CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Row! Row you scurvy dogs Row! Faster! We must make Skard before those damn Druids have a chance to escape!” yelled Mogodawn over the noise of the drum and the creaking oars.
He was pacing up and down the deckclenching his fist in time with the beating drum and muttering curses under his breath; curses of Greebie Pigleman.
This pleasant time was soon to come to an end however when the lookout yelled suddenly “Land Ho!”
“At last Skard!” he said as he clutched the rail impatiently..
They landed at the dock and immediately Mogodawn could see this was not the Skard he had left scorched dry and barren just a year ago.
Now there was grass everywhere and the trees seemed to shimmer green against the blue horizon. The very air was fresh, clean and crisp which seemed to enhance vision making everything appear in fine detail. Birds flew in and out of the branches and butterflies fluttered above them in great swarms of colour matched only by the presence of a rainbow halo over a distant waterfall.
“Bah! What is this?” demanded Mogodawn in rising fury. “I ordered a scorched earth policy didn’t I?” he yelled at the men standing near him.
“Ye.. Yes Sire Bu But you see this happens every time. We raise to the ground and slash and burn but everything grows back” stammered
The henchmen.
“Why is everything against me!” shouted Mogodawn in fury to the sky. “This is all their fault. Those damned Druids and their rotten green earth policy. Making plants grow and flowers! Flowers!” he yelled in exasperation. “My beautiful scorched earth ruined. Damn that cursed Greebie Pigleman!”
There was a thoughtful pause before his temper flared a second time.
“Get me my homing pigeons!” he yelled an order to whoever was listening.
“Er Sir.. Sire We don’t have any homing pigeons left Sire.” Answered the henchman.
“No homing pigeons? Where are my homing pigeons Yelled Mogodawn.
“They’re all gone sire .”answered the stammering henchman.
“Gone? Where have they gone? Bellowed Mogodawn.
“They’ve all flown home Sire. They are homing pigeons after all” replied the trembling guard.
Mogodawn looked away for a brief moment staring at the horizon as if he could see the last of his precious homing pigeons fleeing. Then in just as much fury he turned back.
“Well where are my beautiful black boomerang bats then?”
“Oh we still have a few of them in the hold “ answered the guard pleased that he had something positive to add.
“Well get them up here then!” Mogodawn snarled.
A box of beautiful black boomerang bats were brought onto the deck before Mogodawn.
“Release them I say” said Mogodawn. “Release them and let them fly. Fly my precious minions of midnight. Fly and find the hiding place of the Dreadful Druids. Fly and return to me your Master Mogodawn.” He sang ending it with the obligatory sinister laughter of a megalomaniac.