“Yet something brought them back?” asked Paul and the Green man nodded.
“They have.” he sighed ruefully, “Something has brought them back indeed. Entombed they were, for they cannot die, but none of this world who lives now could free them. This I do not understand.”
The creature stood, extending itself to its full height.
“I will tell of this to those who will listen. Something stirs in my wood and I am eager to get to its cause. I will leave you now.” The creature pointed off to the west and the road running down to the sea far away; “Anchor Bay is that way.” he smiled and began to stride away.
“I am not going that way yet.” called Paul after the rapidly departing creature, “I wish to rescue my friends first.”
The Green Man turned to face Paul, his expression one of confusion.
“Snakes, remember?” Sighed Paul and the Green man strode back to face him.
“The woods are thick here Paul and the serpents are dangerous. Your friends will have been devoured by now. In all likeliness all that will happen if you return looking for them is that you will be eaten also. Leave them be, Paul. Take word of them to their friends and relatives in their home so they can mourn for them.”
“They are my friends.” said Paul defiantly, “And whether this is a dream or whether this is real is not open to discussion. They gave me help when it was needed and I will not leave them in their hour of need.”
The Green Man smiled benevolently.
“Hearty words to hear, Paul.” he said, “Though foolish ones too. Therefore, I shall grant you a boon. The shadows have marked you.” Paul looked at the Green Man in confusion.
“Your right arm.” smiled the tall creature, “And now I have marked your left.” Paul hastily pushed his cloak to one side and pulled up his left sleeve. His right arm was still aching slightly, but his left forearm was not hurting at all. He was surprised therefore to see when he rolled up his sleeve that around his left forearm there ran what looked like a tattoo of a tree, green and Oak shaped. Yet when he examined it, it did not seem to have marked his skin with the help of ink. It looked almost as if the tree shape had wormed its way around his arm just below the skin.
“What’s this?” enquired Paul, trying to rub the mark off in vain.
“It protects against your other arm. The one with the mark of the skull.” said the Green Man. “You have been touched by the shadows, Paul. Use it to your advantage.” The Green Man smiled and waved his arm around Paul in a strange intricate pattern in the air. Once this was done, without another word he turned around and began to march towards the forest.
“What does that mean though?” shouted Paul, running after him, “What does that mean?”
The Green Man stopped in his tracks and turned to face him once again.
“When the shadows touched you in the mine your arm was injured, was it not?”
“Hurt like hell.” said Paul, “though it soon faded away. It has been coming back recently though.”
“That is because you don’t know how to use it.” said the Green Man.
“Use it?” asked Paul and he could have been mistaken for it was very difficult to tell for sure, but it looked as if the Green Man had frowned at him.
“Concentrate on your right arm.” said the creature earnestly, and Paul rolled up his sleeve and examined the puffy flash where the shades had touched him.
“Flex with your mind. Clench your fist too if it helps.” whispered the Green Man and Paul felt his right arm tighten, the band where he had been touched beginning to fade. He gasped. He could see right through his arm, and as he continued to concentrate he felt the world fading to grey as his whole body began to fade.
Panicking he tried to stop thinking but still he continued to disappear.
“Help me!” called Paul but the Green Man stood there smiling.
“Paul. Had I not marked your arm you would be lost to the world. This is what the shades wanted. You to be like them. Why they wish this I neither know nor understand. I will however make it my business to find out.” The creature took one step towards him, though a bystander would think that the Green Man was talking to himself for Paul was not visible at all.
“Now flex your mind on your left arm where I have marked you.”
Paul turned his attention to the tree shape on his left arm and flexed his mind, clenching his fist too, and forcing mounting panic from his mind as the world continued to fade to grey.
He concentrated on the green tree design, and colour began to seep back into the world. Slowly he found his body re-appearing before his eyes, and then the feeling faded and he was back to normal. Already the Green Man had set off towards the forest again.
The Green Man looked over his shoulder as he strode away, shouting to him.
“Just remember Paul - do not call them snakes!”
“They are snakes!” shouted Paul.
“Serpents.” shouted the Green Man as he reached the bottom of the hill, heading straight for the outskirts of the forest. “Serpents they are. Never call them snakes!” The Green Man turned to face him one last time and waved his arms about him, a flurry of leaves rustling about the floor, shooting towards him as he did so.
“I do not agree with your plan of action, Paul. Yet I will not keep you from it. In fact, I will assist.” The creature smiled widely, “I don’t want you wandering around lost in the forest eating all the berries again now, do I?”
Paul felt a chill wind blow about the hill. He began to feel dizzy, darkness seeping away the colour of the world. His left arm throbbed furiously as he felt the world fading from him and then he saw the face of the Green man wink at him one last time and a wind seemed to pull Paul into the night. His right arm suddenly erupted with pain and he felt himself fade. Almost instinctively he flexed his mind on his left arm, trying to hold the two forces in equilibrium.
He blinked, blackness rising all around him and he stumbled forward, shapes forming in the dark. He bumped into a tree and silently muttering a curse tried to focus.
There was something hanging down in front of him. It looked like a long piece of wood and he moved forward, ready to rest his arm upon it as he still felt dizzy when suddenly there was a low hissing sound and what Paul thought was a piece of wood opened its eyes.
Hanging down in the forest right in front of him was a giant serpent. It hissed softly and turning, looked straight at him.
Chapter Nineteen
Of Serpents and Snakes
Paul stepped back as the serpent turned and looked straight at him, hissing to itself quietly. His arm ached, waves of throbbing pain running through his body. He raised his hands, waiting for the serpent to attack but it just hung there looking straight at him before turning and looking away from him. Paul looked down at his hands, holding them up to look at them, but as he did so he saw that he could not see them! He waved his hands around. Nothing. He felt his whole body continuing to fade and he concentrated on his other arm, the green tree symbol glowing on his arm and stopping him from fading away into shadow and darkness.
He did not want to fade too far. He reined in the shadow but concentrating on the mark the Green Man had left on him. He felt the rate at which he was fading slow and then begin to recede. He panicked slightly. He did not want to be visible again! In his mind he tried to achieve equilibrium yet the best he could do was an uneasy balancing act. Yet he stayed invisible, railing against the fading feeling to stop him from losing himself altogether.
As he stepped back in surprise as to just how close he was to the serpent he stumbled on something lying on the floor behind him and fell backwards, resisting the urge to shout out as he fell.
“Get off me!” shouted a voice from the dark as Paul landed unceremoniously on what appeared to be somebody lying on the floor. From where he lay Paul saw the serpent hanging down from above them spin around and look at the body on the floor.
“‘Ere!” hissed the snake, “Keep it down won’t you? Trying to ge
t forty winks ‘ere!” The figure underneath Paul spat into the dark as Paul slid off it and looked down to see who or what it was he had fallen over. To his surprise he was gazing down at the prone form of Wahid who was casting his eyes all about himself in the darkness as if trying to figure out what was going on. Paul felt that he had never been as grateful as he was right then to see anyone, even if Wahid did seem to not think much of Paul normally.
“Away, shade!” spat Wahid, “Begone back to the shadows from which you are made!” Paul could not help but notice that there was an air of fear in the Groblettes voice.
“I’m not telling you again mate!” said the snake, turning to face the Groblette again. “One more word out of you and you’ll be sorry! See if you don’t!”
Paul kneeled down, concentrating on holding the balance of light and dark within him just right. He shuffled up to Wahid and whispered in his ear.
“Wahid it is me - Paul!” Paul saw that Wahid’s eyes went wide yet he did not speak, allowing Paul to continue, “Do not be concerned. I am not seeking your harm. I can explain why you cannot see me later. For now, we have to escape. Are your comrades all still alive?”
Wahid nodded his head once, eager not to upset the snake that was guarding him.
“I will have a little look around first.” said Paul and Wahid nodded once again as Paul rose and carefully picked his way past the snake that was still hanging from above, its large eyes closed as he passed by. Paul was careful not to get too close to the serpent. He had no idea what their sense of smell was like, or whether they could see in the dark, and so he leaned right back as he passed the snake and it did not move at all as he crept past.
Paul walked out from under the branches of a large tree to see that there were six or more similar alcoves within the trees like the one he had just sneaked out of. They were in a large copse of trees in a straight line in a way that reminded Paul of a row of prison cells. Beside each cell there was a large serpent dangling down from a tree above. Obviously guards. Cursing under his breath Paul tore his eyes away and looked out into the clearing that was encircled by trees.
A large rock jutted from the centre of the clearing, dominating the entire area. Paul crept closer, taking the shadows with him, and saw that the rock was as black as onyx and rose up from the floor of the clearing like a large elongated fang. As he drew nearer he saw the rock was covered with serpents that crawled and hissed all across it, slithering to and fro as if trying to hide the rock itself. Paul found it impossible to gauge the number of serpents here. Some were much larger than others. He came to a rough figure of at least twenty of the huge reptiles crawling about the rock. The sound of hissing filled the clearing, but it did not drown out the sound of the snakes talking.
“How’s about a nice juicy sausage?” asked one of the snakes on the rock, though Paul could not quite make out which one it was that had spoken, “I likes a sausage, me.” carried on the snake, though the sound of hissing seemed to indicate to Paul that he was not in a majority.
“Hang them by their toes until they mature and then into a nice pie is better.” said another voice, the hissing this time sounding to Paul uncannily like the smacking of lips.
“Yum.” said a third voice, “I likes them in a pasty too.” There was a sudden silence as Paul stepped a small twig in the darkness as he approached, the small sharp crack sounding out around the clearing and making him suddenly stand very still.
“Wot was that?” asked a voice from one of the snakes on the rock and Paul stepped back as one of the serpents slithered down from the rock and slid across the floor towards him.
“Wot was wot?” asked another serpent voice from the rock; different this time.
“Blooming row from over ‘here.” complained the serpent slithering towards him, the length of its body now becoming apparent as it approached. Paul estimated the creature was a good twenty feet long, its head and fangs holding his attention more however as it approached.
“Could always try skinning them and making a nice meat jelly.” said a different voice dreamily from the far side of the rock as Paul moved back, flexing his right arm as hard as he could. He felt the world go grey and everything faded to black and white, a sudden chill wind blowing about his feet as the clearing began to disappear from view, the wind that now surrounded him threatening to disperse him altogether, to cast him into pieces into the night. Realising he was trying too hard he tried to relax his mind a little and concentrating on his left arm he eased off a little and the colour slipped back into his view, the wind fading as he held his fall into shadows at bay.
The huge serpent in front of him did not aid his concentration however. Paul coolly calculated that it was at least thirty feet in length, and as it approached it raised its head high into the air, sniffing as it did so. The huge yellow eyes and dripping long fangs made him move even further back from where he thought it was going to move. The serpent sniffed at the air loudly for a few seconds and then seemed to dismiss any suspicions from its mind.
“Must be getting jumpy in me old age.” it said loudly, twisting its body in a grotesque knot and quickly slithering back to the rock. “Me old man always used to say that Groblette clay baked was the best way to cook ‘em.” it said, “Though I always prefer them without the ‘ed meself.”
There was a loud chorus of approval at this and Paul turned his attention back to the small rows of fenced in trees in which presumably the Groblettes were being held. It was the guards that were going to be the problem though he thought as he looked at the row of seven cells each with a large serpent hanging down from the trees above, watching for any sign of intruders. He desperately racked his brains for what snakes were scared of. He seemed to vaguely remember that they had a few predators; foxes and mongoose being but two of them. Yet then he looked at the size of the serpents all around him and thought that perhaps that was not true of these particular serpents.
He moved back towards the cells and looked into the furthest one. The snake hanging from above hardly moved at all as he moved past and Paul looked down on the floor. Judging by the size of the tied bundle at his feet, this could only be Beezle, for she was definitely the largest of the Groblettes. He considered letting her know that he was there but he couldn’t imagine what that would achieve. The moment he tried to free the captain the snake outside would be alerted and even if he did fade into shadow and slip away then it wasn’t going to go well for the Groblettes he would leave behind. Cursing under his breath he wandered back past the snake that once again failed to even notice he was there and back out into the camp.
Back on the rock the serpents seemed to be involved in a heated debate over whether boiled or roasted Groblette was best, and the merits for both methods of cooking made his stomach turn. He had to do something! Keeping a good distance between himself and the rock upon which the snakes were draped he left behind the tree cells and moved around the camp. Across on the other side of the onyx tor he saw a small raised pile of what looked like scattered rubbish in the starlit dark and he sneaked up closer to see what it was.
As he approached he saw that here was a small pile of weapons that had been taken from the Groblettes, their packs and equipment also strewn close by. Paul sighed as he looked at the deadly array of weapons that lay on the ground before him. He knew that they were useless to him, even if he could bring himself to take up a weapon once again. He considered again whether his choices here made a real difference. If this was not real, then it would not matter whatever he did. Yet he felt this was more immediate; more present somehow.
Yet he could do nothing. Taking up arms against over a score of giant serpents was not really an option. He had to think of another plan. He stood away from the weapons, and as he walked away from them in a release of anger he kicked at one of the Groblettes packs that were discarded on the ground. As he did this the pack fell over and from the inside of the rucksack rolled a small white stone. Tipping over, the pack spilled several more of the small white stones
onto the ground. Paul knew that all of the stones had not been needed for the tight white circle in the forest. These must be the remainder.
He stepped over them, resisting the urge to lash out and kick the stones when suddenly he stopped in his tracks. The white stones! When he had tried to enter the Groblette camp from outside the stone circle they had thrown him far away through the forest. Yet he did not know how to use them. Perhaps only Sparr and Ybarro knew the correct way to set them out? If he laid them maybe they would not work.
Or maybe they would. He knew he had no other options. He had to try! He slowly and carefully made his way to the piled up backpacks. The two containing the stones that belonged to Sparr and Ybarro were easily identified as small white rocks were either visible or had spilled out of the packs onto the ground. The serpents were obviously entirely oblivious to their use and so had left them. They were not all there. The balance of the rocks stayed where they had left them back at the now abandoned camp. But there were enough.
He looked at the stones, clenching his left fist to maintain his invisibility whilst at the same time controlling the extent of it by clenching his right fist. His next problem was how to get the stones into a circle. He could not see himself and so he reached into the pack and clasped one white stone in his hand. Whilst it was covered by his fist it too was invisible. Yet he knew that it would take too much time to transport the rocks one at a time. Already he estimated that dawn was not far away, and with the rising of the sun he thought that it was entirely possible that the Groblettes were definitely going to be on the menu for breakfast.
Carefully he raised the stone and shoved it in his cloak pocket. Looking down he realised he could not see the stone even though he no longer had hold of it. His clothes were invisible too! Eagerly he began to fill his pockets with the stones until they could hold no more. He looked at the remaining stones in the packs when his pockets were eventually full. He made a quick estimate and thought that perhaps three trips would make it. Weighed down by the stones he waddled across the clearing just out of the main circle of the rock, upon which the serpents were still milling about in great numbers.
Into the Light- Lost in Translation Page 21