Jack, still struggling to come to terms with the sight before him, found himself stuck for words. And it fell to Macy to seek some clarity regarding the new arrivals, who had by now reached her feet. Though what more she wanted to know was unclear to Romulus as she had the creatures right before her. But Macy was nothing if not persistent, and a question posed by her was an important one.
Romulus wore a bemused look. To him the Navatron were a familiar sight. But he soon became aware he’d have to calm the fears and growing concerns being expressed by Macy if they were to travel any further.
Macy’s question was straight and to the point. Not surprising really, as the leading couple of Navatron were taking far too much interest in her shoes. “Are they friendly—?” She steadied herself. “I mean … are they going to take a bite out of me any time soon?”
Romulus and Hangaku could hardly contain themselves such was their overriding urge to laugh out loud. But having studied the faces of all three petrified youngsters, they thought better of it. Instead, Romulus decided to lead by example, which he hoped would quell any lingering fears held by the frightened children.
“Harm you!? Would these lovely creatures harm you? Is that what’s bothering you? Well, let me put all of your minds at rest.” Romulus had a soft tone to his voice and turned to look at the lead Navatron. “The only reason they made their way up the mountain path, is to greet us.”
Macy didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, they’re a welcome party — there isn’t anything to worry about.” Romulus strolled over to the Navatron nearest to Macy and used its sludge-filled gaping mouth and tongue as stepping-stones. Working his way along the revolting slime and grunge encasing it, he pulled himself onto the huge shell planted on its back, turned around to face Macy and the others and gave a broad smile. “You see, there’s nothing to it. Though of course … it’s a bit more of a challenge now I’m only a fraction of the size I once was.”
Romulus lay on his stomach and used his fingers to dig into the hard crustacean, like claws acting as pulley levers. Finally, he found a comfortable position and sat himself gracefully down.
It was good enough for Macy. “This should be interesting,” she laughed, and began the delicate operation of climbing aboard a Navatron. “Come on—” she called out to the others, “—it’s easy enough ... Romulus is much smaller than us and he managed to do it.”
Macy placed her feet onto the lower jaw of the giant creature and stretched up high. Taking a good hold, she pulled herself up and onto the curved top of the shell.
Jack was next — and his choice had widened as there were now at least twelve Navatron to pick from.
“Hum … decisions, decisions.” He rubbed the underside of his chin and looked around for a suitable Navatron to go for.
“Come on — pick one,” yelled Olivia impatiently.
Jack ignored her. “This one should do — it looks like the biggest.” He tried his best to sound brave, though Macy and Olivia could see he was anything but. He sluggishly made his way over to the Navatron he had chosen and tried to emulate Macy and Romulus’s fearless assents. But it was obvious his tactics were far from a mimic of the others.
Macy found it hilarious. “Yes, well you’ve sort of got the idea. But you’re meant to face the same way as the Navatron.”
Romulus, Hangaku and Olivia also saw the funny side of Jack’s error and a burst of laughter belted out all around.
Jack wasn’t happy at being the butt of everyone’s joke and swivelled round on the Navatron’s shell to face in the right direction. “Happy now?” he said crassly. “If it’s so easy, Olivia … why haven’t you tried it yet?” He crossed his arms and chewed the inside of his mouth … it was plain to see he was well and truly miffed.
Olivia took him up on his challenge, walked confidently over to a Navatron, placed a foot on its lower jaw — then its tongue — and then its head, and wriggled her way onto its massive shell.
“What’s all the fuss about?” she yelled triumphantly. “It’s no trouble at all.” She knew what she was doing as far as rubbing Jack up the wrong way, and he was now in a full-blown huff.
Jack didn’t even bother to acknowledge her. It didn’t faze Olivia; she was sitting pretty on her chosen Navatron which was all that mattered to her.
Hangaku was full of admiration for Olivia. “Well done. It’s not easy, but you made it look that way.”
Jack broke his silence. “Whatever!”
Olivia leant forward and stretched an arm out. “Come on, Hangaku. You can ride with me. I don’t think grumpy chops —” she nodded in Jack’s direction, “— is going to let you back in his rucksack at this moment in time.”
Hangaku climbed onto the Navatron’s spongy head and took a tight hold of Olivia’s hand. Olivia pulled her the rest of the way up and sat her on her lap.
It was a slow and laborious descent down the mountain path and by the time they reached the bottom, a full three hours had past. No one complained, even though it would have been quicker if they’d walked. But the experience of riding on the back of a gigantic snail was never going to be passed up. After all, they were new creatures to Macy, Olivia and Jack.
The dust caked land of Calmarti didn’t improve as they slid off the Navatron and touched back down on the ground.
Macy scanned all around. “It doesn’t look as though anything has grown here for a long time ... look at this place!” She crouched and scooped up a hand full of dry flyaway dirt … stood up and let it slip through her fingers. “How do they survive, that’s what I’d like to know? They’re hardly small eaters judging by the size of them.” Macy placed a hand across her forehead to block out the glaring rays emitted by the sun high above. She looked to her left, right and dead ahead. “Nothing... Not so much as a leaf.”
Romulus had heard some of what Macy had said, but not all of it. He had been deep in thought about their next move to find the Spell Keeper. “Don’t go fretting about the Navatron. They’ll be fine,” he informed her, and anyone else who wanted to listen. He opened his arms wide. “There’s something I forgot to tell you about this particular piece of land.”
“Here we go,” moaned Jack. “It’s going to be bad news. I just know it.”
“No, it’s not,” replied Romulus sternly. “It’s not bad news for the Navatron anyway.” He pointed to the ground. “Look at the soil you’re standing on ... it isn’t any old soil. Oh no, it’s a special type … full of goodness and nutrition.”
Olivia looked at her filthy dust caked shoes and turned to Macy. “He’s gone mad. There’s no goodness or nutrition around here.”
“It must be a bad case of sunstroke if you ask me,” said Macy mockingly.
Hangaku was unimpressed and didn’t find her brother’s name callers funny in the slightest and let them know it in no uncertain terms.
“My brother is neither mad nor suffering the effects of the sun ... and you shouldn’t speak about him in that way.”
Macy wore a sheepish look. “It was only a joke!”
“Yes, a joke... We didn’t mean anything by it,” added Olivia. “But have you taken a good look around? We’re right in the middle of a desert, without the sand … if it makes any sense.” Olivia scratched her head and had managed to confuse herself with her botched description.
Macy stepped in. “I can think of a better way to describe what this place looks like.” She shot a long discerning glare at Olivia, shook her head, and turned back in the direction of Hangaku. “It’s like the bottom of a river bed, minus the water.”
“And you say the sun has affected me?” smiled Romulus, poking fun at the two girls, who … only moments earlier had done the exact same thing to him. “I guarantee within a week you won’t recognise this place. It will be overgrown with an abundance of assorted plant life, the like of which, I’d hazard a guess, you’ve never seen before. I know it doesn’t look like much now, but the soil has a magical quality about it. Every week the Nav
atron eat their way through anything and everything in their path. But within a matter of days the food stocks are rapidly replenished.”
“Impossible!” baulked Olivia.
“No … very much possible!” said Romulus. He could see by the bemused faces staring back at him that his story of super fast-growing plants and magical soil was not one they fully believed. “Hopefully, the next time we visit this place, you’ll see for yourselves.” Romulus pointed out into the distance. “In the meantime we must keep pushing forward until we find the Spell Keeper.”
It took what was left of the crisp bright day, and well into dusk before they finally arrived at the Valley of Crystal Water.
Romulus had made it clear earlier that day exactly why he had not wanted to travel through the Nebier Forest, even though it would have been the quickest route to the Spell Keeper’s underground cave. The Nebier Forest would more than likely have been crawling with Goblin Soldiers from Kraken’s army. So, to lessen the chances of being caught, its route had been cut out of Romulus’s mental plan entirely. Instead, he had chosen to skirt around it and travel through the safer Valley of Crystal Water. Romulus had worked out it would only be a short distance from there, to where the Spell Keeper would hopefully be found, as well as being far less dangerous.
Though dusk had arrived, it was still possible to see the clear water of the giant lagoon stretching out over a vast area of lush greenery adorning its banks. It was in stark contrast to the Navatron’s land of Calmarti.
Romulus and his sister decided to forage for some food for everyone. Jack had already let it be known … in no uncertain terms … he was starving. But with all sorts of grumbling and squelching noises coming from the vicinity of his stomach, he didn’t need to open his mouth for the others to realise he needed feeding.
To be fair to Jack, it wasn’t his fault his stomach decided to play up; none of them had eaten in some time and the effects of hunger was starting to be felt by all of them.
Having seen Romulus and Hangaku traipsing off in search of something to eat, Macy, Olivia and Jack took it upon themselves to help.
Olivia stuck her nose in the air. “Let’s try looking over there.” She pointed in the opposite direction to where Romulus and Hangaku had gone. “It smells nice this way … let’s hope we can find something edible.” Olivia walked towards the lagoon but pointed over in Romulus and Hangaku’s direction. “God knows what sort of food they’re going to come back with. Snails, slugs and worms more than likely. Not exactly appetising.”
Jack caught up with Olivia and gave her a comical smile. “If we only find snails and slugs, they will do for me. I’m wasting away.” He lifted his clothing with one hand and patted his stomach with the other. “Look at me — nothing but skin and bone.”
Macy arrived just in time to see Jack with his stomach on display. “Put it away, will you. I’m hungry too, but now you are putting me right off eating.”
Jack backtracked. “I was joking about eating snails and slugs.”
“I know,” said Macy casually. “Anyway, I was talking about your stomach putting me off my food, not snails and slugs.”
Jack looked puzzled and tucked his clothes back in. “What are you on about?”
Olivia tapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t bother rattling your brain. Let’s find something to eat and then we’ll all be happy.”
The lagoon was as good a place as any to try and find something edible and hopefully a fish or two would be on the menu. One thing did play on their minds though. If, by some freak of nature they did manage to capture anything, how were they going to cook it? There was no way any of them would eat raw fish, no matter how hungry they were.
“What do you reckon, Jack … you first?” said Macy pointing towards a steep section of the lagoon’s vast grassy banks.
“What do you mean, me first?” Jack puffed out his cheeks and looked hot and bothered. “Unless of course you’re worried about the monsters hiding in the lagoon?” He was thinking of the Loomanators.
“Oh, them … yes,” Macy hurried her words. “Completely slipped my mind.” It was a likely story and she wasn’t fooling Jack one bit. “Ah … well … they’re harmless anyway, aren’t they? At least that’s what Romulus told us.” Macy tried to dig herself out of what was becoming an ever-increasing hole.
“If that’s the case, then ladies first,” replied Jack swiftly. “They’re harmless as you’ve said. So, there shouldn’t be a problem.”
Grinning innately, Jack watched as the two girls made eye contact, before gently easing themselves down the side of the slippery bank to the water’s edge.
“What was that?” Olivia threw herself back against the grass bank.
“What was what?” asked Macy, unsure about what Olivia had seen.
“That!” Olivia pointed a quivering finger in the direction of a large V shaped ripple in the water … heading toward them. “It’s one of them.”
“One of who?” cried Macy.
“A Loomanator!” Olivia’s high-pitched scream echoed all around as both girls scrambled back up the uneven and slippery surface of the bank.
It wasn’t a moment too soon as a giant light green luminous beast broke cover and raised its enormous dragon head above the dirt disturbed water. It was huge, and its shimmering snow-white eyes and deep blue pupils fixed on the three terrified children as they ran for their lives.
“What is it? What’s happened?” Romulus and his sister had heard Olivia’s shrilled cry of terror and rushed to find them.
Puffing and panting for all they were worth Macy, Olivia and Jack fell in a tangled heap on the ground. Macy sucked in a lung full of air through her nostrils to steady her nerves before replying to Romulus’s question.
“We were nearly eaten by a Loomanator,” she spluttered. “Down by the banks of the lagoon, over there.” Macy twisted the top of her body and pointed to the spot they had retreated from in such a hurry, just as the glowing body of the Loomanator disappeared into the murky depths of the lagoon.
“Oh, what rubbish!” Romulus rebuked Macy’s claim without a second thought. “As I’ve already told you … the Loomanators are harmless.” He looked vexed. “Why were you down there, anyway?”
“We were looking for something to eat,” said Olivia.
“And did you find anything?”
“Well, no. We were too busy running away from the Loomanator.”
Romulus laughed. “Well, it’s lucky for you that myself and Hangaku have had a far more productive search then.”
— CHAPTER TEN —
Firefly Intervention
Romulus retraced his steps and the rest of the group followed close behind. His destination was a spot where he and his sister had stumbled across what appeared to be someone or something’s food store, under a pile of leaves.
Macy wasn’t entirely happy at the way Romulus had spoken to them before. It sounded to her as though he was implying they had not been pulling their weight in the search for food.
“It’s all right for him… He’s used to Loomanators swimming around… But we’re not. If we were, we wouldn’t have run away like we did.”
Olivia was on the same page as Macy. “Even if we’d stayed where we were, how were we going to catch any fish that might have happened to swim by?”
Macy gave her a dumb look. “Why are you asking me? Jack might have had an idea on that score?” Both girls stared in Jack’s direction.
“Don’t looking at me. Do you think I was going to magic up a fishing rod or something?” Jack rolled his jacket sleeves up. “No, nothing under there,” he joked.
Romulus had been oblivious to the children’s squabbling; he had more important things on his mind. Food being one of them, and he seemed pleased with himself. “I’m sure you won’t say no to some nut’s and blackberries?” He knelt between the food pile he and his sister had discovered. “There are even a couple of loaves of bread. Not bad, eh, wouldn’t you agree?”
Jack reacted f
irst. “Not bad, Romulus … not bad at all.” His saucer eyes gained in size. “A nut and blackberry sandwich, spot on.”
Jack began to indulge in some pig mannered antics and tore a chunk from the loaf of bread closest to him and stuffed it into his mouth, followed by a greedy helping of nuts and blackberries as an accompaniment.
“Hold on a minute,” Macy frowned. “Correct me if I’m wrong … but isn’t this stealing? Someone has obviously gone to great lengths to collect and hide all this food, and I don’t think they’re going to be pleased to find out we’ve eaten it.”
Jack rolled his eyes and swallowed hard. “Leave it out will you. Just answer me this … are we or are we not all starving?” Pieces of mulched bread, nuts and blackberries sprung the trap of his lips.
“I don’t know about starving—” said Macy as she tried her best to dodge Jack’s food fountain, “—we’re all hungry, yes. But it doesn’t mean we can take someone else’s food supply.”
Jack looked at Romulus and shrugged. A morsel of stubborn blackberry dribbled down the side of his mouth, bounced off his chin and fell to the ground.
“What do you do?” he protested. “You find a mound of food and all you get are problems.” Another torn piece of bread and fist full of blackberries entered his mouth. An act, no doubt, of defiance to Macy’s stance.
It was Olivia’s turn to have her say, and unexpectedly girl power was less than forthcoming. “Come on, Macy. We’ve got to eat something. Whoever found this food will know how to get some more.” She sat on a patch of dry grass and picked at the pile of nuts and blackberries in front of her.
“Fine! If that’s the way you want to play it.” Macy raised her finger and waged it like an irate schoolteacher. “It’s not the point though. Just because they can find some more food is unimportant. It’s the principle of eating someone else’s hard labour, that’s what I find so wrong. But I suppose I can make an exception this time.” Joining the others, she wasted no time in tucking into the feast.
Macy Vickers and the Book of Spells Page 8
