| Chapter Five Matt’s Demise The following day Matt was woken very early. He was having an extremely good dream about lint balls and flying and... Suddenly he was face to face with a white-haired man who had piercing hazel-green eyes. “First rule of training JJ, sleep is good,” Matt the senior spoke in a loud whisper. Matt the younger rubbed his eyes trying to make the world clear again. “Wha’? Who’s, JJ?” Matt questioned in a baffled tone, “What’re you talking about?” “Yes, JJ that’s exactly why sleep is good. See how disoriented and tired you are? I’ll be back in five hours, slumber well.” Before the Kidd could say anything in response the former psychologist, and present trainer, was gone. “Well that was odd,” he said before rolling over and going back to sleep. ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~ “Now Erin, I leave the responsibilities to you while I’m gone. I know you can handle it,” Hannahoko’s moderately low voice echoed through the throne room. “Why can’t I go with you at least, Hannahoko? It isn’t safe for you to go like this,” Erin said in response. “Now who is worrying too much?” Hannahoko smirked and went on, “I will be riding Gracie and I’ll take Little Bear with me. I will be fine.” “So you say.” “Make sure Tyler doesn’t do anything stupid in negotiations. Obviously Russia doesn’t want to completely wipe us out of the solar system or they would have already. Let’s keep it that way. There must be something else they want. Tyler will be able to find it out,” she added after a moments thought, “hopefully.” “I still don’t understand why you can’t discuss matters with Erika yourself.” “She refuses to speak to me. Our personal relations have never been as good as our national relations. I do not want to make matters worse by going against her will and taking the place of Tyler, who oddly enough she specifically asked for. Besides,” she tried to shake off her uncertainty, “he is a diplomat. He is supposed to be ‘eloquent of speech’ and all that.” “It’s beyond me why he went into the business in the first place,” Erin muttered. “I will be back in a very short time, just hold down the fort for me?” Hannahoko implored. “I hardly think it’s conventional for a queen to go galloping through the fields to visit some pirates while her nation is under siege.” “Exactly why I’m the queen of Neptune,” Hannah’ retorted, “Make sure our guest is comfortable and that he and Matt aren’t too destructive. I‘m holding you personally responsible if there are any casualties.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ “Now that we’re outside, JJ, and have the room to work, we can start,” said Matt the elder, he had led the Kidd into the royal gardens. “Okay,” “JJ” replied (Matt the junior now easily responded to being called JJ.) The retired psychologist rummaged through a leather bag that he brought with him. After several minutes of searching he produced a stack of papers. He held one up and sprawled all over the paper was very black ink. “Now, what does this make you think of, JJ,” asked Matt. “Two lint balls playing tennis on a warm day in the middle of July. And then the one lint ball, the one on the left, narrowly misses the flying blue tennis ball..” “Blue tennis ball?” Matt cut him off. “If you want to squabble I suppose it could be violet.” “I see,” Matt said, “And what does this one make you think of?” “That is two Labradors fighting over a yellow rubber ball, but in the end they decide to be friends. And the one lab says to the other,” At this point the Kidd lowered his voice to sound more like a dog, “‘I think I can steal some steaks from the restaurant over there and then we can...” “Yes thank you JJ,” Matt interrupted him again, “What does this one make you think of?” “New Jersey.” “Hmm,” Matt said, he was slightly taken aback by the short response and rubbed his goatee, “Let’s move on to word association.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Hannahoko galloped across the open lands of Neptune on a white steed. The ground of Neptune was mostly barren in these parts with the exception of a spot of grass or a shrub here and there. At the heals of her horse was a dog that appeared to have a trace of wolf. His gait was long and smooth and his huge paws glided easily across the dusty earth. “Come on!” cried the Queen, “You guys can do better than that!” This was when the Queen was truly in her glory. A large smile was spread openly across her diamond shaped-face. She hadn’t been this happy and free in what seemed ages. The mane and tale of her horse tickled the air as she ran even faster. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ “Hmmm,” Matt rubbed his goatee, “It appears, JJ, that you are brilliantly stupid.” “My mother always said the same thing,” The Kidd agreed blushing a tiny bit. “I can work with that,” Matt said more to himself than anyone, he raised his voice to talk to the Kidd, “I want you to come at me with all your strength JJ.” JJ barely began to run before he was flipped onto his back unceremoniously. “That was awesome!” he exclaimed staring up at the blackish-blue sky, “ Can we do that again?” Matt helped him to his feet. “Second rule, never come at me with brute strength. You will fall. Try to out wit me,” Matt said that with a note of taunting in his voice. “But what if I want to fall...?” The Kidd asked sincerely. An evil grin began to form on the retired psychologist’s elfish face. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ In the distance Hannahoko could see the masts of sails. A large flag was blowing through the air (Neptune was a rather windy place) with the standard cross bone symbols of a pirate. She pulled her horse to a stop a few feet away from the water’s edge. “Whoa Gracie,” she said softly to her mare. Little Bear came to the side of her horse and whined for attention. “Shh Little Bear, not now.” She dismounted from Gracie’s back, careful not to land on Little Bear. Slowly she took a step towards the pirate’s vessel. The water that surrounded the ship was very dark blue and sparkled in the light of several of Neptune’s nine moons. A pirate’s song was being sung loudly by a number of buccaneers. We fought all night until the dawn, But soon found out we’d just begun, And when we finally was done, We sent those scoundrels on the run! The ship roared with laughter as if this were a great joke. Hannahoko looked quizzically at Little Bear and he seemed to laugh in response. “Hey!” The young queen yelled toward the ship. (Little Bear accompanied her by howling at the three visible moons.) The pirates finally fell silent as one answered, “Who’s there?” “Hey!” she cried louder. “Hey what?” he bellowed back. “Hey! I’m standing here. Are you going to tell your captain or not? I’m quite busy with matters of state and I don’t have all night.” she said impatiently. “Hannahoko?” he shouted in a surprised voice. “Who did you think it was?” “Hey! Why didn’t you say so? Stay there, we’ll send someone to fetch you.” She had to yell very loud to catch the attention of the sea rouges. Although the water was deep and they anchored very close to shore, they were indeed a very loud group of individuals. By the time she was “fetched” her voice was going hoarse. “Go home Gracie,” Hannahoko said slipping the bridle off her horse, “Erin is expecting you.” As if she understood entirely Gracie rubbed her head against Hannahoko’s shoulder and took off towards the palace. “Aren’t you afraid you’re going to lose her?” asked the pirate in the rowboat, “she seemed to be a good bit of horseflesh.” “Not at all,” answered the young queen. “If you say so miss, what do you plan to do with the mutt?” “Little Bear, of course, is coming with me,” she said authoritatively. “Whatever miss, but he’d better not flip the boat.” “Of course not, come Bear.” The dog leapt comfortable into the rowboat and they began rowing towards the dark and foreboding vessel. |