"If only the problems of the adults were as easily handled as that,"
laughed the King.
"Mr. Your Majesty?" came another voice. "I want to ask you some advice."
The Cowardly Lion looked and saw another wombat. "Aha," he said. "Let me guess. Your name is Henry, right?"
"Gee," replied the smaller animal. "You know my name! You must know everything!"
"I do," said the Lion jokingly. "And I had a feeling that you"d be along soon. So what"s troubling you?"
"Oh, it"s nothing much. I just really wanted to come and talk to you."
"I see," laughed the King. "You are friends with Ricardo, are you not?"
The little wombat"s eyes seemed to grow out of their sockets. "You really know everything! You really do! I"m sorry I cheated on my last spelling test. I promise I"ll never do it again!"
The Cowardly Lion was a little taken aback by this statement, but he covered it well. "I was going to bring that up if you didn"t," he lied.
"You must tell your teacher and make up the test if you want to grow up to be a king like me."
"Oh, I will!" agreed Henry. "I will go and tell her right now!" He dashed off toward the wombat schoolyard.
"And so I am now a psychic," laughed the Lion. "Next I"ll be expected to be able to fly or to leap over tall buildings in a single bound. But I guess it"s all part of being a king. And I have to show my subjects that I am a good king, so I must do my best to be all that they expect me to be. I"ve got to be strong, and try to hang on. I have to be kind and understanding toward their needs. And most of all, I have to be brave!" He let out a practice roar that shook the very ground beneath his paws. "I am a brave lion! I am the King of the Beasts! I am feared by all, and I fear nothing! I am brave and I am..." As a gra.s.shopper leaped in front of him, the Lion nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Aaaaaah!" he cried. "What is it? What"d I see? I saw something move!"
Another gra.s.shopper jumped in the air, and the Lion, that strong and courageous King of all Beasts, bravely turned tail and ran.
CHAPTER 13
THE COWARDLY LION AND THE FOREST MONSTER OF OZ
The Cowardly Lion ran and ran. He had no idea just how long or how far he had gone when he stopped to catch his breath.
"This sort of cowardice is sure to make me old before my time," he said to himself.
As he settled down in a pile of leaves for a short rest, he heard something rustling in the bushes nearby. "Wha--" he said. "What"s that?
Who"s there?"
"D-don"t hurt me, Mr. Lion," came a voice.
"W-who are you?" shivered the Lion.
By way of an answer, a small brown monkey with s.h.a.ggy fur walked slowly out of the brush. "P-please don"t eat me, Mr. Lion," he said fearfully.
"Don"t worry," replied the Cowardly Lion. "I had no intention of doing so. What were you doing in the bushes?"
"I heard you coming, and I was afraid," explained the simian.
"I can identify with that," said the Lion with a smile.
"I was afraid that you might be one of those awful spider-creatures that saps away the energy from everyone else," continued the monkey. "But I can see that you are not. You are a much nicer fellow than that. I think I"ve seen a portrait of you somewhere, in fact. You are ... My oh my!
Can it be true? You"re him, aren"t you?"
"Who?" asked the big cat.
"You are the great Lion that defeated the Forest Monster before!" said the monkey. "I"m sure of it! What other lion in Oz is so big? Aren"t you the one who is called the Cowardly Lion of Oz?"
"Yeah," said the Lion, not especially proud of the t.i.tle, but happy that he was so famous with even this small monkey that he had never seen before. "That"s right. I am the Cowardly Lion of Oz. It is a t.i.tle that is far more honest than flattering. And who might you be?"
"I am Cubby," said the monkey. "I live in the Lunechien Forest of Oz."
"Lunechien Forest?" echoed the Lion. I"m not sure just where that is. Is it far from here?"
"Pretty far," sighed Cubby. "I was running away."
"Running away?" replied the Lion, whose advice-giving nature was beginning to surface. "Now, dear little Cubby, my lad. Whatever problems you may be having at home are no reason to run away. You can"t run away from your problems. You should go back and try to talk it out. Why, I can..."
"You don"t understand," said Cubby. "I wasn"t running away like a child who has had a disagreement with his parents over a cookie or something.
I was running for my life."
"Oh," replied the Cowardly Lion. "Well then, that"s a whole different ball of wax. If you were ... Huh? What? You were running for your life?
What do you mean?"
"The Forest Monster has been sucking the energy out of all of the animals of the Lunechien Forest, and I know he was coming for me next! I was so afraid, I just wanted to get away from there as swiftly as I could. Then, when I heard your heavy breathing, I thought it was the Forest Monster coming for me. I thought for sure I was a goner."
"The Forest Monster?" echoed the Lion. "But I don"t understand. I had a run-in with him once myself. I knocked his head off while he was sleeping. I know it was hardly sporting to do it that way, and I am a little ashamed that I didn"t even give him a sporting chance, but I have to think of the innocent beasts whose lives were at stake."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Cowardly Lion and Cubby]
"I think there may be more than one," said Cubby. "Unless the one you fought somehow got himself repaired."
"I suspect that would h-have to be the case," stammered the Cowardly Lion. "I d-don"t think there could be more than one of those creatures.
I had a.s.sumed it was created by magic, sort of like a green elephant or something. But if it is alive again, it will probably find out who it was that defeated it before. It will be looking for me."
"I"m afraid it already knows who you are," spoke Cubby. "And it has found a way to take the energy from other beings and use it for itself.
It is already so powerful that I doubt anyone could stand against it."
He paused. "Oh, except for you, of course. I know you could defeat it.
You did it before."
"Er, yeah," said the Lion, his eyes growing to several times their normal size. "I g-guess I d-did. B-but he was so much easier to tackle when he was asleep. Now that he has multiplied his power, I"m n-not sure I c-could do it again."
"Oh, but you can! You must," said the monkey encouragingly. "You can"t let him keep getting stronger and stronger! Sooner or later, he will find you. And he probably won"t stop at that. He may cross the desert and go into the mortal lands. He might start attacking Ix or Mo or even Merryland! And then he may infiltrate the mortal lands like America, where your friend Dorothy lives!"
"D-Dorothy?" said the Lion, suddenly looking more angry than afraid.
"She"s just a little kid! He wouldn"t do that to a child?"