King Geepius was awakened by the cries of a terrified crowd at the gate of Castle Geepius. He rushed down to the main hall where two village elders were waiting for him. “It’s the Giant! He is stomping all over the Land of Pow, destroying everything.” The elders dropped to their knees, begging “Sire, you must do something!” The King, still somewhat sleepy, said, “The Giant is normally quite friendly. Has anyone asked the Giant what’s wrong?”
The King dispatched his two bravest knights, Sir Guajira and Sir Plasida, to find the Giant. The two knights rode through the ruined farms and hamlets of Pow, marveling at the extent of the destruction. Soon, they spotted the Giant sitting on a slowly collapsing Inn. “Mr. Giant, we are knights of the realm and we demand to know why you are terrorizing the good people of Pow.” The Giant turned to them, cradling his jaw in his hand, and with huge tears splashing on his chest he said, “I have a toothache.”
“A toothache!?” mused King Geepius when the two knights reported their findings to him back at the castle. “Well, in order to restore peace in my kingdom, we shall have to extract the tooth.” The King ordered the Royal Engineers to design a giant-sized tooth extractor and erect it at the base of the two peaks where the Giant lived. People from all over the kingdom came to see the construction of the huge contraption. Soon, a small camp of brightly-colored tents dotted the hillside giving the project a carnival-like atmosphere. The King arrived to witness the unusual dental procedure clutching the medium-sized tupper in which he carried his most valuable possessions. The King marveled at the astounding tower arrayed with poles, pulleys, ropes, chains, springs, levers, and hooks. There was a large pile of boulders on the tower’s platform 50 feet in the air.
Guajira and Plasida persuaded to the Giant to lie down at the base of the tower. They tied the strongest rope in the land securely about his ailing tooth. After passing through myriad pulleys and slides, the rope ran up and over the highest beam of the tower and down to a huge basket suspended just below the platform. Guajira gave the order to slowly fill the basket with the boulders. With each added rock, the tower groaned. So did the Giant. Soon the basket was filled with several tons of rock. The tower shuddered with the weight, pulleys squeaked, and springs shook at their breaking point. The Giant roared in pain, but the tooth refused to budge. The crowd gasped as a man climb onto the Giant’s chest. It was King Geepius! He slid his cache box into his coat pocket and climbed into the Giant’s mouth. With all his might, he jumped up and down on the aching tooth. Suddenly, the tooth gave way, the boulder basket crashed to the ground, and the tooth launched into the clear blue sky at tremendous speed, taking the good king with it. Every head turned, mouths gaping, as the tooth sailed due east across the valley. It landed with an audible thud two miles away on the very top of a hill. After a few moments of stunned silence, chaos engulfed the scene. The villagers ran screaming in all directions. The Giant sat up with a relieved sigh.
Guajira and Plasida leaped onto their horses and galloped off to the east. They could see the tooth high above them as they turned north into the Espola then east again into the High Valley. One mile north of the tooth, they found a trailhead. They tied their steeds to a dead tree. “This valley is rife with horse thieves,” said Plasida as he dismounted. “Carve our names into this tree to identify them as ours. No one would dare steal the King’s horses”. They set a waypoint (N32 59.293 W117 00.605 ) and hurried up the trail. Soon, they reached the giant tooth – but there was no sign of King Geepius. They set another waypoint near the tooth (N32 58.770 W117 00.693 ) and began to search for the King. Plasida surmised that the King would have been thrown from the tooth on the same trajectory as the tooth’s flight across the valley. His assumption was correct and they soon found the King – unconscious but alive.
King Geepius regained consciousness several hours later. He was back at the camp. The tooth extraction machine was being dismantled. Villagers howled with laughter watching the Giant dancing a jig nearby. Sir Guajira noticed the King was awake. “Sire, you are safe. I am relieved to see you well.” “I don’t remember a thing after the tooth landed” replied the King. “We were just glad to find you in one piece, sire.” Suddenly, King Geepius thrust his hands in his coat pockets. “It’s gone! The cache container I was carrying is gone!” “It must have fallen from your coat when you landed.” “Did you mark my position where you found me?” “Alas, no. But I know we were about 420 hands from the tooth!” King Geepius commanded the two knights to return to the tooth and retrieve his missing container.
Sir Guajira and Sir Plasida never returned. Perhaps they could not find the container and could not bear returning to the King empty-handed. Perhaps they were killed by the horse thieves of the High Valley. Or perhaps they could not resist the treasure within the King’s container. So once again, the King enlisted the help of all royal geocachers. “It will take all your wits to solve this mystery and locate the missing treasure. Keep an eye out for any clues regarding the knights’ whereabouts and report back to me if you discover what happened to them. Good luck!”
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Be sure to read the other exciting Adventures of King Geepius:
The Lost Cache of King Geepius (archived)
King Geepius and the Okeanos
King Geepius and the Flame of Friendship
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