Wot and Nott: Walking With Statues. Part one - Blood, Rhyme, Steam and Stone

Wot and Nott: Walking With Statues

Part One - Blood, Rhyme, Steam and Stone

After saving the land of Onisha from the despot Miafra (Wot, Nott, Kakuri and the

HU BA HOU, parts 1 to 4), Wot and Nott return home for a much needed rest.

However, after hearing about strange goings on – giant, stone statues walking about

in faraway Easter Island – they are intrigued. When the Director of International

Affairs, at the Foreign Office, contacts them, Nott is flabbergasted to find out that Wot

is a secret agent, a spy, the eyes and ears of her majesty. Having convinced Nott into

joining his friend as a spy, the Director sends them to Easter Island, to find out why –

and how – such huge statues are able to move....

 

Wot and Nott: Walking with Statues

Prologue

January 1st

When the mother of all battles was finally over, and Miafra defeated, everyone in Onisha

rejoiced, celebrating far into the night. Around glowing campfire embers, music was

played, songs were sung and old friendships rekindled. Despite having suffered so

much, while trying to oust the man who would be a god, everyone thought it was the best

day of their life.

Far away a portly Outlander, helped by a beautiful, almost godlike young lady, struggled

to bring Nott to his senses. The vision he had seen, within the ceremonial fire greeting

the New Year, had shaken Nott to the core. “I saw him!” he gasped. “I saw Miafra, as

large as life. Wot; will we ever be rid of that terrible man?”

“Hold on a minute,” Wot answered. “We don’t know it was him. It might be that

overactive imagination of yours, playing tricks, again.”

“We don’t know?” Nott replied, aghast at what he had just heard. “What do you want, a

photo maybe? And as for my ‘overactive imagination,’ I don’t recall you complaining

when I used it to trick Miafra into summoning the combined powers of Light and

Darkness, to destroy him.”

“Now listen here…”

“Take it easy, both of you,” said Kakuri, butting in, trying to calm them.  “You’re achieving

nothing, acting like this.”

“But,” said Nott.

“No ifs or buts – either of you,” she insisted. “It’s time we returned to Onisha City.”

“It’s an awfully long way,” Nott grumbled. “It’s a pity we dispatched old Dragonfly.”

“There are more ways of getting around Onisha other than giant insects,” Kakuri told

him. 

“Other ways?”

“Yes,” she answered. “There are old ways, many of which I am only beginning to

understand.”

Intrigued by what she was suggesting, Nott said, “Tell me some more.”

“Come; follow me,” she said, heading away without telling him,

 

Chapter One

The Daughter of Suru

Following Kakuri down the small hill, away from the Minna with the ceremonial flame still

burning within it, Wot and Nott entered the forest. Battling their way through the densely

packed trees, shrubs and prickly vines, trying to keep up with Kakuri, it was hard going.

“This is ridiculous,” Nott whispered. “You’d think we are in a race.”

“Give her some leeway,” Wot answered. “She’s been through a lot, these last few days.”

“Hmm,” Nott answered, grumbling under his breath.

Thirty minutes later Kakuri finally stopped walking.

Pointing ahead, to a clearing within the dense forest, Wot said, “Look, she’s stopped!”

“And about time too,” Nott answered.

From a distance away the Outlanders watched Kakuri with interest, for she was acting

in a most unusual way. “What on earth is she doing?” Nott asked.

“Shush, she might hear you.”

“But what is she doing?” Nott asked him again.

“Something.” 

“Something? What sort of an answer is that?” Nott griped.

“Just watch her,” said Wot. “I don’t have the answer to everything, you know.”

As the Outlanders watched, sure that Kakuri had no idea they were spying on her, they

were intrigued when she arranged a number of stones into a loose circle.  When she

had completed this task, she set about smoothing the soul within it. Having done that,

Kakuri stood back admiring her work. “Come closer,” she said, waving to Wot and Nott.

Embarrassed that she had seen them, they tried to act busy. “Come,” she called out

again, “we have a date with the wind.”

Entering the clearing, Nott said, “A date with the wind? I think the girl has a touch of the

fevers.”

Wot said nothing; he was far too intrigued by what Kakuri was doing, for words.

Stepping into the circle, Kakuri said, “Please join me with this circle of stones.” Wot

willingly entered. Nott, however, remained stubbornly outside it.

Gesturing for him to join them, Wot said, “Come on; step inside, Nott.”

“Before I go stepping into that, circle thing,” he answered, pointing suspiciously at it, “I

want to know what you intend doing with it.”

Laughing, Kakuri said, “Okay, Nott, I will tell you…”

Minutes later, when Kakuri had finished telling him what she intended to do inside the

circle of stones, Nott entered it. “Let’s get on with it,” he said, urging her on.

“Earlier,” Kakuri began, “I told how I can remember the old ways, the magical ways my

forebears embraced. I don’t understand how this is so, but it is. Moreover, I realise that I

must also embrace it, because in so doing we have our best hope, perhaps our only

hope of returning Onisha to its original state, its Mystical state.”

“What has that got to do with this circle of stones?” Nott asked, tentatively kicking one of

them.

“I am getting to it,” she answered.

“I’m listening,” he answered impatiently.

“Wot, Nott, I now realise how much of the old ways were lost. Miafra was by no means

the chief instigator in this calamity. No. We, ourselves, each and every Onishian is as

culpable as he. Miafra saw an opportunity, and seized it, that’s all. It was our fault. We

are as much to blame as he, perhaps even more.”

“Hold on a minute,” said Nott, “I thought he was the bad guy, but you are now telling us

that everyone is to blame. This is a tad confusing too say the least. What do you think

about it, Wot?”

His thoughts far away, in another place, in another time (or was it a place without time?),

Wot was slow to answer. Returning to the present, seeing his friend’s probing eyes

staring at him, he said, “Pardon?”

“I was asking for your thoughts as to everyone being as guilty as Miafra for the troubles

we have just fought our way thorough!”

“Yes, Horatio, I suppose, to a point, that is correct,” Wot answered obliquely.

“Horatio? Don’t start that again!” Nott chided

Kakuri made a mental note regarding Horatio.

Steering the conversation away from Horatio, Wot said to Kakuri, “This circle of stones.

Tell us how you will use them?”

“There are harnessers, for controlling the elements – water, fire, earth and air,” she

explained. “In this particular instance, it is the air we are seeking to harness, the wind to

be precise.”

“The wind?” he asked, scratching his head, confused

 “Yes, the wind,” she answered. “I intend to use it, to harness it as a means of returning

us to Onisha City.” Without further adieu, Kakuri knelt on the ground. Writing in the loose

soil with a finger, she wrote:

Water, fire, earth and air,

All four elements, I do declare,

Part of life, so true, so strong,

Heed the words of Kakuri.

The daughter of Suru calls,

The air, the wind, the breeze, the storm,

Transport us to Onisha City,

Heed the words of Kakuri.

The sky darkened; storm clouds, gathering apace, grew larger and larger, then darker

and darker. The gentle breeze turned into a gale, thrashing the forest hard in a wild,

excited frenzy. Within the circle of stones, though, the air remained peculiarly still.

Staring at the hurricane conditions, so close  and yet do far from them, Nott wondered

how Kakuri had produced such a phenomenon – and so easily. “Hold on, it might get a

bit bumpy from here on,” she warned.

“It might get a bit bumpy, you tell us,” Nott answered. “How on earth do you know

thaaaaaatttttttt?”

Engulfed within a funnel of spiralling air, Wot, Nott and Kakuri, rising from the ground,

shot through the tree canopy, high into the sky. Then they were gone. Apart from few

shredded leaves falling onto the ground, the forest was silent…

 

Chapter Two

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Wot and Nott: Walking With Statues

Part One - Blood, Rhyme, Steam and Stone

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© Gerrard T Wilson 2008