“Good Lord! Just look at the size of them!” The helicopter circled high over a valley that seemed chock full of giants.
“We’re now flying over what I think I might call ‘The Valley of the Giants,’” Kate said into the microphone. “Down below I can see dozens of them; huge, giant figures of stone. We’re going to fly a little lower so that we can give you a better view of them. Can we do that, Bill?” she asked the pilot.
“No problem,” was the answer as they circled lower and lower.
“The giants are making a terrific racket,” Kate informed viewers. “You might be able to hear their voices above the noise of the helicopter.”
It was a strange sound, for the giants talked in an unearthly, growling roar. They could hear it over the whirr of the rotors. It was an eerie sound that jarred their tense nerves but although they shivered apprehensively, they knew they had to go on.
The story came first, and what a story it was turning out to be! Nevertheless, they were wary and more than a little scared for instinct told them that for the first time in their lives they were in totally uncharted territory. The giants had a tremendous presence and were more than things to be gawped at on a TV screen. It was with a great effort that Kate managed to keep her voice steady and speak calmly.
“The giants have gathered at the end of the valley but although they seem to be pushing forward, they are making no move to enter Glenmorven. Not yet, anyway.”
It was then that viewers around the world had a stunning shot of the huge stone figures looking towards a sunlit mountain that lay bathed in glorious light while the sky around was black with cloud.
The roars of the giants increased as they milled around on the ridge, growing more and more frustrated at the invisible shield that blocked their way into Glenmorven. Again they turned and vented their anger on the mountains, tearing rocks and boulders from their slopes.
“Shall we go down closer and get a better look,” Kate suggested breathlessly, knowing that her viewers would expect it. “That’s better. Now that we’re closer to them, I can tell you that they’re pretty huge. The size of a block of flats at least, wouldn’t you say, Harvey?”
“At least,” he agreed, “enormous things! They seem to be made of a mixture of rock, stone and earth but what is amazing is that they can walk and move their arms.”
“They seem to be throwing stones about,” Kate said as they swooped down. “Not at one another, though. Just chucking bits of the mountain around.”
“They seem to be able to see,” Harvey said, peering downwards, “but I can’t see their eyes …”
The pilot obligingly flew even lower and as he did so the noise of the rotors sounded loud above the voices of the giants. There was a sudden hush as all the giants stopped dead, turned their heads upwards and looked at the helicopter.
“Dragon! Dragon!” they roared in their growling tongue and as the wave of angry sound hit the helicopter, those inside it very quickly decided that it really was time to move out.
“Whoops!” Harvey said. “Bad move! Get us out of here, Bill!”
The pilot didn’t need to be told. He went up almost vertically and it was just when they were breathing a sigh of relief at having got out of a sticky situation that the first slab of rock flew past them.
The cameraman, to give him his due, kept his camera rolling and audiences around the world sat up, suddenly horrified, as they saw roaring hordes of furious giants lobbing huge rocks at the helicopter.
“We’re in a bit of a difficult situation here,” Kate tried to keep her voice calm. “Get us out of here, for goodness sake, Bill! They’re chucking rocks at us!”
Fortunately for those inside the helicopter, the giants’ aim hadn’t improved with practice. They were still rotten shots. Indeed, they had as much success with the helicopter as they’d had with the dragon and, if the truth be told, a cross-eyed, three-legged camel could have done a lot better.
“It just needs one of these rocks to hit the rotors and we’re goners,” Bill shouted above the roar of the engine.
It wasn’t a lucky shot that hit the helicopter, however. It was a new giant emerging from the mountainside. It rose up, tearing itself from the slopes in a flurry of stones and earth and got to its feet just in time to meet the helicopter as it dashed for safety. They met face to face.
It was so sudden that there wasn’t a lot the pilot could do — and he could see from the look of surprise on the giant’s face that it was just as taken aback as he was. Bill threw the helicopter frantically to one side and would have made it to safety if the edge of one of the rotors hadn’t clipped the giant’s shoulder.
That did it. Kate screamed and shut her eyes as the crippled helicopter fell out of the sky. White-faced newscasters in London could only watch in horror as the camera revealed a whirling kaleidoscope of sky, mountain and glen.
The headlines, needless to say, were immediate and predictable:
The expected crash, however, didn’t come and she opened her eyes as Harvey shook her. “The giant’s caught us,” he said urgently. And, looking through the perspex bubble of the cabin, they saw that the giant had one hand underneath the skids and the other on the rotor blades above their heads.
Shaking like a leaf, James picked his camera up and, in a trembling voice, Kate started to speak. “We don’t quite know what the giant plans to do with us,” she said, hanging onto a strap as they slipped haphazardly from side to side as the giant walked across the glen. “Perhaps he thinks we’re some sort of new toy …”
The giants in the valley spoke excitedly in their growling voices and parted to let the new giant through. Still holding the helicopter, it walked to the end of the valley and stopped when it came to the magic shield that prevented it from entering Glenmorven. There was an evil leer on its face as it held the helicopter high, knowing that the Lords of the North would be watching.
Inside Morven, the Lords of the North were watching. They looked at one another, their faces appalled. This was a side to the Cri’achan that they’d never witnessed before … nor would ever have suspected.
“Break the shield,” Lord Alarid said, looking grimly at the crystal. “Break it or he’ll drop the helicopter.”
The giants gave a roar of triumph as the invisible shield disappeared and Kate hung on grimly as the helicopter jerked backwards and forwards as the giant carried it to the side of the mountain and placed it carefully on a jutting bluff of rock that looked down onto the ridge.
“The giant seems to have put the helicopter down,” Kate said in relief. “Has … has he gone, Harvey?”
“Hang on and I’ll check,” he replied, scrambling out of the machine. With a jaunty wave, he walked to the edge of the rocky outcrop, his legs shaking and his heart beating fast. Knowing that James’s camera was focused on his back, he daren’t show his nerves but nevertheless, he took a very deep breath before looking downwards into the glen. The giants were still there, milling about on the slopes of the ridge, but although they looked his way, they made no move towards him. In fact, they totally ignored him and it was with a feeling of acute relief that he backed away from the cliff edge and returned to the helicopter. “I think it’s quite safe now,” he said, popping his head inside the door. “We seem to have lost their interest!” Holding out a hand, he helped them down onto the heather and as the pilot looked ruefully at the bent rotors of the helicopter, James moved forward and focused his camera on the ridge.
“What’s happening now, do you think?”
“They seem to be lining up, as though they’re waiting for somebody,” James said, filming the giants that crowded the glen below.
“Look,” Kate grabbed Harvey’s arm. “Get that shot, James. There, over to your left. Another giant’s rising out of the mountains!”
“Gosh, he’s huge, isn’t he? Much taller than the others.”
“It’s some kind of ceremony, Harvey. I’m sure of it.”
The new giant was something else. Taller, bigger, more regal and more threatening than all the others put together, he walked with steady steps through the serried ranks of giants that lined the ridge.
“He’s their king,” Harvey whispered.
“The Old Man of the Mountains,” agreed Kate, not knowing where the words came from.
“Cri’achan Mòr!” the giants cried. “Cri’achan Mòr!”
Cri’achan Mòr stopped at the head of the glen and as he came within sight of Morven, he halted and with a mighty roar of triumph, raised his great, stone arms to the heavens. All of the giants did the same and crowded in behind him as he stepped down into Glenmorven.