Chapter Nine

Travelling with an army of trees is not a speedy process, and by the time they had crossed the dry lake bed to where the waterfall used to be, Freya was biting her nails in frustration. As the last tree dragged its roots laboriously over the edge Eoin was already telling Ash that the group would have to go on without them, and he reluctantly found a spot for them on the banks of the little stream they had passed on the way.

Once they were all firmly rooted, Serena led the way back along the stream towards the volcano. Silas, one of the twins, wrapped a bubble of silence around the group so that they wouldn't be heard, but Nessie, his twin, walked restlessly beside him, unneeded - there was no point wrapping the group in darkness to sneak up on a blind man.

When they were still a good way out from the volcano, Serena stopped and said, "You know, I think there might be a lava tube just here, underground." Eoin bent down, found a crack in the ground, and pulled it open like a sliding door. When the gap was wide enough, they dropped down one by one into the darkness below. Nessie fluttered her hands and the lava tube was flooded with light. Tella, one of the other minor elements, led the way as the lava tube twisted slightly and dropped lower underground.

"Eoin!" called Freya in a low whisper, still not trusting that Silas would be able to keep all the sound from escaping up the lava tube to where Father Time was listening in the volcano. "Hold up a second, Walter needs to catch up."

Eoin stopped by a bend in the passage and put Willow down on the ground.

"I'll just see what's round the corner," said Tella, and went a little way ahead as Walter stomped moodily up the tunnel behind them.

There was a loud gasp from round the corner, followed by a sigh. Then Eoin heard a deep rasping voice say, "Come into the water," and he knew with a feeling of cold dread that their plan had gone terribly wrong. It was all very well not to worry about being seen by Father Time, but his daughter could see perfectly well.

He looked in panic at Freya, who mouthed the word, "Nullie" at him, and the two of them sped around the corner.

They were just in time to see Tella disappear below the surface of an underground lake. Nullie was lying half in, half out of the water some distance away, her massive mermaid tail lazily flopping in the water. Eoin raised a hand to block out her face as he heard Freya beside him gasp. Instead he concentrated on the rocks lying along the edge of the lake. Scarcely conscious of what he was doing, he picked up three of the largest boulders he could find and threw them, as effortlessly as tossing pebbles, across the water towards Nullie. He was suddenly aware of Libby, the element of life, standing at his side waving her arms towards the speeding rocks. As they flew through the air they transformed; fins sprouted on the tops and sides, and the fronts of the boulders opened to reveal rows of glittering quartz teeth. Small eyes opened behind the mouths and by the time the boulders reached Nullie they looked like savage stone sharks, writhing and snapping in mid-air. Nullie swung her huge tail out of the water and, with one blow, knocked all three sideways. They dropped into the water but leapt straight back out again, sparkling teeth chomping at the air. One bit into Nullie's tail and she screamed. Then the other two hit her flailing arms and all four fell backwards into the water. There was a flurry of splashes but none of them surfaced again.

"Freya!" cried Eoin, "are you okay?"

Freya was nodding. "Yes, I'm... I'm fine, Eoin, but... wasn't there somebody else?"

"Where's Tella?" cried Libby, turning to the other elements who had crowded in behind her.

"Who?" said Freya.

"Tella," repeated Serena. "She's the element of... of... well, you know. Tella. It's all around, and it comes out, kind of like, well... I can't think now. Even the word sounds odd. What was it again? Tena? Tella? No idea, what was that name you said, Libby?"

Libby shook her head. "I didn't say anything."

"I think," said Eoin slowly, "I think that there's someone missing, but I don't know who."

They all scratched their heads and looked around, but no one seemed to be missing. There was now one less element in the world, but nobody could think what that element might have been.

Freya shrugged. "Nothing we can do about it now. Let's keep going."

Feeling more cautious now, they skirted round the edge of the underground lake and headed on towards the volcano.

The passage bent from side to side, up and down like a hollow stone snake, and they plodded on in silence until the passage suddenly opened out into an underground lake.

Eoin frowned. "This looks like the lake we were at before. The lake where we might have lost someone."

Freya shrugged. "Nothing we can do about it now. Let's keep going."

Feeling more cautious now, they skirted round the edge of the underground lake and headed on towards the volcano.

The passage bent from side to side, up and down like a hollow stone snake, and they plodded on in silence until the passage suddenly opened out into an underground lake.

Eoin frowned. "Is it just me or does anyone else feel like they've done this bit already?"

Freya shrugged. "Nothing we can do about it now. Let's keep going."

"You said that last time," said Eoin, but started walking again.

Feeling more cautious now, they skirted round the edge of the underground lake and headed on towards the volcano.

The passage bent from side to side, up and down like a hollow stone snake, and they plodded on in silence until the passage suddenly opened out into an underground lake.

"This is getting ridiculous," said Eoin. "We've definitely done this already."

"What do you mean?" said Freya. "We've never been here before. Though it does look vaguely familiar."

"Time loop," said Serena, sighing. "One of Dad's favourites. He must've heard us fighting Nullie. He's put us in a time loop. If we do whatever we did last time round we could be doing it for all eternity. Eoin, what do you think we should do next?"

"Skirt round the edge of the lake," said Eoin, "and head on towards the volcano."

"Then that's exactly what we shouldn't do. Unless we've already had this conversation, in which case it gets confusing."

Eoin thought for a minute. He looked up at the ceiling of the lava tube. "Stand back," he said. "Everybody stand well back."

As the others crowded back into the passage behind, Eoin clenched his fists and furrowed his brow, staring intently at the rocks ahead.

At first, nothing happened. Then, faintly, the earth began to tremble. The vibrations grew more violent until suddenly they were all finding it difficult to stand on their feet. Willow ran forwards and grabbed hold on Eoin's leg, but he didn't seem to notice. A crack opened up between his feet. With a jolt, it widened, running all the way down the passage. Willow clung on tighter while the other elements pressed themselves up against one side of the passage which was hurriedly dividing itself in two. A chasm was opening up directly beneath Eoin's feet. The tremors grew more violent still and suddenly, with a thunderous, deafening rumble, the two sides of the land leapt apart as though struck by lightning. The earth itself seemed to have been cleft down the middle, and a deep gorge ran down where the lava tube had been, straight to the volcano and up its side. Freya leant out recklessly over the gorge, and gasped as she looked up into the blue afternoon sky and saw that the volcano itself had been split open down the middle. Masses of steam were billowing up and boulders were tumbling down around the volcano's open wound. 

"Eoin?" yelled Freya over the noise. "Where's Eoin?" 

When the chasm opened he had fallen in, swallowed up by his own efforts, but as they leant over he was there, just below the surface, one hand scrabbling at the side of the gorge while Willow was floating, holding him up by his leg. "Up, Eoin," she was saying. "Uppity up." His hand grabbed hold of solid rock and he pulled himself out of the gorge, and stood, panting and tired, facing the other elements on the wrong side of the gorge.

"Wow," he said, staring up at his handiwork.  

As he watched, a figure appeared in the distance, in amongst the steam, waving a hand vigorously in front of his face and coughing. "So, Earth, Wind and Fire!" he called, "we meet ag..." He broke off in another fit of coughing. When the coughs died away, he cocked an ear, listening for sounds of movement, but the rolling boulders and the hissing steam drowned out any sound that Eoin and Freya might be making. Silas hurriedly wrapped them in a bubble of silence again.

"Hi, Daddy," said Serena quietly to herself and gave him a little wave. "Listen," she said a little louder, "he needs to know where you are to reset your memory. As long as you're quiet you're safe, he won't know where we are."

"We can't stay here all day," protested Freya. "We've got to do something."

"I need to talk to him," said Eoin.

"No, Eoin," said Freya in horror. "What if he wipes your memory?"

"Then you'll have to remind me," he said. "Up, Willow. Uppity up." He picked up Willow in his arms and they slowly floated upwards out of the chasm and into the afternoon sunshine, Willow giggling softly.

Freya turned on Silas. "Can you reach them out there? Keep them in the silence bubble?" But Silas shook his head. "I've got to get up there," said Freya in desperation, but there was no way to climb out of the lava tube.

Eoin and Willow floated lazily in the sun for a few moments, then gradually came down to land near the foot of the volcano. As soon as their feet made contact with the ground, Father Time cocked his ears and his head swivelled unnervingly in their direction. "Ah, Earth," he said. "I'm guessing that's you from the weight of your landing. And if you've landed you must be with Wind. So, I guess I should thank you for opening my prison doors." He gestured to the broken volcano around him. "I told you that you could move mountains. You've set me free. At long last." 

"Then," said Eoin, in relief, "you're not going to stop time?" 

"Stop time?" said Father Time. "No, what would be the point of that? I am Time. I live time. I don't want to stop it. Just you. I just want to stop all of you. You keep changing everything. Destroying, eroding, burning. Once you're all stopped, everything will just stay the same. Forever. And now you've set me free, I don't need you to fight each other. I can just take you out myself, one by one."

"But..." Eoin felt frightened and bewildered. "But it was me that set you free!"

"Yes, true, that’s true," said Father Time. "But it was you that put me in there in the first place. My turn to trap you. Don't worry, it won't hurt." And without saying any more he waved his hands forcefully towards Eoin and Willow, who abruptly stopped moving, instantly petrified as solidly as lifeless statues. 

"No!" cried a ferocious voice. "My sister!" 

Father Time turned in astonishment towards the little figure that had appeared behind him in the volcano. Walter was snarling with anger, and he brought his hands down furiously. The steam issuing from the ground around Father Time rapidly condensed into a solid ice cocoon, mummifying him into one block of ice from the neck down.

"Water?" cried Father Time. "Water, set me free, it's not me you're supposed to play with. Go and play with Fire. I mean, literally."

"I'm here too," snarled Freya, her eyes burning fiercely. "Time to leave, Walter. Go back the way we came, along the lava tube with Silas and Serena. Go on, now. You know what I have to do."

"Fire," said Father Time in disgust. "You're the worst of all. All you do is burn everything."

"I do burn things," said Freya, barely controlling her anger. "But that's not all I can do. You said that Eoin can move mountains. But you forget: I can build mountains." As soon as she said that, she let out a yell, and focussed on the volcano beneath her feet with all her might.

"No!" said Father Time when he realised what she was doing. "No, stop!"

But it was too late. The ground beneath their feet erupted and lava spewed out, filling the cavern and pouring out through the gaping fracture in the volcano’s side. The ice block containing Father Time melted, but as soon as he could move he was engulfed in a tide of lava and he could do nothing but stand helplessly as the lava rose higher and higher around him. "You can't keep me here forever," was all he said as the lava finally rose up and swallowed him whole.

Freya waded through the lava like it was water. "Now, Walter!" she called and jumped back into one of the lava tubes, sitting on the top of the oozing lava and letting it carry her away like a magic carpet.

Overhead, it began to rain, a few spots at first, and then a sudden downpour. The lava slowed, stopped, solidified. The volcano was no longer hollow.

Down below, Eoin and Willow, released from their imprisonment, looked up in confusion at the newly filled mountain, the lava which had almost reached them before turning to rock, and the storm clouds which were already drifting away, the cloudburst slackening and finally stopping.

The other elements finally managed to pull themselves out of the lava tube, away from the chasm which had rapidly filled with lava, and Hope and Frank ran over to Eoin and Willow and wrapped their arms round them. Walter and Freya joined them a few moments later, and Eoin gave Freya a massive hug.

"You can touch me!" Freya cried. "And you're not burnt!"

"Fire and Earth. It's just lava," he said. "Now I know it can't hurt me." He turned to Hope and Frank. "Mum, Dad," he said, and pulled Walter forwards. "This is our brother. He's coming to live with us."

Freya grinned. "We just need to find somewhere to live."

"There's no rush," said Eoin. "We've got all the time in the world. How does everyone feel about caves?"

That's the end of the story! We hope you enjoyed following the adventures of Earth, Wind and Fire over the year. Why not try writing your own story about what happens next?