The Mind Behind The Beanie || ✔

What the Lion Has to Share

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"So you can talk," Conner said, staring up at the lion while Bree hid behind him.  To say she was scared was one thing, she was terrified.  She had never been around magic before, and this was a lion.  A lion!! It could eat them for dinner!

"Yes, I can talk," the lion admitted. "I'll answer whatever questions you have, just please don't call that woman here." ^Okay.  The lion didn't look all that bad, he even seemed friendly.^

Conner seemed to smile, but Bree couldn't see, she was still hiding behind him.  "Why are you so afraid of Mother Goose?"he asked.

"I'm not afraid of her, it's her stories I can't stand." The lion shook his head.  "Over the years she's told me some outlandish secrets that I never wanted to know- and she never spares the details! If you knew half the things I know, you would look at her differently too.  It's too much for one lion to bear!"

"Is that why you look so concerned all the time?" Conner asked.

"That's part of it," the lion said, and then there was a second of silence. When the lion spoke again, he spoke with sadness and whimpered like he was about to cry.  "I'm also afraid of heights and these people keep putting me on top of very tall things!  And they separated me from my brother when the Red Lion Brewery was demolished and I don't know where he is!"

The stone lion sniffled into his stone paws.  Bree felt sorry for the lion, but a piece of information about the second lion came into her mind.  She stepped out from behind Conner to share it with the lion. 

"Oh, you're talking about the second lion statue," She said, fulling stepping out from behind Conner.  "He's still around! They painted him gold and put him on display at some sports arena."

The South Bank Lion was happy to hear this and looked a little less concerned.  "That's such a relief," he said.  " He always loved sports."

"Can he talk and move like you?" Conner asked. 

"No, he's just a normal stone statue, but we're made of the same artificial stone," the lion said.  "I was the only lion Mother Goose enchanted."

"Why did she enchant you?" Conner asked. ^Seriously? We are here to learn where a portal the Land of Stories is and you're asking the statute why he was enchanted? Why?^

"In the mid-1800's Mother Goose used to visit her friends at the Red Lion Brewery every Sunday night," the lion told him.  "Around the same time she had just started training that horrible gander of hers to fly around.  He was a horrible flyer and every so often they would crash into me on the roof.  One night they were a little too careless and hit me so hard I was knocked off the roof and shattered into pieces on the ground.  She magically put me back together and cast an invincibility spell on me so I wouldn't leave such a mess the next time they knocked me off the roof."

"Ah, so that's why you stayed in such good condition during the war and the demolition," Bree said. 

"But that doesn't explain why you can talk," Conner pointed out. 

"Well, after a few years Mother Goose's brewery friends started dying off," the lion explained.  "She wanted a friend who would stick around and give her an excuse to come back to the brewery.  And unfortunately, she chose me.  Although I don't know why she gave me the ability to speak when all I ever did was listen."

"Speaking of listening," Conner said.  "do you remember her mentioning anything about the Brothers Grimm and sabotaging a portal. 

The lion scrunched his forehead, obviously trying to remember.  "It rings a bell," he said.  "Was this the same time that she led the French soldiers into a trap?"