Magnus and the Jewelled Book of the Universe

by S. L. Browne

  The first thing she did when she arrived at the climbing trees was to hang upside down from a branch and throw blackberries at Frolic the Troodon, who chased them and ran in circles making them laugh. Moth the Spinosaurus really wanted to climb the tree as well and be with Magnus, so he spent most of the time trying to climb up the rough bark with his two little front legs. This was both funny and a little sad at the same time, because there was no way the dinosaur could get even a small way up the tree. He never gave up, though, which Magnus thought showed character.

  Em hung upside down from the tree and Magnus sat on the branch and watched the wading dinosaurs and predators like Baryonix arrive for their morning fish. There was a species of Iguanadon that spent most of the time walking in the water like a dinosaur version of a hippo, and a type of small fast-swimming dinosaur fish with a pointy snout that jumped out and caught flies. Magnus had no idea what it was.

  He liked to watch the brightly-coloured Triceratops herds with their babies, and the Velociraptors trying, but always failing, to bite the ankles of the baby Brachiosaurs whose parents made the ground shake as they wandered over for a long drink. It was strange to see all the dinosaurs together. There didn’t seem to have been any extinctions on this Earth, so Spinosauruses mixed with T. Rexes and Allosauruses. It took some getting used to, but Marlo said that probably the Deruweld had kept the dinosaurs alive by rescuing them and feeding them, when on the other Earth they had died out for various reasons that had never happened on this Earth.

  Em watched too, her face filled with happiness. She never grew tired of this new experience. She loved the animals too. Today, though, something felt wrong. She swung back up onto the branch and watched. There was something on the wind and it wasn’t good. It tickled her insides and squirmed into her brain and made her heart beat faster than normal.

  Out of the bushes to the north she heard a terrifying roar followed by the crushing of branches and the skittering noise of lots of dinosaurs running very fast. Eventually, out of the bushes ahead blundered a huge male T. Rex. He was tormenting a staggering juvenile Triceratops who was badly wounded from a bite on its front left leg.

  Magnus sat up. He didn’t really like watching the dinosaurs being eaten and he swallowed and stared. It made him feel a bit queasy.

  Em, on the other hand, stared open-mouthed, and then she did something quite unexpected. She climbed down from the tree and started walking towards the T. Rex.

  Moth and Frolic stopped and stared, but they sensibly didn’t move and watched the T. Rex with wide, frightened eyes.

  Magnus nearly fell out of the tree in shock.

  “Come back,” he shouted.

  She didn’t appear to hear him and carried on waking towards the huge, raging T. Rex and the squealing Triceratops. The other dinosaurs had retreated to a safe distance, their leisurely drink interrupted for now.

  Magnus realised he couldn’t let her go alone, so he clambered down too and raced after her. He noticed that she was looking intently towards the top of a little hill and not at the T. Rex. He followed her gaze, but all he could see were some bushes on top of a hill. The squeals of the young Triceratops to his right were distressing, but he couldn’t look. For Magnus, the idea that big dinosaurs ate little dinosaurs was something he would rather just know about and not actually watch. Triceratops was one of his favourites too.

  So he watched Em, who did a very strange thing. She started to run towards the T. Rex, flapping her arms and jumping in the air. The T. Rex half stopped and glared at her with his beady eyes, its mouth red with the little Triceratops’ blood. Magnus could see its massive teeth, and they were green and red and not very pleasant at all. He didn’t want Em to be the T. Rex’s dessert. He was just about to command the T. Rex to go away when a quite extraordinary event occurred.

  The ground began to shake violently as if there was an earthquake, and then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw an immense cloud of dust emerging from the east. The T. Rex had turned its attention back on to the Triceratops who was moaning and thrashing below, but it stopped when it heard the noise.

  Em saw it too and smiled. She grabbed Magnus’s hand and they sped up the little hill, making it to safety just in time. A huge herd of angry Triceratops hurtled towards the T. Rex at top speed.

  The chaos that ensued was something that Magnus knew he would never forget in a long time. The T. Rex started to run in the other direction on its great lumbering hind legs. It was the T. Rex’s turn to be terrified now. The herd of Triceratops were quite swift for such large and bulky beasts and they chased the T. Rex, waving their sharp horns and shaking their massive heads and snorting, their thundering feet making a deafening sound.

  At one point the T. Rex was cornered and Magnus heard it roar with pain as the horn of a Triceratops connected with its rear, but it escaped through a narrow gap in the rocks and disappeared with the herd hot on its heels.

  Magnus and Em laughed, but they soon stopped when out of the bushes came a man, and in his hand he held a gun. He didn’t look very happy.

  Em said nothing as the hunter shouted at her, telling her she had done a very stupid thing and she could have been killed. Magnus saw that the hunter had tears in his eyes. He dropped the gun and fell to his knees. When the gun hit the ground, Magnus watched it melt away into dust, and he looked at Em, who was smiling at the hunter.

  The moment that Helwyr had spotted the children, he had thought he could steal the boy and kill the T. Rex all on the same day, saving him time, but then he had noticed the girl, with her silvery blonde hair and mysterious emerald eyes. There was something about her that distracted him from his murderous intention. Maybe she reminded him of his long-lost daughter, or maybe she pushed the darkness out of his soul, because he had lowered his gun and watched her bravely try to warn the T. Rex. She had known he was there and that he was there to kill.

  The girl was more than human; he knew it now. And when he came out of the bushes and down the hill towards her and the boy, the last piece of darkness left him and he felt just like the young man he had once been many, many years ago, before Murdamond had set him on his evil course.

  He felt better. He dropped his dinosaur gun and gave up his profession on the spot. Helwyr decided to serve the girl and the boy, not the greedy old man in a castle far away.

  The girl put her hand on top of his silvery head and he jumped. Goodness flowed into him, filling the gaps the darkness had left behind. Everything will be fine now, he heard a voice say in his head. Well done, Helwyr.

  How did she know his name? wondered Helwyr. What sort of girl was she?

  “Help me,” came a shout and they both turned to see Magnus with the juvenile Triceratops. “Help me get this Trike to the hospital. I think we can save his leg.”

  “It’s a she,” said Helwyr. “I will help,” he said to the startled and worried boy. “I am your servant now. My name is Helwyr.”

  “Good,” said Magnus. “Come on, Helwyr. We haven’t a moment to lose.”

  Chapter 11

  It was impossible for one man and two children to move a badly wounded juvenile Triceratops, so Magnus ran back for help. The dinosaur ambulance, a large trailer on wheels pulled by six people, arrived eventually and they slid the little Triceratops onto the well-worn boards. Magnus sat with it and stroked its massive head all the way back to the village. It made rumbling noises but seemed to be soothed by Magnus’s presence.

  Marlo took one look at the dinosaur when he arrived at the hospital and was quite firm. “That is not sleeping in your bedroom,” he said.

  “There’s room,” protested Magnus.

  “No.”

  “Why not?” Magnus wasn’t happy.

  Suddenly the Triceratops let out a horrendously loud noise from its bottom. The Triceratops gave everyone an apologetic look and sunk its snout into the straw. The smell was overpowering. Magnus ran to the wind
ow and gasped for air.

  “That’s why,” chuckled Marlo. “They eat so much green stuff they windypop all night.”

  “Okay,” Magnus reluctantly agreed. “What about the front room?”

  “No,” said Marlo. “We’ll find her a shed.”

  Magnus felt a little bit better. Then Marlo noticed Helwyr.

  “We have a Mange in our midst,” he said. “A famous hunter as well. Why is he here?”

  “Yes,” replied Magnus. “He’s a goodie now. Em did her… er… thing,” he waved his hands about, “you know, woo woo, that sort of thing, and now he’s with us.”

  Em grinned.

  Marlo wasn’t so sure. He looked at the hunter through narrowed eyes.

  “Tell me what you know,” he said softly.

  Helwyr had heard of Marlo and he regarded the old wizard respectfully.

  “Murdamond is building a castle to the north of here and he means to stay. He has the boy’s parents.”

  Magnus sat up, his eyes wide with horror. “What? Really? Oh no!”

  “Don’t worry,” Helwyr went on. “He hasn’t fed them to the Allosauruses yet. They are in the dungeon.”

  Magus felt sick with worry. He hated Murdamond. Em touched his arm reassuringly and he felt her goodness oozing into him. The hate was pushed away and he sat down.

  Em didn’t like to see Magnus unhappy. She saw some water in his eyes and she remembered the cold, wet blob that had fallen on her pages. So that’s what she had felt. Em was sad. It was the first time she had ever felt sadness and she didn’t like it. She decided to send Murdamond something that would make him feel sad so he would know what sad felt like too. She closed her eyes and sent a little present through the air. It sped off, flying at high speed across the countryside, and reached Murdamond in the middle of the night.

  *

  When Murdamond woke up the next day, he stretched and asked for his slippers. The slave placed his jewelled slippers at his feet, and when he looked at Murdamond he gave a loud gasp.

  “What?” cried Murdamond. “Tell me, you stupid boy.”

  The slave said nothing. He ran away to get Viper. Viper could be the bearer of this bad news.

  Viper arrived to the sound of wailing and screaming from Murdamond’s bedroom. He opened the door and found the old man in front of one of his large mirrors. Viper could clearly see a huge, swollen red boil on the man’s cheek. It was a bad one. It had green pus oozing from its centre. It was quite revolting. Viper suppressed a chuckle and set his face into a look of worried concern.

  “I will send for the doctor,” he said and silently closed the bedroom door. The screaming went on for hours and all the slaves and servants hid themselves away. Murdamond was difficult on a good day, but on a day like this it was best to keep out of sight as much as possible.

  *

  Magnus stayed with the Triceratops, whom he named Trumper, all through the night while the doctor tried to save her leg. The next morning the dinosaur was given the all clear and the doctor said that there would be a terrible scar, but the leg would heal. Magnus was so relieved. He gave Trumper a kiss and the dinosaur rumbled a friendly, but sleepy, reply and he left the hospital.

  He went home and ate some breakfast and then went to bed. He didn’t even need to be told.

  *

  Marlo sat with Helwyr and they drank fruit juice and eyed each other suspiciously. Marlo wasn’t sure if the hunter was honest. Helwyr had heard that the old wizard was mad, so he kept his distance.

  “Do you know his plans?” asked Marlo eventually, curiosity getting the better of him.

  Helwyr stretched and sighed.

  “Some of them,” he replied eventually. “But then his plans tend to be the same everywhere he goes,” answered Helwyr. “He will try to discredit you, and then he will build more factories, introduce more technology and dig for jewels and gold and have a wonderful life dressed from head to foot in gold and jewels.”

  Marlo felt glum. He wondered how Murdamond would discredit him this time. He didn’t have long to find out. When he walked into the village later that day, he found a huge billboard had been stuck up by the school. There was a picture of a smiling Marlo on it and underneath it said, ‘This man tells lies’. A few people in the village gazed at him suspiciously. They were holding leaflets that had been dropped by a flock of Pterodacytls earlier that day.

  ‘Marlo is a Liar. Factories are Healthy!’ it said on some of them. On others it said, ‘Technology makes you happy. Buy things and enjoy life. Don’t miss out like Misery Marlo!’ There was a smiling picture of Marlo above the writing. Marlo sat down and dejectedly he began to rip up every piece of paper he could find.

  Worse news greeted him later that day. Figus had escaped from prison and he had reopened the mine and the factory. He had paid guards this time and they were instructed to prevent Marlo and his knobbled stick from coming anywhere near him.

  Chapter 12

  “Don’t worry, Marlo,” Magnus comforted the old man later that afternoon as they sat together drinking lemonade on a wall outside the house. It was an unseasonably warm autumn day. “I’ll think of something to stop Figus and Murdamond.”

  However, Helwyr had said that snow was on its way and soon they would go to the climbing trees and watch the dinosaur migration, which was a sight to behold, apparently. They were building a shed for Trumper, who was coming home in a week or so. Her leg was doing well considering it had nearly been bitten off by a T. Rex, but the doctors said she would have a slight limp for the rest of her life.

  At least the children were still in school and not in the mine or in the factory. Figus had put the wages up and this had tempted some of the men away from their vegetable gardens. They were producing a steady amount of gold and it was piling up nicely in a heavily guarded warehouse, awaiting the arrival of Murdamond’s Mange Gold Transport in the spring.

  Magnus was fascinated by some little brightly-coloured feathered dinosaurs that were scuttling around him, digging in the soft earth and in the rocks around Marlo and Em as they sat in the shade. They were definitely a type of raptor, because they had little, sharp claws which they used to scrape the ground for worms and bugs, and sometimes they scooped up truffles that Marlo pounced on and placed in a little pouch to grate on his soup that evening. As he watched them, he had an idea. Their scraping claws were sharp and tough. They pulled up rocks and tossed them aside as if they were nothing.

  Magnus looked at Em, who was doing forward rolls on the grass over and over again. Any chance you could fix up a little earthquake next week? he said in his head. Em stopped doing forward rolls and sat up, a dizzy expression on her face; she had clumps of grass in her hair. She looked at Magnus and smiled. She came and sat by him and tried to steal his lemonade.

  “Do these dinosaurs migrate?” he asked Marlo, in between fighting off Em. “Ow! Get off! Get your own.”

  “What, these ones, these Doogers? No, they hang around and beg scraps from the people. We throw them leftovers and put bits on a kind of garden table for the ones that stay. They are quite tame. I found one asleep in my sock drawer once.” Magnus passed Em her own lemonade and she left Magnus alone and made rude slurping noises as she drank.

  “I think I have an idea,” Magnus said. “Don’t worry, Marlo; leave it with me.”

  Marlo felt old. He looked at the world around him. All he wanted to do was protect it, but after thousands of exhausting years he was close to giving up. Em stopped slurping her drink and stared at Marlo. In his head he heard a tinkling voice whisper: Good will win.

  I hope so, he thought. I really do.

  *

  The next morning was cold and there was a thick frost. Magnus planned his attack on the mine and visited Trumper with a basket filled with leaves. Frolic and Moth skipped along behind him. They had become quite good friends now that Moth had stopped tr
ying to nip Frolic’s bottom when he wasn’t looking. The little Troodon even rode on the Spinosaurus’ back from time to time.

  Magnus saw a man coming out of the mine pushing a wheelbarrow filled with gold ore. He watched as the huge tubs of rock were wheeled to a large locked warehouse.

  His two pet dinosaurs played nearby on a grassy outcrop. The land stretched out, green and pleasant in all directions. Aside from the ugly mine, here were no roads or factories to spoil the view. Moth darted forward and tried to nip one of the small digging dinosaurs who was rummaging nearby. It was about to run away, but Magnus asked it to stay. He had discovered that if he raised his hand and gazed deeply into the eyes of the dinosaur he wished to trance, it would meekly obey any instruction he could think of. He had tried it out on a small bird-like dinosaur and he had managed to get it to stand on one leg. He had even tried to get it to fly backwards, much to Em’s delight. She had shrieked with silent laughter at the sight.

  Now the Dooger stared at him, blinking in the autumn light.

  “I may need you and all your friends tonight. Will you help?”

  The dinosaur blinked and started strutting about, clucking like a chicken. Magnus knew immediately that the dinosaur was replying that it was only too happy to help.

  Moth looked at the little dinosaur with disgust. He thought Magnus was mad to be talking to earth scratchers and he plodded off to annoy the Troodon. He lifted him up in his large jaws, much to Frolic’s horror, and threw him in the air. The Troodon landed with a bump and glared at the small Spinosaurus; blobs of drool dropped from his head.