The Scrolls of Skava

Return to the Emerald Oracle - Part 5

     The central plateau of the island was only about half a mile across, but it was covered by dense forests and crossed by grassy avenues which were cunningly arranged to lead visitors around in circles and away from the centre. What was more, their compasses were useless, possibly caused by a large lode of magnetic rock deep within the island.

     Coming across one of the hundred yard long, ten yard wide avenues, the first instinct of the visitor was to examine the marble statue they saw at one end, enticingly leading them away from the direct route to the centre, and when they saw that it was nothing more than a marble statue and left it behind, they might not necessarily remember what direction they’d originally been travelling in and so go off in a slightly different direction. Whereas, otherwise, a visitor would keep as close as possible to a straight line as he made his way through the forest until he came either to the cliff or the lake in the centre, therefore, the avenues, designed and positioned by an intelligence far beyond that of a mortal human, kept them wandering around in circles, getting nowhere and giving them the impression that the central plateau was much larger than it really was.

     “I thought you said this island was only a mile across!” said Arroc angrily as they climbed over the fallen trunk of a jigsaw oak, named for the shape of its leaves.

     “That’s what it looked from the carpet,” replied Dennis defensively. “I’d have sworn it wasn’t much larger than that.”

     “Well we’ve been walking for at least three miles and we haven’t gotten anywhere,” protested the trog as he pulled his sleeve away from a clump of bramble. “Just trees, trees and more trees. More trees than I ever saw in ma life. And those bloody statues! If nobody lives here, where did all the statues come from?”

     “Somebody lives here,” said Naomi. “The others came here to meet someone. And someone must have deactivated our carpet.”

     “Someone or some thing,” said Teasel to herself, staring nervously into the dark and gloomy forest.

     “Perhaps this is how they punish unwelcome visitors,” said Arroc darkly. “Perhaps they’re cursed ter wander through the forest for the rest of their lives. Never to escape, never to find rest, until they collapse from hunger or disease.” He glared at Naomi. “And it were you who brought us ter this accursed place. You who doomed us ter this fate...”

     “Nobody’s been doomed to anything,” replied the black girl angrily, her green eyes flashing in the gloomy forest light. She was also growing steadily more alarmed by the gradual return of the trog’s accent. “There’s someone living here, and if we keep on it’s just a matter of time before we meet them.”

     “An’ what do we say ter them when we meet them?” demanded Arroc. “Excuse us fer trespassing on your island, o great and powerful sage. Excuse us fer coming where we’re no wanted...”

     “For the sake of all the Gods, shut up!” said Dennis, rubbing his temples wearily. “You’re giving me a headache! We’re all in this together, and we’ll have to stick together if we’re to get out of it. We won’t get anywhere arguing with each other. So unless you’ve got something constructive to say, I’d appreciate it if you’d just SHUT UP!”

     The trog and the black girl glared at him, then glared at each other, and then they turned and walked in silence, speaking not a word to each other as they continued on their way through the dense forest.

     A few minutes later Teasel gave a cry and pointed at something off to their right. Approaching it cautiously, they saw that it was the badly decomposed body of a human male. Just under six feet tall with long ginger hair and a beard around what remained of his head. He was dressed in leather and slennhide armour and the remains of an ironwood sword was lying beside his outstretched hand, its blade dried and cracking from damp and neglect. The nome gasped and put a hand over her mouth at her first glimpse of the rotting, maggot ridden corpse, and Naomi backed away in disgust as the smell of it reached her, making her turn her head to avoid breathing in the foul, corrupted air.