by Linda Talbot
unfortunately lost in the flames."
"Where do YOU come from?" demands Beldina, "Are there more little girls like you, I could turn into toads?"
"I come from the Present," replies Clumsilla. "There are lots of girls in my class at school but I forbid you to turn them into toads. I have a mother, father, a cat called Boots and I don't believe in witches."
"But you have one sitting in front of you," retorts Beldina.
"YOU might just be a bad dream," says Clumsilla.
Beldina and Bast, the Egyptian cat
Beldina rises with a flurry of dusty cloaks and points a bony finger at Clumsilla who feels her eyes begin to bulge like those of a toad. Before further changes can occur, Brawn and Scrawn snatch Beldina and push her into a pond.
"You really MUST be more careful! She could bewitch you with a bat of her eyelid," says Brawn, as the witch clambers dripping from the pond, casting a curse on all mortals.
"Once WE would have eaten you," says Brawn to Clumsilla, baring big brown teeth, "We lived on a high mountain covered with thorns so it wasn't easy climbing up and down to look for boys and girls who were suitable for supper.
"But traditions must be kept up. Look at Ymer, our ancestor. He began by being a hungry lump of clay but from his bones were formed the rocks and mountains, from his broken teeth and jaws, pebbles and boulders and his ice cold blood became the sea.
"And there was a giant called Hralsvelgur who looked like an eagle and ate dead men's flesh. You may hear him still. When the wind roars it is he, spreading his wings."
Clumsilla listens for the wind but only a soft breeze passes briefly over the garden. She is reassured when Princess Laila says, "We would have enchanted you, taken you to a palace and dressed you in jewels among peacocks and swans."
Brawn sighs and the lawn shakes, "Ah, the Past," he says. "Even Huff the dragon here comes from a long line of fiery forbears. Unfortunately most of them were slain. You must have heard of St George. He killed one. And there was Boewulf who slew the dragon guarding a prince's treasure. But enough of the Past. How do we get to the Future?"
As though summoned, Zigana appears and surveying the selection of beings from the Past says, "What have we here?" Clumsilla introduces them.
"So you seek the future?" says Zigana. "I must warn you it's very different from the Past or the Present. Most of it lies beyond the Earth where Clumsilla lives, for the Earth has little future, since it is being worn out by its Earthlings. The Future is mysterious. No one apart from a few celestial gipsy fortune tellers like myself, can see into it. But even we know little of life among the stars. There are one thousand million stars in our galaxy alone and millions of other galaxies that even time travellers can't reach."
"How do we travel?" asks Beldina.
Zigana says, "I want you all to sit in a circle, close your eyes and wish very hard that you might fly into the Future. Clumsilla can travel on her hearth rug." The mat stirs irritably.
Everyone sinks onto the grass, shuts their eyes and thinks of being borne through the spinning stars. Clumsilla spreads the protesting hearth rug flat, sits on it and closing her eyes, concentrates on the boundless black sky.
Nothing happens. Then there is a wild rush of air through the hushed garden. Zigana disappears and the giants, witch, princesses, the cat and the dragon, are scooped up as though by a huge hand and carried aloft through the blue.
Clumsilla feels the hearth rug heave reluctantly, then with a sudden WHOOSH lift from the grass. She clutches the edge of the rug, not daring to look down as it flies as though possessed over the palace.
The sky darkens, Clumsilla speeds through the winking stars and far away, against the inky blackness, hangs the moon like a sliced peach.
Suddenly Clumsilla sees the beings from the Past hurtling; arms linked and legs flapping, towards a rocky planet that has appeared below from the blackness.
The hearth rug slows and begins to circle a cluster of rocks that rise from the rough surface of the planet with a faint red glow. The others have already landed with a heavy WOLLOP in a tangled heap. Clumsilla floats easily down to settle beside them and the hearth rug breathes a deep sigh as she steps off onto the rocky ground.
Already Brawn has hit Scrawn who bangs his head against the red rock, the princesses sit dazed with their crowns askew and Beldina angrily kicks the rocks with a crooked foot.
"How dreary it is here," grumbles Laila, "Not a peacock in sight."
"Or a palace," adds Shirin, "And how hot it is."
"There is not a child to be eaten," complains Brawn.
"I wouldn't mind if there were even some toads to turn into little girls," says Beldina.
The giants sit with a thud on the ground. Then leap up. "It's scorching!" bellows Brawn.
Suddenly Zigana, in a flurry of shooting stars, lands on a red rock. "What ingratitude!" she cries, surveying the bad tempered group on the ground. "On your feet. YOU are pioneers. Get going!"
Reluctantly everyone rises and sets off over the hot red rocks. The sky glows as though reflecting fire. Shirin and Laila clutch their crowns. Shirin has lost a silver slipper. Again Zigana disappears.
Suddenly they see an extraordinary craft lying in a hollow. It is pointed at front and back and built in five layers, rising to a dome. Like the rocks, it shimmers dull red and from two slits at each end a low hum is heard.
"What is it? Are there little girls inside?" Beldina snaps and Bast leaps onto her shoulder, while Huff tries to breathe fire but as usual produces barely a glimmer.
"It's a palace," says Shirin.
"A space ship," corrects Clumsilla.
They tiptoe towards it, even the giants lifting their huge feet lightly. The hum from the craft increases as carefully they walk round it. Scrawn taps its metal side and the sound echoes emptily.
Then near one end, Shirin finds a small door standing open. She steps inside and the others follow with Bast stepping haughtily behind. It is gloomy inside. There are rows of dull red seats and at the front a large panel of switches and levers.
Clumsilla is exhausted and about to sit down and doze while they decide what to do, when Bast leaps onto a long lever which clangs to the floor. With a jerk the craft lifts from the ground, the hum increasing to a roar. The giants fall over, the princesses slither in their seats, while Beldina vanishes in a cloud of cloaks.
Clumsilla is thrown against the back window and looking through it, sees four frantic figures in pursuit. They glow red and orange with fat faces and bulging eyes. It is clear Clumsilla and the beings from the Past have taken off in their space ship.
Suddenly the space creatures rise vertically from the ground and in a moment are flying close to the craft, prodding the back window with plump fingers. The princesses scream, the giants who are hungry, grunt, seeing the prospect of a meal and Beldina thinks how suitable they are for turning into toads.
The space ship hurtles through the stars, the creatures clinging to its sides and clambering heavily on the roof. Then it dives steeply and everyone pitches forward as it lands, its nose sunk into the red sand. The door opens and in march the space creatures.
"Who are you?" demands Beldina, thinking that, alternatively she might grind them down for an experimental potion.
"We are Wolgs and I am Erif," says the largest. "How dare you steal our ship?"
"It was an accident," Clumsilla tries to explain, while Bast slides under a seat. "Which planet is this? Have we travelled far into the Future?"
"You are on Wolgonia," replies Erif, "I cannot imagine who you are or why you have come here because our planet is fast burning away. Step outside. You will feel the fire beneath your feet."
"We already have," grumbles Scrawn.
Clumsilla, now she is away from the classroom, is suddenly able to spell, realising, that Wolg is GLOW and Erif FIRE spelt backwards. She asks, "Why do you spell your names backwards?"
"Because we are going back in time to our beginnings - most things do you know. Don't think for a
moment you are in the Future - THAT never comes.
"And we weren't always this colour. Once we were the colour of crags because we come from an ancient race of rock planet people. Wolgonia was cold and grey when we arrived three thousand years ago. But it's getting hotter and so we shall have to move."
Clumsilla wonders if everyone will have to move from the Earth when that grows too hot.
The Wolgs prod the passengers until everyone has tumbled through the door onto the red sand. They feel the fire scorching the soles of their feet. Huff's eyes glow. He likes the heat under his feet and feels that soon he will be able to breathe real fire.
The Wolgs urge their captives towards a great gap in a glowing rock and enter a glimmering tunnel. The giants, who should have been able to squash the Wolgs underfoot, are afraid of catching fire, for the Wolgs are red hot. At the end of the tunnel they stumble into a vast, curiously carved room, the rock scooped into a curved ceiling above other Wolgs seated on the floor.
"I've seen YOUR kind before," Erif addresses Clumsilla, "Come."
They follow him through a passage which opens into another rocky room. Huddled in the centre are eight children from Earth, their school clothes in holes and their faces glowing with the heat of the invisible fires.
"How did YOU get here?" asks Clumsilla.
"With Zigana," replies a grubby boy.
Erif grumbles, "If we are not disturbed by shooting ships from Earth, we have to put up with you time travellers. That celestial gipsy is to blame. We shall have
