Chapter 39 - Return to the Mound

Cable was hungry and thirsty and cold and weary and sore from head to toe. He lay on the hard ground, unwilling to move another inch. His destination lay below him, just a few feet away, yet he felt utterly unable to complete his journey. The sun was about to set on what had been one of the most difficult journeys of his life, and all he could think was, good riddance. All he wanted to do was lay down and sleep and never wake up.

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The day had begun with great promise. Doofus--Jimbo’s “pet wild boar”--had led Cable and Jimbo to the river and to the discovery of the glorious but mysterious trumpet. When Cable had first set his hands on the trumpet, his whole body trembled with excitement. The note that had been left by Ronaldus had exhorted him and Jimbo to “let the trumpet resound, that the evil ones shall be no more.” The “evil ones,” of course, referred to the hideous cloaked creatures that just days before had terrorized Cable and nearly thrown him into a smoking mound atop a nearby mountain. The thought of blaring a trumpet and ridding the land of those dastardly beings thrilled Cable. At least, it did at first.

But his excitement was tempered as he realized that, in order to complete his mission, he had to return to the mound. That meant that he would probably encounter the creatures again. And while it was exciting in his mind, from a distance, to think that he could save the land from their fearsome influence, it was another thing entirely to actually do it.

After retrieving the trumpet, Cable had returned back to the trail that Doofus had blazed. He walked behind Jimbo, who in turn followed the fearless Doofus. Every once in awhile, Cable had tried to pass Jimbo and assume second place in the procession. After all, Cable figured that Jimbo would be a lot better at fighting off any possible cowardly assault from behind. But whenever Cable got in front of Jimbo, Doofus would stop, look backward, and growl. And then he’d refuse to move until Jimbo moved back in front of Cable. Doofus’ shenanigans greatly disturbed Cable, and more than once he felt like rearing back and giving the boar a mighty boot in his rear end. But common sense did eventually prevail in the mind of the 16-year-old prince, impassioned teenager though he was. After all, there was no sense in offending the one creature that actually knew where they were going. Besides, the boar was comprised of 500 pounds of solid muscle. Kicking that kind of mass was only marginally smarter than kicking a stone wall.

What had aggravated Cable further was that the path was so circuitous. From a distance, Cable could see the hilltop that they would eventually need to ascend. Every once in awhile, when the group reached a clearing, Cable had been able to see the hill, towering over the river in the distance. But Doofus wouldn’t lead them straight to it. Instead, he led them in seemingly every other direction. They slogged through swamps and trudged through streams, such that all of Cable’s clothing from the waist down was completely soaked. They seemingly ascended and descended every hill in the entire countryside. As Cable feet got wetter, his legs got heavier, and his journey grew drearier.

At one point, Cable had gotten completely fed up with Doofus’ relentlessly wearying trek. He grabbed Jimbo by the back of his cloak and cried out, “Why doesn’t that dumb animal just lead us to the mound!”

Jimbo had looked around and then put an index finger to his lips. “Shhhh...” he whispered. “You’ll hurt his feelings.”

But Cable would have none of it as he bellowed, “Jimbo, I could care less about the emotional well-being of a pet wild boar. We’ve got to get to that mound, and I don’t think it’s really that far away. But this critter is making us cover every square inch of the countryside before we ever get there. I’m sick of it! I just want to get this over with!”

Jimbo then tapped Doofus on the back. This evidently was the signal to stop, because Doofus suddenly stopped moving. Then Jimbo turned and faced Cable. In a low voice, he said, “Look, Herc, I know this isn’t particularly easy. I’m not very fond of waddling around in wet feet meself. But I need you to think for just a minute. The enemy knows where we started from, because--in case you forgot--they swooped in after we left and burned my lovely castle down to the ground. And the enemy probably knows where we’re going. Trust me--bad guys know when trouble is coming their way. So, if they know where we started and they know where we’re going, they are going to be on the lookout for us.

“So now you’ve got to ask yourself the question: where will they be looking? Well, as we talked about earlier, evil is lazy. And because those blokes are lazy, they think we’re lazy as well. They figure we’ll just take the straightest route to that mound, ‘cause that’s exactly what they’d do. Well, Herc, we are neither lazy nor dumb. We’re not gonna do what they think we’re gonna do. We’re gonna wind our way ‘round the countryside and sneak up on ‘em. They’ll never know what hit ‘em, Herc! Just let Doofus do what he does best. Okay?”

Cable knew that Jimbo was right. But Cable was also getting tired and grumpy, and he didn’t want to give Jimbo too much satisfaction in being right. So he just mumbled, “Okay, fine,” and started moving. As he stared at Doofus, he could have sworn that a smug smile crossed over the boar’s face before he turned and started leading again. When a young man is tired, even the expressions on animals’ faces can become tremendously annoying.

As the journey wore on, however, Cable had noticed something mysterious happen. The longer they walked, the heavier the trumpet felt. At first, Cable just figured his arm was growing tired. But as time wore on, he realized that it was more than fatigue. After all, Cable had carried a sword for long distances without growing weary, and a sword weighs more than a trumpet. No, it seemed as though there was something magical about this trumpet. The closer they came to their destination, the weightier the trumpet seemed to become. Finally, as the afternoon sun started to decline toward the horizon, Cable felt he couldn’t go another inch. He plopped to the ground, let the trumpet tumble down at his side, and cried out, “I’m finished! I need a rest!”

Jimbo tapped Doofus on the back again, and the loyal boar stopped once again. “What seems to be the matter, mate?” he said as he turned back toward Cable.

It killed Cable to say anything, because he knew that Jimbo already had a fairly low opinion of his physique. But Cable had to toss his pride aside in order to find some rest for his exhausted bones. After pausing to catch his breath, Cable said, “Jimbo, you can laugh all you want, but I can’t carry that trumpet another step. It’s been growing heavier and heavier and heavier and heavier. I’m done, Jimbo. The whole thing is just too much.”

Jimbo gingerly walked over to the trumpet, as if he were approaching a cardinal that at any moment might fly away. Upon reaching the trumpet, he squatted down and stared intently for several awkward seconds. He then reached out, grabbed the instrument, and quickly stood up.

But after a short moment on his feet, Jimbo bent over at the waist and dropped the trumpet to the ground. “Crikey, mate! That’s the heaviest little gizmo I’ve ever laid hands on!” Jimbo exclaimed.

Cable felt some measure of relief in knowing that the weight of the trumpet was not his imagination. But his sense of satisfaction didn’t last long. He knew that they still needed to ascend the hill and reach the mound. A wave of despair washed over Cable. “Jimbo, I feel like we’ve been given an impossible task,” he said. “I get the feeling that evil creatures are all over the place, and it’s up to us to get rid of them. But we can’t do it. We just...we just don’t have the strength. And not only that, I don’t even really know what we’re supposed to do when we reach the mound. What if we get there and a bunch of the creatures are waiting for us? Am I supposed to just blow the trumpet then? Do I have to be on top of the mound to blow it? Do I have to blow it for 15 seconds? Gee whiz, I don’t even know how to play the doggone trumpet! Look--why don’t you play it, Jimbo?”

Jimbo pondered the question for a moment, scratching his chin and rubbing his whiskers as he did so. He finally shook his head and said, “No, Herc. I can’t do it. I think it’s pretty clear--you found the trumpet, and it is your responsibility to play it. I can help you carry it, and I’ll do everything I can--even if it kills me--to get you up to that miserable mound. But you’ve got to play it, Herc. There’s no other way around it.”

Cable fell silent. He felt like a tremendous burden was sitting on his shoulders, and he was powerless to even stand, let alone act. He could only shake his head and scratch his hair and wonder.

Jimbo broke the silence. “So Herc--do you remember anything from your first time at the mound? Was there any clue about what you’d need to do? You’ve got to be a bit of a detective, Herc. We haven’t come this far for nothing. Just think. Were there any clues?”

Cable thought for a moment. His first trip to the mound was fearful, and he didn’t relish the thought of recalling it. “Well, Jimbo, I remember being grabbed and being led over to the door. I...I remember some kind of plaque over the door. It was kind of obscure...”

“What did it say, mate?” Jimbo interrupted.

“It said something like, ‘In this place let the call go forth, that the madness may end.’ It was strange, because my father’s seal was at the bottom of the plaque, like he had put it there himself. The creatures said that they were agents of the king, and that they’d been sent to call me to the mound. I just had to answer the call and step through the door. I...I couldn’t argue with them. I didn’t know what to think. I just knew they couldn’t be right. My father wouldn’t have wanted me to go through that door, no matter what those hideous creatures said. I just knew it.”

After a few more seconds of rubbing his chin, Jimbo jumped up and yelled, “Kili-kili-kili! Mamba mamba mamba!” He then twirled around, did a headstand, did a few pushups while doing his headstand, and then vaulted himself back to his feet. “I’ve got it, Herc! It all makes sense now! I’m sure you’re father did put up that plaque, but it didn’t mean what the creatures said it meant! Not at all!”

“So what does it mean?” Cable asked.

“It means that you’ve got to take that trumpet and blare it into the pit!” declared Jimbo. “Somehow, we’ve got to get back to the mound’s door, open it, and let the trumpet’s call go out! Somehow, when we do that, the creatures will be doomed and their madness will come to an end.”

“How is playing a trumpet supposed to kill those...those beasts?” Cable asked.

“Look, mate, I don’t know exactly how it works. But the king has declared it, right? You saw his seal, didn’t you? And aren’t you the one who told me that your father always said, ‘Don’t let the things that you don’t understand get in the way of the things that you do understand’? Well, Herc, here’s the deal. We’ve gotta get to that mound, and you’ve got to play that trumpet and let it resound into the heart of the pit. We don’t know how we’re gonna get the trumpet up there, and we don’t know how you’re going to be able to lift it to your lips, and we don’t know how you’re going to play it. But we’ve just gotta do it.” Then, turning to Doofus, Jimbo added, “Besides, my friend’s feelings are gonna be hurt if we give up now. Won’t they, Doofus-baby?” Jimbo stooped down to pet the boar, and Doofus rubbed his head playfully against Jimbo’s knee.

Cable came over to try and pet the animal, but Doofus backed up a step and growled. He then grabbed a corner of Jimbo’s cloak and shook his head vigorously. Jimbo rose to his feet and said, “That’s our cue, Herc. We’d better get going. Lead the way, Doofus old boy!”

Cable was irritated. “But Jimbo--what are we going to do with the trumpet? I can’t lift it, and you can’t lift it.”

Jimbo rubbed his chin once again and looked skyward. Doofus seemed to know to wait while Jimbo thought. Jimbo then said, “Well, if I can’t do it, and you can’t do it, why don’t we both try it together?” Cable was sure it wouldn’t work, but he didn’t have any better ideas. So he knelt down next to the trumpet and grabbed the mouthpiece while Jimbo grabbed the bell. Together they lifted. Surprisingly, the trumpet lifted with relative ease. It was heavier than a regular trumpet, and it was somewhat awkward having to walk side-by-side with Jimbo. But working together, the pair carried their burden and followed Doofus.

The latter portion of their journey was steep and tiring. Every once in awhile, they would reach some rock outcroppings where the easiest way would be to use both hands to climb. But whenever one of them let go of the trumpet to try and climb, the trumpet seemed to multiply its weight and the other person could no longer hold it. They could only continue if both of them held the trumpet as they moved together. It was difficult and sometimes treacherous, but it was the only way forward.

Finally, as darkness closed in on them, they climbed one last rise. When they reached the top, Cable plopped to the ground. The trumpet tumbled down next to him. Cable’s legs were still soaked from trudging through the swamps. His entire upper body was drenched with sweat. And as the sun set and a gentle night breeze kicked up, Cable felt chilled to his rattling bones. He was exhausted and weary and ready to give up. This brings us back to the point where we met Cable at the start of this chapter.

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“Hey Herc--come ‘ere!”

Jimbo’s voice roused Cable from a very brief nap. He was tired and irritable and didn’t want to move another inch. “No Jimbo, why don’t you come here? I’m sick of following that animal, and I’m sick of carrying around heavy loads and doing stuff that’s hopeless and all the rest of it. I’m done, Jimbo! Just let me sleep!”

Jimbo walked down to Cable and extended his arm. “Stop fussing, your majesty,” he said. “Trust me--you’ve got to come see this!” Cable reluctantly grabbed Jimbo’s arm and struggled to get to his feet. He then followed Jimbo to the top of the rise. To Cable’s surprise, the hill dropped off sharply below. It was like a small cliff that was only 10 or 15 feet high. For some reason, it looked strangely familiar. He squinted in an attempt to pierce through the gathering darkness. But his mind was foggy, and he couldn’t make sense of it.

“Look, Herc,” said Jimbo. “We’ve reached the top of the mound, by gum! The door is right below us! Doofus got us here, right to the doorstep of our mission! All we’ve got to do is grab the trumpet, jump down, open the door, and blow away. It’ll be mission accomplished, mate! And then we’ll be able to catch a pig, roast ‘im up, and celebrate!” Doofus uttered a low growl at this comment from his master. Jimbo didn’t appear to notice.

But Cable was not eager to do anything. “Look Jimbo,” he pleaded. “If...if we grab that trumpet and jump, we’ll probably break an ankle or something. I mean, have you ever jumped side-by-side with someone while holding a trumpet? I don’t like it, Jimbo. It’s dangerous. And look, there is no one here. What’s the rush? I say we get some sleep, wait till it’s light out, and find another way down. Then we can try and figure out how to open the door and play the trumpet. We’ve done the hard part. Let’s just rest a bit, okay?”

“Well, Herc, I can’t do it without you,” Jimbo replied. “So if you want to wait, we’ll just have to wait. But if we act now, it’ll all be over in just a few minutes. We’ve come this far...why not just finish the job?”

But Cable didn’t answer with words. He just shook his head and laid down on the ground. Jimbo groaned and turned back toward the dropoff. He laid down and extended his body out over the edge. Looking downward, he could see the door. “Oh Herc,” he muttered. “We’re so close...”

Then a faint glow caught his eye off to his left. He lay in silence as the eerie glow slowly approached. He soon saw four figures approach in the darkness. “Herc...if you can hear me, old buddy, we’ve got company. And it doesn’t look good...”