A/N List of things to do: Check life insurance; Write next chapter to story; Get plane tickets; Check life insurance......... HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING READING THIS!!!!?? Oh yeah...Harry Potter and co. are the property of J.K. Rowling. Now, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!!!
Harry Potter and the Staff of Time
Chapter 21
Into the Labyrinth
"Merlin!! How can you be here?" Harry squaked in suprise.
"We've been told that you were trapped in the Phantom Forest by Queen Mab." Hermione added. She eyed the apparition suspiciously.
"What you were told is true. Since Queen Mab imprisoned both Nimue and myself in the Phantom Forest, hundreds of years ago, that has been my realm. I am able to project myself, however, through the combination of natural abilities and enchantments I have bestowed upon my pet here." Merlin explained as he indicated Orion.
The little rat sat grinding his teeth with contentment at Merlin's foot. The blue aura surrounding Merlin emanated from Orion's spots.
"Well, at least Orion isn't another animagus." Ron muttered.
"Why would you think Orion is an animagus and what difference would it make if he was one?" Alex asked a little defensively.
He was feeling a little hurt that his faithful pet had suddenly abandoned him for the newcomer. Intellectually, Alex realised Orion had been Merlin's pet for a much longer time than he had been Alex's, and therefore, would be most loyal to Merlin. Emotionally, however, it still felt like an affront to him.
"I didn't see Orion after Merlin appeared and they're in the same spot. I assumed that meant that Orion had turned into Merlin. I was wrong, so shoot me, O.K.? 2 and 2 added up to 22 instead of 4." Ron explained. "And it wouldn't be anything earthshattering if he was an animagus...it's just that after Scabbers turned out to be an animagus too...I just felt like it was a bit over-the-top..."
Merlin chuckled. "Orion, as you call him, is only enchanted and the 'Merlin' you see before you is only a projected image." He explained.
"We were also told Merlin was able to astro-project, but not that you needed a vehicle to accomplish that." Hermione appeared a bit puzzled as she said this, which was only reasonable since Merlin was an extremely powerful wizard. He shouldn't need a familiar in order to astro-project.
"I wouldn't need any help, in normal circumstances." Merlin explained with a benign smile. "When Queen Mab imprisoned me, however, she wove several powerful spells around the Phantom Forest...a protective cocoon of spells, if you will...one of those spells prevents me from projecting myself outside of the forest. I was able to partially circumvent that spell by use of an enchantment which I placed upon Orion. It is only effective within the confines of my labyrinth, however. Once Orion, or I, leave the confines of the labyrinth, the spell is no longer effective."
"What do you mean, "Once you leave the confines of the forest?" You just told us you were imprisoned there." Hermione, ever the scholar, asked him.
"Ah, she is a clever one, this child!" Merlin said with an approving nod. "Her assistance should prove to be invaluable to you in negotiating my labyrinth."
Hermione blushed at the compliment. It was all the more meaningfull coming from Merlin, himself.
"The Phantom Forest, and consequently myself, isn't always located in my labyrinth." Merlin explained.
"I don't get it." Savana drawled.
"When Queen Mab banished Nimue and me to the forest, hundreds of years ago, I brought the Staff of Time with me and entombed it here. The passage of time, and the presence of the staff, have had unforseen effects upon the enchantments surrounding the forest. Queen Mab's enchantments weakened as the years passed. And because Queen Mab had vanished, they were never repaired or re-cast."
"I brought the Staff of Time with me and placed it in a protective sarcophagus for two reasons: The first was to prevent it from being taken and its power abused; the second was to prevent the fabric of time from destruction by the staff's energies."
"The Phantom Forest was origionally a permanent part of my labyrinth. Those two factors which I have just explained, however, have caused the forest to begin floating in time...for lack of a more precise term. That is why you percive the forest to appear and disappear...to you the Phantom Forest appears in a particular location, then vanishes, only to re-appear at a later time. The inhabitants realise we don't disappear, we simply...re-locate...sometimes in the labyrinth, at others, near Hogsmeade..."
Merlin's image began to flicker as he said this. He looked like the picture on a television screen when the signal is being interrupted.
"...we're leaving the labyrinth again. I must tell you one thing before I go...(static)...Orion will help you...(static)...take the Staff of Time to Avelon...(static)...safe there...(static)...try to contact you again...(continued static, then silence)"
Then Merlin was gone and the group of crusaders was left alone on the rocky shore.
"It would have been helpful if Merlin hadn't faded out like that while he was trying to communicate that last bit. It sounded like it was important." Ron said.
He picked up a flat stone and tried to skip it on the water in front of him. He was full of pent-up energy and frusteration.
"Nothing else about this whole situation has been simple or straight forward. Why should anything change now?" Savana said in a voice tinged with tension and anxiety.
Harry, Fleur, Alex and Hermione looked searchingly around themselves and tried to assess their current situation. They stood on the rocky shore of a tiny island which was little more than an enormous rock. The island was surrounded by mist shrouded water for as far as the eye could see.
"This doesn't look like a labyrinth to me." Alex stated definitively.
Fleur laughed, then said, "A labyrinth eez nothing more zhan a beeg maze. 'Owever, you are correct, we are not een zhe labyrinth. We are een zhe anti-chamber...zhe entryway."
"How do you know that?" Hermione squaked in suprise.
"I remember reading eet while we were doing zhe research. My memory ees, 'ow do you say...pho-to-gra-pheec." Fleur looked at Alex for confirmation that she had translated the idiom correctly.
Alex nodded his head then Fleur continued with her explaination. "Zhe explaination did not make much sense at zhe time. Now zhat we are 'ere, what I read makes sense to me."
Savana and Ron had turned into the conversation. When they heard Fleur's last comments they looked at each other in confusion, then said, "Say what?!"
"She means things just fell into place, all right?" Alex clairified for them.
Savana and Ron snorted with suppressed laughter, but indicated that matters had been clairified for them.
"So, what do we do now?" Harry asked in hopes of re-focusing everyone's attention.
"Zhis sea ees endless...eet 'as no shore and we must leave zhes place because eet will soon disappear." Fleur warned them.
"What do you mean...disappear?!" Savana's voice was elevated in panic.
"She means this rock is an enchantment of Merlin's. It isn't a permanent fixture here and it's already beginning to sink! Look at the shore!" Hermione pointed at the shrinking shoreline as she said this.
"Oh, this is just brilliant! What does Merlin expect us to do now...lash our wands together and create a raft?!" Ron asked sarcastically.
Alex gave him a withering look. Then he asked, "Is there anything you ran across in the translations that could help us?"
Fleur nodded her head. "Oui...yes, I deed see something...a poem which said:
"Waters of great depth, You must now pass through,
Cautious you must be, Dangers plentiful lurk there for you. Whirlpools are many, Avoid them you must,
For in them you'll drown, No matter how rightous or just.
Sea creatures abound there, Some killers, some not,
Avoid most you must, But one friend have you got.
A sea dragon is he, And if with him you travel,
Then safe shall you be.
The sea shell talisman, Merlin created for him.
Use it to call him, Without it, You Swim!"
"Thankyou, Merlin. How come every bit of information he wrote down is in the form of a cheesy poem?" Ron muttered.
Harry, who had been standing on the sinking shoreline and was now knee deep in water, yelped in suprise. "Look at what I caught! Or, what caught me, depending upon how you look at it." He shouted.
Harry lifted his right foot and leg above the water level to show the others the strange creature hanging by its teeth from his pant leg.
"What is that?!!!" Savana laughed as she, and the others, studied the bizarre thing which had attacked Harry's pants.
It had a round, furry head with a small, rounded muzzle and a nose like a dog's. Its mouth was filled with a row of tiny, sharp, needle shaped teeth. The head was attatched to a fish-like body with stout pectoral fins and a tightly curled, pig-like, tail. The beastie was covered in black fur with the exception of its fuzzy, red belly. The creature studied them with its large, round, black eyes. It didn't seem to harbour any fear of them.
Alex laughed and commented, "That animal looks like a Pomeranian-Piranha hybred."
He extended a curious hand toward it. The beastie growled, then snapped at Alex. In so doing, it lost its grip on Harry's pants and fell back into the water. It swam away in search of other pursuits.
Ron assumed a high-pitched, mocking tone. Then he said, "Dear diary, today we met the strangest creature! It looked like it was part dog and part fish. We called it a pomerranna...would you all forget this nonsense and get the sea shell talisman out before those pomerranna have us for breakfast?"
The group was now standing on the last pinnacle of dry land.
"I have it here," Savana announced. "But I haven't a clue as to how to use it."
"Give it here." Ron commanded as he took the shell from Savana's outstretched hand. The he placed the narrow end of the palm sized conch shell to his lips and blew on it like a trumpet. A piercing, high-pitched sound emanated from the conch shell. Ron repeated the blast two more times, for good measure.
"How do you know that's how that talisman was meant to be used?" Savana asked Ron.
"I don't know it for certain, but I remember hearing about ancient tribes using sea shells as horns. I never thought I'd actually get to do it someday." Ron grinned with delight.
They all watched in amazement as a large, green head broke the water's surface and approached them.
Orion apparently decided he didn't like the way events were heading and scrambled up Alex's leg into his favorite pocket.
"Oh, so now I'm your friend again?!" Alex teased his pet.
Orion's only response was to roll-up into a ball and happily grind his teeth.
The sea dragon swam up in front of them and stopped. He looked alot like a typical Chinese dragon, serpentine, green with yellow facial tentacles and sturdy fins where a land dragon's legs would be. He looked to be almost 10 meters long.
"Welcome, to you. I am Posiden, guardian of the Sea of Infinity. I am your humble servant." Said the sea dragon with a subserviant bow of his head.
"You look just like Milly, the lake dragon at home. You wouldn't be related, would you?" Savana said with excitement.
"She is my cousin..." Posiden began to respond, but Ron interrupted them.
"You can celebrate Old Home Week later. Right now we need a way off of this rock! Get away from me!" Ron started kicking at something in the water that was trying to snack on his ankles.
"I'm with you there!" Alex was also trying to fend off a hungry beastie.
Finally, in desperation, he kicked at it, like a soccer player shooting at the goal. A pomerrana flew end-over-end, in a low arc over the water. Its jaws snapping the entire time, until it landed with a splash.
"Goal! Score one for me!" Alex crowed.
Posiden merely cocked his head in confusion. "Merlin has certainly asked me to assist some very strange creatures this time." He thought.
"I would like you all to stand as close together as possible." Posiden said. "That is good."
The group had slogged into a tight bunch.
"Now, hold still. I haven't done this in centuries." Posiden said as he took a deep breath, opened his mouth and began to exhale.
"How stupid are we?! This guy's going to turn us into a sea dragon shish-kabob and we're naive enough to be making it easier for him!" Savana suddenly thought in panic.
It was too late to do anything about it now, however. There was nowhere to run to and something was already comming out of Posiden's mouth! Savana squeezed her eyes tightly shut and braced herself for the sudden blast of heat, but it never came. She forced one eye open and saw a large, pink, luminesant bubble comming out of Posiden's mouth. A moment later the bubble passed harmlessly through them (O.K., it tickled a bit) and surrounded them.
Savana smiled as she saw the water, and its inhabitants, were all effectively trapped outside of the bubble. She pushed at the inside surface of the bubble with an inquisitive finger. It stretched outward with no indication of tension. Savana pulled her finger away and the bubble wall bounced back. There was no indication that she had even touched it.
Posiden gently wrapped his tail around their bubble and said, "The journey to the mouth of the labyrinth is a long and ardurous one. It will take time and I may have some difficulty finding the opening. The door to the labyrinth is the only solid area in this relm of water and air. You would do well to make yourselves comfortable."
Posiden used his tail to guide their bubble between his rear pair of flippers. Then he used his flippers to hold onto the bubble as he dove beneath the surface. He used his front flippers and tail to propel them onward into the depths of the Sea of Infinity.
The passengers in the bubble sat down and made themselves as comfortable as possible. Harry settled his back against the bubble wall and watched a school of pomerranna which swarmed just past Posiden's powerful tail. There were other creatures out there too, but they were far enough away that they were only blurry blobs in the murkey depths.
Harry decided to close his eyes and doze for awhile. It had been a long time since he had last slept and he had no way of knowing when, or if, he would have another opportunity for sleep before this was all over. The others must have had similar thoughts because they also closed their eyes and dozed off.
They were all rudely awakened sometime later by a jarring motion. Everyone was knocked into a heap as a result of the same motion which had awakened them.
Someone with an American accent said, "Get your elbow out of my nose!"
Harry stared in horror at a large grey and black animal passing just below them. He watched, wide-eyed, as the four meter long beast turned sinewously, then launched another attack at them.
It looked like a shark with the mouth and eyes of a crocadile. The allashark (as Harry had dubbed the creature) opened its jaws as it approached them. They were greeted by the sight of four rows of long, sharp, pointed teeth.
Suddenly, they were rolled away from the allashark as Posiden made a defensive move. Next, Posiden hit the allashark across the head and shoulders with his broad, muscular tail.
This sent it spinning down into the depths.
Unfortunately, it was quickly replaced by another, slightly larger one. This allashark did a couple of bump and run manouevers to try and shake the bubble loose from Posiden's tenacious grip. Then the first allashark decided to re-join the attack.
Posiden stopped his descent, tucked his tail protectively over their bubble and between his rear flippers. Now the passengers could only see through portions of the bubble wall which weren't covered by Posiden's tail.
Harry pressed his nose up against a portion of the bubble with a forward view. He was just in time to see both of the allasharks make a head on run toward them.
Posiden swung his massive head to face the would be predators, then he opened his mouth. Something resembling a miniature blizzard blew out of Posiden's gapping maw. It surrounded the attackers, causing them to freeze solid and sink out of sight.
Posiden uncovered their bubble and resumed his previous course of travel. It was not long, however, before they were being pursued by an entire school of allasharks.
Harry thought, "I wonder if Posiden can freeze all of them?"
But Posiden seemed to have another plan in mind. He began to swim faster and changed his vector of travel.
Harry looked out of the front of the bubble and saw they were now headed for a whirlpool funnel. Posiden appeared to be swimming on a collision course with it! Harry's worst fears were quickly realised as Posiden once again protectively covered the bubble with his tail, then swam into the whirlpool. Harry wondered if any of the allasharks were suicidal enough to pursue them into the funnel.
Apparently, a few were bent upon just such a course of self-destruction. Harry saw them fly by shortly after they had entered the whirlpool.
The ride through the swirling vortex was short and violent. They all had to admit, however, it was fascinating. While they were in the outer portion of the whirlpool, they traveled in a rather smooth, downward spiral. As they were pulled toward the center, though, the ride became much rougher. Posiden, and the passengers in his precious bubble, were tossed about like so much chaff in the wind.
The center of the vortex consisted of foam, which wouldn't support their weight. Consequently, they ended up doing a rapid free-fall through the foam until they landed in the narrow bottom of the funnel. Once there, they were promptly spit-out with enough force to partially bury them in the small patch of sand underneath. Then the sand completely swallowed them and they landed with a 'whomp' in an underground cavern.
"My portion of the journey has ended." Posiden informed the group.
Then Posiden inhaled deeply and the bubble surrounding his passengers turned into mist. It vanished up his mouth and nose while his suddenly released passengers tumbled onto the sandy floor.
"Where are we?" Harry asked as he gazed around the cavern.
"This is thge entrance to Merlin's labyrinth." Posiden explained. "Now, I must leave you to find your destiny."
"Wait, you're the only source of light. We need to conjure up our own source of light before you leave us." Alex said.
Posiden had begun to glow as they had gone deeper into the sea and the sunlight had faded. Presently, his bright, greenish-yellow light was illuminating the entire cavern.
Alex and Fleur conjured up some lanterns for the group. Then they all thanked Posiden for his help.
"Please, tell my cousin Milly 'hello' for me." After Posiden had said this, he lept up through the cavern's ceiling and vanished back into the sea.
"Now where do we go and what do we do?" Savana asked as she took in the cavern.
"The writings said there would be a doorway to the labyrinth in here." Hermione informed them.
Ron, who had been checking the perimeters of the area called out, "I think I've found it!"
The rest of the group joined him near a door sized opening in the wall. They all read, with interest, the writing engraved in the stone next to the openig. It read:
"May honor be your brother,
And strength be your friend.
May luck be your lover,
Until we meet again."
~Merlin~
