Jack Hawkins and the Faery Prophecies

The Drums of War

- The Drums of War

The first thing that brought Daniel around from his stupor was the feeling of the ice cold water splashing back and forth on his face, as the river currents moved in and out, and as he lay motionless just on the edge of the muddy river bank! The second was the mud itself and the vast array of creepy crawlies contained within it, that by now had come out of their burrowed holes to investigate the great big human boy that had washed up ashore on top of their natural habitat.

Daniel showing no mercy, quickly brushed off the various insects, ants and spiders from his face, as he felt the tickle of their tiny feet crawl all over him. It took a few goes to rid them from his muddy face and especially from his gingery hair. The third and final disturbance that helped awaken Daniel and bring him to his senses, was the distant sounds of banging, almost like the sounds of drummers playing in a marching band in a city parade.

Strange thought Daniel momentarily as he crawled up the bank finally moving his legs and feet completely out of the water. Every second he breathed in the good river air, the more he came round to full awareness and complete consciousness. But where am I? He thought! How did I get here? For the life of him he could not remember a thing! In fact the last thing that he could remember, was being in bed and dreading the first day back at school.

I must be dreaming! He thought, as he finally arose to his feet, and began to rub the thick mud from the side of this face that had been lying deep in it! Only to quickly realise that his hands were covered it in much more and that far from clearing his left Eye and face of the stuff, he actually was making it far worse. Worse than that though was his head hurt immensely. He reached behind expecting to find a big bump, but where there should have been one, there was none!

It was only after he had stood up that Daniel began to see the entirety of his surroundings. And inch by inch and bit by bit, it shocked him. It was so real! Definitely not like any dream he had ever had. In front of him was a great big steep hill on which was covered in tiny stones and by patches of green grass amidst big chunky rocks. To the left of him on the down the river bank was thick trees, and to the right of him on the river bank was more thick trees. Behind him across the river as far as his eyes could see lay more trees, a deep dark forest full of them.

It was at this point that Daniel began to panic a little. He was no longer sure that he was dreaming and he had no memory of how he could have got to such a place. But more importantly than that, inside his head which was still banging with pain, there was a deep feeling within him that something bad had happened, a feeling that something gravely horrendous had occurred. He just could remember at all what it was!

Shaking his head in disbelief at the strange situation but seemingly accepting the reality of his surroundings, Daniel ears perched and he began to focus upon the constant banging in the distance. It appeared to be coming from directly behind the great big steep hill. Perhaps someone is there that can help? Thought Daniel excitedly, as he began to climb the steep hill before him, expecting that when he got to the top, that he would probably find, a buildings site or some work men or farmers hammering or something of that nature.

The climb itself was harder and more work than Daniel originally anticipated, he was not that active at the best of times and was probably the worse at PE in the whole history of his school. In fact he probably held the record for the boy most picked last for any sports team ever! But it was more his laziness and lack of interest in sport rather than his weight. Given a game like chess or draughts or cards to play with and he would beat anyone in his school. He was good at those. Brilliant actually. That and table top strategy games, like Warhammer! He and Jack could plays those for days on end.