Big Head in the Clouds
‘Do you see that Gallabee?’ Gally asked her companion, desperate to get back up. Desperate to de bunk her own myth. ‘What am i looking up here? Looks like a giant as tall as the clouds!’
Many of the eyes on Gallebee’s mac got really googly-eyed as they tried to focus on what Gally was pointing at.
‘Then you see it too!’ It had taken mere moments for all the animals to come to the same conclusion.
At this point Gally was beyond curious, every last bit of grumpiness left far behind as if she was already a thousand feet in the sky flying towards this mysterious wonder, all her problems so meaningless now.
‘We got to get up there right now!’ All the cartoon animals voices virtually exploded at once.
‘And just how are we gonna do that?’ Gally hid her urges well.
‘Fly, Gally! Its not rocket science. Maybe its time to make a sacrifice. Maybe it would be worth becoming an outlaw, banished for doing the most natural thing in the universe for fairy!’
‘Enough, and you think this Gnome’s just going to let me fly out the sky light.’
‘Don’t see how the hell he’ll stop you! Unless he can float, the fat ballon!’
‘Don’t call him fat! Thats just the way gnomes are built, fat and jolly.’
‘Don’t know about the jolly part.’
‘Ok, but I’m not flying up there, end of story.’
‘Okay, then you just let the end of the world happen, babee!’
‘What?’
‘Okay, maybe I’m being a bit over the top. A titan in the clouds doesn’t automatically mean the end of the world. BUT IF IT IS, law and order wont matter any more and you’ll feel like a idiot not flying when you had the chance and trying to save Glenaraaah while you’re at it too!’
‘What!? Don’t you dare lay on a guilt trip on me! If this giant is bad news for Glenaraaah then someone whose more qualified then me will but a stop to it..’
‘You read too many lazy fairy tales about talking pumpkins and not enough adventure stories about reluctant heroes putting aside their fears and becoming the true Fairy they were meant to be! You want to put all your faith in someone else doing your dirty work for you, when it’s time to get your hands covered in muck, Gally, so much MUCK!!’
‘What are you two getting all shrieky-girlie about?’ the Gnome became briefly interested.
‘I think theres a vast titan as tall as the clouds towing this storm.’ Gally thought honesty to be the best policy,
‘Hah hah, Fairy kids and their imagination!’ came a dismissive snigger.
‘Were not imagining it!’ Gallabee made it very clear, ‘you’d see it if you actually looked, you fat balloon!’
‘Whatever you say, you trash-talking raincoat!’
The gnome looked up at the sky light, tilting his head this way and that until his the old gardening injury in his shoulder caused him to swear in pain. But just before his eyes could focus enough on the clouds, the perfect distraction came along with a squeal of breaks and oily anger.
Down on the junction, two trains had ended up on the same track again and, as they came into the station from opposing directions a face off seemed inevitable. One engine started to make a shrill-yell out of the circular mouth on its metal headdress face, where a demonic pair of eyes behind cab windows narrowed. The other train, meanwhile, started battle-roaring too and as the windows on its cab doors slid opened two strong sword wielding hands pushed themselves out, blades held high. With a abrupt smashing of side windows, the other train revealed its own pair of spear-holding-arms and the duel was on. Breaks were applied with a deafening screech, buffers came face to face and thus followed a clang of sword play as one tried to knock the other clean off its track.
At this point, many of the commuters on the footbridge broke from their shuffle, a childish giddiness in their mood as they headed over to the windows, cheering on the trains to fight. This transformed the atmosphere from world weary to rowdy late night pub. Even Gally’s Gnome seemed more interested in the train fight then breathing. He no longer gave a damn about any giants in the sky he just stamped over towards the nearest hole in the wall and stood there getting soaked to the skin as he jeered at the fighting trains below.
‘Now or never, Gally!’ Gallabee was ready to seize the opportunity.
‘What is?’ Gally tried to sound innocent.
‘Fly us up into the sky or else ill do it for you!’ gally could all ready pressure building in the shoulders of her mac as if Gallbee was trying to grow wings again.
‘Who said anything about flying up there?’
‘HOW ELSE ARE WE GOING TO GET UP THERE?’ Gallabee couldn’t have sounded more enraged.
‘We live in Glenaraah, you boiling kettle head! Its hardly possible to walk ten feet with out having climb something. I bet if we could climb up the side of fairyland hill or up on to the roof of goof mansion that be high enough to get a good measure of what were dealing with here, even our own back garden got a good vantage po….’
‘Hey this better not be just an excuse to get home quickly so you can get in another nap, cause none of those ideas sound as good as flying. Anyway, I don’t wanna take just a look. I want to find out why this monstrous-footed one is here in our city. Does he mean business? Does he bring the apocalypse with him? I’m very disappointed in you that you don’t care more about the future of the city.’
‘I want to find out too…’
‘So you’re up for an adventure, are you?’ her raincoat now asked her with all the intensity of knight about to head into a battle, ‘Or do you wanna to stay here and watch trains acting like bufferfoons!’
It was times like these Gally often found herself in two minds. There was the calm and cool Gally, usually in charge when she felt well rested and in control of things, then there was the more adventurous, more restless Gally who often made herself known after a long bout of boredom tempered by a sudden anxiety about the state of affairs. At this moment the more adventurous Gally was beginning to make her itchy feet known.
‘I was thinking,’ Gally chose her words wisely, ‘If this storm might be the end of the world as we know it, it would be shame not to be on the front line to witness it! But I’m not doing any flying to get to that front line.’
‘Come on then!’ Gallabee, was bossy to the point, ‘if they’ll be no flying, we’d better get a move on! Think think these legs are just gonna stand around waiting for us to stroll to a good viewpoint?’
As the Gnome continued to jeer at the train fight, Gally launched herself like a hunting lion at high speed along the Gnome trail, not looking back once. She needn’t have worried that much about being missed though, the Gnome’s senses were so immersed in the scuffle that he was barely aware that he was a gnome let alone that he’d just lost his quarry.
After traversing another 300m of the foot bridge the girls came to a point where the river of MOUTHS suddenly flowed down a fall of triple stairways towards a large arched foyer.
At this point Gallys attention was drawn to a Gnome holding a sign which clearly stated, ‘Warning, Gnome trail to station exit flooded, expect delays.’
Gally eyed the trail down-beam a bit to where a blocked gutter had a become a white water that poured in through a hole in the roof and drenched the rafters.
There seemed to be a back up of other Gnomes with their own Fairy children to escort slowing any progress. Seems they were waiting on a shipment of white water rafts by paw by paw.
‘Oh isn’t this a bother!’ Gallabee mused sheepishly. ‘Guess we’ll have to fly after all.’
‘No we wont. There has to be another way!’
‘Think of all the time all you Fairys waste just because you wont break the law and fly…’
‘Think of how much time would be wasted if the COC had me flung into black hole for flying?’
‘Who told you they do that? The worse thing that can happen if you fly is be branded D.U.’
‘Dangerously Undefined? Is that where they remove your tattoo and your tribe disowns you.’ Gally now clasped the irredesant fairy symbol on her shoulder possessively.
‘Yes!’
‘How could anything be worse then being branded D.U.?!’
‘I was thinking how could be anything better then being branded D.U.! If you didn’t mind having no one else to tell you what to do any more and banishment to the open wilderness to go where you please!’
‘But don’t they throw D.U.’s in into black holes?’
‘Only if they can catch you. And if you could fly they’d never catch you! Unless you stopped flying of course…’
‘Oh you’re hopeless.’ Gally couldn’t believe the level of cheek she was hearing. ‘Didn’t you ever think I might actually like living with other fairies?’
They walked on in silence until they had to reminded by a Gnome that the way ahead was seriously congested and unlikely to clear of pointy-hatted grumblers anytime soon.
‘Well I’m out of here.’ Gallabee implied as two wings unfurling twice as big as the previous pair she’d grown.
‘Cut that out!’Gally growled.
She felt a desperate need to look for other options before she lost control of her power animal and suddenly her eyes fell on the crowd in the passageway below.
‘Put your wings away!’ she said with a shrewd grin, ‘I have a better idea.’
‘This better be good!’
‘How about we catch a pocket out of the station. Some MOUTH’s bound to be heading homewards up hill from here…’
‘A ‘pocket?’’ a devious laugh came out of her rain mac, vibrating Gally all over, ‘Sounds derrangerous and reckless. Now you’re taking!’
With a bark, Gallabee had transformed into a pocket sized guard Dog which, despite all the sharp teeth, still wore her innocent-eyed mask.
‘Just in case our pocket’s host has any restless fingers.’ She said with a toothy grin.
Without another thought for any danger, Gally left the gnome trail behind, sliding down a vine from the rafters, leaping from leaf to leaf until she had reached the steeple roof-point of a Wizard rubbish bin. This was the vantage point at which to eye the various passing handbags and backside storage facilities.
‘Pick a pocket!’ She now urged Gallabee.