Chapter 7 - This part is important, it comes up again later.
written by Tom McNally, illustrated by Bruno Stahl
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A messenger arrived at the King’s encampment on the edge of Antwerp. He hadn't gone into the glorious city to say hello because the King was afraid that Mayor Frank of the Franks would ask to have his colour TV back. The King had broken Mayor Frank's TV over the head of an Irish assassin and had been too embarrassed to tell him about it immediately. Now that time had gone by, things had just kind of gotten weird and the King didn't want to have to deal with it right now because he was on a mission. He told himself that when Winter was dead, he would buy Mayor Frank a flatscreen.
The King's contingent had unpacked all of the equipment off Gappy and were settling down for the night with a round of sing-a-longs about the King's past adventures. The King was meditating hard in his rad tent and was floating about above the encampent in his astral form, checking stuff out and doing astral chores when he saw a messenger boy bolt into the camp on rubbery little legs and approach his tent.
When the messenger boy entered his rad tent looking for him, the King jumped down from one of the mezzanine levels, grapsed the boy from behind and clasped his wooden hand over his mouth, then laughed.
“Value your life more, boy!” He said, like a father would. The kid didn’t have a father, so he was just scared, and it took a long time for the King to get his message out of him.
Then King ran from his rad tent, threw the messenger boy to the ground and went very quickly to Colonel Glowfist’s tent, which was reasonably rad. The Colonel was not asleep either, as he was still chewing on the thousands of birds that he had magicked into his mouth at the exciting opening battle. The Colonel looked up at the King, his eyes wide. ‘What is wrong, my dear and best friend?’ asked his eyes. He had seen the messenger boy in advance too, because of his wisdom and his magic, so he knew that something was up.
“Terrorthaw has escaped.” Said the King, solemnly. “He’s my nemesis and Europe is not safe with him out and about.”
But the Colonel already knew that. He and the King had fought Terrorthaw like a million times. Also, Terrorthaw had killed his mother back when they were in high school. Colonel Glowfist knew that the King hadn't forgotten any of this and was just setting the scene for new readers.
“mw’s mnna ppn?” said Colonel Glowfist through his mouthful of birds. He meant, “What’s going to happen?”
“I don’t know yet,” said the King. He was nervous, but didn’t show it. All he did was do coin tricks without even looking. He made the coin disappear, he made it reappear. He made it look like it had split in half and both halves had rolled up his arms and burrowed into his armpits. He wasn't even using magic, just his talented fingers and quick reflexes. Seeing the King do coin tricks was exactly the most entertaining thing to do in Medieval Europe.
“Thaff agu’ ‘rick.” Said Colonel Glowfist.
“Thanks,” said the King.
End Of Chapter 7
