The Three Thorns

by Michael Gibney

  “I’m sorry about your friend,” Tommy muttered between bites, rudely chomping his meal.

  Cassius raised his head up from the dead animal, awaiting Benjamin’s reaction as he kept carving more meat off of the carcass.

  “Why are you sorry, Tommy? You didn’t kill him, did you?” Benjamin mumbled. He finally rested his head by the fire and took what rest he could get for the day ahead.

  ***

  The protectors awoke to the sounds of Ariel rustling through the brambles. The thicket surrounding them was swiftly torn apart, revealing the enormous cliffs and the bridge that cut across them. In daylight they could see the whole cliff drop they had camped dangerously close to. The bridge was still very much intact. The sun was shining brighter this day, and humming birds filled the bushes around them. Cassius busied himself helping the boys equip their own utilities and baggage for the journey when he heard a call from Ariel.

  “Are you sure we’re not on the enemy’s path?” she asked.

  “It hasn’t been tarnished by them yet. Notice the footprints are faun,” Cassius said, pointing toward the markings and scraping the sandy ground with his blade.

  “Very well, so this is the way to the hidden sanctuary?” she asked, seeking confirmation as she looked toward the bridge.

  “Yes, that is where we must take them.” Cecil’s voice caught everyone by surprise when he stirred from his slight coma. “I know this place well.” The haggard pixie used his stick to rise and lead the way forward with a ranting that had even put the rowdy troll in his place. Everyone smiled in relief and felt comforted when they heard the commanding lisp of the plump pixie. “The Council didn’t expect a cowardly ambush yesterday. Let’s stick to their wishes. We take the Brotherhood to the hidden sanctuary…end of discussion. I don’t want to hear any more on the matter. Time to get moving,” Cecil rambled.

  The rocky dirt path formed into a minor cliff edge – half the size of a cliff one hundred yards opposite it. The taller cliff blocked the sunlight and cast the whole group in shade.

  “Bounty hunter, watch our back,” instructed Cecil, pointing his staff at Cassius.

  Cassius hung back to follow the group as Cecil Baskin took charge, fronting the way to the bridge ahead of them.

  “I like your ears, Peter,” Benjamin said suddenly, causing Sebastian and Tommy to start sniggering behind Ariel’s back.

  “Very funny, you three. I’m very proud of my ears. They can hear better than all of your ears put together,” Ariel informed, teasing the giggling boys behind her. “My real name is Ariel.”

  “Cassius,” Benjamin called out, watching behind him to see his protector guarding the group.

  “Yes?” was the bounty hunter’s one word reply.

  “We’ve lost–,” Benjamin began, but Cassius finished his sentence for him.

  “Trump…I noticed. You can’t lose those who are already lost, Master Benjamin.”

  It took a mere second for Benjamin to understand exactly what Cassius was implying. Benjamin kept his eyes peeled as he hiked beside his friends.

  “What’s a Trump?” Tommy asked, taking the leading spot in line from Sebastian to have a closer talk with his reunited brother.

  “Trump is their friend, dolly daydream,” Sebastian answered, rolling his eyes back at Tommy. Tommy immaturely stuck out his tongue in response.

  Cassius could tell Tommy’s question had unsettled Benjamin, so he answered on his behalf.

  “He was a companion who travelled alongside us to the Stained Castle,” the bounty hunter informed bluntly.

  “My word, so you’ve lost two friends instead of one,” Sebastian began.

  “Trump is a traitor and one we are better without the company of,” Cassius added, closing the conversation once and for all.

  “We’re here,” Cecil called out, panting while he stepped his little foot onto the bridge. Shaking his leg up and down to test the durability and safety of the tied rope, the pixie gave them one of his reassuring winks. “She’s safe to cross alright.”

  Bright morning sunlight broke through the hollow cave from the other side of the cliff and shone on the bridge.

  “It’s a cave tunnel. Look!” Tommy gasped.

  “More like a shortcut. It’s just a tunnel to the other side,” Ariel explained. “What do you think, Cassius?”

  Taking a gulp of water from his animal skin strapped water pouch, Cassius simply gave a rude shrug and kept a lookout behind them.

  “Let’s just cross it,” Ban Pan grunted, taking his first step onto the bridge. The troll’s large, hairy foot caused the supple bridge to sway from left to right.

  “Wait, I think we should start with the lightest first,” Ariel suggested.

  “And that would be?” Ban Pan asked, offended by the nymph’s suggestion.

  “Nymphs are the lightest to carry,” Cecil muttered.

  “What are you really trying to say?” Ban Pan blurted out, discomforted by the heat of the sun that blasted directly in his face. “That I’m too heavy?” he continued.

  “Now’s not the time for petty squabbles. Cassius can accompany the children across while I fly Ariel over to the other side,” Cecil instructed.

  “And I’ll just sit here and work on my tan I guess,” Ban Pan retorted.

  The sharp reply was only to be expected from the uncouth and impatient troll, but Cassius was in no mood to wait around arguing. Lingering there would inevitably risk a chance of another ambush.

  “You may cross when everyone else is safe on the other side, Ban Pan,” Cassius explained, turning his back to the troll as he took his first step upon the bridge.

  When Benjamin reached the middle of the bridge, he paused for a brief moment to smell the fresh morning air that hit his face. The swift breeze made the boy’s head feel a little light as he held onto the rope with both hands.

  “Benjamin! Look at me,” Cassius ordered sharply, but the boy’s shaking legs only worsened the moment he looked down at the thousand-foot drop.

  “I-I can’t let go,” Benjamin called out, afraid of the daunting size of the cliffs around him. Tommy was next in line to pass Benjamin when they heard a horrible screeching noise. It was a noise that could only have come from a flying beast or an animal nearby, and it didn’t sound at all tame.

  “What is it?” Tommy shouted up to Ariel and Cecil.

  “Just keep moving,” Cassius shouted back while he made his way closer to Benjamin.

  The small youngster had now slumped to his knees, which leaned out past the bridge’s ledge. All the while Benjamin kept his hands gripped onto the guiding rope – the only thing that was saving him from a deathly fall.

  “I’m almost there, Benjamin, hang on,” Cassius yelled.

  Just then, several thousand bats soared out of the dark pit below them, covering the entire bridge in a cloud of wings. Through the thickness of the flesh-biting night creatures flapping their way blindly in between the group, Cassius managed to grab hold of Benjamin, rescuing him from a fatal fall.

  Sebastian hastily pushed against Tommy’s carefully placed steps in panic. “Quit pushing!” Tommy hollered while they tried their best to cover their faces from the flapping wings of the bats.

  “Don’t rush, or you will fall,” Cecil called down to both of them. “Let’s see if we can distract the colony,” he suggested to Ariel. Ariel keenly nodded in reply and climbed onto the shoulders of the old knight.

  As they flew higher over the two boys who were struggling to beat the bats off themselves, Ariel made high pitch whistling noises to attract the flying rodents. The colony of bats reacted instantly, smashing holes through the bridge’s dry wooden spots in pursuit of the whistling sound.

  “Fly, fly, fly,” Ariel repeated anxiously, when the flesh-eating bats flew toward them.

  “Hold on, I’ve done this before,” Cecil yelled over his shoulder, swooping up and down and side to side in an attempt to out manoeuvre the snap
ping swarm.

  A bite to his chubby bare foot caused Cecil to accelerate his speed and increase altitude. He took the swarm vertically as far as their little wings could carry them in an attempt to wear them out, freezing many in the process. Several hundred bats froze up and fell out of the sky like stone raindrops whilst the remaining swarm dispersed and flew away.

  “That was close,” Cecil wheezed deeply. His impulsive actions had cleared the entire bridge and provided a clear passage for Tommy and Sebastian before Ban Pan could cross without much distraction or danger, for he was considerably the heaviest of the group.

  “Come on, old troll,” Cassius teased.

  “Don’t call me old,” Ban Pan snapped back, taking his time.

  Flying high, Cecil and Ariel were able to see a much bigger part of the landscape. Judging by the darkened lands around this new area of Abasin, it was apparent the bordered roads around them lay near enemy territory. The two airborne protectors also got a close glimpse of what appeared to be an armada fleet, crossing the blue seas hundreds of miles away. Whether friend or foe they could not tell, but it was a scary sight to behold nonetheless.

  During the swarm’s sharp descent through the bridge and into the deep, Ban Pan noticed a gigantic black wing, at least sixty feet long, shimmering in the slight light that pierced a corner of the darkness.

  In the same moment he had noticed the vast wing crawl past the opening, it quickly vanished into the dark. Ban Pan was unable to make out what it was, at first, but its size was enough for him to fear it.

  “Ban Pan?” Cassius called over to the befuddled troll that kept his gaze upon the rocks below.

  “Something’s down there. Something big,” Ban Pan warned, shifting his pace from baby steps to full speed ahead, rocking and jolting the bridge from side to side.

  “What did you see?” Tommy asked, wide-eyed and worried. Ban Pan saw the utter fright in the boy’s eyes and didn’t have the heart to scare the child any further by telling him the truth.

  “Oh, nothing. I-I was just worried about the bridge being able to hold such a big troll like myself, that’s all,” Ban Pan added with a nervous chortle. It was a fib well thought out enough to convince Tommy and Sebastian, but not Benjamin, for he had seen the same haunting glimpse of the enormous wing below and was also afraid to talk about it.

  “Let’s move,” Cassius sighed, frowning at Ban Pan and Benjamin as he walked into the cave. “Where are the others?” Cassius asked, noticing the absence of the airborne protectors.

  Out of the blue, Ariel and Cecil flew directly into the cave’s entrance in complete disarray. Cecil let go of Ariel, dodging a shooting arrow that grazed his side and made him swerve and crash into the cave’s sidewall.

  “What is it now?” yelled Cassius, ducking low to the ground whilst sliding out his golden blade, already prepared for any challenge set against them.

  “Enemy trolls!” Cecil panted in between deep breaths. “They came out of nowhere. As soon as they spotted us, they opened fire.”

  Ban Pan was the first to notice a small band of his own kind that had already begun to cross the bridge. Cassius hastily pushed him aside. Chopping his blade against the main rope around the left pole that was embedded into the cave opening, the brave bounty hunter tilted the entire bridge onto one side, causing a small number of trolls to slide off.

  Some trolls were persistent enough to hang on and continue their pursuit of the boys by scaling the tilted bridge. Cassius hacked at the remaining rope tied around the right pole that was embedded in the stone of the cave’s entrance. It was the only thing that kept the bridge horizontally attached to the cave. Gaining ground, the enemy trolls climbed over each other, shuffling between wooden plank and rope to reach Ban Pan and the children at the opening of the cave.

  “Help me, for goodness sake,” Cassius snapped, desperately sawing as fast and as hard as he could. But the thicker rope around the right pole was almost impossible for one person to conquer.

  For the first time since the shoe tree, Ban Pan showed his true talents for cutting through such ropey situations. In one fell swoop, the troll had made the difficult decision to hack through the slanted bridge. With one stroke of his right claw, Ban Pan tore through the area of rope that Cassius had been frantically hacking at. Ban Pan watched on as several trolls plummeted into the pit below. Others who had held onto the bridge swung back toward the opposite cliff.

  Two surviving trolls had carefully reached the front of the group the moment the bridge snapped. Scurrying ahead as the bridge fell, one troll grabbed onto the right pole, while the other dove into the cave’s entrance and landed inches away from Sebastian.

  “Child of Abasin,” it snarled at Sebastian after picking up his human scent.

  The evil troll had made the jump only to be greeted by Cecil Baskin’s fat foot.

  “Sniff this!” Cecil’s mighty kick hit the troll square on his nose and sent him sliding back past the cave’s entrance and over the edge.

  The remaining troll used the pole to climb into the cave before it thrust Cassius against the cave wall and sprang onto Ban Pan’s back.

  After a long wrestle with the savage creature, Ban Pan finally clutched its large nose and picked the smaller troll off of his back. In one fast move of his right arm, he threw the attacker into the abyss in full view of his fellow trolls that had climbed the vertical broken bridge to safety upon the opposite mountain.

  “Ban Pan Cackerin…the traitor,” announced one of the surviving trolls, smearing Ban Pan’s name. “You are a dead troll walking. No canyon or forest will ever be safe for you now,” another troll threatened as they marched off.

  “Thanks,” Cassius uttered, out of breath. He tapped the brave troll on his hairy shoulder while both continued their journey along the brightly-lit cave tunnel.

  “I’m a traitor,” Ban Pan sighed, slowly dropping to his knees.

  “Don’t listen to them…they chose to serve the False One,” Cassius said caringly.

  “Cassius is right, Ban Pan, they’ve made their choice. They chose Saul…if anyone is a traitor, it’s them,” Ariel insisted, putting her arm around the troll’s huge furry neck.

  “You did a brave thing, Master Troll. You fought for us against your own kind and protected the Brotherhood,” Cecil commended, smiling down at the saddened creature. “You stood up for what is right.”

  “And what is that? Betraying my own kind?” Ban Pan suddenly asked, brashly wiping away a tear, as he brushed by both protectors so no one would see.

  “It’s not about that no more,” muttered Cassius. “What species we are…it no longer matters, Ban Pan. It’s only us…and them.”

  Giving out a long sigh, Cassius hesitantly strolled behind the group through the narrow tunnel. The bounty hunter failed to notice a trail of toad slime directly above him, dripping onto his footprints as it followed his tracks. The group paced hastily toward the light without pausing for rest, oblivious of the toad-man that lingered above them, lurking in the shade with his body now camouflaged amongst the rocks. For once, the detestable traitor didn’t try to hide his current mood, for it fitted hand in glove with his plan. It was his only mood that shielded Trump from sight – deviousness.

  30

  Meeting the Pompertons

  Cassius shielded his eyes from the sunlight with one hand. It was a lot brighter on this side of the mountain and the area itself was a safer place to travel. If only they could find a way down.

  “This is great; what now?” shouted Ban Pan.

  “I’ll have to take each of you to the bottom, one by one,” Cecil suggested, stretching the muscles within his stitched wings, preparing them for the busy task ahead. “The hidden sanctuary lies across that lake. We’re lucky the fauns brought us this far.”

  “Your wings can’t take that amount of strain in their current state, Cecil. You’ll risk permanent damage,” Ariel said.

  “Plus, there is no way you can
lift Ban Pan,” Cassius agreed, raising his hands to the grumpy troll. “No offense, big guy.”

  “I’ll have to take that risk. We’ve no other choice,” Cecil insisted. A nervous twitch caused one of his wings to flutter and spasm. Cecil hissed in pain, shying away from the children in embarrassment. “On second thought, he’ll have to jump,” he added, pointing to Ban Pan.

  “We all will,” Cassius suggested reassuringly, smiling at all six of them. “We jump!”

  “What do you mean? Even at this side of the tunnel, that drop is nearly one hundred feet, and you expect us to just cut over the rocks,” argued Ban Pan. “You don’t even know if that lake is shallow or not.”

  “The water is deep, and the wind current will give us more than enough room to spare. I’m certain,” Cassius replied.

  “You’re certain. Well in that case, let’s all go for a dip then, eh?” the troll grunted back.

  “Ban Pan, stop bickering,” Ariel scolded, leaning over the cliff’s edge in order to better judge the distance between land and water.

  “It will save time, time we don’t have,” Cassius explained.

  “You’ve been here before, Cecil. What do you suggest?” Ariel asked, giving the pixie his chance to speak.

  “It was a long time ago, but I don’t recall ever coming this route before. The hidden sanctuary is an island shrouded by overhanging trees. Certain faun illusionists have fooled many passers into believing it is nothing more than an empty ravine,” Cecil said, speaking softly and keeping his finger pointed in the direction of the far lake and his eyes on Cassius.

  “What is your point?” Ban Pan asked curiously.

  “If we swim there and are unable to find anything right away, we could drown…that is…if we make this jump in the first place,” Cecil warned.