Thud in Trouble Page 2

The Judge glared at Milo.

  ‘I order you to bring that big troll, Thud, here so he can be locked up until the fine is paid!’ he snapped.

  ‘Er, I’m afraid he’s gone, your Judgeship,’ said Milo miserably.

  ‘In that case, I order this boy, Jack, to be locked up in his place until the fine is paid. Next case!’

  As the guards hustled Jack away, down to the cells, Milo and Big Rock hurried to him.

  ‘Don’t worry, Jack, we’ll get you out of this!’ Milo promised.

  CHAPTER 4

  As Milo and Big Rock left the court, they found Buster Gutt waiting for them in the street. With him was a crowd of his cronies, all smirking or scowling threateningly at them. Buster Gutt and his pals blocked their path to stop them from moving.

  ‘So your Wrestling Troll has run away from me, hey?’ smirked Buster Gutt.

  ‘He didn’t run away, he just had … something important to do,’ said Milo awkwardly.

  ‘More important than wrestling me?’ jeered Gutt. ‘He’s a coward! He knows I’m the best wrestler there is, so he ran away!’

  Big Rock shook his head angrily.

  ‘Thud no coward,’ he said. ‘He beat you. I beat you. Robin our horse beat you!’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ snapped Gutt. ‘Well, put your horse into a ring with me and see who wins!’

  ‘Actually, horses aren’t allowed to wrestle,’ Milo pointed out. ‘But Big Rock here is. So, how about it?’

  Buster Gutt took a look at Big Rock, and hesitated.

  ‘Well … ’ he began doubtfully.

  He’s not going to go for it, Milo realised. And if he doesn’t wrestle Big Rock, we’ve got no chance of getting the money to get Jack out of the cell.

  By now a crowd had gathered around them, curious to find out what all this arguing was about.

  ‘You’re scared!’ said Milo accusingly. ‘You know that Big Rock can beat you!’

  ‘Rubbish!’ called someone from the crowd, and others – all obviously Buster Gutt’s friends and cronies – joined in. ‘Buster Gutt can beat that big lump of stone, easy!’

  ‘Okay, then. It’s a challenge,’ said Milo. ‘You against Big Rock.’

  Once more Buster Gutt hesitated, but as the shouts from his supporters grew, with cries of ‘Yeah! Go for it, Buster!’ and ‘Show the big troll!’, Gutt nodded.

  ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Me and him. My manager, Murky, will be in touch to sort out the details.’ And he stabbed a finger at Big Rock. ‘I’m gonna make pebbles out of you, Troll. You are gonna be in big rubble!’

  And with a laugh at his own joke, Gutt stomped off, with his friends and cronies following him, cheering.

  ‘You hear of manager called Murky?’ asked Big Rock.

  ‘Yes.’ Milo nodded. ‘He’s sneaky and a crook. Not to be trusted. I bet he and Buster Gutt try something nasty.’

  ‘Not easy winning here if they cheat,’ said Big Rock thoughtfully.

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ agreed Milo. ‘It might be best if we forget about wrestling Buster Gutt and move on.’

  ‘Can’t,’ said Big Rock. ‘Jack in cell. I beat Buster Gutt for money to get Jack out.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Milo. Then he smiled. ‘Unless there’s another way.’

  ‘There no other way,’ said Big Rock.

  Milo smiled even more.

  ‘Actually, Big Rock, there might be. I have a plan.’

  CHAPTER 5

  Jack sat on the bench in the cell. He felt miserable. There was no way he could see himself getting out of here, unless Big Rock beat Buster Gutt. Although Jack was very confident in Big Rock’s skills and was sure the troll could beat the big bully, there was something very nasty about Buster Gutt. Jack was sure that Gutt would come up with some sneaky way to cheat a victory.

  ‘Hello.’

  Jack heard a tiny little voice, and was surprised to see the face of a small girl looking at him through the bars. It was the little girl whose puppy Jack had saved.

  Jack got up from the bench and came to the door.

  ‘How did you get in?’ he asked.

  ‘My mum mends the guards’ uniforms,’ she said. ‘I was bringing one to the guard on duty, and he let me in for a few minutes. My name’s Sally. I know yours is Jack because I saw you in court.’ She frowned. ‘How did you turn yourself into that big troll?’

  ‘That wasn’t me,’ said Jack quickly. ‘That was my friend, who just turned up.’

  ‘It was you,’ said Sally. ‘I watched you change when you saved my puppy.’

  Jack hesitated. He could try and pretend she’d imagined it, but she looked to be a genuinely nice sort of person, and he hated lying to nice people.

  ‘I’ll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone else,’ he said. ‘It’s a secret.’

  ‘I promise,’ said Sally.

  ‘It’s because I’m a half-troll,’ said Jack. ‘It sometimes happens when I get angry, or see something bad happening. Like that bully about to hurt your puppy.’

  ‘Can’t you turn into him now? Then you’d be strong enough to break out of here.’

  ‘I can’t control it,’ admitted Jack unhappily.

  ‘I wish I could help you,’ said the girl. ‘The trouble is, the bully you hit … ’

  ‘Buster Gutt,’ nodded Jack.

  ‘Yes. Well, he’s so tough and terrifying that everyone is frightened of him. That’s why people cheer him when he wrestles, because they’re frightened of him.’

  ‘That’s how bullies work,’ said Jack, sadly. ‘I know about being bullied. It happened to me when I worked in the kitchens of Lord Veto.’

  ‘Lord Veto? The rich man who runs Lord Veto’s Wrestling Orcs and the other sports stars?’

  ‘That’s him,’ said Jack. ‘He was horrible. He bullied me, and everyone who worked for him. But finally there came a day when I stood up to him and told him I wasn’t afraid of him any more. And since then, he hasn’t been able to bully me. He’s tried, but it doesn’t work on me now.’

  Sally sighed gloomily.

  ‘That’s all very well for you,’ she said. ‘But standing up to Buster won’t work. When people tried it, he bashed them.’

  ‘They should have reported him to the guards and the Judge. They would have stopped him.’

  Once more, Sally sighed.

  ‘The people in charge of this town are Buster’s family. They own nearly everything here. And they’re all bullies.’

  Jack frowned thoughtfully.

  ‘When things are bad like that, sometimes you have to come up with a clever way of stopping them.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Well, bullies get away with it because everyone thinks they are tough and frightening. But if you try and see a bully in a different way – like, imagine him sitting on the toilet, or with no clothes on – you see they’re just the same as ordinary people. And if you can maybe make them look silly in some way, then they won’t be frightening.’

  A sound from the corridor made them both look round.

  ‘The guard’s coming!’ said Sally.

  She stepped back from the door, and Jack saw a guard appear, followed by Milo and Robin. The guard unlocked the cell door.

  ‘Right,’ he said. ‘You can go.’

  ‘What?’ asked Jack, bewildered. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I’m taking your place,’ said Robin, and the old horse clip-clopped into the cell.

  ‘I told the Judge we needed you as assistant trainer for the wrestling match,’ explained Milo. ‘So he agreed that Robin could be held here as a kind of hostage.’

  ‘But if you don’t come back, this horse will never be let out!’ snapped the guard.

  ‘Oh, I think I’ll be all right,’ said Robin. And, to Jack’s surprise, the old horse gave him a wink.

  As Jack, Milo and Sally left the guard station, Jack asked, ‘What’s going on? Why did Robin give me that wink?’

  Milo cast a look at Sally, and then said quickly, ‘I’ll tell you later.’

 
‘I’d better go home,’ said Sally. ‘My mum will be wondering where I’ve got to. Thank you for saving my puppy from Buster Gutt, Jack. I hope your friend beats him wrestling, so you can all go home.’

  With that, Sally hurried off.

  ‘What’s so secret that you won’t tell me?’ asked Jack.

  ‘I couldn’t, not in front of that girl.’

  ‘I think she can be trusted,’ said Jack. ‘She saw me change from Jack into Thud, and she hasn’t told anyone.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Milo frowned. ‘All right, maybe she can be trusted with some things. But not this one. This one is special.’ And he winked at Jack.

  ‘What’s with all this winking?’ demanded Jack. ‘First Robin did it, now you.’

  ‘You’ll find out when we get back to the caravan!’

  CHAPTER 6

  As Jack and Milo neared the caravan, Jack saw Big Rock hurry towards them – a huge smile on his face and his big arms held out in greeting.

  ‘Jack!’ he said. ‘You back! Good!’

  And the giant troll scooped Jack up and hugged him, being careful not to hug too hard.

  As Big Rock put him back down on the ground, Jack was stunned to see Robin walk into sight from behind the caravan.

  ‘Robin?’ Jack said, bewildered.

  ‘Hello again,’ said the horse. ‘Good to see you out of jail.’

  ‘But … but … ’ stammered Jack. ‘I left you in the cell!’

  ‘Not exactly,’ smiled Milo. ‘You left Blaze in the cell.’

  ‘Blaze!’ Jack exclaimed. Now he knew what the winking was for. Of course! Blaze was a phoenix, able to change shape and become other animals!

  ‘The plan is that once we leave here, we pass the guard station and signal to him. He’ll turn into a small bird, fly out between the bars of the window and we all head off. Brilliant, eh?’

  Jack stared at Milo and Robin, stunned. Then he shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘We can’t.’

  ‘Can’t what?’

  ‘Sneak off like that.’

  ‘Why not?’ demanded Milo. ‘This way we all get away safely.’

  ‘Yes, but Buster Gutt will have won. This all started because of his bullying. If we sneak off people will think that Big Rock was too scared to wrestle him, and that will only make him even more of a bully.’

  ‘Good point.’ Big Rock nodded. ‘Need to beat Buster Gutt in ring, show everyone. Make people stop feel afraid of bully.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Jack.

  ‘No!’ exploded Milo. ‘That’s madness! We have to get away safely, while we still can. It’s nothing to do with us if people are afraid of Buster Gutt. This isn’t our town!’

  ‘It’s everybody’s business,’ said Jack. ‘People like Buster Gutt start by being a bully in their own street. Then they spread out and bully the district, then the town. Next thing, they move on to other places and start bullying them as well. Once they get to that stage, no one can stop them. Bullies have to be stopped before they start.’

  ‘Jack’s right,’ said Robin.

  ‘Yes,’ said Big Rock, nodding again. ‘I go in ring, beat Buster Gutt. We get money. We pay fine. We go home.’

  ‘My way’s quicker,’ insisted Milo.

  ‘But it’s not right,’ said Jack.

  Milo groaned.

  ‘So I suppose I’d better go back to the guard station and tell Blaze he can come out.’

  ‘No,’ said Robin firmly. ‘If he does, it means I’ll have to go in, now we’re staying, and a tiny prison cell’s no place for an old horse like me. Blaze is younger than me, and he can change into comfortable shapes, like a mouse. He won’t mind being in the cell.’ Then he looked hopefully at Jack. ‘We know Thud can beat Buster Gutt … ’

  Jack gave a heavy sigh. ‘I’ve tried and tried, but I can’t control it.’

  ‘Maybe if we got that little girl here with her puppy, and I threatened it?’ suggested Milo. ‘That’s what happened before.’

  ‘Yes, but I’d know you were pretending. It won’t work.’

  ‘No problem,’ said Big Rock. He thumped his chest with one of his enormous hands. ‘Big Rock beat Buster Gutt. I win and we be okay.’

  CHAPTER 7

  Jack and Milo found the back of the guard station and saw the one barred window high up on the wall.

  ‘That’s it,’ said Jack.

  They looked along the narrow street, making sure that no one was watching them, then Jack climbed onto Milo’s shoulders. He grabbed hold of the bars of the cell and pulled himself up so he could look through.

  ‘Pssst!’ he called.

  Robin the horse (or rather, Blaze the Phoenix) looked up and smiled.

  ‘There you are!’ he said. ‘Good! Now I can get out of this shape and fly off!’

  ‘Not quite,’ said Jack.

  Quickly, he explained the change of plan. ‘I’m sorry,’ he apologised. ‘It’s my fault. I was the one who said we couldn’t go yet. It was a good plan – but I want to stay here and show people they needn’t be afraid of Buster Gutt.’

  ‘I thought it must be something like that when you didn’t come back straight away,’ said Blaze. ‘Still, I don’t mind. It’s just that it’s not easy keeping a different shape for a long time.’ With that, the figure of Robin the horse shook its mane and burst into flames, to be replaced by Blaze the Phoenix.

  ‘You’d better not stay like that,’ warned Jack anxiously. ‘The guards will work out what’s going on.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Blaze. ‘Every now and then I change back into myself. When I hear the door opening and someone coming, I turn back into Robin. It’s very tiring, but if me staying here helps, I don’t mind.’ The phoenix frowned anxiously. ‘Do you think Big Rock can beat Buster Gutt?’

  ‘We hope so,’ said Jack.

  ‘But I’m worried that Buster Gutt will cheat in some way,’ said Milo, from where he was standing beneath the window. ‘He’s a bully and his manager, Murky, is a known cheat. They’re bound to try something.’

  ‘In that case you’d better get back to the caravan and make sure that Big Rock’s okay,’ said Blaze.

  ‘Robin will look after him,’ said Milo confidently. ‘He’s a wise old horse.’

  ‘He’s also very shaggy and heavy,’ complained Blaze. ‘The sooner I can turn back into myself and stay that way, the better.’

  ‘It’ll just be until after the wrestling match has finished,’ said Jack.

  ‘Hey!’ shouted a voice.

  The boys looked round and saw a guard glaring at them.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing? Get away from there! That’s a dangerous prisoner!’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Jack, getting down from Milo’s shoulders.

  As they walked away, they heard Blaze chuckle. ‘A dangerous prisoner! Wow! Robin is getting quite a reputation.’

  Jack and Milo had reached the edge of town and were about to cross the field to their caravan, when they heard Sally’s voice calling urgently to them, ‘Stop! Wait!’

  They turned and saw that Sally was running fast towards them, with a small boy next to her. The two children reached them, both out of breath.

  ‘Ben says … ’ Sally began, panting, then stopped and tried again. ‘Ben says … ’

  ‘Calm down. Wait until you’ve got your breath back,’ urged Jack.

  Sally nodded. She took a deep breath, then burst out, ‘This is my friend, Ben Brown. His dad’s the owner of the shop where Buster Gutt got bashed up by your friend.’

  ‘Ha!’ snorted Milo angrily, glaring at the boy. ‘In that case, we don’t want anything to do with you. It was your dad that put Ja— Thud in jail. And he gave evidence against him in court!’

  ‘That’s because he’s afraid of Buster Gutt,’ said Ben. ‘My dad’s not a mean man, just frightened, like everyone else in this town. Right now he’s feeling bad about your friend being in jail.’

  ‘Ben overheard something bad,’ said Sally. ‘You’ve got to listen to him!’
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  ‘I overheard Buster Gutt telling one of his pals about a plan his manager, Murky, has come up with to make sure he beats Big Rock,’ said Ben.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Milo.

  ‘Murky has laced some sweet pebbles with a poison that will affect Big Rock’s eyes. If he eats them he won’t be able to see for a whole day!’

  ‘We were just coming to your caravan to see you and tell you,’ said Sally.

  ‘Oh no!’ said Jack, shocked. ‘We have to warn Big Rock!’ He broke into a run towards the caravan, with Milo, Sally and Ben following close behind.

  Jack could see Big Rock in the distance, and there was someone else walking away from the caravan towards them. As they got nearer, they saw it was a man. He smiled as they approached him.

  ‘Well, well!’ He grinned. ‘You must be Milo and Jack. My name’s Murky. I thought I’d make a courtesy visit to you and your wrestler before the match, just to be friendly, like.’

  ‘What have you given Big Rock?’ demanded Jack angrily.

  Murky’s smile grew even bigger. ‘Just some sweets,’ he said. And he winked. ‘You know, a friendly gesture.’

  And with that he laughed and walked past them, heading back to town.

  Jack felt anger rising in him and he stretched out an arm to grab hold of Murky, but then his anger faded.

  ‘We have to stop Big Rock eating those sweets!’ he shouted, and he began to run again, with Milo, Sally and Ben racing as fast as they could behind him.

  CHAPTER 8

  ‘Big Rock!’ yelled Jack as they neared the caravan. ‘Stop eating!’

  ‘Stop eating what?’ asked the big troll, looking up at them in surprise from the steps of the caravan.

  Jack, Milo, Sally and Ben skidded to a halt, and saw that Big Rock had a handful of small pebbles in the palm of his hand.

  ‘Have you eaten any of those?’ asked Milo urgently.

  ‘Only couple.’

  ‘Ha!’ snorted Robin, appearing from inside the caravan. ‘I’ve been watching him. He’s been stuffing them down like he’s never had sweets before! I warned him they’d rot his teeth … ’