Immediately upon their return, Frinty and Mugber petitioned the space company to send them back with a team to fight the terrifying pancakes and avenge the brave young waffle, Norman Waffle. Unfortunately, the space company had lost all their research and no longer knew how to build space machines. They said they would try to aid Frinty and Mugber’s intentions but that they had to start from square one, and it would take years to re-research everything, not to mention how long it would take to build a new waffleship. You see, waffles are not very good at building. This news dismayed Frinty and Mugber, but they didn’t give up.
Over the months and years following the fateful mission, Norman Waffle became a hero and a legend. Only Mugber and Frinty remembered him as he was, a dear friend, alone and scared. They devoted themselves to their own research. Now, seven years later, Frinty and Mugber were about to embark on a new mission.
Mugber stepped out of the waffle house just in time to see Frinty load the last box into the trunk of the wafflemobile.
“We all ready?” He asked. Frinty nodded. Today was the day they had been preparing for for years.
To clear up some probable and problematic confusion, I shall tell you a bit of the research Mugber and Frinty had carried out. Firstly, they had searched the skies for the pancake planet Froblignor. They had built a powerful telescope, hoping to see once again those eery glowing green mountains, but they had seen nothing even close. Secondly, they had somehow come across the idea that the space company might be hiding something from them. And thirdly and finally, they had come to the conclusion that the land of fierce pancakes was somewhere on their planet. They came up with a general direction and started to drive that very day.
Now, as every waffle knows, the land of Waffles is made up of distinctly waffleish terrain, with many ridges and deep squarish lakes and valleys. In fact, Frinty and Mugber had decided that they must actually be living on a giant, poorly-made waffle!
So anyway, Frinty and Mugber were off. They drove South along the ridges. They had packed everything a waffle needs for a long trip, mostly maple syrup. In fact, they had ninety-eight boxes filled with maple syrup in the back and only two other containers, which were filled with the following miscellaneous items: several deadly toothpicks, some clips and elastics for Frinty’s hair, Mugber’s tuba, thirteen pairs of socks for each, a picture frame that Mugber had inherited from his great aunt (there was not a picture, it was just the frame), a yoga mat, a pair of binoculars, a shoehorn, a megaphone, a kazoo and a piece of wood Frinty had stubbed her toe on when she walked out the door.
You may have noticed they were not very good packers, but really, maple syrup is the only essential for waffles, so the way they saw it was that if they had two more boxes to fill, they might as well just pack them as fast as possible.
Frinty and Mugber drove for days. Then, quite rapidly, the landscape started to change, becoming dry and desolate. The waffles were getting excited now – they knew they were close. Mugber was driving with Frinty interrogating him for twenty questions when the land stopped abruptly.
Mugber slammed on the brakes. They got out and stepped gingerly toward the edge.
“What is it?” asked Frinty as Mugber looked down. Suddenly he gasped.
Frinty screamed, “Ah! Mugber! Are you okay?!”
He stepped back and nodded,
“Yes, of course.” He replied, “I just realized something we didn’t think of, and I have an idea.” Frinty peeked over the edge then hurried to Mugber, who was back at the wafflemobile.
“What did you realize, Uncle Mugber?” He looked her straight in the eye.
“Frinty, have you ever seen a spherical waffle?” Frinty shook her head, puzzled. Mugber continued. “We live on a giant waffle, correct?” Frinty nodded earnestly. “Then the world we live on-” Mugber paused.
“Yes?” Frinty said anxiously.
Mugber repeated himself, “The world we live on… must be flat.” Frinty’s eyes grew wide in realization,
“You’re right! It must be!”
Mugber nodded patiently, “There’s more. According to our calculations, the land of pancakes, commonly known as Froblignor, should be right here.”
Frinty nodded again. “Yes.” She agreed, “But it isn’t.”
Mugber shook his head and said calmly, “It is, Frinty. Think!”
Frinty thought. Frinty thought a lot. She thought about mushrooms, pillows, clouds, lampshades, curtain rods, tree bark, and much more. Mugber asked what she was thinking about. When she told him, he sighed and said,
“I meant think about how the pancake land is right here.”
“Oh!” Exclaimed Frinty. You see, although waffles can live for a very long time, it doesn’t mean they become smarter or even that much more mature. Frinty thought about the pancake world now but couldn’t come up with anything. “What do you mean, Uncle Mugber?” She asked.
“Frinty, the pancake world is underneath us.”
Realization dawned on Frinty’s face.
“Oh!” She said excitedly.
“Yes.” Said Mugber, “On one side of this waffle live the waffles, and on the other side live the pancakes. We just need to figure out how to get there.”
Frinty jumped up and down in excitement, “I know! I know!” She shouted jubilantly, “We can dig a hole to the other side!”
Mugber looked at her, his eyes aglow with pride, and whispered in admiration, “Brilliant.”
They quickly went to work. First, the waffles found a deep valley and drove to the bottom. Then they went through their supplies and got what they needed to dig the hole. Mugber attached the shoehorn to the piece of wood with some of Frinty’s hair elastics and started digging.
Frinty, being good at tinkering and contraption contriving, put together a wonderful machine that did the digging in half the time. I can’t tell you how it was made or how it worked because that would take far too long. However, I can tell you that it was made of two toothpicks, one hairclip, one tuba, six and a half pairs of socks, one picture frame, one yoga mat, one megaphone and one kazoo. Soon they had a hole as deep as seven waffles are tall, and they had come out the other side. Frinty and Mugber disassembled the machine and packed everything except the socks back into the boxes. They took the socks and counted them. There were thirteen pairs for each waffle, making twenty-six pairs in total, therefore fifty-two socks in all. Frinty and Mugber then tied all the socks together to form a long, stretchy rope. Mugber and Frinty discussed who would go first.
“Who will go first?” Asked Frinty.
“You can if you want.” Replied Mugber. Thus it was they decided.
Frinty tied one end of the sock rope around her waist, and Mugber held the other. Frinty slowly descended into the dark hole. After a couple minutes, she was on the other side and was surrounded by strangeness. She seemed to be in a forest of sorts, but the trees were unlike anything she’d ever seen. Their trunks were a shiny, metallic dark green and their leaves were not leaves at all. What grew on the trunks was a sort of foamy slime or slimy foam, which seemed to very slowly, over years or decades, drip off the trees and onto the grounds, planting more such trees. The slime-foam/foam-slime was slightly luminescent and grew in rusty red, outrageous orange, baby blue and tropical turquoise. Mugber’s voice drew Frinty from her speculation,
“Frinty? Are you okay?” She leaned back over the hole.
“Yes.” She shouted, ecstatic, “We were right!” Mugber yahooed.
“Frinty.” His voice came again, “I’m going to send the wafflemobile in now, okay?” Frinty called back her agreement and shortly after, the wafflemobile came lowering up out of the hole, tied securely to the sock rope. Frinty pulled it over onto the ground and then waited as Mugber lowered himself up as well. When he was finally up out of the hole, he looked around in amazement.
“We really were right! This is really it!” Frinty hugged her uncle in celebration, then began untying the socks.
“Wait, Frinty.” Said Mugber, cautiously, “We’ll want to be armed.” Mugber got two toothpicks for each of them and then stood guard as Frinty finished untying the socks and putting them in the wafflemobile. Then they hopped in and set off to explore.
They drove through the forest for a long time, wondering at the weirdness of what they saw. Then the wafflemobile’s wheels got stuck in some slimy foam and they had to walk. They walked for a while and slowly started to wonder what they should do now. They didn’t know where to find the savage pancakes and even if they did, they didn’t actually want to fight them, let alone know how to! The purple sun was setting, so they decided to lie down and sleep for the night. They each lay down on some soft, foamy moss and fell fast asleep.
Sometime in the middle of the night, Mugber and Frinty were awakened by strong hands carrying them swiftly through the forest. They cried out in alarm: the pancakes had captured them! But someone whispered,
“Shhh, we won’t hurt you, but you must be quiet, or else Plong will hear us!” So Mugber and Frinty were quiet. By the light of the blue moon, they could see the forest rushing past. They saw large, round silhouettes all around them, it was the pancakes of Froblignor, but they didn’t seem very savage and fierce. Had the waffles been wrong all along? Suddenly they saw before them the dark shape of a building, with bright green light emanating from the windows. The pancakes carried Mugber and Frinty into the building and set them down on soft, foamy couches.
Inside the building was a table surrounded by six chairs set with six places. Each plate was smartly stacked with blueberries and drenched in maple syrup. Other than the table and chairs, there were a couple more foam couches and a fireplace in the corner. The roaring fireplace roared with green fire. I should say here that the land of pancakes felt quite tropical, very hot and wet, so Mugber and Frinty wondered what use such a large fire would be. They soon realized, however, that this green fire let of coldness instead of hotness. The waffles were very impressed.
Mugber and Frinty were left alone there for a couple minutes in which they looked at each other in wonder and confusion but didn’t say a word.
All of a sudden the door flew open and 9 figures entered. First came three pancakes, then four pancakes of smallish proportion with the shape of a rounded square, then a full-sized pancake wearing a glowing silver crown followed by the familiar but oddly out-of-place shape of a full-grown waffle. Mugber and Frinty stood up and looked at the waffle in consternation. Where had this waffle come from? He wore a glowing golden crown on his head and walked with strength and dignity. The strange waffle helped the four small, squarish pancakes sit in their chairs and then turned toward Mugber and Frinty. The waffle looked at them with some interest, then recognition flashed on his face.
“Mugber! Frinty!” He cried joyfully. Mugber and Frinty were astonished. How did this strange, princely waffle know their names? The waffle saw their befuddlement and hastened to explain.
“It’s me, Norman!” Then Mugber and Frinty realized that it was him. They cried out in delight, ran forward and embraced him.
“What happened?” Frinty asked after they had gotten all their shock and surprise out. “I will tell you, but first I must introduce you to the others present.” The two waffles nodded their assent.
“This,” said Norman, laying his hand on the shoulder of a tall, muscular pancake, “Is my brother in law, Prince Koombo.” Prince Koombo nodded towards the waffles in greeting. Norman gestured to two pancakes standing side by side near the fire, “These are the twins, my brother and sister in law, Prince Keekee and Princess Koko.”
Then Norman moved to the table where the beautiful pancake with the silver crown sat, “This is my wife, Queen Kisyoo, and these,” He tenderly touched the heads of the four small squarish pancakes, “Are our children, Prince Kolo, Princess Kowi, Prince Keelo and Princess Kiwi.” Norman turned back to Mugber and Frinty and smiled wide. They looked at him with amazement and wonder.
“How-” Began Mugber, but Norman held up a hand. “So much has happened since we first landed here, it will take a long time, I would be a poor host if I told you my tale when you were not yet fed or rested. Tell us your tale while we eat, then you may rest while I tell you mine.” Mugber and Frinty nodded and Norman had another table with more settings carried in and they sat down to eat.
The two waffles explained their journey to the pancakes and Norman. How they had thought him dead, how he had become a legend in the waffle world, and how they had researched and discovered that the land of waffles and the land of pancakes were two sides of the same world. Norman nodded wisely. “We suspected as much.”
Then everyone seated themselves on the soft couches, Norman with his two little daughters snuggled in his lap, and Queen Kisyoo with the two little princes in hers. And Norman began to tell his story.
Norman the Waffle pt. 4 coming soon! 🙂
