The Quest …..or
….. You’ve been Daleked
The Tardis arrived at my place in The Land of Peaks and even
with three lots of gear there still appeared to be plenty of room for more life
forms to be collected en-route. I wished I’d packed a
In no time at all the demonic pilot of our transdimensional
travel machine landed at Ben’s’ abode in the Burrow of Shrews where we took a
few items aboard and headed South on another mind-bending journey. Traversing
the galaxy at 2 x c ,vaporising cyclists, dogs, cats
and large haulage vehicles with our afterburners, we eventually rematerialised at lair of the Guardian of the Hole of
Otters near Chips Toe. He gave us The Key, which allowed us to begin our
mission to take a facsimile of The 30, as legend has it, he who captures The 30
wins the prize at the B.C.R.A. conference.
So armed with The Key we headed for a house wherein sustenance could be taken
in readiness for the arduous and dangerous challenge ahead, also a place to set
up our flimsy shelters as an advanced base from which to make our leap, at
least for three of our company, into the unknown. Such speeds with which we had
traveled and their manner, make dehydration inevitable, so having quaffed many
cool glasses of amber liquid the four members of our crew were even more
unsteady as we lay down to take rest.
The loud
bleep of Ben’s’ chronometrical communicator roused me from my dream of
galloping horses to the sound of large drops of colourless
liquid hammering on the shelter. Strange sounds of gurgling and small gaseous
explosion emanated from the shelter of the shiny-domed pair but there was
little to worry about, apparently the amber fluid of these parts seem to have a
fermenting effect on some of the crew. A small stone structure near the
shelters had to be visited for it seemed to give some soothing affect to the
afflicted, some visited more than once. Having relieved themselves so, the four
were ready to set out again on their Quest. We skimmed over a shiny black
surface following the white way marks, round sharp bends which threw the
company hither and thither until we entered the
favourable time. Our return journey was lightened by
The Dalek wishing to take on more amber liquid, it
was pointed out that the custodians of the pumps did not dispense it at 8.20 In
the morning. Rested and revived we took good omen from the brightening sky and
were soon back at The Forest but because of The Great Table our means of capturing
The 30 forever had to be left behind, we could then only rely on ‘seeing’ them,
‘looking-on’ being deemed to endow the viewer with strange powers. The
Our
leader, The Dalek, was almost frenzied when he
thought The Guardian of the Key had duped him, but having remembered the few
magic words” lsht, lsht, lsht”, The Door creaked open, issuing forth the cold,
swamp-breath of The 30, chilling us to the bone. Quickly donning our gloom
-expellers we entered their world, crawling at first through thin beddings
along which The Slime had crept, passing beside the remains of a huge,
hollowed-out, black snake. Aiw ups and downs followed
until the pools were passed, we could then stand warily on a coated floor of
rocks. The smell of rotting prevaded the air
and the cold was only fought off by the strenuousness of our movements in The Glaup. After half an hours progress we came at last to The
Keep. The keepers of The 30 had put another obstacle in our path, but others
had been before and had tried to reach through The Eye with a line stretched
across The Keep. Too Early!! We sat down and listened to The 30 breathing their
foul gasps until we could see clearly into The Eye through which we must
squeeze to get to the Rungs of Iron. The Dalek was
the first to go and he reached The Eye with slime almost over his head. I
followed quickly, fearing time would sap my bravery, only to find The Eye
almost too small. Ben nearly got swallowed, trying to keep his wellies from being eating. Mike was quick because as The
Keep emptied it gets harder to climb into The Eye. Beyond lay the passage to
the Rungs of Iron, once up these and over a few boulder climbs the passage led
to a drop to The Clear Waters. Stomping up the stream with hearts beating
stronger we were forced over boulder obstacles onto the Traverse of the Gods.
Others had reached this far and had left behind food as an offering to The 30.
More easy passage led toward a Sump Monster but we avoided this by climbing up
over the top of it, here I was nearly trapped in the jaws of a Choke, only just
managing to wriggle free in time to follow the others through squeezes and
crawls into, The Extensions. Passing over large boulders, forced to stoop and
crawl through ever larger passages we entered the hallowed hall and there they
were, THE 30!!!! Shining in the light of our gloom-expeller, like huge white
trolls, their shadows danced we moved amongst them with bated breath. Awe!!! Splendour!!!! It wasn’t over yet, pushing our luck we
crawled and climbed until we were stopped speechless by the remnants of others
who’d not made it out, bedding, food and drinks but no bodies. What happened to
them?
We dared
not think and pressed on, hearing ghostly tinklings
of music keeping The 30 company in the dark days and nights. The Forests
tendrils stretched down through the ground even here to get us, turned white by
lack of light and hanging down fifteen feet from the ceiling all along the
chamber. A final temptation, Pearls! Dared we take some and then try and run
the gauntlet of The 30. NO!!! It was too much, The Great Table told us to
return, fat before The Keep filled once more with The Slime.
We’d got
to the Keep before we knew it and snook out of its
mouth then into the crawls to the entrance. Almost out and then DISASTER!!! As
I slid head-first down a squeeze my arm got caught between the rock and my
gloom-expeller. Help!!! Help!!!! With my body upside-down I needed the others
to prize the gloom-expeller free and to push me back up the slope. Phew!! A
narrow escape and off we went, bursting into daylight with huge sighs of
relief. Rushing through The Forest, gleefully, back to the Tardis,
we shot to the Guardians’ abode, returned The Key and quickly sped to avail
ourselves of the services of the Dispensers of the amber fluid. The Quest had
been a success, we all had in our minds-eye a vision of The 30, all that
remained the next day was to travel back in time, dropping off Ben at his
spawning ground of Shrews Burrow and me in the
Ray
Duffy
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