by Michael Kerr
The two supernatural giants grappled in the air, tearing and gouging at each other as their deafening roars caused the buildings far below to shake as if the city of Urucuaro had been hit by an earthquake.
Asleep in the chair, Zoot directed his creation to wrap its six limbs round the Dark One, to puncture the malevolent being with its barbed hooks and drop from the sky. Joined together, both giants plummeted down, through the roof of the temple and into the sacrificial pit, to burst into flames as they hurtled ever deeper, to be swallowed by the liquid fire. Above them, the walls of the pit collapsed, and the ground around the temple cracked, gave way, and caved in to plug the shaft that led down to the white-hot cauldron beneath the earth’s crust.
“I think the show’s over,” Sam said to Ben. “You can wake Zoot up now.”
Ben pressed the red button, the clamps withdrew, and Zoot opened his eyes. “Did it work?” he asked. “Do you suppose that what I dreamed really happened?”
“I should think so,” Fig said. “The thing you dreamed up was real enough.”
“Yeah. It was totally awesome. It killed the Dark One,” Tommy said. “We watched it all on the screen.”
“No,” Zoot said. “It did not kill that devil. He is immortal, and will somehow reform and be back.”
Zoot was right. The Dark One was indestructible. With time, he would resurface from the fiery bowels of the earth, adopt a new form, and continue his quest to erase all that was good in Allworlds. There was no hurry, for he had existed forever, and would still be around when the last star in the last universe winked out.
“I want to sit in the seat?” Pook said.
“You can’t,” Ben said. “It isn’t a toy.”
“I know that. But don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Ben Cooper. You aren’t in charge. And Zoot got to have a go.”
“Zoot can dream what he chooses to,” Tommy said. “You or any of the rest of us has no control over what we dream. You might dream up something that would harm us all.”
“Why did you want to have a go, Pook?” Speedy asked.
“To dream up a big plate of pancakes covered in oodles of warm maple syrup,” Pook said. “I’m starving, and I haven’t had any pancakes for ages.”
They all grinned, apart from Zoot, who didn’t know about the little bear’s obsession with pancakes and syrup, and couldn’t grin properly anyhow, due to being very much like any lizard that can’t smile or frown or show their feelings.
“We should smash this equipment,” Sam said. “If anyone else found this place they might dream up some nightmare that would bring an end to everything that exists.”
It was a chilling thought. The others knew that Sam was right. Between them, they pulled out cables and broke up everything they could. Sparks flew, fuses blew, and wiring burned as small fires started. Ben gathered up all the manuals and books he could find, and set them alight before they left.
As the dream chamber filled with smoke, they ran out, got into the lift and were soon back at level one and facing the long tunnel that led up to the surface. They hurried, and when they reached the entrance to the underground complex, Ben found a panel on the inside of the steel doors. It had three buttons on it: open, close and stop. Once the others were outside he pressed the close button and ran out to join them as the thick blast doors slid together with a loud clunk.
“That should be the end of the Morpheus Project,” Ben said as they walked back up the canyon to the main gates of the Crow Mountain facility.
Behind them, black smoke began to rise out of air vents that led up from the rabbit warren of corridors, rooms and laboratories far beneath the ground.
“That machine was wicked,” Tommy said. “Someone could dream up anything. Just think, you could dream of thousands of flying saucers attacking earth, or of armies that could not be killed, or of...well, absolutely anything at all.”
“It was frightening,” Sam said. “Maybe the most dangerous thing ever invented. The military would have used it to do terrible things. I’m glad we found it and destroyed it.”
“Trouble is, in some future there could be another dream machine or something even worse,” Ben said.
“It would be a wonderful thing, if it was only used to make nice dreams come true,” Fig said. “But no one just has nice dreams that would make Allworlds better places to live in.”
“All that exists might just be a dream,” Sam said. “How would we know what is and isn’t real? Whatever real is. I remember Mephisto telling us that we might just be someone’s dream.”
“I don’t buy that,” Tommy said. “It’s too farfetched. I’m real, and even if I’m not, I don’t know that, so have no intention of going through life thinking I might not be me.”
“It’s giving me mindache,” Fig said. “Reality is whatever you believe it to be. It’s a waste of time trying to find answers to the great mystery of life.”
Ben took a videocube from his pocket and held it up. “This is the one that has Zoot’s dream monster on it,” he said, holding it up. “A film of what he conjured up in his sleep, which became real.”
“Throw it away,” Sam said. “If anyone got their hands on it, they might be able to figure out how to start making another dream machine.”
Ben nodded and threw it to the ground. Gorf picked up a large rock and crushed the cube under it. It made a crackling sound, burst into blue flame and melted.
Sam was happy that it was gone. She believed that if dreams ever came true, then it should be because you have worked for them, not had them appear with the help of a gizmo that some science fiction writer might have thought up.
They set off again. “Not far to go now,” Speedy said. “Beyond the Lava Beds is the beginning of the forest. We should be home in three or four turns of the moons.”
“Home was burned down,” Fig said. “We shall have to search for wherever King Ambrose has gone. He will have no doubt found a new place for us to live.”
“Let’s just hope we get back without any more problems,” Tommy said.
But Tommy would be disappointed, for up ahead of them was a creature that could have been the fanciful dream of someone clamped to the chair of the dream machine.
― CHAPTER TWENTY ―
ROCK MONSTER
After two days and two nights had passed, Fig spotted the forest. It was on the far horizon, so distant that it appeared as no more than a hazy and uneven patch of blurry landscape. And over half of it was black, where the fire had scorched the earth and turned the trees to sticks of charcoal.
“One more turn of the moons and we will be out of the Lava Beds,” Fig said.
“And we somehow managed to free the other fairies and get the crown back,” Tommy said.
“Had it not been for all of you coming to our aid, then I fear we would not have outwitted the horgs and managed to escape,” Fig said. “Thank you for returning to help us.”
“What are friends for, if they don’t show up when you need them?” Ben said.
“You are certainly true friends,” Fig said. “For you have repeatedly risked your lives to right wrongs in a world that you are not from.”
“I feel more at home in your world than in my own, now,” Tommy said. “This time I really am going to stay. My mum will eventually find a note I wrote after our first trip, letting her know that if I ever vanish, I’ll be here. She half believes that Otherworld exists. I told her everything that had happened, and because my leg was better, and I didn’t need glasses to see, she opened her mind to the possibility that I hadn’t gone completely loopy. Maybe it’ll be possible to go back and forth between both worlds. I could bring my mum here and show her that it’s for real.”
Sam understood how Tommy felt. If it hadn’t been for her mum and dad and Emily, she would have been tempted to stay.
Ben didn’t feel the same. “I’d like to come back once in a while,” he said, “to see everyone again and catch up on what’s been happening. But I wouldn’t want to live whe
re I don’t really fit in.”
Gorf and Pook were both happy that Tommy intended to stay.
“We can spend part of the time with the fairies, and use that underground canal system to visit Charlie, and to go and see other lands that we haven’t seen yet,” Pook said. “Every day will be a big adventure.”
They settled in a deep cave for the night and lit a fire. And while the others slept, Gorf sat outside the cave and looked up at the sky. He was very content. After spending so much of his life keeping to himself and hunting in the Desert of Storms, he now had a new life, and good friends that he enjoyed being with. He realised that he would hate to be alone again now, even though he’d thought he was happy before meeting the others on Doom Mountain. Funny how things worked out. If he hadn’t got lost in a sandstorm that day, then none of what had happened would have taken place. He believed that every decision that anyone makes can change their lives completely. And he was right.
They were all very hungry as they set off at first light.
“Can’t you cast a spell and make food?” Pook asked Fig and Speedy.
“Sorry, Pook,” Fig said. “We can make things appear to be what they are not, and do many other things, but cannot invent food. I could make a stone appear to be an apple, but it would still be made of stone, and you would break your teeth if you tried to eat it.”
“But you once turned one of Gorf’s arrows into a stick of rhubarb, and he ate it,” Ben said.
“It only appeared to be rhubarb, but was tasteless and still made of wood,” Fig said. “But Gorf has teeth as hard as iron, and ate it without a second thought.”
“We shall soon be in a part of the forest that was not touched by the fire,” Speedy said. “Once there, we will find fruit on trees and bushes, and be able to drink fresh, cool water from a stream.”
Picking up their pace, they marched on, eager to leave the Lava Beds behind them. The only living creatures they saw were a few scorpions, three snakes, and the vultures that circled above them, that probably thought they might perish in the wasteland and be easy pickings.
With nothing on their minds but reaching the forest, they were taken completely by surprise when with a mighty rumble the ground beneath them began to shudder, making it difficult to stay on their feet.
“I think it’s an earthquake,” Tommy said, dropping to his knees and putting his hands flat on the vibrating ground.
He was wrong. Just a few yards ahead of them a column of rock rose up to block their path.
The giant pillar was in the shape of a figure that resembled the Incredible Hulk, but was several shades of grey, not green, and it looked to have been chiselled out of the lava rock by a less than able sculptor.
With a grinding, grating sound, one of the rock monster’s arms shot out, grabbed Sam and drew her back to hold up just a few inches in front of its roughly-hewn face.
A crack opened below what Sam supposed was its nose, and the living statue spoke. “What be you?” It asked in a booming voice.
“I’m a human being,” Sam said. “Put me down, please.”
“You feel very soft. I may crush you and discover what you are like inside.”
“That would kill me.” Sam said.
“What does kill mean?” The rock being asked.
“It means I wouldn’t exist anymore.”
“And why should that bother me?”
“Because you have no reason to harm me, and would be doing a very bad thing.”
“You speak, but do not make any sense, human being. I do not know what harm and bad mean.”
“If something broke you up into small pieces, how would you feel?”
“I suppose I would feel like small pieces instead of one big piece.”
“But would you prefer to stay as you are?”
“It isn’t something I have thought about. In fact I rarely think at all. Your questions are very confusing to me. I suppose I would rather stay in one large piece.”
“And I would prefer not to be crushed,” Sam said, finding it hard to breathe in the monster’s powerful grip.
“Very well,” the rock thing said, and lowered Sam to the ground.
“Thank you,” Sam said, backing away to rejoin the others. “What is your name?”
“What is a name?”
“A word that others know you by,” Sam explained. “I am known as Sam, and my friends have different names.” She introduced them one by one.
“What do you suppose I should be called?” The thing asked. “For I think I should like to have a name.”
“How about, Rocky,” Tommy said. “That would suit you.”
“That sounds fine. From now on I shall be able to say that my name is Rocky, if anything should ever have reason to ask me for it.”
“What do you do out here, Rocky?” Ben asked.
“I rest a lot when it is dark and cool. And enjoy the heat when it is light and warm.”
“Do you eat or drink, or do anything else?” Tommy asked.
“I’m solid rock, Tommy,” Rocky said. “Well, a little porous in places to be precise. I have no need to eat or drink, or even move if I choose not to. I just am, and always have been. I was once on the bed of a deep ocean, before being pushed up to become part of a mountain range. After that, I helped carve out a long valley as a glacier pushed me slowly along the ground. And more recently I was in a raging river. Then it became very hot, and I ended up here. So you could say I’ve had a very long and interesting history, though having no real sense of time, I tend to lose the plot a bit.”
“How is it that you are alive, Rocky?” Sam asked.
“What a funny question to ask,” Rocky replied. “You and plants and birds and fishes are alive, so why should I be any different?”
“Because you have no heart or lungs or pulse,” Tommy said.
“Does a tree or a blade of grass have such things?” Rocky said.
That threw Tommy. “Well...No, but anything alive usually starts as a baby, or a seed, or an egg, and gradually gets older, and then dies.”
“I have no idea of my origin,” Rocky said. “But I am getting older, eroding, and daresay that one day I will wear away and become no more than pebbles, then grains of sand.”
There was little more to say to a creature that was a lump of rock. It had been interesting talking to it, but they wanted to make tracks for the forest.
“It was nice to meet you, Rocky,” Sam said. “Now we must be on our way.”
“Have a good journey,” Rocky said as he, or it, settled down on the ground and once more became invisible against all the other rock. “And thank you for giving me a name. I don’t know any other rocks that have one.”
They carried on, all amazed at having met a living rock. But then, as Sam recalled Mephisto telling them, there was nothing you could imagine that did not exist somewhere. Since first visiting Otherworld, Sam had come to accept that there were probably thousands or millions of different worlds, in just as many different universes. They were somehow linked, and there was no reason why a traveller could not visit any place in any time, if they could find the right portal to step through. That made her think of her own world as being a very small cog in a giant machine.
Tommy had his own thoughts. He thought that even on Earth there were many universes. He had once had an ant house that he later learned was called a formicary. It was basically soil trapped between two sheets of glass in a frame, much the same as a small version of a double glazed window. Within it, the ants had a warren of tunnels and chambers in the soil, and went about their business. He had sat in front of the formicary for hours at a time, and had thought that as far as the ants were concerned, that was the universe, for they had no way of knowing that anything existed at the other side of the glass. And one of his uncles had once said that all we could see from our planet might just be the dregs in a giant cup of coffee. And that made Tommy think that he might be like one of the ants, having no idea what was beyond the small world he inhabite
d, or what part of a much bigger, wonderful thing he really was.
Ben didn’t give it much thought at all. He had a laid-back attitude to all the weird stuff. He didn’t bother trying to understand what he knew he wouldn’t be able to find an answer to. ‘What is, is’, was Ben’s motto these days. He was more interested in things he knew about, like football and movies and cars. He could hardly wait to be older and learn to drive. His idea of a good time was helping his dad do an oil change, and to just tinker about in general with the Audi saloon.
All lost in their own thoughts, they came to the end of the Lava Beds and walked over ground that had grass and plants growing. It was cooler and softer on the feet. Before long they were entering the forest, and Fig led them to a small stream that gurgled and foamed as it cascaded over rocks and boulders that Sam couldn’t help but think were relations of Rocky.
After drinking their fill, and washing the dust and grime from their hands and faces, Speedy flew off in the direction of the burnt out Oak Palace, to see if he could find any clue as to where the other fairies had gone. As he landed on the blackened soil in front of the now uprooted palace, Redwing emerged from the cover of nearby trees.
“Speedwell!” he shouted. “Where are the others?”
“Back a ways, next to Bullfrog Stream. Did you find King Ambrose?”
“Yes. He and other survivors of the horg attack have travelled far and found a new place to live. The king sent Toadflax back to wait here, and I gave him the crown and he escorted the other fairies to the secret place that is close to Cuckoo-spit Gully.”
“Then wait a while longer, and I shall go and fetch the others.”
“No hurry, Speedwell. I have a corked bag of blackberry wine and some hazelnut and herb pie to help me pass the time.”
Speedy flew back to the stream, passed on the news, and they all hurried along deer trails to where Redwing was waiting.
Miles from where the oak tree palace had once stood, Cuckoo-spit Gully was reached by climbing through a narrow rock crevice that led out to a small grassy valley with tall limestone ridges at either side of it. Caves honeycombed the steep cliffs and stretched deep into the rock to form a network that once again reminded Tommy of his ant formicary.
