| |
“Um...guys?” Amelia asked, tense. “Why’s she got a spear?”
The girl was indeed holding a spear, leveled at them. It was rough with splinters, and the spearhead was a similar bronze color as the sundial, but looked like it had been beaten with a hammer. She was about 16 and dressed in grey and white robes. She had rich brown hair that was pulled back in a tight pony tail.
She poked her spear at them, not enough to make them think she was about to attack, but so they could tell she knew how to use the weapon. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
“Who are you?” the girl asked. “I have never seen you before.”
“I’m Amelia,” Amelia said, holding a hand up. “And, um, I’m not quite sure what’s going on.”
The girl took a step forward, shaking her head. “What is going on? I will tell you. Ships full of soldiers have just landed here and now I have found three foreigners who do not belong.”
“Um, yeah, about that,” Luther said, a wide grin on his face. “Where is here exactly?”
The girl’s face twisted in confusion. “Here is where we are, obviously. But you are coming with me.”
“That wasn’t exactly what I meant,” Luther muttered under his breath as the girl lowered her spear and pointed it at him. “Whoa, hold on a moment. You do not need to be waving that thing around like that.”
“For invaders like you, I do,” the girl said, taking a step closer. “Now, you two come with me.”
Amelia rose to her feet as she looked down at Dave, still tangled up in his costume, but now lying as still as though he actually was dead.
“Where are you taking us?” Luther asked, raising his hands as the girl approached.
“To Queen Elissa, of course,” the girl responded.
“And she’ll be happy that you’re going around and apprehending any ole person you come across?” Luther asked.
“When she finds out that invaders have come to her and King Iarbas’s land, yes,” the girl replied, taking a step forward. “Now you two, move.”
Amelia threw one last look at Dave, still lying on the ground frozen, before she started towards a trail that wrapped around the base of a steep, short hill to their left. The girl continued forward, her spear still lowered and walking right towards Dave.
The girl gasped. “What on earth?”
Amelia saw she was looking down at where Dave lay, her olive skin turning greenish as she staggered back like someone had punched her in the gut.
“Are you okay?” Amelia asked, stepping towards her to offer a steadying hand.
The girl looked from Dave to Amelia and back to Dave, who managed to wave weakly.
The girl let out a little squeak of surprise and stumbled backwards, tripping as she did.
“We won’t hurt you,” Amelia said as the girl got back to her feet.
“Stay away, all of you!” the girl said, taking one more step back. “I’m bringing the Queen and her soldiers.”
She turned and ran down the trail at the base of the steep hill in a flurry of grey and white fabric.
“Well that was weird,” Luther said, his voice shaking a little. “First, we’re at Grandpa Joe’s house in the middle ‘a the day and then we’re here, outside near sunset. Then some girl pops out of the bushes with a spear to tell us we’re strangers, gets a good look at Dave and boogies out like she’s seen the boogeyman.”
“So what do we do now?” Dave asked, taking off his turban.
“I have no desire to follow her after what she just did,” Luther said. “Why don’t we try to figure out where these ships she was talking about are. Maybe the invaders or whoever they are will help us.”
Amelia wasn’t a huge fan of the idea, but it was better than anything she could think of. They started towards the sea.
The sun was getting lower in the sky, but there were still a couple of hours of daylight left as they made their way down a trail scattered with rocks and clumps of tall grass.
“So are we gonna talk about what’s going on here?” Luther asked.
Dave nodded. “Let’s start with the sundial. Did either of you notice that weird light where the shadow’s supposed to be?”
“I did,” Amelia said. “And there wasn’t a shadow on the sundial when it was in Grandpa Joe’s study, but once we got here that glow started just by the word Yesterday.”
“You’re right!” Dave said, holding the sundial up. Then he gasped. “The glowing line moved! Look! It’s not all the way over on Yesterday anymore.”
“What do you think it means?” Amelia asked.
“I think it’s still counting time,” Dave replied. “But I have no idea how it’s shining that light.”
“Well, it’s definitely getting closer to the other side the longer we sit here,” Luther said. “Let’s keep on trying to find someone who can help us get back.”
“Get back,” Dave said. “We need to think about what happened. My cow landed on it, and then the shrinking started. The next thing we know, we ended up here. Maybe it’ll work in reverse to go back?”
“You mean we become giants and go on a rampage?” Luther asked.
Dave sighed. “No. I mean we put the cow on it and we go back to Grandpa Joe’s study.”
“Worth a shot, I suppose,” Luther replied.
“Do we even know where we are?” Amelia asked. “If we don’t know where we are, it might be a lot harder to get back.”
“Let’s give it a shot at least,” Luther said, holding the sundial out. “Everyone hold the sundial and put the cow on it.”
They stopped and each put a hand on the sundial, holding their breath as they did. Dave pulled out the cow, holding it above the sundial for a moment as he took a deep breath.
“Everyone ready?” Dave asked.
The other two nodded and he set the cow on the sundial.
Nothing happened.
“Did you do it right?” Luther asked.
“I’m not sure what I did last time,” Dave replied. “It just kind of happened.”
“What exactly happened?” Amelia asked.
“We’ve been over this. We were all touching the sundial when the cow fell out of my pocket and hit it,” Dave replied.
“So maybe it needs to be dropped?” Luther suggested.
It didn’t work.
Dave took a deep breath. “Maybe something’s wrong with it?”
“Maybe. But didn’t Grandpa Joe say something about the sundial earlier today?” Amelia asked.
“It wasn’t the sundial he was talking about,” Luther said. “It was about time.”
“He said it was the most important thing of all,” Dave replied. “I can’t believe I forgot it!”
“It was some ‘twice better than prime time’ rhyme,” Luther said.
“Wait,” Dave gasped. “I know what it was. He said, ‘Remember that half a day is all your time.’ What if he was telling us something about the sundial?”
“Okay,” Luther replied. “Let’s pretend you’re right. What this ‘It’s twice greater than prime’ thing got to do with it?”
“Think about it! It’s been about an hour since we got here,” Dave said. “When the cow fell on the word Yesterday, we came back here and the light started on that side. But now it’s moving towards the word Today. I bet it’s counting down half a day, 12 hours. And if that’s all our time...”
Dave swallowed heavily as they looked at the sundial. The thin ray of light moved over a tiny scratch on it.
If Dave was right, Grandpa Joe had left them a clue about it. They had until the light hit the word Today before they were trapped there for the rest of their lives.