Thanks for the reviews :). Minimoon - the Hogwarts references were actually unintentional, believe it or not. The College of Magical Knowledge was actually inspired by this beautiful painting I saw once, and I thought, gee I'd like to write a story about that place. But yeah, I do see the similarities. Brankel - good to hear from you again :). Hope you're keeping well, thank you. Jokermask - you actually inspired a lot of this one. In one of our messages, you mentioned a villain who I'd thought was a great character, and it was a shame they killed him off. But as Teresa says here, of all the bad-guys who could conceivably survive on-screen destruction, it'd be this guy. Anyway, enjoy chapter 2!
Chapter Two
Leaving the college, and getting lost navigating its twisting corridors no less than three times, we followed the trail deeper into the forest, soon losing sight of the college behind us. Birds chirped high above us, while spotted mushrooms grew in the shadows of moss-covered boulders and rotting tree trunks. Very little light made it down through the canopy, and although the sun was high in the sky, it was cool and shadowy. After a while, we could hear the sound of a babbling stream somewhere nearby. There was nothing like the forest back home, but I had to admit, Teresa was right. It was kind of nice here.
"I hope this Arvis is okay," Teresa said.
"Professor Brucklehurst did sound quite concerned, didn't he?" Billy added.
We'd only been walking for a few minutes when the trail began to rise. Climbing the ridge, we soon saw a clearing down ahead of us. On the far side was a small log cabin with a thatched roof.
"I'll say that's Professor Arvis's residence," Billy ventured.
Sitting behind a tiny mail box, the cottage was about the size of my garage. The cabin had a small front door between a pair of round windows. Higher up the wall were two more windows that would've been the interior's second floor. A chimney sat on one side of the roof, but no smoke was coming out of it.
"Doesn't look like anybody's home," Teresa said.
The three of us continued towards the cabin, but Billy raised his hand, and Teresa and I came to a stop. "Something seems awry here," he said softly. We soon saw what Billy had noticed. The front door wasn't shut, but hanging slightly ajar. As we watched, dark shapes were flashing past the windows. Every few seconds, the sound of something splintering or smashing echoed outside.
Our Ranger instincts kicked in automatically. Staying low and keeping as quiet as we could, we crept closer to the little house. Reaching one of the windows, Teresa and I flattened ourselves against the wall on one side, with Billy on the other. Moving slowly, we peered in through the glass.
The interior of the cabin was a mess, filled with smashed glass and broken furniture. Beside a staircase against the far wall, a shadowy figure had pinned a short bearded man to the wall. The captive was obviously Professor Arvis, but as my eyes focussed on his attacker, I suddenly realised how much trouble we were in.
That was a shadow demon.
With a body that was nothing but shadow, the creature was solid but transparent, with pointed fingertips, jagged dark teeth and glowing red eyes. I leaned closer, but a second demon suddenly prowled past the window. The three of us dropped to the ground, holding our breaths. But the creature didn't see us, and we soon heard the stairs creak.
"That must be professor Arvis," Billy whispered.
"And those are shadow demons," Teresa said tersely. "We have to get Arvis out of there."
"Should we morph?" I asked.
"We can't," Teresa replied. "Zordon said we wouldn't be able to. And we can't risk a brawl with Arvis caught in the middle."
I frowned, and glanced inside the cabin. "I'm not sure this is a good plan."
"It isn't," Teresa agreed. "But we have to rescue the professor. We can take a couple of shadow demons, can't we?"
"I'm not worried about them," I replied. "I'm more worried about whoever it was that summoned them. It takes a lot of power to conjure up those things."
"Ian's right," Billy said. "But unfortunately I don't think…"
We suddenly heard footsteps and the creak of a door, but the sound was on the far side of the house. Peering back through the window, we saw the back door to the cabin swing shut as a shadowy form stepped outside, leaving his partner still inside with Arvis.
"Okay," Teresa said quickly, "this is our best chance. We'll distract the demon. Ian, grab the professor, and then run."
We didn't really have any other options. "You got it," I said.
Hesitating by the front door for half a second, Teresa grit her teeth and suddenly kicked it open. The three of us charged inside. The ceiling was just high enough for us to run without needing to crouch, but we were halfway across the building in three steps. The demon spun to face us, dropping Arvis to the floor. With the demon surprised, Teresa grabbed a broken table and flung it at the creature's head. The beast staggered back as Billy flipped a fallen coat-stand into the air with his shoe. Snapping it in half, he threw it like a spear, pinning the demon to the wall.
Keeping low, I dashed over to the professor. "Professor Arvis?" I asked.
The little man looked up to me and blinked. He had a long tangled beard, but looked otherwise unhurt. "Who are you?" Arvis said.
"We're here to rescue you," I said quickly, and helped him to his feet.
"There's more of those things outside," he warned.
Of course there was. "We gotta go," I said. Grabbing the man's arm, we turned and ran. By now, we could all hear footsteps outside, rapidly approaching the cabin. The other demons must've heard the commotion.
We reached Billy and Teresa by the door, but Arvis suddenly froze. "Wait," he hissed, diving for a pile of torn blankets and clothes. "They're vicious, but not too smart," and he grabbed a thick coat from the bottom of the pile.
"C'mon!" Teresa shouted. Across the room, the shadow demon pulled itself free of the hat stand, uninjured. Charging across towards us, it lunged for Arvis's coat just as we raced outside. The beast's claws shredded the fabric, and I heard a set of keys fall to the floor.
"My keys!" Arvis shouted.
The demon raced towards us, arms raised, but I kicked the door off its hinges, slamming the beast back off its feet.
"Move!" I shouted, and the four of us raced away into the trees as the forest came alive with the sounds of pursuit. Teresa and Billy darted left into a thicket, but I continued on, dragging Arvis behind me. The man's legs were a blur of movement, and it's a miracle he didn't trip and fall. Racing over a ridge, I saw the trees here were thicker and dived behind a fallen tree trunk, dragging Arvis down beside me.
I froze, my heart pounding in my chest, and I soon heard footsteps behind us. A menacing shadow fell over us, and I pushed back against the tree trunk as far as I could. Glancing around desperately, I noticed a large stone near my foot, and picking it up, I rolled it down the hill, listening as it bounced and crashed down the gully away from us. The shadow pulled back, about to pursue when a voice rang out.
"You let him get away, did you?" the voice said. It was silky and smooth, but it was hard not to hear the cold fury. "Never mind. At least we finally found what we wanted." I heard the jangle of the keys that Arvis had tried to hide. "Let's go."
With that, our pursuers moved away. I waited for half a minute before slowly peering up over the tree-trunk. Six shadow demons were gliding through the forest away from us. But in the middle with Arvis's keys was a figure unlike the rest. Whoever it was, their body was hidden by a thick black cloak. But I could see two hands, jutting from the sleeves. They looked reptilian with pointed yellow claws. I took a second, but suddenly remembered where I'd seen them before. Oh no.
"The Wizard of Deception," I said softly.
Arvis turned to me. "Who?"
"Somebody bad," I said. "Somebody really bad," and once sure our pursuers had gone, I helped Arvis to his feet. "C'mon. We gotta go find the others."
I leaned down over the stream and lifted some water to my mouth. It was the coolest, freshest water I'd ever tasted. Beside me, Teresa splashed her face and pulled her hair back into a ponytail, while Billy filled his water bottle and stowed it back into his pocket. A few feet away, Professor Arvis leaned against a moss-covered rock to catch his breath.
Arvis and I had found Teresa and Billy, and we'd retreated to the side of the stream we'd heard earlier. Thick vegetation on either bank gave us plenty of cover, and once we'd all recovered, we turned to Professor Arvis.
"Are you okay?" Teresa asked.
"I'm a tough old geezer," Arvis said. "Tougher than they thought."
Billy couldn't resist. "Forgive my curiosity," he began, reaching for his tourist guide, "but are you one of the lake dwarves I read about?"
"No, though I do know them," he replied. "My family are more traditional. I grew up in a dwarf city under the mountains," and he pointed to the peaks on the horizon, barely visible through the trees. "But if you'll allow me to ask my own questions, what were those things?"
"Shadow demons," Teresa replied. "We've fought them before. They're vicious and tough. They're vulnerable to bursts of intense light, but that's about it."
"Could we lure them into a clearing?" Arvis asked.
I shook my head. "It won't work," I said. "Daylight by itself won't do a thing against them. It has to be something a lot stronger."
"Who summoned the creatures though?" Billy asked.
"I saw him," I replied. "It was the Wizard of Deception."
Billy frowned. "That seems highly unlikely," he mused. "The last time we fought the wizard, didn't he end up suffering a mild case of death?"
"We saw Zordon destroy the wizard's wand," Teresa said. "Now Tommy said he killed the wizard, but the wizard's whole game is lies and misdirection. What if it was just a trick? A magical copy or an illusion or something? He could've survived."
"But why attack the school?" Arvis asked. "We don't keep weapons or powerful magics here. It makes no sense."
"We need to contact Zordon," Billy said.
"Even depowered, the wizard is a major threat," Teresa agreed. "I'm not sure we can do this. Not just the three of us. And with six shadow demons on top of that?"
"That's enough for a whole team of Rangers," Billy added.
"But we have to," I said. "Guys, we have to. Our communicators don't work, so by the time we get help, it'll be too late. I know it's risky, but the college is in danger. We have to do something."
"We don't even know what he wants," Teresa said.
"I think we're missing something though," I said. "He's a wizard, right? Isn't this a school of magic?"
"He couldn't possibly have been a student," Billy replied.
"Not all of our students are young people such as yourselves," Arvis said.
"So he's not attacking so much as returning for something?" Teresa asked.
"Or destroying records that could lead to his true identity," I said.
Looking thoughtful, Arvis climbed to his feet. "Maybe both," he said. "One of the only things the college requires from students as payment to enrol is a charmed totem. Something that's small and precious, but worthless to anybody except its owner. We keep them in the school archives under lock and key."
"I don't suppose you remember teaching any supervillains?" I asked.
Arvis shrugged. "In a century, a lot of people have been through our doors," but his voice faded, and a distant look appeared in the dwarf's eyes. "Although in my final year as a student, I remember a man about your age," and the dwarf pointed at Billy. "He stayed in town and mostly kept to himself. One afternoon in the library, I stumbled into him in the botany section. I remember marvelling that he could've been a gardener, since he didn't seem to relate to people. But he told me he was researching a theory. Plants grow by absorbing water and sunlight, so what if you could enchant something to absorb stray magic? I laughed it off."
Arvis's eyes suddenly grew wide. I've seen that expression many times before. It was universally followed by bad news. "One day I was in the archives dropping off my totem, but he was there as well. I remember looking out of sheer curiosity. His totem was a blue crystal rose."
Billy, Teresa and I all turned to each other. "So that rose has been sitting in the archives absorbing stray magic for fifty years?" Teresa said.
"Charging like a battery," Billy nodded. "By now, it'd be full to capacity."
"And without his wand, the wizard needs power, so he's come to collect," I finished. "Guys, we have to stop him. Arvis, I'm guessing one of those keys was for the college archives?"
"The archives are protected," Arvis said. "Those keys are the only way in. Which means we don't have a lot of time."
"He's not that far ahead," I said. "Is there any other way back into the college?"
"There's a tunnel," Arvis replied. "It leads into one of the cellars. I am a dwarf, after all. I doubt any of the students know about it."
"Then let's move," Teresa said, and stood up. "Is the tunnel nearby?"
Arvis nodded. "I hope you don't mind spiders."
I smiled. "We're Australian. We'll feel right at home."
To be concluded.