Oracle in the Mist

by Linda Maree Malcolm

  On waking up after stepping into the tree the children found themselves in a huge wooden dormitory. There were slits in between the slats of wood on the walls so that freezing draughts blew into the dormitory and the ceiling was completely covered in spiders’ webs and huge spiders darted in and out of them menacing the children as if threatening to come and take them at any minute.

  The children found themselves lying on filthy, mouldy mattresses and they could hear machines being operated in the room next door and a taunting voice that sang a sinister song over and over again:

  “Don’t ever make a creak,

  Don’t ever make a sound,

  All does not move in

  The house in NewFound.

  Eryting is stil ,

  Eryting is quiet,

  To wake up herself is

  To perish in the fire.

  Keep your head down,

  Keep your hands working,

  The shadows are watching,

  In corners they’re lurking.

  Don’t ask for more food,

  Don’t whinge that you’re cold,

  Herself will just kill you,

  For being so bold.

  The children had quite by accident stumbled into the foul dungeons of dread that belonged to the Oracle. She had lured them to her place of residence in order to get her ball back.

  In front of the beds that the children found themselves in, were many rows of windows that opened up outwards and upwards. Henry turned the latch of one of the windows and opened it to see what was making that awful sound. They all jumped up to go and peer through the opened window. On the other side of the window was a vast factory of massive machines the likes of which the children had never seen before.

  They were huge, reaching up to the immense ceiling and were covered in knobs and handles and had large openings that things were fed into. Henry, who was a farm boy and so knew about all kinds of machinery, looked at the machines but was puzzled. As far as he could see they made no sense. Things were being fed into them all right but nothing then came out the other side. All at once the children noticed the ugly creatures that seemed to run the place — judging by the keys they wore around their necks and the batons and whips they held in their hands. They were what the children had heard referred to as ‘orcs’ from the stories they had read in the past. But even worse than all of that was the appalling state of the children who operated the machines. They looked as though they hadn’t eaten a decent meal or had a shower in months and their clothes were all in tatters. Worse still was the look of fear they all had on their faces as they watched the other children being whipped and tortured if they so much as sneezed. It seemed as if at any given moment these poor children would be gobbled up by one of those huge machines …

  “What’s this then?” one of the orcs demanded of a little boy no older than six.

  “I’m sorry sir, but it’s just that I’m so tired and me hands can’t keep up with the pace sir, and …”

  “Not good enough though is it me lad? In wiv ya then!” And with that he picked up the little boy with one hand, and to the cries of sheer terror from the boy and all of the other children, threw him head first into the jaws of the machine. Blood spurted everywhere and the sound of bones being crunched reverberated throughout the factory and reached the eight new arrivals behind the opened window.

  “Oh my God, did I just see what I think I saw?” Ina said to Henry and all of the younger children who had seen the incident either started to cry or buried their heads into Henry and Ina’s shoulders in fear.

  “Where on earth have we ended up?” Henry looked at Ina, terrified as well. “Have we stumbled into a hell for children?”

  “What’s all this noise?”

  The children heard a female voice that was hissing and cruel. Then they heard a sliding, slithering sound and watched as a strange creature that seemed to have tentacles instead of legs, but also wore a dress, came into their view.

  She left a trail of slime behind her as she progressed to the centre of the factory. The children all fell quiet at once to listen to what the creature was about to say.

  Henry told the children to be quiet but it was too late. The boss creature had spotted them peering through the window and recognised them at once.

  “There they are,” she cried pointing towards the children. “They have my ball. Well, don’t just stand there; go and get them and bring them to me and don’t lose or damage my precious crystal ball or it will be into the furnace with you.” All of the orclooking creatures immediately started to head towards the exit that led to the dormitory.

  The children all started to scream and cry in terror but luckily Henry had a plan. He had noticed a large window that led out on the roof tops of the adjoining factories.

  Since the window was locked he took a chair and smashed at the window until it shattered. He then took the children and one by one led them out onto the roof — only just in time too because the orcs were not afraid of heights and were not afraid to chase them across the rooftops.

  Henry finally found a ladder that they could scramble down to safety on the path. The children were most alarmed to find that the whole town seemed made up of these kind of orcs and all sorts of other creatures too, all evil and foul smelling. Some of them looked around in alarm and decided to give chase even though they had no idea why they were chasing the children. But most of them just grunted at the mob of children running past. Before they knew it the children found themselves on the docks of a vast ocean and Henry realised that the only way the children were going to get away from this foul place was to jump aboard a ship. The one that Henry chose just happened to be having her rope untied as the children boarded and luckily for the children, orcs just happen to be incredibly shortsighted and all of the crew were too busy with their individual duties to notice a group of mainly small children whisk past them faster than a hare and out of sight into the kitchen of the giant ship.

  The workhouse orcs made it to the dock just as the ship was pulling out and Henry could hear shouts of “Hey, you there, did ya see a bunch of kids who are not from around ‘ere?”

  “What?” came the confused reply.

  “Kids, you know — about eight of ‘em. We can’t find ‘em.”

  But the ship was pulling out at full steam and already there was some distance between the orcs on the ship and the orcs on the dock.

  “Nah, we don’t want no kids. What would we want kids for?” The orc on the ship had completely misunderstood the workhouse orc’s question.

  “I know, but ‘ave ya seen any, like?” the orc on the dock persisted.

  “Look mate, you must be in the wrong place ‘cause I ain’t seen no …” but just then and not a moment too soon, a huge wind blew up and his voice was carried off with it into the distance.’

  “What ya sayin’?” said the orc on the dock, but would you believe the ship’s horn blew and was so loud that the wood on the dock actually vibrated under the workhouse orc’s feet? Eventually they both gave up trying to have the conversation at all and the orc on the dock turned and ran off to the rest of the other orcs and they ran back towards the workhouse. The ship drew up her anchor and set off out to sea.

  The children hid themselves away in the galley of the boat. They found an excellent place to hide behind huge sacks of flour, potatoes and piles of tins of beans and sardines.

  Henry looked around and was pleased with the fact that they would have something to eat. The trick now was not getting caught. Every time the orc cook came in to get a new ingredient the children had to make sure they were out of sight. It wasn’t long though until the orcs had finished with the kitchen for the night and the children could relax a little and make a meal for themselves.

  After a simple, cold meal the children sat around and told stories of what their favourite destinations would be. Going home, of course rated on top of the list. It seemed to relax the younger children to talk of such things and Henry and Ina liked that
their imaginations were still alive with adventure.

  It was the general consensus that given a choice the children would choose a beautiful, deserted island as their ideal destination. The way they described it made it sound like a regular Garden of Eden, complete with every animal that ever lived throughout the millennium and of course no evil lurking in corners and danger for them to have to worry about. They would have the whole island to themselves and have plenty of fresh food to eat and lovely fish to catch from the ocean.

  The younger children fell asleep on the laps of Henry and Ina and were soon breathing deeply. What a big day they had had. After a while Ina looked at Henry and asked, “Have you realised what I’ve realised, Henry?”

  “What do you mean?” he whispered back. “Is it about the fact that we no longer have a way home because there’s no Oracle to guide us through the crystal ball?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. What are we going to do?”

  “Look, tomorrow’s a new day and we’ll find a way out of this. Don’t you worry about that Ina.” He could see that she was very frightened.

  “Now, do me a favour and go to sleep will you Ina? I’m going to need you to be at your strongest tomorrow. Who knows what’s in store for us then?” Luckily Ina didn’t argue with Henry and she didn’t ask him any more questions that he just couldn’t answer.

  He smiled warmly at her and watched as she drifted into a fretful sleep with a worried frown on her face. He may have been smiling but inside he was frozen with anxiety and fear. He turned the question over in his mind too many times to remember during the course of the night, not allowing himself to fall asleep for fear of being discovered by the orcs: how to get out of this rotten place and back home where they belonged? He regretted deeply ever allowing the other children to convince him to take part in this stupid plan. He was now responsible for all of their lives being the eldest and the burden was almost too much to bear. ‘What would Dad do in this position?’ he asked himself and he heard his father’s voice in his head saying: “Never mind sonny Jim.There, there. No point crying over spilt milk. What’s done is done mate. Just have to soldier on and remember that tomorrow’s a brand new day with brand new adventures.” This comforted Henry somewhat and helped him to drift into a shallow sleep even if it was with one eye open.

  The children awoke with a start at first light to the sound of, “Eh, what’s this then?” being shouted by the head cook who had come into the pantry to fetch breakfast ingredients.

  Luckily Henry was thinking quickly. He stood up and hit the cook, knocking him unconscious before he had the chance to say anything else. But it was too late. The children heard the sounds of orcs banging and thumping about and footsteps scuttling towards them from the other side of the ship.

  “Quick,” Henry shouted at the others. “There’s no time to lose,” and they scrambled up the ladder to escape the orcs once again. The morning sun hit their eyes and almost blinded them but after a moment Henry could see a life raft complete with oars on the side of the ship.

  He wasted no time, hurled it into the water and then sent Ina down the ladder followed by each of the other children until they were all safely bobbing about in the tiny boat on the ocean swell. The orcs reached him just as he was about to descend down the ladder and so he jumped into the ocean beside the raft and then quickly scrambled into it and grabbing the oars, began to steer the little boat away from the ship.

  “Eh, come back ‘ere you kids. Who are you anyway and how did you get on my boat? Get back here. You can’t take my life raft …” and with that he pushed one of the grunts over the edge of the ship and said, “Go on, go and get ‘em and bring ‘em back.”

  “Yes sir, shall do Captain,” said the orc from the water, and everyone watched as he dogpaddled in the water but did not swim.

  “Eh, don’t tell me you can’t swim? Oh flipperty jibbert, just my luck! Who here can swim, then?” he demanded of his crew and all of them looked downcast as if embarrassed to admit it.

  “So, what, we jus’ gonna let those kids get away?” he screamed at his crew, “I don’ believe this.”

  “Why don’ you jump in then, Captain?” came a voice from the crowd.

  “Who said that, who said that then? I’ll find out who you are and I swear by the time I’m through with you …” and he held up his fist in a fury at the crowd.

  The children could hear all of this as they rowed away and they couldn’t help having a little giggle to themselves, especially when it became clear that not one of the orcs could swim and chase them. They began to feel sure that they would indeed escape.

  “I’m sorry, Captain,” Henry shouted back across the swell. “I’ll have you know that I’m not a thief but this is the only option available to me.”

  All of the orcs looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders, including the captain. The children could see that they could not hear what Henry had said at all. There was too much distance between them now, but at least Henry had done the right thing and apologised.

  It wasn’t long and the ship was a blur in the distance behind them. The children became mesmerised by the ship and could still see the orcs just standing there on the deck, as if in disbelief at what had just happened. But then the ship disappeared from view behind the swell and the children’s attention came back to the fact that they were adrift in an unknown ocean and heading to goodness knows where with no water and food.

  “This is the best adventure that I’ve ever had,” said Johnny, who was nine and was always talking about wanting to travel the world, having fun and fighting pirates and dragons and finding buried treasures. “Do you think we’ll see pirates soon?” was his next question.

  “Well, what do you think those were?” answered Teresa who was six and very sensible and thought that wanting to have adventures was very silly and boyish.

  “Ina, I’m thirsty and hungry,” Teresa said and looked about herself in the raft and in the ocean. Not much chance of anything to eat or drink out here. All of the rest of the children remained quiet but they stared at Henry and Ina with big, questioning eyes.

  “Now, don’t worry,” answered Ina, “because we’re going to be all right. We’ve been all right so far, haven’t we? And we’re going to keep being all right but you have to be patient.”

  Right at that moment, Johnny, who had been standing up at the end of the raft with his hands joined together and curled over to form a pretend eyeglass to look towards the horizon, shouted, “Hey, is that land I see over there, Henry?” All of the children craned their necks in the direction that he had pointed and squinted into the bright sunlight.

  “Good lord,” said Henry, “I believe he’s right. Good spotting Johnny,” and he turned the raft around and started to head towards the land on the horizon.

  “Land ahoy, land ahoy,” the children all squealed with delight, for once able to imitate the famous line from the many children’s stories that had been read to them.

  “Can I take over with the rowing for a while?” asked Ina, wanting to be of help.

  “No, that’s fine, I’ve got it,” answered Henry.

  It’s true; he is quite capable, Ina thought to herself. He’d been rowing for all of this time and yet he didn’t seem even a little tired. Ina marvelled at Henry’s strength. Being born and raised on a farm where even the toddlers were expected to help with the chores Henry had become a very lean, strong and capable fourteenyearold boy. Ina felt puny and weak in contrast to Henry. She thought about her own upbringing. She had never had to worry about chores as there were always servants to do everything and she only had her studies, piano lessons, her horse and tea parties with friends to think about. She had to admit, even though she didn’t like boys in general, she quite admired Henry.

  It wasn’t long before the land became bigger and bigger as the children drew closer. They became quite excited, all except for Ina who was worried that there might be danger lurking on the island. But then, it wasn’
t long before even she became swept up in their enthusiasm as well. She hoped that there would be food and water available for them.

  Before long they were on the shores of what seemed to be a beautiful, tropical island, not unlike the one they had talked about the night before. They disembarked in the shallows and helped Henry to pull the raft up on to the sand. They stood there in a little huddle, staring about when all of a sudden a huge lion came out of the forest and walked towards them. Henry ordered all of them back into the raft and he grabbed an oar to defend himself. All of the children sat holding their breath as the lion walked towards them. Ina felt as if her heart had dropped into her stomach but at the same time she had an incredible feeling of peace, as if there was really nothing to worry about at all.

  The lion got within six feet of Henry and then stood quite still and let out an almighty, earsplitting roar.

  It then nodded its head up and down as if to convey some kind of message and with that turned and walked back into the forest.

  “Do you believe it?” shouted Johnny. “Oh my God, I’ve never seen anything like that before. This must be some kind of magical land where everything is friendly and nothing can …”

  Right then came a blood curdling cry from Teresa and she sat pointing to the jungle. The children all looked to where she was pointing only to see the most incredible spectacle, one which almost defied description. They all drew in their breath sharply and stared at one another in utter amazement.

  There before them were all manner of animals and other creatures too — the likes of which they’d never seen before but looking most prehistoric — all coming out of the forest and wandering about totally oblivious to the children as if all going on their hurried way to previous engagements.