I-6: Legend of the Mornellys- Chapter Three

Chapter Three

In which we are introduced to three of six legends

Breandan Mornelly groaned and pushed Damhán off of him. “Sheesh, bro, you weigh about the same amount as a ton of bricks.”

“Look who’s talkin’,” Damhán shot back. The seventeen-year-old stood up and stretched. “You weigh at least fifty pounds more than I do.”

“I do not,” Breandan muttered. He too, stood up. Catching sight of the sprawled out figure of Ciarán, he put a hand out and helped him up. “You decided to join us, Ciarán.”

“Didn’t have much of a choice,” Ciarán huffed. He brushed strands of his black hair out of his face. “Where are we?”

“Who knows. Somewhere on earth. This looks kind of like Ireland, though,” Damhán mused. “I wonder where the other three are?”

Breandan glanced around and frowned, scratching his light brown hair.

It was true. The absence of their three other siblings- Bran, Aichear and Aileen- was not a good sign. The warp had come so unexpectedly. Breandan had barely managed to grab hold of Damhán, let alone Ciarán, before the wrinkle of time mass threw them to their present geography. It was apparent that the other three Mornelly siblings hadn’t been so lucky.

“I hope Aichear managed to grab Aileen, otherwise he’s going to be in a panic,” Breandan murmured, mostly to himself.

“Aichear and panic don’t go together. Aichear and any emotion don’t mix, actually,” Damhán snorted.

Ciarán nodded. “Agreed.”

The three brothers stood in silence for a moment, taking in their surroundings. Damhán was right, the topography reminded Breandan a lot of Ireland. The hard thing was, they’d been so many places the last three hundred years that they’d all begun to look the same. Still, the layout of the land reminded him of…

“You know what, I think Sean lives in this place,” Breandan said suddenly. He studied the cliffs near the water’s edge. “In fact I’m sure of it. He and I used to play over there, hunting for seagull nests. This was his secret bay, or so he called it.” He pointed out the rocky ledge.

“Well, he may not be alive now. Who knows what era this is.”

Breandan shot Ciarán a look. “I’m aware of that, brother.”

“Well, what’s the plan here? Should we go looking for the others or should we go find the nearest village and down a couple of drinks? Personally, I vote for the drinks and motion we let Aichear find Aileen and Bran and figure his own way back. We know he’s not going to be lost for long, this is Aichear we’re talking about.”

“An edge of resentment in your tone, Damhán?” Breandan smiled a bit. “He is the eldest, you know. He takes his responsibility as the oldest very seriously.”

“Yeah. Like he’s the boss of the world.”

Breandan opened his mouth to interject, but Ciarán held up his hand. “Listen.”

The three Mornelly boys dropped their voices and strained their ears. Silence. All that could be heard was the wind against the cliffs, howling with a low hissing sound.

“I don’t hear anythi-” Damhán began, but Ciarán stopped him.

“Quiet. Just listen.”

Nothing. Then, Breandan heard the faintest of voices. It was coming from down near the beachfront.

“Let’s go find out who’s there,” Breandan suggested.

Together, they hiked to the edge of the cliff, dropping to their hands and knees and crawling to the edge. Peering over, Breandan sucked in a breath as the truth hit him like a jackhammer.

The years of his guardianship over Sean came back to him in a flash. The games he used to play with him, the adventures they had, the places they explored. He’d watched over many children over the last three hundred years, but Sean had always been a special kid to him. Traipsing through the hills in search of lost sheep, climbing the cliffs, playing pirates. Breandan had always hoped Sean would be one who Saw forever, but his friendship had ended the day Sean’s father was injured.

The eternally twenty-five-year-old shook his head to clear it. “That’s Sean!” He pointed at the young boy standing next to the water, a burly man in front of him. “I know him anywhere! I played with that kid for years.”

“Until he ditched you for reality.”

Breandan ignored Ciarán. “If that’s Sean, and judging from his age, than we must be in 1865, Ireland. What is the likelihood we’d end up here? I wonder if he’d remember me.”

“That guy don’t look the least bit friendly.” Damhán motioned to the other figure. “Look at how he’s approaching your charge, Breandan.”

Sure enough, the young figure of Sean was backing away from the dark-haired Irishman. The man yelled for someone, and from around the corner came five more men. All of them were in trench coats.

“Highway men.” Breandan’s voice tightened. “Oh, Sean, what kind of trouble are you in now?”

“What should we do?”

Ciarán rolled his eyes. “You mean what can we do. There’s six of them and three of us. What idiot would fight against five highway men?”

“I would!” Damhán snapped. “Come on, let’s knock ‘em dead!”

“Wait!” Breandan held up his hand. “Ciarán’s got a point. I don’t want Sean to get hurt. But if we don’t help him, those guys look like they’ll beat him up good. Or worse. We need a strategy. A distraction. We can’t go down there without a plan!”

“Distraction. Got it. Simple enough. We shove Ciarán off the cliff, run around the other side, climb down and then attack them from behind while they’re beating up Ciarán.”

“Wonderful. Except the part where I get seriously injured by a hundred foot drop,” Ciarán muttered.

“No, that wouldn’t work. We wouldn’t get there in time.” Breandan’s mind raced. Sean was completely surrounded now. Though they were far away, he could tell just by the boy’s posture he was frightened. There was no doubt in his mind these men were not the kind you wanted to mess with.

“You mean you actually considered that?” Ciarán sounded incredulous.

“Damhán, how fast do you think you could get down there?” Breandan turned to his youngest brother questioningly.

“A minute,” he replied. “Maybe faster. No more than a minute.”

“That could work. Here’s the plan- Damhán goes down, screaming and yelling like the madman he is-”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Stop interrupting. Anyways, Ciarán and I will make our way over there.” He pointed on the other side of the bend in the cliff, where the four other men had appeared from. “There’s a spot there that you can jump off and land in the water. It’s only a fifty foot drop, and the water’s deep. I think we could swim around the bend and get to land before you reach the bottom, Damhán, if we time it right. We have to jump off the minute you start down the cliff. Sound good?”

“Cool! I’m ready!”

“Fine.” Ciarán sighed.

“Okay, let’s do this thing. Damhán, don’t start climbing down until I give you the signal.”

“Sure.”

Ciarán and Breandan pushed away from the ledge and stood up, doing their best to remain unseen as they stole to the rocks near the bend. The voices from below grew louder and more heated. Breandan was sure he heard the defiant voice of Sean answer back, but with a tone of fear sandwiched in. We’re coming, my friend. Just hang in there!

They reached the edge, both panting. Ciarán peered over at the ocean below. “Sure, this will work. Just avoid all those rocks down there and we’ll be fine.” He shook his head. “This is dumb.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Breandan said firmly. “We have to help Sean.”

He steadied his breath and eyed the water. Ciarán was right, there were several jagged rocks that stuck out right before the water dropped off into the deep end. If they didn’t jump far enough, they’d hit those rocks. Plus, the drop off looked a lot farther down than he remembered. He hadn’t done this with Sean in years, and when he had done it, he’d jumped in the safety of the fourth dimension. He couldn’t really get injured then. This, though, looked a lot trickier…

Before he could think too much more about it, he whirled around and dropped his hand. Damhán saluted him and grabbed the ledge of the cliff, screaming his head off as he swung down.

“He got the maniac part down,” Ciarán commented.

“Now it’s our turn.” Breandan closed his eyes. “Ready? One, two, three, jump!”

Together, they took a running leap of the ledge and down below. Please don’t hit the rocks, please don’t hit the rocks, please don’t hit the rocks…

With a splash! They plunged into the water, the icy cold shock sending chills down Breandan’s spine.

“AUGH!” He shook his head, his teeth clattering. “It’s cold!”

“Duh. It must be the early spring months,” Ciarán retorted.

“Let’s go. Damhán’s probably halfway down by now. Time to go and fight some bad guys.”

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