5. The Smart Olombos

A tree spun out of the ground like a catapult and fired Holog. Meogg leaped, but didn’t get high enough. Claes himself became a tree and positioned himself exactly where Holog would fall.

The worst was yet to come. A second tree, right next to where Holog landed, turned into a catapult and fired a heavy rock at the bridge. Meogg saw it coming but was powerless to stop it. The bridge was crushed and fell into the ravine as a rain of splinters.

Claes sighed. He set Holog down after a very long angry stare.

“Now we have to go around. Quick march! Quick march!”

The frogs hopped after the Sand King like rabbits. Parog couldn’t keep up. Maybe he could, but didn’t want to. Meogg had to pull and push to keep him with the group. The frogs asked for a break every five hops, but never got one.

Sometimes Olombos’ laughter or shouts echoed across the island. He’s on his way to the middle island from the other side, Meogg thought. And he sounds close, much too close.

“Not to be rude,” said Meogg, “but can’t you just fly and search for the treasure from above?”

“The security is not just on the ground. No one can fly above this island. The voice in my head is even convinced no god, or descendant of a god, can find the secret weapon. Otherwise she would have done so long ago.”

So that’s why he needs us, she thought.

Her body felt strange. The Sigri plant did indeed help with energy. They had jumped more in one day than ever before. After a while, however, it felt like she lost control of her body. Each leap went in the wrong direction and her vision became blurry.

Claes noticed and stopped as soon as evening fell. “We’ll take a short break.”

“The Sand Creature has seen the error of his ways! Praise be—” Holog shouted.

“As soon as we’re certain Olombos’ group is asleep, we’ll continue.”

Holog’s face darkened again. Claes became a sandy horse and let Meogg onto his back.

I wouldn’t mind a break either, she thought. Each time she did, however, her gaze turned to Parog and her family who had fled for so long already. This was the island. They would claim it, and for that they now had to win a race.

Claes walked calmly between the dark tree trunks, aiming for the place that emitted snoring sounds. Mixed with the snoring, however, Meogg heard something else. A rushing, a humming, something she couldn’t place. It didn’t sound like the footsteps of any animal she knew, nor like the wings of an insect. And besides, nothing can fly here, right?

“Duck!” she shouted.

Claes immediately did as she asked. A moment later, Meogg felt the heat of a gust of wind on her head. Now that she knew what it was, she heard another go off behind them.

“Climb that tree!”

Claes became a monkey and nimbly took her up into the canopy, among the coconuts on long green leaves. The next gust of wind swirled around the trunk and bent the palm tree far aside, but they bounced back before the trunk broke.

Claes laughed at her. “Sometimes the voice in my head is right after all.”

“How so?”

“Cosmo had the best hearing of any creature to ever walk this planet. No wonder his security works almost entirely on sound. And you’re one of the few animals who heard me come in.”

Meogg slowly understood he was complimenting her hearing. She laughed back. They continued their trek toward Olombos’ camp.

“Our initial plan was to ask the birds for this mission. They revealed that they already tried, but couldn’t fly here. Now … they’re coming anyway.”

The birds are coming too? Meogg thought. Soon this island will be ours, but we’ll have to share it with the whole zoo! Well, at least they sleep half the day, and we don’t need to.

“How did you become the Sand King anyway? Do you know who the voice in your head is?” Meogg quickly raised her front legs apologetically. “I know, I know, you can’t answer that because of the voice. Never mind.”

“I can answer part of it.” They paused a good distance outside the camp. “When the gods had just created life, there was no sleep. Everyone had endless energy! They wanted to swim, eat, reproduce all day, everything! But their bodies couldn’t handle it.”

Meogg gradually learned how to read Claes’ sandbody language. His eyes were now sad, even as they confidently watched the sleeping Olombos. “They broke down their own bodies. They kept going too long and never recovered. I started as an invention against the hasty gods, but quickly turned into the God of Sleep.”

She had never thought about sleep; now she got the idea something was wrong with her and her kind. Why didn’t they need it? Were they better than the rest … or actually worse?

“I see it in your grandfather, Parog,” said Claes after another long absent look. “His head is so full with everything he’s experienced over a hundred years. He never slept, never had the chance to process anything, or for his body to figure it out.”

Meogg barely dared to ask. “Can that still change?”

“Shh,” Claes hissed. Some boars woke up. They grabbed torches and walked around. The island had many round clearings, marked by stone eggs growing skyward like blades of grass. Olombos had set up his camp right in the middle of such a spot.

“You could have dragged me a bit more gently,” the front boar complained.

“You’re as heavy as Olombos himself. Be glad we didn’t leave you on the ship. And you snore!”

The other placed a wooden plank on his lower teeth and soon after a second against his upper teeth. What’s that? Meogg thought.

Claes blew small clouds of sand at the guards. The boar regularly clacked his teeth together, like the snapping of a beak. The wooden planks created small gusts of wind that pushed the grains of sand back to Claes.

He tried again, but Olombos had devised the perfect solution against the Sand King. He couldn’t put everyone to sleep if his sand was blown away all the time.

“Now it’s your turn,” he whispered.

“You’re not one to explain a plan in advance, are you?”

“Meogg, we’re on a magical island with half a treasure map. There is no plan. Chase them away, make them run.”

He nudged Meogg. I’m doing this for you, grandpapa, she thought.

Her big leap toward the camp was impressive. Her habit of pausing right after any activity was less useful.

The boars dove on top of her with wide-open mouths. She jumped into the air, but hit a palm tree and came down covered in leaves and surrounded by falling coconuts. She had a headache, but so did the boars.

The guards ran away from her, yelling. She was blind, but heard a gust of wind on the right and instinctively ducked away from the leg that swooshed past. Her feet fired off again to knock even more coconuts loose. On the way down, she kicked a coconut to the left, where she heard heavy panting.

With her tongue, she pulled the leaves from her eyes. She had hit Olombos right in the face! The other boars ran away from the camp, scattered in all directions. Meogg just kept jumping up and appearing unexpectedly on their rough fur or orange fox snouts.

No one got far, because Claes waited between the bushes to make them sleep. Boar after boar shook the earth as they hugged the ground with eyes closed.

One fox climbed the tree. Claes got her too, after which she hung upside down from a palm tree, by her tail. Four boars raced back to Meogg. The front one fell asleep and became a barrier for the other three, who tripped and got their tusks stuck in the mud.

But there were too many.

Claes had to spread out and use his grains expertly to reach everyone. Meogg really had to rest now and hobbled to the nearest bush. Olombos jumped on top of her with his heavy body, but Claes intervened like as a spear of sand that jabbed the boar aside.

He had overextended himself. All the sand grains fell to the floor, as if they needed sleep as well. The secret objects that Claes carried, rolled right into Olombos’ claws.

“That’s an interesting map, just what we need,” he said grinning. “And an interesting plant, I recognize it out of thousands. And it fetches thousands of gold in my homeland too.”

Olombos bent his front legs, as if he was going to whisper a secret in their ear. “So kind. After your awful actions on our ship, you bring the precise medicine. We wandered around aimlessly, hoping for a stroke of luck. But with the map …”

Claes pulled himself together. In Meogg’s shape, though ten times larger, he made a desperate leap at Olombos. He covered him with grains. But Olombos had already taken a bite of the Sigriplant and stayed standing.

“Come! Up, everyone! No rest until we’ve found our treasure!”

The group handed out the Sigri, broke down the camp, and ran off at full speed.

Claes and Meogg walked back in silence. Meogg’s stomach rumbled. If insects didn’t fly past you—for nothing flew here—they were much harder to catch with your tongue. She chewed on some leaves. It didn’t help, but she had to do something. They already have every advantage. Why should we still make an effort?

She expected the Sand King to immediately grab everyone by their necks and command we travel even faster. Instead, he calmly sat down against a tree.

“Rest,” he said. “You can stave off sleep for a long time, but it always catches up eventually. Unless death comes first.”

“But …”

Meogg saw him fighting the voice in his head, continuously changing shape, changing his mind.

“I wanted to go too fast. Always too fast. I should have known better. Sooner or later they have to sleep. Sooner or later they’ll make a big mistake from fatigue, or destroy their own bodies due to the Sigri.”

He smiled again.

“They are faster … then we’ll just have to be better rested and smarter.”