“My brother? He can be a pain.”
“On the mission he will behave as Oisin, a Celtic hero.”
“Will I go tell him?”
“He needs to be holding your hand as you call up the Time-line. Then he will arrive alongside you in the new Time-line.”
“And how will we get back?”
Kate had asked a practical question and Danu was pleased.
“Call 8504922 as I said, that is your Time-line Kate.”
“What if I forget or dial the wrong number in my head?”
“Find a mirror if you can and then call me. You leave one Time-line by calling up another, but be careful, some are terrible places.”
“Terrible?”
“Time-lines are possibilities Kate. For example, what happened when Saturn became the Sun? Or for example, what happened when the moon crashed to earth. Every possibility has a Time-line.”
Kate thought about it.
“The Time-line I visit, is it possible that there is another similar Time-line where I did not visit?”
“When you visit a Time-line you affect its future Kate. Time-lines are very complicated.”
“What is your Time-line Danu?”
“My Time-line is called ‘Tir-na-n’ogh’, that is Gaelic for the land of the young. In my Time-line nobody really grows old. Someday I will tell you the number. It is a very special place.”
“Can I visit?”
“If you visit it is very hard to return, so maybe once, maybe a lot later Kate.”
“O.K. I’d like to visit you.”
“Kate do you remember the numbers I gave you?”
“I’ve written them down in my book of spells.”
“Don’t lose the numbers as you need them to return.”
“No worry.”
“Kate, I believe you told me your brother has a collection of stones?”
“Yes?” Kate was surprised at the turn of the conversation. “My dad is an amateur Geologist and he collects unusual rocks and things.”
“This is why you are chosen for the mission Kate. You must bring a particular meteorite stone with you. One that contains iridium, a rare metal.”
“Iridium?”
“Iridium is brought to your Time-line by the impact of meteorites.”
“I think Dad gave his collection to Ben.”
“Get Ben to bring that meteorite stone please.”
“Right.”
“Remember Kate, this is very important…”
“What?” Kate asked as Danu paused.
“All time-lines are at the exact same time Kate.”
“Yes?”
“But Kate each time-line is a different possibility.”
“So what is happening there is happening in the same minute as in every other Time-line?”
“In the same second, minute, hour and year, Kate.”
“OK.”
“But Kate different histories have taken place in each time-line.”
“So they will be in the present time but not the same world, different things will be happening?”
“Well done Kate I knew you would be quick.”
“Fine, thanks.”
“Kate the world you go to will be modern but not like you know it.”
“What will it be like?”
“Kate you won’t be there for long but be prepared to be surprised.”
“And what do you want me to do Danu?”
“Kate I want you to go to 4941072 and there you will meet a lost boy called Conchobar.”
“Lost?”
“Well Kate he seems to have de-activated his Bracelet, which is the same as yours Kate.”
“De-activated? Does this mean it won’t work?”
“Right Kate. He took it off in the portal, and this has de-activated it.”
“He’s in the portal?”
“He is in the same portal as you Kate. He came to the fairy field but from a different time-line and he went to time-line 4941072.”
“So if I go to 4941072?”
“Yes Kate you will arrive in the Portal, in the Fairy Field, but it will be in a different time-line.”
“How do you know this Conchobar is in the Portal?” Kate asked.
“Our systems tell us the Bracelet was de-activated in the portal. We need you to go there and get Conchobar and if you can to re-activate his bracelet.”
“Using this Iridium?”
“Well-understood Kate. You should only be a few hours.”
The image began to fade and Kate climbed back under her bedcovers. Her brain was busy as she planned her mission.
She decided Ben should have his Hurley stick for protection, if needed. And she decided one backpack should be enough. Ben would carry everything in his backpack, including her book of spells and the meteorite stone.
She would explain all to Ben. Well maybe not all but enough to persuade Ben to accompany her to the mound in the Fairy Fort, the Portal to other time-lines.
Chapter five
King Olaf
“What next Kate,” Ben said as they arrived in the fairy mound under the Blackthorn Bushes.
“I don’t know why I am doing this,” Ben added.
“We need to,” Kate insisted.
“I should still be in bed asleep.”
“This is not a dream, we are on a mission,” Kate pointed out.
“It’s cold.”
“And you are Oisin, Celtic hero and my guardian,” she added.
“Why did you make me come to the Fairy Fort at this hour?”
Ben was uncomfortable, hardly able to see Kate in the dark just before dawn, and not really listening.
“The Fairy Fort is the portal,” Kate clarified, adding, “We have to save someone.”
As Kate explained she opened Ben’s backpack.
He couldn’t see because it was on his back.
“We have some sweets and some water, would you like some?” Ben offered.
“Is there a torch in the backpack, and some chocolate?” Kate asked.
“Yes, and I brought my Hurley Stick.” Ben said waving the stick, which he held in his hand.
“So you did.”
“But you insisted.”
“We have to hold hands.”
“What?”
“Now.”
There was a flash of blue light, but if felt as if nothing had happened.
“What next?” Ben asked.
“Ssssh, I think he is coming,” Kate whispered.
“We should be home very soon,” she added.
They waited, listening to the noise at the narrow entrance through the Blackthorn.
Someone was coming.
“Did you bring the Meteorite stone?” Kate whispered.
“Yes,” Ben said but why do you want it?”
“Where is it?”
“It’s in my back pack beside the chocolate.”
He began to wonder was he really there or was he still in bed having a dream.
“Someone is coming in,” Kate hissed urgently.
Ben shone his torch in the direction of the noise.
The large Orang-utan froze as he came into the light of Ben’s torch, eyes gleaming in reflection of the light.
Ben nearly dropped the torch in amazement.
“You’re an Orang-utan,” Kate said. “I’ve seen you in the zoo.”
Ben raised his Hurley stick in his free hand and braced himself while keeping the torch on line. The Orang-utan looked very strong.
The Orang-utan made gesture as it spoke, a combination of sign language and voice, and Kate found that she could understand, whereas all Ben noticed was gibberish.
“I am King Olaf,” the Orang-utan said. “This is my place, you must leave or I kill you.”
“Nonsense,” Kate said firmly.
Olaf held back unsure of what he was up against.
“We are looking for Conchobar. He’s a thirteen-year-old human boy. Have you seen him? He is supposed to be her
e.”
“You are humans?” Olaf said, a cunning gleam coming into his eye.
“Conchobar is a troubled teenager. He ran away from home, we were sent by Danu to fetch him.”
Olaf folded his huge muscular hairy arms, now relaxed. He knew he was well a match for two human children and felt more in control.
“One like you came to here, into this that is my place, for me only, the place of King Olaf.”
“Yes?” Kate said, trying not to be impatient, she was not used to long-winded Orang-utans.
“So I gave him to the Raptors. They gave me bananas,” Olaf said with a wave of his arms.
“The Raptors?” Kate asked wide-eyed.
“The Masters,” Olaf explained.
“You gave Conchobar to Raptors?” Kate was outraged.
“Yes, they farm this land, we are all their food.”
“Food?”
“Your sort, human sort very tasty for Raptors, gourmet food. They give many bananas.”
“Nonsense,” Kate was cross. “No one eats Orang-utans. You can’t be food, why would they give you bananas if they want to eat you?”
“Call me King Olaf,”
Olaf disliked the tone in Kate’s voice and drew himself up, speaking with full authority but without obvious menace.
“Very well King Olaf,” Kate conceded, sensing he was becoming annoyed.
Ben watched them with a bemused expression, holding the torch steady. He could hear Kate’s side of the conversation and understood she and the big hairy ape were having some sort of a conversation.
“We better put out the magic light,” Olaf added, referring to Ben’s torch, which was beginning to hurt his eyes.
“Why?” Kate asked nervously.
“If they see light they will come.”
“Who?” Kate asked, adding, “Ben, lower the torch, point at the ground.”
“The Raptors,” Olaf said, beginning to wonder if humans were as intelligent as rumour had it they were.
Kate reluctantly told Ben to put out the torch.
She was in enough confusion talking to Orang-utans and was scared of having to deal with Raptors.
The mission was not going as smoothly as Danu had said it would.
She remembered Danu’s parting advice, ‘if there are any complications whatever return immediately and take no risks.’
But Kate did not want to fail on her mission and felt she needed to know more.
But Danu had also warned, ‘never leave the Fairy Mound because it is the portal for your return.’
Kate wondered what to do next as she heard the Orang-utan shuffle about.
Their eyes were becoming accustomed to the dark and soon it would be light and already the sun was beginning to create the early glow of dawn.
“What is outside?” Kate asked.
“We are in a field and there are cliffs down to the sea. The Farmhouse is in the next field and behind us the field runs up into the woods where my people live.”
“Your people are Orang-utans?” Kate sought to clarify.
Olaf snorted at the obvious question.
“Soon this field is full of Orang-utan,” he explained.
“What did he say, are you having a conversation Kate?” Ben asked in frustration.
“They feed us at dawn,” Olaf continued.
“It is getting very hot,’ Ben complained.
“Be patient Ben, the temperatures can be different in this time-line,” Kate said impatiently.
“By mid-day it will be a warm as a jungle.”
“Can you take us to Conchobar?” Kate asked Olaf, ignoring Ben’s remark, which of course Olaf only heard as sound not understood.
King Olaf seemed to consider, but Kate was worried as it was too dark to see what expression was on his face.
When Olaf spoke his voice was friendly and accommodating.
“You humans stay until dawn. I will bring you to the Farmer at feeding time.”
“The Raptor?” Kate asked in a horrified tone.
“He will be pleased and give me lots of bananas.”
“But…”
“He will take you to your other human. He will feed you also.”
“O.K.” Kate said.
Kate explained to Ben. Ben produced some chocolate and passed it round.
“More!” King Olaf demanded when he got his first taste.
“In the morning, when we are safe,” Kate insisted.
But it was already sunrise.
Outside they began to hear a hubbub as numerous Orang-utan came down from the woods and began to assemble for feeding time.
Danu had explained to Kate about ‘Tir-na-nogh.’
“Here in ‘Tir-na-nogh’,” she had said, “no one grows old. Aging stops at age fifty-five. Also here every year takes fifty years of your normal time.”
“So it takes one thousand two hundred and fifty years to get to be twenty five?” Kate had calculated, horrified it took so long to grow up.
“Conchobar’s parents died. It was then he became troublesome, he’s a very troubled teenager.”
“Died? But I thought they couldn’t grow old?”
“Not in ‘Tir-na-nogh’, but if we travel to another Time-line the blessing of ‘Tir-na-nogh’ becomes a curse.”
“A curse?”
“If we touch the earth in another Time-line then we of ‘Tir-na-nogh’ age to that Time-line equivalent in seconds. This is due to obscure laws of physics and we accept this as a price for immortality.”
“Is this what happened to Conchobar’s parents?”
“Conchobar’s parents died on a special mission in another Time-line.”
“So Conchobar could have aged and died after he ran away?” Kate had reasoned.
“You may find his bones Kate and if you do I’m sorry. But when we travel we wear protective clothing, it is only if his skin touches the soil, so hopefully he is wearing clothes, shoes and gloves. He has to be very careful.”
“So he ran away to Time-line 4941072?”
“Yes, and in that Time-line the Meteor that hit earth and destroyed the dinosaurs does not happen. The Meteor is caught in the gravity of Saturn and does not hit earth and the dinosaurs continue to evolve to your present time.”
“And humans?”
“As far as we know there are humans, but an endangered species due to over-hunting.”
Kate had swallowed hard.
“Rest,” Olaf said making a relaxed gesture for them to sit.
“Soon you will meet the Raptors,” he promised.
Chapter six
Raptors
“What do we do?” Ben whispered as the dawn began to creep through the Blackthorns.
They could make out clearly the shape of King Olaf where he snored and snorted, lying across the exit, blocking any escape.
“We can’t go back without Conchobar, he’s sure to be eaten,” Kate replied in a low voice.
Kate explained to Ben what Olaf had said about Raptors and food.
“They might eat us,” Ben countered.
But as Oisin, hero of Irish folklore, he was ready to guard his queen Danu, even if she was his sister Kate.
The shuffling noise outside increased in intensity as the sun rose above the horizon.
What sounded like a foghorn sounded out across the field and the hubbub grew in volume.
Olaf snorted and awoke with a jump. He eyed Ben and Kate suspiciously but was pleased when Ben shared the remainder of the chocolate.
“We go feed now,” King Olaf said, indicating they should follow him.
“What ever happened to you?” Kate asked
Kate couldn’t help noticing in the improved daylight that Olaf had a limp and had large scars across his back.
King Olaf was pleased with the question.
“I am old now,” he explained. “The farmer makes me king. I survived the slaughter field. But I escaped wounded.”
“Wounded, the scars are a part of that?�
� Kate asked.
“The Raptors let me go but they showed me how to stay alive. They show how.”
“How?”
“If they want to feed I bring fresh Orang-utan into the slaughter field but they let me out the far end.”
“Like a ‘Judas goat’” Kate said, but Olaf just looked puzzled and indicated they should follow him.
The Fairy field served as a grassed clearing up to the fence. But beyond the low wall of the Fairy Field to the rear there was a forest.
From out of the forest hundreds of Orang-utan were making their way across the fairy field towards the feeding bays. Behind the feeding bays and the high fence they could see the farmhouse and its outbuildings.
“There is no proper food in the forest,” King Olaf explained as they walked across.
The other Orang-utan regarded them with curiosity but gave way in deference to Olaf anytime they approached.
King Olaf gestured to the forest and towards the big fence. “This is the Raptor Farmer’s land,” he explained. “Outside for as far as forever there is a big world where it is very unsafe for Orang-utan.”
“But in here they eat you,” Kate countered.
“This is our world,” King Olaf said sadly.
But he immediately brightened up.
“They will like you two,” he said, “give me major bananas.”
“You like bananas,” Kate remarked with a smile rather than a question as the answer seemed obvious.
“Yes, but they grow very far away. The Farmer gets them for us for feeding.”
As they came nearer to the feeding area, Kate and Ben stood in amazement.
They could see the raptors working machinery and loading the feeding bays. Busily they threw in leaves and bananas and berries, and the Orang-utan crowded about eagerly.
The Raptors were about eight feet from head to toe. They had a long tapering tail almost as long again. Their legs seemed powerful and on the end of each foot they had a huge claw, which they used to slash bales of bananas while manoeuvring them with their clawed hands.
The Raptors were wearing blue overalls but their long tails protruded from the rear end and Kate was taken with the green and blue feathers that covered their bare shoulders and arms and served as hair on their doglike heads.
They had savage mouths full of sharp teeth and sharp hard little eyes. Their eyebrows seemed to be curled feathers and their ears stuck up sharply on the sides of the heads like an alert dog, except that they seemed to be covered in small feathers rather than fur.
Kate and the Raptor Dinosaurs Page 3