The sun was warm and the high breezes cold as their broomsticks (and Hagrid’s flying motorcycle) carried them up and over Gilgad, heading east into the late morning. The kingdom of Rinkitink was long and thin, huddled close by the Nonestic Ocean, and completely surrounded by high fir-fringed mountains. They could hear rushing rivers and waterfalls below as their broomsticks climbed up towards the peaks.

Ungitink and Kelebrink were staying behind to relay news to the other elves of Rinkitink and the nearby countries; so nine remained in the party — the six wizards on broomsticks, Hagrid on his motorcycle, and Kreacher and Coddie riding alongside him. For safety, they’d divided the three pearls between Harry, Ron, and Hermione, with Harry carrying the pink pearl, Ron the blue one, and Hermione the white. Filigol had given them detailed instructions.

“Fly north and east over the mountains into the Land of Ev,” he said, “and then fly over the Wheeler Waste and land at the feet of the Nomic Mountains. You do not want to land among the Wheelers, for they are a fearsome and vicious people. But you must walk into the Nomic Mountains, for anyone that flies over them may be attacked by the Fire Lizards. Follow the main road into the mountains and you will reach the Nome King’s dominion.”

“Wheelers, Fire Lizards, gnomes, and whatnot,” grumbled Ron. “I feel like it’s going to be one long Care of Magical Creatures exam.”

“What’s that, Ron?” boomed Hagrid. Ron hastily pretended that he had a terrible cough.

Once they were up over the mountains, which only took an hour or so, the Land of Ev was spread out below them, and they turned north and east. To their left was a broad, flat, pale brown rocky country, the Wheeler Waste; and beyond that was the ocean. To their right the countryside became greener, with rolling hills and little rivers and woodland, which disappeared into the distance. Up ahead was a wall of high black rock: the Nomic Mountains.

Hermione pointed at a spot near the feet of the mountains, where a path wound up from the green country into the hills. “Head for that!” she said. “We’ll land there!”

After another half hour of flying, they landed (Hagrid shrinking the motorcycle and putting it back in his pocket) and looked around. It was a beautiful area, and they quickly found some low scrubby trees under which they could drink some water and recover from their flight before starting their walk up into the mountains. The sun was still climbing up to their left. Ahead of them, as they looked back over the valley they’d just flown over, the path wound down into the green country of Ev, although here it was still rocky and dry. The ground was curiously hard packed. To their right, the near slopes of the mountains were strewn with boulders of the same pale brown color as the ground itself. Across the valley were the purple mountains that ringed Rinkitink; they too were dry and rocky on this side. Behind the travelers, the mountains of the Nome King rose up, and now that they were closer, they could see that their black color was caused by millions of flecks of volcanic obsidian in the stone.

“It certainly is a gorgeous country,” said Neville. “I wonder why the ground is so hard? It’s not rock, it’s packed dust. Like something has really compressed it.”

“What’s that noise?” asked Luna suddenly. They listened, and all could hear it: a low rumble like a continuous thunder. They looked around, but could see nothing. The rumbling grew louder; within a few minutes, it seemed to be rattling their bones and the very earth under them.

“Wands out!” cried Harry.

Then they began to see flickers of movement over to the right. At first they had no idea what the movement was, but then they saw that some kind of beings or creatures, apparently on all fours but with unsettlingly long legs, were darting to and fro between the boulders, moving from hiding place to hiding place; and what’s more, they were getting closer.

“Ginny!” whispered Harry. “Any ideas what these are?”

“They said this is the Wheeler Waste,” said Ginny. “I have a vague memory of Wheelers being scary, but — “

Suddenly, there was a long, wailing cry, a human voice, but one filled with anguish and hunger. The voice was joined by dozens of others, and the mountainside echoed with the wails and thunderous noise.

“This keeps up, I’m going to need a change of robes,” said Ron.

“Hold firm,” said Harry. “Wait for them to show themselves.”

“Nuts to that!” said Ron. “I’ve had enough. I’m going after them.”

“What?” said Harry. “Ron, don’t do anything stupid —“

Too late. Ron let out a bellow, and, holding his wand high, ran charging at the boulders, covering the ground remarkably quickly. The wailing and thundering reached a crescendo, and suddenly dozens of Wheelers appeared: man-sized or larger, on all fours, because all four limbs ended in wheels instead of hands or feet. They were dressed in gaudy ragged clothing, their heads wrapped in bright multicolored cloths, and their wailing mouths opened unnaturally wide, as if their jaws could unhinge like snakes. They moved with amazing speed over the hard-packed earth, zipping and darting here and there with remarkable agility, and in a moment Ron’s figure was lost among them as they circled and swirled around him. Harry heard him screaming and shouting.

“Dammit,” said Harry. “Hold on Ron, we’re coming! Stupefy!”

They ran forward, casting as they came. The Wheelers immediately pivoted toward them, rushing forward with mouths wide and wheels thundering. Harry knocked a couple of them over with spells before the mass of them reached him, and he managed to dodge the first that came after him, but then a Wheeler crashed into him like a freight train, and the creature’s teeth locked onto his arm. It lifted him up with surprising strength and flung him up and over, so that he was thrown back up away from the group and landed hard on the ground.

He gasped for breath for a moment — the breath had been knocked out of him. Otherwise, however, he was completely unhurt. Did the pink pearl protect him from harm? He rolled over and up onto his feet, trying to quickly see how the battle was going. Ron was standing in the middle of a crowd of Wheelers, and he’d picked up one by the legs and was swinging it in a circle around him, knocking others back and over like wheeled bowling pins. The blue pearl was giving him amazing strength, all right — he wasn’t sure Hagrid would have been able to do that! The huge man seemed to be doing ok, though, by simply grabbing them and shoving them over, off their wheels. They seemed to have a lot of trouble getting back up once they’d fallen. Hermione had a pile of stunned Wheelers around her, as did Neville. Luna was crumpled on the ground, but Ginny was standing over her, fireballs going in all directions.

Suddenly it was over. The Wheelers’ wails turned to screeches and screams, and as if that were a signal, they all immediately turned and fled back towards the boulders. Within a few moments, all the Wheelers had completely disappeared, except for the dozen or so lying stunned around them, and the one Ron was holding by the legs, who also wasn’t feeling well.

Harry rushed over to help Ginny with Luna.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” said Luna. They helped her sit up, and saw she had a nasty gash on her head. “One of them bashed me in the head with its wheel. Or hand, or whatever. Are you ok, Harry? You got thrown pretty far.”

“Oh, I’m fine,” said Harry. “I think the pink pearl protected me.”

Ginny waved her wand and fixed up Luna’s head, and she stood up.

“I remember more about these Wheelers now,” said Ginny. “From the third book, Ozma of Oz. Probably my favorite Oz book, actually. Anyway, they’re really not that dangerous. I mean, other than smacking you with their wheels, and biting a little, there’s not much they can do to you. They’re not magical, and they can’t hold weapons. They realize this, so they do their best to scare you out of their territory. If you stand up to them, they run away.”

“Well that’s great then,” said Ron. He dropped his hold on his Wheeler, and it scrambled to its wheels, shot them a dirty look, and dejectedly rolled away. “Let’s get on, then.”

“Agreed,” said Harry. “But we can rest a moment first. And Ron, can I talk to you for a second?”

Ron frowned, but followed Harry over behind a one of the scrubby trees.

“What is going on with you, Ron?” asked Harry.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve just been charging into every single battle without stopping to think. You flew right into Gormenghast’s castle before we were ready. You blasted open the door to the Time Room and nearly got us killed by a bunch of house elves. And now you’ve charged into a pack of Wheelers without knowing anything about them. So come on. What’s up?”

“Nothing’s up, Harry,” said Ron, although Harry could clearly see from Ron’s angry expression that he wasn’t being completely truthful. “I mean, I’m just attacking when I think we’re ready. And we won all those battles, didn’t we?”

“Yeah we did,” said Harry, “but it was a near thing a couple of times. I mean, that Gormenghast guy would have probably killed you if he hadn’t been struck squib; and if you’d just waited a minute or two for us to come up with a proper plan, there wouldn’t have been any danger at all.”

“I did have a proper plan,” said Ron defiantly. “If we wait around all day for you to come up with something, and for us to discuss it and discuss it, nothing will get done. People are losing their magic, Harry; and we’re trying to keep You-Know-Who from coming back, and to save your life, remember? We need to move quickly. We’re strong, we’re quick, we’re not kids anymore. We don’t always have to have everything worked out to the last detail before we move in. And if you don’t understand that, maybe someone else needs to be in charge.”

“What?” said Harry. “What do you mean? I’m not in charge, I just — “

“That’s right, mate, you’re not,” said Ron, and he turned away and went back to the others.

Harry felt himself flushing with embarrassment and anger. Was Ron accusing him of trying to order everyone around? But Harry wasn’t in charge. He just gave his opinion, just like everyone else. Right? And was Ron right about Harry being too cautious? It was true that, so far at least, everything had worked out pretty well, considering. And if they hadn’t rushed in so quickly to the Time Room, maybe the elves would have destroyed more than just that one Time Turner.

Harry didn’t know. And he didn’t know what, if anything, he should do about it. Maybe Ron was right; maybe it wasn’t the end of the world if they were a little less prepared for each battle.

Well, they’d soon see. He drew a deep breath and looked back towards the others. Ron had already started trudging up the path towards the Nomic Mountains, and the others were starting to follow him. Harry sighed. It was going to be a long, hard climb.