Clare Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-910080-29-0
Verlag: Firefly Press Ltd
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 208 Seiten

Aubrey is a rumbunctious boy who tries to run before he can walk and has crashed two cars before he's old enough to drive one. But when Aubrey's father, Jim, falls under an horrendous spell, Aubrey is determined to break it. Everyone says his task is impossible but with the help of the animals of Rushing Wood and a touch of magic, Aubrey will never give up and never surrender - even if he must fight the unkillable spirit of despair itself - the Terrible Yoot!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Clare, Horatio

Leseproben

CHAPTER 5

The Owl

Aubrey was lying in bed that night, after the fish pie supper, and a game of cards with his mother, and a bath, and a few pages of his favourite story, which was the tale of Perseus cutting the Gorgon’s head off. Aubrey loved to read and re-read that story in Greek Gods, Myths and Monsters. Now it was late; he had heard his parents going to bed. The house had fallen silent. As he lay there he was thinking. His thoughts went like this.

‘How do you solve a problem that won’t be solved in the normal ways?’

‘You need wise advice.’

‘Yes! Someone wise. Someone very wise! Who is wise? Who is the wisest person in the world?’

‘Uuum … if only I could look it up…’

‘Think!’

‘Gandalf?’

‘He’s a fictional character.’

‘Merlin, then.’

‘Maybe. He’s a mythical character and myths are partly true.’

‘Where can I find him?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Rats.’

‘If only I could look up “the wisest person who I can actually find”…’

‘You could, if you had the computer.’

‘Ah!’

‘Computer, computer, bright and small, Who’s the wisest of us all?’

He was not allowed to have the computer in his bedroom after bedtime, but his rhyme made him smile.

Then he remembered something and grabbed for the light switch. There on the carpet, where he had left it, was Greek Gods, Myths and Monsters. Normally it looked like any other good book – a pretty cover, with a dramatic picture (this one showed Odysseus and his crew fighting Polyphemus, the Cyclops) and the title.

But now the book’s colours were especially bright. The single eye of the Cyclops glowed so red it might have been looking at Aubrey and actually seeing him.

Don’t be silly, Aubrey told himself. A book is a book. It’s just my eyes adjusting back from dark to light. He grabbed Greek Gods, Myths and Monsters and opened it. He had a peculiar feeling that there was something going on between the book, whose pages his fingers were riffling through even now, the thoughts in his head, and the problem that could not be solved in normal ways.

‘There!’ he said, aloud. And there she was, in the story of Perseus. The wisest person in all creation: Pallas Athene! Athene who helped Perseus in his quest to kill the terrible Medusa, whose gaze turned people to stone. Athene, Goddess of Wisdom, and many other virtues, including Civilisation, Inspiration, Justice and Courage (with a line-up like that you can see why the Ancient Greeks named their greatest city Athens).

Athene does not live in Athens, Aubrey read. Her home address is Mount Olympus, Macedonia and Thessaly, Greece.

Aubrey slid out of bed and pulled his Atlas of the World from his bookshelf.

‘Right,’ he said to himself, after studying the maps for a minute or two. ‘Tricky.’

Basically, Aubrey saw, the journey from Woodside Terrace to Mount Olympus involved going to London, crossing to France and taking a route through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia and Macedonia down to northern Greece. It looked about 2000 miles. Admittedly, it had been a few years since he last tried to make a serious expedition without telling his parents, but although he was sure he could do better on a second attempt (he would certainly miss Liebling Trudi this time) a secret 2000-mile trip to Greece would probably put a strain on the family.

FOOTNOTE: Athene helped Perseus get hold of an eye which could see around corners, and gave him a polished shield. When he found Medusa Perseus hid, watched her with the eye, and when her reflection in the polished shield told him she was close enough – swap! He cut off her head.

He imagined it was breakfast time.

His mother has gone downstairs to make tea. She sees a note on the kitchen table. She picks it up.

Dear Mum and Dad, I have just popped over to Greece for a few days to see someone. Don’t worry I have the Atlas. Should be back soon and it’s a straight road love you

Aubrey xxx

ps I borrowed the car

ppps don’t worry, really

Perhaps not, Aubrey concluded.

He shut the Atlas. He felt a bit glum. It was such a good idea! Athene was the right person! But he could not get to her place, and so he was still stuck, and his father too. He climbed back into bed. He picked up Greek Gods, Myths and Monsters again, without thinking about it, and turned over the Athene page. And there it was, looking at him with huge, wise eyes.

The answer.

‘Whoo hooo!’ cried Aubrey, without thinking about it.

From outside the window, an owl answered.

‘Hooo-Woo!’ it said.

Aubrey jumped in surprise.

The picture he was looking at was a picture of an owl. (Wherever you find Athene you will always find an owl. It is Athene’s bird, the symbol of wisdom, which is why you find so many of them lurking around schools and libraries.)

‘Weird!’ said Aubrey, boldly, aloud, though his heart was beating rather fast. ‘Owls don’t talk to people!’

There was a distinct pause, in which the world seemed to go very quiet.

And the owl answered.

‘We-doo-too!’ it said.

Well, Aubrey thinks, this is different. He opens his bedroom window to a warm and hazy autumn night. The moon is a coppery crescent, cushioned on fine cloud. Nothing moves in the garden. The trees at the edge of the wood are still.

But now something shifts there, a little shape of shadow. Even as he watches, the shape swoops down the garden in an easy glide. So silent is its flight that Aubrey feels no alarm at all as it falls quickly towards him, flares out its wings and lands, with the merest brush of feathers, on his windowsill.

Aubrey’s breath stops in his chest. An owl – a wild owl – just there! If he moves his hand he will touch it. He could stroke the tawny feathers of the bird’s magnificent head.

‘Please do, if you want to,’ the bird says. ‘It is perfectly good manners among owls.’

Aubrey is so doubly surprised that the surprises cancel one another out, leaving him surprisingly cool. Though he hears the words clearly, the owl’s beak does not move. Its words arrive in Aubrey’s head complete, audible but unspoken.

Telepathic owl, Aubrey thinks.

He stretches out his hand.

The owl’s expression comes from the deep gaze of dark eyes, set in double circles of delicate feathers. It makes the owl look like a little professor. But the words Aubrey heard were gentle and encouraging, so he dares.

He strokes the owl’s head. The plumage is warm, the feathers rounded tight together. The owl rolls its head against the palm of his hand like a cat.

‘You read my mind,’ Aubrey whispers.

‘Assuredly!’ the owl replies, in his thoughts. ‘All animals and birds do likewise, insects too. Fish are the exception because thoughts cannot pass through water. Once you fish them out they can hear what you have in mind – though it tends to be pretty obvious by then.’

‘Poor fish!’

‘Oh they have a marvellous time when they’re not being eaten,’ says the owl. ‘I promise you, fish have a tremendously entertaining existence compared to most organisms. They spend half their lives in fits of giggles. Are you ready? You might need your dressing gown. And slippers.’

‘Ready for what?’

‘Night Venturing?’

‘Hang on!’ Aubrey hisses. ‘I don’t know what sort of dream this is, telepathic owls and giggling fish, but I like to go Night Venturing from my bed and in my head, so…’

At this point our whole story hangs in the balance. Aubrey even takes hold of the curtains: he is about to shut them on this unlikely and demanding bird and go back to bed. He hesitates.

The owl opens his dark eyes amazingly wide and hoots.

‘HOO! You’re dreaming, are you? Then I must be too! Are you by any chance dreaming about an owl who is dreaming about a boy who is dreaming about an owl who wants to help a boy who wants to help his father who is in all sorts of trouble? You are? WOO! So you are the boy, I am the owl – or is it the other way round?’ (The owl looks confused for a second.) ‘Anyway, I am in your dream, you are in mine, and that, my rambunctious friend, is what we in the business call LIFE! My name is Augustus, by the way – Augustus Howell-Brown Bachelor of Arts Master of Arts Master of Philosophy Doctor of Philosophy milk no sugar if only we had time for tea. Augustus for short. What a pleasure to meet you. Shall we go?’

Aubrey sways, smiling.

‘How do you know me, Augustus?’

‘We creatures have learned to listen to humans carefully. We have to. Thanks to your Night Venturing the whole wood knows you. And we like you, and your wonderful mother, and poor Jim. So – dressing gown – slippers – yallah!’

Augustus gives Aubrey a huge, encouraging blink.

FOOTNOTE: Oh-ho, you may be thinking, a story with talking animals in it. How anthropomorphic. Anthropomorphic is a beautiful word, from the Greek words anthropos (human) and morphe (shape). It means making animals look and sound like people. And not...