ISOF

by Pete Townsend

  ‘I think I’ll do as Golden Hair suggested and look around.’ He indicated the huddle of wooden buildings. ‘I’ll take a look over there,’ he said dreamily. ‘You never know, I just might see somewhere to put down my roots.’

  With a knowing grin, Noj began to wander towards the forest while Mak ambled towards a lake that reflected the vibrancy of the sky.

  It didn’t take Noj very long to find his senses completely overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and smells of the forest. He felt as if this were the forest that he had waited all of his life to find. Everywhere was exactly what he wanted a forest to be, it was a dream fulfilled.

  Meanwhile, Mak, having reached the edge of the lake, removed his shoes and waded knee-deep into the velvety warmth of the water. The ripples on the surface of the lake caressed his legs, making him feel relaxed and happy. Staring across the lake he could see the branches from Willow trees stroking the water, causing circular ripples of their own. At the very far edge of the lake, Mak thought he could see the outline of a small boat rhythmically nodding on the surface. He sighed contentedly as he ambled along the edge of the lake. All was very well with his world.

  Ben had ambled casually around a couple of buildings without paying very much attention to any of them. He was more than content he was intoxicated with happiness. His happiness expressed itself with an almost tuneful whistle that gently caressed the air. Casually, Ben stroked the wood-encased buildings as he passed, whistling a cacophony of tunes that seemed to run in an endless loop inside of his head. Passing a rather dour looking building, which had several broken panes of glass littering its window frames, Ben suddenly became aware of another tune buffeting the air. The melancholic snatches of sound appeared distant, almost fragmented against the heart-warming tunes that filled his head. Cautiously, Ben pulled himself up on tiptoe and peered through the broken window into the murky gloom.

  At first, there was nothing to see but a deepening gloom with pinpricks of sunlight playing on the jagged edges of the glass panes. But, just as his legs began to complain at the strain, something stirred in the shadows. Ben allowed his legs to relax for a few moments and then, once again, he dug his fingertips into the thin, wooden windowsill and hauled himself towards the broken window.

  ‘Aaargh!’ he screamed. Stumbling backwards, Ben couldn’t take his eyes away from the small, pale face that stared at him from behind the shards of dirty glass.

  ‘Sssh,’ hissed the face with a finger placed firmly against its lips. ‘Please be quiet.’

  Looking down at him was a pair of distinct blue eyes framed by a tangled mess of fair hair. The face hissed in agitation.

  ‘Be quiet!’ it ordered. ‘Haven’t you got any sense?’

  ‘Sense?’ replied Ben. ‘It all makes sense.’ He gestured at the surrounding landscape. ‘What is there to be quiet about with such beauty all around?’

  ‘Beauty? Spat the face. ‘You call this beauty?’

  Ben looked at the face in amazement. He couldn’t comprehend the annoyance the face expressed with being in these wonderful surroundings. He looked at the face again and shrugged.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ he mumbled.

  The blue eyes looked intently at Ben and then appeared to reach a conclusion. The eyes smiled.

  ‘Somehow, I seem to have become trapped inside of this dilapidated building. I wonder,’ asked the face. ‘Could you see if the door has become jammed and, if it has, would you try and free it for me please? I’ve been stuck in here too long.’

  With a beguiling smile, the face disappeared from view. Ben smiled to himself and, humming one of the random tunes he could hear, sauntered around the side of the building in search of a door.

  The door, when he eventually located it at the rear of the building, looked very resolute in its objection to any kind of movement. Ben took a deep breath as he scrutinised the huge metal clasps and bolts that embraced the door. With a shake of his head he sauntered back to the front of the building.

  ‘Excuse me.’ He asked knocking at the window frame. Almost instantly the intense blue eyes peered down at him. The face tilted to one side with a slight arch of its questioning eyebrows. ‘Why do you want to get out?’ enquired Ben.

  ‘Because I’m stuck inside,’ came the reply. The face appeared thoughtful for a moment until a resigned smile changed its appearance. ‘On such a beautiful day would you want to remain inside?’ asked the face.

  Ben thought for a moment and then smiled.

  ‘Of course not,’ he replied. ‘You need to be outside to enjoy the day.’ Without a further word, Ben sauntered once more towards the rear of the building.

  The door was as obstinate as it was solid. No matter what Ben did the door remained firmly within the surrounding frame. Finally, Ben gave up and took a step backwards. Placing his hands on his hips, he smiled and sighed simultaneously.

  ‘It’s no good,’ he mused. ‘The door won’t move, you can’t move, the sun is bright, the day is long and I can’t see a reason to change things.’

  A dull thud sounded from behind the door swiftly followed by a muffled cry of pain. Ben began to whistle one of the many tunes that hung in the air.

  ‘Are you OK?’ he enquired.

  ‘No I am most certainly not OK!’ snapped the voice from within the building. ‘Will you please release me so that I can join you in the sunlight. It’s so dark and lonely in here.’

  Ben felt a wave of compassion overwhelm him. He couldn’t ignore the predicament of someone who wasn’t able to enjoy the beauty that surrounded him. Taking a careful look at the rear of the building, it was quickly apparent that no obvious method of releasing the door from its confinement. Ben felt around the edge of the doorframe for some sort of mechanism that would open the door but, no matter what he pressed, pushed or pulled, the door remained obstinately shut.

  It was while Ben was pondering on the problem, that his eye was distracted by the window, which rested, at a jaunty angle, to the right of the door. It took a few moments before he realised what it was that made this window appear different to the others. With a grin, Ben placed a finger and thumb, on one vertical piece of the window frame and then measured the other upright piece of frame. He repeated the process twice more before he was satisfied that there was, indeed, a slight difference in the thickness of the two pieces of wood. Once he had established this fact, he scratched his nose in thought as he tried to work out why there was a difference.

  Carefully running his finger down the left-hand part of the window frame, Ben felt a subtle ridge about halfway down the wooden upright section. Placing two fingers against the ridge, he gently prised the top half of the wooden upright away from the rest of the frame. As he did so, the door emitted a sigh and relinquished its position. Immediately a pale figure sprang out of the dark space and flung itself at Ben. With its arms wrapped firmly around Ben’s neck, the figure kissed his cheek.

  ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,’ kissed the figure. ‘You can’t begin to imagine how happy you’ve made me.’

  Gently, Ben prised the pair of arms from his neck and lowered the figure to the ground. Standing sheepishly before him stood a delicately framed girl whose features were accentuated by tear-stained grime. She raised her vibrant blue eyes to his and smiled.

  ‘I am so grateful,’ she said in a musical voice. ‘I will be sure to inform my father of your heroic deed.’

  ‘Steady on,’ grinned Ben with the familiar feeling of embarrassment raising his temperature. ‘It is what anyone would have done to allow you to experience this wonderful landscape.’

  The girl looked inquisitively at Ben. ‘Can you hear soothing tunes?’ she asked, her eyes narrowing.

  ‘Definitely,’ he replied. ‘They’re everywhere.’

  The girl nodded and smiled sadly. ‘I thought as much,’ she said. Taking his hand, the girl began to lead him away from the building. ‘Come and see the lake, it is beautiful there too.’

  Humming contentedly to himself, Ben allo
wed the girl to lead him down to the lakeside.

  To Ben’s eyes, the lake sat like a diamond surrounded by a cluster of coloured jewels. The water shimmered in the sunlight as tiny ripples stroked the shoreline. Still holding the girl’s hand, he stepped to the edge of the waterline and allowed the lake to caress his toes.

  ‘This is bliss,’ he whispered.

  The girl sighed quietly. She raised her hand that held his and pointed to the far shore.

  ‘Can you see that boat over there?’ she asked.

  Ben placed his free hand above his eyes to interrupt the sun’s glare. Moving his head slowly from side to side, he allowed every beautiful detail to register on his senses.

  ‘So beautiful,’ he sighed.

  The girl frowned in annoyance.

  ‘Over there,’ she hissed and immediately placed both hands on to Ben’s head and directed his eyes towards the boat.

  ‘Hey!’ objected Ben with a smile. ‘Just taking in the loveliness.’

  ‘Sorry,’ replied the girl. ‘My father tells me I’m too impatient at times.’ She smiled at Ben. ‘Shall we take a trip around the lake with the boat?’

  ‘But it’s right over…’ began Ben.

  ‘No problem,’ interrupted the girl. ‘We don’t have to walk all the way over to the boat, we’ll get the boat to come to us.’ Without another word, she turned around and rang a little silver bell, which hung from a branch just behind their heads. Ben hadn’t noticed the bell before but now he smiled at the singing chimes that began with a pleasant, bright tone that gradually grew in volume. As the chimes resonated across the lake, the boat slowly left its moorings and began to drift towards them.

  As the boat progressed across the water, the bell’s chimes became more strident, urgent in their nature and becoming increasingly louder. The noise was disconcerting. As Ben turned his head away from the bell, he noticed that the surface of the lake had changed. The once gentle ripples were now being whipped into flurries of white-tipped waves by a vicious wind that scurried across the lake. Almost instantaneously, the scenery began to shiver, reacting to the bitter wind that swirled and battered at each tree and plant. Gradually, the colours began to fade and, where once vibrant flowers and leaves had basked in the warmth of the sunlight, there were now dull, grey, wizened stumps.

  ‘How…’ began Ben pointing at the discomforting sight.

  ‘Who cares?’ shouted Noj as he accompanied by Mak and Trep, suddenly appeared by the shoreline.

  The girl pointed back towards the collection of dilapidated buildings. ‘You’ve been entranced, mesmerised by those three, hateful crones back there.’

  ‘Where?’ Mak asked with a wink at Ben. ‘We’ve only met three ravishing creatures that gave Ben the glad eye!’

  ‘They’re sirens,’ explained the girl. ‘Didn’t you hear tunes, music that made you feel elated, so happy to be alive?’

  ‘Well, yes,’ began Ben.

  ‘Exactly,’ said the girl. ‘What you saw and heard were illusions, images and sounds to make you want to stay. And then, before long…’

  The girl shook her head sadly. Ben, seeing that the girl was becoming upset, touched her arm.

  ‘We’re fine now,’ he said encouragingly. ‘Even Trep’s OK, but that’s mainly because he didn’t see or hear anything with his head stuck under a pillow.’

  ‘So how did we…?’ Noj started to ask.

  ‘The bell,’ interrupted the girl. ‘The bell chimes reality. It was the only way to rid your sense of those lies.’ She smiled at Ben. ‘You would have become their obedient slaves, happy to do their bidding.’

  ‘They are rather beautiful,’ said Mak with a shrug.

  The girl turned angrily towards him.

  ‘They are centuries old and literally suck the life-force out of young girls.’ She snapped. ‘That would have happened to me too if I had been a little older. I was locked away in that building until I was of an age that was of vantage to those creatures.’

  Suddenly, the girl pointed urgently towards the buildings. ‘Talking of creatures,’ she cried.

  Instantly, all eyes were looking at three, ragged beauties bearing down upon them with some urgency.

  The girl looked at the boat, which was still some way from the shore. ‘Please, hurry,’ she implored the vessel.

  ‘You’re crazy,’ said Trep harshly. ‘That’s an inanimate object, it can’t understand what you say.’

  ‘For someone with many seasons written on his face, you have harvested very little knowledge,’ replied the girl passively.

  Noj placed his arm across Trep’s chest.

  ‘Enough with the exchange of pleasantries,’ he said firmly. ‘But we have more urgent matters to attend to.’ He indicated the three girls hurrying forwards. ‘For instance, avoiding a confrontation with those three charmers.’

  The three faces, once so beautiful, were now ridged with fury. As they hurried forward, a strange thing happened. Almost with every step, their faces appeared beautiful one moment and then spinning around to reveal faces ravaged with age.

  The boys stared in amazement. Beauty one instant and the next, three faces that seemed to have the hatred of humanity etched into their features. The three heads changed constantly, leaving their observers mesmerised.

  Fearing what might happen if they stood and waited for the three girls to arrive, the girl pushed the others into the lake and then jumped in herself and began to swim towards the rapidly nearing boat.

  Noj, being the taller and by far the strongest swimmer, reached the boat first and helped each of the others into the vessel. Mak was the last to arrive at the boat and had to be hauled aboard by his breeches. He lay in the bottom of the boat gasping for air.

  Meanwhile, the three creatures now stood at the edge of the lake, each with their hands raised high above their head. For a moment, nothing happened. The creatures stood motionless, their faces full of fury and hatred. Suddenly, the wind seemed to intensify dramatically, causing the little boat to rock violently as each wave hurtled into the boat with force.

  Clinging to the gunwales of the boat, Ben appealed to Noj.

  ‘Do something, for goodness sake, before we are drowned or worse!’

  Without a word, Noj raised his walking stick and fired a thunderbolt into the air just above the heads of the creatures standing on the shoreline. Instantly, the wind subsided and the waves returned to something resembling normality for a lake.

  ‘Now,’ yelled Noj. ‘Row for all you are worth before they recover.’

  Mak was the first to state the obvious.

  ‘We can’t,’ he replied. ‘There aren’t any oars.’

  Chapter 29

  It was the girl who spoke into the despair that filled the boat.

  ‘The boat comes when beckoned by the bell,’ she explained. ‘There is no-one to steer nor row.’

  ‘So what…’ began Mak.

  ‘We get wet,’ replied the girl and immediately flung her arm over the side of the boat and began paddling. ‘Come on then, don’t sit there letting a girl do all the work!’

  Five pairs of arms worked frenetically at trying to propel the boat towards the distant shoreline. It wasn’t a moment too soon, as the three creatures had recovered from their surprise at the earlier explosion of thunder and once more raised their arms into the air, causing the wind and waves to batter the boat once again.

  After a few moments the girl’s words proved to be true, as everyone was thoroughly soaked through to the skin. It seemed that the harder they paddled the more intense the wind and waves buffeted the boat.

  With the waves clawing at their faces and threatening to tear the boat apart, the group dug desperately into the water to move the boat ever nearer the relative safety of the shore.

  ‘Come on,’ yelled Noj above the roar of the wind and waves. ‘We’re nearly...’

  His last words were drowned out as a huge wave crashed over the boat and, with a heart-wrenching screech, the boat yielded to the sup
erior force and scattered itself over the surface of the lake. Already soaked, the ice-cold water still took their breath away as the occupants of the boat were flung into the seething water. Nobody had any other thought or care than to reach dry land and escape the clutches of the lake.

  After swallowing copious amounts of water in their efforts to swim, five bodies finally lay facedown on the scree that formed the meeting point between the mountains above and the lake below.

  Ben, his lungs aching, turned over onto his back and looked across the lake at the three creatures standing menacingly on the far shore.

  ‘Are we safe?’ he coughed.

  ‘Doubt it,’ replied Trep spitting out the last dregs of water. ‘Those three hardly look the type to give up easily.’

  ‘You have no idea,’ began the girl. ‘They have hearts of ice. Absolutely nothing comes between them and whatever they have set their mind on acquiring.’

  ‘So?’ asked Ben. ‘What are they after, you, me, us or the…’ He stopped mid-sentence as he suddenly remembered what had once been in his possession. Ignoring the looks of the girl, Ben thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his cloak and then gave a satisfied smile. ‘They’re still here,’ he said with a grin. He drew out the book and diamond. ‘But how did they manage to wash my cloak and not find these?’

  Noj smiled.

  ‘Put them back in your pockets,’ he instructed.

  Without a word, Ben obeyed. Once he’d replaced the objects he looked at Noj.

  ‘Now,’ said Noj. ‘Pat your cloak, can you feel the book or the diamond?’

  Ben did as he was asked and then looked at Noj with astonishment.

  ‘I can feel them,’ he replied. ‘But there again, I can’t feel them, if you get my meaning.’

  ‘I do,’ grinned Noj. ‘Once inside the cloak, any object appears weightless,’ he explained to the blank faces around him. ‘Neither do they give themselves away by producing a visible profile once in the cloak. To a casual observer the cloak looks and feels just like a cloak, nothing more and containing nothing even if someone puts their hand inside a pocket.’