The Fantastical Blog: The fantastical adventure...chapter 2

Chapter 2

"I'm coming!" called out Mrs. Kinderfoot. She quickly gazed into the hallway mirror, made her self presentable and opened the door. There, on the doorstep, stood two sharply dressed men, complete with black fedora hats and sunglasses.

"Can I help you?"

"I hope so, Mrs.Kinderfoot," said one of the men, brandishing a detective's badge.

He was short and had a long face with facial hair like a goat. The other man, tall and thin as a stick.

"We need to speak about your daughter, Alice."

"Is she in trouble?" asked Mrs.Kinderfoot. She folded her arms and leaned into the door frame.

"Is this about the Halloween incident again? I spoke to the police two months ago about it. No one's pressing charges detective..."

"Detective Faun," he replied, "And no, this is not about THAT incident. May we come in please? It will only take a few minutes."

Mrs.Kinderfoot nodded and escorted the detectives to the sitting room.

"Please have a seat detectives," she said, "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"No, thank you," replied Detective Faun, before taking his seat. The other detective stood by the arm of the sofa. This made Mrs.Kinderfoot nervous.

"You'll have to excuse Detective Mormo for not sitting - he can never sit still."

Mrs.Kinderfoot politely smiled. For a few seconds, there was uncomfortable silence.

"What is this about?" she asked.

"Alice has built up quite a reputation for herself, with that imagination of hers" began Detective Faun, stroking the hair on his chin.

"My Alice, a reputation with the police?" interrupted Mrs.Kinderfoot.

"Yes," Detective Faun continued, "And this imagination has led to several complaints from Alice's school, your neighbours...even government officials - which is most impressive."

"Yes, well, it was never proven Alice did any of those things," replied Mrs.Kinderfoot, annoyed. "And no one has pressed charges!"

"Of course, we can't prove that," said Detective Faun. "But one thing that intrigues me, is the mention of her imaginary friends causing havoc at every incident." He leaned in over the coffee table. "Her imaginary friends who live in a red bag? Is that right, Mrs.Kinderfoot?"

She began to laugh. "Oh please detective," she said, waving her hands in the air. "Don't tell me you've come here to talk about my daughter's imaginary creatures!"

Detective Faun smirked and snapped his fingers. Detective Mormo pulled out a picture from his coat pocket

and placed it on the coffee table in front of Mrs.Kinderfoot. He tapped it with one of his pencil like fingers.

"I need to know if Alice is in possession of this item."

Mrs.Kinderfoot picked up the picture and studied it. The image was an illustration of a terracotta jar with various ancient looking symbols on it.

"This looks like it should belong in a museum, not in my house!" quipped Mrs.Kinderfoot.

"We believe Alice may have come up with stories about her imaginary friends from this most precious of items," replied Detective Faun.

"Sorry, gentlemen," said Mrs.Kinderfoot, "You are wasting your time. She doesn't have it. And this whole imaginary friends business, it started after a trip to our local charity shop last year, when Alice found this old Victorian tea box - according to Alice, it's where they came from."

The detectives glanced at each other. "A tea box, you say?" replied Detective Faun, raising his eyebrows.

"Thank you, Mrs.Kinderfoot. That was most helpful. I just have one more question before we go." He pulled out a wooden panpipe from his left jacket pocket.

"Did Alice steal one of those, too ?" asked Mrs.Kinderfoot, trying to lighten the mood.

But Detective Faun didn't laugh.

"The tea box," began detective Faun "Was it walnut coloured with the initials TBW on the front?"

"How on earth did you know that?" replied Mrs.Kinderfoot, shocked.

Detective Faun said nothing. Instead, he pursed his lips and began to play the wooden instrument.

The music echoed all around the house. It was the most beautiful sound Mrs.Kinderfoot had ever heard. She felt her eyes begin to get heavy. Her body swayed back and forth, like a baby being rocked to sleep.

"That's...that's so..so beautiful," she said, before slumping into her chair.

-

Marigold, who was peering through the keyhole of the dining room door, watched helplessly as Mrs.Kinderfoot lost consciousness. She knew these nasty men. They were not detectives. They were also not human.

Detective Mormo walked over to Mrs.Kinderfoot and gave her face a hard pinch.

"Fast asleep, Faun," he said.

"Good," replied Faun.

He then removed his hat and shoes. "I'm tired of wearing these - my hoofs are killing me!" As he stood up, his knees clicked backwards, making the most awful noise.

"I just don't know how humans can walk like that - so uncomfortable!"

Faun then jumped onto the coffee table. He cocked his head and sniffed the air. "They're here. Search the girl's room, Mormo. I'll bag up Mrs.Kinderfoot."

"Yes, Faun," replied Mormo and glided his way to up Alice's room.

For a moment, Marigold panicked at the thought of Mormo discovering the others upsatirs.

Mormo called down from Alice's room, "Nothing there!"

Marigold relaxed. She knew the others had followed her escape plan to the tee.

"Hope they liked the disguise," she thought.

"I did manage to find that old tea box," said Mormo. "I knew I should have checked it all those decades ago."

"Not to worry Mormo," said Faun, pulling out a large sack from his hat. It was moving. "We won't lose their scent this time!"

Faun emptied out the sack and a rather hideousness creature tumbled to the floor.

"Oh dear...a harpy!" thought Marigold, terrified.

Mormo handed Faun the tea box. He placed it on the floor in front of the harpy.

"Find them for me, old girl," said Faun.

The harpy lent forward and sniffed the small wooden box.

"Surely she won't smell me," thought Marigold.

The harpy tensed up. It ruffled it's feathers and slowly lifted it's neck, sniffing the air.

"Not good," Marigold thought.

The harpy's eyes became fixed on the dinning room door. It puffed out it's chest and released the most horrible shriek.

"Yes, not good at all," said Marigold and turned to flee when the dinning room door flung open.

"I found you!" cried Mormo.

Quick as a flash, Marigold found herself evading the razor sharp fingertips of Mormo and flying out the
window to safety.