Contrary to Hoggle's noted concern, the little dwarf found himself perfectly stable upon the unicorn's back as he led Sir Didymus, who was mounted on Ambrosius, and Ludo on what turned out to be a nearly two-day search for anything remotely resembling the cave where the Proba-Brand was supposed to be. Hoggle began to fear that the relic might have been ruined in the shifting of the labyrinth, and the cave mouth within which the remnants were located were now closed off forever.
About 14 hours into their second day of searching, however, Ludo managed to find the mouth of the cave, feeling that something unusually strong was within the mouth.
The problem, however, was that the cave mouth was now surrounded by a section of the Bog of Eternal Stench.
Hoggle sighed upon seeing this damnable situation firsthand.
Sir Didymus looked to Ludo. "Art thou certain this is our cave?"
Ludo shrugged. "Wudo Wock Twoll. Caves wocks."
"If Ludo says the cave has the Proba-Brand, that's all the convincing we need." Hoggle remarked.
"Why did it have to be in the midst of this vile muck?" Didymus lamented. "How cruel the hand of fate!"
Aegeas, however, was now looking along the ground, bringing his nose to the soil. Before anyone could protest, the unicorn suddenly galloped away quickly.
"Wha...where is thy unicorn going?" Didymus exclaimed. "COME BACK! Thy master needs a leap across the Bog!"
Aegeas, however, was long gone.
It was Ludo, however, who figured out why. He pointed to the ground as the Rock Troll looked to Didymus. "Twacks."
The fox-man looked to the ground, and confirmed that a horse other than Aegeas had indeed been here. "Ahhh...indeed. Tracks look erratic, too. Whatever equine presence was once here must have been quite distraught."
And then, another unexpected occurrence played before the eyes of Sir Didymus and Ludo.
Hoggle had rushed past them and made a leap over the Bog's gurgling, belching muck.
While he did make it, he had expected to impact the hard rock surrounding the hole.
He instead went into the hole.
Ludo and Didymus stared at this for a long moment in shocked silence before Ludo turned to the furry chevalier. "Wow...Hoggle bwave!"
"Verily, Squire!" Didymus then dismounted his loyal sheepdog. "Wouldst thou be capable of casting thy master knight upon the cave mouth?"
Ludo nodded. "Vewiwy."
"Ambrosius, I bid thee to remain here and stand watch." He instructed his mount, who already dropped to the ground for yet another nap. "Thou shalt have my Squire for added protection, seeing as how he is...a little big for such a jump."
Ludo lowered his head at this, looking a bit sad. He nevertheless seemed to concede to the wisdom, and applied more of a toss than a full throw, allowing Sir Didymus to similarly fall into the cave mouth.
Ludo then dropped down onto his furry behind, resolving to remain until the return of the knight he so dutifully served.
He hoped his other friends would be alongside him, as well.
The impact of Sir Didymus upon his body was able to snap Hoggle out of his brief bout of unconsciousness. He had landed upon a mossy surface, making the impact a touch less damaging.
"Oooh...huh? Sir Didymus?" Hoggle frowned in confusion. "How did you..."
"Ludo."
"Oh." Hoggle rose to his feet after Didymus moved off of the dwarf. "Gave you a good toss, eh? Dwarves hate being tossed, ya know."
"I suspect we are not going to find progress in this cave very agreeable, either." Didymus observed as he scanned the area. "It would seem we will need to slide, if not fall outright, along tunnels to progress down thy cave. I hope thou hast a plan for coming back up?"
Hoggle sighed. "I figured we'd cross that bridge when we come to it."
It was then that both occupants caught the same sound. The sound of a little girl weeping.
"Alas..." Didymus observed. "...someone is in distress!"
"Someone young from the sound of it." Hoggle noted.
The sound of the girl's weeping became their sole curiosity as they slipped and fell along the curves of upended corridors of the cave to reach the source of the sound. As they got closer, however, they could not help but pick up on another means by which they were able to locate her.
An overpoweringly awful smell.
"Dear me..." Didymus quietly observed. "...thou dost not think that she...?"
"One touch of the Bog is enough." Hoggle gravely replied. "She'll bear that stink for the rest of her life. She shouldn't use that as an excuse to be stuck here, though."
Carefully, they moved along the cave passages, the stench and the noise getting stronger.
And then, they finally found her.
It was the Sidhe servant girl from the Lady Vestrie's mansion. She looked covered in a sheen of brownish sweat, however. Her hair looked moist, and her clothes were soaked in the terrible-smelling perspiration she was generating.
Didymus had to pinch his fox nose. There was only so much of the terrible stench he could take.
The girl looked very, very distraught, however. When she saw the dwarf and the fox-man, however, she gasped in surprise. "Oh, please don't come near me!" She wailed, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Hoggle didn't even bother covering his nose. He'd been threatened with being dumped in the Bog so many times, he was beginning to get used to the strong stench. "What's a sweet Sidhe girl like you doing in Unseelie territory? Are you an undesirable?"
"I...I might as well be..." The girl lamented, wiping her stench-generating tears. "...I wanted to see the beautiful human again, s...so I rode out on Jezebel..."
Didymus confided quietly to Hoggle as he listened to the girl. "The second horse, no doubt."
"...but...when we went through the portal...she started going wild!" The girl cried. "I couldn't control her...she ran me around for a long way and...and then she threw me off! My foot landed in the muck and...and then...there was this terrible smell..." She then lapsed into a regretful sob, burying her face into her arms.
"What is thy name, sweet girl?" Sir Didymus asked, making an effort to bear the horrible stench.
"C...Cerenede..." She replied through her sniffles.
"We should get you out of this cave, Cerenede." Hoggle observed. "You can't hide away from the world just because of a silly little smell."
"But...but...we're not supposed to smell so bad." Cerenede lamented as fresh tears cascaded from her eyes. "Everyone will hate me!"
"Young lady, we are removing thee from this cave!" Didymus firmly remarked. "Once we get what we came for, of course...and once we are out, thou shalt see that a stench is no excuse to keep from living thy life!"
Cerenede wiped the brownish tears from her face. "Wh...what did you...come for? The scary moaning?"
Hoggle blinked, as did Didymus. "Moaning?" They spoke in unison.
"Er...what kind of moaning?" Didymus asked.
"I...I'll wait here..." Cerenede then remarked. "...I don't want you to have to keep...smelling me..." She then went into the pockets of her dress and produced a glass item of some sort, shaking it until a bright wisp of light emanated from it. She then reached it out so one of them could take it. "...here...take this...it's dark down there..."
Hoggle moved in to take the item, which Cerenede dropped into the dwarf's outstretched palm. "Art thou sure thou dost not wish to join us?" Didymus again asked.
"I...I'll go with you when you leave." Cerenede weakly replied. "Just...leave me alone for now..."
As Cerenede once again curled up in the dead end area, Hoggle and Didymus could not help but feel for the Sidhe girl who had been dealt her unfortunate hand.
"Jezebel must have been another unicorn." Didymus surmised as they negotiated the passages carefully. "They react badly when they are within a strongly negative territory, such as the labyrinth. The other unicorn must have been bred to be able to exist within the labyrinth grounds without going wild."
"That unicorn might have been Epona's steed." Hoggle guessed. "I remember that cave mouth from Stave's vision. This is the very same cave."
"Hmmm. Compelling." Didymus noted. "I wonder what would interest agents of the Iron Shadow enough to plunder this cavern's depths?"
"Probably Angaron." Hoggle surmised. "Or one of his own agents."
"Angaron took on hirelings, eh?" Didymus mused. "That won't improve his social standing much."
"Oh yeah. Something like that can really scar someone's reputation in Seelie society. I'm not surprised he doesn't have any real friends. I hear he's a real snake among the Sidhe these days." Hoggle then noted. Didymus nodded in agreement.
It was then that they finally heard the moaning. And with the moaning, came a clearly evident gust of wind.
And the moaning was close.
Very close.
Didymus and Hoggle proceeded carefully now, Celenea's wisp glass illuminating their progress as they descended carefully along slopes and corners and down small drops. Hoggle was at least confident that there were no long passages in this winding cavern, for a long passage meant a steep drop that would have killed them both.
But he did remember the presence of a large cavern near where the relic was located, and he surmised that whatever was moaning had made its home in there.
Hoggle finally spotted something along the wall that used to be the cavern floor that filled him with relief.
"We're close!" The dwarf suddenly exclaimed. "I remember this area. I began dropping grapes down and ground them into the surface with my foot. See the grape stain there?"
Didymus did indeed see evidence of a grape stain, and nodded. "Lead thy way, brother knight."
They were fortunate. There were two-way passages, the correct path indicated by yet another grape stain. When next they heard the moaning, it was now dangerously close.
And considerably stinky. They both surmised that whatever this creature they were approaching was, it must have somehow come into contact with the Bog.
When Didymus and Hoggle finally came upon the large cavern they sought out, they stared at the magnificently large, serpentine beast that inhabited it. A beast that, for all its awe-provoking magnificence, was marred by the very same stench that Cerenede had been afflicted with.
Its scales were a somewhat transparent-looking shade of pale silver, and a pair of wings that had the very same color of a cloudless sky adorned its back.
"I don't believe it!" Hoggle hissed in amazement. "An air dragon!"
"Truly?" Didymus asked in amazement. "What is an elemental wyrm doing so deep within this cavern?"
Stepping up a little closer to where the beast was sleeping, he finally learned why.
"This dragon was injured." Hoggle pointed to the slumbering creature's right hind leg, where a deep gash could be seen. Hoggle noticed another wound at the wyrm's left wing. "It might have been struck by debris during the shifting of the labyrinth, or it had a little row with Angaron."
"Or both..but where was its point of entry?" Didymus inquired. "This cave's entry hole is a bit too small for a beast so magnificently large."
"Magic would be my first guess." Hoggle figured. "Unless one of the walls of this cavern is an illusion. Air dragons aren't meat-eaters, though. They have more of an appetite for plants. They can get very ornery, though, if their space isn't respected."
"Territorial, eh?" Didymus mused. "Well, I suppose we could just walk around the beast, yes? Is there more than one entrance to this cavern?"
Hoggle sighed, having been in the cavern before, and remembering the location of the cavern's second exit. "I think he's sleeping in front of it."
"Hmmm." Didymus scratched beneath his muzzle in his effort to figure out a solution. He then looked to the dwarf. "How sociable is this particular species of wyrm?"
"Don't know." Hoggle replied. "I've never spoken to one before."
"Splendid!" Didymus noted. "Now is thy chance."
Hoggle blinked. "Me? You want me to negotiate with an air dragon? This one doesn't look old enough to speak languages other than its own!"
"Challenge thyself." Didymus answered. "Thy knightly courage demands it."
"Why can't you do it?" Hoggle protested. "Step up and challenge your own courage!"
"I asked thou first!" Didymus countered.
"Hey! I showed off my bravery by risking a Bog-bath just to get into this place!" Hoggle reasoned. "It's your turn to...to..."
The beast's head, now wide awake, was now staring at them both curiously, having craned its head forward.. Hoggle was the first to notice, and he could not help but quiver nervously.
Didymus, on the other hand, now looked petrified, his eyes boggling.
The dragon's huge head seemed to give each new occupant a curious whiff, its nostrils flaring once with each inward breath.
Its head then moved to gaze upon the gash at its wounded leg, and then glanced back to the cavern's visitors.
The creature then tilted its head curiously.
Didymus then gave Hoggle a nudge. The dwarf sighed, and took another step towards the dragon.
"Um...hi there..." Hoggle spoke as slowly and as respectfully as he could, still inescapably nervous. "...s...sorry to disturb you, but...we're just, uh, passing through..."
Upon hearing this, the dragon uttered what sounded like a disappointed moan. It then curled its serpentine head back up against its slumbering body and resumed its nap, the serpentine eyes closing once more.
Hoggle let out another distressed sigh, lowering his head. He then glanced at Didymus, who remained frozen where he stood.
He was about to say something to Sir Didymus when he heard a little voice groan with the sound of a nearby impact. As if someone had fallen down nearby. Moving around the corner and back into the passage they used to enter the cavern, he saw...and smelled...little Cerenede rise to her feet, looking a little dazed. When she saw Hoggle holding the light source she had given him, she gestured for the dwarf to approach her.
Moving up to her, Cerenede placed her hands to her bruised forehead and began to whisper words in an arcane language. Cerenede's body then began to glow with a soft light.
When the glow abated, the bruises on Cerenede's head were completely gone.
Hoggle's eyes widened. He had seen healing magic before, but never from one so young. "How did you...?"
Cerenede smiled. "Mending Light. It's how I fix Jezebel whenever she's hurt. As long as I have light and enough air, I can cast the spell."
"I didn't know you were a healer!" Hoggle exclaimed.
Cerenede giggled. "You didn't ask me if I was."
The little Sidhe girl then gasped upon spotting the sleeping dragon.
"Shhh...don't worry. It's an air dragon. It doesn't eat people." Hoggle quickly, quietly assured.
The dragon's head then rose back up, a sniffing sound emerging from the nostrils of its head.
Once again, it moved its head to look upon where Hoggle, Didymus, and Cerenede were standing...but its eyes were now on Cerenede. Another whiff of the Sidhe, and its head tilted in curiosity, no doubt reacting to the fact that the girl had the very same Bog stench the dragon was forced to bear.
And then, once again, the dragon moved its head back to the leg injury, glancing to Cerenede, and then tilting its head curiously, no doubt in another appeal for help.
Hoggle angled his head to the little Sidhe healer. "Do you think you can mend that gash, Cerenede?"
Cerenede turned her head to the dwarf with a pleading expression. "Can you help me find the beautiful human, master dwarf? I really want to find her."
Hoggle frowned in confusion. "Beautiful human?" He could put a face on who the little Sidhe must have been referring to, but for whatever reason, he could not remember the woman's name, which struck him as odd. "Hmmm...if that's who I think it is..."
"They punished her at the trial, master dwarf. Jezebel misses her terribly." Cerenede lamented.
Hoggle now knew exactly who she was referring to, and the dwarf had to admit that the circumstances were quite advantageous. The group could benefit significantly from having a healer among them. "We're trying to find the beautiful human as well, Cerenede. If we can get out of here, we'll let you tag along."
Cerenede nodded. "Follow me, then. I need the light if I'm going to make the dragon better."
The Sidhe girl instructed Hoggle to hold the light close to the wound area. The girl had to climb a bit, but she was able to get into a position where she could pass her hands over the gash area. She whispered her magic words and passed her little hands along the quivering gash, which began to glow with a bright white light as she lapsed into a state of intense concentration.
After a moment, the glow began to subside.
The gash then began to seal itself.
The dragon then carefully shifted its position, bringing its damaged wing in close proximity to the girl, hoping she could fix that wound as well. Hoggle noticed that once the dragon shifted around, the passage he had been blocking was now accessible. The dwarf knew that the room beyond that passage contained the very prize the group was seeking.
But he wanted to help Cerenede...who now looked a bit weary...heal the dragon's other wound first.
As she moved as close as possible to the wing wound, the tired Sidhe girl looked to Didymus, who remained rooted to his spot. "What's wrong with your friend?" She asked.
"Huh? Oh, you mean nerves-of-steel there." Hoggle wryly noted. "You'd think ol' Sir Didymus there never saw an adolescent dragon before."
The Sidhe girl, however, tilted her head. "Don't be too hard on your friend, master dwarf. Dragons sometimes have that kind of an effect on people like him. It's not your friend's fault."
Hoggle nodded, bringing the needed light as close to the wing as possible. Cerenede once again applied her healing spell, and the wound began to mend. This injury wasn't as severe as the leg gash, yet Cerenede now looked entirely exhausted after finishing her second mending effect. Hoggle figured her effort to heal the first gash must have been very taxing on her.
She then fainted back.
The dragon, however, maneuvered its mended wing quickly to break the girl's fall. Settling the young Sidhe healer harmlessly to the ground, the dragon then positioned its wing in the manner of a bedsheet, covering the unconscious girl as she napped.
The dragon then looked to Hoggle, and then glanced to the now-accessible passage. Returning its gaze to the dwarf, it then nodded once.
Hoggle now had a pretty good idea what message the mighty, mended wyrm was attempting. It would keep the girl safe and sound while Hoggle went into the Proba-Brand chamber.
Hoggle nodded back to the wyrm, and advanced towards the open passage.
As the dwarf expected, the Proba-Brand...which was ordinarily on the ground...was now against a wall that used to be the ground before the labyrinth's shifting. Fortunately, there were four brands in a plus-sign arrangement, all of them capable of imprinting the same brand.
As Angaron had done, Hoggle chose to burn the imprint on his own bare back, removing the clothes covering his torso to expose the needed skin. He knew the brand would hurt terribly, but Hoggle knew this was the only way Angaron could be defeated. For as long as the dwarf had the brand on his body, he could name the probability factor Hoggle wanted changed, and for as long as the dwarf was alive, the requested effect could linger.
Angaron used the brand to effectively defeat the Iron Winter Blade, which would have instantaneously killed him without the grace of his mark. That advantage was about to change. He couldn't undo what the traitorous Sidhe nobleman had done to himself, but he could at least give Stave another shot at un-making the bull-headed beast.
"May the minotaur race...be as fae!"
Hoggle hoped, as he applied his back to the white-hot brand, and he hollered loudly with the searing pain of the brand, that Angaron was the only minotaur in the entire underground.
Hoggle needed a moment to recover from the horrible burning agony torturing his back. He was at least relieved that he did not pass out from the pain.
Still...he had to crawl back out of the chamber, wincing with the mark that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Once he was back in the cavern, he found himself staring at a familiar pair of boots.
"Art thou finished?" Sir Didymus asked, his arms crossed in front of him, staring down upon the dwarf.
Hoggle nodded. "Hurts like you wouldn't believe, but...we've got a major advantage now."
"Well done, brother." Didymus remarked. "'Tis my turn now!"
Without another word, the fox-like knight stepped into the Proba-Brand chamber. Hoggle shook his head as he wondered just what his 'brother' would ask for. More than likely, he would ask for some kind of great battle. Ask for something glorious. Ask for something silly that a knight would nevertheless greatly desire.
He heard the knight's voice, but could not make out the request as he had opted to rest himself in close vicnity to the Sidhe girl.
Hoggle then heard a faint sizzle as he settled to the ground in relaxation, going into his belongings and procuring a long stretch of rope.
A bloodcurdling scream from Sir Didymus then followed.
Again, Hoggle shook his head...but then, the foul air around them, the stench that he could barely tolerate which he knew was a consequence of coming into contact with the Bog, suddenly began to clear from the air. Even the dragon noticed this, bringing his head up and sampling the air with a couple of curious whiffs while keeping the napping Sidhe girl covered.
The stench was gone!
In the next moment, a highly-pleasing scent replaced it. A scent which, Hoggle discovered, clearly emanated not only from the girl, but from the dragon as well.
Hoggle quirked an eyebrow, but then winced at the burning pain at his back.
A couple of quiet minutes passed. Didymus did not re-emerge from the chamber. Despite the pain, Hoggle rose back up to his feet and hurried back over to the Proba-Brand chamber.
He had feared the intense pain from the brand might have unexpectedly killed Didymus, but the dwarf instead found his knightly comrade unconscious. He had no doubt fainted from the pain, as Hoggle himself nearly did. Ignoring his own agony...at his back...as best he could, the dwarf hefted Didymus up and carried him back over to where the now fragrant-smelling Cerenede was napping.
He then looked up, beginning to wonder how they were going to get back out of the cavern. He had rope on him, but he figured the attempt to climb back up to the cave mouth entrance would take a considerably long time. He just hoped the small grappling hook-like piece would capably bite into the rock.
The dwarf's peripheral vision caught sight of the dragon's own head angling up. Perhaps he, too, was figuring out a way to abandon the cavern.
With his friends napping, Hoggle decided to get a little rest as well, settling down near where he laid Didymus.
They both found themselves covered by a leathery dragon wing as well, making their nap all the more comfortable as the dragon ponderously angled his head back up to the ceiling.
The dragon then covered the sleeping bodies completely with its wings. All of them were unconscious, although the noise that was about to follow would likely cause them to stir out of their rest.
The wyrm's torso then bulged out, its head still poised to the ceiling.
A cataclysmic blast of devastating wind then issued forth from the dragon's open mouth. It figured the walls of the repositioned cavern would not be thick enough to hold against the dragon's powerful breath, which was above and beyond gale-force. Anything caught in this burst of air would be instantaneously ripped apart. Practically vaporized, as well.
And when the blast of cataclysmic air died out, no debris fell back down to pelt the dragon.
The passages of the cavern, however, were gone. It was now more like a large pit, out of which the dragon could fly.
It noticed, however, that at the edges of this newly-formed pit, the Bog's horrible-smelling muck was beginning to spill down towards them.
Its wings uncovered the others, who were logically awake and alert. They were naturally shocked to see the cavern's dramatic transformation, but it was Hoggle who noticed two things.
One, that the muck of the Bog was about to hit the ground, having crawled down the edges of the pit.
Two, that the dragon's head had dropped down right in front of the group. The dwarf figured he was offering them a ride on his ridged head.
"ONTO THE DRAGON'S HEAD!" Hoggle hollered. "HURRY!"
Ludo peeked over the side of the large pit that had once been a small cave mouth in the middle of the stinking, gurgling, belching Bog. The sudden blast of air had stirred him from his own nap.
He saw that the molasses-like muck began to crawl down the edges of the pit, no doubt towards where the Rock Troll's friends were. He began to fear for Hoggle. He figured the dwarf was paralyzed with fear.
In the next moment, however, a large, winged creature suddenly shot out of the pit and ascended to the sky. Ambrosius let out a stream of loud barks upon seeing the winged beast, which went straight up and then gently leveled out in the skies, coasting in a gentle curve with its wings outstretched. The dragon then descended down in a gently-sloping angle until it landed right in front of Ludo and Ambrosius.
Ludo then tilted his head. "Geyser?" He growled curiously as he finally saw the ridged face of the wyrm, which lowered down to the ground.
It angled its head in a manner that made it easy for Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Cerenede to dismount from the dragon's head. The wyrm's face then moved to Ludo, staring upon the Rock Troll.
"Geyser!" Ludo repeated, confirming that this was indeed an acquaintance of his. "Wong time!" the Troll observed, to which the dragon nodded in agreement.
Hoggle stepped over to Ludo while Sir Didymus reunited with his wildly-barking mount, whose tail wagged happily.
"You know this dragon, Ludo?" Hoggle asked.
"Sure!" Ludo replied. "Geyser fwiend!"
"I don't smell bad anymore!" Cerenede then observed, noticing her brownish perspiration had completely evaporated from her now clear and unblemished skin. "But...but I..."
"Fret not, fair Sidhe...thy curse hath been lifted!" Sir Didymus announced. "By mine own mark upon mine own back, thou hast been rendered immune to the lingering odor of the Bog! Thy benefit is shared with our scaly friend as well."
Cerenede gasped in shock, and then raced forward to wrap her little arms around the furry chevalier, who howled in agony as the little Sidhe's relieved arms pressed right upon the brand at his back. "Oh, thank you, master Didymus! Thank you so much!" The little girl then stepped away from the suffering knight in concern. "Oh! Did I hurt you?"
Didymus forced a smile, his eyes boggling. "Nay! Not I! Perish thy thought!" His pained voice assured. "Knights...f..feel no such thinnnnng...!"
Ludo tromped over to the furry chevalier. "Nope! Knight stwong!" The Troll then slapped a large hand right on Didymus's back in emphasis, widening his eyes and forcing another agonized sound from the knight's moaning, grinning muzzle.
"I think we could all use a dip in a nice, cool lake." Hoggle reasoned. "Should be one near this area."
"And then, we find the beautiful human?" Cerenede asked.
Hoggle placed a hand on the Sidhe girl's shoulder. "Not without a plan."