Suddenly there was a thud and the whole carriage seemed to strain. Thomas heard Jessica scream and he looked back. The creature had leapt onto the end coach, smashing the roof to pieces.
The horses seemed to sense the closeness of the danger and became even more wild, sending the carriage one way and then the other. The creature struggled to keep a grip, but eventually tore its way up to the next coach. Fortunately the beast lost its footing and crashed through the roof where it proceeded to tear up everything in an effort to get free so that it could get to its prey.
Thomas abandoned the rein and turned around just as the creature leapt onto the coach next to Jessica and the others. Jessica screamed again and disappeared back down into the coach along with Treice, Merideah, and Penders. The carriage bumped again and the creature swayed, but it soon recovered. Leaping, it landed on the first coach and smashed the roof in with its huge hoofs.
Thomas watched in horror as the creature flattened the coach containing his friends. ‘NOOOOO!’
But his scream was cut off as the coaches behind the creature broke off, causing the remaining coach (or what was left of it) to jolt violently. Something below Thomas snapped and the team of horses raced free of the carriage. He turned around wide-eyed as they all hurtled between two large trees, the branches whipping viciously at his and Thayer’s face. Then, a second later, what was left of the carriage hit a grassy mound and they were all, creature included, catapulted through the air into the gloom of Muddlestump Wood.
— CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE —
Muddlestump Wood
Thomas landed spread-eagled in a bush that, thankfully, proved remarkably springy and devoid of sharp, jutting branches. Thayer, however, wasn’t so fortunate and came down heavily on the forest floor next to the splintered trunk of a large fallen oak.
‘Thayer!’ Thomas scrambled out of the bush toward the boy just as the other started to move. ‘Are you all right?’
Thayer sat up. ‘Oh, yes. Fomorfelk are almost as tough as the Dwerugh —’ He broke off, staring at Thomas. ‘What happened to your eyes?’
Thomas put his hands to his eyes to see if they were bleeding. ‘What do you mean?’
Thayer stood up. ‘They have turned bright green.’
Thomas blinked hard. His contact lenses! They must have come out when he’d hit the bush. ‘Oh, it’s nothing. I wear contact lenses.’
Thayer stared blankly at him. He obviously didn’t know what contact lenses were or why Thomas wore them. There’d be no chance of finding them now, even with his sharp eyesight. Thomas looked around. ‘We must’ve been thrown further than I thought. I can’t even see the coach.’
‘I think we came over that small ridge,’ Thayer said, pointing up at a dense gathering of bushes and small trees that sat upon a small, steep area of raised ground.
After dusting themselves off, they climbed out through the foliage and over the small ridge and found themselves amid thick-trunked trees.
Thomas looked around, confused. ‘Where’s the coach?’
Thayer shrugged. ‘Maybe we climbed out a different way to the way we came in. I cannot see the edge of the forest from here.’
The two boys skirted the ridge, but neither found the broken coach or their friends.
Thayer shook his head. ‘I am glad we lost that creature.’
‘Yes, me too, but we seem to have lost everybody else too, including ourselves.’ He had to find the coach. If they were still alive, Jessica and the others might be trapped in the wreckage. He looked around again. Surely they hadn’t been thrown very far into the trees when they crashed? Yet the eaves of the forest were nowhere to be seen.
A scream suddenly filled the forest. A scream of terror. And yet it filled Thomas with hope. Jessica, at least, was still alive!
‘That’s Jess!’ Thomas took off in the direction of the sound. He heard Thayer’s heavy footsteps following close behind.
Thomas ducked as he ran under a tree with low branches. When he looked up again he saw a strange sight. In the clearing up ahead Treice lay sprawled out unmoving on the ground beneath a large tree, and Jessica, Penders and Merideah were staring wide-eyed at an enormous creature. But it wasn’t the one that had chased them into the wood. This creature stood covered from head to foot in brown hair from which poked twigs and leaves. Its teeth and claws — which it was bearing menacingly — looked razor sharp, and its eyes were wild with fury. It stood in a patch of low-lying brambles and flattened bushes, growling and gnashing at them. It looked as if it wanted to eat one of them. The creature stood just feet away from them, but Jessica and the others didn’t run. Perhaps they were too scared, or perhaps they were protecting Treice. If he was alive.
What had he done? It was his idea to try to heal the Northern Way Gate. They’d almost been ripped apart by a giant green creature with a horn on its head, wrecked the Darkledun carriage, and been involved in a rather unpleasant crash. Now Treice might be dead and his friends in imminent danger of being eaten by some wild, hairy monster. Well, Thomas thought, enough is enough!
Without thinking about his own safety, Thomas darted into the clearing and placed himself between his friends and the dangerous-looking beast. The creature seemed utterly shocked on seeing Thomas. Indeed, so surprised that its eyes seem to bulge and its growling immediately stopped. Then, to everyone’s surprise, it began to sway and then shrink, as if it were a balloon deflating.
It shrank and shrank until it stood no more than two feet in height. Then it looked at Thomas and opened its sharp-toothed mouth. ‘Og Tiarna!’ The whispering voice seemed filled with wonder. The creature then began snivelling about on the ground as if it had just been well and truly told off.
Penders, Jessica and Merideah all looked at Thomas who shook his head.
‘What happened to your eyes?’ Merideah said.
Thomas opened his mouth to explain, but then changed his mind and turned back to the creature. ‘What are you?’
‘Og Tiarna use that tongue? Strange yes, very strange,’ the creature said, still in awe. ‘But Ghillie Dhu go along with Og Tiarna. Yes he does.’
‘Your name is Ghillie Dhu?’ Merideah said.
The creature eyed her cautiously. ‘Ghillie not speak to Bumbleclogs.’
‘Bumbleclogs?’ Penders looked at Merideah.
‘I think he means Humbalgogs,’ whispered Jessica.
‘Well, really!’ Merideah said, giving Ghillie Dhu a hard stare. ‘You were ready to eat us a moment ago. You could at least apologize! And I’m not a Humbalgog!’
‘Eat YOU?’ Ghillie exclaimed. ‘Ghillie not eat horrible Bumbleclogs. Yuck! Ghillie prefer nice mouse.’
‘You scared us!’ Jessica said.
‘Running into Ghillie’s patch you were. Try to scare me with your strange clothes and screeching noises,’ Ghillie rasped defiantly.
‘We were screaming because there was a monster chasing us,’ Merideah explained.
Ghillie looked from side to side. ‘A monster?’ He bent down and pulled a white stick from the undergrowth. It had a hook on one end, like a stunted shepherd’s crook. He held it tightly as if someone might try to steal it.
Merideah zipped up her small coat. ‘Yes, it was as big as you before you er ... deflated. It had green fur and a large horn on its head.’
‘Fachan,’ Ghillie said.
‘Pardon?’ said Thomas.
‘A Fachan it was, yes Og Tiarna. Nasty creatures. Like to rip things apart, and no taste: Eat Bumbleclogs! Not like us Gruagachs at all. No, Gruagachs sensible and not eat people,’ Ghillie explained.
Penders pulled a twig from his hair and then looked at the dozens in Ghillie Dhu’s fur. ‘What’s a Gruagach?’
Ghillie eyed him suspiciously. ‘I am a Gruagach.’
Penders looked at Thomas, as if hoping he might get some sense from the creature.
‘Ghillie?’ Thomas asked.
‘Yes, Og Tiarna? I am here to serve,’ Ghillie said, his voice fluctuating between rasps an
d whispers.
‘What happened to our friend?’ Thomas said, nodding his head toward Treice. Jessica, clearly having forgotten all about Treice, gasped and ran over to where he lay.
‘See tree?’ Ghillie said, pointing at the tree below which Treice lay.
Thomas nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Friend didn’t,’ Ghillie said.
Merideah gave the Gruagach a final wary look before joining Jessica by Treice’s side.
‘He’s coming around,’ Jessica announced.
‘My head hurts,’ Treice said, as Penders, Thayer and Thomas rushed over to join the girls. ‘Thomas, is that you? What happened to your eyes?’ He turned to look at the others and found himself staring into the wrinkled, furry face of Ghillie Dhu who’d ambled over to his side to see what all the fuss was about.
‘Ugh!’ Treice scrambled backwards. ‘What’s that?’
Ghillie backed away slightly and looked offended. He held his stick up as if to defend himself.
‘Er, this is Ghillie Dhu, Treice. He’s a Gruagach,’ Thomas explained.
‘Oh,’ Treice said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. There were girls around after all, and he couldn’t let them see he was scared. ‘What happened to the thing that was chasing us?’
‘It’s gone,’ Thomas said.
Treice let out a sigh of relief and then stood up.
Ghillie backed off a little more. ‘Clumsy One is tall.’
‘Well,’ said Merideah, ‘we’d better leave before this Fachan finds us.’
‘He not find you,’ Ghillie said.
‘How can you know that?’ Merideah asked.
Ghillie looked around and held his hands up. ‘Muddlestump Wood! Even the cunning get lost here. Fachan not known for having much brains. I say he lost for good.’
Thomas looked at his friends. ‘I thought we’d lost you — I thought you’d been crushed in the coach.’
Jessica smiled. ‘We hid in the Undercarriage. It’s all a heap of timber now, but it cushioned us against the crash I think. When we crawled out from under the wreckage, the creature had gone. We thought it’d gone after you, that’s why we were running to find you when — when we came across this — this!’ She pointed at the Gruagach who eyed her back suspiciously.
‘Well, we should try to find our way out,’ Penders said rubbing his stomach. ‘I’d like to be home for tea.’
Ghillie shook his head. ‘Hungry One not make it back for tea. Hungry One never have tea again.’
Penders looked shocked.
‘What do you mean?’ Jessica said.
Ghillie twisted his head as he looked at her braces. ‘Chatty One in Muddlestump Wood. You not find way out.’
‘That is why it is forbidden,’ Thayer said glumly and everyone looked at him. ‘It is said that once a person steps into Muddlestump Wood he is lost forever. It was one of the bad places I was supposed to help you avoid.’
Ghillie’s eyes narrowed and he stared at Thayer. ‘Now I see, yes I thought so! You are Grey Skin child. You lead Og Tiarna into Muddlestump to trap him here! Ghillie sort you out!’
Ghillie raised his crook staff and started to inflate again so that he was quickly almost twice the height he had been just moments before.
‘Wait, wait!’ Thomas said interposing himself between Ghillie and Thayer. ‘He was brought up by Humbalgogs, and he’s my friend. He didn’t lead us here, we were chased here by the Fachan.’
Ghillie swayed again as he had before, then deflated to what Thomas supposed was his normal size. ‘Well,’ he said once he had regained his composure and brushed a few twigs from his reddish-brown fur, ‘Og Tiarna’s friend is my friend, but a great misfortune, yes, to be a Grey Skin and also brought up by Bumbleclogs!’
Thayer didn’t seem offended by the remark, although a little surprised perhaps. Merideah meanwhile had removed her watch, turned it over and flipped it open. Thomas peered into her hand and saw a compass.
‘Right,’ she said pointing toward the part of the forest from which Thomas had come. ‘That way’s east. If we follow it we’ll come to the edge of the forest.’
Ghillie was very interested in the compass and jumped every now and again to catch glimpses of it as he followed alongside. Thomas wondered why he didn’t just inflate himself instead.
Merideah stopped after about thirty feet and shook her head. ‘The compass is now showing us to be walking west, but we’ve walked in a straight line!’ She tried again and again, but the compass kept on swinging around at certain points as if it had a will of its own. Finally, she closed it and strapped it back to her wrist. ‘There must be magnetic interference. It’s useless.’
‘Great, so we’re stuck here with no food and a small hairy creature with an attitude problem,’ Penders moaned.
The Gruagach’s small, beady eyes flashed at Penders. ‘I could find mouse for Hungry One. Ghillie always willing to help Og Tiarna’s friends!’
Penders grimaced. ‘No thanks.’
‘If there’s a way in then there’s a way out!’ Merideah said defiantly. ‘We couldn’t have come more than fifty paces into the wood. We just need to test out each direction for the same distance from this central point.’
Merideah pulled a chunk of chalk from one of the many pockets in her trousers. ‘The trees are too dense to get our bearings by climbing them, unless we find a really high one.’
Ghillie looked up at a nearby tree through narrowed eyes. ‘They not let you climb them anyway. And they not dense — no, they cunning and mean!’
Merideah ignored the Gruagach. ‘So, we’ll have to try another method.’
‘It won’t work.’ Ghillie sat down and watched the children. ‘Nothing will work.’
Thomas got the impression that Ghillie Dhu lived a very dull existence. He seemed glad of the entertainment. But it was no light matter for Thomas and his friends. They needed to get out of this place, but Thomas had a horrible feeling that Ghillie was right: Merideah’s idea wasn’t going to work. It was as if Muddlestump Wood had decided they were going to stay. Permanently.
After marking a cross on a tree with her chalk, Merideah instructed everyone to explore fifty paces in the direction from which they’d come. Thomas insisted they all stay together. There was no sense in getting separated; Thomas wasn’t as convinced as Ghillie about never seeing the Fachan again, besides who knew what other dangerous creatures dwelt in Muddlestump Wood? So everyone followed after Merideah through the wood, even Ghillie who shuffled along behind, his eyes and small face fixed with an intense expression of curiosity.
‘This is impossible!’ Merideah exclaimed about an hour later, just after coming across the fifth tree marked with a white cross. ‘The trees keep on moving!’ Merideah’s face reddened as she realized what she’d said.
‘Trees not move,’ said Ghillie. ‘Younglings move and get confused.’
‘Can you do any better?’ Merideah snapped.
‘Ooooh!’ Ghillie whooped. ‘No, Ghillie not do any better than Bossy One. Ghillie only a lowly Gruagach.’
Merideah gave Ghillie a hard stare, but the Gruagach screwed his face up at her, and she turned away in disgust.
Penders sat down on the forest floor and leant back against the tree with Merideah’s cross on it. His stomach rumbled. ‘I’m having a rest. I think we should conserve our energy until we can eat.’
‘You’re always thinking about your stomach,’ Merideah said, as she sat down against another tree. She pulled something from one of her many pockets and tossed it into Penders’ lap.
‘What’s this?’ Penders said as he picked it up.
‘A Cornish pasty. I always keep some on me in case of emergencies.’ She rooted though her pockets and threw one to each of the others.
Penders unwrapped the pasty with a smile on his face. ‘Merideah, you know a way to a man’s heart.’
Merideah gave Penders a withering look, tore open her pasty, and took a bite. The others thanked her for the unexpected foo
d.
‘Father taught me to always be prepared. Anyway, Thomas, you never told us about your eyes?’
‘Oh, my contacts fell out. They’re filtered,’ Thomas explained.
‘Obviously,’ Merideah said. ‘I find glasses more comfortable.’
‘Oh, there’s nothing wrong with my sight. It’s just that they used to freak out Mrs Westhrop, so Mr Westhrop made me wear the contacts all the time — except at night of course.’
‘How unusual.’ Merideah took another bite of her pasty.
Thomas wondered if Merideah meant it was strange that he’d been made to wear the contacts or that it was strange that his eyes were so bright a green.
Ghillie, whose eyes were a similar colour to Merideah’s, didn’t have a pasty. He ambled over to Thomas, a curious look upon his face as he eyed the item of food. ‘What’s Cornish posty?’
‘Pasty,’ Thomas corrected, as he broke off a piece and put it into Ghillie’s thick-skinned hands, careful to avoid the creature’s sharp claws.
Ghillie sniffed the pasty with his thick, rubbery nose and then cautiously put it in his mouth and began to chew. He stopped suddenly, swallowed, and — eyes alight — his lips curled upwards in what Thomas thought must be a smile. ‘Mmmmm!’
Thayer, like Ghillie, had also never had a pasty before, and so naturally took his time eating it. Unfortunately for him, Ghillie was somewhat more enthusiastic in devouring the snack, and so seeing Thayer as the only one in the group who still had some of the delightful new food left in his hand, went and sat next to the Fomorfelk, staring up at him with puppy eyes. Thayer’s soft nature soon got the better of him and he passed the remainder of his pasty to the Gruagach. Ghillie gobbled it down in seconds.
‘They say a young cadet wandered into here a few years ago on a dare,’ Thayer said after Ghillie Dhu had returned to sit by Thomas.
The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell) Page 25
