by S G Read
‘Is that his brother do you think?’ She asked pointing at him to emphasize who she meant.
They all looked where she pointed and the small old man pointed back, just pointed but it caused Celia to turn to stone. He did the same to all the rest.
JC just had time to say ‘hide’ to Simon before he was turned to stone. Simon was already out of sight and he stayed there but watched through a small crevice, as the little old man surveyed his handy work. He walked from the front to the back, to make sure he got them all, before he walked on. When he finally walked away, an angry Simon stepped out behind him and uttered the spell to turn the old man to stone. As the old man walked away he shuddered and stopped in mid stride. Simon was pleased to see the little old man turn to stone but his pleasure was short lived. Now he frantically leafed through the book for a spell, which he hoped would turn the others back from stone. After some frantic searching he found the spell he wanted. Starting from the back with JC he started repeating the spell while pointing to the person he was turning back from stone to flesh and blood.
'Lapis averto cav.' He cried as he pointed to each one.
Celia was the last one he turned back as she had been in the lead and by now he could remember the spell, he stood the book in the opening in the rocks, out of sight then walked out and stood in front of her to return her to normal. He had just finished the spell to turn Celia back when the rock face opened and another white shoed little old man walked out. Even though Simon almost had his back to the old man, he realized that he was there. The old man saw Simon and pointed before Simon could do anything. The rest were still stone and Simon joined them. He glanced at the rest and satisfied that they were all stone the little old man walked away. Had he waited a few seconds the story would have changed. J.C. at the back was the first to change back, he saw the old man walking away and kept very still. He was followed slowly by the rest. It was only Simon who remained as stone.
‘Si must have changed us back, so we have to change him back but where is the book?’ Ben exclaimed, remembering very vividly, what had happened.
‘What if the old man took it?’ Colin asked.
‘We get it back off him.’ Sherman grunted, lifting the axe.
'I have to go first.' JC declared and hurried out of sight.
He could remember Simon using the same crevice for such a thing. It was while he was relieving himself, he saw the book.
‘No need to worry,’ he called as he finished what he was doing. He carried the book out, soon after that, ‘Simon hid it before the old man got him.’
‘That would be the leprechaun.’ Toby corrected.
‘Quick let us change him back and get out of here, that thing came out of that rock face.’ Celia ordered. ‘Being turned to stone once is enough.’
There was a quick vote on who should do the chanting but by now they all knew that the spell would work and that was half the battle.
‘The rest of you get out of sight, just in case,’ Stuart ordered. ‘and take this.’ He held out the book after memorizing the spell.
The others did as Stuart ordered and JC carried the book into the hiding place. Stuart chanted the reversing spell from memory while the rest hid and waited. Stuart stood looking, first at Simon and then at the rock face, just in case. Simon slowly changed from stone to flesh and blood again. Stuart helped Simon into the crevice, out of sight, while he recovered fully. Then they hurried on to get away from the rock face where the old man had appeared from twice.
‘Why did he come out of the rock face?’ Molly asked.
‘And why twice?’ C.J. asked.
Further on they took refuge in a small clearing surrounded by rocks to discuss it.
‘The more we learn about this place, the better we can move about without getting into trouble.’ Sherman observed. ‘So what do we know?’
‘That little leprechaun came out of the rock face.’ Celia answered.
‘Twice.’ Simon added.
'I think we know that.' Ben replied.
‘One of them has been turned to stone, so he got us but who got him?’ She asked.
‘I did.’ Simon answered. ‘When he walked away after he turned you all into stone, I turned him to stone.’
‘And a little while later he re-appears from the rock face.’ Ben added.
‘Not re-appears.’ CJ retorted. ‘The one Simon got is still there.’ He pointed back in the direction of the stone figure, still in mid stride.
‘That tree started to regrow quicker than where we came from.’ Stevey declared. ‘It is as though there are protected and can’t be killed. If they are, they are reborn again in some manner from somewhere. The white shoed leprechaun obviously come out of that rock face.’
‘I don’t get it.’ Ben complained.
‘Does anyone?’ CJ asked.
If they had ideas, no one was voicing them, so, having met several inhabitants and not really liked any of them they walked on, making sure no one suddenly turned them into stone or carried them off to eat them.
‘I don’t know which is better,’ Jenny declared, ‘being turned to stone or being eaten.’
‘At least being turned to stone, does not hurt too much,’ Celia replied, ‘and someone chewing on my soft bits does not excite me a lot.’
‘And we always have Simon to turn us back again.’ Ben added. ‘Once you've been eaten, you have been eaten.’
'Yes. The next time we see you, it could be quite shocking.’ JC retorted.
‘I'm sure I would not smell.’ Celia declared, which caused a laugh.
‘Have you got any ideas Toby?’ Stuart asked.
‘I’m working on it.’ Toby answered.
They came to another stone leprechaun and looked to see which shoes he had.
‘Red.’ Molly declared.
‘At least that one won’t be coming up behind us and turning us to stone.’ Denis retorted.
‘But if that was the one we met will another one be coming from somewhere, if so we can ask him some more questions.’ Stuart asked. ‘At least he was willing to talk to us.’
‘That one was eaten.’ Ben pointed out.
‘Oh yes, so he was. So does that mean this is an earlier version of him or another one altogether?’ Stuart asked.
‘We can ask the Grimalkin some questions, if we can think of what to ask her,’ Sherman replied, ‘And if she will actually talk to us again.’
‘If that red leprechaun does reappear, the question is why?’ Stevey declared.
‘The quid pro quo.’ Toby answered.
‘What does that mean then?’ Stevey asked.
‘Well imagine there is a world where weird creatures roam…’
‘At the moment that is not really too hard to do.’ Ben quipped.
‘Well if such a world exists and the red leprechaun is alone but for some reason there must always be one, then he must either be unkillable or must be reborn.’ Toby continued. ‘Here he is stone dead so he is not unkillable, so if we do see him again, assuming it is not another one all together, then we’ll know he’s been reborn.’
‘And we saw him torn apart on the rocks, I bet he didn’t like that!’ Ben added. He could picture him up there suffering the same fate and shivered.
‘So that tree must have been the last one and had to be there just like that white shoed leprechaun.’ Simon declared.
‘Yes and I bet that creature that ate that other thing or that other thing…’ Stuart started.
‘That was a gryphon.’ Toby interrupted.
‘That gryphon would run out of food.’ Stuart continued.
‘It is definitely a quid pro quo world, then.’ Sherman agreed, not really understanding the concept but accepting the fact.
‘So I can’t turn this one back, so that we can talk to him or we would upset the balance.’ Simon asked but he said as a rhetorical question.
‘Just remember though, we are not part of this quid pro quo world.’ Stuart warned. ‘When we get eaten that is it, we’
ll just end up as a pile of pooh.’
‘How do you know?’ Ben asked.
‘I don’t really know at all Ben, but I’d rather not find out the hard way.’ Stuart retorted. ‘I don’t want to end up lying on the ground calling up, help me, help me, like that fly in the film I saw, the fly with the human head.’
‘Sounds like a good idea to steer clear of the inhabitants to me.’ Toby agreed.
‘It would be very prudent.’ Celia agreed.
‘I think I will be prudent the fastest.’ Ant added.
The rest laughed, they knew what he meant, he was a fast runner.
Chapter 3
They walked on, keeping their eyes open for children eating creatures, whether flying or not. They were following the edge of the large mountain, which appeared to fill the middle of this land. They were following the same route that the old man followed before the creature snatched him. They walked on keeping the mountain on their left, by now, to their right was a dark and gloomy forest. They could hear howls from deep within the forest and none of them wanted to get anywhere near it, hence they kept very close to the rock mountain.
The mountain went on and on and the walk was long and tiring. The girls started to flag as time passed, walking slower and slower. They still did not move from the security of the base of the mountain. There were possible hiding places every now and then, just in case they saw something they did not want to meet. They ruled out hiding in the dark forest, even though there was ample cover there for all of them. They walked on keeping their eyes on the trees to their right when they had solid rock to their left, to make sure nothing came out of the forest to eat them. There were trails on their left, which led into the mountain and they looked up each one as they passed it, to make sure nothing lurked in there, waiting to pounce. Up one trail they saw an animal. It was carrying its young on its back. The creature howled loudly and screeched at them as it moved away.
‘That is the first thing that was more frightened of us than we were of it.’ JC declared as he watched it run off.
‘That was a Su, a bit like the giant sloth.’ Toby explained.
‘How do you know that?’ Stevey asked.
‘I read a book now and then, that’s how.’ Toby explained.
‘What sorts of books tell you what that creature was?’ Sherman asked. 'When no one has seen one before.'
‘You don’t want to know!’ JC answered. ‘I read one once, only once, that was enough.’
'If no one has seen them, how do you explain the picture of it in Stevey's book?' Toby countered. ‘Surely someone has to have seen it.’
'That makes sense,' Sherman replied, 'someone must have seen it once or they are just guessing what it looked like.'
'It was a good guess then.' Toby retorted.
The journey continued and in front to their right they saw a house on the edge of the dark forest. Rather than just walk past it or go up and knock on the door they hid in a gap in the rocks to see if anyone normal lived there, in case it was the wizard’s house. From their hiding place, they saw a wolf like creature skulking on the edge of the dark forest. Suddenly the door of the house opened and a little girl, dressed in red, came out of the house. She looked about, making the wolf like creature hide behind the trees. Then she followed the trail into the dark forest, skipping along as she went, a basket on her arm. The wolf immediately disappeared into the forest.
‘We have to warn her.’ Simon whispered urgently.
‘No the woodcutter will be along directly.’ Molly declared. ‘This is the favourite story from my childhood.’ She added as though by now she was already an old woman.
‘Little Red riding hood,’ Celia declared, ‘what's she doing in here?’
‘I think it might be my fault.’ Molly answered. ‘I thought it would be nice to see the story unfold in real life, so to speak. Look there goes the woodcutter.’
‘So just by being in here we’re affecting this world.’ Stuart declared.
‘More like infecting it.’ Stevey retorted. ‘We are probably the equivalent of a virus.’
‘I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.’ Simon declared. ‘What are we likely to come across next, Goldilocks and the three bears?’
Celia smiled. ‘I did like that story at night when my nanny used to read it to me.’ She replied.
‘Is anyone else likely to appear?’ Simon asked, looking at Jenny as he spoke.
Jenny did not answer. They started to walk on, there could see no point in going over to the house as it was Little Red Riding Hood's house and they knew she was out.
‘Who did she live with? Little Red Riding Hood. Surely she must live with someone, why do they let her go into the dark forest all alone? I’d have nightmares about it.’ Molly asked.
‘I only ever had nightmares about trolls.’ Jenny declared as they walked and then cupped her hand to her mouth when she saw a cave in front that resembled the cave from her nightmare.
They stopped to listen to the noise coming from inside the cave, it was loud snoring noise. They did not know but as Jenny’s nightmare involved trolls, they guessed it might be coming from a troll. Either the sound was amplified by the cave, or there was more than one.
‘Leg it but quietly.’ Ben whispered.
They ran, this time oblivious of flying predators, as they had seen them feed and were hopeful that they were not looking for any more food. Another cottage loomed in front of them to the right, again on the edge of the forest. They decided to hide, just to make sure it was not the apprentice’s house. They took refuge in yet another crevice and started to watch the house. After a while, two big bears and a little bear walked out of the door that was nearest them. They continued to watch and saw a little blonde haired girl walked in through another door.
‘I never did understand why they had two doors.’ Celia exclaimed. ‘Now it is obvious, so that they can go out as she goes in.’
When the bears walked into the woods the team walked on, they knew just what was going to happen. They all knew the story. They had all be told it when they were young. They continued to walk and the mountain to their left continued as did the dark forest to their right. When they looked into the many smaller trails leading into the mountain, if they saw anything it was a different animal to the animals they had seen up to now. One of the animals looked like a bull or large deer but as they watched, the horns moved to allow it to scratch at a crevice in the rock.
‘I know that one.’ Toby declared. ‘That is a Yale.’
‘Isn’t that a lock?’ Sherman asked.
‘And an animal which looks like that and can swivel its horns apparently.’ Celia answered.
They walked on and finally came to the end of that side of the mountain on their left. In front of them there were more mountains with trees in front of them. To their left there was another stretch of land like the one they had just walked up. The distance between the dark forest at the end was the same as the dark forest had been to their left. They stopped to study the land in front of them and they could see a large vine as it snaked up into the air in the far right hand corner of the latest forest they could see. They followed the vine up with their eyes, until it disappeared into clouds. The only clouds in the underground land. One by one they realized what it was.
‘Sorry that was me.’ Ben declared. ‘I just wondered what would happen if I thought of it. We should be all right for milk though.’
They turned left to follow the edge of the mountain they were next to but they also took the time to inspect any crevices in the mountains on either side, although the trees obscured their view of the bottom of the mountain to their right. They did not see a pass or way through the other mountain where they could see the mountain, although there were openings into the mountain to their left, just as before. They walked on, they had not had a drink since they had been in the cave with the flumes and they were hungry. It was obvious than the light was starting to fade and Celia yawned.
‘
I am going to have to rest soon or I will be sleepwalking.’ She complained.
Almost immediately to their left they found a small cavern, the top was open to the sky but the opening above it was not big enough to allow anything through to swoop on them. They stopped and peered in, hoping to see if it was a good shelter.
‘Let’s rest in here.’ Celia suggested.
‘What if there is something in there?’ Molly said fearfully.
‘I’ll go and look, I do have the axe.’ Sherman answered, showing a brave front, as it was Molly.
He walked in but there was nothing and no one in there. He walked out again almost immediately after he had walked in.
‘Nothing in there and we should be safe until the morning, if they have mornings in this place.’ He announced.
They all walked in and found a spot to rest. Simon spent sometime concealing the book before he settled down. If the apprentice found them, he did not want him to get hold of the book easily. Soon it was dark and they slept. They were all hungry but they had been hungry before so they did not worry about it, well apart from Simon. Slowly they fell asleep and if anyone snored before the last person was asleep, they were nudged to stop them.
J.C. was the first of the team to wake in the morning. He rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out and looked up to see the white shoed leprechaun standing there.
‘Look out!’ He shouted and tried to get up.
‘Found you!’ The white shoed leprechaun said happily and waved his arm in a circle.
They all turned to stone.
‘This looks great, let’s go and explore then, we can see where that little old man went.’ Stuart cried and walked down the slope away from the portal.’
‘Hang on, haven't we already done this bit!’ Toby announced when he walked through.
‘So we have.’ CJ agreed. ‘What’s going on?’
