Over the Darkened Landscape - By Derryl Murphy Page 0,23

was a roar then, a great shout from deep in the bowels of the castle. “Who has stolen my harp?” This was followed by a crash, and then again everything started to shake.

The ogre was awake and running towards the door.

Jack grabbed the harp and pulled her out onto the top step. “Unpin me!” she cried, tilting her golden wings down until Jack could reach the clips.

He grabbed the first clip, wrestled it off as quickly as he could, at the same time fearful that he would tear something. All the time the raging ogre was coming closer, and by the time he got the second clip undone loose stone was dropping from high up on the castle walls.

The harp spread her wings with a rapturous cry, then leaned over and gave Jack a hurried kiss. “Thank you,” she whispered, and then with a flurry of wings and a great rush of air she soared high into the sky.

Jack took only a second to watch her fly up, and then he was running pell-mell down the stairs, jarring his knees with each oversized step. He had reached the bottom and was running into the garden when the ogre burst through the door, yelling, “Come back, you vermin! I’ll have your flesh for supper and your bones for my bread, I will!”

Now Jack felt the true advantages of being lighter than he was on Earth. Heart pounding and bowels beginning to constrict with fear, he ran with great leaps and bounds, covering incomprehensible distances in amazing time. But all the time the ogre was after him, the ground shaking in its wake and the air reverberating with its clamor and bellowing.

Every so often as he ran a clarifying bead would come into his line of sight, and a startled image of himself running like a frightened gazelle would pop up for a brief second before disappearing from view again. The third time he saw an image of himself he also caught a glimpse of the ogre far in the background, standing still and swinging wildly at something. He stopped for a brief second to look, and realized the ogre must have unwittingly spied a clarifying bead and was busy trying to fight his own image.

This spurred Jack on even more, and soon he was back at the Aquila. He quickly threw his gear into its compartment, then pulled out the dephlogisticator and plugged it back into his suit, turned it on and then fitted his helmet into place.

He was just climbing in when he heard another roar, and saw the ogre bounding up the hill towards him, dagger as big as the largest human sword in his hand. Jack sealed the cockpit, then turned on the magnets. The high foreheads had told him that if he needed to descend ahead of schedule, the magnets would hopefully pull the Aquila and the beanstalk towards the lode-mites back on Earth.

With a groan, the beanstalk started to twist and shudder and the Aquila started to rise. The vessel was soon speeding back up towards the Earth, but it was shaking horribly at the same time. Jack peered out the side window that faced the Moon, and saw that the ogre had managed to leap up and grab hold of the beanstalk and was climbing towards him.

Jack turned up the choralis again. “Mission Control, we have a problem. Aquila is being pursued by a hostile creature. I may not make it back. Please respond, over.”

There was squealing, and Jack thought he could hear the Mission Specialist whispering in the background. But then another voice came on, saying, “Détacher! Non . . . Detach yourself from the legume. We will bear you back to your home and take care of the beast.”

“Who are you?” asked Jack.

“Look to the front of your craft,” came the reply.

Outside there hovered the harp with several other winged beings, all of different shapes and colors, all beautiful beyond belief, flapping their wings with slow, easy movements. She smiled at him and nodded, and so Jack flipped all three switches, releasing the latches from their grips on the beanstalk. There was a brief lurch as the craft jumped away and towards the Earth, and then he could see that it was being held up by winged beings on all sides.

They spiraled down towards the Earth, and soon the launch center and landing pad came into stark relief. He could see the base of the beanstalk, and saw that several people and even