by SJB Gilmour
Sarah bolted around to attack the demon’s other ankle. As before, her first bite left her with a mouthful of demon scales. This time, the demon gave up on Benjamin and swung around to swipe at Sarah before she could bite it again. Sarah looked up to see a huge black-clawed fist descending towards her. Then Benjamin was there, crashing headlong into her, knocking her out of the way. The demon’s fist landed solidly on his head and shoulders. He gave one startled yelp and was buried deep within the sand. Then the demon stumbled painfully as if it had been dealt a thunderous blow to the back of its head. It swayed for a moment then shook its head and recovered its wits.
‘No!’ yelled Angela as she watched Benjamin get buried deep into the sand dune. She fired yet more arrows at the demon.
The demon bellowed again and then swung its fist at Sarah. She leaped out of the way and desperately lunged at the demon’s right heel. This time, she succeeded and tore into its thick achilles tendon. Angrier than she had ever been before, she ripped at it with all her might. The demon screamed horribly and lifted its mangled leg high into the air. It shook its foot desperately but Sarah refused to let go. Then the tendon snapped. Again, Sarah was flung far through the air. She landed heavily on a patch of hard-packed sand. The wind was knocked out of her lungs and she lay gasping on the ground. The demon howled in anger and pain as its tendon slithered back up inside its leg.
Then Ronny surprised them all. He was striding towards the demon purposefully. Angela and the others yelled at him to stop, but the determined little gnome ignored them.
‘Stand back,’ Ronny warned the others. Instead of heeding their cries for him to stop, Ronny calmly walked to stand directly in front of the massive injured demon. Bursts of flame shot from its mouth and a putrid green slime oozed out of its wounds. The demon roared at him, but did not attack. Instead, it seemed puzzled for a moment. It roared at Ronny again, even louder this time, but Ronny still stood there, with his gnarled hands on his hips.
Then, amazingly, the demon began to shrink! Ronny yelled at it in the awful language of demons and the demon shrank even further. It continued to become smaller and smaller until it was about half the size of Ronny himself!
Sarah lay on the sand, panting and was about to struggle to her paws when she felt dizzy again. A flood of knowledge suddenly appeared in her mind from Wolfenvald. She realised with awe that in the space of a few heartbeats, she had just learned the language of demons!
‘Now I’ve had just about enough of you,’ Ronny told the demon. He grabbed one of the demon’s long, pointy ears and began to march back toward the oasis. The demon howled and, just like a naughty child, it grimaced and limped painfully to follow the determined gnome. When Ronny had dragged the demon safely out of reach of the rest of the group, he then did something even more amazing. He knelt down, grabbed the demon, turned it over and held it over his thigh. He then proceeded to give it a good solid thrashing.
Once Ronny had spanked the demon into submission, he let it go and stood up. The demon bowed its head like a scolded child. Then Ronny barked questions at it.
Sarah’s ears were ringing, and she couldn’t make out much more of what was being said between Ronny and the demon, but she knew there was no question Ronny had the upper hand.
‘Hold it!’ Angela yelled at Ronny. She had dropped her bow and arrow and shed all her clothes. In front of her, she had created a burning nonagram on a flat piece of sand. ‘It’s my turn now!’
Sarah’s now-naked teacher strode towards the demon, chanting a long necromantic rite. Ronny held the demon out to her by the scruff of the neck. Together, the hardy little gnome and Angela hurled the demon into the nonagram, where it promptly disappeared. The nonagram flared for a moment and then burned out.
Angela shook her head angrily and then dressed herself again, much to Ronny’s relief. Even when he’d been holding the demon out to her, his normally grey face was blushing furiously.
‘Now to find Benjamin,’ Angela muttered and began digging in the sand to reach the buried Silver Shroud.
Sarah bounded to help her teacher. She began digging with her paws. As she sent great waves of sand behind her, she realised just how much fun digging actually was. In fact, she was having so much fun that she barely noticed Ronny approach her.
After she had dug through more than a metre of sand, she had still found no sign of Benjamin. Ronny grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and yanked her out of the way.
‘Let me!’ he yelled. Then he dove headfirst into the hole she had dug and wriggled down deep into the sand. Soon, only his feet were poking out. Then they too disappeared.
After several nerve-wracking moments, he emerged, hauling Benjamin up as if he were an enormous wolf cub.
‘Is he alright?’ Sarah demanded desperately.
Ronny dumped the barely breathing Benjamin on the sand and sat down beside him. ‘He’s alive,’ he gasped, ‘just.’
‘Thank you!’ Angela gasped. She was panting heavily. Her efforts from exorcising the demon and then digging in the sand had all but worn her out. She wiped sweat from her face and brushed off the sand then quickly embraced Ronny.
‘Thank you, thank you!’ she repeated, squeezing Ronny. Ronny blushed again at having his head squeezed into Angela’s bosom. Sarah grinned wolfishly and padded over to her uncle. The Silver Shroud werewolf was lying on his side, unconscious. She nudged him with her snout. He didn’t respond.
Angela released the crimson-faced Ronny and rushed to Benjamin’s side. She put one hand on the great werewolf’s chest.
‘He’s running on empty. The demon’s touch drained him.’ She looked up at everyone. ‘He needs something sugary. Chocolate, booze, anything.’
‘So that’s why it took so long to shrink,’ Ronny murmured to himself, patting himself down. He came up empty-handed.
Mel reached inside her satchel and took out her flask of Chinese Fighting Maple rum. She handed it to Angela. Angela pried the great wolf’s mouth open and poured in a splash of the potent rum.
Benjamin coughed out a mouthful of sand and shuddered. He changed to human form and sat up groggily. Angela sat back, relieved.
‘Not fair,’ James muttered. ‘Even the kids get CFM rum.’
‘Ooh!’ Benjamin groaned and coughed up more sand.
Angela panted for a few moments then hugged him fiercely. Then she dragged him to his feet.
‘What do you mean, going and frightening us like that?’ she admonished him with sudden anger. She jabbed at his chest with one long finger.
‘Angela, please!’ Benjamin objected weakly.
Angela then proceeded to scold Benjamin at the top of her voice. Her choice of language was colourful indeed. She called him every name she could think of in English. She even used several words that Sarah didn’t understand at all. When she ran out of words in English, she switched to Greek and then Trollish, each more colourful than the language before it.
James scowled at Roberta. ‘Listen to that. You reckon I’m a bad influence!’
‘That rum is for medicinal purposes only, Isaacs,’ Roberta retorted. ‘And swearing when the moment calls for it is better than swearing all the time.’
At that point, Ronny gestured for them all to help him gather up the camels after the shaggy beasts had scattered in terror.
‘I think we’d better leave those two to it,’ the little gnome told them.
Robert strode forward and shook Ronny’s hand. ‘Well, Master Mason,’ he said admiringly. ‘You’re the hero of the hour! Tell us, how did you do that and remain fully clothed?’
Ronny shrugged. ‘I wasn’t,’ he replied, pointing at a small pile of gnome-sized clothes on the sand. ‘This,’ he said pointing at the clothes they saw on him, ‘is just an illusion.’ Then he clicked his stubby fingers and for a brief moment, he was stark naked as his illusion fell away. ‘It’s pretty simple really,’ he went on conversationally, putting his clothes back on. ‘I am an illusionist, after all and bullious demons aren’t t
he brightest of sparks. I just let it think I was a lot bigger than it was and it got scared. The more frightened it became, the smaller it shrank. It took a while longer than normal, actually. Absorbing some of Master McConnell’s power like that made it stronger, but not smarter.’
‘So you tricked it,’ said Roberta.
Ronny nodded. ‘Bullious demons are as common as muck. Their only real power comes from the fear of those they face. All you really have to do is out-bully them. That’s probably why Kevin was able to control it. Bullies only ever pick on those smaller than they are, and a giant is much bigger than that thing.’
‘Where did it go?’ Sarah asked him.
‘I don’t know. Mistress Harding sent it to a hell, I imagine. I’m not sure which one. I did manage to find out where it had come from, though,’ he told them smugly ‘and why!’ he added, almost as an after-thought.
Roberta said crisply, ‘Ronald! Are we going to have to hold you upside down and shake the story out of you?’
Ronny gave her a mischievous grin. ‘The demon was booted out of its lair underneath Troll Mountain,’ he said, pointing at the huge grey mountain. ‘Apparently, it used to live with Kevin. I understand that the two of them had some sort of agreement. After they got all the schoolyard nonsense out of the way, they managed to become quite close buddies. It seems the rock giant didn’t charge the demon any rent. In exchange, the demon helped keep the trolls at bay.
‘Apparently, then Kevin got lazy and managed to get himself poisoned. That was when the trolls broke through and swamped the demon’s lair. From what I can gather, the trolls who used to live at the top of the mountain didn’t like it up there because they were vulnerable to the weather. This desert may be dry down here, but a thousand metres up, it’s a whole different climate. That’s why their numbers have been kept so stable over the past few centuries. Now, they’re all underground and multiplying at a great rate of knots.’
‘How many?’ James asked.
‘Several thousand, I believe,’ Ronny replied.
‘How long ago did this happen?’ Roberta asked.
Ronny shrugged. ‘I’m sorry. Demons don’t have a very good notion of time. It thinks it was about six years ago.’
‘That’s close enough,’ said James confidently.
‘It’s a good thing you came along, Ronny,’ Roberta thanked the gnome. ‘If we’d gone to the top of the mountain, we’d have been sitting ducks.’
‘That’s a point,’ James advised them. ‘If they are all gathered underground…’
‘Then they’re vulnerable,’ Sarah concluded. ‘I have to get inside that lair.’
‘Not tonight, we’re not!’ Angela told them. She and Benjamin had returned while Sarah and the others were talking. They were holding hands. Though he was still weak, Benjamin’s whole demeanour had changed. His eyes had softened and there was a slightly bewildered look on his face.
James groaned cynically. ‘Good grief!’
‘Oh, shut up, baldy,’ Angela told her cousin. She faced the rest of the group, still holding Benjamin’s hand. ‘Our fearless leader here is going to have to rest up for a day or two,’ she told them all with a meaningful glance at Benjamin. He flushed and lifted his chin boldly, as if daring himself to blush further. ‘So we’d better return to the oasis.’
‘What’s left of it,’ Mel added bitterly.
Benjamin looked curiously at the smug little gnome. ‘You defeated that thing, Mason?’ he asked incredulously. ‘I don’t believe it!’
Sarah resumed her human form and climbed onto her camel. ‘Come on, Uncle. Ride with me and I’ll tell you all about it,’ she told him brightly. ‘Then I’m going to brush my teeth,’ she remarked. ‘That thing tasted rotten!’
They all laughed and then each member of the group mounted their respective camels and they rode back to the smoking oasis.
Their tents were gone, as were most of their belongings. Only Sarah and Mel had brought their satchels with them. Everything else was lost to the fire. Worst of all, the elevator, which had been parked neatly beside the fountain, was smashed entirely.
James wandered around the smoking ruins, shaking his head in dismay. ‘Those poor palms,’ he lamented.
Angela joined him. ‘Can you fix them?’ she asked her cousin gently.
He shook his head. ‘Demon fire is impossible to reverse. I’ll have to re-grow these palms from seed.’
‘That could take a while.’
James grinned. ‘Not if you do it right.’ He dug into his pocket and withdrew a pencil and a notepad. He scribbled a quick note then tore off the page and rolled it into a small scroll. Then he went looking for Mel. He found her, sitting beside the smoking ruins of the elevator, patiently trying to calm Jimbo. The baby dragon had returned just as they had made it back to the oasis and was most upset by what he had seen.
‘Mel,’ Master Isaacs asked, ‘can I ask a favour?’ He handed her the scroll. ‘Could you ask Jimbo here to take this to Mary for me?’
Mel looked up at James. ‘I’ll try.’ She shrugged. ‘He’s a little upset right now.’
Master Isaacs smiled slyly. ‘Tell him there’s a bucket full of Mexican flame tree beans in it for him.’
Hearing the tempting offer, Jimbo looked up eagerly. ‘Okay!’ he squeaked. ‘Just hand me that there note. I’ll be off in a flash for you, Master Isaacs, Sir! Right away, Sir!’
Mel handed the eager little firedrake the scroll. He clasped it in his talons and leaped into the air and disappeared through a portal.
Sarah and the others wandered around the charred remains of the oasis, splashing buckets of water from the fountain on any small fires that were still burning. Working beside her bemused Uncle Benjamin, Sarah paused to observe him.
‘Yes, cub?’ he asked, not turning around.
Sarah tilted her head sideways. ‘How come the demon didn’t do anything to me when I bit it?’ she asked him. ‘I mean, we both touched it but it nearly killed you, and I was fine!’
Benjamin put his bucket down upside down and sat on it. ‘That’s a long story, cub. It’s about time you heard it.’
Sarah did as her uncle had done and turned her bucket upside down and sat upon it. Mel, overhearing the beginning of the story, drew up close as well.
Benjamin smiled at her then continued. ‘I was born a long, long time ago, in a small village near what’s now known as Ettrick Forrest in Scotland,’ he told the girls, ‘not far from Castlerigg, actually. Back then, mortal man was a primitive beast. If you think I’m tall now, then I was considered a giant. Eventually, one summer, I was stripped and outcast by my fellow narrow-minded villagers. I took off alone. I wasn’t much older than you girls,’ he told them. ‘I was only about twelve, but I was already head and shoulders taller than any of the men in the village.
‘I took to the forest and managed to scrounge enough food to sustain me. The first few weeks were the hardest. Then I learned to hunt. I managed to clothe myself with hides and put up a rudimentary shelter.
‘I survived all summer and autumn. By the time winter arrived, I had a store of meat and vegetables I’d grown from a small garden I had made. I decided to sit out the winter, and then I was going to move on. One night, I heard something whimpering outside my door. When I looked, I found a she-wolf. She was wounded and terribly thin. I had made a vow to myself that I would never turn anything away as I had been, so I took her inside. It took a few weeks, but I managed to nurse the she-wolf back to health. When she was well, she stayed inside by my fire until the spring thaw. Then she left.
‘I tried to follow her lead, but she soon lost me in the forest. That didn’t matter. I knew I couldn’t stay where I had, so I left. I was overcome with a great urge to travel. Over the next few years, I roamed all over England. Occasionally, I would waylay a wealthy stranger for his money or clothes. I never killed anyone, though. And I made sure to take no more than I needed.
‘Finally, one day, when I was about eighteen, I took a ship to F
rance. From there I wandered, just as I had in England. Eventually, I made my way down to Italy. There, in the region now called Tuscany, I met a woman.’
‘Your wife?’ Sarah asked.
Benjamin smiled sadly. ‘We fell in love and eventually she and I married, yes,’ he said, his eyes far away. ‘Her name was Firenza, after the town of Florence. At that stage, the place was just a small town. It didn’t become a city as such for at least another fifteen hundred years.’
Sarah was surprised. Just how old was he? He could be older than Jesus, she realised!
Benjamin saw her surprised expression and nodded calmly. ‘Then one day,’ he continued, ‘she and I were walking in the hills, enjoying the sunshine and each other’s company. We ate and drank near a small stream in the forest and eventually, we fell asleep. I woke around midnight. It was a full moon and I remember being grateful for that because I could find my way to the stream to wash my face without tripping over.
‘Then, I heard an awful scream. I peered into the darkness, but I couldn’t see much. Then, a woman came rushing through the trees. Her clothes were ripped and her face and body were bloody. She splashed through to my side of the stream. When she saw me, she stopped. I heard a noise behind her and there stood the most frightening thing I’d ever seen. It was half man, half Gryphon demon. Its body was human, for the most part, but its skin was black with scales. Its eyes glowed with an unholy green fire. I knew it was something beyond evil.’
Angela joined the small group and sat her bucket down close to Benjamin.
‘A Gryphon demon looks similar a normal gryphon, Sarah,’ she explained. ‘Sort of like a small dragon. Most of them have tails instead of legs. Those who can walk can only do so because they’ve possessed the body of a human.’
Benjamin nodded. ‘The monster was carrying a crossbow loaded with a silver-tipped bolt,’ he continued. Sarah and Mel leaned in close, entranced.
‘Then a couple of things happened at once. Firenza had woken up and come looking for me. When she saw the thing, she screamed. That was when the demon fired at the woman it had been chasing. I don’t know what came over me, but I pushed her out of the way and the arrow hit me in the chest. I remember hearing more screams, bright light and all sorts of strange emotions.’ He paused and looked down at his hands.
