The Grimm Dossier

Chapter 29 - The Frog

England, West Coast
Devonshire, Dartmoor
St George, boundary wall
5 November 1898, 11:43 a.m.

It was typical English autumn weather. Only here and there did a small ray of sunlight push through the dense sea of clouds like the glow of a signal lantern. Everywhere else, grey clouds had taken over the sky and completely displaced the blue behind. It made the day autumnally dull and grey.

In the imagination of the young rogue Viktor Graham, however, the world looked quite different. The wall, overgrown with ivy and moss, rose before the fearless pirate captain like a mighty bulwark. But never before had such a thing stopped a nefarious rogue. Escape from the legendary prison, guarded by the most gruesome of gruesome torturers (Mrs. Warren, his teacher) had been particularly difficult today. After catching him in his assassination attempt on the school chalk, she thought she could break him by putting him outside the door. There he was to stand until the end of the next lesson, away from his loyal crew of keel rats. Her teacher was an old scarecrow anyway and was always picking on him. She couldn't care less who he played or joked with!

Arrrr! But he wouldn't let a landlubber like that tell him what he should or shouldn't do! It was not the first time that the wicked and nefarious Captain V. Blackbeard had extricated himself from this predicament. His crew had to fend for themselves and serve their time in the torture chamber at Geography.

With a broad grin on his face and a perfectly suitable stick (his sharp saber, of course) which he had kept hidden in a bush near the school for his adventures, Viktor squeezed through the narrow gap in the wall. Rustling, the tendrils of ivy fell back in front of his secret escape tunnel from the city full of soldiers loyal to the king! Briefly, he peered back and forth, then ran, scurrying into the shelter of the tall grass. In his chest, a rabbit was doing wild hooks of excitement because the stretch between the wall of the fort to the shelter of the higher bushes of the little forest tongue was always the riskiest. But none of the sentries seemed to have spotted him!

Crickets chirped somewhere at the edge of the forest and tall grass tickled his knees. With his stick, he boldly struck at the vines that grew everywhere in the wild jungle. Leaves rustled to the ground as he climbed over stick and stone with great strides. Then, brave as death, he pushed his way between two bushes - the secret passage to his secret hiding place! Behind them, he finally reached the endless sea, a pond amidst the embrace of the small grove. Here the pirate and his crew sometimes hoarded valuable treasures. That is, trinkets they had stolen from others and claimed for themselves before burying them in a treasure chest between the roots of a tree and under earth and leaves. That meant: HE had buried it there! After all, he was also the captain of the crew of useless dogs.

A rustling noise caught his attention. Bravely he faced the enemy, the wooden pirate saber with the slightly curved end firmly in his hands. Startled, he staggered back a step as a large, disgusting toad leaped from one of the bushes.

"Die sea monster!" he barked at the monster and struck at it with his saber. The toad, however, escaped his blow and hopped in a great leap to the pond. It wanted to escape into the sea! But it had not reckoned with Captain Blackbeard! He immediately ran after the brown blob. But before he could reach it, the thing jumped into the water with a loud splash.

Viktor pursed his lips in dissatisfaction and poked around in the water with his stick. Suddenly a strange shimmer caught his eye. The childish brow furrowed deeply and the bushy eyebrows under the curly brown hair tilted towards each other. What was that? Perhaps a hidden treasure at the bottom of the sea? Viktor fished for it with his stick. Further and further he tilted above the surface.