And indeed, there on the other side of the small lake, Frank the white – or grey – horse was captured by the angry men. And he looked horrible. Big red marks were running down his side, from where the men had hit him with their whips. The once proud horse was standing there with hanging shoulders and a sad and tired look on his face. It seemed that his spirit had been broken. Shocked little Miss Shirley drew back from the waterfall. A single tear rolled down from her eye and over her cheek.
“It makes me so sad. Frank is a friend of mine, and those evil men have taken his freedom away and hurt him. But what can we do? We are but small, while they are big and strong.”
That was true. They could never win this one by sheer force. So they had to come up with a plan. Just as they had done with the trolls. No matter how hard they thought, nothing useful came up. You could almost hear their little brains cracking, but unlike the waterfall their source of ideas had dried up. Sadly they sat down, and waited. Maybe time would offer an answer. Time however kept carefully away from the young travelers, so he wasn’t any help at all. Not knowing what to do or how to help, young Nigel filled his mouth with water and blew it up his snout. The water collided with that from the waterfall. Just below the impact point a small hole emerged, because the water from the waterfall was stopped there. Forgetting the serious situation they were in, he blew again. And again. Because he liked it. After all, elephants like to play.
“Stop that, you stupid animal.” Billy cried. “We have a problem here and all you can think about is blowing water out of your stupid nose!”
Embarrassed, Nigel stopped his little game halfway. The first burst of water still created a hole in the waterfall, but the second bit was just dragged down with the rest. It lacked the force to make a difference. Little Miss Shirley looked at Nigel, then at the waterfall, then seemingly through the waterfall to where the angry men and Frank were. They could hear them singing and talking loudly and clinging booze bottles together. A sparkle ignited in the back of her eyes, and after some consideration a fire broke out in her bright young lookers.
“Nigel, how hard can you blow that water out of your snout?”
They all looked up; the question caught them by surprise.
“Uhm, I guess pretty hard. We always played this game with my friends to see if we could knock each other over. Why?”
You could see the twins were anxious to know the answer to that question too.
“I’ve got an idea. Nigel, fill up on water.”
The young elephant did what he was told.
“Now spray it as hard as you can on that wall over there.”
She pointed to a rock wall at the side of the cave. And with all his power young Nigel unloaded his water supply to the poor defenseless wall. Bob and Billy had to cover their faces, because a lot of water bounced back and soaked them from head to feet. Shirley escaped the involuntary shower because she happened to be standing behind Nigel. Indeed it was very powerful. The twins started to see what Shirley was aiming for. The discussed the details of the plan and waited for darkness to fall. By the time it had gone dark, the angry men had fallen asleep. Proof came from the heavy snoring in different tones. They sneaked through the waterfall, and through the lake, until they were very close to the shore. Nigel went under and emerged again with a mouth full of water. On Shirley’s signal, the twins ran up the shore and started hitting the trees with the sticks they had found in the cave. Nigel rushed out of the water towards the waking men. In the dark they could only see something big coming their way, so they got really scared when it started spraying them. Nigel flapping his ears wildly completed the nightmare for the evil men, and in panic they ran. In their haste they left everything behind. Just to be on the safe side, Nigel ran after them a bit. The heavy thumping of his big paws combined with the powerful beams of water did it for the men. They ran as if the devil was at their backs. They were never seen in these lands again! Shirley – who watched the scene from a distance – started laughing. And she couldn’t stop. It was so much fun to watch those grown man run away over something so silly. The twins looked at each other, and joined Shirley in a boyish giggle. Nigel had sprayed his last bits of water, and agreed with them in trumpeting loudly. They had done it!
“Frank, where are you?” The young girl suddenly very seriously said.
That brought them all back to reality. To the side of them they heard the horse’s faint response.
“I’m over here, my sweet human child. You have rescued me just in time. I almost couldn’t take it anymore. Those bad men have really hurt me.”
Soon they found the abused horse, and freed it from its leash. After they had taken care of his wounds as good as they could, stories were exchanged. It turned out that Frank was actually helped to shore by his captors. At first they treated him very nice and gave him plenty of food. But when he wanted to go away, they beat him and tied him down. Although Frank was a big and strong horse, he was no match for those five men with their ropes and whips. Luckily the rest found him in time, because Frank was about to break from all the abuse. The talks, the campfire and the fact that it was already very late at night made them decide to go to sleep. So they used the beds the men had left behind and got comfortable. Little Shirley settled against Frank’s chest, and immediately fell into a deep, deep sleep.
The next day, the sun was the first one to wake up. He sent some rays down to hit the eyes of the sleepy people. One by one they woke, and rubbed the sleep from their eyes. Luckily the men had left plenty of food behind, so with a full stomach and well rested the group left again and followed the road again. It was still very flat, but it no longer ran in a straight line. It twisted through the fields, and they couldn’t see very far ahead anymore. Halfway through the day the travelers reached a square. There were no other roads leading somewhere else, so they weren’t quite sure why it was there. But it was a nice spot to have something to eat. They sat down and unpacked their lunch. With taste they ate it, and felt better right away. After about an hour, they decided to move on. They didn’t need the whole hour to eat, but the place was just so nice they didn’t want to leave right away. They walked on. No one had anything to say to the other anymore, and the twins had actually agreed on silence. Because they couldn’t see very far ahead, they didn’t know if they were close to the castle or not. But it was the right way, because the twins had heard from many people that you just had to follow the flat road and you would get there. And Frank had overheard the men saying it too. So they went on. And on. And on. Seemingly without an end. But then, suddenly:
“What’s that? Over there, in the distance.” Shouted Frank, who was the tallest of them all.
One by one the kids climbed on Frank’s back and saw. Nigel stood up on his hind legs, which was quite an impressive sight. They all saw. In the distance the land got hillier. And on one of the larger hills you could see a castle. It must have been a castle, because you could see towers everywhere. With new energy they walked on. And soon they noticed that the road was going uphill and downhill. They had reached the hilly part of the land. Now they couldn’t be far away anymore. And that was true. The castle was becoming bigger and bigger. With this pace, they would reach it at dinner time. Wouldn’t that be great: a lovely dinner in an actual castle! The rest of the journey wasn’t very exciting anymore. They walked. Talked. Laughed. But that all stopped when the companions rounded a corner. Suddenly they were eye to eye with the castle. Only a big green grass field separated them from the castle’s big iron entrance gate. Wow, the castle looked so fantastic. It had big and small towers all over. The big towers were made out of big pure white stones, the small towers of small black bricks. The rest of the castle seemed pinkish. On top of every tower a flag moved in the wind. The flags all had a pretty crown over a horses head. But nowhere was there anyone to be seen. A bit suspicious by the lack of people – and animals – as Frank rightly pointed out – they entered the big gate. Still no one. It seemed that the castle was abandoned.
“Hello!” Bob shouted through the palace square.
“Hello! Hello. Ello. Llo. Lo. O.” The echo answered.
But since no one else answered, the castle was deserted. They checked all the rooms and all the towers, but not a single living creature was to be found. They could check every room, except for one. It was a big one, but the only entrance door was blocked by a heavy wooden beam. Together, it took Nigel and Frank still a lot of effort to slide it away from the door. But finally it fell down on the floor with a big bang.
“Bang! Bang. Ang. Ng. G.” The echo again.”
Carefully they pushed open the door. With a big squeak the doors turned and revealed what was behind them. No people. Again. But what was there was better than their best dreams. Tables filled with every kind of food you can imagine. Chicken, veal, beef, salads, drinks, vegetables, soups, desserts. If you could imagine it, it was there. And it was all placed on a big long table that ran from one end of the hall to the other. What was weird about it, was that the food was still warm. As if it had just been placed on the tables. But by whom? Bob stepped forward, picked up a chicken wing and put it in his mouth, hungry as he was from all the walking.
“No! Maybe it has been poisoned and it’s a trap!”
But his brother’s warning came too late. With great taste the wing disappeared in Bob’s stomach. Nothing happened. And in the next ten minutes nothing happened as well. Then their hunger beat their caution and they charged. They ate, and ate, and ate. It was all so very delicious. So well done, so fresh, so tasty. When they had all filled their tummies, they looked at the table. Not even a quarter of the food had been eaten. And you can imagine a full grown horse and an elephant are big eaters. They let the food digest a bit, and ended the feast meal with lovely pudding for dessert. Never in their life had they enjoyed such a great diner. Time had traveled fast. The sun had left them for a moonlit night, and the group decided to call it a night as well. In their search they had seen nice warm stables and big bouncy beds. So the animals went outside and got comfortable there. The boys each found a big bed in one of the eastern towers. Little miss Shirley had chosen the biggest bed she could find. It was made of black steel, and it had pink sheets and pillows. They were very soft. So soft she almost sank away in it. Only her feet and her nose were still visible. It must have been the bed of a princess. And she felt like a princess in it. Happily she fell asleep. She knew she was with friends, and she would find her way home tomorrow.
In the middle of the night, when she was sleeping, the door handle turned silently. It was followed by the opening of the door. A dark silhouette entered the room, and approached the bed on tiptoes. It looked at the little girl, and then went to the right side of the bed. With his white gloves Butler Butler
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