by Eli Ingle
The ground was soft underfoot and Rigel noticed tiny spores billowing up from where they were standing.
Stooping down, he scooped away the covering of light moss that was spread across the ground and shouted out with revulsion at the sight. Fungi, thick and beige, were growing beneath their feet, surrounded by black rotting soil that was covered in slime and had tiny black insects wriggling through it.
The forest was hiding something. While the ground looked innocent, healthy and beautiful on the surface, death and a horrible rot were setting in beneath it.
The other pilots grimaced at the sight of the mushrooms growing beneath their feet and hurried to move away from the exposed area.
As they passed one of the blossomed trees, Laurie, gripped by a suspicion that had formed when Rigel showed them the mushrooms, knocked some of the bark off the trunk with the butt of his rifle as he passed it. They all saw that the outer bark was a superficial covering, hiding a spongy black rot that festered beneath it. It pulsed with a rhythm. It was alive.”
“I don’t like this,” whimpered Rigel, fighting back revulsion.
“Me either,” said Tink.
“No. I don’t like it at all,” Laurie said, looking around at the woodland, weaving a path between the trees. “We need to hurry up and get through here though. It obviously isn’t safe. Come on! Let’s move.”
Hurrying forwards, they made their way through the woodland, careful to avoid pulling up the ground, the bark, or anything else for fear of exposing something horrible. The further they ventured into the woods, the more Rigel could not suppress the feeling that there was a sinister otherness overlooking their progress, waiting to trap them. He stumbled forwards, feeling claustrophobic.
“Is there no quicker way through?” he asked, feeling very frightened. Laurie shook his head.
“No. We’ve just got to keep going. Trust our instincts, and my instinct tells me to keep going forwards.”
So onwards they went, deeper into the forest. But just where a dark forest ought to become darker and more enclosed as they nearer the middle, this twisted woodland grew brighter and breezier the further they ventured in. It was a sinister façade, however, one that they could not ignore. They knew what lay beneath the tree bark and the mossy floor … and they did not even want to think about the birds in the branches above or the water running through the stream for fear of what the truth about those things might actually be.
Deeper and deeper they travelled until suddenly they burst forth from the woodland into a clearing of wildflowers and long grass that swished gently in the light breeze. In the centre of the clearing was a huge tree with branches that spanned as wide horizontally as they did vertically. They cast claw-like shadows across the ground towards the crew as the sun flared directly in their eyes, preventing anyone from getting a clear view much further ahead.
“I think …, yes, I think we’re in the right place,” said Laurie, as they crept further from the forest edge and nearer towards the central tree. The captain moved as if expecting something to jump out on them at any moment.
“You are,” came a high, soft voice from somewhere above them, “but don’t move another step or you’ll kill us all.”
Such statements spoken by a stranger are usually ignored but the group of pilots were still feeling so tense about the woodland from which they had just escaped that they obeyed.
Squinting up into the tree, Rigel tried to get a clear look at whoever had been speaking, but the glare from the sun in his eyes prevented any clear view.
“Step back from the tree!” said the voice, an underlying urgency straining the words. “Step back from i – ”
But too late. BAM! Something wide and heavy smacked into their chests, throwing them backwards almost to the end of the field again.
Hitting the floor with a bone-jarring thud, Rigel lay groaning and spluttering as pieces of soil and stones landed on him and the other pilots as they fell to the floor. A distant scream made him look up, blowing grass off his face. He stared up at the tree and for a moment his vision swam, splitting between two images and then one. He could barely make out what was happening, because what was actually happening was at first so incomprehensible that it would have been difficult to understand if his vision had been normal.
When it cleared, he finally understood.
The tree had come to life!
No.
Rigel could see that something had happened to the tree but its branches were too smooth, flexible, and fluid to be branches. It had changed. No, that was not right either. Then he remembered what was living in the tree whose bark they had pulled off and it made sense: one of the things that was living beneath had finally come forth and shown its true nature. The creature shifted, blocking the glare of the sun and Rigel gasped in shock as he saw it.
A creature as tall as the tree was standing in the centre of the field. At its base were tentacles, thick and undulous, that spread out in all directions as if to keep the creature stable. These were what had knocked the pilots across the field. Its body was thick and patterned with blue markings, its build almost like the tree in which it had lived. Its arms were huge, muscular, and almost as long as its body. Its hands were equally large with long thick fingers with claws like hooked talons. Its head was small and almost odd looking in comparison with a strong jaw with a horrific set of teeth – mangled yet razor sharp – in its maw, whilst massive liquid black eyes stared out from the top of its head. The person who had been speaking to them was trapped in one of the creature’s huge hands, talons overlapping whilst the girl wriggled and screamed, desperately trying to break free.
Rigel looked at Laurie, who nodded to him, and in that moment he knew: they were about to fight another battle. The pilots and Tink loaded their rifles. Spanner pulled a huge monkey wrench from his belt and Laurie took his pistol from its holster and held it ready.
“Charge!” Laurie shouted the war cry. It was immediately taken up by the rest of the crew. Rigel loosed his power until it was buzzing through his blood and crackling along his fingers. Together they all charged forwards.
Picking up speed, they ran across the field towards the creature. When they were about three-quarters of the way it seemed to notice them. Turning its head, it redirected its tentacles so it was facing them and let out a terrifying high-pitched roar. Finally they met. Tentacles flew, smashing Opal in the chest and Quimby across the face. Rifles were shot, blasting small pieces of the creature and sending black blood squirting at them. Rigel sent crackling streams of magic towards the creature. The tentacles spun and crashed into the ground, smashing chunks of the floor away and exposing the black rot that lay beneath it. They continued fighting until too much of the floor had been revealed and the crew had to retreat for fear of being caught in the unstable ground. The girl in the creature’s hand looked as though she was trying to fight as well: she was screaming curses and flashes of light would occasionally leak between its fingers but the creature’s hand was wrapped so tightly around her that her arms were pinned to her side, stopping her from doing any real damage. Amid the confusion, Rigel wondered about the light he saw the girl creating between the creature’s talons ….
The creature, sensing their hesitation after their slight retreat, drew its tentacles in and then up to its head, producing a protective sheet against their bullets, at which they continued to fire.
“Stop,” ordered Laurie, holding up a hand. “Rigel, see if you can shoot anything at it.”
Raising a hand, Rigel sent a ball of white light screaming towards the creature. It hit one of the upraised tentacles and rebounded away from it at a skewed angle towards the edge of the field, hitting one of the trees, which burst into white flames. The monster’s tentacles parted slightly around its face. They could see its black eyes twinkling maliciously and it pulled its mouth into a wicked grin, mocking them.
Before they could respond, it brought all its tentacles down at once, slamming them into the ground, sen
ding out shockwaves that made the pilots fall to the floor.
As they clambered to their feet again, it brought its tentacles in and spun around, fanning them out as it did so to produce a deadly new weapon. The spinning tentacles created a perimeter that prevented the crew from getting any closer. Its intelligence bothered Rigel – it was not going to be an easy monster to beat. Taking advantage of their pause, the creature turned its head to face the girl clutched in its hands. Drawing her closer, it snarled and bared its fangs whilst its hand slowly pressed in, squeezing the life from her body.
Just as her struggles became weaker, they noticed a light beginning to shine from between the creature’s fingers, sheets of white light that grew stronger until with a huge explosion the hand exploded as a blast of white light destroyed it from within. The shape of the girl could be seen to fall from where the hand had been, landing between the now writhing tentacles. She did not do what Rigel expected (which would have been to run towards them) but instead beckoned for him to come over to her.
“What should I do?”
“Go! She obviously has a plan!” said Laurie, pushing him forwards.
Bracing himself, Rigel charged forwards, left, right, duck, jump, over the writhing tentacles, only just managing to stay on the pieces of intact ground.
Stumbling to a halt at the base of the creature, he stood next to the girl. He barely had a chance to look at her before she grabbed his hand and held it tightly in hers.
“Do what I tell you to. When it turns its head towards us, shoot it at the same time. A stream of white energy. You know how to do that?” He nodded. “Good. Get ready. Here it comes!”
The creature was still roaring in agonised fury at the loss of its hand when it finally turned its head towards them. The liquid black eyes bored into them with hate and it bared its teeth, growling deep in its throat. The girl squeezed Rigel’s hand, indicating that he should ready himself. The creature bent its head lower, opening its mouth and –
They did it. Lifting their hands together, there was an unspoken but immediate apparent connection between the children. Without words or conscious thought they sent a stream of white light bolting towards the creature. It hit the inside of its mouth and exploded. Pulling Rigel to the floor, the girl covered their heads and faces to avoid the spray of blood and mucus that flew out from the impact point. Rigel heard only the splattering and cracking and groaning death noises it made as it fell to the floor. The magic coursed through its body, burning and melting it and ridding it of the evil inside, leaving it little more than a puddle of blood and goo, beneath and all over them.
There was a moment of shocked silence between the two children but then Rigel suddenly found himself crying and laughing at the same time as the shock of the moment finally overwhelmed him. At first he was embarrassed at his outpouring of emotion in front of this stranger, this girl, but then he realised that she was crying and laughing in hysterics too. So they lay there, holding each other, crying and howling with manic laughter in the vaporised puddle of the monster whilst the rotting ground pulsated beneath them.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Together the crew stumbled through the otherworldly forest. Rigel and the girl were still holding onto each other as they hurried across the moss-covered ground. They had not had time to introduce themselves. Rigel was certainly not planning on doing so until they were safely aboard the ship and flying away. As Rigel watched, he saw the trees slowly begin to heal. Fascinated, he saw the bark flow over the rot hiding inside, covering the fungus until the trees appeared healthy again. The shadows were replaced with fresh, dappled sunlight and they heard the bird song return. It was mesmerising to watch and they barely noticed as the time passed. The woodland looked innocent again as if the evil had dissipated: the underlying hint of shadow or darkness had ebbed away and the sunlight and flowers seemed pure and untainted now. It was as pleasing to the eyes as when they had first seen it, with blue blossom on the trees and the playful sound of the water running across stones in the silver river, although this time Rigel felt the lightness would stay now the evil had been destroyed.
“So the creature was destroyed and the original purity in the tree brought the forest back to life. How it used to look,” said the girl. Through her tired exterior, Rigel could see her eyes twinkling and a hint of a smile turned up the corners of her mouth.
“Move out,” commanded Laurie. “Back to the ship!”
Despite the change in the forest, they no longer wanted to stay a moment longer than they had to. They hurried across the plain until they reached the Kolya again. Folding down the ladder, Laurie allowed the pilots to climb up into the cockpit before following them and pulling it up.
As he shut the door, Rigel was overwhelmed with a feeling of safety. Here they were away from harm, able to fly away from any danger that could threaten them.
The pilots were already programming the co-ordinates home whilst Tink and Spanner had gone to heat up the boilers.
L’aroche was talking to Opal, and Rigel overheard what she was saying.
“We saved her! Do you know what this means? We can go home and it will be alright again! It’s going to be exactly as we remember it and our families will be okay!”
The pilots cheered and even Rigel, who had no family in Kozenia, joined in. To go back to that place as it should have looked was his great desire – the reason he had set off on this journey in the first place – and he enjoyed the fact that the pilots would be seeing their families again.
Rigel slumped to the floor, resting his head against the wall, and he realised that the girl had copied him. He felt her eyes boring into him, so he turned his head to get a better look at her.
Then jumped slightly when he saw her.
“You’re green!” he exclaimed.
“And?”
“Well … .” He pulled his head back to get a better look at her. She was not green all over; he saw now that it was her hair. Long hair tied back into two ponytails. It was full and sleek but green, a bright sunlight-on-leaves green. And so were her eyes, bottle green with a glassy shine. Then he looked at the rest of her. She was wearing a green dress that had intricate cubic patterns printed on it. Her fingernails were painted pale green. Finally her legs were covered in knee-length stripy green socks which were finished off by green baseball trainers. “Gosh,” he said lamely.
“Well you’re brown!” she said, as if this were highly unusual. “Who has brown hair?! It looks like mud … . I like your clothes though; they’re very cool.”
He smiled stupidly at her, unsure what he was supposed to say next, but she broke the silence.
“That was some neat fighting you did back there in the field.”
“Thank you. You didn’t do too badly yourself.”
“I didn’t, did I? I think that little trick of blowing the thing’s hand off worked quite nicely.”
“How did you do that? I find it really hard to control all this … magic. Is it magic?”
“Yes, I think so. At least, that’s what everyone told me I could do.”
“So I’m a wizard?”
“Oh, I don’t think so. Wizards have beards and live in towers. You don’t have a beard. Also, it would mean that I’m a wizard too, and I definitely don’t have a beard.”
“Well I don’t know. You look like you might have a moustache starting … .”
She gave him an outraged slap, but it was not as hard as it could have been. Rigel knew they were going to be friends.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Rigel.”
“That’s a nice name!”
“Thank you. What’s yours?”
“Mine’s Rona.”
“I like that.”
“Thank you.”
“So … why are you green?” he asked, unable to help himself.
“I don’t know,” she said, looking annoyed again. “It’s just the way I am. Why are you brown?!”
“Everyone is brown!”
“Really?”
“Well, sometimes they’re black or blonde or ginger.”
“Everyone here is green, or blue, or red … or any colour.”
“Cool! That does sound more interesting than being brown.”
“Yes it does, doesn’t it? You must be very bored of being brown.”
“I don’t really think about it.”
“I suppose.”
The engines rose to a higher pitch and finally they began to take off. Their conversation paused as they stood up to watch the ship’s progress.
“Wait a minute!” cried Rigel, suddenly struck by a thought. “You don’t know why we’re here and we’re going to take you to another world and you haven’t even asked and we haven’t even explained!”
“It’s fine,” she interrupted. “I know where we’re going and why and why you’re taking me.”
“But, how?”
“I don’t know … I just do.”
“But what about your family?”
“I don’t have a family,” she said quietly.
“You either?” asked Rigel, patting her arm.
He explained to her what his life had been like before the Persefoni had picked him up and then he ended up telling her everything that had happened to them since. She told him her own story as the ship navigated into the sky and then through a wormhole back to Kozenia.
“I’ve never had a family; I had vague recollections of something but I don’t know what it was,” said Rona. “There were pictures of someone – I thought she was my mother, but she looked identical to me.
“I’ve always been different … the other children never liked me and no adults would listen to me. So I just sort of … existed, being scared mostly.
“Then the Shadow came. There were creatures that started wandering around at night and then in the day. Things started growing in the forest and poisoned it. It used to be a magical place where many of the healers and shamans would go to find ingredients and perform ceremonies but then they stopped going there – it became too dangerous. People got scared. Some went away and others tried to stay and fight – to organise rallies against the Shadow – but it never worked. More and more got killed until it was virtually a ghost town. Then the people who did stay started to change … . It was horrible. So I had to escape. I knew there was a tree in the middle of the woodland. Apparently it was the most sacred tree in the world and was supposed to protect people in times of darkness. So I went there, but in time even that became infected. The last bastion against a forest full of darkness … and despite its power the tree couldn’t hold out against the evil anymore. The tree protected me for a while but then the creature sort of became the tree … I don’t really understand it. But it lurked within, dormant, waiting to come out. That’s when you came. Fortunate really, because I don’t think I’d have been able to fight it alone … so thank you.”
