Ellie Quin Episode 5: A Girl Reborn by Alex Scarrow Read Free Book Online

‘Or home base, if you don’t know what the word ‘redoubt’ means.’
    They were standing roughly in the middle of a gentle valley half a mile wide. At the top of each slope, on either side of them, stood a small castle. One was a salmon pink, the other a pastel blue.
    ‘Ellie, you will be playing the red side, Jez you are the blue.’
    ‘So what do we do then? We going to trash each other’s castles?’ asked Jez impatiently.
    ‘No. The objective of this wargame is to capture and return to your castle…a tactical
totem
.’
    Ellie looked around. She was expecting a flag or a banner, after all that’s what Shelby had called this template; a ‘capture the flag’ scenario. She could only see clusters of those tall drooping melon-head plants, the shoulder-high mini-alpine mountain rock formations…and…
    …
surely not?
…
That's the
'
totem'
?
    A large green and orange ball.
    Shelby noticed her looking at it. ‘Yes…that giant peach.’ He sighed and rolled his eyes. ‘Another of Graham’s ideas, the peach…not mine.’
    ‘I did some research on Old Earth fairy tales,’ said Gray. ‘There was a very famous one called Jane and The Giant Peach, I think. Seemed like a neat idea. Big-ass peach.’
    ‘Anyway,’ Shelby continued, ‘the army that can transport that ball back to its castle is the winner. That, is essentially it.’
    ‘Where are our armies?’ asked Ellie.
    ‘They’re waiting for you up in your castles,’ replied Gray.
    ‘I will take Ellie to meet her's,’ said Shelby. ‘You take Jez. Shall we say one hour to let them meet their troops, plan and prepare before we sound the starting klaxon?’
    Gray nodded. ‘One hour.’
    ‘And no creaping out before! No sneak-getting the high ground! No cheating Graham, all right? I'm serious. I'm sick and tired of you-’
    'Relax.' Gray shrugged and grinned. ‘Shelbs…it’s just a game, man. Just a bit of fun for the girls.’
    ‘No…I’m serious. It is
not
a proper game if people
cheat
. It's pointless chaos. When people start cheating it simply becomes a complete waste of everyone’s time.’
    ‘Relax. No sneaking out, I promise.’
    Shelby turned away and led Ellie up the slope towards her pink castle. ‘The last war game we played, he smuggled in some reinforcements.
Cheating
, it really makes a mockery of the whole damned thing.’
    They picked their way up the hill and nearing the top of the slope Ellie turned and looked back at the world. The ground seemed to glow like a rolling blanket of lava under the warm glow of the sun. The craggy razor peaks of the miniature mountains cast clearly defined geometric purple tinted shadows while clouds of bubble-creatures drifted lazily on the breeze. The world even
smelled
inviting.The air seemed to have citrusy tang to it, as if someone close by was juicing oranges.
    It
’
s so beautiful
. She wondered if the real universe contained any worlds or landscapes that were as visually inviting as this one.
    ‘Here we are,’ said Shelby. He reached for the handle of the thick oak door leading into her castle. ‘Your army awaits you.’
    He pushed the heavy door inwards to reveal a small courtyard, surrounded by high pink crenellated walls….and there, before her, filling the courtyard, a carpet of fur and pairs of dark beady eyes that studied her intently.
    She felt intimidated by the sight of so many of them.
    It might not have been quite so bad if, under many of those pairs of beady black eyes, there hadn’t been lines of sharp jagged canine teeth protruding from bulging leathery lips, and further down, on the end of their short stocky, muscular, arms, long sickle shaped claws that looked like they could gut a person with one easy swipe.
    ‘They understand rudimentary english, by the way. You won’t get Frasier-level conversation out of them, but they’ll understand simple instructions. Think of them as children.’
    Ellie nodded.
    'Well there you go….they're all yours. So, what do I