Endocrine Kingdom

15. Fall

Barnaby Willacre lay sprawled on the muddy ground. He had been shot out of the sky and landed in a remote swampy area on the outskirts of Bayou City. Barnaby knew this was likely to happen when he agreed to give Davy the Ember Sack of Unrelenting Sorrow, but that didn't make him feel any better about what was coming. As the smell of cherries permeated the air around him, Barnaby quivered on the ground, because he knew the Grumblegator had found him.

"So, what's his deal anyway?" said the twelve-foot alligator in a suit. He was standing upright on his hind legs, but slouched in such a way that conveyed how little he wanted to be in the middle of some wretched swamp. "He's some kind of circus ringmaster, but he also flies through the air like a rocket? What's that about?"

"I wish I could tell you, sir," replied his assistant, who was a cherry in a dress. Rather, she looked like a short, young woman, but her head was a single cherry. A stem came out of the top of her head and connected to another cherry, but there was nothing unusual about the second cherry. Her eyes were focused on the tablet computer that she was holding.

The Grumblegator leaned over Barnaby and looked down at him with a look of aggressive indifference. "So Mr. Circus Man," he began. "A little birdie told me what you did. Him and his stupid lizard friends saw everything."

The Grumblegator began circling Barnaby. "You took the artifact and you gave it to the kid. Now who did that artifact belong to?" He turned to the cherry. "Ms. Pamola Cherry?" he asked.

"It belonged to you, sir," she flatly stated, her eyes remaining dispationately focused on the tablet.

The Grumblegator nodded. "That's right." He looked back down at Barnaby, who still struggled to move. "So you take my artifact and align yourself with the possum to save this world. What does that make him, Ms. Pamola Cherry?"

"A traitor to his people," she answered as she began taking notes on her tablet.

"And what do we do to traitors?" The Grumblegator picked at his teeth as he asked this.

Ms. Pamola Cherry continued writing on the tablet. "We dispose of them," she said with mild irritation, as if this was far from the first time she had gone through this song and dance.

"That's right," the Grumblegator said. "Get the transmutator for me." He looked back down at Barnaby "You. Get up."

Barnaby struggled to get to his feet. Ms. Pamola Cherry pressed a button on her tablet, and a small electronic device ejected from the side of it. The Grumblegator took it and held it in front of Barnaby's face.

Jean frantically floated towards the group from between some trees. You could say that the blood drained from her face when she saw who her husband was with, but ghosts don't have blood, so this wouldn't make sense. Anyway, Jean got scared when she saw the Grumblegator.

"Hey, you're just in time," the Grumblegator said when he saw Jean. "We were just about to use the transmutator."

Jean looked even more terrified than before. "Please," she shouted. You don't have to do this!"

"Well, no," the Grumblegator conceded. "But work is just more fulfilling when you allow yourself to enjoy the little things."

He placed the device on Barnaby's forehead. "Whenever you're ready," he said to Ms. Pamola Cherry.

Ms. Pamola Cherry made a gesture on her tablet. A light on the device turned on and the skin around Barnaby's forehead started to turn a dull grey. The grayness started spreading.

"No! Don't!" Jean shouted.

Barnaby finally gained the composure to speak. "You won't stop the Endocrine or the Steward!" He shouted. "They will overcome! They will--"