A Shift In The Space-Time Continuum (Part Two)

© 2013 David Jasmin-Green

A considerable time later Irene and Alice were still following their own prints. “This is crazy,” Alice said. “Surely we should have been back ages ago. Is it me, or is the sand getting wetter rather than drier? I think we're heading back towards the sea.”

“That's not possible, dear, you're worrying over nothing. If we follow our tracks we really can't go wrong. Hang about, have you got your phone with you?”

“No, I meant to bring it in case someone calls me, but I think I left it in my bedroom.”

“I forgot mine, too. It's a shame, yours is a posh one and it has one of those fancy satellite navigation facilities. I'm sure we''ll be back shortly. No, come to think of it I think you're right, Alice, I'm sure the sound of the surf is getting stronger – we're going the wrong way.”

“I think we're just letting ourselves get into an unnecessary tizzy. And we can't be going the wrong way, the prints plainly come from the way we're travelling. I don't think that's the sound of the surf, by the way, I'm not sure what it is.”

The sound that Irene was referring to was a faint, low buzz like a swarm of distressed wasps or a distant helicopter. Sometimes it got stronger, sometimes it faded as if its source was wandering around randomly. And she was sure she could hear other sounds mixed in with the hum, brief snippets of music and broken dialogue as if a child was playing with the tuning dial on an old analogue radio. 'Mischief is afoot!' she distinctly heard one of the voices saying. 'Mine, mine!' another voice snickered.

“Can you see what I can see, Irene? Bryn – come here!” Irene stopped in her tracks, her mouth wide open as if she were catching flies, as her father use to say, and Alice clutched her hand more tightly. Something was moving through the fog, apparently aimlessly, and whatever it was it was big and it shone very brightly. The powerful white glow never approached close enough for either woman to catch a proper glimpse of it, it just circled slowly around them, following its own secret agenda like a bee flitting from flower to flower collecting pollen.

“What the fuck is it?” Irene whispered. It was the first time that she had used that word for many years, but fear was gnawing at her stomach, she wasn't thinking straight and somehow it just slipped out.

“I honestly don't know. Whatever it is I think it's gone. For the time being, anyway.”

*************************

“What do you make of that?” Irene said, eyeing the two sets of footprints that crossed theirs, a set of deep oval ones as big as dustbin lids that sank over a foot into the wet sand and a set of slightly smaller three toed prints.

“Well that looks like a gigantic elephant and they look like bird prints, but if it is a bird it's an impossible size. You know what they really look like? No, that can't be..... Is it me, or has it gone really hot all of a sudden?”

“It certainly has, I'm sweating like a pig.”

There was a loud trumpeting sound from close by that sounded like a herd of elephants expressing their fury all at once, and the women almost jumped out of their skin. Irene was about to say something as the trumpeting was answered by a roar that sounded like an innovative lion using a megaphone. Bryn growled and rushed towards the noise, and seconds after vanishing into the fog he let out a brief yelp of surprise that was followed by a sickening crunch like someone stepping on a sackful of twigs. “My God, what's going on?”

“I..... I have a feeling that we've somehow wandered a long way from home,” Alice said, her voice barely a whimper. There was a hot gust of wind that momentarily parted the fog, and the women gawped at the unmistakable outlines of a pterosaur gliding some twenty feet above their heads in pursuit of an improbably large dragonfly. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my-”

“Alice, look out!” Irene yelled, grabbing her friend and pulling her out of the way as a monstrous mud grey creature with legs as thick as post boxes stampeded past them and disappeared into the fog, closely followed by four green and brown striped somethings that ran on two legs, reptilian somethings with huge, snapping jaws full of dagger like teeth and long, thick tails. Both women tumbled into the wet sand, but thankfully they were unharmed.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” Alice continued as she helped Irene to her feet, a hot stream of urine running down her thigh. “For thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of-”

“Here!” a voice said as the roar was repeated, this time even louder. “Follow me.” The light that had hovered around the two women earlier on was back, but this time it was closer and it took the shape of a tall glowing pillar.

“Who are you?” Irene whispered.

“I think you already know. Come quickly, this way.” Alice and Irene followed the glow for no more than five minutes, the roar of the saurian predators and the trumpeting of their vast prey repeating over and over again but getting more and more distant. “You're out of danger now. Follow your own footprints and you can't go wrong – these really are yours, not the marks of mischievous liars and pretenders.

“Bless you, Father,” Irene said as the light rose into the air and vanished.

“Yes, bless you,” Alice said.

“No, ladies, bless you. It's not your time to be spirited away anywhere just yet, especially the place you've briefly visited. Shame you didn't have a chance to get a few postcards, hmm?”

The wind picked up, but this time it was much colder and it began to disperse the fog. “Look!” Alice said. “I can see the promenade!”

“Thank God,” Irene mumbled. “I'll never miss a church service again as long as I live. What are we going to tell Mrs. James about poor Bryn?”