"TEGGY!"
He turned around just as Musa ran across and took him in a tight embrace, nearly squeezing the breath out of his lungs.
"Oh I'm so glad you're alright!"
"You know me, I have a habit of finding my way eventually." he said, returning the hug. "But hang on a minute... I told you not to come here, didn't I?"
"I know. It's a long story." she started to explain, but then she noticed he had company. She looked up to see Discorda looking down at her in her typically high-and-mighty fashion. She enjoyed having such a high pedestal - being able to look down upon people suited her perfectly.
"Ah, so this must be your friend. Thank you for getting him out."
"Hmph. It was easy, considering the stupidity of those three over there. They made my job a lot easier by releasing him from their holding spell."
Tegryn looked down the corridor, and noticed his stricken friends. He ran over to them, taking great care not to unbalance his passenger.
"Mimi! Nini! Anyuna! Charlotte! Are you guys okay?"
"I think they'll be fine" said Riven, crouching alongside Charlotte as she dozed away, cradling her head. "They have a few cuts and bruises, but they'll sleep well tonight!"
"What happened?"
"We came here to rescue you," Nini said weakly.
"I did try to tell you," Musa replied "But I got there too late."
"You mean when you tried to stop us coming here?" said Mimi. "I'm sorry, we messed up big time, didn't we?"
"Come on now, you can't think like that." said Tegryn. "Don't think for a minute I don't appreciate what you've done here. There aren't many people who would've put themselves at risk for me."
Then he sniffed. "Say... is that... burnt hair I can smell?" He looked over at the witches and laughed. "Ha! I love the new hairdo Icy, it's so you!"
"How dare you laugh at me! You'll be sorry."
She stepped forward and prepared to attack, but Darcy held her back.
"There's something different about you," Darcy said to Tegryn with an knowing look on her face, "And I don't mean the rat on your shoulder."
"Rat? RAT? Why you..."
"Hey, calm down, just ignore her. She's only trying to annoy you - and we all know she's awfully good at that" he said to Discorda, before turning to Darcy.
"Yes Darcy, you're right. Thanks to Dizzy here... I can call you Dizzy, can't I?" he asked his companion.
"You most certainly may NOT!" she replied rather angrily.
"Sorry. Thanks to Discorda here, I've learnt to connect to the magic inside me. And seeing as that magic was planted there by you, I now have the potential to learn all of your spells. In fact, I've already learnt one or two of them. They'll need a bit of practice, but allow me to demonstrate."
He held out his hand and focused his mind. "When I click my fingers, you will believe you are... let's see now... a chicken? Yes, you will behave like a chicken for exactly one minute, after which time you will return to normal with a full memory!" He clicked his fingers.
Darcy looked across at the others, and laughed. "You call that a hypnosis spell? You were right, you really could do with the practice!"
"How pathetic!" Icy sneered.
"Cluck!"
Cluck?