The next trip was into town. He had the snake skin in his pocket and was jittery in excitement. Today, if all went to plan, he would make the potion.

The store was the same as always. The dog may well have been a large fuffy statue for all it had moved. It was quick work to pat the dog a few times and collect the shedding hairs. Gwydion then ran to Medusa's, the trip over in a flash. He hadn't seen Medusa for over a week, and in his anticipation, he can be forgiven for his greeting, or lack thereof, "Medusa! I have it! The skin and the scales and the fur! We can make the potion!"

"Greetings to you too."

"Right sorry, I'm just so excited. We are going to do magic! Real magic."

"Come along then, I can see I will have to wait for you before I can have a decent conversation."

Medusa lead Gwydion into her work room, which turned out to be the same room as what Gwydion had thought was her kitchen. After she had directed him to fill a small metal pot (a cauldron, Medusa corrected) with water from the spring, they had then added the ingredients carefully, starting with just the quills of the small chicken feathers, then the dog fur, a sliver of the snake skin ground into dust, a spoonful of the fish scales, and after 20 clockwise stirs even 30 second, let it simmer until it was reduced down to a thick paste, which was a surprising deep blue in colour. Medusa directed Gwydion to sprinkle the thimbleful of dew in the bowl, mix with his finger, while he chanted, "Feather of fowl and scale of fish
Molded together in this dish
Give me wisdom to understand
Creatures of air sea and land."

Gwydion watched in fascination as the paste lighted in colour to a bright baby blue, before Medusa had him smear the paste in his ears. For a moment he wondered if the concoction had worked, or if it was some horrible joke on him, when it felt like his ears popped, the air rushing in. Gwydion blinked his eyes in a reaction to what had felt almost like a sneeze in his ears. He looked at Medusa, unsure. She smiled back.

"So it worked?"

"Mmm, I have not brewed such a potion before, but the colour change looked right. Why don't you go explore and your next visit you can tell me if you now understand other beasts?"

Gwydion smiled, and did as he was told. Once he had cleaned up under Medusa direction, he hugged Medusa tightly. "Thank you for helping me."

"Oh, dear Gwydion, the pleasure is all mine."

With that Gwydion started his way back to the Keep. He decided to go find some birds or squirrels in the forest, as they were always around. Finding a quiet spot, he settled down and listened. A flutter of wings announced the arrival of a lark in a nearby tree. At first Gwydion could still only hear the trills of the bird, before he realised that those trills were actually words, "This tree is mine. Mine. Mine. Mine! Go away!"

The chittering of a squirrel nearby caught his attention, "Hey! Whats that? Hey! Hey! Run away!"

The potion had worked! Gwydion spent the rest of the afternoon listening to the animals of the forest. Turns out, most creatures didn't really have a lot to say at all. Gwydion was lucky if they said anything outside of "mine!" or "hey!". Sometimes, they shouted warnings, or threats to back off. He had tried to talk to the squirrel.

"Hello, my name is Gwydion, what is,"

"This is mine! GO away!"

"I'm not going to take it from you, I just wanted to talk to you."

"Back off! Mine!"

"I don't want your nuts!"

"Mine!"

"Yes I know! Look, whats your name?"

"Threat! Run away!"

And with that the squirrel had disappeared into the trees. Gwydion got the impression most animals were as about as intelligent as Dudley, which was to say, not at all. With a sigh, he had made his way back to the Keep. It was nearing the top when the hens clucking had caught his ear.

"Whatever happened to your last batch of chicks, my dear?"

Another answered, "My poor babies were doing so well! I was just teaching them the proper methods of scratching when that old rascal came out and took them away!"

"Where do you think he took them?" wondered the first hen.

"I hate to think," the distraught mother hen replied. "I just heard them peeping as they were carried off."

By this stage Gwydion had topped the path. He hesitated next to the pen. The chickens, for some reason, seemed so much smarter then the creatures in the forest had. Before he could decided to try and ask why, one hen, the largest clucked, "Look it's the poor boy. He really thinks his name is Gwydion."

"Wouldn't he be surprised to find out he's a prince!" replied one of the smaller hens.

"Yes," cackled the first hen sarcastically. "He's really a lost Prince from far away, come to save the kingdom."

"Well I feel so sorry for the boy. The old wizard treats him miserably."

"Yes, dear, but YOU ought to worry about your own neck. Look at the situation WE'RE in."

"Remember Gertrude," a third chicken reminisced. "Remember how one day the boy came out and got her."

"Oh, I know," clucked the largest. "It was horrible! I hear she ended up in the old wizard's stew. I can't bear to think about it!"

Gwydion gaped at the chickens. They could remember him killing one of them? That was horrible. He fumbled for something to say, not sure why or what, but needing to say something.

"Yes well, I don't miss her at all. Always pecking at my spot."

The largest had started eyeing Gwydion wearily, "And whats the boy doing now? Standing there with his gob open. Looks suspicious to me."

Gwydion blurted out, "I didn't mean to!"

Silences feel across the chickens. The largest exclaimed, "Whats this? Speaking to us now?"

"He's been listening in! Spying on us!"

This of course caused all the hens to start flapping about in agitation. Gwydion attempts to defend himself fell on deaf ears. "I wasn't listening in!"

"Spy!"

"None of our secrets are safe!"

"Ugly little liar!"

Realising there was nothing he could do to help, Gwydion backed away and went inside. From the windows of the kitchen, he watched the chickens eventually calmed down. He thought about going an explaining to them, but he could really do so. He had killed one of them to make a stew. And it had been delicious. Now Gwydion felt a bit sick.

"So the boy is back from another gallivant around town."

Gwydion jumped, half falling into the bench and banging his elbow. He whipped around to see the cat standing in the doorway, eyeing him in what had tho be amusement. "You? What?"

The cat stilled, it's eyes narrowed and the menace it radiated seemed to colour the air. "So boy, done some magic have you? The hens weren't spinning tales. Understand me now do you?"

"Yes."

"Well, well, well. Isn't this interesting." It wasn't a question. The cat continued, "I would be very careful boy, don't let Manannan catch you. He won't even hesitate to kill you for it. And then where will I be? Training some new idiot boy."

"But Manannan is a wizard! Why would he be upset?"

"Poor little naive child. Manannan could never stand competition. Why I was once a powerful wizard too! Manannan couldn't kill me, so he poisoned me instead, turning me into this cat. Now I'm stuck like this, unable to do magic, unable to escape."

Gwydion remembered that Manannan had also cursed Medusa too. But he wasn't powerful at all, so surely Manannan wouldn't come after him.

"Don't strain yourself boy. My head hurts just looking at you try to think."

"Hey!"

"If you want to learn magic, you should start but going into the cellar. Thats is where Manannan keeps all his magic books and ingredients."

"I can't do that!"

"Mmm, perhaps not yet. But still, you better keep your little new ability quiet. I would hate to see you dead. Call me Letholdus, it was my name before Manannnan attacked me. Now make me food."

Gwydion blinked. He supposed he should start dinner. While he worked, he thought about every thing he had learned. Letholdus sat curled up in front of the fire place. Eventually Gwydion asked, "Why are the chickens so much smarter then the animals in the forest?"

"Because they live here."

"What does that mean?"

"The Mountain is saturated in magic, which is why Manannan built here. Spells are more powerful when cast here, and animals that live here can't help but soak some of that magic in. After a while, that magic affects their little brains, becoming smarter. I have no doubt that is why you ended up here too."

"What do you mean ended up here?"

"Manannan tried to summon an object for his master, The Father, using the blood of the last Gwydion. It failed, but for a week random things kept showing up. On the last day, he found you in the courtyard, and decided to keep you to replace the boy he had sacrificed."

"You mean he killed someone to try a summon a thing, and that brought me here somehow?"

"Absolutely." Letholdus looked up at Gwydion. "I'm sorry, did you have some impression that Manannan wasn't evil?"

"But he isn't mean to me!"

"You poor naive a-mew-sing child. Just because he hasn't tried to kill you yet doesn't make him good." With that, Letholdus lowered its head and went back to sleep. That night Gwydion found it almost impossible to sleep. He kept thinking about everything he knew about Manannan. While the wizard had never been bad to him (the first day didn't count), everyone else was so sure he was evil.

Fitfully he dreamt.

He scored high above the world from Before, neat little house all alike. He dropped down and sat in a tree outside of number 4. A tabby cat stared at the house, its tail flicked back and forth. As he watched it spun on itself and disappeared in a CRACK. Dudley ran down the street, and up the path, before sirens could be heard in the distance. The annoying sound caused Gwydion to fly away, up and up and up into the clouds. He circled a few times, before a loud roar made him bank hard, as a giant green dragon flew past, fire busting from its mouth. Dodging as fast as he could, he missed the second head swinging around and SNAP! Gobbling him up. In the dark of its mouth Gwydion panicked before busting out again, now again a boy, and falling fast down to the ground. In the distance he could see a castle from a fairytale, all twisted towers and stone. He jerked awake just before hitting the ground. Bleary eyed, Gwydion got up the next day, hoping that somehow he could find something which made it clear, one way or the other.