Silence After Music
Serena, the lost princess was not only skilled in making wishes. What is more, she wasn't skilled most in making wishes but in music, and her voice, admired throughout Cerbengocia, could often be heard in the palace. This doesn't mean that when she was singing in the palace it was heard throughout Cerbengocia, but that everyone agreed that she could sing beautifully. So, when Scarlet arrived at the palace with Strange Chap, who was slightly dazed because of her chatter, they introduced themselves, which gave Strange Chap another reason to wonder about the odd naming habits of the Cerbengese. Serena, after getting to know Strange Chap, immediately thought she could get as much music as she wanted.
And she couldn't get enough of music. She used often and with pleasure her womuboxophone (WOnderful MUsic Boxophone) that she had got from Hocus. She could record her singing with it and she could replay it too, and she could also choose form a certain range of music. However, like all musical devices, it had its own natural and magic limitations. At times, for instance, it would spit the magic cassette out and would demand pancakes with jam, and at other times, he would only play his favorite song called "Touslesnap and Pompominy, your hamsters are teeny-tiny". When this happened, Serena was compelled to switch it off for a day, because the machine forgot about this bad habit in that time. Sadly, sometimes it came up with a new one instead.
"So this is your wish, isn't it, dear Serenathelostprincess?" pondered Strange Chap. "Music? Just like that?"
"Endless music!" yelled Serena. "Let it be as you wish!"
Strange Chap snapped his fingers and Serena's room was filled with all kinds of musicians. Zither players plucked the strings, panpipe players blew, string quartets played their violins with full volume, wind quintets blared, and a whole brass band marched in through the door, while a few smaller pianists played concertos in a corner.
Serena covered her ears, which Strange Chap took as a sign of her not being content with the volume, so he added a few bagpipe players and a siren to the gathering. The idea of the latter occurred to him because he hoped the siren to be related to Serena, although he wasn't completely convinced about it. Finally, he himself joined the crowd creating a universal din with his humble yet all the more penetrating clatter. What is more, the womuboxophone started up too: "Touslesnap and Pompominy, your hamsters are teeny-tiny."
Serena couldn't take it anymore. She jumped up, made herself way among the members of the marching band, ran along the corridor and rushed straight into the throne chamber, with Strange Chap and the whole eardrum-cracking crowd right behind her.
"Kocian!" she shouted. "Kocian, help! This noise is unbearable!"
Kocian, the heir to the Cerbengese throne (the structure of the Cerbengese state is told in detail in another volume of the Cerbengese Chronicles), was sitting on the throne. Actually, he would've liked much more to be reading in the shadow of a tree, but dignity comes with certain restrictions, after all, so Kocian had to sit on the throne from time to time and pass the time there somehow. Truth be told, there was no one there to call him to account had he missed his obligation, but as a conscientious heir, Kocian felt that it was the least he could do for his kingdom. And fortunately, there wasn't really need for him to do anything else, anyway. Aside from certain extraordinary occasions, of course, which he found more embarrassing than sitting on the throne. Be that as it may, most probably he was about to face an occasion just like that. Only a wink ago, Tiny and Cerbi ran up to him, which is extraordinary enough as it is. Not the fact that they visited him, because he would often spend time with them. However, they would always try to avoid the throne chamber. The same solemn seriousness kept them away that made Kocian uncomfortable, only he could not avoid the throne chamber, contrary to his friends, because after all, that was his workplace. They were just trying to put together an incredibly confusing story about some horrible alarm-clock that makes things fly, puts them asleep, plays foot tennis, and can lift a whole castle if he fancied that. But because they always interrupted each other, Kocian couldn't get the gist of it. Using all his influence as a ruler, he lifted his hand… and in that moment, the door of the throne chamber burst open. Tiny and Cerbi screamed in horror:
"He's here! He's here!" and they threw themselves out of the window. (This is not as tricky as it sounds, since the throne chamber was built on the ground floor, for reasons of comfort. How comfortable and useful the ground floor is, for example, when someone wants to throw himself out of the window.)
At the same time, with unbelievable noise and discord, Serena hurried into the room with Scarlet on one side and with a really strange chap on the other, and following them was an inconceivably varied and colorful crowd swarming and making an awful noise with all kinds of musical and other instruments. Kocian sat on the throne numb for a wink, with his hand in the air, and then he shouted his own wish loud and clear, as he wanted to do in front of Tiny and Cerbi already:
"Silence!"
And a wish, as we know, has to come true in the presence of Strange Chap. Kocian didn't know at that time. He only saw that the musicians disappeared on the one hand, and on the other, that he heard… he didn't hear anything. He didn't even hear his own voice when he said:
"At last. So tell me in detail what happened."
They must have begun to tell what happened, because Kocian saw that they were gaping and rolling their eyes and hesitantly turning to the left and to the right. Only the little unknown creature was standing there with ease and calm, from which Kocian guessed immediately that he had to have something to do with the extraordinary event. But it is really hard to be sure of that if all questions get lost in numb silence. But what is common sense for if not solving situations like these? Kocian turned his head so that the stranger could see him well and he covered both his ears. He signaled that he couldn't hear a thing. The stranger smiled and pointed to his mouth. He must be telling me, Kocian thought to himself, that every word is in vain here. So, Kocian pointed his finger at the stranger saying: "Then do something about it!"
And behold, he could at once hear the birds singing from the garden, the splashing of the fountain, the rustle of the tree leaves, a thousand quiet noises we don't even notice when they surround us every minute, but we appreciate them all the more when we're deprived of them for some reason. The same is not true for the scream coming from a terrified Scarlet, beating with her little transparent wings, which would definitely have been better not to hear.
"Somebody say something, what kind of treatment this is? I can't hear a thing! My second cousin had a friend, whose grandfather flew straight into a bur weed hitting his had, because if somebody flies, he flies usually with his head in front, I myself do that, except when…"
"Scarlet!" Kocian raised his voice at her. Scarlet broke it off, looked around, and then thudded on the floor, relieved.
"Oh, my primrose!" she panted. "For a minute I thought I went deaf!"
"That's different," Touslesnap sighed. "So what was this confusion all about?"
Serena and Scarlet started telling the story at the same time, naturally. Kocian was just about to shout "Silence!" but he managed to keep his calm and asked Serena to sum up all there was to know about this mess.
"I see," he nodded after Serena finished telling him the story. "So you are the magical clock who makes all wishes come true."
"I sure am, Strange Chap, the ghost of the magic alarm-clock!" Strange Chap straightened up. "And who are you?"
"Kocian, the heir to the throne of Cerbengocia."
"Well, dear Kociancerbengo…"
The ghost of the alarm-clock got confused over the long name for a few times, then waved his hand in resignation because he thought he would never get it right.
"I just want to say I make your wishes come true."
Kocian sat back in his throne comfortably.
"I think everything's clear now. We don't have a problem here if we pay attention to exactly how we put our wishes into words. We're going to understand each other, won't we, Strange Chap? We had a nice conversation just now, without saying a word!"
"It wasn't hard at all. First, you put your hands on your head, which meant you have some problems. I showed you my mouth, which meant you just had to tell me to help and I would. Then you pointed at me, which meant that you let me know that you had a new wish, so I made your previous wish invalid in order to let you tell me the next one."
"Yes, yes…" an embarrassed Kocian murmured. "You see, the main thing is not to lose our head and our common sense. Come with me, I know a task just right for you!"