Jester Minute (Part 2)

Jester Minute (Part 2)

when I r-rescue the White Queen,” cried Jester, “n-nobody will ever laugh at me again!” And he galloped at full tilt across the snakes-and-ladders board.

Everywhere he looked, angry faces hissed. “Ssss— who isss thisss?” “Oooh,” thought Jester. “What have l g-got myself into n-now?”

Ahead, the path was cluttered with a pile of building blocks. “Maybe if I c-climb up here, I-I’ll get a b-better v-view.” Then he saw it—

— a tall, gloomy house with a ramshackle roof and tumbledown chimneys. “I d-don’t like the I-look of this place one little b-bit.”

But Jester crept up to the front door. It creaked open, and he peeped into the hall. “W..w..what an awful m-mess!”

The hall was dark and dusty. “The house seems to be c-completely d-deserted. Perhaps it’s h-h-haunted.”

Everything was draped in sticky cobwebs. His heart thumped as he set one foot on the stairs and drew the King’s sword.

But his hand was shaking. Jester pushed aside the cobwebs and took another trembling step, clutching the banister.

CRASH! A door flew open and there stood Badweb, the fierce, ugly spider. Jester crouched in terror as its huge eyes rolled. A leg reached out to grab him.

But it got tangled in a mass of webs. The spider screeched with anger, and the whole house shook as he struggled to get free. Then Badweb lost his balance—

Jester just had time to jump aside as the wriggling spider rolled head over heels and plunged down the stairs over his head. Like a great ball of string, Badweb tumbled out of the front door. He sat outside the house, Unable to move. Jester picked up the King’s sword, which he had dropped in a panic. “Oh dear, I still have to f-find the Queen!” I wonder where she C-can be?”

He looked everywhere - in every room. “Oh, lg-give up.” Then he heard something. “Yes— there it is again!” Suddenly, the floor under him gave way, and he found himself falling into the darkness below!

Jester landed with a bump on a cold stone floor. And there, right in front of him, was the White Queen, all tied up in Badweb’s sticky cobwebs. “I’m s-sorry to c-come in without knocking, your majesty,” he gasped. And he quickly set about cutting her free with his sword. “I’m very pleased to see you, Jester,” said the Queen. “You’re so brave.”

Outside the old house, a huge crowd was waiting to cheer Jester. All the toys heard that Badweb had been defeated. The house was safe to live in once again.

Jester found his trusty horse waiting for him and, taking the Queen’s hand, he returned in triumph to the Court of the White Chessmen.