The Brain Coral
"Sorceress," a voiced echoed. The girls looked around. All they could see was cave walls everywhere. It was enclosed in an area that was not too big. There were also misty presences, that they all knew were demons.
Not knowing which Sorceress he was addressing, they all answered. "Yes?" they said timidly.
"I had to bring you here to correct a technical error. It is not that I care at all about you or Xanth, but apparently you can cause a lot of havoc on the upside world, and that cannot be allowed to happen. I do not wish to be bothered in later times by incidents you have created. So I must correct it." The figure, which the girls understood was not all of X(A)(N)th, but just a minor part, took a step towards Lyndsey. It reached one vaguely arm shaped appendage out, and touched her. Lyndsey gasped and fell to the floor. Day and Night ran to her side.
"Are you ok Lyndsey?" Day asked worriedly.
"What happened?" Night asked, the same concern in her voice.
"I feel…like…half of me!" Lyndsey gasped.
"Be glad that it is only that much," X(A)(N)th' s voice echoed. "With a talent of your magnitude, and the severity of the detachment, you could have died. It is only because you have not used your talent often that you remain as you are."
"I'm sure she'll feel lucky in the morning," Day said sarcastically. She had gotten Lyndsey into a sitting position, and was helping her to stay up.
Night leapt up. "What did you do to her, anyway!" she asked angrily. After her initial compassion, she remembered that she should be pissed.
"Yeah, what DID you do to her?" Day asked, also angry. But she didn't leap up…she was still supporting Lyndsey.
"Her talent was too powerful. I simply lessened it. Yesterday she took a spell to temporarily nullify it; today I permanently did so."
"What do you mean by nullify? Does she have no talent anymore?" Day asked. Lyndsey shuddered.
"Of course not. The girl still retains much of her original talent. She can just no longer take talents at will. The other being must be willing to give up their talent to her." X(A)(N)th was obviously bored with explaining these simple things to lowly mortals like themselves, because he was fading out.
"Wait!" Night cried. "You have to tell us how we can stay in Xanth!"
"I do not care about you," X(A)(N)th replied. "I brought you here only to solve the problem of that Sorceress." And then he was gone. Rather, they were gone. Instead of being in the chamber they were just in, they were now outside of it somewhere, in an underground hallway.
"Well, lots of good THAT did," Day muttered.
"I guess it's fair," Lyndsey murmured. "My talent really was too strong."
"Don't worry," Day said. "You're still a Sorceress, I think. Just of a lesser magnitude."
"Yeah, your talent can still be used. Like, we could give you our talents for safekeeping for a while or something, then you could give them back with reverse wood. It can work really good. Don't be sad," Night said, trying her best to cheer Lyndsey up.
"Don't worry guys. I understand why it had to be done. They couldn't have me running around Xanth, stealing everyone's talents. Then I'd be too powerful, and everyone else would be…" she shuddered, "Mundane."
"I have some ideas," Grundy said, speaking up. The girls looked at him, startled. They had almost forgotten about him, in all the excitement. Guinever, likewise, was standing next to Grundy. He frowned, just realizing that he was being forgotten.
"Aww, Guinever, don't be sad," Day cooed.
"It's ok Guinny," Night said, giving him a hug.
"Hey, precious baby," Lyndsey said, smiling at him. She picked him up. Guinever smiled, and the spell was released.
"So what are your ideas, Grundy?" Night asked, interested. Day and Lyndsey also turned and looked at him, curious.
Grundy smiled. "Well, I know that the Good Magician works in mysterious ways. You three may be unaware of that, or maybe you just forgot. But it seems to me that we've already accomplished a lot on our quest. We saved a Sorceress and her strange friend, and had her power dampened so it would be acceptable in Xanth society. AND we decided to go visit your parents, which is an important task. So maybe, just maybe, we're in this cave for a reason, too."'
The three girls pondered Grundy's reasoning. "You mean, maybe the thing that Steph can't get and I can't get could be down here somewhere?" Day asked, forgetting to use Night's new name. Understandably, she was quite distracted.
"I'm not saying it is for sure, but it could be," Grundy said, an air of mystery in his voice.
"Grundy, what's down here that you think we could need?" Night asked, getting frustrated.
Grundy hesitated. "I don't think I can tell you. We ARE still in the game, technically, and I'm supposed to let you figure this kind of thing out for yourself."
Lyndsey spoke up. "What's the point of this game, anyway? We don't seem to be following many guidelines."
"Well, you're right about that," Grundy said. "I guess it's kind of hard to keep up with two Sorceresses who found their way into the game, and one they found while in the game. But the actual point is to solve all the mysteries to get to the final object: a magical talent."
"Wow, you get a talent for winning the game?" Lyndsey asked, mystified. "That's great!"
"It really is," Day interjected, "but right now we should solve THIS problem, and worry about that later."
"She's right," Night said. "Let's get searching." Nodding, Lyndsey, still holding Guinever, tried to start walking. She stumbled a little, and Day caught her.
"Here, give me Guinever," Night said. Lyndsey passed him to her, and Guinever smiled, happy to be the momentary centre of attention.
"And you can hold on to my arm for balance," Day said, taking hold of Lyndsey. She did so, and they all started walking. Grundy sighed. It seemed he was going to have to run to keep up again. And this was his idea to begin with! He rolled his eyes with impatience, and starting running.
Day looked around. All she could see was cave walls. Truth be told, she didn't like this place at all. It was too dark, and closed in. Not a nice place at all.
"What's that?" Lyndsey said, tugging on her arm. She was pointing to a glittering stone in the wall.
"It looks like an emerald!" Night said, reaching for it. As she was about to grab it, she stalled, waiting for Grundy to say not to. He smiled, realizing he actually was having an impact on the girls.
"It's ok," he said. "You can take that emerald. There's a nymph down here named Jewel, and she plants all of these stones. But I'm sure she won't mind it if you take just one." Trusting him, Night pulled it out of the wall.
"Oh, it's so beautiful!" Lyndsey exclaimed.
"Here, you should take it," Night said, fastening the emerald around Lyndsey's neck. It sparkled, adding to the beauty of her eyes.
"Aw, that looks so pretty!" Day said. Lyndsey smiled.
"Thanks guys," she said. "Let's get going." They all agreed, and starting walking at a slightly slower pace, one that Grundy could easily keep up to. He smiled too.
Suddenly, the walls starting shaking a little. Not too much, but they were definitely moving.
"What's that?" Day asked, terrified. She already hated this place!
"Oh, it's probably a diggle," Grundy said.
"A diggle? What's that?" Night asked.
"An underground animal. They tunnel through walls, and things," Grundy explained.
"Oh! Do you think we could ride on?" Lyndsey asked. "It would really help us look around, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah!" Day and Night exclaimed in unison, their eyes flashing.
"Well, you CAN ride them," Grundy said. "They're pretty nice, once you get to know them. But there is one thing," he was allowed to tell them this minor detail, since Lyndsey had already solved the mystery of riding diggles.
"What's that?" Lyndsey asked.
"They like music. If we're going to ride on one, someone's going to have to sing to it."
The girls cringed. Day and Night already knew they weren't great singers. Sure, they sang a lot in Mundania, but it was just for fun. Lyndsey had no real experience with singing, so couldn't be expected to sing well.
"You'll have to decide soon. It's coming," Grundy added. Sure enough, a hole was forming in a wall to the left.
"One of us will have to do it," Day said. "This is a perfect opportunity to search this place easily."
"Why don't we take turns?" Lyndsey said. "Then we all have to sing."
"That's a good idea!" Night said.
Day nodded. "Ok, so we'll take turns. Who starts?" They all looked at Grundy. He sighed.
"Why don't you do it alphabetically?" he suggested. He didn't want to be the one to choose, and that seemed like a simple enough solution.
"That sounds ok," Night said quickly. Singing alphabetically would allow her to be the last one to sing.
"Uh-" Day said starting to protest. But just then, the diggles head burst through the wall, followed by the rest of its long body.
"Ew," Lyndsey said. The other girls shared her sentiment. The diggle was essentially just a big, long, worm. Its head was a little bigger, and kind of had facial features, but for the most part, it was just a big worm.
"Hello, diggle," Grundy said. The girls didn't have time to protest. Then Grundy made some strange noises with his voice that they couldn't understand. "The diggle says he'll give us a ride," Grundy said. "Provided that you sing for him."
They were stuck for it. Shuddering slightly, Night got on the diggle with Guinever in her arms. Taking a deep breath, Day helped Lyndsey up. Grundy hopped on happily. Apparently he had no problem with riding a worm.
"La la la," Day started, doing a really horrible job of singing. But the diggle started moving. Apparently it wasn't picky about its music. Reassured, Day started singing a real song. Well, it was kind of real, because it came from Mundania.
"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go, I'm standing here, outside your doorrrrr," Day sang, horribly off key. Grundy, Guinever, Night and Lyndsey cringed, but the diggle moved faster, happily. It was enjoying its song.
Day kept singing, and the diggle kept moving. Trying to ignore the horrid sound, everyone looked around, searching for…well, searching for something. All they could really see were cave walls, with the occasional shiny stone in them.
Day finished her song. The diggle stopped moving. Quickly, Lyndsey starting humming. She didn't know any songs, having grown up in a world of nightmares. But the diggle accepted humming as a song, and resumed its trek.
Still, there was nothing to be seen. They came to a branch in the cave. The diggle went right. They were thrown into darkness. Startled, Lyndsey stopped humming. Catching on, Night began singing, and the diggle didn't stop moving. It plowed through the darkness, happy in its element.
All of a sudden the girls found themselves being jostled. The diggle was plowing through a wall! They all held on, and Night kept singing, although now it was off-key and shaky. But the diggle kept going through the wall, so apparently it liked the sound.
They burst forth into light. It wasn't a bright light, but it was lighter than the complete darkness. Night stopped singing, and looked around with the other girls.
They seemed to be in a new chamber. There was a stream of some sort, that flowed off into a distance they couldn't see. It was sort of translucent. Being the first interesting thing they had seen, the girls were all distracted.
Angry that the singing had stopped, the diggle pushed them off. This was an interesting experience, as it had no legs or arms. But they were no longer on the diggle. Then it turned and burrowed itself away.
"Oh no!" Lyndsey exclaimed. "We lost the diggle!"
"But look what we found!" Day said, kneeling next to the water. Her blue dress reflected in its surface, and she found herself transfixed by the water.
Hello.
"Ahh! What was that?" Day asked, startled.
"What was what?" Night said, looking at her funny. She came to kneel by the water with her.
((Greetings, Sorceresses.))
"Ahh!" Night said, now sharing Day's startle.
"What's so interesting?" Lyndsey asked, her violet eyes flaring. She didn't like being left out any more than Guinever, who was now happy, as he had been mentioned. She came and knelt by the water, too.
((What a find. Three Sorceresses.))
"Ahh!!" Lyndsey screamed, slightly more frightened than the other two. In all her days in the gourd, she had never encountered anything like this.
Grundy joined the girls. ((Hello, Golem. Good to see you)), the voice echoed.
"Hello, Brain Coral," Grundy said. The girls stared at him, mystified. He liked the effect of having all their pretty pairs of eyes fixed on him, but of course he could never admit that.
"I'd like you to meet the Brain Coral," he said. Now it was their turn to be confused. What was going on?
************************************************************************
"Sorceress," a voiced echoed. The girls looked around. All they could see was cave walls everywhere. It was enclosed in an area that was not too big. There were also misty presences, that they all knew were demons.
Not knowing which Sorceress he was addressing, they all answered. "Yes?" they said timidly.
"I had to bring you here to correct a technical error. It is not that I care at all about you or Xanth, but apparently you can cause a lot of havoc on the upside world, and that cannot be allowed to happen. I do not wish to be bothered in later times by incidents you have created. So I must correct it." The figure, which the girls understood was not all of X(A)(N)th, but just a minor part, took a step towards Lyndsey. It reached one vaguely arm shaped appendage out, and touched her. Lyndsey gasped and fell to the floor. Day and Night ran to her side.
"Are you ok Lyndsey?" Day asked worriedly.
"What happened?" Night asked, the same concern in her voice.
"I feel…like…half of me!" Lyndsey gasped.
"Be glad that it is only that much," X(A)(N)th' s voice echoed. "With a talent of your magnitude, and the severity of the detachment, you could have died. It is only because you have not used your talent often that you remain as you are."
"I'm sure she'll feel lucky in the morning," Day said sarcastically. She had gotten Lyndsey into a sitting position, and was helping her to stay up.
Night leapt up. "What did you do to her, anyway!" she asked angrily. After her initial compassion, she remembered that she should be pissed.
"Yeah, what DID you do to her?" Day asked, also angry. But she didn't leap up…she was still supporting Lyndsey.
"Her talent was too powerful. I simply lessened it. Yesterday she took a spell to temporarily nullify it; today I permanently did so."
"What do you mean by nullify? Does she have no talent anymore?" Day asked. Lyndsey shuddered.
"Of course not. The girl still retains much of her original talent. She can just no longer take talents at will. The other being must be willing to give up their talent to her." X(A)(N)th was obviously bored with explaining these simple things to lowly mortals like themselves, because he was fading out.
"Wait!" Night cried. "You have to tell us how we can stay in Xanth!"
"I do not care about you," X(A)(N)th replied. "I brought you here only to solve the problem of that Sorceress." And then he was gone. Rather, they were gone. Instead of being in the chamber they were just in, they were now outside of it somewhere, in an underground hallway.
"Well, lots of good THAT did," Day muttered.
"I guess it's fair," Lyndsey murmured. "My talent really was too strong."
"Don't worry," Day said. "You're still a Sorceress, I think. Just of a lesser magnitude."
"Yeah, your talent can still be used. Like, we could give you our talents for safekeeping for a while or something, then you could give them back with reverse wood. It can work really good. Don't be sad," Night said, trying her best to cheer Lyndsey up.
"Don't worry guys. I understand why it had to be done. They couldn't have me running around Xanth, stealing everyone's talents. Then I'd be too powerful, and everyone else would be…" she shuddered, "Mundane."
"I have some ideas," Grundy said, speaking up. The girls looked at him, startled. They had almost forgotten about him, in all the excitement. Guinever, likewise, was standing next to Grundy. He frowned, just realizing that he was being forgotten.
"Aww, Guinever, don't be sad," Day cooed.
"It's ok Guinny," Night said, giving him a hug.
"Hey, precious baby," Lyndsey said, smiling at him. She picked him up. Guinever smiled, and the spell was released.
"So what are your ideas, Grundy?" Night asked, interested. Day and Lyndsey also turned and looked at him, curious.
Grundy smiled. "Well, I know that the Good Magician works in mysterious ways. You three may be unaware of that, or maybe you just forgot. But it seems to me that we've already accomplished a lot on our quest. We saved a Sorceress and her strange friend, and had her power dampened so it would be acceptable in Xanth society. AND we decided to go visit your parents, which is an important task. So maybe, just maybe, we're in this cave for a reason, too."'
The three girls pondered Grundy's reasoning. "You mean, maybe the thing that Steph can't get and I can't get could be down here somewhere?" Day asked, forgetting to use Night's new name. Understandably, she was quite distracted.
"I'm not saying it is for sure, but it could be," Grundy said, an air of mystery in his voice.
"Grundy, what's down here that you think we could need?" Night asked, getting frustrated.
Grundy hesitated. "I don't think I can tell you. We ARE still in the game, technically, and I'm supposed to let you figure this kind of thing out for yourself."
Lyndsey spoke up. "What's the point of this game, anyway? We don't seem to be following many guidelines."
"Well, you're right about that," Grundy said. "I guess it's kind of hard to keep up with two Sorceresses who found their way into the game, and one they found while in the game. But the actual point is to solve all the mysteries to get to the final object: a magical talent."
"Wow, you get a talent for winning the game?" Lyndsey asked, mystified. "That's great!"
"It really is," Day interjected, "but right now we should solve THIS problem, and worry about that later."
"She's right," Night said. "Let's get searching." Nodding, Lyndsey, still holding Guinever, tried to start walking. She stumbled a little, and Day caught her.
"Here, give me Guinever," Night said. Lyndsey passed him to her, and Guinever smiled, happy to be the momentary centre of attention.
"And you can hold on to my arm for balance," Day said, taking hold of Lyndsey. She did so, and they all started walking. Grundy sighed. It seemed he was going to have to run to keep up again. And this was his idea to begin with! He rolled his eyes with impatience, and starting running.
Day looked around. All she could see was cave walls. Truth be told, she didn't like this place at all. It was too dark, and closed in. Not a nice place at all.
"What's that?" Lyndsey said, tugging on her arm. She was pointing to a glittering stone in the wall.
"It looks like an emerald!" Night said, reaching for it. As she was about to grab it, she stalled, waiting for Grundy to say not to. He smiled, realizing he actually was having an impact on the girls.
"It's ok," he said. "You can take that emerald. There's a nymph down here named Jewel, and she plants all of these stones. But I'm sure she won't mind it if you take just one." Trusting him, Night pulled it out of the wall.
"Oh, it's so beautiful!" Lyndsey exclaimed.
"Here, you should take it," Night said, fastening the emerald around Lyndsey's neck. It sparkled, adding to the beauty of her eyes.
"Aw, that looks so pretty!" Day said. Lyndsey smiled.
"Thanks guys," she said. "Let's get going." They all agreed, and starting walking at a slightly slower pace, one that Grundy could easily keep up to. He smiled too.
Suddenly, the walls starting shaking a little. Not too much, but they were definitely moving.
"What's that?" Day asked, terrified. She already hated this place!
"Oh, it's probably a diggle," Grundy said.
"A diggle? What's that?" Night asked.
"An underground animal. They tunnel through walls, and things," Grundy explained.
"Oh! Do you think we could ride on?" Lyndsey asked. "It would really help us look around, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah!" Day and Night exclaimed in unison, their eyes flashing.
"Well, you CAN ride them," Grundy said. "They're pretty nice, once you get to know them. But there is one thing," he was allowed to tell them this minor detail, since Lyndsey had already solved the mystery of riding diggles.
"What's that?" Lyndsey asked.
"They like music. If we're going to ride on one, someone's going to have to sing to it."
The girls cringed. Day and Night already knew they weren't great singers. Sure, they sang a lot in Mundania, but it was just for fun. Lyndsey had no real experience with singing, so couldn't be expected to sing well.
"You'll have to decide soon. It's coming," Grundy added. Sure enough, a hole was forming in a wall to the left.
"One of us will have to do it," Day said. "This is a perfect opportunity to search this place easily."
"Why don't we take turns?" Lyndsey said. "Then we all have to sing."
"That's a good idea!" Night said.
Day nodded. "Ok, so we'll take turns. Who starts?" They all looked at Grundy. He sighed.
"Why don't you do it alphabetically?" he suggested. He didn't want to be the one to choose, and that seemed like a simple enough solution.
"That sounds ok," Night said quickly. Singing alphabetically would allow her to be the last one to sing.
"Uh-" Day said starting to protest. But just then, the diggles head burst through the wall, followed by the rest of its long body.
"Ew," Lyndsey said. The other girls shared her sentiment. The diggle was essentially just a big, long, worm. Its head was a little bigger, and kind of had facial features, but for the most part, it was just a big worm.
"Hello, diggle," Grundy said. The girls didn't have time to protest. Then Grundy made some strange noises with his voice that they couldn't understand. "The diggle says he'll give us a ride," Grundy said. "Provided that you sing for him."
They were stuck for it. Shuddering slightly, Night got on the diggle with Guinever in her arms. Taking a deep breath, Day helped Lyndsey up. Grundy hopped on happily. Apparently he had no problem with riding a worm.
"La la la," Day started, doing a really horrible job of singing. But the diggle started moving. Apparently it wasn't picky about its music. Reassured, Day started singing a real song. Well, it was kind of real, because it came from Mundania.
"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go, I'm standing here, outside your doorrrrr," Day sang, horribly off key. Grundy, Guinever, Night and Lyndsey cringed, but the diggle moved faster, happily. It was enjoying its song.
Day kept singing, and the diggle kept moving. Trying to ignore the horrid sound, everyone looked around, searching for…well, searching for something. All they could really see were cave walls, with the occasional shiny stone in them.
Day finished her song. The diggle stopped moving. Quickly, Lyndsey starting humming. She didn't know any songs, having grown up in a world of nightmares. But the diggle accepted humming as a song, and resumed its trek.
Still, there was nothing to be seen. They came to a branch in the cave. The diggle went right. They were thrown into darkness. Startled, Lyndsey stopped humming. Catching on, Night began singing, and the diggle didn't stop moving. It plowed through the darkness, happy in its element.
All of a sudden the girls found themselves being jostled. The diggle was plowing through a wall! They all held on, and Night kept singing, although now it was off-key and shaky. But the diggle kept going through the wall, so apparently it liked the sound.
They burst forth into light. It wasn't a bright light, but it was lighter than the complete darkness. Night stopped singing, and looked around with the other girls.
They seemed to be in a new chamber. There was a stream of some sort, that flowed off into a distance they couldn't see. It was sort of translucent. Being the first interesting thing they had seen, the girls were all distracted.
Angry that the singing had stopped, the diggle pushed them off. This was an interesting experience, as it had no legs or arms. But they were no longer on the diggle. Then it turned and burrowed itself away.
"Oh no!" Lyndsey exclaimed. "We lost the diggle!"
"But look what we found!" Day said, kneeling next to the water. Her blue dress reflected in its surface, and she found herself transfixed by the water.
Hello.
"Ahh! What was that?" Day asked, startled.
"What was what?" Night said, looking at her funny. She came to kneel by the water with her.
((Greetings, Sorceresses.))
"Ahh!" Night said, now sharing Day's startle.
"What's so interesting?" Lyndsey asked, her violet eyes flaring. She didn't like being left out any more than Guinever, who was now happy, as he had been mentioned. She came and knelt by the water, too.
((What a find. Three Sorceresses.))
"Ahh!!" Lyndsey screamed, slightly more frightened than the other two. In all her days in the gourd, she had never encountered anything like this.
Grundy joined the girls. ((Hello, Golem. Good to see you)), the voice echoed.
"Hello, Brain Coral," Grundy said. The girls stared at him, mystified. He liked the effect of having all their pretty pairs of eyes fixed on him, but of course he could never admit that.
"I'd like you to meet the Brain Coral," he said. Now it was their turn to be confused. What was going on?
************************************************************************