Farther down, the path was bordered by tall pink walls that had blue eagles carved into them. Jack did not like these. Little blue dots on the pink seemed to shift as he watched, and the glittering jeweled eyes of the eagles appeared to be following his progress as he and the fox moved farther along.
The walls rose higher as the adventurers traveled lower. Soon Jack spotted another gate, this one with bars of silver set in a frame of ruby. Because he knew where to look for it now, he saw the sentry box, too, and spotted ye giant rat just as Cavia shouted, “There he is, Rudolph! Go get him!” Then his fox guide disappeared, with a flip of that big red tail.
“Arrrrh!” snarled the rat, starting forward. “Who goes there?”
Jack had had time to think up a new lie. “Cheeseman!” he declared.
The rat paused. “A man made of cheese?”
“No no,” said Jack, quickly. “A man who delivers cheese to faithful guards. I was supposed to bring you a great deal of cheese, you being so smart and strong and loyal and all.”
“Nobody deserves it more.” The rat looked left and right. “Where is it, then?”
Jack spread his hands. “I had nearly reached Your Eminence’s date when this horrible fox with his sneaky magic came and enchanted it so that now it looks like part of the wall. And I can’t tell which part of the wall is really cheese, what with this cold in my nose and all.”
“That fox again, eh?” snarled he rat. “He’s a troublemaker. Stand back while I give it the old taste test.”
Rushing past Jack, the rat plunged straight at a section of the wall and but down so hard that the wall shook. So did the rat.
“Oh!” the rat moaned. “I think that rattled my brain.”
“I don’t think you’ve got one to rattle,” called the fox, zipping forward to join Jack on the other side of the gate. The rat spun and rushed at them, but smacked into the bars.
“Ho ho,” chortled Cavia. “A cheese fiend au grating.”
“Are there more of these?” Jack moved farther down as the rat tried to reach in and grab them. “Pretty soon someone’s going to give us the gate.”
“One more,” said the fox. “We don’t need to keep up this cat and mouse game forever.” Cavia set off downhill again.
Realizing no more details were to come, Jack moved downhill. He could see more of the city now. Those tall, thin towers branched out into what seemed to be diamonds but, on further study, appeared to be rooms domed over with glass. Jack saw people inside these, but since he never saw them move, he decided they were either statues or people who got around very, very slowly.
His eyes were on this amazing municipality until the fox called out, “Mind the mud patch!”
Only narrow dry paths remained of the path, running along each side of a dark, vast puddle. “Not very tidy,” said Jack, sliding along the wall to the left.
“Yes, but it’s enchanted mud,” said Cavia, trotting briskly along the right side, “It’ll suck in anyone careless enough to touch it.” Jack curled his toes under and walked a little faster.
Beyond the magic mud was a big iron door. No sentry box waited here, and, more importantly, no bars to squeeze between. Jack looked for a handle or a latch, but the only thing he saw was a curly silver horn hanging at eye level.
“Blow into that so we can get in,” the fox commanded.
Jack blinked. “What if somebody hears us?”
“That’s the idea, Rudolph,” Cavia replied.
Jack wiped the mouthpiece of the horn, to be on the safe side, and then blow into it. He didn’t blow very hard, as he was still a trifle unsure about this whole business. But by the time the sound had worked its way through all the curls and coils of the horn, it was loud enough to rattle the door.
The door was rattled from the other side by a loud voice. “Fo fum fi fee: I think you play that thing off key.”
The gate swung open. This didn’t help, because the space was now filled by a golden giant, his armor gleaming and blue beams of light flying from his eyes. At his elbows, instead of forearms, he had two mighty swords.
“Stand and be chopped, intruders!”
He could see there were two intruders because Jack had been quick enough to grab the fox’s tail before Cavia could escape into hiding. “Chop away,” Jack chuckled. “You’ll never chop me, I’m afraid.”
The giant took one step forward. “In your place, manling, that is the last thing I’d be afraid of. Why will I not chop you?”
Jack winked, and yanked Cavia’s tail. “This fox thinks I don’t know, but I can be beaten only when he is not right next to me. It’s part of a blessing from my fairy godmother.”
Now the giant chuckled. “I thank you for that secret! Let this teach you not to tell strangers too much about yourself!”
The twin swords chopped down, not at either intruder, but right between them. Jack let go of the fox’s tail and jumped to one side as Cavia ran to the other.
“Now he’s not next to you,” the giant chortled. “And now I can…hey, I’m stuck!”
Sure enough, the giant had chopped so furiously that the tips of the sword had splopped into the enchanted mud. “Oh, don’t bother to get up,” said Jack, jumping past him through the open door. “We’ll let ourselves in.”
“You said I’d win if the fox wasn’t right next to you,” hollered the giant, his toes digging grooves in the roadway as the enchanted mud sucked him in.
“I lied,” said Jack, and that time he told the truth.
He turned to speak to the fox, but the words died on his lips as, for the first time, he saw the city from the inside. It was grand, glorious, still. Brave banners hung limp from the tips of delicate towers, light twinkled at the corners of gemlike windows.
“Nice, isn’t it?” said Cavia.
Jack shrugged. “Well, if you like things cobbled together out of exotic gems and precious metals, it’s not bad. Perhaps a little gaudy for my tastes.”
“Ah, Rudolph, you are a person of refinement. You must tell me what you think of the palace.”
Jack looked down the road, expecting high stone walls and another barred gate. What he saw was a vast pink dome, its grand front door covered in whorls of sizzling colors. It took Jack’s breath away, but not so much that he failed to notice this door was ominously ajar.
“What horrors are waiting for us in there?” he demanded.
“You’ve got to kiss a princess,” the fox told him. “Think you’re up to that, Rudolph?”
“Mmmmm.” Jack studied the marble stairs on the other side of the door, and stepped inside. “Let’s see.”
He saw quite a lot. From the orange and silver tiles on the floor to the shimmering yellow ceiling, the interior of the palace was an exercise in optical opulence. Each succeeding room was more elegant than its predecessor, with its own assortment of colors and gleams. At last they reached an impossibly lovely chamber hung with pink and gold silks. At the center of these was a platform bearing a golden gondola with pink draperies.
Among these drapes of pink was a still, silent person, obviously a princess. This was obvious in the angle of her jaw and the delicate flare of her nostrils as she breathed in and out. Jack himself found it a little difficult to breathe.
“Who is this?” he whispered.
“That, Rudolph,” said Cavia, “Is Princess Fanny. Centuries ago, she and her entire city were put to sleep by an evil vizier. We foxes were the only ones clever enough to escape and tell the tale, which has been handed down in my family for generations, about the great golden age that was, and will begin again once she is awakened by a kiss from her hero.”
“Golden age,” murmured Jack, moving slowly up the stairs.
“The details have gotten muddle over the years,” the fox said, trotting next to him. “There’s a lot about a ban on fox hunting and chicken for everybody. Get on with it.”
The average shepherd gets few opportunities to kiss a princess, and Jack was unsure how to begin. Nonetheless, it seemed at least as easy as dodging a giant rat. The princess’s eyes fluttered open. They were as bright and clear as Jack had known they would be, and her voice, when she spoke, was music from afar.
“Is it true?” she whispered. She sat up. “Is it time for us to wake? Are you the hero who has saved us? What is your name?”
Jack was too dazzled by her beauty to reply for a second. In that second, Cavia sat up and shouted, “Rudolph Fairbairn McButtermilk IV!”
A tiny wrinkle appeared between Princess Fanny’s eyes. “Oh, pooh!” she said, her gentle lips forming a pout, “The fairies said the curse would be lifted and the new golden age begin when a hero named Jack kissed me!” The beautiful head dropped back onto the pillow. She closed her eyes.
“Wait!” cried Jack. “I….”
The scene before his eyes blurred and went black. He realized after a moment that everything was black because his own eyes were closed. When he opened them, he was lying in the meadow, with all those sheep.
“Asleep,” he muttered. “Dreaming.” But when he turned his head, there was Cavia, studying him over a little mound of earth.
“Sorry about that, Rudolph,” said the fox. “I never heard that last little bit of the story, or I wouldn’t have put you to so much trouble.” With a flip of the tail, the fox disappeared.
“Hey!” yelled Jack, crawling to the hole so he wouldn’t waste tie standing up “Hey!” Both fox and hole were gone. Jack grabbed a rock and flung it at a sheep that wasn’t doing a thing wrong.
Jack vowed that he would never lie about anything again, profound or absurd. This didn’t matter much, as he never found his way back into the cave or the sleeping city. But he became known as the most honest shepherd who ever lived, and that must be worth something.
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