Erick surveyed his throne room. Nearly everything was gold. He thought at first it was gilt, until he tried
to move a chair. It was solid gold. He walked to the balcony and looked out over his kingdom, then he looked
down into the courtyard below.
He was surprised to see gold statues of men, women and animals in the courtyard. It was a bit disturbing as it
reminded him of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe's White Queen's courtyard, except these were gold instead
of stone. He heard birds chirping and distant noises, but the immediate area was as quiet as a tomb. He needed
to find somebody to explain his new role. He grasped the gold handle on the golden double door entry to his
throne room. It literally had to weigh a ton. He pulled hard and the door shifted on its hinges. There was a
creaking sound as door started to swing inward. Then it stopped as the soft metal gold hinge bent under the
weight of the solid gold door. There was a crash as the corner of the gold door gouged the stone floor. King
Erick leapt backward. The door twisted and fell tilted on its side.
The guards outside the door leapt too. They turned and shouted, "Your highness, King Erick, are you all
right?"
King Erick stammered, "The d-d-d-oor."
"You forgot again your highness," said the first guard, "The iron hinge was sufficient to hold a wooden door,
but when you changed the door and hinges to gold, well it could no longer support the added weight."
"I turned the door to gold?"
"Ah," said the first guard knowingly, "Summon the royal feeder. He's obviously not eaten in a while. Pity the
moment he touches a roll or lamb leg with his hand it transforms into gold."
As if to test what he was hearing, King Erick walked over to a golden bowl of fruit and picked up an apple. He
was amazed to see that the five points where his fingers touched the apple skin were now gold. The gold
rapidly spread throughout the apple. In about five seconds, the apple was solid gold. It suddenly felt like a
shot put in the King's hands. He used both hands to heft the gold apple on to the table.
Erick was shaken. Those statues were or had been real people and animals and he-King Erick was responsible.
Back at Spellstorm Manor, Mike and Sei entered a lavishly decorated room of the mansion.
"Whoa, Mike! This room looks like a king lived here," Sei said.
"Don't know about a king, but this old guy's picture is labelled "Sylvester Spencer Spellstorm, Esquire: He
had the Erick Touch." "
Sei looked confused, "Erick touch?"
"You remember that old myth about the king whose touch turned anything to gold? Well, that was King Erick,"
Mike explained.
Sei blinked, "Oh, yeah. He turned his wife or daughter into gold, and then broke the curse by bathing in a
river or lake, right? I didn't realize his name was Erick like our buddy."
"Erick's folks probably named him Erick so that he would be as rich as old King Erick someday."
"Yeah. Well, this Spellstorm dude's painting is creeping me out," Sei said as he backed away from the
painting, "I swear that painting moved."
"Oh, yeah, Sei, paintings move all on their own. You're just letting the storm and creepy house make you
imagin-" Mike stopped stared and pointed, "Wait he only had one hand on the chair and the other on the desk,
now both are on the chair. The painting did move- no wait, it's probably a trick painting. It looks different
depending on where we stand -see. Hm, it's still the same. I don't get it?"
"Let's get out of here, and find the others."
"Wait that looks like a phone over there."
"It may be, but do you honestly think it's connected?"
"Only one way to find out," Mike headed toward the antique brass phone in the corner.
"Wait! The painting! Spellstorm's got his hands clasped together now - and look at that smile. It reminds me
of Montgomery Burns from the Simpsons!"
"What?" Mike turned to look back at Sei and the painting, as his hand grasped the receiver of the old phone.