The Princess of Anuther Planet
Even so, Kabumpo was not fast enough, and as the immense black charger
with its tail and mane curling like smoke, its fiery nostrils flashing
flames a foot long, came galloping upon them, Randy flung himself face
down on the ground to escape its burning breath. The most terrifying
thing about the black steed was the complete silentness of its coming.
Its metal-shod feet struck the earth without making a sound, giving
Kabumpo such a sense of unreality he could not believe it was true, nor
move another step. In consequence, as the enormous animal swirled to
a halt before him, a dozen darting flames from its nostrils set fire to
the load of hay on his back, enveloping him in a hot and exceedingly
dangerous bonfire.
Now thoroughly aroused, Kabumpo leapt this way and that, and Randy,
unmindful of his own danger, jumped up and tried to beat out the
fire with his cloak. But the hay blazed and crackled and the Elegant
Elephant would certainly have been roasted like a potato, had he not
reared up on his hind legs and let the whole burning burden slide
from his back. Scorched and infuriated, his royal robes burned and
blackened, Kabumpo backed into a handy brook and sat down, from which
position he glared with positive hatred at his prancing adversary. But
a complete change had come over this strange and unbelievable steed;
his nostrils no longer spurted flames and as Randy plumped down beside
Kabumpo, deciding this was the safest spot for both of them, the lordly
creature dropped to its knees and touched its forehead three times to
the earth.
"Away, away! You big meddlesome menace!" panted the Elegant Elephant,
throwing up his trunk. "Begone, you good-for-nothing hay burner!"
"But, Kabumpo," pleaded Randy, as the horse, paying no attention to the
Elegant Elephant's angry screeches, began throwing little puffs of red
smoke into the air, "he's trying to give us a message. LOOK!"
"Hail and salutations!" The words floated out smoothly and ranged
themselves in a neat line. "I hereby acknowledge you as my master! I
can flash fire from the eye, the nose and the mouth; but you--you flash
fire from the whole body! Hail and salutations from Thun, the Thunder
Colt. Yonder rests my Mistress Planetty, Princess of Anuther Planet!
Who are you, great-and-much-to-be-envied spurter of fire?"
"Sky writing!" gasped Randy. "Oh, Kabumpo, how're we going to
answer? He did not hear your scolding. I don't believe he can hear
at all. Fire spurter! Ho, ho! And HOW are you going to keep up that
reputation?"
"I'm not!" grunted Kabumpo, but in a much less savage voice, for he was
almost completely won over by the Thunder Colt's flattery. "Hmmm-hhh,
let me see, now, couldn't we signal to the silly brute? There he stands
looking up in the air for an answer."
"Well," Randy said, "with your trunk and my arms we could form any
number of letters, so--"
"This is Kabumpo, Elegant Elephant of Oz. I am Randy, King of Regalia."
With infinite pains and patience the two spelled out the message.
Puzzled at first, then seeming to understand, Thun's clear yellow eyes
snapped and twinkled with interest. Tossing his smoky mane, he puffed a
single word into the air. "Come!" Then away he flashed at his noiseless
gallop.
"Shall we?" cried Randy, jumping out of the creek, for he was curious
to know more about the Thunder Colt and to meet the Princess of Anuther
Planet. "Are you cooled off? Did the water put you out?"
"Oh, I'm put out all right," grumbled Kabumpo, lurching up the bank.
"Very put out and in splendid shape to meet a Princess, I must say."
"Come on, you don't look so bad," urged Randy, tugging impatiently at
his tusk, while Kabumpo himself endeavored to wring the water out of
his robe with his trunk. "Even without any trappings or jewels at all,
you'd stand out in any company. There's nobody bigger or handsomer than
you, Kabumpo! Know it?"
"HAH!" The Elegant Elephant let go his robe and gave Randy a quick
embrace. "Then what are we waiting for, little Braggerwagger?"
Tossing the young monarch lightly over his shoulder, the Elegant
Elephant started after the Thunder Colt, moving almost as smoothly and
silently as Thun himself. Without one look behind, Thun had disappeared
into a green forest, and how cool and delicious it seemed to Randy
and Kabumpo after the dry desert lands they had been traversing.
Flashing in and out between the tall trees, the Thunder Colt led them
to an ancient oak, set by itself in a little clearing. Here, leaning
thoughtfully against the bole of the tree, stood the little Princess of
Anuther Planet.
Kabumpo, recognizing royalty at once when he saw it, lifted his trunk
in a grave and dignified salute. Randy bowed, but in such a daze of
surprise and admiration he scarcely knew he was bowing. The small
figure under the oak was strange and beautiful beyond description,
giving an impression both of strength and delicacy. Planetty was
fashioned of tiny meshed links, fine as the chain mail worn by medieval
knights, of a metal that resembled silver, but which at the same time
was iridescent and sparkling as glass. Yet the Princess of Anuther
Planet was live and soft as Randy's own flesh-and-bone self. Her eyes
were clear and yellow like Thun's; her hair, a cascade of gossamer
net, sprayed out over her shoulders and fell half-way to her feet.
Planetty's garments, trim and shaped to her figure, were of some
veil-like net, and, floating from her shoulders, was a cloak of larger
meshed metal thread almost like a fisherman's net.
"Highnesses, Highness! Oh, very high Highnesses!" Prancing lightly
before her, Thun puffed his announcement importantly into the air.
"Here you see Kabumpty, Nelegant Nelephant of Noz, and Sandy, King of
Segalia."
"Oh, my goodness! He has us all mixed up," worried Randy in a whispered
aside to Kabumpo, whose ears had gone straight back at the dreadful
name Thun had fastened upon him.
"Never mind, I too am mixed up. Everything down here is too perfectly
lettling."
"Oh, you can speak?" Leaning forward, Randy gazed delightedly down at
the little metal maiden. He had been afraid at first she would use the
same sky-writing talk as Thun.
"But surely," smiled Planetty, each word striking the air with the
distinctness of a silver bell, so that Randy was almost as interested
in the tune as in the sense. "Only the creature folk on Anuther Planet
are without power of speech or sound making. They must go soft and
silently. That is the lenith law."
"And a good law, too," observed Kabumpo, looking resentfully up at the
Thunder Colt's fading message. "Permit me to introduce myself again.
Your Highness, I am Kabumpo, Elegant Elephant of Oz, and this is Randy,
King of Regalia, which is also in Oz."
"Oz?" marveled Planetty, lifting her spear-like silver staff, whose
tip, ending in three metal links, fascinated Randy. "Is this, then,
the Planet of Oz? And what are those, and these, and this?" In rapid
succession the little Princess touched a cluster of violets growing
round the base of the oak, a moss-covered rock and the tall tree itself.
"Why, flowers, rocks and a tree," laughed Randy. "Surely you must have
flowers, trees and rocks on Anuther Planet."
"No, no, nothing like this--all these colors and shapes. Everything on
my planet is flat and greyling." The metal maiden raised her hands, as
she searched for the right words to explain Anuther Planet. "It is all
so different with us," she confessed, dropping her arms to her side.
"Yonder, we have zonitors; not trees, but tall shafts of metal to which
we fasten our nets when we sleep or rest. Underfoot we have network of
various sizes and thicknesses with here and there sprays of vanadium.
In our vanadium springs we freshen and renew ourselves, and without
them we stiffen and cease to move."
With one finger pressed to his forehead, Randy tried to visualize
Planetty's strange greyling world, but Kabumpo, ever more practical,
inquired sharply:
"And how often must you refresh and renew yourselves, Princess?"
"Every sonestor in the earling," answered the Princess with a bright
nod.
Thun, tiring of a conversation he could not hear, had cantered off to
investigate a rabbit, and Randy, sliding to the ground, came over to
stand nearer to this strange little Princess.
"Kabumpo and I do not understand all those words," he told her gently.
"'Sonestor--earling'--what do they mean?"
"Why, a sonestor," trilled Planetty, throwing back her head and showing
all of her tiny silver teeth, "is one dark, one light, one dark, one
light, one dark, one light, one dark, one light, one dark, one light,
one dark, one light, one dark, one light, and earling is when you waken
from ret."
"Help!" shuddered Kabumpo shaking his ears as if he had a bee in them.
"I know what she means," crowed Randy, snapping his fingers gleefully.
"A sonestor on Anuther Planet is the same as a week here; all those
lights and darks are days, and earling is the morning and ret is rest!"
"Then, do you realize," worried Kabumpo, as Planetty looked
questioningly from one to the other, "that if this little lady and her
colt are separated from their vanadium springs for a week, they will
become stiff, motionless statues? And that--" the Elegant Elephant
looked the pretty little Princess first up and then down. "That would
be a great pity! We must help them back to Anuther Planet as soon as we
can, my boy."
"Yes, yes, that is what you must do," Planetty clapped her small
silvery hands and blew a kiss to the elephant. "If Thun had just not
jumped on that thunderbolt!"
"Jumped on a thunderbolt, did he?" A reluctant admiration crept into
Kabumpo's voice. The Princess nodded so emphatically her long, lovely
hair danced and shimmered round her face like a cloud shot with
starlight.
"You see," she went on gravely, "we were on our way to a zorodell."
Kabumpo and Randy exchanged startled glances, but, realizing there
would be many odd words in Planetty's language, did not interrupt her.
"And half-way there," continued Planetty calmly, "a dreadful storm
overtook us. A bright flash of lightning frightened Thun, and though
I signaled for him to stop, he sprang right up on a huge glowing
thunderbolt that had fallen across the netway, and it fell and fell and
fell--bringing us to where we now are."
"Well, that's one way of going places," commented Kabumpo, swinging his
trunk from side to side.
"But how can we find Anuther Planet when none of us fly?" demanded
Randy anxiously. "It must be miles above this country, for think how
fast and far thunderbolts fall when they fall."
"Now you've forgotten the Red Jinn," boomed Kabumpo, winking meaningly
at the young King, for at Randy's words the little Princess had covered
her face with her hands and three yellow jewels had trickled through
her fingers. "Jinnicky can help Planetty and Thun go any place they
wish," insisted Kabumpo in his loud challenging bass. "Come, Princess,
summon your fire-breathing steed, and we will travel on to the most
powerful wizard in Ev."
"Ev? Wizard? Oh, how gay it all sounds." Planetty's voice rang out
merrily as Christmas bells. With a lively skip she tapped her staff
three times on the ground, and Thun, though out of sight, came
instantly bounding back to his little mistress. Vaulting easily upon
his back, the Princess of Anuther Planet lifted her staff, and Kabumpo,
picking up Randy, started away like a whole conquering army.