Free Country: A Tale of the Children's Crusade

By Neil Gaiman

Flaxdown village becomes known as a fairytale village, the kids there going to school til 13, then taking a bus to the nearest town. 1 pleasant day, kids don't come home, and by the next day, the rest of the world knows this too. The mystery fame lasts a wk and 2 days, before people lose interest on how the kids disappeared so thoroughly. A young girl goes to where a badly spelled sign told of detectives working nearby.

Avril knocks at a door, and 2 boys are surprised by a real cust, and not the "her" expected. The 2 are ducking a woman who would make trouble for them using the room as an office. So, Avril explains who she wished the boys to track. Her bro, Oliver had gone missing along with the other kids in Flaxdown, she the only kid remaining for having been out of town the day they vanished.

Avril agrees to a fee if the 2 find her bro, then tells of a funny boy called Wat, possibly having to do with the missing kids. After Avril leaves, the boys are excited to begin the assignment, revealing they had some extra edges since they were minors and dead. Back in 1212, the 5th crusade is ending, and this is when a monk comes up with the idea to have children fight for them, due to their innocence. Well, the word spreads, and kids from homes and those alone come to be a  part of the war in Israel.

Most of the 49k travel by ship, and don't make it, half going to the wrong location even if they hadn't shipwrecked. So, 800 kids are sold into the Anfa market. The people hung 2 merchants who helped put the children into slavery, but the monk vanishes. Charles and Edwin travel the human way to get to Flaxdown manor, not liking the ghostly roads for the weirdos sometimes found there, and making themselves appear, called squooshing by the boys, is difficult, and makes Charles ill.

They reach the manor and wander aimlessly for clues. Edwin is ready to make the manor their new HQ, but Charles isn't taken by the place's ambience. They continue touring outside and come to a little cottage which seemed like a playhouse to Edwin. He also remembers the rhyme he is reminded of with the writing seen on a mirror, hinx minx.

Then they hear someone at the front door, a wild-haired Jumping Joan walking in and introing herself in an old timey style and rhyme. Joan asks why they'd called her, since she is too busy to guide them to Free Country. She confirms the hopscotch had remained intact before disappearing. Charles finds a paper with a list of names she dropped, and Edwin feels like they'd finally gotten a real clue.

The Pied Piper is learned by Browning from a beggar child, saying it'd happened a century ago, rats taking over the village. A man comes to lead the rats out and a man signs the agreement for money the town doesn't have, and says so upfront. Despite this, the pipe leads the rats to drown themselves, and the people say they had half his fee, if they sell all their valuable, but all they had is offered to make up the difference. Piper goes into the mtns in the night, playing his flute as everyone slept, the kids waking after a certain point.

The kids walk for the mtn, 1 boy getting left behind, but telling of the place and yearning to join his buddies. The town doesn't last long after, people leaving and no one having enough kids, the village seen crumbling and becoming memory. Browning asks why the boy told this story, recognizing it, his answer is of his pop telling him of it before he died. Browning denies any truth to the tale when the boy asks where the beautiful-gated mtn is located, the kid remaining firm in his belief.

Back with Edwin and Charles, they're brainstorming on whether the top Edwin'd found had fingerprints, he soon realizing Charles vanishes silently. Charles returns though, confused, but thinking he'd been asleep, which he'd not done before, and dreamt. It isn't happy, though as he travels somewhere dark, someone he couldn't see addressing him by full name, then reveals horrifying things and people, and kids. Then he sees a bunch of girls of varying ages, and 1 boy, normal-looking, but then becomes 2, only to return as 1.

The disembodied voice confirms Charles understood what he'd seen and give him instruction to rescue the kids. Before waking, Charles sees a few different scenes and environments, along with Joan. Edwin theorizes Charles had actually gone to the Dark Tower, so now they must focus, and see how they can connect the clues to lead them to Oliver Mitchell. Charles wonders about the voice and their motives. Next, Aiken Drum intros himself, the yr 1213, and he retelling when his sis and he'd been sold and walk in a land they had only each other to chat with.

At least til she falls in the desert, their captors leaving her still alive, and weakly yelling for her bro. They're put on a ship, then trod through a wood, drinking dirty water, and glad for it. Then, they come to a city, into a building and into a pit to decay. The kids survive though, until they come for 1 girl and kill her, the blood coming through the grate.

The rest of the kids dream the same dream of her, and when they wake, they know a game of rock, scissors, skin will be plays til the last did the counting rhyme. In the end, the boy who loses the game is killed with sadness, they performing an incantation with the boy's blood, and 1 by 1 using the hopscotch to dance their way out of the pit. 12 kids make it out to Free Country, Aiken 1 of them, never again, and happy. Edwin and Charles have nothing to do to unwind, so consider starting their search for the kids, saying something in unison, and doing a wishing rhyme which has a boy appear.

Wat qs them on how they'd brought him, saying Edwin had said his name, introing himself. The 3 continue their exchange, Wat says where Free Country is, then asks what they had from there to have been able to call him. Charles claims they didn't know what he could mean, but is welcome to search. Then, Edwin asks if he knew Oliver, Wat claiming he'd led him to FC.

Edwin requests Wat take them, but he says soon all the kid's be in FC, so they could chat with Oliver then. Wat explains how the Bad World abuses kids, so they'd willingly come with him. Charles then asks about Wat's missing hand, revealing it was punishment for stealing a peach due to starving. Edwin then pulls out the top, Wat recognizing it, and asking for it, he finally agreeing to take them when Edwin promises to return it, but leaves them when he realizes they're dead.

The boys recognize their failure, and need for advice, having a couple choices, and vanish. Wat rushes through the time rip to FC, where he yells at kids of ghosts, they wanting to play, but Wat running to tell Aiken and Peter. The whole council of 6 assemble and discuss the ghosts, Jack Rabbit offering to handle it. Then, Jumping Joan supplies when she'd met the 2 thinking they'd been straggler, and dropping the list of the kids of power.

Jack Rabbit lays into the 2 for being so sloppy, and endangering their existence and FC. Also, if they couldn't get the kids of power there, they were screwed. So, each member is assigned a kid to bring, whilst the troublemakers stay there, the group immediately setting off. Charles and Edwin have attempted squooshing to a purely lost location.

As they walk though, through a viney forest, they see Wat, apologizing for running, and answering Charles q of where Tefé is, the plant kid. Before Wat lets them continue, he returns his top to Edwin and gives his calling rhyme. The 2 boys walk off knowing not to trust the disguised Jack Rabbit. Meanwhile, Tefé is getting annoyed for having no human friend to chat with, she a young girl, and being interrupted by Peter offering to take her with him.

Next is the story of Junkin Buckley and Orchid Suzy, he always on the run and never nice to girls. He goes off to find a new heart to break, finding Suzy, a girl nymph creature, showing her the evil of the world, then offering a way to escape by going to FC. Junkin lies about loving her to get her to agree, so the 2 go to FC, neither knowing the havoc she'd wreak. Edwin and Charles know they shouldn't trust Wat and still had, but they do work out he isn't the same Wat, and is probably a rabbit due to his calling rhyme.

Charles squooshes to the dark tower again, then grabs Edwin to lead him out, so they could help Maxine. In 1889, Browning is on his deathbed, and the boy who had told him the story yrs ago, visits him in Italy to share another tale. The man relates his journey to find FC, and it isn't an easy one, he being imprisoned, and then sees a man who had the gateway in his chest, all the boy had to do is give his clothes, he 1st met by Wat on the other side. When the man's welcomed by the council, it's not long before he catches on to Jack Rabbit's b.s. and locates the dark tower, like Browning describes.

He dies, and the boy offers he help guard the dark tower with him, Edwin and Charles trying to squoosh out of the memory. Maxine remembers someone yelling for  her to flee, she feeling half of her memories she thought of, weren't from her past. Then, she hears her name called, and Jack Rabbit popping out of the vines, inviting her to join the forever young kids, and cross the magic gate, but Maxine isn't biting, yet. She reminds herself of how the animal stampede had begun, she upset over her bro killing a frog, and her pop telling her now he is building an ark for animals, she dreaming the animals from a-z coming.

She wakes and they're outside, but so is the gov't, and so her bro tells her to run, and she does. This rabbit is weird, and smells of death, he becoming more insistent, so she runs away from him, hard. Unfortunately, Maxine is split in half by Jack Rabbit, somehow and can't tell any of this to Charles and Edwin when they visit her. So, they squoosh to Lian, and at the last second decide they'd use the ghost road, instead.

When Maxine wakes, her fam is there, and she knows everyone, but also knew her other half is dangerous. Meanwhile, Edwin and Charles are trying to not go nuts by the constant nonsense chatter of the faces making up the road. Suzy is sadly remembering how Junkin had left her, she drifting through the air til eventually meeting Aiken. He explains, at least mostly the truth about she being 1 of 4 other powerful kids, and she could help protect their world for the rest of the kids to come from the Bad World.

He explains the strength of each powerful kid, Timothy, 1 of the last to be brought, the most powerful for knowing magic. Lastly, Aiken tells Suzy to wait for Timothy in the garden. Lian has the help of Jack Rabbit and some others to get Dorothy to come regardless of her wishes. Edwin and Charles work their courage to follow where the missing kids went, see the 2 men working the vines cocooned kids are hanging.

Somehow, the men are able to grab hold of the boys, but Lian helps them. She also shows them where FC is and what it looks like, but won't help them try to rescue the kids, since they are bound there, and ghosts aren't allowed. When Lian'd vanished, they decide to follow up with Avril. who is currently writing in her journal about her bro, and how her ma is taking it, her pop now living with a woman from Canada.

Soon, she notices a ghostly presence looking around the room, and spotting her hired detectives. They update her on her little bro's location, but they can tell she is under some stress with the attention her ma is giving her. Avril's ma walks in and puts her to bed, Avril impressed the boys hadn't been seen. After the boys share their plan, Avril goes to bed.

The council is about to start another meeting, everyone getting pissy for not making more progress. Tefé and Dorothy are returned, the former being unable to live without being in the soil from her home world, and the latter too old, so they draining them and letting them go. After this, Junkin gets kicked out of the council, they not worried of retaliation for feeling above it with the power of FC. Meanwhile, Timothy goes through the hopscotch entrance, and interrupts the council as they debate who'd greet him, and how respectfully, they ignoring him, as he attempts to ask a q.

Tim wanders away from them, and sits on a rock at sunset. He gives himself a tour of the area, and locates Suzy in a tree crying and homesick. Tim coaxes her out, and she offers to play dollies with some a plant had grown from her tears. Soon, Tim decides to look for a way out on his own, since Suzy probably wasn't from NY.

She follows, anyways so he asks about the flowers she knew of. Charles and Edwin use the hopscotch and rhyme to get to FC. They are much more see-through, but they don't slow down, and start calling for Oliver, Timothy seeing them, and they introing themselves. Tim is roped into helping find Oliver by Suzy, she then locating him on the beach. As Charles and Edwin size the boy up, and decidedly don't like him, Tim goes to him, and says they'd take him home.

Oliver resists and declares the council knew of them, in so many words. The council is currently gathered and chatting of how they've sent a god after Tim to handle him. Junkin meets the mastermind behind the plan to make the council believe they had to open the gate and get as many Earth kids over as possible. Junkin settles what he wanted out of their work together as the ghost detectives, and Tim travel in the dark. Tim shares his only act of magic, which kind of gives him Jesus vibes.

Then, they're walked up on by a group of animals with Maxine, who remembers how Jack Rabbit had convinced her to send a magic copy of herself to her pop, who was calling her. Jack Rabbit also relates how now, if Maxine ever wanted to return home, she'd have to kill her Twinbaby. Charles is trying to game plan, and fails, whilst Tim is listening to the reason behind their coming to save FC, and then Jack Rabbit shows him the mirror which is supposed to drain his power, but he maintains he's nothing special. Next, Tim can't look away and it's growing brighter within the mirror.

On the other side of the mirror, Tim chats with the embodiment of FC. Tim's power helps bring the kids, and they're able to ease their minds for a moment. Charles gets possessed by the Dark Tower, prophesying of the gates out being only a few once more, and when he mentions this, Jack Rabbit vehemently declares them lies, and he being the real fake. He changes into a monk, and Oliver bites his leg before he jumps out the window.

The 2 ghosts give chase in time to hold him by the feet, and get onto his ship. Junkin talks nonsense at the monk, and Charles recites something he learned when he was a boy. They leave Jack Rabbit in a cell, the young man who told Browning the story being 1 of the guards. The ghost detectives next see Tim, who bids them farewell.

People notice slowly their kids are returning, and instead of believing their story, they prefer the mass hallucination theory, better. Maxine is happily staying with the animals, since she has no desire to kill Twinbaby, liking being with her buddies. Back with Oliver and Avril, she's still annoyed by him as he ignores her, the boy detectives looking to collect their fee, but Avril stating it couldn't have been them, for the news saying it is mass hallucinations, so the boys have to leave empty-handed. It doesn't bother them much, since they didn't need money, and they knew next time to get paid in advance. Cyoot, better art than story, but also quick read and felt more of a group effort, which it is, than a single one-off by Gaiman.