Chapter 9
The battle began and ended much more quickly than Jasper could have guessed. When Sapphire had pushed him forward, into the line of vision of the golem up ahead, as had been as though his body just knew what to do and he hadn’t had time to really think about it at all.
The golem lurched forward out of the cave, its massive boulder fist clenched so tightly that showers of rubble skittered across the ground as it made to squash Jasper under it. For a second, Jasper had stood perfectly still, thinking about crushed bugs again, before he lunged to the side, dodging the fist and falling as it slammed into the ground, making the floor crack in long zig-zags and producing a thunderous boom that echoed around the clearing and rendered Jasper momentarily deaf.
Before the golem had time to lift its arm and strike again, Jasper jumped to his feet and used fallen rocks as stepping stones to launch himself up on to the giant fist. He hung on for dear life, grasping at cracks in the boulder for grip as the golem wrenched its hand from the ground, zooming Jasper through the air so fast he felt the dizziness of travel sickness. He risked a quick glance down to Sapphire to make sure she hadn’t been affected by the earthquake, and saw that she, too, was caught up in a battle. The other golems who had seemed unaware of their presence only moments ago had come alive when Jasper’s own battle had begun and were now closing in on Sapphire, who was stood in the centre of them, preparing for the fight.
There was nothing Jasper could do now to help her. He had to focus on his own fight and defeat the Mega Golem. He turned back, dragging his concentration away from Sapphire for now and giving his full attention to the beast before him. It lifted him higher and higher, the air around him becoming cooler and sending a chill through his skin, until he suddenly stopped with a shudder right in front of the creature’s face.
Its head was one massive rock with a face that looked like it had been carved by a toddler. His mouth was crooked and his eyes were large and round, making him look like he couldn’t decide whether he was puzzled or shocked. For a split second, Jasper wanted to laugh, but thought better of it as the crooked mouth split open in a shower of gravel, allowing the golem’s booming voice to travel out and hit Jasper with the force of a gale.
“So, what have they sent this time? A little Tiffikin child?” The golem boomed, his voice like the deep rumble of rocks and lower than any human’s. He laughed and the sound was that of an avalanche, filling the little quarry and bringing the sound of impending doom to the ears of all those who heard it. Jasper braced himself against the power of it, shielding his eyes from the grit and sand that flew out of the monster’s mouth with every breath, and searched around him for inspiration. He knew that what he needed from the golem was his heart, and thanks to the lift he had gotten from its giant fist he was close to its chest. It would only take one leap from his current position to take him there, but what would he do when he got there? The golem’s chest and body below were unlike the rocks of its head and arms. The stones here swirled and twisted in a fast-moving vortex that would surely crush Jasper if he found himself in the middle of them, but what else could he do? If he stayed here he would no doubt find himself in that crooked mouth, being ground to nothing more than dust, and if he jumped off the other side of the golem’s fist he would fall for a very long time before hitting the ground below. Even with the enchanted Tiffikin armour he didn’t think he could survive that.
The golem’s deep voice boomed at him again.
“What use do they think a child will be when I have defeated all their best warriors?” and once more that laugh that seemed like it could travel for miles surrounded everything and everyone. Jasper’s eyes stayed on the vortex of rocks below him, waiting for some sort of sign that this was his way to go, when; there! Just there, deep in the centre of the tumbling rocks, a flash of ruby. Just for a second, but it was long enough. Jasper knew now was the time. He had to move quickly.
“I grow bored of you, child.” The golem rumbled, and suddenly his hand lifted to throw Jasper into the twisted hole of a mouth.
But Jasper was too fast; he jumped, aiming for a large rock on the creature’s shoulder which he hit with enough force to knock the breath right out of him. He slipped, gasping for air, and fumbled for the dagger he knew would help him with the next step.
It didn’t seem like much, the dagger, and Jasper was sure when he thrust it into the rock that it would shatter into a thousand pieces. Still, Amethyst had told him that it would stun the golem long enough for him to grab the gemstone and so he swung his arm in a large arc, putting as much force as he had behind the blade, and stabbed it into the rock with all his might.
To his surprise, it didn’t break. The tip of the blade sliced through the stone like it was butter and suddenly the swirling rocks below Jasper’s feet stopped moving. Quickly, he slipped between them , using them as handholds to make his way down to the gleaming red light below. He moved as fast as he could, unsure how long the golem would stay stunned for, and in what felt like both a millisecond and an hour, Jasper was slipping his fingers around the small red rock and pulling on it with all his strength. For a second, it resisted his pull, then suddenly and with an almighty shudder, it broke free and Jasper slipped it into his pocket.
From far below him Jasper heard the sound of rocks falling to the ground and before he knew what was happening, the Mega Stone Golem began to crumble. Jasper tried to grip the rocks around him but every one of them turned to dust. He felt himself falling down, down to the ground below just as he had done when he defeated the Dark Knight. Only this time he was sure he’d never survive the fall.
He found himself surrounded by fine sand and grit as he fell and suddenly, with less of a bump than you’d imagine, he was sat on a waterless beach on the floor of the quarry, the ruby safely in his pocket, his dagger beside him and an exhausted but happy looking Sapphire smiling proudly up at him.
Chapter 10
“Wow, you actually did it.” The princess breathed, and the surprise in her voice made the smile slip off of Jasper’s face.
“What, you didn’t think I could?” he huffed, picking himself up off the ground and brushing the sand off of his armour. He felt it settle into his boots and even in his underpants (he’d be finding Mega Golem sand for days afterwards) as he marched away, only vaguely noticing the other piles of sand and rock around him that had once been the golem’s minions.
“Well, I wanted to believe you really were our protector, that you were the one the prophecy spoke of,” Sapphire continued, following Jasper as he marched to the Quarry’s edge and scrambled up the slippery rock wall, “but you just seemed so… unprepared. I thought you’d be a bit more…” she trailed off.
“A bit more what? Taller? Stronger? More of a warrior?” Jasper glanced back at her.
She nodded.
“Well, I’m sorry to burst your bubble. You get me, apparently. It’s not like I even chose to be your “protector” or whatever, so give me a break, okay?”
Sapphire kept her mouth shut and the two of them continued to pick their way gingerly up the side of the quarry in silence. More than once they missed their footing and slipped further down the wall, and by the time they reached the top they were both panting and in need of a long drink of water.
“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t believe in you,” Sapphire ventured, and something in her voice made Jasper bite down his sarcastic comeback and listen. “I just… I wanted to be the one to defeat our enemies and protect my people and when you came along, just a boy with no idea what he was doing,” she glanced at him somewhat apologetically, “I found it hard to believe that you’d do what I and so many others had been unable to.” She reached under her armour and pulled out a leather water canteen, handing it to Jasper first. He took it gratefully and drank deeply before handing it back to Sapphire.
“Thanks.”
Sapphire walked ahead, moving through the now dark forest silently. Jasper kept a step behind, allowing her to lead the way back to the Tiffikin village where there would be plenty of food and more water. His stomach grumbled and he thought he heard Sapphire laugh a little from ahead.
They walked on through the night, the only sounds the faint crunch of leaves under their feet, their breath puffing out like steam engine smoke in the cooling air, and soon Sapphire began to speak again.
“I never really thought I’d be a warrior either, you know.”
“But I thought you said you wanted to be the one to save everyone?”
“I did. I do, but that wasn’t always the case.” She stopped, looking up through the canopy of trees above to a moon that was just a sliver off being full. The light reflected back into Sapphire’s eyes and for a moment, Jasper couldn’t look away from her. She turned, catching him looking, and let out another breathy laugh before continuing on her path.
“What you said earlier, about princesses not really being warriors?” Jasper nodded that he did, “That was my life when I was little. All I wanted to do was make daisy chains to hang in my bedroom and play dolls with my friends.” She snorted a little, like she couldn’t believe she used to play with dolls, but carried on.
“I was never really aware that there were so many dangers surrounding us. I knew my Daddy was busy doing Kingly things, but my Mummy never let on that anything was amiss and so I lived quite happily in my flowery, dolly filled bubble.”
The moon moved slowly across the sky, bringing the darkness with it and allowing a sliver of light to creep up over the horizon. Jasper’s legs ached, but he kept pace with Sapphire, never asking for a rest or complaining. He was engrossed in her story and was intrigued, and scared, to know what had happened to her parents.
“I never noticed the Tiffikins going missing or the new lines appearing on my Dad’s face. I finally faced reality, though, when I was six years old and my parents vanished.” An intermittent dripping sound joined the gentle crunch of leaves underfoot as they walked, and Jasper noticed the glint of moisture on the ground; beads of tears, fallen from Sapphire’s face and lit up by the light of the pale grey moon. He said nothing, just kept on walking behind her into the dawning light of a new day.
“It was the Knight,” she said, “he took them from me in the night while I slept. They weren’t the first to go missing nor were they the last, of course, but they were all I had in the world and suddenly I was without them. After that I knew I had to be the one to protect the Tiffikin people. So, when you turned up you kind of put a dampener on my plans.” She sniffed loudly and dragged her forearm across her nose, making an effort to clean up her face and compose herself.
“So, that’s my story. Anyway, we’re back.” And that was that.
The woods thinned suddenly, giving way to the clearing they’d left the night before. Already there were Tiffikins walking around, carrying out daily chores and standing in groups talking, feeling the heat of the newly risen sun. Jasper and Sapphire walked through the middle of the little village, headed for the same room Jasper had slept in the previous day. Sapphire stoped outside the door, gesturing for Jasper to go inside.
“Clean yourself up and I’ll come get you for some breakfast. You’ll need your strength for tonight.”
Tonight - the last of the three battles that Jasper would undertake and supposedly the hardest one. It seemed silly, he thought as he pushed open the door and made his way into his sleeping quarters, to be scared of a tree, but then rocks hadn’t seemed particularly menacing to him before last night so he knew the tree the Tiffikins referred to as the ‘Tree of Doom’ had to be more than just a big plant.
Jasper peeled off the armour that had long since lost the charm Sapphire had coated it in and dropped it to the ground with a clatter. His clothes underneath were soaked with sweat and caked in dirt and sand and he couldn’t wait to clean up and change out of them. He looked around the small room and saw that it had been cleaned since he was last here; the dirty plate was gone, the bed was made, and a pile of clean clothes sat neatly folded on the chair. A bucket of water, a cloth and a bar of soap also made for new additions to the small space and Jasper was thankful someone had thought ahead. He stripped off his dirty clothes and set to work lathering up the soap and washing away the grime of the night.
As he washed, his thoughts drifted to Sapphire and the story she had told him as they made their way back to the village. It must have been awful, losing her parents to the war like that, and he could see why she’d wanted to be the one to defeat the Knight. In truth, he’d be happy to let her take on these enemies - surely someone with a reason to want them gone should be the one to take them out?
But then, he did have a reason, didn’t he? Wasn’t he here to complete these tasks so he could live a life surrounded by people who were just like him? He dried off and walked over to a small window set in the wall of the room, pulling a clean cotton shirt over his head as he did so. More of the Tiffikin people were gathering in the clearing, and the sounds of village life drifted over to Jasper’s ears. He’d forgotten, somewhere in the last several hours, that he was here so he could leave again. Somehow he’d found himself surrounded by people who were just like him without having to change himself at all and he wondered for a second if returning to Amethyst was what he really wanted. Maybe he did belong here. Maybe this was where he was from. His thoughts jumped suddenly to his parents. He’d often wondered about them over the years - who were they and what had happened to them? Mr Grind had always snapped at him to “shut up and get back to work.” if he ever voiced his queries. It occurred to him now, though, that his parents were probably Tiffikins, and he was in the perfect place, finally, to get some answers.
Comments