by Livi Michael
‘Stand with us!’ Pico cried to him. ‘Together we will face the worst they have to offer!’
‘Typical!’ snorted the nearest Fury. ‘Man has enslaved you, disposed of you, bred you into mutant runts -’
‘WOOF!’ said Pico.
‘Yet now you would stand by him – even to the horrid end. And believe me, my friends, your end will be horrid!’
‘Gentleman Jim!’ called Pico, ignoring her. ‘Stand with us!’
The Furies cackled like fiendish hens.
‘Your lumbering friend has more sense,’ said one.
Now, it was true that Gentleman Jim had been backing away. He couldn’t see why he should have to die as part of the deal, and secretly he thought that Orion probably had deserved everything that was coming to him. He rather resented Pico’s assumption that they would all face the Furies’ cruel revenge together, yet he wasn’t about to stand by and be cackled at. Besides, he knew that he couldn’t leave Pico. And somewhere in the depths of his memory, he heard a bugle blowing – the immortal sound that every hunting dog recognizes – the call to fight.
Knowing that he would regret it, he plodded over to stand at Orion’s side.
‘I stand with them,’ he said, and for the first time Orion looked up.
‘My friends,’ he said, in a broken, humble voice, ‘I do not deserve you.’
‘Well, sisters,’ shrieked one of the Furies.
‘It is rather unorthodox,’ said another.
‘But if these foolish beasts are offering themselves up to an eternity of torment -’
‘Then who are we to stop them?’
And with a terrible anguished shriek they descended, their talons outstretched and their eyes dripping gore.
Galvanized, Orion raised his bow and began firing arrows at them in all directions as they batted around his head. This caused them to shriek some more, and to double the ferocity of their attack. Gentleman Jim leapt upwards, snarling and snapping, and was caught across the back with a whip. The pain burned fiercely, maddening him, so that he rolled over, howling. Then, in the next moment, Pico was swept to the ground by another whiplash. Orion stood alone, firing his arrows towards one Fury, while another descended on him from behind…
And at that exact moment Boris sank his teeth into Cerberus’s tail and the great dog bellowed from all three throats as he had never bellowed before.
33
In Which Flo Meets a Norn
Flo was falling at a speed that drove all the breath out of her body. Just before her eyes disappeared entirely into the back of her head, she glimpsed something advancing rapidly towards her. It looked like a small, horned woman with wings and a breastplate.
No, Flo thought, before all her thoughts fizzled out.
But the small, horned woman was indeed there, and she continued to hurtle towards Flo.
‘Gotcha!’ she said, grasping Flo by the collar.
‘Ooommmph!’ said Flo, and ‘Glkk!’
Then the pressure on her neck lessened and she seemed to be floating lightly at the side of the small, horned lady, whose braided hair streamed behind her in the wind. In fact, they were still travelling at a considerable speed, but compared to the speed of plummeting to certain death, it felt gentle and slow.
Flo was sure that she had seen the small, horned lady who was holding on to her somewhere before, but only when she said, ‘Well done, Flo – you’ve stopped them swallowing the sun and moon, and put Ragnarok on hold for now. I knew you had it in you,’ did Flo recognize her, and gasp in disbelief.
‘Aunty Dot?’ she ventured, hardly believing her eyes.
‘That’s one of my names,’ said the short, stout lady briskly.
Flo felt too dazed to speak for a moment.
‘But Fenrir,’ she managed to say, ‘and the sun –’
‘Well, it is a long way off,’ said Aunty Dot. ‘It’ll take him a while to get there. Just about enough time for us to descend into Hades.’
‘Wh-what?’ said Flo. ‘Where?’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Aunty Dot. ‘You’ll be quite safe with me. We’ve just got to give the others a bit of a helping hand, that’s all. Now, where were we?’
Flo hadn’t a clue.
‘Ah, yes,’ continued Aunty Dot. ‘What I was going to say was – I am one of the three Norns – Spinners of Destiny. Or at least I am in one world. In the world we’re about to enter, I’m one of the three Fates. Same job really, bit more thread. Whereas in your world, I’m simply one of Sam’s aunties. See?’
‘No,’ said Flo.
‘You look confused,’ Aunty Dot said kindly, and even in her dazed state, Flo thought this was a bit of an understatement. ‘It is terribly confusing when the worlds collide,’ Aunty Dot went on. ‘But do you mind if I explain it as we go? There really isn’t much time.’
Flo nodded, then shook her head. She wished that her thoughts would assemble themselves into some kind of order. It was such a long time since anything had made sense.
‘Now we’re descending into a different world,’ Aunty Dot said, and Flo didn’t even try to understand. ‘I expect you’re wondering what’s going on.’
Flo blinked. She had given up wondering altogether.
‘We’re about to descend into the underworld. There’s nothing to worry about, really – I just need to reunite you with your friends. All those wolves you just met will be falling to your earth and chaos will ensue. I’ve got to get everyone back up there and ready to fight.’
‘F-fight?’ said Flo.
She was about to explain that fighting was not something she did, when Aunty Dot cried, ‘There we are!’
Flo looked down.
Below them the earth seemed to be seething into a mass of darkness.
‘There’s Hades now,’ said Aunty Dot cheerily. Then she said suddenly, ‘Hark!’
Flo harked. There was the eerie sound of a cock crowing.
‘The second cock of Ragnarok,’ said Aunty Dot in hushed tones. ‘That’s not good. That means Hel and her minions can still burst out of the abyss. And she won’t be happy, now that her wolves have failed to swallow the sun and moon. We’d better get a move on. We need Orion to blow his horn.’
And before Flo could ask any questions, they were hurtling forward once more at a mind-numbing speed.
‘If you’ll excuse me,’ yelled Aunty Dot above the noise of rushing air, ‘I’ll have to change.’
‘Change?’ echoed Flo, as before her eyes Aunty Dot started to expand. She burst out of her armour, which changed into flowing white robes, and tendrils of grey hair flew around her head like snakes.
‘You don’t mind, do you, dear?’ she said in an ancient, creaking voice. ‘Different world, you see.’
Flo felt that she wouldn’t know how to mind anything any more. She thought she recognized this new apparition as one of the three hags she had seen in the mirror, but she no longer trusted anything that her brain was telling her. They hit a wall of noise, as though the universe had just fired a shot, and Flo felt simultaneously that she had been turned inside out, then immediately they began plunging into the heart of darkness.
34
The Rage of Cerberus
The mighty Cerberus burst out of his cavern and charged through the underworld, howling.
The underworld rumbled and shook. The ground around Gentleman Jim and Pico began to slide from under them and rocks cascaded down. The Furies shrieked, but the noise was lost against the greater cacophony of sound. They folded their bat wings around their ears, causing them to plummet, maddened, to the ground. A great gale of noise blasted past Gentleman Jim. His ears and jowls rippled backwards with the force of it, while his brain batted around his skull like a demented moth. His last clear thought was that he might as well pass out, since it seemed pointless to even try to do anything else.
The monstrous hound thundered towards the river of forgetting, all three heads howling at once. He pounded his mighty tail as he ran, and Checkers flew out of it, yelping,
but Boris hung on like grim death. It was almost as though he’d forgotten how to let go.
‘Cerberus!’ moaned the Furies, covering both ears and eyes, while Pico, Orion and Gentleman Jim stared in horror as the hideous beast lumbered into view. His three heads gnashed their horrible teeth, each fang larger than Gentleman Jim and a good deal more pointed. His six eyes glowed like furnaces and rolled in agony. Poisonous foam flew from his jaws and all along his scaly neck diabolical serpents hissed like countless pressurized valves releasing steam.
Yep, definitely a good time to pass out, Gentleman Jim thought.
But the horrendous hound was careering directly towards them, maddened with pain. Orion’s bow shook crazily in his hands; it was anyone’s guess who he might hit with his arrow. Cerberus lashed his tail with supreme violence and Boris finally flew off. He hit a jagged rock and lay stunned and sickened by the foul venom in the monster’s tail. Cerberus didn’t pause, but carried on lunging towards Orion, who was the only creature he could dimly see, and who, therefore, he was determined to punish for the pain in his tail. Checkers, crushed and feeble but undaunted, hobbled after him as well as he could, determined to find Boris and rescue him. But it was Pico who ran to meet the demonic hound.
‘DIE!’ shrieked the three heads of Cerberus. ‘YOU WILL ALL DIE!’
‘WOOF!’ said Pico, taking the diabolical dog completely by surprise. His three heads thrashed around.
‘I SAID YOU WILL DIE!’ they howled.
‘WOOF!’ said Pico again.
Cerberus’s three heads looked down, then down again. He couldn’t even see Pico.
‘WHO ARE YOU THAT SAYS “WOOF”?’ he bellowed, so Pico said it again.
Cerberus lowered his mighty neck. His six eyes struggled to focus. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, but lately he had suspected that he was getting a little short-sighted. Or at least, three of his eyes were short-sighted. The others seemed, if anything, to be getting long-sighted. He supposed it was only to be expected, since all his eyes were thousands of years old, but it was a bit of a nightmare really. He couldn’t see anything properly. And he really didn’t want to start wearing glasses. Besides, where would he get them from?
Gradually, as he lowered his enormous neck, he became aware of six specks standing in a group on the ground. They jiggled about a bit, some standing closer than others, but as he lowered his heads still further, they slowly resolved themselves into one tiny dog.
‘WOOF!’ it said.
Cerberus’s three heads banged into one another in disbelief. He hadn’t even known a dog could be that small. He opened his horrid mouths, blasting Pico with the incomprehensible stench of his rotting breath… and laughed!
Or at least, two of his heads laughed, howling and shrieking in mirth, as though they’d just been told a really funny joke. The third head gnashed its rotten teeth in rage that something as titchy as Pico dared to defy him.
‘OUT OF MY WAY!’ it bellowed.
‘WOOF!’ said Pico yet again.
Gentleman Jim, who had quite failed to pass out, trembled like jelly in an earthquake at what seemed to be the inevitable demise of his little friend, while behind Cerberus Checkers limped up and down, barking and snapping.
‘RIGHT, THEN,’ said Cerberus. ‘I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS.’
He raised an enormous paw, with claws like a dragon’s talons, and looked set to bring it down on Pico, crushing the little dog out of existence.
It was at this moment that Flo and Aunty Dot, in her new guise as one of the Fates, crashed through an opening into the underworld and landed right in their midst.
35
Over the Rainbow
Even in her stupor of grief, Jenny blinked. The rainbow hadn’t been there before. And as she stared, it began to tremble, as though something or someone huge was striding over it.
Against her will her hackles rose, the hair on her back bristled and her lips drew back in a snarl. If this rainbow was the bridge she had heard of, called Bifrost, then Jenny knew there was reason to be afraid. Because it linked the different worlds and was the means by which all the monsters and demons, trolls and giants would invade Sam’s world in Ragnarok.
There was only one of whatever was coming, however. Single footsteps rattled and pounded the shining bridge, and as they reached its apex a long shadow fell across the surface. Jenny crouched, preparing to spring. She had suffered enough, and was more than willing to make someone else pay.
The shadow lengthened as the footsteps approached.
Jenny rolled her eyes upwards, ready to view her enemy before she attacked. She had never met a giant before and didn’t know quite what to expect, but she was taken by surprise to see a small boy in a large, misshapen and ridiculously yellow jumper.
‘Jenny!’ cried Sam.
36
Reunited
‘Berry!’ cried Aunty Dot, and Cerberus stopped bellowing, mid-thrash.
‘AUNTY ATROPOS!’ cried the enormous hound, and the next few moments were literally pandemonium, as the great beast lumbered towards Aunty Dot, lowering its hideous heads, and she flung her arms around each of his vast, scaly necks in turn.
Everyone stared in amazement. There seemed to be so much to take in.
Aunty Who?’ said Pico, glancing over to where the tall, ragged woman with milk-blind eyes and hair like snakes was embracing the monstrous three-headed Hound of Hades.
Everyone looked questioningly at Flo.
‘Don’t ask,’ Flo said.
Gentleman Jim was the first to move. He stumbled over to Pico, who seemed to be rooted to the spot, and scooped him up out of harm’s way.
‘I don’t know whether you’re a hero or a complete lunatic!’ he growled as he set him down again.
Pico shook himself.
‘Flo?’ said Checkers, limping up excitedly. ‘Pico? Gentleman Jim – where’s Boris?’
‘Here I am,’ said Boris, lumbering slowly towards the group. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Blowed if I know, mate,’ said Checkers, and he butted Boris playfully, to say thank you for saving his life, and when Boris got up again, he sat on him and chewed his ears.
‘Don’t look at me,’ said Flo, as everyone did.
‘Who’s this, then?’ Checkers added, looking at Orion, and ‘Blimey, who are they?’ nodding his head towards the Furies, who were flapping about again in consternation.
‘Sister,’ moaned the Furies together. ‘Sister, this is not your place.’
‘Sister?’ said Gentleman Jim to Flo, who just shook her head hopelessly.
‘She says she’s Aunty Dot,’ she said, as Gentleman Jim gaped at her. ‘At least, she was before – then she changed.’
‘Sister,’ the Furies droned again, with one voice, but the strange grey being claiming to be Aunty Dot ignored them.
She and Cerberus were too busy nuzzling one another to take notice of anyone or anything else. Aunty Dot scratched the spines on his scaly neck and Cerberus made little gratified, whimpering noises and slobbered all over her. It was kind of grotesque.
‘Best guard dog I ever had,’ said Aunty Dot, turning round at last and wiping her milky eyes. ‘Until Zeus took him off me and said he had to guard the underworld instead.’
As the Furies began flapping and moaning again, she went on, ‘Yes, I know, I know, but I am here for a good reason. Where’s Orion? It is time for him to repent, so that his soul can go to the Elysian fields, and he can blow his horn.’
Orion glimmered faintly in shock. Then he stepped forward.
‘Orion, king of hunters,’ said Aunty Dot, in a loud, resonant voice that all the dogs recognized at once, ‘persecutor of the animal kingdom, what have you to say for yourself?’
Orion hung his head and mumbled something.
‘Eh?’ said Aunty Dot, sounding just for a moment uncannily like Aunty Lilith. ‘What was that?’
Orion hung his head even further and mumbled again.
‘Can’t hear you,’ boomed
the strange being known as Aunty Dot. ‘Speak up, man!’
A spasm of irritation crossed Orion’s handsome, transparent face. ‘I said I’m sorry!’ he snapped.
‘Sorry for what?’ said Aunty Dot sternly. ‘You once claimed to be sorry only for boasting about your misdeeds.’
If possible, Orion turned even paler than he already was. But he looked straight into Aunty Dot’s milky eyes.
‘I am sorry for all the damage I have done,’ he said clearly. ‘I am sorry for my arrogance, in thinking that the animal world was put there only for me to destroy. I am sorry for abusing my skills as a hunter and for killing without rhyme or reason. I am sorry for setting myself above nature and for misusing my considerable talents.’
He finished with just a touch of the old arrogance. Aunty Dot held up one skinny, claw-like hand.
‘You are sorry,’ she said, ‘for taking all these lives?’
And suddenly the underworld was full of animals. A shady multitude of stags and wild boar, cattle, sheep, horses, wolves, warthogs, tigers, lizards, fish and even insects filled the gloomy plains surrounding them and gazed at Orion with glowing eyes. A murmuring roar swelled, then subsided.
Checkers, Flo, Boris, Gentleman Jim and Pico huddled together in dismay, and Orion groaned aloud in anguish.
‘Orion, master hunter,’ said Aunty Dot in ringing, yet sorrowful tones, ‘you boasted that you could kill any animal that the world produced – and you made good your boast. Look around you. See the results of your arrogance and your thirst for blood.’
‘No – no!’ moaned Orion, but Aunty Dot was inexorable.
‘Because of you, all these animals that might have lived happily on earth, enjoying the sun and the moon, and the fruits of forest, field and sea, have been condemned forever to the gloomy caverns of Tartarus, where no light shines. You placed yourself above all the living creatures of the earth and that is where your light shines now. The light from your stars illuminates the earth and all mankind looks up to you. And because of you mankind continues to lay waste to the animal kingdom. What have you got to say for yourself?’
Orion’s great shoulders heaved. ‘What can I say?’ he cried. ‘It is true. I deserve only to die!’