Chapter Thirty-Three of "Things that go bump in the Night" a new Baker Street Adventure novel with Sherlock Holmes is now posted on www.johnpirillo.com.

"Things that go bump in the NIght"
by John Pirillo
Chapter Thirty-Three

His biceps rippled like bronzed metal as he swung from one tree to the other. Home. Not the one he used to have on Earth, but the one in Fairie, where man had not yet despoiled the wilderness. As he swung from one vine to the next, admiring the sky-high trees with their thick trunks that looked like they could hold a city within them, the gigantic leaves that could hold up a small army without crumbling and the ever blossoming flowers that gigantic bees and birds of every color and nature buzzed, pecked, and consumed for themselves, he felt at peace.

The only emptiness he felt was for his beloved Lady Shareen. She had elected to do her research back on Earth, in London where the first sightings had been discovered. She wasn't sure what she would be looking for yet, but he knew she would find something. She was a remarkable woman and well trained in the discovery of details that only someone as talented and genius as Sherlock Holmes could match or even surpass. For a woman in this age she stood head and shoulders above the masses, which is why she led so many women's liberation movements about the planet, shouldering the responsibility of creating equal opportunties for the opposite sex.

He supported her entirely in her pursuit. His upbringing in the colony of apes had taught him a lot about human nature through the lovingness of his ape mother, who stood up to the males, even when it was not by their nature something easily done or fostered. She had protected him through his stages of maturation and she had helped him discover the land of Fairie where he had partaken of the magical waters of Dis, where men could lengthen their lives and their strength and mental agilities. The only downside was that he had to return there at least once a year to renew the ingesting of the waters, or he would gradually decline.

He was more than two hundred years old by modern British times, but he hid it well because of his newness to that society. Only Holmes and Watson knew how old he really was, though he suspected both Harry and Challenger knew as well. They were all brilliant men and not ones he'd ever want to have against him for any reason whatsoever.

He swung in a high arc that thrust his vision skywards, where he could see the two suns dancing across the sky, the larger one the brightest, but the smaller one would remain for longer in the skies, thus lengthening the day once the larger was below the horizon. He let go of his vine and alighted on top a branch that overlooked a great lagoon below.

He sat down on the branches edge, his feet dangling over the precipice which fell sharply for almost a thousand feet. These trees were not only the tallest on this world, but they were also the most ancient. Some were said to be intelligent like a man. He had scoffed at such Elven talk at first, but once he had become involved in the nourishing of these realms, he had learned of many strange things that had been rumored, were in actuality the truth.

As he sat there basking in the midday suns, he felt a presence grow behind him.

"I'm glad you could come, Femer." He said without turning around.

The presence strode forth and sat down next to him in a yoga like position, his long graceful fingers holding his kneecaps as he gazed over the beloved lands below with great golden eyes bright with hope and intelligence.

"I got your message a bit late.."

"But your magic got you here early." Lord Graystone, the Jungle Lord, answered.

"Yes. Magic and..."

He gestured upwards and the Jungle Lord spotted a Peagasus winging towards the horizon.

"Ah, I see you are still helping that next." Graystone said.

"Yes. Ever since you found it, I've not lost a day without being there to help them recover from the losses they suffered during the brief war we had."

Jungle Lord sighed. "Must there always be wars?"

"You're asking me?" Femor asked back.

"Your life is much longer than mine."

"But no less touched by the rigors of life and living, and of man's fall from grace and into greed and stupidity."

Graystone looked at him. "Which is why I am a Lord Graystone in my home world, and a Jungle Lord here. The two are not mutually co-operative. Here or there."

Femor sighed this time. "Such is again, the nature of our lives. When you live to serve, the service is often times interrupted by acts of nature."

"Or in this case...a beast." Graystone added.

Femor looked into Graystone's eyes. "Is this the statement of the Jungle Lord, or the Lord Graystone?"

"Both. I have found traces of the monster in both worlds. And in both worlds I am at a loss as to explain its true nature, even though I suspect whom it might be behind this."

Femor shook his head. "I thought he was destroyed."

"We've always thought that and he returns yet again."

"Wasn't it your Einstein who said..."

"Energy can neither be created or destroyed." Graystone nodded. "Yes. In this case the energy is consciousness with the ability to manifest much evil."

"How do you intend to pursue this evil?"

Graystone's eyes went distant for a moment, then he spoke. "There is a rumor of an ancient city on the fringes of Repa...the City of the Gods."

"The fallen gods you mean." Femor cut in.

"Fallen or not. That is where I intend to go. Will you help me?"

"You are quite capable on your own."

"Not with magic. My strength can not stand against that force, any more than any other mortal's can."

"Not all mortals."

"True, but most. Only those of evil intent can wield magic of such power."

"What of your good friend, Harry Houdini?"

"Sometimes I fear for him, because when you play with fire, sometimes..."

"It burns you. Yes. So it has been said. But he has a pure heart and a child's soul."

"Even children can be quite cruel sometimes."

"Yes. But in innocence, not in nature."

Lord Graystone, the Jungle Lord pondered that. "Maybe that is why I suspect whom I do. He was once very childlike, and such ambitions as children nurture was never allowed to ripen into a positive nature, but was ripped from the heart of his essence."

"And you think..."

He went on to speak the name of the suspect. When he did the entire forest for miles around them went deathly still.

They both looked at each other.