Location: Summit of the Lee of the Stone.

Sol 10

"Everyone firmly strapped in?"

It had taken them a good full hour of tedious pre-flight checking and safety instructing before the Jeremy was finally ready for take-off. Josh sat at the controls – a sturdy control stick for the elevator and ailerons and a pair of pedals for a rudder, not unlike on a light plane -, while his four companions lay strapped down flat between the stacked wings on either side, just like the Wright brothers did almost two centuries prior. With his HHC taped to a wooden stand in front of him, to serve as an improvised flight chart, pinpointing the way to Thorn Valley where the NIMH-One was, they were good to go.

Giving his controls one final check and securing his harness, which would keep him strapped into a seated position against the kingpost, Josh announced their departure. Sealing the visor of his spacesuit, which would shield his eyes from the wind gusts up there – something usually prevented by fairings or goggles, which he didn't have -, he turned to Ages.

"Three, two, one… Cast off!"

On Josh's command, the old inventor reached up and untied the mooring line around the kingpost; the instant it came loose, the glider began sliding down the incline on wooden rails, gathering speed. The passengers couldn't suppress a scream of terror as the glider flew over the edge of the cliff and going into a nosedive, dropping like a stone straight towards the ground far below.

Josh held the control stick steady, monitoring his airspeed on his HHC. Unlike his pod, which manoeuvred using a complex assembly of thrusters and boosters, the glider, which lacked an engine to provide thrust, was instead designed to use the force of gravity to gain the airspeed it needed to stay level in mid-air…in theory at least.

The instant he hit the calculated cruising airspeed mark, Josh gently pulled back on the control stick, levelling them out. The glider's manoeuvrability felt terribly sluggish; maybe they were overweight, or was there some fatal flaw in the design he'd overlooked? But the lower gravity of Nimh-Beta helped; suddenly, he felt a familiar surge of power all around him, allowing him to get the glider under control and arresting the dive.

Trimming the nose pitch to climb, he turned the glider into the wind. His airspeed dropping rapidly, gravity threatening to pull them back down at any second, before he felt the wind catch them in a strong updraft, pushing them skywards. Pretty soon, they were flying high above the clouds, the wind carrying them along.

Josh smiled triumphantly as he set a steady northward course for Thorn Valley. Behind them, he could see the Lee of the Stone receding into the distance, the children and Auntie Shrew waving at them from the top of the cliff. Soon, the green lush had vanished in their baffles and the endless desert stretched out to the horizon. After ten days of being stranded, Josh was finally on his way back.

Turning to look at his passengers, Josh couldn't suppress a grin at their expressions of utmost amazement, as they all stared at the ground far beneath them. Whatever doubts they may have had regarding the airworthiness of the glider had undoubtedly just been erased from their minds. Like Josh had said, flying was not some impossible fantasy, but very real and doable.

On his left, Brutus and Ages were gazing down at the view, marvelling a sight no other of their kind had ever witnessed before. Ages, in particular, was staring wide-eyed, his mouth agape with amazement, no doubt picturing the scientific revolutions that were bound to come when he introduced the 'newly discovered' secret of flying to his superiors. Brutus, on the other hand, was groaning to no end, clutching his mouth, his face an ill shade of green. With a smirk of amusement, Josh realised the burly warrior Rat had finally found his weakness: airsickness.

Feeling the contents of his stomach about to spill, Brutus buried his mouth in his elbow. He shot Josh a murderous glare, silently blaming him for his predicament. Josh only grinned back at him; that oaf had been a hindrance to him from the moment they'd first met and it sure felt good to have the shoe on the other foot for a change.

Turning to check on Elisabeth and Justin on his right, he saw the young Captain having the time of his life, laughing out loud at this amazing experience. It was like being lost in the midst of some wonderful dream - except this was very real. Even as the wind blew his hat off and swept it away, Justin took no notice, as he turned and winked at Josh, giving him the thumbs up, which the astronaut returned with a grin.

The only one not feeling the least positive about this new means of travel was Elizabeth. Her eyes shut tight in terror, the young widow mouse lay clinging on for dear life, not daring to even look at the long drop beneath her. Josh nudged Justin sharply on the shoulder, pointing out to him the ball of misery which was Elizabeth. Getting the hint, he reached out and placed a comforting arm around her, trying to reassure her.

"There, there, everything's all right, Biff. We're alive and flying…"

Elizabeth however only seemed to get more terrified at those words as she shrieked, "I don't know why I let Josh talk me into this!" Being strapped onto this flying contraption so high up utterly terrified her, making her feel as if she was about to fall. Only the thought that this journey was probably her only hope for Timmy's life kept her from pleading to Josh to take her back down. Justin continued trying to reassure her.

"When we get to Thorn Valley, we'll be the first ones to discover whether or not the Great Owl is actually real! Isn't that exciting?" said Justin, trying to cheer her up. All of them couldn't help but wonder, what would they find at Thorn Valley, if and when they got there? According to the legend, the Great Owl's domain was a sacred, forbidden place, where the god protector of all Rats lived in His legendary magical Temple.

According to Rat historians and theologists, long ago, when their early ancestors escaped enslavement from the Land of Nimh, the Owl had bestowed upon them a gift, a blessing marking the time of the Great Genesis: the first Rats had emerged onto this new earth and build their own world. Another part of the legend spoke of a second gift in the form of a powerful artefact called the Stone of All Knowledge, now long lost, which supposedly granted the bearer infinite wisdom and power, making him the chosen ruler of the Rats.

Over the centuries, numerous explorers, including Jonathan Brisby, had gone in search of Thorn Valley, hoping to find the Stone, most of them never to return. If the Great Owl was indeed real, how would He receive them? What if their presence into His sacred domain provoked the Owl's wrath? The very prospect of meeting an owl face to face, not to mention an owl god, had Elizabeth on edge. She recoiled in Justin's embrace.

"Owls eat mice!"

An hour passed in silence, interrupted only by the occasional jolt whenever they'd hit a pocket of turbulence. Josh flawlessly kept the glider level and on course. Beneath them, the endless desolation of sand dunes and reddish-oxide rocks stretched out in every direction. Scattered down there somewhere were also no doubt the dried bones of past seekers of Thorn Valley, dead from hunger or the cold of the desert. Perhaps they would end up joining them? Suddenly, Ages called out.

"Look, I see the Dark Mountains!"

Sure enough, looking up ahead where the old inventor was pointing at, Josh saw a vast mountain range, the peaks partially obscured by a permanent bank of fog, thicker than the worst London bog. The wind was carrying them straight towards the mountains.

Josh now realised where these infamous mountains got their name; even at first glance, it was obvious the Dark Mountains was a frightening place to explore. With some of the peaks towering several thousand feet high and separated by similarly deep canyons and ravines, all engulfed in this pea-soup, the place resembled the ends of the world. Formed by blackish volcanic rock, barren as the surrounding desert, the Dark Mountains were also the perfect refuge for outlaws.

Up in those virtually unreachable peaks, with their steep cliffs, deep canyons and secret caves, the Exiles had a natural-occurring sanctuary of massive proportions all to themselves. With the natural hazards of the mountains working to their advantage against any intruders, the Exiles could have their stronghold anywhere. Even up on the glider, Josh felt uneasy, knowing that if something went wrong, forcing them down into the mountains, they'd be lucky to escape with their lives, safe landing or not.

Unlike the smooth flying over the desert, the weather up here was noticeably rougher from updrafts and gusts blowing between the mountains, shaking the glider as they flew between the peaks. Visibility dropped to near zero as they flew through storm clouds, trying to reach the far side of the mountain range. Josh could feel the glider vibrating dangerously from all that turbulence, forcing him to use every ounce of skill he possessed to retain control against nature's ruthless assault. But his problems were only just beginning.

Glancing at his HHC for another navigation reading, he suddenly realised the screen had gone blank with static. Something was interfering, disrupting his data reception; even his magnetic compass had gone haywire, spinning like a top. In an instant, he understood what was going on.

Magnetic rock… Just what we need…

With no visibility and with his instruments now out of service too, he continued flying blind between the peaks as they materialised seemingly out of nowhere in this greyness engulfing them, trying to keep them moving in a straight line. Elizabeth, Justin, Ages and Brutus fearfully clung onto their harnesses, their lives now in Josh's hands. Any minute now, they expected their pilot to miss one of those peaks and send them smack into the side of some mountain… But Josh knew his business up in the air.

Before they knew it, the turbulence ceased and the glider cleared the fog bank, as they reached the far side of the mountain range. But where the edge of the desert should be, instead, there was a vast green valley stretching out for miles. They all stared in amazement at the legendary Thorn Valley.

"We found it, friends!" cried Justin, raising his arm skywards in a gesture of triumph, "We've found Thorn Valley!" On the other side, Ages was looking so giddy, he could kiss Brutus on the lips in delight. Even Elizabeth had momentarily forgotten her fear of heights, as she gazed in awe at the legendary place her husband had sought all his life.

Personally, Josh could only agree that this Thorn Valley place was indeed a beautiful spot: separated from the desert by towering cliffs on either side, the Valley was a real paradise, much larger and greener than any of the pastures he'd seen so far. Fed by rivers from melting snow coming down from the mountains and ending in a vast lake in the centre of the Valley, Thorn Valley was definitely rich in vegetation and animal life, enough to sustain a sizeable community if it were ever colonised and developed. Josh's mind however was currently elsewhere.

Turning back to his HHC, which had automatically rebooted after they had cleared the magnetic interference of the mountains, he saw that they were literally on top of the homing signal from his ship, now stronger than ever. They were approaching the landing site of the NIMH-One! But as he surveyed the green landscape, there wasn't a trace of a spaceship to be seen. The jungle canopy below appeared completely undisturbed.

Where the hell is it? Where can it be...?

It made no sense whatsoever. There was no doubt the signal was the NIMH-One's transponder beacon. There was no way he could be picking up some false signal – not only was it obvious by now that radio technology was completely unheard of on this planet, but the NIMH-One also used special encrypted frequencies, which could only be intercepted by the ship's own hardware. Even if some savant Rat had invented some crude radio or spark-gap transmitter, it could never duplicate the ship's beacon signal, at least not without advanced computer technology and a broad knowledge of programming and engineering. According to his HHC, he should be right on top of the target. So where the hell was it?

Beginning to grow desperate, Josh tried his suit radio, "NIMH-One, NIMH-One, come in! This is Captain Anderson, approaching in the blind. I'm picking up your signal but have no visual; please confirm location. Over." But there was only static, all frequencies silent. What was going on here? Why weren't they answering him? Ages' sudden cry diverted his attention.

"Great Jupiter, there it is, I see it! The Temple of the Great Owl!"

Close to the edge of the lake in the centre of the Valley was an ancient-looking structure, resembling a cone-shaped pyramid, barely visible through the thick vegetation engulfing it. Tilted spires, resembling buttresses, which seemed to be part of the Temple's architecture, protruded above the jungle canopy, marking the site, but otherwise there was no sign of any intelligent being having ever set foot here before. But Josh couldn't care less. He still hadn't found what he'd come here for.

Well, good for you, pops, so we found your bloody Owl Temple! So where the hell is my bloody ship? Consulting his HHC again, he was even more puzzled by the readings, realising that the signal seemed to be coming directly from that godforsaken Temple.

"Look out!"

Suddenly, a terrified scream from Elizabeth caught them all off-guard. Looking over his shoulder, Josh saw, with a chill of horror, a giant hawk, monstrous in size, swooping down on them. Its foreboding shadow fell across the glider, its razor-sharp beak wide open, hungry for fresh meat, its massive claws extended for the kill.

Putting aside all thoughts of his ship, Josh took evasive action; grasping the control column, he sent the glider into a belly-roll, barely missing the hawk's exposed talons. But the party had only just begun. Circling around, the hawk was upon them again. Josh silently cursed Brutus for destroying his gun; had he still had a weapon handy, they wouldn't be sitting ducks now. He and Justin still had their own weapons of course; but what good were a sword and a battle-axe against a flying beast that size?

With nothing to fight back with and nowhere fast enough to outrun that monster, Josh continued doing every acrobatic manoeuvre he knew from his days as a fighter pilot, desperately trying to shake off their pursuing attacker. But the hawk showed no sign of giving up the chase any time soon. They needed something, anything, to repel it with.

"Justin, I need your help here," he bellowed to the Rat, who was grasping the terrified Elizabeth's hand reassuringly, "I want you to reach into my kit behind me and get the flare gun. Hurry!" Undoing the shoulder straps of his harness so he could move, Justin reached for Josh's kit, tied securely to the kingpost behind its owner. After several tense seconds – mostly due to his ignorance of human gadgets -, he pulled out the flare pistol from its holster and passed it to Josh.

Making sure it was loaded, Josh turned the glider around, so that they were facing the enemy head-on. Ahead of them, the hawk prepared to make another run. One hand firmly grasping the control stick, he discharged the safety catch, preparing to fire. Taking aim, he sent the flare flying straight towards the hawk, which, spooked by the flame, easily whooshed sideways to avoid it. The flare burst into a red star in its baffles, without hitting anything.

"Damn! Reload, hurry up!"

His heart pounding furiously throughout every second that Justin wasted trying to find him a spare cartridge from the kit, Josh hastily reloaded the pistol. Keeping them locked on a head-on collision course with the hawk, he took aim, this time holding his fire for as long as he dared. He knew he only had one shot at this; if he missed, by the time he could reload again, they'd all be history.

His companions all screamed in unison, watching the hawk about to slam into them, its sabre-sized talons exposed, ready to tear the glider apart. Just as the beast came literally within arm's reach, Josh fired. This time, the flare found its mark directly into the creature's open beak; the hawk screeched as its head burst into a red-hot fireball.

Unfortunately, by firing at such close range, Josh had waited a second too late; before he could move out of the way, the dying hawk slammed right into them, its exposed talons tearing through the nylon skin of the glider. The force of the momentum sent the glider into a roll. Josh fought to regain control, thinking maybe the collision might have damaged the control linkages, which would inevitably spell out disaster. But it wasn't the controls.

"Help! I'm slipping!"

Looking to his left, he saw Elizabeth's harness had been severed from where the hawk's talons had grazed them, and was coming loose. Before the words had even past her lips, the harness gave way. They all watched in horror as the young mouse was instantly swept off, leaving her desperately clinging onto the edge of the wing for dear life, about to lose her grip any second now and fall to her death.

Justin wasted no time. He reached out, trying to grab Elizabeth's hand, "Come on, Biff, just reach out to me! You can do this!" Mustering every last ounce of courage she had, Elizabeth tried reaching out with one hand, her eyes tearful, thinking she was about to die. But Justin's hand was well out of her reach.

"I…I can't reach! Please, I don't want to die…!"

"I'm coming to you. Hold on!" Justin was about to go off-harness, so he could reach out farther, but Josh stopped him, "No, stay strapped in, or you'll both fall!" Justin rounded desperately on Josh.

"We have to do something! Get this thing on the ground now! Hurry, before she falls…!"

"There's no time for that! We'll have to do this another way. Brutus!" He turned to Brutus on his other side, "All right, you big oaf, time for your first flying lesson. Reach out and grab the stick…"

"What in the name of the Great Owl are you going to do?"

"Just shut up and do as I say!" snapped Josh incredulously, "Take the bloody control stick, now!" Shooting Josh a glare for ordering him around, Brutus reluctantly obeyed and grabbed one edge of the control column.

"Ten-second crash course in flying," Josh went on, imitating stick movements with his arm, "To climb, you pull back on the stick – only a fraction of an inch, mind you, and gently. Likewise, you push forward for descent; same principles apply for left or right roll. So if you feel the glider start pitching or trimming in any way, counteract it, but try and keep it as steady as possible. I'm going off-harness now, but I'll be talking you through it all the way and I need you ready to respond at every command I give you without question! You understand?" Brutus nodded, "Good."

With another pilot handling the controls, Josh undid his harness and, grasping the kingpost firmly with his legs, leaned out to Justin, "All right, I'm going to anchor your legs down; I need you to go off-harness and reach out to Elizabeth. Quickly now!" A team player all his life, which was part of the Rats' definition of military merit, Justin instantly sprang into action. With Josh securely anchoring his legs down so he wouldn't fall, he was able to reach out far enough across the wing and grab Elizabeth in the nick of time. But the crisis wasn't over yet.

With the three of them strung out across the wind like a human/Rat caterpillar, upsetting the weight distribution, and with Brutus making clumsy, amateurish trim corrections on Josh's instructions, they were throwing the glider off-balance, quickly losing altitude. They had to get back into their seats now, to prepare for landing. Meanwhile, Justin still wasn't having much luck with Elizabeth.

"Come on, Biff, look at me!" he called out, "Try and climb over my shoulders and reach out to Josh! Biff!" But poor Elizabeth was petrified, clinging onto Justin's hands, her eyes shut tight in fear, showing no indication that he had even heard him. They were stuck.

Under normal circumstances, any sensible soldier would probably resolve to just letting her go, least it risk the lives of everyone onboard. But the thought of her children growing up parentless because he had personally persuaded their mother to join them on this ride got the better of Josh. No, either he'd save her, or they'd all go down together, with him taking full responsibility.

Come on, Joshua you bleeder, think, think, think…!

"All right, Brutus, roll us hard over to starboard – to the right!" he bellowed over his shoulder, "Do it now!"

"Wait, what are you doing?" shouted Ages from the other side, realising what Josh meant to do, "Why are you turning us over?! You'll kill us all!"

"We're going to use the force of gravity to slide us back into place," Josh explained without even looking at Ages, as he tightened his grip on Justin, bracing himself, "Do it, Brutus!" The warrior Rat obeyed, pulling the control stick hard to the right and causing the glider to roll sideways. This, in turn, caused the centre of gravity to shift sideways, along with Elizabeth's weight, who slipped forward, straight into Justin's embrace.

Josh hurryingly reached over Justin's back and grabbed Elizabeth by her cape collar. He pulled her over onto his lap and strapped her into his harness with him. Beside him, Justin also slid back into his own seat and strapped himself in. Mission accomplished! But there was no time for celebrating however as Josh realised that all this erratic manoeuvring had cost them precious altitude, leaving them gliding only a few feet above the ground, the glider threatening to crash into the treetops.

Without enough airspeed to regain altitude, Josh frantically looked around for a favourable landing site. Unfortunately, despite its natural splendour, Thorn Valley, with its thick jungle foliage, was hardly a promising spot to use as an airstrip. Trees, trees and more trees could be seen everywhere, on every inch of ground…except for one place: out on the lake.

Oh great, does this mean another ditch? I'd love to see where my horoscope is set for today, thought Josh, considering his options. Attempting to crash-land in the trees would be guaranteed suicide; on the other hand, the glider was not designed for a water landing either. Physics withstanding, the instant it touched down on the lake, it would flip it over onto its back and smash up, killing them all. Then, he saw it: the shoreline.

Although he couldn't be sure whether it was clear of hazards or not, at least it was long enough for use as a makeshift runway. Of course, taking off again afterwards from the bottom of the Valley would be one hell of a problem, perhaps impossible, but who cared about that once he was reunited with his crew?

Lining up, Josh brought the glider in for landing; with no flaps or speed breaks to slow down, he resorted to gently nudging the nose upwards as they came in, careful not to trim up too much and cause a stall. The ground slowly came up to meet them…

Suddenly, the undercarriage slammed down hard on the sandy shoreline. Josh pulled back hard on the control stick, trimming the elevator nose up, as far as it would go, trying to slow them down, only to realise a fatal factor he'd failed to take into consideration during construction: with their combined weight all centred up front, leaving the tail without any ballast to anchor it down, was causing the nose to tilt forward at a dangerous angle, threatening to overturn them.

Josh frantically kept the elevator trimmed at a steep upward angle, struggling to keep the nose level. If they tumbled over now, the glider would cartwheel into destruction and they'd end up in pieces smash all over the shoreline. Suddenly, the undercarriage struck a log, and this time, it was beyond Josh's control. The glider went tilting violently downwards nose-first, burrowing headlong into the ground, before finally coming to an abrupt halt, battered, but still in one piece.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for flying Anderson Airlines!" muttered Josh, he and Elizabeth now lying strapped in a vertical position because of the tilted glider, feeling his heart racing with relief. Not exactly a smooth landing, but a definite improvement from his previous landing on Nimh-Beta. They had done it; they'd reached Thorn Valley at last!

Up on the cliff overlooking the Valley, a bunch of thickset Rats, armed to the teeth and dressed in rough tunics befitting their rough lifestyle, were watching the explorers' arrival. In the lead was Castor, who had made a night's hard ride to reach Thorn Valley ahead of Josh's group. Following his master's instructions, he and his men had followed one of their secret trails through the mountains, down to Thorn Valley, just in time to spot the glider coming in to land.

"Looks like the human and his party have arrived," said Castor with smug satisfaction. It seemed his Lord's assumption that they'd make it this far had been correct after all.

"So, do we kill them now, boss?" asked his lieutenant, a mean-looking Rat called Tristian, "We can ambush them at the Temple and slit their throats. I'm pretty sure they have some weapons or trinkets of value we can help ourselves to. Personally, I'd settle for that cute little mousie tart. From the looks of her, she'd make a charming trophy concubine…"

"Silence, you fool, and listen!" snarled Castor, "Don't forget, we're under specific instructions on this one, so nobody does anything without orders! Do I make myself clear?" His minions instantly fell silent and nodded; the code of command among the Exile clan was harsh, and disobedience towards their leader meant death on principal.

"You go in after dark," Castor continued, "Kill them all, but make sure you capture the human alive – and the Brisby widow too, if you can. We could use some leverage. Also, make sure you seize that flying contraption of theirs and bring it back to the hideout with you. Lord Jenner thinks it could be a useful addition to our collection. And no mistakes or it's death for the lot of you!"

Author's note: My apologies for the lengthy delay, but my army service still has a long way to go. Right now, I'm on Christmas leave for a week, so I will try and submit one chapter for each of my stories. Maybe, I'll be able to upload one more chapter by New Year. Enjoy and have a Merry Christmas!