The Phoenix Prophecy

Chapter Seventeen: The Return

Monday – Late Afternoon - July 21^st

Madelyn

Sirius got up slowly and extended me his hand. I grabbed it firmly and he pulled me quickly to my feet. Just as I was about to kiss him for helping me up from the floor, I spotted the unmistakable shape of a dragon’s fireball, a short distance inside the passageway that led to the sea. No sooner had Sirius and Walt noticed the fireball, than two more fireballs erupted from the passageways at right angles to the one where I had spotted the first fireball. Within seconds, I could feel the heat and smell the odor of the dragon’s fiery breath.

“What the hell?” Sirius exclaimed, rapidly looking back and forth between the passageways. “This can’t be. Those dragons are much too large to fit through these passageways.”

“Either the dragons can change their size, or there are smaller dragons on this island,” Walt replied as he drew his wand and cautiously peered into one of the side passageways. An instant after Walt poked his head into the opening of the passageway, another fireball erupted in front of his face. If he had not been as quick as he was, his face would have been charcoal broiled.

“Quick, into that passageway,” Walt shouted and dashed for the passageway that led deeper into the underground interior of the island.

Sirius had me follow directly behind Walt, while he kept watch behind us. The passageway was straight as an arrow, but sloped gradually uphill. When I looked back over my shoulder, I could see light from fireballs in the chamber we had just vacated. This passageway was large enough so that we could run in it easily. Within ten seconds, we reached the end of the passageway. It emptied into a gigantic cavern, illuminated by some form of phosphorescence that seemed to radiate from the rock walls and ceiling. The ceiling was easily fifty or more feet above our heads and I could just barely make out the walls on the far side of cavern.

We were standing on a wide ledge, looking down at a small lake—large pond—with an island in the middle. The edge of the lake was about five hundred feet from where we were standing. The land between the lake, and where we were standing was overgrown with tall grass, bushes, and areas of densely packed trees. A musty brown haze clung to the floor of the cavern making it difficult to see clearly. The landscape sloped continually downward, the lake being some twenty feet lower than the ledge we were standing on. From this distance, and in the dim light, it was hard to judge the size of the island and its distance from shore. My best guess was that the island was a couple of hundred feet across and maybe four to five hundred feet from the shore of the lake. All totaled, it must have been more than two thousand feet to the far side of the cavern. I felt dwarfed by its immense size.

In the middle of the island, a wide rock formation rose to join with the ceiling of the cavern. Water was cascading down the formation, creating a series of spectacular rapids and waterfalls. From the base of the rock formation, dense green vegetation extended all the way to the edge of the lake.

Walt let out a long, low whistle. “This is absolutely unbelievable,” he gasped as we all stood there with our mouths gaping open.

“Unbelievable or not, we had better find some place to hide, and quickly” I said, glancing back down the passageway. The dragons were definitely on our trail and would be here very soon.

“Quick, make for that stand of trees,” Sirius shouted, pointing to a clump of twenty foot high evergreens, a couple of hundred feet off to our right.

We scrambled down a short rocky slope and started making our way through the tall grass that was growing in abundance around the edge of the cavern. By the time we had traveled fifty feet, the grass was over waist high and beginning to slow our progress due to its thickness. Thankfully, the grass thinned out once we reached a line of bushes that separated the grass from the trees. Now we had a new obstacle, thorns. The bushes were loaded with needle sharp thorns that were a good three inches long and stuck out in every direction.

At first, we could maneuver between the bushes without too much difficulty. Before we traveled another fifty feet, the bushes grew together, to the point that it was not possible to move ahead. If we tried to force our way through, we would have more holes in us than a pincushion.

I turned back to look in the direction of the passageway that had led us to the cavern. Three dragons, each about the size of a large man, emerged from the passageway and stood on the ledge, gazing out over the cavern. We crouched down as low as possible, being careful not to impale ourselves on the razor sharp thorns.

“We’re caught, like rats in a trap,” Sirius whispered.

“Maybe they will not be able to spot us, if we don’t move,” Walt added in a whisper.

“What do we do if they do find us?” I asked, wondering if there was any way to knock out these miniature, but deadly looking, dragons.

“Just pray that they don’t find us, Madelyn,” Walt said, and I felt a cold shiver shoot up my spine. It was obvious from his tone of voice that he didn’t think we could defeat them.

For the next several minutes, which seemed like hours, we watched as the three dragons stood on the ledge and gazed out across the cavern’s valley. From our crouched position, it was difficult to see them very clearly. I would have given almost anything for a pair of field glasses so that I could get a better look at them. The only two things that I knew with absolute certainty were that they could breathe fire and they had wings that looked capable of flight. Finally, one of them took to the air, proving my assumption about the dragons being able to fly.

The dragon made several passes over the grasslands and the thorn bushes where we were hiding. Either we were well concealed, or the dragon’s eyesight was not good at picking out shapes in the dim light. I started breathing again when the dragon returned to the ledge where the other two dragons were waiting, and the three of them turned around and entered the passageway.

“That was close,” Sirius sighed after several seconds had passed and the dragons did not return. “We need to figure out how to get out of here before they return.”

“I think I should change into my owl form and do some quick reconnaissance,” Walt replied after we had stood up to try to get a better view of our surroundings.

“Walt, your owl vision will be better than my falcon vision in this dim light. Sirius and I will work our way along the edge of these thorn bushes in an attempt to find an opening that will let us reach the edge of the lake.”

“Be careful, Walt,” Sirius said and Walt transfigured into an owl and took to the air. The fact that an owl was soundless in flight, along with the dim light in the cavern, would make him virtually undetectable.

Sirius and I worked our way out of the thorn bushes to the edge of the tall grass. I looked in both directions, trying to decide which would be the best direction to search for an opening through the bushes.

“Have you noticed how warm and humid it is in here?” I whispered, feeling the perspiration running down my chest and back.

“Yes, I have,” Sirius replied. “It feels almost tropical. That’s probably why the vegetation is so thick.”

“Which way should we go?” I asked, talking as softly as possible.

“I don’t know, Madelyn. From here, I can’t see any difference.”

“Me either. Let’s try to our right,” I replied. Before we took three steps, Walt swooped overhead and headed in the opposite direction.

“Do you suppose he wants us to follow him?” I asked, unsure of the meaning of Walt’s flyby.

“I’m not sure, but we don’t have anything to lose by heading in the other direction,” Sirius replied.

We turned around and started making our way along the outer edge of the thorn bushes, while keeping a close eye on the entrance of the passageway into which the dragons had retreated. The ground under our feet was very uneven, which made walking difficult and a little treacherous. It was also a trifle slushy. I had to be careful not to lose my footing; otherwise, I was likely to twist an ankle, or worse.

Ten minutes later, Sirius stopped abruptly. When I looked over his shoulder to see why he had suddenly stopped, I saw that we had come upon a trail that led towards the lake. The trail was wide enough for us to walk single file. Sirius knelt down and looked at the surface of the path, which appeared to be made up of firmly packed dirt. Here and there were footprints of animals that had passed by at one time or another.

“Madelyn, this trail is just wide enough for Padfoot. The tracks in the dirt show that animals have used this trail many times before. How long it has been since an animal passed this way I cannot tell, at least not in my human form. Padfoot’s keen sense of smell and canine instincts will be better suited to following this trail. Why don’t you take to the air, if there is enough light for you to see by, and follow me overhead, while I see where this trail leads to?”

“Okay, Sirius. That sounds like a good idea to me. Don’t get yourself boxed in though, alright?”

“I will be very careful, Madelyn. You can count on it.”

Sirius quickly transfigured into Padfoot and I watched and waited while he sniffed the ground thoroughly. He turned and looked at me with his big brown eyes and then started following the trail, sniffing the ground as he went. I transfigured to my falcon form and took to the air, flapping hard to gain some altitude. With no thermals in the cavern to ride, flying was going to be hard work, especially with the high humidity level.

Flying inside an enclosed, fifty-foot high room, was very unsettling to me. Normally, I had unlimited free sky above me. I flew as high as I dared and then glided in lazy circles, keeping Sirius in view as much as possible. When I descended to just above the bushes, I flapped hard to regain altitude and started the glide all over again. In the time it took Sirius to reach the edge of the lake, I had to climb for the ceiling six times.

This cavern was teeming with living animals, most of whom were smaller than your average rabbit. I had seen many small lizards scurrying among the branches of the thorn bushes. A couple of times I had seen some type of large rodent hiding beneath the bushes. On one of my ascents to the ceiling, I thought I saw something lurking in the tall grass. I widened my glide circle to take me out over the grass, but I didn’t spot anything. Maybe I had just imagined it; this whole place was starting to make me feel very uneasy.

Each time I approached the ceiling, I tried to take in as may details about the cavern as I could. Now that I was higher, and closer to the island, I could clearly see that the rock formation on the island actually joined into the ceiling of the cavern. In effect, the shape of the cavern was much like a very large donut. The water cascading down the rock formation in the middle of the island made the only sound that I could hear. From there it flowed through several streams into the surrounding lake.

The water in the lake was dark and murky, unlike the water cascading down the rocks. It was impossible to gauge how deep the water in the lake was or if it contained any living creatures. More than once, I thought I saw ripples from something swimming near the surface.

When the path Sirius was following reached the shore, it opened out into a small clearing, ten feet deep and twenty feet wide. After I saw him transfigure back into his human form, I swooped down for a landing and transfigured back into my human form.

“Yuck, what a mud-hole,” I exclaimed as I sank ankle deep in the soft mud.

“Shush! Madelyn, keep your voice down. This path is in constant use by many animals. It must be one of the few ways for them to get to the lake for water,” Sirius replied, glancing around nervously.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “How long do you think it has been since an animal has used this path?”

“Not more than a couple of hours. This path is overflowing with the scents of many different animals. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“And just how are we going to do that?” I asked, looking at the water in front of us and the path through the bushes behind us. “You can’t fly and anything that tries swimming in this lake is probably going to be some creature’s lunch.”

“I’m not sure, Madelyn. I just know we can’t stay here or we will be up to our necks in whatever uses this path to get to the lake. And I would bet long odds that whatever they are, they are not going to take kindly to our being here.”

As I was about to suggest that we head back towards the outer wall of the cavern, Walt in his owl form landed beside us and quickly transfigured back into his human form.

“Don’t get any closer to the edge of the lake,” Walt said urgently. “That is, unless you want to be a meal for something that looks very similar to an alligator. I saw one of them grab a small animal that was drinking from the lake and pull it under water. It all happened so fast that the animal didn’t even know what hit it.”

“Walt, we need to get out of here immediately,” I said, backing up a few more feet from the edge of the lake. “Sirius has discovered that many animals use this path to reach the lake. Just how many of them never return is anybody’s guess.”

“Okay, let’s get moving,” Walt replied and headed back up the path. He had only taken three steps when we all stopped at the sound of some animal shrieking in mortal terror, somewhere directly in front of us. The sound stopped as abruptly as it started, but it left a sick feeling in my stomach and I realized that my perspiration had changed to cold sweat. I felt as if an icy hand had just wrapped its fingers around my heart.

“You two stay here and let me check this out,” Walt said, changing back into his owl form and taking off before Sirius or I could object.

“Madelyn, if something we can’t handle comes down this path, you get your butt out of here.”

“That is just not going to happen, Sirius,” I replied, trying to think of some other way to escape from the dead-end in which we had managed to trap ourselves. “Either we both make it out of here alive, or neither of us does.”

“Madelyn, no man could ask for more from his mate. I just plain love you,” he replied, smiling warmly at me.

We each had our wands drawn as we guarded opposite sides of the path. The seconds seemed to drag by while we waited for anything to come down the path. After several minutes, Walt landed beside me and transfigured back into human form.

“There are several large lizards devouring their kill where this path opens up into the grasslands,” Walt said, talking quietly. “There isn’t any way of getting past them without being seen. I suspect that they will head this way for some water after they have finished stripping the carcass of all its meat. We need to be elsewhere when they get here.”

“But how, Walt? The only way out of here is over the water and Sirius can’t fly,” I asked, feeling like I was going to be sick at any minute.

“I have an idea, but it will require Sirius to put his life in our hands,” Walt replied, looking directly at Sirius.

“Walt, let’s hear your plan, I don’t think we stand much of a chance if we stay here,” Sirius replied, looking worried, but not afraid.

“Madelyn and I will levitate you across the water to the island—“

“What? You can’t levitate a person that far, even with two of us,” I exclaimed, apparently shocked at Walt’s suggestion.

“Madelyn, hear me out before you decide that it can’t be done,” Walt said kindly. “I will fly to the island while you and Sirius remain here. Once I’m on the island, you will levitate Sirius halfway across the water and I will levitate him the rest of the way. I estimate that it is about five hundred feet from here to the island. Each of us should not have any difficulty levitating Sirius halfway, especially if we put him under a sleeping spell.”

“Oh lord, it just might work. Yes, I’m sure it will,” I replied, as a glimmer of hope suddenly shown through the dark clouds that I felt were gathering about me. “How high above the water does he need to be so that nothing can leap out and get him?”

“Twenty feet should be more than enough.”

“Sirius, we can do this,” I said, looking at him and waiting for him to make his decision.

“I’ll do this on one condition, Madelyn. If anything happens, and I end up in the lake, then you and Walt get out of here as fast as possible. No sticking around to see if you can rescue me, agreed?”

“Okay, Sirius, I promise to leave if anything happens to you,” I said, not meaning a single word of it, but lying with the straightest face I could manage.

“Give me three minutes to reach the island and then start levitating Sirius across,” Walt said and took to the air.

I threw my arms around Sirius’ waist and just hugged him as tightly as possible. Sirius had his arms wrapped around me, which helped to steady me. I looked up into his face and he bent down and kissed me hungrily.

“I love you,” I said when our lips parted. “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, Madelyn. I love you too,” he replied and closed his eyes.

I quickly placed him in a deep sleep and after taking several deep breaths, I levitated his body from the ground. Once it was well above my head, I began to levitate him across the water, towards the island. I concentrated my entire being on his body to make sure that I did not falter and drop him into the water. That was something that I would not have been able to live with.

I could hear sounds coming from not too far behind me. One or more animals must have been headed down the path towards the clearing. I tried to put them out of my mind and just kept concentrating on levitating Sirius across the water. Suddenly I realized that I had no way of knowing when Walt would take control of Sirius’ body and complete the levitation. Panicked, I lost my concentration and nearly dropped Sirius into the water. I quickly regained my focus and raised Sirius to a safe level above the water. By now, I was sweating from the strain of concentrating so much of my energy on keeping Sirius levitated above the water. As the seconds dragged on, I felt myself weakening. I prayed that Walt had control of Sirius, because I knew that any second now I was going to collapse. Several more seconds passed by and I finally reached the point where I was going to collapse if I didn’t let Walt take over. I knew that I had to save enough energy to transfigure and fly across the water, but I was scared to let go of Sirius too soon.

When I almost fainted, I knew that I had to let go of Sirius and transfigure or I would not survive. Letting go of him was the hardest thing I had ever forced myself to do. I was sure it would have been easier to rip out my own heart than to let go of him. My heart almost stopped beating when I saw Sirius’ body drop towards the water before rising back up to a safe height. I fell to my knees, crying from relief and total exhaustion.

After a half dozen deep breaths, I transfigured and took to the air. Just as I passed out over the water’s edge, something grazed my wing knocking me off course. I recovered quickly and looked down to see a huge lizard fall into the water, a few feet from shore. The still waters immediately erupted into a mass of teeth, which ripped the lizard to shreds within seconds. By the time I had gained another ten feet of altitude, the only thing that remained of the lizard was a pool of blood floating on the surface of the water. Stunned by the ferocity of the attack, I came close to losing my concentration and transfigured back into a human being. I had lived through many nerve-wracking experiences in the past century, but nothing as tense as what I had just lived through.

Looking towards the island, I saw that Walt had safely landed Sirius and he was rousing him from the sleeping spell. I flew as fast as my exhausted falcon body would go. Thirty seconds later, I fell, more than landed, on the island beside Sirius and Walt. After transfiguring back to my human form, I collapsed against Sirius, unable to do anything but breathe.

For several minutes, I lay with my head pressed against Sirius’ chest listening to the sound of his heart beating. When I finally regained enough strength to sit up, I noticed that Walt was looking at me with a strange look on his face.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“Did you realize that you almost levitated Sirius the entire way across the water?” he asked. “For a minute I thought you were going to levitate him the whole distance, but twenty five feet from shore, you lost control and I nearly dropped him. I was so sure you were going to make it the whole way that I was taken by surprise when you finally lost control.”

“It is a good thing you didn’t drop him, anything that falls in this lake is stripped to the bone in a matter of seconds. I know, because a lizard tried to catch me as I took off, and it fell into the lake. Just like that, it was gone, nothing left but some blood floating on the surface of the water.”

“Madelyn, could we change the subject? This one is making me nauseous,” Sirius said, his face extremely pale.

“Guys, look behind you. I think we have gone from the frying pan to the fire,” I said, when I noticed the most bizarre creature I had seen since coming to this world.

“What in the bloody blazes of hell is that?” Sirius exclaimed when he and Walt turned around to look at the creatures standing twenty feet away from us.

What we were all looking at was definitely not a product of natural evolution. Three rats, the size of a dachshund, each with six, three-foot long, spider legs, were staring at us hungrily. The rat’s tails were constantly weaving back and forth. I suddenly realized that the tails were some form of weapon. Whether they used their tails for attack or defense, I had no way of knowing.

For a minute or two, the rats just stood there staring at us with their whiskers twitching and their tails moving menacingly to and fro. Suddenly they began advancing towards us, making hissing and screeching noises. Walt pointed his wand at them and shouted ‘Solificus Plasams.’ For a moment, the rat-spiders stopped advancing, apparently puzzled by something. By the time, they started advancing again; Sirius and I were on our feet with our wands in our hands.

‘Jelly Legs’ Sirius suddenly called out, casting a spell at the rat-spiders when they were almost upon us.

The rat-spiders crashed into one another, their legs hopelessly tangled. They hit the ground, unable to stand on their legs. Infuriated, the rat-spiders tried pushing their bodies along the ground but were not able to control their legs to sustain any forward movement. Walt quickly levitated one of the creatures into the lake. Two seconds after hitting the water, the water churned furiously for several seconds before returning to its normal calm state. Only a few ripples on the surface hinted at the carnage that had taken place seconds before.

“That was quick thinking, Sirius,” Walt said as he levitated another rat-spider and threw it into the lake. “What made you think of that particular spell?”

“I’m not exactly sure. I guess it must have been because of their long legs,” Sirius replied after Walt levitated the last of the rat-spiders into the lake. “Their legs seemed like their weak spot, so I just tried it.”

“I’m glad you did. I was very worried after the ‘Solificus Plasams’ spell had no effect on them. For a moment, I thought we were in real trouble.”

“Walt, why did you levitate rat-spiders into the lake?” I asked still a little shocked at seeing Walt casually kill three, relatively harmless creatures.

“I hate rats, Madelyn. I have seen the remains of too many people that have been killed by rats,” he replied disgustedly. “As far as I am concerned, the only good rat is a dead rat.”

“I’m sorry, Madelyn. I didn’t mean to upset you with my bloodthirsty attitude towards rats,” Walt said apologetically after noticing the look of shock on my face. “Nothing else bothers me as much as rats.”

“Walt, I don’t like rats any better than you do,” I replied once I was over the initial shock of seeing the rat-spiders devoured by whatever it was that lived in the lake. “I have never killed a wounded attacker once it was no longer a threat. I just feel uncomfortable killing something or someone that is no longer a danger to me.”

“I agree with your ideals,” Walt replied. “The difference between my thoughts and yours was that I still saw the rat-spiders as a threat. Once they overcame the ‘Jelly Legs’ spell—and they would sooner rather than later—they would attack us again. I decided to eliminate them before they became a threat once more, that’s all.”

“You’re right, of course. I’m still in shock over how fast anything that falls in the lake is killed,” I replied, my stomach feeling more than a little queasy.

“Must be some form of Piranha fish,” Sirius added. “We never saw anything large break the water’s surface.”

“What do we do now?” I asked, changing the subject before I became sick. “We have to devise a plan to get out of this cavern, as I for one, do not want to spend the night in this place.”

“I don’t relish the idea of spending the night here either,” Sirius replied. “But, we may not have much choice in the matter.”

“I am not spending the night in this cave and that is final,” I shrieked. Why couldn’t these two big oafs get that through their thick heads? “So I suggest that you guys come up with some way of getting out of here or I am going to start screaming.” I knew I was being totally irrational, but if I spent another minute in this cavern, I really was going to start screaming.

“Madelyn, please try and calm down,” Sirius begged, taking me by the shoulders and looked pleadingly into my eyes. “This place is enough to give anyone the ‘shakes.’ It is a good thing Ron isn’t here. The rat-spiders would have been more that he could handle, even considering that he had a pet rat for three years.”

“Madelyn, we will try and find some way out of here, that’s a promise,” Walt added, smiling at me.

“You promise, both of you?”

“Yes dear, we both promise,” Sirius replied and hugged me to him. For the next few moments, I just clung to him and tried to force all the unpleasant things that had happened to me since arriving on this island from my mind.

“I think we should climb up the rock formation so that we can get a better view of the cavern, plus it will afford us some safety should more of the rat-spiders show up,” Walt suggested, interrupting my concentration.

“Is there a path that we can climb or do you need to levitate me to the top?” Sirius asked hesitantly.

“I think the best approach would be for me to levitate you to that ledge, twenty feet up the side of the rock formation,” Walt replied. “That way we could avoid making our way through a hundred feet or so of thick jungle vegetation. From the ledge, it looks as if there is a path that we can climb to reach the top.”

“If it means avoiding more of those rat-spiders, then I guess it’s worth it,” Sirius replied reluctantly. “I do wish that I still had one on the Pathfinders with me. Madelyn, remind me to acquire an animagus form that can fly once we get back to Earth.”

“Sure thing, Sirius. It would be a lot more convenient if we could both fly.”

“Okay, Walt. I’m as ready as ever,” Sirius replied.

Walt levitated Sirius up to the ledge smoothly without any difficulty. It was a good thing he was able to do it by himself, as I didn’t have the energy or concentration to levitate a fly, much less a grown man. As soon as Sirius was standing on the ledge, Walt and I transfigured into our bird forms and headed for the ledge. I landed next to Sirius and returned to my human form right away. Walt didn’t land, but spent the next ten minutes flying around the rock formation. When he finally landed and returned to human form, he was smiling.

“Good news,” Walt began, “I spotted what looks like an entrance to a passageway up near the top of the rock formation. We should be able to reach the entrance to the passageway without too much difficulty. It’s only a short climb from here.”

“That sounds like a plan to me,” I replied, feeling slightly embarrassed for having lost my wits after Walt had thrown the rat-spiders into the lake. “I’m ready, lead the way, Walt.”

Walt started climbing up the rock formation, choosing a path that was easy for me to follow. Sirius had me go second and kept fairly close behind me. I think he was worried that I might slip and fall. If I weren’t so exhausted from levitating him across the lake, I would have beaten the two of them to the top. I love rock climbing. It is one of my favorite ways of relaxing. With the right equipment and the proper conditioning, I can climb just about anything Mother Nature has to offer.

We had ascended twenty feet without too much difficulty. The last ten feet would be a little tricky as there were few good footholds. Sirius gave Walt a boost so that he could grab onto the ledge above our heads and pull himself up. Once Walt was on the ledge Sirius boosted me up so that Walt could pull me up, which was the only way I was going to get there. I was completely exhausted.

I leaned back against the rock wall to catch my breath while Walt helped Sirius scale the last ten feet. I was staring out across the cavern, my eyes half shut when I suddenly noticed three dark objects circling in the air above the lake. Dragons! Damn, now we were in deep trouble. Why couldn’t they just go for a swim in the lake? That would take the fight out of them.

“Walt, you better get Sirius up here right now,” I said just loud enough for him to hear. “There are three dragons circling the lake and I don’t think they are looking for a fish dinner.”

I crawled over to the edge to see if I could help. Walt had a hold of one of Sirius’ hands as Sirius fought for toeholds to force himself up the sheer rock wall. After a couple of slips, Sirius managed to push himself high enough to get his other hand on the edge of the ledge. I reached out and grabbed the collar of his jacket and between Walt and I, we managed to help Sirius pull himself up and onto the ledge.

The dragons must have noticed us at the same time. They were heading straight for us by the time we all got to our feet.

“This way,” Walt screamed and took off running along the ledge.

Sirius and I didn’t have to be told twice, we were right behind him. We reached the entrance of a passageway three seconds before the dragons landed on the ledge. Just when I thought we had a chance to escape, I saw that the passageway was a dead end.

“No, no, this isn’t fair,” I moaned.

Just as I was expecting to be roasted alive, I felt Walt grab me and yank me sideways into a very narrow opening in the side of the passageway. There was barely enough room to squeeze through. I felt as if the wall was going to crush me. After inching sideways for three feet, we turned a corner and inched sideways for another three feet. Finally, after turning again and inching sideways, we emerged into a normal sized passageway. We reached the inner passageway not a moment too soon as I felt the heat of a fireball coming through the narrow opening we had just passed through.

“Lord Almighty, that was close,” gasped Sirius as we all leaned against the wall of the passageway, trying to catch our breath.

“You can say that again,” I replied once I was able to breathe normally and my heart stopped pounding.

“It is a damn good thing the passageway had that narrow detour or we would all be char-broiled by now,” Walt added.

“My guess is that whoever built this place must have planned it so that dragons or other large animals wouldn’t be able to get into this inner passageway,” Sirius said, after we were all breathing normally.

“That is undoubtedly true, Sirius,” Walt replied. “I wonder who did build this place. It is way beyond anything I have seen or heard of.”

“I don’t care who built it, just remind me to write them a polite thank-you note for their thoughtful planning,” I said, looking around the brightly lit passageway. Several torches along the walls of the passageway were burning brightly. As soon as we had calmed our nerves, we continued down the passageway.

The passageway turned out to be quite short, less than thirty feet long. It ended in a circular room that had a wide spiral staircase, with a three-foot wide center column, in the middle of the room. The staircase led both up and down. I peered in both directions, but it was too dark to see much of anything beyond the first dozen steps. While I was looking over the staircase, Walt and Sirius were wandering around the room.

“Hey, check this out,” Sirius called out and I turned to see that he was looking down another passageway.

“There is another passageway over here too,” Walt added a moment later.

“This isn’t a room, it’s a landing of some sort, that has three passageways that lead to the cavern,” I replied, looking back at the staircase and then around chamber we were standing in.

“Madelyn, I’m sure you are right,” Sirius replied. “Let’s see if this passageway leads to the cavern.”

Walt and I quickly walked over to follow Sirius down the passageway he had been looking into. Sure enough, just like the first passageway, this passageway ended in a dead-end, with a narrow, foot wide, walkway in the side of the wall. When Sirius turned sideways and started sidestepping his way through the walkway, I followed him, with Walt right behind me. After negotiating the two right turns, we emerged into a short passageway that led to the cavern.

Cautiously, we made our way down the passageway, hugging the wall, towards its entrance. None of us spoke a single word. My heart was beating much faster than normal. I was expecting to see a dragon land in the entrance to the passageway at any second. Sirius used hand signals to tell Walt and I to hang back while he peered warily out of the entrance. A few seconds later, he motioned for us to come and have a look for ourselves. The view was almost identical to the view from the passageway into which the dragons had chased us. There seemed to be more trees on this side of the lake, other than that, everything looked about the same. After we had all taken a quick look around, we returned to the inner passageway, not wanting to be caught a second time by the dragons that were pursuing us.

“I wonder what these passageways were used for.” Walt said, as we walked back towards the landing. “Those narrow walkways were definitely designed to keep larger animals out of the inner passageways.”

“You don’t suppose there could be any of those rat-spider creatures in here, do you?” I asked, suddenly remembering the three creatures that had attacked us on the shore of the island.

“I don’t think so, Madelyn,” Walt replied. “They didn’t look as though they could climb rock walls. Their bodies were out of proportion with the length of their legs.”

“Well, let’s hope so. That’s the last thing we need right now,” Sirius added as we reentered the landing.

“Before we head up, I think we should see if this staircase descends below the level of the lake,” Walt suggested when we reached the spiral staircase.

“Why do you want to know that?” I asked, peering down the dark and foreboding steps.

“There maybe passageways under the lake that would lead us back to the outside. They might be our only means of escape, if the stairs leading up turn out to be a dead-end,” Walt replied.

“Let’s go for it,” Sirius said and started down the staircase. As soon as he stepped on the first stair, torches on the walls of the staircase burst into flame. In the bright light cast by the torches, the stairs looked much less frightening.

The stairs were wide and easy to descend. After making two complete turns around the central column, we arrived at another landing. Like the landing above, there were three passageways equally spaced around the perimeter of the room. As soon as we set foot onto the landing, the torches on the outer walls glowed brightly filling the room with light.

“It’s amazing that the torches still work after all these years,” I said when we were all standing on the landing. “How long do you think it’s been since anyone has been in these rooms?”

“Hard to tell, but I would guess that it has to have been several hundred years, if what Hermione has found out about the cult is true,” Walt replied as he walked over and peered down one of the passageways.

“Should we check and see where this passageway leads to?” Sirius asked, after he joined Walt.

“I think we should. It won’t take very long. Madelyn, what do you think?”

“As long as we have come this far, we might as well see where it leads.”

Walt led the way down the passageway as Sirius and I followed along. Like the passageways on the landing above, this one dead-ended with a narrow walkway leading off to the side. However, when we started through this narrow walkway, we ran into something new. In the middle of each three-foot leg was a two-foot high barrier, over which we had to step. It wasn’t particularly difficult, just a little awkward.

“What do you suppose the barriers are for?” I asked when we emerged into the outer passageway.

“I have a guess, but you’re not going to like it,” Walt replied.

“I already don’t like what you are implying, Walt. So just tell us what you think they are for.”

“I think they are there to keep the rat-spiders out of the inner passageways,” he replied and I felt my stomach tighten. “They are just high enough so that the rat-spiders can’t lift their legs over them. Besides, I stepped on this in the outer most walkway,” he added, holding up the shriveled remains of an animal that was most likely a rat-spider.

“Thanks a lot, Walt, that is just what I wanted to see,” I replied, wrinkling up my nose at the long dead animal.

“Better dead, than alive,” he replied, heading for the entrance of the outer passageway. Once there, he threw the dehydrated carcass into the vegetation that was even with the ledge we were standing on.

Just off to my right, water was splashing down the rock formation into a small pool, which overflowed into a small stream leading into the vegetation and presumably then on to the lake. After checking the horizon for any signs of dragons, I walked over to the pool and scooped up a handful of water.

“Hey, this water is hot, hot enough for a bath, that is,” I said, sniffing the water cupped in my hand to see if it had any unusual odors. “Now we know why it is so warm and humid in this cavern. Either of you two have any idea where this hot, fresh water is coming from?” I asked, after I had tasted it and discovered that it was indeed ‘fresh’ water.

“It may be from an underground hot-spring or some other geo-thermal source,” Sirius replied after he walked over and dipped his hand in the water.

“What do you think, Walt?” Sirius asked.

“You’re probably right, Sirius. For all we know this island may be sitting on top of a volcano,” he replied, looking down at the vegetation just below the ledge.

“What is it?” Sirius asked in a hushed tone, as he noticed Walt staring intently at the vegetation. I instinctively felt that something was staring back at us.

“That!” Walt replied, pointing to a large, green lizard, which was sitting on a fallen tree trunk.

The lizard was easily six feet long and probably weighed a couple of hundred pounds. While we were starting at the lizard, it flicked out its forked tongue half a dozen times. Even though the lizard did not move a muscle, I knew it was watching every move we made.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of something moving along the ledge we were standing on. When I turned to look at what had attracted my attention, I realized that it was some type of goat. Before I could say anything to Sirius and Walt, the lizard leapt from the log it was sitting on, landed on the ledge, grabbed the goat by the neck and killed it, all in the blink of an eye. Only at the last second, did the goat realize what had happened. Its death cry never made it out of its throat, as the lizard’s powerful jaws severed the goat’s head from its body.

No sooner had the lizard started tearing into the flesh, than four rat-spiders emerged from the vegetation, trying to make their way up to the ledge. Unable to climb the steep embankment in front of the ledge, they paced back and forth, savagely fighting amongst themselves over bits and pieces of the goat that the lizard flung in their direction.

“Let’s get out of here, while the lizard is still occupied with its kill,” I whispered, backing towards the entrance to the passageway.

No sooner had we reached the entrance, than a dragon swooped down and engulfed the lizard in a fireball. I thought for sure that the lizard was a goner. However, the instant the fireball dissipated the lizard sprang at the dragon, gripping it by the throat. The dragon let out a deafening roar and a weak fireball that bounced harmlessly off the rock wall. A moment later, the dragon fell to its knees, unable to free itself from the lizard’s grasp.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the battle for life and death that was taking place, not twenty-five feet away from where I was standing. The dragon managed to slash the lizard’s side with a swipe of its razor sharp talons. Both animals were bleeding heavily. It looked as if the lizard was going to out last the dragon. Suddenly, the other two dragons showed up, landing on either side of the combatants. The lizard must have realized that it could not beat all three dragons, as it released its hold on the dragon’s neck and leapt into the shelter of the vegetation in one swift jump.

Sirius grabbed me by the waist and pulled me towards the end of the passageway. As soon as we reached the walkway in the side of the passageway, we filed through it as quickly as possible.

“Madelyn, just what were you doing?” Sirius shouted when we were safely in the inner passageway. “We are lucky those other two dragons went to help their friend, instead of attacking us.”

“I’m sorry, Sirius. I have never witnessed anything like that in my entire life. I guess I was just sort of hypnotized by the whole thing,” I answered quietly.

“Well, don’t do it again, okay?” he asked, looking very pale.

“I won’t,” I replied, upset for having frightened him so much.

“We must be close to the bottom of the rock formation. Let’s go down one more level,” Walt said and took the lead as we descended three full turns before coming to the next landing.

Once again, there were three passageways leading from the landing. The staircase continued on downward, how much farther was anyone’s guess.

“I want to check out one of these passageways,” Walt said as he crossed the landing and carefully looked into one of them. “Just as I suspected, this passageway slopes downhill and does not dead-end after thirty feet, like the one through which we escaped from the dragons. Most likely, this passageway comes out on the other side of the lake. Exactly where that might be, we have no way of knowing.”

“Can either of you two hear a humming noise?” I asked, suddenly aware of a rhythmic sound coming from somewhere that I could not pinpoint.

“Yes, now that you mention it, I hear it too,” Sirius replied, looking around the torch lit landing.

As I was walking around the landing, trying to identify the location of the humming noise, Sirius placed his ear to the wall.

“Hey, this wall is very warm,” he said, running his hands lightly over the surface of the wall.

I was on the far side of the room, and felt the wall next to me. It too was definitely very warm. “I wonder if the water that cascades down the outside of the rock formation is being pumped up through pipes embedded in these walls.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that is why the walls are so warm,” Walt replied, feeling the wall where he was standing. “It is unlikely that the hot water is coming from somewhere on the surface of the island or from a level above us. The humming noise we are hearing may be some kind of machinery that pumps the water from deep beneath us to the top of the rock formation.”

“That makes as much sense as anything else I can think of,” Sirius added.

“Let’s see if we can figure out what is making the humming noise,” Walt said, waking over to the staircase and starting down the steps.

Sirius and I followed Walt as he wound his way down the stairs to the next landing, which turned out to be the bottom of the staircase. The humming noise was much louder in this chamber and it was noticeably warmer. There were not any passageways leading from the room, but there were three, waist high pedestals, spaced equally around the center column of the staircase.

The room was completely barren with the exception of the torches hanging on the walls, so I walked over to get a better look at one of the pedestals. The top of the pedestal was about two feet in diameter and its surface was as smooth as glass. The instant I placed my hand over the surface, it began glowing softly. A collection of symbols, some of which I had never seen before, were displayed in many different colors. Some had numbers inside the symbols while others were definitely gauges with dials and bars. I was positive that what I was looking at was the control console for some very sophisticated piece of machinery. What this machine did or who was responsible for its construction, I had no idea.

I suddenly felt as if we were being watched, which was ridiculous as there wasn’t any place from which to watch us. Nevertheless, I felt as if some form of intelligence was watching our every move. It was time to get out of here.

“Unless you two men disagree, I think it is high time we headed back up the staircase. Eventually, it may lead us to the surface of the island or some other way out here. And right now, I am so ready to get out of here,” I said, removing my hand from above the pedestal and watching the symbols fade from sight.

“Madelyn, I would not be surprised if these stairs lead all the way up to Marcus’ house,” Sirius replied. “Remember the staircase the boys found in the pantry? I will bet that it is not the only connection between the house and the catacombs on top of which the house is built.”

“If you are right, we should be able to join the others fairly soon,” I replied, my spirits rising at the thought of finally getting out of here. I was doing my best to suppress my fear of being in enclosed spaces. However, I needed to see the sky over my head before I would completely relax. “The landing we started from can’t be much more than one hundred to one hundred twenty five feet below the surface of the island.”

“That would be my guess, as well,” Walt replied. “Let’s head back up to that landing and see where this staircase leads to, going up.”

With Walt in the lead and Sirius guarding our rear, we started back up the six-foot wide steps. Seven complete turns later, we reached the landing from which we had started. After two more turns around the central column, we reached the next higher landing. Instead of three passageways leading from the landing, there were six doors, equally spaced around the edge of the landing.

“Judging from the number of steps and the height of each step, I estimate that this landing is about twenty-five feet above the landing we started from,” Sirius said as we looked around. “At this rate, there should be three more landings above us and the main floor of the house just above that.”

“Does anyone wish to see what is behind any of those doors?” Walt asked. “Or should we just keep climbing?”

“Just keep climbing,” I answered quickly, my voice unintentionally shrill. I was starting to feel the walls close in on me. The cavern was so large that I had not felt like I was suffocating. Now that we were in the confining space of the staircase, I was having trouble breathing normally. On the other hand, maybe my difficulty breathing had more to do with all the stairs we had just climbed.

We continued up the staircase. By the time we reached the next landing, I was really having trouble breathing. When I looked at Sirius and Walt, who were having just as much trouble breathing as I was, I realized most of my heavy breathing was from the energy expended while climbing the stairs and not my claustrophobia.

“Let’s take a short rest,” Walt said, between deep inhalations. “If we don’t, I am going to collapse.”

We walked over and slid down to the floor with our backs to the wall. I leaned my head against Sirius’ shoulder and tried to relax as much as possible. Looking around the landing, I noticed that stone and mortar had replaced one of the six doors. Whatever lies beyond that opening, someone had definitely wanted to make sure it wasn’t disturbed. I shivered involuntarily and snuggled closer to Sirius.

“Are you two ready to continue our climb?” Walt asked after we had rested for four or five minutes.

“Yep, we are ready,” replied Sirius after giving me a quick kiss. He helped me up from the floor and said to Walt, “I wonder why that door has been sealed shut.”

“I don’t know, and we probably don’t want to know either,” he replied and I felt another shiver shoot through me again.

We started up the staircase, two full circles later we arrived at the top of the staircase. Only the central column continued to the ceiling of the landing. Once again, six doors were equally spaced around the perimeter of the landing.

“I guess I was wrong,” Sirius sighed as he gazed about the chamber. “We must still be fifty feet below the house. It looks as if we are going to have to see what is behind these doors. I hope we will find a stairway leading up to the next level.”

“Anyone have a preference for which door we should try first?” Walt asked.

“No way of telling what’s behind any of them, without looking,” I replied and walked over to the door immediately across from the top of the stairs.

Hesitantly, I reached out and placed my hand on the lever. When I attempted to turn the lever, it wouldn’t move. Try as I might, I could not make the lever move in the slightest.

“This door is locked,” I said and moved to the next door as Walt and Sirius began trying to open the other doors.

I tried opening the door in front of me, fully expecting it to be locked, just as the first one I tried had been. The lever turned with just a small amount of resistance and I heard the latch click as the door opened a quarter inch. Pushing on the door it opened stiffly. The hinges must have been badly in need of oil, because they protested loudly, screeching as only rusty metal on metal can do. By the time I had pushed the door open fully, Sirius and Walt were standing directly behind me.

“The two doors I tried would not open,” Sirius said.

“Same with the two I tried,” Walt added.

“Looks as though this is our only choice,” I said as we all slowly entered the room.

The room was about twenty-five feet wide at the door and twice as deep. The sidewalls diverged, the room being one sixth of a circle. The outer wall was perhaps seventy feet long. Overall, the room was quite large. The high ceiling helped to enforce that feeling. As soon as we stepped into the room, the torches along the walls flared up and we could see quite well.

At first glance, I didn’t see anything that resembled a stairway leading up to the next level. Rows of low benches filled the room on each side of an aisle that ran down the center of the room. The benches were successively longer in the back of the room than they were in the front. Several of the benches were empty, but most had several large crocks sitting atop them. The crocks were two feet in diameter and three feet high. This placed the top of the crocks about chest high.

I walked over to the first bench with a crock and peered over the rim. The crock was filled with clear liquid and contained several small lizards. They were obviously dead, as their eyes were open and unmoving. Looking in a second crock, I found internal organs from some unknown creature. The organs were definitely from a larger animal. After searching several more crocks and finding more of the same, I stopped looking.

“This must be some kind of storeroom for animal parts the cult used in their attempts to create other forms of life,” I said, suppressing a shudder.

“It sure looks that way to me too,” Walt replied, looking into another crock. “How long do you suppose these crocks have been just sitting here?”

“Hundreds of years, at least,” Sirius answered, while gazing around the room. “Now all we need to do is find a way up to the next level.”

We searched the room thoroughly, but did not find any sign of a stairway. The only way in or out of the room was the door we had used to enter the room. After several minutes of fruitlessly searching for a stairway, we went back out onto the landing.

“Let’s see if we can force one of the other doors open,” Walt said and walked over to the next door. He tried a half dozen different spells, but the door remained locked.

“What do we do now?” I asked. I was frustrated because we were so close, yet we could not get up to the next level, which should be immediately below the house.

“I suppose we could try brute force,” Sirius replied skeptically.

“That just might work. These doors and their frames are centuries old. They might give way if we can hit them hard enough,” Walt suggested.

“Well, let’s give it a try. We don’t have anything to lose but a sore shoulder,” Sirius said as he examined the door closely.

Both of them placed their shoulders to the door and began banging against it. On the third try, the doorframe began to loosen. With each succeeding hit, the doorframe moved farther inward a fraction of an inch. On the tenth blow, the doorframe completely let loose and fell inward with a resounding crash sending up a small cloud of dust.

The room was identical in size to the room we had just left. It was obvious from the cauldrons and other equipment sitting atop the many tables scattered about the room, that this room had been used for making potions and performing experiments. Along one wall stood a rack of cages that at one time most likely held live animals. The dried up remains of some creature was lying on the floor of a large cage.

Sirius was looking at shelves, which contained endless jars of potion making ingredients. Walt had walked past me and was looking over some of the strange looking equipment on one of the tables. I glanced at the back of the room. Built into the wall was a stairway that led upwards.

“Hey guys, a stairway,” I shouted, pointing to the back of the room.

I quickly headed for the stairs to see if it was usable. Walt stopped looking at the equipment he had been examining and was quickly at my side. The next thing I knew, the floor disintegrated beneath our feet and Walt and I were falling into the darkness below while trying to grab hold of each other.

After falling for several seconds, we landed with a splash in a pool of thick, dark liquid. The liquid cushioned our landing. Had we landed on rock hard floor, we would have definitely broken many bones. The liquid was so thick that we barely dipped below its surface. However, the stench was enough to make me gag. I felt my stomach begin to churn almost immediately.

The room suddenly brightened as the torches on the walls lit up. I heard Sirius calling to us from above. When I looked up, I saw him peering into the opening Walt and I had just fallen through. Glancing around the room, I realized that the entire room was filled with dirt, which sloped steeply upwards from the center of the room, where Walt and I were floating in a pool of sludge.

As I was about to ask Walt if he was okay, I felt something brush against my neck and slither beneath my collar. At that instant, I realized that this sludge was teeming with worm-like creatures that were finding their way through every opening in my clothes. My skin felt as if every square inch of it was suddenly itching.

“Walt, we have to get out of this sludge now!” I screamed hysterically. The thought of what was crawling all over my body was more than I could handle.

“I know, Madelyn, I know,” he shouted and began dragging me towards the edge of the sludge.

The thickness of the sludge made movement almost impossible, it was like swimming in a barrel of molasses. Only molasses didn’t smell anywhere near as bad as the sludge did. Inch by maddening inch, we fought our way towards the edge of the sludge. Exhausted, we crawled out of the sludge, onto the mud surrounding the pool. I could feel the worms squishing between my fingers as I clawed my way up the muddy bank surrounding the pool of sludge. Walt was dragging me and pushing himself along. Without his help, I would never have been strong enough to get out of the pool by myself.

As soon as we were several feet up the muddy bank, I tried to stand up, but the mud was too slippery and I couldn’t get to my feet. I knew that many small creatures—most likely some form of leech—had attached themselves to my skin. The itching was so intense it was agonizingly painful. I started ripping my clothes off as fast as I could. When I pulled the sweater and jersey I was wearing over my head and looked down, I saw that my chest, stomach, breasts, and arms were covered with a dozen or more red and black, three-inch long leeches. I tried to pull one of them off my chest, but the pain was so intense that I damn near fainted.

At that point, I started to scream, my hands flailing at the leeches plastered all over my body. A moment later, I felt Walt grab me by the shoulders and shake me out of my hysteria.

“Madelyn, get a grip on yourself. We have to get these leeches off each other and quickly. If we use our wands, we can burn the leeches and they should drop off. Pulling them off is just too painful. Do you understand what I am telling you?”

“Yes, Walt, I understand. Please hurry or I am going to need a straitjacket.”

Walt had already pulled off his jacket. Attached to his body were at least two dozen leeches, maybe more. He picked up his wand a used the ‘Luminous’ spell to make the tip of the wand very hot. When he touched the first leech, I jumped and he almost burned me with his wand. The leech let go of me, curled up into a tiny ball and dropped to the ground, dead. Seeing that his idea was going to work, I calmed myself enough to hold still as he burned the rest of the leeches from the front of my body. I spun around and he quickly burned a dozen more off my back.

While he was burning the leeches off my back, I felt several of them moving inside my pants. “Walt, they are attached to my legs and butt too, I can feel them,” I shrieked and then cried out in pain because I had jumped and Walt grazed my back with the tip of his wand.

“Oh, Madelyn, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to burn you. And yes, I know, the leeches have gotten inside my pants as well.”

“It is my fault, not yours. I will live, just get these filthy bloodsuckers off me.”

“There, your back is clear, get your pants off and I will get the ones attached to your legs.”

I didn’t even hesitate to remove my pants as well as my panties. This was no time for false modesty. I trusted Walt implicitly. First, he burned all the leeches off the back of my legs and butt, and then he finished up with those that had attached themselves to my legs and thighs.

As soon as he finished burning all the leeches from my body, I started burning the leeches that were stuck to his body. I didn’t know how he stood the pain and itching while he burned the leeches off me. As soon as I had his upper body free of leeches, he removed his pants and shorts. Most of the leeches were concentrated around his waist and ankles because the pants to the flying suit were formfitting. My clothes had been loose fitting and the leeches had quickly made their way to every part of my body.

As soon as I finished cleaning all the leeches from Walt’s body, we both turned our clothes inside out to remove the few leeches still stuck to the insides. The ground we were kneeling on was sloppy, slipper, wet mud, which made it very hard to keep my balance. How we were going to get our clothes back on was beyond me.

Sirius had called down several times while we were removing the leeches from each other, asking if there was anything, he could do. Once were free of leeches, I called back to let him know that we were okay and would fly up just as soon as we were dressed.

“Walt, would you steady me while I try to get my pants back on?” I asked. “I don’t think sitting in the mud and pulling them on is the answer.”

“Sure, Madelyn, then you can do the same for me. By the way, thanks for everything.”

“I should be the one thanking you. If it had not been for your help, I would still be stuck in the sludge and the leeches would have drained all of the blood from my body.”

Walt stood up slowly, making sure of his footing, and held out his hand to help me up. Once I was standing, I reached out to place my hand on his shoulder so that I could steady myself, but I must have pushed too hard. I felt my feet slip backwards and when Walt tried to grab me, he lost his footing, falling on his back, pulling me on top of him as he fell.

As we hit the ground, his legs shot between mine and I ended up straddling his hips. My hands pressed into the mud on either side of him, while his hands were gripping the sides of my chest. Our faces were just inches apart as I lay on top of him. For a brief moment, our eyes locked together and I felt a very familiar longing in my loins. We both realized the desire that had passed between us in that brief instant of time. Suddenly embarrassed, Walt looked away. I managed to push myself to my hands and knees and then into a standing position. Walt got to his feet as quickly as he could, without losing his balance. I could tell from the look on his face that he felt very uncomfortable over the feeling that had just passed between us.

“Madelyn…I’m sorry…”

“Walt, there is nothing to be sorry about. We slipped and fell; you caught me, end of story, okay?” I replied trying to make him believe that was all that had happened. I didn’t want him feeling guilty over a brief moment that had passed so quickly that it was not worth brooding over. I wasn’t the least bit upset with Walt, if anything I owed my life to this man for everything he had done for me.

“Why don’t we tie our clothes together and levitate them up to Sirius. Then we can fly up and get dressed on solid ground. Who knows, we may even find some water to wash all this mud off,” I added casually, trying to put his mind at ease.

“I think that’s the only way we are going to get dressed,” he replied self-consciously.

“Walt, look at me,” I said, tilting his chin up so that I could look into his eyes. “Without deliberately trying to do so, we ended up in a very intimate position. The desire that passed between us was completely natural; given the fact that we both have a great deal of respect for each other. If you had not felt the way you did, I would have started to worry, figuring that there must be something about me that you found unattractive. For me, your desire was a compliment. So stop brooding over this, will you please?”

“I’ll try, Madelyn, I’ll try,” he replied, still looking very distraught.

“I’m guessing that one of the reasons that you are so upset over this, is that Martha is the only lover you have ever had in you life and you feel that you have betrayed her trust and faith,” I continued, looking him straight in the eye. “If you had known other women before you met Martha, you would not be quite as shocked over the position we found ourselves in. Additionally, you have done nothing to betray the trust Martha has in you. We all have thoughts and desires that we never act on, so stop punishing yourself. What do you think you are, a saint?”

“No, Madelyn, I’m no saint, that’s for sure,” Walt replied, and smiled at me for the first time since our accidental embrace.

As soon as we had tied or clothes into a ball, I levitated them up to Sirius. Once he had them, Walt and I transfigured into our bird forms and flew up through the hole in the ceiling. By the time, we landed and returned to our human form, Sirius had untied our clothes and had them waiting for us.

“You don’t happen to know if there is any water around here we can use to wash this mud off?” I asked as I accepted my clothes from him.

“Actually, there is, or at least I think its water,” he replied leading the way to a table at the side of the room which contained two large crocks of clear liquid.

I decided to take a chance; I was desperate to get as much mud off me as possible. I scooped up a hand full of liquid and smelled it. The liquid was odorless and did not irritate my hand. It would have to do. Looking around, I spotted a couple of rags that looked clean enough to use.

“Sirius, would you hand us a couple of those rags?” I asked, pointing to the rags on the next table.

Sirius fetched half a dozen rags from the pile, handing three rags to Walt and three to me. We both quickly washed off as much mud as we could reach. Sirius helped by standing between the two of us and gave our backs a quick swipe. As soon as we were dressed, I gave Sirius a quick kiss, thanking him for cleaning the mud from my back. Walt was unusually quiet, which Sirius noticed without my having to prod him.

“Walt, if it had been Martha and I who fell into the sludge and had to burn the leeches off each other, would you be upset or angry?”

“Of course not, Sirius,” Walt replied quickly.

“Then you have nothing to feel guilty about or be ashamed of. You both did what you needed to do. I’m just thankful that you were there to help Madelyn when she really needed it,” Sirius said soothingly. “Now, let’s see where those stairs lead to, shall we?”

“Thanks, Sirius. I really appreciate your understanding.”

“Gentlemen, the stairs, if you please,” I said, more than ready to leave this room.