by Lady Ellen
Thaddeus carefully edged the front door open a titch and peeked outside. Luck was with them, the trolls were still dozing.
“Ok,” said Persy. “I’m putting the Veil back on us, so use your energy carefully. It’s all downhill from here so we shouldn’t totally exhaust ourselves this time. Be quiet and be steady, and get to the edge of the forest as quickly as possible.”
She tapped herself, then Thaddeus and P-C. ‘Tegos’. Benson silently flew out the opened door and the others followed.
They crept past the trolls, down the steps, and scurried along to the first trees in the forest to hide from view. Persy then removed the Energy Veil from the three of them.
An unexplained uneasiness settled over Persy. Although this was quite the adventure, she can’t shake the feeling that it was meant to succeed. And why would Melanthios do that?
“Oh, well,” she muttered to herself. “We’re out...let’s just get back to Grandmother’s.” She set off after the others, who had already started down the pathway.
From far above, in the highest tower, a silent dark figure with flowing lush black hair stood in the shadows of a window.
Melanthios watched the foursome leave the Bodesnoir for the Forest of Depravation in apparent success.
“Run, my little ones,” she murmured. “Believe you have won. Go free to your fairy friends. But know this, my dear niece--YOU possess the first of my nine magical objects...and we shall meet again...soon...very soon.”
Back To Laurel
Traveling around the edge of the forest on its west side where the sun was setting gave them the best lighting they could get to venture back to the meadow.
“We are going to have to go deeper into the trees soon, can’t stay at the edge here forever, otherwise we won’t get home,” said Thaddeus.
Persy sighed. ”Ok, let’s do this.”
They turned into the forest, their pathway darkened immediately. Persy threw a Lighting Charm, a baseball sized globe of light hovered over them projecting just enough light to see their way.
“Aren’t you just the handiest Dudette,” said Thaddeus, smirking.
Persy glanced at Thaddeus, smiling at his teasing. She could see that Thaddeus, although raised in this dimension, had Time-Linxed enough to pick up the jargon and trends of the kids of her world. Kind of cool that he can teach her about his time, yet participate so easily in hers.
“I could have snorted some fire, you know,” pouted P-C. “That would have helped us see.”
“Right, ducks, and turn us all into crispy critters,” scoffed Benson. “I’ll take a pass.”
Bantering back and forth, they failed to notice the mists forming on either side of them. The mists became denser, and were quite obvious in a few seconds. And the air - the air became bone-chillingly cold.
Persy glanced to her side and spotted what was happening. “Thaddeus, what are these foggy patches? They’re starting to look like some sort of body. Look, they’re forming as we speak.” Persy pointed at the evolving shapes and wrapped her jacket around her as tightly as she could.
They watched, mouths slightly agape. There were definitely four distinct humanoid formations, but never did they become completely solid.
“Well, well...what have we here?” asked the closest one. It, he, she...who knew?...now had a defined body and the face was coming into focus. A he it was. Still, it didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking to know it was some gossamer male.
It became apparent that these four were spectres and on closer examination there were two women and two men.
Benson landed on Persy’s shoulder and silently asked, “What are we going to do Perse? My wings are getting frostbite.” The sparks of Silent Speak did not go unnoticed.
The first ghost addressed Persy, “Ah, the little glimmers of Silent Speak is it? Is the ‘wittle bugsy-wugsy’ afraid to speak out loud? We hear that, just so you know, you aren’t hiding anything.”
“What’s with the beings in this realm referring to me as a lowly bug?” steamed Benson.
Persy took a determined step forward. “We are just crossing through the forest to get back to the meadow where my Grandmother lives,” she stated firmly.
“I see, you’d be Laurel’s granddaughter, then. Interesting. We know Laurel and wouldn’t want to be on her wrong side, but she knows about us and our purpose here. I’m Marc, this is Julius,” he said, pointing to the other male. “And these are Cleo and Nefertiti.”
They nod and said, “Hello”. Judging from their names these spooks had been around for centuries. Chances were they’re bound to the forest and perform some task here. Persy was soon to find out what that task is.
“You’ll have to complete a Truth Test to go further,” Marc enlightened them.
“Goody!” exclaimed P-C.
“Might have known,” groaned Benson.
Persy knew they are no different from the gnome on the way in, they’d only have once chance to get this right. Even though the ghosts seemed like they enjoy a spot of fun, she was sure that defying or trying to ignore them will result in their anger. What kind of reaction that invited is anybody’s guess at this point and certainly not a chance she was willing to take.
“Ok,” said Persy. “What’s the question?”
This time it’s Julius who spoke. “A woman who stole two solid golden balls is running through the jungle,” he cackled a bit and continued. “Tribesmen are chasing her wanting to get the balls back and kill her. She comes to a swing bridge which is over a very deep, wide ravine. There’s a sign posted on the side which tells her that the bridge can hold only one hundred and twelve pounds period--no exceptions. She can hear her pursuers catching up with her. She knows she weighs one hundred pounds and each ball weighs ten pounds but she sets off over the bridge anyway, and makes it to the other side. How does she do this?”
“Oh, oh, I know,” squealed P-C. “She runs over the bridge with one ball and comes back to get the other and take it over.”
“Nope,” said Julius. “Not enough time. Remember her would-be captors are right behind her...she can hear them.”
“Somehow, she needs to solve the problem of their weight,” Thaddeus pondered.
“Ah,” Benson said. “She must have carried one and rolled the other along with her foot.”
“It’s a swing bridge, Benson, it would have rolled right over the side, wouldn’t work,” Persy dismissed. “Not to mention, the weight of the two balls is still on the bridge.”
“Does she throw one over the ravine and carry the other or maybe throw both and then just run by herself?” asked Thaddeus.
“Too wide,” said Julius. “A hundred pound woman could never pitch a ten pound ball across.”
“Wait! She has to take both across but only support the weight of one at a time,” Persy exclaimed.
“Of course,” said Thaddeus. “Only one way to do that...”
“Juggling!” they sang out in unison, each of them grinning from ear to ear.
Julius giggled and did a back flip in the air “Correcto-mundo.” Obviously, he was been a 70’s Time-Linxer.
All four apparitions began to fade. “Cheerio,” they heard Marc say, “Been a slice!”
The pathway darkened once again as the travellers took up their trek to get to the meadow. Persy re-started the Light Charm.
“Well, that was kind of fun,” P-C said.
“Oh, a barrel of monkeys,” sneered Benson, still put out that Marc called him a bug.
They ran over to meet Laurel, each of them clamouring to tell her what happened to them since leaving her only that morning; it seemed more like days. Laurel managed to piece out the story by mentally weaving their outbursts together.
“I’m so delighted you found the key. Fawna is going to be ecstatic. We are too late to find her tonight. Tomorrow at sunset I’ll take you lot to the place where she and I meet if we have to contact each other. For now, let’s go have a good dinner and get some rest,” Laurel said.
&nbs
p; They arose to bright sunlight the following morning. After a sumptuous breakfast of fruit from Laurel’s trees, home-made bread and goat cheese, they agreed a walk in the meadow will be a great way to spend the day, until they could meet with Fawna.
The meadow was simply dazzling, with the sun’s rays bouncing off the cornucopia of colours that the flowers and herbs displayed. Benson floated through the air, enjoying the moment completely. He zigged and zagged across the sky, hunting down small insects for breakfast, occasionally coming to a halt on one plant or another, basking in the warmth.
P-C, try as he may, could’t keep up to Benson, so resigned himself to skipping along, then rolling on his back and taking in the meadow’s fragrance.
Thaddeus was telling Persy more about growing up with Laurel, learning spells and charms and the history of the Magical Folk. He’d loved having beings like Fairies and even Unicorns in his daily life. Persy envied him the constant contact with Magicals. And, yes, he did some Time-Linxing to Persy’s world. He was about a year older than her. He greatly enjoyed how kids lived, but felt they must be lacking richness of life with no magic.
“It’s not that they don’t have magic really,” explained Persy. “In that world, all people have an ability to tap into their energies and reach magical vibrations, and believe me, that’s an immense magic. It’s just that most of them are completely unaware of how to do it. It’s a pity, honestly.” she finished, a little sad.
“I certainly learned a mountain from my mother. I have this really great friend, Erica; I call her Rix, and she is so into magic. She’d go bananas if she knew what I can do. I’d love to find a way to turn her into a witch and join me in whatever lays in front of us,” Persy ended wistfully.
“I wish I had a friend I felt that strongly about,” said Thaddeus. “I have P-C, though, and thank goodness for him.”
Persy blushed a little, her face is all tingly and warm.
“Persy, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” said Thaddeus. “Is that a Cimaruta on your neck? An Italian witch that Laurel knows told me about them.”
“Yup,” said Persy. “My mom gave it to me before I came here and said I need to wear it at all times. I know it’s for protection, but I’m not really sure what else it does. Melanthios showed up and tried to snatch it just before we left to come here. Near miss, it was.”
“Whoa. Scary.” His eyes widened, then drifted back to the amulet. “I know some of the symbols on that one. The sprig of Rue itself is a strong protection against the Black Arts and it helps throw any curses back to the sender and I believe the Dagger represents the Arrow of Diana, the Huntress God, to protect your physical body.”
Persy explained the other symbols to him.
“I’m not completely sure how it works, either. I wonder if you have to call on it in times of need.”
“Mom says it sort of jumps in when it’s needed.”
They continued walking for a while, laughing at both P-C and his romping about and Benson’s obvious bliss as he surfed the breezes, landing on one flower after another.
Their peace was rudely shattered by yelling, which seemed to be coming from over a small hillock in front of them.
“Get out! Get out of there! Thief! Come back and give the stone to me!” a voice bellowed.
Persy and Thaddeus ran up over the hill, followed closely by P-C and Benson. There they watched as a guy, about their age poked a long stick into a hole, over and over again. He was very shabbily dressed with mud all over his dark pants and shirt. His face was streaked with dirt, as were his forearms, and what they could see of his legs. As he turned to face them, Persy’s shocked by the mean, smouldering look that flashed out from his coal black eyes. He was not happy to be interrupted and it’s obvious his intent was to do some serious damage, given the chance.
“ ‘oo are you? Wha’cha want? None of your bizness...go ‘way!” He screamed, his scowl getting deeper and even more angry.
The four were stopped dead in their tracks. All were taken aback by this onslaught of bad temper and nastiness.
Thaddeus responded first, trying to put a stop to the verbal abuse. “We thought someone was in big trouble, Wolf. Needed some help. No reason for you to be so rotten,” he yelled back.
“You know that guy?” asked Persy.
“Yeah, that’s Wolfgang Kerdling. He’s some distant relative of Willow’s. He lives at Bodesnoir and is usually seen around tormenting some poor younger kid or hapless animal. Seems that’s what’s going on here, again.”
“Don’ need your ‘elp...Thad the Mad,” Wolf spit out. “Now...buzz orf!”
From within the hole, came a sharp, loud croaking “Cr-relp! Cr-relp!,” as clear as could be.
“What’s in the hole?” demanded Persy.
“W-o-o-u-ldn’t you like to know?” sneered Wolf as he started to extract something out of his jacket pocket.
“CR-RELP! CR-RELP!” the plea came repeatedly, louder and clearer.
Without hesitation, Thaddeus pulled out his wand, pointed at the stick Wolf was still wiggling in the ground and threw a Levitation-Pitching Spell on it. The stick ripped out of Wolf’s hands, rose about five feet into the air and went spinning off to the other side of the meadow.
As he finished taking his wand out of his jacket, Wolf glared at Thaddeus and his face turned to thunder. Just as he opened his mouth to curse Thaddeus, Persy leapt between them, wand pointed—her intent quite clear.
Wolf’s eyes almost popped out of his head as he looked at her. Persy looked down to what Wolf was staring at. Her Cimaruta was glowing with a bright golden light.
“Wha’?” Wolf stammered, slowly stepping back, step by step. He turned and ran back over the meadow toward the forest.
“Amazing!” cried Persy. “What happened?”
“Wolf was about to curse me and from what I know about him, it would have been something very Black. When you stepped in between us, your Cimaruta went to bat for you, ready to counter the curse and send it back to him. Obviously, Wolf knows about these Witch’s Charms and wasn’t about to tangle with it,” explained Thaddeus.
Rustling sounds made them both turn around.
“Look at this, then,” called Benson. “Seems our victim is a rather gnarly amphibian!”
True enough, a large, grey-brown, warty toad, slowly eased himself out of the hole Wolf had been poking the stick into.
“Croak,” the warty toad uttered. “Fanx. Awfree.” It was having problems talking, and it wasn’t difficult to see why. Under its lower jaw was a immense great lump. The toad was holding a rather over-sized something in its mouth. When it was completely free from the opening, it lowered its head and spit the mystery item out on the ground.
“There...croak...that’s better. Can’t thank...croak, you all enough.” it smiled awkwardly. Persy didn’t think toads were actually wired for smiling, it came across as such an awkward grimace. She stepped up closer to see what it spat on the ground.
“What is that?” she asked. “Is that what Wolf was after?”
“Yes...croak...it is. It’s a very pure stone, made of Orange Calcite...croak...croak.” the toad replied. “Melan...croak...thios uses it all the time for enhancing and magnifying her magic. She caught me and I was about to become dinner for...croak...one of her magical nasties. So when she was out of her...croak...supply room, where she... croak...dumped me, I spotted it...nicked it and hopped out the window. Croak...she sent Wolf after me and that’s...croak...when you showed up.”
“How did you know to take that stone?” P-C asked. He hadn’t said much through this whole process, spending most of the time a good few steps behind Thaddeus. Hero material, he wasn’t.
“You’re just a toad. What do you know of serious magic? I’m surprised you’re still alive--would have thought Melanthios would have served you up right quick-like!”
“Well...croak...I suppose that’s because...croak...all is not as it seems,” said the toad. As the last word ground out of his throat, his body
started to take on a quivering quality. Silvery light filled the air and his shape enlarged and changed, drastically. The light dimmed, and the four gasped in chorus. There, where the toad had been was the most gorgeous, brilliant unicorn. It was a glorious white, with a platinum mane and tail and the largest robin’s eggshell blue eyes.
He snorted and rubbed his single horn on the grass, to get rid of dirt from his nostrils after being in the hole.
“My name is Chamelor,” he said. “As you can see, I’m able to shape-shift and I can also become invisible.”
“Why were you posing as a toad?” asked P-C
“It’s very difficult to enter the Forest of Depravation as a great, glowing unicorn and remain unnoticed,” he stated. “Unicorns are pure energy, and Melanthios killed a very dear friend of mine for that energy. I was told that if I could take the Orange Calcite from her, it would weaken her or at least her magic. I believed being a toad would give me good cover to get into Bodesnoir to steal it. Unfortunately, one of her miserable evil gnomes caught me and took me to her. He had no idea who I really was; he was just trying to gain points by bringing her food for her nefarious pets. I figured it was better for the time being to remain a toad, because if she knew I was a Unicorn, she’d kill me immediately for her own gain. As it turned out, it served me well...Unicorns don’t hop out of windows with much finesse, nor do the landing thing well.”
Persy found her voice first. “Where do you normally live?” she asked.
“North of here, in Bellarya still, but near Chingford. In our area, there are little foothills with trees sprinkled about. There’s a herd of us and the land formation gives us lots of places to hide. It’s perfect, really. We generally keep to ourselves, but this attack by Melanthios cannot go unanswered. She’s become more arrogant and invasive by the year.” Chamelor said. His pain showed through a catch in his voice.
“What will you do now? Won’t Wolf just come back after you, once we leave?” inquired Thaddeus, anxious that Chamelor not be attacked again.
“I’m going home, and as I go through the forest, I’ll become invisible. I’ll be fine as long as I give Bodesnoir a wide berth,” Chamelor said.
