MOUSE OF COMMONS. MOUSE OF LORDS.: PART 1 OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA...

Monday, December 03, 2007

PART 1 OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA...

GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA... - PART 1

The 1st part of our new internet-exclusive mini-adventure by Paul Chandler, set in Spain and the Islands, which is a sequel to the previous story GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL.

Barcelona, Late Autumn.

Charlie Grrr sat back in his sleek new office, gave Gladstone McWhiskers, Mouse of Commons and Lords, a very uneasy stare and then sighed. Bears didn't like to make decisions - but today he was in a situation where he had to choose and it was a choice that he really didn't want to make.

Today Charlie was due to be burying his father; the evil Augustus Grrr, once and for all...

The only problem being that his father wasn't actually dead, yet - more preserved...

Augustus Grrr's current state of petrification had come about after he had tried to steal the life force of a theatre full of tourists and been imprisoned like a living statue thanks to a bit of theatrical wizardry from Charlie. (The full details of this adventure are described in the novel GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS THROWS IT ALL AWAY - due out Spring 2008.) Stealing the life force of some of the punters had resulted in Augustus growing younger - however he hadn't gotten away with his wickedness and had spent the last 9 or 10 months in suspended animation and used as a hat stand back in the offices of MP Dunn, in Westminster.

Charlie had been away organising variety festivals all over Europe with his son, Junior and House Keeper, Granny Ernestina and he'd also been engaged in a bit of treasure hunting to boot. The call had finally come from MP Dunn for him to remove his petrified father from the Minister's office, as not only were animal rights supporters protesting about it - but, of late - the suspended Grrr had been letting off a number of rather disconcerting growls whenever food had been brought into the office.

"The trouble is..." Charlie had explained to Gladstone McWhiskers, Mouse of Commons and Lords. "Although he's like a mummy and is effectively away on some far off plane somewhere - he is still effectively alive..."

"Alive and bothering the Minister..." Gladstone had agreed. "Well, if you're basing yourself in Barcelona for a while - then you're going to have to have him back over there with you..." The Mouse had demanded, but had added. "That said, you can't just bury him - no matter how evil he is..."

Charlie had scoffed at him, but had soon come up with an alternative. "If I can't bury him then I will simply store him away..." he had said at the time, but in the period since then there had been a number of things that had changed his opinion on the matter...

It had to be said that Charlie's mind had been distracted of late; it was a four or five months since Gladstone had last visited Charlie in Barcelona, when he and Ollie had accompanied him on a pie-crawl, which had led to the bear finding a treasure map for the Lost City of Bearcelona under a dilapidated pie factory. The bear who'd originally been conducting the mission and who had been digging beneath the factory had been scared by their arrival and had escaped; leaving the plans of his mission - which Charlie had been studying in free moments over the last few months. A lot of the papers had made no sense to him - but there was one thing that had made sense - one thing that led to the decision he was making that day...

"Every bear has heard of the lost city of Bearcelona..." he had explained to Gladstone. "Every bear knows of the exquisite pies that are buried in the tombs there..."

Gladstone had agreed to accompany the preserved Augustus on the journey between London and Barcelona - for he didn't like the idea of the bear being unsupervised for the duration. MP Dunn had agreed for Gladstone to travel with a number of his security staff - but the journey had passed by uneventfully.

But then again, things involving Augustus Grrr, were most often pretty serious...

Afterall, he had a very evil history; including becoming dictator of all Beargrrria and kidnapping his son along the way. Augustus wasn't the kind of father who it's fun to have around - but Charlie had some unfinished business to take care of before the doors closed on his father; unfinished business that he hadn't even had time to discuss with Gladstone, as yet.

"I need to speak to him, that's all..." was all the bear would say to the querulous Gladstone. "You were right - he will be safer here in this building with me... I've been irresponsible leaving him back in London, what with me here in Spain..." he'd added, sounding unusually serious about the whole matter, for once.

"Well, it's nearly 9 months that he's been in that state..." Gladstone reminded him. "The last thing we need is him suddenly springing to life in the middle of Whitehall... The whole growling thing was beginning to disturb people..." he added, allowing himself a little smile. "Although he's not dead and we can't bury him we can effectively imprison him - he doesn't need food, we've established that; Alena used to water him occasionally..."

"...And a very good job she did of it too..."

"Indeed. Still, I must say I'm slightly concerned about you spending time with him... Are you sure it's safe? I'm not sure what you mean about being able to speak with him, at any rate..."

"I can contact him telepathically..." replied Charlie proudly. "With the power of my beary mind... I have recently discovered something in the paperwork, found beneath the pie factory, that puts quite a different light on matters..."

"Like what, exactly!?"

"Like that my father is somehow connected to this whole business with the lost city..." he explained and showed Gladstone a notebook that he had found in the rubble. "Some of the diary entries in this journal detail the fact that my father has been sponsoring the whole search for the lost city for some years now - since long before he tried to take over Beargrrria..." Gladstone nodded, suddenly quite fascinated by the whole subject. "We also now know that it wasn't the lost city that the bear was digging for under the pie factory - but just for the map itself, which had long since been buried... We have the map now, but we can't understand it... I've been studying it for months and speaking with all sorts of bear scholars and none of them can understand it all..."

"But you think that somehow your father might be able to help?"

Charlie smiled. "Exactly..." he grinned. "If anyone can - Augustus Grrr can..."

Can the evil Augustus Grrr help them understand the meaning of the Lost City Map? What will happen when Augustus arrives in the building - next episode Oliver Louse meets him face to face...

This instalment of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA was originally written on a plane heading for Spain on Friday 30th November 2007.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA...

I included a lot of photos from my November 2007 trip to Barcelona during the posting of the previous Mouse story, on this site. This sequel is set a few months later and also begins in Barcelona - before moving to another Spanish destination. I've posted a few photos, so far - but do not intend to give away the location just yet... As you can see, despite it being December, the weather was awesome.