Magic Parcel by Frank English Read Free Book Online Page A

dancing along the very cloud-face itself.
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Chapter Five
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    â€œAnd who do you think you are,” came a thin squeaky voice from somewhere in the darkness, “walking across my domain without so much as a by-your-leave?”
    Although Jimmy couldn’t see anything yet as all the lights had been switched off, he had a feeling that the voice was familiar. Now, where had he heard it before?
    Suddenly, as if someone must have remembered you can’t see very well without light, the brothers’ eyes were blinded for an instant by a bath of intense white brilliance. They soon became accustomed to the brightness, as everything swam into focus. They were in an enormous room with decorated vaulted ceilings so far above them they were almost lost to sight. The walls were hung with rich-looking tapestries in golds and shades of brown and green, which spread partly onto the polished floor.
    Burly guardsmen bedecked in a strange uniform they didn’t recognise, surrounded them as they stood before a great oaken dais upon which sat a mahogany throne in all its glory. It was not the seat which took their gaze, but its occupant. For, sitting - or perhaps squatting might have been nearer the point - on its velvet cushion, and with an enormous ermine cloak around its back and a jewelled coronet on its head, was the most enormous green, warty toad they had ever seen. The face on top of that vast, bloated green balloon was vaguely human, and very familiar to both boys. Jimmy suddenly realised who it reminded him of, and before brother Tommy, who had had the same thought, was able to restrain him, he blurted out...
    Â â€œIt’s Grumblin’ Gr...!”
    â€œWhat’s that?” came the thin reedy squeak (or was it a croak?). “What did you say?”
    â€œEr, er, nothing,” Tommy butted in, giving Jimmy a dig in the ribs to remind him to keep his mouth shut. “We, er, beg your worship’s pardon, but we are, unfortunately, lost.”

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    Oompah
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    â€œWell, well,” the toad replied, “and why, may I ask, are you here? Where do you come from, and why didn’t you ask our permission to be here in the first place.”
    â€œWell, you see, your honour,” Tommy went on again, assuming the role of spokesman, “we came to, er, visit some friends down in the settlement and ...”
    â€œWhere have you come from ?” the voice insisted this time, as the toad turned a darker shade of green around the neck (what there was of it).
    â€œWell, er, you see your majesty, we ...” Tommy stammered not wanting to tell the truth but at the same time not able to see a way around it.
    At that precise moment, a messenger tumbled rather noisily into the chamber, obviously agitated and on some matter of urgency.
    â€œMajesty,” he burst out, after bowing three times in their custom - once to the left, once to the right, and finally to the king.
    â€œSpeak,” croaked the toad.
    â€œMajesty, the Sesqui-senti are abroad again,” went on the messenger.
    â€œThat’s no news,” the toad croaked again. “Raise the drawbridge, and ...”
    â€œBut majesty,” the messenger dared to interrupt, “they are different this time; stronger and ... and they have no fear of water. They are crossing the outer moat, and will soon be on the island. They are changed; more powerful, evil, and ...” He trailed off to a whisper, “... our defences cannot withstand them.”
    â€œOh dear, dear,” the toad muttered, rubbing its elongated mouth with an equally long, green fore limb. “I was afraid of that. I must come at once ... supervise ... needed.”
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    Having shot from the throne like a spring pop gun going off, he loped down the hallway, punctuating his words as he went with enormous bounds from those long, green knots of muscle and sinew he called legs. He was out of the hall in a twinkling, leaving one exhausted