The Taming of the Mould
Part 2
Rob told our heroes that in order to free the beautiful shell, they must first tame the mould. He took them to a large workshop, and showed them the ribs belonging to the mould. They had to put all the ribs back together in their proper shape and screw them down before daybreak. But alas! On trying to fit the ribs of the mould together, Kento and Lucy discovered that two pieces were missing without which the great monster would never be trapped. Undeterred, Kento ventured into the forest until he met a lumberjack. The lumberjack – Mark – helped Kento cut replacements for the missing pieces out of wood which were, as it turned out, 2mm too thick. But the lumberjack was good and kind and sanded down the bits until they fitted with the rest of the ribs – even though he got completely covered with dust and looked utterly ridiculous.
And so our heroes passed the first test.
Once the trap was built, Rob described how the giant mould had to be lured into the trap before it could be tamed. By cutting out many large sheets of plywood and screwing them down on top of the ribs, the mould would be fully immobilised. This task was harder than the first. Luckily, fate was on their side. Charlie the queen and Martin the king’s advisor had been journeying when a vicious snowstorm drove them off course, until they encountered our heroes, and agreed to help. All five worked hard to screw the plywood down, although Lucy’s progress was hampered by Martin drilling holes so wide that no screw would fit. It snowed harder and harder, yet our heroes were not discouraged, even when they had to give Charlie and Martin a lift back in the Honda. Charlie was particularly rude to Lucy, throwing a snowball in her face twice while she was making snow angels. However, revenge was very literally served cold when Lucy dropped a snowball down Charlie’s back while they were on the motorway, and he was distracted watching another car crash into a tree in a comical way.
Lucy and Kento soon returned to complete the screwing down of plywood. Rob gave them three magical drill-bits, which were so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, to speed up their task. Disaster struck twice when Lucy knocked over the drill, snapping the first drill-bit, and broke the second when trying to drill into the ferocious ribs. At this point she was forbidden from using the drill so that the last drill-bit would not be lost. Instead she stuck balsawood all around the outside of the mould to form the joggle. Finally, a precious item was placed within the plywood and ribs to lure the giant monster into the trap. Kento, being a poor swineherd, had nothing of value, but Lucy happened to have Charlie’s shiny keys, which may or may not have been pinched with a view to further retaliation for the snowball throwing. They were sealed inside with the monster. The sealing itself took many hours involving very, very tough polyfiller, but was eventually complete.
And so our heroes passed the second test, although in his excitement, Kento missed the motorway exit and our heroes had to spend some time wandering lost in the surrounding area until Lucy remembered there was a map in the back.
