The Crystal Caves

by Jamie Smart

  19

  Scavengers

  Thanks to Darkwater’s relentless drizzle, what was once a Boja was now a huge, dripping fluffball, twice the size of the original. Still he gleefully raised his arms upon seeing Dev, lifted him down from the hollow and then squeezed them both through the spiky rocks.

  Once on easier ground, Dev climbed out from Boja’s paws.

  ‘I grabbed all I could,’ he said, clutching the heavy stack of flemberthysts. ‘Boja, we need to get these crystals away from Priest before he can take anyone else’s flember. We need to hide them.’

  Boja reached out his big fluffy arms and scooped up the flemberthysts. ‘Hide them.’ He grinned.

  ‘And QUICKLY,’ Dev replied. ‘Before they start taking our flember too!’

  As they made their way back along the coast, the weather started to worsen. The drizzle became rain, the winds howled, and a thick, billowing mist started to roll across the waves. It had clearly been enough to drive the miners away from the water’s edge, as Dev caught sight of Nobbins clambering up the wooden steps.

  Nobbins, unfortunately, saw him too.

  ‘What’s that bear of yours carrying?’ Nobbins sneered, his eyebrows dripping down his cheeks. ‘Those rock things. Are they what we used to dig out of the ground?’

  ‘They’re prettier than I remember.’ Elise pushed Nobbins with an ungracious shove to the face. Her eyes were transfixed on the flemberthysts. ‘How does he make them glow like that?’

  ‘GLOW?’ Dev looked back. The flemberthysts in Boja’s arms now shone with a bright, beautiful white light, the drizzle glinting as it swirled around them. ‘Boja, they’re drawing out your flember too quickly! Take it back! Take it back!’

  ‘Hnnnngghhhh!’ Boja strained to draw his flember back inside his body, but his fur was too thick. It muffled the flember, sending it crackling around his body like lightning across a storm cloud.

  The flemberthysts only sparkled brighter.

  Elise clasped her hands in glee. ‘I can think of someone else who might find these glowing rocks pretty.’

  ‘Dahlia …’ Nobbins gasped.

  Elise nodded. ‘Why not? We spend all our time out here, dragging the seas for a few scraps of gold. And then this big fluffy bear comes along and brings us something even more beautiful.’

  Nobbins wiped a palm across his forehead, blackening it all into one big eyebrow. ‘She would reward us well.’

  ‘Boja, give me the crystals,’ Dev shouted.

  ‘No, no, give your crystals to me.’ Elise held a hand out towards the terrified-looking bear.

  Boja, unable to see anything, his eyes too far buried inside his big fluffy face, panicked. He tried to turn towards Dev, but his big floofy feet slipped upon the wet ground and sent him tumbling backwards. BONK BONK BONK! He rolled down one flight of steps, still clasping onto the flemberthysts. BONK BONK BONK! Down another, rolling along the jetty, his fall only halted by a cluster of oil drums that he sent splashing into the sea.

  Where they then dissolved beneath the waves.

  Elise was first after him. ‘Give us those crystals!’ she warned, picking up a length of pipe and swinging it over her shoulder. ‘Give us the crystals, bear, or you’re going into the sea!’

  Dev scrambled down behind her, leapt onto her back and wrestled the pipe from her hands. ‘Some of Boja’s flember is in those crystals!’ he yelled. ‘Boja, get them away from the water!’

  Nobbins’s clammy hands squished around Dev’s waist and hauled him away. ‘You don’t just come rolling into Darkwater …’ he wheezed, wrestling him into a headlock. ‘And then take our magical glowing crystals. That’s just RUDE.’

  ‘You don’t know what they are, what they can do!’ Dev protested.

  ‘They’re going to feed us tonight, that’s all I need to know!’

  ‘Thassright.’ Elise grinned, creeping closer towards Boja.

  He shuffled back, his bottom now teetering over the edge of the jetty.

  Slowly, calmly, Elise reached forwards and plucked one of the glowing flemberthysts from his arms. ‘Oh, ain’t it something,’ she marvelled. ‘A little piece of magic in such a terrible place like this.’

  Then she took another. And another. Once she’d taken them all she spun around in glee.

  ‘LAY THE TABLE, LADS!’ she called out. ‘DAHLIA IS FEEDIN’ US TONIGHT!’

  Suddenly a long, dark shape appeared from out of the mist, racing across the rocks and down towards Elise. In an instant it was upon her, knocking all the bright, glowing flemberthyst crystals out of her arms and into the waters. They hissed and they bubbled, their flember fading beneath the gloom. Elise fell too, catching onto a rock, her legs splashing into the sea just long enough for her thick-soled boots to start dissolving around her feet.

  ‘PRIEST!’ Dev shouted.

  The long, dark shape lengthened to its full height, its robes flapping around in the wind. ‘The sea hungersss,’ Priest’s voice hissed. ‘We must keep it well FED.’

  And then, as swiftly as he had arrived, Priest was gone again, scuttling across the rocks and disappearing back into the mist.

  Dev slammed his elbow into Nobbins’s stomach, pulling himself free and running towards Boja. ‘BOJA!’ he yelled, trying to drag the bear to his feet. ‘How do you feel? Are you OK?’

  Boja rolled onto all fours, his extra big floofy limbs barely able to hold him up. ‘Ve-e-e-e-ery … sle-e-e-e-eepy.’

  Dev grabbed Boja’s huge sagging eyelids and tried to haul them back open. ‘No no no, Boja, you can’t sleep here. We have to get you back to the Village. We have to find somewhere safe!’

  ‘You keep that bear away from our Village!’ Nobbins shouted, pulling Elise to safety.

  Dev didn’t hear much after that. The wind was becoming even louder. The rain even heavier. The mist even thicker. Within what felt like seconds, the whole coastline had faded from sight, as if it had been scrubbed from the earth itself.

  And suddenly Dev could see nothing but Boja, the end of the jetty, and the dark sea swirling around beneath them.

  20

  A Safe Place

  ‘We can’t … mmf … stay here!’ Dev struggled to lift Boja’s big, heavy, rain-soaked arm up onto his shoulder as he helped the bear to his feet. Boja yawned a huge, wide yawn, revealing every single one of his glistening teeth. He blinked into the mist. Scratched his head in confusion.

  ‘Duckwater?’

  ‘Darkwater.’ Dev nodded. ‘It’s there, somewhere.’

  Dev couldn’t see the sea any more, not even the wooden planks beneath his feet. So he led the big sleepy bear away slowly, very very slowly, one foot sliding in front of the other as they made their way back along the creaking jetty and onto the rocks.

  From what he could remember, the steps leading up the wall should have been right in front of them. But they too had disappeared.

  ‘I can’t tell where we are!’ Dev cried, feeling his way along as they stepped from the rocks onto ground that crunched like sand. Burning, black sand, so hot it started to melt the soles of Dev’s boots. With a yelp he leapt onto a tumble of large black boulders, and tried to haul Boja alongside. ‘We have to go UP!’ he shouted over the howling wind. ‘We have to get away from the sea!’

  Boja looked up the rock face, nodded sleepily, and then started to climb. Slowly. Slow-w-w-ly. Dev pressed his whole face into Boja’s bottom and pushed from behind. His fur was no longer soft to the touch, no longer puffed out like a well-groomed poodle. The heavy rain had soaked through and now it clung to his skin like a big wet towel.

  Finally Boja reached the summit. He collapsed, exhausted. After trying to shoulder-barge a wet bear’s bottom up a wall of boulders, Dev was feeling pretty tired too. His skin stung from the sharp rain. His breaths came short and frantic, as he crumpled against the bear’s big red belly and looked for any sign of shelter.

  And through the mists, he saw a shadow.

  It looked so familiar.

  It wa
s tall, thick, with branches twisting and winding out from its sides.

  ‘The Eden Tree,’ Dev gasped, crawling towards it. ‘How … how did we …’

  The closer he got, however, the less it looked like the Eden Tree. This wasn’t a tree at all, but a huge stone tower, its ‘branches’ a gaggle of metal pipes poking out from its sides. Realizing what it actually was brought Dev to his feet. ‘Keeper!’ he puffed, running, throwing himself against its large wooden door. ‘Rebecca said Keeper lives in a TOWER!’

  He yanked on the door handle but its hefty padlocks rattled back at him. ‘KEEPER!’ he cried. ‘KEEPER, LET US IN!’

  No reply came. Dev pulled again on the handle, harder, more desperate.

  And then he stopped.

  And an idea swirled around inside his head.

  ‘Boja!’ He grinned, stepping away. ‘Boja! BOJA! Can you help us get inside?’

  Boja rose slowly to his feet, mumbled something about waffles, then stumbled sleepily towards the sound of Dev’s voice.

  ‘This way,’ Dev shouted. ‘THIS WAY!’

  Boja’s weight carried him forwards. Faster. And faster. At the very last moment Dev jumped aside, as the big, heavy, grumbling bear crashed through the door and then collapsed, into a heap, on the other side.

  Dev stepped around him, creeping into the cold shadows of the tower. He helped Boja roll away from the doorframe. Then he lifted the door back up, or at least what bits of it still remained, and tried his best to rest it all back in place.

  ‘Sleepppzzzz,’ Boja mumbled, his face pressed into the ground, the rest of his body rumpled into a most uncomfortable-looking position.

  A gentle snore whistled through his lips.

  ‘Yes, you sleep.’ Dev sat, curling his legs up under his chin, his whole body shaking as all the strains of the last few hours finally kicked in. ‘And by the time you wake up,’ he whispered, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, ‘I’ll have worked out what we do next.’

  21

  The Beacon

  Before Dev could come up with anything even remotely resembling a plan, there came a loud crash from the doorway. A huge, hulking shadow battered its way inside, thick mist swirling in behind.

  ‘WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY DOOR?’ it demanded, towering over Dev, lights flickering all across its chest. ‘AND WHO SAID YOU COULD COME IN HERE?’

  Dev’s blood froze. What stood before him looked human, but all its parts were metal. Wires wrapped around wires, valves plugged into valves, thick cables dragged into clattering engines, all of it clamped into place between row upon row of misshapen metal pockets. Whatever this beast was, its pistons locked and unlocked at regular intervals, its thick bullet fingers flexing as if priming for a fight.

  Its head, a grimy, frosted glass bowl, with only a vague swirl of shadows inside, loomed down towards Dev.

  ‘Keeper?’ Dev squinted. ‘Is that you?’

  The glass bowl hissed loudly as it opened, revealing Keeper’s grumpy face wedged down inside. Her half-burnt-off eyebrows scrunched down across her broken nose.

  ‘You ARE a robot!’ Dev squeaked with delight. ‘I KNEW it!’

  ‘NOT A ROBOT!’ Keeper grunted, picking an overstuffed bag up from beside her.

  But Dev was too excited to be put off. He got to his feet, marvelling at her robot body, tapping her limbs with his finger and listening out for the TINGs, TUNKs and CLANGs that echoed back.

  ‘Well, you have a VERY robot-y body! How is it powered? Is that why you drink oil? Your lights keep dipping, so they might have loose connections, and I could help you fix that—’

  Keeper batted Dev’s curious hands away. ‘If you must be inside the tower, then you’ll both stay down here and be quiet. OK? DOWN. HERE.’

  Dev went to reply, but Keeper instantly shushed him. Then she slung her bag over her shoulder, climbed over a stack of unmarked crates and pulled herself up onto the spiral staircase which ran around the wall. CLUNK! CLANK! CLUNK! she stomped, circling the inside of the tower, higher and higher until Dev could barely see her any more, save for a few lights bobbing in the darkness.

  Then FZZT! Keeper’s lights went out. She muttered and swore.

  ‘You could try … rejangling your trobbletrons?’ Dev called up. ‘I saw you had a few under your armpit. They’ll reroute any energy you’re not using, and—’

  CLANG! Keeper slammed a fist against her chest, and all her lights burst back into life.

  ‘Or, you could just do that.’ Dev nodded. ‘I wonder where she’s going. Boja? Did you see? Keeper’s here!’

  Boja hadn’t seen. Boja was fast asleep, his lips smacking, his tongue lolling and his paws miming the act of eating a pile of waffles.

  ‘Well, I want to see what’s up there,’ Dev said, patting Boja’s fur. ‘You stay down here and sleep. I’ll go and have a quick look, and then I’ll be right back.’

  He clambered over the crates onto the stairs, leaping two, three steps at a time. Higher he went, higher into the darkness until the steps ran out, and a large metal door stood before him. A cold wind whistled in around it. Dev didn’t particularly relish the idea of going back out into the storm, but his curiosity was too much to bear.

  He pushed his hand to the door, and he creaked it open.

  Instantly the wind spun around him, dragging him out across a metal balcony. He gripped onto the wet railings, his heart in his throat as he leant over and stared down into the swirling mists.

  ‘I heard what you did to their hibbicannon!’ Keeper shouted. She stood above him, perched upon a mound of metal planks. ‘They’ve been talking about little else. Well, I’d rather you didn’t break anything up here, if that’s all right with you.’

  Dev noticed Keeper’s bag lying beside her feet. A bundle of hibbicus plants spilled out from inside. ‘You dig for hibbicus …’ he said, climbing his way up towards her, ‘… but I don’t think you’re making stew with it.’

  A smile cracked across the crags and gullies of Keeper’s face. She pulled a hibbicus out by its stalk. ‘It’s to warn the ships,’ she replied. ‘When they sail too close to Flember Island, they get caught in the mist. They don’t see the black rocks of the reef. They don’t stand a chance.’

  Keeper clicked her metal fingers. A spark flew out from between them, catching upon the hibbicus leaves as they fizzled and crackled like a fuse. She quickly placed the whole plant down into the stone-lined pit in front of her, held Dev back and then – BOOM! – the hibbicus exploded into a bright, dancing fire.

  ‘I’m their chance.’ Keeper stared into the flames. ‘Up here, at the top of this tower, I light the beacon to warn them not to sail too close. All night, every night, and any time the storms come in.’

  ‘That’s amazing,’ Dev said. ‘But what’s a ship?’

  22

  The New Beacon

  ‘I’m AWAKE!’ Boja boomed from somewhere inside the tower.

  Even above the howl of the wind Dev could hear the bear’s heavy feet CLOMP-CLOMP-CLOMP-ing their way up the staircase, until finally two eyes bulged out through the doorway. One paw, then two paws clamped onto either side and tried to squeeze the rest of his huge red body through a space clearly not intended for robot bears.

  Dev ran down to help. He gripped each of Boja’s nostrils, and heaved.

  Boja spilled through with a loud POP.

  ‘Boja, are you OK? You were so tired. You … you don’t have as much flember as you used to, remember?’

  ‘Am FINE!’ Boja smiled a huge goofy grin. He wasn’t fine. Now his fur had flattened down again he looked hunched and weak. He smelled weird. One of his eyelids appeared to be opening and closing on its own.

  ‘You … you should take it easy. Boja, you mustn’t tire yourself out too much.’

  ‘Frrrp!’ Boja replied, either from his mouth or his bottom. Dev wasn’t quite sure which.

  A cry went up from the metal pit. Keeper huddled over the fire, or at least, what was left of it. ‘It’s hard to keep hibbicus
plants alight in this weather,’ she complained. ‘The wind’s too quick up here, too strong, it keeps blowing them out.’

  As she spoke, the last flame flickered away.

  She reached into her bag and pulled out not one, but two hibbicus plants, placing them both into the pit. ‘You asked what a ship was.’ She nodded out towards the sea. ‘That’s a ship.’

  Dev peered out across the sea. The mist lay heavy upon its waters but he could just make out the dark black rocks of the reef, and a faint trail of lights sailing amongst them.

  Somewhere in the distance, he heard a ‘PARPPPPPP!’

  ‘Ships,’ Keeper continued, clicking her fingers. ‘Boats. Vessels full of people, to carry them across the seas. For goodness sake, do you people up on that mountain know nothing?’

  A spark! It fell upon the hibbicus plants and exploded them both, nearly singeing away what was left of Keeper’s eyebrows. She stood back, blowing the smoke from the tip of her nose.

  ‘There are people?’ Dev whispered. ‘Beyond the island?’

  ‘And that’s where they should stay. Far, far away from this place.’

  The fire started to flicker. The hibbicus plants were fading already, both of them, as the wind and the rain cut their flames short. ‘They’re not clear yet,’ Keeper muttered, watching the ship’s lights drift through the mist. ‘We need more fire.’

  She reached for more hibbicus, but a large pair of red paws pulled the bag away. Boja, swaying a little, his eyes opening and closing at random, grinned like he knew something no one else did. Then he lifted the bag above his head, and tipped all the hibbicus plants down into his open mouth.