Freiyon Fables: The Rochester Runes
Chapter Nine: Family Crises

“It’s the manor. You’re not going to believe this! Come quickly!”

Hopping into the car, Mary’s father directed Jay to the manor, where a horrible sight awaited them. Jay stopped the car at the top of the hill and stared in utter amazement.

“What the hell happened here?”

Robert’s car was smashed into the lounge-room, windows were smashed, doors were ripped off their hinges, wood on the side of the house was tearing off ... it was basically like a bomb had hit the manor intentionally.

“No! No, this can’t be!” Mary jumped out of the car and ran towards the house.

“Ms. Rochester!” Jay ran after her.

“Mary!” Her father joined him.

They got as far as the gate when they found Mary holding onto the gate and crying.

“They’re not here, are they? They’re dead, aren’t they?”

“There’s still a chance they are alive.”

“The chief is right, Mary. They could still be in the manor.”

Mary pointed at a window. “LOOK! The STARING SOLDIER! All my life I thought it could come to life and I was right! Oh no no! He’s… He’s walking towards us!”

She was right. The staring soldier had seen them and was coming towards them, arms raised to kill.

“There’s only one way to check if those kids are still alive, and that’s to get into the manor. And I’m not about to let a haunted knights’ armour stop me! We’re English and when we want in, well, blimey, we’ll get in!” Mary’s father announced.

Jay clicked his radio on and spoke into it. “Request MAJOR back-up! All police forces in the nearest vicinity to Rochester, report to the Rochester Manor immediately! Repeat, all police forces in the Rochester vicinity, report to the Rochester Manor! You all should know where that is! Get here as quick as possible, we need all we can get!”

Mary looked eagerly at the chief. “Now we wait.”

“Psst, Sarah. I know you’re going to hate me for this, but it’s your shift now.”

Sarah groaned and stretched, sitting up and looking at Charles.

“Mum’s ok, right Charles?” She asked wearily.

Charles sighed sadly. “I really don’t know. I certainly would like to believe it. We have to hold onto that belief, Sarah. I am.”

Sarah smiled weakly and then stood up, taking her post next to a dead log.

Within minutes Charles was asleep, entrusting Sarah to keeping an eye on them all.

Back at the manor, the place was totally surrounded by every police watch in the Rochester District. Mary, her father and Jay Witt stood in front of the gate, now opened, ready to enter the house.

The staring soldier had expected an attack and had scrambled together his own army of all the remaining knights-in-shiny-armour statues. The soldiers were waiting in every part of the manor for the right moment to attack.

“I think I know how they are being controlled now. There are robots inside those statues. And, if I’m right, shooting at where their eyes should be will kill them. If it’s a war they want, they’ll get it. We British don’t go down without a fight.” Jay pointed out.

“When you’re ready, Chief.” Mary added, patting her pocket where her gun was.

“Give them hell, chief.” Her father smiled.

Jay pointed and shouted. “Charge!”

Then the Manor March begun. The police fired at the robots and the robots shot back, but thankfully none of the police were hit in the first wave.

“Let’s go!” Mary shouted, running to the house with a small crowd of women police.

“Aim for the higher ones!” Jay announced.

“Alright men, forward!” Mary’s father yelled, taking the first lot of policemen into the manor, shooting wildly as they ran.

Jay fired at one before it fired an arrow at him and sent another wave of police in.

“Right, full force!”

All at once, every policeman or woman ran into the manor, shooting and chopping at any and all robots. As she struggled through the house, Mary prayed to herself for her children’s safety. She wasn’t able to check the bedrooms, because every time she tried she had to fight off a bunch of robots and then retreat back downstairs. Jay and a few men entered through the lounge-room, fighting back the robots as they went. Jay inspected Robert’s car, noting that, if pushed out, it could still be workable.

‘Whoever crashed this car wasn’t trying to kill themselves.’

At that moment, a police officer told him to get down and Jay ducked just in time. A robot that was behind him collapsed to the ground in a heap.

“Not quite the way I’d do it, but good none the less.” Jay admitted.

Mary’s father was finding it hard to fight anything. It seemed every time he had a clear shot of a robot, some-one else would shoot it before him.

“Sorry, old timer, but you could get someone else hurt with your aim.” An officer commented, smiling slightly.

Mary’s father shot at a robot that was right behind the officer, coming within centimetres of the officer’s ears.

“Oh, really?” He smiled cheekily.

The officer’s face stayed in smiling position as he fainted to the floor, because of the fright the old man had given him.

“This is commanding officer Lex Rochester you’re talking about. The best shot in the second world war for the Brits.”

Continuing to smile, Lex fought the rest of the battle by himself, getting every shot perfect.

It was only when Mary came back down to the lounge-room, now cleared of robots and police, did she see the tunnel. A note had been left there, somehow undamaged during all the fighting. A note addressed to her.

‘Gone to rescue Sarah and stop curse. Love you dearly. In tunnel, if you want us. Bring food and water if you can, and weapons. Love, Charles.’ It read.

Hugging it close, she looked down the tunnel and wondered where it led.

What she DIDN’T know was that the note was NOT from Charles, but rather from the mysterious Lord Libertas.

In Freiyon; Charles, Robert and Sarah had woken up earlier than expected.

Mainly because Sarah had woken them up since she had felt ‘something freaky coming close’.

Now wide awake, the kids started walking again, not sure what to trust in the middle of the night.

Robert and Charles, using the only torches amongst the three of them, were (begrudgingly) holding Sarah’s hands to make sure none of them got separated.

Trying to break the silence with something cheery, Charles tried asking questions. “Do you really like gothic stuff, Sarah?”

“Charles, right now I think that’s the worst question to ask.”

“Maybe he’s just trying to make the walk more boring.”

Charles spun around angrily. “Right. Go home, Robert.”

“What?”

“I’ve had it with you right now. Aside from your help with those rats yesterday, you’ve been no help at all! You still insist on thinking that this is a crazy dream that only YOU are having, and even on that line, you STILL persist in putting us down! You’ve complained, you’ve lagged behind, you’ve been no help AT ALL! So, I’m telling you now, go home!”

Robert wasn’t sure if Charles was serious. “Charles, I was just mucking about. I’m your brother, buddy, you can’t just tell me to go away!” sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Charles, for once, is right Robert. You have been useless to us. Even now, after your leg has been healed. Unless you get your act together and help out big time like Charles and I have done for you, I think it’s best if you just leave us and go back to the manor. I’m sure that the otters would be more than happy to assist you back.”

Robert looked from Charles to Sarah, seeing that they were serious.

“But ... I COULD be useful ... ”

“GO!!” Charles and Sarah demanded, pointing back the way had come.

Robert snorted. “FINE! You want it like that, I’ll leave. And bloody good luck on this ‘quest’ by yourselves, guys!”

Robert walked away, grumbling to himself.

“Do you think we should have done that, Charles? What if the enemy gets him?”

“Better if they did. He’s been such a pain. Besides, it’s not him they’re looking for. He’ll be fine! Let’s go.”

Robert didn’t want to leave, knowing his brother and sister were in trouble without him. Back-tracking a bit, he turned around again and pointed his torch in the direction of where Charles and Sarah had been heading.

In the process, he passed his torch over an oddly large owl sitting in a (good) tree.

“Hoo are yoo?” The owl hooted, a tad annoyed at being woken up.

“My name’s Robert. I’m trying to help my brother and sister, but they won’t let me be with them so I have been forced to follow them by myself.”

“Why would they not let yoo?”

“I have been useless to them.”

The owl nodded wisely. “Indeed? Then I think I know what yoo can doo! We owls can see in the dark, and working together, we can help your brother and sister. They are headed straight for danger. Too troo!”

Robert looked suspiciously at the owl. “What can yoo ... you do to help me?”

“Make yoo an owl as big as me! We work together and save your brother and sister. Fly them away from danger, Robert.”

“And in return? You can’t just want to help us willy-nilly.”

The owl cleaned its’ feather before replying. “Yoo are troo when yoo say I want something in return. Yoo have to promise me something, Robert. Cross your heart when yoo promise me this.”

Robert wasn’t too sure whether to trust this owl or not, but he crossed his finger on his chest none the less. “Ok, what is it?”

“Yoo have to promise me that once yoo save your family, that all the trees in this world will be good again. That is all I want. All the trees that have good homes are too evil or dead. Promise me that, Robert.”

Robert snorted. “Are you JOKING?! My brother had to kill a tree because it was evil! There’s no way I can just walk up to a group of trees and ask if they will be good again! It can’t be done!”

“It’s either leave your family to the grabbers and that weird curse I’ve heard about, or promise me this and save your family’s life!”

“I can only promise one thing, if you are a good guy that is. I can promise that we will stop the curse on us, but that is it! We already have most of the stones anyway! That is the only thing I can promise, owl.”

“Then we are agreed?”

Robert’s face shook to being confused and frustrated. “What part of that last sentence did you not hear? I can’t promise that the trees will be good straight after we save my brother and sister ...”

“But I didn’t say straight after we save them, did I? Too troo, Robert. I said once we save your family!”

“Well, in that case ... Yes, I can promise that! Cross my heart, owl! But you have to keep your promise as well.”

The owl nodded. “Too troo, Robert. Here yoo go!”

Suddenly, the owl leaped down and pecked Robert on his nose, hard.

Robert whacked at the owl, startling it as it flew back into its tree.

“Oy! That hurt! What did you do THAT for, you stoopid bird? I’ll get yoo for that ... Hey, what’s happened to my voice? That was weird! Hey, my nose! My mouth! What the hell?”

It took Robert a few seconds to work out he was turning into an owl because of the peck on the nose, but by that time he was already an owl.

Without even thanking the owl, Robert flew up into the same branch and looked over at the owl.

“Let’s doo this thing!”

They both flew quickly through the night sky towards Charles and Sarah.

And whatever evil they were heading for.

Charles and Sarah never saw it coming. How could they? Without the second torch, which was in Robert’s bag, they were limited to only seeing with the one torch. Sarah was grabbed first, quite suddenly and unexpectantly, and without much noise too. Charles only knew she had gone because he had been holding her to make sure he didn’t lose her.

“Sarah? Where’d you go? Sarah? H ... Hey, what’s going on? Let me go! Get away from me! Help!”

Charles was grabbed as well, with his head pulled into a scratchy bag and then knocked out by someone or something’s fist.

Robert and the owl watched, both annoyed that they hadn’t got there in time.

“Let me guess. Those brutes are The Grabbers? Too stoopid I was too keep questioning yoo. How are we going to save them now?”

“We need back-up, Robert. Too troo! Yoo must doo something whilst I search for help! Use this time to learn about the enemy, and maybe even trick them while yoo are at it!”

Robert nodded and watched as the owl flew back the way the two of them had come. Then, quietly, he followed the group of kid-nappers until they stopped at a camp and tied Charles and Sarah to an EVIL tree.

The kid-nappers were all animals, but the type that humans normally didn’t like, such as rats, snakes, wolves, badgers and weasels.

A few young, evil trees were there as well. But, Robert noticed, there were some good young trees tied up to metal poles, possibly collected at some point from the human world, around the camp.

Then Robert spotted him. All alone, obviously unconscious and badly hurt.

A man in his early forties at least; tied up to an axe propped into the ground.

“What is HE doing here? I can understand why the Grabbers would want Charles and Sarah, and those poor trees and animals tied up are probably Freiyon inhabitants that tried to stop them. But what does HE have that the Grabbers would need? I need to get closer.” Robert whispered to himself.

While Robert crept closer, he could vaguely hear the conversation of the grabbers in the group.

“This man isn’t such an important thing in the master’s’ plan, is he?”

“Are you pulling my whiskers, buddy? This joker knows too much about the stones and the curse. And, besides, he is meant to be the three kids’ great-grandfather! A very good bargaining tool to have if we ever catch them, I assure you.”

Robert stopped in his tracks. ‘Huh? Our Great-grandfather? Then these guys must think that Charles and Sarah are NOT the kids they are looking for! This could give me a good chance to mess with their plans. All I have too doo is get closer too Charles’ back-pack. This’ll be very interesting, VERY interesting indeed!”

As Robert inched closer to where Charles was tied up, he made sure none of the trees or animals could see him by keeping to the shadows.

Once he was right behind Charles, he hovered just above where the top of the bag was, making sure Charles couldn’t hear him because if Charles heard him, it would ruin everything.

One by one, slowly and silently, Robert removed each rune stone and placed them into a bush nearby.

After that, Robert swiftly took his own back-pack off and then placed the rune stones into that one, watching the grabbers argue about the ‘old coot’ that they claimed was the kids’ great-grandfather.

Robert then placed his bag back on quietly before slinking away into the shadows again.

“What should we do about these two kids, though?”

“Search them, that’s what! The master said three kids were looking for the stones, but that doesn’t mean these two aren’t two of the three we’re looking for. Search them and bring everything they have to me. If it is important at all, I shall consider what to do with it.”

Robert saw Charles flinch in fright, obviously unaware that Robert’s plan had worked.

Robert watched as both Charles’ and Sarah’s back-packs were searched thoroughly.

After a few minutes, the owl partner Robert befriended came quietly back with a whole flock of owls, waiting to see what they could do.

“This stuff is all we could find, Euclain. These two kids must not be the Rochester kids we are looking for. Although, they DO fit the description, which could just be a coincidence.”

“And their stuff isn’t even worth keeping! Give it all back to them, guys, we grabbed the wrong kids.”

Robert turned to his owl-friend. “What now, owl?”

The owl turned to his group and then back to Robert. “We’ll create a diversion, too get the Grabbers away for a while. Yoo go and get all those poor trapped Freiyons out of there, as well as your brother and sister and that man too!”

Robert nodded and flew quickly and quietly back to being behind the evil tree.

“Oh, right ... this is going to be harder than I thought!”

Changing his mind about tactics, Robert decided to free the animals and (good) young trees first because they were not tied to evil trees.

Just as he reached the first captive, the owls went into action.

“Hoo! Rats! Dinner! Hoo! Scrumptious! Rats and weasels for dinner! Hoo! Too troo!”

The weasels, rats and badgers tried to duck and avoid the attacking owls, but the owls were too good.

Within minutes, three-quarters of the vermin in the small grabbers group had been swept up by the owls and taken into the night.

In this moment of confusement and fright Robert was able to untie and tell the captured Freiyons to wait until the owls work was done.

Charles and Sarah had no idea what was going on because they still had the woollen bags over their heads, but they could hear the tree they were tied to shout for the others to catch the owls. Within only a few minutes, all of the grabbers were away from the camp (including all the evil trees, which was a plus for Robert) and out trying to catch and kill the owls.

Robert quickly untied every captive, including Charles, Sarah and the man who Robert didn’t know the identity of yet and then got them all out of the camp area. But something drew Robert back to the camp. It was one of the rocks next to the fire. He wasn’t sure why it caught his attention in the first place, but when he told his owl-friend to lead the captive group to safety and went back to check it out, he understood why now. It wasn’t the fire that had given such an interesting glow when Robert had been saving the captives...

It was one of the missing rune stones!

Grabbing it quickly and putting it in his bag, Robert flew out of the camp quickly and joined back up with the free Freiyons. It wasn’t long after that when they all heard the angry cry of the small group of Grabbers as they realised they had been distracted and tricked. The owl that turned Robert into an owl, introducing himself as Owlfred, quickly got the group of Freiyons to a small hide-out in a hole inside a mound.

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