Read Online Magic Parcel by Frank English - Free Book Online Page A

evil storytellers would have us believe. We must ...”
    The midday bell interrupted Tarna, summoning all in earshot to the table for the afternoon repast. Reluctant to leave but not able to resist, the brothers set off down the linking corridor to their family dining area.
    Resplendent in his ‘king’ robes, their father squatted on a raised throne-like seat at the head of the great oval table, and, as his elder son entered, the area above his enormous globe-like eyes, where there would normally have been brows, wrinkled upwards in his one show of surprise.
    â€œWe are honoured indeed,” Oompah croaked in semi-mock seriousness, “to have one so important to take meat at our humble table. Were we able to make it, our bow would be of the lowest and most respectful for the occasion.” He broke off to incline his bulbous head and sweep his long thin arm across his chest in illustration of his words. Tarna’s only response was a slight lowering of the chin and setting his lips into a line of restraint, for he knew his father’s wit of old. If he were to allow it, he could so easily be drawn into the old verbal jousts he remembered with a wince. He had come with a need for food not for exchanges to help sharpen his father’s wit nor alleviate the boredom of his short fat prison.
    â€œWe were attacked by the Senti, Father,” Dominic said through a mouthful of bread and honey.
    â€œThat’s impossible!” Oompah blurted out. “There is no way they could have entered the Fortress.”
    â€œImpossible it may be,” Tarna said not wanting to miss his opportunity, “fact it certainly is. They were ‘directed’, knowing what they wanted, and so shrugged aside your defences without engaging them. They carried off their prize - the two Otherworldlings.”
    â€œIf that is all they came for, and took,” Oompah went on with visible relief, “then we can be thankful they found nothing more useful.”
    â€œYou don’t seem to understand,” Tarna insisted quietly. “Those two boys could turn out to be a very costly ‘useless’ package. They have something of enormous value that Seth obviously desires greatly, but what that is, I cannot perceive just yet. The Chieftain has encountered a blockage; a thick impenetrable mist shrouding the whole episode which he cannot pierce. He feels that if Seth discovers that which he desires, we may as well go back to hiding in caves so swift and total will be his victory.”
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    The table company fell silent, not wishing to heed Tarna’s words but not being able to avoid them. His prophecies were too real, and too close to be comfortable, and the one thing no one there wished to have disturbed was his comfort. Such talk should be confined to fairy tale telling by the fire on a cold winter’s evening when all was safe in its cocoon of make-believe.
    Oompah ate slowly, deliberately, that great cavernous jaw making it very difficult to chew the smaller morsels. As he dined, his mind ran back to the times before he had this ... this abominable curse to carry around with him, to the time when he was dressed in human form. As these thoughts ran through his mind, a wave of bitterness and hate for his curser rippled through his body, taking him almost to the point of despair; despair of ever being human again.
    Then a sound, clear and fresh, cut through the depression, dispelling the gloom, and breathing a welcome breeze of spring into their lives. A lark had risen, sending out its fluid tones of happiness through the world. The King’s warty face changed slowly, his eyes twitching towards the sound which set even his flapping feet moving in time with its message of joy. He heaved his ungainly body out of the chair and half-hopped, half-waddled across to an open window where his eyes strained to find the bird. By this time it had become a dot, a mere speck in the white-flecked blue sky