Get your own Free Home PageMeanwhile, in the Kingdom of Pumperdink, it was time for breakfast. The cooks were already finished preparing the breakfast, the table was set, and the King, Queen, Princesses, and one of the Princes were seated. But everyone was waiting for the other Prince. No one present had seen Kabumpo at all that morning.
"Summon Kabumpo's attendant," King Pompus ordered a page.
"Yes, your Majesty," responded the page, rushing out of the dining hall.
A few minutes later, the page returned with the attendant to the Elegant Elephant. The King asked the attendant if he had seen Kabumpo that morning.
"Yes, your Excellency," was the reply. "I saw him this morning."
"Did he say anything about going anywhere?" inquired the King. Kabumpo was quite a traveler and was often leaving Pumperdink for visits to the Emerald City or to his friend, King Randy of Regalia.
"No," answered the elephant's attendant.
King Pompus ordered his pages to search the palace and the Kingdom for Kabumpo. They soon returned, saying that they had not seen Kabumpo, or anyone who had seen him that morning, with the exception of a few guards and servants who had seen him walk casually through the palace.
"He must have had something extremely important to do, if he left the Kingdom before breakfast and without telling anyone," said the King.
"Or maybe he was elephant-napped," suggested a Courtier.
"Don't worry," announced Prince Pompadore. "I will leave right away to search for Kabumpo."
"No, it may be too dangerous," objected Pompus. "Besides, no one knows where to start looking."
"It'll be fun," Pompa told his father. "I haven't had an adventure in years. As for where to start looking, I'll hunt for the Soothsayer in Follensby Forest. He told Kabumpo and Randy that only the Red Jinn could help them in saving this Kingdom, and he was right."
"That's a good idea, Pompa," was the King's reply, "but I'd better send General Quakes or another soldier."
"I went on a journey before," stated Pompadore argumentatively, and I not only survived, but returned better off than before." The Prince smiled at Peg Amy as he said this, for it was on that journey that he met and married his wife.
"Yes, but that time you had Kabumpo with you," insisted King Pompus.
"And I owe him for his help," replied Prince Pompadore.
"Very well," said the King, finally agreeing with his son, "but don't travel any farther from here than Follensby Forest."
So the Prince, after packing a few provisions in a sack, set out into Follensby Forest, the expansive wood just south of Pumperdink. Nearly all day, he searched the forest for a place where a Soothsayer might live or someone who could give him information, but he found only a few antisocial birds and squirrels who told him to leave them alone. Just before dusk, Pompa reached the eastern edge of the forest. He was about to start a journey back to Pumperdink when he noticed a small wooden hut.
"That couldn't be Faleero's old hut," thought the Prince. "She lived in the middle of the forest." Faleero was an ugly old fairy who used to be the Princess of Follensby Forest, but, after turning the Pumperdinkian Royal Family into sticks, was transformed into a black raven by Ozma.
Pompa walked up to the hut and knocked on the door. Someone told him to come in, which he did. The inhabitant of the dwelling turned out to be a skinny Gillikin man dressed in dirty, torn purple clothing and seated at a purplewood table covered with crystal balls and purple-backed cards.
"Are you a Soothsayer?" Pompadore asked the man.
"No, I'm a Fortune Teller," replied the Gillikin. "Forty-two billion, six hundred eighty-five million, two hundred two thousand, five hundred twenty-five dollars and fourteen cents!"
"What?" asked the confused Prince.
"I told you a fortune," explained the Fortune Teller. "That's my job. Five hundred twelve billion, sixty-eight million, twenty-eight thousand, four hundred four pounds, two shillings, and sixpence! Five trillion, forty-eight billion, six hundred twenty million, fifty-two yen! Twenty-eight million-"
"Could you answer a question?" interrupted Prince Pompa.
"What kind of a question?"
"Well, could you tell me where Kabumpo, the Elegant Elephant of Oz, is?"
"Yes."
"Well, will you please do it?"
"Yes," was again the reply. The Fortune Teller shuffled a deck of cards while muttering something that sounded like numbers. After selecting two cards from the deck and looking at them (They were the Five of Clubs and a Joker), he stared into a crystal ball for a minute. After doing these things, he said to the Prince. "I can answer that question in two letters. And those two letters are the fifth and twenty-second letters in the Ozish alphabet. Twenty-eight million, four hundred forty thousand twenty-six piozters and sixty-four ozzos! Twenty-eight trillion, forty billion-"
While the Fortune Teller was telling him these fortunes, Prince Pompadore was thinking. He figured out that the two letters that the Gillikin spoke of were E and V.
"Kabumpo must be in the Land of Ev!" exclaimed the Prince. "I'd better get back to Pumperdink immediately! Thanks for your help! Goodbye!"
The Fortune Teller nodded as Prince Pompa left the hut and hurried toward the north. He was busy telling fortunes to himself.
After running for over an hour, it became too dark for Pompa to see where he was going. He was also tired, so he decided to lie down where he was and sleep. It felt like a large field of plants was under him, but it was too dark to see and he was too tired to care, so he simply fell asleep.
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