Scatterbungle

by Edrei Cullen

  ‘Ellllla, nooooo,’ Charlie called out to her. How was he to protect Ella if she was Possessified by the Duke? What could the Duke possibly have said to break her spirit and her strength? ‘Don’t let him beat youuuuu,’ he yelled out, spinning about under Arnold’s feet.

  Somewhere, somehow, Charlie’s protective voice resonated in what was left of Ella. She shook her head and her hair turned to honey again. She mustn’t let the Duke overwhelm her. She mustn’t.

  She tensed her body, concentrating hard on what she was here to do. She was Ella Montgomery, the Clearheart. She was the leader of the Flitterwig Five who needed to combine powers in order to wash away the Scatterbungle.

  But then she remembered what the Duke had revealed to her. The one thing he knew would take her down. The key to her heart.

  He had told her of the amber cocoons and who was encased inside them. He threatened to pulverise them if she didn’t do his bidding.

  Ella’s will left her once more. Her hair striped black and white. The veins at her temple pulsed and she was Possessified by the Duke again.

  chapter 29

  carpets & cacophony

  In the light of the moon and the burgeoning flames, Charlie could see his friends trying to dodge the Giants’ stomping feet. As Thomas, Bolgus, Arnold and Mabel launched themselves at one another in a full-blown battle of fisty cuffs, the Duke (still controlling Ella) shot a tirade of grey but ever, ever so potent elf dust at Thomas’s head.

  Thomas fell back.

  Charlie called for the Flitterwigs to follow him. They tipped themselves back over the hillock, out of immediate danger.

  There were no flames in the valley, but Charlie was beside himself. His feet were moving so fast that they kept burying into the ground as he ran. Dixon was apoplectic with panic. Samantha did her best to calm everyone by casting Ponkaluckas out of her eyes, full of pullyaselftogedda wishes. Humphrey tried hard to think. Gloria and Max just blinked–they both knew there was something about Ella that had got them here, to the Highlands, behaving strangely, but she was obviously someone way more important than they had ever imagined.

  As the pullyaselftogedda wish hit him, Charlie clutched hard at his feet to calm them. He closed his eyes. He had to think. He had to find the magic inside him. He had to trust his instincts. That was what Ella always did.

  What was it Ella thought was his part in the team? To trust in Nature. The thing he’d never been okay about. Okay. He would try to do that. But he was also her Protector. He MUST know how to protect her, surely.

  He opened his eyes. ‘Dixon?’ he called out. Dixon was tearing at his cap and smashing his head against Humphrey’s nobbly shoulder.

  ‘Yes?’ said Dixon, soothed by either Charlie’s voice or another pullyaselftogedda flung from Samantha’s Ponkalucka wishes. He stood to attention and took a deep breath.

  ‘What would Ella do right now?’ Charlie asked him.

  ‘Be Magical and Humanical at the same time,’ said Dixon nodding his head fiercely. Humphrey flicked his head up, and his thick, black hair flew out of his eyes, whipping Dixon on the way. ‘Ooya,’ said Dixon, ducking.

  Charlie looked at the pixie hopefully.

  ‘You’re a team, gleam!’ Dixon cried. ‘You’re all supposed to work together and draw out your hidden magics! Remember? December. That’s what Ella’s been encouragungling you to do, poo, yoo, hooooo!’ He scratched his head. ‘In fact, that’s all Ella’s really been going on about for ages now. Rhymes with how. Brown cow!’

  ‘He’s right,’ said Humphrey, pulling the pixie off his shoulder and holding him up like the little champion he was. They could hear the rumbling and snorting and heaving of the Giants above and beyond them.

  ‘We have to be quick!’ said Charlie. ‘The Giants won’t be able to stay awake for long above the ground and the Duke is sure to notice we’re missing once they all fall asleep.’

  Charlie willed his latent powers up and out of himself. He was incredible with plantlife, he told himself.

  The grass and stone under his feet began to roll up and out into a carpet-like wave. As Charlie scrambled up upon it, his body began to shine a royal purple. Dixon threw himself out of Humphrey’s hand and chased Charlie, scrambling up his leg, before the Scatterbungle could get him.

  ‘You’re the Protector, Charlie, barley,’ he called out. He was feeling utterly better now he was around all the Keys!

  There was silence for a moment while everyone tried to concentrate and stop staring in awe at Charlie on top of the wavering carpet of stone and earth and grass.

  ‘And I know it’s okay now to want to master my rightful Salamander powers,’ Max said calmly, following Charlie’s lead. Max knew at once that fighting with fire was probably his strongest weapon, now he had overcome his fear of it.

  He tweaked his ear and set his hair on fire. He threw out his hands and lit the ends of his fingers. He spun around and tried to shoot fire from them. It came out a little squiffy, but it worked!

  Max was aglow in a flaming, fiery red, even brighter than his Key. He followed Charlie up onto the surging carpet and held tight to its edge.

  Gloria gulped. She realised she was as worried as the rest of the Flitterwigs about Ella’s safety now. She really wanted Ella to be okay.

  She splayed out her arms in two long branches as she followed and wrapped them around the Spirit Trees beside them. She began to whisper in a voice that didn’t make any sense as her body glowed a rich green. Everyone looked at her. She looked really amazing.

  ‘I’ve asked the Spirit Trees to help us,’ she said, and her body shone a bright green. Brighter than the Key protecting her body from the Scatterbungle. ‘I’m part of the team after all, aren’t I?’ she said, looking down her pointy nose defensively. The Spirit Trees stretched their boughs over the ridge, in search of Arnold and Mabel.

  Humphrey who had been staring up at the moon, sped down into the valley.

  ‘And I have the power of my people back, too,’ he said solemnly. ‘It’s a dream come true!’ he called out loud, putting one hand above him and tweaking his ear with the other. That’s what Ella had revealed to him in his memory. That he’d given up on his dreams. The moon seemed to light up the night sky entirely for an instant. Humphrey wanted to make the weather do his bidding, like his forefathers.

  And that’s just what he did. Again. He shone a most iridescent steel blue, and the clouds opened and the rain fell harder. Right into the bowl of the valley it fell in thick showers. The magical fires were powerless against it.

  There was an almighty sound of crashing and thudding over the ridge. The vibrations shuddered underfoot. And then the sound of snoring broke the air. The Giants had fallen asleep.

  Samantha stood wondering what she was supposed to do when the whirring, boiling noise of a machine tugatugatugatugatuging filled the air. The Flitterwigs looked up. It was a helicopter! She hoicked herself up to join her friends. Who was in the helicopter?

  Humphrey ran up the hill and jumped on the grassy, stony carpet. ‘Let’s go, guys,’ Charlie yelled, praying to Magic that Ella hadn’t been crushed as the Giants fell.

  chapter 30

  helicopters & humanity

  The shining Flitterwigs flew over the hill on Charlie’s makeshift magic carpet of stones and grass as the helicopter came down to land.

  Its arrival stopped the Duked Ella in her tracks. The Dukified parts of Ella stared in admiration at the beautiful petrol-guzzling, fume-blowing beast as it blew the air into a frenzy and landed. Magical fires flared spontaneously as more and more Scatterbungle leaked out of the gaping hole in the ground.

  The Duke’s distraction gave Ella a moment to rally herself. Where was she? Who was she? Oh gosh, she thought. She was the Duke and the Duke was her.

  The Duke writhed against the sudden return of her awareness. Ella writhed back. She drew up every part of her she could to battle his presence inside her. The Duke screamed against her growing clearheartedness. Ella’s heart s
welled more. He screamed again. She needed to stay strong, stay herself.

  ‘I will pulverise the amber cocoons if you don’t do what I tell you!’ the Duke screeched, instantly transforming Ella’s returned strength to mush. The Clearheart stalled and disappeared again.

  Ella’s father stepped out of the helicopter, followed by Manna and Mr P. Within seconds, Manna and Mr P were choked by the Scatterbungle in the air. But Mr Montgomery wasn’t affected at all.

  ‘Ella,’ he yelled out in the dark. All he could see were fragments of his daughter, lit up by the moon. Was it fog that made her hard for him to see? And then he could see five children approaching her at such speed, they almost seemed not to touch the ground. He really couldn’t be sure in the dark, and because he was simply human, he couldn’t see the Giants snoring near his feet. Nor could he see the Spirit Trees winding their roots up out of the Earth around Mabel’s vast ankles. He couldn’t see the branches, either, coming out of Gloria’s arms and grabbing at Ella. He couldn’t see their natural flying carpet.

  He could only see Ella’s silhouette convulsing strangely, appearing and disappearing before his eyes.

  Ulnus and Saul moved about the moors, dodging flames, their brows sweating, their faces pale, their magical abilities gone, in spite of their gasmasks. The fumes were too powerful. There wasn’t a Troggle in sight but the whole area was suffused in the noxious gas now. And yet, Father’s human self was completely unaffected.

  ‘Ella,’ he shouted out to his daughter.

  The care and concern in his voice, its warmth and tenderness and love stirred Ella back.

  ‘Dad?’ she called out. And it was her voice, not the Duke’s that came out of the repulsive body.

  The Duke fought hard against her.

  ‘I will destroy the cocoons if you defy me,’ the Duke’s mind told Ella’s again. The Duke spun Ella’s body about.

  Five Flitterwigs, four of them burning bright with determination and magic floated before him on a magical carpet of grass and rocks and soil. One red, on fire; another green, her arms reaching out for his throat; another the colour of a steely blue moon blasting him with a torrent of wind that threw him back on his feet. The other was without colour. Then there was Charlie.

  The Duke recognised the boy. Except today, his spiky hair and ridiculous freckles shone as purple as Royal Magic itself. The boy stood so firm, so protective, that it shook the Duke’s foundations, reminding him of his past, reminding him of Magic and Nature and everything he used to stand for.

  The sight of the boy threw the Duke’s concentration long enough for Ella to call out again.

  ‘Dad?’ she cried.

  ‘Ella?’ Mr Mongomery called out.

  ‘Yes, it’s your dad!’ Charlie yelled. ‘Come on Ella, you can do it! You’re stronger than the Duke!’

  Mr Montgomery was close to Ella now. She could almost feel him. With a supreme act of will, she shut out the threats that the Duke screamed through her head. Her father was here! To get her! Because he loved her! And that was a certainty. A truth. With a supreme wrench, she tried to cast the Duke out of her body.

  ‘Dad,’ she called out, feeling the Duke’s power faltering against her will. She prepared to launch herself in the air to fly to her father. But before she could take off, she was shocked to the spot. The Duke cast a blistering laser of Dust toward Mr Montgomery.

  ‘Nooooooooooooo,’ cried Ella, diving forward, but the Duke Possessified her again at once, stopping her in her tracks.

  ‘Noooooooooooooo,’ cried Samantha. She swooped in front of Mr Montgomery to block the laser, but in his haste to reach his daughter, he knocked her clear out of the way and took the hit himself.

  The Duke’s elf dust had absolutely no effect on him whatsoever! He was fine! Unchanged!

  Samantha, on the other hand, was now glowing such a beautiful warm, golden yellow that she lit up the night like a sun. Her act of selflessness had lit up her entire body, not just her Key.

  Mr Montgomery looked at his daughter. He couldn’t see the Duke overwhelming her features. ‘I knew it, Ella,’ he said, the warmth in his voice rallying her. ‘I knew you were going to come here, chasing what was written in your mother’s diaries. I read them too. And that’s okay, but just come to me darling. You don’t have to chase the past. It’s the past and I’m here now. We’ll be okay, just you and I.’

  His voice, his care, his completely human inability to see any of the Magical dreadfulness surrounding him strengthened Ella by the second, and called to the Clearheart inside her.

  Her heart welled. Her hair spun. Her ears burned. Her wings burst out of her shoulderblades and the Magic inside her swirled and twirled and built and breathed with such strength, that the Duke, in spite of his writhing and pulsing and desperate battling against her, was spun out of her body like a tornado of blackness.

  Her father wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. She looked about her, to see her friends shining in the night.

  ‘You’re here!’ she called out to them.

  The Duke crashed to the ground in a heap. Ragwald was with him in an instant, dragging him away from the Clearheart, patting his brow and asking the plants about him to cover the deathly creature up. He had to protect him. He had to hide him. The Duke had come undone!

  Ella checked the surrounds. Saul and Ulnus were lying on the ground, choking, metres away from the massive hulks of the sleeping Giants. Gloria flew to her father. The power from her Key strengthened the two Flitterwigs slightly.

  Max strode over to Manna and Mr P and put his arms around their unconscious frames. They came to. The protective powers of his Key was growing stronger as his own strength grew.

  ‘Is Dixon here?’ Ella asked blurrily, looking for Charlie. ‘He sure is,’ said Charlie, stepping forward. The pixie jumped from Humphrey to Charlie to Ella in an instant, and stretched his arms about her neck, his little face speckling her with kisses.

  The Flitterwigs looked for the Duke, but he had disappeared. Ragwald had made the landscape weave about him so he could not be seen, not that anyone else knew that. They looked at the little Goblin Protector. He put his hands up and shrugged. ‘Gone,’ he said.

  The Giants were waking. Their great, heaving bodies, as they sat up, loomed like hills. Ella was up in the air, flying high. Beneath her, Arnold and Mabel battled the Spirit Trees’ grip, as magical flames licked across the moors.

  There was no time left to waste, Ella felt it in her bones. She called to her friends to follow her. They had to rid the land of the Scatterbungle, once and for all.

  Samantha turned to Ella’s father and grabbed his hand. ‘Come with us,’ she cried. ‘And believe.’

  And for an instant, Mr Montgomery thought that Sam had actually turned yellow.

  The Flitterwigs flew and ran and carried themselves on the wind back into the bowl of the valley. It was full of water from Humphrey’s rainfall.

  ‘Look for a well!’ Ella called out, the sight of the newly-formed pond making the Magic inside her whisper ancient messages. ‘I don’t know what kind of well, but there’s a well in there somewhere!’

  The Flitterwigs scoured the water. They couldn’t find a thing. Mr Montgomery, a little dishevelled from having been flown across the valley in Gloria and Samantha’s arms called out.

  ‘Ella, I have to get you out of here. It’s not safe. I can feel it.’

  Feel it. He blinking well knew it! He was flying, for pete’s sake!

  And then Ella sensed it. She dove down into the valley and hovered above the lake of water. She pointed down. In the centre of the lake was a reflection. The reflection of an old well, encrusted with locks. Charlie was down the hill and swimming to the centre of the lake at once.

  The other Flitterwigs followed.

  ‘Ella,’ Mr Montgomery ordered his daughter from the bank of the pond, ‘get over here at once! It’s freezing out there.’

  He scratched his head. Had his daughter just flown into that pond? He reall
y couldn’t be sure, but all of a sudden a bit of cold Scottish water didn’t seem like a terribly big deal at all.

  Looking around her, Ella noticed that each of them were treading water around the well’s circumference. ‘We’ve come full circle,’ she said.

  Charlie pulled the Key from around his neck and tried to fit it into a lock. No luck. Swimming around the well and trying each one, his Key entered the third lock and turned.

  Humphrey followed suit. Second lock worked!

  Gloria copied. First time!

  Max’s Key slotted into the fifth hole.

  There was only the fourth to fill. Samantha’s Key slotted in smoothly.

  The effect was overwhelming! A fountain of such magnitude and light sprung out of the well and so high into the air that it fairly dazzled everyone! It shimmered and shone and warmed up the water about them as it fell. It smelt powerfully of cinnamon and rain and orange peel. And it sprayed out across the valley, up its side and over the hill like a rush of fresh air.

  And as it drew back in, rather than pouring forward any further, it pulled everyone with it. Flitterwigs, Giants, a human and three Magicals, Dixon, the Duke and his Protector, three cocoons of amber crystal. Sucked them all in, it did.

  And then it disappeared!

  chapter 31

  miracles & mothers

  Out of the Portality pond at Hedgeberry everyone was flung in the wake of the fountainous spray. More than a fountain now, it was a waterfall, a wave, a flood of water. It veritably poured itself across the grounds, sending bewildered humans, cocoons, Magicals and Flitterwigs alike, flying. Magical fires were quenched at its touch.

  Ella sailed on the back of its spray and laughed! It was as if the whole night had been lit up! It was wondrous.