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The octopus awoke only during the first sunset. His body had almost regained its healthy blue color, but there were still purple spots in places. Snorri snorted loudly and did not respond to attempts to wake him. Raud slowly floated through the air to the doll and let out a few bubbles of gratitude:
"Thank you, woody. I was sure we were going to die."
"Are you all right?" the doll asked.
"Alive. But the burns are still there. I'm afraid it's going to take a long time to heal," the octopus gurgled and turned to the man.
Snorri crawled under the shadow of another rock and curled up.
"It's time to wake up this pile of meat," Raud winked at the doll.
He swam up to the big guy and again slammed him in the face with a tentacle. Snorri jumped up and hit the rock above his head.
"What are you doing, you cephalopod?" he wailed, half asleep.
"It's going to get cold soon, we should get to the gorge, you have a bad cough, and it looks like I have a fever, too."
Snorri rubbed his eyes and the bruised back of his head, and then stood up. But his strength did not want to return to him. Staggering, he leaned against a rock and somehow managed to get up. When he noticed the stream, he went to it, knelt down, and drank again. He wiped his mouth with his hand and, still on all fours, panted. Water was dripping from his lips, and his eyes were bulging and wild, like those of an animal. But he found the strength to pull himself together, got to his feet again, and looked around.
"How did we get here?" he asked in a husky voice.
The octopus pointed its tentacle at the animated one, who was sitting in the deep shadows and studying the man intently.
"Ahem," was the only thing Snorri said.
"Don't expect any thanks from him," Raud gurgled sarcastically, "He's the rudest bumpkin I know."
"Bloody log," the doll nodded and laughed unexpectedly to itself.
The laugh, created from the squeak of the gears and the rattle of the springs, was unnaturally metallic, but a laugh nonetheless. The doll was surprised at itself and wrapped its arms around its chest, frightened that something might pop out of it. The octopus, on the other hand, was resting several tentacles on the ground and letting out some hiccuping bubbles.
"Idiots," stated Snorri.
He staggered toward the mountains, but immediately stumbled and fell, causing his companions to burst into laughter.
By nightfall, they had reached the gorge between the rocks where the stream flowed, and they took shelter from the wind in a small cave. There Snorri, barely able to stand on his feet, made a fire from the dry twigs he had picked up along the way. He easily struck a spark from the splinters of rock he had picked up and went back to sleep, telling the doll to plant twigs in the fire so that the flames would not go out before morning. Raud settled away from the flames and stared at the narrow strip of sky between the rocks.
"What do they call you, anyway?" the octopus asked, laying his head on a flat rock.
The doll looked at him puzzled. And the one who had no name yet became aware of his presence for the first time. He tried to associate himself with some word he'd managed to hear, but couldn't find the right one.
The feeling that he existed and that he was experiencing it all by himself, apart from everything else, so overwhelmed him that he immediately forgot the question. Until that moment, he had somehow not separated himself from what was happening, from these unexpected companions, the heat, the chase. But now that he thought about it, he could distinguish himself as a separate individual in all that was happening, and the feeling was so new and unexpected that he stood up. Then he sat up again and searched his whole body, getting even under his visor and under the armor that protected his chest.
"Where... do they call?" the animated one could hardly find the words.
"Not where, but what," corrected the octopus. "It's 'what do they call you,' not 'where do they call you,' you know?"
"You know," the doll nodded, stood up again, and asked, "Pinocchio?"
"No, no, that was the name of a whaler on the redbone coast. He was a doll, too, but alive. Though it looks like you're alive, as well. He was a reckless fellow, no brains at all. Swallowed by a whale along with the crew of his ship."
"A whale?" the doll wondered.
"Well, it's such a big thing. About the size of a big airship, a zeppelin, have you ever seen a zeppelin?" Raud asked, but the doll shook its head, and he went on to explain, "Well, like a medium-sized high-rise house, only three times as long and thicker, and it floats in the depths."
He looked at the surprised doll, lifted his head and slapped his forehead with his tentacle.
"There's no point in talking to you, you haven't even seen the sea. You all live here and have never seen the sea. I honestly don't know what to live for if there is no sea," he said sadly, lying back down on the rock and raising his eyes to the stars.
The doll came and sat beside him, its arms around its knees, and it was staring at the fragment of the sky, too.
"Where is the sea?" asked the one who had no name.
"Far away," waved the octopus somewhere to the southwest.
"Hurry up the sea?" the doll asked, also waving its hand to the southwest.
"No, no," grinned the octopus, "We're going to the Free City. We'll never make it to the sea."
"Free City?" the doll said and waved to the south.
"Yes, in the sunrise," Raud nodded, "In the heart of the great ridge."
The doll looked in that direction.
"I'm going to sleep, and you do not forget about the fire, or we will freeze again, and with my health rapid changes are harmful," gurgled the octopus and closed his eyes.
The one who had no name yet jumped to his feet and ran to the nearly extinguished fire. He put a couple of twigs in it and was relieved to see the flames go up.
"Don't forget to think of a name," the octopus gurgled, half asleep, and sniffled.
But the doll did not hear his words; it was consumed with a sense of relief that it had time to support the sparkling red flame. All the feelings were new and poignant, and it took time for the one who had just begun to be given a name to experience them deeply and to the end.
In the morning, when the twigs ran out, he was still pondering. He called out, but no name came. As he followed the growing thought process, he often sank into the experiences and images it caused. The most recent was the upset. He didn't know it himself yet, but he was experiencing it fully. He shook his head, then stood up and began to stroll back and forth, then strode and shook his head at the same time.
When Raud finally opened his eyes, the doll was already sitting beside him, pleading:
"Help! Stupid doll!"
The octopus did not immediately understand what it was about, but, shaking off sleep from his eyes, quickly discerned the state of his companion.
"Stop the panic. It doesn't make that much difference whether you have a name or not."
"How stop?" the doll rattled pleadingly.
"How, think of something else," the octopus gurgled irritably in a voice that had not completely overcome sleep.
The doll stood up and walked slowly toward the fire, which blinked a scarlet flame for the last time and emitted a puff of smoke. The one who had just started to think of a name began to try hard to think of something else. But different names kept popping into his head, as if there were a machine gun somewhere, firing them out at an incredible rate. This association with the machine gun struck him. After all, he didn't know the name for it yet, but the concept of a rapid-fire weapon was familiar to him for some reason. He remembered the escape from the prison, how a stream of glowing lights flew into the big guy's back, and relieved, he sat down next to the fire.
The octopus, who had been cowering on a rock all this time, got up and flew to the stream, where he washed his body and, batting his eyes, asked:
"Bellflower?"
The doll, plucked from the memories of the chase that had completely gripped it, looked up at him and shrugged its shoulders as it twisted the 'Bellflower' in its head.
"Well, okay," Raud pondered, "Eftebeneug?"
The doll tilted its head to the side and squinted its eyes.
"Yes, yes, I agree, a silly suggestion," the octopus hesitated and doused himself again with water from the stream.
Snorri wiggled in his place and raised himself without opening his eyes.
"Will you ever stop blabbing?" he bellowed, stood up, and staggered to the stream, too.
"Good morning to you too, sleeping beauty," the octopus gurgled sarcastically and splashed water at the man.
Snorri looked at him, squinted his eyes, shook his head, and knelt down to drink.
"Pantalonius?" the octopus asked, turning to the doll.
The doll tried to repeat Snorri's squint.
"Imitate this soulless pile of meat?" surprised the octopus. "Well, there you go, Brochaff!"
And Raud splashed water on the one being named, and so deftly that he got it right in the painted eyes. The octopus laughed, and the doll removed the soaked paint from its right eye. Snorri looked contemptuously at both of them and continued washing his face.
The companions walked along the gorge, hopping from bank to bank in search of a more convenient path. The stream, like the gorge, grew wider, becoming a small river. There were trees on the slopes, and all around was overgrown with moss and fine grass. The one being named looked at the plants with amazement. He had never seen such flora and had no idea there could be so much green at once. He wanted to jump out of himself with joy, and he ran up and inhaled through the cracks of his wooden head the scent of every flower that came his way. He would run far ahead of his companions, full of euphoria, to enjoy nature, freezing in place for a while. When Snorri and Raud were already far ahead, he would rush to catch up with them.
"I think we're traveling with an underage idiot," the big guy muttered.
"You're fully hardened," the octopus gurgled back thoughtfully.
"And I see you, invertebrate, have found a new friend?" Snorri grinned.
"And you haven't?" Raud seemed surprised. "If it weren't for him, we'd have been invited to dinner by the desert dwellers. And not as guests."
The man shook his head and continued on his way. And the octopus shouted to the straggling doll:
"Chick?"
"Why didn't you put the building down?" the doll's ringing voice echoed through the gorge.
"Yes, why, by the way?" Snorri turned and looked reproachfully at the octopus.
Raud looked up at him with surprised and attentive eyes:
"Oh! You wanted to drown them all?"
"They deserved it," said the big guy.
"Who deserved it?" the octopus squinted his eyes and floated to the man's face level, "Policemen who were doing their duty, or prisoners who could be both guilty and innocent? Both had families..."
"You haven't seen those who dwell there, but I have!" Snorri bellowed, so that a few stones fell into the gorge behind them. The big guy looked back and continued, but more quietly:
"I've been there before, I've seen those washed there by the river of life, and believe me, death is the best way out for them."
He slapped himself on the thigh in anger, then lightly slammed the bound and bandaged bag on his side.
"You haven't seen what they did to Lila. Those monsters burned her whole, just like they burned creature like you. Do you understand? She was ashes and just the top of her head," he hissed through his teeth as his eyes filled with blood.
"Guys like me were burned by other people, now they're gone," the octopus said angrily, turned away, and flew on, "Father will think of something."
"You keep hoping for a miracle, and you almost got us caught."
"I don't. It was a lunar day, no one would have thought to look for us in the desert."
Snorri turned his head toward the octopus, rubbed his eyes with his sleeve, and hurried forward after the doll that had already run off into the distance.
The gorge, rising higher and higher between two slopes, ended with a waterfall that stretched high up into a large mountain range, an impregnable wall that towered in front of the travelers. Its sheer mass framed the waterfall in caves washed out by other branches of the river that had filled up in the old days. The top, which was much higher, was a flat plateau that cut off the blue of the sky with the sun peeking out from behind it in a straight strip.
The big guy stopped and looked up. There was no hint of a path or passageway on the almost white, steep surface. The octopus stopped nearby and said thoughtfully:
"I won't fly that high, don't even ask me to."
"Like I was really hoping you would," the big guy grinned sarcastically and moved toward the waterfall.
The suns were just over the ridge, and the water shone with white shimmer, blinding Snorri. The doll, running unstoppable after the butterfly it had just discovered, stopped dead in its tracks, and if it had a mouth, it would certainly have opened it. The man, not paying any attention to the surrounding beauty, walked up to the waterfall and disappeared into it.
"So much for the miracle," the octopus said in surprise and followed the big guy.
When he disappeared into the waterfall, the doll cautiously followed its companions, fearing to frighten away the shimmering magic. Its chest was heaving, and the one they couldn't find a name for collapsed unconscious on the moss-covered rocks.
He came to his senses in the semi-darkness under the big guy's armpit. Snorri was scrambling between the sharp ledges in the narrow gap between the rocks, showing wonders of flexibility. The octopus flashed just ahead. Some rocks glowed with an inner greenish light, as if it were transparent.
"Get down," said the octopus, and the big guy crouched and crawled nimbly under the glittering ledge.
The wind blew, and Goody knew the way out was close. And then he suddenly realized that he had a name. He made a groaning sound, and Snorri hummed:
"Woke up at last."
"Yes," Raud gurgled ahead, "Sleep helps you cope with the inevitability of life."
Goody wanted to say something, but only groaned again, because there was a blinding light ahead, and with some unexpected rapidity they were in an open space.
When the remnants of his drawn eyes adjusted, Goody saw the stone sky, split in the middle by a deep rift, and the smoothness of a huge blue lake with white islands. Astonished at what he saw, the animated one twisted his head – and the world turned upside down, presenting itself now as a deep canyon that divided a mountain plateau, covered by a dome of sky. The canyon wriggled in layers of red, white, and yellow, and extended far away, full of branches and levels, and on each were a multitude of caves where rivers flowed out and fell in waterfalls to the bottom of the canyon.
"At last!" muttered Snorri, and moved along the wide path along its left edge.
The octopus smiled at the dumbfounded doll and floated after the man. The big guy was clearly in a hurry, and the octopus floated calmly through the air, rolling over and relaxing its tentacles. Goody twisted under the man's arm, unable, again and again, to absorb what was happening. In some places on the slopes there were sprawling trees, their roots clinging to a protruding rock. The birds were circling between them, and the wind was so wonderfully peaceful, blowing a casual chill through the sultry afternoon, that it was impossible to imagine that there was anything but this harmony anywhere in the world.
The companions came to the edge of the cliff, where the black entrance to a large cave was. As the big guy approached it, something stirred in the cave. From the darkness came a huge beak, and then a head, brightly painted with ancient symbols that formed an intimidating and at the same time surprisingly beautiful composition on the muzzle of the creature. They were followed by a long neck, a small hunched body, and legs bent in half at the knees. The whole creature was painted with exquisite patterns, and its huge paws were the heads of giant dogs carved in stone.
It straightened, almost doubled in height, and shook its head, making a guttural sound. The dogs' heads gasped in fire and spoke in chorus:
"Halt! Who goes there?"
"Nice weather, but every breath brings us closer to the end," Snorri said, taking a half-step away from the flames.
The bird's head above made a guttural sound again.
"The old password," the dogs rumbled, and the creature began to shift from foot to foot.
"What do you mean, the old password? We've been gone..." Snorri began.
"We've been gone more than a week," said Raud, floating up.
The bird swung its beak threateningly.
"Why change passwords so often?" the big guy got angry. "What's the point of that?"
The bird took a step in their direction, and the dogs spewed warning jets of flame, causing the man and the octopus to retreat. But then a small sailor's cap appeared from behind the bird, and a wooden monkey, the spitting image of Lila, climbed onto the rock. She looked at the companions and shouted to the bird:
"Sivunos, they're friendlies!"
The bird turned its head at the monkey, then looked doubtfully at the visitors and made a guttural sound, pointing its beak skyward. Then it retreated and, bending slowly, disappeared into the cave.
"Lila?" Goody asked with uncertainty, rolling over in the big guy's arms.
"No, I'm Puny. Where's my sister?" the monkey asked, bowing her head.
Snorri clumsily clapped his bag and averted his eyes. The monkey jumped off the rock and walked over to the travelers, holding out her hands. The big guy took the bag off and gave it to the monkey. She wrapped the bag strap around her body, nodded, and moved into the cave, beckoning the company to follow her.
They could hear the dogs panting somewhere behind them, but they couldn't see anything in the darkness, and the big guy was walking with his arms out in front of him. The octopus held on to his belt with one tentacle, and with the other he held Goody behind him. Lights appeared in the distance at first, and then closer and closer. They shimmered in multicolored patterns, calling out to them, lighting the way in the darkness. After a few steps, the light began to brighten, and the company found themselves in a noisy square in the middle of a stone grotto. All sorts of creatures were going about their mysterious business. Most of them were animated dolls, toys, golems, or machines. But there were also anthropomorphic animals, human-like winged creatures, and creatures with snake or wooden skin.
Snorri put the doll on the floor. The latter didn't know where to look first. Everything was so bright and colorful that Goody didn't have time to see what was going on. The octopus pulled him along. There was merry chatter and song on all sides. Above his head rustled a paper kite with a long tail, carrying a noisy company of wooden monkeys in a small basket. And immediately he almost tripped over a live python crawling from one bench to another.
"Careful!" the python hissed, fixing with its tail the paper crown that had fallen off its head.
Goody only had time to wave at it before the octopus pulled him out of the grotto into the fresh air, and he saw the city spread out in the canyon in front of him. Full of colorful flags and brightly colored tents, it surrounded a huge ship that stood in the center of the canyon. There were tension bridges tied to its masts that led to caves scattered on the slopes, and on the top deck was a rich house with a long staircase leading up to it. The sight of it made Goody paralyze.
At the opposite end of the canyon was a wide platform. It was set up as a hangar that went under the vaults of a giant cave. In the hangar, the fuselages of flying boats and scooters gleamed. Half-naked men cleaned the machinery, and the animated technicians made repairs. Goody's gaze fell on a small bag with painted eyes and mouth, which looked back at the animated one and jumped toward him from a small paint stall, where it had just had its eye fixed by a bearded man in a wide-brimmed hat. The bag came level with Goody, then jumped up to his eye level and shouted:
"Pyah!"
The animated one took two more steps to the side, hit Snorri's leg, and fell unconscious again.
ns 15.158.61.37da2
