“Alfie, at last. I’ve been calling you” said Braddle.
“I know you have. I don’t think anybody else heard though or we’d have a problem.”
“Problem? I’ve got enough of those already.”
“Why? What’s happened?” asked Alfie.
“I’ll tell you in a minute but first I need food. I’m starving.”
“I’ll get some. Wait here.”
Alfie ran back to the kitchen. He could hear his mother and sister in Lou’s bedroom. It sounded as if they were choosing holiday clothes as he could hear his mother say that it might be chilly at night. What could he get a tiny person to eat? There were no strawberries left. His father had finished them off yesterday. He opened the bread bin. He could give him a bread crumb but decided against it. Would be too dry he thought. It would be impossible to butter a bread crumb even with a magnifying glass. He opened the fridge door and looked around. There was an opened tin of spaghetti hoops. One of them would be more than enough, he thought. He took a teaspoon from the draw and scooped one spaghetti hoop out. He returned to the garage as quickly as he could holding the teaspoon out in front of him. Kneeling down by the bottom shelf he carefully pushed the hoop off the spoon with his little finger a little bit away from Braddle. Even from that distance it was clear that the hoop was the size of, if not a house, then most certainly a modest bungalow.
“What is that?” asked Braddle.
“It’s a spaghetti hoop” said Alfie. “They’re delicious. I have them every day.”
Braddle poked it with his finger. It was soft and wet. It looked like the kind of food that would be served up in a bad dream but he was hungry and he simply had to eat. Without his dagger, though, he was not sure how he could get a piece.
“Are you sure this is food?” he asked Alfie.
“Yeah. The best food there is.”
Braddle pushed his hand slowly into it and then pulled off a piece. Alfie heard munching noises. After a few minutes he heard Braddle gasp the word ‘delicious’.
“Do you like it then?”
“Very tasty” answered Braddle, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “When this is over you will have to give me another one. I’d like to see what Uncle Malik thinks of it.”
“When what is over?” Alfie asked.
“You won’t believe it Alfie” Braddle said. “I can hardly believe it myself now. Everything is falling upwards.”
“What do you mean?”
“General Stoo has taken over Carporoo. He took both me and Drostfur, the proper leader of Carporoo, prisoner yesterday.”
“Prisoner? You were taken prisoner?” asked Alfie. “If you were taken prisoner then how come you are here?”
“We escaped” said Braddle.
“You escaped?” asked Alfie.
“Yes. Well, I hope Drostfur escaped. He helped me to escape but then he stayed behind to make sure that I got away safely. He was going to escape later.”
Alfie had never met anyone who had been taken prisoner and then escaped before. It sounded exciting. Braddle, it seemed, was having the kind of adventures that he could only dream of. What made it even more fantastic was the fact that they were happening in his back garden.
“What are you going to do now?” asked Alfie.
“Drostfur has a plan. Before I came here last night I went to see my uncle. Drostfur has asked him to put together, in secret, a fighting force. Uncle used to be a soldier and he knows a lot of people who also used to be soldiers.”
“What did your uncle say?”
“He ran around the kitchen and then thumped the kitchen table. I've never seen him so excited. He said something about his hands. They were never meant to be a chair or something like that.”
“So there’s going to be a battle?” asked Alfie. “A real battle? In our back garden?”
“Yes” said Braddle proudly.
“When?”
“Very soon” said Braddle “but first you need to do something.”
“ME! What can I do?”
“General Stoo has taken the people who have disappeared. He took my mother as well. The people have not just disappeared though. He has handed them over to a giant.”
“A giant!”
“Yes a giant has them. He was going to give Drostfur and me to it as well.”
“You mean a person like me? A person like me has them?”
“Well, you are a giant aren’t you?” asked Braddle.
“Yeah, I suppose I am.”
Somebody else knows about the tiny people, thought Alfie. Not only that he has also taken some of them as well. Who could it be?
“You need to find this giant, stop him from helping General Stoo and get him to give our people back” said Braddle.
“WHAT? You want me to do WHAT?” exclaimed Alfie.
“Alfie come here please” shouted his mother from the back door.
“Who’s that?” asked Braddle.
“My mum. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Alfie ran out of the garage. Braddle picked a piece of the spaghetti hoop and ate it. It didn’t look good. He had imagined that Alfie would have gone straightaway to challenge the other giant but he seemed reluctant. Without his help it was difficult to see how Drostfur could be successful. The other giant could be General Stoo’s secret weapon. He could crush all opposition with one stamp of his foot. General Stoo could be in charge for ever with an ally like that. No. Alfie had no choice. He had to help them.
Alfie returned.
“Braddle, I’ve got to go shopping with mum. We’re going on an adventure holiday on Saturday and we need to get some holiday clothes.”