THE PORTAL AND THE TIME WEB
    The four figures walked up the hill, fighting the wind with each step. The sea roared at them, from     below and the salt spray spat, stung and slapped at their faces and eyes. At the top they paused to get their breath and looked at what remained of the house. A pile of bricks and a dangling gate swinging loosely in the wind. 
     ‘I suppose they had to knock it down?’ said Mat.
    ‘I guess so,’ said Sam, ‘It was pretty dangerous.’
‘That’s stupid,’ said Robbie, ‘a house can’t be dangerous.’ 
    ‘It can if some silly kid goes inside and doesn’t tell anyone,’ said Sam, ‘and then that same silly kid falls through some rotting floorboards and breaks his leg.’
‘How was I to know the boards were rotten? It was dark and I couldn’t see could I?’
Robbie had spent three months on crutches after that little adventure.
    The rain started to dribble as the four children wandered down the path towards the street. They stopped in front of a pile of bricks, that had originally been the chimney of the old house. 
Someone was sitting cross legged on top of them. 
The cross-legged figure wore a cloak with a hood that hid its face.
Paragraph automatic‘Who’s that?’ asked Mat.  . 
‘More like what,’ said Jessica flicking long blond hair out of her eyes. The tiny cloaked figure beckoned to them.
Jessica sidled up to Mathew for protection. 
    The figure jumped down from the pile of bricks and stood in front of Sam. Sam looked down at the figure.
    ‘Hello,’ she said, ‘who are you?’    
‘Tilibut,’ the figure said, ‘I can’t get back. The entrance is blocked.’
‘What do you mean?’ Sam asked. ‘Are you lost? Do you live round here?’ 
    She assumed that the figure in front of her was a local kid in fancy dress, who’d been out playing with his, or her friends, and become lost. Then she saw the eyes. They were a bluish purple, with perhaps a dash of yellow. Sam couldn’t recall seeing any kids with eyes that colour anywhere. But as anywhere for her was Thorpington she was quite prepared to acknowledge that purple slash yellow was a common eye colour elsewhere. The figure looked up at Sam and then at the others and then it started to cry. Its body heaved as it sobbed. And the sobs didn’t maintain the same loudness level either. Each one was louder than the previous one. After about the fourth sob the noise was so deafening that the hands over the ears strategy was called for. 
    ‘Can’t you shut it up,’ yelled Jessica. She turned on the cloaked figure.
‘Why don’t you just shut up and go home to your mum!’ 
Sam knelt down in front of the tiny figure and put her hands on its shoulders. The sobbing quietened and then stopped.
    ‘So,’ said Sam, ‘your name’s Tilibut, Yeah?’
The figure nodded.
    ‘That the name you gave yourself in the game you and your friends were playing?’ said Mat.
    ‘Not playing game,’ said Tilibut.
‘Well I’m Sam and this is my brother Robbie,’ Robbie smiled and waved. Sam pointed up to Mat and Jessica, ‘this is Mat and Jessica.’
The cloaked head nodded.
    ‘Do you live round here?’ Robbie asked.
For answer, the figure pointed to the ground. 
    ‘Why don’t you let us see your face?’ said Jessica. ‘We won’t eat you.’
    ‘Afraid,’ said the creature.
‘You don’t have to be afraid of us,’ said Mat. ‘Why don’t you let us take you home if you’re lost. Your mum might be worried about you.’
    ‘Not afraid of you. Am afraid of them.’ Here Tilibut pointed to the ground again. ‘Shouldn’t be here. Against the order of the Grood. When they find out I’ll be cast into the whorl.’ Tilibut heaved his shoulders upwards for the start of a sob. But Sam was ready. She tightened her grip on Tilibut’s shoulders.
    ‘No you don’t,’ she said, ‘been there, done that, so not again thank you. Now why don’t we all just sit down and talk about this.’
    Tilibut waddled over to stand between Sam and Mat. He reached up with his pudgy hands, and took a hand each of Mat and Sam. The group walked back over to the pile of chimney bricks.
‘Now,’ said Sam, ‘why don’t you tell us who you are and where you come from. Then we can help get you home.’
    Tilibut lifted his hands and pulled the hood from his head. His hair was short and spiky. His face long and narrow and his nose was thin and pointy and it turned up at the end. The ears were slightly pointed, but not so much so that anyone would really notice. What people might notice, however, were the eyes. They were enormous. 
    ‘That’s pretty weird make-up on your face,’ said Robbie, who assumed that this kid was into some really strange dressing up.  You in a gang or something?’
‘You’re not from round here are you?’ said Jessica trying madly to find a match in her brain for the face in front of her. She wasn’t having a lot of success . 
    ‘I’m a Bainty,’ said Tilibut, ‘and I’m not supposed to be here. I came to do a quick borrow and was about to return when the chimney collapsed. There’s no other way in or out. Baintys have used that passage for centuries.’
Jessica shook her blonde locks again. She put her hands on her hips and glared down at Tilibut.
‘Now see here Tili-whoever you are. Stop mucking us around. If you’re lost just say so.’
    Tilibut looked up at her sideways. His plan was not going too well. He wondered if the others were going to be as difficult as this one with the shaking blonde hair.  
‘Not strong enough to move the bricks.’ said Tilibut.