Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Tiberius and the Black Crow Swamp, Part II

Part II
Clang! Clang! Clang!

Tiberius and the Map Knight fought all day with their swords clanging against each other. The Map Knight had a sword and a shield, which made it very hard for Tiberius to fight him. Even worse, the Map Knight had lots of maps that showed him places to hide. Every time Tiberius started to win the fight, the Map Knight would hide somewhere and rest. Tiberius could hear the Map knight laughing when Tiberius tried to find him, but Tiberius never could.

Tiberius was getting very tired and was afraid he would lose the fight. He didn’t mind losing a fight, but then he wouldn’t be able to find the black paint to that he wanted to finish Pine’s surprise painting. Tiberius knew he had to find that paint, so he had to beat the Map Knight. Then Tiberius got an idea.

Tiberius knew the Map Knight must love maps a lot. Tiberius took out some of his painting supplies and painted a map. It was a silly map that didn’t go anywhere, but the Map Knight would want to have it if he saw it. Then, Tiberius took some peanut butter he had left over from the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he was eating earlier and covered the map with sticky, gooey peanut butter. He stuck the sticky map to the ground and hid in the bushes to wait for the Map Knight.

Finally, the Map Knight left his hiding spot. He looked for Tiberius, but couldn’t find him. Then he saw the map on the ground. Sure enough, the Map Knight loved maps and when he saw that map he just had to look at it. He reached down to grab it.

“Hey!”, he shouted, “I’m stuck!”

The Map Knight was now stuck to the map, which was stuck the ground. The gooey, sticky peanut butter was like strong glue and the Map Knight could not get out, no matter how hard he tried.

“Help! Help!” he cried. Finally, Tiberius walked out of the bushes.

“You tricked me.” The Map Knight said.

“I’m sorry.” Tiberius said. “You seem like a nice knight. Why did you want to fight me?”

“Because all I ever do is help people with maps. I’m a knight and knights need to fight, don’t they?”

“Not at all,” said Tiberius. “Knight are supposed to help people however they can. You help people by telling them where they need to go without getting lost. That is a very noble thing.”

The Map Knight smiled. No one had ever told him that what he was doing was noble. Tiberius helped the Map Knight get unstuck from the peanut butter. Then he asked the Map Knight how to get to the Black Crow Swamp.

“Getting there is easy.” Said the Map Knight. “All you have to do is follow the black crows. All the black crows live there on a giant, old tree named TroMatGar. That’s why they call it Black Crow Swamp. But getting back is hard, so here is a map that will lead you out of the Black Crow Swamp.”

Tiberius thanked the Map Knight and then looked at the sky. He saw two crows flying away. He started to walk the direction they flew. It took a long time to get to Black Crow Swamp. There was a desert with very hot sand, a forest with angry bees and a jungle with monkeys that kept him up all night with their noise. There was even a storm that blew so hard he had to stick his sword in the ground and hang on so that he wouldn’t be blown away. But finally he made it to Black Crow Swamp, where all the crows lived.


In the middle of the swamp, he found the tree called TroMatGar. It was a huge tree with big black branches and purple leaves. Thousand of crows sat on the branches and made a lot of noise with their “Caw! Caw!” all the time.

Tiberius looked down. There on the ground was the blackest mud he had ever seen. It would be perfect to make the color of the night sky for his painting that he was going to give to Pine. Tiberius imagined Pine looking at the picture and how happy it would make his horse. Tiberius scooped up some mud to take back with him.
Then there was a rumbling sound. All the crows in the tree called TroMatGar suddenly flew away. TroMatGar then opened his eyes and looked at Tiberius.

“Ho-ho!” He roared, “Trying to steal from me are you!”

TroMatGar reached out a giant branch to catch Tiberius. Tiberius pulled out his sword and pointed shouted to TroMatGar.

“I need this mud. Please let me have some to paint a picture!”

“No!” Snarled TroMatGar. “Because if I let you have my mud, then the next thing you will want is my gold!”

Tiberius was confused. “What gold?”, he asked. But before he could get an answer the crows swooped down and took his sword away from him! Now Tiberius had no sword and an angry tree to fight.

TroMatGar looked at Tiberius and smiled. “Now, you’ll never beat me!”

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