The Dashboard of Apples, Page 2

  “Keali not say!” The primate leapt to his feet, agitated. “Tor visit Old Wai! Now, Tor must stop brightfall!”

  “But-”

  “Come. Tor must hurry.” He was back to his calm self, and I didn’t want to upset him again, so I ate the last piece of fruit – it tasted like cinnamon – and we continued on.

  The sun was slow to set, almost as if reluctant to sink below the horizon; it was still setting when we stopped more than two hours later, though the sky had lost some of its pink, with more blue and green streaks; it was turning a dark shade of red. I could just make out the crescent outline of the moon.

  We’d come to the edge of the grey field, and were facing a wall of mountains, some of them that climbed on for days. The field had not been as large as I’d originally thought; the endless grey on the horizon were the mountains in front of me, not an extension of the field.

  I glanced up at the foreboding mass, convinced that, at any second, the mountains would fade away like a good dream, and the answer as to how I could stop the sun setting would be right there in front of me, as obvious as a flower in a desert. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out that way.

  “Come,” Keali said. “Tor climb.”

  I frowned at the monstrous mountain in front of me. It was steep, probably one of the highest mountains, and was covered in loose rocks. “You’re not serious, right?”

  “Tor climb!” Keali screeched. He jumped at me, grasped my arm with his three left hands, and started dragging me up the mountain. “Climb, climb! Tor stop the brightfall! Warrie of Imagorium says stop brightfall, Tor must!”

  We crawled up the mountain, Keali with much less enthusiasm than when he had first seen me. His mood worsened the further we got from Windelnold, and the closer we got to our destination.

  My legs burned and I had more stitches than the scarf my grandmother had made for me. I kept tripping and losing my footing on the loose rocks, and the sun didn’t seem to be setting any more than it already had, so heat still radiated off it, making me sweat and burning my skin. In fact, it almost appeared that the sun was rising.

  My throat was dry, the refreshing drink Keali had given me being no match for the heat. I ignored my thirst as I kept climbing.

  My body ached, and there seemed no top to the mountain; it reached high into the sky. It must have been my eyes playing tricks on me, however, as just as I thought I would collapse into a wretched heap, the slope disappeared from underneath me; the rock and dirt flattened and with relief I realised we’d reached the top of the mountain, and were starting our descent. I understood why the sun was taking so long to set; the days were a lot longer here, and we had essentially been chasing the sun faster than it was setting.

  It was much easier going down, especially because I tripped over a loose rock, lost my footing and tumbled the whole way down, bruising and cutting myself on rocks and tree roots. Keali sprinted after me with mock concern; I could hear him laughing all the way down the mountain.

  “Tor is okay?” he asked once he had caught up with me. Before I could answer, he took off again. “Tor is nearly there.”

  We walked for a while, before reaching a tall, thin tower that reached high, as though it was stretching out to the sun. It leaned as it got higher, making it look unstable. The sun was almost above the point of the tower, providing a shining halo. An anxious pit formed in my stomach.

  “Tor keep going?” I asked Keali hopefully.

  Keali shook his head, slowly and sadly. “No,” he said. He pointed at the tower with three long, skinny fingers. “Tor climb. Keali wait.”

  “Wait!?” I exclaimed. “But you’ve come with me all this way! You’re going to stand here while I climb this and attempt to stop the sun from setting, just so I can go home!? I don’t even know how!”

  “Tor climb. Keali not help such a thing!” He stood back, watching me with large eyes, as though he was waiting to see what I would do.

  I screamed in frustration, throwing my hands up. I had no inclination to stay in this place longer than I had to. “Fine!” I stormed into the tower with more bravado than I felt, aware that Keali wasn’t with me, and I hadn’t the slightest idea what it was I was supposed to do.

  Chapter 8

  I climbed the spiral staircase. It went on forever, and I wasn’t wholly convinced that there even was a top to this tower; it might have continued on into the clouds and past the sun. I hoped not. My legs ached even more, and were jellylike, and my whole body throbbed from my tumble down the mountain. I had had enough of climbing and running; I just want to go home. I would have collapsed at any moment, but I tripped over my own feet as I raised my leg for the next stair, only to find that I had reached the top of the tower.

  I was in a tiny room, with a single window above a dashboard. The sun shone through the window, large and intimidating. I could feel its warmth, more than before. The dashboard had nothing on it. It was a slate of rough white marble ground down until the surface was flat.

  “This is not happening,” I said out loud. How was I supposed to stop the sun from setting with only a slate of marble? The queen had spoke of a switch, some ‘great switch of sun and moon’. I could see no such switch. Maybe it was invisible.

  I ran my hands over the dashboard, the marble rough and cold under my fingers. There was nothing. No invisible switch or anything. The sun had moved; it wasn’t directly outside of the window anymore. I would have to hurry, and come up with some idea. If only the switch that the queen spoke of was actually here.

  As soon as I thought it, there was a cracking sound; a line appeared on the side of the dashboard, a hairline crack that was travelling the length of the marble. It was a lid! I grabbed the lid and lifted it with difficulty; it was extremely heavy.

  Underneath the lid were a mass of switches, buttons and lights, and a lever or dial here and there. It seemed much too advanced for this crazy world, which is perhaps why I found it so fitting. The buttons were different sizes and colours, and said things such as “initiate rain sequence 1”, and “summon more Watreths”. One of the dials read “adjust Windelnold colour variation”, whilst another had numbers around it, pointing on 33, and was labelled “average sun temperature”. There was a switch, button, lever or dial for everything and anything that existed in this world! This dashboard controlled Imagorium!

  All of the lights were on or flashing. One of them was rapidly flashing, yellow and blue, yellow and blue. There was a large switch next to it labelled ‘the great switch of sun and moon’. The switch I was looking for.

  Currently, the switch was resting precariously in the middle. If I flicked it up, it would be on ‘moon’. If I flicked it down, it would be on ‘sun’. I flicked the switch down, bracing myself for some sort of explosion. The light stopped flashing. It glowed yellow.

  Nothing else happened. No explosion, implosion or catastrophic event that would otherwise compromise my mortality.

  I frowned, biting the inside of my lip. It felt much too easy. Was the flick of a switch all that I had to do to stop the sun from setting? All required for me to get back home? I contemplated fiddling with a few other switches and dials, namely the “average sun temperature” dial; I’d love to turn it down about ten degrees. Besides, I knew there had to be something more to the whole situation.

  However, there didn’t seem to be, and the switch must have worked because when I reached the bottom of the tower, with much less difficulty than when I was going up, Keali gave me a curt nod and said “Tor has stopped the brightfall,” before shaking his head in disappointment, and trailing back the way we came.

  I followed behind, resisting the urge to bombard Keali with questions.

  I noticed that the sun was now high in the sky, with no hint of sunset, not even a green streak across the vivid pink mass. It was as though it was midday, but I knew that it wasn’t. Even in this place, the whole thing felt unnatural, and I wondered if the catastrophe I had expected would come over time. Mayb
e it was just my worrying, coupled with Keali’s odd behaviour, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was wrong.

  Chapter 9

  We made our weary way back to Windelnold, where I was promptly tossed around the inhabitants, and I was praised, hugged and kissed on the cheek by all manner of strange creature, and Keali sulked in the shadows, as if he was determined to spend the night time in darkness. Queen Warrie’s voice boomed over the crowd; “Tor of earth. You came to us, you accomplished the unaccomplishable, and you have saved us from the glare of the moon! I shall uphold my promise to you but, tonight, tonight is a celebration of the sun, and all things bright and fragile!”

  All through the night, which was now an extension of day, we partied and ate food foreign to me whilst drinking drinks that I had never tasted, and playing games that I had never even seen. We sang songs and danced for hours. The whole of Windelnold, plus some, had come to join in the celebrations, and I was the only human being among extravagant, colourful beasts.

  There were large green folk who looked like flamingos, only they had two sets of wings and ears; tiny dogs with 12 pairs of legs; cats with stingers at the ends of their tails and pincers; I saw a giant snake with the front half of a bull (two front legs and all) and a regal set of giant wings that I’m sure came from an eagle. He slithered in and out of the others with surprising grace, snorting and beating his legs on the ground as he went. The crowd cleared a path from him, though did not pay any attention, as if it were natural instinct.

  The snake-bull came to a halt in the middle of the crowd. He spread his giant wings, beat them a couple of times to raise himself off the ground, then in a booming voice said; “the everblooms are withering!”

  Chapter 10

  Silence fell, as though someone had put a spell on the crowd. Everyone turned to look at the newsbearer, their faces set. A few who had wings took to the air to get a better view.

  “Without the moon to shine upon them, they will soon die and, without the everblooms, everything will die.”

  I froze. Had I bought about the destruction of an entire civilization, just by flicking a switch? Would the queen still send me home, or would she send me on another ridiculous quest, to bring back the coming and going of both the moon and sun?

  Someone in the crowd gasped a little late, and chaos broke out. Everyone started running and screaming, at a loss of what to do. The ones in the air took off, one swooping down to grab her child, before zooming off like a startled bird. I was knocked to the ground, as the large group hastily dispersed.

  When it had quietened, I got to my feet, dreading the impending conversation. Only the Queen, the newsbearer and Keali remained.

  “Hazzel, what is the meaning of this?” Queen Warrie asked. She turned to the newsbearer, Hazzel. “Do you speak the truth, or are you amusing yourself with the panic of my people?”

  “I tell no lies, my Queen.” Hazzel replied. His cold gaze fell on me, fury and panic burning in his amber eyes. “This one has bought the destruction of us all.”

  “No!” I screamed. Keali yelled a warning, but I ignored him. “I did what you wanted! I stopped your sun from setting, and you promised to send me home! So send me back home, now!”

  Hazzel snorted angrily, and made to strike at me, but the Queen stepped forward, and he fell still. “Yes,” she said. “Queen Warrie did promise to send you home, if only you would rid us of the moon. You have done what I have requested, what you were sent here to do, for only the imagination of a human from earth can see the great switch of sun and moon and the dashboard of County. Indeed, I should send you home.”

  I nodded hopefully. It was working out much better than I had expected.

  “However,” the Queen continued. My heart plummeted. “You have bought about the doom of us all. For that, I believe severe punishment is needed.”

  “S... severe punishment?” My throat tightened, and I found it hard to breath.

  The queen’s gaze fell upon me like a shadow over day, and any courage that I had hidden inside me fled. “You may not go home, without the punishment you have bought upon yourself.”

  “What sort of... of punishment?”

  “Your head. I don’t believe you will need that. Hazzel!”

  “Yes my Queen?”

  “Remove her head.”

  “Yes my Queen.”

  Chapter 11

  Terror filled me as the large creature advanced, snorting, hissing and beating his hooves. Keali screamed as Hazzel struck at me. His horns, each one larger than my body, were razor sharp, and steadily growing larger.

  My legs failed me, and buckled. I fell to the ground in a heap, just as two giant horns sailed past me and ploughed into the ground with such force the ground shook. Still screaming, Keali appeared at my side, grabbed my arm with three shaky hands, and took off, dragging me behind him. “Run Tor!”

  I don’t remember the last time I had ever ran so fast, for so long, and it would have been a feat I was proud of, only Hazzel, with his powerful wings and thin body, was faster. We had almost reached the dead forest when Hazzel caught up with us. He swooped and we ducked, wind whistling past our ears. Looking behind me, I saw that we were being chased by a small army of the flamingo like creatures I had seen at the celebration.

  We reached the dead forest, where Hazzel couldn’t swoop us. He was strong, but the trees were even stronger, and would skewer him if he hit one; he was too big in size to avoid them. He could only circle above us, fuming, and wait until we reached the end of the forest. Holing up in the forest wasn’t an option; the queen’s army was just behind us, and escaping one danger only to find ourselves in another was simply too ironic for my liking.

  Something snagged on my trousers, and I tripped, landing with a painful thump. “Up! Tor must run!” Keali screamed. I could hear the heavy footfall of the flamingo like creatures that pursued us.

  I leapt to my feet and took off again, after the hysterical primate. “Tor is running!” I screamed back. I was too scared to be on my own to tell Keali to run off without me; he would easily escape and get himself to safety. I doubted he would leave me anyway. He’d stuck with me this far, and it wasn’t for no reason.

  Tree roots and branches jumped out at my ankles as I ran, stumbling and tripping, only to pick myself up and see that the queen’s army were closing in. I forced my legs to keep moving as my lungs burned. There was no way I was going to die here, in a world that wasn’t even my own, because I accomplished something impossible, for the creature who wanted me dead for doing it.

  I burst out of the forest, into the sapphire fields, where the dark coffee cup flowers whispered to each other stories of the earth-human who had killed them. They had faded to a grey, and had shrivelled up like paper, their voices raspy and their speech broken. They were the everblooms, the first of the many exotic plants I would destroy. Too weak to stop me as I sprinted through them, Keali a few paces ahead, they shot curses and threats at me, horrible promises that I hoped they would never fulfil.

  In my distraction, Hazzel swooped at me again, catching my shirt in his horn and knocking me on my stomach. A bit of his horn snapped off, but he didn’t notice. I rolled onto my back; Keali tried to rush to my aid, but was thrown back with a swish of Hazzel’s powerful tail. He landed in a patch of dead everblooms, and did not get up. I was alone.

  Hazzel landed in front of me, large and menacing. I felt like an ant, at the mercy of a human. “It is useless to run, Tor of earth.” His voice boomed, echoing in my head. “Give in to your fate, you bought this upon yourself.”

  “I won’t!” I exclaimed. As Hazzel struck out at me again, I rolled to my side, and his horns plunged into the earth. I scrambled over to the bit of horn that had snapped off, grasping it in both hands. Like a spear I hurled it at him, but it spun in the air, and it bounced off him like a stick. Paying no attention to the part of horn I had just thrown at him, Hazzel half charged, half slithered at me, his back arched and ready to strike.
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  I was prepared this time. I ducked just as Hazzel launched his monstrous body at me, crawling along on all fours to where the bit of horn I’d thrown landed. Hazzel twisted his body around, his beetle eyes boring into me. I picked up the horn as Hazzel charged again.

  With a mighty battle cry, I charged as well, dodging to the side at the last possible second. I plunged the bit of horn into his exposed neck. He screamed in pain and surprise, and then fell silent, his motionless body crashing to the ground.

  “Yes!” I screamed. “I’ve done it! I’m saved!”

  I turned to where Keali’s motionless body lay, just in time to see a long, thin sword swinging toward my neck, closer and closer...

  Chapter 12

  I blinked. I was at home, in my kitchen, clutching a juicy red apple core. It had browned, the acids reacting with the air, and I was chilled; the fridge was still open. My mum walked into the kitchen. She frowned when she saw me, opening her mouth to ask something. She thought better of it, though, closed her mouth and kept on walking.

  “See,” I told the class, who were all so engrossed in my story, they didn’t notice it was recess. “I thought that it had all been a dream, right? But it wasn’t. And I knew it wasn’t, because I still had the apple in my hand, so it must have been true.”

  Mrs Bullhead smiled at me, her eyes twinkling. “Well,” she said. “You did have a very eventful weekend. I’m sure that next weekend will be just as eventful. Do you have anything planned?”

  I nodded, a mischievous smile touching my lips. I knew exactly what I would be doing the next weekend. “Yes,” I said slowly. The whole class straightened, straining their ears for one last thrill. “I have to set things right again.”