Friday 20 December 2013

Dark Fiction - Ogham's Windy Ring

Ogham's Windy Ring

By Casey Douglass

as part of #FridayFlash

Ogham's Windy Ring Artwork - Casey Douglass

‘You look terrible! How long’s it been?’
Ogham shuddered as he forced the skeleton of a smile onto his face. ‘Three weeks!’
Dimitri made a noise like a bashful firework soaring into the sky. ‘So what’s the plan?’
The two boys hunkered lower into the flower bed as a gaggle of giggling girls clipped past, their squeaky shoes and, as was the current fashion, over-length scarves sweeping their way across the quadrangle.
‘Billy Craver’s got it in his room!’ Ogham whispered, his hands gripping his sides.
‘How do you know?’
‘Orac...ulus,’ Ogham hissed out as his abdomen rumbled.
‘Why didn’t we ask him before!’ Dimitri slapped his already balding head.
‘Don’t...know.’
‘Okay okay you’re fading Og. Lets get it back right now!’
‘That’s the...plan!’
They shimmied along on their stomachs, the feral undergrowth taking nips and bites out of their clothes and skin, the mulch that it grew from not even worth contemplating unless you found a small bone here and there.
They neared the window to Billy Craver’s dormitory, eyeing the plaque nearby that designated it as the “Lesser Gods Domicile”.
Dimitri hissed. ‘Don’t know why they let them in!’
‘I don’t care! I’ll think about it...later!’ Ogham wheezed as he wiped sweat from his brow.
‘We wouldn’t have had all this happen then!’ Dimitri said, his fist punching into his other palm to emphasize every word. ‘I’m surprised your Dad hasn’t got involved!’
‘He won’t...he’s always doing his...hammering. Get moving!’
Dimitri looked at Ogham, the faintest impression of a scowl crossing his features before vanishing just as swiftly. ‘Come on then,’ he smiled.
Ogham neared the open window and looked inside. Long rows of beds criss-crossed the room in the most haphazard manner. Ogham’s brain was unable to make out any pattern or reason to the jumbled mess. He gasped as he felt a shove lift him up from the ground and shoot him into the room. He fell heavily onto a nearby bed and bounced to the floor as Dimitri climbed through window frame, a big smirk on his face.
‘Just trying to move things along!’ he laughed.
‘Thank...you very much...I almost lost...control you tit!’
Dimitri just laughed as he began lifting beds one-handed, flicking them up into the air one after the other, inspecting the detritus under each before letting them clatter down to the floor again.
‘Shhh!’ Ogham hissed.
‘Too late for Shhh!’ Billy’s voice oozed into their ears.
They both turned and glared at the little waify fellow standing in the half open doorway. His rattish features contorted into a happy grin as his mind obviously revelled in the amount of trouble they were about to get into.
Ogham groaned and fell face forward onto the floor, the most disturbing rumbling coming from down below.
Dimitri yelled and through himself at Billy, one large fist already splitting the air between them. He would have killed him too, if he had actually connected. It was just at this moment that Ogham blew. It started with the smallest hiss of air, but in moments had transformed into the most undulating vibrating mass of fast moving particles that had been seen in the universe since that other big noisy thing happened. A ripple bellowed out from Ogham’s twitching body, the shock-wave diverting Dimitri through a wall, and then another and another, until he ended up in a large closet seven rooms down. Billy’s sneer was likewise blown away, his eyes widening as his own foot managed to kick him in the face as he lifted and twisted through the air. Earthquakes might dream of the rumbling havoc that pushed beds through walls, stripped the patina from the door handles and hit the windows with such force that the glass reverted back to sand. And then it all stopped.
The sound of this and that falling to the floor was the only thing to spoil the silence for a good few moments, but not long after, a loud contented sigh cut through the barren sound-scape. Ogham sat up and rubbed his palms over his ears making them bend in ways they didn’t like. He didn’t know what else to do to stop the ringing.
Dimitri stumbled in, his head and shoulders covered in cobwebs and their now mobile-home living spiders. ‘I’m guessing the problem is solved?’
Ogham grinned as his cheeks reddened. ‘Yes it seems so.’
Dimitri walked over and patted him on the back. ‘Glad to hear it! I thought you were done for!’
‘Apparently not. I don’t know why not, but here I am!’
‘So what was the ring for?’
‘Prevention I guess. Dad gave it to me before I came here, said his Dad gave it to him.’
‘So we still have to find it?’
Ogham was staring at the ceiling, his eyes crossing slightly.
‘Og?’ Dimitri flicked Ogham’s nose.
Ogham snorted and looked at Dimitri. ‘What? Oh sorry. It’s just...nice. I haven’t been sleeping and it’s just all...the world’s such a nice...’
‘Dimitri Jarilo and Ogham Magni!’ A loud voice yelled in the hallway.
‘Oh no, it’s Old Snaver!’ Dimitri blanched. ‘We’re for it now!’
Ogham nodded as the blissed out look was replaced with glumness.
‘Tell him about the ring Og! It’s the only way we might get out of this.’
‘Okay Dimitri, I will,’ Ogham sighed.
They both struggled to their feet and began to walk towards the door, the now glowering face of Snaver shooting lances of ice through their veins.
Dimitri whispered: ‘Og?’
‘What?’
‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’
‘What?’
‘Pardon me! I know you’re a Wind God but that was something else!’
Both felt giggles begin to climb their throats but in what could only be described as the most startling feat of repression ever seen, they managed to stifle and smother them so that all that survived was the merest rush of air over their lips. Many young giggles are killed this way at birth, never having the chance to mature into a chuckle or even, gods permitting, a full belly laugh.
Snaver glared at the two boys and beckoned for them to follow as he disappeared from view. Now for the real storm.

--THE END--