MOUSE OF COMMONS. MOUSE OF LORDS.: PART 14 OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL!!!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

PART 14 OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL!!!

GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL!!! - PART 14

Part 14 of a 15 part internet-exclusive mini-adventure by Paul Chandler, set in Barcelona.

Oliver Louse took a deep breath and decided that the only thing that he could do was to stand up to the furious cub-waiters with their rolling pins...

"Now I can explain..." he called out - after having found himself lost for words for a moment or two.

The trouble was that the expressions on the faces on the skele-cubs suggested that they really didn't want him to explain; he had rather spoilt whatever scam that was going on in the pie factory and if the fact that there were no ghosts got out then there was a chance that the newspapers would get hold of the story and ruin the business. (Not to mention the matter of the ghosts keeping people away from investigating what was going on underground - something that Ollie didn't even know about, as yet!) Ollie was sure that they wouldn't let him get away - but on the other hand he had no intention of letting them beat him to a pulp, either; his head simply wasn't made for battering with a rolling pin - not even once. He was a very small woodlouse and the chances of surviving any kind of christening with even one such weapon was extremely small.

"If you intend to murder me then I promise I'll come back and haunt you..." Ollie declared, as bravely as he could manage. "Believe me - I've met ghosts - there just aren't any in this building..." He continued and then added. "I have very friends in very high places, you know..."

"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" was all the cub waiters had to say in reply, which was presumably Beargrrrian for "PREPARE TO BE BATTERED LOUSE BOY", or some such unfriendly promise.

"Please..." whimpered Ollie. "Please - have mercy on me... It was the allure of the gravy!!" he pleaded.

But he didn't have to plead for very much longer...

"GRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!" boomed Charlie Grrr suddenly, from behind the cubs, sending them scattering away in fear. "UNHAND MY FRIEND AND TAKE ME TO THE MANAGER!!!" he demanded, his furry face distorted with rage - although as he turned his head he winked to Ollie, just to emphasize that he was really only play-acting to create a scare. "I SAID - TAKE ME TO THE MANAGER!!!"

This time the cubs seemed to get the message and started to jabber; half in Spanish and half in Beargrrrian - with a very scared look upon their faces. Ollie couldn't make much of it out, but even he could tell that they were petrified of their boss; but then again at this precise moment they were torn due to being even more frightened of Charlie.

"Hello Ollie... Aren't you clever?" grrred Charlie with a big smile, chuckling as he scooped up his friend and placing him behind his ears. "Hold on tight, now... We're off to see who's behind all this..." he continued brightly - seeming to have sobered up from the effects of all that excessive gravy sniffing; he didn't even appear at all indignant over Ollie having had to show him the truth.

Together they returned to the ground floor and then following the direction of the distressed cubs began to head down to the kitchen and then down to a level even below that. The sound of the pie kitchen were soon drowned out by another noise - the sound of a drilling machine to be precise.

"HERE WE ARE!!!" boomed Charlie as they emerged into a dark and dusty cellar where, indeed, there seemed to be a lot of building work going on. "I DEMAND TO SEE THE MANAGER!!!" he bellowed, once again, causing Oliver to put his hands over his ears.

As they both peered through the haze of dust in the cavern below the pie factory they soon made out two figures; however one of the appeared to be slumped unconscious by the digging machines - which still seemed to be busily digging into the earth beneath the city.

As for the second figure; well - from what Oliver could tell, from all the descriptions he had heard from Charlie and Claud - the second figure appeared to be THE PIE MAN!!!

"Are YOU the manager??" Charlie snuffled, sounding a little less confident now that he was facing the giant pie-faced villain.

"Isn't he supposed to be a ghost..." Ollie hissed. "He looks pretty solid..."

But before Charlie could reply, the Pie Man stepped forward and stared at them both with an intense gaze that made Ollie close his eyes in fear. It was almost as if the Pie Man's pie eyes could see inside his brain.

"No, dear boy - I reckon he's the manager..." squeaked a familiar voice. "But I think we rather scared him out of his wits when we crept up behind him through the dust..."

The Pie Man suddenly flipped up his head and standing there, on the shoulders of Claud the cat, was Gladstone McWhiskers.

"WHATEVER ARE YOU UP TO, BOSS..." Ollie exclaimed. "And what ON EARTH is going on down here??"

"What UNDER earth, more like..." growled Charlie with a smile. "Trust a mouse to find a whole burrow of trouble underground..." he teased, as he wandered over to a table with what appeared to be a whole pile of dirty artifacts upon it. "Somebody's been digging up treasure..." he muttered as he began to file through some of the items that had been exposed; including what appeared to be a scroll of paper protected inside a copper tube.

Gladstone was about to reply to Charlie, who appeared to be stuffing as many of the trinkets into his pocket as he had space for - when all of a sudden Oliver called out. "Whatever that machine is doing it looks as if it's about to overheat or something... Shouldn't we try to turn it off!?"

"No time for that..." mewed Claud. "It's on fire..."

They were both right; but there was little time to do anything; as before any of them had time to make a move towards the exit to make their escape the whole room filled with steam and there was an almighty explosion...

TO BE CONTINUED, LATER TONIGHT.

How will the four friends escape the explosion underground? Will they ever discover who the Pie Man was and what was being dug for? Find out later tonight in the final instalment of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL!!!

This instalment was originally written in Barcelona on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th November 2007.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL

Penultimate posting photos from Barcelona from the clot what wrote this story. (See photo below!!) hehe.