collapsing on the rim of the smoky ravine
in a trembling frenzy to swallow air,
unable to imagine how they'd intervene.
Mock, looking haunted, was utterly speechless
like a zombie or some other bloodless saint,
the ruddy and only pink-skinned Curmudgeon
gone beyond the pale and passing for a haint.
Nate pulled a chisel from his ruptured knapsack
and shakily attained his unsteady feet.
then he kissed Mock's forehead and started off,
as valiant a hero as one could hope to meet.
"where are you going?" Mock breathlessly asked,
toppling again from his bark-encrusted crutches.
"to have a go at saving our Sleazy.
i can't just leave him in that horrid thing's clutches."
as Nate descended into the gully
Sappy sat up, and surveyed the scene with wonder.
"i have the impression we've been here before.
something to do with a housekeeping blunder.
why, this is the spot where we salvaged the sack,
with the watchrug and battlerack, remember?"
"me 'ead's in an awful muddle, Sappy.
i've a notion that beastie gave me distemper."
"surely not, silly old bean. but come sit down.
i want to inspect those clotted bandages."
Mock winced while he warily lowered himself,
casting aside his knotted appendages.
Sappy visibly flinched from what he uncovered,
a ground up mash of puce and livid red;
the missing kneecap, several severed toes,
and the seeping, shredded skin, hanging by a thread.
his fingers were singed by a blistering fever
inflaming the tainted, shivering frame.
he was far from certain he'd ever recover
but harboured no doubts he'd been rendered lame.
"well, what do you think?" Mock placidly inquired,
gazing obscurely into the mire.
"i think i'll gather some fallen kindling.
it's high time we lighted a night-biding fire."
*
the titanic arachnid was rushing now
no longer constrained by the stealthy attack
with Sleazy swaddled in a sticky wrapper,
enthralled and strung aloft on a pincered rack.
as she hurtled forward on six of her legs
her banged up bounty holding fast in its glue
Pasty's winged posse launched a frantic relay,
scattering feathers but keeping her in view.
Nate's weary muscles were no match for this race
and he lost his footing on wandering roots
stumbling in a slide of skating pebbles,
letting go of the chisel and both tangled boots.
his temper plunged ahead of his body,
railing at the clumsiness that caused his demise.
next to jettison was trust in himself,
bereft of the caress that lived in Pally's eyes.
it was then that he noticed the strange, stinging nips
plaguing his limbs with myriad pinches,
like sustained bites from relentless insects
concurrently occurring every few inches.
it soon sunk in that he wasn't sinking
but heading instead toward a scrubby scrap of land
clenched in the claws of Sludge White's familiars,
uplifted by the grace of her avian band.
they tucked him in a secluded crevice
overlooking the chasm on a craggy ledge,
in the gnarled branches of a tree that twisted
inquisitive tendrils over the edge.
from there he observed the spider's progress
as his allies commenced an aerial assault,
pelting her eyes with formidable fury
till she sidled inside a shadowy fault.
and a squealing cacophony exploded
from the depths of a rather sizable cave
to judge by the numberless fleeing bats
that swept from their sanctum in a dizzying wave.
the birds encircled the precarious entry,
posting sentries for its keen-eyed tending
and busied themselves selecting the perches
they'd need for a night spent preening and mending.
Nate's pendulous roost was rattled by a stork
letting slip from its beak a plump, leafy sling.
but finding the feathered folk fetching his boots
he divined they'd taken him under their wing.
he dined al fresco at a portable feast
served a la carte by a delicate sparrow
as an omen formed in the misty distance,
a single crow flying straight as an arrow.
*
in the regions above the vice-ridden vapors
the sky was suffused with orange and pink.
lament for the sun's repetitive orbit
had kindled the clouds that huddled on the brink.
the forest beneath was brooding in silence,
sifting sediments and sighing in the shade
as though it longed for the cover of sunset
and bided its time for the frail light to fade.
'i should never have trusted that creature.
there's not a sweeter web than spins from honeyed lies.
and what has she done? how will they know me?
they'll never comprehend this improbable size.
the biclops brutals didn't have them. that's clear.
ooh! those tangles of tendrils! that spongy skin!
plus the sharpened harpies splintered my vision,
so now i'm more helpless than i've ever been.
it's hard to believe they'd snatch my hatchlings.
i'd feel it in my spinnerets if it were true.
spite isn't skulking in their scant, frightened eyes.
this one's deceptive, but hasn't got a clue.
i see no reason to keep it trussed up
for the stink overpowers this miserable hole.
i'd fain unload it, yet still i wonder
if as well as the smell, it's saddled with a soul.'
*
the sun bled into the sizzling abyss
and celestial lava spilled out of its wake
firing the edges of lavender clouds,
a dazzling illusion of a vast burning lake.
encumbered below in an eddy of eagles
billowing smudges and dark purple streaks
a bleary-eyed king glowered at the bleakness,
dodging the logic he'd eluded for weeks.
yet a novel notion distracted him
as he glanced from his aerie, adrift in the dusk.
an urgency encroached on his facile thoughts
making them uneasy in their crown-capped husk.
a consequential question had not been resolved
or he'd overlooked some critical thing.
and this feeling unflaggingly nagged him,
forever intruding like the itch from his ring.
these reveries receded with the sunlight
stranding conjecture on an ominous slope.
shadows seeped into regions of reason
ridding dimming prospects of unrequited hope.
*
Sludge White lay crumpled in a heap of muslin.
a half-eaten apple rolled along the floor.
the haggard old hag took a moment to gloat
then hastily hobbled to the spookhouse door.
*
Pally was watching a travelling shimmer
a lilac facet on a spasmodic trail
lurching and veering as it grew ever closer,
crossing dimensions and piercing the veil.
already accustomed to the shock of sight
riveting his eyes like the very first star
he knew in his heart this was salvation
releasing emotion from its swollen bell jar.
a resounding crack of towering thunder
ripped the dense fabric of insensate fences
announcing the arrival of a downpour,
pounding the earth as it drummed up his senses.
in that instant his mind was flooded with faces
no longer sundered from miniature hands,
the clinging children of ByWater Landing
dislodging Pally from the deadening sands.
their effervescence was swelling his presence,
overflowing the well that nurtured his soul.
and his stunted sobbing surged out of seclusion
cleansing his spirit and making him whole.
the mirror tilted, beaming reflection,
reconvening his likeness with all of its charms.
and Pally blushed at his shiny new semblance
as he fell into Lumpy's comforting arms.
*
Sludge White was sailing a subliminal sea,
gliding on a surface that glinted like glass.
her memories were ranged like sleeping mountains,
their colors cascading in a slumbering pass.
she was vaguely aware of all that transpired,
seen through a cloistering filter of crepe
and tried to decipher what could have prompted
misfortune to open its snarling gape.
her fur-clad familiars found her fallen.
a dubious heartbeat convinced them she was dead.
though ashen pallor bedimmed her glimmer,
a pink glow illumined the roses on her head.
as the deer nudged her with their probing noses
an eerie wailing was let loose by a loon.
then a chorus of keening fused with the storm
in a howling lament that beckoned the moon.
it rose in the midst of turbulent flashes,
in shafts of fluorescence and gleam-tinted cloud.
and the fell fog was pummelled by pelting rains,
forging wispy tatters out of steaming shroud.
*
the skittish fire that Sappy had set
crackling in the shelter of prehistoric stones
was encouraged by the flickering moonlight,
fostering warmth in their chilled and dampened bones.
as he rocked Mock in a cradle of compassion
the skies spilled out their spurting, silver sheets.
and he lulled the delirious ramblings
of anxious adolescence roaming lonely streets.
Mock closed his eyes when the winds subsided
and the deluge dwindled to intermittent drip.
as the moon traipsed off in search of perspective
Sappy hunkered down for a cursory kip.
*
Sleazy came to in a foul smelling cavern
steeped in the silence that saturates night,
wrestling with his wrapping and scuffing the scrapes
he'd acquired from the spider's frantic flight.
he'd barely discerned the subtlest shuffle
when a presence emerged an inch from his face.
for a heart-stopping moment he felt it musing.
then it ripped apart his slithery case.
already running as his feet touched down,
they kept on kicking when he found he'd been lifted.
but sharp, spindly limbs simply spun him around
and placed him in a spot where starlight drifted.
he embraced the bathed air like a stifled child
imbibing the breezes that bring in spring
and hardly held on to the side of the cliff,
skipping and slipping and nearly taking wing.
in a nearby nook a pair of plump pigeons
snickered together as they watched him flit by.
and having made certain he hadn't been followed
one of them mounted the star-dappled sky.
*
Promethean pilgrims crossed the frozen expanse
traversing time from their fiery birth,
ferrying sparks of elemental essence
to the evanescent residents of earth.
and the harpy scowled and brandished her fist
irked at these heavens and their meddlesome rains
for making short work of banishing enchantments,
dispelling the mist she'd swelled with such pains.
she pressed the edge of a crumbling tombstone
and vanished beneath the cemetery grounds,
slinking down a subterranean passage
that echoed with crunches and gurgling sounds.
the snooping rat waited with the royal raiments
in the blaze of a torch that scorched the stone.
he smirked as she donned her crinkled crinolines,
tickled by the gilding of a wrinkled crone.
pausing on the threshold of a caved-in temple
she tossed a bone to a pale, hulking brute,
ensconced in the stench of previous suppers
stiffening in piles, rotting with their loot.
his lopsided face seemed to come unhinged
as he strived for a wink with his single, crazed eye.
wrenching her foot from a trail of slime, she said
"try and be more tidy. this place is a sty."
his muttered response had a whiny, cringing tone,
too shrill and unnerving to closely heed.
in any case Her Grace hastened away,
unable to process another creature's need.
while the snitch raced after his merciless mistress
skirting rivulets of travelling blood
the ghoul yanked a morsel from his stacked up stiffs,
relishing the squish and the sickening thud.
*
when the queen laid her head on her pillow
she had fully restored her avaricious gleam,
repacking her bags, unfolding her furrows,
and easing her creases with vanishing cream.
the restless impatience in her withering stare
regained its callous, imperious bite.
and the scathing disdain chiseled on her visage
waxed incandescent, transcendent with spite.
while the glittering tresses nestling her brow
securely stashed her thatch of hoary bristles
her careless caress lost its resemblance
to catching a cat in a thicket of thistles.
a sneer paved over her gravelly cackle,
thus smothering the rattling gates of hell.
and she'd managed to ditch the whiff of corpses
that raised up hackles with its mouldering smell.
as she sorted her fleeting perceptions,
splicing her reels of selective recollection
a pesky image refused to flip past
obstructing this nearest approach to reflection.
a casual glimpse of the hidden chamber,
imprinted while primping her ribbons and lace
reared up to pose a compelling question.
for a valued possession was not in its place.
she passed at last with her drifting impressions
to the plundered landscape of overmined seams;
never quite sating her expectations,
the recurring resort of her ravenous dreams.
when the answer came suddenly upon her
she loosed her link to the ethereal lair.
and vaulting across the breach of becoming
she sat up and gasped "the mirror wasn't there!"
*
a bright dawn daunted the celestial sparks
as their pastel auras melted away
suffusing the sky with shimmering saffron,
supplanting pale stretches of somnolent grey.
the flutter of photons incited a dance
that darted through dewdrops on branches and eaves.
while ferns were unfurling their curling arabesques
wee dragons dried their wings on sun-drenched leaves.
the intrepid members of the Free Collective
were clinging to sleep in a copse of pines,
savouring the comfort of lingering embers,
tangled in blankets and damp creeping vines.
Squint and the otter were cuddled together
scrunched up on a limb just out of Gropey's reach.
for his paws still roamed, even though he slumbered,
tucked in the crook of an ornamental beech.
his brother had booked an empathic passage,
quite easy to descry by those in the know
from the lambent bliss that blossomed on his lips
and raced to his cheeks with its rapturous glow.
Rashful was spouting stentorian snores
interspersed with sneezes and occasional pings,
alarming the neighboring foragers
and wringing odd whimpers from the lute's nodding strings.
at the fragile behest of a sunbeam
Sylvana was persuaded to open her eyes,
curtailing the despair ensnared by her demons
in baleful tales of a damsel's demise.
Sable swooped in to attend to her attire
adeptly pecking at loose stays and ties,
returning stray hairs to satin cornrows
and rumpled demeanor to a dignified guise.
folding her wings she stared at the fledgling.
"did we raise you to wallow in a muddy ditch?
just imagine what Sharpebeake would have to say!
roosting on the ground like some common ostrich!"
"we were soaked to the bone when we wound up here.
tempers were flaring and resilience had lapsed.
so we toasted our meagre, sopping provisions,
singed all our fingers and promptly collapsed."
Sable cleared her gullet and slanted her head.
presently relenting, she planted a kiss.
"never mind, my poppet. but brace yourself.
for in what i must tell you there's much that's amiss."
Rashful was suddenly startled awake
as his snort morphed into a deafening bleat.
then, casting the empath a pitiful glance
he lamentably sighed while rubbing his feet.
Squint and the otter skittered out of sight
to scavenge a breakfast of acorns and berries.
the bard stretched his limbs, bumping into Weepy,
staining their faces like ripening cherries.
while Gropey probed patterns pertaining to pines
absorbing from bark whatever he might glean
the glimrin had risen prior to dawn,
his absence apparent in the presence of sheen.
the hunched-over Sable paced in a circle,
a pompous professor in a tattered coat.
then fluffing her feathers and puffing out her chest
she tried a few caws to tune up her throat.
"the lustrous princess has been poisoned by the queen.
they've laid her out in a rose-petalled spread.
perhaps it's a coma or drug-induced sleep
but i'm not convinced that she's actually dead.
the other Curmudgeons are in Godfrey's Gorge,
staring down a monster that's holding its breath.
while the shifty-eyed fellow is a hostage
the clever little wry one hovers near death."
Sylvana erupted in heartrending sobs
and the minstrel rushed to her quivering side.
the atmosphere crackled with shattering spirits.
Weepy and Gropey inaudibly cried.
then darkness descended like a disenchantment
depriving the sorry scene of its light.
for a negative exposure passed through them
soothing their shock with the somber balm of night.
a wavering arc of embers emerged
weaving itself in a coalescing spiral
enveloping Sylvana in a galaxy,
a smidgen of fairy dust gone viral.
the scintillating specks began to change color,
from deepest ruby to cerulean blue.
then shivering like a kaleidoscope
the sparkles and Sylvana receded from view.
"where did she go?" asked a frantic Rashful
vibrating alarm like a panic-stricken bell.
the bard responded with a calming gesture.
"she'll be travelling with Chester for a spell.
i suppose we'd better pack our belongings
and see about prying your pals from their plight.
most likely that's where Chester is off to.
he's apt to get feisty when our prospects aren't bright."
the scavengers returned, lugging stuffed stockings,
their harvest escaping in straggling rows.
"so that's where they got to!" said Mortimer, chuckling,
hitching his breeches and flaunting bare toes.
the otter chased after his trail of hors d'oeuvres
while the others arranged their knapsacks and kits.
Squint sniffed the spot where Sylvana had stood,
fumbling something glinting in his trembling mitts.
then he anxiously scanned the horizon,
oblivious to the minstrel's offer of bread
but was lulled by waves of implicit tenderness
when Weepy caressed his quizzical head.
*
lured to the verge of a seeming stairwell,
unyielding as granite and redolent of earth
Pally uncovered the source of the rattle
as fleeting existence was fleeing its berth.
so he nestled the gnarled, quaking fingers
while Gramps sought him out with his nebulous eyes
and speaking in a creaking, faltering voice
entrusted to Pally his laboured goodbyes.
Lumpy and the mirror maintained their distance
discreetly deflecting their curious glare,
barely overhearing the ragged whispers
defenseless hearts might be hesitant to share.
"you needn't mind a barmy old codger
beholden to you for unburdenin' his breast.
but that flamin' glance you're sportin' suits you.
as it's sparked by love, i've a notion you've been blessed.
tell me darlin' orphan e's done fate proper.
spun it on its heels and turned out quite the lad.
so when it comes to recallin' the likes o' me
there's no call for 'im to come over sad.
a life spent tendin' to roots and to deeds,
to weedin' the heedin' of whatever's been sown
is obliged to yer lot for spottin' the sunshine
that chanced a glance of its seedlin' all grown."
while his last crumpled breath passed into the ether
and Pally still clasped the curve of his fist
in utter silence the shape shifting shade
inserted itself in their unsuspecting midst.
*
she took another step on the seamless surface
and the monkey hid his face in his paws,
completely unable to come to grips
with her flat out denial of plausible laws.
he'd done his level best to dissuade her
stretching earthbound maxims as far as they'd extend
but gave up when he noticed the buzzing,
that bee in her bonnet for reality to bend.
so the shivering apprentice dangled,
spirited on currents reserved for private flight
clutching so tightly that his knuckles were numb
to a stringless and sightless, obstinate kite.
though stubbornly cuffing the memory of ground
he was dreading their impending descent.
his sense of balance was rendered uneasy
when breezes abruptly proceeded unbent.
as they angled their way through threaded branches
and the monkey saw his life go zipping by
a sleepy owl hurled expletives
and a cheeky cicada climbed onto his thigh.
the trees pulled apart, revealing a cottage
fronted by a garden and flower-draped bier
which the pair of primates neatly avoided
while slightly veering to steer clear of a deer.
and they lightly touched down on the spookhouse stoop
with nary a hitch in Guanyin's striding glide.
wedging a stick for writhing cicadas
she said "well that's that, then" and blithely walked inside.
*
she liked this thought-speech and tried it again.
'it seems to me you're uncommonly perceptive.
when one considers your paucity of eyes
and appallingly simplistic perspective.'
Chester rippled with frothy amusement.
'perchance you might muster trust in my intentions.
throw in your lot with a scruffy band of waifs.
allow me to mend and trim your dimensions.
as one of our number trips her envy
she'll eventually venture back out of her lair.
if she's got them, by my oath i'll find them,
and tending what ails them, commend them to your care.'
'how is it possible for me to feel
your instinctive reaction to the things i think?
even in the tacit understanding of ants
i've never observed such a mingled link.'
Chester projected a piece of presence
shuttered with the focus that self-awareness spawned.
the thought stream idled as she studied him.
then her feelers shimmied as recognition dawned.
*
Sylvana was sewing Mock's severed shreds,
coaxing his wounds in the manner Guanyin taught her
with the wandering stitches she'd handed down
from the Man in the Moon's transvestite daughter.
sprinkling his skin with an elixir of herbs
she released the fever in sweltering streams.
and sealing her charms with susurration,
dissolved the delirium reeling from his dreams.
"do you think he can travel?" inquired Sappy
peeping anxiously over her shoulder,
whilst wrapping ropes round ripped apart satchels
and piling them up in the lee of a boulder.
"he'll float with Chester. and don't start fretting.
i give you my word he's entirely benign.
can you hand me my wriggling sack of stitches?
it's over there next to that creeping vine."
Sappy pursued her bobbing directions
to the spry, slinking tendrils of unattached greens.
it wasn't a vine but one of Mock's crutches
spurting like it sprouted from Jack's magic beans.
leaves were unfolding with unstilted grace
while his face was a study in consummate shock.
"Nate carved those out of dead, fallen branches.
they were properly staid when we gave them to Mock."
as they stared at the staves in wide-eyed wonder
the furthest thrusting sprig arrived at Mock's toes
and seeming to be pleased with this achievement
left off its flailing and acquired repose.
they stood transfixed in pools of stranded light,
sifting and slanting through the sloped, sunken barrow
till Nate passed the portal of staggered stones
in the company of the catering sparrow.
"your friends have turned up with Rashful and the twins.
they're wanting to know when we're planning to leave.
if we start anon and stay out of trouble
we'll be at the spookhouse for Aethelwort's Eve."
Sappy was moved by this tender echo
of Pally’s spirited endearment for their home
and deeming that Nate could do with distraction
pointed at the lumber stemming through the loam.
the woodsman was baffled at what he beheld
for Mock was cocooned in a latticework bed,
cushioned on a bower of shuffling leaves
while stalks were entwining beneath his dozing head.
but cottoning on to what he’d been seeing
when his carpenter’s mark went sidling by
he was seized by a sudden access of angst
and was quite at a loss to comprehend why.
the hedging awareness of a sun-drenched bench
lurked in the menace of a brandishing club.
yet the scent of a pipe like a keening lament
nearly occluded the memory’s nub.
Sylvana flashed apprehension to Sappy,
suggesting that Nate be nudged from this muddle.
“let’s see how Chester’s getting on” she proposed,
then linked up their arms to hinder rebuttal.
but her efforts were bested by the sparrow
pivoting focus with imperative cheeps
to the transplanting plants tagging along,
their rummaging roots never tarrying for keeps.
"this is rather unsettling" said Sappy.
"though Mock's conveyance is seemingly decided.
they certainly are a determined lot.
when we stepped in their way, they simply divided."
Nate jumped as the sparrow twittered on his shoulder
and strained the frayed reins of temporal drift.
but tuned back in to tangible tangents
he led his companions to the cleft in the cliff.
*
the posse was flocked on ledges and crannies
festooning the slopes with their myriad hues,
raucously squawking their dissonant flutes
while the glimrin and spider intuited views.
but the feathered assembly fell silent
as an errant dusk followed Sleazy from the cave.
and skeptical of cryptic eclipses,
they rose from the chasm in a breathtaking wave.
dashing with a synchronized, headlong abandon
they snapped at the sky to hold back the night,
fluttering their wings like an opening flower
craving the wavering margins of light.
Chester was abashed by the stress he'd caused,
committed as he was to inflicting no harm.
so he hastened to the henge to wait for his friends,
hoping thereby to allay the alarm.
as daylight resumed and feathers unruffled
Sleazy was assailed by overzealous mates
mussing his hair and scrutinizing scratches,
thanking lucky stars and inscrutable fates.
"i'm alright i tell you. now give over.
bung socks in your mugs while i spill out the skinny.
the bloke were that brilliant! nicked the slug's rug.
saved me scarfin' dust like a daft, barkin' ninny!
he's a right corker! a simmerin' glimrin!
scooped me mid-swoop as i swatted' swishin' air.
then i goes all tingly, boundin' after bubbles.
and Bob's your uncle we're casin' the lair.
well he chats up this doozy of a spider.
dabs her scabby facets and dwindles her size.
we'll lug her to the crib snug in me pocket."
he paused so the stiffs could register surprise.
"then we are heading home" Rashful observed,
bushy eyebrows arched like his jutting, folded arms.
Sappy looked dubious. "did Chester invest you
with repellents or preventative charms?"
"you needn't smoke your noodle. slide your stack slack.
we're moss on bark, now. the spindly dame's got class."
but abruptly feeling up his pockets,
he fumbled out a vial of emerald glass.
"crikey! i clean forgot stowin' his stash,
a la-di-da fragrance dolled up in vintage ice.
with such swag i could snag a toff's ransom.
smells like a swell's front parlor, smudged with Cajun spice."
"why would he give you that?" wondered Sappy,
sidestepping Gropey as he probed a stunted tree.
Sleazy secreted the scent in his cloak.
then he shrugged his slouching shoulders and said "search me."
*
[misgiving fraught forebodings in chapter the sixth,
the shades and foreshadows left barely aught betwixt.]
*
- Evan Hawthorn, the 18th of October, 2018
