Chapter 3
They reappeared in a chamber theat looked more like a prison cell then anything else. The bed was no more than a rough wooden board covered by a few soiled sheets. A crude bench rested in the corner, and a cracked mirror hung on the wall. Other than that, the room was bare.
"The presidential suite, this ain't.." mumbled Darcy.
Ozzie laughed and said "Enjoy your stay, Princess!". Then, he vanished.
Darcy sat down on her 'bed', and wondered who the previous occupant of this room was. whoever, or whatever, as the case may have been, probably never cleaned it. The stench in there was almost unbearable! She made a mental note to hose the place down next chance she got.
Just then, a diablos walked in, and handed her a dish full of some sort of slop. It resembled eyeballs in brown sauce. "Soup's on! I I'm on special orders frum Magus to give ya the good stuff. Ya better eat it before it eats you." it said.
Darcy felt nautious. If this was the good stuff, she would hate to see the bad. She told the little monster "No thanks...I'm not hungry"
"Suit yer'self." said the diablos, then he swallowed the swill in one gulp. "Not often I git this good a meal."
That clinched it. Her stomach couldn't take it anymore. Darcy ran to the corner of the room, held her hair back, and threw up. The diablos, who looked genuinely sorry, wiped the dribblings of his meal off his face, patted Darcy on the back and said to her "Didn't think you'd find that so revolting... guess yer only human." Darcy had stopped tossing her cookies by now, and she sat down on the bench. "I..i'ts alright. Who does the cooking around here, anyway, Mr..."
"The name's Frik." said the little guy. "And as fur the chef, yer looking at him, sweetie. The mystics like my cooking fine, but I've never had a chance to try it on a human.".
"Live and learn..." she moaned. "My names Darcy. And...that's alright. I bet you can cook pretty good, Frik"
Frik shrugged. "S'allright. But would ya mind telling me about yer'sel? Wha'sa nice human like you doin' here, Darcy?" he asked.
Darcy shook out her red hair, and said "This is gonna sound strange, but that guy Magus brought me here through some kind of time portal. I'm from about 1400 years into the future."
"Oh, so 'e's finally gettin' somewhere!" exclaimed Frik.
"Getting somewhere?" asked Darcy.
"Yeah. 'e's been summonin' up stuff for weeks now." said Frik. "So far all 'e got was a few trees, someones garbage, and a cow." Frik laughed and said "We ate good that night!"
Darcy was tempted to ask if Frik meant when they got the garbage or the cow, but she didn't want to risk losing her only friend here. "So you mean he's getting warmer?" she asked instead.
"Yup. 'e's gettin' closer to his goal every time, or at least so I 'ear." said Frik.
"And his goal is to summon... Lavos, right?" asked Darcy.
"Yeah. Hey how didja know that?"
"He was talking about it in front of me." she said.
"I see..." mumbled Frik. "So 'e didn't tell ya directly? 'e never talks to anyone unless 'e really has to, especially humans. He's meaner than me fathen 'n mother were, combined!"
"He was mean, but, for a monent, i could have sworn he sounded, well...sad." She told Frik. Then she blinked, and said "You mean he's not human?"
"As human as me, sweetie." Frik replied. He then asked, teasing, "Ya don't 'ave any plans for 'im, do ya?" Darcy gave him a disgusted look, and was about to say something, but Frik paused and sniffed the air. "Sorry, sweetie. Gotta go. I forgot I had bead bakin'. Hope ya like it crispy!". He dashed out the door, leaving Darcy alone in her room
Sighing and laying down on her bed, she thought about the events of the past little while. Was this time trip a curse, or a blessing saving her from that...creature? Or was it a case of 'Out of the frying pan, into the fire'? Magus certainly wasn't her idea of a nice guy. He probably liked to kill people simply for the fun of it. Darcy was both physically and mentally exhausted, so she slept.
She was awoken in the middle of the night by a cranky Naga-ette who was apparently the chief of staff around here. "No more sleeping, you lazy ass! If you're staying here, you gotta pull your weight!!" she screeched.
Darcy rubbed her eyes, and mumbled "But it's the middle of the night!"
"The perfect time for cleaning, you worthless twit! NOW MOVE!" yelled the Naga-ette as ashe shot a mop at Darcy, which lodged itself in the wall. A STONE wall. Darcy did as she was told. She moved. She leapt out of the bed, shook out her sheet and said "Yes, ma'am!"
"Good. Now, I'm Lizz, and I'M in charge here, got it?" shouted Lizz. Dracy nodded. "FIRST thing you're gonna do is clean out the fireplaces. All of them on this floor. You'll find the stuff you need in the storage room down the hall. now GET CRACKIN'!!" Since she had finished her tirade, Lizz smacked Darcy out of her room with her tail, and slammed the door.
Darcy shook her head, recovering from the shock that she just recieved. "Well, how bad could it be?" she wondered. "How many fireplaces could this floor have?" One of Darcy's many chores back home was cleaning out the fireplace, and she was pretty good at it. She walked down to the end of the hall, and picked up equipment.
Amost 6 hours later and 9 fireplaces, she was wondering why she was SO stupid to assume that a huge castle wouldn't have many fireplaces. She was covered from head-to-toe with soot, and was so tired and sure she was going to keel over. "Why don't I just stand up for myself?" she asked out loud. "Why?" she answered. "Because you'll get the shit beat out of you if you do." She went back to cleaning.
It had been a long day for Magus. He had made another sttempt to summon Lavos, and failed yet again. And what had he gotten instead? An irritating, stubborn, teenage girl. "I must find a way to get that pendant!" he mused to himself. "It could be the tool that i need!" he sighed and muttered "Schala..." He shook his head. He was tired. and his hand was sore. He transported himself to his room, and sat down on his bed. "I'll have my revenge someday, Lavos." he thought to himself as he ran his good hand though his hair. "That someday will just have to wait." Removing his boots, cape, and armor, he stood up in front of the fireplace, and took off his shirt. He then realized that he could stand to bathe. He was about ready to call a servant in to draw a bath, when he felt a nudge behind him...
She felt she had done a good enough job, so Darcy picked up her cleaning supplies and started to back out of the fireplace. She was nearly out when she bumped into someone and sent the both of them tumbling to the ground. They rolled around on the floor for a bit, the both of them cursing violently, until they managed to separate themselves. Darcy looked up, and almost had a heart attack. She had bumped into Magus, and, putting two and two together, this must be his room!
"You... I... oh, er...uh..." She was so shocked she was having a hard time with even simple words, and the fact that Magus wasn't wearing a shirt made it harder to concentrate. He had a VERY good muscle tone, Darcy couldn't deny that. And despite his pale skin and red eyes, he was quite attractive. At least as evil, inhuman monsters come.
Magus, however, was not tongue-tied. He was about to start another screaming fit, but the sight of Darcy covered with a thick coat of soot was so hilarious that he couldn't help but crack up laughing! "W..what (hahaha) the h..hell are (haha) you doing...(hahahahahahaha) in..." but he couldn't finish his sentence. He colapsed on the floor, doubled over in laughter. His face was turning an interesting shade of purplish-red. "G..g (hahaha) get out! (hahahahaha) GO! Just...just go(hahahaha) go to y...y...y.. (hahahahahaha) your room...!" he finally managed to say, which is quite an accomplishment when your hand is over your mouth.
Surprised, Darcy headed for the door of his room. Just before she left, Darcy asked "Say, do you think there's any way I can take a bath?"
He just waved his hand to indicate that she should go away, so she did. She stood outside the door, taking it all in, when a hench passed by. He stopped outside the door, heard the racket coming from Magus's room and looked at Darcy with a suggestive smile.
"Hey, I didn't have anything to do with it!" said Darcy. "Well, at least not in the way you think..."
The hench snorted and walked off.
(A/N: Another chapter! it was origionally suppose to end at Darcy going to sleep for the night, but it seemed so short... so I added more to it to make it longer! I love writting :) Next chapter will be up in a day or so. ENJOY!)
