Sixty Minutes

‘Come on; there’s no time to waste. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.’

Coop’s clay body had scarcely been re-animated when his brother Tark started dragging him through Mr Baggreen’s overgrown garden shrubbery. And they’d only just made it under the neighbours’ fence when his face and beard snagged on the thorns of a rose bush.

‘Dammit! Put me down!’

‘There’s no time.’ Tark repeated.

‘No time? We’re cursed, dammit! We spend twenty-three hours of every day frozen like statues, subject to the horrors of blistering sunlight, human nature, and let’s not forget my favourite, pissing dogs!’

‘Your point?’ Tark snapped, still not letting go of his brother.

‘My point is that there is none. Why should we bother fighting? It’s been almost two hundred years since the Dread Witch, Kalroth climbed from it fiery pit, and we’re no closer to finding a cure for what the thing did to us.’

As if on queue after mentioning the witch’s name, the ground began to tremble under distant footsteps, and Tark stopped to look behind. Something was coming, something much bigger than them.

‘What is that?’

‘What do you think?!’ Tark snapped, launching his brother into the first flower pot he could find while he leapt into the other.

Sure enough, the squelching footsteps grew faster until the Colly dog appeared with its tail wagging and its tongue flapping as it excitedly sprang from one puddle to the next. Then it began to squat, and a putrid stench filled the air.

‘Monster!’ Yelled Coop, picking up a stick to throw.

Garden Gnomes only had little noses, so it wasn’t surprising that they couldn’t handle it. And when the pair wretched together, the curious beast wandered over.

Tark shut his eyes, knowing that he or his brother were about to become the beast’s chew toy. But, instead of sharp teeth piercing his pot belly, he heard a high pitch whistle.

‘Oscar?’ Someone yelled from nearby. ’Oscar? Where the hell’s he gone this time? I swear, Peter, we need a smaller garden.′

‘You know, sweetie. Most people argue for the opposite. Leave the door open; he’ll come in shortly.’

The human woman laughed. ‘And invite in every other creature out there? No, thanks. Oscar, get in now, or you’re staying outside tonight.’

‘Listen to your owner, furball.’

‘Shut up!’ Tark hissed.

The dog had heard Coop and started to howl. It was more curious than ever now, watching the brothers as a predator would its prey.

Fortunately for the pair, its owner came rushing across the lawn, a lead in one hand and, sure enough, a metallic whistle in the other. ‘Got you.’

A few seconds later, the distant door slammed shut, and Tark turned to glare at Coop. ’What the hell is wrong with you?

‘Relax, it was only a dog.’

‘It’s not just the dog, though, is it? You seemed determined to throw your life away.’

‘I’ve told you. No matter how hard we try, we can’t understand what Kalroth did to us. And one hour each day will never be enough time to study the curse. So, again, why bother?’

Tark pointed at his brother, holding his stubby index finger barely an inch from his face. ‘It’s not only about you and me. It’s about the extinction of our entire species. How many of our kind are still alive?’

The question took Coop by surprise, and he had to think. ‘A few hundred thousand?’

‘Try half that; more Garden Gnomes die every day, brother. Kalroth only left those plastic copies around to mock us.’

‘Okay, okay,’ Coop answered, still picking the thorns from his beard. ‘You’ve made your point. So, now will you tell me where you’re taking us? I don’t care where it is, so long as we don’t end up in a damned fish tank again.’

Tark laughed. ‘Living with the goldfish, Steve? That thing rubbed up against you every chance it’d got.’

‘When it wasn’t pooping on me! Just don’t make me go back there. We’d have never escaped if the owner hadn’t left their window unlocked.’

Tark rummaged around in his pocket until he’d found what he was searching for and held out his palm. The gold-plated timepiece bore elaborate swirls on its glass casing and seemingly nonsensical text engraved on its base. ‘Less than forty minutes left; come on, we need to hurry.’

‘How accurate is that hourglass? You can’t even tell the time properly.’

‘Sure I can. I’m a Keeper, remember.’

‘Right.’ Coop laughed, chasing after his brother.

Tark had to duck when a bird shot out from the leaning tree above them. ‘Mamma, have mercy!’

‘You okay?’

‘I’m fine,’ Tark replied, trying to catch his breath. ‘But, jest all you want; you know this is how our species keeps time. Would you rather haul around a human clock?’

‘Those devices are about the same size as me, so, no, thank you.’

The pair waltzed through yet another garden, sticking to the early morning shadows to avoid drawing more attention. Then they stopped abruptly at the end of the path of the next one; they’d hit a dead end.

Coop ran his hands across the plain wooden gate. He yanked it, pushed it, and even ran into it. ‘Why won’t it open?!’

Tark grinned. ‘There’ll be a latch on the other side, but we’re not using the human’s gate. Keep checking the wood for sigils or markings of any kind; we must find the Ranar doorway within.’

‘What’s a Ranar?’ asked Coop, scratching his head.

‘They... They’re people you need to meet.’

‘Oh, for the love of grass! The sun’s gotten to you again. Come on. I’ve been with you every hour of every day for as long as I can remember. Who could you have met that I couldn’t?’

‘It’d be best to show you,’ Tark rechecked the timepiece and scowled. ‘We only have eighteen minutes.’

‘Wait!’ Coop yelled. ‘What’s to stop the Dread Witch from appearing? Surely she’d not want us poking around?’

Tark screamed and punched one of the wood panels so hard he chipped his right knuckle. ‘Enough! She won’t show up because she doesn’t think she needs to! The Ranar told me so in a dream.’

‘Oh, well, if you saw it in a dream.’

Tark was about to fall for the bait again when he spotted the centre of the gate glowing red. One of the wood panels still had his blood smeared across it and had begun to trickle down into every rotten hole and weather-warped split. ‘The Ranar told me to search for the sigil of the Thelor Tree, but I had no idea this would happen.’

‘Blood magic,’ Coop whispered. ‘How do I remember that?’

Tark grinned and pressed firmly against the flashing symbol. ‘Because the curse has been lifted.’

Coop held his breath when he followed his brother through the portal, but instead of being submerged in water or dropped into an airless tomb, they found themselves standing in a marble chamber with their memories restored. They were finally free; at least they thought they were.