Faris and Jack

  * * *

  “Come on Faris, we’ve got to keep moving,” Jack turned back to wait for him, trotting in a circle around him as he tried to hurry him along.

  “I’m – whew – sorry. You just move so quickly!” Faris panted as he ran up to Jack.

  “KEEP GOING! We’ll catch up!” Jack shouted ahead to Mooncoin and the others who nodded and galloped away towards the woods surrounding the south entrance to The Caves.

  “It’s OK, we should be fine from here anyway,” Jack said, looking around them. “We’ve not seen anything of the Spriggans, perhaps they’re still wherever they were keeping the others and we’ll be back before Holly.”

  “Good.” Faris said, finally catching his breath. “Will the others be OK?”

  “Yeah. They’ll be able to sense the entrance to The Caves from here. They should be fine and it’s not too far from here anyw – ” Jack broke off, jerking his head back in the direction of the racing college.

  “What is it?” Faris asked when Jack didn’t say anything else.

  “Oh no! Spriggans!!” Jack exclaimed. “Quick, get on my back we’re going to have to run for it!”

  Faris didn’t need telling twice and pulled himself onto Jack’s back as he started to gallop away. He turned to look behind them as Jack ran. In the moonlight he could see hundreds of tiny green creatures, with odd shaped arms and legs pulling themselves through the fence in the field where they had just been stood. He was surprised at how fast they moved once they were through the hedge. They appeared to crawl in a strange form of movement that worked with their odd, short limbs.

  “How many are there?” Jack yelled back to Faris as he ran.

  “Erm, maybe fifty or so…” Faris replied, it was hard trying to count them as he bounced around on Jack’s back.

  “FIFTY!” Jack cried. “We can’t outrun fifty of them!”

  “What will they do if they catch us?” Faris asked.

  “Do? Probably kill us both! They may be small, but they’re vicious and fifty of them could make mincemeat of us!”

  Up ahead of them, Faris saw a sea of white, fluffy bodies. And it gave him an idea.

  “Head for the sheep!” Faris pointed to the field of sheep.

  “What can they do? They’re just sheep.” Jack shouted back at him.

  “Just do it!”

  Jack dropped his head down and veered to the right, running hard and fast towards the field of sheep. He leaped over the tall fence dividing the two fields, barely disturbing the leaves on the bushes.

  “WE NEED YOUR HELP!” Faris called out to the herd of sheep ahead as they charged towards them. “We’re being attacked!”

  “What can we do?” One of the sheep said.

  “Yes…what ca-aaa-aan we do?” Seven sheep echoed.

  “Stop the things that are chasing us! Try not to let them through.”

  “OK…we’ll try,” a large black sheep bleated. “Head towards the trees at the e-eee-edge of this field and hide there.”

  “Thanks,” Faris shouted back. “Jack, make for those trees!”

  “Don’t go too far in though…” The black sheep warned, but Faris didn’t hear him, they were already heading towards the trees.

  “What did they say?” Jack panted as he galloped.

  “They said they would try to stop them and that we should hide in the trees.” Faris replied.

  As Jack raced on towards the trees Faris looked over his shoulder. The large herd of sheep was massing around the hedge where the Spriggans were fighting to get through the thick bushes. Faris could see the black sheep at the front of the group directing the others. From what he could tell they were doing a good job of stopping the Spriggans.

  * * *

  “’Elp me, ‘elp me! I can’t breev!” A small Spriggan yelled as he was squashed beneath the woolly belly of a large sheep.

  “Baa-baa-ha-ha.” The sheep laughed and squished the Spriggan even more.

  * * *