The Tumultuous Travels of Thomas Drabble I: A Run of Bad Luck

Thomas Drabble found a penny on his favorite reading stump. It was fine by him. He didn’t mind sharing his stump with strangers. The penny was half covered by one of the bright yellow leaves of early Autumn. The stump itself was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was large enough to sit comfortably on, and the surrounding area was peaceful and vibrant.

Thomas moved the yellow leaf and discovered that the penny was heads-down. It had been two weeks since Thomas had been released from his inkwell, and the Ink Boy’s life had become painfully ordinary since he had spilled from his last book. In fact, it was teetering perilously on the edge of mundane, which sounds far more exciting than it actually was. A run of bad luck might be exactly what he needed. He palmed the copper coin. Moments later, a spider crawled onto his hand.

“Hi Nancy,” Thomas said, “You’re not bad luck at all.”

Nancy had been visiting Thomas ever since he had discovered the stump. On their second meeting, Thomas had decided to name him after a friend — a very old trickster — that he had made on one of his first adventures.

Unfortunately, this Nancy had no tricks up his sleeves. Thomas felt a shadow towering over him and before he could look up, a massive paw came crashing down on the spider, crushing him flat on the back of Thomas’s ink black hand. The skies instantly started pouring rain.

Thomas got up from the stump, his spider-friend still splattered on his skin, and stood toe-to-claw with the villain, unsure of what he was going to do next. His mind was made up for him when the same massive paw that had splattered Nancy struck him in the side of the head and knocked him into the wet, muddy grass. The unlucky penny fell from his hand.

When Thomas lifted his head, his attacker was gone. The rain had stopped, the sky was blue, and the ground was dry; but his friend was still dead on his hand and he had an incredible throbbing in his head. He crawled over to the penny, which was heads-down again, and picked it up. He felt rain beating on his back.

He turned over and saw a giant rabbit standing over him. From Thomas’s angle, he appeared to be six and a half feet tall and nearly as wide. Thomas released the penny. It was peaceful again. The house-shaped rabbit was gone.

He struggled to get to his feet. Once he had regained his balance, he reached down, picked up the penny, and sprinted to the nearest tree. He could hear the rabbit’s long, powerful feet slapping the wet ground, slowly gaining on him. The Ink Boy scrambled up the tree just before his pursuer caught him.

“Give me the penny and I’ll leave you alone,” boomed the rabbit.

“Who are you?” asked Thomas.

The rabbit struck the tree and Thomas heard the trunk crack beneath him.

“Last chance. Give me the penny.”

Thomas cocked his arm to throw the penny and the rabbit threw his hands up, “Whoa! Don’t throw it. I’ll answer all of your questions if you just give me the penny.”

“Just tell me who you are and I’ll let you have it.”

“My name is Ricochet. I am a debt collector for the Just and Worthy King.”

“Where did you come from?”

“You said you’d give me the penny if I told you who I am.”

“Who is the Just and Worthy King?”

“That’s enough,” Ricochet shouted, just before he used his powerful legs to launch himself shoulder-first into the tree. The trunk snapped and Thomas came plummeting to the soggy ground. He landed with a sickening thud, penny still in hand, and scrambled to his feet, gasping for air, but ready to fight. He let out a painful sigh of relief when he saw that Ricochet was unconscious and pinned under the fallen tree.