by Ivory Autumn
Ivory's body contracted in pain, she stumbled forward, not able to resist the pull of the Foglocker. Andrew reached out and caught her by the arm, and pulled her back. She tripped and fell, dragging Andrew into the mud along with her.
“Let go!” she screamed, pulling away from him. “Let me go! You are just like everybody else I’ve ever known. You and your friends just pretend to like me, but when it comes down to it, once you find no use for me, you will leave me. This way is better. I chose to go before anyone could really hurt me. ”
“How is this better? I would never use you, Ivory,” Andrew cried, pulling her back, and clutching her muddy body to his. “And I’ll never let you go, Ivory.”
Ivory let out a frantic scream, and bit his arm, causing Andrew to let go. Just as Ivory made a move to flee, Andrew quickly grabbed her from behind, holding her tightly. She struggled against him, until she collapsed onto her knees, exhausted, sobbing.
“Ivory,” Andrew murmured, slipping in the mud as he tried to lift her up. “Don’t…don’t cry, please don’t cry.”
Ivory looked up at Andrew, anger written on her tear- streaked face. “I hate you, Andrew! I hate you!”
Andrew cringed at her words as if she’d just broken his arm. “Sometimes…I hate me too. You don’t know how it hurts me to see you like…this.”
She scowled at him, glaring in savage rage at his muddy face and innocent smile. “JUST LEAVE!” she screamed. “LEAVE!”
“I can’t!”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t leave you here.”
“Yes you can!”
“No I can’t!”
Andrew lunged for her clenched fist, struggling against her until he pried it open, revealing the iron key.
Ivory's eyes widened in fear as she stared at the key, looking at it as if it was the first time she’d ever seen it.
“Now,” Andrew cried, “take the key and put it in the lock. The key will only work if you do it yourself. The key to your freedom has been in your hands the entire time.”
“No,” Ivory said, staring at the key in stunned shock. “I can’t. It’s too hard. You don’t understand, Andrew. It’s too heavy. I’m not strong enough to use it and I’ll never be.”
“YES, YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH!” Andrew insisted, closing her muddy fingers around the key. “You freed me once, Ivory, and gave me water when I was thirsty. You believed in me. Now you must free yourself. I would do it for you if I could. But I can’t. I can only help you to believe that you can.”
Ivory’s body trembled. Tears filled her eyes and streaked down her muddy cheeks. “You don’t know what it’s like, Andrew…you don’t know. Just leave me…please…please just leave me.”
“Ivory, I know you can do this. I’ve never known something so strongly in all my life. Please…try. You are stronger than you realize. You know I can’t leave without you!”
“But you…can’t stay…” Ivory faltered. “The Foglocker…he’ll see you.”
“That’s why we need to hurry,” Andrew pointed beyond them to Rhapsody who was puffing out strange smoke-colored shapes, making them twist and flutter around the Foglocker like buzzing flies. “Rhapsody can only distract him for so long.”
Ivory shook her head. “It’s no use, Andrew. Don’t you think if I could have freed myself, I’d have done it by now?”
“Not if you didn’t even realize the key was in your hand this whole time,” Andrew said, gently moving her hand towards the lock. “Do it now, Ivory. Or it will be too late!”
“No. It’s too heavy.”
“Then, I’ll lift your hand.”
Ivory's arm trembled as Andrew lifted it up to the lock. She could see beads of sweat drip down Andrew’s face, and the muscles in his face contract as if he was lifting a heavy boulder, instead of her arm. “I…vory…” he said through gritted teeth as he struggled to hold her arm up to the lock. “Please! Do it!”
Ivory’s eyes grew wide and before she even knew what she was doing, she had inserted the heavy key into the lock. Her hands trembled as she tried to turn the key. “It’s too hard,” she sobbed. “It hurts too much.”
“Turn the key, Ivory!” Andrew cried, placing his hands over hers. “TURN, THE, KEY!”
The Foglocker's chains jangled loudly behind them, and it moaned like it knew what Ivory was doing.
“I can't…can’t turn it,” Ivory choked out. “The chain around my neck’s…suffocating me. Help me…Andrew! Help me…”
“You must do it yourself!” he cried, his voice growing frantic. “You must do it!”
“No…no. I can’t!” Ivory wept. “I just can’t.”
“Yes, you can!” Andrew shouted, feeling his own strength wane, as the wind and haze of the Foglocker started to close in around him, fogging his mind.
Ivory shook her head. “I’m lost…it’s over Andrew. OVER.”
“No it’s not!” Andrew repeated. “You can do it, Ivory. It’s the only way! I have faith in you.”
At those words, a light turned on in Ivory's eyes and she placed both hands on the iron key and turned it with all her might, crying out in pain.
The key did not budge. She tried once more, crying out as if an arrow had pierced her heart, putting all her strength into it until the lock unexpectedly clicked open and the heavy chain fell from her neck. As the chain hit the ground, a terrible tremor raked the earth, and her iron bonds melted away like soft chocolate. Ivory trembled from the shock of the heavy weight leaving her neck and shoulders. She took a breath. A peaceful look came to her face, and smiled faintly at Andrew, then collapsed.
The instant the lock hit the ground and faded, the Foglocker’s gaze was drawn to Andrew and Ivory. He pointed a bony finger in their direction, and howled. “Follow!”
At his voice, Andrew fell to his knees, his strength utterly sapped. He could feel the grip of the Foglocker smothering his thoughts.
“Get up!” he heard Freddie call to him from far away. “Get up!”
Andrew looked around with dazed eyes and struggled to his feet, dragging Ivory along with him. Before he’d gotten very far, a thick, heavy, powerful sensation weighed his down shoulders. It pricked the skin on the back of his neck, as if a bee had stung it. He glanced behind him, becoming instantly frozen in place.
The Foglocker stood only a few feet away, glaring at him like a hungry snake. The pull he felt from the Foglocker’s gaze was like the current of a raging river, dragging him to certain death over the falls. A tremor pulsed through his body, and he cried out as if he’d been stabbed in the back, stumbling forward, towards the creature. The gaze of the Foglocker was as powerful as pleasure, as gripping as misery, and as overwhelming as sorrow, all wrapped up into the Foglocker’s frightening glare.
“Hurry, Andrew!” The urgent voices of Freddie and Talic called out to him, from behind a large rock on the hill. “Andrew, what are you doing? Get over here.”
They sounded far off and hazy, like muffled voices under a pillow. He struggled to turn his head away from the Foglocker's gaze, and towards the hill where his friends were. But the pull he felt from the Foglocker was sinking him deeper and deeper into an incomprehensible chaos.
Without consciously knowing what he was doing, he stumbled towards the Foglocker, pausing before the formidable creature, in awe, entrapped by his captivating presence.
The Foglocker smiled, showing off a row of jagged keys protruding from his gums, like rusty stalactites in a dark cave. Swaying back and forth, he raised a chain over Andrew’s outstretched neck. “Kneel before me, dog!”
Andrew’s knees buckled, and he cowered in the mud before the Foglocker. Just as the being made a move to place the chains round Andrew, Ivory came up from behind, quickly placed her hands over Andrew’s eyes, and dragged him back. The second the Foglocker’s gaze on Andrew was broken, a loud snapping sound filled the air and the earth shook.
“Run!” Ivory cried, grabbing Andrew’s hand and pulling him up the hill. “Run
!”
Andrew glanced behind him at the enraged being, nearly falling, but Ivory held onto his hand and pulled him along with her. All the while, he could hear the Foglocker’s thunderous cries howling behind him. The chained souls of the Foglocker reached out to snag him, but he whipped past them, panting, going further and further until Freddie and Talic ran out to meet them and pulled them back behind the rock that hid them from the gaze of the Foglocker.
“He’s…he’s…coming, Ivory cried, dropping to her knees.
“Come, come back!” the Foglocker moaned, filling the hills with his voice, shaking his key-covered cane as he ran towards the rock.
Andrew could feel an irresistible urge to heed the voice. He trembled, and turned to run back down the hill. But Talic and Freddie caught Andrew, and held him back.
“Andrew!” Freddie cried, shaking him. “Don’t listen to him. Listen to me. Do you hear. Listen to me!”
Sweat trickled down Andrew’s face, and he panted heavily, struggling against the desire to follow the Foglocker’s voice.
Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light in the bushes behind them, and the approaching Foglocker let out a horrible scream. “NOOO!” the Foglocker shrunk back, hiding his eyes and crying out lamentations.
Rhapsody stepped out of the light and smoke and into full view. He was holding their horses’ reins. His face was twisted into a fierce scowl, causing the skin round his eyes and mouth to look particularly rumpled and wrinkly.
“Snap out of it, you idiot!” Rhapsody thundered, whacking his cane on Andrew’s head. “We must leave this place, immediately!”
Andrew yelped, and held his head. “Oh, ouch. My head. Why’d you do that for?”
“To help you remember that you have a head. Back there, it looked as if you’d forgotten you had one.”
He smiled, and pulled Andrew to his feet. “Come, Andrew. It seems that you still have much to learn.”
~~~~
Chapter Sixteen
The Dandelion Den
“What about the others?” Andrew asked as they galloped away from the Foglocker.
Rhapsody turned his horse abruptly to the right, staring blankly ahead, refusing to acknowledge the pleading howls, and outstretched arms of the sheeple. “They’ve given themselves and the key to their freedom away, long ago, to the Foglocker’s power. There’s nothing we can do.”
The Foglocker glared at them and shook his cane with fury as they passed by. “Follllowwwwwww!” it moaned. “Follow!”
“Cover your ears, Andrew,” Rhapsody commanded, urging his horse to go faster. “It appears that you are not immune to temptation as I had hoped.”
The Foglocker stared at the fleeing figures, with fire in his eyes. “Follow!” His voice echoed behind them, and eventually faded into the mist.
They traveled on through the patchy fog, weaving in and out through the misty maze, unable to exit the way they’d come, because the fog hemmed them in so much that when they tried to push through it, it was like they’d rammed up against a wall made out of a feather mattress. However, they found that they could go forward through the fog, only when random patches of it opened up and let them through. They moved through it until the sunlight steadily grew brighter, and brighter and the air became fresh and clear once again.
“Unbelievable,” Andrew exclaimed, watching in amazement as the fog slowly dissolved, and the ground gradually became no longer black, but a pleasant rich red hue. The sun was warm on their backs. Somewhere Andrew could hear the sound of a stream gurgling. A pleasant breeze was blowing from the north, bringing with it a faint smell of flowers.
“I like this place a lot better,” Freddie said, smiling.
“Me too,” Ivory murmured. “It’s so pretty.”
Rhapsody led them down a small rocky path and through a ravine into a beautiful meadow covered in little purple flowers. Big black bumblebees flitted around them, filling the land with a sweet smell of honey.
A small stream cheerfully burbled through the meadow. They stopped by it, to wash off the black mud of the Foglocker. Andrew soaked his feet in the stream, feeling his muscles relax in the cool water, while Talic, Ivory, and Freddie splashed playfully around him.
After washing in the stream, they all sat, relaxing on the grass, warming themselves in the sun.
Talic sat up, and smiled. “Andrew, do you think you could turn Freddie into a tree?”
Andrew shrugged and laughed. “Hmm…I don’t know. Would you like me to try?”
Freddie shoved Talic in the ribs, causing him to yelp in pain. “Honestly, Andrew, I think Talic would make a better tree. Maybe a quaking aspen. He’s always trembling, and shaking. Besides, I think he would look mighty dandy with a magpie’s nest on his head, and pinecones growing under his armpits.”
Talic gave Freddie a hurt look and slugged him back. “You’re the one who’d give anything for a bunch of pinecones growing under your armpits. Just think, you’d never go hungry.”
“Oh, shut up!” Freddie laughed, tousling his friend's hair. “Or you’ll be the one eating pinecones!”
“Just wait till you’re asleep,” Talic retorted, stretching out on the grass and basking in the warm sun. “I predict that you’ll be eating ants out of my fingers, or maybe earthworms. Possibly a slug.”
“Some friend you are,” Freddie murmured, trying to shove grass in Talic’s mouth. “Here, eat this.”
“Yuck,” Talic sputtered, wrestling with Freddie until they both collapsed exhausted on the ground.
“You guys are ridiculous,” Andrew murmured, his lips curved into a serene smile. He glanced over to Ivory who lay on the grass, sleeping peacefully. “Not only that, you’re going to wake Ivory.”
Talic frowned, looking at Freddie in contempt. “Yeah, Freddie, Ivory’s trying to sleep. Quit shoving grass in my face.”
Freddie returned the look. “Fine, Talic, I’ll quit shoving grass in your face, just as long as you promise not to feed me ants in my sleep.” He lay back down, covering his mouth with his arm, peering carefully at Talic through half-closed eyelids.
Soon all were sound asleep, breathing evenly while listening to the soothing burble of the stream. Ivory awoke, when Freddie started snoring. His snores were nasally, and they sounded as if he was choking on a rubber band. She sat up, watching her friends as they slept. She smiled, wondering how they all could sleep with such sounds.
Bored, she wandered through the purple field of flowers, singing to herself. She laughed like a small child when a butterfly landed on her red hair. Things were different here than in the land of the Foglocker. She felt so free and happy that she could have wept for joy. Here, with her friends, she felt safe. They had not left her to perish alone in the Foglocker’s clutches. The flowers looked so pretty, and the sky looked so blue, that she forgot about the time. It wasn't until the sun had dipped low in the sky and the shadows had grown longer, that she realized she had better see if the boys were awake yet.
She glanced back, in the direction of the sleeping boys. The boys were still sprawled out over the grass, in blissful slumber. Rhapsody too, was resting against a tree, with his bearded chin tucked to his chest, his eyes closed, and a peaceful look on his face. She wondered if perhaps she should wake them.
She turned around and hurried towards them. Then, without warning, the ground beneath her feet crumbled. She slid down a dark hole, down through layers of rock, until she was thrown out onto a ledge, peppered in small rocks.
She sat up, coughing. She fanned the dusty air, and looked around her in confusion.
“Drat stupid holes,” she shouted as she inspected the opening she had slid through. After careful consideration, she concluded that it would be impossible for her to climb back up it. The hole was carved out of hard, smooth rock. The hole resembled a steep wormhole that went up, and up, and up.
“Anyone up there? Talic, Andrew, Freddie, Rhapsodyyyy! Can anyone hear me?” When no one answered, she sighed then walked around the smal
l ledge on which she’d been deposited. It was in the shape of a perfect circle. The ground was hard and yellowish. Rising up from all sides of it were tall jagged rocks that looked as if some giant had placed them there to keep things from ever getting in or out. About ten feet from the place she’d fallen, was a huge gaping pit, with a tree-sized dandelion growing from the side of it. She could see part of its roots dangling out into the gaping hole. Ivory crept up to the pit and shuddered as small bits of gravel fell from the edge, down into the depthless void. She waited, listening for the sound of the gravel to hit the bottom, but the familiar clinking sound was not heard---only silence.
She scowled, and kicked a pile of rocks into the deep pit, calling herself every sort of rotten name she could think of. Nobody would ever be able to find her this time. And she deserved it. She hoped that her friends wouldn't look for her very long. If she was them, she'd leave herself. She sat down by the pit’s edge, tucked her feet to her chest, and cried.
“Oh stop that confounded dripping!” a small, commanding voice ordered.
Ivory wiped her eyes and looked up, wondering where the small voice had come from.
“That's much better,” the voice chirruped. “No more dripping. I can't stand it when creatures leak water on their faces---except for myself. If I drip, I have a very, very, very good reason for it. People-things, who leek often, are broken and are in need of a good re-roofing!”
“Excuse me?” Ivory said, her eyes wide. She gazed at the enormous dandelion that grew on the side of the pit, where the sound had come from. She could see one of the huge dandelion tufts quivering as if something was hiding among the tufts. The plant was bigger than any dandelion she’d ever seen. Ivory stepped closer to the dandelion, with squinted eyes. She could have sworn she saw two big eyes, peering out at her from within the dandelion globe.