Echoes from the Lost Ones

by Nicola McDonagh

  A group of four human-like things stood before us. At least half a metre taller, and wider round the shoulders. They wore half-masks on their faces, coloured red with a fake hooked nose that resembled that of a beak from a hawk. Only their mouths were visible and they too were stained red.

  They were dressed in tattered furry pelts held together by what looked like giant teeth and carried huge black whips in their claw-like mitts. The fire stick, that the one called Marcellus clutched, spitter-spattered out tongues of sulphurous flames that landed on the ground and continued to burn around our feet.

  “One we recognise. We sniffed this one before. Quiet, noharm type, keeps to safe parts. These two smalluns. These we not know.”

  “Orsin, grab them, make them squeal,” a larger than the other two things said. It held out its long nailed hands and made a motion as if it were tearing at our flesh. Wirt pressed himself against my arm and I did the same to Eadgard, who was not a- quivering at all. The one called Orsin made a hiss whistle through his large white teeth and out lurched three of the meanest looking Wolfies I had ever seen. Their heads where huge and framed with a brown matted mane that extended down their necks. Each one showed us their mighty fangs before crouching ready to pounce.

  “Halt,” Eadgard said and stepped forward. To my surprise and relief, they did. “My friends and I are not here to harm or injure. Merely to make our way through your domain as quickly as we are able,” he said and spread wide his arms in a gesture of compliance.

  “Only those with purpose tramp through Beyondess. We thinking thoughts that you may be conspiring with Agros,” Orsin said and cracked his massive whip.

  “Never. I’d split my head in two rather than collude with those cold-hearted tricksters,” Wirt said and clenched his fists. I hadn’t expected such bluster from this delicate male. His voice went all a-savage as he continued his tirade on the farming guild. “Those lessthanmen are to blame for all our woes and grief. They keep honest folk afeard with chat of looming famine and give us only dregs. Barely enough to keep us well. Then they take our strongest men and turn them into drudges. Nay to mention what they’d do if we did nay comply with their…”

  “Enough! You speak and chittle-chat more than a fem in moon pull,” Orsin said and the other two began to giggle gaggle and stomp their great feet. The ground shook from their efforts and I almost lost my balance. Wirt folded his arms and stood as tall as he was able. I swelled with pride as if a bubs of my own had won first prize in a wrestle contest.

  “You distract with talk, lissom male. We turn instead to this prime fem and sniff out truth like dog in heat.”

  “You’ll do no such thing, you lumbering lug,” I said and adopted the stance of readiness in order to do battle. Big as he was, I was not going to allow this freakish creature to lay a nose or anything else on my bod. Orsin lurched towards me with a look of hate as intense as any I have seen on a ‘dult, but just before he could grab, Eadgard stepped between us.

  “No more of this. As I explained before, we are not your enemy. This young fem and her companion are on a mission and must not be delayed.”

  “How did ye know that?”

  “Now is not the time for explanations, Wirt. Now is the time for leaving and continuing on our way.”

  “A mission. What kind of mission sends juves into Beyondness?”

  “I am not at liberty to divulge such things.”

  “If you want to walk away with feet still attached to ankles, reveal all,” Orsin said and the other three giants stepped forward, along with the slavering Wolfies who bared their teeth and growled.

  “They are to go beyond the Beyondness. To the place high up.”

  “We are?” I said and turned to Wirt who shook his head and moved in closer. “I was to inform you when we arrived at a safe vicinity.”

  “Enough whispers between. Talk or lose some flesh.”

  “No talk so we can slice juicy meat from soft bits. Long time since we eat such delicacy,” Marcellus said and grinned a nasty grin.

  “No need for threats, their ultimate aim is to find the place where her bro and other Meeks have been taken.”

  Marcellus stepped back. “Our sis got took. We recall day well. She said she heard birdybird call name. Off she ran fast and fierce. We looked but she was gone.”

  “Keep such info inwards. These feebles need not know our business,” Orsin said.

  “Likewise,” I blurted out. Orsin growled lower than the Wolfies that prowled round his feet.

  “Cross not, tiny fem, or we let loose wild ones.”

  “All this talk is keeping us from our purpose.”

  Orsin stepped in closer. “Your tale has likeness to our own. I would hear more. You come to our place of living. Do not fear Wolfies, they ours to command.”

  “A kindly offer, to be sure. But Adara, myself and Wirt must continue on.”

  “We not asking, we telling. Marcellus, take rear. We will escort humans. Walk!” Orsin commanded and I was all but ready to stay put, when I felt the hot breath of a Wolfie on my ankle. Eadgard opened his mouth to speak, but was jabbed in the back with Orsin’s whip. He turned to us and shrugged.

  “We must do as we are told. I see no way out.”

  “I am more than willing to trudge on, just to be free of these Cloniewolves.”

  “Quiet. Keep walking,” Marcellus said and off we tramped to who knows where.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Clonie Zone

  The fizzing light sticks the Clonies held, cast a flickering light that made their shadows stretch out before them like long staccato cut-out puppets. I had seen such amusements when the Wanderers came to town. They set up a white cloth thing, shone a big round light behind it and set about making magic shapes with all manner of props and stuff. I was just a bub and thought it grand. This was not so much. This was all a-scary and for the first time since I began my journey, I wished I had not.

  The further we walked the more unpleasant the surroundings became. What little I could see made me uneasy in the extreme. The flat ground became more uneven as we continued on, with lumps and bumps not formed from the dirt and ash that made up the soil in this place. The mounds I felt were rigid and brittle and jutted up from the earth in gruesome shapes that could well have been the leftovers from a Carnie feast.

  I stepped upon something hard and it crunched beneath my feet. I glanced down and saw what looked like a broken arm, minus the skin and other living tissue. Shuddering, I took a step back and cracked something else. This time, I did not look down but carried on walking, trying not flinch each time I made contact with something dead. I noticed that when Wirt splintered a bone, he put both hands to his face and gave out little high-pitched squeaky noises that made Eadgard turn around and glare a disapproving glare at him. Wirt caught his eye, coughed all manly like and trod as close to me as a blind kittle to its mother.

  Orsin’s dazzling torch illuminated more patches of the land we were travelling on revealing heaps of chewed up metal and hollowed out remains of what must have been rudimentary style houses. The gaps in the grey bricks where windows used to be made them look wide-eyed and afraid. I began to wonder if my face resembled them since I kept on letting my jaw drop each time I spied a charred skeleton strewn upon the earth. Perhaps the stories were true and the Clonies were cannibals.

  I felt Wirt’s lips close to my ear. “This could be a trap. They may be luring us to their lair so that they can dine upon our flesh.”

  “Happen so. I am beginning to a-worry about these folk.”

  “Clonies. For that is who they are,” Wirt said, rather too loudly, for Marcellus came up behind and grabbed us by the shoulders.

  “That name not name we call ourselves. That name given by tribes other than own.”

  “Less noise from rear. We pass our sacred site. All bow heads and squeeze hands till they hurt, in respect of kin perished in last Agro war.”

  Marcellus let us go and I watched him lower his head and clench h
is hands together. He looked at us with a sideways head tilt and said, “Do same as I do, or Orsin will use whip to thrash you.”

  As soon as he said those words Orsin did indeed crackle his whip hard and we all bent our heads and wrung our hands until they almost bled. Beneath our feet were thousands of picked clean bones. Broken and hacked and bitten into. We tried to step over, but there were too many and they split and splintered when we stepped upon them.

  In the darkness and gloom, the sharp snapping noise they made sounded like sulphur sticks on Bonfie Night. Although there was no wind as such, I felt a gust of mournfulness so cold and eager, that it whipped around my still fleshed bones and made me shiver. I began to think that these Clonies were maybe not so feral after all.

  We crackled on, crunching bits of skeleton beneath, until the white fragments of long dead hominids thinned out and none were left.

  Another ear piercing whip crack and Orsin spoke, “All heads high and proud. Tramp quick to destination. We taste Owl breath on our tongue.”

  Marcellus prodded us in the back and we stumbled forward quickening our pace. I nudged into Eadgard who grabbed my hand and said, “Owls are to be feared in these parts.”

  “Erm, Adara,” I said. “Catcher of birds. What do I have to fear? Or any of us, from any meat hungry Strigiformes.”

  “They will have plucked out your eyes, heart and tongue before you had a chance to let rip your tune. This is the Beyondness. Things here are much mutated.”

  “This I would believe,” I said and pulled Wirt with me.

  Squinting into the distance, I made out roundel shapes that I guessed were the domiciles of the Clonies. Orsin let rip with his whip again and the pack of snarling Wolfies raced ahead. They stopped abrupt like when a ghostly figure emerged from the darkness.

  This creature was smaller than the other Clonies and wore a white robe that covered their entire body, all except for the face, which resembled the flat roundness of an owlet. Minus the feathers and beak. The Wolfies milled around the Clonie’s legs and it bent to scratch-scratch the hound’s ears and chin. Stranger than strange to see these fierce beasts become as docile dowgies in the hands of said Clonie. Orsin halted and turned to us.

  “Enter our tribe and mind your voice. Speak if and when spoke to.”

  He was greeted with an embrace by the white-clad one. Orsin let his whip speak for him once more and the Wolfies fled into the night. A hand between my shoulder blades shoved, and my companions and I walked towards the Clonie camp. Wirt breathed hard and fast and I thought he might be weakening, so I gripped his hand. To my surprise, he pulled it away and formed a fist.

  “They will not eat me, or ye. Between us, we can fight our way free. Of that I am sure,” he said.

  “Wirt, brave, yeah. Stupid also, yeah. Compose yourself before they smell your pique.”

  “Adara speaks sense. I do not believe the Clonies mean us harm.”

  “Tales and stories and more I have heard about these things. They say that they snaffle their own as well as others.”

  “I have been scouting this territory for a full rotation and have never witnessed any such atrocity.”

  “All the same,” Wirt said and clenched the other hand, “we best be on our guard.”

  “That goes without saying,” Eadgard said.

  We ceased our tramping and stood before what could only be described as a female of the species. The white-clad one spoke, “Welcome. I am Vea, in charge of all who abide within and without as far as eye can see. Enter and we shall eat.”

  “Not me ye won’t, ye…” said Wirt all of a sudden and Eadgard had to wrap his arms around him to prevent a head on attack on Vea, who raised her arms into the air and lowered her lids.

  “Let this simple boyman have peace,” she said and pressed her palm against Wirt’s forehead. He opened his gob all-wide as if to speak, but when nowt came forth, he closed said mush and to my shock horror, fell limp against Eadgard’s chest.

  Vea opened her eyes and stared at the slumped Wirt, who blinked and dragged his gaze from hers. Then his knees buckled and Eadgard lifted him into an upright position. “Stand strong young’un.”

  Wirt breathed in a huge lungful of air, which caused his face to became pale then red. He shook his head a few times before breaking away from Eadgard’s supportive grip, and walked slowly towards Vea as if being pulled. She raised her chin a tad and stared down her tiny nose. Wirt halted, knelt before her and lowered his head. “Ye are a powerful force. Apologies.”

  “Taken in grace given. Now stand and all follow,” she said and turned from us. Wirt stood and walked behind her like a faithful mutt.

  I looked at Eadgard, who returned my round-eyed stare with a look of bewilderment. “What just happened here?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Not sure. It is a puzzlement.”

  “How is it that she turned Wirt from antsy to calm in no more than a gnats breath?”

  “Again, I cannot give an answer. He appears now to be unafraid. See how he follows the controlling fem as if they were recently reunited as friends?”

  A thud on my back caused me turn and end our puzzled confab. I looked up and saw Orsin tower above me. I cringed at the weight of his hand on my shoulder blades and he lifted his great paw from my person. “Come. Nothing to fear,” he said. “Tramp close behind and all be well.”

  Eadgard and I exchanged a look of unsureness and followed him towards the abode.

  The path we traipsed upon was lit either side by tall lamps that had flat oval glass tops. They gave out a shimmer rather than a glare and I guessed they were sun powered. We had similar solar illuminations in the Great Square at Cityplace and I began to wonder if the Clonies shared other things of tech. In the distance, I saw a large dark structure surrounded by a ring of floor lights at its base that made it appear as if it were floating. So mesmerised by the uncanny sight was I, that I did not hear Marcellus creep up behind me.

  “Vea mightiest of all. She strong. Cleverer than any that has or will live,” he whispered. I felt his hot, hot breath on my neck and shivered. He laughed and prodded me in the arm. I stood still for a sec and took it upon myself to give him a goodly thwack the next time he chose to poke me thus.

  With a thunderous face, I turned to him. He stared into my eyes and I swear behind the mask I saw a gentleness in his grey-blue orbs. I turned my head away from his intense stare and put my newfound soppiness down to the flattering light that bathed the area we stood in.

  “Go quicker, Vea not tolerate tardy guest,” he said and gave me a softly shove.

  I was about to push him back with more violence than he showed me, when he took my hand all gentle-like and said, “Saying this so you will be saved from whipping.”

  “Ta for that,” I said and I did not pull my hand away from his.

  “Go. Friends already there.”

  “Right.”

  “Let go hand.”

  I looked down at our entwined fingers. Before my face glowed brighter than the lights that surrounded us, I snatched my hand from his and rushed to catch up with the others.

  At the portal of the Clonie home, Wirt and Eadgard stood. It was a vast black tent in the shape of a dome and must have been made from strong stuff as half the top had solar panels stuck to it. I marvelled again at the high-techness of such devices in this soulless place. First the Ladies and now Clonies, all with the same sort of gadgets that I thought only existed in my hometown. Orsin pulled a flap open and we walked inside.

  “Wow!”

  More Clonies, but not like the ones we encountered on the outside. These were smaller, slimmer and whiter. Their faces were as flat as Vea’s, with tiny noses and big round eyes. I wondered if, underneath their long-sleeved white robes that reached the floor, they hid some hideous mutation. I tugged my gaze from the extraordinary folk and saw a whole load of stuff that I recognised.

  Screens like the ones in Cityplace hung from the top of the tent on thick wires. They were arranged in a ci
rcle facing outwards so all could sit and stare from any angle. They flickered on and off with images of fabricated truths. Like the vids we sometimes watched of persons and places other than our own. Some of the locations I thought were familiar, and indeed there in front of my eyes was the very centre of Cityplace. But, it was not inhabited by any Citydwellers I recognised.

  Some of the Clonies were watching the screens, sitting together on wooden benches with high backs. They were holding hands or leaning affectionate-like on each other’s shoulders. Others were chit chatting, smiling and laughing.

  I turned to face Wirt. His expression no doubt matched my own in a look of wonderment, which grew in intensity when we gawped at Orsin, Marcellus and the other Clonies, when they removed their outer garments and masks. The hugeness we came to fear outside was nothing more than a costume. A goodly made one I grant, but still an illusion to scare us no doubt.

  Underneath their deceitful garb, these scary males were not so dissimilar to the others. They wore a light grey all-in-one suit that clung to their lithe and sinuous frame. I watched in awe as they reached into their hip pockets, withdrew a grubby cloth and wiped off all their face paint. Underneath the makeup, they were as white-faced and flat nosed as all the rest.

  Marcellus noticed our amazement and came close, “Our disguise, sterling, yes?”

  “Utterly,” I said.

  “But... But ye are Clonies?”

  “All.”

  “Ye are not what I expected.”

  “Good.”

  Orsin leaned over Marcellus’s shoulder and said, “If word of this spreads amongst outer camps, we will hunt you down and chew upon your flesh until there is no more than rancid grizzle. Our look indoors may not be as fierce, but our intent is, and always will be, to protect selves from those that would do us harm.”

  “And those would be?”

  “You and your kind, Adara. Geneticists and scientists, Agros and anyone else’s that believe in a place where monsters dwell. The Beyondness is ours.”