Thursday, June 22, 2023

The Abbreviated Adventures of Mogey & Smush: 2023 Edition - Episode 10

 The Map Room at Porkstew House contained all the treasures one would expect to find in a noble estate, plus many more: yellowing globes kissed by the glow of time and patience, weird old atlases that for some reason depicted sea monsters, and even - rumor had it - a treasure map that would guide its owner to the lost hoard of Cap'n Bugbeard the Fragrant. 

It was in search of this final prize that Mogey and Smush had visited their black sheep, Glumly, for a pair of dark woolen face masks (Glumly was quite the sneakthief himself), and snuck into Porkstew House under cover of night. With them they had brought Unctuous, a bloodhound who specialized in sniffing out treasure maps.

"What booty do you think will be in Cap'n Bugbeard's hoard?" Mogey whispered. 

"Shh!" Smush shushed. "We can talk about whether Bugbeard's treasure does or does not contain still-valid Discovery Zone prize tickets when we find the map, and not before."

"I think Unctuous may've caught the scent!" Mogey announced, chasing behind the snuffling hound. 

Their trusty tracker led the pals to a tall chest of drawers and slapped one of his long ears meatily into the third cabinet from the top. With the utmost care, Smush yanked the drawer open, flooding the Map Room with an odor so eye-wateringly potent that all three of the would-be burglars fell onto their backsides. Unctuous covered his nose with an antique navigation chart.

"That's Bugbeard's fragrance, all right!" Smush exclaimed. "Unctuous, my friend, you've done it again."

"Wait," Mogey cautioned, "where is it? The drawer is empty! Where's the treasure map?"

"Looking for this?" bleated a round, shadowy figure crouched in the catwalk above. The figure waved a discolored scrap of parchment at them.

"Glumly??" cried Mogey and Smush in unison.

"Correct you are!" their sheep replied, visibly fighting back nausea as he folded the parchment up. "And if this map is any indication, I can't wait to see how bad Bugbeard's treasure smells. See you at Discovery Zone, dunderheads!"


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