SAMPLE: A Tale of Merlin
“I haven’t the foggiest idea how I got there that day, but I found myself, once more, sitting on the cliff-top overlooking Tintagel Island. It was one of those rare and glorious golden autumn days, still and warm, and as I looked down I could see a thousand suns winking back at me with millions of sparkling eyes from that crystal sea and the island itself was resplendent - an emerald jewel waltzing upon it. As I said, I had been there before, when we used to go on our special days out as children, but I had never seen it look as beautiful as it did that day. In fact, I don’t think I could have kept myself from exploring it even if I’d tried; I was drawn - the proverbial moth to a flame.
It took a while to make my way down the cliff face; it’s always been very dangerous, steep with crumbling sides. But then as soon as my foot landed on the beach the darkness closed in as though I’d triggered a switch - the day suddenly disappeared, sucked up an invisible chimney, whoosh, it was gone! I knew it couldn’t be far past noon, as I’d only recently eaten some of the food my mum had packed for me and at that time, like you two”, Jack said directing this comment to his grandsons as they sprawled on the floor listening to his tale, “I reckon I could always tell the time by my stomach!”
Staring back at the flames that leapt in his fireplace, Jack’s eyes took on that familiar faraway stare he always had when he reminisced on those long ago days.
“Gingerly, I crossed the narrow bay that led to the island. The sun, although high above, was now becoming obscured by the slowly rising mist, a watery yellow balloon floating in a hazy sky. It had become eerily quiet; I couldn’t hear the seagulls any more and the sea didn’t break on the shore but made hissing noises, like the sound you hear when you put a seashell up to your ear, far away - mind it could have been the warning noise from a snake, or would that be serpent?
Also, I was getting quite disorientated and couldn’t tell from which direction the noises were coming. When it first started to get dark I thought I’d better hurry back across the causeway as I wasn’t sure how far the sea would come up but, peering this way and that, I began to get panicked by the enveloping mist and lost my way.
It had now got very chilly, with dread clutching around my head like a vice. If I went in the wrong direction I could end up being blocked in when the sea rose - I could remember that some of the sides of the rock-face on the mainland were sheer - and then I might drown. It continued to get even darker and it was then that the huge monster materialised unexpectedly in front of and over me - a huge, open-mouthed ogre with sunken eyes and arms raised ready to make a grab at me. I froze but it was drawing me inexorably towards it, the tentacles from its arms reaching down to drag me towards its gaping mouth. I held my breath literally too frightened to breathe. The mist slithered around my legs the serpents were back, their mouths ready to strike at me or perhaps wrap their bodies around me in an iron grip to strangle me or drag me away - that scared me almost as much as the monster. I could feel the moisture from the mist starting to drip off my hair and down my neck and my clothes were becoming clammy and cold where they clung to my burning body; but my mouth was bone dry, my tongue almost sticking to the roof of my mouth with fear.
Starting to shiver and shake, I realised I had to get away from the monster and serpents and try to find my way out of the bay or I might never be seen again. The monster was by now preparing to strike It leaned forward and then back as it gathered momentum to launch itself at me when, as the swirling mist cleared unexpectedly for a moment, I could see that the dark shape was not, in fact, a monster at all but a huge rock protruding above the entrance to one of the caves on the island itself. Of course it was! I knew that all the time! Letting out my breath with a silent phew, I took a step forward and peered into the mouth of the cave and, straining my eyes to search ahead, saw that the mist inside rose no more than knee high. I stood peering in for what seemed an eternity, but which could only have been a half-minute or so.
Making a life-changing decision, I slowly edged my way into and around the inside of the cave, my eyes gradually becoming accustomed to the dimness, and I saw that, inside, the walls were not as black as they had at first appeared, there being a dark green luminosity to the walls which bounced around and gave back some light.
The dripping sound I had heard before was louder inside the cave, echoing around it like water falling from a great height into a deep well or someone throwing a pebble into a quiet, still pool of deep water, except it was always behind me and whenever I turned around I heard it again, yet again behind me; I couldn’t tell from which direction it came. After spinning around a few times to see who might be there, I got so dizzy I started to panic again. My heart was banging inside my rib-cage and I could feel the blood rushing through my ears. I put my hands over them and told myself to stop it.
It was getting harder by the second to keep myself from completely losing control.
I turned to run out of the cave but as I did so I could see that the mist outside had grown as thick as a curtain and also the tide, which now sounded a lot louder, was coming in fast; looking down I was shocked to find that the water was starting to slosh around my shoes as the sea rose.
I had never been over to the island on my own before and was now obviously beginning to regret that I’d done so. What if the sea filled the whole of the cave! The sides were too smooth to climb and there didn’t appear to be a foothold anywhere, so how could I get above the waterline if it did rise? Oh, I wished I knew just how high the water would come up. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t go outside again, at least not until the mist cleared, in case I walked straight into the sea. That, then, would be the end of me! But was this going to be the end of me? Was this where I was going to die?
I leaned against the damp wall and tried to think, but in the grip of this mist I felt myself becoming colder and colder until eventually I started to drift into some sort of dream world. I could hear the condensation dripping from the roof of the cave and echo around inside it, but it seemed like a million miles away. I shook my head to try and clear it and thought I had better start moving, more, at that moment, to keep my circulation going than in the hope of finding a miraculous way out, so I continued to explore the cave as best I could in the dimness, in the hope of escape. Groping around in the semi-darkness, I eventually found a small ledge about shoulder height and decided to climb up. I skinned my knee in a few places in my struggle to haul myself up, slipping back down the sheer sides more than once, but finally I made it. I huddled as far back on the ledge as I could and, with my back leaning against the wall, hugged my knees to my chest to try to keep as warm as possible. Dropping my head onto my arms I tried to think of something I should do to try and get away.
I don t know how long I sat like that but I believe the mist and the hissing of the sea (if it was the sea) made my mind drift again and I fell into a trance-like sleep, even chilled to the bone as I was or could it have been the beginning of hypothermia? I’d heard about that at school but I was, by then, too worn out to try to do anything about it or even care.
“Ah, there you are, Percy,” said a very melodious voice and I awoke with a start. I could still see the inside of the cave and the mist but it appeared to be on the other side of the now apparently see-through rock-face. It was as if I had fallen backwards through the rock wall itself and was looking back out to the cave through a distorted glass window. I was extremely disorientated and, as I was still quite cold, after half-heartedly trying to feel that crystal wall, felt myself drifting away again.
“No, no, no! No time for that now,” said the voice, all businesslike; “you’ve found the doorway. Come, quick, let us get out before it closes. I didn’t think it would take you this long to find me! Still, you’ve finally made it, so let’s go!””
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