Sentence The Threehundredandfifteenth
And in the Cavern, the friends had been busy: their patients - Doubleday and the unknown man - still breathed, though showed no signs of regaining consciousness and all they had been able to do for them – despite Bernie's deep and visceral desire to kill Doubleday – had been to give them sips of water, slowly so that their swallowing reflex could handle it in their unconscious state; and Bernie, aware that if they managed to leave with Thomas, the patients would die of dehydration quickly, had taught Umm to do the same for them, though she was convinced that it was only a matter of time anyway till they both succumbed; and there had been a fever of excitement as they prepared for the Full Moon which, for no logical reason, they believed would be the moment when they would return to their own times; this was tinged with considerable sadness for the girls, because it would mean a leave-taking of Thomas, of whom they had grown so fond; Tavish discussed this with them both, acknowledging their natural desire to remain in touch with him, but patiently explaining the impossibility of that and pointing out that if he did not return to his own time, to his wife and sons, perhaps to have another child, certainly be an influence on those he already had and relate his years in Fairyland, then the future lives of a lot of people would be irrevocably altered; this was hard for them to accept, but they both understood the necessity of it; and so it was that, on the night of the full moon, the four friends had made their way to what Thomas believed to be the exact spot on which he
had been sitting, dreaming and where he had been attacked by the ruffians who had dealt him a vicious blow to the head and presumably stolen his purse, which he no longer had when he had awakened in The Cavern; and as midnight approached, and strange lights appeared in the sky: “it's the Northern Lights,” explained Tavish to Thomas, who had the necessarily finitary list of 'predictions' – some of which would prove to be true in his own lifetime, though most would be posthumous, something none of them had actually said that out loud, yet all knew it as a fact – which the others had amassed and scribbled on a piece of dried skin – poor quality as parchment, but sufficient for their purposes and it carried the charcoal reasonably well, and he would keep his sources sub rosa or, as Tavish put it, strictly entre nous; and they all held hands, possibly for the last time, for they had no understanding of what, if anything, would happen to them: Tammy and Bernie having visions of The Tardis travelling through a vortex to the electronic music of Doctor Who; and they each held tight and for what had seemed an eternity until . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the lightning seemed to shatter the night sky, beneath which they sat, still linked and holding their breaths, each with their own dreams, wishes and fears – Thomas, with the parchment tucked into the folds of the animal skins which he had wrapped around himself, desperately hoping to see his wife and sons and the castellated country of his own Times; Bernie and Tammy, united in their love for each other and thinking of their dear friends at home who must surely be wondering where they are; and Tavish, so brutally wounded by his twin brother, as Cain had slain Abel, betrayed by the one person whom he should be able to trust above all others; and as the sky seemed to shake and splinter, in what felt like slow motion, no doubt caused by the adrenaline which flooded their nervous systems, they watched the lightning fork as it
approached and reach such an intensity of whiteness as it lit up their small group for that millisecond before it struck, and POUF! they were gone! and nothing remained to show that they had ever been there, save faint shadows on the earth where they had sat, but so faint were they that they would never be noticed by morning-time and only one watcher, one of the Cave women, who had stealthily followed them from a distance and had lain, silently observing, and in some way wondering what they were doing, had seen, but was also struck by the lightning and so she too vanished, leaving no-one to report why this group had all disappeared in the night!
And in the Cavern, the friends had been busy: their patients - Doubleday and the unknown man - still breathed, though showed no signs of regaining consciousness and all they had been able to do for them – despite Bernie's deep and visceral desire to kill Doubleday – had been to give them sips of water, slowly so that their swallowing reflex could handle it in their unconscious state; and Bernie, aware that if they managed to leave with Thomas, the patients would die of dehydration quickly, had taught Umm to do the same for them, though she was convinced that it was only a matter of time anyway till they both succumbed; and there had been a fever of excitement as they prepared for the Full Moon which, for no logical reason, they believed would be the moment when they would return to their own times; this was tinged with considerable sadness for the girls, because it would mean a leave-taking of Thomas, of whom they had grown so fond; Tavish discussed this with them both, acknowledging their natural desire to remain in touch with him, but patiently explaining the impossibility of that and pointing out that if he did not return to his own time, to his wife and sons, perhaps to have another child, certainly be an influence on those he already had and relate his years in Fairyland, then the future lives of a lot of people would be irrevocably altered; this was hard for them to accept, but they both understood the necessity of it; and so it was that, on the night of the full moon, the four friends had made their way to what Thomas believed to be the exact spot on which he
had been sitting, dreaming and where he had been attacked by the ruffians who had dealt him a vicious blow to the head and presumably stolen his purse, which he no longer had when he had awakened in The Cavern; and as midnight approached, and strange lights appeared in the sky: “it's the Northern Lights,” explained Tavish to Thomas, who had the necessarily finitary list of 'predictions' – some of which would prove to be true in his own lifetime, though most would be posthumous, something none of them had actually said that out loud, yet all knew it as a fact – which the others had amassed and scribbled on a piece of dried skin – poor quality as parchment, but sufficient for their purposes and it carried the charcoal reasonably well, and he would keep his sources sub rosa or, as Tavish put it, strictly entre nous; and they all held hands, possibly for the last time, for they had no understanding of what, if anything, would happen to them: Tammy and Bernie having visions of The Tardis travelling through a vortex to the electronic music of Doctor Who; and they each held tight and for what had seemed an eternity until . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the lightning seemed to shatter the night sky, beneath which they sat, still linked and holding their breaths, each with their own dreams, wishes and fears – Thomas, with the parchment tucked into the folds of the animal skins which he had wrapped around himself, desperately hoping to see his wife and sons and the castellated country of his own Times; Bernie and Tammy, united in their love for each other and thinking of their dear friends at home who must surely be wondering where they are; and Tavish, so brutally wounded by his twin brother, as Cain had slain Abel, betrayed by the one person whom he should be able to trust above all others; and as the sky seemed to shake and splinter, in what felt like slow motion, no doubt caused by the adrenaline which flooded their nervous systems, they watched the lightning fork as it approached and reach such an intensity of whiteness as it lit up their small group for that millisecond before it struck, and POUF! they were gone! and nothing remained to show that they had ever been there, save faint shadows on the earth where they had sat, but so faint were they that they would never be noticed by morning-time and only one watcher, one of the Cave women, who had stealthily followed them from a distance and had lain, silently observing, and in some way wondering what they were doing, had seen, but was also struck by the lightning and so she too vanished, leaving no-one to report why this group had all disappeared in the night!
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