Nothing more was said as they demolished all the food in front of them as though it was going out of fashion, and the only sounds were those of delight. Soon they had had their fill and everyone, apart from Romulus, stretched out under the milk white full moon. A firework display of beautifully formed stars sparkled like diamonds and it made for a perfect backdrop to let their food digest.
Romulus couldn’t relax though. He was on edge and paced up and down muttering to himself.
It wasn’t cold, though it wasn’t warm either, and as the night wore on, Romulus, had calmed his nerves and spent some time collecting handfuls of small twigs and branches, with the intention of making a fire.
“I hope you were a good boy scout?” laughed Jack. “We haven’t got any matches. How do you intend lighting it? Rubbing sticks together to make a spark is going to take ages!”
Romulus ignored Jack at first and built the twigs and branches into a neatly arranged pile. Satisfied with the wooden structure he turned his attention to the young joker. “If you want to come with me I’ll show you exactly how I’m going to light it.”
They left Macy, Olivia and Hangaku sleeping and set-off in the direction of a cluster of tightly packed bushes … but returned a short while later in a hail of over the top shouting.
Jack rushed over to Macy and Olivia. “You’re not going to believe what I’ve got in my hands!”
“Oh, for God sake, Jack … what is it now? Can’t you see we’re all tired?” Olivia was seriously annoyed. All she wanted to do was rest. But with Jack in full voice she knew there wasn’t going to be much chance of that happening. At least until he’d shown them what he’d found.
Macy and Hangaku were equally unimpressed by all the late-night commotion and two glaring looks met Jack’s gaze as he crouched beside them.
Romulus arrived a short time later, out of breath after trying to keep pace with Jack.
“Thanks for waiting!” Romulus wasn’t happy, and bypassed Jack and the others and headed straight for the pile of twigs and branches he’d constructed earlier.
“Eh… Yeah… Sorry… I got a bit carried away.” Suitably embarrassed Jack got to his feet and strolled over to him.
Romulus wasn’t finished. “It’s all right saying you got a bit carried away. What if I’d run into some of the ugly critters inhabiting this place? I’d have been the one getting carried away … and I don’t mean under my own steam either.”
“I’m really sorry,” Jack apologised again, just for good measure.
Having spoken his mind and seen how remorseful Jack was, Romulus relented and asked him to open his hands and show the others, now gathered around, what all the shouting had been about. “Be very careful. The last thing I want to do is to have to try and find another one.”
“Don’t worry. These hands are as safe as houses.” It was an unfortunate and ill-advised remark as Jack showed his palms. “You’re joking—” he yelped, “—it burnt me.”
He instinctively jumped up in pain and shook both hands violently to cool them off. Everyone, except Jack, burst into hysterics, and what he had been holding all that time became visible. A bright green ball of fire dropped to the ground and burnt a black ring deep into the grass around it.
“What is it?” squealed Olivia as she rocked back on her heels.
Hangaku knew what it was and made a move towards it. “Don’t be frightened. It’s only a little Firefly. It won’t harm you.”
“Tell that to Jack!” cried Macy, still finding the whole comical episode hilariously funny.
“Oh, you can laugh. I’d like to see your reaction if it was in your hands.” Jack had thrown the gauntlet down and Macy being the type of girl she was needed no more encouragement than getting the chance to prove girls were as brave as boys.
“No problem... Watch and learn.”
Jack backtracked. “I haven’t got time to watch you mess about,” he snapped. It was as if he had suddenly lost interest and he made his way out of earshot over to the lagoon to cool his hands, not caring if a Loomanator might be patrolling the water’s edge.
Macy wasn’t bothered and took some well-appreciated advice on handling the Firefly from Romulus. “I’d do it myself. But being the size I am, the Firefly is nearly as big as my hand.” He moved forward. “What you need to do is pick it up by its head. You won’t harm it, they’re tough little critters.”
Macy listened to Romulus’s step-by-step guide and followed it word for word. She picked the Firefly up between her thumb and forefinger ... making sure she had a tight hold on the right end. And at Romulus’s request, she lowered the little glowing insect towards the stack of twigs and branches in front of her.
Concentrating hard, she didn’t notice herself trembling. “How am I doing?”
Romulus reassured her. “You are doing just fine. Now, gently move your hand so the glowing backend of the Firefly touches the wood.”
Bingo, as effective as a match, the fire began to smoulder and spring into life.
As soon as it looked as though the fire had caught properly, Macy moved the Firefly away. “Done it,” she shouted jubilantly.
“Well done,” Romulus howled. “We’ll not be getting cold tonight, of that I’m sure.”
Macy looked amazed. “Is it okay to let it go now? It’s not going to die or anything, is it?”
“Oh, goodness, no,” smiled Romulus. He was touched by Macy’s concern for the little insect. “It’ll be fine. Just release it into the air and it will find its own way back home.”
Macy opened her hands and the Firefly leapt up and flew on its way. As she stood up she spotted Jack returning from his unscheduled jaunt to the lagoon.
“What do you reckon on the fire? I told you I could do it.” A smarmy look of pleasure crept across her face.
Jack was in no mood to bother answering her; instead he sat on the grass and looked at his hands.
“Come here, Jack. Let’s have a look.” Olivia knelt beside him and took his hands between hers. “There’s nothing wrong with them! They’re not burnt, you wimp!”
“Who are you calling a wimp?” Jack snapped. “I’d like to see what you would’ve done if you’d felt what I did when I had that thing in my hands. It was boiling hot. How was I supposed to know it hadn’t burnt the skin? All I could think about was the pain and how to stop it.”
Macy sort to calm Jack’s temper. “Okay. That’ll do you two. It doesn’t matter. We’ve got a roaring fire, and thankfully your hands are going to be fine ... that’s the main thing.” Her voice abruptly stopped before she could add anything else. Something had caught her attention. “Did you hear that?”
“What?” asked Hangaku, quietly sitting away from the main group, half sleeping. “I didn’t hear anything,” Jack grumbled, still smarting over Macy’s triumph in handling the Firefly.
“No. Neither did I,” Olivia added.
Romulus looked a worried man and turned full circle. “I heard it! And if it’s what I think it is, we’d better get out of here.”
Seeing Romulus so on edge was a bit of a shock to the others. Whatever he and Macy had heard, it could only be bad news judging by Romulus’s reaction.
Suddenly everything became clear as a large dark horse like shape came out from behind a wall of bushes, less than a stone’s throw from where they were all standing. Without warning, it charged at them … stopping no more than a car length away.
Jack yelled out an urgent warning cry to the others and threw himself to the ground. “Hit the deck.”
Macy and Olivia followed suit, and lay face first on the grass. Romulus and Hangaku were the only two still standing. They didn’t have the faintest idea what Jack had meant by hit the deck, and instead stood their ground.
“We may have a problem here. Keep quiet and let me do all the talking.” Romulus’s voice quivered as he spoke. For what seemed an eternity, but in reality, could only have been little more than a few seconds, there was a tense and silent standoff. Romulus looked down at the ground and the
three children sprawled out around him. “It’s a Tenka.”
Jack turned and looked up at him. “A what?” Spitting grass out of his mouth he pulled himself up onto his knees.
“A Tenka,” said Romulus again. “A half man, half horse creature.”
“No, it’s not ... it’s a Centaur.” Olivia played on her knowledge of Greek history as she tried to place the strange looking beast in front of her.
The creature had the lower body and legs of a horse, and the upper body, arms and head of a bearded man, with wild piercing purple eyes and two small horns poking out just above its horse like ears.
“It might be called a Centaur where you come from, but here it’s most definitely a Tenka,” Romulus said sternly. He took a step back and moved closer to his sister. “We can think ourselves lucky. Normally there are ten or more together. So, we should be all right. If there’s only one, he may decide not to have a go at us.”
“I hope I didn’t hear him correctly? But just in case, what do you think he meant, have a go at us?” Jack’s voice was littered with panic and he glanced over at Macy who had risen into a crouched position.
“I don’t know! Why are you asking me? I’m not psychic!” Macy was scared, but it was a more confidant scared ... if there was such a thing. Scared in case the Tenka attacked them, but confident in what Romulus had said about it being on its own.
The Tenka glared at the seriously depleted food that remained after the uninvited guests had torn through it at whirlwind pace. A snorting fit followed before it pulled a hoof through the dirt half a dozen times. Finally, it turned and was gone, like a lightning bolt, back into the black abyss.
Jack breathed a sigh of relief and got to his feet.
Romulus and Hangaku on the other hand still had worried complexions etched on their faces.
“Did you see the way he looked at the small amount of food we left on the ground? And his reaction to it?” Hangaku remarked. “My guess is the food store we found belonged to him, and probably a lot more just like him.”
Romulus agreed. “Exactly what I was thinking.”
Macy stood up and helped Olivia to her feet. “What are you saying? Do you think he’ll be back with more of his kind?”
“No, much worse,” said Romulus. “The Tenka are like soldiers of fortune, mercenaries, if you like. They would sell their own flesh and blood for little more than a full stomach. My guess is he has gone to find his friends to tell them what has happened to their food. It’s not going to please them, that’s for sure. And if I’m right, they’ll go straight to Kraken and inform him of our presence here. The best thing we can do right now is to get as far away from here as possible, before Kraken’s Goblin Soldiers come looking for us.”
Romulus had no problem persuading Jack to get a move on; he had already slung his rucksack over his shoulders and was raring to go.
“It’ll be quicker if you both get into the rucksack. We’ll be able to move a lot faster.” Jack knelt on the ground and loaded Romulus and Hangaku up.
“Yes, I was going to suggest that myself,” replied Romulus. “I’ve already experienced being left behind. I’m sure you remember?”
“Okay… I’ve already said I was sorry. How many more times do I have to apologise?” Jack’s feathers were getting ruffled again and it hadn’t gone unnoticed by Macy.
“Everyone calm down. Let’s just get out of here before they come back.”
Olivia wasn’t waiting about and was already in the process of leaving the area. “That’s fine by me.”
Romulus looked concerned for Olivia’s safety. “Don’t go off on your own. If you get lost, we’ll never find you.”
But Olivia wasn’t stupid. She knew staying with the group was the safest option. “Well, come on then... The sooner we leave the better.”
— CHAPTER ELEVEN —
The Hangout
Several hours had elapsed, in which time both Macy and Olivia had decided to stop for a break. Macy led the way, courtesy of Jack’s fading torch … even though she wasn’t sure where she was heading.
Jack meanwhile, still had a minute or two to make up on them. With the extra weight on his back from carrying Romulus and Hangaku, he had fallen a little way behind. He had called after Macy and Olivia to ask them to slow down, as he feared being left on his own. But they hadn’t taken any notice.
“Thanks for waiting on me,” he bleated, critical of their treatment of him. “I’m completely whacked. Why don’t you try thinking about someone else instead of just yourselves? I’ve had to carry these two on my back, which is more than both of you have.” Jack pointed over his shoulder.
“Oh, stop whining,” snapped Olivia. “If you could have heard yourself going on about your sore feet from walking and your sore back from carrying Romulus and Hangaku, you’d have been a bit fed up of it as well.”
Olivia’s quick-fire rebuff stumped Jack; he knew she was right, he had moaned quite a lot since leaving the banks of the lagoon. Anyway, he had caught up with them now so there was no point carrying on with the argument.
An awkward silence ensued as they rested, but Jack’s annoyance was soon forgotten as he noticed a large tree trunk with its base scooped out in what appeared to be the shape of a curved seat. He decided to take full advantage of it and placed his bottom gently down until it rested comfortably within the hollow trunk. Leaning back his eyes started to flutter as he drifted into a semiconscious state … sleep deprivation had begun to kick in.
“Hold it there!” shrilled Macy, just as Jack’s back was about to make contact the tree behind him.
“What? What is it?” Jack almost jumped out of his skin as he pitched forward, fully expecting another encounter with the Tenka. Dazed through lack of sleep his head turned from left to right half a dozen times and his spangled eyes popped out as far as they could bulge, without leaving their sockets. “Who have you seen? Who’s there?”
A smile of amusement worked its way across both Macy and Olivia’s faces at Jack’s farcical antics.
“It’s okay.” Macy decided to put him out of his misery. Though not before the two girls had captured his hyper complexion within their memory banks for humorous posterity. “Keep your hair on … there’s no one coming to get you. All I was going to say was don’t lean back. You’ve still got the rucksack on. If you’d fallen asleep and lent against the tree, Romulus and Hangaku would’ve been crushed.”
“Oh, yeah! I totally forgot about them.” Jack peeled the straps of the rucksack over his shoulders and dumped it hard onto the ground. He hadn’t meant to, but his arms felt like jelly.
“Careful!” barked Olivia, as a yelp of pain emanated from within the rucksack. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Sorry.” Jack cupped his hands and rubbed his face. “I’m not with it ... I need to sleep.”
A sombre and slightly sore Romulus popped his head out from the neck of the rucksack. Rolling his stiff shoulders around to loosen them he crawled out onto the ground, followed a couple of seconds later by an equally shaken Hangaku.
“What happened? The last thing I remember was climbing into the rucksack, just after we’d spotted the Tenka.” Romulus struggled to haul himself onto Jack’s crossed legs.
“You obviously fell asleep, didn’t you?” said Olivia. “Unlike the rest of us who had to keep on walking, you and Hangaku had a comfortable ride on the back of Jack. That was until he dropped you on the ground.”
“Hmm, yes,” Romulus rubbed his forehead. “So that’s what the thud was. I thought it was a ground tremor ... we get them every so often you know. The ground shakes so much you find it hard to stay on your feet.” He went back to the first part of Olivia’s reply. “Anyway, it would’ve taken a lot longer if we’d all walked, wouldn’t it? Look at the size of you three to Hangaku and myself. We wouldn’t have gone very far in a hurry.”
“Can’t deny that,” said Olivia. “But now we’ve stopped, it’s only fair the three of us should have a good rest.” Sh
e meant herself Jack and Macy, of course.
Macy ambled over to Romulus, still perched on Jack’s knee. “This is getting us nowhere fast... Are we lost?”
Romulus scanned all around. “No, this can’t be right?” His expression and the way he spoke left them all in no doubt that the place they had arrived at was not a good one to be in.
Macy crouched down. “What is it? What’s wrong? Do you know something about where we are?”
Romulus jumped to his feet. “Yes, I do... And it’s not good news!” He vaulted off Jack’s knee and landed on the ground. “We’ve entered the Nebier Forest!”
A gasp of disbelief echoed all around. The realisation they had wandered into the last place within the Land of Tormencer they could possibly have wanted to, suddenly dawned on them.
“You’re sure about that, are you?” asked Jack.
“Yes. Quite sure. You’ve only got to look around to see the difference from the Valley of Crystal Water.”
He was right, even under the dim glow from the moon and the light from Jack’s ever-fading torch, held by Macy, it was clear where they had arrived had an air of doom about it.
The trees were visibly sparse, with no leaves, and trunks split and cracked through lack of water. The ground was as dry as a bone and poured through Olivia’s fingers like flour through a sieve, as she ran a hand through the dirt beneath her.
Jack looked unimpressed. “It’s true — look at the place — it’s all shrivelled up.”
Macy agreed. “What do we do now!? We can’t stay here, can we?”
Romulus looked sombrely over at Macy. “If only I’d stayed awake we wouldn’t have been placed in this dangerous position.”
“You can’t blame yourself,” said Macy comfortingly. “I was the one who led the way, remember? Even though I didn’t have a clue where I was going. If anyone is to blame for bringing us here, it’s me.”
Olivia shook her head and got to her feet, she had heard enough. “When the both of you have stopped blaming yourselves for what has happened, would anyone like to take a guess at how we are going to get out of this mess?”
Macy Vickers and the Book of Spells Page 9
