by Shane Mason
Yes, he conceded, they are extraordinary - bold, unafraid, and hardy though he doubted Lexington. She asked too many questions, annoyed him and seemed the weakest. She managed a grim smile at him and he pulled his knife out and cut the rope between them all.
Lexington lifted her hand to touch the medallion, a comforting reminder of her mother’s trust and felt where it had been. Panicked, she lifted her life jacket off and threw it on the ground, rummaging inside her clothes desperate to find it. Her heart sank and she crawled back to the cliff’s edge, peering into blackness. A large wave smashed into the cliff, ferocious sounding in its power and she knew it was lost to the watery depths.
‘Come away from the edge,’ Argus said sounding almost concerned for one of them for the first time.
Lexington held her ground. A sense of letting her mother down swept over her. How could I have lost it? What will I tell the others and will they believe me now?
Agitated by her refusal Argus yelled, ‘Get over here now!’
‘Leave her,’ Melaleuca shot back at Argus. ‘What is it Lex?’
Lexington twiddled her bottom lip.
I can’t tell them, not yet.
‘What happened to Antavahni?’ Lexington said feigning concern.
‘What do you care? He’s as good as dead,’ Argus said.
‘Yes, and he had all the answers and now they’re gone.’
Argus guffawed at her words.
‘What’s so funny?’ Melaleuca said.
‘She’s only upset ‘cos she lost her book of answers. She didn’t care about him. Everyone wants something. Basic human selfishness,’ Argus said with pride.
‘She just wants to know why. That’s all,’ Ari said. ‘I guess we all do but she more than us.’
‘Passing opinions when uninformed,’ Lexington said, ‘is foolish.’
‘Stay here then and figure it out,’ Argus said. ‘I will find shelter. After that you’re on your own. Mission done.’
‘I’ll come help,’ Quixote said.
‘No. You’ll stay,’ Argus said. ‘One wrong move and you’ll plunge over the edge.’
‘We’ve climbed worse back in our valley,’ Ari said.
‘Good for you. Notice anything different. Oh yes. That’s right. You’re not in your valley now.’
Melaleuca stood and once again squared off with Argus. ‘I make the decision for us. No one else.’
‘Look honey whatever. Here take the torch. Go find shelter, go on. Playing is one thing. I’ve seen your playground. Maybe you were trained. Who knows for what? But this is real. Get it. Real. It could mean death!’
Ari shoved his way past Melaleuca and held his hand out to Argus.
‘Give me the torches. I will go.’
Melaleuca pulled Ari’s hand down.
‘Argus will go.’
Ari started to protest and before he could get half a sentence out, Quixote launched himself at Argus, grabbed the torch and tore off into the darkness.
Melaleuca spun around to see the torch jiggle and splutter off into the darkness. Sheeesshh.
‘Ari, go after him.’
‘That Quixote,’ Lexington said, ‘needs rules. I have always said it.’ She tut-tutted for effect.
‘That Quixote as you put it jumped in and pulled you out of the water.’
Despite the darkness Melaleuca could feel Lexington cringe at the truth of her words.
‘You’re in charge are you?’ Argus said in a mocking tone. ‘Being in charge while playing is one thing but this is real.’
She chose to ignore him though felt irked by his comments, and anyway, she trusted Ari to bring Quixote back.
From a small distance away Ari yelled, ‘We found something.’
‘What is it?’ Melaleuca cried back.
‘Don't know. Some sort of wall.’
‘Wave the torch so we can see where you are,’ Melaleuca yelled.
‘It’s dead,’ Ari said.
‘Well, did you find Quixote?’
In a teasing tone that sounded faint enough to be coming from inside a building, Quixote yelled, ‘I found a doorway.’
‘Sing or hum so we can locate you,’ Melaleuca said as she started moving toward where she had heard them.
Ari hummed as loud as he could, and with Lex and Argus behind her, Melaleuca groped her way forward.
‘I think it’s the door to a house or something. No, hang on ─ ’
Quixote cried out and then started shouting.
‘Just wait!’ Melaleuca said.
‘Don’t make so much noise. It’s enough to wake the bloody dead,’ Argus said in hushed tones. ‘Who knows who’s listening.’
‘No wait.’ Quixote screamed. ‘Oh my god, it’s a trap.’ He screamed again and it died away like he had fallen in a hole.
Ari screamed out his name and Argus and Melaleuca ploughed forward, converging on each other’s voices.
Lexington surmised the facts about Quixote in her mind and suspected otherwise, and instead stared up into the sky, making her own discovery.
‘I’ve found the door,’ Ari said.
A ghost noise warbled out from it followed by giggling. Melaleuca chided herself. She should have known better with Quixote.
‘Get out here,’ she said.
Out of the darkness he jumped and shouted, ‘boo!’
‘In charge, my butt,’ Argus said.
‘We are who we are,’ Melaleuca said, ‘and for good reason.’
In light of recent events, she had yet to discover the exact reason although knew Argus spoke some truth however mean he sounded.
‘Oh yeah and what would that be?’
Melaleuca wanted to show him he was wrong and a foreign sensation of wanting to say something hurtful washed over her. Perplexed by it, she let it subside.
‘Hey,’ Lexington said. ‘Look at the sky.
Instead of stars twinkling back at them, smudges of light hung in the sky as if a translucent shield blocked the Milky Way.
In a flash Melaleuca knew that the Photaic wall must extend over the top of them.
Lexington spoke in Melaleuca’s direction. ‘I know you have already worked it out. I did too.’
‘Good.’
‘But,’ Lexington continued, ‘what creates it?’
Melaleuca thought of Quixote’s mother’s instructions and stayed silent.
‘Exactly,’ Lexington countered. ‘I suspect magnetism. But is it pertinent? Is it pertinent to us? I mean where do we start first? If we are to work things out, this is just one more unexplainable thing. Add it to the pile. The real question might be, why hide this land? But then maybe it’s a natural phenomenon......’
As she pontificated, Quixote blurted out, ‘It’s probably just a giant gas bubble from a giant’s ─ ’
‘Enough!’ Melaleuca said. ‘Let’s hold up in this shelter and wait ‘til morning. We can discuss things further then.’
Argus lit a small fire inside and yellow light threw itself out past their huddled shapes showing what manner of building they sat in.
Flat stone after flat stone lay in layers, forming a tumble-down stonewall. Lichens encrusted the stone surfaces while weeds embedded themselves in the gaps between the stones where aged mortar lay crumbling. The stonewall rose high into the darkness, its ceiling swallowed up by the night - the fire’s light too weak to reach far enough up. The inside smelt dry and the ground felt strangely warm and soft. With their life jackets removed they all lay around the fire, the news that they would move no more until morning allowed them to relax. The heat made them drowsy and soon, despite their hunger they all nodded off to sleep except Lexington and Argus.
Lexington tugged at her pocket and pulled out a soggy notebook, carefully prizing the pages apart. She noticed that the ink had not run.
So, our parent’s had foreseen that they might get damp. Interesting.
‘And the torches must have been waterproof.’ She threw a conclusive gaze at Argus though he stared at her w
ith a blank face. ‘Where are our parents though? And why were we attacked? Why have we been hidden all these years and now are to be hidden again? What is silverquick? Who are the men that attacked us?’
Argus turned away uninterested.
She studied her notes while the flickering of the fire threatened to put her to sleep. After a while she said, ‘The foxholes were planned, and the packs and these clothes. They must have known something like this, whatever this is, could happen. And the men that attacked us? Same ones we came across on the mountain?’
‘And what about Antavahni,’ Lexington continued. ‘He said there were two powers. Is one of them us? Is that what all the fuss is about? And this hidden land and the steps all need investigation.’
Lexington turned her wide eyes on Argus. Still awake he poked at the dirt with a stick.
‘Or you could shut up and go to sleep like your chums,’ he said.
‘Maybe. But first, tell me what’s in the bag that is so valuable?’
‘Don’t worry about it.’
‘I’m not worried. Just curious. Have you remembered anything yet?’
‘What?’
‘All that stuff that Antavahni said to you after we were put to sleep.’
‘How’d you know that? You were asleep.’
‘I was asleep but I was not asleep. Ears and eyes and the other senses still work when asleep. It all gets recorded. I can recall it where the others cannot.’
‘I never would have picked you for the underhanded type.’ He laughed to himself. ‘Do the others know?’
She shook her head. ‘They have a tough enough time keeping up with me, without me letting on.’
‘Whatever. Anyway, there is nothing to remember. Wasted your breath.’
‘I think otherwise. I have seen that look in your eye. And noted words that set it off, “Ori,” “hidden land,” “Antipodes,” to name a few.’
He stood, his bag clutched in hand. ‘There is nothing to remember,’ he said and walked out.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Mission over.’
She flipped out her notebook and wrote in it;
WHY?
Lexington’s inner voice coughed and spluttered.
‘Finally, I thought I would suffocate.’
‘Eh?’
‘When you don’t talk to me I don’t just disappear. Ow, stop that!’
‘Stop what.’
‘Thinking! When you think it crushes me, pushes me out of the way. Talk. Use your voice.’
‘But the others might wake,’ she whispered.
‘Then tell them about me.’
‘Not again. Help me instead of being a pain.’
‘What do you need help with?’
‘I need help solving all of this. Sea wall? Sea sticking to land on an angle? Columns lifting out of the ocean?’
‘You have two options.’
‘Yes.’
‘Work it out. I’m not going to give you the answers.’
‘You are me. Now tell me what you think.’
‘Alright. You could spend a lot of time working out how it works, or, work out why this land is hidden?’
‘And why us? What is so special about us?’
‘Well that we have to find out. You are right about your parents though.’
‘Which part?’
‘They must have known that you might be attacked. They were well prepared. Not sure about the two powers. Perhaps Antavahni has or is the answer.’
‘I fear he is dead.’
‘Fear away. I mean what is he? 50,000 years old? An Etamol? Somewhere though there must be a reference to him.’
‘Where?’
‘Myth. All myth and legend starts with truth. If the land is old, myth and legend is the place to start. Perhaps a hypothesis is needed?’
‘Hypothesis! Yeeess.’
‘Instead of scrambling around with this fact here and that fact there, you could propose a theory or two, a hypothesis, and then you would have a frame work to start with.’
‘I like it. Myth, legend and hypothesis. We’ll see which is a better way - keeping on moving ahead or ours.’
Quixote stirred and made some mumbling noises in his sleep. Lexington quickly wrote, “That’s why,” and lay down and pretended to be asleep.
Footsteps entered the shelter sounding as if they tried to creep along with stealth. A leaf crumpled underfoot and then a small twig cracked. The figure moved around the room and a barely audible humming sound moved with it. The unknown figure stopped and she could feel it hovering above her. The whirring sound moved a little closer.
She flicked her eyelids open and Argus stared at her with a large awkward looking object at his eye. It looked similar to pictures of cameras she had seen but bigger and bulkier.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
Argus snapped the object behind him. ‘Nothing. Go back to sleep.’
‘How can I with you sneaking around.’
He turned his back on her as he stuffed the object into his backpack, and muttering to himself said, ‘At least it still works. This should be footage enough.’
He left saying nothing more.
***
Melaleuca shuffled outside and shielded her eyes from the morning brightness. In the distance with the rising sun behind him she saw Ari peering over the cliff.
‘What do you see?’
Without turning he yelled back, ‘The sea is calm now. No sign of the boat.’ He paused and then with amazement said, ‘Man, it looks so far down.’
As he turned to face Melaleuca he stared above her in amazement. Quixote and Lexington stumbled out.
‘I think this land is old,’ Ari said. ‘Look.’ He pointed above them.
A broken down tower of some sort soared high into the air, sticking out of the shelter, and the base of it sunk into the start of a forested mountain slope.
Melaleuca inched backwards to get a better view.
Plants grew like tufts out of many gaping cracks and vines crawled all over it. Half of its outer wall had crumbled and wood-rotted stairs, like the skeletal remains of a dead animal unevenly snaked up inside the tower’s innards. An eerie gust blew through it and it moaned as if alive and small flecks of dust wafted down.
Quixote bounced up and down. ‘Yeah. You don’t scare me. Ha ha.’
The wind blew stronger and a high-pitched scream burst out of the deep moaning and then died away.
‘It’s the Ethmare talking,’ Ari said.
‘What do you mean Ethmare?’ Lexington said.
‘It’s that word Antavahni used. I’m not sure but I think he means the earth spirit.’
Lexington shook her head. ‘So little information and such a big conclusion. And based solely on your own thoughts.’
A small head protruded out from the corner of the tower, waved and then disappeared. It happened so quickly Melaleuca wondered if they had really seen it. The head popped out again and this time remained longer.
Lexington cried out, ‘MUM!’
She sprinted towards her mother and the others raced after her.
Melaleuca rounded the corner and found Lexington by herself perplexed - no sign of anyone else - only the rock wall, some grass and the start of the forest.
‘Where’d she go?’ Melaleuca asked puzzled.
‘Don’t know,’ Lexington said. ‘No one was here when I got here.’
‘There look,’ Quixote said and pointed at the forest.
One of their mothers stood amongst the trees waving and beckoning them to follow.
‘Let’s go,’ Quixote cried out.
Whose ever mother it was, dashed off through the trees and disappeared from sight, and Quixote and Lexington ran after her. Melaleuca held back and checked out Ari’s reaction.
‘Even if it is not her,’ Ari said. ‘We’ve got to follow.’
Keep moving forward.
‘Let’s follow them,’ she said.
Into the forest they ran, t
hough they soon stopped when they came across Lexington and Quixote searching for their mother who again had disappeared. Her head popped out from behind a tree further up and she waved again. Quixote squealed with delight and ran to the trees, the others running after him. Again the tree revealed no mother and again she appeared deeper in the forest, waving and beckoning.
They tried again and again to catch her but to no avail. Her speed made it impossible, and she never stopped long enough for any of them to get close. Without fully knowing whose mother they chased, they carried on pursuing her desperate to get near her. On it went, on and on. On through the forest, through thickets, through gorse-like bushes, up small inclines, down narrow trails, under overhangs, on and on and on and on - and with a dogged determination they hounded after her. Melaleuca cried out a few times for them to stop but Quixote, set on catching whoever it was, did not relent and so they careered forward as if on forced march.
Gaps in the trees offered glimpses of the valley below. Every now and then a small house could be seen or the hint of a road or far away bare hills miles in the distance.
With no end in sight of the relentless chase Melaleuca called a halt and they brought themselves to a rapid stop, though Ari had to retrieve Quixote. With their hands on their knees they heaved large sobs of air in and out, their hearts pumping like crazy.
‘I’ve...lost my...bearings,’ Ari said in between breaths.
Their mother stood at a distance, again her body obscured by a tree, and she waved, again beckoning to them.
‘What is..she playing...at?’ Lexington asked.
The mother cried out, ‘Don’t worry. All fine. Just follow. Nearly there.’
Quixote roared off after her and the chase started again, and this time the pace increased as they climbed higher and higher into the forest. The trees became denser and the overhead canopy of plants became thicker, casting a dark dank atmosphere over the forest. After a while they started to descend until they found themselves running through a pine forest with plenty of room in-between the trees.
They ran, sprinted, slowed, stumbled and then sprinted again, losing track of time before finally bursting out onto a grass field.