, until the dragon was in the cave. Then he stopped, dead still in mid-air. Mitch let down the net of weeds, and Martha and April put huge rocks on the ends and around the bottom.

"We did it! We did it!" yelled April. "We caught the Dragon."

Mitch and Martha exchanged looks and burst into laughter.

Carl was standing, his arms lying limp at his sides, and with such a look of astonishment that you could hardly blame them for laughing. Then he seemed to suddenly come to life like a wind-up toy.

"Quick! we have to get out of here, before the Dragon gets out of there," Carl said.

Quickly Martha, April, and Carl mounted with Lolly perched on Carl's shoulder. Mitch got off the top of the cave, grabbed an arm full of weeds, and ran to mount where the others were awaiting him.

They road on until the sound of the Dragon's anger died away.

April turned to Mitch. "Why did you bring that stuff?" she said, pointing to the weeds.

"I don't know," he replied. "Who knows, we might need them some time.

They stopped that evening at about a quarter after six to eat

It was almost too dark to see, and you could smell the rain coming

"We better light a fire to see by," said Carl.

So Mitch, Martha, April, and Carl went to find wood while Lolly kept watch.

After dinner they made their way to a bridge nearby and bedded down for the night.

April leaned against a tree, and looked up at the stars in the sky. Quietly she whispered to one of the little stars. "Little star I don't want to bother you, but I ... I would like it very much if you could help us find Neleger and get us home safely. Good night little star."

"Good night. Good night." she heard Lolly squawk softly in her ear.

"Good night, Lolly," she whispered.

Then she curled up, and closed her eyes just as the first rain drops began to fall. Over her head the wind whispered mournfully through the trees. She could feel the warmth of Lolly on her shoulder and smell the cool, crisp spring air. And, before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.

4.

A Light in the Dark

April was startled awake at two o'clock in the morning, by Lolly squawking in her ear. "Get up! Get up! Get up!"

"What," she mumbled sleepily.

"Light! Light! Light!" squawked Lolly.

She sat up and looked around. It was pitch dark, and the clouds hung low in sky, though the ran had subsided.

"Go back to sleep Lolly," she whispered, "the sun--" she stopped short. In the trees she thought she saw a light move.

Quietly she rose to her feet and followed the light. All of a sudden the light stopped. April and Lolly stopped too. April's heart was beating so loud that she felt it would jump out of her chest. The light started to move again, and so did April and Lolly.

Branches tore at her hair and scratched her face. She had not bothered to put on shoes, so sharp stones and twigs cut her feet as she walked.

As they approached a clearing, April could see the figure that she was following. It was a tall man, clothed in black with a long black cloak. He had beady, blue eyes, and in his right hand he held a lighted torch.

In the center of the clearing in which they now stood, there was a cave. The cloaked man walked forward so that he stood right in front of the cave.

Inside the cave she could see huge chests with linens spread over them; and gold, diamonds and pearls lined the walls. There were beautiful pictures and small glass ornaments too. Ancient writings also dotted the walls.

But what the cloaked man looked at was in the very center of the cave. There, stuck in a huge, round stone that measured about 10 feet by 10 feet in diameter and three and a half feet tall, was a sword. It appeared to be an ordinary sword with a black hilt, but at the point of the hilt was a little white ball.

The cloaked man snapped his fingers once, and a little gold ball materialized in the air in front of him. He took the ball and held it in his hand; then, he spoke some words that April did not understand. There was a blinding light, and April had to close her eyes.

While her eyes were closed, she thought she heard music; then, she realized that someone or something was talking to her. It was hard to make out the words at first.

"Don't touch the rock, learn to stone, pull the sword, Gaelry."

Then she could heard no more.

She opened her eyes, and to her surprise it had all disappeared -- the cave, the man in the black cloak, and the sword. They were all utterly gone.

"Gone away! Gone away! Gone away!" Lolly squawked in her ear, making her jump.

"Oh, Lolly, I forgot about you" she said. "Do you think I could have dreamed it?"

"No dream! No dream! No dream!" Lolly squawked, and flew off her shoulder toward the thick part of the woods. She followed him toward the others.