"The Search for
the Lost Cheese Doodles in the Land of the Magic Mushrooms"
Oil, 20" x 16", 2002
A Short Story
based on the painting by Joe Bartz
The
Characters:
Chimmies:
The Chimmies are flying Cichlids and they got the Chimmy name from the
ever so strange “Cichlid Shimmy” that they do when there is a territorial
conflict.
Stogons:
These creatures are dragons that like to relax themselves with some
natural plants and they are the creatures that stole the Cheese Doodles.
Ralph the
Gnome: Ralph is the peacekeeper of the Land of the Magic Mushrooms
and guards all the wonderful plants that grow so plentiful in this land.
Giggawatto:
He is a Gremlin and…well, we really don’t know what he does but he is
always there and smiling big. He likes to hang around the Green
Mushrooms.
Skinny Al:
Al is a strange creatures, he looks like a bird but has human skin and no
feathers. His wings are short and stocky and he has a lizard tail. He is
good-natured and sides with the Chimmies.
Platnus:
Platnus is another strange creature; he has a lion head, a snake body and
duck hands and feet. Platnus sides with the Stogons.
Fiadudes:
These are fire ants that like to light things on fire especially dried
out plants that reside in the Glass Towers.
Cheese
Doodles: Ah yes, the Cheese Doodles. They are the favorite food of
the Chimmies and the Stogons. In fact, everyone in the Land of the Magic
Mushrooms has a craving for snacks especially the tasty Cheese Doodles.
Glass Towers:
These “man-made” towers are a very strange creation. They are round
at the bottom and are filled with water. The top of the towers is always
emitting smoke.
Chapter 1
Chimmy Hollow
Once upon a time
there was a magical place called Chimmy Hollow. This town was just a
small part of the city called Wates, which was part of the country known
as Igibagar. Wates lies just outside the Forest of Smoke which is where
the Land of the Magic Mushrooms is located. Chimmy Hollow was the place
that the Chimmies settled and lived. Chimmies are fish that possess the
ability to fly in the air. They are simple folk that have really never
ventured outside the city of Wates except for the Land of the Humans.
There are three kinds of Chimmies; they are the blue Kenyi’s, the
Electric Yellows, and the Rusties. The Kenyis are bright blue with dark
blue stripes and they mostly hang out with the Rusties. The Rusties are
brownish with streaks of blue and black and they enjoy spending time with
the Kenyis. The Electric Yellows are bright yellow with occasional white
spots. Aside from their physical differences the Chimmies are of the same
intelligence and pretty much just swim around all day in the Doodle Sea
and occasionally come out to eat. What they eat is something that all
creatures in Igibagar love…Cheese Doodles! Now, only Chimmies have the
ability to obtain Cheese Doodles so this makes them very hard to come by
for the other animals. The Chimmies get the cheese doodles because they
are able to fly into the Humans houses and act like fish in their
aquariums and take the doodles when they are not looking. No one is
really sure how the Chimmies got introduced to Cheese Doodles. An old
folktale is that a human tried some natural plants from The Land of the
Magic Mushrooms. This human became very hungry and decided to eat some
Cheese Doodles. At the same time, a Chimmy was in the human’s aquarium,
visiting some of his distant relatives…the Cichlids. The human decided it
was feeding time for the Cichlids and went to grab the freeze-dried
shrimp. In his state of confusion, he grabbed the cheese doodles instead
and fed them that. The Cichlids didn’t take to the Cheese Doodles but the
Chimmy sure did and he went back to Chimmy Hollow with some samples. The
whole town loved them and now it is a delicacy for all Chimmies.
One
day, the evil Stogons decided that they were going to take a trip into the
Land of the Magic Mushrooms. After about an hour of visiting, they became
violently hungry and had a craving for just one thing…cheese doodles. So
they decided to attack Chimmy Hollow. They came flying in and it was
obvious that the Stogons were very, very hungry because their eyes were
bloodshot and they were smoking some strange pipes. The entire town
jumped into the Doodle Sea to take cover. Surprisingly they didn’t
destroy anything or hurt anyone they just stole the entire supply of
Cheese Doodles. The Stogons started giggling and smiling and flew off to
the Land of the Magic Mushrooms. The Chimmies weren’t sure what to do
because no one had ever attacked them before. All they knew was that they
were heart broken without their Cheese Doodles. They thought about going
to the humans and getting some more but it was winter in the Land of the
Humans and the waterway from the Doodle Sea was frozen over. They had two
options, one was to get the doodles back and the other was to wait until
summer to get some from the humans. After a brief discussion they decided
that their was no way in hell they could last until summer without some
Cheese Doodles especially since the Smoke, Drink, Eat, and Pass out Fest
was next week. Their doodle supply was gone so it was time to take
action. The Chimmies held a town meeting that night to discuss what they
were going to do. All the Chimmies from Chimmy Hollow and the surrounding
towns came to this meeting. Mayor Chimmy of Chimmy Hollow said “blob,
blob, blob” (which is “we are out of food” in Chimmy). Kenyi Chimmy
propped himself up and said “blob, blob, blob, blob, blob, blob, blob,
blob, blob, blob, blob, blob, blob, blob, and blob”. This roughly
translates to “I, Electric Yellow, and Rusty will take our fishbowl to the
land of the Magic Mushrooms and get the Cheese Doodles back”! The entire
Chimmy crowd jumped (swam) up and cheered the three brave Chimmies. They
cried out “BLOB, BLOB, BLOB, BLOB, and BLOB”!! This means, “Go get those
mean Stogons and get our Doodles back!”
So,
with the entire town behind them, Kenyi, Electric Yellow, and Rusty set
off to the Land of the Magic Mushrooms to reclaim the Cheese Doodles.
Chapter 2
The Land of
the Magic Mushrooms
So, the Chimmies
take off and enter the Forest of Smoke. While passing through the Forest
of Smoke, Rusty noticed a big cloud of smoke coming from the left. “That
must be the Land of the Magic Mushrooms” Kenyi excitedly said. “Head that
way” said Electric Yellow and they all turned the fishbowl towards the
Land of the Magic Mushrooms. Upon arriving, they became immersed in a
thick cloud of smoke that smelled quite strange. The Chimmies have never
smelt this smell before, in fact, they haven’t smelt anything before
because they don’t have noses…
The
Chimmies met up with a Gnome named Ralph at the entrance gates. Ralph
said, “Welcome to the Land of the Magic Mushrooms, please feel free to
smoke, snort, and absorb anything you like!” The Chimmies felt left out
because they don’t have lungs and can’t smoke anything. Anyway,
Ralph told them of this land and how it has been overtaken by the Stogons.
Kenyi told Ralph of their mission and Ralph excitedly said “Wonderful,
take my pet Skinny Al with you! He is a strange creature but he can smell
any scent from miles away and he is very loyal. He also has the ability
to create incense whenever we need to cover something up.” The Chimmies
agreed and set off to find the Stogons and reclaim the Cheese Doodles.
Upon entering the Land of the Magic Mushrooms, Kenyi notices a strange
creature sitting on top of a large green mushroom. “Hi, I’m
Giggawattoo…I’m a Gremlin. Hehehehehe.” “What’s so funny?” said Kenyi.
“I’m not sure; I’ve been giggling and laughing uncontrollably ever since
I sat on this mushroom…hehehehehe!” Kenyi asked the gremlin if he knew
where the Stogons were located but all he could decipher between the
giggles was “I have the munchies.” After about a half an hour of getting
nowhere with this bumbling idiot, they decided to leave and find the
Stogons themselves.
While traveling through the Land of the Magic Mushrooms, it became very
clear that there was plenty of vegetation of the stimulant kind. All
kinds of mushrooms, plants, seeds, and whatever you can think of was
there; in it’s natural form and all kinds of alternative forms. The
Chimmies felt very lucky that they didn’t have lungs so they couldn’t
inhale the toxic fumes and cloud their judgment. After meeting up with
many strange and surprisingly happy creatures they came up to a mountain.
This mountain was surrounded by many mushrooms type looking things that
emitted strange gaseous and colorful clouds. The Chimmies were aware of
these clouds from previous history and knew that they wouldn’t be affected
by this. Therefore, they marched on but suddenly they noticed that
Skinny Al was loosing his conciseness. The Chimmies tried to help Al but
when they came to him all he could muster out was “I am hungry and I am
going to stay here awhile…here are my incense candles.”
And
with that, the Chimmies ventured onto the mountain without Al and no
direction.
The Chimmies knew that they were dealing with a force that was induced by
the natural plants and so they came up with a plan.
The
Chimmies decided that in order to understand the evil forces plight, they
would need to understand the feeling that they get from the natural
plants. So, with plant in hand, they engaged into a smoke, drink, eat,
and pass out fest of their own kind.
The following is
an excerpt from situation:
Kenyi: Chude,
I’m feeling really weird right now.
Electric Yellow:
Yeah, I know what you mean…where is Bob Ross when you need him.
Rusty: Why are
there spiders all over me?
Kenyi: Food I
need.
Electric Yellow:
Yes, food is necessary.
After a few hours
of this madness, the Chimmies decided to collect themselves and forge on.
As
the Chimmies moved on, they noticed that they were incredibly hungry and a
new sense of urgency to find the Cheese Doodles came over them. They also
noticed that they were being guided up the mountain by an unknown force.
While flying up the mountain, they noticed several large glass towers.
These towers were filled with water and emitted smoke out of the top.
Fiadudes were all over the place and they seemed to centralized at the
base of the glass towers. Some were lighting plants in a tube that was
protruding from the base. There was so much smoke being emitted that it
formed a haze around the top of the mountain and all the animals on the
mountain were all just sitting there in a daze.
At
this moment the Chimmies knew that they were very close to the lair of the
Stogons and decided to mentally prepare for the encounter.
Chapter 3
The Stogons
and the Cheese Doodles
As the Chimmies
reached the peak of the mountain, the smoke cleared and they could see the
stash of Cheese Doodles located behind the sleeping Stogons. They figured
that they could just sneak up and take back the doodles without the
Stogons even noticing. As they approached the Stogons a chilling scream
came from the doodle stash and out came a flying reptilian, platypus, lion
looking creature.
Electric Yellow said “What in the Frankenstein freak are you!?” The
creature replied “I am a Platnus and I am here to warn the Stogons of
intruders.” “I just did that with my scream and now you dudes are toast!”
Sure enough, as they looked over at the once sleeping Stogons, they saw
that they indeed were awake and looked very angry.
Just then, Platnus fired up a pipe and blew the strange colored smoke at
the Chimmies. As the smoke approached them, out of the blue, Skinny Al
jumped up and intercepted the smoke with his incense. “I’ll take care of
this freak, go get the Cheese Doodles back!” “BLOB” yelled out the
Chimmies and they advanced towards the Stogons. The Stogons appeared to
be somewhat groggy as they had large bags underneath their eyes. They
fired up their pipes to rejuvenate themselves and advanced towards the
Chimmies. The Chimmies were terrified as the Stogons were 10 times the
size of them. Electric Yellow looked at Kenyi and he looked at Rusty. “I
guess we really don’t have a choice, do we” said Electric Yellow. “No, I
guess we need to do this for Chimmy Hollow.” replied Kenyi.
So, with that
being said, the Chimmies made a move that would forever change the face of
Igibar.
As the Stogons
flew towards them, the Chimmies flew up and hovered over them. “Let’s do
it!” they screamed out and with a quick shimmy to the right, they capsized
their fishbowl. The water poured over the Stogons and melted them
instantly. The Chimmies had won the battle, but with no water left, they
were slowly drying out. With not much time left, they shimmied over to
the cheese doodles and they had a feast of a lifetime.
Skinny Al came over and asked if he could do anything to help. Electric
Yellow replied “Please tell our story to the Chimmies in Chimmy Hollow.
Tell them what we did and how we toppled the Stogons.” With a tear in
his eye, Skinny Al replied “Of course I will you brave Chimmies.”
So,
with fin in fin, the Chimmies cuddled together as they approached death.
Just then, Ralph the Gnome comes running in and says “hang on!” “There
is water in the Glass Towers!” So, Ralph picked up the Chimmies, one by
one and put them in the fishbowl. He directed Skinny Al to break the top
half of the Glass Tower and he flew off to the nearest tower. With all of
his little might, Ralph “shimmied” to the left and dumped the Chimmies
into the Glass Tower. Within a matter of seconds, the energy levels of
the Chimmies were back to normal. “You have saved us Ralph!” shouted out
Rusty. “And you have saved us from the Stogons!” Ralph adamantly said.
So,
with the fishbowl once again filled with water, the Chimmies flew back to
get the Cheese Doodles. After filling up the fishbowl they said their
goodbyes and headed back toward Chimmy Hollow.
The
came home to a Hero’s Return and the entire town had a feast to remember.
Electric Yellow, Kenyi, and Rusty were instant icons and were forever
remembered by the Chimmies of Chimmy Hollow.
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Copyright © Joe
Bartz 2009