Monsuno of the Magic Kingdom: Chapter 24

By: jungleboy69


Chapter 24: Eric's Investigation

While the children were having their fun with the two royal guards, Eric and his seven royal companions were scouring the forest where they found the children. They brought four of Eric's personal guard with them, all of them were skilled trackers.

Mulan and Rapunzel had joined them. Despite some of the other kings concerns, they insisted on coming, wanting to know who or what would dare harm their kids. Their husbands agreed, seeing that there was no point in talking them out of it once their minds were made up.

When they arrived at the place, they got off their horses. Maximus and Khan were particularly skittish, with Mulan and Rapunzel trying to calm down. "I never seen Max like this." Rapunzel spoke up worriedly. "Whatever happened here, must really spook him."

Eric nodded as he and everyone else headed into the woods. They were all armed in case something happened. "Keep your eyes open, everyone." He warned. "Even though Shadow-Sneak is imprisoned, his men are still around here." Everyone nodded and continued to walk forward.

Five minutes later, they came across the large crater that formed last night from the Monsuno's landing. Their eyes widened at the sight of such a large, deep crater. Eugene whistled. "That's one big crater." He commented. "How is it we never noticed it last night?" "I guess the falling stars the children mentioned must have landed." Charlie added.

One of the soldiers knelt towards the crater and scooped up some dirt to examine it. "If they were really falling stars," he stated. "there should be more than one crater." "Since there is only one," he added. "it's possible the falling stars could have combined as one before impact." "Is that even possible?" Shang asked, frowning a bit. "In some rare cases, yes my Lord." The guard replied.

Adam looked down and saw some tracks at the lip of the crater, and judging from their small size, they belonged to the children. However, he grew concerned when he saw that close to the small footprints were adult-sized footprints. "Soldier," he asked, gesturing to one of the guards. "what can you tell of this?"

The guard studied the tracks carefully. "Judging from the placement of these marks," he stated. "the children were surrounded by the adults, Shadow-Sneak and his men no doubt." "However,..." He continued. "the marks show that the children split up into three groups; one left, the second right and the other straight ahead."

"We'll split up." Eric concluded. "We’ll each take a path and follow it to see what we can find." "Make sure each group stays together and keep an eye out for any bandit." He assured. "Adam; you, Charlie and Shang take the path on the right." Eric ordered. "Eugune; you take your wife, Mulan and Aladdin to the straight path while me and the guards will take the one on the left."

Nodding to one another, the group split up; determined to find out what happened last night.



(Eric's group...)

Eric and his men followed the left path which they noticed that the tracks seemed to lead the bandits on. At least that’s what Eric assumed. “The bandits know these woods inside and out,” He thought. “but it seems the children were able to evade them thanks to their small size.” “How is it they managed to escape them?” He wondered.

They continued onward, until they arrived at the large semi-circle rock outcropping. When they got closer to the circle however, they saw a horrific sight. The rock outcropping was almost destroyed and around it were some of Shadow-Sneak bandits, sprawled on the floor knocked out cold.

Each of them were badly bruised with bites or scratches of some kind. But what really shocked them was seeing a large burnt body near one of the larger boulders. Eric and his men cautiously approached it and turned it on its back. They all gasped when they saw that it was Tight-Fist!

“What in the name of...!?” Eric whispered in shock. “What happened to him?!” Tight-Fist was one of Shadow-Sneak's strongest men and was rumored to be invincible. While he examined him, he could see that his whole front body was badly burnt and the only signs of life from him were slow, soft breathing.

“Search the area!” He ordered his soldiers. “See if these bandits are alive for questioning.” Two guards saluted and did as they were ordered. The other two set to work, gathering the unconscious bandits.

King Eric looked down and saw some faded tracks from Tight-Fist's position. Turning his attention to the footprints, he followed them towards the forest outside the circle. To his shock, he found a set of pawprints; wider, deeper and larger than any animal he had ever seen.

“What’s going on?” He thought as he examined them closely. “What kind of animal made these?” He left the strange pawprints and returned to his guard, who had gathered the bandits and tied their hands together with cords.

“Sir,” one guard spoke. “we found a strange tunnel of some kind near the outcropping leading from the forest as if was dug by something.” “We also found some strange pawprints of creatures we have never seen before.” He added. “We also found bite marks on each of the bandits.” Eric frowned, what could this all mean?

“Monsters...” The men stopped and looked in shock at one of the bandits, who was groaning a little. Instantly, Eric knelt down on one knee, facing him. “What do you say?!” He asked. “Monsters...” the bandit groaned. “Real...Monsters...”

This made Eric confused. “Monsters?” He asked. “What do you mean?” “Large...Beasts...” The bandit groaned again. “A Walking.... Shark...a Blue...Jackal...a Great White...Bear...” That was all he could say before he passed out again. “No, what else?!” Eric exclaimed, shaking his shoulder a bit. “What do you mean?” Sadly, it was no use.

Eric sighed. “Okay,” he told his soldiers. “we need to get the bandits back for medical treatment and questioning.” “I’m going to need help with Tight-Fist.” He added, gesturing to the large bear-like man who was now tied up like his fellow bandits.

“Soldier, return to the palace quickly and send for reinforcements. We’ll meet you at the lip of the crater.” The guard saluted before leaving the area fast. Eric and his remaining guards had the unfortunate task of taking the bandits back to the crater.

With some long thick ropes, they were able to carry them back to the crater where they put them in a pile. Tight-Fist was a bit of a problem because of his size and weight. It took nearly all four of them to lift him up and carry him back to the crater.

All the while, Eric was thinking on what happened. “There’s no way the kids could have done this to grown men, especially to Tight-Fist!” He thought. “and those strange tracks...what animal could have made them.” “And what did that bandit mean by real monsters?” He continued to wonder. “I have a feeling that the children know a lot more than they told us last night. So, why didn’t they?” It seemed this investigation only raised more questions.

By the time they brought Tight-Fist to the lip of the crater; the other groups arrived, carrying their own load of bandits. “Seems like you got quite a haul, Eric.” Aladdin pointed out. Eric smiled a bit and asked. “Did any of you notice anything unusual?”

Adam replied in surprise. “Yes, we found these bandits and Springy, one of Shadow-Sneak's most agile agents.” “The bandits are unconscious, but Springy....” His expression grew worried “he seemed he got into a fight with someone or...something.”

Mulan added. “We found the same thing with these bandits, especially Mad Jack.” She also grew concerned. “He looked like he had been thrown into the trees by something.” “We also found strange footprints,” Charlie continued. “and even claw marks we found.”

“Claw marks?” Eric asked. Eugene nodded. “Yeah, the largest we had ever seen.” He replied. “We don’t know what kind of animal made them, maybe a bear or a large cat of some kind.” “We found hoofprints like some large horse or ox nearby.” Shang added. “I never seen anything like them.”

At that moment, the sound of horses could be heard along with footsteps. Coming towards them were eight of Eric’s guards, two of them carried a stretcher of sort to Tight-Fist on. Soon, the company started to carry their share of bandits, all bound and secured while Eric, Charlie and Adam took point.

One thing was for sure on each of the royals’ mind, especially the mothers’: ‘What was going on here? And why did it involve our children?’