Chimera Book One

Chapter Nine

Kyp awakened with a start.  

He leapt up and pawed at his clothes.  He scanned his surroundings, finding no sign of either toe-biters or ankle-snatchers – or Atticus.  Kyp noted the snake’s absence without surprise.  He wondered how long he had before Madame Chartreuse came to collect him.  He had no intention of being here when she arrived.

The cave to which the ankle-snatchers had brought him was small, lit by a single toadstool-like lamp growing out of one wall.  The cave walls were slashed and ragged. Springs stuck out of the mattresses in mangled twists.  The floor was covered with gritty sediment.  Colourless woollen fibres poked from it like tufts of dead grass.  Scattered across the deep deposit of shingle was a series of peculiar looking pods; some were small, the size of baking potatoes.  Others were very much bigger, lying like boulders amongst the silt. 

Kneeling beside one, Kyp saw its corrugated surface was papery-looking.  It was waxy to the touch.  He was about to investigate further when movement at the back of the cave startled him.

‘Who’s there?’         

‘You’re awake!’ said Atticus, slithering towards him.

 Kyp stood up. ‘Where have you been?’

‘I’ve been looking for anything that might help us get out of here.’

‘Why didn’t you wake me?’

‘You were exhausted.  I wanted you to rest.  I’ve already tried getting out the way we came in, but we’ve been sealed in tight.’

Kyp had heard enough. ‘When’s she coming for me?’

‘Who?’

‘I know you’re a moppet-drover.  Madame Chartreuse told me everything after you left me.’

‘Left you? I was looking for the entrance to the Bedrock Catacombs.’

‘You vanished.’

‘Because I found the entrance by falling down it!  I didn’t see it because of the miasma.  I left you?  You ran away from me, remember?

‘Don’t change the subject.  Madame Chartreuse told me what you do for her. Go on, deny it.’

Atticus turned from him.

‘I can’t,’ he said.  ‘It’s true.  I was a moppet-drover. I did all of those things, and worse, but not any more.  I haven’t worked for her in years.’

‘Madame Chartreuse says differently.’

‘She mistakes my intentions towards the children who arrive here as they do.  I’m a talking snake, Kyp. Children run from me.  I’m trying to help, but they always run.  You ran from me.  Madame Chartreuse still thinks I’m doing my job.’

‘But why work for her in the first place?’  

‘It’s complicated.’

Kyp folded his arms.  ‘It’s not like we’re going anywhere.’

‘From the moment something is lost from the Elsewhere World, it starts to undergo a transformation,’ said Atticus. ‘It discovers its pramble, the ability to move if it can’t already do so.  After the pramble, comes the glottal, the ability to talk.  Should an object remain in Chimera it starts to similupate.’

‘Sim-mil-loo-pate?’

‘I told you it was complicated.  Similupation marks the transformation of lost property from object to halfefact.  A halfefact is neither object, animal, mineral, nor vegetable, but something in between.  Similupation marks the beginning of the end for an object’s hope of belonging again to the Elsewhere World. Saint Anthony can send a halfefact back if its Elsewhere Light persists, but most soon return.  Perhaps you’ve heard stories of painted portraits, whose eyes follow their owners around the room, or stories of haunted houses, where objects move by themselves? You’ve heard tales of statues that weep real tears or of children whose favourite toy spooks them the moment the light is off?  Not ghosts, Kyp.  Not monsters, halfefacts. They mean no harm, most of them, but halfefacts have too much life.’

With the tip of its tail, Atticus pointed at the pods surrounding them.

‘They represent the final stage.  Inside, lost properties are undergoing their ultimate transformation, from halfefact to metamorph.’

Kyp, who was struggling to take everything in, said, ‘I still don’t understand why you did what you did for her.’

Atticus sighed.

‘Not long after my final transformation I encountered a boy lost in the labyrinth.  This was many years ago.  He had a label around his neck and a gas mask in a box.  He’d been sent away from his family for his own protection, only no one came to collect him from the railway station. They were supposed to, but no one did. I offered to take him to see Saint Anthony.  I assured him I meant him no harm.  The more I talked, the harder he screamed.  He ran from me.  Madame Chartreuse was waiting.  He ran right into her arms.  She thanked me, praised me.  She offered me a job.  I was to seek out lost children, keep them safe from the dangers of Chimera, from its hazards, but herd them into her clutches, scare them, cajole them, befriend them, whatever it took.  It was a purpose, Kyp.  I was useful again.  I was useful again and I liked it.’