by Joffre White
‘Let us hope that we meet again in this world and not the next,’ it said. Then it jumped into the hole and was gone.
Frog crawled to the edge, looked down and shouted after the animal, ‘That’s exactly what I mean!’
‘Frog, why are you shouting into the hole?’ said Logan.
Frog turned to see everyone awake and staring at him.
‘A mouse,’ he answered. ‘What?’ asked Ginger.
Frog sat down and told the group what had happened. They listened intently until he had finished.
‘Well?’ he asked.
‘It’s obvious,’ said Ginger. ‘You’ve been dreaming.’
‘Either that or it’s one of the Labyrinth’s tricks,’ added Logan. ‘If the Earth Sage were to appear, it would be to fulfil his task, not to play games as a talking mouse. The situation is much too serious for such a frivolous encounter.’
‘I’m afraid that I have to agree,’ said Lady Dawnstar.
‘And I can only say what I saw,’ said Sir Peacealot. ‘I’ve never been known to fall asleep on watch. I firmly remember seeing you crawl across the floor and start shouting into the hole. There was no mouse here and certainly not one on my lap. You’ve been having a dream.’
‘He said that you wouldn’t believe me. But I don’t care what you think. I know what happened. You’ve got to trust me or we’re all going to be stuck in here,’ pleaded Frog.
‘We do trust you, Frog,’ said Lady Dawnstar. ‘But you must understand, we have experience of these things, our duty is to protect you and make sure that we complete this task and that’s why Logan and Sir Peacealot and I have to make the decisions.’
‘I would have thought that you would believe me,’ said Frog, disappointed in her.
She knelt, face to face with him. ‘There are many things that you do not yet know, things that we can only share with you when we feel the time is right. I’m sorry but that’s how it must be. Please understand.’
‘You need to understand that I don’t want to be here. I want to go home, to my own world, to my family. I didn’t ask for this to happen to me,’ he said angrily. ‘Just because some mad magician thinks that I can save your world, you’re treating me like an object, not a person. Well it’s not fair!’ He turned away and felt hot tears beginning to run down his cheeks. There was an awkward silence as he went to his bedding and started to pack it. But his anger had spurred him into action. Already he had a plan.
Lady Dawnstar went to Logan and Sir Peacealot and there was a brief, hushed discussion. Ginger gave a shrug to Fixer and they both started to pack their gear.
Before any of them had realised, Frog had packed his belongings, shouldered his bag and was standing over the edge of the pit in the floor.
‘I don’t know about you lot,’ he announced, ‘but I’m following my mouse.’
With that, he slid himself over the side until he was hanging by his fingertips and then let himself drop the rest of the way. It was only a matter of a metre or so and he landed squarely on the solid floor, the eerie light showing him that in fact there was only one way that he could go. He looked up and five worried faces stared down at him.
‘The passage only goes one way, I’ll wait for you at the next junction,’ he announced, and strode off before anyone could argue.
Logan, Lady Dawnstar and Sir Peacealot exchanged surprised looks and then turned to assemble their bed rolls and packs.
‘That’s done it,’ said Ginger to Fixer as they collected their belongings.
‘What do you think we should do?’ asked Fixer.
‘Well, I don’t know about you,’ Ginger replied, hoisting his pack and the torches onto his back. ‘But right now, I’m following him.’ He moved towards the pit but Fixer grabbed his arm.
‘Don’t you go disappearing as well, that’ll only make things worse,’ she hissed.
‘You know, he’s right. They’ve got to learn to trust him,’ said Ginger. ‘Now let me go unless you’re coming with me.’
‘Why don’t you just wait until the others are ready?’ asked Fixer.
‘Because he trusts me – and I trust him. Now are you coming or are you going to wait to be told what to do?’ Ginger replied.
Fixer bit her lip. ‘Lady Dawnstar is going to be mad at me,’ she said. ‘Okay, let’s do it.’
She quickly grabbed her pack. They both ran to the edge of the hole, swung their legs over and slipped down into the passage. As they touched the bottom they heard Lady Dawnstar’s voice.
‘Hey, you two! Come back here!’ And then, ‘I’m going to have words with you, my girl.’
The walk seemed long. It was a straight passage, dimly lit at ground level, and a fine mist started to swirl around their legs.
‘He can’t have gone much further,’ complained Ginger.
‘Perhaps he’s got lost,’ said Fixer, concerned.
‘No, there haven’t been any turn-offs. He said that he’d wait at the next junction and I don’t think that he’d let us down,’ said Ginger.
As he spoke, the passage started to curve to the right and they could hear voices echoing down the walls from ahead of them.
‘That’s Lady Dawnstar’s voice,’ said Fixer.
‘And Sir Peacealot’s,’ added Ginger.
‘But it’s coming from ahead of us,’ she said.
‘No, it’s a trick of the passage,’ said Ginger, breaking into a jog. ‘They’re definitely behind us, it would have taken them a few minutes to pack up and follow us into the hole. Anyway, there’s been nowhere that they could have passed us without us knowing.’
They turned the bend and were astonished to see, at a junction ahead and seated on the ground, Logan, Lady Dawnstar and Sir Peacealot, in conversation with Frog.
‘Ah. Here they are at last, what kept you?’ asked Frog.
‘What kept us?’ asked Fixer. ‘We left before them. How did they get here ahead of us?’
‘Never mind that, my girl,’ said Lady Dawnstar sternly. ‘I want a word with you.’
‘Now who’s for it?’ said Ginger, grinning at Fixer.
‘And I want a word with you, Ginger,’ said Sir Peacealot.
‘Looks like you are,’ said Fixer.
Ginger and Fixer didn’t exchange what was said to them when they were taken to one side by their respective knights, but suffice to say they would be more cautious with their actions in future.
In the group discussion which followed, it was discovered that after dropping into the pit, Lady Dawnstar, Sir Peacealot and Logan had followed the same single route along the passage. They had not encountered any other junctions and had followed the straight passage until it had curved, where they had found Frog patiently waiting. Mysteriously they had not seen or remembered passing Ginger and Fixer although by rights they should have.
‘It would appear,’ said Logan, ‘that the Labyrinth has the ability to cloud our senses. We must keep our wits about us at all times.’
‘Another good reason for us all to keep together,’ added Sir Peacealot, looking sternly at Ginger and Fixer.
While they had been waiting for Ginger and Fixer to arrive, the others had given Frog the opportunity to voice his concerns and had agreed that he would lead the party from now on as long as they were all content with the direction they were going. Frog had also suggested that, to ensure that they did not lose anyone, they connect themselves together with the coils of rope they had brought. Everyone thought that this was a good idea and so it was, having chosen to take the next right-hand passage, they continued on their way.
At various intervals they would come across a hole in the floor which dropped down to another passage but each time they decided to ignore the option and press on forwards.
They continued to move cautiously until the passage opened out into a small, circular room. There was another pit in the floor and the wall opposite had a metre-square opening at its centre. There were also similar square openings in the walls on either side and one above them
in the ceiling.
As they gathered together to look at the situation, there was a sound of rumbling and Sir Peacealot, who was at the back of the group, shouted over the echoing noise.
‘The passage! The passage has sealed behind us!’
They looked past him to see that the corridor that should have led back to where they had come from was now a solid stone wall.
‘Looks like decisions are being made for us,’ said Logan, and as he spoke another rumbling, grinding sound started. The ground beneath them began vibrating. Slowly at first, the whole passage tilted to the right and they all slid against the wall. Next, it jerked and tilted to the left, throwing them against the other wall. Then with a grating sound the passage started to rotate back to the right.
‘Make sure that your ropes are secure and try to hang on to each other!’ shouted Logan.
The passage continued to turn and rumble, rolling them around from floor to ceiling to wall and floor. Round and round.
‘Now I know what it’s like to be in a tumble dryer,’ muttered Frog to himself.
Amidst the rumbling and shouting, Logan had managed to get himself turned upside down. Frog lost his grip and slid towards one of the gaps, the slack in the rope taking him right up to its edge. As he scrabbled to grip on to the ledge he could see Logan grasping for the rope, but he was slipping towards Frog.
Frog could also see that Fixer was desperately trying to get a foothold to prevent herself from being dragged forwards with Logan. A vision of them all tumbling into the hole, each one dragged in by the previous, flashed through his mind. Things however, were about to get even more complicated. The Labyrinth took another turn but this time it rotated forwards (or what Frog thought was forwards!). He saw Fixer slide sideways and disappear into a hole.
Dust had begun to fill the air and none of them could see clearly, but Frog, who was now hanging by his rope and suspended in a hole, saw Logan’s grey shape pass above him. As he questioned how gravity could be pulling him down, but also taking Logan in another direction, the Labyrinth turned again and Frog was pulled across the passage only to find himself hanging in the opposite hole. The rope swung him into a wall, where, with a crack, he hit his elbow and the nervetingling sensation of his funny bone shot down his arm. Frog’s temper was up and he’d had enough.
‘Right, that’s it!’ he shouted, kicking out at the walls. ‘It wasn’t funny in the first place and it’s not funny now so, pack – it – in!’ He emphasised the last three words with three good kicks at the stonework. He reflected after the event that he could have broken his foot, but amazingly it wasn’t even bruised, which was even more astonishing as his backside and arm were black and blue for a week afterwards.
Abruptly, the noise and the movement stopped, the silence only broken by the creaking of his rope as he hung there listening to coughs and splutters from the others as the dust settled.
‘Is everyone all right?’ came Lady Dawnstar’s voice.
‘I think, I am,’ replied Frog.
‘Ginger, Fixer. How are you?’ she asked.
‘I’m okay,’ moaned Ginger, his voice slightly muffled.
‘Fixer? Fixer, answer me!’ shouted Lady Dawnstar.
‘I’ve got her,’ said Sir Peacealot, coughing dust from his throat. ‘But she’s been knocked unconscious. We’ve been thrown into one of the passages.’
‘Tell me about it,’ complained Ginger.
‘Logan!’ shouted Frog. ‘Where’s Logan?’
They all shouted for Logan, but there was no reply.
‘He’s got to be close,’ said Frog. ‘He’s attached to the other end of my rope and stopping me from falling. Actually, I’d be a lot happier if someone could give me a hand out of here.’
The dust was clearing and Lady Dawnstar, who had ended up in a corner, was the only one who had not been thrown into one of the passages. One end of the rope attached to her was taut and the other was slack. She pulled on the slack end, which disappeared into what was now a side passage.
‘Ow!’ came Ginger’s voice. ‘Steady, it’s wrapped around my leg.’
‘Unwrap it and find yourself back to me,’ said Lady Dawnstar. ‘But be careful when you come out as there’s a bit of a drop.’
She looked to where the other end was going and saw that it was a tangled knot tightly pulled down onto the floor with one end disappearing into a hole. Two other lengths snaked out to separate holes in the other walls.
‘Frog, you’ll have to hold on while we get the others out from the side passages,’ she warned. ‘Then we can all help to pull you up.’
‘Okay.’ came a nervous reply, ‘But don’t let me drop.’
‘Don’t worry, I won’t,’ she promised.
Sir Peacealot clambered out of the opposite passage and reached back in to retrieve the unconscious Fixer. He laid her on the floor and tended to a gash on her forehead. Ginger emerged from his passage looking pale and shaken but with no broken bones or cuts.
‘Logan!’ Lady Dawnstar shouted once again, but no answer came. ‘Ginger, I need you to help me pull up Frog. Grab this rope and take as much of the strain as you can.’
Slowly they eased the rope up until eventually a pair of hands gripped the ledge and Frog’s dusty face appeared. They grabbed his arms and he scrabbled up and out of the hole.
‘That, I do not want to do again. Where’s Logan?’
Lady Dawnstar pointed at the wall opposite.‘He should be down that passage where the other rope leads.’
Frog shuffled around to peer into the hole. ‘Logan!’ he shouted hopefully, but the only answer was silence. ‘I can’t hear him in my head,’ Frog said to Lady Dawnstar. ‘I’m trying to reach him with my mind but I can’t get any response.’
‘Haven’t you noticed that since we’ve been down here, none of us can transfer thoughts?’ she replied.
‘I haven’t been trying until now,’ said Frog. He pulled at the rope but it was slack. He pulled it more urgently until the end of the rope slid out of the hole and on to the floor. He turned, white-faced, to the others just as Fixer opened her eyes.
His voice was almost a whisper. ‘We’ve lost him, we’ve lost Logan.’
12
Pebbles
‘What happened?’ groaned Fixer.
‘Take it easy, young lady,’ instructed Sir Peacealot.
‘You’ve had a nasty bump on the head.’
Fixer reached up to feel the large lump that had formed on her forehead. ‘Ow! Is that really my head?’ she groaned.
‘Steady,’ warned Sir Peacealot as Fixer tried to get up. ‘You look very pale, you need to rest a while.’
‘Here, sip this,’ said Lady Dawnstar, offering Fixer a drinking bottle as the others gathered around.
‘Is everyone else okay?’ she continued.
Apart from a couple of grazes and several bruises between them, they had been considerably lucky, although they would have various aches and pains to contend with for a few days. Lady Dawnstar produced a small leather pouch from which she handed out a little yellow leaf to each of them.
‘Take these,’ she instructed. ‘Rub them on any grazes or cuts that you may have, like this,’ she leant over and demonstrated on Fixer’s bump, apologising that it would hurt a little to start with. Fixer closed her eyes as the leaf was rubbed on her forehead and then gradually her face relaxed and she opened them again.
‘Wow! That’s amazing. It feels all warm and numb, even the horrible headache has gone,’ she said in surprise.
‘It will speed up the healing and take the swelling down but you will need to keep still and rest for a while to get the best benefit,’ said Lady Dawnstar.
Ginger applied a leaf to his badly grazed elbows.
‘That’s stopped my elbows from stinging already. What is it, some of Gizmo’s magic?’
‘It’s a plant that only grows in certain parts of the forest. It’s not easy to find and you need to know where to look for it,’ Lady Dawnstar explained. �
��I managed to find time to collect some before we left. I suggest that we take some time to refresh ourselves with food and water while we decide on what to do next, but first let’s free ourselves of these ropes for a while.’
They untied their ropes and opened their packs while being very careful to keep clear of the hole in the floor.
‘What about Logan?’ Frog asked anxiously. ‘Aren’t we going to look for him?’
Sir Peacealot looked up from tending one of his bruises. ‘I hate to think the worst, but it was bad enough for us being spun around and you were lucky that your rope didn’t give way, otherwise you might have met the same fate as him. The Labyrinth turned so many times that I’ve lost all sense of direction. Who knows which passage we entered by and which way up or down used to be?’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Frog. ‘That’s it!’
‘What’s it?’ said Ginger.
‘I was hanging in a deep hole which means it must have been one of the side passages, because all of the other holes in the floors have been short drops.’ He looked up. ‘See, there’s no hole in the ceiling, so that must have been the way that we came in and which was sealed shut behind us. I bet that, that hole, used to be the floor. If it’s the same as the other floor passages it will be a shallow drop with just one corridor leading off it.’
‘So why did Logan disappear?’ asked Ginger.
‘Probably because his rope came loose when the Labyrinth turned and he had no choice but to take his chances and slide down the passage he was in,’ said Frog hopefully.
‘So you’re saying that if we want to find Logan, that’s the way we need to go?’ asked Lady Dawnstar.
‘I guess so,’ replied Frog as he made his way around to the opposite passage and peered in again.
‘I can’t see anything but shadow,’ he said. ‘So let’s see if I’m right.’ He climbed up and into the hole and disappeared into the unlit passage.
‘Frog, get back here, you haven’t got a rope on!’ shouted Lady Dawnstar.
But there was no answer. Ginger made as if to go after Frog but Sir Peacealot grabbed him.
‘Oh, no. We’re not losing the two of you. We all wait,’ he said anxiously.