The Promised One (18 page)

‘It’s all right,’ he said to Lucy. ‘Helen and Julian are scientists who saved my life and I trust them absolutely. There’s nothing you can’t tell them.’

Lucy turned back to the bush. ‘Come, O mighty fang and pay homage to the Promised One.’ It was a dramatic gesture but Lucy knew that her story would be literally incredible unless those about to hear it had seen irrefutable evidence of its truth. She had spoken the words out loud for the benefit of the onlookers but now she called silently to the cats.

The nearest sabre-tooth, a female, walked towards Lucy. Julian started forward to pull her back but Richard put a restraining hand on his shoulder. He had complete confidence in his wonderful daughter.

‘Just watch!’ he said quietly.

The great cat came to Lucy then lay at her feet, its head resting on its forepaws, looking up at her. At her command it rolled on its back and she leant forward and stroked its belly.

‘Thank you, O mighty fang. Now return to your kin and protect us from all that might come to harm us this night.’

‘As thou command,’
the cat replied.
‘I shall be honoured among all my tribe for having felt the hand of the Promised One upon my flank.’
She then rose and stalked back to the waiting circle of her kind. She moved from one to another and as she did so each cat turned to face outwards from the fire, now keeping guard over those within their fearful circle.

Lucy returned to the speechless adults and sat down. Before speaking to them she called Queenie.

‘This is my father,’
she said. The queen regarded Richard with grave respect.
‘And these are his companions.’
The monkey looked in turn at Helen and Julian.

‘Thank you for all you did this day. Go now and rest with your kin. The greatfangs will not harm you. Please bring us food when the Brilliant One rises from his place of rest.’

The monkey scampered away. After she had gone Lucy turned back to the others. As she did so Helen suddenly shouted in alarm.

‘What’s that?’ She pointed at Lucy’s shorts where the tiny marmoset was peeping out. She soon came out completely and darted up to her usual vantage point on Lucy’s left shoulder.

‘That’s Michelle, my little cuddly pet,’ said Lucy. ‘She wants to come back to England with me – if it’s allowed,’
she added hurriedly, glancing at her father, suddenly an eleven-year-old once again in his presence. ‘And just so you can all relax before we tell our stories, those funny lions or whatever they are won’t hurt you and the monkeys will bring our breakfast in the morning.’

‘Those funny lions are sabre-tooths,’ said Richard, ‘and though I’m sure you know you’ve saved all our lives you probably don’t know that you arrived just in the nick of time. We don’t have enough wood to last the night and if you hadn’t turned up when you did we would have ended up as cat food some time in the next few hours.’ Lucy laughed spontaneously for the first time since she had been kidnapped a month earlier.

‘Just imagine the giant tins in the pet food section of the Crater Superstore with a special offer notice above them.
“Buy Sabretibbles a nice toothy snack! When we say our new fang-smacking formula is scientifically balanced we mean just that. Every tin contains no fewer than three real scientists!”’

They all laughed – in a slightly hysterical way as months of relentless trauma evaporated.

‘That’s definitely one to tell your big sister,’ said Richard, wiping tears of laughter and relief from his face.

Lucy sat down next to him and cuddled up to him. ‘Now, Dad,’ she said, ‘tell me how you got here and how Mr and …’

Julian interrupted, ‘Julian and Helen to you, Lucy.’

‘… how Julian and Helen saved your life.’

The four sat round the dying embers of the fire until late
into the night as they told their amazing tales.

In the morning the monkeys appeared with all kinds of food, including fruits that even those who had lived for some time in the crater had not seen before.

‘Some of these are unknown to us,’
said the queen,
‘but we have tried all that you see here and they are good to eat.’

After breakfast they had a long discussion. Lucy had told them that they could all return to the camp with the help of the animals, but Julian was concerned about Helen’s leg.

‘Helen can’t climb a cliff and trek through the jungle, even with the help you describe. If you’re sure that the animals here won’t attack us any more, then I think I’ll stay here with Helen until you and Lucy get back to civilization and send help. While you are gone we can clear the wreckage of the plane enough to make a landing strip.’

‘That last job won’t be necessary,’ said Lucy firmly. The others looked at her. She spoke with an authority beyond her years.

‘What d’you mean?’ asked Julian.

‘I shall ask the Mighty Ones to clear the landing strip. They certainly look big enough.’

‘The Mighty Ones?’ said Helen.

‘Those things like large brown bears that go round ripping trees down. I saw one yesterday from the cliff.’

‘The giant ground sloths!’ exclaimed Richard.

‘Is that what they are?’ said Lucy. ‘The ones who bust up your plane. Well, I’ll talk to one before we leave and ask him to clear up the mess.’ She misinterpreted the glances of sheer astonishment that the grown-ups
exchanged, for looks of disapproval.

‘Well,’ she added, as if to give moral justification for the use of animal labour, ‘it won’t hurt them and they caused the mess in the first place, didn’t they?’

Everyone laughed and Richard felt proud of his daughter and the way she was coping with her extraordinary powers. Lucy then enquired about Helen’s leg and was very interested to hear what Richard described to her.

‘I think I can help, Dad. Insects and worms and things don’t talk to me but they do seem to obey me.’ She turned to Helen.

‘Can I see your leg?’ Helen was only too happy for Lucy to look at her leg and having heard Richard’s description of the condition Lucy asked him to bring a container of water. Then Lucy addressed the leg.

‘Come forth from your hiding place, O long and slender one, and there will be water for your sons and daughters.’
Helen stifled a grunt of pain as she felt movement in her leg. The final worm in her affected foot emerged, bursting through the inflamed boil under which it had lain. As promised, Lucy held the water for it to enter. Helen then cried out in pain. ‘My other foot, my other foot!’ And from a tiny inconspicuous spot that Helen had previously thought to be a bite or sting yet another worm emerged and Lucy held the container so that it too could enter the water.

‘We shall return these to the river,’ Lucy said, ‘and then they can fend for themselves once again.’

Helen, Julian and Richard were astonished at what they
had witnessed and Helen was grateful beyond words.

‘The legs still need to heal,’ said Richard, ‘so I think we should stick to plan A, but at least we know that you are now on the road to recovery.’ The men and Lucy then spent the rest of the day moving whatever was salvageable from the wreck of the plane into the cave, which would be Helen and Julian’s new shelter until help arrived. Much to everybody’s amusement the monkeys carried everything to the cave that they thought would be useful such as pieces of broken glass, nuts and bolts and pieces of torn canvas. Nobody had the heart to stop them and Helen arranged them carefully along one side of the cave floor.

Towards evening a crashing noise could be heard in the distance as a giant sloth hove into view stripping foliage off the surrounding trees. Lucy called to it and it lumbered over on its great knuckles. One of the enduring memories of Richard’s life was to be the sight of his small daughter
standing in front of a monster wagging her finger and giving it instructions. It was like a scene from
King Kong
or
Godzilla
, except that the heroine was in complete charge of the situation.

When Lucy returned she and Richard had a chat. Helen and Julian were at the cave preparing a special farewell evening meal and it was their first opportunity to talk alone.

‘Mummy and the girls must be frantic with worry about us,’ Richard said. ‘If only we could let them know we are safe.’

‘They already know I’m safe,’ replied Lucy with a grin, ‘’cos I sent them a letter.’

Richard’s jaw dropped. ‘You what?’

‘I sent them a letter. Are you deaf or something?’ She grinned again, then relented and explained how she had contrived to get a message back to the family.

‘It’s funny you should mention it,’ she continued, ‘because I was just thinking we should send them another saying we’ve met up. Let’s go and do it. It should be easier to prepare this time. I had to do it in secret before – but it will still need to be short so it’s not too heavy. It should arrive in time for Clare’s birthday. I’ve no idea of today’s date but it must be getting close.’

Richard was thrilled beyond words to hear that they could communicate with home, and arm-in-arm they hurried back to the cave to write a note.

Ten minutes later Clio was scaling the liana ladder, clutching a tiny parcel in her mouth.

Now that Richard and Helen and Julian had grasped the
reality of their new situation they could all relax for the first time for many months, and during their meal that evening the conversation turned eventually to home, a place they could all believe – at last – that they might see again. Helen and Julian explained how they had not seen their two sons for almost a year. The elder was at university studying medicine and the younger was still at school. By one of those extraordinary coincidences in life they lived in London, not far from the Bonaventures, and they agreed that when they all got home the two families should meet up. Richard took down the necessary details and promised to contact Helen and Julian’s family to say they were safe as soon as they were able to.

The next day they awoke to the sound of four giant sloths clearing plane fragments and rocks from the areas Lucy had pointed out, and once again the monkeys were waiting with fresh food for breakfast. Helen and Julian were looking forward to resuming their scientific explorations now that they had the protection of the sabre-tooths and Lucy explained to Helen that if she wanted to move far while her legs were healing, the sabre-tooths would allow her to ride on them. Helen seemed extremely doubtful about this but said she would think about it.

Then it was time to go. The three adults had grown very close during their period of enforced companionship and Helen wept a little as she bade goodbye to Richard. Then she took Lucy on one side and talked quietly to her for a few minutes. Her expression was serious and Richard saw
Lucy nodding in agreement. As the two came back to join the group Lucy spoke to Queenie who scampered off into the bush.

‘What was all that about?’ said Richard when Lucy returned, instantly regretting this question as it was perfectly obvious that it was something that Helen wished to be discreet about.

‘Oh, just girls’ talk,’ said Lucy lightly, and Richard dropped the matter.

Helen and Julian came with Lucy and Richard to the foot of the rope ladder and watched nervously as they climbed to the top, two monkeys going in front of Lucy and steadying her with their tails as before. Just as they reached the top Queenie reappeared at the foot of the ladder and clambered up after them in a few seconds. As Lucy reached the top Katy Coati scampered over to her yelping with delight, chasing her own tail and then running round and round Lucy’s feet. Lucy had some difficulty in reassuring Richard that the black panther sitting at the top waiting for them was not the mate of the jaguar who had chased him over the cliff, but as Melanie came over purring and rubbing herself against Lucy, he had no choice but to be convinced.

There had been some considerable discussion concerning the fate of the rope ladder so laboriously constructed by Lucy and her animal assistants. Should some disaster befall Richard and Lucy, then help would never come for Helen and Julian and the ladder would be a potential route of escape for them from the crater,
assuming Helen’s legs were by then fully healed. Having seen the ease with which the monkeys swarmed up and down the ladder, however, Helen was adamant that Richard and Lucy should cut it free once they had climbed out, so as to avoid contamination of the crater’s ecology by the normal forest fauna and vice versa.

‘These habitats have been isolated from each other for over three million years,’ she said. ‘We can’t possibly allow them to mix just for our convenience – if they do the crater creatures will inevitably be wiped out just as they did in the rest of the continent, and if some crater animals get out they may unbalance the outside environment in ways we don’t know; they may even have diseases to which ordinary animals have no resistance. No, Julian and I will just have to hope that you make it safely back and arrange help for us. Anyway, even if we did climb up the ladder our chances of safely reaching civilization on our own would be negligible.’

Julian looked somewhat doubtful at losing this slender link with the outside world but in the end agreed with Helen’s unselfish and unarguable scientific logic, so it was decided that the steps would be removed. When Richard and Lucy reached the top they pulled the ladder up rather than cutting it and letting it fall, just in case something happened that meant they wanted to return to the crater instead of continuing their journey.

As they laid the ladder on the plateau Lucy saw Queenie looking at it pensively and stroking the rungs with her paw.

‘Just think,’
the monkey said wistfully, catching Lucy’s
glance,
‘it was within our capacity to build such a tree-that-bends before you came and for generations we could have entered the Valley of the Mighty Ones and eaten the strange and delicious fruits therein. Yet we did not, because we knew not how. Truly, the Tailless Ones are the masters of all creation.’

Lucy was a little saddened by the monkey’s remarks but the conversation suddenly made her think of one more precaution she had to take. After she and Richard had waved a final goodbye to Helen and Julian far below on the crater floor she asked Queenie to muster all the monkeys and other animals that had helped to build the ladder. They assembled in front of her and she addressed them all.