Despite the poor visibility and totally foul weather, Shane and his little group of geologists moved steadily across the glens and passes of the mountains. Young, fit and unhindered by the heavy packs they usually carried, they covered the ground in long easy strides, taking care to give isolated houses and crofts a wide berth.
“This should be it,” Shane said as they finally topped the summit of a ridge. “Glen Crannach”
A jagged streak of lightning lit the length and breadth of the glen that stretched before them. A road ran along the foot of the mountains and telephone poles spoke of civilization somewhere but the darkness was unbroken by lights of any sort.
“I can’t see any houses,” Sam said, viewing the isolation with disfavour.
“I can’t see any giants, either, Sammy,” announced Jake, sourly. Of all of them, he had been the least enthusiastic. As far as he was concerned, ghosts and stone giants were the figments of particularly vivid imaginations and he was having none of it.
Shane ignored him and, making their way downhill, they crouched in the lee of a massive stone cliff where they were protected to a certain extent from the worst of the driving rain. Huddling under waterproof hoods, they settled down to wait for the stone giants to arrive.
It was Steve who felt the ground stir beneath him. “Hey, the ground’s moving!” he said in alarm as the slope beneath him heaved gently.
Shane felt it, too. “Maybe the rain’s loosened the hillside,” he snapped. With one accord they looked up at the towering cliff that loomed above them.
It was then that they saw that the cliff seemed to be leaning towards them.
“Come on, let’s get out of here!”
They were brave men, all of them, but they turned white with horror. The cliff was immense and they knew they were going to have to move swiftly if they were going to survive.
“Run!” snapped Shane and, reacting instinctively to the command, they scrambled for safety.
Panting with fear, more than exertion, they managed to reach a rocky bluff and, clinging on grimly, stopped to look back. Expecting to see the cliff collapse into the valley below, they were stunned to see a very different sight; for the cliff did not fall but had become the massive head and shoulders of a giant figure that was heaving and tearing itself from the slopes of the mountain.
Terrified, they watched as huge rocks and stones fell from it and bounced into the depths of the glen. Great legs, pillars of rock, flexed at the knees and arms flailed wildly as the giant rose from the mountain and became mobile. Lightning flashed in vicious, jagged streaks as with a great roaring noise, it started to walk and they backed away in horror as they realized that it was walking towards them.
“Scatter, and make for higher ground,” Shane yelled as he saw the giant’s massive, rocky feet crushing the ground as it moved in huge strides towards them.
“There are more giants on the other side of the valley! I can see at least two,” Steve called.
“Let’s get out of here,” Shane yelled back.
They ran frantically for the head of the glen but the giants seemed able to see them and followed them towards the ridge.
Then Sammy tripped and fell. Shane heard Jake scream. “Sammy’s down!”
With one accord they turned and saw Sammy lying helplessly in the path of the giant’s feet. Shane saw the monstrous face of the giant change and knew that it had seen Sammy. Sick with fear, he ran forward, shouting “No! No!”
It was useless, he knew. Nothing could stop the huge figure that towered above him and, screaming at it, he watched in amazement as, although the great head had no eyes that he could see, the giant seemed to notice him. It stopped and then, very deliberately, changed its course and walked around Sammy.
Sammy then rolled down a slope to safety and Shane found that in trying to save him, he himself, was now in the path of the monstrous figure. So terrified was he that he froze in his tracks and watched as the great legs crushed the mountainside — and again changed direction! The giant, it seemed, had deliberately left its path to walk around him. The other two giants made no attempt to approach them at all but plodded ponderously on, their sighted, but eyeless, faces fixed firmly on the head of the glen.
Shane took a deep breath and ran to where Sammy lay crouched in the lashing rain, shaking with terror. “It had no eyes,” he said, “but it looked at me and didn’t step on me. It could have done,” he gabbled, “but it didn’t.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Come on, Sammy. Let’s get you out of here. Can you walk?”
“Sure I can walk,” Sammy said. “No bones broken either.”
“Right. Let’s stay together and get out of here. The giants are ahead of us now.”
“Look, there they are,” Jake pointed dramatically at the ridge where the three huge giants stood, outlined dramatically against the skyline.
“If we cut off to the right, we might be able to see where they’re going,” Shane said. “Come on, let’s go!”
As the thunder rolled and lightning streaked the sky, they covered the ground as quickly as possible and reached the next glen, hoping that they had managed to overtake the huge creatures.
“Where are they?” Jake asked as he turned to see how far the stone giants had reached.
“I can’t see them at all,” Sammy said, blank amazement in his voice. A sudden flash of lightning lit the glen and, in the few seconds of brightness, they saw that it was empty. There were no stone figures to be seen.
“They’ve disappeared!”
“They can’t have!”
“Come on, they must be somewhere!”
“But where did they go? There’s nowhere here for them to hide and they were huge. Much bigger than a house.”
“Look there,” Sammy pointed. “Those rock falls weren’t there before, were they?”
“No,” Shane agreed. “No, you’re right, they weren’t.”
They looked at one another in silence.
“Do you think the giants have gone back to being part of the mountain again?” Steve conjectured, surveying the fallen remains doubtfully.
Sammy looked at the tumble of rocks and earth. “I think they have,” he said, bending down and picking up a piece of black rock. “I think that’s what’s been happening all over Scotland. They grow and they die.”
“I’ve never believed in magic,” Jake said as he, too, bent and picked out a rock from the landslide, “but I do now. They were fantastic! Out of this world! I’m going to keep this as a souvenir.”
“Good idea,” nodded Shane as they all bent and chose pieces of rock. “I’ll never forget tonight,” he said. “Strange, isn’t it, that the giants avoided stepping on us. It shows that they are intelligent. It could easily have crushed me, but it didn’t.”
Steve nodded. “At first, I thought they were chasing us, but they weren’t, really, you know,” he said, turning his piece of rock over in his hand and looking at it thoughtfully. “They were going somewhere definite and it just so happened that we stood in their way.”
“But they didn’t get far, did they?”
“No, I can’t think why, either. They were certainly powerful enough. Maybe … well, maybe their magic just ran out on them.”
“But where were they going?” Shane wondered slowly. “And why?”
Although they hadn’t noticed it, the weather had started to clear and in the fitful moonlight they could see far over the mountains. Steve flung out his hand and pointed. “I reckon they were going there,” he said.
They were suddenly still, silent and alert for, rising in the distance, sharp and clear, dominating the landscape, was the tall, hump backed shape of a very familiar mountain.
Steve’s voice was grim as he turned towards them. “I reckon they were heading for Morven!” he said.