Chapter 11

“What happened? How did you make that floor thing? Was this planned?” Brandon asked, fearfully.

Blair blew out of his mouth which made his beard bellow in front of him a little. “Whoa, I was afraid my invention wouldn’t work!” he said, and paused for a bit, “And, what was planned?”

“The-the N.H.E.A. thing! The floor thing! The everything that happened!” Brandon shuttered, thinking of the horrible rhino-like creatures, Mall and Grunt. Strange thoughts came into Brandon’s mind. So many questions that somehow seemed not to need answers to. Was this a test? To test ‘The Human’?  Was Blair a fake, or were the N.H.E.A. members really N.H.E.A. members? No, no, it couldn’t be. It’s not a dream.

“No, No,” Blair said, chuckling, “It certainly was not planned. You think I wanted to have my house destroyed by the N.H.E.A? They’ve been searching for me for years.”

“They have?” Hal asked from the other side of the room.

“Yeah, glad the army guys ain’t that smart,” Blair said and looked over to his sing-in attack table, ”you don’t just go to your enemy’s house and press a big button on their table because they told you to! You just don’t.”

“Okay! Okay,” Hal said reproachfully, “How are we going to save the world? Or… how is he going to?” Hal pointed a thumb to Brandon which made Brandon feel a little on the spot. He squinted his eyes.

“Mmm what are your names?” Blair asked.

“I’m Brandon,” Brandon said.

“And I’m Hal,” Hal said.

“Ok, come out into the yard with me then you two,” Blair said, getting up rickety. Brandon and Hal followed, quite very slowly after him. He went into the hallway then went into the room opposite to the golden throne room. He ducked under some plants in pots and put his hand on the wall and waited.

“Are you going to say something?” Hal asked.

Blair nodded. “It’s a really hard password to remember but, that keeps other things out. You can’t go around the castle because I put a force field there. You need a really tall Ganderter brand ladder to get over it.” Blair took a deep breath and then said the password, “It's Blair here and you won’t ever remember the password unless you write it down but you won’t because then I’ll change it and you have to use every exact apostrophe that I use to set the password like this one Happ’days.”

A section of the wall shook and then sunk backwards. Dust fell as the giant chunk of stone opened up into the bright sky. “Wow!” Brandon gasped as he looked around. There were beautiful palm trees and tall great oaks. On the ground was a mound of what looked like metal tiny spheres. Every now and then one of the would make a squeak or a “meep!”

After a bit of admiring, Brandon ducked as more tiny metal spheres whizzed by his head. “Someone cut down another gentotree,” Blair sighed sadly, “Okay, can I have you just lift up the gentoridges and make them disappear?”

Hal looked at Blair questioningly and then asked, “With his mind?”

“Yes,” Blair said, now turning to Brandon, “Do it with your mind.” Brandon looked at the squirming metal-looking gentoridges and motioned them to come with his hand. Nothing happened and the gentoridges squeaked more.

“Are they alive?” Hal asked, as Brandon now vigorously motioned at the gentoridges.

“Yes again, Hal,” Blair said sincerely, “They don’t feel pain. They’re like plants, but they have mouths and they are a very, very, hard material. They are automatically attracted to the nearest or most in number bunch of gentoridges. There are a few masses other places but this mass of them has gotten so big, that almost all gentoridges that are concealed in their trees, come to this one when freed.”

“How am I ever going to do this with my mind?” Brandon asked nervously, “I mean, I’m not a telepathic master!”

“Really think. What do you want to do?” Said Blair, “Your mission is them.”

Brandon tried hard but nothing seemed to work. For a few hours Brandon just tried in ways that started to get as Hal said “Um… Creative.” Finally, after they all had lunch, and Hal was sleeping peacefully, Brandon collapsed to the ground with a yelp.

“What? Wha?” Hal said, waking suddenly.

“I did it!” Brandon laughed happily, getting up and clutching his eye. “I did it! There was a gentoridge that I summoned, then it hit my eye and disappeared!” Brandon started doing a victory dance with his black eye in joy.

“Okay, Brandon,” Blair said with a smile on his face, “great, but you are going to get a lot beat up if you keep summoning them this way.”

Brandon nodded at Blair and concentrated again on the gentoridges. Then, after only a few seconds he heard an uproar not too far away. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the two N.H.E.A. members running towards them, leading a group of four or five more Lumpy green rhinos. As they came closer, Brandon saw one of them was carrying a really tall Ganderter brand ladder! It was all they needed to get over the forcefield.

“Blair! How are we going to stop them? They have a Ganderter brand ladder!” shouted Brandon. Blair looked panicked again but he couldn’t say anything that made sense to Hal or Brandon.

“Hup! Hup!” Grunt said as N.H.E.A. members climbed the ladder. Grunt and Mall smirked rudely at Blair.

“We’ll always be able to penetrate your defenses,” Mall smiled, “And I think, we are already registered. Everyone, attack the wizard!” The rhinos threw spears and axes Blair’s way. All he could do was duck and block them with slow magic. Grunt and Mall were going after their own treasure prey: Brandon and Hal.

“Hal!” Brandon yelled as a spear soared towards him. It landed right beside Hal but Hal took no notice. Brandon ran around the yard, his vision looking more like flashes of green and blue and slashes of light. He saw Hal and Blair crash together, and axe whipping through the air towards them.

“NO!”

There was a big flash of light and Brandon opened his eyes. He was laying on the ground, the queen who was about twice the size of a human, Hal and Blair all in a heap beside him. He had launched the gentoridges at the N.H.E.A. and they disappeared along with the gentoridges.

Blair opened his eyes. He held a hand out to Brandon with white light coming out of it. Brandon grabbed his hand and closed his eyes. Once he opened his eyes he was back beside his mother in the rain.

Brandon frowned, “Mom, did you see anything?”

“No,” she replied. Brandon looked down and went into the car. He went into his bedroom of his house and sighed. He was a good daydreamer.

After a few minutes his mom walked in, “Brandon,” she said, “There’s a letter here. It’s probably from Phil. Your dad found it on the doorstep.

“Thanks,” Brandon said, taking the letter from her. He opened it up and read the note inside it.

Thanks Brandon. Everything is so much better thanks to you. You seemed to have taken away all the gentotrees along with the gentoridges. I hope you are doing well. Come any time you like, you will be expected and welcomed.

-Blair and Hal

Out of the envelope fell a little copper coin. Brandon smiled to himself and went downstairs, leaving the coin on a little red cloth in his room.

THE END