A Change In The Weather

‘Great Scot!’ panted Tobias, and slunk down onto the floor.

He stared with disbelief at the clockwork giant that was, thankfully, out of reach beyond the cave mouth making a good job of smashing the entrance with its powerful fists. The effect of its pummeling was such that with each blow the ground shook and the noise reverberated around the inside of the cave.

And then it’s voice boomed again from outside.

‘Lit-tle in-sect zzz! You shall not es-cape! Come out and take your pun-ish-ment zzz!’

Tobias looked up at the stalactites dangling precariously above him. If they came loose and fell, he thought, well, it didn’t bear thinking about. Anymore shaking and they’d come tumbling down onto them like deadly swords. The ground rumbled and dirt cascaded into the entrance of the cave with a cloud of dust.

He looked over towards Hillary, who seemed to be deep in thought.

It was obvious to Hillary that it would only be a matter of minutes before the huge monster would break through and murder them all. He took a few calming breaths to steady his nerves, and checked the rear of the cave to see if there was a way out. Frustratingly there didn’t seem to be any - it was a dead-end.

He walked back to the entrance, past Tobias, who had managed to worry himself so much that he was busy throwing up.

‘There you go old chap.’ said Hillary. ‘Better out than in.’

Another retch and Tobias finally stopped, only to start sobbing.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, miserably, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. ‘We’re all going to die, aren’t we?’

Hillary slapped him on the back. ‘Not if I can help it,’ he muttered. ‘No.’

He knelt down beside Tobias, and looked him in the eye.

‘I’ve read about these things before.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. The writing in the books told of a vast clockwork army constructed deep underground by magic thousands of years ago to guard Talistay from its enemies. Apparently, with the end of the war they slipped into obscurity, and with no-one to look after them, most of them succumbed to the weather and superstition. There must be a few still left guarding what portals remain, as this one proves.’

Hillary rubbed his hands together and brushed himself down.

Although this one seems to have developed a type of dementia,’ he said, nodding at the busy cloud of rock dust just beyond the cave mouth.

Tobias cleared his throat. ‘Dementia? Is that possible? I mean, isn’t it just a robot?’

Hillary nodded. ‘Of sorts. Although it is more than that. It is an enchanted construction.’

‘Just our luck to come across a deranged robot then,’ said Tobias. ‘What are we going to do now? I mean, that thing out there won’t stop will it? It’s relentless. It’s not slowing down. It’s going to break through soon, and when it does…’ He glanced at the children, and then moved closer to Hillary. ‘And when it does, we’re all going to be slaughtered!’ he hissed, through gritted teeth.

Hillary grabbed his shoulder and shook him. ‘Stop it.’ he whispered. ‘You’re going to scare Scarlet and Thomas.’

Tobias looked at the children. They were staring at him, and holding each other. They looked scared.
‘Sorry.’ he said, eventually.

‘Look, the thing is,’ said Hillary. ‘I could try some magic on that thing out there, but I’m far too weak at the moment to try anything big, and I fear that I wouldn’t have enough energy left to carry on if it failed. If it comes down to it though, fear not – it will be my last resort.’ He emphasized the last two words.

Tobias gritted his teeth and looked around. Scarlet and Thomas were cowering in the corner of the cave, hoping that someone would do something, anything. He spotted a fist-sized rock and picked it up.

‘What are you going to do with that?’ asked Hillary.

‘This?’ replied Tobias, tossing it into the air and catching it again, measuring its weight. ‘I’m going to give that thing out there a damn good headache, that’s what.’ he said, nodding to the huge automaton outside. ‘Knock some sense into the damn thing.’

‘But you won’t make a dent,’ shouted Hillary, above the noise of the smashing stone outside.

Taking aim, and with a grunt, Tobias lobbed the rock through the air at the thing outside.

Hillary watched the stone sail through the air. I can help you in other ways though, he thought, and - with fingers crossed - he mouthed a few strange words and focused his vision on the trajectory of the rock, imperceptibly altering its path through the air by a few hundredths of a degree.

He was relieved when, instead of the sound of the rock rebounding off the side of the robot and away harmlessly, it disappeared between one of the gaps in the giant’s iron plates with a hollow clang.

Hillary raised an eyebrow and uncrossed his fingers.

Tobias stood and stared with amazement at the giant as it stopped its attack and stood up. The buzzing, bee-like sound that before was everywhere, had stopped, and the giant slowed with a jerk bit-by-bit, until it was all but motionless.

It seemed that tiny twitches were all it could muster. The sounds of gears and cogs, springs and rods whined and clanked, until eventually, they stopped moving. Its red mouth began to dim as its inner-workings wound down.

‘Quick! Everyone, out now!’ shouted Hillary, and made a dash between the legs of the clockwork giant and into the daylight outside.

Scarlet and Thomas, Wendle and Tobias followed in Hillary’s wake, making their way for the cover of the mountainside.

And then the rock that had held the giant immobile exploded into powder, as it succumbed to the tension of the inner workings. As the rock was chewed up and spat out, the giant’s red mouth became as bright as a furnace once more, but this time looking madder than ever before…

Hillary looked over his shoulder as he ran. ‘On second thoughts let’s try something new!’ he shouted.

To Hillary’s surprise, the giant robot didn’t chase them. Instead, it disappeared back in the direction of the waterfall and Hillary frowned and slowed.

Out of curiosity, they followed its tracks back to the pool, and stood there watching the giant as it manouevred itself carefully backwards into the alcove onto the constantly turning key. As it stood there, the dull buzzing sound grew louder and the dull red light from its mouth began to shine brighter and brighter.

‘Of-course! The alcove! That’s the key! It’s using it to power its mechanism. We need to find a way to stop it from rewinding the clockwork.’

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