Exmoor Stories 10: Winter Sun

The pickup truck roared along the road that ran almost straight across the top of Exmoor. The three men on board were tense and as ready for trouble as they could possibly be. Amyus Conybeare had said that he would make his own arrangements to get to the archaeological dig site, whatever form that took. None of the men had ever seen him use any mode of transport other than his own two legs, so anything else was conjecture. Mike spoke loudly over the constant rain.

"So we have to bury this stone in the place it came from, while fighting off any big cats that might be in the area and a horde of angry fairies to boot!" He said.

"That sums it up nicely," replied Sam with a shrug, "I'm sure Amyus will fill us in more when we meet up with him."

Mark was concentrating on the road ahead. The rain was now beating at the windscreen and visibility was very low. Hitting a sheep or cow at this speed could be disastrous, so he had squinted his eyes against the blinding rain.

"Why does Amyus think that everything needs to be sorted out by tonight?" He asked.

"Not sure, but perhaps it's the ferocity of the storms or something to do with that cloud I saw earlier. It was definitely not moving with the wind!" Said Mike.

Sam spoke again, "When Kate and I first saw the pixies, they looked like a greeny-brown coloured mist, I suppose it's possible that the fairies appear black or grey to us? Perhaps that's what the cloud Mike saw was and why Amyus was so rattled?"

"We just need to keep our heads and get the job done ASAP I reckon!" Mike was making himself do this, when all he really wanted was to be back at the farmhouse to protect his family!

Sam and Mike were similarly thinking about their loved ones, but if Amyus reckoned that this was their best chance to keep everyone safe, then they were all up for it!

When they got to the Beacon, the tarmac road ended and they took to the rough tracks that criss-crossed the moor there. Sam gave Mark directions and soon enough they were following the wheel marks made by the digging team's trucks. Something big came out of the storm to their right. It crashed into the driver's window and skidded onto the bonnet. It was a huge cat! It tried to get a purchase on the slippery, wet bonnet of the pickup, but Mark wrenched the steering wheel left then right and the beast disappeared, snarling, behind them. In shaking the cat off though, the pickup had slipped off of the track onto the rocky shoulder around it. Desperately spinning the wheel to try to resume their journey, Mark lost control and the pickup slid further down the bank and into the boggy peat. It was pretty clear that they couldn't move the pickup quickly, so they left the vehicle where it was and climbed out into the dim afternoon. The cat that had attacked them was nowhere to be seen, so they headed off on foot towards the standing stone.

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As soon as the menfolk had left the farm, the women started to build their defences. The pixie charms were placed at each window and door, fires were built in the grates and they moved a heavy sideboard against the back door to add another barrier behind the heavy oak and iron studded door. Amyus had said that there was protection on the house and yard, but the back door opened straight out onto the moor, so could be a potential point of entry for any number of things. Kate looked around the house for something to arm themselves with and found a couple of large iron pokers and some electric fence spikes that Sam should have taken out to the barn months ago. These were placed on the kitchen table so they were immediately accessible when needed. The children were left in the sitting room with Mollie, as this only had small windows and no door to the outside world, so would be the most easily defended place in the house if it came to a physical fight. When all was done, they sat and waited for whatever was coming, their thoughts full of concern for their men, out facing who knew what!

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Sam had to shout over the noise of the wind, "We're almost there! Just a couple of hundred yards and we'll be at the stone."

They went on at a low run, tools in hands, ready to fend off any other wildlife that may threaten them. Nothing came and it seemed that their previous attacker may have been be injured or winded when it fell from the pickup. It all felt suspiciously easy!

"There it is!" yelled Mike and dived over the brow of the hill in a dash towards the standing stone.

He was almost there, when a figure came hurtling out of the rain and grabbed him.

Amyus spoke normally, but they could all hear him quite well. "Don't break anything from the stone when you topple it! It is important to keep it in one piece so that it will rejoin the other stones I told you about when it's buried again!"

Moments later, the three anxious men stood around the stone, but Amyus had stopped several yards back.

"I can't come any closer, the magic in the stone will not permit it." he said. "You must do the work on your own and I will try to protect you from our attackers!"

The men quickly surveyed the dig site. The hole that the stone had originally been dug from was still, mercifully, open and some of the excavator's equipment was standing around it. They obviously hadn't finished their investigations yet! Sam checked his watch. He was surprised to find that it was still well before two o'clock, so there were about two and a half hours left 'til sunset. They started to dig the stone out, but had no idea how deeply set into the ground it might be. Amyus stood with his back to them, scanning the surrounding moor. Nothing could be seen, but Amyus was fully alert as the enemy was cunning and could take many guises!

Sam swung his pickaxe into the ground on the side of the stone nearest to the hole in the ground. The infill was still soft, as the weather hadn't had time to really compact it down. As Sam picked at the soil, Mark cleared it away with a shovel, while Mike was frantically digging on the other side of the stone to make room for it to topple once they had it loose. Soon they had about 18 inches of the soil cleared and the stone was wobbling like a tooth in a child's gum. Mark swung a shovel full of rubble away again and as he did so, a big cat came over the lip of the dig and ran across the little hollow towards him, obviously trying to put him out of action. Sam redirected his pickaxe swing towards the creature and smashed the flat of it onto the side of the animal's head, sending it sprawling to the ground, stunned.

Then, through the rain and wind, a horde of tiny grey figures appeared. They flew straight at the men, but the enchantment of the stone forced them to circle at a distance. Prowling in front of them was a much larger cat. Mike thought that it may have been the beast that had attacked his family out on the moor a while ago, as it was darker in colour than the other cat they had seen. As it came down the slope they could see that it was limping slightly, so was probably the one that had fallen from the pickup earlier. Amyus stood with his legs braced and arms high. He was speaking aloud, but none of the men could hear it clearly enough to pick out words. The fairies swirled closely around him and whatever he was doing caused a number of them to drop to the ground and the rest fell back in a swirl.

More grey winged assailants came out of the storm and the three friends watched as Amyus spun around, obviously evaluating his enemy. With a look of annoyance, he put his head back and gave a sweet, high pitched cry, almost bird-like in it's tone. The cloud of fairies swirled in great agitation and started to dart closer to him with each turn of their flight. It was clear that Amyus was beginning to lose control of the situation and was using a new spell or tactic to try to maintain a defence. Mike tried to get to him, but he was driven back by a horde of the flying creatures. In seconds, his face and arms were a mass of little cuts and scratches. He staggered back to the protection of the stone to find the limping cat waiting for him!

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Kate was looking out at the yard, trying to focus her mind onto the situation they were in. Unfortunately, a lot of her wanted to be with Sam and the men out on the moor and she was still dealing with Amyus' revelation about her pregnancy. She noticed small movements in the fields beyond the barns and called to the others to be ready. Within seconds, clouds of tiny bodies were beginning their onslaught of the farm. As they reached the edge of the yard, they turned left and right, flying around the edge of it. The pixie enchantment was working! As Kate watched, the surface of the yard began to glow with a spiders-web like pattern. The fairies did not cross it!

Calling to the others, Kate grabbed a poker from the kitchen table. The front door of the farmhouse was now taking a battering as at least two big cats crashed and clawed at it to try to get to the people inside. It was holding together well, but was sounding as if it would fail eventually. The grey and black cloud of fairies swooped and dipped around the perimeter of the pixie enchantment. They were slowly knocking the walls between the buildings down, by crashing their bodies into the outer side of them. Whether this would destroy the pixie pattern or not, the ladies didn't know. For the moment, they could only stay alert and make sure that they were ready when the time came for action!

There was a little window on the landing, immediately above the front door and Kate had an idea. She set a kettle on the stove to boil some water, then she and Saira took this upstairs and tipped it out onto the attacking cats. Although most of it would have likely blown away in the storm and some of it would have cooled during the drop, the cats still didn't seem to like it and pulled back from the door for a short time. Less than a minute later, they were back and had redoubled their attempts to break the door down. Laura stayed with the children, holding a poker in her hand and standing over them, looking more like some warrior maiden from a legend than a farmer's wife! Mollie calmly played games with the two Ellis children, who seemed oblivious to the events of the afternoon. Young Theo slept fitfully. Had Mollie kept him asleep deliberately, Laura wondered.

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Mike faced the big cat which slunk towards him. Pre-empting the cat, and without further thought, Mike threw himself forward in what was either the bravest or most foolhardy move of his life! The cat was startled to be confronted in this way and this, combined with it's damaged leg, caused it to be slightly slow to react as Mike cannoned into it. The animal tried to claw at Mike in a frenzy, but he had already rolled away and had picked up a shovel to use as a weapon. He kept swinging it at the cat, which seemed to confuse it even more, but it could only be seconds before it regained it's senses and attacked again in earnest. The cat tried to slip around behind him, but skidded on the wet, muddy ground where Mike had been digging.

Mike took a massive swing at it and the shovel connected with the beast's neck, just between the shoulders. It took off like a rocket and disappeared into the gale. Sam and Mark were still digging furiously and the stone was starting to fall. They needed to get some boards under it quickly, so they could carry it back to the original excavation. Despite being somewhat shaken by his own actions, Mike went to help and using some scaffolding poles and tie wraps that were amongst the digger's belongings, made a travois of sorts. The ground had been soft and the digging easy, but now it was hindering their progress as they slipped about in the mire. Mark was pushing the stone and the other two men were supporting and guiding it onto their rough carrying platform. It suddenly tipped and they were able to get it onto the platform, ready to drag to the excavation. Mark was carried over the top of the fallen slab by his own momentum, half laying on the stone.

The first cat had recovered by now and was coming in low. It took an enormous leap and landed squarely on Mark's outstretched leg, sinking it's claws into the muscle and flesh and pulling him down as if it were killing an antelope. Mark screamed and the other two friends used their tools to drive the attacker off once again. Sam grabbed Mark, who was drifting in and out of consciousness and pulled him back towards the stone. Amyus broke free of the cloud, but as he raised his arm to attack them again, the cloud of fairies descended on him in numbers and he vanished under their onslaught. When the three men turned back to their work, both of the big cats were at the edge of the whirling fairies' circle and moving in for the kill.

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The entire farmyard was glowing with a ghostly haze. Under the fairies furious attack, it had slowly increased in brightness until the pattern the pixies had woven was clearly visible. Now, as the horde was breaking down the walls around the farm, it glowed and flickered as if trying to re-assert itself. The women waited anxiously, listening to the big cats tearing at the door. All that had saved them so far was the workmanship of some unknown carpenter from two hundred years ago and the pixie magic. Now, the pattern was looking fragile and as they watched, it suddenly flickered out. The air around the house immediately filled with greyness and tiny shapes smashed themselves against the window panes in an effort to break in. The three women withdrew to form a defensive barrier around the children and for the first time, Mollie stood up and left them to play.

"Now it is time for me to get to work," She calmly said, "I hope to see you again when all is done."

With that, they removed the barrier at the back door and Mollie stepped outside. The women locked the door and replaced the barricade after her, hoping against hope that this was the right thing to do.

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Sam looked desperately around to see if there was any easy way to escape. Mark couldn't move very quickly in his present state and looked as if he would pass out at any moment. Mike had moved to be between Mark and the beasts. They waited for the attack.

Suddenly the air was full of green and brown flashes and hundreds, or maybe thousands of pixies swarmed amongst the fairies, sending them in all directions. Amyus' strange call had been answered! The cats, now without the concentrated control of their fairy masters, regained their normal instincts and ran off onto the moor, pursued by groups of pixies who were bombing them with stones and swooping over their backs to keep them running. The men looked for Amyus and saw him furiously weaving his magic. Wherever he turned, clouds of grey corpses fell to the ground and the pixies were also destroying their ages old enemies, fighting terrible aerial battles all over the nearby moorland. Sam and Mike were mesmerised, but Mark grabbed Sam's leg and pointed shakily at the stone.

"Bury it!" He croaked and collapsed completely.

Sam grabbed Mike and between them they pulled the stone over to the hole and slid it back into it's original place. It fitted loosely, but then seemed to turn under it's own volition as if to align itself with some hidden force. It began to chime softly, like a submerged bell. They started to bury the stone with loose dirt from the dig team's spoil heap. As they covered more of it, the effect of the enchantment must have diminished as the fairies took their chance and moved in to blight them with bites and scratches. Swatting them off had little effect and before long, their efforts to move the soil had almost ceased. Mark had come to again and dragged himself over to the hole, pushing soil over the stone with his hands, but they were fighting a losing battle against the attacking fairies. Amyus moved closer as the stone's effect had diminished on him too. He shouted at the men to stand aside and turned rapidly to create another piece of magic. The ground heaved as soil and peat gathered itself into a ball and flew through the air. With a strange, wet sound, it sealed the hole completely. The ringing seemed to stop suddenly and the men thought that they had completed their mission, but the fairies still fought on as fiercely as before.

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Mollie stood in the centre of the failed pixie pattern. She looked quite serene and her yellow dress blew as if tugged by a breeze from a summer long ago. She bent to place her hand on the ground and the women in the house saw her lips moving. The pattern glowed a little and faltered, then glowed again, like a car starting on a cold morning. It no longer reached the broken perimeter, but still covered the yard and front of the house. The cats broke off their attack on the front door and one of them leapt towards Mollie, while the other disappeared into the night. Before the big cat reached her, Mollie calmly raised her other arm and made a strange gesture. The unfortunate cat spun through the air and crashed into the barn opposite. It got up and shook it's head groggily. As it turned back for another attack, the pixie pattern began to glow, this time with a brilliant yellow radiance. Mollie moved her free arm again and disoriented, the cat loped away to the boundary wall.

The fairies who had already entered the yard set up a terrible noise as they were either felled or swept away by the waxing of the new pattern, while the still dazed cat screamed as if it had been burned. Kate changed position to be able to see what was going on in the farmyard and as she passed the back window, a huge feline shape crashed through it, splintering the frame and knocking her across the room. She hit the opposite wall hard and slipped to the floor. Saira was standing just behind her and took a swing at the beast with a fencing spike. It stuck into the animal's shoulder, causing it to snarl and whirl round to attack Saira too, but Laura was upon it and laid several blows onto it's skull with her poker. Her life on the farm had made her stronger than most and her attack dealt some serious wounds to the poor creature's head. It slipped back out of the window and was gone!

Now that the window was open and the pixie charm knocked away, the fairies took immediate advantage of the opening and started to flood into the room. Laura and Kate stood over the children, swinging their weapons and dealing out punishment to the horde that threatened their families! Kate was still laying against the wall, unmoving and Laura could see a trickle of blood seeping out of her mouth. Still the two women fought off the fairies with all of their might. Amyus had been right! No mother would allow her offspring be taken from her if she could help it!

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Amyus gestured, telling them to get back to the pickup as quickly as they could, so they loaded Mark onto the makeshift travois and dragged him down the track to where they had crashed the vehicle. The fairies swooped onto them all the way, but Amyus and the pixies took care of them and allowed the men to continue. The pickup was still at the bottom of the bank, so they loaded Mark into the back seat and set about putting anything they could find under the wheels to give the vehicle a grip. Somehow, they had to get it back onto the road or they would have a long walk back, dragging Mark with them. As they worked, a host of fairies shot overhead, pursued by countless pixies. They were going in the direction of Sam and Kate's farm!

Amyus came up to the vehicle, "Something has happened at the farm! We must get there as soon as we can. Get into the cab and be ready!" Sam tried to say something, but Mike gave him a meaningful look and they jumped in. All around them, the pixies whirled. Amyus told Sam to drive the pickup out of the bog and Sam coaxed the vehicle into the rocking motion that he knew would start to free them. He revved the engine high, spinning the wheels in the mud, then letting it fall back again and again, each time pushing a little further out of the mire's grip. Suddenly, it was as if the vehicle was being pulled by a team of horses, as more and more pixies started to add their bodies to the task. Amyus could be seen waving his arms about too and suddenly, the pickup lurched forward and was onto solid ground again.