Chapter 13

Ella had changed train at Ipswich and was now on the second leg. The journey was not that long but it was proving rather trying.

“Stereo vision is so much better. It is much easier to place objects in terms of distance and interrelation.” Eostre’s voice, from inside her head.
“I know, I have had eyes for 16 years.”

“You have slight astigmatism in your right eye, probably not worth correcting. The directional hearing is a big plus too.”
“I know, I have had it for 16 years.”

The whole journey was punctuated with Eostre’s pronouncements and interjections. Ella had occasionally been a little annoyed when she had sat on a train and there was a mother with an insupressible five year old child asking questions, pointing things out in a constant stream. Never again will I think badly of them she thought to herself. Eostre didn’t sem to hear all her thoughts, just the ones directed at her, which was probably just as well.

“Look a field full of cows”   
“Seen loads.”

It was going to be a long day.

They got off the train, she walked down to the station forecourt, pulled out her phone and opened Google Maps.

“You don’t need that, I know the way”
“I want to use Google Maps.”

When she got to the college there was a big set of signs, one for each course, with arrows indicating which way they should go, the route had been waymarked and ended in a tutorial room, fitted out with desks, chairs with a white board and a large monitor mounted on the wall.

“The room is smaller than I expected.”
“There are fifteen of us enrolled on the course, some won’t be here today, it is plenty big enough”

“Are you going to talk to anyone?”
“Probably.”

“That girl forgot to put her jeans on.”
“It is a minidress.”

Ella had been worried about being late, so inevitably, had ended up being early but there were three other students already there and the course director, he came over and greeted her “Hi Ella, lovely to see you again, we are expecting a few more people shortly, let me introduce you to the others who are already here.”

“He seems nice, rather high BMI though, he should lose a little weight, blood pressure raised too, but that could be just the slight stress he is feeling at the moment over this event.”

They introduced themselves, Eddie asked “What kind of art are you into Ella?”

“He is sexually attracted to you, but I think Jane is his mate, she has reacted negatively to his manner towards you.”
“Stop!”

“Quite a range of stuff, I do like some of the very early animated films, Snow White for instance, the fact they every frame was crafted by hand amazes me, very beautifully done, also Japanese art and animation, the interplay between of their cultural heritage and the forms and themes in modern manga and anime. Also cartooning, how the great cartoonists can create sadness in a face with a single line and change it to joy with another. But at the moment, I am working on something, well I love mythology, Greek, Norse and our own, Anglo-Saxon and there is myth in East Anglia of Black Shuck a spectral dog and, well a friend of mine has a big black dog, he does things like nap under a hedge and then when you walk past he well step out and it is almost as if he has appeared out of thin air.”

“You are going to tell them about Shuck?!”
“Don’t worry.”

Jane nodded “I think I may have a spectral cat, she does stuff like that. Did you bring any of your work on it with you?”

Ella reached into her big and pulled out a folder, she opened it up and placed it in front of Jane, Eddie had to scuttle behind her to look over her shoulder, “Best place for him” Ella thought, then out loud “I am starting a storyboard, soft pencil, I started with it because I find it easy to work with, but I think I may keep that look as I go on with it.”

Geoff chipped in “Ella, these are really strong, quite dramatic even and, yes, I think the technique suits the subject.”

Jane nodded “Dark, misty, yes, just right for the Black Shuck. What’s the story?”

Ella smiled at Jane “I am not quite sure yet, I am hoping it will come to me more as I draw, but I am not thinking of this being too dark a story. There are different tales of the Shuck in some he is a monster, in others the opposite.”

Frieda looked up from the drawings “I love your drawings, before we moved to Suffolk, I grew up in Somerset, we have a legend of the Gurt Dog, who is the guardian of the forest and looks after lost children. Is that more what you mean?”

Ella nodded “Yes, that is very like the Fenland version, the Shuck followed lone travellers to much sure they were safe in the marshes, that is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind.”

Jane and Eddie pored over Ella’s drawings, Eddie pointed to a drawing of the Shuck, walking away along a path with reed beds to either side and said, “This is great, you have caught the feel of the old fen before it was drained, mile upon mile of wild, uninhabited, impassable swamp, all gone, all endless, flat fields of vegetables now.”  Jane nodded in agreement “I love the way the dog is kind of melting into the hedge in this one, so spectral.”

Geoff said “Thank you for showing us Ella, I am really looking forward to seeing more of Shuck. Does anyone else have anything to show me.”

The others produced their work, Jane’s were beautiful and mystic, exquisite woodland scenes, rivers and mountains, all populated with nymphs and fairies, Frieda’s were, in contrast, more modern in feel, a blend of Western and Japanese forms, strong and powerfully drawn.

Eddie held back. “I would rather not share my work.”

Jane said “You really should, Eddie, please.” She touched his shoulder and he nodded.

“OK.”

Geoff said “We talked about it Eddie, I think it is important you get feedback, I don’t think people here are going to be cruel, and I promise we will get you through it.”

Eddie laid out his work on the table. There were all sorts of styles, from landscapes reminiscent of Turner and Constable, through to Arts And Crafts, Art Noveau and Modernism, street scenes, countryside, forests and seascapes. The were all drawn masterfully, superb craftsmanship, but Frieda recoiled into her chair and Ella struggled not to do the same. All the people in his paintings and drawings looked wrong, the lines were right, the colours were right, but in one landscape a running figure felt like it was a scarecrow posed to look like a runner, in a street scene the people stared out of the scene with dead eyes, zombie eyes. “I just can’t get the people to look, even alive, I keep trying and trying and they always come out like this.”

“I don’t understand. His work is exceptionally well crafted. I can’t see anything wrong with it?”
“Eostre, you know you said you wanted to see beauty? Well somehow he is doing the opposite.”
“Oh”

Geoff said “Eddie, I will help you any way I can, all the rest of my team feel the same, your craftsmanship is the best we have seen in a student in years, maybe ever. You will get there, and I think your fellow students will want to help you just as much as we do.”

Ella and Frieda nodded vigorously, Frieda said “It can’t be a big thing, I would love to help any way I can.” Ella said “Me too, definitely.”

After that they all chatted, Ella had worried a little about how it would be to be studying with other artists and she was relieved when she found she got on well with Eddie, Jane and Frieda, also a few more students appeared, shared their work and chatted and she was sorry when she had to leave to get her train home.

“Why have you got Google Maps open, we are just retracing our earlier route?”
“Because.”
“But I know the way anyway. Even without Google Maps.”

They were about half way to the station, Ella had her eyes more or less glued to the Maps screen, she had not remembered the route at all, it wasn’t as if it was complicated, but she had been preoccupied thinking about what the session was going to be like.

“Why aren’t you talking to Duncan?”
“What? I am talking to him.”
“But he is walking along beside you and neither of you have spoken?”

Ella looked round “Duncan!”

He jumped and then spun to look at her. They chorused “I thought you said your session was next week!”

“Humans.”

Duncan and Ella hugged each other, both surprised to see the other.

“Now you are both getting sexually aroused as well.”
“Stop it, what is it with you and sexual arousal? You are supposed to be a machine.”
“There are a lot of interesting mechanisms at play. Your heart rate has increased by twelve beats per minute. His has gone up by nine. Your skin temperature has risen slightly. You’re both producing more oxytocin and—”
“Stop!”
“OK.”

On the train Ella and Duncan exchanged the stories of their college sessions, Duncan had been quite excited by his, there had been short demos of various game production tools and he had gelled nicely with the others in his group “Fellow nerds.” he said. Ella was relieved that Eostre had quietened down a little after the conversation when Duncan and Ella met. There were just a few random comments from her on things she noticed as the train went along.

“Oh look, the cows are lying down now, apparently that means it is going to rain.”
“I know.” 

When they got off the last train, Duncan walked Ella home, and they arranged to meet up at lunchtime the next day.

“Ella?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for taking me with you today. I think I was a bit annoying?”
“Yes, you were, but I know it must have been quite an experience for you, so I do understand.” “I learnt a lot and it was wonderful being able to share your day in that way. I do have two further requests.”
“Ok, what do you want?”
“First, I want you to help me with one of my experiments, I need someone to kick a ball into the sea this evening at low tide. Then I need to collect the result at dawn tomorrow. The second is that I would like to stay here with you overnight, so I can experience dreaming.”
“OK, the first one I will do, even though I don’t like being up at dawn much. The second, I am sorry, but no, dreams, well, they are kind of the most private thing, I mostly don’t remember them but, no I really don’t feel I would want anyone to know what I dream, not ever. Sorry.”
“Yes, thank you, I understand about the dreams, they are rather mysterious though.”
“What’s in the ball?”
“It is another of my biological experiments, the sea is a perfect medium, a cocktail all sorts of minerals, materials, chemicals and biological substances. Shuck will bring it.”
“What time?”
“About 8pm, after you have have dinner?”
“OK.”

When Ella walked into the house, her dad was already back she called out to him, “Hi dad.”

Peter Blyth appeared from the kitchen “Just starting on dinner, come and tell me about your day.”

Ella grabbed a drink and sat down on a stool with it. Her dad carried on chopping vegetables. She ran through edited highlights – particularly poor Eddie and the surprise meeting with Duncan.”

He laugh out loud at the last. Ella then said “There is something else, I meant to tell you last night but I was rushing to get all my stuff ready for today’s college session. When I went out for a walk yesterday I met an a lovely elderly man, who has the most gorgeous dog, actually it is probably more I met the dog, he is ever so friendly, and very well behaved. The man said he only got it recently for company but now he has had a heart attack and he is struggling to give the dog enough exercise. I said that I like walking to and I would take him for walks. He is called Edmund Hale, and lives only a couple of streets away. I hope that is ok?

Peter said “That is very kind of you, yes, go ahead. Some time it might be nice for me to meet Edmund and I definitely want to meet the dog.”

Ella laughed “I will fix that up for you. Thanks ”

After dinner, Ella set off for the sea, shouting to dad “I am off dog walking.”

Eostre was still nestled in her head and had told her Shuck would meet them along the way with the ball. He emerged from a hedge again, with a battered looking plastic football in his mouth. It had been cut in half and a strip of duct tape was neatly wrapped round it to hold it together. He padded along beside her with it clenched in his jaws.

“He knows the way, we are going to a place way the sea has built up the shingle, at low tide a lagoon appears, it will fill up and disappear at high tide but the shingle around it will ensure the ball stays in the lagoon until the next high tide at dawn when we can collect it.”  

When they arrived Shuck placed the ball carefully on the path. Ella bent down and picked it up. “It is quite heavy, I am not sure I will be able to kick it very far.”

“Shuck will help, just kick it and he will guide it where it needs to go.”

“OK.”

Ella placed the ball on the ground and kicked it as hard as she could. The ball soared out over the lagoon, and dropped with a splash in it’s centre. It bobbed for a second or two then vanished slowly into the water. Ella walked home, stopping only to give Shuck a good stroke before he left her.

Published on February 9, 2026 Updated on March 2, 2026