Giovanna stared out sadly from behind the donkey pen gate, surveying the cave chamber.
All was quiet since the Coachman had finished processing the other donkeys about an hour ago. Aside from herself, no other donkeys that had been processed outside of the pen had been able to talk and they were soon stripped of their clothes and tossed into crates to be sold at market.
The crates, of which there must have been fifty or more, were then loaded onto the Coachman's boat, which had not yet departed for the mainland. Giovanna thought of Nicole, who initially like her retained her voice, being in one of the crates.
Nicole lost her voice not long after being reunited with her and was then stripped of her clothing like the others and loaded into a crate that had been already sold to a farm.
"Would I ever see Nicole and Paola again?" Giovanna thought to herself.
The cave was now very quiet and it was just Giovanna and one other donkey left in the pen. The other donkeys that had been in there with her and Nicole, soon lost their ability to speak as well and had been carted off.
Now it was just her and another donkey that wore a pair of blue overalls, a black bowtie and a yellow hat.
"Would I lose my voice too?" Giovanna worriedly thought to herself. "I don't wanna be a stupid donkey!! I don't wanna be!! I just don't!! I’m a girl!! A human girl!! ".
Suddenly there were voices in the cave.
Both Giovanna and the other donkey looked up and saw the Coachman and one of his Minions approaching. The Minion was pulling another donkey that had been stripped of any clothes he had been wearing, by a rope that had been put around his neck.
The donkey was braying wildly and franticly in fear at his plight. He struggled and struggled to get free, but to no avail.
"So this is the last holdout, eh?" the Coachman asked his underling, who shrugged. The Coachman leaned down to inspect the donkey, who was slightly bigger than the others but still little.
“I recognize you,” the Coachman said as he stroked the donkey from behind his ears. “You’re that twelve year old delinquent that rode up front with me and that little wooden boy earlier tonight. Tell me, did you and your friend enjoy your time on Pleasure Island?”
“HAW HEE HAW!!” the donkey brayed as he looked up to the Coachman and shook his head wildly back and forth. The Coachman just laughed at the donkey’s response as he motioned the minion who had the rope around the donkey’s neck.
“Put him in the pen with the other two. Boat’s full and I’ve got something special in mind for em`.”
The Minion nodded and attempted to lead the donkey towards the pen, but the donkey was having none of it. He tried to plant his hooves into the ground like Paola had tried earlier and the donkey shook his head back and forth, braying hysterically.
“Feisty little one, eh?” the Coachman asked as he strode to the side of the donkey. “Rowdy ones like you always need to be broken in.”
Suddenly the Coachman delivered a swift kick into the donkey’s side. The donkey let out a cry of pain so loud that it echoed throughout the cave and caused Giovanna and the donkey in the holding pen with her to both embrace each other in terror!
Once more the Coachman delivered a vicious kick into the donkey’s side and the poor donkey no longer resisted being led to the pen.
The Minion picked up the poor donkey and placed him into the pen next to Giovanna, removing the rope around his neck in the process.
"Where‘s the other one?” the Coachman asked. “The wooden boy that was with this one?"
The Minion shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
The Coachman quickly grew angry and screamed, “"THERE WERE TWO OF THEM! If the other one isn't here, then he must still be somewhere on the island. Round up a search party and FIND HIM!! NO BOY OR GIRL LEAVES THIS ISLAND WITHOUT BEING TRANSFORMED INTO A DONKEY."
As the Coachman stomped away, Giovanna looked at the new arrival, who was still braying wildly, even after suffering those kicks. The donkey was up on his hind legs and was desperately trying to scale the gate with his hooves.
Giovanna thought of the Coachman's words about another boy being on the island and hoped they were true. He could possibly escape and get help so they might all be rescued from their horrible fate.
The other boy was "wooden" the Coachman had said and Giovanna could think of only one other boy she had met on Pleasure Island that had fit that description.
Pinocchio, the boy that was a living breathing puppet. He had been with another boy who was older than them.
What was his name? Candlewick?
"Is your name Candlewick?" Giovanna quietly asked the wildly braying donkey.
The donkey stopped what he was doing and turned to face Giovanna. Although he could no longer speak, he could still remember who he was before his transformation just like the other donkeys.
The donkey nodded his head up in response to his name.
"My name's Giovanna," Giovanna replied. "You probably don't remember me, but I met you at the "The Forest of Sweets" last night."
"Was the other boy they are looking for, Pinocchio?" Giovanna then asked. Candlewick thought for a moment and then nodded his head once more. Giovanna then took a deep breath and now felt a bit better.
If Pinocchio was still on the loose, then there was hope he could escape and get help for them after all.
"But what if he was now like us?" Giovanna asked herself. "What if he too was a donkey. Then... we would probably never get outta here!"
Giovanna once more fell to the ground of the pen and brought her front hooves up to her muzzle. She began to cry and bray. There was hope, but a very slim hope of one day being free. The odds were stacked against them and they would likely be forced to live the rest of their lives as the asses they had made of themselves.
The thought of never going home and seeing her mama again made Giovanna cry even harder.
"All right, you asses. It's time I reveal what I'm going to do with you."
Giovanna, Candlewick and the other donkey looked up and saw that the Coachman had returned and was staring right at them from behind the gate of their Pen.
"Seeing as the three of you can still talk, I obviously can't let you leave the island with the knowledge you now have, can I?" the Coachman stated menacingly. "No, that would be too dangerous for me. Instead... you going to stay here on the island and work for me until it kills you."
Giovanna's and Candlewick's eyes widened in fear at this remark.
"I have three openings for pulling my coach. Three of the donkeys that pulled it previously died earlier tonight while you kids partied. So you asses will take their place. You start at the end of the week as I'll be going on another run of luring stupid boys and girls like you to Pleasure Island."
And with that, the Coachman laughed as the trio of donkeys before him cowered in terror at what was to become of them.