KRIKKIT’S SHOES : D’ARRAGON PROPHECY

Krikkit sat in the cozy chair next to the fireplace while Jara bent over the shoes on her small feet. The princes had proved to be not in the least frightening, but very friendly. They were very much like the normal boys she knew and were extremely curious about Krikkit’s home. Ivan and Quinn were identical, their blonde hair hanging to their shoulders.

As curious as any of the 11 year old boys she had met, the princes quite often spoke together as if they were one person. Krikkit found this a little strange at first. Being a year older than Krikkit, the boys were also a head taller than she was. They asked her question after question.

She filled them all in on what happened to her since she found the shoes under her bed. The twins expressed immense surprise when they learned that Krikkit had neither a keeper nor a sorcerer in her household. “Jara and Keeper Fie are such fun. I don’t know what we’d do without them.”

The shiny black shoes, however, became the main topic of their conversation around the dinner table.

“I will take a closer look at the shoes, when we have finished eating,” Jara said, taking note of the curiosity of all who sat there.

“I think they are magic,” Quinn stated, looking at his twin who nodded his blonde head in total agreement.

Jara kept her promise to take a closer look at the shoes and after a huge delicious meal they all moved to the Games Suite. It contained more toys and games than Krikkit had ever seen. Showing no interest in them, the boys joined Jara in examining the magical shoes.

Running her hands over the shiny black leather, the sorcerer turned each foot this way and that. “It seems as if I have seen a pair of shoes exactly like them, or I’ve read about them at some time.” A deep frown covered Jara’s face as she tried to remember what she knew. “Wait! There are letters imprinted into the left shoe.” She squinted as she tried to make them out. “They’re tiny. I can just barely see them.” She spelled them out. “D-A-r-r-a-g-o-n. That spells D’Arragon!” Jara spoke in a shocked whisper, her eyes wide and unbelieving.

The room became hushed. No one said a word until Keeper Fie, shaking his head, spoke up. “Oh,

no, Jara. You must be wrong. Let me take a look.”

Jara, who was still kneeling in front of Krikkit, insisted she was right. “You look for yourself and you will find them too.”

She moved aside, giving him room. Keeper Fie joined her then, kneeling as she was, searching with his finger tips for the letters Jara had described.

“I’ve found them!” He peered at the letters, his eyes squinting from the effort to see. “Can’t make them out at all,” Keeper told them.

His hand went to the pocket on the inside of his velvet jacket. He pulled out a tiny magnifying glass, small enough to fit into his palm. Keeper Fie waved it triumphantly in the air.

“What a good idea, Keeper,” said Krikkit. “Hurry. Look and tell us what the letters spell.”

The man bent once more over the shoes, finally seeing the letters and read them aloud for everyone to hear. “D’Arragon. That’s what it says!”

Jara grabbed the glass then and looked for herself at the left and right shoe. “Yes. That’s exactly what the letters spell. On both shoes. Amazing!”

“How can that be?” Keeper Fie was bewildered by the connection of the shoes to D’Arragon.

Ivan and Quinn joined the others, eager to see more closely the shiny black shoes that somehow connected their worlds.

Krikkit couldn’t sit still. She wriggled and writhed in her seat in her excitement.

“Jara. Can this be possible? An outside link to D’Arragon?” The man on his knees asked the question that had occurred to them all.

“It seems so, Keeper Fie. It certainly looks that way. I think these shoes came from here but how or why they found Krikkit, I couldn’t say.”

Jara looked intently into Krikkit’s face. Her voice calm and thoughtful, she urged the child to tell again how the shoes came into her possession. Krikkit did so, her eyes gazing steadily back at Jara.

“After putting the box under my bed, I forgot all

about it until cleaning my room.”

Jara reached out once more, her hand going to the left shoe. Gently she pulled it off. Krikkit jumped up. She pulled at the other shoe until it loosened and placed it on the floor beside the first one. Krikkit heaved a sigh of relief. She remembered her earlier efforts to remove the shoes and how impossible it had been to do so. “Why did they come off so easily?” she wondered out loud.

“I think they found their way home,” Jara said softly. Her face remained puzzled as she struggled to remember why these shoes had struck her as being so familiar. “There is a small chest in the corner of my room. Keeper, go there and bring to me the book with the large number three on it.”

He asked no questions, but hurried off as she asked.

Ivan and Quinn were busy examining the shoes and reading out the letters. How perfectly normal the boys appeared. They didn’t seem to be anything like any princes Krikkit had read about. Both boys were stretched out on the floor, totally engrossed, as any of Krikkit’s friends from home would have been. They were utterly fascinated by the mystery of the shoes. “They must be full of magic,” said Quinn.

“You think so?” Krikkit had not thought of her journey as magical. She had allowed her sense of adventure to carry her through most of it, once she had realized the shoes would not budge from her feet. Now she thought the boys might be right about the shoes being enchanted.

Keeper Fie entered the room again, a book with a brown cover held out towards Jara. “I found it.”

Jara took the seat next to Krikkit, beginning to turn the pages. The large red colored number three was clearly visible to the excited audience that sat waiting to hear what the book would tell them. They did not have to wait long. Jara sat up quickly, and although her voice was still calm, she seemed to give off an air of excitement by her very movements.

“Here it is. I knew I read about it somewhere and I was quite sure it was in this book.”

“What is it Jara? What have you found?” Keeper Fie waited as patiently as he was able for her explanation.

“It’s about Syntaba’s trunk. The shoes seem to be the ones described in this book, in the passage about Syntaba.”

All eyes were upon her, full of questions not yet answered.

“Who’s Syntaba?” asked Krikkit.

Jara looked at Krikkit as she replied. “Syntaba was the sorcerer who lived with the D’Arragons before I came. A very advanced sorcerer.”

When Krikkit remained silent, Jara went on.

“Syntaba, it seems, was around for a very long time before I came along. He served as the sorcerer here at D’Arragon when the twins’ great grandfather was a boy. He had a trunk full of possessions that was to remain with the royal family until his return. One year there was a huge flood. The little house that contained his trunk was washed away. Syntaba’s trunk was lost and never found again.”

The group listened with rapt attention, taking in every word Jara said while she continued to read.

“This book has a list of the articles that were in that trunk and describes these shoes in detail. It tells about the letters stamped into the leather. According to this book, they do have rather special abilities. They can take the person who is wearing them wherever they want to go. They can also travel back and forth between the past and the present.”

“Fascinating!” said Ivan.

“Told you they are full of magic!” said Quinn,

grinning from ear to ear, as Jara continued.

“Sometimes the shoes will go where they want to, for a purpose of their own, and the person wearing them has no idea why or when. They also have a special connection with the other items in the trunk. How fascinating!”

“Sounds like what happened to me,” said Krikkit. “I sure didn’t know I would be coming here.”

Jara went on to inform them that only the members of D’Arragon royalty knew about the trunk, vowing to guard it until Syntaba returned for it. Their many searches turned up nothing. She handed the book to Keeper Fie and pointed at a long paragraph. “Go ahead. Read it.”

Jara picked up the shoes and examined them more closely as Keeper Fie read the passage aloud to the others

Krikkit could barely contain her excitement about the intriguing qualities of the shoes she so innocently removed from the sand at the beach. “It sounds exactly like them. They are full of magic. I wonder how I came to find them. I live so far away from D’Arragon, I think.”

“Must have been the flood,” said Ivan.

“I’m convinced they are the same shoes. They completely match the description,” said Jara, thoughtfully.

Keeper nodded his head in complete agreement. “It must be as you say, Jara. It is described in one of the passages here how Syntaba could create great feats of magic, so the ability of the shoes to act the way they do may be due to a magic spell or the like.”

“Quite possible, Keeper,” said Jara.”What I do not know yet is if they have any further purpose here or if they will get Krikkit back home again. I think we will have to wait and see what develops with them. We can inspect them again tomorrow and find out exactly what they can do.”

Jara, seeing a few yawns beginning to form, decided it was time for the three children to be in their beds. The boys gave no argument, leading the way to their rooms, still involved in a deep discussion about the mystery of the shoes.

Krikkit followed Jara back to the room where she slept that afternoon. Jara very kindly tucked her in, placing the shoes neatly beside the large dresser. With a gentle pat on Krikkit’s face, she was gone.

When sleep finally came, her dreams were full of Jara when she had awakened Krikkit as she lay napping on the bench. Unbeknownst to the child, the moonlight shone through the drapes and silently caressed her face. However, it wasn’t more than a half hour later when she heard loud whispers outside her door. She was wide awake again.

Scampering quickly out of the bed, Krikkit quietly opened the door. The two small, shadowy figures, sneaking toward the stairs, were Ivan and Quinn. Without thinking, Krikkit quickly grabbed the clothes she had worn earlier, shoving her feet into the now famous shoes. She must follow them. The twins needed protection. She tiptoed quietly down the stairs, hoping she had not already lost them.