“There she is,” Neil pointed in relief to a little scrap of a kitten that was scrambling frantically across the rough ground towards them.
“Ugly Mug!” Shona called. “Ugly Mug, We’re coming!”
They all ran towards the kitten and Shona beamed happily as she scooped it up and cuddled it. “Are you hungry, then?” she crooned.
“She must be starving,” Clara said, looking concerned, for Jennifer and her parents hadn’t left Glenmorven until after lunch and it was now quite late in the afternoon.
The kitten miaowed plaintively. “We’ve brought you some food,” Shona soothed, looking at Neil who’d pulled the lid off the can of cat food.
“She’ll have to eat it out of the can,” Neil said, bending down to let the kitten eat.
Ugly Mug wasn’t fussy. She gobbled down the cat food until she could manage no more and then sat back to lick her paws and wash her face.
“Enough,” Shona grinned, bending down to pick her up. Ugly Mug, however, seemed to think she was playing a game and by the time they caught her, it was later than Shona would have liked.
“We’ll have to get a move on,” she said, looking round. “It’ll be dark soon.”
Lewis zipped up his anorak and pulled the hood over his head as the wind gusted round them.
Then he stopped suddenly. “What was that?” he said, looking startled.
A strange noise, almost like an explosion, echoed round the glen and the ground shook under them. They looked at one another in alarm, thinking it was an earthquake until Shona looked up and pointed to the sky over the ridge. “Wow! Look at that! Morven’s all lit up!”
Lewis, Neil and Clara eyed one another in astonishment. What was going on? This definitely looked like magic, and serious magic at that! They watched in awe as the great pillar of blue-white light that shot straight as an arrow into the sky, started to fade as the wind caught it and blew it in sweeping gusts towards them. As they made their way towards the ridge, they watched the sparkles of blue, glint in the wind and gradually fall to the ground until they were scattered here and there over the hillside, resting in the slopes around them. Soon there was nothing left to show that anything untoward had happened; the strange light faded and Morven reared in the distance, looking much the same as usual.
It was then that they heard a roaring from the glen behind them and, swinging round at the sudden sound of crashing rocks, saw that the slopes of the mountains were heaving with movement as giant shapes rose from the slopes and stretched stone limbs.
“The Cri’achan,” Clara said, appalled. “They’re rising from the mountains!”
“What are we going to do?” Shona gasped. “There … there are so many of them!”
Jennifer’s father had talked of there being three giants in the glen the night before but Neil reckoned at a quick glance that this time there must be ten or twelve at least. And they were huge. The newspapers had talked of giants the size of houses! These were more like blocks of flats!
“Run,” Lewis gulped, “come on, run for the ridge!”
They didn’t need to be told twice but when they turned to head for home, they saw, ahead of them, the rearing shapes of more giants.
“Do you think they are the same giants the Sinclairs saw yesterday?” Shona gasped, still clutching Ugly Mug.
Lewis looked round and turned pale as he realized that they were now cut off from Glenmorven. “We’ll have to climb as high as we can,” he gasped, “and maybe find a cave or something to shelter in until the giants pass. We can’t stay here! We’re right in their way!”
They started to run and, as they scrambled up the slopes, found to their amazement that they were covering the ground in huge leaps. Higher and higher they climbed until the top of the mountain was in sight. It was like being one of the men on the moon, Neil thought as he leapt effortlessly over a huge boulder and then struggled to keep his balance as he hit a steep slope on the other side. A corrie! Thank goodness! His eyes swept the cup-like hollow that nestled hidden on the side of the mountain.
“I’ve found a corrie,” he shouted urgently, clambering up to the rim and waving his arms. “Quick! Over here! It’ll hide us from the giants!”
Still taking huge leaps, they headed towards him and piled into the hollow, collapsing in a heap against the rough grass and stones that formed its steep sides.
Neil, crouching behind its edge, peered down anxiously at the enormous giants that strode the valley floor. They were almost half as tall as the mountains themselves and as they marched along, their flailing arms knocked rocks and boulders from the sides of the mountains. They might not mean to harm anyone intentionally, he thought, but they could still do an enormous amount of damage to anyone standing in their way. He looked worriedly at Lewis who had climbed up beside him to scout out the lie of the land.
“We’re still not safe,” Neil muttered. “I don’t know about you, but I’d give anything to be able to call a magic carpet.”
Lewis smiled ruefully. They both knew that they were far too far away for their magic carpets to be of any use to them. “There’s Casimir’s ring,” he whispered, so that Shona wouldn’t hear him. “I could use it, couldn’t I?” He held out his hand and they looked at the magic ring that Casimir had given him. “I’ve never used it before,” he said doubtfully, “and I don’t really know what would happen if I did. But this is an emergency, isn’t it? I mean, we’re completely surrounded.”
Neil nodded and flinched as some of the giants moved closer to their part of the mountain.
Lewis ducked down below the rim of the corrie. “Casimir told me to rub it and call him if I needed help,” he said, “and we certainly need it now.”
“It means that we’ll have to give the game away, though,” Neil pointed out. “Shona doesn’t know anything about our magic.”
Lewis looked down at the two girls. “I know,” he said, “but it’s too dangerous to stay here. We can’t go any further without the giants spotting us. We’re trapped, Neil!”
Clara and Shona looked up at them anxiously as the giants’ voices carried on the breeze. Only Neil, Clara and Lewis understood what they were saying, however, and Clara gripped her firestone tightly as the gravelly voices thundered and roared.
“Death to the Lords of Morven!” chanted the giants. “Death! Death!”
“That’s it,” Neil muttered, “go on, Lewis. You’ve no choice! You’ve got to tell the Lords of the North what’s going on. Rub the ring! It’s our only chance!”
Lewis held his right hand out, fingers spread, and looked at the strangely-formed ring with its design of interlocking snakes. “Yasran,” he said, experimentally, rubbing the metal gently and hoping fervently that he’d said the magic word properly. “Yasran,” he said again.