Alex and the Realm People by Rudi James Contents Prologue Encounter Into The Realm Of Feasts and War Drum’s Archives A Sand Dweller Ally Rescue Attempt Fire Lance A Lesson for Alex Droch Strikes Back The Sentinels Face to Face With Droch Secret Weapon Farewell Home Alex Shrine and the Seventh Realm. Published in hardback in 2008 by The Book Guild Ltd. Copyright © Rudi James The right of Rudi James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real people, alive or dead, is purely coincidental. Prologue ‘Drat!’ Shirrac almost spat the word out. ‘Too many fangles.’ He put down the pieces of a dismantled fire lance. ‘Too many fangles,’ he repeated. Tandil, alias Drum, looked on quizzically. ‘How do you mean?’ The two of them were sitting in a small hurriedly constructed workshop, fire lances stacked neatly at one end. Shirrac looked perplexed. ‘I have to hand it to that evil brother of mine. He does have a certain mechanical genius.’ ‘What do you mean?’ repeated Tandil, ‘by too many fangles?’ Shirrac looked round at the neatly stacked weapons at the other end of the workshop. A large leather bag, close by, was filled with the powders that had been removed from the devices to render them harmless. ‘There are too many mechanical bits and pieces to these lances. We would never get them to work the way we wanted to. Even if we knew how Droch has changed the characteristics of those powders in that bag,’ said Shirrac. ‘We probably wouldn't be able to get the lances to fire a straight beam instead of a fireball.’ Shirrac sighed. ‘I wish the Council Elders hadn't voted that we should develop some of our own weapons. I was opposed to it all along. I'm sure Shanglo would have been too. It goes against all his wishes. He's probably turning in his grave.’ ‘You have to admit though,’ said Tandil, ‘we were completely powerless against Droch. If it hadn't been for Alex's idea we would be in dire straights now. I wouldn’t mind popping over to his realm to see how he is. His experience with us must have been quite mind-bending for him.’ Chapter one Encounter It was Saturday morning. Alex was in his room staring out of the window into the garden below. It looked like it was going to be yet another gloriously sunny day. He didn't feel like doing any more homework; he'd almost finished anyway. He felt very restless and he couldn’t stop his mind from drifting back to his recent escapade with his friends the Realm People, as he called them. A whole week had gone by and he hadn't been able to concentrate too well at school. This hadn't gone unnoticed by his friends, his teachers and in particular by old Soames, the headmaster. He felt as though Soames had been watching him extra closely, though he had never mentioned the incident in the cloakroom. Nor had he, Soames, mentioned the "paint" on the floor of the corridor. It was largely because Alex had been invisible that the headmaster did not really have any ammunition with which to make any accusations. Nevertheless, Alex felt that old Soames was suspicious of something. Had he known the truth he would probably have freaked out. Alex continued to gaze out into the garden and, for the second time in the last two days, his mind began to drift back, ever deeper, to the brain-bending events of a week ago. It seemed that the use of one of the powders, given to him by Shirrac, had sharpened his intellect to the point where he had a total recollection of everything that had happened. Indeed, he could recall every incident in the minutest detail, every word of every sentence spoken, all the brilliant colours of the other realm and the terrifying battle with the Sand Dwellers. It was as if he was physically back there and yet the entire sequence of events would play themselves out, in his mind, in a relatively short time. All this on top of the other power he was developing. The garden faded from view as he drifted into maximum replay of his recent experience. *** It was late Friday afternoon and he had been looking forward to a relaxing weekend after what had been a tiring week at school. As he walked home down the old lane, Wainfirth Way, the scent of autumn was delicate on the warm early evening air. The ever-reddening sunset was beginning to mark the end of another gloriously sunny day. He had done pretty well at some mock exams that the teachers had sprung on the older pupils. He would have felt pleased with himself if it hadn’t been for old "Sourpuss" Soames putting a damper on his spirits. “Don’t get cocky with it, just because you’ve got good marks,” he had said. “You’ve a lot to learn yet.” Alex sighed. Wainfirth was so dreary; so quiet and boring. Still, what could one expect from a village in the middle of nowhere? He wished that something out of the ordinary would happen. As villages went, though, Wainfirth was no longer particularly small – marked by the fact that it had its own school, a church, a pub and a reasonably sized shop that doubled as a small post office. He was suddenly and sharply pulled out of his thoughts by a loud, gunshot- like, cracking sound. Alex stood stock still but saw nothing. Gunshots were not uncommon in and around the countryside, in these parts, and were usually no cause for alarm. ‘But so close to an inhabited area,’ thought Alex. Bewildered, he looked around and then directly in front of him an apparition, seemingly from nowhere, burst into view. At first he thought it was a child, but as the vision became clearer it was evident that it was a very small man resembling, Alex thought, the folklore descriptions of leprechauns. The jacket, the rustic baggy trousers and wide-brimmed hat the figure was wearing all enhanced this impression. The sudden appearance startled Alex and he stared in disbelief. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he became aware of a slight tingling sensation down his spine. On reflection he decided he was probably not looking at a leprechaun, but there certainly was something familiar about the strange being in front of him. The figure remained perfectly still in mid-air and seemed to be held there by some unseen force. Alex was beginning to feel very uneasy, as the apparition, whoever or whatever it was, just stared and stared at him. Suddenly and without warning the figure lurched rapidly towards him, at the same time letting out an almighty shriek. Totally startled by this Alex jumped back, almost panic stricken. His mouth and throat became instantly dry and the tingling sensation in his spine was replaced by a cold gust of fear that seemed to sweep up and down his vertebrae.The shrieking figure became silent again and slowly came down to earth. Once on the ground it burst into a fit of laughter and punched the air in obvious delight and yelled, ‘YES!’ Alex had shut his eyes and opened them again two or three times, for he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and thought perhaps he was hallucinating. But the strange being remained and was obviously not a figment of his imagination. ‘Yes!’ it repeated, ‘You’re scared aren’t you? I’ve finally put the wind up somebody.’ The sudden change in the apparition’s behaviour caused Alex’s fear to evaporate and he became angry instead. He took two paces rapidly forward and was about to wade in with some verbal abuse. To his surprise the strange little man looked suddenly fearful and took several steps quickly backwards. It seemed it was his turn to be afraid. ‘I’m sorry,’ he spluttered. ‘For the first time I thought I could scare someone before they could scare me. I always appear the way I did just now as a kind of defence. Trouble is the people in the other realms I’ve visited never batted an eyelid. You’re the first one and I thought I’d stumbled on a race of scared cats. Seems I was wrong.’ The little fellow seemed genuinely remorseful and it was now apparent that he was barely four feet tall. Alex’s anger faded away as quickly as it had kicked in and he felt himself beginning to feel sorry for the stranger. ‘Well if it’s any consolation to you, I was afraid when you burst into view like that,’ admitted Alex, ‘but only for a very short time. I was actually feeling angry just now when I realised it was all false bravado on your part. I’m not a “scared cat” as you put it.’ ‘Well you should be, seeing as I’m the devil himself,’ said the stranger, trying to feel braver again. ‘Who told you that?’ Alex asked, unperturbed by this announcement. ‘Shirrac did, he’s always calling me a little devil and telling me I’m useless. He’s just told me to go away and do something worthwhile. That’s why I’ve come here. He’s right though, I can’t even scare anyone and I’m supposed to be a devil.’ ‘As I said, if it’s any consolation, you did scare me; momentarily frightened me witless in-fact,’ said Alex. ‘Did I? Did I really scare you?’ The small stranger’s expression seemed to light up as he spoke. Alex nodded. ‘I think Shirrac, whoever he is, calls you a little devil as a figure of speech,’ he surmised. ‘I’ve been called worse than that by my parents so I wouldn’t worry. It means nothing. Anyway, you certainly don’t look like a devil to me. More like a leprechaun.’ For a few seconds there was no response to this last remark. Then the small stranger asked, ‘What’s a leprikon?’ Alex didn’t know what to say. He had no real knowledge on the subject of leprechauns other than what he’d read when he’d been younger, in a book about myths and legends. He recalled that it contained stories about banshees, vampires and the like. Its illustrations and drawings, concerning leprechauns, closely resembled the strange being now standing in front of him. To buy time while he thought about this Alex suggested that they should sit on a nearby wall, the low rock-on-rock type so popular in the area. ‘I’ll tell you all I know if you tell me your name, where you’re from and how the hell you managed to appear out of thin air. And what’s all this nonsense about people in other realms?’ Alex paused. ‘You do have a name don’t you?’ This provoked an indignant response. ‘Of course I do; it’s Hogarth.’ Alex was relieved. He was half expecting something long and completely unpronounceable. They both made themselves as comfortable as possible on the wall, which was a little higher than Hogarth’s head. He had scrambled up the face of it to gain a seat, muttering under his breath, ‘Could’ve used the powder for this. Still, mustn’t be lazy.’ Alex had no idea what he was talking about, so he ignored the comment. Now that he was much closer to Hogarth he could see him clearly for the first time. The hat was floppy, like a bush hat but with a wider brim. Thick black locks of hair could be seen peeking out underneath, curling over the ears, down the neck and resting on top of Hogarth’s jacket. The jacket was dark brown and made of strong canvas-like material. It had short broad sleeves, wide lapels and was fastened with black, rather ornate looking, leather buttons. A broad black leather belt around the waist was fastened with a brass buckle. Hanging from the belt, on either side of the buckle, were several small pouches also made from black leather. Hogarth’s face, apart from thick bushy black eyebrows, was devoid of any hair and his upturned nose seemed ridiculously small, set in the wide high cheekboned features. But what Alex noted above all; the most vivid piercing blue eyes he had ever seen. This took him aback a little, but nevertheless the overall kindly expression did nothing to make him afraid. ‘You’ve got green eyes,’ said Hogarth. Alex felt as though his mind had just been read. ‘And look at that hair,’ continued Hogarth. ‘It’s the colour of straw.’ He gave a gentle tug at Alex’s yellow locks, as if to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. There were a few moments of silence. ‘So what made you want to come here, especially?’ Alex asked. What he really wanted to know was how on earth his strange companion had managed to appear out of thin air and hover, to boot. ‘I was practising my travelling skills,’ replied Hogarth. As I said, Shirrac told me to do something constructive. I didn’t deliberately pick here to visit. I arrived by chance; by accident really. I’m not able to control where I’m going yet but fortunately, though, I can always get back home, that much I can do; so I am progressing.’ Hogarth squinted at Alex. ‘You look puzzled about something.’ ‘I am,’ replied Alex. ‘I still can’t believe I saw you pop out of thin air and you speak of travelling, so how on earth did you get here and how did you appear out of the blue like that; are you a magician or something? That’s the only explanation I can think of.’ Hogarth didn’t reply for some moments and he looked very thoughtful. ‘It’s very hard for me to explain,’ he said eventually. ‘It would take me some time to tell you and I’m not supposed to say anything. I doubt whether you would believe it anyway but one thing I can tell you; I’m not a magician. As I said, I was practising my realm travel.’ ‘Of course you were,’ said Alex mockingly. ‘You don’t believe me do you?’ said Hogarth. ‘Well I can prove it. Anyway what about these leprikons then?’ Hogarth obviously wanted to change the subject; Alex let him. ‘Ah . . . yes; leprechauns.’ Alex paused to think, before going on to tell Hogarth about the book of myths and legends Hogarth’s face lit up in realisation. ‘Of course! Those leprikons.’ ‘Leprechauns,’ corrected Alex. ‘Leperacorns,’ repeated Hogarth. Alex thought that was close enough and interrupted no further. ‘Drum has often been to other realms with Bremmish, Shirrac and a few of the others. Drum, that’s not his real name; some of our younger generation nicknamed him after he returned from one of his other realm visits. He’s one of our master travellers to other time zones and dimensions.’ Alex was becoming more and more fascinated with his strange companion and though he had no idea who Drum was, or even what Hogarth was talking about, he listened with a great deal of interest. The voice of the little fellow was so soothing he felt he could easily have fallen asleep listening to it. ‘You're trying to tell me that you're from another world?’ Alex asked, a tone