Chapter 12:21 Mad World

"Fire sale! Get your fire here! All fire must go! Only two coppers!" the fire merchant shouts as they travel past the market. The dark town is lit by torches and lanterns.

The horse veers off the trail and walks toward the fire shop.

"No, horse! You're going the wrong way again!"

The horse sputters and turns toward the path and continues, chomping grass from his feeder.

Theo and Maise stumble behind, pulled by their leash. The knight yanks on the ropes, "Look alive, children, we're almost there!"

It must be night, Theo observes. It's so dark. Not even stars in the sky. So why is everyone outside working? There's farmers tilling fields, merchants at their posts, people hanging laundry. And they all look so frail and sick.

"Muffins! Get your muffins! Crow muffins! Bug muffins! All types of muffins!" yells the muffin man.

"Ew." Maise says.

"They're quite filling." the knight assures her.

They travel past the old puzzle factory. Once a thriving business, now closed. The windows and doors boarded up and inhabited by squatters and vagrants.

A man walks past them with an open umbrella. "Take cover! Unprecipitated rain is the number one cause of befuddlement! Protect yourself from the Sky Thief and Dora's ills!" he shouts.

"Don't mind him." the knight says. "He's crazy."

"I'm not crazy! You'll see!" he shouts and gives Theo and Maise a pitying look.

They pass a farm with black sheep and hornless unicorns grazing.

A woman rings a dinner bell on her front porch. "Dinnertime!" she calls out.

"Knock it off or I'll take you back to court again!" the knight yells.

"They're still out there!" the woman shouts before she rushes back inside and slams the door.

The knight sits tall on her high horse. "Rule breakers, every one of 'em. I've never broken a rule once. That's why they made me a custodian of the court." she says proudly.

In the town square, the clock tower seems to be broken. The hands of the clock swing randomly in different directions. A mouse runs up and the minute hand whips down and knocks it off.

In the center of the square is a huge bonfire where the sundial used to be (the center and pride of the town).

"Wooo!" a skeleton on a penny farthing bicycle does laps around the fire.

Theo and Maise glance at each other in disbelief.

"What's wrong with this place?" Theo asks the knight as she stumbles off her horse.

"Everyone's gone mad." she says. "Sometimes I feel like the only normal person anymore."

She pulls a bug muffin out of her bag and feeds it to the horse who whinnies with excitement.