And so they trudged on slowly with their thoughts drifting between the past, the future and the present, and the only sound the crunching of the frozen surface of the snow as they walked. The trees, dark, shadowy and mysterious in the moonlight, seemed to move in acknowledgement as they passed, the boughs dipping slightly, and the sound of the breeze in the branches seeming to greet them and wish them good fortune on their journey.
In the distance the little copse towards which their eyes were fixed stood out clearly on the skyline where it stood encircling the top of a large hummock which grew like an enormous molehill on the relatively flat stretch of moors surrounding it. Soon the colour of the sky behind the copse grew lighter and the animals found themselves among the gently rolling foothills which led up to the flat summit of this small range of hills and, as the first rose-pink streaks of dawn began to appear in the sky to herald the beginning of a new day, Christmas Day, they stood looking across a bleak expanse of moorland in the middle of which was the copse. The snow here was deeper and the wind was quite strong so that it had drifted in the little hollows and against the tussocks and the walking was difficult. Brock and Sam could now only go very slowly because of the dog’s injury and the others had to keep waiting for them. The wind was much colder up here and Beth was thankful that she had brought so many clothes; looking at Nab’s bare legs she gave a little shiver and huddled deep into her grandmother’s cape. They saw no other animals but there was the occasional track of a hare in the snow and once or twice they heard the chuckling of a grouse in the distance. Finally, as a pale watery sun appeared in the clear morning sky, they climbed up the slope of the hummock and entered the copse. They carried on climbing through firs and the occasional twisted oak until they reached the top which was bare of trees and through which sharp angular outcrops of rock showed, where the wind had blown away the snow. The snow had also been blown off the heather and clumps of it clung on to the patches of earth between the rock or else seemingly grew out of the rock itself, its roots finding a precarious foothold in the cracks. It moved with the wind as seaweed moves with the waves and the strong gusts seemed to be trying to pull it away, yanking at it savagely.
Amongst these rocks each of the travellers found a sheltered spot and sat looking down across the bleak expanse below them where the moors stretched away into the distance before dropping down sharply into the valleys and clefts of more foothills and then finally levelling out into a huge plain; and although they could not see it they knew that at the far end of that plain was the ocean towards which they were heading. As they sat with the wind blowing in their faces and making their eyes water and with what seemed to be the whole world laid out beneath them they felt the power of the place fill them with strength and energy. Each of them seemed to grow inwardly until their spirit was bigger than their body and escaped the physical confines in which it had been trapped for so long to leap out into the mountain air and dance joyously in the wind. No longer did the sufferings of their bodies seem important; they seemed to be outside themselves, looking down as they soared into the sky and flew on the wind. This place was one of the Scyttels or places of power, guessed at by many, and whose existence is hinted at in legend and song, but known only to the elves and those with the power of magic. It is at the Scyttels that the elves gather for rejuvenation of their magic and at the greatest of them it is said that the Elflords are visited by Ashgaroth. Thus it was that the Lord Wychnor had chosen this copse as their starting place, for there Nab, as one with the power of magic, would be enabled to get his bearings and to follow the currents of the earth to the Elflords of the Sea and of the Mountains by means of the secret ways, or Roosdyche, which join the Scyttels one to the other.
Nab and Beth were perched together in a little rocky crevice between two enormous boulders, their bodies braced against the wind, exulting in the power of the place and the warmth of each other as they huddled close. They sat like that until the sun was high in the blue sky and then weariness overtook them and they lay down together behind the rock out of the wind and went to sleep. Nab had dropped straight off as soon as his eyes had closed but Beth had lain awake for a while thinking and staring at a sparrowhawk hovering way above them in the distance. She was marvelling at the deep contentment which she felt within herself and luxuriating in the peacefulness of it. Finally when the sparrowhawk had swooped away out of sight she turned to look at Nab lying beside her, his body moving rhythmically as he breathed the deep breath of sleep and his legs curled up into his chest with his head resting on his two hands clasped together under it for a pillow. Then smiling to herself she gently wrapped her arms around him from behind, snuggled up, against him and went off to sleep.
The rest of the animals had also gone to sleep; Sam, Brock and Perryfoot together in a little hollow behind a boulder just beneath Nab and Beth, and Warrigal perched on an old root of heather which he had found on one side of the hollow. They slept all the rest of Christmas Day and all that night, finally waking up the following dawn feeling marvellously refreshed; the cloud of sorrow which they had carried with them from Silver Wood seemed to have been blown away in the wind, leaving them with sad memories but freeing them from the claustrophobia of their earlier misery. Now they felt ready and eager to press on; they got up from the warmth of their sleeping places and, looking back fondly at their first home of the journey, they began to make their way back down from the rocks.
They had just reached the bottom of the belt of trees and were about to emerge on to the heather covered slope at the base of the little hill when, ahead of them, Warrigal stopped and, perching on a low branch moved his wings slowly up and down. That was the signal to wait and, an instant later, they saw a line of Urkku come into sight walking slowly along the flat stretch of moors at the bottom of the hill beneath them. They all held guns resting in the crooks of their arms so that they pointed out from their bodies and down to the ground. They were just like the organized slaughterers that the animals had seen coming through Silver Wood and they made those same funny shouting and whooping noises to frighten the animals into showing themselves. Nab and the others froze where they were and then sank down slowly behind the trees; Beth felt her wrist gripped tightly and she responded as quietly and carefully as she was able to the boy’s gestures. The line slowly passed by them, hardly looking to left or right, and to the relief of the animals not turning and coming towards them up the hill as they had dreaded. Soon all that could be seen was a row of backs retreating into the distance but then they heard the rapid frightened chatter of some grouse and, a second later, the cracks of the guns as the morning yielded up its toll of death. Then Perryfoot, lying at Nab’s side, saw to his horror a large mountain hare suddenly jump up from its night time resting place and race off in front of the guns. The shots, as they were fired, seemed to jerk the hare back as if there was a length of string attached to its neck which had suddenly run out and pulled it up short. They watched as it lay twitching and crying on the ground until one of the Urkku came up to it, kicked it over with his foot and then beat it over the head with the butt of his gun. Perryfoot was whimpering and shivering uncontrollably with fear at the sight of what had so nearly happened to him and at the other side of him Nab could feel Beth trying to free her hand and get up. She was not yet used to sights such as this, as were the others, and the anger in her burnt fierce and keen like a flame which has just burst into life. Nab motioned to her to get down and stop pulling but she took no heed. However she was no match for the iron grip of the boy and soon she gave up and began to sob quietly. Nab and the others found to their surprise that Wythen’s parting words enabled them to control their emotions; ‘… yet channel your hatred into determination for success in what you must do, for that will lead to the ultimate victory.’ So their anger became submerged in their overall purpose; they were fighting the Urkku now in the pursuit of their wider goal. This was merely a battle; they were fighting the war. What they had just seen, and would doubtless see again many times before the end, merely strengthened their resolve to succeed.