The Amulets (An 'Amulets of Andarrin' tale) (12 page)

“You’re an, an elf” He asked her, seeing her pointy ears.

“I am” she said smiling at Delaius before turning around and busying herself with pulling different liquids from a bag and crushing small tablets before mixing them all together.

While this was happening Delaius was moving Jack along.

“Come on, put your top on and we’ll head back, you need your sleep, you’ve got the drive home tomorrow.” He smiled.

“Right yeh, Argh” he groaned as he got off the table holding his head, it was thumping and it hurt with every movement he made when he flung his hooded top and jacket on.

“Here” Aria said walking over to Jack with a mug, quarter full with liquid. “
it will help with the pain, it’s not magic don’t worry, it’s a painkiller. And when you wake up tomorrow you’ll feel fine”

“Thanks” Jack said taking the mug “though the last time someone gave me a drink it knocked me out cold and I woke up with a headache.” He said looking at Delaius with suspicion, causing Aria and Delaius to laugh lightly.

“Don’t worry, you won’t wake up with a headache, but if you don’t drink it you’ll never sleep because of the pain. This will help” she assured him.

He gulped it down in two large swigs and asked how long it will take. Though before any of them could answer his eyes suddenly felt heavy and he began to drift away.

“Wait…what…you said…god you’re beautiful…ah” he finished dejectedly as if in a drunken state before he slowly laid himself back down and fell to sleep on the table.

Delaius carried Jack back to his tent, laid him on the rug and covered him with a blanket without him waking. William and Aaron were already fast asleep, with Aaron snoring like a pig, but Delaius didn’t join them in sleep straight away, instead he went outside and lit a pipe and sat there for a long time pondering his discovery.

He was troubled, but the main thing was getting Jack and his
friends home, they would be safe there and he could continue to search for Kalerum. If they could find him then it wouldn’t matter who Jack was because he need never know and could go on and live what he had come to believe was a normal life.

Jack slowly awoke to the cold chill of a morning breeze sweeping under his blanket causing him to shiver. Jack tightened his covering around his body but he was disturbed by loud thuds which were causing the ground to shake, he could hear Aaron groaning and then the sound of girls shrieking came from nearby but he was struggling to shake off the heavy, drug induced torpor of the night before. It was only when, moments later, the gloom of the tent was pierced by beams of sunlight that Jack and Aaron both rolled over and covered their faces with their arms.

“Turn that light off” moaned Aaron, but it only got brighter as it flooded their senses causing Aaron to rise angrily.

“What the hell…” he shouted. Jack jumped up from his resting place to find out the cause. He looked up to see a huge face peering over the tent side, framed by the now open roof above them.

The face was that of a man’s but it was the size of it that had caused Aaron to yell in fear. The huge head was bald and his eyes flicked between the two in annoyance. Jack could feel it’s warm breath across his face and body and felt disgusted, the smell of the giant man’s breath was just about all he could take before gagging. He looked up to see it was lifting their tent roof into the air.

Aaron was dressed only in boxer shorts decorated with comic book superheroes. He had picked up a large staff and was waving it at the giant man who huffed and puffed in annoyance before pulling up the walls of the tent and turning and stomping away across the field to where there was a growing pile of disassembled tents.

Delaius, Hobbins and Ruffalo were stood on the pathway a few yards away, talking to the girls. Hobbins and Delaius were beaming, casting amused glances in the direction of Aaron’s underwear, but Ruffalo was less than happy, he walked over and grabbed the staff out of Aaron’s hand.

“Give me that boy, you’ll hurt yourself,” he bellowed.

“What…what” Aaron said still stunned. He felt hung-over and the events of the morning had sent his blood pumping, aggravating his hangover. He was annoyed at being woken up in such a way and he seemed to explode as he yelled out “What the hell was that!” Thankfully, he sounded more stunned and shocked than aggressive.

“That was a Gargant, boy” Hobbins said as if he should have known.

“No that was a giant.”

“Yes, they are rather aren’t they” Hobbins said happily

“Right I’m not being funny but I think that giants pulling your house away in the morning is something we ought to have known about, don’t you.”

“Hmm yes, sorry must have slipped my mind,” Delaius said smiling at Hobbins “now come on, get dressed, it’s time to get you home.”

Frankie glanced at Aaron’s boxers and laughed. “Not the man of steel this morning then.” Aaron blushed and grabbed his pants while the others burst into unsympathetic laughter.

“Right then I’m off old chap, got to get this back to Horace in Greymir. I’ll see you soon.” Hobbins told Delaius.

“Take care, my friend.”

“Take care lads and lasses” Hobbins said as he left them on the patch of grass where the tents had stood.

The midmorning sun gleamed down on them and they could feel a cool breeze blowing across the increasingly deserted festival grounds. They nodded their goodbyes and Ruffalo followed Hobbins, still irritated with Aaron for having touched his staff.

“That was close” Jack said to Aaron, who had glared at Ruffalo’s back.

“Well how was I supposed to know? Come on, let’s finish getting dressed, I feel like a tool standing here like this” he said as people walked through the field gazing at him half dressed.

Helena and William, who had been getting some breakfast, strolled over to them across

the field which was busy with dozens of giants who appeared to be between ten and fifteen feet tall, they all looked human except for their size.

They towered over the remaining festival goers who were scurrying around to dodge the Gargants as they cleared the site, everyone was leaving. The Gargants were taking down the canopies and pulling the tall stanchions out of the ground with ease, far faster than if normal people had done it.

Delaius noticed the four of them staring open mouthed at the Gargants working around the fields, they couldn’t look away,
it was incredible.

“There quite friendly really, just don’t upset them.” Delaius said and seeing that they continued to stare at them he added “There not too fond of being stared at. Probably best to
divert your eyes” he finished as one of the Gargants caught them glaring at him and let out a loud snort.

They all quickly diverted their eyes and when Delaius told them to hurry along they followed closely behind.

“How come they only appeared now?” Lily asked. “I never saw them last night.”

“They do not partake in the festival; they simply allow the use of their land.” Delaius told her

“Why are they taking down the tents?” Frankie asked.

“The festivals over isn’t it”

“Yes but why is it just the giants that are taking them down. It seems a bit wrong”

“We are on their land; they have hosted this event for decades. And the king of
Fenver pays the Gargant king for the use of it. And so they set it up and take it down. It doesn’t take them long and they all get paid.”

“Oh” Frankie said as she dodged a pile of horse droppings. “Phew” she said passing it and holding her breath from the pungent smell.

And so they retraced their footsteps towards the gate that had brought them into this world as the giants continued to take the tents down and clear the fields.

As Aria had promised, Jack had woken free from the headache he’d had the night before and he thanked Delaius for healing his wounds. But as they walked he argued with him, half in jest, for over ten minutes about why he had to be knocked out twice with what he referred to as poison. Delaius had told him it was to help him but Jack had been less than pleased and swore never to take a drink from him again.

Now they were heading home, chatting about how amazing it had been and about everything they had seen. At Delaius’ house the day before they had been reserved about following Delaius, he was a stranger, but Jack had to go with him so he could get his arm fixed up in
case of infection, and, not wanting to leave Jack on his own his friends had followed and they were more than glad they had.

It was incredible; each of them wondering how they were going to cope with their normal boring lives after what they’d experienced and so they walked through the woods, with William and Helena following closely behind.

“And did you see how he made us see those dragons…”

“
Yeh but what about those Fenverau, what was going on there with the monkey thing?”

Lily and Frankie were saying to one another.

“Yeh you know I think we’ve grown closer from all this, you and I” Aaron said putting his arm around Frankie’s side.

She smiled before removing his arm “you know I think there’s a medical explanation for you Aaron, you might want to get yourself checked out.”

“Oh come on” he said watching her walk off whilst Jack and Lily were laughed in front of them and William and Helena laughed behind.

“I think she’s warming to me” he said to William.

They’d walked for over thirty minutes before they reached the gateway and it was only when Delaius had stopped and murmured the spell that they’d realised they’d arrived.

“Alright,” he said “go on, through you go.”

As they had safely come through the night before, even Frankie wasn’t worried about the return trip. With William leading the way, they quickly made the passage back to the maze on the earth that they knew.

“Weird huh” Aaron said as he looked around the clearing.

“Weird but wonderful” Lily said smiling at Jack which caused him to smile back.

Frankie let out a breath of exasperation at the two of them which caused a response from Aaron.

“Oh give over, just coz you’re void of feelings.”

“Of course I can feel, I feel sick every time you open your dirty little mouth you…you…Jackal”

“Give me a chance you may warm to me, and our warmth may just melt that icy shell of yours, with time of course, I can’t perform miracles” he smiled.

“I don’t even know what that meant but you can keep whatever warmth you think you have to yourself thanks”

“Come on” Delaius said, leading them back out of the maze and across the fields in the direction of his house.

“This is where we part ways guys” William said, shaking hands with each of them.

“We’re going back home?” Aaron asked, stunned and unhappy.

“Of course” Delaius said.

“Do we have to? I was just starting to enjoy myself” Aaron moaned.

“So was I” Lily said looking at Jack. Jack felt the butterflies in his stomach again and he didn’t want to leave either.

“They’ve got a point. Maybe we should stay for a little while longer” Jack said looking at Delaius.

“No, I cannot allow it, it’s too
dan...” he stopped himself, calming his voice and rethinking his words. “You must go home, now come” he signaled them to follow.

They realised that protesting wouldn’t get them anywhere, so they said their goodbyes to William and Helena.

“Keep your chin up Jack, I’m sure we’ll see you again” William told him.

Jack didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing after everything Delaius had said, but he decided to be happy about it, after all it was going to be difficult going back to normal life after all they’d experienced over the past two days. William and Helena headed back to the house whilst Delaius led the rest of them over the fields and away from his home.

They walked for about half a mile. Jack looked around, it was early morning and a few clouds were visible in the sky but apart from that it looked as if it was going to be a beautiful day. The fresh scents of a morning in the countryside filled their sinuses. Jack turned around and looked back towards the house. It wasn’t there. Jack looked stunned.

“Hey where’s the house gone?” Jack shouted to Delaius who stopped and looked at him laughing.

“You like that one.”

Jack joined in with his laughter and walked on wondering what other tricks he had in his armoury. As he caught up with Aaron he heard him mutter to Frankie “How did he do that?” She was as stunned as he was.

They marched for what seemed like ages, passing woods and a small lake as they went. Lily came up next to Jack and placed her hand on his, smiling as she did so.

“Have you thought about it then?” Jack said as they walked.

“What does it look like” she said and they both smirked and carried on.

Jack was feeling brilliant. He’d seen a giant, an elf, a family of pixies, the Fenverau in the tent that had seemingly turned into animals, a werewolf, a vampire, and a banshee whom he’d happily forget, and wizards, but best of all for Jack was the fact that he had fallen in love with Lily and he was having the time of his life just holding hands with her.

Jack was on top of the world as they held hands, exchanging smiles and glances as they walked until the car became visible a little under a mile away.

“There it is” Frankie pointed.

“Ah yes, here we are then” Delaius said coming to a stop. “No
time to waste then, I have much to do and I must take my leave here.”

They all turned to Delaius to thank him. Frankie and Lily both hugged him. Jack was sure Delaius whispered something to each of them. Aaron shook his hand. “Do you think we’d be able to visit sometime?” he asked in hope.

“I’m afraid not” Delaius said kindly.

“Ah come on” Aaron pleaded. Delaius leaned in and whispered something in his ear before Aaron said goodbye and joined the girls. The three of them moved slowly in the direction of the car to allow Jack to make his farewells with Delaius.

“Well you take care of yourself Jack”

“Thanks for everything Delaius, it’s been the best weekend of my life and I can’t thank you enough. And my arm, well, again thanks. You’ve done so much for me and I just wish there was some way I could repay you.”

“There is Jack” Delaius said more seriously “promise me you’ll be a good person, you must.”