In the end, however, she finally got to her feet and started to follow the others. “But I’m not running. If I gotta die, death can wait until I get there. And not one second too early.”
While Cassandra was feeling sorry for herself and muttering words about how much she was suffering, the Unicorn and the children entered the forest.
Imagine you are expecting the same kind of forest where the Guerrillas live. The children did. In that first forest, the leafy canopies towered high over their heads. But in this forest, most of the trees barely came up to the children’s waists! They were the ones who towered over the trees!
“What’s going on here?” Carl demanded. “I could swear that when we flew over this forest, it was huge!”
Karen looked down at her feet, which looked so huge among the tree trunks. She began to feel that she might crush something. “I have no idea.”
“This way!” Uniqua raced back to them and suddenly came to an abrupt stop. If you ever saw a horse try to stop from a gallop, you get the picture. You see, she was the same size as before—or maybe she shrunk with the trees—and now she stared up at the children in disbelief. “Oh, my lord!”
“Uniqua!” Karen cried out in alarm. “What’s happening?”
“Magic!” Uniqua shouted back. “Quick! There’s no time! The Rabbits are in great peril!” And with that she raced deeper into the forest.
“Watch your step,” Karen advised, as she gingerly placed her left foot forward.
I find this Island so fantastic: you cannot expect anything, and the unexpected usually happens. It is hard to describe everything that goes on on this Island. It is so full of magic, strange creatures, a chaos of time and space—kind of like life in the real world at times.
You don’t like to be stepped on by someone, and the trees certainly did not like to be stepped on either. So, they simply moved out of the twins’ way. That’s right. They picked up their roots and moved through the soil as if the ground had become like water, leaving a broad path for the twins to follow the Unicorn.
But that was not the strangest thing the twins saw or experienced. For once they reached Uniqua and the Rabbits, there were almost too shocked to react.
One of my favorite movies has to be Jurassic Park. I mean, I like seeing how those creative people brought dinosaur bones to life. I think everyone would love to see a real live dinosaur. Think how much scientists could learn! Then again, I think seeing dinosaurs walking around the neighborhood would be pretty scary, too. I mean, they are so huge! And the way movie producers portrayed them, dinosaurs are not exactly the nicest creatures in the world. They always want to hurt something or somebody.
Yep, you guessed it. There were dinosaurs living in this forest. But they were not of the large kind. There were, in fact, so small that you could pick up the largest dinosaur in your hands. The brontosaurus would be no larger than a big cat to the children.
So, anyway, the triplets (who had not grown in size either) were currently being terrified by one of the fiercest meat-eating dinosaurs that ever lived. It could have been a tyrannosaurus (T-rex) or one of its cousins. It thought the Rabbits were a tasty meal, and it was snapping at them in an attempt to fill its stomach. But the Rabbits were the fastest creatures I have ever heard about, and there were hopping around the animal, landing marital arts blows on its head and body in such a dizzying blur. Even the Rabbits can get tired, and while they were putting up a good fight, the dinosaur, frustrated so far, was not going to give up.
Another thing movie makers like to do is to show that dinosaurs are not afraid of anything—except maybe another dinosaur. But just like every animal in the real world, even dinosaurs will be afraid of things that might harm them, and when the great beast took one look at the twins, it decided to run away. And, off it dashed into the deeper forest.
The Rabbits collapsed in a heap, exhausted from their heroic battle. Karen wanted to reach down and comfort them until she realized that she might accidentally crush them.
“Well, what’s all the fuss?” Cassandra finally waddled up to them, and again another surprise smacked the Group like someone just tossed a pie into their faces. Cassandra had not diminished in size, nor had she increased in size. She remained her same size, which made her look gigantic in comparison to the forest.
“Did you find any water, yet?” And, she sat down, rocking the forest floor and making it undulate like a mattress floating in a pool of water.
“I think I see a waterfall,” Carl announced, looking off at a great distance. (Again, distance is relative, meaning what might be far away for you might be very close for me.)
“We should carry you,” Karen suggested to Uniqua and the triplets. “I’ll take the Rabbits. Carl, you take Uniqua. Cassandra, you just waddle behind us.”
“Oh, yes,” Cassandra retorted unhappily. “Everyone gets a ride while I have to struggle on my own four feet.”
“If any of you breathe a word of this,” Uniqua warned, “I’ll spear you with my horn.” Nevertheless, she allowed Carl to pick her up and cuddle her like you would a kitten or a puppy. “The indignity of it all!”
The Rabbits hopped onto Karen’s left hand and held on to her fingers for dear life. They were much too tired to protest and much too frightened about being lifted up so high in the air to wonder what was happening.
In the end, everyone was grateful for the ride—except Cassandra, of course—for in a few short moments the twins reached the waterfall, which fell into a deep pool of cold, refreshing water.
“Now, this is more like it,” Cassandra said contentedly and arched her long neck towards the pool, submerged her head beneath the water, and began to drink. I believe the basin of water was lowered by several feet. (Or, was it several inches? It is hard to measure things when nothing on this Island remains constant.)
While the triplets bathed and the Unicorn rested and Cassandra tucked her head under her left wing for a nap, the twins decided to explore the surroundings a bit. Carl especially wanted to know if there were any other dinosaurs around, and he was soon rewarded with several herds of herbivores (plant-eating animals) grazing in a nearby meadow.
Several brontosaurus-like animals nibbled at the trees, their long necks allowing them to reach tender shoots and leaves high up—for them—in the treetops. At first, they did not know how to take a giant human intruding among them. But these dinosaurs had never seen humans or smelled humans before. So, they were not immediately afraid. Then again, they were not sure what to do. As Carl sat down in the middle of the meadow, the animals gradually became curious.
A herd of triceratops gorged themselves on the meadow grass, along with some other strange-looking herbivores, the names of which I cannot remember. Carl allowed one particular cow to come up to his knee and sniff at him like it was a dog. Slowly, Carl pulled up a handful of grass and held it out to the cow. The animal backed instinctively away, uncertain, but eventually thought the grass smelled much nicer than the scent of the human and started munching on the grass.
“Ow!” he exhaled softly. The cow thought a piece of his hand was grass, too. Without too much thinking, he picked up the docile cow and carefully placed her in his right pocket of his vest jacket.
Karen was more interested in the fauna. I suppose she might like to be a botanist someday. She certainly enjoyed looking and smelling the flowers. Some of them had the most delicious aromas, and she picked a few of them and put them in one of her pockets. One plant actually bit her. I guess it thought that her finger was a tasty insect. There were a couple of varieties of flowers that absolutely reeked with a terrible smell. She was going to ignore these, except that something in the back of her mind told her that even these flowers might come in handy later on. So, she absent-mindedly picked a few and put them in another pocket.
“Children!” Uniqua called out after some hours passed. “It’s time to go.”
When the children returned to the pool of water, they noticed that the depth of the pool had grea
tly decreased. Cassandra wore a contented smile on her face. The Rabbits’ backpacks also seemed much larger than before.
“We found some good things to bring back, hmm-hmm,” they chorused.
“All aboard for the Kings’ express,” Carl joked cheerfully, as he picked the Unicorn up and the Rabbits hopped onto Karen’s hand.
“Couldn’t we just stay here forever?” Cassandra wished with a deep longing.
“No, Dear. We have to get back to the ship,” Uniqua chided her gently.
The trek through the forest seemed to take no time at all. Again, the trees moved out of their way, and while there were animals walking through the trees, they were careful not to be seen.
“You had better put us down,” Uniqua advised as the reached the edge of the forest. “I have a feeling that we’re going to grow to our usual size.”
And, sure enough, as they emerged from the forest, Uniqua and the triplets returned to their normal size.
“We should probably take the dead wood back with us,” Carl suggested when they reached the broken tree. “Maybe Captain Lump can use it, and maybe it’ll improve his mood.”
Uniqua laughed. “Fat chance. But it’s still a good idea.”
Are you ready for another surprise? Or, are you kind of tired of surprises? I hope not, because before we’re through with this story, there are going to be a lot more surprises.
The twins picked up the board-like pieces the tree had split into, which hardly weighed much at all. But the closer the Group got to the ship, the heavier the pieces became. What is more, they became much larger and longer. In fact, it was not long before the children had to start dragging the boards behind them. Finally, they could only drag one piece of timber and leave the others.
“Don’t look at me,” Cassandra told them. “I’m not carrying them. The last thing I want to be is a pack horse.”
“Ahoy there,” Captain Helf greeted them from the stern of the boat. “That’s quite a find!”
“There’s more back there,” Carl wheezed out of breath, pointing over his shoulder.
“Let’s give you a hand.” The Captain then called out to several members of the crew, and soon a half a dozen Dwarfs came, relieving the twins of their burdens and hauling the timber to a spot next to the boat. Then they went in the direction Carl had pointed and returned all of the lumber.
“You guys must have the strength of super-humans,” Captain Helf remarked. “How did you manage to bring all this wood from the forest?” He looked at the Dragon as a possibility.
“Don’t look at me,” she said happily. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Truer words never spoken,” Uniqua muttered under her breath.
“I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you,” Carl smiled.
Captain Helf laughed. “I may not be a much traveled Dwarf, but try me if you want.”
“That wood’s not gonna cut itself!” Captain Lump bellowed from above. “When you’re through congratulatin’ yourselves, you might think about lendin’ a hand!”
Karen turned to her brother. “I think I’m beginning to like him.”
Carl snorted and tossed a lava pebble a few feet away.
The sun was setting by the time the Dwarfs had cut the timber into lumber pieces the right sizes to cover up the great gash in the side of the ship. The Rabbits set up a fire and began cooking a sumptuous meal. Captain Lump sat down in front of the fire looking all grumpy, even more than usual.
“That was a fine piece of work you kids did,” he praised them uncharacteristically. Even Captain Helf was surprised. “But without pitch and nails, we still can’t repair the damage.”
“Perhaps we can help.”
Everyone—Dwarfs, animals, and children alike—jumped three feet from the fire, for walking out of the fire came three tongues of flame.
“What the—” Captain Lump swore.
“I told you I saw something!” Carl exclaimed.
Each Flame person burned a golden yellow. They walked on two stubby legs of fire, sprouted two flame arm-like appendages, had eyes that glowed red, and tiny mouths from which they spoke. Their size? They were about as tall as Carl’s hand.
“We’re lava people,” the leader introduced himself and his companions. “We live in the volcano.”
“What should we call you?” Karen asked tentatively. I mean, it is kind of strange to be talking to a living Flame, especially when it can obviously hurt or burn you. But by now, since the twins had met so many interesting and strange creatures, she was beginning to expect them.
“Sparky,” the little Flame answered after a moment of thought. “You couldn’t properly pronounce my real name in fire language.” And here he demonstrated with a lot of hissing sounds, ending with a kind of pop.
“Okay, Sparky,” Karen began. “How can you help us?”
“We can fix your boat,” the little Flame responded.
“Burn it up, you mean,” Captain Lump growled sourly.
“We can provide you with pitch and metals. All you need,” Sparky added happily, ignoring Captain Lump.
“What can we do for you?” Carl asked expectantly.
Here the little Flame looked sad. “Our volcano is dying.”
“Good!” Captain Lump exclaimed.
“Not good,” Sparky contradicted.
“Volcanoes destroy things,” Captain Lump shot back. “They kill people with all of their smoke, fire, ash, and lava flows.”
“True,” Sparky admitted. “But they renew the earth and the air. Without volcanoes, the Earth will eventually grow cold and die.”
“And without your volcano, you will die,” Carl observed.
“This whole Island will die,” Sparky spoke in a voice hardly louder than a low hiss.
“If you help us,” Karen interjected, “how can we help you?”
“The portal to the deep underground is closed,” Sparky told her,” and we can’t get it open. Without the flame and the heat from the deep underground, we can’t keep our volcano alive much longer.”
“Of course,” Carl remembered. He was beginning to see a kind of irony in their adventures so far. “Everything on this Island seems to depend on portals, either to keep things going or to allow people to travel all over the Island. And now everything is broken.” To his sister he asked, “Could that be the reason why we were brought here?”
“You know,” he added after some thought, “if the Lord of Power rules this Island and is so powerful, why can’t he just fix things himself?”
“He can’t do that,” Sparky said, expecting Carl to understand a concept he thought everyone knew to be true. “If the Lord of Power did everything for us, what would we do? We are his eyes and ears. We are his arms and legs. If it weren’t for us, the Lord of Power could not do anything. He’d be powerless. No. We have to work things out and fix things here on the Island. He just helps us to his work. That’s our job, and we have to help each other.”
“Okay,” Karen finished the conversation. “You help us, and we will go to the Giants to get spare parts. We’ll give the spare parts to the Engineers in Portaland. And, they will fix all of the portals. Everyone agreed?”
Naturally everyone agreed to the plan. There was no other choice.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE LAND OF THE GIANTS
The three tongues of fire were joined by an army of thousands. This army brought with them a great quantity of sticky pitch and tar, which stuck to their flaming bodies, and raw ores of metal.
One band of Flames scorched pits into the lava a stone’s throw from the ship, and into these pits, the bearers of pitch and tar wiped the hot, sticky stuff from off their bodies.
Another gang of Flames carried a ball of molten iron glowing yellow and placed it on the ground not far from the campfire. Artisans then attacked this ball of iron with gusto, shaping it and molding it quickly until it resembled a smithy anvil.
“We do not have water,” Sparky told the children. “Water means instan
t death to us. But we need it to cure the iron so that it will retain its shape.”
“We have water,” the Rabbits chorused. “Plenty of it.”
“Then let my people run to safety first. Then pour as much water as you can on it.”
“How do you know this?” Captain Helf inquired.
“We saw what the ocean pools near the coast can do,” Sparky explained. “When we were able to fish the ore out of the water, we were amazed how solid the metal was.”
“Well, we can’t just pour water all over the ground,” Captain Helf pointed out. “It won’t be safe for your people.”
“First, we need to make a trench,” Uniqua counseled. “We need to channel the water so that all the ground does not become wet.”
This idea was agreed upon, and in no time at all, the Flames cut a basin around the newly made anvil and a trench to drain the water into another basin a few feet away.
“Thank you,” Uniqua said. Then, in a loud voice, she cried out, “Everyone to safety!”
Even the Dwarfs backed away quickly, and the twins cautiously stepped to the far side of the campfire. Sparky stepped into the fire, his bright eyes watching and anticipating.
“Aren’t you afraid?” Carl asked the Flame.
“Immensely,” he replied. “But I have never seen water this close before. I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”
“Begin!” Uniqua commanded the Rabbits.
Bucket after bucket of water was thrown onto the molten iron. Soon, a cloud of steam rose up from the hissing as the hot iron was forced to quickly lower its temperature. Water splashed all around the anvil, but mostly into the basin around it. This was followed by a tiny river of water, which flowed down the trench into the receiving basin further away.
“So? Whatcha think?” Carl asked Sparky.
“Terrifying! Amazing! Marvelous!” he gasped the words. “We Flame people have always believed that fire was the greatest power on the Earth. But now I can see that water is its equal. No wonder they say that the Earth was born from fire and water. From these two most powerful forces in and on the Earth such great things are made.
Potlendh Page 21