Return of the Nibbles E-Book

Elias Zapple

• Herausgeber: Elias Zapple
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Michel is down but not out. His family may have been drowned by the evil Master and Michel wants revenge in the bloodiest of ways! Meanwhile, something weird, very weird has happened to Duke. And where are Duke's nibbles? An ultimate showdown awaits in the battle to end all battles.
 

Leseprobe

DUKE & MICHEL:

RETURN OF THE NIBBLES

Book Three

By

Elias Zapple

Copyright

© Elias Zapple, 2015

Cover illustrated by Elliott Beavan

Interior illustrated by Reimarie Cabalu

Disclaimer

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Dedication

For

Freddie Rhinoceros

&

Cecil the Chickadee

&

Pippa Manatee

Contents

Copyright

Disclaimer

Dedication

One - Fields of Gold

Two - Lost

Three - Perspective

Four - Water

Five - Sand Dunes

Six - The Sunflower

Seven - The Handbook

Eight - Paradise Island

Nine - The Witch of Osmoloc

Ten - Ring of Fire

Eleven - Fields of Fire

Twelve - Country Dog – Premium Nibbles

Thirteen - War

Fourteen - Rest

Fifteen - Time Out

Sixteen - Chasing the Scent

Seventeen - Romain

Eighteen - Start the Dance

Nineteen - Face-Off

Twenty - The End?

Who is Elias Zapple?

Also by Elias Zapple

A Request from Elias Zapple

One

Fields of Gold

The sky was a bright baby blue and the sun beamed down, trying to scorch the earth. Endless fields of golden wheat swayed in the gentlest of breezes. The fields of wheat stretched on for mile after mile, over hills and across the land. The odd Umbrella thorn tree dotted the landscape. A black crow flew on overhead and then perched on a branch of the umbrella tree. It was eyeing something.

Lying down in amongst the wheat was Michel. His eyes closed and his face that was partly covered in black dirt was also a crispy, sunburnt red. His longish black hair had bits of soil and other things in it and his Death’s Harvest T-shirt had seen better days as it was ripped and ragged. It was now the perfect metal T-shirt.

Michel began to stir his eyes blinking open and he groaned then stretched his arms. What had happened? His vision was blurry and he was hot, very hot - his mouth was as dry as burnt toast. Where was he? He touched his head then looked at his right arm, there was no mark. Michel rubbed his face. It was a bit painful because of the sunburn.

“Hello?” a voice called out.

That sounded like Duke. Michel’s body was aching but he managed to sit up and then looked around. All he could see was wheat.

“Hello?”

Michel leaned to one side then got up to one foot then both. Still, all he could see was wheat. “Duke?” Michel’s voice was so dry and weak that it was raspy. He scanned the area. At the lower end of the hill was an Umbrella thorn tree. He needed

to get out of the sun. Wearing a black tee was making it even more super hot and he was now sweating buckets. The sun, like the Master, was unforgiving to say the least.

He made his way through the wheat field and reached the shady Umbrella thorn tree and then collapsed as the voice called out again. He recounted what had happened. He’d gotten home after rescuing his cousin from the strange universe with the corridor then found, the following day, that his parents, uncle and cousin were missing. He’d learnt that the Master – a seriously deranged school headmaster - had taken them forcing Michel to return to the mysterious corridor and visit Duke, the talking Basset Hound. All Duke’s favourite food had been taken and so they both went to find his family and Duke’s Country Dog – Premium Nibbles. They had found his family after being puppets in a game between King Tingaling and the Master and then…

Michel looked at his arm again. There was no mark but the Master had injected him with some weird-looking black goo just after he’d seen his mum, dad and uncle in a glass tank filled with water. What had happened next?

“Mum! Dad!” Michel’s voice was too weak. Were they dead? What could have happened?

“Hello?”

Where was Duke? Michel’s eyes drew to a close and he fell into a deep, deep sleep.

Two

Lost

“Scruffy?” the voice echoed.

Michel coughed out a worm then spat… Eww. He pulled himself over to the trunk of the umbrella tree and sat against it.

“Michel?”

Michel had that empty feeling you get when you’re homesick. It was painful so he clutched at his stomach. Michel yawned then stared around him at the fields of wheat, the bright blue sky – it was bright blue but it was dark to him. It had might as well be night. He didn’t know what to do and even if he did he didn’t know if he could. Were his parents alive? Something was in his throat, tears welled in his eyes and the tears soon streamed down his face. He brought his knees up and held himself tight.

“I say, Michel cease your sobbing and try to find me.”

Michel couldn’t stop and he wasn’t going to stop. His nose started to run and he wiped his nose onto his skinny black jeans.

“Disgusting!”

Michel stared at the wheat before him as it swayed from side to side making a rustling sound. He remembered going to a windmill with his mum and dad and watching as they ground up the wheat grain to turn it into flour then watched as they made bread. It was the freshest, yummiest bread he’d ever had and the smell… the smell of warm bread. They’d bought a couple of small loaves and eaten them with cheddar cheese in the car on their way back home. Dad’s lap and his seat were covered in crumbs.

“Michel! Answer me at once or else I shall… Hmm well, I don’t seem to have the mouth to bite you or do any other serious damage. However, with my vastly superior intelligence I’m sure to think of something that’ll make you regret ignoring me.”

It was lucky Michel had found this shade. He’d never felt the sun so strong as this before. He and his parents had been to Seville in the south of Spain once and it had been super hot there. It was around 44˚ Celsius or something and all they did all day was drink water, going from cafe to cafe. He was pretty sure that dad lost a few pounds, which mum was like really happy about. She even suggested moving to Seville to keep dad in shape. Seville. A little restaurant they went to every night, had the best tapas - this food that was served on small plates. So awesome but what was funny was that the waiters were so rude all the time. It made it even better though as they kept returning not to just enjoy the food but to enjoy watching the rude waiters insult them and the other customers. They seemed to really hate their jobs.

“I detest being ignored. This is just splendid. The only person, a feeble one at that, I can speak with will not respond or has lost the ability to vocalise and to top it all off my physical body has gone missing – I am literally having an out of body experience. My poor Basset Hound body could be anywhere, alone, dirty, and hungry in need of some pampering. I’m just a spirit – perhaps I’ll be like this forever. Who’ll feed my stomach? My body, where are you?”

Michel slumped down to the ground again and toyed with the soil that was around the tree. It was the darkest soil he’d seen, it looked like ground coffee. He spotted the struggling worm and played with it with his finger then held it up before

dropping it to the ground. His dad used to enjoy fishing. He kept making Michel tag along but Michel found it totally boring. Dad said it was a good time to think about things – which was true as it made Michel think about skateboarding, his RC car, his games console and pretty much everything else he could’ve been doing besides fishing with his dad. A tear crept out. He should’ve enjoyed those moments with his dad some more. Why had he been so selfish? Or like when his mum took him shopping for clothes. All Michel could do was whine and complain and say everything was lame. Still at least that orphanage in Romania had gotten some decent clothes. Mum.

“How about your germ-ridden cousin, Romain? He was not in the tank, more’s the pity. He could be anywhere on his own in desperate need of a tissue to wipe his nose. Just thinking about his nose gives me the heebie-jeebies. I thought human beings had a turning off device for any leakages. Seems as though your filthy cousin was not given one, maybe we should take him to the Mechanics Planet and get him repaired. He should never go around with that nose of his in its current state. Who knows the infectious diseases he carries. Michel? Why aren’t you answering?”

What was Michel going to do now? Would he go to an orphanage? Foster parents? But then for the people back home how would they understand that his parents and uncle had just completely disappeared. Maybe he’d be sent off to live with his grandma in France. He hoped he could remain in London, that’s where his mates were and where he knew. Skateboarding in the South Bank, going to watch Fulham play… His grandma lived in a tiny village in France where there were hardly any kids about. His dad’s mum was already dead and his dad’s dad hadn’t spoken to Michel’s dad in years. He probably would end up living in France then. Michel exhaled a deep breath. In the beginning he’d just lost his cousin, now he’d lost his entire family. His mum looking at him one last time…

“It’s quite strange all this. I feel almost normal, as if my fabulous body and mind are one and yet I feel like I’m floating. By Jove, I’ve never felt lighter!”

Parents are not meant to die… not before their kids! How could they let this happen? Even he managed to take on the Master the first time round, how couldn’t his dad, mum and uncle? Why did they give in so easily? How could they leave him?

Michel clawed at the earth and tossed it away. Tears came rushing down and he thumped the trunk of the tree.

“They’re meant to be here for me!”

“Scruffy? I say, one must always remain calm and keep that stiff upper lip I’ve heard so much about. I’m fairly certain I have developed such a lip. From years of eating grilled lamb, no doubt.”

Michel rubbed his eyes and stared at nothing, a vacant look in his eyes.

“You haven’t died, have you? But then maybe we’re both dead already. Would indeed explain a lot.”

Michel turned onto his back and slapped his face, then again and again and again until his face was even redder that it looked like he’d smeared tomato ketchup all over it. He was looking quite the mess.

“Michel, you must get a hold of yourself. Let’s talk about everything then maybe it won’t seem so bad.”

Michel got up, looked at the branches of the tree. He tried to scale the tree slipped and fell down. He kicked the tree as if it was a rugby ball then flung himself to the ground. He was never going to see his mum and dad again. He broke down.

3

Perspective

“I wonder if I can still travel. Can I move?” Duke – the spirit – went across the field then returned to Michel. “I seem to be able to. When I return home my brothers will be most surprised.”

Michel awoke from his slumber and looked up. “Duke?”

“Michel! Finally, you answer. I had wondered whether to procure a hearing aid for you. Are you okay now?”

“Duke?”

“Yes, yes. We’ve established that I am Duke. Maybe you’ve become a lamb short of a Basset Hound barbecue. Regardless, it’s good that you can hear me. Why didn’t you answer before? You do know it is most rude not to answer when one’s being spoken to by a superior.”

Michel turned around and looked up then down then side-to-side, “Where are you?”

“I haven’t the foggiest. I seem to have transcended somewhat.”

“What?” Michel’s face was covered in dried tears and yet more dirt. His eyes were red, his face red and his knuckles red raw and bloody from hitting the ground and the tree.

“My intelligence and my supreme being have left the physical and now I am omnipresent.”

“What?”

“I am here yet I am not. My body has departed and yet my spirit hasn’t.”

“What are you talking about? Are you saying you’re dead?”

“I don’t feel at all dead. I feel very much alive and enlightened. If I were dead then how am I communicating with you?”

Michel looked around once more then remembered the injection of the black goo. What had the Master given him? “Am I dead?”

“Haven’t the foggiest. Something’s amiss.”

“What happened to you after I last saw you?”

“Well, that idiotic Mr Flagstad took me away and then later I was visited by the lunatic Master who injected my fine Basset Hound body with a rather peculiar black substance. I tried to resist.”

“He gave me that as well. So how comes you’ve got no body?”

“Yet again I must answer, ‘haven’t the foggiest’.”

Michel sighed. He put his hand into the dirt and threw it away. He wanted to remain angry, he wanted to thump the tree again and run around shouting. He just couldn’t and instead he slumped down further.

There was a thunderous rumbling like the sound of a stomach rumbling, but rumbling through a megaphone.

“Did you hear that?”

“I most certainly did. That was my stomach. Poor thing is hungry and needs urgent filling.”

“So your body’s around here somewhere which must mean you can’t be dead, right? Dead things don’t get hungry… I think.”

“Are you a tad peckish?”

“I guess. I wanna eat but I don’t want to either.”

“That does sound peculiar. Whenever I’ve wanted to eat I have remained wanting to eat.”

“You want to eat even when you don’t need to eat.”

“Us Basset Hounds are a breed with an insatiable appetite. We’re such a special and unique kind of dog.”

“Where are we?”

“Another one of the Master’s punishments no doubt. There must be a way to locate my body and for us to leave this place and find our way home.”

Michel looked despondent. He bowed his head. “What’s the point? No one’s home, I’ve got no home to go to. All my family’s dead.”

“Well, Scruffy, you don’t know that for certain. We saw them in a water tank, were they actually in it? Was it an illusion?”

“Mum looked at me.”

“What I do know, Michel is that the lunatic Master cannot be trusted. He may have wanted you to believe they were dead. He may have indeed done it, yet we cannot be sure until we find out for ourselves. There are a number of possibilities.”

“Like?”

“First that your parents are as dead as that rat we had the misfortune to meet.”

Michel started to crumble, emotionally, and his sobbing began again. He thumped his fists on the ground like how Romain would.

“Steady on there, I haven’t finished. Second, they are not dead and merely floating around in a tank filled with water and drowning at this very minute.”

Michel rolled over onto his stomach. He wanted to die.

“Third, they are being held captive by the Master for a reason that is currently beyond me and fourth, the lunatic Master has neither killed them nor captured them.”

“If he ain’t got them then where are they?”

“Precisely. There is no point mourning until you have seen their rotting corpses for yourself. In the meantime there is hope that they and your germ-ridden cousin are very much alive and that my Country Dog – Premium Nibbles are also very much fresh, stored away and waiting for me to gorge upon them.”

Michel got to his feet and raised his hands, feeling about. “How comes I can’t see your spirit?”

“I have yet to work out how to unite my spirit body with my spirit mind. It could be that my spirit body is in search of some spirit nibbles. Oh wait…” Duke began to appear in front of Michel. He was like a ghost! A really fat Basset Hound ghost wearing his famous British racing green cardigan.

“Even your spirit’s fat.”

“I have a huge spirit.”

Michel stuck his hand out and tried to touch Duke instead his hand went right through Duke like he wasn’t there at all. “Weird. You are like a ghost. Perhaps we really are dead.”

“Then why on Basset Hound Land are you not the same as me?”

“I guess somehow you and your body got separated. Perhaps your body hates you and wants to go on a diet?”

“Preposterous. My body is absolutely in sync with my mind and appetite.”

Michel shook his head. “This isn’t normal.”

“Is there anything that you’ve experienced recently that could be considered as normal? Scruffy, we’ve been in abnormal territory for quite some time. Why, the first time I clapped eyes on you and heard you speak was when normality jumped out the window, took a plane and flew off into the sunset never to be heard from again.”

“It’s all hopeless.”

“Michel, need I repeat what I said earlier? Your inconsiderate creators may very well still be alive.”

“And then what? How do we find them? Even if we do the Master will just beat us.”

“What of your leaking cousin? He’s in urgent need of a thorough scrubbing and who knows how much water he’s lost through his nose. He could be as dehydrated as a sun-dried prune. There he is, the hideous creature, all out on his own.”

“I’m 12! I’m much too young for all this.”

“And finally we get to my body. Where is it? How do we find it? Is it losing its most cherished stored winter fat that’s been excessively built up since it was the body of a pup? We must locate my body and restore me to it.”

“Can you just float away?”

Duke moved over to Michel. “We had quitters like you on Basset Hound Land when things got tough in our battle against El Planeta de los Chihuahuas. If we had listened to them then we’d all be wearing frilly pink things and be spending half our time in handbags. However, the majority decided to fight on and obliterate the Chihuahuas.”

“Whatever.” Michel pulled up some grass and tore it to shreds. “I think this is like totally different.”

“You can either spend the rest of your time sulking and do nothing when your family could be out there in perilous danger or get up off your rump, on your paws and do something positive. For example, reunite me with my muscular body and my lovely, precious nibbles.”

“How do we do that?”

“Once upon a time I was lost on Basset Hound Land, didn’t have the foggiest where I was and it was yonks before my brothers found me. Some may have given up and already started divvying up my lambs and my Country Dog – Premium Nibbles, yet they found me through persistence, and because I had the key to pantry no.1 containing all the Nibbles.”

Michel stuck a blade of grass in his mouth and chewed on it.

“Have you turned into a cow?”

“I’m thinking!” Michel chewed some more. “Fine!” He got to his feet. “Let’s go and find your body and my family, even though it’s impossible. And yeah, let’s meet the Master again and be totally wiped out… again.”