League Of Extraordinary Robots (1)
Yolanda Jackson

 

Chapter 1
THE SPOILED PRINCE

In the land of Mayfair, lived a king by the name of Alfred and his wife, Queen Jasline. King Alfred and Queen Jasline had two children, the oldest Prince Harry and his younger sister, Princess Cilla.
Prince Harry was a very happy little prince because you see Harry was very spoiled and rotten. Nobody, absolutely nobody was allowed to say ‘no’ to Prince Harry when he wanted something, or to punish him when he did something wrong or even to criticize him. Whatever Harry wanted to have, Harry had and whatever Harry wanted to do, Harry did and that was just the way it was.
Prince Harry was always getting into mischief, whether it was chasing his sister around the castle with his scary mask or snatching the clothing off the line for the hired help to re-clean them all over again. Harry thought this last was hilarious and he would laugh at all the servants, as he caused their jobs to be much harder as they had to do some of them all over again.
“Please, your Highness,” said the little laundry girl, who was just barely tall enough to reach the clothesline to hang things up. “Please don’t throw the washing on the ground again. My back hurts and I am so tired of washing clothes and hanging them on the line.”
Prince Harry just laughed and grabbing the King’s royal cape off the line he chased the little laundry girl all over the yard until he knocked her down with it, then he dropped it down over her head and of course it was so wet that by the time she got it off from herself she was soaking wet and very, very angry.
“I’ll give him what for,” she muttered to herself and started after Prince Harry with the king’s royal cape tucked under her arm.
“I’ll give him a taste of his own medicine.” The little laundry girl had four brothers and she knew just how to deal with boys when they acted spoiled and rotten.
“No, no, you mustn’t,” cried one of the laundry women, who ran out and grabbed the laundry girl by the arm and pulled her back. “No one is allowed to discipline the prince or even to criticize him, remember? The last people who told King Alfred that his son was spoiled and rotten disappeared and have never been heard from again. Remember, it is strictly against the law to say anything negative about the royal family. I know that boy is trouble on wheels, but you just mustn’t say anything or you’ll be the one in trouble.”
The little laundry girl went with the older woman but the look she gave Prince Harry, well, if looks really could kill, nobody would have had to worry about Prince Harry’s mischief again.
Every day Prince Harry had a birthday party, even though it wasn’t his birthday. And when it was his birthday, well, you can imagine the kind of a celebration they had then. The king and queen wanted to please Harry and stop him from having his tantrums, so they supplied him with a birthday party every day.
They knew that if Harry did not have his birthday party he would be a very unhappy little boy and an unhappy Harry was a terrible thing, a very terrible thing indeed!
Most importantly, the town’s people got tired of it. A birthday party every day for the same person became boring. Prince Harry had everything he could ever want, so every time someone would bring him a gift, Harry would toss it to the floor like a piece of garbage, often without even bothering to unwrap it.
Royalty and high society came from near and far to see Harry, because they knew that someday he would be the king, but when they left, they had a bad taste in their mouths.
“That boy is a spoiled brat!” said Harry’s Great Uncle Claudius to his wife Isabella. “He’s just like his father was at that age.”
“Shhh,” said Great Aunt Isabella, pushing him quickly towards their carriage. “You know better than to say anything like that. It’s against the law to criticize a member of the royal family, remember? What if someone heard you?”
“But I am a member of the royal family,” argued Great Uncle Claudius. “If anyone heard what I said and told, why then they’d be criticizing a member of the royal family so I’m safe, right?”
“I’m not sure and I don’t want to find out,” said Great Aunt Isabella. “Now hurry and get yourself in that carriage before you say something that will get us in trouble.”
“All right, all right,” grumbled Great Uncle Claudius. “But somebody, who shan’t be mentioned, could do with some good old fashioned discipline. A birthday party every day, the idea, such foolishness! His grandfather and I weren’t raised that way!”
“If you’re talking about the royal pain I completely agree with you, your highness,” said their coachman, as he held the door open for them to climb into the coach.
“Reginald!” said Great Aunt Isadora sharply. “I’ll thank you to keep your mouth closed about such things. I don’t want to disappear never to be seen again even if you two wouldn’t mind.”
“Yes Princess Isadora,” said the coachman. He managed, just barely, to keep a straight face but Great Uncle Claudius grinned as he climbed into the coach behind his wife and gave him a big wink.
“It’s a shame, a real shame,” said Great Uncle Claudius when they had driven far enough away from the castle to know that no one was near enough to hear what they were saying. “That boy is totally out of control and his parents just stand by and let him do as he feels fit. Because they are the king and queen, no one is brave enough to say anything. Even the members of the royal family are afraid to speak about Harry’s rude behavior. His parents aren’t doing him any favor. It’s a shame, a real shame.”
Now that you know a bit about the royal family, let me tell you about the land of Mayfair itself and the other lands around it.
Mayfair was one of the few mystical, magical lands left; most of the others had been invaded by the Bots. Actually invaded may not be the right word. The Bots weren’t a warlike group that overpowered nations and took over, in fact, they were really very friendly and kind beings, it was just that there were so many of them, that when they moved into an area, they simply took over and because they were such an advanced society and had so much to offer, most of the residents were glad to have them there.
King Alfred however did not like the idea of having the Bots move into Mayfair. He very much liked being the king and having his own way about everything and he wanted things to stay just the way they were. It is very easy to see who young Prince Harry took after isn’t it?
King Alfred ordered a 100 million mile wall to be built. “It is the longest wall ever built,” he told the people of Mayfair. “I will have guards guarding the wall day and night, thousands of guards lined up to keep watch. They will make sure that none of the evil Bots get into our beautiful land. I will make sure that you are all protected from the evil Bots.”
The king didn’t add that in keeping watch so that no Bots could enter Mayfair, the guards were also keeping watch to make sure that none of the people of Mayfair could leave without the king knowing about it and giving permission and King Alfred was not about to give permission. “I like things just the way they are,” he told Queen Jasline. “And that’s just the way I plan to keep them.”
“Please your majesty,” called Julius, an older man who had lived in Mayfair all of his life, at least so far, as he liked to tell people. “None of us have ever seen a Bot. Could you tell us what the Bots are like?”
“Gladly,” said King Alfred. He held his hands high in the air and curled his fingers so that they looked like claws and made the scariest face he could possibly make. “They look sort of like this only worse,” he told the people. They are huge ape like creatures over fifteen feet tall and they weight over a ton or more. They carry big clubs and they could kill each one of you with one blow of their clubs without even half trying. They came to some of our neighboring lands in armies of hundreds, killing and destroying everything in sight. But you don’t have to worry, we have our wall and as long as you stay right here in our own land, right behind the wall, you will be safe from the Bots but if you go out beyond the wall you will be in danger of being caught and destroyed by the Bots.”
Many of the people were beginning to feel sick of the royal family. “I feel as if we are being held prisioners in our own land,” whispered Andrea, to her neighbor Bettina. “I think the king is just making up about the Bots in order to keep us all here, but on the other hand, what if he’s not? What if he’s really not?”
Many of the people felt the same way but they were careful not to let the king or any of his guards hear them say so because of the law about saying anything negative about a member of the royal family. None of them wanted to disappear in the night, never to be seen again.
There was one old man by the name of Wisker, who always questioned the king, but he was careful to do it underground in his secret tunnel that not even King Alfred knew about. Wisker wasn’t just any old man; he was an old wizard who at one time had worked for the king, performing magical tricks for the king and his royal visitors. The king had gotten sick of Wisker’s same tricks and had thrown him to the side. “You are not a real wizard,” he had told Wisker. “You don’t do real magic, just silly tricks. You are not a real wizard at all!”
Now this wasn’t true. Wisker was not only a real wizard but a very powerful one at that. He was tall, with very pale skin, and he wore a black cape and a black hood to match. He had a magical book, one so very powerful, that he dare not let it leave his hands. “This book is full of magic spells,” Wisker told his friends. “I hate to think what would happen if it ever fell into the wrong hands and someone found out how to open it.” The book was made of pure leather and had a golden lock to which only Wisker himself knew the combination.
One day Wisker went to the royal throne room to confront the king. “You are not ruling the kingdom of Mayfair fairly or wisely,” he told him. “You must change your ways or a punishment is coming upon your land.”
King Alfred laughed. “You are a silly old fool,” he told him. “Now get out of my sight before I have you tossed away where no one will ever see you again.”
King Alfred didn’t believe that Wisker was really a magician but simply a trickster but he wasn’t sure and he didn’t dare have him thrown out into the darkest part of Mayfair where the sun never shone and from which nobody, NOBODY had ever found their way back.
“If he is a real wizard, I might need him to be on my side at some point,” he reflected, so he satisfied himself with just calling Wisker an old fool and letting it go at that.
Wisker began traveling in and out from the land of Mayfair. He would cast a magic spell and the guards would never even notice him as he passed by them. He traveled to this part of the land outside of Mayfair and to that part of the land outside of Mayfair until at last he satisfied himself that he knew what the Bots were really like.
After that Wisker began calling for nightly meeting in the graveyard. Many of the citizens of Mayfair attended and those who were too afraid to attend would get their information about what had been said from their neighbors who had been there.
“The king is lying to you,” Wisker told the people. “For some reason he is keeping the people of Mayfair hostage and not telling them the truth about the Bots.”
“You tell one thing and King Alfred tells another,” said one man. “How do we know what to believe? How do we know who is telling the truth?”
Wisker reached into of his long cape and pulled out a large silver coin. “This will show you that I have been out of the land of Mayfair,” he told them. The coin had a picture of the Bots on it and was crafted from the finest silver available and by the hands of a very skilled craftsman. As the coin was passed around through the crowd for all to see, it began to shine brighter and brighter until by the time it got back to Wisker it was shining brighter than anything any of them had ever seen before.
One man, by the name of Nigel, stepped forward and reached out to touch the coin again. He very carefully laid one finger on it.
“How did you get this?” he asked Wisker, as he gently rubbed his finger over the glowing design on the coin.
“I got it from a Bot,” answered Wisker. “The Bots are mere harmless creatures and the king of Mayfair is not telling his citizens the truth.”
“How do we know that you didn’t make it?” asked Bettina, who together with her friend Andrea was in the crowd. “You are after all a wizard.”
“I may be a wizard, but I could never imagine something like this,” answered Wisker.
The people continued to gaze at the coin and then they began to wonder what it was really like outside of Mayfair.
“Well, how do we get out of here?” asked Nigal. “I for one want to see what it is really like outside of Mayfair.”
“First we must keep this a secret,” said Wisker. “We must take it slow. If the king finds out that we know he isn’t being truthful with us, he will have us all beheaded. I am a wizard and a powerful one, but the king has magic too, by virtue of his position as king and I am not sure if I can defeat him or not.”
“We must be very careful,” called out a voice and the crowd murmured in agreement.
Wisker looked out over the crowd and they all quieted, waiting to see what he would say next.
“I will choose one person to take on my next journey,” he announced.
“Take me, take me,” called out several voices.
“No, take me,” said one skeptical old man by the name of William, raising his hands and demanding to go.
“No,” called out one woman. “You are the town drunk. Who is going to believe you no matter what you say when you come back? Take me, Wisker, take me with you.”
“No,” said William. “I would be the perfect one to go with you. I may be a drunk but you all know me and you all know that I am not a liar. You all know that whatever I would tell you when we came back would be the truth.”
“Yes, you are the one whom I will take with me, William,’ said Wisker. He drew out his magic wand and the group quieted once again, anxious to see what was about to happen. He twirled his wand around in the air above his head. “Dibbldy dobledy wibbldy woo,” he said, in a voice much unlike his usual speaking voice. Then he pointed his wand straight at William and continued. “We’ll go on this trip, just me and you.”
Suddenly the wand let of sparkles of light and within miutes Wiskers and William disappeared. The people looked all around, where had they gone? Suddenly there was a big bang and the underground tunnel began to shake. Lights, the colors of rainbows bounced off the tunnel walls. There was one more big blast and then all was quiet, very, very quiet. Then the people could hear the sound of the soldiers’ foot steps above them.
The people were very fearful. They knew that if they were caught by the royal guards something terrible might happen to them. They quickly put out and the lamps and remained extremely quiet, just as quiet as quiet could be.
After a little while one man whispered, “Someone should go and see if the coast is clear.” Everyone agreed that what he said was true, but no one felt brave enough to be the one to go and look so they all just stayed there together as quiet as quiet could be.
In the meantime, Wiskers and William, were having their own adventure on their way to the city of Bots. They found themselves encased in a light which landed on the ground and they stepped out of it. William was so amazed at Wiskers powers that he began to bow down to him but Wiskers grabbed him by the hands and pulled him back up. “No, you don’t bow to me,” he told him. “I am not worthy of your praises. I am but a man who has been granted special gifts.”
William got up and looked all around. He realized as he gathered his thoughts that he was no longer in Mayfair but in a whole different world. His eyes bulged almost out of their sockets as he looked around. He had never seen anything like this in his life. “This can’t be,” he whispered to himself, then he began to run towards the towns of the Bots.
Wiskers ran after him. “Hey, slow down,” he told him. “You’ll have time to see everything, You don’t have to hurry.”
William stared all around, his mouth open in amazement. Instead of buildings made of wood or stone, he saw buildings made of steel that floated through the air. Instead of horse drawn carriages, he saw vehicles that flew in mid air at the speed of light. Bright lights were everywhere and most importantly there were the Bots. They were robots with huge glass heads, big blue eyes, and white fabricated bodies. They moved as fast as light and as far as William was concerned there had to have been a million of them.
“What in the world are they?” he asked Wiskers as soon as he found himself able to speak.

 

 

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Copyright © 2010 Yolanda Jackson
Published on the World Wide Web by "www.storymania.com"