Chapter Six
(They meet a strange hermit who knows all about brown)
After a couple of days, they set off after lunch, again heading north. They had a long way to go, for they were heading for a large mountain many miles away, across desert land. It would take days to reach, especially since Jimmy and Jenny flatly refused to walk if it was at all likely to make them tired, and Luke was tired and slightly ill from having so much excitement all at once, and needed time to recover.
Fortunately, as it started to get dark, they happened on a funny little greek man, who had chosen to live away from everyone else, on the outskirts of the desert, and he happened to be a tent-seller. This was quite convenient, and they all bought a tent and a sleeping bag with their wealth from the king way back in about chapter four, and pitched their matt camp nearby. (Anthony was not allowed to have a sleeping bag, as they were really ratehr scared of what he might try to do to them with it.)
Anthony, having had to sleep on the sand, was the first to wake, and was amazed to see that during the night, as if by magic, the mountain was no longer many days travel away, but right outside their tents. It wasn't actually magic - Anthony just hadn't realised that Janny and Jimmy could move mountains during the night.
As the light came, they could see a castle rising on top of the mountain, and they started their climb. When they were half way up, they were neither up nor down, and, more interestingly than that, they met a very strange, very large hermit, sitting on a stone, eating woodlice with onions and garlic, and talking to himself in 15 different languages. Fortunately, he could understand all 15 of them, so he knew what he was talking about. He seemed fairly intellectual, so they asked him about brown. He sat and thought for a while, and then spent half an hour writing a lengthy and detailed essay into the relevance (or otherwise) or brown.
Sadly, having finished, he ran off without giving them time to ask if they could have it in English instead of some strange hieroglyphics. But never mind - they had the answer now, no matter what language, so decided to move on before the hermit tried to set it to music.
Although they were still half way to the castle, they thought they'd better end the chapter there, since it was getting a bit too long,
So goodbye...
Chapter Seven