plogg

May the Hyperborean

NIGHTMARE IN METAL

Chapter Five

May's skin was burning in the summer sun, but in the distance she could see a grey pall looming over the Frost Region. Soon, she was stepping in snow.

Dale shivered. "Somebody left the fridge door open! Guess we'll just have to grin and bear it."

"In Hyperborea, babies crawl naked through the snow," said May. Undaunted by the cold, the group marched onward in their bare feet.

The snow was falling now in thick clusters. It piled up on the evergreens and bent the boughs. A sleigh came along, and the two horses were driven by a small monkey the twins called Chockula. May couldn't be sure this was the same one that tripped her earlier, but she gave him a disapproving look anyway. The twins climbed into the sleigh, and May and Digger joined them. They wrapped themselves in blankets and furs. Chockula drove on. May saw many trees where buckets hung beneath sap-clustered spouts.

Chockula halted the sleigh at the edge of a frozen pond. The girls handed May a pair of white skates, which she put on and laced up. She marveled at the exquisite craftsmanship; the skates in Hyperborea were very simple and primitive. She took hold of her spear and stepped into the snow. Digger was forbidden to follow and the twins tied him to the sleigh. May surveyed her snowy surroundings and noted the awful silence.

Dale spoke in hushed tones: "Plop lives in the pond beneath the ice. So if you just skate around a bit you'll probably get his attention."

Hilda added, "That thing, that it, that what, is a juggernaut! I strongly advise you to be scared."

May looked around again and shuddered. "I can't get any scareder." She gripped her spear and stepped onto the ice. May wasn't a very good skater. The twins sighed as she shakily tested her new skates, but they were not willing to venture out onto the ice to give her a few pointers. Steady on her limbs now, May propelled herself forward (in an awkward way) and was surprised to find herself gliding across the ice with ease. But after having gained some momentum she suddenly slipped and fell face first, sliding across the ice while her spear went rattling away.

Dale laughed. "What a Bambi!"

"Plop knows you're here now!" hollered Hilda.

May got up and brushed the ice and snow from her bare legs. She retrieved the spear, then stood motionless, listening. The silence was absolute. Even the twins were quiet. May's eyes scanned the trees surrounding the pond. She saw the abandoned buckets nailed to the trunks. Heaps of snow covered every branch. There was no sign of Plop.

Then, May felt the presence of something lurking directly below her, beneath the ice. She decided she ought to keep moving and pushed off toward the centre of the pond. A thin veil of snow covered the ice and May could not see through, but she knew Plop was down there tracking her. She moved around again and stopped, waiting for some action. Action came! Plop must have hurled himself against the ice: it suddenly cracked and heaved upwards where May was standing, and the shock catapulted her head over heels. She scrambled back to her feet. Plop's sledge-like fist burst through the ice in front of her and he pulled himself up through the hole.

He stood, a massive figure, ape-like but not of this earth, with a countenance evil beyond belief. Digger could be heard in the distance, barking fiercely. Instinctively, May gripped her spear with both hands and with all her might struck the abomination in the chest and drove the point through. Ice ran through May's veins when she saw that Plop was unaffected by her deadly attack. The twins, watching from the sleigh, almost swooned. Something was wrong: Plop should have dropped dead!

He spoke in sepulchral tones: "Hah! A barbarian babe out to kill me. What grit! You're after me with a spear, cave-girl? I can pound you to pulp! Who are you, dead one?"

"M-May," she stammered, stepping back a little on her skates. She was hoping the twisters or twitches or whatever they were would help her with some magic, but no help came.

"May, the Monster-killer," Plop muttered. Stiffly, painfully, he pulled the spear out of himself and, turning toward the others, hurled it at the monkey, but Chockula leapt from his seat screaming, just in the nick of time. He landed on one of the horses and the steaming spear struck where he had been sitting and quivered, dripping molten metal. Turning back to May, Plop spat in the snow and said, "Everyone dies!"

Plop was frothing at the mouth and beating his chest with his fists when May gave him a bone-crushing kick to the shin with her skate. Plop roared in pain and held his wounded leg, hopping on one foot. He slipped and fell on the ice, hitting it with tremendous force, causing a huge crack in the surface, and the shock knocked May off her feet again. Cold water rushed up through the crack and spread. May scrambled to her feet and hurried away. She skated to the edge of the pond and began stepping through the knee-deep snow, running in amongst the trees with their over-flowing buckets of sap. Plop pursued her, incredibly swift for his size, then suddenly halted. He seemed unwilling or unable to press further. What did he fear? May glanced around nervously, wondering if she had wandered into some sort of trap. Plop, breathing heavily, stood motionless, the gash in his leg numbed by the frigid snow. Once or twice he glanced furtively at the buckets. They seemed to be the source of his trepidation. Then May recalled the final words of Az, the sorcerer: "There's only one thing that can kill Plop: May..."

"Maple syrup!" May gasped. She bounded to the nearest bucket and dipped the blade of her dagger into the sap. Then she shot the dripping dagger through the air and struck Plop in the heart! Chin to chest, he looked down and gazed at the knife-hilt, more in bewilderment than pain. Sizzling sap and molten metal ran from the wound in his breast, and Plop fell back in the snow, dead.

May stood in silence, then approached the motionless form cautiously. Plop was not playing possum, but was truly dead, poisoned by the sap. She braced one skate-clad foot against his ribs, leaned over and pulled the dagger from his heart. Immediately, she yelped and dropped her dagger, for it had been bathing in molten metal! The blade fell and disappeared through the melting snow. It cooled off and May returned the weapon to its sheath.

She returned to the sleigh, and the twins released Digger. May told the story of how she killed Plop and the twins were pleased. "Now return my whistle to me!" May demanded.

Hilda threw the whistle at her contemptuously. "Take it, barbarian! I put a curse on it anyway, and only bad luck will respond to its call."

May wrenched the spear out of the wooden seat where Plop had thrown it. Just when it came free, Chockula coiled his long tail around the spear and tried to pull it away from her. During the struggle, Chockula screeched furiously. The witches laughed, and Digger growled and tore at the monkey's tail with his teeth. Chockula let go of the spear and May fell back in the snow. The monkey threw back his head and howled with laughter and pain.

"You did us a big favour," Hilda said to May, "so we'll let you go your way, but only because the road to the Bay of Wolves will lead you to ruin and doom!" At this point, Hilda transformed into Fee, her natural form. Her nails grew long, her hair went black, and the left side of her face turned to iron. "But I won't forget that you murdered me once, and so I warn you, barbarian, that if our paths cross again you'll regret it!" Then Fee muttered some profanity as she climbed into the sleigh.

"And give us back those skates," Dale added. May removed the skates and Dale retrieved them from the snow. She boarded the sleigh and Fee called to the monkey, "Chockula! Drive!" And he drove the horses onward.

Now May was stranded in the snow, with only her scanty costume and bare feet. Her next course of action was clear: she simply began jogging in the direction they had come, following the trail left by the horses' hooves and the runners of the sleigh.