by Jack Challis
Acknowledgments
My thanks to Ian and Kim Von Heintze
for the computers and encouragement to write again.
To Victoria for her patience. All the staff and tutors
at South Wye learning centre for their computer
expertise and guidance: dealing with a novice.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE The Bully Caddoc Morgan
CHAPTER TWO Grunwalde Angharad: Queen of the Alien Lings
CHAPTER THREE A Bully’s Come-uppance
CHAPTER FOUR An Obscene Old Slag
CHAPTER FIVE The Scavenging Female Rills
CHAPTER SIX The Blind Tamasic of Tarrea
CHAPTER SEVEN Prisoner of the Malis Afar and Na Idriss
CHAPTER EIGHT Attack of the Serpentils
CHAPTER NINE Dangerous and Frivolous Ora-Pellas
CHAPTER TEN The Orb-eyed Oga Koya of Goya Perilus
CHAPTER ELEVEN A Web-Spinning Sillian
CHAPTER TWELVE An Alien Banquet
CHAPTER THIRTEEN False Arcadia and Quilla Prime
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Battle of the Star Fleets
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Celebrations: A Lingly Wedding in True Arcadia
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Judgment Day and Home
The Legend of Angharad
From part two of the Antares Cluster Trilogy:
The Arrival of the Aliens.
The Druid walked the stony trail through the mountain glade,
Beneath the dark, chilly shadow that Cader Idris made.
A Lingly Sprite took quick to flight at the druids tread,
She hovered in the darkening sky above the druid’s snowy head,
‘You cast your shadow on my freckles,’ the hovering Ling said.
‘Don’t take alarm Cariad - I mean no harm,’ the old Druid replied.
‘Just tell me where, you Lingly fairy Sprite; where Grunwalde Angharad
makes her downy bed this winter’s night.’
The Lingly Sprite in winged flight, whispered from a-high,
In the sweetest and softest tones that sounded like a sigh,
‘Do not linger in this fairy glade - Changelings four of toe and finger, hide in the dappled shade. Pray do not bide, for darkness soon will cloak this cold enchanted mountain side.’
‘This night be Halloween,’ the Druid said, ‘when the Star-worshipers ride, I demand only to see your fair Queen Angharad - to pay my yearly tithe.’
‘We Changelings worship Venus,’ answered the Lingly Sprite,
‘star-worshiping is our creed - we care not of Christian laws or Druid’s demands,
Who need to plough and bury the seed.’
‘I only seek safe passage,’ the Druid said, ‘through cold Llanberis Pass,
Where Tatarus Hobs with toothed gobs hide among it’s granite masts. So
pray tell me where Angharad lays a bed and rests her lovely golden head.
For Angharad loves her cups, I bring sweet strong Dolgellau honeyed mead, to drink upon her wild, jet-black steed; over the Mawddach’s tide and reed; To fair Plas Mynach Castle where greedy Boudica Sian, Tam-Lin and lovely Floranas hide - waiting to join the fairy ride; an arrows flight from the laughing tide; then over Hendre Mynach where devout monks pray and dwell, that ring the bell; tolling the knell over Abermaw town. Then up across the stonymountainside, over fair Merionedd.’
‘You speak right,’ sang the fairy sprite, ‘this night we also ride - collecting
tithe over Dinas, then fly over sleepy Machynlleth town; along the Dyfi way; following the seaweed strand to Cardigan Bay to pick up Brindled Noops
and beautiful Silkies for the fairy ride over Harlech to the secret leaping
stones - laid above ancient pagans bones, to worship Venus.’
The Lingly sprite she sparkled bright, her wings flashed a pastel haze;
‘I will tell thee right, where Angharad sleeps this night - where she’ll sip and sup in pale moonlight – first pray tell me our Lingly creed.’
The old Druid spoke: the silence broke. ‘Cocoon or Chrysalis we be kin, let
our three Changeling hearts beat within - to harm our kind, is darkest sin.’
‘The bargin’s made,’ said the Ling, ‘if broken you will burn in Golgin Hade, with Tormented Taarbs – so listen you well.’
‘Grunwalde Angharad’s downy bed is in a dell - a Fairy league away.’
‘But where - but where - is what I care,’ the old Druid replied.
The Lingly Sprite she then did alight and jigged and pranced on a rock
nearby and the Druid heard her sweet voice rise up to the darkening sky.
‘Where nymphs and fairies skip, and Tatarus Hobs put jug to lip:
Where the polecat and weasel nip, and the bee and butterfly sip;
Where the bluebell carpet haze, through a thorny bramble maze;
Where the night jar vigil keeps and the shining Ling star peeps;
Through the willows leafy weeps - ti’s there Angharad sleeps;
Beneath the wild woodbine.’
The Druid groaned, ‘a Fairy riddle,’ he moaned, ‘and the sun is setting fast,
‘I will never journey safely home, to Caple Curig - in the cold dark shadows cast.’
The gloom suddenly grew bright with spangled light; and the beautiful
Green-eyed Angharad appeared: her skin, as pale as pale moonlight.
‘Your tithe is paid old Druid - your token made, consider it says and done;
Now leave the darkening valley, before the setting of the sun. I Angharad, Queen of
the faries grant your boon. You have safe passage through cold Llanberis pass, without harm form any dead or living things. My Tatarus Hobs with great-toothed gobs
will skulk in the moonlite shadows cast; behind the granite masts of Llanberis pass.
They will dare not stir till you, old Druid, have safely passed.’
‘For we both be Welsh Pagans after all, so make haste –
leave this cold enchanted place - before the chilly nights’ fall.’
CHAPTER ONE
The Bully Caddoc Morgan
If by fault you wander through an enchanted glade.
Be sure not to linger, if you spy beings four of toe and finger,
Hiding: watching from the dappled shade!
Climbing a lonely tree fringed mountain path on a balmy, tranquil, June evening, Blodwyn Jones was enjoying the twittering-trill of birds’ evensong and the hidden vespers of insect hum. All the stunted mountain ash, rowan and oak trees were draped in their young shades of new summer’s green at that heady, halcyon time of year.
Blodwyn (Welsh for white flower) was a practical and resourceful sixteen-year old. She took a deep breath filling her lungs with pure, wild herb-scented mountain air.
It was the evening before midsummer’s eve. Summer was in its glorious prime; at that magical period when the fade of day flirts with the shades of night and like young lovers lingers, reluctant to part; prolonging a magical and enchanted twilight.
Blodwyn, a tall, strong girl of hardworking Irish and Welsh parents; who owned a smallholding in Mid-Wales, was proud of her Celtic ancestry. Her pretty face, golden hair and green eyes were rather spoiled by thick, cheap NHS spectacles!
Her parents had brought her up to be sensible and logical. They had told her: “Given enough thought, all problems can be solved.” Blodwyn had an immediate problem – the bully Caddoc Morgan!
The foul-mouth, bull necked, Caddoc Morgan had a score to settle. Blodwyn had been interfering with his activities; especially concerning the two timed, myopic, small-boned children of the Widow Owen.
Caddoc was a cunning bully, with the brain of a fully
-grown ferret. He knew the law, especially concerning his own personal protection from irate parents. Caddoc took great care never to leave tell-tale external bruising or any visible injures on his victims.
Caddoc was an expert arm twister; finger bender, stomach puncher and headlock specialist. The only bruises he left were internal. Being a girl would not save Blodwyn – Caddoc believed in equal rights.
Blodwyn would also have to give the ‘Widow Owen’ problem some thought and do something to help.
‘Owen the Coal’ died prematurely due to an excess of tobacco, alcohol and a surfeit of coal dust. After his morning dry-run he would conduct his wet-run beginning at the White Horse, Red Lion then the Skinners. In the two other pubs of Talla Pandy, Owen the Coal was not welcome due to the black residue he left on the soft furnishings and a haze of coal dust that followed him around like a devoted dark cloud. The regulars complained that if they’d wanted Pneumoconiosis of the lungs they would have moved to South Wales and become miners.
Owen the Coal died suddenly, but happily in the warm embracing arms of the Dyfi Forester. Blodwyn had heard certain people say in sanctimonious tones to the proud Mrs. Owen at the funeral: “If there is anything I can do – let me know.” Blodwyn was brought up to believe: “Actions make a better world – not hollow words.” Her parents made no such promises. But the Widow Owen always found something nice; mysteriously left on her out-side porch for Sunday lunch.
Blodwyn also found herself in an extraordinary situation that was not entirely to her liking – it was affecting her happy everyday existence. She enjoyed her simple ordinaryuncomplicated life; helping her parents on their smallholding, school, looking after her pony and socializing with friends.
Blodwyn came from a poor but content disciplined family; run by a hardworking strict mother; who was not beyond giving her daughter a whack with a wooden spoon when called for. Her father Brian, on the other hand like most dads with their daughters, was a pushover. Blodwyn lacked many of the things most girls her age took for granted; like her once best friend the spoilt and pampered Myfanwy Jenkins.
Unlike many girls her age, Blodwyn did not have a boyfriend; confident of her judgment; she would wait and had no intention of kissing a dozen frogs before she found her prince.
Myfanwy Jenkins, Blodwyn’s best friend had been chosen by the ‘Lings’ a strange alien race of insect ancestry to become their new Queen. (Once a young human female was chosen there was no option but to comply.) Myfanwy was now Grunwalde Angharad the manipulative, greedy, very rude childish human Queen of Star-worshiping, Changelings!
Lings were brought to Earth by their first Queen Nemesis a giant hornet-like creature from the dying Venus. Lings had managed to live mostly undetected on Earth – for they were true Changelings – “three hearts” not simple Shape-shifters.
Blodwyn was making her way to a lovely shaded glade, between two dark mountains. She was not aware that an incident in outer space would dramatically change her life; forcing her reluctantly on a quest into the Antares Cluster so fraught with danger – she was unlikely to survive!
The Alter Dom, a powerful higher being whose presence ensured peace in the Antares Cluster, suddenly went missing. It was last seen by a pair of frivolous, Ora-Pellas entering the Event Horizon of a feeding black hole: the most dangerous phenomena in all the universes! Anything – even planets, once past the Event Horizon of a Black-hole are lost forever; leaving only a lifeless, everlasting image – there is no return!
In the dim and distant Fourth Quadrant, the mysterious Shi-Larriss and the elusive willow-the-wisp Jinnd ‘Shadow-casters’ knew the order of things in the Antares Cluster would now change – for the worse!
Ripples of the Alter Dom’s disappearance finally filtered into distant and Stellar space. Alienoids and humanoids like the paranoid Iraa Bril; the aquatic, gill-breathing Jed-bela; the thieving six fingered Salas Panar and the lightning quick, flat-snake heads Serpentils began to probe the Antares Cluster’s boundaries. Even the xenophobic Galid-Ice-e-Kia surfaced from their chilling glacial wasteland in the Hyperion Third Quadrant and sniffed the frozen air with growing interest. The Alter Dom’s disappearance now left weak planets Vulnerable.
However, there was a more immediate danger from within the Antares Cluster. The aggressive Malis Afar Cold-bloods and their bondsmen the feline Na Idriss – from the Aquilla Triangle in the Delphinus sector; now wished to return to the planet they first evolved on – Earth!! With Earth’s global warming, conditions were becoming perfect. Both these aggressive advanced space-travelling races also had a more sinister reason for returning to Earth: their survival depended on it.
(During the Earth’s Jurassic period vicious, intelligent, large-brained Malisaraptors became the dominating predators; these nine-foot tall reptilian biped raptors could speak; use tools and make weapons. Another dramatic physical difference that set Malisaraptors apart from other dinosaurs was the fact that – black hair sprouted from the crown of their heads. Malisaraptor society was unequal – females dominated. The rarer, larger and fiercer female Malisaraptors were surprisingly vain; constantly posing and preening their hair at the water’s edge and admiring their reflections. These narcissistic matriarchs favoured wearing coloured stone bracelets, bangles, girdles etc, on their scaly bodies. The intelligent Malisaraptors even buried their dead in secret locations: still to be discovered by man.
At the end of the Cretaceous, Malisaraptors began to evolve into the cold-blooded Malis Afar; finally developing into reptilian humanoids! By the beginning of the Oligocene period, when the vulnerable ancestors of humans were only three foot tall, the Malis Afar were already active and efficient space travellers!
However, even though all the advanced space travelling races armed their war-ships with Hydra cannon and used Arion torpedoes; they still carried swords, valuing and admiring the ancient art of swordsmanship. The Malis Afar were famed for their speed and skill with the blade; providing their cold-blood was at the correct working temperature. The reptilian cold-blooded Malis Afar had one weakness: temperatures below freezing.
They were forced to leave Earth before the great ice age: or perish.
Tormented Taarbs were also becoming bold – rising from Golgin Hade, an underground world below, where the hot Earth’s core acted as a sun. Grunwalde Angharad’s three brutish, knuckle-walking Tartarus Hobs had witnessed the thin scrawny Taarbs, squeezing out from rocky crevices in the moonlight. Taarbs were hungry ebon beings – eaters of raw meat! The God fearing Blodwyn wondered if Golgin Hade was hell and Tormented Taarbs lost souls – for Taarbs no longer felt pain – only hunger!
Not that Blodwyn believed everything Grunwalde Angharad told her. She knew the sixteen-year-old Grunwalde could be a lying cow, when it suited. However, Blodwyn had seen for herself strange un-shod narrow elongated clawed footprints on the Riverbank!
Humans, known as Terasils to the Advanced Alien life forms of the Antares Cluster, were classed as Low Primitives; because Terasils had a short life span; single heart, massive populations, were destroying their own planet and worst of all – Terasils killed their own species!
Even the fierce, egg laying Ida Jaade, and the orb eyed, Oga Koya of Goya Perilus, considered this act the darkest sin – an act of Primitives! Terasils were also the butt of alien humour. The unintelligent Terasils believed they were the only life forms in the Antares Cluster. The many primitive Terasil space probes that looked like box-kites with sails and took years to travel short distances; have caused the crews of many an alien space craft to stop and laugh.
(The Antares Cluster comprises the Milky Way – Earth’s Galaxy – and its neighbour the Andromeda Galaxy.)
Even so, some of the advanced space-travelling races often admired and copied the varied and wonderful Terasil cultures.
Most people avoided the shady glade Blodwyn was making for. Modern day Pagans who still followed the old religion; like Peter the Goat the shepherd and Moses the Druid, knew the glade was the haunt of alien
Star worshiping Changelings!
Lings, and there are several types, are ageless invertebrates of insect ancestry; needing to return to chrysalis periodically to regenerate, or when injured. Lings are no dainty flower-hopping fairies!
Aggressive aliens like the Oga Koya, the mandrill faced Dandy-Indra, the Jalmar, Kar-sarr and the Malis Afar feared conflict with true Changeling “three hearts” for Lings possess a venomous bite – Sislings could also sting when provoked, or at war – there is no antidote!
True Changelings needed three hearts to withstand the strain of the rearrangement and adjustments of their molecules, when changing structure. While Changelings become an exact replica of the creature they had changed into – even to the touch – Shape-shifters change only in appearance, not in substance.
Other aliens of the Antares Cluster included the kindly, intelligent Galla Qualls and their imprinted Ida Jaade warriors of Quilla Prime; the timid Shape-shifting Semmi Tal and the misshapen, degenerate, web spinning Sillians! Fortunately for everyone Sillians were solitary beings who hated sunlight; preferring to remain hidden in their deep silken burrows with their own secret thoughts; waiting by their trapdoors when hunger demanded!
The Lings are classed as ‘Advanced Primitives,’ because they shun technology: relying on their own magical powers. Lings use Energy bands that connect all planets, for space travel. (Energy bands are a type of invisible rainbow. Coloured rainbows we see are false visible energy bands that never leave Earth – but are still used by the Lings as highways.)
The Cold-bloods; not wishing war with venomous Changelings, planned to capture the Queen of Lings; thus forcing her subjects to relocate to Pyxis minor, a small green Earth like planet in the far-off Nexus quadrant. Pyxis minor was a planet with a short lifespan!
Blodwyn and Myfanwy developed their acting skills together from an early age, in front of a long mirror. They became accomplished actresses. Every pouty pose, huff-puff and withering look was practiced to perfection. They could even manage to squeeze out a single theatrical tear after much straining and colour changes. Suddenly fainting was another ploy practiced by the two young girls to get them out of tiresome tasks: or tricky situations. Blodwyn only tried ‘fainting’ on one occasion at the age of eight; when asked to weed the carrot bed. Although Blodwyn’s worried Dad was taken in and about to call Dr Tudor Ellis; her astute Mother however quickly solved the situation with the garden hose – full on! Myfanwy on the other hand often fainted at home with regular impunity. One particular day with a dental appointment imminent, Myfanwy fainted every time her parents reminded her of the time. Once when unable to answer a difficult question at school Myfanwy conveniently fainted – slowly and safely sliding to the floor. Myfanwy’s performance convinced all – except Blodwyn who was quick to revive her best friend with a bucket of cold water from the fire hydrant.