The Flying Buffalo Unicorn

Chapter I: THE DISAPPEARING LAND

This was to be one of the most unforgettable days ever in The Lands!

Quite understandably, all of the dummies who lived in The Land of Pink Windmills wanted to know what had happened up in The Tower Tree and also above The Yellow Trampoline when Meri had jumped. All they had been able to see were the many pieces of The Paper Airplane Sky suddenly floating down from the cliffs, like birds.

They wanted to hear everything!

Meri had decided to sit on the very end of The Sliding Board, so she could tell more easily who was asking her a question. She could then talk directly to that dummy as well as to all of them.

There was a wonderful pleasantness of colors spread out before Meri as she looked at the animated faces of the many light yellow and soft pink yarn dummies of The Land of Pink Windmills before her. Their hair sometimes had minor accents too, like Syl’s. Hers was light green with hints of pink. Some of the dummies were wearing outfits by Aquamarie, which Meri thought she could recognize. This was the first good look at Meri by all of the dummies of the land. Meri could tell by their eyes that they liked her, and it was a lot of fun talking to them and getting to know more of them individually.

It wasn’t often that one got to fly UP to an airplane! The dummies were especially interested in how she had felt every second of the adventure! They were also listening to Wut, Fico, Jethro, Syl and the Tackling Dummy at different places in the large crowd, telling the story from their points of view.

With her legs dangling over, Meri never tired of emphasizing that each of her friends up in the tree had succeeded—not just her. She was quite aware of how much credit Fico especially deserved, and what all of the others had done. She made sure that everyone knew—everyone who was listening to her, that is.

There was always great quiet in the whole crowd, however, whenever any of them described Meri’s marvelous leap, and her beautiful upflying arc up to The Immense flat Airplane.

There was one small adorable dummy, with beautiful hair, who quickly became quite attached to Meri. Her name was Perfit. She climbed up to the end of The Board to sit beside the friendly and courageous visitor, and to hold one of her hands—with her own small legs dangling over too.

She had such a sweet nature that they quickly began to develop a sister relationship.

Perfit was the youngest dummy in all of The Lands. Even so, she had her own windmill.

Splendidious! Meri heard the Tackling Dummy saying several times from somewhere else in the crowd, and she smiled. He loved to say that word—and his other favorite words too, which she also sometimes heard. So much had been happening, she hadn’t had a chance yet to tell him about The Lending Library in The Land of Tiny Shiny Chains, also known as The Land of Better Lending.

They were sure to have an unabridged dictionary!

And she also hadn’t even had a chance to tell Wut about the owingstones and her promise to Sticktight. The Visiting Sky had come when she was at The Ticket Tree, and afterwards, all she had been able to think about was the spectacular jump she needed to make. Now she wanted to tell him as soon as possible.

Yep! she kept hearing Jethro say from somewhere in the crowd. Dummies were hanging all over him, all over his back and even on his unicorn and head, listening to his side of the story. His part in the adventure, so unexpected, was of course especially thrilling—and he told it very well! He became excited all over again each time he re-lived it! He was having a great time! His accidental opportunity to prevent The Falling Black Sky from getting away again was one of the best things that had ever happened to him. His eyes were quite bright.

Meri kept glancing affectionately over at Wut as he vividly described, to another group of dummies, the adventure in the great tree. It was a strange place for a question mark! She noticed that he kept inconspicuously, every now and then, tilting his head back and glancing up at the cliffs. It soon became quietly obvious to her that he was still very concerned about the croapfs.

She realized he was watching to see if they were coming at that very moment, with another unusual danger for The Land of Pink Windmills!

And then she remembered: The croapfs still had those five flying wands that gave them so much of an advantage! And they still had their creative minds, although something was wrong with them!

They could do something else at any minute!

With these thoughts, Meri began glancing up at the cliffs herself—but this time, because of her own concern!

She was seriously worried for the land again: Because the first two problems, the fireballs and attack from the sky, had come in just the last two days.

And this was the third day!

Would the croapfs be back again with something else the third day in a row?

And then—in a coincidence that made her heart sink!—at that very moment, as she was thinking about the third day in a row, a single croapf appeared in the air near the sheer rock facings that were already so high above them. He was very small in the sky because he was so far up.

With one of the flying wands, he appeared far to the right of The right Tower Tree.

Meri noticed immediately that he had something in his hand!

In his other hand—the one not holding the flying wand out in front with little hand motions—he was carrying a neatly wrapped plump black ball. A fat ball wrapped in a completely round black bag.

It didn’t look dangerous—in fact, it looked harmless.

Except that it was black.

And a croapf was carrying it!

And he was carrying it straight toward The Land of Pink Windmills!

Once over the cliffs, he could come directly down to the land!

All of the dummies who lived there were watching too by this time. They all had the same thought. Remembering the spectacular fireballs and then what had happened, only the day before, to shut off their sun, they dreaded—and wondered:

What is inside that little black package?

They all had a second thought, too, and this one, fortunately, was a comforting one: the ball seemed too small for anyone to worry about too much.

The crowd stopped talking, as they watched the croapf fly straight down from the cliffs—perfectly straight down!—at a considerable speed.

The flying wands could be very fast, and he was being helped by gravity!

Before he reached the bottom, at a magnificent speed, he curved outward, toward the pink windmills, leveling off and shooting toward them at a height of about fifty feet above the grass.

He arrived in about two seconds.

Still traveling at a vast speed, near the windmills he let go of the small round black ball that everyone was so curious about.

The colorful dummies spreading out from the foot of The Sliding Board—all of the dummies of that land—were shocked and fearful.

They had seen gigantic fireballs coming, and then a new sky!

Now what was this?

For a moment there was hardly a single movement among all of the dummies as they looked up, wondering if this was the next creative attack by the croapfs.

They didn’t have long to wait!

The black ball descended in a beautiful black arc, down toward the pink windmills, where it struck one, splattering the top with a powdery black substance.

The croapf kept right on going. Immediately he ascended, almost straight up, to a great height in the sky, where he finally turned toward the cliffs and shot toward them again in a great black rectangle.

Quickly he was out of sight again over the One Tree Forest.

Oh no! shrieked Sylvestra,

My home! she cried, her eyes frantic, realizing it had been her windmill that was hit. She—and everyone else in the great crowd—raced toward it. Meri and Perfit quickly jumped down from the end of The Sliding Board.

When they reached the targeted windmill, it looked pitiful. Its beautiful surface was covered with black all over the top, streaked across the front and smutted down one side.

The small black ball apparently had been a flimsy round paper bag filled with something like soot. Tightly packed, it had colorfully exploded its contents upon the windmill. And that color was black.

Touching the top of Syl’s sparkling pink windmill on one side, it had splattered downward and across and then down again. Even the light blue circle, where the four pink blades crossed in the middle, was dirty. The faint yellow dot in the middle of that, a hint of cheerfulness always turning in a perfect circle, couldn’t be seen at all anymore. It was there, of course—but it was completely hidden under the darkness of the powder packaged by the croapfs.

Sylvestra was wringing her hands frantically. She ran inside to get her squeegee and a bucket of water. Everyone was sympathizing, for they all loved Syl. This attack was especially difficult for them. For, separate from Syl, it was an attack on one of the two things they all loved the most: cleanliness.

Many tried to help, and did, after weakly recovering from the shocking sight, running to get their own squeegees as Syl came out of her front door with hers. She had stopped briefly to turn off her beloved windmill blades.

It was sad to see them coasting to a stop, all with at least some soot on them!

Meri wanted very much to help, but she knew she wasn’t very skilled with a squeegee. And all of the dummies who lived in the pink windmills were. So she didn’t get in the way of their frantic efforts. But she did walk softly over, and when she could, put a hand on Syl’s shoulder. Her friend looked over at her with pain in those aquamarine eyes, so like Meri’s, but a smile came into them just the same when she saw Meri.

Thanks, she said quietly and sweetly. We’ll get it off. See, some of it is on one of your windows.

Meri looked up, and then Wut bounced over. They backed up just a little as Sylvestra and her neighbors continued cleaning. These dummies were quite skillful with their rags and squeegees. It was good that they loved so much to clean! But sad that they were caused so much pain by the traveling artificial soot.

One of Syl’s neighbors brought a ladder, and a dummy climbed right up to Meri’s window.

Bouncing beside Meri, Wut inconspicuously got her attention by taking her hand for a moment and ominously nodding toward the cliffs. It was only then that Meri realized with horror that—there could be many of those little bags coming down—all over the village! And probably would be! She didn’t like the look in Wut’s eyes, because she could tell he was thinking the same thing!

There was already a lot of worry in those now familiar green eyes out in the air on either side of his face. This could be much worse than anything that had ever happened to any of The Lands before!

And sure enough, only several minutes after the arrival of the first croapf, a second one appeared over the cliffs.

The crowd—except those cleaning—began watching again—this time with horror. They were also beginning to realize what was about to happen. The look in their eyes at that moment became noticeably personal, because each one had his, or her, own windmill.

The second croapf shot downward, at the same rate of speed as the first one, holding the flying wand in one hand and a round bulging bag of the soot substance in the other. It was a flimsy bag that had been balled into a kind of