The Pole Shift

Sean the Giant

The two men, one quite old, met in the middle of the lawn. They looked at Sean with dark intent, and the old man addressed Mnem after giving her a long leer.

                "Out of the way Missy, this doesn't concern you." Mnem went to move, obedient without thought. Sean grabbed at her, saying:

                "Stay! What do they want?" Now she pondered, and with Tess stiffening and sensing the threat, so did she.

                "What do you want?" She said, frowning for the first time. The old man gave the palm of his hand a whack with a long cudgel, the cracking noise was startling. He said:

                "It's like this you see..."  He went on to talk about new beginnings, the right way of doings things and of bad apples. Of common sense! He was talking like her father and whilst her father would gradually tone down his speeches , falling into love, this old man was heating up, the fire fllickering across his face casting him as dangerously hateful. The drunk man, Sean, was grabbing at his ear and asking for armies, for thunder and lightning to strike, whilst the old man's henchman was creeping forward, his own cudgel ready to wield.

                From the house a window opened, two shadows appeared in the twilight, one was Janet and she shouted at them. When they all turned to look a smaller figure ducked away. The old man, broken from his speech said:

                "Another hen for the coop? Good, good! Mr. Jobling, set to." The middle-aged man without pause crow hopped the last few meters and smashed the cudgel across Sean's table. Sean's bong, his empty bottles and his lap top leapt away like startled rabbits. The table upturned, and for a moment formed a barricade between them, Mnem had taken Sean's arm trying to get him to stand. From the bottom of the lawn Janet screamed something, and Tess the Labrador cowered away, too young and  friendly to attack.

                Sean's eyes bulged as Mr Jobling's second swing raced across the bridge of his nose, clipping it and drawing bruised blood. Sean fell to the earth, his face looking up at the fairy lit trees. His crystal hummed urgently but Sean expected nothing and closed his befuddled eyes. The crystal burned painfully spreading deep into his senses.  There came spoken commands from a deep voice, and whispers from others.  He felt he was in an enormous chamber and was being swirled around by thin neon ribbon that entered one ear and exited the other. Orange orbs balloned all around him, and there seemed to be figures within them. Had he received a  killing blow? Was this death? All had gone quiet.

                His clouded brain suddenly cleared, as if living poisons had been drained from his mind. Strength and awareness filled him, he felt enormous and he could suddenly observe with all his senses.  He was not dead and as he snapped open his eyes a deep ancient  voice spoke:

                "You are going to be fun to watch, Giant Sean. Know this - all but the living is yours to wield."

                Sean understood completely. He had been made into  a weapon from technology that had belonged to an extinct human civilization. The whispering that filled his mind rose and fell and was of a tongue not spoken for forty thousand years. They were the words of a people that had perished in a previous Pole Shift. He understood the words, they were terrible, they spoke of War and Sean's soul burned with his own fear.

                The cudgel was on its way, it started very high above Mr. Jobling's head  and Sean watched it with his eyes, he listened to it, smelt it, and could feel the sudden air pressure of it as it raced towards him. Sean made a picture in his mind, and there came a vibration from his finger tips. Flecks of silica, of mica and gypsum began to race towards his hands. In moments they were mitted with stone and crystal and they met the cudgel with the sound of metal on stone.