“I wouldn’t want to do that again,” she said. She looked around, taking her bearings.
They were back in the universe and way over on the horizon were five stars. The Southern Cross.
“It’s still there!” Arnie cried.
“And the Time Portal hasn’t closed yet!”
The lights were still winking on and off, on and off.
Before Skylark could stop him, Arnie went hurtling across the universe, dropping through the well of the night sky. All he wanted to do was be in the light.
“Wait for me!” Skylark laughed. Boys were all the same. Always in a hurry. She folded her wings and dived after him. Caught up in the thrill of the chase, she registered only dimly at first a shadow that cut across the Milky Way, looming out from behind Pluto. It looked like a dark island, spinning in space, coming closer and closer out of the luminous sea of the universe. As it approached, the whole universe began to vibrate. Warning bells began to clang in Skylark’s head. Something that Lottie had said to her, just before she pushed her out of the plane:
Whatever you do, do not let the winds of the Heavens take you up into the uppermost reaches of the sky. If they do, pray very hard. And, above all, don’t go anywhere near the volcanic island where the giant pouakai lives. Otherwise …
Skylark’s heart began to pump very hard. “Please God, please make the island just a nice, cute, desert island with a palm tree on it and no sign of anything that looks remotely like a volcano, please God —”
But the island wasn’t nice or cute, and there were no palm trees in sight. Instead, as it loomed closer it revolved and, as it rolled, a huge volcano loomed out of the dark side. Sometimes in life, luck runs out. As the volcano came closer, Skylark saw something looking over the rim. Two crimson eyes with cruel black facets, watching Arnie as he fluttered erratically by. The face was straight out of Aliens 1, 2 and 3 and Alien Resurrection. With a terrifying rush, the creature slithered and scrambled up to the rim to take a better look.
Skylark’s heart stopped. The pouakai. She back-pedalled like crazy, knowing that it had not seen her.
Standing on the crater’s edge, the giant ogre bird was a terrifying sight. In that world of birds it was the size of a jumbo jet. Its body was entirely covered with scales. Iridescent colours flashed off its metallic hide. Through its multi-faceted eyes it calibrated Arnie and locked on to him. Silently it opened its wings, became a tattooed pterodactyl, a terrifying flying alligator. It smelt Arnie’s blood and began to hunt.
Terrified as she was. Skylark moved in behind the pouakai. Her brain was racing. What could she do? She couldn’t stand by and watch Arnie being eaten, not when they were so close to home.
“Arnie, watch your back!”
But he was too far ahead and did not hear her warning cry. Nor did he know he was being hunted until the raptor was right onto him. He felt its breath, heard its clamouring hide. He turned, saw the pouakai and its cruel wide-open beak, and knew it was certain death.
Then Skylark came speeding from behind the pouakai.
“No, Skylark, don’t,” Arnie yelled. “Save yourself.”
All I have to do, Skylark thought, is lure the pouakai away. That will leave Arnie time to reach the portal. Then I can make a U-turn and join him just before it closes. Yes, that’s what I’ll do.
She zoomed in front of the pouakai, faced off, and stopped it in its tracks. “Touch him and you’re dead.”
The pouakai looked at Skylark, astonished.
Skylark darted at it again. “It’s me you want, you feathered orange predator creep!”
Arnie saw the danger. The pouakai had an extendable neck. “You’re too close,” he shouted.
Skylark tried to get away. The pouakai lunged. Missed. It lunged again, its beak opening wide. Missed again. But the third time the pouakai’s neck suddenly elongated. There was a sudden jab, a clamp —
Why, that didn’t hurt at all, Skylark thought.
The pouakai snatched Skylark in its jaws. Gave a short vicious shake.
“Goodbye, Arnie,” Skylark whispered.
“No!” Arnie cried. Helpless, he watched as the pouakai closed its wings, turned and carried Skylark back to its volcanic island. Next moment, like a bowling ball, the island rumbled past him and away, receding into deep space.
Weeping with shock, Arnie limped to the gateway. “Oh, Skylark, Skylark,” he cried.
Then he rallied a moment.
Maybe Skylark had managed to wrest herself free of the pouakai’s jaws. Maybe, even now, she was speeding across the sky towards him. “Come on, come on, you can do it,” he urged through the empty sky.
The lights stopped winking. The portal had run down to the end of its timing sequence.
Skylark wasn’t going to make it.
There was a click. The portal started to close. At the last moment, Arnie rolled and went through. “Hoki will know what to do,” he said to himself. “She’s just got to know what to do —”
Part Four
Chapter Fourteen
And all at once Arnie found himself being buffeted by huge gravitational forces. Some were pulling him one way. Others were pulling him another. Foolishly he tried to stabilise himself; he screamed as his damaged wing was pulled from its shoulder socket and he lost consciousness.
The Southern Cross winked out. Arnie’s body tumbled head over heels in a dizzying descent through a primeval sky. Planets whirled around like pinballs. Comets trailed fiery tails from north to south. Above him a worm hole opened, sucking him in. Regaining his senses slightly, Arnie was dimly aware of galaxies being born, of exploding supernovas and golden suns as he rolled and spiralled through a giant intergalactic hydroslide until there, in front of him, was the opening back to the future and his own universe.
Time was ticking past. Arnie saw the sun rising on the green globe of Earth below. It was bathed in auroras of beautiful light — and Arnie was falling again. Another portal opened and he fell through it. He had a minute to get through the inner lock and back into his own Time. On the other side, he saw the Cathedral of the Birds and the seabirds in suspended animation, stationary, in mid-air, frozen at the moment when he and Skylark had escaped them.
Time began to run again — and Arnie dived through. He was in the zone. Bones were spinning in the air. The entire cathedral was col-lapsing around him. Arnie fell through the inner lock onto the cavern floor. Seabirds were screaming all around him, their wings creating a huge turbulence. He put his hands to his head to protect himself and, closing his eyes, huddled into a ball.
The tumult settled. A huge cloud of dust rolled through the cavern. Arnie waited for the seabirds to shred him. But nothing happened. When he looked up, the seabirds had disappeared as if they had never been there at all. His feathers had moulted and he had turned back to his human form. He tried to move and knew he had a broken shoulder. He scrambled for his clothes, still lying where they’d fallen on the cave floor.
No time to waste, he thought. I’ve got to get help. I’ve got to get back to Hoki in Manu Valley. He stood up and blew some of the remaining feathers off his chest.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder. Somebody else shone a torch in his eyes. “Well, what have we here?” one of the rangers asked.
“Looks like a Kentucky fried chicken,” said the other.
“Nah, it’s Big Bird.”