Free The Rightful Heir by Jefferson Knapp Page A

They even killed my owner and her—”
    â€œThey killed my brother.” Malcolm turned around to collect himself.
    â€œOh, I’m sorry to hear that, Malcolm.” Jonah bowed his head in respect.
    â€œSorry to hear about your owner, King Jonah.” Malcolm’s back was still turned.
    â€œWell
, she was kind of a—Thank you, Malcolm.” Jonah faintlysmiled.
    â€œSo, you’relooking for your kingdom,” Malcolm put his hands together, “yet you don’t know where it is?”
    â€œIt’s a little more complicated than it sounds.” Jonah tried to sound sincere. “See, yesterday a human boy came— Actually, let me go back further than that. Several days ago my owner gave me a collar, which I guess was a very special collar—”
    â€œDid it have a silvery-blue tag hanging from it?” Malcolm’s eyes were wide.
    â€œYes! That’s the one! How did you know?!”
    â€œBecause my brother and I got it back from the crows that stole it from…King Benjamin!”
    â€œKing Benjamin? Who’s that?”
    â€œYou’re the king of this kingdom and you don’t know who King Benjamin is? Geez, I must’ve been gone longer than I thought!” Malcolm shook his head.
    â€œWell, okay let me continue. So I was confronted by a buzzard who asked me if I was the king and I said I was. He then flew—”
    â€œPsh,
buzzards…”
Malcolm coolly interrupted.
    â€œâ€”off. Yesterday I was outside cooling in the shade by my owner’s house and I heard her cat—”
    â€œI hate cats…”
    â€œYeah, me too.” Jonah tried to remember where he was in his story. “Oh, and I heard her cat scream! I ran up on the porch and looked in, but I could only see my owner sitting in her chair. The screen on her door was hanging off. Then I heard rattling and knew that a snake had gotten inside the house. A buzzard flew overhead and I jumped into my hiding hole under the porch and stayed there. I heard the buzzard ask the snake, ‘Did you find the heir?’ But the other said, ‘He’s already gone.’ What’s crazier is once I knew they were leaving I peeked out from the hole and saw the buzzard flying off with the snake in its claws!”
    â€œWhoa! The snakes must be using the buzzards to move around!” Malcolm was amazed, then whispered to himself, “Hmmm, I bet they stole that idea from me!”
    â€œSo I got back up on the porch and barked at my owner. She never turned around. I knew she was already dead, so I went back under the porch and stayed, just in case the snake came back for me.”
    â€œJonah…
King
Jonah, I’m so sorry you had to see that.… Now, tell me about this human.”
    â€œOh, and this is the most incredible thing of all! Later that afternoon this boy comes onto the porch and goes inside the house to talk to my owner. He then runs out and turns around to find me under the porch.
Then
he grabs me and takes the collar off of my neck. I’m yelling at him and he talks back to me…the human could understand me!”
    â€œThat,
my friend
, was King Benjamin.” Malcolm smiled at the dumbfounded pug.
    â€œAs he left he told me the collar belongs to King Pugsly’s heir. I hadn’t heard his name in so long, I was confused… and a little shaken. I was talking to a human boy!”
    â€œYeah, I was pretty surprised when I first heard him myself.”
    â€œWell, I tried to follow him, but he was going too fast. He told me he was going back to the kingdom. So I’ve been looking for it for the past day, but as you now know, I don’t know where it is.”
    Malcolm took a deep breath and exhaled with satisfaction. “King Jonah, I will help you find this kingdom. It’s been too long since I saw King Benjamin, Paco, and the others, and I have some explaining to do.”
    Malcolm and Jonah walked together