The Team and the Cavern

by S G Read

  ‘Who cares, let’s eat.’ Simon exclaimed.

  Before anyone had the chance to move Ben ordered them into hiding. Seconds later the Acephali walked by carrying his basket.

  ‘So much for having something to eat.’ Simon complained.

  ‘We only have to wait?’ Toby whispered back.

  ‘I don’t wait well, where food is concerned.’ Simon declared.

  ‘I think we know that.’ Toby replied. He was remembering being stuck up a tree in the jungle and waiting for Simon to help them get him down.

  To them it seemed plausible that the fruit would just regrow; the other trees regained their fruit when no one was looking, so it had to be worth waiting to see. They found a place to wait and settled down talking amongst their selves while they waited. Simon was first to turn and look at the tree after he sat down, he was hungry. It was under a minute since he had sat down but he still chose to look, just in case. By the time he looked the tree had fruit on it.

  ‘Wow that was quick.’ He shouted and was up like a shot.

  They ate the fruit, as it was all that was on offer and drank from the stream again. The oranges were ripe and the bananas straight, which really made them look odd. They ate their fill, they had eaten fruit before. As they walked away, Simon looked round.

  ‘Anyone want more fruit?’ He asked but no one did, they were all full.

  The consensus was no, they did not want any more fruit, not even Simon. They walked on complaining about their stomachs as they walked, until a wall of rock stopped them. There could see no way to climb up the wall of rock, even Simon.

  ‘Do we climb up or go back to path that leads to the crossroads?’ Simon asked.

  ‘You might be able to make it up there but I don’t think I can.’ Stuart admitted.

  ‘Me neither.’ Ben added. ‘What if we go back to the crossroad path and walk along it, looking for a way up? I think there is a route up there.’

  ‘Do we need a vote?’ Stuart asked but the answer was no, they all seemed to know and they walked back until they came to the path, the one they assumed, led back to the crossroads.

  As they reached it the group of ones emerged from the path they were heading for but no one was surprised at all, they seemed to expect it. The group gathered on the path, with lookouts both sides, watching for any danger.

  ‘So there is a route up there then?’ Stuart two asked Stuart one.

  ‘Yes and there are ledges to sleep under to keep you safe from the gryphon and the other one.’ The Stuart one answered.

  ‘That would be the opinicus.’ The Toby one declared.

  ‘Yes, that’s the one.’ Stuart one agreed. ‘Well we explored so that we knew what was further on and found the idea place to open the door to let most of us out. It should be on top of the cliffs. Then Stevey and me will go into the cavern and close the door. Put the books back and come out through the flume.’

  ‘You make it sound so easy,’ Stuart two answered, ‘but don’t forget, we lost the book and that has the spell to open a door in it. Without that, we are all going down the flume.’

  'So that solves my worries,' Sherman declared, 'If we find the other book, I can just walk through a door.'

  Stuart two looked along the track the ones had just emerged from.

  ‘So do we go up there? Remembering that the gryphon has a nest up there somewhere and he might just like some soft squishy supper.’ Stuart two asked his group.

  ‘Of course we are going up there, if we stay down here and the white shoed leprechaun chooses to come this way we could all end up made of stone while we sleep,’ Celia two answered, ‘and I for one do not want to sleep in a room with the other leprechaun again tonight! Twice is well enough.’

  There was a ripple of agreement.

  ‘So let's go up and find a safe place to sleep up there but when we wake in the morning we have to make sure the gryphon doesn’t see us.’ Stevey two suggested. ‘Are you lot coming back up?’

  ‘We need to eat and drink,’ Simon one declared, ‘but afterwards we might come back up, there is enough room for us all.'

  'There is fruit if you turn left and there is water in the stream.' Ben two declared.

  'We know,' Ben one retorted, 'but thanks for making sure we knew.'

  The group of ones had a quick confab between their selves to find out whether they wanted to sleep up there again and in the end decided to. First, they went of to find food and water. They decided that they would come back when they had eaten; it was not that late yet but to them it seemed the safest place to sleep. There were no votes on it, just talk. The group of twos started up the trail as and the group of ones went in search of food and drink.

  It was still light enough to climb and when the group of twos found a flat spot under an overhanging rock that was big enough to keep them all safe they chose to stop there. When it was light in the morning they would be hidden from anything flying over and they hoped the white shoed leprechaun would not come up there, as he was just concerned with doing battle with the wizard and the apprentice.

  The group of ones followed the same tactics the twos had used and ate safely, drinking as much as they could, while it was available and eating too much. When they were full and awash with water, the group of ones headed back and joined the others under the ledge. They all settled down to sleep but sleep did not come easily on the rocky surface, they had had an unusual day, one way and another. They talked quietly to each other, until one by one they fell asleep. The main topic of conversation was what Pat was thinking about them staying out during the nights. They knew, that she knew, that they knew how to look after themselves, from their past adventures.

  Morning found them snuggled up asleep under the overhang. Somehow, the gryphon seemed to know there was food there and circled overhead. Where they were sleeping, it could not swoop down and snatch one of them but as soon as they came out, it would be down for something to eat and it did not care which one it was. The first person to open her eyes was Molly two and she stretched, disturbing Celia two who was beside her. Molly two stood up and went to walk about to stretch her legs but before she could go out from under the ledge, she felt a hand take hold of her leg and looked down to see Sherman two’s hand. Sherman two merely pointed up to the circling gryphon and she moved back quickly even though she was still out of sight of it.

  ‘Thanks Sherman.’ She whispered, as if noise mattered. Her face had gone as white as a sheet.

  ‘Just be careful while you are in her Molly,’ he warned, 'I don't think I want to see you being eaten by anything.'

  The two girls huddled closer together and waited for the rest to wake up. They were able to warn them about the circling gryphon as they woke, to make sure they did not do what Molly two nearly did. It was not a nice prospect.

  ‘Now what?’ Stuart two asked when they were all awake.

  ‘Do we wait him out?’ Sherman one asked.

  ‘I could go out and lure it down so that one of the Simons could zap him.’ Ben two offered.

  ‘Yes but I would feel awful if I got it wrong and he ate you, well I would feel awful for a while anyway.’ Simon two retorted.

  Ben two laughed.

  ‘What else can we do?’ John one asked.

  ‘What if we ran for that trail over there with the overhanging rocks, it couldn’t get us there.’ Stevey one suggested. ‘It’s where we went last time and he can’t get at you for the majority of the trail.’

  ‘I wasn’t planning to go that way,’ Stuart two admitted, ‘but maybe we could look at this place Stuart one told us about, as we can’t go back the other way yet.’

  ‘Wouldn’t he get us as we queued to get in there?’ Denis asked, he was looking at the size of the opening they had to go in.

  ‘Not if we went one at a time,’ Stevey pointed out, ‘and if it came near enough one of the Simons could do his bit and the thing would be stone.’

  ‘Sounds like an idea,’ Stuart two replied, ‘but who is fast and wh
o is slow.’

  ‘I’m definitely slow.’ Both Simons admitted.

  ‘And me.’ Both Shermans added.

  ‘You know we are slow,’ Ben one declared, indicating the other Ben as well, ‘but I am willing to run across first.’ He stood up. ‘Are you ready to zap him Si?’

  ‘Go for it Ben.’ Simon one answered and both Simons stood up, each one hoping that he did not mess up the spell, which could make it very awkward for Ben.

  Ben sprinted across the gap to get to the next ledge, when the gryphon saw him it started to dive but it saw him go into the rocks he pulled out of the dive. Celias one and two started their runs when the gryphon sheered off and Molly one was a little after, making sure the two Celias would not cause her to be caught out in the open for too long.

  ‘What is it like over there?’ Stuart two called as the gryphon readied itself for another try.

  ‘We are under cover for some distance.’ Molly two called back. ‘If we all get under here he won’t be able to see us and maybe he will go and get one of those headless things.’

  One by one they ran across the space, with the gryphon starting a dive then having to pull out again as his prey reached cover. In the end only the two Simons were left. After a quick discussion between them, they stepped out and walked across, daring the gryphon to come anywhere near them. The gryphon stayed circling as the Simons walked across the space and into the covered trail on the other side, it did not dive toward either Simon at all.

  ‘I think it was frightened of you Si.’ JC one exclaimed to both of them. ‘Do you think that, as it was the same one you turned to stone, they remember what happened when they are reborn.’

  ‘You mean there is only one of them? That’s a bit lonely for it.’ Simon one answered, watching the gryphon as he said it.

  ‘But it would explain it not going after either of you,’ Toby two added, ‘part of the quid pro quo must be to remember what you did last time that got you killed? We remember everything, didn’t we?’

  ‘That could be why the apprentice knew where the attack would come from, they have been fighting this little battle so long that the leprechaun has tried a lot of different attacks. Now that he is now a card short of a pack, he is stuck in a rut, trying each method in order. The apprentice has realized that and as the leprechaun has tried everything else, this time he knew just where and what he was going to do.’ Stuart one agreed. ‘Every time the leprechaun does the same old thing in order and nothing changes, so somehow we have to change it, it is a bit like a reoccurring nightmare in here!’

  ‘How do we change it?’ Jenny one asked. 'It is very hard to change something that is going on that long without making things worse.'

  ‘I have no idea what we are going to do at the moment but I am working on it, I want to sleep in a soft bed tonight.’ Stuart one answered. ‘Those rocks were worse than sleeping in the jungle!’

  ‘Me too,’ Stevey one added, ‘and I want a hot meal.’

  ‘Don’t!’ Both Simons complained.

  'It’s alright for you, you get out.’ JC two complained.

  ‘But I am you!’ JC one exclaimed. ‘Where I go you have to go. If we turn you to stone, you will come as part of me again!’

  ‘So this is what we have to do.’ Stuart one declared, ignoring the philosophy JC was expounding. ‘Somehow we have to change what goes on in this place for long enough for us to steal the book, find the one we lost and get out again.’

  ‘Any ideas, Stu?’ Sherman one asked.

  ‘I still have no idea, let us all think about it as we walk and see if we can’t come up with an idea, any idea.’ A Stuart answered.

  They walked on, now out of sight of the gryphon, that meant they could think about the problem they faced. They bandied ideas about, some were silly and some even sillier but they listened to each other’s idea and discussed it, even though they thought that it was a waste of time. They discussed some ideas longer than others, before they dismissed them. When they came to the next clearing, they stopped under the overhanging rocks and searched the sky for the gryphon but without success, they could no longer see him. That meant that nobody moved forwards. They watched from cover and waited patiently but there was still no sign of it.

  ‘Are we going to do the same again?’ Ben two asked eyeing the cover on the other side.

  ‘Looks like it.’ Simon one answered and Ben two ran across to the other side and the cover there.

  ‘Not very good over here, it is one big clearing.’ Ben called back.

  ‘There’s the gryphon.’ Molly two cried from out in the open. ‘It has one of those things we saw, head and all. He must have just fancied a change of diet and the head didn’t manage to leap off before he was taken.’

  With the gryphon fed they assumed it was safe to walk and did so but still looked up to make sure there was not more than one gryphon, or that the opinicus was waiting for a feed as well but they saw nothing flying about above them. They could see the gryphon eating the head on its ledge, while the body fumbled around trying to escape without much success. They walked through the clearing in a group, with the lookouts making sure nothing surprised them. The clearing was large and sloped up towards the cliff they could see in front of them. There they were at the very top of the part of cliff they were on, from there on it became sheer and unclimbable.

  ‘We have to go back,’ Celia two declared, ‘but I see what you mean Stuart one, we must be on top of the cliff up here.’

  They turned and walked back, making sure there was nothing above or in front of them. They walked all the way back down the trail without seeing anything threatening and dropped back down on to the other trail. From there they walked back towards the crossroads. When they reached the crossroads, they were back to where they started. They could see the hole in the wall they had come through. They could also see the fully grown Ben eating tree, with its stone predecessor spread below it on the ground. They looked down the trail to the left to make sure nothing waited to pounce and the Su made all the same noises at them and beat another hasty retreat.

  'I wonder if the gryphon eats that now and then.' CJ one mused.

  'It's quite a big meal.' JC one answered.

  'I was just going to say that.' JC two added.

  Jenny two looked at both JCs with disdain.

  ‘Now what?’ She asked tiredly.

  ‘I am working on it.’ Both Stuarts answered simultaneously.

  ‘So am I,’ Toby one added, ‘so between us we should come up with some sort of plan.’

  The arrival of the red shoed leprechaun stopped the chatter and they turned to face him as he approached. His mouth fell open when he saw how many there were of them.

  'Where did the others come from?' He asked.

  ‘If we wanted to open a portal to get out of here where should we do it?’ Stevey asked ignoring the question.

  ‘Ask the Grimalkin, she would know.’ The leprechaun answered. ‘I am not the brainy type.’

  ‘But she will just think it will let the wizard and his apprentice out into our world and probably won’t tell us,’ Ben one replied, ‘I don’t think she likes us.’

  ‘She doesn’t like anybody much but she would like you, if you had the other book with you. The man you think is the wizard was just an apprentice when he started but when someone fell into our world, they brought the book with them. The apprentice became all powerful and locked the real wizard in his own dungeon.’ The leprechaun explained. ‘The wizard was just able to make things like they are now before the apprentice locked him away, to stop him killing off all the people who opposed him as that was what he would have done.’

  ‘So we could free the wizard and this world will be alright again?’ Stuart one asked.

  ‘Well not the same. It was bigger and there were a lot more of everything but the apprentice knew they supported the wizard, so he tried to wipe them out. The wizard was only able to make sure nothing died out completely, so when the last one died, he was al
ways reborn. I had a lot of brothers and we had great parties until the apprentice locked the wizard up.’ The leprechaun answered. ‘Maybe the old wizard could do something about getting the world back to how it was, if he was free.’

  ‘So we have to defeat the apprentice and free the wizard before we go out again and then take both books with us?’ Ben one exclaimed.

  The leprechaun nodded and walked off, as though it was as easy as that.

  ‘It is getting better all the time.’ Ben two declared and sat down.

  ‘How do we take on the apprentice, when he is good enough to beat the wizard?’ Molly one asked.

  ‘I bet he suckered the wizard when he beat him, took him by surprise. I bet he wouldn’t stand a chance against the real wizard, if we managed to set the wizard free.’ Jenny two declared.

  ‘That might be true Jenny but we still have to defeat the apprentice or distract him long enough to get the book and possibly free the wizard at the same time.’ Stevey two warned.

  ‘I have an idea.’ Sherman one announced.

  ‘Well I hope it is better than your last idea.’ Toby two answered.

  ‘It’s not like in that film where the thick one is made to have the idea that the bad guy wants him to have, is it?’ JC one asked. Considering the difference in their sizes, it was a brave thing to say.

  ‘And you are heading for a fat lip buster,’ Molly one retorted, ‘you go on Sherman and ignore that horrible JC.’

  ‘Well, what if we all go to where there is a white shoed leprechaun, one that has been turned into stone. We choose one, which is not too near the place where the new ones come out. When we find one we hold him in such a way that he can't turn us into stone and then turn him back from stone. That way we can talk to him and tell him we can turn all his mates back from stone and teach them how to turn the others back from stone as well. As we walked round we have seen a lot white shoed leprechauns dotted about round this weird world. If we turn them all back and keep it a secret, when we are ready we can surprised the apprentice. With all of them attacking him at once that will cause a suitable diversion for us to nick the books and leg it.’ Sherman one explained.